Meetings of the London Vampire Group are held in the Ben Crouch Tavern in central London. Member Heidi Taylor says she was born with “natural fangs. I was always strange as a kid, I didn’t fit in and I don’t seem to like bright lights.”

Nathan, another member, says, “When I was younger I always felt there was something missing. I cut myself and put my mouth to it to stop it bleeding and thought ‘this feels great, this is what’s missing.'” When he drinks blood, which he describes as metallic-tasting, he says, “I can see everything better and clearer. It’s just an amazing feeling.”
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Hairul Hambali, a spiritual healer, or bomoh, in Malaysia, who claims to have caught a shape-changing vampire the size of two tennis balls, has made prime-time television and newspaper headlines.

The vampire resembles a big wad of cotton with a little face. Hambali says it took about an hour to catch the creature, whose body is covered with what looks like cotton. The vampire will eventually be thrown into the sea to prevent it from harassing humans, he says.

A Note from Whitley Strieber: I am, naturally, disappointed that this vampire turns out to look like a wad of cotton. A far cry from the beautiful Miriam Blaylock in my new novel, the Last Vampire. But then again, maybe this vampire could at least be of some use to Miriam, perhaps as a makeup remover…read more