Stephen (ed.) - The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 18

B. H. Fingerman’s Bottomfeeder was about a loser vampire in a dead-end job, and a man was recruited to hunt vampires in Graham Masterton’s Descendant .

Barbara Hambly’s Renfield: Slave of Dracula retold the story of the Count’s fly-eating servant.

Whereas once vampires were used as figures of fear in literature, they are now more likely to be depicted as humorous characters or, even worse, potential romantic partners in numerous paperback originals (“vampromcoms”?) apparently aimed at middle-class housewives and undiscerning supermarket shoppers.

Reminiscent of the boom-and-bust horror cycle of the 1980s, vampire romances and – even more bizarrely – vampire/werewolf romances swamped the market in 2006. Not only were these volumes mostly aimed at people who read outside the horror genre, but the majority were written by authors (often under multiple pseudonyms) who had no other interest in horror. However, there was no denying that there was a huge audience for these types of books.

Telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse had to recover a bracelet belonging to the vampire Queen of Louisiana in Definitely Dead , the sixth in the humorous Southern Gothic series by Charlaine Harris.

An undead woman opened a vampire dating agency in Manhattan in Kimberly Raye’s Dead End Dating , while Undead and Unpopular was the fifth book in Maryjanice Davidson’s humorous “Betsy the Vampire Queen” series.

The Damned was the latest volume in the “Vampire Huntress Legends” series by L. A. Banks (Leslie Esdale Banks) and included a limited edition poster inside the back cover of the hardback edition. Banks also edited Vegas Bites , an anthology of four stories by J. M. Jeffries, Seressia Glass, Natalie Dunbar and the editor, set in a casino run by vampires, werewolves and other creatures.

An undead casino owner became involved in politics in Erin McCarthy’s High Stakes , the latest volume in the humorous “Vegas Vampires” series, while a female security guard at a Las Vegas concert encountered her former vampire boyfriend in Cameron Dean’s Passionate Thirst , the first book in the “Candace Steele Vampire Killer” series. It was followed by Luscious Craving and Eternal Hunger .

In Kerrelyn Sparks’ Vamps and the City , two CIA vampire hunters became involved in a reality TV show, and a female FBI agent had a vampire lover in Caridad Piniero’s Death Calls .

Mario Acevedo’s comedy debut novel, The Nymphos of Rocky Flats introduced Latino vampire investigator Felix Gomez, while Happy Hour at Casa Dracula by Marta Acosta involved a Latina finding love amongst a family of bloodsuckers.

Traitor to the Blood was the fourth volume in Barb Hendee and J. C. Hendee’s “Noble Dead” series, while both Desire Calls and Death Calls by Caridad Piñeiro featured women involved with vampires.

In Touch the Dark , the first in a new series by newcomer Karen Chance, necroscope Cassie Palmer was forced to rely on the protection of a dangerously seductive master vampire.

A bounty hunter became involved with vampires in Hunting the Hunter , the first in a series by Shiloh Walker, and after being left for dead, bounty hunter Anna Strong tracked down the vampires that transformed her in The Becoming by Jeanne C. Stein.

Blood Ties Book One: The Turning was the first in a new series by Jennifer Armintrout about a vampire doctor.

A woman discovered that she had a new destiny in Alexandra Ivy’s vampire romance When Darkness Comes , the first book in the “Guardians of Eternity” trilogy, and a succubus worked as an exotic dancer in Jackie Kessler’s Hell’s Belles , the first in another trilogy.

Lover Eternal and Lover Awakened were the first two volumes in the “Black Dagger Brotherhood” vampire romance series by J. R. Ward (Jessica Bird).

A biochemist pursued by the undead was helped by a vampire hunter in Seduced by the Night , the second book in the “Night Slayer” series by Robin T. Popp, while Past Redemption by Savannah Russe (Charles Trantino) was the second book in “The Dark-wing Chronicles”.

The Devil’s Knight and Dark Angel were the second and third volumes, respectively, in the “Bound in Darkness” Medieval vampire romance series by Lucy Blue (Jayel Wylie).

Nora Roberts’ Dance of the Gods and Valley of Silence were the second and third books in the author’s vampire “Circle” trilogy, and I Only Have Fangs for You by Kathy Love was the third in the series about vampire brothers.

Prince of Twilight was the latest title in the “Wings in the Night” series by Maggie Shayne, and Dark Demon and Dark Celebration were the next two novels in the “Carpathian” series by Christine Feehan, whose Conspiracy Game was the fourth in the “GhostWalkers” series.

Tall Dark & Dead was a humorous novel by Tate Hallaway (Lyda Morehouse) which involved a witch attracted to a vampire alchemist. Kathryn Smith’s Be Mine Tonight combined vampires with the legend of the Holy Grail, while The Vampire’s Seduction by Raven Hart featured a playboy bloodsucker confronting an ancient enemy.

A female PI discovered that her former fiancé had become a vampire and was accused of murder in Jenna Black’s Watchers in the Night . Stolen computer files were at the heart of Susan Sizemore’s vampire romance Master of Darkness , and a bloodsucker fell in love with a police officer in the same author’s Primal Heat .

Just One Sip featured three vampire romance stories by Katie MacAlister, Jennifer Ashley and Minda Webber, while Love at First Bite contained original tales from Sherrilyn Kenyon, Susan Squires, Ronda Thompson and L. A. Barks.

Originally published in different form as an e-book in 2001, The Hunter’s Prey: Erotic Tales of Texas Vampires contained eleven stories by Diane Whiteside. From the same author, Bond of Blood was the first novel in the “Texas Vampires” trilogy.

Blood Red was an erotic Regency vampire romance by Sharon Page, and The Burning by Susan Squires was an erotic vampire novel set in early 19th-century England that featured psychic Ann Van Helsing.

Meanwhile, Dracula found himself in a lesbian Europe in Wendy Swanscombe’s erotic novel Fresh Flesh . Edited by Bianca de Moss, Blood Sisters: Lesbian Vampire Stories contained eighteen original stories.

Michael Schiefelbein’s Vampire Transgression was the third book in the gay “Victor Decimus” series, while David Thomas Lord’s Bound in Flesh was another erotic gay vampire novel, the sequel to Bound in Blood .

Dark Side of the Moon was the ninth volume and first hardcover in Sherrilyn Kenyon’s series about vampiric Dark-Hunters and shape-changing Were-Hunters. Seattle reporter Susan Michaels adopted a cat that turned out to be an immortal hybrid, being hunted by both supernatural factions.

A vampire fell in love with another werecat in Nina Bangs’ A Taste of Darkness . Michele Bardsley’s humorous I’m the Vampire, That’s Why featured a vampiric single mother and a crazed werewolf, and Riley Jenson was a hybrid vampire/werewolf working for a government investigation agency in Keri Arthur’s Full Moon Rising .

Kresley Cole’s A Hunger Like No Other and No Rest for the Wicked were the first two volumes in the “Immortals After Dark” series about a valkyrie assassin’s romantic trysts with werewolves and vampires.