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He wondered if they would die a second time, starved of blood and unable to feed. Or if they would change and evolve, become something better than what they were meant to be.

A few days in the cave had made several of them stronger than they had ever been before. Most often they were too weak and stupid to live for more than a single night. But the ones he’d created in Black Stone Bay? There were at least four he knew of that had survived their first night of freedom, and they were coming along nicely.

None of them stayed in the area. They were too smart for that. If that wasn’t proof of improvement, what was?

“We shall see, my children. We shall see what you can become.”

He listened to their frustrated screams and allowed himself a small smile.

Time would tell if the second phase was successful.

And Jason Soulis had all the time in the world.

AFTERWORD

BY JAMES A. MOORE

If you’d asked me even eighteen months ago if I had any desire to write a vampire novel, the answer would have been a resounding “HELL NO!” It’s not that I have anything against vampires, per se, it’s just that damn, people, they’ve been done a few times. They’ve also been done a few times by me. My first published novel was a collaborative work-for-hire vampire novel written for White Wolf Publishing. I wrote it a long, long time ago. Long enough ago, in fact, that sometimes I forget the details. That’s probably for the best.

So, no. No desire whatsoever to pick up a pen and write about vampires. Better writers than me have already done it and been imitated a thousand times over. Bram Stoker’s Dracula remains a powerful piece, strong enough to almost guarantee a hundred imitators alone. Anne Rice’s writing style and more “humanized” approach to vampires hasn’t just been imitated, it’s generated a full-blown subgenre. She did to vampiric erotica what McDonald’s did to hamburgers. And I could go on for a page or two about the number of vampire detectives/vampire monster hunters out there in the literary markets.

So, again, no desire whatsoever to touch on the subject of vampires.

But then I thought about the other writers, the ones who always manage to make the subject interesting for me all over again. Brian Lumley did it with his excellent Necroscope series of books. Simon Clark—yes, the very one who was gracious enough to give this book a read and throw some nice words in my direction—did it with Vampyrrhic. Christopher Golden did it with his unique twists on the concept of vampires and where they come from in The Shadow Saga, and there have been others as well. Richard Matheson’s excellent I Am Legend, Stephen King’s timeless ’Salem’s Lot. Dan Simmons did it, Ray Garton managed very well indeed, F. Paul Wilson has done it. Robert R. McCammon not only did it, but took it to all new extremes. Fred Saberhagen’s The Dracula Tapes and several sequels are all fascinating reads and well thought out. He makes changes in the legends of Dracula and he also adds depth to the villainous Count. Dick Laymon’s The Traveling Vampire Show was a fabulous tale with a nice twist or twelve. The same for The Stake; what a glorious excursion into familiar territory! Nancy Collins with her Sonja Blue novels took a few nice spins into the extreme and handled them beautifully. For every one of the books I’ve run across that seems to be nothing but a derivative, there’s a gem out there, a little nugget of a book that makes it worth the time to delve back into the vampire myths and have a little fun. Of course, all of the authors who wrote these gems have talent in spades, and I’m never quite sure if I’m up to that sort of challenge.

It didn’t take much time for my mind to start playing What If with me. Every writer knows the game. What If I DID write a vampire novel? What would I do to make it different?

Sometimes that little game can get you into trouble. The What If Game was helped along by Paul Miller, who introduced himself to me last year and asked if I’d be interested in working with him. Well, duh, yes. Of course!

And he said he might like to see a “big, fat, juicy vampire novel” out of me. That took some serious thinking on my part. A nanosecond later, we agreed to talk about it.

And my mind kept playing that What If Game with me.

Did I want to write a vampire novel? No. Not really. The idea was a little intimidating. How in the name of God would I possibly hope to do one original enough to make anyone at all give a damn about it? Not bragging here, but I’ve had a lot of comparisons to Stephen King come along. I thought about that a lot.

Because, if I was going to do a vampire story, I had to make it stand out against some very fine examples of the genre. So many in fact, that the task quickly became daunting.