"They were illegal long before the Wars - and the Wars only served to help curtail that genre's audience," Rae remarks, savoring a bit of avocado. "These days most people don't want to think about vampires at all, let alone think of them in a romantic sense."

"The short-lived teen power fantasy tends to overlook that while a vampire can neither drink nor have sex with a person without an invitation, they can still kill someone at will. They just wouldn't get a square meal out of the deal."