Chapters:

Related Material

• Lydia's Diary
• Buffy's Diary
• Questionnaire
• In Pursuit of William

Feedback Us!

CHAPTER FIVE: Feeding Habits

Introduction

In this chapter, I attempt a general synthesis of what is known about the feeding habits of the entire vampire species, in order to shed light on the habits of my particular vampire, William the Bloody. This William the Bloody matter lends itself particularly well to the ethology-based approach I have employed. For maximum clarity I have, for this chapter alone, consequently used the style of analysis generally followed in that subdiscipline.

When speaking of vampires, most reputable sources tend to treat them as if they were predators, peculiarly ignoring demonic motivators. I argue that there is a difference between feeding for sustenance, and killing for pleasure (be it robbery, world dominance or the causing of general mayhem). On feeding for sustenance there is a relative wealth of material, as detailed in the final section of this chapter , "General Feeding Habits". I will attempt here to explore Feeding for Pleasure, a more speculative area.

Feeding for sustenance

1. General

I begin by dividing the material at the Council's disposal into three categories:

Actual Observations:

The excellent Database of confirmed sightings of elder vampires (www.CoW.org.uk), Watcher's diaries, Slayer diaries, FBI X-files; Accumulated Data on sub terrestrial Feeding Habits, species 3079 (Walsh & Goldstein)

Speculative:

B. Stoker's Dracula; accumulated works of Elrod, Hambly, Hamilton, Huff, Harris, Simmons, Sizemore, etc.

Balderdash:

A Pointed Autobiography, B. Lugosi (Hollywood Press 1939)

2. William the Bloody-specific data

1. Whilst traveling with the Darla/Angelus troupe

William the Bloody was sired circa 1880 (see chapters 2, 4, and 10), either by Angelus or Drusilla (accounts conflict); all eyewitness accounts and legends firmly place him in the Angelus/Darla troupe until c. 1900, when Angelus disappears completely from our accounts. Darla apparently leaves the troupe circa that same time, and has been sighted in the company of the Master since.

During that period, no specific claims can be made about his individual feeding habits; we simply cannot distinguish individual kills from troupe kills. Accounts are sketchy and unreliable at best; they indicate planning and forethought on the part of the leader (it is unclear whether Angelus or Darla is the true leader; vampires may be either matrilineal or patrilineal). Huge feeding binges are varied by long periods of no (reported) kills. There is evidence of torture and random kills, where many victims were not even halfway drained. Rumors of whole families stalked, tortured, turned or killed for feeding abound, but can unfortunately not be confirmed.

2. Whilst in company of Drusilla

William the Bloody was the amorous companion of the vampire Drusilla (ca. 1850) from 1900 until the present day (1998, last sighting Rio de Janeiro). Most often the pair had great followings of minions, at other times they apparently operated as a duo; occasionally they lived even in an uneasy truce with human beings. William the Bloody's feeding habits appear less exuberant from all accounts during this period; there is less evidence of torture and random kills. Discipline and moderation (in Vampiric terms, that is) seem to be exercised; the goals, I speculate, were easy living and feeding, travel and variation and causing of mayhem and disturbance, instead of torture and terror.

3. Solo

From the fact that at no time until the present William the Bloody has existed alone, we may infer that he/it prefers company to solitude. We have no data on his feeding habits when alone. Our Rio de Janeiro contact unfortunately was killed on duty when gathering data for a continuation of this study.

(N.B. I have requested permission, not yet granted, to travel to Rio de Janeiro to observe and/or interview William the Bloody myself for my post-Dip. research. Recent material [A. Rice, Interview with the Vampire] has given cause to believe that an individual vampire may very well be inclined to give an interview.)

Feeding for pleasure: William the Bloody specific

It has been stipulated that vampires, unlike ordinary predators, gain more from feeding than sustenance and a pleasurably full belly. It is said that feeding generates sexual pleasure in vampires, and in their victims as well. Unfortunately, there has been very little research done to confirm this hypothesis.

The conclusion drawn from chapter 'Preferred Victims', seems to confirm this hypothesis in the case of our William the Bloody. He feeds for pleasure, choosing specific victim types, and mingling his nutritional needs with psychological ones. The methods he uses seem to vary.

1. Feed on the spot
2. Feed and have sex on the spot
3. Lure to dwelling and presumably kill. No data on sexual congress; my assumption is that there would be.

Eyewitness reports

There is actual eye-witness evidence for several feeding occasions.

While traveling with Angelus and Darla; there are no eye-witness accounts for that period. There are several reports from Scotland Yard on victims with damaged throats, but as we cannot even ascertain if they were killed by vampires, we will certainly never know by which ones.

2.2.2

NYPD, 12-11-1983 R. Moscowicz:

Sunnydale P.D. 17-10-1997; Bob D., 17:

"Well, dude, Sheila and me and a few guys were going to the Bronze, and I had just stopped to pee ­ is that, like, illegal, man? ­ coz I meant to say blow my nose, like in a Kleenex, and Sheila and Jay and Zack were walking in front of me, when I saw this creepy dude walk up behind them, he was like wearing this cool leather coat, man, and had like eighties hair, and he yanked Zack by his neck and twisted it and just threw him aside, like Superman, and then he did the same with Jay, and then he went to talk to Sheila and she like just went with him, man. She must have been doped to the...I mean, she must have been a little sleepy, I guess.

And then I just went to the Bronze to hang, and I saw some other guys I hang with there, and we had a ball, and then my parents made me go to Parent-Teacher Night, like they were gonna hear anything they wanted, you know what I mean? And then I saw Sheila again, coz she'd been absent, I guess, for a coupla days, and her face was all weird and ugly, and I saw the man with the black coat, too, and his face was all ugly too.

PCP? Is that what people on PCP look like? I don't think so, dude, they just go... Well, if you say so it must be right, dude, I mean, officer."

2.2.3

Clem: (spokesman from Demon Bar, willing to part with this sketchy information for two beers and hot wings)

"He went for the pretty human girls, you know. Who wouldn't? I prefer then less smooth-skinned, but vampires aren't regular demons, they are half-human and have weird tastes. I don't know him personally, but I've seen him around. Usually he just lets his minions bring him food. Yeah, of course I mean people."

General Feeding Habits

Feeding habits as

Table 1

Table 2

Notes to Table 1

We see that the average human being has a 50% chance of surviving an encounter with a fledgling vampire, no chance at all with the intermediate level vampire, and that the chances rise as the vampire reaches Master status. That is due solely to the level of restraint the Master vampire is able to assert on his feeding impulses; as they age, this restraint seems to grow. The Master vampire may let his victims live; one could speculate that is either because he no longer fears discovery and extermination, or because he might want to drink smaller amounts from the same (succulent?) victim several nights successively, or for some other reason.

Notes to Table 2

We see that survival rate for fledglings is very low; but those that make it through the first few years have a good chance of reaching 20-30 years. The sharp decline that is visible in the statistic at that point is plausibly explained by C. Lee et al (Hammer Press, London, 1979); after that amount of time the vampire has outlived his whole generation, and must adapt to the changing times or die. Many seem unable to make the transition.

We can tentatively conclude that those that reach Master status do so not only due to the extra powers and physical strength the Master vampire gains over the years, but are able to survive due to flexibility and adaptability, traits either present or not in the human host, as the demonic presence is identical in a strain of vampires. This supports my theory of symbiotic Vampirism as stated in my Exposition.

Physical details on feeding

For a detailed account of gallons of blood consumed per minute and in toto, per vamp, ranged to age and weight and days of fasting, I refer to Goldstein and Walsh.

Physical Testing on blood from different donors:

Again, Goldstein and Walsh have done extensive testing on many kinds of blood; any mammal blood will keep a vampire alive, apparently. Walsh's hypothesis and test project that Master powers will never grow in a vampire fed on animal blood alone has not run for a sufficient length of time to give definitive answers.