Vampire mortality

Just a thought, but there was a UK TV series called 'Ultraviolet' back in about 1997 or 98 (I was at theatre college, so had to be roughly then), and it involved a Vatican-funded organisation that dealt with vampires. They collected up the remains of dead vampires in order to prevent them being resurrected. They knew the vamps were able to revive the dust, but didn't know how. Anyway, I just wondered - even if your protagonists in book 1 don't want your vampiress back and have just left her dust, you could have someone else collect it up, maybe to use her for their own means (or so they think), kind of like the Hammer film 'Taste the Blood of Dracula' or by some people trying to stop her coming back - only something happens and she gets back anyway.

If a demon took her out, why not have the same demon or a competing one make a magic to pull together and reassemble her dust bits. Not unlike a reverse scattering, or descatter of a Star Trek transporter signal formally set to wide dispersal to get rid of someone. Dust is hard for us, but its like huge atoms, or large molecules, a demon can handle that--and maybe she remembers being everywhere; in the wall paint, in the crevice of a fireman's boot, etc.

I totally killed a major character and found out there is a sequel cooking in the ether, and he is back. And it's logical, makes sense, and is emotionally right.

Do it, have fun with it. You can always backspace, delete, or erase it later, if she doesn't work out. Or maybe dust her AGAIN. She'll HATE that sh--.

Popular fiction vampires are pretty different from the ones in folklore, I mean some of the staples of vampires aren't even there. Traditional vamps couldn't turn into bats (that was introduced in Dracula), and they didn't die in sunlight (that was cut out of whole cloth by the movie Nosferatu), etc. I think you can easily take some liberties with the rules of vampireness if you want to.

That being said, I dislike it when I'm reading a book that takes place in a world where "death is a minor inconvenience". If you just bring a character back from the dead, it establishes the idea that any of your characters can come back, and that reduces the stakes of the conflict for me.

On the other hand, if a resurrection is appropriate, I like to see them pay for it. I liked the idea of her being stuck as a talking urn for awhile. In many legends, vampires could turn into gas or smoke. Maybe when she got "destroyed" by the demon, she lives on in a gaseous state. Then she could tag along with the characters, no matter how much they might want to get rid of her, trying to find a way to get her body back.

I love the idea of her dying in each novel, almost like a running gag. She may keep coming back... somehow, in some form. But that creates a nice anticipation as to what's going to get her in THIS book.

Another possibility. . .

What if the vampire really wasn't incinerated to ash? What if the creature was able to throw something up in the place of itself (which would accomodate the ash/slag left behind), and pop up somewhere else (i.e. book 2)?

Just a small possibility. . .

I ADORE Hamer films! lessee, collect dust 'o vampire, could take DAYS, place in appropriate receptacle like empty crypt,(basically anything larger than a goldfish bowl unless you want a balloon vamp sucking on ankles) and add blood, not necessarily virgin but a fresh ingenue is a nice starter after being dusted.

I think the problem would be collecting the vamp dust/separating it from non-vamp dust so that you don't resurrect the ghost of earthworms past, etc.

I ADORE Hammer films! lessee, collect dust 'o vampire, could take DAYS, place in appropriate receptacle like empty crypt,(basically anything larger than a goldfish bowl unless you want a balloon vamp sucking on ankles) and add blood, not necessarily virgin but a fresh ingenue is a nice starter after being dusted.

I think the problem would be collecting the vamp dust/separating it from non-vamp dust so that you don't resurrect the ghost of earthworms past, etc.