Vampires

"The touch of cold fangs. The pallor of undead skin. The human shape that casts no shadow and receives no reflection. The nocturnal wanderer, the nighttime feeder, like the owl, the bat, and the snake... Vampires have always been with us, in our nightmares. From the cannibal, the werewolf, and the ghoul, extract various features and mix in the right proportion, to yield that most evil, most terrifying of all human-like creatures, the vampire: among us, but not one of us; resembling us, mingling with us, but secretly stalking us. Everyone wants to live forever. Or so they think. Perhaps we would pause before accepting immortality if we knew the price was to feed forever on other human lives,,,on human blood. Perhaps some vampires are tortured by guilt or self-disgust. But whether or not the agonies of conscience add to a vampire's nightmare existence, from a human perspective vampires are distinctly unfriendly. Many of the world's best authors have written of the vampire, and in this collection, edited by award-winning editor Martin H. Greenberg, you will find the best of the best." --Book jacket.