title: The Lodger
author: Quinn, Aysel
description: Francesca Beaufort is a solitary bloodsucker, a vagabond living in an old station wagon. She’s tired of moving constantly, so when she arrives in the outskirts of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, a decrepit plantation calls to her. The absent owner, artist Oliver Weston, is grateful for Francesca’s long-distance request to rent, but Francesca is merely relieved she will have the plantation to herself. So she thinks.
  Her peace is disrupted when Oliver unexpectedly appears.  She pictured him as an elderly dreamer, but the shy, beautiful man defies her vision of humankind’s place in her world.  As Francesca struggles to conceal her nature from Oliver, they forge an impossible friendship, and she realizes her feelings for him despite the danger of her presence. When Oliver asks to paint Francesca, she reluctantly agrees, never expecting the unveiling of her portrait will unmask more than her affection.