James Moore: Blood Red

Maggie and Ben moved in a few months later, after their leases at the apartment complex expired.

“Hello?” The voice that answered was familiar and comforting.

“Mom?”

“Angie! Oh my God! Are you okay, honey? Your father and I have been worried sick, just sick! We kept calling, but no one answered, and when we talked to the police, they told us about poor Brian.”

“I’m okay, Mom. But I have to get away from here; there are too many memories…”

“Oh, honey, of course there are. You could come home if you wanted. You could stay with us.”

“Would it really be okay if I did, Mom?”

“Oh, honey, of course it would be. We haven’t seen you in almost a year.”

“I have a few things to take care of, but I can be there in a couple of days.”

“We can’t wait to see you, honey. Oh, thank God you’re all right.”

She flinched a bit. Even the mention of God seemed to cause discomfort, but she was almost certain she could endure. There were things she didn’t understand about what she had become, but she was learning.

“I love you, Mom. I can’t wait to see you again.”

“Honey, all you ever have to do is come on by. The door will always be open for you.”

“I’ll see you soon and I have a surprise for you.”

“Really? Is it a good surprise?”

“I think you’ll like it.”

They said their good-byes and Angie Freemont carefully packed her bags.

She felt a twinge and the baby kicked. He was feeling stronger too, recovering from all that had been done to the both of them. She ran her hand over her swollen belly and smiled, even as the first hunger pangs hit.

She was always hungry. How could she be anything else? She was eating for two.

The bodies were gathered through the course of the day. They were more than anyone wanted to consider, and a surprising number of them seemed to be at least a week old. Though it took time, eventually they were identified.

Witnesses claimed that several of the corpses gathered had been alive and well until the sun hit them. No one really believed the accounts. The bodies that had most of those claims had obviously been dead for several hours or days.

Boyd smoked his cigar and watched Danny as he maneuvered the radio-controlled boat.

“Fuck’s sake, Danny! It’s a big goddamn hole in the side of a cliff! How hard can it be?”

“About as hard as it is for you to get into Whalen’s pants.”

“What? Now you’re changing your mind about me and Whalen?”

“Hardly. I think you could get in her pants if you really wanted to.”

“She’s a married woman, Danny Boy.”

“So? She wants you!”

“So maybe if she was single, okay?”

“Being a dumbass about it.”

“You go around banging married women?”

That shut him up.

“So get the fucken thing in there already!”

“Relax, Richie. The best things take time.” He couldn’t decide if Danny was talking about Whalen or the damned boat, so he kept his mouth shut.

Finally the waves pulled back in just the right way and the water from the cave’s entrance spilled out. As the next wave came in, the boat was sucked into the underwater entrance.

“The SS Kelli has breached the defenses.”

“Good.”

“You wanna do the honors, Richie?”

“Yeah, if you don’t mind.”

“Knock yourself out.”

Boyd picked up the detonator and waited for one full minute as Danny kept urging the small motor further along. He waited until they could no longer hear the whining toy engine’s noises.

“Come on, Richie. Damn, I need coffee!”

“Fuck you and your coffee. It was my idea.” He pressed the detonator and the four sticks of dynamite let out a dull thump that was hidden by the waters.

They couldn’t see much at first, but after watching for a while they saw that the undertow wasn’t doing as many weird things anymore. There wasn’t a delay or a sudden gulping of the ocean.

“Did that close it off?”

“I guess we’ll know tonight, Danny Boy.”

“Yeah. I guess we will.

“Ready to go?”

“Yeah. I’m bored, Richie.”

“Ain’t you always.”

He was miles away, but he could still hear them as they screamed. How could he ever not hear them? They were his children.

Jason Soulis stared out at the waters and looked at the dull gray clouds that hid the sun away. In the distance, he could hear the crows cawing and chatting to each other. Maggie could have her human and he wished her the best.

He preferred the crows. He knew where he stood with them and never once worried about their duplicity.

He really hadn’t expected the detectives to find the caves and supposed that was his fault for not realizing just how perceptive they were.

“I’m glad I let you live.” He smiled and stretched, stifling a yawn. “I suspect you will prove interesting to have around.”

Deep beneath the house he’d left behind, the vampires were trying to find a way out of their newly sealed prison. Far too much rock had fallen to allow them to simply swim out as they had before.

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.

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.