"The strength of the vampire is that people will not believe in him."

—Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, in Bram Stoker's Dracula

Vampire. The word conjures up a clear picture in the mind. A tall, elegantly dressed male figure, black—haired and palefaced. Powerful and hypnotic eyes gaze out from beneath thick brows on a sinister face hiding behind a black silk cape. Cold and calculating, he quickly transforms into a bat or slowly bends to bite the neck of his current female victim.

This image of the vampire as a mysterious count lurking in the shadows, hungry for the blood of unsuspecting women, is familiar to most people. Even the dictionary defines the vampire as a corpse, or dead body, that leaves its grave at night to suck the blood of its sleeping victims. This is the vampire of horror films, scary books, and Halloween, lifeless but...