The character of Bill belongs to Charliane Harris and Alan Ball. All other characters originate in my own warped imagination.

The Inca Princess

It always worried me a little that I couldn't pinpoint precisely when the pain stopped.

It was as if it had always been with me, a part of me, wound into my being like one of those creepers that grow on the oldest jungle trees. In the same way that you feel that the tree might die and still be held up by the vine, I felt that whatever happened to me, the pain would always be there. That it had come to define me in some way.

But it seems that you can get used to anything. Or at least I can. This new creature that he has made of me. That he made so easily and discarded just as easily.

At first it was a searing agony, when they first took me and placed me in the casket. The mere proximity of so much silver made me feel as though my flesh was on fire and I felt that I surely must die from the pain. The pain of the silver and the torment of the hunger. But I could not. He had explained this to me, and it appeared that he was right since I would not have thought it possible to endure so much agony and still live. This new creature could not die then, but it could suffer. The pain flowed over me like a fiery blanket, taking root in my flesh, in my bones. But after a while, a decade or two, it began to grow less. Or perhaps I was simply becoming used to it.

By now I had long given up hope that they would release me. A hope which had sustained me for the first long years of my imprisonment. My body had grown weaker, so weak that I was now unable to move at all. But it seemed that my mind was unaffected, had even, in fact, grown stronger and was able somehow to block out the pain. To push it to a corner of my mind and wall it off.

The strength to do this had come from the final acceptance that no-one would help me. I had spent many fruitless years hoping, praying that he would rescue me. My Maker, my lover, the man who had told me so often that he loved me. I had come only gradually and reluctantly to the terrible realisation that it had been he who had betrayed me. They had come for me during my daytime sleep and no other knew where I lay but him. Lazlo! I believe that it was this realisation, the acceptance of his terrible betrayal that changed me, enabled me to push the pain away. After that the strength of my mind seemed to wither in the same way as that of my body, as if I no longer wished to survive this horror. And at some point during the passing of the centuries, the pain faded away completely and I was not sufficiently conscious even to realise it.

There was one moment when I woke. One moment when I thought that perhaps I would be freed from this nightmare. The casket was opened and for a brief moment I felt hope. A man leaned over and looked down at me. I made an enormous effort and reached for his hand but something happened, something silver hanging around his neck touched me and I pulled my arm back. The lid closed again and I felt myself falling, falling back into the darkness, no longer even sure that I had not dreamed it.

Then, long after I had given up hope of rescue, he came. William Compton. He found me somehow, found the hidden crypt where I had lain for centuries. The lid of the casket was removed completely and I was aware of people looking in at me. I felt someone take my arm and I began to struggle, fearful that this was the beginning of some new torture. I understand now that they were trying to help me but at the time a wave of panic flooded over me as I felt others reach into the casket and hold me down. There was a sudden sharp pain in my arm and then, I can't quite describe what happened next. It was as if every muscle in my body went into a spasm at once, then I felt warmth and peace flow into me and I relaxed back into sleep, convinced that death had finally come to claim me at last.

However it appeared that I was mistaken. It was some time later, I don't know how long, that I felt my mind awakening again. Felt myself swimming up to the surface. I lay somewhere new, this was more comfortable, and there was no pain, no pain at all. I felt for its familiar touch, probing the corners of my consciousness, but it was gone completely. For a moment I lay absolutely still, fearing to move or even to think, in case this was some dream that I would awaken from. That if I opened my eyes I would see only the darkness. Then I realised that I could hear soft voices, close by, speaking in some unfamiliar language. I was so surprised that I opened my eyes without even thinking about it.

I was lying in a comfortable bed in a white room. I knew immediately that I had never been here before. This was a new place. I turned my head slightly and saw two people watching me. One was a girl. She had long blue/black hair almost the colour of my own and pale grey/blue eyes. I must have looked frightened because she smiled gently and took my hand. She said something which I didn't understand and then I saw him beside her. I knew immediately that he was a vampire, like Lazlo, like me. His dark brown hair stood out against the clear pallor of his skin, but I saw the gentleness and generosity in his brilliant blue eyes and my initial fear of him began to recede. He smiled down at me and reached above my head for a button which hung on a cable above the bed. He pressed the button and in moments the door opened and people began to crowd into the room. I almost panicked but the girl held my hand comfortingly and I began to calm down and the strangers began to examine me.

They told me his name later, the blue eyed vampire. At first I could not understand anything they said to me, but then the man who appeared to be in charge, a tall blond vampire who the others deferred to and was named Ulrich, brought a woman to help care for me. She was human and she spoke my language and also several others. I didn't realise at the time how unusual this was, I had no idea of how long I had slept, that everything I knew, my home, my people, were long gone into the mists of antiquity. I found that, very quickly, I began to make the connections between my language and theirs and soon I could understand them, and they, me.

They sat with me for hours, the blue eyed vampire and the dark haired girl. Talking to me, explaining where I was and how I had got there. How the world had changed while I slept. Others came and went, nurses, doctors, monitoring my recovery. They all seemed wary of me, taking a purely intellectual interest in my recovery, but not these two. He, in particular, seemed truly sympathetic to my situation, his empathy obvious from the pain in his clear blue eyes. The rest of the people, both human and vampire, showed considerable respect to these two, Bill and Alex, and I gradually began to appreciate what they had done for me. How they had learned my story from Ulrich and how Alex had risked her life to collect a copy of the manuscript which had been written by the one man who had seen me in all those centuries.

Brother Diego they called him, Diego Rodrigues. He had come to my land with the Spanish conquistadors and had been persuaded by one of my people to remove the casket to safety. I must admit that I found this ironic since it simply served to prolong my suffering. But Bill and Alex had managed to decipher the clues in the manuscript enabling them to lead Ulrich's team to my resting place and they had even managed to foil Lazlo's attempt to retrieve me. I owed them not only my life, but also my freedom.

Soon I was strong enough to get out of bed and Bill and Alex walked with me around the Authority's headquarters, exploring my new home. But I knew they would not stay for ever. They had their own lives to lead. I spent many hours with Ulrich and his fellow Chancellors answering their questions to the best of my ability. About my life, my suffering and about Lazlo. Ulrich also knew how I felt about Bill and when he came to me and said that Bill had agreed to care for me, as a Maker, as Lazlo should have done, my happiness was complete. We agreed that I would join Bill and Alex in England as soon as Ulrich's physicians thought that I was strong enough. The day could not come soon enough for me. I wished only to learn from him, to become like him, to learn about the world from Alex, but it soon became apparent that my new life was not to be without its difficulties.

It was as though I truly had awakened on a new world. I was stunned when Bill and Alex explained to me gently how long I had slept. I had not really had any conception of time passing and it was bitterly painful at first to realise that everything I knew was gone, for ever. This realisation only served to draw me closer to Bill, since it seemed to me that he was all I had now.

When I was first turned I had tried hard to hold onto my old life. I had stayed with my family, lived almost as I had before, until Lazlo tried to take me from them. But now I realised that I could no longer do this. I had to accept that I was different now, that I was vampire. Bill and Ulrich had tried to explain to me what this meant, answering my endless questions with commendable patience. They taught me that the original Testament, the vampire Bible, stated that vampires were created in the image of God and of the mother Lilith and that humans were created to be food for us, although I could tell that neither Bill nor Ulrich believed this literally. Indeed, both seemed to like and respect humans. Certainly Bill's relationship with Alex would have been frowned apon by the literal reading of the testament.

Bill and Alex left for England after a few weeks but soon Ulrich's physicians told him that I was well enough to leave and he and I travelled to England to meet them. I was a little shy at first but they greeted me like an old friend and I moved into Bill's house with them.

I had been living with Bill and Alex for about a month when Alex went away for a few weeks. Bill and I were together in the house each night and he began to pay more attention to me since we were constantly in each other's company. I asked him an endless stream of questions about Ulrich and the Authority and about his search for my resting place and he answered them with his usual patience. I was beginning to feel more comfortable in this new life and with him when, one night, I made a terrible and dangerous mistake.

Bill and I were alone in the house and I had been lying in a hot bath, reading for a while. I could hear him moving about downstairs in the lounge, restless, missing Alex. The hot water had relaxed me completely and I stepped out, dried myself and pulled on a silk robe that Bill had given me. As I walked downstairs I could feel the silk sliding over my warm skin with a delicious, smooth sensation, my long hair falling down my back. I stepped into the lounge and Bill turned to look at me. For just a second I thought I saw that look in his eyes that I remembered from Lazlo. The look that said that he wanted me. It was only there for a second but I was sure I saw it.

The memory of what Lazlo had done to me made me shiver with revulsion but somehow, the idea of Bill doing those same things made my flesh quiver with anticipation. I really didn't want to be doing this, but somehow, my body was bypassing any common sense I had.

He stood quite still watching me, his face a blank mask as I slipped the robe from my shoulders and stood naked before him on the rug. I felt his eyes run over my body and my mouth went dry. Bill took a step forward and I tensed slightly as he sank to one knee before me. I had a fraction of a second to wonder what he would do and then he reached forward and picked up the robe. He stood up and held it out to me without a word, watching me, his eyes dark with suppressed anger as I put it back on.

"This is not going to happen Azaria! Ever! Understand that!"

I sagged slightly with relief and relaxed, although there was disappointment in there too. My brain was buzzing with conflicting feelings and emotions as I pulled the robe back on. I fumbled with the sash, trying to avoid looking up into his eyes, but eventually I gave up and glanced upwards. Those brilliant blue eyes were fixed on mine, his head slightly on one side. He raised an eyebrow. "Well? Would you like to tell me what brought that on?" He asked quietly.

"Well, Ulrich said that you would teach me and I thought...I thought perhaps that was why you sent Alex away" I answered haltingly. "So that you could be alone with me."

Bill sat down on the sofa and looked down at the floor. I could see he was struggling to keep a smile off his face. He patted the sofa next to him and I sat down obediently beside him.

He looked at me very seriously. "Firstly, I did not send Alex away" he said. "In fact I would much rather she had not gone, but I understand that there are other things in her life besides me and she needs to have space and time to herself." He reached over and placed two fingers under my chin, turning my head to look at him as I had turned away in embarassment. "Secondly, if I had thought that Ulrich had the slightest intention of me teaching you anything of the kind I would never have agreed to this arrangement in the first place!" He stroked my cheek gently with a long, elegant finger and asked "whatever made you think I would?"

I looked down again, took a deep breath and replied in a small voice "Lazlo always expected me to have sex with him. He said it was normal between a vampire and their maker." Bill's fingers suddenly tightened painfully on my jaw. I looked up into a pair of hard, cold eyes.

"I am not Lazlo!" he hissed. "Do not ever, ever compare me to Lazlo!" I felt tears pricking at my eyes and I realised that they were tears of relief. Bill, however, evidently took them to be tears of pain as he released me instantly and pulled me into his arms. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. It's just...being compared to him...I can't bear that, not from you."

"But I offered myself willingly" I said. "Who would blame you?"

"I would!" he said simply. He hugged me close to him and said "forget Lazlo. Whatever he told you, forget it. I will care for you now." He reached up and gently brushed a lock of hair from my face. "Oh my dear! I do love you Azaria, but not in that way."

I blinked the tears from my eyes and gazed up at him, unsure of my feelings. He was handsome and kind, gentle and loving, my feelings for him were confusing me. My body was telling me that his proximity excited me and yet the memory of what Lazlo had done to me, terrified me. Suddenly something seemed to snap in my mind and I flung myself into his arms and wept with a mixture of fear and relief. Bill simply held me and let me cry in silence. When the sudden storm of tears had passed Bill released me and held me apart from him. "So, are you going to tell me what all that was about?" he asked.

I snuggled into his arms, trying to think of the words to tell him how much he meant to me. "Oh, Bill" I murmured "it's so hard to explain how I feel. When I was changed, I was just a child really. When Lazlo took me I had to grow up, fast. I didn't want to leave my family, my people, but I knew I couldn't be with them in the same way as I had before. I stayed with them as much as I could though, Lazlo glamoured them so that they didn't seem to notice my...difference. The fact that they only saw me at night, that I never changed. That became normal for them. But not for me. I loved my father dearly and yet, somehow I couldn't connect with him any more. I couldn't bear to have him hold me as he used to when I was a child. I felt different, hard, cold." I looked up at Bill. "It's been so long since someone held me like that, like this, just to comfort me. That's all I was looking for really, just some comfort. I'm sorry I...I do love you, as I loved him...but I was just confused."

Bill tightened his grip on me for a moment and dropped a gentle kiss on my forehead. "Then we'll just forget about it shall we?" he whispered.

I gave a little sigh of relief. For a terrible moment I had thought that I had ruined everything, spoiled my relationship with this wonderful man. But he was generous enough to forgive me, to understand.