Fiction has its advantages and its disadvantages when it comes to real vampires. The downside is it annoyingly gives people weird ideas about what we are so that if we tell someone what we are, we get the automatic stereotypical questions such as , "So can you turn into a bat?" At this point it is very tempting to tell this sort, '"Yes, I can fly, I can turn into green mist, I sleep in a coffin in my own grave dirt, I am really a walking corpse, if I go into sunlight I will turn into ashes, holy water burns my skin, I have physically been alive for centuries, I cast no reflection in a mirror, crosses scare the hell out of me, I am totally able to read your mind and hypnotize you into doing whatever I want you to do, I do not eat the food humans eat at all. Of course, I drain humans to the point of death, and I am very hungry. Watch my forehead turn all bumpy now!" Then, remove the veil/spiritual shield from my eyes, flash my fangs and bat my eyelashes all innocent-like. I do have a wicked sense of humour! ~ grins~ I am sure you get the point! Just in case, here is a bit more:

We are capable of real love. In fact, if two vampires become mates the union is far more profound than the coupling of two mundanes together. We feel everything more intensely than mundanes do and are more connected with our spiritual selves than most mundanes are.

The upside, is that real vampires that cannot or are not ready to "come out of the coffin", can remain safe within the fantasy world that people in society have in their fictionally inspired preconceived ideas.

So, vampires are people too. We party, we live in homes, work, sleep… some of us do prefer coffins, by the way, but most sleep in beds like anyone else. Sometimes, it is better that people do not believe in vampires and/or have fictionally based ideas about us. I write these things with some faith in the human race.

Lady Vittoria