By Suzanne Carré
There are many reasons for love in the vampire world, and it is the female requirement for love that gives meaning to vampire love. Unlike our prospective of sentimental love and affection, the vampires see love for the power it commands more than the romance it represents. Because vampires benefit from immortality, they have eternal love, so they can use this power forever. Love in the supernatural world is male by character, and not controlled by the realm of females, but that means any female who has power over the male has dominion over the most influential of forces—love.
But there is only one female who can effectively rule over a male vampire, and she is his wife.
The Wife
The wife status in the supernatural world of vampires has no parallel. In the human world, marriage is often seen as restrictive and reducing the power of a woman, but this is the exact opposite in the preternatural domain. Vampires do not marry other vampires, because vampire marriage is not merely a vow of faithfulness but a transformation into another entity.
Vampires are already supernatural so the bite and all the consequences of using their fangs doesn’t alter their state of being but enhances the powers they have. When a male vampire bites a woman and converts her into a vampire, she is not only his wife but a creature endowed with all the capacity of love, from her human existence, and all the power over sex from her new vampire state. She is not his helpmate but a force to be reckoned with.
It is in the interest of the male then to choose wisely the woman he wants as wife. The bite is irreversible and the creation of a new being more powerful than himself is one very good reason he needs to love her—really love her. And it’s also a good idea (for him anyway) if she loves her vampire before his fangs separate her from the mortal world forever.
In my novel, the implications of the bite is the major factor delaying the fang action of marriage but Marie so much fears her mortality she sees the conversion more akin to a caterpillar changing to a butterfly than a fatal mistake. While she waits, the females give her the title of wife but without the power the station commands, she is very aware of how easily the females can usurp her. Marie’s only hope is to love Vincent—truly love him—and when she starts to learn of vampire love, she realizes the power available to her.
Female Factor
Females borne vampires don’t have control over love like wives, but forming an alliance with a wife in the collective gives those vampires loyal to her access to wifely power. With a psychic link to the wife, the female vampires can derive energy from the mysterious power of love and gain sexual access to the male she’s married to. The females must do this carefully, because the wife won’t accept any challenge to her, and with the might of love at her disposal, the wife has all the supernatural powers available to protect her status. Only another wife would dare challenge a wife in the vampire realm. In my novel, there are a few wives who do not want to accept Marie’s rise to the status of wife and they set plans in motion against her. If Marie becomes the wife of Vincent, then she will govern all the other wives, who have since lost their males, and therefore lost some of their social rank.
Male Domain in Love
So if the love capacity of a human being makes the vampire wife so powerful, then what’s in it for the bad boys of the supernatural world? After all, if a male vampire knows biting his one true love will create a more powerful vampire, and the idea does tend to make him think twice about biting, how does this benefit him?
Love he has for his wife determines how much control he has in his world. The male vampire has the disadvantage of teeth designed for sex, making them ineffective for feeding on humans, so he relies on hunting females to prevent starvation. To eat he has to pay for blood with sex and this often threatens his tenuous relationship with the females, because he is the true vampire—taking all and giving little in return. With a wife, and her respect, he can afford to relax the rules and even make demands of his own. The love of his wife returns to him authority over the females. Channeling her influence gives him power over all things both real and intangible. A little love is then worth searching for.
True power in the supernatural world comes from harnessing and directing love. So what is the love the vampires use? Up next is the ultimate form of vampire love and how-to identify it.
