The Mammoth Book Of Vampire Stories Written By Women

There was no gecko. When Leo glanced back at the puppet it was moving across the floor towards him, pulling itself forward on its long slender arms.

The gongs thundered now. A shape humped across the room, something large enough to blot out the empty doorway behind it. Before he was blinded by petals, Leo saw that it was a shrunken figure, a woman whose elongated arms clutched broken branches to propel herself, legs dragging uselessly through the tangled leaves. About her swayed a host of brilliant figures no bigger than dolls. They had roped her neck and hands with wreaths of flowers and scattered blossoms on to the floor about them. Like a flock of chattering butterflies they surged towards him, tiny hands outstretched, their long tongues unfurling like crimson pistils, and the gongs rang like golden bells as they gathered about him to feed.

Services Rendered

Louise Cooper

Louise Cooper has been writing stories since she was old enough to control a pencil. Her first novel , The Book of Paradox, was published when she was twenty-one, and since then she has had more than fifty books published. These include the Time Master Trilogy and its two spin-off trilogies , Chaos Gate and Star Shadow. More recently she has written a young adult trilogy set in the same world : Daughter of Storms, The Dark Caller and Keepers of Light.

Other adult fantasy titles include the eight-volume Indigo series and the stand-alone novels Mirage, The King's Demon, Sacrament of Night, Our Lady of the Snow and The Summer Witch. For children, Cooper has written a series of nine books (plus a Christmas special) titled Creatures, spooky tales with an animal theme published by Scholastic. She is currently working on a more "mainstream" adult novel (though still with supernatural overtones) and a venture into an alternative-history tale .

"I haven't the faintest notion how this story came into my head," admits the author. "It just did. One moment I was racking my brain for a plot that would make for a slightly different twist on the vampire theme; the next, the complete idea was sitting grinning in my mind. That's unusual for me.

The theme of Services Rendered' came from a question that I find endlessly fascinating: how an ordinary, down-to-earth human being reacts when faced with the apparently impossible, especially so when that 'impossibility' combines something terrifying (possibly), repellent (probably) and dangerous (potentially) with the lure of a 'dream come true' scenario.

"As for vampires I've yet to encounter one of the classical kind outside of a movie screen, and I sincerely hope it stays that way. But there are individuals whose effect on those around them has something in common with the vampire of legend: who seem to attach themselves to others and take nourishment from their energies. I saw Carmine as one of these individuals, in addition to her more 'traditional' qualities. Even vampires, if they exist, must surely have their hopes and fears and dreams, like any ordinary person.

" However you define that "

The cultured female voice at the other end of the phone line said, "I saw your advertisement in Alternatives . It's possible that I might be able to help."

The sick lurch of hope had become all too familiar over the last few months, and Penny tried to ignore it and keep her mind neutral. "I see. What uh exactly would you be suggesting?"

There was a slight pause. Then: "I'd guess from your tone that you've had other calls, yes? But nothing worth while came of them?"

"You could say that." Hope turned sour as she recalled them: two fringe herbalists, a crystal healer, a woman trying to sell her a "magic luck talisman" complete with a Your Personal Love Rhythms chart. Oh, and the crank who had banged on about Jesus and the wages of sin, until she had sworn at him and slammed the receiver down. The magazine had advised her, when she placed the advert, not to include her home number. Desperate needs, though, called for desperate measures.

"Look," Penny said, "if you're marketing some new miracle cure, then"

"Oh, no. It's nothing like that, I assure you; what I could offer is entirely practical, and entirely effective. The only caveat is that the patient must be prepared to accept certain side effects."

Hope began to creep back. Words such as "patient" and "side effects" were reassuring; they had a ring of orthodoxy.

"May I ask you a question?" said the woman.

Penny snapped back from the tangent her thoughts had abruptly taken. "Yes; yes, please do."

"You obviously couldn't go into detail in the advertisement. It's your husband who's ill?"

"Yes."

"And the doctors say that well, that there's nothing more they can do?"