Not everyone likes vampires. But in the romance community, they are definitely faves. I found this idea reinforced recently while working on the Soulful Sex: Partners Project book. For those of you who haven't read about SS Partners, it's a project I started this January, teaming up with a group of readers to involve them in the process of writing my next book. Well, after the Partners chose paranormal fantasy as the genre for our book, I gave them three possible plot scenarios, one of which was a vampiric tale. Needless to say, I wasn't surprised when that one was the clear winner in the Partners' vote for plot of choice.

But it did create a slight problem.

I've always been a vamp fan myself, but the challenge when you write happily-ever-after romance fiction is how to deal with these bloodsuckers in a happy way. My first vampire story, "Pints" (Soulful Sex Volume I) featured a nice vampire who avoided hurting mortals by getting his food from a blood bank. My second vampire story, "Verity of the Vampyre" (Soulful Sex Volume III) managed also to avoid the nasty vampire problem, although you'll have to read it to find out how.

Now I was faced with an entire novel with a vamp theme. I reflected, as one must do when thinking vampires, on what Joss Whedon would do. Buffy dated two vampires, Spike and Angel, and both were sympathetic heroes in their way. As much as soulless guys can be. You see, there's the problem: when your protagonist is damned, it's hard to manage the HEA ending. If you'll notice, neither "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" nor the books of Anne Rice are especially cheerful. They're real sexy, which is of course what you're going to get with vampires, but happy? Not so much.

So I figured I was going to have to rework the vampire concept (as every author does to one degree or another), getting rid of some of these problems. First of all, my vampiric race, the Roicans, are not damned or necessarily bad. They don't need to feed willy-nilly on humans either. So you can have a genuinely nice Roican without having to break all your vampire rules.

But while I was tinkering, I needed to keep from throwing any babies out with the bathwater. (Oy, what an ugly mixed metaphor that was, unless you're a plumber.) So I sat down with myself to determine what elements of the vampire myth are key to their success as sexy, romantic characters.

I've always maintained the real power of the vampire archetype is their ability to seduce. After all, don't we endure the scenes in Frank Langella's "Dracula" when he's tearing people apart or burning up in the sun, for the sake of the scenes where he's mesmerizing women and taking them against their will? Even the blood drinking isn't completely essential. The fun part of that is its function as the Ultimate Prize; if you're willing to give up your lifeblood to this creature, he's really got you in serious thrall. So, the Roicans have one big paranormal gift, and that's mind control. Therefore they can make themselves irresistibly attractive when they want to.

In focusing on this one aspect of the vampire archetype, I uncovered a very interesting quandary that says a lot about our fascination with this race. One of my Roicans, who normally isn't into the whole use-your-powers-for-sex thing, realizes that making a victim find him irresistible is actually a weird benefit for the woman. She says "I don't want to stop wanting you, you're the most beautiful man I've ever seen." He realizes that letting her have sex with the most beautiful man she's ever seen is really kind of a treat. At the same time, however, the whole scenario does translate into, well, rape. Ah, the moral ambiguities of vampirism, even when it's been niced-up.

But after all, isn't that why we like to read about vampires? There's something extremely sexy about a creature making you want him more than anyone you've ever known, even when it's bad for you. Doesn't work too well in real life, but in fiction it's just the cat's pajamas. (Or should I say "bat's pajamas"?)

And I have nothing against moral ambiguity...it makes for great character development, as all we fans of "Battlestar Gallactica" know. The hero in Bloodchained--that's the name of our novel--is hardly a knight in shining armor. He's got some powers perfect possible of corrupting him utterly, and sometimes he gives in to them. But at the same time, he's not damned, so he has the option to choose heroism too.

So, will this "nice vampire" never put his teeth to the neck of the book's heroine? You'll have to read the book to find out, but I'll say this:

It wouldn't be nice to have a vampire book completely without bites, now would it?

Diana Laurence is the author of the Soulful Sex anthologies, and just released her new paperback, Soulful Sex: The Paranormal, Science Fiction and Fantasy Collections. Visit her at www.dianalaurence.com.