Rafeal was written in 2002–2003 and centers on a man who becomes a vampire in 1502 Spain—not through myth, curse, or metaphysics, but through an accidental biological transmission. The transformation is treated as evolutionary rather than supernatural: he remains a devout Catholic, retains his human identity, and understands himself as a superior apex predator governed by physiology, not fate. Rejecting romantic and supernatural vampire tropes, the novel grounds its mechanics in real biological processes—cellular metabolism, heat intolerance driven by hyperactive mitochondria, and blood dependence as a consequence of impaired red blood cell production.