Vampires, demons and spectres are permanent elements of the world of terror. They are also used as symbols in texts devoted to political thought to emphasise the fear associated with negative phenomena. In this article, I argue that there is an analogy between tyranny and vampirism. In particular, I see vampiric features in Machiavelli’s ideal prince. The Florentine relativised the category of good and evil and recommended the ruler to use hidden motifs. A politician who is guided by this ideal works primarily for his or her own interest, which is to stay in power and the means to this end is a continuous game of appearances and hiding the motives of his or her behaviour. I argue for the thesis that this kind of behaviour is similar to the behaviour of a vampire, who is guided primarily by hunger and constantly hides and acts in the dark under the cover of the night to remain undiscovered.