"Not thirsty that way. I mean…" I made brief eye contact with a woman carrying a tray from the taco place as she passed our table. "I really want a Diet Coke right now."
The woman paused at the table and handed me her drink with a glazed look in her eyes.
"Here you go." And then she continued walking.
I looked at the drink in my hand before taking a sip. It was a Diet Coke with lots of ice. I frowned deeply. "Okay, now that's definitely weird."
George's eyes slowly and steadily widened. "Um… what just happened?"
I shrugged. "Same thing happened in the lingerie store. I said I wanted the robe in there and the girl wrapped it up for me and gave it to me for free."
There was silence at the table for a moment and I took another sip of my free beverage.
Amy suddenly gasped. "Oh, my God, Sarah."
"What?"
"Maybe you have the thrall!"
"The what?"
"The thrall," she repeated. "It's when a vampire can control other people with the power of their brains and make them do things!"
I frowned. "It's really called the thrall?"
She waved a hand. "I heard that term somewhere."
I considered what I'd learned about vampires since becoming one and also took into consideration what I knew from movies and television.
Mind control was definitely on the list.
I chewed my bottom lip. "No, that's got to be impossible."
"What is going on?" George asked.
Amy took the liberty of filling him in on everything she knew about my curse.
Thus far, my symptoms included:
The desire to bite necks. Gross.
Potential death by sunlight. Horrible.
Inability to enter somebody's home without an invite. Inconvenient.
Extra strength. Kind of cool.
Potential mind control. Uh… wicked!
Perhaps an experiment was in order. I made eye contact with George. "Give me your magazine."
He held it against his chest. "Go get your own."
Hmm. Maybe it only worked on the nonvampire members of society.
I stood up, looked around, and walked out of the food court and into the nearest store. It sold electronics and literally buzzed with customers and merchandise. I quickly browsed the shelves and picked up an MP3 player.
"Excuse me," I said to the first employee I saw.
"Yes? Can I help you?"
I held up the device and made eye contact with the guy, a teenager with bad skin and an awkward smile. "I want this. Can I have it?"
His eyes glazed over and the smile fell away. "Of course you can."
"For free?"
He nodded. "Yes. I will put it into a bag for you." He took it from me, removed the security features that would make the alarm go off as I left the store, put it in a bag, and thrust it in my direction. "Please enjoy the rest of your evening."
Sweet.
But then I frowned and looked down at the small bag. What was I doing? This wasn't right. I was stealing.
When I turned I saw that George stood behind me. He smiled very widely at me. "I needed an MP3 player. This is so awesome!"
I shook my head. "I can't do this."
"What? Of course you can. We are going on a major shopping spree. Did I mention that I totally forgive you for biting me?"
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then I walked through the store so I could hand the bag back to the employee.
He frowned. "What?"
"I can't take this."
"But you wanted it."
I met his very eager but glazed eyes. "I'd rather see you do five jumping jacks right now."
He did them.
With a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, I turned around and left the store quickly.
Butch was waiting outside with his huge arms crossed in front of him. He raised an eyebrow.
I visited a few more stores and it was the same. Anyone I made eye contact with would hand over anything, possibly including their firstborn child, if I asked for it.