@the-mindless wants me to yammer about vampires some more, so here's some yammering. I mean that too, I don't think I got to a point in this, but I am also tired and the vampires I write rarely seem to fit the established molds.
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Vampires are often portrayed as alluring or enchanting. Something too human, uncanny you could say, impossible to ignore. I maintain this is an important part of them, that the ease in which they blend while remaining just strange enough to unsettle is what makes them monstrous.
This wasn't always the case though. Earliest portrayals had them in shrouds to hide their monstrous appearance. They were bloated and ruddy with devoured blood or gore.
We've simply modernized them over the...centuries. A shroud wouldn't be enough to hide a monster from even Victorian prey, but a beautiful face and bright eyes in the shadows, speaking only to them? That's going to get a monster some food real fast.
So they became alluring things, enchanting things, who twist minds and lead people to their death. What a death it is, too, usually described as a pleasurable experience. Up until it isn't.
Even the ones remaining monstrous, those taking more inspiration from Nosferatu than the Dracula he's...I'm going to say inspired but it's a well documented knockoff (and aren't we luck to have it), have a heady bite and a mesmerizing gaze.
Personally, I enjoy focusing on the word alluring, which is not necessarily pretty. Everyone's pretty is different, after all, but you'll find most stories of vampires include everything within viewing distance wanting a piece of that corpse.
Regardless of what 'abilities' or 'powers' the vampire has, they're always alluring. They draw their prey in, sometimes without wanting to (these are a favorite of mine).
There's a presence there, one impossible to resist, and that in itself is frightening. Or should be, but you wouldn't have the wherewithal to notice it while enthralled now, would you.
It's fun to play with monsters so easily mistaken for human.
You have so many options, should you wish to impart some lesson. Class struggles, wealth disparity, otherness, loss, grief, hunger, the terrifying reality an eternity could be under the right circumstances.
They're a delight to write.
The fact you can make them into ethereal beauties or scrungly little guys and get about the same effect is icing, really.
