Mikael de Wohlf desires Annabella Micelli enough to hold those same desires in check.  Instead, he has contented himself to have Bella as his personal assistant and has done so for the past six years. 

Stubborn Bella desires the handsome vampire but a generally cautious respect for his power has helped her fight her need; that and knowing she has kept his nearly limitless power under control.  Initially, Mikael couldn’t seem to keep away from her but now he’s acting distant and aloof.  Why the change?
Blood Red by Aline de Chevigny is an interesting short read.  Unfortunately, this twenty page tale leaves many loose ends that the reader is expected to just accept; acceptance of the child Mikael has fathered along with who the mother was and what she really meant to Mikael; why Mikael is a shape-shifting wolf; whether or not Mikael and Bella will have children of their own; how she will be accepted into the clan, who will become the next Keeper.  Indeed, the end doesn’t seem so much of an end as a question: What happens next?

Initially, too much of Mikael’s history is included in so few pages lending the story a passive feel.  The insertion of the trial of the young vampire childe doesn’t have a bearing on the story.  Editing mistakes including incomplete sentences and two characters speaking in the same paragraph detract from the read.  All that is not to say necessarily that this is a poor story.  It is an editor’s job to catch what the author does not. 

Ms. de Chevigny’s imagination is rich and she seems to have created a complex vampire society.  A longer story telling vehicle would have served this imagination so much better and help tie up the loose ends.