Vampire. The word conjures up images of suave, handsome, or strikingly beautiful creatures, such as is depicted in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. Those of you who are fans of her books are quite familiar with the arrogant and sexy Lestat.
One of the most famous vampires of all time is, of course, Count Dracula. The brain child of Bram Stoker who based his immortal monster on a Hungarian ruler know as Vlad Tepes, also know as Vlad Dracul-a, which when translated means “son of the dragon,” a nicknamed that was well earned, for the count was a blood thirsty and ruthless ruler. He was also known as Vlad the Impaler due to his habit of impaling people on very sharp stakes and letting them suffer until they died a horrible and extremely painful death.
The legends of vampires were around long before Stoker wrote his book. From very early times … Read the rest
