Let Vampires Be Evil

Could authors please stop making vampires the good guys in their novels? Yes, vampires are wealthy (because they live forever, presumably), and they're very good looking (see: Edward of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series) or at least physically powerful. They're noble royals (see: Wrath of J.R. Ward's Brotherhood of the Dagger series) or slackers who remind us of ourselves (see: Jody of Christopher Moore's campy Bloodsucking Fiends). But why did vampires have to turn into another run-of-the-mill hero from a romance novel or action flick? What was wrong with the deliciously creepy vampire of Bram Stoker's Dracula, or the evilly seductive Lord Ruthven in The Vampyre by John Polidori*? At least let them sneak up on unsuspecting humans and bite them in the dead of night from time to time.

*Footnote: Dr. Polidori's short story The Vampyre was heavily based on his patient Lord Byron's Fragment of a Novel. Fragment of a Novel was written in 1816, the year of volcanic winter. One cold summer's evening in Italy, Mary Wollstonecraft suggested that she, her future husband Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron each write a supernatural tale; Mary wrote Frankenstein. The Vampyre was later published without Polidori's permission and attributed to Lord Byron (to both of their displeasure).