This one got me chuckling. (SPOILER ALERT) Vampires bent on world domination who are going to do it through a National Health Care System? And they’re Socialists! How fantastical can you get? Everyone knows that Vampires are Free-Market capitalists with a serious addiction to talk radio. I mean, it’s all about survival of the fittest. Predators naturally feed off the sick, the old, and the weak. That pretty much describes everyone without health insurance. (Unless, of course, you have Medicaid / Medicare -- which ain’t the least bit socialist.) So why would Vampires WANT to change the natural order? Our present situation benefits them.

Ok, all kidding aside, I love Adrienne’s work and I thought this story had the benefit of being very timely.  That’s a double-edged sword because it can get people distracted from the story as they examine how you are portraying life today -- but it does get the reader involved and that’s always good. My one thought was that the idea of how the Vampires are destroyed is a really good one and I think it got buried. I would have liked more of an exploration of the nature of a vampire (an evil spirit with a physical form) and how that tenuous hold on the world can be broken with a modern bit of tech warfare. I thought that solution made a classic monster much more contemporary. So, nice job.

Adrienne - this was a GREAT story!  I loved the ending.  Well done!

John Gilbert