Vampire Faerie Cats

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I have been a very bad blogger.  I’m going to try to make up for this in the coming weeks.  I’ve got a couple of interesting posts planned.  I hope you enjoy them.

I’ll start by actually writing Faerie Friday.  I know it is Sunday.  I promised an entire month of Vampire Faeries and I’ve only delivered two.  Here is the third.

Ieles are vampire faerie cats from Romania.  They walk on two legs and skulk about at crossroads waiting for an unlucky traveler to cross their path though they can’t enter the middle of the crossroad.  Once the Ieles have someone their sights, they suck their blood or remove a leg bone and replaced it was a wooden wheel spoke.  What they want with the bone and why they replace it with a wheel spokes is beyond me, but if the traveler returns to the same place a year later, they get their leg bone back.  Strange medieval security deposit?

Vampires lurking at crossroads are a common Eastern European superstition and crossroads in many folklore traditions are the haunts of faeries and magical creatures.  In many of these traditions, in-between places have mystical qualities.  I guess crossroads are extra special in-between places.

I need to learn more Eastern European folklore.  I would love any suggestions from readers about books that I should be reading.  I’m a book dork and I can always find more space on my bookshelf for a good volume on folklore.