By Blood We Live

"Do Not Hasten to Bid Me Adieu" by Norman Partridge. © 1994 Norman Partridge. Originally published in Love in Vein. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"The Master of Rampling Gate" by Anne Rice. © 1984 Anne Rice. Originally published in Redbook. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"Endless Night" by Barbara Roden. © 2008 Barbara Roden. Originally published in Exotic Gothic II. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"The Beautiful, The Damned" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. © 1995 Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"A Standup Dame" by Lilith Saintcrow. © 2008 Lilith Saintcrow. Originally published in The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"Peking Man" by Robert J. Sawyer. © 1996 Robert J. Sawyer. Originally published in Dark Destiny III. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"This Is Now" by Michael Marshall Smith. © 2004 Michael Marshall Smith. Originally published online in BBCi Cult Vampire Magazine. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"After the Stone Age" by Brian Stableford. © 2004 Brian Stableford. Originally published online in BBCi Cult Vampire Magazine. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"Under St. Peter's" by Harry Turtledove. © 2007 Harry Turtledove. Originally published in The Secret History of Vampires. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"Exsanguinations" by Catherynne M. Valente. © 2005 Catherynne M. Valente. Originally published online at www.catherynemvalente.com. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"Life Is the Teacher" by Carrie Vaughn. © 2008 Carrie Vaughn. Originally published in Hotter Than Hell. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"Pinecones" by David Wellington. © 2006 David Wellington. Originally published as a limited edition chapbook. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"Child of an Ancient City " by Tad Williams. © 1988 Tad Williams. Originally published in Weird Tales. Reprinted by permission of the author.

"Mama Gone" by Jane Yolen © 1991 by Jane Yolen. First appeared in Vampires: A Collection of Original Stories edited by Jane Yolen and Martin H. Greenberg, 1991 by HarperCollins. Reused with permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.

Introduction by John Joseph Adams

How do we define the vampire? Are they barely animated corpses, of a horrific visage, killing indiscriminately? Or are they suave, charismatic symbols of sexual repression in the Victorian era? Do they die in sunlight, or does it only make them itch a little, or, God forbid, sparkle? Do crosses and holy symbols work at repelling them, or is that just a superstition from the old times? Are they born, or made by other vampires? And anyway, are these vampires created through scientific means, such as genetic research or a virus, or are they the magical kind? Can they transform into bats? Or are they stuck in the appearance they had when they were turned? Are we talking the traditional Eastern European vampire, or something more exotic, like the Tagalog mandurugo, a pretty girl during the day, and a winged, mosquito-like monstrosity by night? Do they even drink blood, or are they some kind of psychic vampire, more directly attacking the life-force of their victims?

Vampire stories come from our myths, but their origins are quite diverse. Stories of the dead thirsting for human life have existed for thousands of years, although the most common version we speak of in popular culture originated in eighteenth-century Eastern Europe. Why is the notion of the dead risen to prey on the living such an omnipresent myth across so many cultures?

Perhaps the myth of the vampire comes from a little bit of projection on the part of the living. We have a hard time imagining our existence after death, and it may be easier to imagine a life that goes on somehow. But what kind of life would a corpse live? Our ancestors were intimately familiar with decomposition, even if they didn't precisely understand it. If I were dead, I know I would have a certain fixation for living things. And perhaps I might, finding death an unagreeable state, attempt to steal from the living some essence that defines the barrier between the living and death. Blood stands in for the notion of life easily enough. Now I just have to get that essence inside of me somehow, hmm… slurp.