Sister-in-law and I were talking vampires in romance the other night. We've both noticed how they're like superheroes with fangs. They're all soft and cuddly and heroic and perfect.
And both of us kind of hate that.
The majority of marketable romance vampires aren't even antiheroes. There's just no darkness left to them. Even when they have their "need" to drink blood, it's often diluted and not in the least bit a real danger.
One thing I really miss is some of the gothic mystique. A little too much solving crimes, and not enough waxing poetic about roses in moonlight. Less and less do vampires fully embrace their predator nature, and love death and darkness and the beauty of such.
They don't have to wear velvet and lipstick, or PVC clothes and creeper shoes. They don't need to be cutters, or write poetry under blacklight, or smoke clove cigarettes. But they should personify and embrace the grave, the predator, the night.
All of you vampires who are more Grim Reaper and less Superman, please let me know where you are.
