Lesbian Vampire Fiction

Victoria Frances The Kiss Art Print Poster

Vampires are a popular topic for lesbian characters in horror, erotica and supernatural fantasy fiction. In fact, the very first vampire book was not Dracula - it was Carmilla in 1872 by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, about lonely female vampire who becomes obsessed with young women.

Vampire have always been a popular theme for conveying sexual imagery and erotic stories - powerful, vulnerable, dangerous and compelling, they visit in the night and it's so much easier to bite a young women who thinks she's being seduced...

Mixing in lesbianism was actually a fairly logical next step - all vampires prefer young women, everyone knows that (or are indiscriminate. And young women were less likely to missed and easier to prey on).

Anyway, there are now over a dozen paranormal urban fantasy romances, and an equal number of erotic urban fantasy romances and miscellaneous erotic short story anthologies about lesbian vampires - as well as a much smaller number of historical novels, nonfiction, horror and plain old fantasy.

Lesbian Vampire Novels

Gothic Literature

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (free! Now in the Public Domain) [Review]

"His small masterpiece, Carmilla, is one of the most seminal vampire stories in the English language"

~ Anne Rice

The first published Vampire story in 1872, this is a fantastic piece of Gothic literature that is a must-read for vampire lovers, fans of historical writing and lesbians alike.

The author is quite obscure, but considered one of the great horror fiction writers of the 19th century by those who know him. While it is overshadowed by Bram Stoker's Dracula, Carmilla strongly influenced the later book and inspired much later vampire fiction.
For the time, Carmilla was relatively erotic and daring, though it would be tame by modern standards - and Carmilla's exclusive interest in young women was positively... outrageous.

• Read the full review of Carmilla

Contemporary Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romances

(Many of these books include mixed fantasy race worlds and also appear on the list of lesbian werewolf fiction)

• All This and Family, Too by Sarah E. Glenn - a funny modern day vampire, the stresses of coping with her vampirism, her dysfunctional family, obsessive vampire hunters... and the girl she rescued and brought home with her.

• Away From The Dawn by Kate Sweeney -  lonely, ancient Sebastian is desperate to walk in sunlight amongst mortals again, and when she joins forces with Dr. Alex Taylor, she throws vampire society into turmoil. Featuring an erotic past with her vampire lover Leigh, and a budding romance with Alex. 
• Next books in the series are Survive The Dawn and Before The Dawn.

• Better Off Red: Vampire Sorority Sisters Book 1 by Rebekah Weatherspoon - a sorority cult, demons, and an immortal queen... a first novel.
• Due out November 15th, can be pre-ordered

• Blood Love by Helen Dunn - a student and teacher at an exclusive girl's school find each other attractive, though forbidden by their relative statuses... and then both fall under the spell of the vampire Countess Benay Basquaist.

• Crimson Dawn by Ronnie Massey [Review] - Urban fantasy about a not exactly lesbian vampire and a fairy princess who... well, feels more than friendship towards her roommate. Despite being beaten over the head with them being 'meant' for each other, our protagonist spends more time noticing the multitude of Hot Guys for the first part of the book, though this takes a dramatic swing in the other direction later.

• Never Again: An Irulan Short (Darklife Shorts) (prequel short story, lesbian coming out/first romance)
• UnSpoken: A Val and Irulan Short  (sequel short story, lesbian tension)
• Read the review!

• Darkling by Yasemine Galenorn - the third book in the Sisters of the Moon series about three half-fae sisters, this one focuses on the lesbian vampire. Each book is from the viewpoint of a different sister. In this book, the vampire who killed her is hunting again and they have to track him down.

• Darkness Embraced: A Rosso Lussuria Vampire Novel by Winter Pennington - the first book in a new vampire series, this one strongly resembles the world of Anne Rice's vampires. Cast aside by her queen and lover of fifty years, Epiphany spends next 150 years staying out of sight of the more powerful vampires, until her ex-lover calls her up to take the dangerous Challenges required to prove herself as an Elder. Cue politics, treason, danger, and an unfinished love affair.

• Dead Witch Walking, by Kim Harrison- Rachel Morgan is a witch and bounty hunter who clashes with the authorities and ends up on the run, in an uneasy alliance with Ivy, a bisexual vampire who's in love with her. A paranormal mystery full of fantasy creatures, similiar to Laurell K. Hamilton's early Anita Blake novels, only with more plot and less sex. 
• Notes: The series is very popular, currently has ten books published, with two or three more on the way. Ultimately not a lesbian series, though gay friendly and Ivy is a significant supporting character throughout.

• Everafter by Neil Stark & Trinity Tam  When Valentine is bitten by a vampire, her and her beloved struggle to cope, stay together, and bring Valentine's attacker to justice in a world of shapeshifters and the paranormal. Panther shapeshifter/Vampire.

• continued in nevermore

• Forever Mine by K.D. Williamson - a well written, but rushed short story about two angsty vampires who have to decide if they will be enemies or lovers once more. Gore and sex and drama.

• Kill Me by Alex Owens - a sexy, bisexual vampire origins story, about a woman whose marriage is breaking up, and is seduced and turned by a mysterious vampire. She turns out to have magical abilities that make her a not quite normal vampire, and all kinds of stuff happens.
• Review

• Knight Predator by Jordan Falconer - a conflicted vampire and the teenage girl who loves her. This one has real plot and doesn't take itself as seriously as most vampire romance.

• My Gay Sparkly Vampire Romance: A Twilight Parody by Zoe E. Whitten - it may say 'Twilight' but don't turn away just yet. This fantastic - free - rewrite of the Twilight characters as a lesbian and transgender love triangle has all the character, plot, sex and violence you could want. 
• Check out the review here.

• The Midnight Hunt (Midnight Hunters Series) by Radclyffe (as L.L. Raand) - Drake the medic saves the life of a girl suffering from werefever, gets bitten and attracts the attention of the local alpha... werewolf forbidden love story, featuring vampires. Rather a lot of focus on bestiality.
• continued in Blood Hunt which has a much more central vampire romance, and Night Hunt which is mostly weresexy times but still has a lesbian vampire around.

• Sasha, Queen of Darkness by Maxx -  a sexy and powerful vampire patrols Los Angeles, keeping her domain in order - but not her heart. A thriller romance that is the first of a trilogy.

• Scarlet Masquerade by Jett Abbott -  AJ Lockwood lives quite comfortably nowadys using the research of her own pharmaceutical company, but has mourned her lost lover for centuries - until she walks into a bar and sees her. Except that the woman she lost was not a vampire, and this woman is. And someone is trying to kill her.

• So Dead, My Love (originally 'Blood Scent') by Patty G. Henderson -Samantha Barnes is an artist with an obsession that revives the vampire Lara Karnov, setting into motion a prophecy and events full of death and desire.

• Some lesbians and vampires and oh yeah a worried werewolf by H. M. Dunn - a fantasy spoof set in the 1980s, this book includes a young werewolf, her immortal lesbian grandmother, a family curse, and the daughter of a murdered senator, Diane Hersh.

• Virago by Karen Marie Christa Minns - two lesbian lovers on a New York college campus are attacked by one of their teachers, who has singled out one of the women for herself.
• Lambda Literary Award Nominee (Lesbian Debut Fiction, 1990)
• Lambda Literary Award Nominee (Lesbian SF/Fantasy, 1990)
• republished as Bloodsong in 1997

• Witch Wolf by Winter Pennington - already difficult, witch, werewolf and investigator Kassandra Lyall's love and worklife becomes a lot more complicated when a seductive vampire takes a very personal interest in her. An urban fantasy romance mystery that begins a new series.
• Second book in the series is Raven Mask (in which the vampire Countess is established as Kassandra's lover)

• 'Expression of Desire' by Dominick Cancilla   - a vampire who loses herself in her paintings finishes of her latest artwork and eyes the model hungrily...
• short story in the Bending the Landscape: Fantasy anthology.

Historical, Science Fiction and Thriller

Basically, the various books that don't fit into either 'erotica' or 'paranormal urban fantasy romance'

• 99 Coffins: A Historical Vampire Tale by David Wellington (Gettysburg, flashbacks to the Civil War)

• The Embrace by J.D. Gallagher - a girl reads her dying mother's diaries aloud to her, revealing a tangled history of love and betrayal with a mysterious roommate she met in 1971...

• The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez  - An African-American slave girl from the 1850s becomes a vampire and spends the next 200 years looking for love
• Lesbian scifi/fantasy winner, joint Lesbian Fiction winner, 4th Lambda Awards.

• The Hunger by Whitley Strieber - Featuring the gorgeous and lonely, bisexual vampire Miriam Blaylock, who creates temporary companions out of humans. Sadly they don't last... and now she has her eye on a woman named Sarah. A classic, fascinating, scary and terrifying vampire novel.

• Made into a famous and contentious film (oh noes, a lesbian sex scene!) 
•  The Last Vampire was a sequel written many years later, and returns to Miriam Blaylock. However, it isn't nearly as good as the original novel and has many continuity errors. While much of the book focuses on the lesbian relationship between Miriam and Sarah, it is a much less pleasant affair and Miriam ultimately falls in love with a man.

• Mother Julian and the Gentle Vampire by Jack Pantaleo - a highly unusual, spiritual and funny tale about a lesbian vampire who drinks the blood of a 14th century saint, is converted to Christianity and must give her blood away instead of taking it. Not quite as staid as it sounds, it's mainly set in San Francisco.

• O Captain, My Captain by Katherine V. Forrest - a science fiction/erotic short story about a vampire who has survived history and lives secretly amongst humanity in the future, spending her time among the stars and taking her nourishment from the young women who are sent out with her... 
• Found in the anthologies Dreams & Swords (reviewed here) and Daughters of Darkness: Lesbian Vampire Tales
• Read the review of "O Captain, My Captain"

• Shadows After Dark by Ouida Crozier - a slightly dated, but creative and unusual book that's more of a fantasy/science fiction than standard vampire horror. A world of vampires are suffering from AIDS, and Kyril crosses from her own dimension to Earth in a quest to discover the cause. There, she meets Kathryn, and they fall in love.

• Sunglasses After Dark by Nancy A. Collins - the first book in a darker and more violent vampire series, following Sonja Blue from the asylum into the real world, where shehunts other vampires. Bisexual, has sex with men and women throughout the books.

• The Vampires of Vigil's Sorrow  by Cassandra Duffy - Vampires haunt the woods around the town of Vigil's End, luring young women away. Starting with a young girl in 1955, it tells the her story when she is rescued, or murdered, depending on your perspective. The story goes all the way back to the origins of the 'monster' behind it all, in 1849. A scary, powerful book from a very good author. 

Lesbian Vampire Erotica

Given all the sexual predator and BDSM themes inherent in most vampire stories, and it's no real surprise that lesbian vampires are one of the biggest niches in lesbian erotic fiction. Note: The following stories are generally sexually explicit, for adults, not safe for work, etcetera.

Novels/ Single stories

• A Taste for Blood by Diana Lee An eight hundred year old Saxon vampire has grown powerful, but since her first love died, she cares nothing for the women she beds. Until her beloved's descendant arrives in the Victorian era, and she offers Carissa an alternative to marriage. Features rough sex and a lot of story.

• Bite with Height by Lucy Felthouse a sweet erotic romance between a protective vampire, and the young woman she meets on the streets of Paris

• Carmilla's Lament: A Vampire Tale by Catherine Grey - a much more explicit rewrite of the first lesbian vampire story by J. Sheridan Le Fau. (historical)
• review of the original Carmilla (An Evil Guest)

• The Darker Passions: Carmilla by Amarantha Knight - tentatively based on 'Carmilla', it doesn't bring anything new to the legend for fans. Instead, it's an excuse for a highly erotic retelling of Laura's fall into lesbian sex, BDSM and other erotic encounters. And that it does well.

• Deadly Beauty (An Erotic Vampire Romance) by M. K. Elliott An exotic dancer is rescued from an alleyway attack by a lesbian vampire... (urban fantasy)

• One Bite by M. K. Elliott - prequel/alternate viewpoint to Deadly Beauty.  A sexually hungry vampire notices a beautiful stripper... (urban fantasy)

• Devouring Heart by Andrea Dale Case loses her lover to the world of vampires - but dare she follow her.?
• No individual reviews yet but originally appeared in the mostly heterosexual anthology The Sweetest Kiss: Ravishing Vampire Erotica, no. 2 of The Hottest Sex Books of 2009 by Violet Blue

• Every Dark Desire by Fiona Zedde  Seduced by a vampire, Jamaican Naomi becomes Belle, prey to dark desires, and desperate carnal hungers at the hands of women. A lot of sex, not much plot.

• Fireflies by Lacey Reah - a nontraditional vampire who feeds during orgasms, the woman she falls in love with, and her attempts to regain her humanity... the nature of the 'vampire' means a lot of (not too graphic) sex scenes, but there is also a solid plot and real personal involvement. It's also pretty short, at only 95 pages.

• 
  Scarlet Thirst by Crin Claxton - an erotic butch/femme rampage of sex and neck biting through the city underworld.
  

• Vampire Lesbians - An Erotic Vampire Novella by Joan Wilder - after hundreds of years of loneliness, two lovers are reunited. So they celebrate... passionately. 
• For some reason also on Amazon as Vampire Lesbians: VampirErotica (both $0.99 for Kindle)

Anthologies

There are numerous anthologies of erotic short stories available - including some very bad ones - so I've picked the best (or at least, least worst) titles out rather than listing every single one. If you're looking for a wide variety of vampirical sex stories, anthologies are a great place to start.

• Blood Sisters: Lesbian Vampire Tales edited by Biance de Moss 
• a mixed bag of stories about sex, blood and women

• Call Of The Dark: Erotic Lesbian Tales Of The Supernatural edited by Therese Szymanski 
•  a well reviewed collection of supernatural erotica, mostly about vampires or possessions

• Dark Angels: Lesbian Vampire Stories edited by Pam Keesey 
•  eleven seductive and scary vampire stories that are a bit heavier on plot than most erotica

• Republished in 2006 as Dark Angels: Lesbian Vampire Erotica
• Sequel to Daughters of Darkness...

• Daughters of Darkness: Lesbian Vampire Tales edited by Pam Keesey
• some hard to find gems and a fascinating introduction discussing the history of lesbian vampirism. Tends to focus more on female empowerment than titillation. Includes the original Carmilla, Katherine V. Forrest's O Captain, My Captain and part of The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez

• Demons of Paradise: Lesbian Paranormal Erotica by Cassandra Duffy (a.k.a. Lizzy Dark) 

• eight short stories ranging from light romance to dark kinks. Various paranormal monsters, not just vampires. Consistently good storylines.

• Girls Who Bite: Lesbian Vampire Erotica edited by Delilah Devlin
• Erotic, action filled romance stories full of unexpected experiences. Unreviewed, but the editor's previous erotic anthologies were highly rated

• The Last Best Tip (Grift-Girls) by Cassandra Duffy  (a.k.a. Lizzy Dark)  - three erotic and very different short stories about women working with, seduced by, and in a real relationship with, lesbian vampires.

• Love in Vein & Love in Vein II : Eighteen More Tales of Vampiric Erotica edited by Poppy Z. Brite 
• a very mixed (in quality & topic) anthology of erotic vampire stories, including some lesbian ones. Poppy Z. Brite specialises in gay male writing, but has edited several horror anthologies that are generally LGBTQ friendly.

• Vamps edited by Lorna Hinson

• An unreviewed collection of fanged femme fatales from Torquere Press

• Women of the Bite: A Lesbian Vampire Anthology
• eleven stories edited by Cecilia Tan
• Women of the Bite: Lesbian Vampire Erotica
• Fifteen stories edited by Cecilia Tan

Nonfiction

• Our Vampires, Ourselves by Nina Auerbach
• A look at the history of vampires in western society, with a heavy emphasis on homosexuality.
• Vampires and Violets: Lesbians in Film. by Andrea Weiss
• A look at lesbian identity in film, including a period of vampirism.
• Vamps: An Illustrated History of the Femme Fatale  by Pam Keesey 
• A comprehensive look at the history of vampire women from a regular writer of lesbian vampire stories.

You may also be interested in:

• Lesbian Shapeshifter Fiction
• All Themed Fiction Lists
• Browse a selection of Lesbian vampire books on Amazon
• All vampire reviews | horror reviews |  erotica reviews