Vampire Kisses: Blood Relatives Volume Three by Ellen Schreiber and Elisa Kwop

Alexander and Raven are in trouble. Alexander's Cousin, Claude, a half-vampire, is in Dullsville searching for the vials of blood kept by their grandmother so that he and his friends can become full vampires.

At first Raven and Claude wanted to keep Claude and his posse of half-vampires as far away from the blood as possible, thinking thst Claude and his crew would immediately go wild if they became vampires, so they made up a fake map to the vials, which their grandmother has hidden, either somewhere in the house or somewhere in town.

They tried to trick Claude and his friends with the fake map, and it actually did work- for a short time. But since Raven blabbed in her diary about the fakeness of the map, when Claude found and read it, he cottoned on to their trick. Once, he'd been set to leave the town that Raven calls Dullsville, but now he's out for revenge on the two of them, and he still wants the map and the vials of blood.

To start out with, he's still on the soccer team, and he teams up with Trevor to throw a vampire-themed party, and between Trevor and Claude, they convince everyone to go to the party, complete with Vampire Costumes. Raven and Alexander also attend, to keep an eye on events and make sure nothing hinky happens at the party.

But the party is a massive false trail, and also a trap. While Alexander and Raven win the "best vampire couple" award at the dance, they are trapped into a coffin that locks them in, and Claude and his gang leave to look for the coffer that holds the vials. Alexander has been taken out with a shot of garlic powder spray, and he's unconscious.

Raven kisses him awake, and they break out of the coffin and take off for the cemetary, where Claude and his crew are digging for the coffer. After uncovering the coffer, Raven tells them they are sunk without the key- which only she has. But as she fails at the game of "keepaway" she plays with the key, the group discovers that there is only one vial in the coffer- enough to change one of them back into a vampire. And since Claude has it in his hand, will he choose to change only himself, and betray his friends, or give up on his dreams of becoming a vampire?

Well, the art changed, because the artist changed, but aside from that, I found this last volume to really tie up the story well. Claude may be a relative of Alexander's but he hates Alexander because Alexander is the one thing he wanted to be born- a vampire. Claude is only a half-vampire, and so gets treated as a second-class citizen by the full vampires in his homeland.

You can have some sympathy for him, but he also makes himself hard to like, acting like a jerk towards normal humans. It's like he treats others the way he is angry about being treated, but he does manage to redeem himself a bit at the end. Also, taking the entire school hostage? Not a good idea. But at the end, Dullsville returns to the status quo, and Alex and Raven are still together, and Raven is still human.

I liked this story, and i liked the fan art that was displayed in the back of the volume. A vivid and entertaining novel in the world of Vampire Kisses, and I look forward to reading more in book form. Recommended.