I wanted fame, and she gave me hunger.
I wanted a name, and she gave me night.
I wanted to be remembered.
She only asked whether I wished to survive it.
— John Polidori

He wrote the first vampire story.
He never meant it as fiction.

Dr. John Polidori is twenty years old, overqualified, underappreciated, and painfully tired of being introduced as Lord Byron’s physician, as though that were the most interesting thing about him.

At Villa Diodati in the summer of 1816, he expects ego, theatrics, and too much wine. He does not expect a séance that stirs something real, a challenge that goes too far, or a woman with dark eyes and a smile that feels like a promise and a threat in equal measure.

He laughs at the wrong moment.
Lilith hears him. What follows should have been a lesson. Instead, it becomes an obsession.

Three years later, Polidori’s scandalous tale The Vampyre is published under Byron’s name, and London is delighted to credit the famous poet for the very story John wrote in fury, hunger, and fear. He ought to be livid. Instead, he is terrified, because the creature in those pages is far closer to the truth than anyone could guess.

Especially the woman who returns for him.

Marchosia is beautiful, merciless, and carrying secrets older than the Church, older than medicine, older than death itself. She knows what John is becoming. She knows why his pulse no longer behaves, why blood calls to him in ways it never should, and why the story he tried to hide inside fiction may be the only thing keeping him alive.

John has spent his life wanting a name that would outlast Byron’s shadow.
Now he may get something far worse.

Because history will remember The Vampyre as a story.
Hell will remember it as a confession.

THE SAGA OPENS SEPTEMBER 17, 2026.
BOOK TWO ARRIVES OCTOBER 15, 2026.
BOOK THREE ARRIVES OCTOBER 31, 2026.

BOOKS FOUR, FIVE, AND SIX ARRIVE SEPTEMBER 2027.

Author’s Note

John William Polidori was real.

His life, his medical studies, his time as Lord Byron’s physician, the summer of 1816 at Lake Geneva, the creation of The Vampyre, its controversial publication history, and his death in London in 1821 all belong to history.

This novel does not attempt to rewrite that history as fact. It takes the known life of John Polidori and imagines what might have existed in the spaces history could never record.

Marchosia, her relationship with Polidori, his supernatural transformation, and his role as the first Vampire Lord belong entirely to the fictional mythology of The Cursed Poets and my connected Hell Touched universe. Marbas is drawn from historical demonological tradition, while his role in the creation of vampirism and his connection to Polidori are fictional elements created for this story.

The opening verse attributed to Polidori in this novel is an original work of fiction written by me, inspired by his life, ambition, literary legacy, and the strange history surrounding The Vampyre. It is not a lost, recovered, or previously unpublished poem, journal entry, or manuscript by John William Polidori.

Any other fictional verses, letters, diary entries, or passages attributed to Polidori within the novel are likewise original works created for this story. Genuine quotations from Polidori’s published writing, diary, letters, or other surviving works remain his own.

Historical figures including Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and others appear throughout the novel. Historical places, dates, publications, events, writings, and details are sometimes represented faithfully and sometimes adapted to serve the fictional story.

Where history ends, the hunger begins.

Cara Ravelli

*THE OPENING VERSE ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN WILLIAM POLIDORI IN THIS NOVEL IS AN ORIGINAL WORK OF FICTION WRITTEN BY ME, INSPIRED BY POLIDORI’S LIFE, THEMES, AND LITERARY LEGACY. IT IS NOT A LOST, RECOVERED, OR PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED POEM BY JOHN WILLIAM POLIDORI