“I never saw you.”
“Well, let us say that after all of these centuries of persecution, we have learned how not to be noticed.”
Richard Vuldus went straight over to the creature and hunkered down beside it, laying his hand on it with pride and awe.
“We have done it, Joachim! At last we have purified the genes.”
Helen took Joachim Hochheimer's elbow for support. “What is that disgusting thing?” she asked him. “I thought I was carrying a baby all that time ... not a thing like that. I feel sick to my stomach.”
“You shouldn't be revolted, Detective. It is not a baby, no, but a horse leech,
Hirudo medicinalis.
The Vuldus family have been trying for generations to return to their original form, and with your help they have achieved their aim at last. This horse leech will now breed others, with the size and intelligence of humans, but all the qualities of a leech.”
“But how is it going to survive? Where is it going to live?”
“Caesar Creek Lake. It covers two thousand eight hundred acres, and there are dozens of inlets where it can conceal itself and flourish. Richard, you must help me lift it into the van before its skin dries out too much.”
“And what about
him
?” asked Helen, nodding at the flattened body of Son of Beast.
“Don't worry ... we will dispose of him for you. He will vanish as if he had never been born.”
Joachim Hochheimer helped Helen to climb into her car, while Richard Vuldus retrieved her keys and her cell from Son of Beast's coat. He gave her his wallet too. Helen opened it and found six tickets for the roller-coaster ride, and a Kentucky driver's license in the name of Ronald M. Breen. But there was no doubt that the man in the ID photograph was Henry Clarke, one-time realtor of Smith Road, Norwood.
“You have our deepest gratitude,” said Richard Vuldus.
“Sure,” said Helen. She started the engine and backed up. Richard Vuldus raised one hand to her in salute, but she didn't wave back. She drove up the ramp, out of the parking lot, and into the afternoon rain.
She drove slowly back home to Walnut Street, with tears streaming down her cheeks.
GIRL WAS “SUCKED DRY” SAYS CORONER
A 17-year-old Waynesville girl whose body was recovered from Caesar Creek Lake early yesterday was said by the Hamilton County Coroner to have been completely drained of all her blood and all bodily fluids.
Dr. Kenneth Deane was at a loss to explain what had happened to her, but said there was evidence that she had been bitten by a “very large aquatic creature with serrated teeth.”
Cincinnati Post, March 17.
Abo
ut the Au
thors
TREVOR ANDERSON
Anderson is a retired writer of soft-core sex novels.
His Hot Blood
story marks the Californian's triumphant return to the genre he helped to create in the 1960s.
Â
STEVE ARMISON
A veteran emergency-room doctor, Armison has removed a long list of objects from bodily orifices and knows firsthand how dangerous uncontrolled lust can be. Armison says that men should carry implements in addition to condoms for protection, like a wooden stake, for instance. This is Armison's first published fiction.
Â
DAVID BENTON
Benton's work can be seen between the covers of
Vintage Moon
and on the pages of Red Scream magazine. He currently resides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Â
P. D. CACEK
Cacek has published over one hundred short stories ... and still managed to find time to write four novels and a collection. Two more collections are due soon:
Eros Interruptus,
a collection of her erotic stories, including the Bram Stoker winner “Metalica,” and
Sympathy for the Dead,
a collection of ghost stories; as well as appearances in
Dark Visions 12, Lords of the Razor, The Secret Life of Vampires, Weird Tales, Flesh and Blood,
and
The Burtarian.
She is currently working on her latest novel,
Officer of the Dead,
and preparing to move into a haunted house.
Â
CHRISTINE CROOKS
Crooks lives in Southern California, where she writes speculative fiction, romance, and horror. Her racing romance novel,
Thrill of the Chase,
is now available. Her shorter work has appeared in
Sinisteria, Chimeraworld #4,
and
Aoife's Kiss.
Â
W. D. GAGLIANI
Gagliani has published fiction and nonfiction since 1986 His Bram Stoker Award-nominated novel
Wolf's Trap
appeared in 2006. His erotica has appeared in
Gallery
magazine, the web-zine
1000 Delights,
and the anthology
The Black Spiral: Twisted Tales of Terror,
and other stories have been published in anthologies such as
Robert Bloch's Psychos, The Asylum 2, Extremes 3 and 4, Small Bites,
and
Wicked Karnival Halloween Horror,
among others. His book reviews appear in
Cemetery Dance, Hellnotes,
Chizine.com
, Crimespree, Flesh & Blood,
and others. He lives and writes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Visit him at
www.williamdgagliani.com
.
Â
JEFF GELB
Gelb is trying to reconcile his love of Judaism and the Torah with his passion for writing and editing sexy horror stories. Someday maybe he'll figure out how to do both without suffering major Jewish guilt.
Â
CODY GOODFELLOW
Goodfellow composed soundtracks for pornos in college and has been going downhill ever since. His novels,
Radiant Dawn and Ravenous Dusk,
are a two-part epic of modern Lovecraftian horror. His stories have appeared in the anthologies
Horrors Beyond, Hardboiled Cthulhu, Daikaiju,
and
Wastelands Within,
as well as the magazines
Cemetery Dance, Third Alternative, Book of Dark Wisdom,
and
Red Scream.
He lives in San Diego.
Â
ED GORMAN
Gorman has written books in several genres, but suspense fiction remains his favorite. In novels such as
The Autumn Dead
and
A Cry of Shadows,
Gorman has demonstrated that he is “one of the most original crime writers around” (Kirkus). Gorman has published more than one hundred short stories, with which he has filled out six collections of his work. His novel
The Poker Club
was filmed in 2006.
Â
ROBERTA LANNES
Lannes is a native of Southern California, where she has been teaching high-school English and fine and digital art for thirty-three years. Her first horror story was written and sold in Dennis Etchison's UCLA extension course in Writing Horror Fiction and appeared in his
The Cutting Edge
in 1985. Since then she has been much published in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres, including
Alien Sex, Best New Horror, Splatterpunks, Bradbury Chronicles,
and
Dark Delicacies.
Her website is
www.lannes-sealey.com
.
Â
GARYLOVISI
Lovisi is a Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award-nominated author (2005) who has been writing for as long as he can remember. Lovisi is the founder of Gryphon Books and editor of
Paperback Parade
and
Hardboiled
magazines, and sponsor of an annual book collector show in New York City. To find out more about him, his work, or Gryphon Books, visit his website at
www.gryphonbooks.com
.
Â
GRAHAM MASTERTON
It has been thirty years since the release of
The Manitou,
Masterton's first feature film (now reissued on DVD), but now
Ritual
was filmed by Italian director Mariano Baino for release in 2006. Since his return from a four-year sojourn in Cork, Ireland, Masterton has been busy with a fourth Manitou novel,
Manitou Blood;
a novel based on the Beltway snipers,
Touchy & Feely;
a fourth Night Warriors novel,
Night Wars;
a vampire novel set in the 1950s,
Descendant;
a Wendigo novel,
Edgewise;
and a collection of new short stories,
Festival of Fear.
Masterton has recently toured Greece and Poland, where his name is engraved on the celebrity plaque in the lobby of the Bristol Hotel, Warsaw, alongside Mick Jagger and Margaret Thatcher.
Â
LISA MORTON
Morton is a Bram Stoker award-winner who has written screenplays (most recently the vampire thriller
Blood Angels
), animation (
Van-Pires
), and two books of nonfiction (
The Cinema of Tsui Hark and The Halloween Encyclopedia
). Her short stories have most recently appeared in
Dark Delicacies, Mondo Zombie,
and
Cemetery Dance
magazine. She lives in the San Fernando Valley with actor Richard Grove and can be found online at
www.lisamorton.com
.
Â
STEVE NILES
Niles is one of the writers responsible for bringing horror comics back to prominence and was recently named by
Fangoria
magazine as one of its “13 rising talents who promise to keep us terrified for the next 25 years.” In 2002, the success of
30 Days of Night
sparked renewed interest in the horror genre; it is being developed as a major motion picture with
Spider-Man's
Sam Raimi producing and David Slade directing. In June 2005, Niles and actor Thomas Jane (
The Punisher
) formed the production company Raw Entertainment, which has a first-look deal with Lions Gate Films. Niles and his
Bigfoot
co-creator, rocker Rob Zombie, have sold the film rights to Paramount Pictures. Niles will be handling script duties. Also in development are adaptations of
Wake The Dead, Hyde, Aleister Arcane,
and
Criminal Macabre.
Niles is currently working for the four top American comic publishersâMarvel, DC, Image, and Dark Horse. Niles resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Nikki, and their three black cats.
Â
DAVID J. SCHOW
Schow is a short-story writer, novelist, screenwriter (teleplays and features), columnist, essayist, editor, photographer, and winner of the World Fantasy and International Horror Guild awards (for short fiction and nonfiction, respectively). Peripherally he has written everything from CD liner notes to book introductions to catalogue copy for monster toys. As expert witness, he appears in many genre-related documentaries, has traveled from New Zealand to Shanghai to Mexico City for same, and recently turned to producing/writing/directing DVD supplements. He lives in a house on a hill in Los Angeles. Website:
www.davidjschow.com
.
Â
D. LYNN SMITH
Smith has spent the last fifteen years writing and producing such television shows as
Murder, She Wrote; Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman;
and
Touched By An Angel.
Her short stories have appeared in
After Hours, PanGaia,
and
Dark Delicacies.
She has also published nonfiction articles in the
Dark Shadows Almanac
and
Fangoria.
Smith is currently working on a science fiction novel,
The Shaman's Gene.
Her website is
dlynnsmith.com
.
Â
THOMAS TESSIER
Tessier is the author of several novels of terror and suspense, including
The Nightwalker, Phantom, Finishing Touches, Secret Strangers,
and
Father Panic's Opera Macabre.
His novel
Fog Heart
was cited by
Publishers Weekly
as one of the best books of the year, was a Bram Stoker Award Finalist, and received the International Horror Guild Award for Best Novel. His first book of short fiction,
Ghost Music and Other Tales,
received the International Horror Guild Award for Best Collection. Tessier lives in Connecticut and is finishing a new novel and a new collection of short stories.
Â
STEVE VERNON
Vernon's stories have appeared in
The Horror Show, Cemetery Dance, Karl Edward Wagner's Year's Best Horror, Horror Garage, Flesh & Blood, Corpse Blossoms,
and many other magazines and anthologies. His novella “Long Horn, Big ShaggyâA Tale of Wild West Terror and Reanimated Buffalo” can be ordered at any bookstore. His new collection,
Nothing To Lose,
was published in 2006. Vernon's latest,
Four Ride Out,
a four-novella collection of weird western horror starring Brian Keene, Tim Lebbon, Tim Curran, and Vernon, will be out in 2007.
Â
RICHARD WILKEY
Wilkey first published erotic horror in several men's magazines back in the mid-80s. Following that, he focused on personally experiencing some of the acts he'd been writing about. Fortunately, he survived his admittedly bizarre behavioral streak and has returned to the safety of writing about the darker side of sex rather than experiencing it directly. “Taking matters into my own hand, so to speak, should be much safer,” Wilkey says with a grin.
Â
CHELSEA QUINN YARBRO
A professional writer for more than thirty-eight years, Yarbro has sold seventy-nine books and more than eighty works of short fiction and essays. She lives in her hometownâBerkeley, Californiaâwith two autocratic cats. In 2003, the World Horror Association presented her with a Grand Master award.
Â
DAVID ZELTSERMAN
Zeltserman writes mostly dark crime fiction and has had short stories appear in a number of magazines, including
Ellery Queen
and
Alfred Hitchcock.
His first psychotic dark crime novel,
Fast Lane,
was published in 2004. Two more dark crime novels,
Small Crimes
and
Bad Thoughts,
are due to be published in 2007. Zeltserman is a veteran of
Hot Blood
who lives and writes in Boston and insists that only part of his
Hot Blood
story is autobiographical.