Though our external appearance remains much like
that of the living, there are those among us who insist the Change transforms
its subject into another species -- Homo Sapiens Sanguineus, Homo Sapientissimus,
and Homo Vampiricus have all been advanced as names for this new race, following
the Swedish Classification.
Be that as it may, it seems beyond dispute that
the body undergoes as much of a change as the psyche. As will become apparent,
much of what follows is -- and can only be -- conjecture, unsupported by
dissection. The gross physical changes are a matter of common
knowledge, so much so that we have allowed them to remain in popular fiction.
The canine teeth are indeed long and pointed. The better to draw blood.
However, they are only fully extended at the time of the kill, being at
other times withdrawn into their sockets by the contraction of a flexible
tissue at their base. Both speech and secrecy would be most difficult otherwise.
Some lack the means to withdraw their teeth, but they are easily discovered
and are a dying clan. To feed, we merely need to bite, retract
the teeth from the wound and begin to drink. If we lick th wound after we
drink, then no trace of our feeding will remain. Indeed if we lick any wound
which we have caused with our claws or fangs, we can heal it completely.
Our own skin as with the cinematic vampire, is invariably
pale. PArtly it seems this stems from our aversion to sunlight, but it is
also due to our arrested state of death. Our hunger is a drive
for sustenance, of that there can be no doubt. From this, and all bitter
experiences with the foods I most enjoyed in my breathing days, it appears
that the inward parts of the vampire have lost their faculty for digestion.
One seldom sees a stout vampire, and nearly all remark on a newfound slenderness
after the change. Beings no required organs presumably wither.
The vampires body remains as it was at the time
of death. Hair and nails continue to grow for a few days, as they do on
a cadaver, but that is all. If I wish my hair or nails to be shorter, I
must cut them each evening after I rise. It is my conjecture that the body
of a vampire is actually dead and is only arrested from the natural process
of decay by the power of the change. The skin becomes a little tighter over
the bones, much as it does on the newly dead. The lungs of the
vampire no longer breathe -- though many have learned to feign breathing
while among the living -- for the fresh blood of the prey provides a small
amount of oxygen needed to sustain the dead tissues in their stasis. Only
a young or foolish vampire takes blood from the jugular vein, where it is
near the end of its journey and full of impurities; the blood of the carotid
artery is clean and wholesome, and much to be preferred. Just
as the lungs no longer breathe, so the heart no longer beats. The blood
of prey somehow suffuses through the body by a process of osmosis; rather
than flowing along the veins and arteries. This can be seen in the fact
that when a vampire weeps -- which indeed we do, and more often than a mortal
might suppose -- The tears themselves are of blood. Cut a vampires throat,
and you will find the vessels empty. the closure and atrophy of of those
blood vessels nearest the skin is another reason for the pallid complexion
which marks the vampire, although a rosy hue is noticeable after feeding.
The blood of the prey, coupled with the blood of
the sire, does appear to have some remarkable properties. We are able to
heal ourselves of most wounds with remarkable quickness, We still feel pain,
and reflex sends blood to the afflicted area -- just as in life, blood will
suffuse bruised tissue and color it purple. The one exception to this rule
is the stake so beloved of writers and film makers. This will induce a kind
of paralysis or trance, although it will not kill in its own right. Quite
why this is so is unknown to me, for the heart no longer beats and so is
not necessary to pump the flow of blood. I have heard various mystical explanations
of this phenomenon, but must confess myself at a loss to explain it rationally.
The body no longer makes and replenishes its own
blood, and relies entirely on prey for fresh blood and the nutrients which
science has found blood to carry. Something in the blood of the sire, passed
down through the change, fans the spark of life and arrests decay, but regular
infusions of fresh blood are needed lest decay begins again. And when a
vampire is destroyed, that decay is fantastically swift, as though Time
were recalling the debt of decades or centuries. Nothing remains but dust,
which is why anatomical study is impossible and so much must be guessed.
We are able to heal our wounds using this blood upon
which we feed. We are able to use it to regenerate whole limbs and organs,
given time and need. Regeneration always restores us to the physical state
we possessed when we died, including hair length, face shape, body weight
-- everything. When the body is injured, it will reform itself in the same
mold again and again. We are already dead, and so cannot die except through
the forces of life -- the eternal sun and the primordial flame.
One last question remains -- a somewhat prurient
one, which I will answer with as much delicacy as I may. Through the popular
entertainments, the vampire has become established as a highly potent figure
of romance -- and at times more than romance. While the act of love is physically
possible for a vampire of either sex, the associated impulses, drives and
responses have died along with the flesh -- which incidentally, is cold
to the touch rather than warm. By effort of will we may go through the motions,
forcing blood to the relevant areas in the same way as healing a wound,
but that is all. The ecstasy of the Kiss replaces all such needs within
us. Blood is the only object or our desires.
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