The Stainless Steel Leech

Zelazny, Roger (as Harrison Denmark). "The Stainless Steel Leech." Amazing April 1963. Coll. Last Defender of Camelot. Rpt. New Worlds of Fantasy No. 3. Terry Carr, ed. New York: Ace, 1971.

The stories of "the last man on earth" (told in flashback since he's dead), the last vampire (dying), and a narrator-protagonist who is a kind of robot vampire. "The werebot is the most frightful legend whispered among the gleaming steel towers"; this werebot no longer has "a self-contained power unit, but the freak coils within" his "chest act as storage batteries. They require frequent recharging, however, and there is only one way to do that" (Camelot 13). The werebot's life, so to speak, is preserved when the dying vampire passes as a man long enough to order the 'bots arresting the werebot to arrest the capital "O" "Over, a large special-order 'bot" designed to catch the werebot. At sundown, they "drive a stake through the Over's vite-box and bury him at the crossroads" (15). Cf. and contrast B. Aldiss's story "Who Can Replace a Man", and "The Honking" episode of Futurama. See also the Stainless Steel Rat stories of Harry Harrison. (RDE, 20/07/01)