Triumph of Death (Alex Van Helsing #3)

Still reeling from finding out that his mother is a witch, Alex is on his way back to school from studying different creatures in Italy when the plane he is on is attacked by zombie vampires! Luckily, he keeps his wits about him and survives his plummet to earth with a parachute, but the training computer is stolen. No time to worry about that-- the town of Secheron is dark at noon, and the skeleton painted vampires are awaiting the arrival of Claire, the vampire queen. Sangster is on hand to help Alex, and the arrival of Astrid, a new student from the Netherlands at the school helps. She is a witch and representative of Hexen, and her spell manages to shut Claire down. Research finds that the vampires are recreating a Bruegel painting called The Triumph of Death, and Claire has sent Alex a message that he has about a week before this comes to pass. Astrid and Alex travel to see the painting and uncover more mysteries, which lead them to Harrow, England to try to find the body of Claire and Lord Byron's daughter. When the coffin turns up empty, they end up on an island off of Scotland, where they find out lots of things about Alex's past, solve the mystery of Byron's daughter, fend off Claire, and leave the door open for (hooray!) yet another adventure!