I think you missed the point I was trying to make regarding making distinctions between humans and vampires. If a vampire is merely a human that "needs blood to survive"; what's the point? The concept of "the hunger" or the trauma of the embrace for instance is quite distinct to vampirism in this setting. It is ferocious, monstrous and quite inhuman. Thus, I think you're probably being slightly too reductionist regarding the source material. I have the second edition handbook and whilst I haven't read or played the tabletop game for years, its literary richness, character based story-telling and connections to the romantic poetry I loved at the time is what made me seek out Bloodlines when it came out.