"One Dream for Two" by Tatyana Korsakova, summary

This book is a mystical detective story from 2023 about the confrontation between humans and original vampires on the grounds of the ancient estate "Gremuchiy Ruchey." The plot intertwines real-life everyday life with the space of shared dreams. The heroes search for ways to survive and defeat an ancient curse.

Inhabitants of the old estate

Intensive care doctor Miron is on duty at night. He encounters the original vampire Astra. The woman cleverly disguises herself as a fashionable metropolitan writer. Miron stabs her in the stomach with a kitchen knife. Astra gasps in displeasure and disappears into the darkness of the park. Miron hurries to the outbuilding of the estate. There lies a girl named Lera in a deep coma. The patient is reliably guarded by the ghostly dog Cerberus. Miron contacts his old friend Charon. Charon owns his own funeral home and works with the bodies of the deceased every day. Charon quietly enters the estate through a hidden wooden gate. Together, the friends discover the true nature of the ghostly dog.

It turns out that Cerberus has guarded the women of the ancient Hungarian Bartan family for centuries. On the ancient family crest, this dog is depicted with three menacing heads. Charon and Myron question the ghost in detail. The dog, with its red eyes blinking, confirms Lera’s noble origins. To restore the dog to its full physical form, it needs an antique silver collar. Myron secretly sneaks into his grandmother Sophia’s museum. He carefully removes the heavy collar from a metal safe. Also inside are mysterious letters from a certain foreigner named Sandpiper. The paper documents confirm Sophia’s status as the legal guardian of the magical artifact.

Dangerous Liaisons

Meanwhile, Charon’s friend Lyudmila, known to everyone as Mila, is relaxing at the estate’s spa. She meets Astra by the pool. The vampiress persuades Mila to secretly take her to the city in the trunk of a car. The women dine at Charon’s prestigious restaurant. Mila is completely oblivious to the hidden danger. After a hearty dinner, Astra walks back to the Thundering Hollow. A fallen birch tree suddenly blocks the road. Mila waits for her new friend by the locked car. Suddenly, the missing tourist appears from the dense darkness. The tourist has now become a bloodthirsty vampire. She swiftly attacks Mila. Charon arrives just in time. The man strikes the vampire with a vintage sword. He saves Mila and takes her to his safe house.

Mila stays in Charon’s brick house. That night, she goes down to the basement. There she finds an industrial-strength double-door refrigerator. Inside, glass vials of blood are stored in neat rows. Mila concludes that Charon is a real vampire. Smart electronics detect the refrigerator door’s open position. A steel lock securely locks the basement door. Mila finds herself trapped. She manages to send Miron a short message warning of the danger. Soon, other turned tourists infiltrate the area.

Lera’s Awakening

Meanwhile, Lera lies in a hospital room. Her consciousness creates an illusory stone castle. In this empty space, she learns to control matter. She lights a fire in the fireplace. She materializes flowers and a bright yoga mat. Miron enters her dreams. The doctor tells her about vampires and a ghostly dog. Lera learns of her affiliation with the wealthy Bartan family. She finds a painful way to awaken. She draws life force from a flock of bats. The birds fall dead to the floor of the hospital room. The withered roses also crumble. Lera opens her eyes. She secretly escapes from the hospital. She boards an old bus and reaches her country house.

A horrific discovery awaits Lera at the empty dacha. Her beloved dog, Roni, is dead. Her mother lies brutally murdered in the bathtub. Lera’s father has transformed into a bloodthirsty monster. The creature is trying to tear his own daughter apart. A ghostly Cerberus comes to the rescue. Then the mysterious dacha owner, Grigory, appears. He chops off the vampire’s head with a sharp garden shovel. Grigory puts Lera in his red convertible and drives the terrified girl to safety.

Grigory tells Lera a terrible secret. The man is Miron’s great-grandfather. He has been alive for over a hundred years. In the distant past, the blood of Lera’s great-grandmother saved him from becoming a mindless ghoul. Astra is also an old acquaintance of Grigory’s. She secretly kept an eye on Lera at the estate. Lera’s birth parents died in a car accident twenty-three years ago. The girl was adopted by another family. The adoptive father secretly hated Lera.

True evil

The real danger comes from the ancient vampire Konstantin von Kleist. Konstantin is working with his half-sister, Martha Litte. Martha runs an elite hospital on the estate. The vampire desperately needs Lera’s blood. This blood will cure the curse. The cure will allow Konstantin to conceive normal children with Martha. Konstantin hired a cruel private detective. The detective staged Lera’s accident on an old road. Astra killed the detective at Lera’s bedside. The writer snapped the mercenary’s neck.

Strange events are occurring at the estate. During the night, Akim, the watchman, is attacked by an unknown forest beast. Miron and the surgeon on duty operate on a wounded old man. Later, Miron finds the corpse of a nurse in the boiler of the water tower. The nurse had been turned into a striga and stabbed to death with a sharp silver pin. Miron clearly understands the scale of the impending threat.

Lera wants to save her uncle Igor. Local scandalous journalist Karp Cherny brings the girl to the estate. Karp is broadcasting live about the vampires’ intrigues in the forest. Manager Rozaliya Frantsevna tranquilizes Lera with a medical syringe. Karp receives a powerful dose of sedative. The girl is carried through a damp underground passage to a bunker. There, Konstantin shows her Uncle Igor. Igor sincerely confesses to terrible crimes. He had been secretly drugging Lera for years. He ordered the murder of his niece for the sake of a rich inheritance. Konstantin kills Igor. Lera loses consciousness.

Battle in the Hollow

Charon explains the truth to Myron. The funeral home owner doesn’t drink human blood. As a child, Charon survived a powerful lightning strike. Astra saved him with a microdose of her blood. Now Charon requires cow’s blood to maintain a normal metabolism. The security system blocked Mila completely by accident. Charon and Myron rush to Charon’s house. They kill a ghoul that wandered onto the property. Astra saves Mila from a second terrifying monster. The writer stabs the creature with a silver hairpin. Astra proves her loyalty to Myron.

The vampires load the sleeping Lera into an ambulance. Konstantin and Marta attempt to smuggle the girl out of the estate. In her sleep, Lera shatters the ambulance’s strong windows. The vehicle tumbles and plunges into a deep ravine. Marta dies instantly from a sharp shard of glass in the windshield. Konstantin goes mad with grief. The man completely transforms into a monstrous beast. The vampire howls loudly, calling his army of the dead.

Miron and Kharon descend to the bottom of the ravine. They kill the attacking ghouls. Grigory, Astra, and Mila, armed with a powerful shotgun, come to their aid. Konstantin prepares to tear Lera to pieces. The maddened Rozaliya stabs the girl in the side. The manager falls onto a sharp branch and dies instantly.

Myron places a silver collar on the ghost. Cerberus takes on flesh. Three enormous dog heads appear. The dark dog tears Konstantin apart. Astra and Grigory finish off the remnants of the ferocious undead. Lera dies from severe blood loss. Charon and Myron use medical equipment from the wrecked ambulance. The doctors manage to restart Lera’s heart.

A year passes. The police blame the brutal murders on Marta Litte’s cult. Black Karp becomes a posthumous hero. Kharon marries Mila. Lera gradually recovers. Miron is happy by her side. The three-headed dog lives with them as an exotic pet.