Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussions of abusive relationships.

In A Dowry of Blood, as in other vampire stories, blood is both a motif and a necessity: It is a vampire’s number one priority as it is necessary for a vampire’s survival. Blood is intrinsically linked to questions of Immortality, Violence, and Morality. Vampires must drink blood to survive, and in most cases, they must kill the people they drink from or risk being discovered. All vampires therefore must decide where they get blood, whose blood they drink, and how they feel about this aspect of their existence. Constanta prefers to drink the blood of people she deems to be evil or abusive, though she cannot always choose whom she drinks from while in a relationship with Dracula.

Dracula uses blood as a form of control to help him maintain his power over Constanta, Magdalena, and Alexi. He creates his spouses by drinking their blood and giving them his own blood. When Constanta is a new vampire, he feeds her his blood until she is strong enough to hunt for humans. He tries to prevent his lovers from drinking each other’s blood, though his reasons for discouraging them from doing so remain obscure.