Dear readers, tonight with us is an undead space-time traveller, who likes to hunt monsters, explore worlds, and do some light archeology in his spare time.

Tell us a little about where you grew up. What was it like there?

I was conceived in the altar of a blood god in Mexico, born in a castle in Northern Provence, and spent my life in ICUs, protected and controlled by my paternal grandmother, Countess Chloé, the matriarch of our family.

My parents, both archaeologists, were rarely home. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t conceive. So they traveled a lot, and became workaholics. But then, alien ‘visitors’ only Chloé ever saw, told her how my parents could have a child. My parents did it, and it worked. From then on, Chloé made everyone follow their instructions. Since ‘the visitors’ said I shouldn’t be ‘eugenized’ in utero, I was born with severe congenital disorders.

Beside our castle in Provence, we had many vacation homes, but I spent more time intubated in clinics and ICUs than enjoying any of that. So, after reaching adulthood, pumped full of any drug known to man or monkey required to do it, I traveled far and wide, and became a ‘French Indiana Jones’.

Did you have any favourite toys as a child? Any cherished memories?

Not favorite toys per se, but a sort of playhouse the size of a hangar, representing the 42 tasks ancient Egyptians believed a soul must perform to get into their ‘Paradise’. There I felt both scared of, and protected by, Egyptian gods—scared I might offend them if I did something wrong, and sheltered from a world where I was a bullied weakling with mild Asperger’s.

Fond memories from trips all over the world with Chloé, I have too many to count. My parents died when I was in my teens, and Mamie Chloé when I was in my early twenties, leaving behind a bevy of lawyers and wills—and Severian, the ‘real Dracula’s grandfather, who kept our family’s fortune in tiptop shape, even after everyone on Earth thought I was dead and gone, buried alive during an expedition.

What do you do now?

I hunt down monsters, explore worlds, and work as an archaeologist in my spare time. Since I shall live forever and often travel through space-time, I guess I’ll keep doing it.

My gradual transformation, molting like an insect, from one kind of undead to another, seems now complete. At least, I hope it is. Each time I feed, the resulting massacre makes the news; and, with each molt, those massacres get bigger and gorier. But there’s someone who should know how to control this: Ukko, an Ancient who left Kemet (the world where I became an undead) for Earth about a thousand years ago. Since we must find him to defeat our nemesis, I hope he will help me with this as well.

What can you tell us about your latest adventure?

‘The Visitors’ tells the story of my life, my mysterious disappearance and my first years in Kemet, when I became this ‘creature’. But my life’s story starts with ‘Freer of Souls’, which describes how my family and Severian prevented the Apocalypse when my parents were still working hard to conceive me—alas, in vain. ‘The Visitors’ comes after ‘Freer of Souls’, ‘Catatumbo’ and ‘Vyrus’, followed by ‘The Revenants’—the story of our arrival from Kemet and our fight against ‘varjugga’, a ‘dark energy demon’ that fled our world. We were never able to destroy it, and I’m not sure we can trap it either. That’s why, although we’re still fighting it, we need Ukko. Alas, he’s now in stasis, slowly dying. If ‘varjugga’ finds him first, it will create an army of enslaved humans and undeads, conquer Kemet, and end all life everywhere—your ‘Apocalypse’.

What did you first think when you woke up in that dungeon in Kemet?

What would anyone remotely sane think? I was on an archaeological expedition in Jordan, and had accepted I drowned when the excavation site flooded—to next wake up in a windowless dungeon, unable to speak, dressed as a Roman nobleman, surrounded by ‘ancient Egyptians’ who seemed human, telling me things telepathically or by gestures. When I slept, my mind was like a shopping mall. Other minds visited to shoplift anything they wanted and never got caught. I thought I was dreaming, or sedated in some ICU, or hallucinating in some rehab clinic.

When I finally learned the language, I asked questions. The answers my hosts/jailers gave me suggested I was in a lunatic asylum instead. Since I was ‘on another planet’ where vampires were everywhere, I told them to show me some. They wouldn’t—too dangerous.

It took time to be allowed out of my prison. Meanwhile, my body was molting, like an insect’s, and I was being trained for military combat with impossibly heavy weapons. I also learned how to use my mind like a battering ram against aggressors.

Only after that, was I shown Kemet and its blinding sun, Ra-Horakhty. They had told me the truth.

What was the scariest thing in your adventures?

When one is routinely attacked by undeads that make vampires look like Chihuahuas, the word ‘scary’ loses meaning. Once I had to enter the netherworld to fight ’varjugga’. Then I was concerned, but not really scared. Don’t forget: when my ‘inner beast’ needs to feed, thousands of humans become its nourishment—so, perhaps I am the scariest thing in my adventures.

What is the worst thing about becoming what you have become?

Loneliness. I have eighteen children, all conceived during earlier stages of molting. The beast I now am cannot get ‘romantic’ with any being I ever met. I can’t become a bull and turn Europa into a cow like Zeus. I’m just an undead, akin to the Ancients, an extinct race from Kemet, not a god.

What is the best thing about it?

Power. I have the power to read minds, almost any mind. Ergo, people approach me genuinely—no subterfuge, no flattery. Living in an upfront world is exhilarating—a rare privilege that makes our group more tightly knit than many blood siblings. When we need to share joys or sorrows, we open our minds to one another. That’s the best, most intimate, group therapy imaginable. Nevertheless, if I keep molting, at some point I won’t be able to do it without damaging the others.

Tell us a little about your friends.

I have two families, a natural human family and an adoptive undead family. Some of them are my best friends. At the same time, my good friends and mentors are my extended family.

To Earth, I returned with Kotta, my adoptive brother, once a Librarian (in Kemet that means something between a human and a vampire), who now is a day-walker, and also, a bit of a loose cannon.

Trann too is loyal to a fault and a true horndog. Can’t blame him. Until we learned how to restore his good looks, he looked monstrous, deformed by too many trips across interstellar portals. Now he’s in love with two humans, which is great, but spells trouble. Trann was one of the two ‘visitors’ who came to Earth to find me and take me to Kemet. The other was Lord Sankari, Kotta’s father.

Then there’s Severian, the best administrator money can hire, a loyal friend, consummate spy, and now, our best ambassador to Earth’s covens.

Last but not least to join our group was my cousin Cunégonde, originally a human spy, who became an undead after tangling with one of ‘varjuggas’ agents. She’s like a big sister to me.

Any romantic involvement?

In Kemet, everyone believed I was the ‘Chosen of the Gods’, to whom my hosts offered a ‘contractual harem’: at any time, any of us could ‘break the lease’, and a replacement would be found. While in the earlier stages of molting, my bedroom then became a drive through, with long lines of ladies eager to carry my lineage. I had nineteen children that claimed lineage and who knows how many scattered all over the place. ‘Varjugga’ killed one of them.

Nevertheless, their mothers were willing concubines, who opted out whenever they saw fit. That was efficient, but further screwed up my already unusual love life.

Then I became this ‘thing’, and now, my most steady companion is loneliness.

Whom (or what) do you really hate?

I ‘hate’ having to stay on Earth hunting ‘varjugga’ to stop it from conquering Kemet—because now ‘varjugga’s spawn is overwhelming our defenses. To avoid being enslaved by it, our entire population minus our armies is going into stasis. If Kemet falls, the stasis pods would ignite—my children’s included.

We control an interuniversal node, and that node, in the wrong ‘hands’ can provoke Armageddon. Hopefully we’ll find Ukko and defeat ‘varjugga’ before a critical breach happens. Otherwise, our armies will ‘detonate’ the node. If they do, there would be a second ‘Creation’, without any of us.

Many in our group want to go back and help Kemet while we still can, but I have my orders and I know my duty. Yet, as I said, I ‘hate’ these impossible choices.

What’s your favourite drink, colour, and relaxing pastime?

We can make others believe we’re eating or drinking, but our nourishment is blood. We can also drink water without vomiting. This said, when I was still human, I had way too many French 75s.

Although we see colors very differently from humans, my favorite one is still purple, like the lavender flowers in our family’s fields.

As pastimes go, aside from reading and burying myself underground to meditate, I love painting murals and oil canvases, sculpting, and more than anything, playing piano.

What does the future hold for you?

 If we can’t stop the Apocalypse or Kemet detonates the node, it was nice to meet you all. If instead, we find Ukko alive and willing to help us (he’s an involuntary exile, after all) we shall try to eliminate ‘varjugga’, return to Kemet and hopefully destroy its spawn. After that, who knows what would happen there and here, on Earth? I’d say, stay tuned!

Can you share a secret with us, which you’ve never told anyone else?

 Even before ‘varjugga’ escaped I was planning to come to Earth, not just to visit and officially make first contact, but also, hopefully, to ‘restore’ part of my human family—the part that is now preserved in liquid nitrogen. Now, that will have to wait.

After three decades doing R&D in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, Taggart’s lifelong fascination with science, SFF, historical fiction, espionage and, most particularly, dark fantasy and vampire novels, led him to start writing. His sagas rarely belong into any one of those genres, but exist instead in a sort of terra incognita surrounded by all of them, sometimes venturing deeper into one genre, sometimes into another. Currently, three of his series are available. Please see: amazon.com/stores/author/B072MD7D36 for details. Taggart lives in Toronto, Canada with his partner.

You can find Byron on the pages of the Vampires and Spies series, starting with Freer of Souls: Quest for the Ark.

Browse our archives for past interviews, or follow the site by email (bottom-right) to know immediately when your new best-book-friend makes an appearance.