title: Vampires (Gothic Dreams)
author:  Russ Thorne 
description: <div><b>Russ Thorne (author)</b>has published several titles on body art, including<i> Tattoo Art</i>, and contributing regularly to national newspapers and magazines. He lives suspiciously close to the Count's stomping grounds of Whitby, but try as he might cannot make his skin sparkle in the sun.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Foreword by Anne Stokes</b>. Ever since she was a child and her father read her <i>The Hobbit</i>, Anne Stokes has loved the world of fantasy and loves to share her visions of fantasy and gothic worlds with other people. Acclaimed internationally she has produced artwork for the games industry, including Wizards of the Coast's <i>Dungeon and Dragons</i>. She has also created a whole host of beautiful, gothic femmes fatales, angels and vampire characters.</div>
zlib_text: ![](Images/image00149.jpeg)
  
  VAMPIREACADEMY
  
  by Richelle Mead
  
   __
  
    
    
    
  
  **One**  
    
  
  I FELT HER FEAR BEFORE I heard her screams.
  
  Her nightmare pulsed into me, shaking me out of my own dream, which had had
  something to do with a beach and some hot guy rubbing suntan oil on me.
  Images—hers, not mine— tumbled through my mind: fire and blood, the smell of
  smoke, the twisted metal of a car. The pictures wrapped around me, suffocating
  me, until some rational part of my brain reminded me that this wasn't _my_
  dream.
  
  I woke up, strands of long, dark hair sticking to my forehead.
  
  Lissa lay in her bed, thrashing and screaming. I bolted out of mine, quickly
  crossing the few feet that separated us.
  
  "Liss," I said, shaking her. "Liss, wake up.”
  
  Her screams dropped off, replaced by soft whimpers. "Andre," she moaned. "Oh
  God.”
  
  I helped her sit up. "Liss, you aren't there anymore. Wake up.”
  
  After a few moments, her eyes fluttered open, and in the dim lighting, I could
  see a flicker of c