I still cannot believe the audacity that he blew Jonathan a kiss

A promise for what's to come. A cruel, mocking promise, because Dracula's kisses mean death. And think of this particular biblical allusion: "with a smile that Judas in hell might be proud of."

Judas in Hell. Now, for anyone who does not know, Judas is the most despised figure in Christianity, so much so that the most recognizable depiction of Hell in media, Dante's Inferno, gives him the eternal punishment of being eaten by the Devil himself. Why is he so hated? Cough, cough, antisemitism, but besides that-- He was the apostle who betrayed Jesus to the Romans. For 30 silver pieces, he led the Romans to where Jesus was and marked him with a kiss.

This imagery of a kiss that brings death is adopted into vampiric lore, so much so that Judas is sometimes considered to be the first vampire. A weakness to cross-imagery (trauma from betraying Jesus), a compulsion to drink blood (Jesus having his apostles drink his blood/wine), a weakness to the sun (it's said that he hung himself just before sunrise, also the sun is considered the physical representation of god). Short vampire stories like A Kiss of Judas by Julian Osgood Field make all vampires directly related to Judas. Some adaptations of Dracula even go the extra mile and just make Dracula's backstory that he was Judas.

Like Judas kissing Jesus, Dracula blowing a kiss to Jonathan marks him for slaughter. The Romans seized Jesus as the Weird Sisters were meant to seize Jonathan, but he got away, escaping death like how Jesus ultimately escaped death. And, in the same way Judas kissing Jesus was the catalyst for Jesus becoming a martyr and dying for humanity's sins, Dracula biting Jonathan is its own catalyst.

A catalyst for what? Read the goddamn book, I'm not allowed to say.