REVIEW FOR HOUSE OF FANFIC

Review of A Vampire's Tale: Steeped in Blood  
Review by Sara Marsten 
Rating: 10 of 10   
 
A Vampire's Tale: Steeped in Blood is a first for Donnilee in a couple of 
aspects:  it is a Sci-Fi Fantasy story and it is M/M slash.  She's kept with 
some of the traditional formula's as well, like the introduction of a new 
character, some MSR, and the great use of existing XF characters.   
 
If you do not normally enjoy reading slash, avoid this story. Go read 
Birthday Blues, Jitters, or Hunt for the Werewolf by Donnilee.  The MSR 
in Steeped in Blood will not be enough for you to overlook the slash 
components.  However, if you can handle M/M slash and like a good sci-fi 
fantasy, you should read this story.   
 
I applaud Donnilee for venturing into new terrain and she did a great job 
with it.  This story is told from the POV of a 600 year old vampire.  He 
possesses all of the charisma, super human strength, and extra sensory 
powers that we traditionally hear about vampires, however, outside of 
those characteristics,  Donnilee's vampires are quite different than the late 
night horror flick vampires.  I won't spoil the story by elaborating too 
much on this point, but the word "big" will come to mind a lot.   
 
Donnilee warns the reader up front that the "Vampiric Sex" is meant to be 
*over the top*. She made a point of wanting to differentiate vampire sex 
from human sex.  Take it for what it is - some of it is very fantastic but I 
think she does a very good job of defining a clear distinction between the 
two types of sex.  Some of the sex had a little too much blood in it for me, 
but it is a vampire story, so what should I expect!   
 
Gareth, the vampire, has infiltrated the consortium and managed to obtain 
a position as a Deputy Director with the FBI.  From this position, he has 
the ability to manipulate situations for Mulder and Scully to make them 
acknowledge their affection for one another.   
 
Another of my favorite XF bad boys, Krycek, is a key player in this.  
Krycek is hard to tag for characterization, so I have no opinion of that for 
this story, but this is a different Krycek than I would have expected, but it 
works for this story.     
 
This is a very smutty story. If that doesn't float your boat, don't read it. 
Although, the chapters are well marked, I think the story will fall flat if 
the sex/smut is removed.  
 
This is the beginning of another Donnilee series.  If you enjoy the story, 
be sure to feed the author so she is encouraged to keep writing what I 
think is going to become a very good Sci-Fi series.   
 
Sara Marsten