Excerpt: Working Title: Vamp

“Okay Wayne. This is a multi pronged problem so I'm going to have to start and the very beginning and work it out from there. Understand?”

“Um...sure,” Wayne answered. He didn't.

Fiona nodded, sniffling slightly before throwing the tequila back for the first time. “Well, I suppose the first time I should tell you is that I'm a vampire.”

“Right,” Wayne scoffed, shaking his head at the murderer sitting next to him. “Can you turn into a bat?”

“Not yet,” the girl shrugged, looking over to Wayne. His face twisted in immediate confusion. “Okay um...every play any sports as a kid?”

“Tennis.”

Fiona nodded slightly, clearly searching her mind for information about the sport. “Okay um...you have to focus on learning to get the ball over the net before you can think about serving an ace right? And you have to hone that skill before moving on to your back swing right?”

“Well, kind of I guess...” Wayne shrugged.

“Right, it's kind of like that with the vampire power stuff. Every person has natural gifts and that means that every vampire has natural gifts. Some naturally work well with transformation so they can do the bat thing really quickly. Some have a lighter body mass and they can do the flying bit.”

“So what can you do?” Wayne shook his head, looking at the girl. How crazy was she?

“I have mental power. It's small but I can kind make people do what I want them to. Think of Renfield in Dracula. Or how vampires always draw women to them and seem to have them hypnotized before biting them. It's not cause the vamp's a babe or something, it's because they have the ability to take someone's mind...the ability to control someone's actions.”

“Oh come on, how am I supposed to believe that?” Wayne asked, shaking his head before taking a swig off the tequila.

“What other explanation do you have for you having not walked away yet?” Fiona laughed, looking towards Wayne again. The man's face shifted, confusion and understanding wiping over the odd features at the same time. He had thought to himself a thousand times since having met the girl that he should run, that he had the opportunity to run, and yet he hadn't. “Look at you Wayne. I'm not holding you here, we're sitting a foot away from each other...you haven't even given a second thought to the idea of taking off.”

“Could you make me do something that I didn't want to?” Wayne asked, truly scared for the first time since he got in the car with the woman. What could she make him do? What was she going to make him do?

“I could yeah, but then I would be totally drained because of the energy it takes for me to completely overtake someone. I don't practice the skill like other people with it do so I'm just not as good at it...”

“Why on Earth don't you practice it?!? You have magic fucking powers and you don't care enough to practice it?” Wayne asked, straight out laughing at the girl.

“It's not as easy as that asshole!” Fiona shot back, clearly defensive, before reaching over and smacking Wayne in the stomach. “The thing about focusing on your power is that you lose the humanity that you kept after being changed. The more you think about the things that make you super the less you think about this things that make you natural and before you know it they're not there anymore. I've known vamps who have completely lost their humanity and I don't want to be them.” Fiona shook her head.

“I still think you're crazy,” Wayne laughed turning back towards the front of the car, looking out over the park.

“Anyway, I need to keep your mind open and under my control while I
explain what I'm about to explain because it's important you hear what needs to be said because it's ever so slightly life or death.”

“Fine, whatever. It's not like I can leave apparently,” Wayne shrugged again and started to drink the tequila again as she listened to Fiona. It wasn't like he had a lot of options at this point in the game.