The Vampire’s greatest weapon isn’t teeth

 

Hello, my lovelies, hasn’t it been a wonderful weekend? I have been enjoying the last days of sunshine while Lady Cora and Mouse  run around the agora.

It’s been a busy few weeks for me. The edits are complete for my new book, dropping in November. I’ve seen the cover and I am loving it, but more about that later.

One thing that I have been doing quite a lot of is thinking about the allure of vampires. Not just because I write about them, I have always found vampires fascinating in both literature and movies. They are portrayed differently from other monsters. Sit back and get comfy, perhaps I can tempt you with a glass of something cold and French or perhaps something from the vein?

Tonight my friends let’s discuss a vampire’s greatest weapon.

 

The Monster we expect

We have all seen the movies with Bela Lugosi, or Christopher Plummer as the monster who lives in a cold draughty castle, the cobwebs have been gathering for centuries, and the cleaner is away on vacation.

Usually, the scene opens with a horse drawn carriage, and the heroine is sitting dignified waiting to get to her destination but somehow never makes it.

Hospitality is given in the castle only for young lady to discover the host is a monster and a demonic creature of the night. The undead. He also has in insatiable thirst for blood.

We are thrilled by the old black and white scenes, the rickety camera work and then we see our vampire and he embodies the monster that we know him to be.

 The Seduction of Trust

Regular readers of the Militiverse blog will know my love of the good doctor, John Polidori’s book the Vampyre. It’s a very short story but it has everything, the allure, the atmosphere, the trust and then this is where the vampire lore becomes a story that we become obsessed by.

Polidori’s book is recognised as being the first book to give the vampire seductive power.

 The vampire is a beautiful creature with an aristocratic background. The kiss on the neck, the loss of all reason as the teeth sinks deeper into the skin. The vampire is monstrous but, in those moments, he is seductive, charming and within that kiss, the seduced trusts the vampire and willingly gives themselves over to the seduction.  

 

Perhaps the most dangerous thing is choice

In vampire lore, there is a choice to become a creature of the night. One can choose to serve the sucker, by becoming a thrall, allowing the lair to feed on the human blood or the mortal can take immortality by agreeing to have the alpha bite your neck and then feed you their blood.

Now there’s a choice. Do you become a slave to the vampire by becoming his thrall, or do you allow him to make you his bride by feeding you, his blood.

The possibility to live forever would you take it? That reminds me of the wonderful song by Freddie Mercury, ‘Who wants to live forever?’ from the Highlander soundtrack.

I think as a rhetorical question, the possibility of immortality is actually the most dangerous thing in my mind, because that choice is tempting, isn’t it?     

 What happens when you can’t walk away?

In my book, ‘Tempus Ordo Mortis’, Emile, a very seductive vampire, once a Knights Templar, a very dangerous mortal, and even deadlier as an immortal. He meets Constance, and their affair becomes so intense, and heated but Constance it would seem can’t walk away from her vampire lover, such is the intensity of the passion and the attraction.  

So, indulge me here, my friends, what would you do, if you were to discover that the love of your life is a vampire, a creature of the night, and you just can’t walk away, could you choose immortality?

Vampire lore is full of fascinating facts, legends and myths. For the modern vampire that we read about and see in movies, we owe that image of the handsome, charming, seductive and wealthy gentleman, walking the earth for eternity, to John Polidori’s Lord Ruthven. The vampire of European lore is far different, that vampire is a grotesque, horrible monster to be feared. But maybe the truth about vampires as these gorgeous creatures isn’t so far fetched, so perhaps that the answer to the question that a vampire’s greatest weapon isn’t, in fact his teeth but his allure.

Thank you for sharing this evening with me, until next time, be careful who you invite over the threshold, you never know it might be a vampire…

Anna. xoxo