These days, vampires could be anyone. A new wave of interpretation has the gothic figures sparkling in sunlight and attending high school with an acute sense of awareness and a desire to be “normal.” This has seen vampires shift from neck-biting creatures to “ordinary” folks drinking synthetic blood, trying to fit in.

Over the years the vampire myth has been retold and re-adapted. But while much of the vampire’s central premise remains the same—bite a person, convert them— Amy Wilson, lecturer in the Department of English at West Virginia University, believes something more meaningful is happening in current fiction.

“My focus is the emerging emphasis in the vampire narrative of the human actually sucking from the vampire to become a vampire, to heal from injury, or for sexual reasons,” Wilson said. “I believe that it is this aspect that draws us to this genre because, more often than not, it creates a bond between the human and the vampire that parallels the kind of bond created between humans and their mothers, and humans and God.”

While vampires have been typically shown feasting on the necks of their prey, humans also have opted to feed from the wrists of the vampires. HBO’s hit southern-set series “True Blood” features several instances where humans drink vampire blood to heal.

Wilson said there’s a deeper subtext at play than just stopping an infection or healing a bite mark.

“I propose that this experience of sharing blood is relatable to us by paralleling two primal and natural desires in us,” she said.

One desire is the practice of breastfeeding. This reflects in the desire to suck, feed, to love and feel love, and to bond. This feeling, Wilson said, satiates us, comforts us, heals us and creates intimacy.

The second is the desire to connect with God, to feed from Him, to love and feel loved, and – like the relational bond between mother and child – comfort, affirm and create intimacy.

“These represent our desires to bond with our earthly, tangible maker (our mother) and our spiritual, heavenly Maker (God, our Father).” In popular lore, vampires that turn their prey from human are also known as “makers.”

Wilson said she continues to find deviations from the established “Dracula” style template that was the norm for so many years. So far, she’s sunk her teeth into more than 50 hours of vampire films, reading 15 works of fiction (with another 35 to go).

Through her reading and viewing, she noticed humans go beyond spiritual and emotional bonding. As evidenced in “True Blood,” there is a sexual component to the allure of vampires.

Lynsay Sands is an award-winning Canadian author best known for her Argeneau series about a modern family of vampires. In her novels, eyesight, speed, and overall vitality are improved, while disease cells are eradicated.

“Vampire blood causes perpetual youth, perky breasts, and mind-blowing orgasms. In ‘True Blood,’ vampire blood functions like Viagra,” Wilson said.

It’s enough to cause the palest of the undead to blush.

As vampire lore has evolved over the centuries, with raising and waning popularity, the creatures are often adapted to reflect the concerns of the day, Wilson said.

When a human is turned into a vampire, they immediately become eligible for the protection of other vampires. She cites incidents in “True Blood” where vampires can ‘sense’ people in jeopardy. They become essentially members of a blood covenant.

Perhaps that belonging speaks to something Wilson said people desire.

“We’re at a place where we’re craving more, and we’re lonelier than we’ve ever been,” Wilson said. “Our divorce rate is higher than it’s ever been. When we are bonded properly, and feel like we have that relationship, there’s a completion there. There’s a wholeness.”