Vampire$

infobox Book |
name = Vampire$
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Roc Books 1992 edition
author = John Steakley
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Fantasy
publisher = Roc Books
pub_date = 5 May 1992
english_pub_date =
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 368 pp (paperback edition)
isbn = ISBN 978-0451451538 (paperback edition)
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Vampire$" is a 1991 novel by John Steakley. A dark fantasy with a contemporary setting, the novel concerns a company called VAMPIRE$, INC. which treats vampire hunting as a commercial enterprise, funded by large payments from the vampires' potential victims (although the company also secretly receives support from the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church). The plot revolves around the vampire hunters' reactions when a powerful vampire turns the tables and begins hunting "them".

The novel served as the basis for the 1998 film, "John Carpenter's Vampires". The film's opening sequence is a loose adaptation of the corresponding sequence in the novel (in the film, the vampire hunters venture into an abandoned house the vampire are using as den, while in the novel, they knock it over with a bulldozer and pick through the rubble), but thereafter embarks on a completely different plot.

Part of the novel is about the relationship between the lead vampire hunter, ex-DEA agent Jack Crow, and the gunman he hires, an ex-drugrunner named Felix. A note on the copyright page states "This Felix is no other Felix. This Jack Crow is no other Jack Crow." In this novel, Felix is the owner of a bar called the Antwar Saloon.

Jack Crow and Felix are the main characters of Steakley's military SF novel Armor. Although these two books are in no way conventional sequels, they are deeply interrelated, two different views of the archtypes represented in Armor by Felix (the doomed protector) and Jack (the ethical mercenary). In this novel, the men's roles are reversed.