Meanwhile, back at the crypt: new black vampire and horror tales are so sexy.

VAMPIRES, THE SEDUCTIVE FOLK-loric creatures that subsist on human blood, have populated myths in Africa, Europe and other cultures around the world since ancient times. With the publication of Dracula in 1897, Irish writer Bram Stoker set the template for what has become probably the most enduring image of a vampire: a pale, evil creature that sleeps during the day, rises from the grave at night and charmingly stalks his innocent victims.

Today, vampires reign as some of the most popular and the "the hottest" characters in both film and literature. While traditional Dracula movies portray the king of vampires as an Eastern European count, African American vampires have been at the center of films such as Blacula, Vampire in Brooklyn and the Blade series. Writer-director Robert Rodriguez depicted vampires through a Latino lens in his movie From Dusk Till Dawn. The late singer Aaliyah portrayed the mother of all vampires in Queen of the Damned, a film based on the novel of the same name by New Orleans-based author Anne Rice. In fiction, with the exception of authors like Rice, the typical portrayal of male and female vampires has strayed little from the original concept of Dracula--mysterious and powerful beings of European descent. In recent years, however, African American authors like L.A. Banks and Brandon Massey, along with others, have been giving the image of vampires and those who inhabit their world a cultural makeover that is more than just skin-deep.

Sexy Beasts

As creatures of seduction, vampires present authors with a unique opportunity to explore sexuality and its expression. In Dark Dreams: A Collection of Horror and Suspense by Black Writers (Dafina Books/Kensington, 2004), Zane crafts a short bloody tale of women seduced by an unlikely band of vampires, blending horror with the erotic. More sensuous vampires abound in Dark Thirst (Pocket Books, 2004), a compilation of six short stories edited by Angela C. Allen, including works by Donna Hill, Monica Jackson and Omar Tyree. In Voice of the Blood (Leisure Books, 2001), Jemiah Jefferson gets graphic as she tells the story of Ariane, a 24-year-old academic of mixed-race who falls in love with a brooding vampire.

"I think vampires are viewed as these sexually magnetic creatures primarily because they tend to be attractive, powerful and sensuous and let's not forget immortal. Being immortal, they are usually "frozen" in their prime" says Brandon Massey, author of the recently released non-vampire titles The Other Brother (Dafina/Kensington Books, July 2006) and Twisted Tales (Dafina Books/Kensington, June 2006). "Think about how amazing it would be to have the virile body of a twenty-five-year old forever! The idea appeals to a lot of people.

"In addition to being immortal, vampires have superhuman powers. And who wouldn't want to be able to run like the wind, or exercise the strength of ten men, or move objects with the power of your mind? Or bend someone else to your will merely by fixing them with a hypnotic gaze? Power of any kind has always been an aphrodisiac, and power of a vampire's magnitude would be incredibly intoxicating to most people. And it is especially so to African Americans when the vampires are also black."

"It's hard for me to imagine a vampire story without the sensuality. That's just part and parcel of the vampire mystique. There is something extremely sensual about the zest for life vampires exude" says Linda Duggins, a senior publicist at Warner Books and an avid reader of the vampire genre.

A Unique Twist to an Old Bloodsucker

Vampires also link the past with the present. As immortal beings, they serve as witnesses to historical events. Although Dawit, the immortal hero of Tananarive Due's novels My Soul to Keep (HarperCollins, 1997) and The Living Blood (Atria, 2001), is not a vampire, he embodies the concept of immortality. And through him, readers are able to glimpse the wonders of ancient Africa as well as the horrors of slavery. The wrongs of slavery also set in motion the terrors that permeate Massey's Dark Corner (Dafina Books/Kensington, 2004). The novel's protagonist, David Hunter, is on a quest to learn more about his recently deceased father. His quest takes him to Masons Corner, Mississippi, a former plantation, also known as Dark Corner. There he confronts evil vampire Diallo, an African prince sold into slavery. Dark corner is a tale reminiscent of Stephen King's Salem's Lot (Doubleday, 1990) but decidedly different. Massey taps into the African American experience of being ripped away from one's homeland and placed in shackles. He is able to show the ripple effects such bloody history has on the present.

L.A. Banks, author of the Vampire Huntress Legend series, says it's the whole mystique of immortality that keeps the vampire genre so fresh, attracting new readers while keeping longtime fans hanging on for more.

"There's something within the human psyche about living forever (or at least through eons), that makes the genre so attractive. Plus, let's face it, the whole vampire mythos has these entities as extremely erotic, powerful, wealthy beings. Sorta fits right into the American dream culture. But my spin on it is much like that of my grand-mothers--simplistic folk wisdom that says, 'All that glitters ain't gold;" Banks reveals.

"In my series, I try to show how the seductive nature of these things mentioned above is all dark illusion, and beneath it is terror and violence and a hellish life of constantly craving something that you do not have. Very much like the whole drug street culture. That's the metaphor--young men and women are told they can have it all if they join up with this madness, only to find that the price is way worse than the benefits."

Vampires are mythical, but they can also be metaphorical. In the Vampire Huntress Legend series, Banks mines both contemporary urban culture and global myths to create a wildly imagined urban landscape where "weapons-toting" brothers and sisters of all races and species engage in the eternal battle between Light and Dark. She uses vampirism as a metaphor to highlight how drugs and street violence are eating away at the fabric of society. The best-selling series has struck a chord with readers around the world and across cultures.

The heroine of the series is Damali Richards, a young spoken-word artist who also happens to be a vampire slayer the likes of which hasn't been seen in a thousand years. She's in love with vampire Carlos Rivera, a young Latino running with a bad crowd. Banks's characters do grapple with challenges, but they emerge from a cultural context and a setting that is very different from Buffy's Sunnydale. The people surrounding Damali and Carlos are familiar to us; they resemble people in our own families.

Banks injects hip-hop energy into her characters' dialogue--it's raw and the violence can be graphic. Her vampires, shape- shifters and other creatures of the night mean business. They are more likely to rip into flesh than delicately open up a vein. The good guys teeter-totter between doing what's right, what's wrong and what's expedient. But amidst the violence and soap opera drama, there is always the guiding light provided by family and the passionate love the main characters share.

"I take people for a ride," says Banks, whose latest installation in the series, The Forsaken (St. Martin's Griffin), was published this summer. "You don't know what part of the world or what piece of history will hit you over the head next." At the same time, Banks is very clear that her books are a cautionary tale. "There are too many young people who get seduced by people telling them they can have everything. Next thing you know, they are incarcerated and can't get out of trouble without a lot of help. That's what has happened to Carlos."

Black authors are proving, to readers of all races and cultural backgrounds, that they have the skill and imagination to write in more than a few genres. They are also stretching the literary boundaries for black readers by sparking an interest in familiar topics, writing about them in new ways.

"The late Octavia Buffer did just that in Fledgling (See FICTION REVIEWS, BIBR, November/December 2005)," says Duggins. "She breaks down race, racism and the concepts of community and family within an extended vampire dynasty, while challenging her readers to take a look at gender, culture and mores, and dishing up a healthy dose of sex and love. The interaction between the human and vampire family lends itself to yet another thrilling subplot. This, and things like it, makes for great storytelling."

"These types of characters were never our characters" Banks says. Well, they are now. And they will be even more so if readers connect with the growing reservoir of work by black authors. Massey notes, "Right now, there are two sets of readers out there. One set are [black] readers who have been reading authors like Anne Rice, Dean Koontz, Stephen King and others for years. Now, they're exalted by authors portraying vampires with a cultural twist and adding a whole new dimension to the genre. The other set of readers have never picked up a horror book at all but are being encouraged by friends to read our version of horror tales."

Cynthia. E. Staples is a freelance writer in Boston, Massachusetts. Her fiction has appeared in African Voices and in online e-zines such as The Dead Mule and Flashquake and TimBookTu.