House of the Vampire

"e;He felt the presence of the hand of Reginald Clark ― unmistakably ― groping in his brain as if searching for something that had still escaped him. He tried to move, to cry out, but his limbs were paralyzed. When, by a superhuman effort, he at last succeeded in shaking off the numbness that held him enchained, he awoke just in time to see a figure, that of a man, disappearing in the wall that separated Reginald's apartments from his room…"e;This vampire doesn't want the blood from your veins; he's after the ideas in your head. The hypnotic Reginald Clarke chooses his victims for their artistic abilities, charms them, and discards them after robbing them of their gifts. Originally published in 1907, this gothic novella was among the first stories of its type and remains a gripping tale of psychic vampirism.