Blood Covenant by Mary Lamb

"How will the staunchly Christian members of a Victorian family deal with one of Christendom's most abhorrent creatures a bloodthirsty vampire? Hannah Kristan enters the blood drinker's domain, believing her beloved husband dead. But Adrian waits, a changed man, for his grieving bride!

Angela Marshall is brought to believe. But will Christian charity save her or make her a profane communion sacrifice in the name of love?

Nathaniel Cravers, seeking to unearth his estranged family's shadowed past, becomes inextricably mired in the dark covenant that separated him from his rightful heritage!

Jonathan Cravers lives a haunted half-life with the conviction that Satan wields all power. Can love alter his self-condemning curse or will it sentence him to an even more unspeakable damnation?

God alone knows, and not even the band of stalwart Heavenly Guardians charged with watching over the humans and thwarting Satan's demonic legions are privy to His omnipotent design!

In post-Civil War Massachusetts, celestial angels watch in trepidation as Adrian Kristan returns to his birthplace to free himself and his unborn child from an old unholy pact. They know the dark power he is facing but are unable to intervene, barred by unstable faith and the demonic forces holding dominion over the inhabitants of Tall Pines.

At the center of the conflict is Jonathan Cravers, a manipulative vampire bent on self-preservation at any cost and Adrian's child is the key to his survival. However, Jonathan's fate rests in other, invisible, hands, and the more he attempts to bend lives to his will, the more control is wrested from him. Though he fights emotions that bring unbearable pain, he is drawn more deeply into a vortex of sentimentality that could be his undoing!

It is only when Angela Marshall arrives that the angels are granted entry past the diabolic sentinels to counsel the mortals Jonathan holds in his grasp. Initially horrified at discovering what he is, Angela is also fascinated, and she makes him begin to question the very basis of his existence. Even the angels are astonished to discover that Jonathan is more pawn than power at the hands of Satan's minions.

As the omnipotent forces of Good and Evil do battle, Jonathan comes to see Angela as his means to redemption if such a state is possible for him. But will her lifeblood be the required sacrifice for his salvation?

Heavenly love or Hell's fury--which holds the prevailing power?" (from Amazon.com)

Paperback Info: ISBN 0968612113, Free Spirit Press, 1999