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led me straight back to Bronx’s crazy story. He is a vampire. I am a vampire too.
    “Are you doing this to me? Are you making me sick? Is that your gift?” I peered up at him, and his eyes were still locked on me.
    In a swish of cloth he was holding me, cradling me in his arms like a baby. I didn’t see him pick me up, never saw him move. He sat me back down on the sofa. He sat beside me, close, too close. He held my hand, gently squeezing. His touch, our closeness, made my insides burn. I tried to pull away. His grip tightened. I was stuck. My body felt exhausted, and I didn’t want to fight him anymore. I swallowed hard. “I don’t feel right. What’s happening to me?” The words sounded strained.
    “Most vampires do not have special gifts. That is what makes the Enforcers so powerful. Years ago I discovered that I could use persuasion at a level far more intense than any other. All vampires possess this ability but most are not very skilled at it, and none can use it on other vampires like I can. Persuasion enhances your emotions beyond the intense ones you are now beginning to feel as a vampire. It allows you to persuade people to do anything you want in a way that makes your victim feel like they are acting on their own. I used persuasion to make you feel comfortable with me earlier this evening; however, I am not using it on you at this time. It may have felt like you were hypnotized if you were even able to notice it at all. Most humans do not realize I am using persuasion until long after they have done what I wanted. Though most never notice it at all.”
    The trance-like state I was in earlier must have been this “persuasion” he spoke of. Everything had felt normal, but it wasn’t. I knew something was off, but I couldn’t do anything about it. I was his puppet. He was the puppet master. He controlled me—what I thought, what I felt. He got inside my head and made me love him, trust him, feel completely at ease with him, and then he lured me to this place so he could destroy me, break me, and really make me his forever.
    I shook my head rapidly, trying to shake away the truth—the truth I didn’t want to know. Ignorance is bliss. Leave my mind in the dark. But it was too late for that. I knew this was real. I was a vampire. My body was weak, exhausted, starving. Blood. It wanted blood. I wanted blood. No! My neck was stiff. I swallowed hard, rotated my shoulders until they popped. It didn’t help. This new reality dropped down on me like an avalanche, weighing my body down and suffocating my mind. I slumped back into the sofa and closed my eyes.
    “Abigail,” Bronx said, voice like a sadistic melody. “You are desperately in need of more blood, and you will continue to grow weaker until you get some.”
    “How could you do this to me?” My voice was broken, small. I slowly opened my eyes and glared at him. “Shouldn’t I have had a choice?”
    “I did not have a choice when I was transformed. It turned out to be the best decision for me.” There was a blur of movement and then he wasn’t sitting next to me anymore. He stood above me, smiling slightly, no show of fangs, just shiny white teeth, glistening, sparkling.
    “But I have a life,” I said, tears streaming down my face. “I had a life. And you took it away from me. What am I supposed to say to my family? To my friends? They’re going to notice me missing.”
    “You seem to forget that I watched you long before I decided to transform you. You have been alone for the past six months.”
    “That’s not true.” I coughed to clear my throat, trying to raise the volume of my voice. It didn’t work. “I do have friends. I mean, a friend. And what about my coworkers?” Had I really let myself become such a loner? Yep. I sure had. How freaking convenient for Bronx.
    “Your coworkers are hardly your friends,” he said. “A phone call to your boss explaining your absence at work should buy you time to decide on a more permanent