Dorina Basarab

**Dorina Basarab** — Dhampir

## Introduction

**Dorina Basarab**, Mircea's daughter, is featured in her own series of novels, which so far include Midnight's Daughter, Death's Mistress, Fury's Kiss and Shadow's Bane. She's a dhampir, a cross between a human and a vampire, who makes a tenuous living taking on mercenary jobs for the supernatural community. Lately, her most frequent employer has been her long-estranged father, Mircea, who needs all the help he can get with the war tying up his usual sources of muscle. That has brought her closer to the vampire community than she—or they—would like, as has her dangerous attraction to Louis-Cesare, a master vampire who keeps forgetting that Dorina is supposed to be his sworn enemy. That wouldn't worry Dorina too much, except that, whenever he's around, she keeps forgetting it, too. ~ Take A Chance: Gallery

## About

### Physical Description

* Age: 500 years old
* Petite - 5'2'' in height
* Athletic build
* Naturally dark hair but keeps it short and dyed; likes to use colorful highlights like red or aubergine
* Dark sloed eyes
* Cannot wear earrings/piercings due to healing abilities and does not wear jewelry in general

### Powers & Abilities

* Night vision (sometimes)
* Can read auras (sometimes)
* Faster than normal healing
* Stronger and faster than a human
* Dorina’s mind is kind of like a time machine. Being 500 years old, she has a lot of memories she can recall.
* In Fury's Kiss she implemented a Psychic Scream
* Budding Mentalist

### Occupation

* Vampire Hunter, Mercenary, bounty hunter
* Senator

### Family

* **Father**: Mircea Basarab
* **Mother**: Elena/Helen (human) - murdered by her Uncle Vlad.
* **Spouse/Mate**:
* **Uncles**: Vlad Dracula and Radu Basarab
* **Other**:

## Biography

Dorina Basarab was born to Elena/Helen in Romania roughly 500 years ago. Mircea Basarab fled Romania shortly after realizing his undead state and abandoned Elena, fearing for her life. He did not know of the pregnancy. Shortly after Dorina was born, Elena was pressured by her village to give Dorina away as it was clear she wasn't totally human. Elena eventually relented and gave Dorina over to a band of Roma Gypsies. Elena would later regret her decision, and in desperation contacted Vlad Dracula to help her find Dorina. She was murdered for her trouble (no one in the family knew of her marriage to Mircea). When Vlad realized Elena had been telling him the truth, he sent assassins to find and kill Dorina and the Gypsies. He also razed Elena's village so there would be no witnesses as to what happened. Vlad knew what Mircea's reaction would be once he found out his wife was dead. However, the assassins were too afraid to touch a Dhampir. Instead, they drugged the camp and butchered the Gypsies, believing Dorina would simply perish from exposure as she was still a young child.

Dorina didn't die. She didn't understand exactly what happened to the Gypsies when she woke, but she buried them in a mass grave and believed herself to be cursed. She decided to track down her mother so she could find out who her father was and thank him for making her Dhampir, preferably with a stake. She eventually found her mother's village, burned to the ground. An ornate dagger led her to believe Vlad, the current ruler, was her sire. She eventually made it to Castle Poenari, Vlad's stronghold. However, after scaling the walls in the middle of a harsh winter, she discovered Mircea instead. He had returned for Elena, only to find out he had a daughter instead. Mircea was able to overpower Dorina and took her back with him to Venice where lone Vampires were at least somewhat safe.

Dorina continued to live under Mircea's roof for many years until he was eventually forced to "let her go" and gradually disassociate himself from her (or herself from him) as he was rising in power politically and couldn't be seen harboring a Dhampir. Mircea needed power to protect his family, but he couldn't risk Dorina being discovered by Vampires more powerful than himself until he was more secure. Dorina has no memory of this time due to an imbalance between her human and vampire selves. The two sides competed against each other so severely that Mircea was forced to wall them apart and to selectively remove memories that would compromise his Wall. This caused a rift in Dorina's mind and a jumbling of her memories. For many, many years, Dorina believed her and Mircea's first introduction was at an inn when she was full grown and Mircea needed a favor (AKA a mercenary). This, and Mircea's continued emotional distance from Dorina, led Dorina to believe Mircea only saw her as a tool and not as a daughter.

Their relationship began to change when Mircea contacted her in Midnight's Daughter to help recapture Vlad, whom Mircea had kept imprisoned for centuries as punishment for Elena's murder. Mircea began to reveal small details about her mother and make preliminary overtures to repair their relationship, or at least to keep Dorina closer. It was during the events of Midnight's Daughter that Dorina was introduced to Louis-Cesare.

## Related Characters, Groups, Places, etc

* Mircea Basarab
* Vlad Dracula
* Dracula
* Louis-Cesare
* Claire
* Radu Basarab, aka Uncle Radu
* Raymond
* Stinky

## Events Throughout the Series

This section may have spoilers. If you want to avoid spoilers, please don't read the summary for a book that you have not read yet. Think of the book title as a "Spoiler Warning".

## Books

1. **Midnight's Daughter** (2008)
2. **Death's Mistress** (2010)
3. **Fury's Kiss** (2012)
4. **Shadow's Bane** (2018)

### Shorts and Anthologies

* 1.1. "In Vino Veritas" in *Chicks Kick Butt* anthology (2011) & ebook ~ Free
* 2.1 "Zombie's Bite" Amazon Digital Services LLC, ASIN: B018WS0CN6, December 2016
* 3.1 "Lover's Knot" Amazon Digital Services LLC, ASIN: B073G9QLMD, June 2017

## See Also

* Dorina Basarab series
* Cassandra Palmer series
* Full Reading Order List

## Note

* Source for Images and Into: Author's site. The Artist is not credited I would name the artist.

## External Links

**Specific Links**

* Dorina Basarab | Karen Chance's Ramblings
* Louis-Cesare | Karen Chance's Ramblings

**General Links**:

* Take A Chance: Gallery
* Cassandra Palmer series - Urban Fantasy Wiki
* Cassandra Palmer Series ~ Shelfari
* The Cassandra Palmer series - Wikipedia

## Book Cover Gallery

1. **Midnight's Daughter** (2008—Dorina Basarab series) by Karen Chance2. **Death's Mistress** (2009—Dorina Basarab series) by Karen Chance3. **Fury's Kiss** (2012—Dorina Basarab series) by Karen Chance1.1. "Buying Trouble" (2008) eShort by Karen Chance1.1. **On the Prowl** (2007—Dorina Basarab series) anthology, "Buying Trouble" by Karen Chance2.1. **"In Vino Veritas"** (2011—Dorina Basarab series) by Karen Chance