I often get questions about the kind of vampires featured in my Craig Lockman urban fantasy thrillers. Seems we’ve come a long way from the days of Bram Stoker or Richard Matheson. Most vamps aren’t scary anymore. Even the evil ones look like they rose from the pages of the JC Penny catalog, rather than a coffin or sacred earth.
I don’t have a problem with this evolution. Without it, there would be no Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I love me some Buffy. And while sparkles in the sunlight wouldn’t have been my first choice for a new vampire twist, obviously the legions (dark legions?) of Stephenie Meyer fans show even vampire bling has its place. But I think it’s time vampires got scary again.
I’ll be the first to tell you, my vamps are not traditional. I made up a bunch of my own rules, or tweaked the good old stand-bys. But I stuck to a few principles based on what I, personally, wanted to see from vampires in fiction, returning to their roots in horror stories.
Rather than run down a description of my “world-building,” I thought I would give a few clips from the books, a montage of icky vampire evilness, for your edification and enjoyment.
From Chapter Two of Darker Things, where Craig Lockman is attacked at his home by a tactical-ops unit of vampires (aw, yeah!):
[Lockman] swung around into the doorway, brought his guns up, and sighted one barrel on each of the [vampires] standing in his living room. He pulled both triggers in synch and landed one head shot on the vamp to his left. The one on his right dodged, too fast for human reflexes. The silver-tipped round grazed its arm, tearing through the fatigues and exposing a sizzling and smoking wound.
The vamp on the left dropped to the floor. The hole in its head sputtered and gurgled, bubbles of blood popping inside like boiling chili.
And later, while Lockman’s on the run from that same attack:
Lockman checked on the vamp, saw it come around the corner where they had turned. It had abandoned its weapon, probably empty. With its hands free, it went down on all fours. Its back bent. Its spine became a hard ridge almost like a fin from neck to tailbone. Its back legs also changed, knees hinged more like a dog. This new form allowed the vamp to travel even faster.
This last is from Book Two of the Lockman Chronicles, Dark Legion. Vampires play a much larger role in this book, so you get a lot more information about how mine work. This vamp is referred to as an “original.” In other words, he’s old. And he wasn’t made here on the mortal plane. I don’t think Robert Pattinson will sign up to play one of these if there’s ever a movie version:
Something wet hit [Lockman's] cheek like a rain drop. He wiped at the spot. His gloved hand came away smeared with red.
Lockman snapped his head up in time to see the vampire hanging like a bat by its feet in the rafters. The beast’s fanged mouth was wet and red. Unlike the sleeping vamps, this one was naked, it’s wrinkled white skin a web-work of gray veins. An original in an altered form. Clawed hands. Clawed toes. Mouth nearly as wide as its face.
It hissed and dropped from the high ceiling.
I hope you enjoyed this vampire sampler platter. As an added tease, I’ll note that my version of how a person is turned into a vampire is strikingly different from any other seen in fiction…and it’s pretty dang horrifying. You can witness a turning in Dark Legion. But don’t forget to check out Darker Things first, as they form two consecutive parts of a continuing series. Book Three is currently in the works!
Thanks for coming by.
–which is fantastic, btw.
