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F. PAUL WILSON

MIDNIGHT MASS


This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
MIDNIGHT MASS
Copyright © 2004 by F. Paul Wilson
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Edited by David H. Hartwell
Book design by Milenda Nan Ok Lee
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wilson, F. Paul (Francis Paul)
Midnight Mass / F. Paul Wilson.—1st ed.
p. cm. "A Tom Doherty Associates book." ISBN 0-765-30705-7 EAN 978-0765-30705-7
1. Vampires—Fiction. 2. New Jersey—Fiction. 3. New York (N.Y)—Fiction. 4. Clergy-Fiction. 5. Rabbis—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3573.I45695M53 2004 813'.54—dc22
2003065048
First Edition: April 2004
Printed in the United States of America

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Midnight Mass was born out of my dissatisfaction with the tortured romantic aesthetes who have been passing lately for vampires. Stephen King gave us the real deal in 'Salem's Lot, but what gives since then? I wanted to get back to the roots—go retro, if you will—and write about the soulless, merciless, parasitic creatures we all knew and loved.
My premise going in was that all the legends about the undead were true: they feared crosses, were killed by sunlight (all right, I'm told that one originated with F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu, so it's not really legend, but it has become part of the lore), were burned by holy water and crucifixes, cast no reflection, etcetera. You know them as well as I do.
I also adopted the position that all the Catholic Church's mythology is true as well. Vampire lore has been inextricably entwined with Catholic imagery. I was raised a Catholic and, though now in recovery, I feel very much at home with its icons.
Then I took Ted Sturgeon's advice and started asking the next question. The mythic power of the cross over the undead led me to a concept I'd touched on in The Keep, and I decided to explore it further.
I've known since I began writing in the early 1970s that some day I'd have to do one, so here it is: my vampire novel. (No, The Keep was a pseudovampire novel. This one's the real deal.)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Kim Newman for allowing me to borrrow his usage of the word "get" as it pertains to vampires and those they've transformed into their own kind (though I've burdened the concept with more plot weight here). There are equivalent terms in the language, but certainly none with such a perfect Old World feel. If you haven't read Kim's wonderful Anno Dracula novels, you are missing a rare treat.
And, of course, a special nod to Richard Matheson, who first tilled this soil with I Am Legend.

- 1 -

ZEV . . .

Gasping in horror and revulsion, Zev Wolpin stumbled away from St. Anthony's Church. He stretched his arms before him, reaching into the dark for something, anything, to support him before he fell.
Leaves slapped his face, twigs tugged at his graying beard as he plowed into foliage. His bike.. . where was his bike? He thought he'd left it in a clump of bushes, but obviously not this clump. Had to find it, had to get away from this place. But the dark made him disoriented ... the dark, and what he'd just witnessed.
He'd heard whispers, stories he couldn't, wouldn't, believe, so he'd come to see for himself, to prove them wrong. Instead .. .
Zev bent at the waist and retched. Nothing but a bubble of bile and acid came up, searing the back of his throat.