This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. In a quiet English village, Father Gregory, a compassionate parish priest, begins to suffer from a baffling medical condition—his body rejects normal food, his blood oxygen drops to dangerous levels, and he develops an unsettling tolerance, then need, for blood. Guided by a pragmatic physician, his symptoms are treated as a rare metabolic disorder, grounded in real science rather than superstition.
Gregory refuses to see himself as a monster. Instead, he reframes his condition as part of his calling—something he has been given to work with in service to others. As he continues his ministry, he discovers an unexpected ability: he can sense illness in others through smell, allowing him to offer not just prayer, but tangible, immediate help.
Word spreads quietly—first among parishioners, then far beyond. Travelers begin arriving. Not the sick, but others like him.
They are vampires—though the word is never spoken. Some are newly afflicted and terrified. Others are centuries old, sustained through ethically sourced blood and hidden systems embedded within modern society. Among them is an ancient man of immense wealth and influence, who has spent generations funding medical breakthroughs for humanity while secretly sustaining himself through science.
For the first time, he turns that power inward.
Believing Gregory represents a rare "middle state"—still human, still aging, still capable of choice—he funds groundbreaking research into the condition: not to cure it outright, but to understand it, stabilize it, and, if desired, end it peacefully. His goal is not immortality, but release.
As a hidden community gathers around the church, what begins as a grounded medical mystery evolves into a profound exploration of faith, identity, and choice. Gregory becomes a reluctant bridge between worlds
