The day I decided to give up dancing was one of the longest and hardest in my life. I pondered it for weeks. With each passing moment of consideration, a little more of me died.

Some decisions are strengthening, like when you make positive steps towards becoming more responsible or take the higher road in a tough situation. Doing what is right will always make you a stronger person, even if it hurts. Other choices can destroy you. I'm talking about the ones that make you feel so guilty inside, it appears you might wither and die.

It took time and many long train rides through the European countryside, but after a while I realized that giving up ballet was the right choice. After getting kidnapped, I was faced with a different choice, and this one made the previous look like cake. Just like the last, I felt a small part of me wither.

After Caius left me with an ultimatum, he relocated me to a new room. Anghor Manor, he called his abode. Although he got the definition of manor wrong, because it was very nearly a castle.

When he showed me to my bedroom suite, he told me in his rich accent, "These are to be your accommodations for all of eternity. Unless you decide to die before eternity comes to pass." He said this with a sadistic grin like he was Dracula, and my life merely a game.

I didn't find anything funny about his rude joke. Just before leaving me on my own, he told me that I was permitted free range of the manor. "Do not try to leave; you will find the doors secured."

The first day I was too frightened to venture beyond my new haven, but eventually hunger drove me out. I was never told where I would find the kitchen, so I began an exploration of Anghor Manor that lasted many days. I found the kitchen of course, but I also stumbled across much more.

Caius was correct: every single door and window to the outside world was hardwired into the high-tech alarm system. Each had its own keypad, and without the code, wouldn't open. After trying to guess the code several times, triggering the alarm, I admitted defeat.

Not long after I set off the alarms, I tried to escape through other means. There were computers around the manor, but every single laptop computer was locked with a password. There were no phones since these vamps all used cell phones of their own. The security seemed a bit extreme. I couldn't understand why they'd gone to such great lengths against me, that is, until I realized I wasn't the only prisoner here.

I didn't see them at first—the other girls. Once I discovered them, I figured out where all my clothes had come from. It was quite a shock the day I stumbled across Adel. Eventually, she became my first true friend in what I began to consider a gilded cage.

"You don't look like a vampire. Did they take you too?" I asked when I discovered her in the hallway outside my room. She didn't speak great English, but yes, they'd taken her too. After a long conversation, mostly whispered, I learned that she and the other girls were never given the option I was, to become a vampire or die. Why was that?

When she heard my fate, the choice I'd been given, her eyes grew wide before she turned and left me standing in the shadowy hall. It wasn't exactly the reassurance I was looking for. All I could think was, becoming a vampire was a horrible act to be avoided, so I had every intention of doing so.

Felix still visited me daily. I told you I was growing on him. In time, I began to see him as less of an enemy. I also came to understand why his gaze was so hungry: he was a vampire and I, a human.

I read in some stories that Vampires were seductively good looking. I found that to be true. Every male and female vamp I'd seen was jaw dropping good looking. So much for creepy Dracula and red eyes.

As the days passed, I began to wonder about Adel. One day I mustered up enough courage to ask Felix. "I met another woman recently. Fancy that. Why are there other women here?"

"There are other women here? Humans?" He wasn't the greatest actor.

"Don't play dumb! Come on. What's the deal? Why are they here?" What I really wanted to know was, why were the other women treated differently? I wasn't sure how far I should push my luck.

Felix was quiet for a minute before answering. "To understand that, Cece, there is much you must learn about our culture."

I waited, finally lifting my brows and telling him to enlighten me.

"Vampires do not believe in draining our snacks dry. Well, let me restate that, vampires who follow the true vampire code, do not believe in draining a human dry. There are plenty of rogues who love nothing more—your friend Thrax for example. They get a certain high from it."

"Thrax was not my friend!"

Felix ignored my protests. "When you drain a human dry, they die, but they are not truly dead. They turn, and when they next open their eyes, if they are in the sunlight, then they truly die. If they aren't, then they get very hungry. Can you guess what they crave?"

Was this a trick question? "Um. Blood?"

"Yes. If they get it, their turning becomes permanent. You've already heard the term night-walker."

"What's so different between a vampire and a night-walker?"

He sat back against the sofa, relaxed, as if he gave this lecture regularly. "Vampires are day walkers. Anytime walkers. More importantly we have self-control, unlike night-walkers, whose thirst for blood is never quenched. Vampires do not have this problem. Furthermore, we don't feel the need to bite every living thing with a heartbeat."

"Is that why you haven't bitten me? Because you have self-control?"

"Partially. Mainly because Caius commanded us not to."

Well, that was news. "So why are they here then? The girls?" I had a hunch, but I wanted to hear him say it.

"Can you not guess?" He studied me for a moment. "Very well. The girls serve two purposes, blood, obviously, and they work at Caius's club."

It took me a moment to register all that he'd said. Those poor girls! Some of them were still in their late teens. A few of them looked to be in their early twenties. "How many are there?"

"Twenty? Twenty-five? Give or take a few." He winked.

I shook my head. It was sick! Completely sick. But was I really surprised? They were vampires, and their whole world was fucked-up. Most likely it was a world they hadn't chosen, but I had a choice.

A new thought crossed my mind. "When you say they work at the club, do you mean Fluxx?"

Felix nodded.

"What exactly do you mean by work?" I was afraid to know.

"They dance."

My mouth opened, and then closed. It wasn't the answer I was expecting. "You mean, Caius isn't—he isn't selling them off as sex slaves or anything?"

He grunted, as if the thought disgusted him as much as it did me. He also looked at me like I was crazy. "They serve us with their blood—that is enough."

"Oh." Thank heavens!

Our conversation didn't go much further than that. As I've said before, Felix wasn't one for giving many answers. I was surprised I got as much out of him as I did. But, I still had one burning question: why was I given a choice when the other girls weren't?

If I chose to become a vampire, Caius had promised me freedom. Or at least, he said I could come and go as much as the others did. I'm sure he'd give me the passwords to the doors and I'd be allowed to do what I wanted. There would be no going back to my old life. Then again, I had no old life to return to.

After my conversation with Felix, I spent a lot of time with Adel. I wanted more information about Anghor Manor, about her job at Fluxx, about the outside world, since she got further out of the manor than I ever did.

"I work three days—Thursday through Saturday. It is only time I truly happy." She smiled as she told me; she didn't smile often.

"Because you get fresh air? Because you can get out of here for a little while?"

She shook her head. "No, because I dance."

Her words shocked me for a number of reasons. I was left wondering what her old life had been like. Why did she love dancing so much? Would I be allowed to dance at Fluxx for a chance to get out of Anghor Manor? Could I find a way of escaping Fluxx easier than I could my current cage? Was Fluxx my key to being free? So many questions were flashing through my mind.

"When I dance," Adel explained in her broken English, "I am free. The music wash over me, and I dance."

"Is it a stripper kind of dancing?" I tried to remember if I'd seen the dancers when Thrax had taken me to Fluxx. Yes, there had been dancers. I recalled barred cages set on pedestals all over the huge dance club. There had been girls in those cages, scantily clad girls, but they hadn't stripped.

"No, Cece. No. Never take clothes off. But the people—they like watching us. Some of us girls truly good."

"What about you?"

She smiled shyly. "Me? I not too good. But I try maybe."

I was sure she was better than she gave herself credit for. "Do you think I would be allowed to do it? To dance I mean?" No! I tried to tell myself. No dancing. No! No! No! Even if it wasn't ballet, I'd left that life behind. I couldn't resurrect it. I feared that dancing of any kind would be like pouring salt on an open wound.

"I—I don't know." Adel was hesitant. "Maybe?"

A new hope sprang up inside of me, and so did a plan.

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