By Suzanne Carré
Vampires are a powerful metaphors to describe all the aspects of ourselves we fear or don’t understand. Since the time of Bram Stoker, the vampire has enlivened our imagination through literature and movies. Vampires have evolved through our rendering in fiction but they are still a potent symbol of all things forbidden. We are fascinated by these creatures of the night and yearn to be like them. Vampires are reflections of our own reality and we know it.
Mirror, Mirror
In vampire lore, the preternatural vampire has no reflection, in any reflecting surface, whether it is a silvered glass or a limpid pool. In my novel, I use this to make important comparisons between the world of the living and the eternal abode. The thin glass sheet becomes the portal into the vampire world because behind the mirror there is never any sunshine or reflections—the perfect place to find a vampire.
I extended the mirror concept to make the vampires the exact opposite to us. I did this originally to ask pertinent questions about sex but the results surprised me. This only added an intriguing dimension to the narrative. In my novel the twists created by reversing everything in a metaphorical mirror creates ample opportunities for my heroine to question things she holds true against what she learns about the vampires.
A clash of two worlds
It is my heroine’s journey of self-discovery that gives this particular love story a personal touch not usual in romances. When Marie learns to look at herself, she realizes she doesn’t need a real mirror. Her answers lie in the vampires and this helps her accept her vampire lover. The mirror in her room then becomes a physical barrier as well as a symbol. Marie believes all she needs to do is emerge on the other side, of the mirror, as a complete vampire. Her nocturnal lover insists she must also think vampire to appreciate their differences.
Female factor.
Females control everything in the preternatural domain. Males are restricted and must obey the command of the females in every matter. Even the simplest of needs require the female to give the male permission. Female vampires hunt for blood and by controlling the food, they dictate whether the male can feed. The male vampire might be a bad boy but he still has to behave himself. If anything goes wrong, the females usually blame it on the male, punishing him or even destroying what they consider a useless male.
Love and Sex.
Vampires consider love male and sex female. Romance is the attraction of women in our world but if you’re a vampire female you only care about sex. Vampires leave males to control the love side of things. Females rule in sex and determine if a male has any sexual rights. The male domain of love only ensures he’s good at being a male, and that means sexually adequate in bed (to satisfy a female vampire, of course).
Marrying men.
Marriage is the concern of male vampires only. Female vampires don’t need to marry and usually don’t bother. Only the male has to find a mortal to make his wife. His drive is mainly due to love but only if he has permission to have these feeling and the right to act upon them. In the end, his choice of wife must please the other female vampires of the collective. His wife will rule over them so he needs more than his mother’s approval.
Eternally yours.
The bite creates a vampire wife with more supernatural power than her vampire husband. He gladly becomes her consort and counts on her love of him to protect him. If he’s not a devotional partner and she falls out of love for him, then he’s in big trouble. Divorce is very simple between vampires but she is still a wife because her status remains with her forever. The clause “till death do us part” is not found in the vampire marriage. So if she wants revenge, she’s now a supernatural bitch if she wants to make his eternal existence a real hell.
Come again.
In sex, male vampires experience multiple orgasms while females are limited to once and then a rest. Okay, this was not intended for all those guys out there who thought nature was cruel for not making this true for humans. Wish on, boys. Because starting with a property opposite the sexual reality does not lead to the opposite conclusion. This is one of those cases where I found the mirror image doesn’t dictate the effect.
It means the male vampire gets more sexual opportunities but he would have anyway seeing he’s supernatural. So what do the girls get in compensation? They get exquisite control of psychic powers to have mind-blowing sex as often as possible. It doesn’t matter how you start this kind of experiment—in the end us girls are sexually superior.
Harem male.
Vampires form a collective, a group of females headed by a wife, with one or more sequestered males for use in sex only. He might call the females his concubines, in his harem, but he is the sexual slave. One of the biggest male fantasies, is to have more women than one guy can handle, but it’s not fun if the girls are in control. But vampire males prove very resourceful at finding a pleasure solution out of all this “work.”
Blind love.
Vampires cannot see the physical body they can only “feel” the emotions of the self. It’s part of the curse of not being part of the tangible world and related to not having a reflection. This only forms a problem when a male vampire falls in love with a mortal.
He can only “see” her feelings for him while she can only see his physical projection. She will yearn to know his feelings for her, but always wonder over the veracity of his words. Her doubts will show and hurt his feelings. The couple are separated by an invisible plane. It is a dimensional problem that tests their love for each other, and ultimately determines whether she says—yes, bite and marry me.
In the end, it didn’t matter if the vampires started out diametrically opposed to the human model, they find their own equilibrium and settle into a pattern resembling our own. It turns out, if we use a mirror between us and them, we come face to face with more of ourselves than we bargained for.
Next is the human obsession of vampire sex. Oh, but it’s not just the sex—it is the sex!
