John Polidori was present at the Villa Diodati when Lord Byron suggested they each tell a ghost story. Mary Shelley dreamt up Frankenstein, John Polidori's tale of vampires provides the link between Frankenstein and Dracula. Dracula and vampires are now part of folk culture and mythology. Their victims become the undead. Holy water, silver crosses, and garlic offer protection.
Vampires display no reflection in a mirror, nor do they cast a shadow.
A vampire is killed with a wooden stake driven through its heart whilst it sleeps at night. It is not only in horror that vampires either make an appearance or are alluded to. In Agatha Christie's Evil Under the Sun a sexually forward female who manages to anger her husband, other men and most women as a consequence of her prominently displayed sexuality, and who is of course the first character to be bumped off, is referred to by one of the other characters as a vamp. He was a sickly child and didn't gain his strength until he was about seven. He studied at Trinity College, then worked for a short time as a Civil Servant.