Vampires aren't just big in the book world; they continue to take a bite out of TV, too.

It has been 10 years since the debut of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and 18 years since "Forever Knight" premiered, and the timing seems to be right for a batch of new TV-vamp projects.

Earlier this year Lifetime debuted the Canadian import "Blood Ties," based on the Tanya Huff book series about ex-cop-turned-private investigator Vicki Nelson (Christina Cox), who partners with a 450-year-old vampire (Kyle Schmid) to solve crimes. Naturally, there's a not-so-subtle sexual tension between them. "Blood Ties" returns with new episodes at 10 p.m. Oct. 12.

At 9 p.m. Sept. 28, CBS unveils "Moonlight," the story of Los Angeles private eye Mick St. John (Alex O'Loughlin, "The Shield"), a vampire who helps the living and shuns feeding on humans. He's also in love with a woman whose life he once saved, but he can't share his true self with her for fear she'd see him as a monster.

"I discovered Anne Rice when I was sort of late teens," O'Loughlin recalled last month. "I read the first five or six books of 'The Vampire Chronicles.' ... I loved her character development; I learned so much about the mythology of vampires through her storytelling and some of which she sort of took dramatic license with, but a lot is authentic."

Growing up on American TV in Australia, O'Loughlin said he was taken with "Lost Boys" and "The Hunger," and those films made him want to play a vampire.

He won't be the only actor to don fangs for TV: HBO has ordered its own vampire show starring Anna Paquin ("X-Men: The Last Stand"). "True Blood" will be executive-produced by Alan Ball ("Six Feet Under") and is based on Charlaine Harris' "Southern Vampire" novel series. It likely will premiere in 2008.