I think it comes down to how we see vampires. In the medieval and early modern period they were often peasants who returned from the grave all bloated and ruddy. This was a response to plague, where people were dying suddenly with no apparent reason and if you exhumed the first victim, perhaps a traveller, then a recently buried person does look reddish and bloated. Later on you got a more TB feel, with stories like Le Fanu's Carmilla which had a long, slow fading. In both cases, we are talking about something that brings death.
When I was a teenager I read a lot of the old books about folklore, and some of it stuck. When I talk about vampires in the Forgotten Village and similar books I have a lot of the old stuff hanging around in the back of my mind. It's a long time since I read Anne Rice and I have never read Twilight, so it's mainly the old stuff that has stuck.
This is why Chris Chessick (the vampire staked by a knitting needle in The Forgotten Village) became a vampire as an effect of sorcery rather than being bitten. Regardless, I have a streak of darkness in all the vampires I write about. Not only that, but traditionally they represent creeping death. I don't think they should make babies. Except possibly jelly babies if they like making confectionary.
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