The Mammoth Book Of Vampire Stories By Women - cast of thousands

Noah poured out a generous measure of the golden liquor. 'I'm not going back there, Lara. I got burned and sensibly pay attention to what hurts. You don't put your hand in the fire twice.'

'When people have no fear, they can walk across red-hot coals,' Lara said. 'I'm scared of madmen with knives, and perverts hiding in alleys. I'm scared of people, because they're shit. But etheric entities don't frighten me. They don't have hands of flesh and blood. They can't fire a gun. The only way they can hurt you is through fear, your own mind. You must know that.'

Noah hesitated. He could feel the conviction pulsing from Lara's body. 'You are a witch,' he said and took a long drink of his brandy. It burned his throat, felt good.

Her eyes were hooded now. 'Take me there, Noah. I'm not afraid to go alone and I won't freak you out by having the screaming heebie-jeebies. Just take me there.'

'Why?' he said.

'Because they want you to,' she said. 'I've heard their voices whispering in my dreams since I was a child. I've seen their shadows in the curtains of my bedroom every night. I've felt their carrion breath on my face in the dark. I'm one of them, Noah. Not in this life perhaps, but know them. I want to go home.'

The silence in the room was absolute and the atmosphere had become still and watchful, like vulture shamans. It was as if Lara had already conjured something into being through the passion of her words. There was no way he could disbelieve her. She looked remarkably sane, but driven. He could not speak.

'I'm not some sick cow who wants to drink blood,' Lara said in a conversational tone. 'I don't have a black bedroom or collect horror films. I don't want to be a vampire in the traditional sense. I just need to know what it is that has been trying to get through to me, that's all.' She smiled. 'God, I must sound mad. What else do I have to say to convince you I'm not?'

He stared at her, wrestling with himself, thinking of Sarah.

'I'm a bloody good psychic,' she said mischievously, cocking her head to the side. 'You can always use one of those, can't you?'

'Then why do you need me? If you're that good, do it yourself.'

'You have the map,' she said. 'You are the guide. It's that simple.' She adopted a mock-serious tone. 'I'll look after you, Noah, don't worry. You'll be perfectly safe.'

His meditation room was at the back of the house on the second floor, overlooking fields and a small wood. As he'd always done with Sarah, he kept the curtains open and lit a single candle. His heart was beating fast, but not through fear. He was not sure exactly what he felt. As he prepared to light some loose incense, to help conjure the right atmosphere, Lara said, 'Have you got a pin?'

'What?'

'To prick our fingers. We should put our blood into the incense.'

'Lara'

' Noah . . . ! ' She was laughing at him.

It took some minutes to find a pin, by which time Lara had consumed another globe of brandy. Noah himself was beginning to feel the effects of the alcohol. Perhaps it was numbing his sense of apprehension. He let Lara prick his thumb and squeeze a bright droplet of blood from the wound, which she shook into the incense. Then she put his thumb into her warm mouth and sucked it. 'Scared?' she said.

'Horrified.'

She pricked her own thumb, but didn't offer to let him taste her blood. It was a slight disappointment.

Lara lay down on the rug before the cold hearth, while Noah sat cross-legged beside her, and took her gently into a light trance. The words were soporific. His own eyelids began to droop. He led her back through time, made her watch the centuries fall away, until he told her to visualize herself standing at the mouth of a cave amid high, wind-sculpted crags. Beyond the threshold, all was dark.

'This is the Shanidar Cave,' he murmured. 'Home of the vulture people. Walk into it.'

He paused, listening to her light breathing. 'Tell me what you see,' he said.

'Darkness,' she replied. Her brow had creased into a frown. 'But I can smell'

She would say blood, he thought.

'Flowers,' she said faintly. 'Everywhere, flowers. They've placed them over the bones. I see them. So many bones. There are wings'

'Is anyone there with you?'

'Yes.' Her voice was like that of a child, young and tremulous.

'Do you want to leave?' Noah said. 'You can leave at any time.'

'No. He knows me. He wants to give me something.'

'What?'

'The talking bone'

'What does he look like?'

Suddenly Lara gasped, her eyes flew open and she sat bolt upright. Noah reached out to steady her. 'It's okay,' he said.

She turned her head slowly and when she spoke, her voice was deep and rasping. 'Keep me not from her, son of Lamech. Her laughter filled the mountains and bowed the heads of the wild beasts. Shame took her from me. Shame!'