Night Road
By A. M. Jenkins

After a century of living solitarily on the road, Cole, a hemovore (a human who feeds exclusively on blood; not to be confused with the fictional vampire) or “heme," still resembles his eighteen year old self but is known in the heme community for being observant, meticulous, and controlled. He is called back to the Building, an apartment/hotel for hemes in Manhattan owned by Johnny, Cole’s maker. He is informally introduced to newly turned heme Gordon, who really is eighteen years old and is also known as the Accident by the occupants of the Building due to the reason he was turned and his un-heme like behavior. The following evening Cole is told he has been called back to the Building to join Gordon and Sandor, Gordon’s maker and an old friend of Cole’s, on the road, teaching Gordon how to sever his old human life from his new heme one including the proper feeding technique on "omnis" (omnivores, or humans), how to avoid the Thirst with frequent restricted feedings, and avoiding the sun. During the trip, teaching Gordon the heme lifestyle helps Cole to confront the darkness of his own past that he has been keeping tucked away. Jenkins steps away from the typical romance and violence that takes center stage in other vampire stories and focuses instead on what life is and should be like for vampires... sorry, hemes, both old and experienced and new and inexperienced, in a thought provoking style that is far from boring. In the words of author Robert Lipsyte from the dust jacket “read this as a tense thriller about vampires on a road trip, or read it as a metaphorical tour de force about a boy becoming a man. But read it!”