“Have you heard of energy vampires?” Valdemerca asked, knowing that of course I had, was she testing me? I had read Bram Stoker and Anne Rice and followed more recent stories like Interview With a Vampire, and the Twilight series. Those stories suggested some vampires ingest alternate blood sources, like rats and deer.

I reacted with the traditional view, “Yes, they suck energy like blood vampires suck blood. You feel drained in their presence. They use you for a time, then discard you when they are through with you or you gain the strength to resist their vapid attention.”

Blurting this, I may have sounded coarse, prejudiced, judgmental. If she was testing me, I had failed.

Valdemerca was undeterred, “Energy vampires do not ‘feed on’ human energy in a way that would harm a human. The reality is quite the opposite.”

“The opposite?” I asked, confused.

"The energy fields of the sun include heat and light. When we “use” the light of the sun to read a book, the sun us not affected. When we sunbathe, we absorb the heat though the sun is not harmed in any way. Like the sun, humans generate and emanate energy. This energy flows freely and energy vampires absorb it, as you absorb sunlight.”

"That raises the obvious question. What about your skin being exposed to sunlight?"

"Photosynthesis, you asked about feeding earlier. Photosynthesis is part of the nutritive equation. Vampires convert sunlight and human energy into nutrients. Humans synthesize vitamins from sunlight just as plants create sugars and hormones.

Both of us giggled and I thought, sugars and hormones. I had never considered the conversion of vitamins from sunlight exposure to be a form of photosynthesis.

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