Vampirism vs.Water

Vamps. Vampires. The romance paranormal genre or sub genre is alive and still biting. Intelligent vampires are sexy when they bite responsibly. I'm sure you've heard the slogan, Drink Responsibly? Well, vampires need to bite responsibly. If they existed. I'm only talking about the fantasy ones...the unguys that appear in romance books. I'm not touching the box with the people inside who think they ARE real, or indeed think themselves as potential living un-undead. Do two negatives make a positive? Do two UNs make a living vamp, an un-vamp? ::ouch:: Brain hurts. Anyway...I'm talking about vampirism in general. No wait, I'm changing the subject is what I'm doing. Vampirism in the natural world. Natural. As in animals and stuff. Everyone knows about ticks and leeches and mosquitoes. Very common blood suckers that help man but gross out man at the same time, as in the case of leeches. Or impart deadly and debilitating diseases via tick and mosquito bites. And of course, I'd be remiss in not mentioning everyone's favorite mammal, the vampire bat. But if you've not caught some recent discoveries on TV, let me enlighten you to some newbies on the block: The Vampire Butterfly The Vampire Bird. Yep, they exist. The final two ended up evolving that way, so the experts say, as a means to survive in a drought ridden area. That makes me wonder. Someday, it is predicted that drinkable water will be scarce. And yes, the technology exists now to reclaim water from salt water and water mixed with...body fluids, as in the space station. That occurs with some high costs though, doesn't it? Just think...in the future, if water becomes worth more than gold; if water becomes a commodity only the oil-rich, politically-rich, drug-rich, armament-rich populace can afford, where would that leave the rest of the masses on the planet? What other sources would we use for hydration? What resource is abundant and all around us since it would no longer be water? Other people? Blood then. Would we turn to the lessons of nature that forced a butterfly and a specie of bird to turn to vampirism to drink blood for its moisture content alone? So, for the genre that writes apocolyptic stories, dark romantic fantasy stories, what would the romance journey look like? Would mythical vampires be in competition then, with humans who have had to turn to blood drinking for survival? They, the living, to continue to live, turn into living monsters, the very things they reviled? And feared? How could there be anything romantic in that? It sounds like a nightmare. But then again, the power of love transcends a lot. I wonder what it would read like. I'm not the sharpest stake in the bag, but I can say I'm not the only one who thinks of such things. Frank Herbert, in his DUNE series touched on that. Those suits reclaimed body fluids and I thought it was a great idea when I'd first read the series in the early 80s. The thing I found most fascinating was that when a body died, its fluids, its water, was reclaimed so that the family the person belonged to had their water - or the victor claimed that moist treasure as spoils of battle/war. But that was a book, a sci/fi fantasy. I wonder. What will be our reality? Blood for water? Body reclamation? I hope water never becomes that kind of bargaining chip because, personally, I'd prefer reading about it in a fantasy. At least I'll wake up from that one. What do you think???