Blood and vampirism Vampires do not necessarily kill their victims, it seems that they need a relatively small amount of blood daily from their victims. Most time, the victim eventually dies exhausted by the constant drain of blood but only when the vampire is feeding night after night on the same body. Being evil, most vampires take pleasure in killing their victims, justifying their act by the desire to remain secret or to save their victims soul from being damned. Vampires can live without feeding for long periods of time, entering a state of hibernation where they almost dont move, sleeping or remaining in the dark without moving. If the victim is not killed, he/she will turn into a vampire within 2 to 7 days (varying according to the stories). The master will then initiate the newborn vampire until he can survive by himself. The victim must drink the blood of the vampire. This is the act that van Helsing calls 'the vampire's baptism of blood. Once the victim has swallowed the vampire blood, the victim dies as for a poison to reborn as vampire. The victim is under the mental domination of the master vampire and can only exert an independent will during the daylight hours or when the master vampire consciously releases his control. Only the death of the master vampire can free the victim from its curse and only if he has not killed to sustain his blood feed. It is not widely accepted if vampires can live on animal blood. In European folklore vampires were reported to have assaulted cattle and other domestic animals. In some regions the vampires appear to have fed mainly off the cattle and sheep herds of the peasants. In our modern society, one could think that it would be easy to spot vampires only by following the murder cases. However, the vampire is a clever creature that can easily dispose of the body of its victims (that would account for missing persons) or simply buy its gallon of blood from a Blood bank or a hospital thus living no traces of its existence to mortals. Blood is the vital element of the vampire; he cannot survive without feeding with fresh blood. As every myth, the vampire is related to the eternal struggle between Life and Death, Good and Evil and it is no wonder if we find a lot of parallel between the Myth of the Vampire and Christian symbols
