The usual disclaimers apply: the character of Bill Compton belongs to Charlaine Harris and Alan Ball. All the others are my own.

Resurrection

I can recall every one of their faces, the men who murdered me, even after all this time. The faces of many of those that I had known and loved were gone now but theirs I would never forget, or forgive, even though they were long dead.

I remember, as clearly as if it were only yesterday, how they had ambushed me. Although they were only mortal there were too many of them and they attacked too fast. By the time I realised what was happening it was already too late. I had never even considered that such a thing could possibly come to pass! Was I not the mother of all vampires? The Queen of the demons of the night? I killed many of them I know, but it was not enough. I could not understand how they would even dare to attempt such a thing…and yet they did.

It was clear that I was not the first. I could tell by their actions that they had killed others of my children before this. When they drove the wooden stake into my heart they evidently expected that it would destroy me instantly and when it did not they hesitated. In those few seconds I managed to kill another two of them but I knew that it was too late to save myself. As I weakened they drew knives and swords and cut my body into pieces, leaving what was left of me in a pool of blood beside the road. However this was to prove their undoing.

For some time afterwards I drifted in darkness amongst the stars, cursing myself for my foolishness in not anticipating that our human herd might find the courage to fight back. Then I felt something. A tugging sensation as though someone had set a hook in my flesh and was pulling on the line. Curious, I allowed myself to be drawn back to the world and looked down to see a number of my children clustered around the remains of my broken body. I watched as they collected as much of my blood as was left and divided it amongst them. They each then left that accursed spot heading in different directions and disappearing silently into the night.

I have no knowledge of the length of time, perhaps thousands of years, during which I drifted, unseeing, unknowing in the darkness. I could vaguely feel a connection to the blood which my children had collected but, as it was scattered in so many places no individual one had the power to call me. But gradually the numbers began to dwindle as my children were driven into hiding, until eventually only two remained and I found that the connection was strong enough for me to find the places where they were kept. One was held in a shrine in Byzantium and one in a shrine in the hills outside Thebes in Egypt. This much I discovered from the minds of the keepers.

You must understand that I did not truly grasp at the time what had happened to me. Over time I began to see that, although my body had been destroyed I, the essence of what I was, somehow continued. And I gradually came to the conclusion that this was due to the blood. I was connected to it somehow. So long as it continued to exist, then so would I, at least in this fashion. I found that my strongest connection was to the blood held at the shrine in Thebes and I assumed that this was because it was a greater amount than that held in Byzantium. I felt at home in the Theban shrine and became very fond of the vampire Mekure who created it. I discovered that I was able to visit him in dreams and speak with him, although at first he was reluctant to believe that what he dreamed was really true.

I began to spend more time at this shrine during the cold desert nights when Mekure and his followers were awake. Whilst they slept I drifted in seemingly empty space. Although I discovered that it was not, in fact, empty at all. I was aware that I was not alone. There were others here with me, other immortals who were no longer able, for whatever reason, to walk the earth in mortal form. Ancient Gods of ancient peoples who either no longer existed or, more often than not, no longer believed in them. However, they appeared unable to leave this place whilst I could return to the blood shrines at will. I wondered why this should be so and came to the same conclusion, that it was the blood which held me. While the blood still existed, and vampires still came to worship at the shrines so I would continue to exist. If it were to be lost then perhaps I would fade away as these others had done.

I had learned much from the minds of the keepers. I discovered that the story of my hideous murder had been kept alive amongst my children. Passed down through the generations from Maker to Child until, at some point in some place in the Middle East, men discovered how to record information on clay tablets and on stone and eventually on treated animal skin and papyrus. Then my story had finally been written down, together with everything which I had taught my children. As the centuries passed and people became more numerous so did vampires increase in numbers and the story spread around the world. I felt myself becoming stronger and more powerful as my children multiplied and visited the shrines to worship their Mother Goddess.

One night I felt a call from Mekure my keeper at Thebes and found him kneeling before the statue in the shrine. This statue was a magnificent creation carved from a deep red stone which my worshippers had arranged to be brought there from a quarry in Upper Egypt. It depicted me seated upon a marble throne holding between my hands the stone jar containing the sacred blood. It had come to be customary for images of me to show me covered with blood, this representing both my terrible death at the hands of the sons of Adam and also the sustenance required by my children.

I settled myself in the shrine and listened to the thoughts in his mind as he prayed to me. I was surprised to discover that he considered himself to be very old since he did not seem so to me, but then I was considerably older than any other creature I knew of other than he who had created me. Mekure wished to pass on the responsibility of Keeper of the Shrine to another. It appeared that he had someone in mind, a child of his whom he had chosen for the task. I made the effort of will required to appear as a vision in his mind and saw a smile appear on his lips as he perceived my presence.

"Who is this child my old friend?" I asked with a smile of my own.

"She is a noble lady, as is only fit and proper in your keeper, Mother" he answered. "A daughter of the Pharaoh, her name is Berenice."

"Bring her to me that I may judge her" I said. "I will miss you my friend, promise me you will return to visit me?"

"Of course Mother!" he bowed his shaven head and backed out of the shrine.

Some few nights later he brought a young woman before me. She was small and dark haired with great dark eyes wearing a short, white linen shift. She was Berenice and she joined Mekure in tending the shrine. After she had served for some years I began to appear to her in visions and in dreams and soon I was as familiar with her as I had been with Mekure. Over time Mekure came less and less often to the shrine until eventually Berenice informed me that he had left Egypt and given the shrine over into her keeping.

I visited the other shrine at Byzantium frequently as well but when it was dismantled and moved to the New World I made the decision to remain in Egypt. The guardians of the Byzantium shrine consisted of a group of vampires who called themselves "The Authority". I had always found it easier to influence, or to control a single keeper and the members of the Authority changed too frequently for my liking.

Berenice would occasionally bring visitors to the Theban shrine and I found it interesting to observe them although I very rarely made my presence known to them. After a while they all blended together in my mind except for one who stood out as very different.

She came to me one night and asked if she might bring someone to the shrine. I was intrigued as she had never requested my permission before and I asked her why this was different. She explained that everyone who had visited the shrine before was from Egypt or from the East as the very existence of the shrine was not generally known outside of Egypt, but that this vampire was from the New World.

"Then how does he know of the shrine?" I asked.

She bowed her head before me. "I told him of it Mother" she whispered. "I learned that he was working in the Valley of the Goddess, Meretseger, "She who Loves Silence" and I sent two of our children to fetch him to me. He had read the Testament but it was clear that he did not believe the truth of it. Did I do wrong in revealing the existence of the shrine?"

"Not at all my child. The shrine could only be endangered by many mortals becoming aware of its location at once. The few who find it are dealt with as befits our prey."

I watched her for a moment. "What do you think of him my child?" I asked.

"I like him Mother" she answered, at once. "He is young but he is so different from anyone I have met before. But since he works with humans who dig for the tombs of the old kings, perhaps it would not be wise to bring him to the shrine?"

"Bring him child" I ordered. "He sounds interesting. I will search his mind and if he means to betray us to the sons of Adam then I will destroy him."

I felt a surge of concern from her mind and wondered what this vampire could have done to make such an impression on her. She had always been completely dedicated to my service and had appeared quite uninterested in worldly things. I was even more determined to see him and make my own judgement.

A few nights later I felt Berenice approach the shrine and knew that she was not alone. I watched as she brought a strange vampire down the decorated corridor in the high cliffs towards the doors to the inner sanctum of my shrine. I didn't need to look into her mind, I could tell simply by looking at her that she had lain with him and I found this surprising. Don't misunderstand me, I do not expect my servants to be celibate! However Berenice was held in high esteem by all the vampires in the area as the Guardian of the Blood and consequently was held apart from them. They looked up to her as their priestess. She looked peaceful and relaxed and I was happy for her.

When he came out of the darkness of the corridor I could see why she would choose him. He was a well made man with dark brown hair and brilliant blue eyes like chips of sapphire. She opened the doors to the inner shrine and I saw the astonishment in those beautiful eyes as he beheld the statue and the jar containing the sacred blood for the first time. He turned back to Berenice and smiled and as he did so I felt an emotion that I had not felt in millennia. I felt that I would have given much to have him smile at me that way. I plucked his name from Berenice's mind, William, William Compton. As I gazed at him I felt that he would somehow be important to me. Perhaps I was only thinking this because he was handsome and I was drawn to him? I smiled to myself. No, he would be important to me because I was drawn to him. I would make him important.

I felt gently for his mind and discovered that Berenice was correct. He did not truly believe in my existence although there was something there, some vague longing for something to believe, to have faith in. He had a kind and gentle nature but beneath that there was an iron will. He was a survivor who had suffered much both physically and mentally and because of this was far stronger than he appeared despite his relative youth. I also saw that, although he liked and cared for Berenice, he did not love her and considered himself merely a visitor here. He would return soon to the New World. There was something, someone calling to him, his Maker. I felt a chill as I touched that part of his mind where memories of her resided. He hated her, and yet he also pitied her as she loved him desperately but he did not, could not, love her in return.

I pulled back and watched him, wondering what kind of woman it would take to elicit love from this man. He was talking quietly with Berenice, explaining the many legends of dying and resurrected Gods, trying to persuade her that my legend was just one of many. Well, he would learn differently in time. As my children grew more numerous, so I grew stronger and I knew that, in time, I would have the strength to be reborn into the world. Then mortals would feel my anger! They would pay for what they had done to me, and my children would rule this earth as they were meant to do.