[Phillip] “How long do I have to make a decision?”

[Albert] “I’m afraid I’ll need an answer before we part company today.”

Phillip bit his lip and gazed around the park. Albert had looked around before the arm demonstration. Presumably to make sure nobody was watching. But, the same people Phillip had noticed before had remained in their same positions, and Albert hadn’t been concerned about them.

Phillip wasn’t sure how they’d do it, but clearly he wasn’t walking away from here if he declined the offer. They had too much on the line. He’d planned on killing himself within a few hours anyway, so that didn’t actually frighten him.

But did it turn him off from wanting to become one of them? Knowing that, despite Albert’s words, they weren’t entirely above killing people to protect their secret?

Killing someone who was dying anyway wasn’t a valid excuse in a court of law. But could it pass his own ethical bar?

If he’d wanted to let his disease run its course, he’d have had maybe another two weeks to live. Personally, he felt they would be doing him a favor, but there were people who would have wanted to hang on to every last minute.

Did those few weeks of a single human’s life weigh more than the potential lives of what was likely hundreds…maybe thousands of vampires? Worldwide it could be tens of thousands. Or even hundreds of thousands. And if a legitimate claim to the vampires’ existence was made, it could truly cost them all.

He didn’t like it, but he understood it. Maybe he was being selfish, but it wasn’t a deal-breaker.

“Okay.” Phillip lifted his chin and stared into Albert’s eyes. “Where do we do this?”

Albert grinned widely, and his eyes positively shone as he took Phillip’s hands and gave them a squeeze. The gesture felt oddly comforting. “We find it safest to handle the conversion immediately, before leaving.”

Wait. What? Images of people in movies being all but drained, then buried overnight to complete the transition ran through Phillip’s mind. Apparently, that kind of thing fell firmly in the myth category Albert had mentioned. Or maybe the man was just pulling his chain after all. It was one hell of a hoax if that was what was going on, and he had no idea how he’d done the arm thing, but surely not any more difficult to believe than Albert being a vampire.