Vampires: The Bloody Truth

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 18 (RNS) -- Nicolas Strathloch begins his day early, around 6 or 7 a.m. He rises and showers, dresses in jeans, T-shirt and hiking boots, and drives to a print shop in northern Los Angeles, where he works as a foreman.

At lunch time, he often ventures to a nearby park. There, among the quiet ambience of nature and a few barking dogs, he will spot humans and feed off their energy.

"Any time that it's convenient for me, I will draw their life force. It's almost unconscious," said the 50-year-old father of six children and former British Army training officer.

Strathloch is a vampire. He is one of 300,000 or so people worldwide who consider themselves practitioners of a vampire religion. Strathloch comes from a Welsh father and a Russian/Romanian mother, but he was raised by his druid grandparents in Wales. Three of his 14 brothers are also vampires.

Vampires come from all walks of life; many are scholars, artists, and teachers and a few are members of the clergy. Los Angeles has one of the largest concentrations of vampires, but many also live in Japan, Rome, Vienna and London. India has a sizable following of vampires devoted to Kali, the Hindu goddess of creation and destruction.

Vampires experience a calling to the darker forces and an affinity to a nocturnal lifestyle. Many claim psychic powers and the ability to leave their own bodies and take up residence in others. Some say they can actually fly and enter people's dreams.

A few vampires claim to suffer from porphyria, a rare metabolic disorder whose symptoms may include reddening, pain and blistering of the skin upon exposure to sunlight. Strathloch has malignant melanoma, a form of skin cancer caused by excessive exposure to the sun's radiation.

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