People, Anne Rice did as much damage to Vampirism as Twilight toes (I can't remember her name, and can't be bothered to look it up) Stephenie Meyer.
From the ancient myths, vampires were monsters. I can even accept the Bram Stoker where it was a monster dressed as an extremely handsome man (the old wolf in sheeps clothing idea), although even that's a step up from the old belief of walking corpses.
From Wikipedia
The causes of vampiric generation were many and varied in original folklore. In Slavic and Chinese traditions, any corpse which was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or a cat, was feared to become one of the undead.[31] A body with a wound which had not been treated with boiling water was also at risk. In Russian folklore, vampires were said to have once been witches or people who had rebelled against the Church while they were alive.[32]
Cultural practices often arose that were intended to prevent a recently deceased loved one from turning into an undead revenant. Burying a corpse upside-down was widespread, as was placing earthly objects, such as scythes or sickles,[33] near the grave to satisfy any demons entering the body or to appease the dead so that it would not wish to arise from its coffin. This method resembles the Ancient Greek practice of placing an obolus in the corpse's mouth to pay the toll to cross the River Styx in the underworld; it has been argued that instead, the coin was intended to ward off any evil spirits from entering the body, and this may have influenced later vampire folklore. This tradition persisted in modern Greek folklore about the vrykolakas, in which a wax cross and piece of pottery with the inscription "Jesus Christ conquers" were placed on the corpse to prevent the body from becoming a vampire.[34] Other methods commonly practised in Europe included severing the tendons at the knees or placing poppy seeds, millet, or sand on the ground at the grave site of a presumed vampire; this was intended to keep the vampire occupied all night by counting the fallen grains.[35] Similar Chinese narratives state that if a vampire-like being came across a sack of rice, it would have to count every grain; this is a theme encountered in myths from the Indian subcontinent as well as in South American tales of witches and other sorts of evil or mischievous spirits or beings.[36]
Going back to Dracula, it's hard to say as only 3 people attacked in the book, Lucy who finally dies of a lack of blood (and is turned into a vampire) her mother who is attacked by a "wolf" and dies of fright, and Mina who is bitten but not killed so has become his living slave. So if we go by the Dracula story
~ Bitten and killed = turned
~ Bitten and survived = slave
Now I'm not quite sure what would happen if Dracula broke someones neck (killing them) and then drank the still fresh blood. Anne Rice said that this would kill a vampire.
[/rant]
Sorry, I just really hate what vampires have been turned into. I even hated Angel (even though there was an explanation as to why he had a soul) and what Spike turned into. I just miss my monsters.
