How to Kill a Vampire Ritual A stake of wood or metal must be driven through its heart and thereby pinning it to the ground. Then a ritual, sometimes an exorcism, is performed to render the vampire helpless. Then the head must be severed and either buried separately from the body or both parts can be burned to ash. If a vampire is unable to obtain a supply of blood for a long enough period of time, the creature will age and lose its vitality and ultimately crumble into dust in a slow, horrible, and agonising death. Sunlight Exposure to direct sunlight will destroy a vampire, but it is a very painful death.
Vampires can, however, build a type of immunity to sunlight depending on their age and constitution.
Lilith, the first vampire, can stay out in the sunlight for about five hours before having to seek shelter. Dracula could stay out in it for about three hours. He was not anywhere near the age of Lillith, but he had a tremendous constitution. Most vampires can take a few moments of sunlight before they begin to burn, but it is painful. This will also kill a vampire, but the creature must be burned to absolute dust.