The Mammoth Book Of Vampire Stories Written By Women

Meyer and his friend Hamid embraced each other. Now it was their turn to weep. Then they dried their tears and waited as the message of Marisa Devora and the dark Stranger travelled to Cyprus and reached the ears of Amalric. "Beware," the messenger said. "In the land of Canaan, there is a daughter of Lilith who is loved by man and God and Allah and marked by the devil. Do not cause her to be angry, for her anger could devour you all."

One Among Millions

Yvonne Navarro

Yvonne Navarro is a Chicago-area writer with twelve published novels and sixty-plus stories to her credit. Her latest solo book is the suspense novel , That's Not My Name, and she has also written a number of media tie-in books such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Paleo, Species, and others. In the limited time between a score of ongoing writing projects and her study of martial arts, she dreams, still, of relocating to the never-ending sunshine and heat of the American southwest .

" 'One Among Millions' evolved from a pretty run-of-the-mill 'what if question," explains the author, "namely , What if you were being stalked by someone? From there it grew to the stalker being a vampire, but why would a vampire do such a thing to an ordinary woman unless the woman were anything but ordinary .

" So many people think vampire stories are used up, out of vogue, or all the same; I think they couldn't be more wrong. Yes, vampirism is about stealing, but it isn't just about blood. It's about the theft, or loss, of life, of self, of everything that you are or could have ever been, the evolution of that thing that you once were into something you might or might not be able to control. There's so much potential in it, and there always will be. Those who turn up their noses and declare vampires are extinct should remember their own mortality. New generations of readers are born every day, and they are always hungry.

"Just like vampires."

Sondra knew exactly when the vampire started stalking her and the babies.

She called the police and they came out to the house, two dutiful small-town, small-minded men with beer bellies and the smell of grease and old cigarettes on their clothes. The twins, their cherubic blue-eyed faces achingly beautiful beneath wispy, platinum curls, cooed and giggled from the playpen in their room, oblivious to the terror on their mother's face and the tense conversation a room away.

"Listen," Sondra said, "I've seen it following us"

"It?" The older of the two cops wore a name tag that said McShaw and sent his partner a meaningful look. He jotted something quickly on the form attached to his clipboard.

"Him, I mean." Her face was calm but inside she slapped herself for the verbal slip. Fear was a nasty, constant companion and could cause all kinds of mistakes, make a person tell the truth when that was the last thing in the world she wanted to do. She couldn't afford the truth here, not when the price was Mallory and Meleena's safety. "I've seen him ."

"Okay." The other lawman was younger but headed the way of his chunky partner; too many donuts and sitting on his ass in the patrol car, wheeling around town and thinking he looked so smart in his blue uniform and spit-shined shoes, the carefully oiled .38 snug in its leather holster. Galena was far enough from Chicago to leave the murders and brutality to the city folk; little occupied these men during the day besides petty theft and speeding teenagers, maybe a few alcohol and drug situations. His revolver had probably never been fired at anything but a paper target; what did this man know of blood and terror? "So you saw someone following you in Fox Valley Mall," he repeated. "And you say he walked behind you and your children nearly all the way to your car."

"Yes."

"Then disappeared when you turned to confront him in the presence of another couple."

Sondra finally saw his nameplate, slightly askew on his shirt pocket. "Exactly, Officer Walters." She sat back.

McShaw grimaced. "Fox Valley is a big place, Ms Underwood." He peered at her over the rim of his glasses, brown eyes full of scepticism. "Isn't it conceivable that this man's car could have been parked close to yours? That it was nothing but a coincidence?"

"I'm telling you he was following us," Sondra said, too loudly.

The twins made a noise from the other room and she glanced anxiously towards the doorway, then lowered her voice. "He"