The orderly opened his eyes; I waited patiently for the reality of his dire situation to set in.
His eyes darted around in panic, finding himself in a hospital bed rather than tending one. I watched his shoulder lurch as he attempted to use his hand, but I had already told him he couldn’t use his arms or legs; he’d simply forgotten — also my doing. Did you know screaming sounds a lot like someone gasping for breath when they can only whisper? That was when I stood up from my comfortable chair. He recognized the illusion I had planted into his mind.
“Ms. Johnson?” he whispered. I could have heard him were I on the opposite side of the assisted-care facility, but I was playing a part: the kind, gentle, and elderly Vivian Johnson who had come to stay a week before.
I leaned in close, feigning confusion. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”
“Help me!” he said, sounding a bit horrified.
“No, no. You said something else before that…”
“Please!” he gasped again, but his inability to achieve any actual volume only terrified him more.
Good; I had his attention.
I took his chin into my hand and forcefully turned his head toward me. “It feels different when you’re on this end, doesn’t it? Helpless and entirely dependent upon someone else. You can’t walk around, you can’t lift anything, and that bed is your entire world.”
“How…how did I get here? How did I get like this?”
“Tsk, tsk. You’re asking the wrong question.”
The terror in his eyes turned to confusion. I glanced down at his uniform, reminding myself to use the name on his badge.
“Tucker, do you think you’ve treated your patients with the dignity and respect they deserve?”
A slow realization set in as his features softened and reflected genuine guilt…or at the very least the acknowledgment he’d earned his predicament. He wasn’t a complete idiot.
“I’ve been watching you, Tucker. You’re cruel and thoughtless. You’re too rough with your patients, you don’t listen to them, and they hear you when you dismiss them under your breath. The only thing that gives you any pleasure is seeing the fear in the eyes of your charges when they realize it’s you being sent to assist them. Do you enjoy that kind of power, having trained everyone to be afraid of you?”
Confusion played across his face. With luck, maybe he realized there was no excuse for his actions.
“Well, I don’t have the kind of time you’ve had to earn that fear, so I’ll skip ahead if that’s all right.”
I let Tucker watch my transformation. In his mind, Vivian opened her mouth to show him her piercing fangs, looked upon him with blackened eyes, and snatched up his arm with taloned fingers. As his heart raced and his skin oozed sweat, I ran my mouth close over his arm, even letting one fang rake his flesh ever so slightly. The entire bed vibrated with his trembling.
I wouldn’t have bit him, of course. I imagined his blood tasted like hate and raw sewage.
“Am I dead?” Tucker asked. “Is this Hell? Did I die?”
I couldn’t resist a toothy grin. “Is that what you want, what you think you deserve? I can grant your wish…”
“No!” He didn’t blink; he didn’t even breathe.
I casually released his arm and placed it next to him. “No? Then what do you deserve for your sins?”
Oh — he wasn’t going to cry, was he?
I pulled in the fangs and talons and allowed my eyes to become normal. “How about we consider this a preview, hmm? A taste of things to come, when you’ve reached your golden years and things begin to break down — ”
“I’ll do better,” he pleaded. “Just fix this!”
“That won’t do, Tucker,” I explained. “You’re going to quit. You’re going to find another profession where you can’t intimidate people who have to depend upon you. I want you to think hard about the way you’ve treated others and how you’d like to be treated.” I leaned in close, lowering my volume to a whisper. “Because I will be watching you for the rest of your life. If you return to your old ways, I’ll know, and while I may not come to you immediately, rest assured I will…and you’ll wish you were only bedridden after what I’ll do to you.”
Tucker nodded, still looking afraid.
I looked him dead in the eyes. “You can move your arms and legs again, Tucker, and your voice is no longer restricted to a whisper. After you leave this room, you will be able to see me as I am and see the real Vivian Johnson again.” While the thrall was in place, he wouldn’t remember I had given him any commands. I released him and said, “You can go now.”
He tested his arms; his hands worked. He cleared his throat and spoke in a normal tone. “Thank you…”
Still appearing as Vivian, my eyes blackened and my voice deepened. “Don’t thank me — get the hell out of my bed!”
Tucker scrambled like a caught cockroach to get out of the room.
Vivian couldn’t help but laugh. “Thank you,” she said after he was gone, “for putting the fear of you in him.”
“People like him should never be hired to work in places like this, but limited resources and finding good folks to help take care of others isn’t easy.”
“Or a good vampire?” she added.
“What I did just now wasn’t exactly good…”
Vivian touched my arm. “I know Cedarcrest Sanctum doesn’t have the resources to monitor every assisted-living facility in West Virginia, but this thing we did, dropping me off and looking around a bit? We should keep doing that.”
I smiled. “It’s still risky. Something could happen to you.”
“Not ghouled on your blood, it won’t. So…where to next?”
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No, it’s not mind-altering or earth-shattering, but there it is. A firm handshake simply isn’t a full-body catch-and-release embrace. Hugs are more intimate and more empathetic; they offer trust and earn trust in return. There’s even brain chemistry science behind it, such as in 
It’s true that a victim won’t fall immediately unconscious, but you’re neglecting the amount of blood a vampire needs to survive and how frequently they need it. Single pints (standard units of blood) are donated all the time at the Red Cross with few ever passing out; would it surprise you to know that a Vampire can subsist on as little as this each night? Sure, they may be a bit irritable and need much more if they’re healing from a grievous wound, but it’s enough. Ideally, three pints are more than adequate — three meals a night, if you prefer — and no one needs to die. If a Vampire chooses to feed once and get on with their evening, a victim could still survive this even if they pass out (and they certainly would).
Playing down the romantic angle for a moment, Vampires can mesmerize their victims. You knew that, right? What may look like willing submission doesn’t have to be, but a smart Vampire will find willing donors they can come back to. Bodies stacking up can be a problem, and anyone who watches “Forensic Files” knows how hard it is to disappear bodies in many places. Why bother? It’s not laziness, it’s efficiency.
Having shot down the “zombie theory” that being bitten turns a victim every time, this also kills the grade-school penny-doubling math-calc that wipes out the human race in thirty-four months. To be fair, Daybreakers was a fun movie about exactly that scenario (all except for the hilarious “cure” part), but the other factor missing is Vampires actively destroying one another competing for that blood bank. Did you think being turned made you instant friends? Nope, because Vampire are alpha predators, not pack-loving werewolves. In the same way killing off your food supply is bad for business, allowing other Vampires to roam your fiefdom is a signal to all that you’re either foolish or vulnerable.
None of our residents have parents still living, and while many hold out hope that their sons or daughters might call, this usually isn’t the case. We’ll be doing something for all of them later this evening — as we do every year.
Our town of Glenville, West Virginia, is small — a little over 1,500 people — but unlike much of The Mountain State, the population is increasing. Glenville State College has expanded, like the Waco Center that opened a few years back providing a field house for the college and the county — so named for the significant donations made by Waco Oil & Gas founders Ike and Sue Morris (names that are hard to avoid in these parts). My grandparents enjoyed the weekly publications of 
Sometimes they use names like Dracula, Lestat, Carmilla, or some other literary undead character. They may further claim they are old or even ancient…you know, however far back their social media settings will allow them to go. The bad part, however, is some folks argue and/or DEMAND that other users treat them as the real deal — even if the other users aren’t role-playing. My favorites are the ones trying to be mysterious using cryptic phases like “you don’t know me” or “pray we never meet.”
Of course, the best idea is I could remove that stake…but there would be conditions.
We have alarms at Cedarcrest Sanctum for various reasons, not the least of which is a trespasser on the property. With the safety of our residents being paramount, we monitor for several possible emergencies, but imagine my surprise when a flooding alarm went off. As someone who sleeps deep in a hole in the ground, flooding is not high on my list of favorite things. Fortunately, the flooding was traced to a pipe that had broken due to a freeze, but we had to carry equipment down into a sub-basement to pump out the water. Truthfully, I was doing a lot of the carrying.
Cedarcrest Sanctum 