The titular vampire character rapes the protagonist's friend and threatens to kill the friend's family if she tells anyone what happened. The rape causes her to have a mysterious autoimmune disease from which she later dies. The vampire primarily targets and abducts children. Before she identifies him as a vampire, the protagonist believes him to be a child molester. He sucks blood from his victims' inner thighs, which adds to the quasi-sexual nature of his attacks. He specifically targets children in a poor Black neighborhood because he knows that the wider community won't defend or care about them. He later begins to target the children in the white community that he lives in. Towards the end of the book, the protagonist catches the vampire sucking blood from her teenage daughter. Almost everyone gaslights the protagonist when she suspects the vampire. The vampire in particular makes excuses for himself, saying that he has to suck people's blood to manage a health condition that he has. He also claims that his attacks on the protagonist's children are the protagonist's fault for suspecting him and trying to oust him from the community.