J is for Jugular - The Vein of Life

YAY!! We didn't get whisked away to the land of Oz! The storms lost their gusto and the clouds parted, so we just got rain. And I promised you a good quality post today, so here's my go at it!

The jugular vein. The vein of life. And the vein of choice for most vampires. Why? Well, here's a short anatomy lesson for you. 

The jugular is the vein in your neck that delivers blood (that has already delivered its oxygen to the brain and face and neck) back to the heart. This way your head doesn't fill up with blood and pop. That would be messy and gross. There are two jugular veins on either side of your neck, and external and an internal. Both carry blood back to the heart, just grabbing the blood from different places. The blood that gets returned to the heart gets recycled, refilled with oxygen, and pumped back to other places. It's one of the easiest targets and one of the quickest ways to bleed a person to death.

But that's not quite what the vampires in the Daughters of Night series are going for.

Most people assume that vamps all go for the jugular because it's the main vein in the neck. And sure, They all start out going for the easy kill, because the jugular is easiest to get to, as you can see from both pictures. But these vamps have developed richer tastes. They want fresh blood, full of oxygen. They go for the carotid artery (the red one in the second pic, labeled #5. It's hidden by the jugular vein, and by some muscle tissue, so the vamps have to go in at an angle. But they don't mind the extra work. The blood in the carotid artery is much richer in flavor, very worth the effort. 

Yeah, most of the time, they'll go for the quick and easy way by hitting the jugular. It's like when we run through the drive-thru on our way home when we don't feel like cooking a nice meal. But the blood in the carotid artery to the vampires is like having a giant, well-seasoned, perfectly marbled, expertly prepared steak cooked perfectly. Or whatever your all-time favorite meal is, cooked perfectly. I know, not everyone is a huge meat-eater like me. :)

So there you have it folks. The jugular is like the drive through, and the carotid is like a perfect meal that makes your taste buds dance with delight. (Insert disturbing mental image of your taste buds dancing. Good luck trying to sleep tonight...hehe.)

Join us tomorrow for K Day. Who knows what K may bring!! :D