There are vampires. They are real, they are of our time, and they are here, close by, stalking us as we sleep...

It is wonderful what tricks our dreams play us, and how conveniently we can imagine.

I have been so long master
that I would be master still, or at least that none other
should be master of me.

. . . a wind howling began, which seemed to form all over the country, as far as the imagination could grasp it through the gloom of the night.

He curled up, twitching and spasming, the pain stormtrooping through his entire body in agonizing, dizzying, pounding waves. He vomited, but it wasn’t the contents of his stomach. It was his stomach, hanging inside-out from a slimy loop of esophagus, spilling out the precious blood he’d been digesting.
Even with everything going on, the smell of blood activated his biting reflex, and he chomped down on his own regurgitated organs, screaming as he chewed.

He gave me a look that was almost pitying, and when he smiled it was the smile of a vengeful god. "My dear Veronica, I am suprised you have not already learned -- everyone has a capacity for cruelty. Not everyone gets the chance to exercise it.