Murena

The dead of Negotin do not scream. They smile.Autumn, 1874. Dr. Lukas Weidner, a widowed physician from Vienna, is sent to the Timok valley on the Habsburg border to explain fourteen unexplained deaths. He believes in fever, bad wells and fear. The villagers hang knotted basil over their doors and scatter poppy seed on their graves.The only person who asks for him by name is Countess Danica Brâncoveanu, the last of an old Wallachian line, who receives him at midnight in a house lit entirely by tallow and draped in faded silk. She takes his pulse before he can take hers. Her own heart beats eleven times a minute.As the dark of the moon approaches, Lukas finds a captain's uniform packed with black salt, a ledger of 411 names, and a river that keeps count. A mob gathers at the gate. A newborn arrives in a pine coffin. And Lukas begins to feel his own heartbeat slowing, in step with hers.A gothic romance of folklore, forbidden attraction and a debt that can only be paid together.Perfect for readers who love slow-burn gothic romance, vampire lore rooted in Eastern European folklore, and atmospheric historical horror.Content note: sensual romance with a closed-door love scene; contains blood, grief, mob violence and an infant in peril. No graphic sexual content. For adult readers.