That night a brilliant crowd had gathered in Reginald Clarke's house. From the studio and the adjoining salon arose a continual murmur of well-tuned voices. On bare white throats jewels shone as if in each a soul were imprisoned, and voluptuously rustled the silk that clung to the fair slim forms of its bearers in an undulating caress.

Throughout the ages, attacks on people have been attributed to supernatural creatures like werewolves and vampires, but in 1886, a German neurologist named Richard von Krafft-Ebing noted the compulsive and sexual presentation of the attacks. He wrote about them in Psychopathia Sexualis, and many of his 238 case histories concerned a violent eroticism triggered by blood.

A kind of stupefaction came over Henry Bannerworth, and he sat for about a quarter of an hour scarcely conscious of where he was, and almost incapable of anything in the shape of rational thought. It was his brother, George, who roused him by saying, as he laid his hand upon his shoulder, --

"Henry, are you asleep?"

April 11, 2007 (wired news) -- Auction hounds are snapping up "vampire killing kits" and "vampire hunting kits" manufactured by a nineteenth century quack named Ernst Blomberg. The kits, which have been found in Australia and sold by at least two auction houses (including Southebys, reportedly for $12,000), include silver bullets, a wooden stake, holy water, and other important vampire-destroying items.

With the sun setting behind him, Vlad slowly crept up the walkway towards the Inn, something he hadn't done for quite some time. He paused at the doorway, for he thought he heard the sounds of laughter coming from within its walls; that was impossible, of course -- no souls had entered the Inn since he closed it a couple of years ago.

With little effort, he removed the planks that had been boarded up over the doorway, and pulled a rusty old key out from within his cloak. With a scream, the lock slowly turned and clicked, and he pushed open the door.