SOURCE: "The Death of Ilalotha" by Clark Ashton Smith  (Weird Tales, September 1937)

DESCRIPTION: "From the thing stooping above Thulos, there came ceaselessly that sound which was half moan and half snarl. And as Xantlicha stood in petrific fear and loathing, she seemed to hear from Thulos’ lips an indistinct murmur, more of ecstasy than pain. The murmur ceased, and his head hung slacklier than before, so that the queen deemed him verily dead. At this she found such wrathful courage as enabled her to step nearer and raise the lantern higher: for, even amid her extreme panic, it came to her that by means of the wizard-poisoned dagger she might still haply slay the thing that had slain Thulos. Waveringly the light crept aloft, disclosing inch by inch that infamy which Thulos had caressed in the darkness... It crept even to the crimson-smeared wattles, and the fanged and ruddled orifice that was half mouth and half beak... till Xantlicha knew why the body of Thulos was a mere shrunken hull... In what the queen saw, there remained nothing of Ilalotha except the white, voluptuous arms, and a vague outline of human breasts melting momently into breasts that were not human, like clay molded by a demon sculptor. The arms too began to change and darken; and, as they changed, the dying hand of Thulos stirred again and fumbled with a caressing movement toward the horror. And the thing seemed to heed him not but withdrew its fingers from his bosom, and reached across him with members stretching enormously, as if to claw the queen or fondle her with its dribbling talons. " ("The Death of Ilalotha" by Clark Ashton Smith)

NOTES: The Lamia will appear as a dead body to all but her victims who believe she is still alive and in need of rescue from the grave.

HISTORY: Smith wrote several vampire stories but in this one he chose to make the monster a lamia, that scaly Greek creature of legend.

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