Novel series about half-vampire

Question

Novel I had from the library. I think it was part of a series, perhaps quite a long one. I've done a few web searches, but haven't succeeded in identifying it.

The protagonist is in some way half a vampire. This happened because he was in an accident somewhere remote, I think it was Transylvania but I'm not sure, and Dracula came along and saved his life by giving him a transfusion of his blood, but not biting him, or something like that. This leaves him in some way half a vampire. I don't remember the details of what that meant. He is not sure what Dracula's reasons were for saving him and is rather worried about it.

I have an idea his name was Christopher, but I'm not sure. That could even have been the author's name instead (or both, or neither).

He has, I think, some kind of scam going where a friend steals bags of blood from a hospital for him. He is rather guilty about this since even that is taking it away from people who need it, but he's got to live somehow.

There were many varieties of vampire in the book's universe. For instance, the protagonist's girlfriend or ex-girlfriend was able to walk through walls, and he mentioned that most vampires couldn't do this but she could because she was partly descended from the "wamphyri", the only ones who could.

I remember an incident where he is taken in by a priest who runs a secret haven for vampires and other magical beings. Somebody brings him a bowl of blood, from a human volunteer. He is not sure how he feels about this.

Answer 1

Could this be One Foot in the Grave by Wm. Mark Simmons, first book in the Half-Blood Chronicles?

From this review:

Christopher Csejthe was a nightime radio DJ, recovering from the death of his wife and daughter. He is also half a vampire, although he doesn't know it yet. He was infected when he was attacked and his wife and daughter were killed in a car crash. Now he is a wanted man -- the Domans of the Seattle vampire enclave and the New York vampire enclave want to investigate why he has not mutated into a full vampire. Chris only wants to live his life on his own terms. Except he has to deal with Barrarab, the first vampire, and Kaduth Bey, the Egyptian necromancer and a few other undead things.

Judging by this review, Dracula exists in this universe, as the other vampires think that Christopher is the key to finding this progenitor. Poking around some reviews, it seems Christopher is a direct descendent of Elizabeth Bathory as well.

Ah, and The Internet Archive has a copy that can be borrowed:

I lifted the first spoonful of soup to my mouth. "And this Bassarab? Just who is this guy?" I swallowed, feeling saliva flood my mouth and throat.

"As I said, we don't really know for sure." Mooncloud came and sat down across from me. "The Bassarabs were a great dynasty of the Vlachs, ruling Walachia and fighting off invasions by the Mongols, Turks, and Hungarians back in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Various princes ruled under the names Vlad I through Vlad IV. One of them was so bloody and evil that he was known as Vlad Drakul — which means Vlad the Dragon or Vlad the Devil — Drakul, with the diminutive 'a' added to the end."

I looked down at my bowl, which was nearly empty. "You're saying that this Bassarab is Count Dracula?"

A little later in that scene, Mooncloud, who helps tends to vampires in an Enclave where vampires can seek sanctuary, reveals that the "tomato soup" he's been eating is largely blood, which he is indeed not happy about.

In an earlier scene, Mooncloud establishes the vampire race as wampyr, so there is a match there too.

Found with a search for novel christopher wmphyri "half vampire"