Feeding
Both blood-drinking and psi-draining HLVs use the term “feed” to refer to what they actually do. Representatives of both groups have made strong statements to the effect that “feeding” (on blood or “energy”) is what makes a Human Living Vampire what it is, and that other identifying “traits” or characteristics (if any) are of little or no importance.
“Feeding” appears to be a given not an option; an HLV must feed, feels a compulsion to do so, in the case of psychic vampires may do so involuntarily, and yet nobody seems to understand why.
This desire to feed also identified as the Thirst, Hunger or the Need, bears strong parallels with drug addiction. Pulse, heart rate, blood pressure, and sometimes even body temperature, increase in anticipation of the act of feeding. Blood-craving HLV’s assert that only the communion of taking blood from a consenting human donor, sometimes during sex, is truly satisfying to them. The “need” that HLV’s experience is for a fix, not a meal.
The chief concern for most HLV’s seems to be how to “feed” more efficiently, how to find “donors”, how to guarantee a regular supply of the needed substance, and so forth–very similar to drug addicts.
“Secondary symptoms” of vampirism (that are not directly related to an HLV’s craving for blood and/or energy) include sensitivity to sunlight, a tendency to be awake and alert at night but lethargic during the day, migraine headaches as a common malady.
