To me, a vampire is never messy when actually feeding. They take great care and consideration when feeding not to leave any evidence behind that could trace back to them. They respect their prey, they respect their prey for the life that is sacrificed in order to keep its own life flowing. They are shrewd by nature, but considerate and well-mannered.
Vampires generally do not live alone; they go about in packs and travel a lot during the night to hunt. They do not however, hunt in packs unless they are settling scores. Where they hunt and how they hunt is usually discussed within their nests to avoid any pattern setting. Typically a vampire will travel to hunt anywhere within a 200 mile radius of their home, they avoid a pattern being set by having one large nest in every 30 to 50 mile radius near large populations and generally swap and change their abode with others as they are not limited to their favourite pack members, but the whole extension of the vampire network.
Vampires typically accept each other very easily and are very protective of all other vampires of their breed, treat each other as though they were very, very close siblings, even if they only ever meet each other once a decade. They know who is a vampire and who isn’t instinctively and they never get it wrong.
If a vampire isn’t seen to have an instinct to protect or love their own kind easily, they tend to either destroy themselves or become destroyed by the pack members within one lunar cycle.
Vampires have a strong sense of pack relations and traditions. The older they get the more refined they become of the mortal culture that surrounds them. They maintain traditional values; they maintain etiquette and react to the area as the highest possible class that’s available. The vampires have their own dates for special occasions and have their very own culture which they all respect and protect fiercely. Anyone who is sloppy, anyone who acts out of line threatens the very essence of the pack and they don’t allow this and like wolves will either kill off or run out of the pack the one who upsets anything. Along with their traditions there is a hierarchy that is respected profusely, there is a system as to who is top dog and who isn’t and anyone challenging that upsets the pack and if you upset the pack, you die, simple as that.
Despite the respect for mortals they have, they also understand that they are killers and they have to end lives sooner or later and if they don’t, they betray themselves and their nature.
If you are considered physically or more importantly mentally too weak for the pack, they will end your existence. If you are a sloppy killer, you will be killed. If you lure hunters to the pack, you will be destroyed, if you go against tradition you will die and if you ever commit a crime against a member of the pack you will be trialled and if found guilty tortured horribly before you die.
Vampires respect each other, they respect the hierarchy and they respect traditions. They do not treat each other as slaves, they do not turn their own kind away and they always help out.
They work together to keep each other safe and happy.
They hide from sunlight but are not completely at risk in mild light, such as twilight, dawn, and dusk, low light day like cloudy rainstorm weather or fog.
They have no problems with religious artefacts, water or garlic.
But like anything can be killed with a stake through the heart.
My vampires are pack animals, they don’t like to be alone and they never will be entirely alone.
There is safety in numbers and they know this.
They also have semi-immortal servants which are kind of half sired that protect them during the day. Like the original Fright Night.
They are very picky about who they sire and get to know their sired children before doing so.
A vampire isn’t moody, they live their lives very similarly to humans if they can and they are often very thoughtful, content creatures.
Because their memory is wiped when they are sired they don’t dwell on their mortal past but rather get on with their existence as though it’s a reincarnation – which it is.
They don’t sparkle.
They don’t rip their victims’ limb from limb.
They don’t taunt their prey.
They can cross water.
They can eat normal food and drink.
They don’t need to sleep in coffins or sleep at all.
That’s what vampires are to me.
Filed under: Short Story Series Tagged: animals, blood, culture, dawn, dusk, feed, food, Fright Night, Goth, Gothic, horror, immortal, immortality, mortal, mortals, night, rainstorm, religious, sire, sired, twilight, undead, vampire, Vampires, vampiric, weather, wolf, wolves
