Vampires Don't Sparkle!

edited by

Michael West

Copyright © 2013 by Michael West

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be copied or transmitted in any form, electronic or otherwise, without express written consent of the publisher or author.

Cover art: Matthew Perry

Copyright © 2012 Matthew Perry & Seventh Star Press, LLC.

Editor: Michael West

Published by Seventh Star Press, LLC.

ISBN Number: 978-1-937929-69-5

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013934357

Seventh Star Press

www.seventhstarpress.com

[email protected]

Publisher’s Note:

Vampires Don’t Sparkle
is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are the product of the author’s imagination, used in fictitious manner. Any resemblances to actual persons, places, locales, events, etc.

is purely coincidental.

Printed in the United States of America

First Edition

PERMISSIONS

J. F. Gonzalez: “A New Life” ©2013 by author.
Originally appeared in
Dread
, issue #10, January 2000. Reprinted by permission of author.

Tim Waggoner: “What Once Was Flesh” ©2013 by author. Printed with permission of the author.

Elizabeth Massie: “The Darkton Circus Mystery” ©2013 by author. Printed with permission of the author.

R. J. Sullivan: “Robot Vampire” ©2013 by author. Printed with permission of the author.

Gord Rollo: “Beneath a Templar Cross” ©2013 by author.
Originally appeared in
The Downward Spiral
collection, October 2006. Reprinted by permission of author.

Kyle S. Johnson: “The Weapon of Memory” ©2013 by author. Printed with permission of the author.

Stephen Zimmer : “The Excavation” ©2013 by author. Printed with permission of the author.

Joel A. Sutherland: “Skraeling”
©2013 by author. Printed with permission of the author.

Bob Freeman: “Dreams of Winter” ©2013 by author. Printed with permission of the author.

Gregory L. Hall: “Dracula’s Winkee: Bloodsucker Blues” ©2013 by author. Printed with permission of the author.

Lucy A. Snyder: “I Fuck Your Sunshine” ©2013 by author. Printed with permission of the author.

Maurice Broaddus: “A Soldier’s Story” ©2013 by author. Printed with permission of the author.

Douglas F. Warrick: “Rattenkönig” ©2013 by author. Printed with permission of the author.

Jerry Gordon: “Vampire Nation”
©2013 by author. Printed with permission of the author.

Gary A. Braunbeck: “Curtain Call”
©2013 by author. Printed with permission of the author.

For two of the bravest women I have

ever known, Sara and Stephanie.

Promises to keep…

“Here’s what vampires shouldn’t be: pallid detectives who drink Bloody Marys and work only at night; lovelorn southern gentlemen; anorexic teenage girls; boy-toys with big dewy eyes. What should they be? Killers, honey. Stone killers who never get enough of that tasty Type-A. Bad boys and girls. Hunters. In other words, Midnight America. Red, white and blue, accent on the red. Those vamps got hijacked by a lot of soft-focus romance.”

—Stephen King,
American Vampire

TAKING BACK THE NIGHT

An Introduction by Michael West

T
he 1988 concert film
 Rattle and Hum
opened with a familiar sounding tune. Lead singer Bono took the microphone in his hand and announced to the crowd, “This song … Charles Manson stole it from the Beatles. We’re stealin’ it back.” And the band then proceeded to rock a huge arena with their amazing rendition of the classic 
Helter Skelter
. It was a powerful moment—taking something wonderful, something that had been corrupted, and legitimizing it once more.  

They made it
 cool
 again.

For years now, I’ve had the same feeling about the vampire. That supernatural creature of the night—a dark being who once struck fear in the hearts of mortal men and women—has been corrupted. In movies, in television shows, and in fiction, this fearsome demon has been “defanged.” Instead of viciously preying on the blood of the living, today’s vampires are meek “vegetarians.” They have the gift of limitless power and eternal life, and how do they choose to spend their time? They go back to high school and sit in the same classes year after year; they sulk in corners, brooding and fawning for students who are centuries younger than they are, and in the face of these young, nubile bloodbags, these symbols of raw sexuality, these fearsome killers, these
animals
are suddenly neutered…
weak,
more frightened at the thought of going dateless to the prom than a cross or a wooden stake through their black, soulless hearts.

Well, enough is enough.

Stephenie Meyer stole this monster from Bram Stoker. We’re stealin’ it back!

In this anthology, my fellow horror and dark fantasy authors will take you down some very twisted paths, each putting his or her own unique spin on the age-old legend of the vampire. Some of these tales are fanciful, some humorous, and some as black as an endless night. These are stories that will once more strike fear into your heart and make you dread sundown. These are tales to make the vampire cool again.

There is one person who would have loved these stories. Her name was Sara Larson. She was a wonderful writer and an even better friend. Sara was diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer, and earlier this year, she lost a long and courageous battle against the disease and passed away, but not before all of us that knew and loved her made her aware of just how special she was.

Several months later, my own wife, Stephanie West, was also diagnosed with cancer—a slow-growing tumor that had taken root in her bone. Thankfully, she did not share Sara’s fate, and as I type this, she is cancer free. Others, however, will not be as lucky, and more will become victim to this real-life monster until a cure can be found.

That’s where you come in, faithful reader. By purchasing this anthology, you have made a donation to the American Cancer Society. You have helped to one day win the war against this dreaded disease. And hopefully, one day, we can say that cancer stole away the gift of life for far too long, but we are stealin’ it back.

Thank you!

Michael West

December 7, 2012

CREATURES OF THE NIGHT

“Listen to them - children of the night. What music they make.”

–Bram Stoker,
Dracula

A NEW LIFE

J. F. Gonzalez

J. F. Gonzalez is the author of several novels of horror and suspense including
They
,
The Corporation
,
Back from the Dead
, and
Primitive
. His latest collaboration with Brian Keene –
Clickers Vs. Zombies
- is the fourth installment in his
Clickers
series (with Mark Williams and Brian Keene). His short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies including
Shroud, Doorways, Dark Discoveries
,
Hot Blood: Strange Bedfellows
,
Dark Arts
,
Shivers III
and
IV
, and elsewhere. He currently writes a column on the history of horror fiction for
Lamplight Magazine
.

He doesn’t dig what passes as vampire fiction these days. He prefers vampires from the old school. Therefore, he considers the best vampire novels ever published to be
Dracula
by Bram Stoker,
‘Salem’s Lot
by Stephen King,
They Thirst
by Robert McCammon,
Some of Your Blood
by Theodore Sturgeon,
Progeny of the Adder
by Leslie Whitten,
The Light at the End
by John Skipp and Craig Spector,
Midnight Mass
by F. Paul Wilson,
Live Girls
by Ray Garton,
I Am Legend
by Richard Matheson, and
The Passage
by Justin Cronin. He also likes
The Historian
by Elizabeth Kostova and
Fevre Dream
by George R. R. Martin, and has a soft spot for Poppy Z Brite’s
Lost Souls
. He also considers
30 Days of Night
by Steve Niles to be the ultimate in vampire comics. His favorite vampire movies are similar -
Let the Right One In
,
Martin
,
Let’s Scare Jessica to Death
,
Nosferatu
(both the 1922 silent and the 1978 remake), and
Near Dark
. He also has a soft spot for the Hammer
Dracula
films with Christopher Lee.

Those vampires definitely
don’t
sparkle.

–––––––––––

W
hen Sammy Valentine popped the lock on the door to the large RV at the end of the street he was working he wasn’t even thinking of getting caught. He had been working the Rose Parade and the New Year’s Eve parties along Colorado Boulevard for the past seven years. He had never been caught. There was no reason to think about getting caught now.

The minute the door was open he was in. He closed the door softly behind him, then moved down the cabin toward the kitchen galley. He could tell an RV motor-home was vacant by two ways: for one, no interior lights would be on within the living area, and two, when his rappings on the door brought no signs of life. He had the perfect explanation for the few times people actually answered his knocks:
oops, I’m real sorry sir/ma’am. I’ve been celebrating a little too much and I got the wrong RV. Sorry
. Then he would move across the street and down the block a ways to make the next hit. It worked every time.