Life is irony.

I met the five people I arranged to interview at a Starbucks, in the middle of the afternoon, where the stark white light poured through the large windows just to the right of where we were sitting. I asked them to be interviewed because of their claim that they were vampires. I found the situation to be humorous and couldn't help but think I was in an episode of Saturday Night Live's "Goth Talk".

The five: ErzaBat: a woman in her early twenties, straight black hair, average size and an unnatural pale complexion she admitted came from special application of skin products. Greyven: for all intents and purposes, the leader of this tight knit group. His most noticeable feature is his height followed by very shiny shoulder length hair. He is in his mid twenties. Electra: possibly the oldest of the group, Electra is extremely energetic and extroverted. I estimated her age to be late twenties. Alinoire: clearly the one in the group with an eye for fashion, she wore a very simple yet stylish outfit. All of them were dressed casually, but Alinoire definitely gave off a certain aristocratic air, even in her plain black full length skirt, boots, and velvet jacket. Alister: Every group of friends has an Alister. He is young, early twenties, and skittish. During the interview he demonstrated his fascination with fire, his short attention span, and his propensity towards mindless destruction. Behind all these traits though is an extremely funny guy.

AT: I want to thank you all for allowing me this opportunity to exploit you. Let me ask this of you first, are you vampires?

Greyven: Well, seeing as that is why you wanted to interview us, yes.

AT: Here we are, its nearly 3:30 in the afternoon, all of you are drinking coffee, tea, or mochas....to put it bluntly, what's up with that?

Alinoire: Yeah, what's up with that? (laughs)
Electra: Obviously, we don't conform to the basic mythology and folklore you are undoubtedly familiar with. The sun, garlic, holy water -- all of that is a case by case issue. The concept of a vampire goes well beyond the limits of literature and movies.

AT: That is fair. Tell me, how do you define what a vampire is then?

Alister: (begins to play with his bic lighter and the wooden stirrers, melting the tongs of plastic forks on the ends of the stirrer sticks and pushing them together forming a stirrer version of the wooden totems in The Blair Witch Project.)
Greyven: Hey, that's cool, make me one.
ErzaBat: You can get a million definition for vampire and none of them will be right. It is something you feel in your bones. It is a craving to take energy from someone else, whether it is psychic vampires or the standard blood vampires. There are sexual vampires and green vampires.
Alister: The white, red, blue, and green of our society.
Alinoire: We should make a flag like the rainbow flag for Gay Pride but for Vamp Pride.
Electra: Good idea.

AT: Green vampires? I thought I was 'up-to-date' on all the vampires. What is a 'Green' vampire?
Greyven: Vegetarian Vampires. (laughs)
Electra: There are those vampires who get their energy from vegetable matter. Sometimes when a person becomes embraced, they start off with wine and tomato juice before moving onto blood or other stuff.

AT: Now we come to the big issue, are all of you blood drinkers?

ErzaBat: Yes.
Alinoire: Yes.
Alister: Yes.
Greyven: We all are, yes.
Electra: Yep.

AT: Do you drink the blood of innocents?

Greyven: Do we look stupid? (laughs) Don't answer that. No, we only share blood among ourselves. Anyone joining our coven has to take an HIV test, and even then they have to wait and take another one six months later. There are too many diseases that can be passed through the blood to risk it. Immortality may be a birthright, but who wants to be immortal and sick?
Electra: No we don't drink the blood of innocents. To survive in this culture at this time, we must pursue consensual relations. When it comes to fringe groups, we are barely tolerated as it is.
Alister: (Stands and goes to the counter with the creamers and begins messing around with some stuff. I can't see what he is doing)
AT: You share blood among yourselves? Is this a sexual act or something else?

Alinoire: Sharing blood is a very sensual act. It brings two people closer than any sexual act could. I don't want to wax poetic, but it does feel like a mingling of souls. Each time we share blood does not lead to sex. But most of the time sex will lead to the sharing of blood.
ErzaBat: It isn't always sexual. Sometimes we do it to enhance our mood, you know, if you are feeling really low the taste of blood will perk you. Kind of an adrenaline kick.
Greyven: Even though we vampires have a sensual mystique surrounding us, the act of blood drinking can be viewed on a myriad of levels, the most base of which is a sexual exchange. At its pinnacle, I'd have to say it is more spiritual.

AT: Like communion, 'drink of my blood'?

Electra: Exactly.
Alister: (Returns to the table. The counter he was at is now mess, with cream spilled all over mix with several open packets of sugar. In a clear cup he has a mixture of creamer-half and half most likely, sugar, and chocolate powder. He eats this with the wooden stir stick).

AT: Which one of you was embraced first?

Greyven: That would be Electra.
Electra: Yes, I was embraced first. I then embraced Greyven and ErzaBat. Greyven embraced Alinoire and ErzaBat embraced Alister.

AT: How do you distinguish yourselves from Blood Dolls?

Alister: Oh, that's easy. Blood Dolls are wannabes. They don't 'have' to have blood - or whatever. The longer one of us goes without drinking blood, the more dim we become. Like a candle burning down to the last thread of its wick.
Alinoire: Yeah, its the difference between wanting and needing.

AT: So is your blood drinking an addiction?

Greyven: I would hate to call it that due to the stigma attached to addict.
Alister: Is it better than the stigma attached to being a vampire?
Greyven: What I mean is being an addict implies a lack of will. Being addicted to drugs, caffeine, nicotine, gambling, what have you, is a sign of not being in control of yourself. Our blood drinking, while offering similar symptoms to addiction, is slightly different. Or I'm in denial about it. I know I can't quit anytime I want to. I almost feel as if I quit, I would suffer horribly.
Electra: It is an addiction of sorts, lets not mince words. But unlike drugs, which I'd like to point out aren't allowed within this coven -- hard drugs, I mean, blood doesn't alter are reality. It does give us a rush, though, but that comes from the exchange of energy. All vampires of all types experience that.

AT: Okay, getting a little off topic, do any of you play Vampire, the role-playing game?

Alinoire: Yep, I do. Live Action.
Alister: Absolutely.
Electra: Uhm, I've played, but only once.
Greyven: I play. I play online and table top.
ErzaBat: Sometimes.

AT: I'll wrap this up with two questions. The first, a technical one, how do you do your bloodletting?

Electra: (reaches into her purse and pulls out a solid looking exacto knife, the type I remember kids in drafting using to cut balsa wood) This is our main tool. Razor blades are the other favored item.
ErzaBat: We never cut on wrists or neck, although some vampires do. We don't want to have to rush to the hospital with a spurting artery or something. The breast offers a large amount of blood for small cuts. There are other places also that make for a pleasurable exchange. Upper forearms are also a good place, so long as you don't cut too deeply.
Alister: If you aren't into the pain of it, there are some anesthetics. Greyven happens to have a friend who works as a tattoo artist and gets us lidocaine and prepcaine. Although we rarely use it.
Alinoire: But they're fun for other things....(laughs)

AT: From what I understand, most of you are students, Electra - you are a administrative assistant, where do all of you see yourselves five to ten years from now? Will you still be 'vampires'?

Greyven: It's not possible to determine that. We could sit here and blow smoke at you, tell you that this is a permanent lifestyle decision, but tomorrow something might happen to change all of that. I am speaking for myself, but I can only refer to the present and wish for the future. I like the arrangement we have right now, it suits me. I'd like to keep it.
Alinoire: I agree with Greyven, we can't force ourselves onto the future. If change comes, I only hope it is for the right reasons and occurs for the better. These folk are my family and my lovers. I only want good things to happen to them, and I want them to be happy.
Electra: At this point in time, I assure you I cannot see myself 'not' being a vampire.
Alister: This is who I am. That is kind of like asking me if I expect to be a man in the future. Unless something drastic happens, I assure you, I will still have a penis and I still will drink blood.
ErzaBat: I don't know. That is the best answer I can give you. I don't know what is going to happen in five years. Tomorrow I might get hit by a bus. Come January 1st, Christ may descend and the rapture will begin.