In Charles Stross’s Laundry series (think Urban Fantasy crossed with James Bond flavored by hackers), Vampires don’t have to drink blood from a victim’s neck, they can extract it and store it, but the victim has to be alive when they do it. Because, just like you don’t really eat your food, your gut bacteria do and you digest their output, the vampire gets power from a superdimensional neural parasite that uses the blood of a living victim as a magical bridge to feasting on their grey matter. If I can’t feed on victims, it cannibalises the host. And the parasite isn’t physical, it’s informational, like a computer virus, so you can get it my thinking certain kinds of Very Wrong Thoughts.
Eventually the UK government ends up with a clandestine stable of state-sponsponsored vampire agents, fed on the blood of condemned criminals and the terminally ill… or at least that’s what they tell the vampires, who aren’t all comfortable with their situation.
In Charles Stross’s Laundry series (think Urban Fantasy crossed with James Bond flavored by hackers), Vampires don’t have to drink blood from a victim’s neck, they can extract it and store it, but the victim has to be alive when they do it. Because, just like you don’t really eat your food, your gut bacteria do and you digest their output, the vampire gets power from a superdimensional neural parasite that uses the blood of a living victim as a magical bridge to feasting on their grey matter. If I can’t feed on victims, it cannibalises the host. And the parasite isn’t physical, it’s informational, like a computer virus, so you can get it my thinking certain kinds of Very Wrong Thoughts.
Eventually the UK government ends up with a clandestine stable of state-sponsponsored vampire agents, fed on the blood of condemned criminals and the terminally ill… or at least that’s what they tell the vampires, who aren’t all comfortable with their situation.
Great series, all in all.