Sure enough, when we got home Azaria was pacing up and down the hallway and pounced on us as soon as we set foot across the threshold.

"Where have you been? You're late! We should have been there by now!" she said frantically.

Bill took hold of her by the shoulders. "Calm down" he said, smiling at her panic, "Claudia isn't going to leave just because we're a bit late. Just go and wait in the car okay, we won't be a moment!"

Azaria zipped out to the car and I heard the door open and close.

"We won't be a moment...will we!" he said, pointedly.

"No, no, don't worry!" I said tugging a comb through my hair and rummaging in my bag for a lipstick. "I guess I can take this silver necklace off now?"

"Oh yes, good idea!" said Bill.

"It certainly was!" I replied with a laugh as we went back out to the car.

We spent a very pleasant evening with Claudia and Chris. Dan and Azaria got on together very well and he seemed really keen to see her again so Bill reluctantly agreed to let her go for a drink with him the following night.

"I'll get her back by five, I promise" said Dan earnestly, obviously overawed by Bill in full overprotective father mode.

"You'll get her back by four!" said Bill sternly.

Azaria made a face at him and I could see him struggling not to laugh and ruin his "strict parent" image.

We said goodbye with promises to meet up again soon and headed back home.

I was curled up in bed when Bill came in from the bathroom. He stood beside the bed and looked down at me seriously.

"Are you okay Alex?" he asked.

"Yes, yes I'm fine, really" I sighed.

"No, you're not are you?" He sat down beside me on the bed. "Something's wrong, you're upset, I can feel it, I've been feeling it ever since we left XS. Did the club upset you, frighten you?"

"Oh...it was just that policeman, when you and Anastasia went out...he said something that annoyed me a little that's all."

"Do you mean the vampire?" he asked, puzzled.

"No, it was the human."

"What did he say to you Alex? I can see that it's upset you!" He kissed me gently, "please tell me?"

I sighed. "Oh it was just the usual stuff, you know….that I shouldn't trust you because of what you are…."

He looked down at me seriously. "You've heard all that before, this was different wasn't it?"

I sighed, "Okay, when I said that I trusted you he replied that I was a fool. That sooner or later the hunger would take over, and when it did that I would be "nothing but food" to you." I lay still watching him for a moment, watching the various emotions chase each other across his handsome face. First surprise, then anger and finally resignation.

"Well?" I said. "It's the same rubbish they all say, right? They don't know you like I do!"

Bill got into bed and lay down beside me. He began to trace patterns on my arm with his fingers. He seemed to be steeling himself to say something difficult, I thought I knew the signs.

"Oh Alex, my precious" he said "when we first met, when I first began to care for you, I swore to myself that I would always be honest with you, even if it hurt me to do so. I'm going to be honest with you now and I don't think you're going to like what I have to say. I certainly don't like it myself." He reached over and pulled me into his arms, stroking my hair gently.

"You remember what happened that night when you came home after being away for two weeks."

"Yes, I remember" I answered, looking up at him trustingly.

"I told you that there is something in me, in all of us, a beast, a monster, which can take over. Most of us manage to keep it suppressed, under control, for most of the time. But it's still there, beneath the surface."

I looked up at him with a puzzled expression. "Yes, you told me this at the time." I said.

He took a deep breath. "I told you it was there, and that I tried not to allow it to take me over. What I didn't tell you, what I didn't dare to tell you, is that...when it does...I enjoy it..." He buried his face in my hair, unable to look me in the eyes.

I was silent for a moment and then whispered in his ear "Well...I enjoyed it too, I told you that, remember?"

"No, that's not what I meant. It's the loss of control,...the freedom, it's...exhilarating. The feeling that you can do anything, absolutely anything you want, and no-one could stop you. When I was first turned, when I realised that...that there was no going back, I tried to please Lorena by embracing what she called "our nature" I became that monster, Alex. The one you glimpsed that night. Became it completely. I did things which I'm so ashamed of now, things which I could never tell you about, things which I will regret for as long as I walk the earth. But that wasn't the worst part, the worst part was that I...I enjoyed it, Alex! I relished my strength, my power over humans. I killed simply to satisfy the beast, without a thought, without even a trace of regret..."

"But you regret it now?" I asked quietly.

"Yes" he whispered.

I felt him sigh and shift in my arms. "Bill" I whispered "When I first met you I was frankly terrified. When I fell backwards in the bookshop and I felt your arms around me, I panicked. I didn't even know why at the time. I just knew that you weren't human, that you were dangerous. But you didn't behave as though you were. You were kind and gentle with me, you never tried to influence me or persuade me to do anything and I grew to trust you, but I still knew that you were dangerous, I've always known that. I trust you absolutely Bill, but I know that you're not human and I don't expect you to behave or to react as if you were. I accept that I don't know everything about you and I don't suppose I ever will."

"I don't mean to keep anything from you, you know that." He said softly "it's just that there are some things...that you probably wouldn't want to know."

I sighed and snuggled up to him. "This is something to do with Anastasia isn't it? Could you tell me how you met her?"

"Yes, of course. You know I'll tell you anything you want to know" he said. It was immediately after I left London after leaving Lazlo's house. You remember I told you that I left after advising your great grandmother Daisy to leave when she got the chance…."


London 1935

I didn't really know what I was going to do when I left Lazlo's place in Belgravia. I only knew that I had to get away from him.

Gerry drove me to Paddington and we said goodbye outside the station. I promised that I would try to keep in touch with him and after one look back at me, he got back into Lazlo's car and drove away. I checked my trunk into the luggage office and placed the little ticket in my wallet, then wandered over to the ticket office and looked at the board. The names of the towns meant very little to me as I had not been any distance outside London since I had arrived. I ran my eyes down the list until I came to Oxford. I knew that there was a famous University there, in fact it was the only name I recognised! Right, Oxford it would be then. I bought myself a ticket and boarded the train.

It was quite late when I reached Oxford and I had no idea where I should go next. It would be dawn in a few hours and after a few moments thought I decided that I should head out into the countryside where I might find somewhere to go to ground for the day. I was strolling along the river when I came to a bench placed next to the riverside path and sat down for a moment to relax and try to pull my thoughts into some sort of order. I had been sitting on the bench staring out at the river for a few minutes when I became aware that someone was approaching warily down the path. I looked up and saw a woman standing a dozen feet away gazing at me with an interested expression. I was just about to get up and politely excuse myself when I realised that she was vampire.

She stood and regarded me for a moment and then said "May I join you?"

I got up and said "If you wish, please do."

She was small and delicate with the oval face of a renaissance Madonna and the kind of body that would make a saint break his vows for the promise of just one hour in her arms. She smiled sweetly and came towards me, the way that she moved and held herself somehow telling me that she was well aware of the effect she was having on me.

"So who are you?" she asked "I know all the vampires in this area, I've never seen you before. I'm sure I would have remembered!" Her emerald green eyes slid over me approvingly.

"My name is Compton, William Compton. I arrived only a few hours ago from London."

"Hello William" she said with a smile which made a shiver run down my spine. "My name is Anastasia Lucaccio." She paused, and looked at me thoughtfully. "Do you have anywhere to go?" she asked.

"Well...no" I said. "I was planning to head out into the countryside and go to ground there."

She gave a delicate little shudder. "How very...fundamentalist of you!" she said "If a trifle uncomfortable. I'm sure I can offer you a better solution."

I sat back and watched her for a moment wondering if I should trust her. She smiled and reached over to stroke my cheek with a carefully manicured hand. "It's all right" she said "I don't mean you any harm William. You don't trust me do you, now why is that I wonder?"

I sat back on the bench and smiled at her. "Perhaps you remind me too much of my maker" I said.

"Hmmm...your maker was a woman? Where is she?" she asked.

"I don't know, neither do I care. I last saw her in Los Angeles, where she released me." I explained, watching her carefully.

She sat absolutely still, gazing at me in apparent fascination. I noticed the tip of her pink tongue emerge and lick her lips gently "What kind of fool was she to let you go?" she asked.

"I gave her no choice" I sighed "I was ready to destroy myself if she refused."

"Oh! I see, that was it."

I must have looked puzzled because she laughed. "Surely, you didn't think you were the only one? That no-one else had ever felt that way?" She smiled gently at me. "Oh, poor William! It is rare for one of us to choose this fate. Most are turned against their will, but some accept their destiny far more readily than others. You, I can see, did not." She placed her small hand over my large one and said sympathetically "you had a family?"

"A wife" I murmured "and two children."

"That must have been hard." she said quietly "Come with me William, let me give you somewhere to rest at least?"

I wondered for a moment if I was making the same mistake that I had made with Lazlo. But if I didn't trust her, then I would never know would I? And besides, I was very interested in her, I couldn't help myself. I got up from the bench and smiled at her.

"That's very kind of you" I said. "I would be delighted."

I offered her my arm and we walked back through the streets of Oxford looking very much like any other couple out for a stroll in the moonlight. I know that I could not keep my eyes off her and I was sure she was well aware of the fact. She led me to a substantial three storey Georgian house on the end of a smart terrace, climbed up the three steps and opened the door. Inside was a short corridor leading to a staircase and she gestured to me to precede her up the stairs. As I headed up the stairs I noticed that the windows had all been bricked up, and that it had evidently been done a long time ago. Obviously the place was designed with vampires in mind.

"What is this place?" I asked as she stepped up onto the first floor landing alongside me.

"This is...a club" she explained. "It's somewhere that our kind can visit where they don't have to hide what they are. Somewhere they can be themselves."

Somehow, after my recent experiences, that didn't seem like a good thing to me. I had a nasty suspicion that Lazlo's parties might be nothing compared to this place. Did all vampires live like this? I wondered. Was I really so out of step with my own kind?

She stood watching me shrewdly. "You don't like the idea" she said. It was not a question. She could see the distaste written on my face. "You don't understand William. My clients, the vampires who come here, live as you would like to live. Amongst humans, as humans insofar as they can. The come here when they have to. When the pull of their vampire nature becomes too great to resist, and it does William, believe me." She opened one of the doors into a room containing a large four poster bed. The room was dark and full of shadows and the furnishings were all dark as well, even the sheets on the bed appeared to be black. "They come here to indulge their appetites in secret" she explained "so that they can live normally for the rest of the time."

"You provide them with...what?" I asked.

"I give them what they need William. Blood and sex" she turned to me and said "it's what you need isn't it?"

I opened my mouth to deny it but she placed a finger over my lips. "No...don't say anything yet. It will be dawn soon, please stay here for the day, we can talk later."

She turned and slipped out leaving me alone in the darkness. I stood for a moment wondering if I had simply exchanged one horror for another. Then I decided that she was right, I needed rest. I would worry about it later. I stripped off my clothes, got into the bed, sinking into the deep feather mattress and fell asleep almost instantly.

I woke a little after dusk, a trifle disorientated. The room was dark and it took me a moment to recall where I was. I lay for a while going over what Miss Lucaccio had told me last night then climbed out of the huge four poster bed to find a note on the chair where I had left my clothes. They had apparently been taken away to be laundered. I suddenly realised that the rest of my belongings, such as they were, were in the left luggage office on Paddington Station.

I noticed that a fine embroidered silk robe lay over the back of the chair. Well, at least I wouldn't be wandering around stark naked! Although it appeared that I would not be leaving anytime soon either. I put the robe on, opened the door carefully and peered out. The corridor outside was dark and empty but I could see a line of light under a door at the end of the passageway and I realised that I could hear music coming from behind the door. I stood in the corridor for a moment. wondering what I should do, feeling too embarassed to enter the room dressed only in the silk robe, when the door opened and a vampire emerged

He flicked his long pale hair back over his shoulder and looked me over in an interested manner. "Well hello!" he said "you're new aren't you?"

"Well, yes. I suppose I am" I replied with a smile, glancing past him into the room beyond. The music was coming from a string quartet, obviously human, but each with that glazed expression that showed they had been glamoured. The other occupants of the room all appeared to be vampires and in various stages of undress. I began to feel a little more comfortable, overdressed even. There was a haze of what appeared to be cigarette smoke in the air, but the smell was somehow heavier, sweeter.

"I thought I hadn't seen you before" he said. Please, come in. He put his hand in the small of my back and pushed me gently towards the door, easing himself in behind me.

"I thought you were leaving Maurice?" came Miss Lucaccio's voice from the far corner of the room.

"I've changed my mind!" he said. "You didn't tell us you had a new guest!"

"Well, I haven't really had a chance have I?" she smiled at me. "I only met William yesterday." She stood up and held out her hands to me. She was wearing a similar embroidered robe, the sash tied loosely around her waist, leaving the front of the robe to fall open almost, but not quite, revealing her breasts. I got the distinct impression that she was well aware of this. That everything she did was carefully planned. I wondered what she had planned for me. I turned to look beyond her and saw an archway into another room where, rather to my shock, I could see several groups of people, both vampire and human sprawled naked on the couches. I looked back to see her bright green eyes had followed my gaze.

"Would you care to join us William?" she asked.

"N...No, thank you, but I think I've made a mistake!" I said hurriedly. "I should be leaving." I pulled my hands from hers and slipped out of the room. I walked back down the corridor, feeling stunned and worse, aroused. That was the worst part. When she had asked if I wanted to join them, I had really wanted to say yes. I was sitting on the edge of the bed wondering how I could get my clothes back and leave wthout offending her when the door opened and she came in. She stood with her back to the door for a moment, just watching me and then slipped the robe from her shoulders and walked towards me, completely naked.

"Don't you want me William?" she asked softly.

The whole ambiance of the place was redolent of sex. The music, the smoke, her rich, heady perfume. The fact that I knew there were people, both human and vampire in the other rooms on the couches in pairs and in groups, naked and indulging every kind of appetite meant that the very air smelled of sex. By this time I was hard as marble and my mind appeared to have gone completely blank. I knew I wanted her, badly, I struggled to think about anything else, but something still stopped me, held me back.

She pulled open the ties of the silk robe and ran her hand down my bare chest, her sharp fingernails scratching at the hair. "You hated her didn't you? Your maker... She used you? Then let me help you. Use me. I want you and I know you want me too." I gave a gasp as she began to rub her naked body against mine. "I want it" she breathed "all that hate and bitterness, until you release that you will never be free of her."

As she spoke I felt something deep inside me, some restraint, melt away and I knew that she was right, that I had to have her. I stepped forwards backing her up against the edge of the bed. She smiled and let herself fall backwards, her pale slim body standing out starkly against the dark sheets, her legs spread invitingly. I put one knee on the bed and grasped her body, turning her over, pulling her up onto her hands and knees and mounted her from behind like an animal.

She threw her head back and snarled, her fangs fully out, as I reached forward and twisted her thick glossy black hair around my wrist, holding her in place, riding her hard. She reared up before me, pushing herself back against my naked flesh, writhing against me, urging me on with little cries of encouragement. I released her hair and ran my hands down her sleek, pale body to grasp her by the hips, holding her steady as I drove myself into her, my knees spread on either side of hers.

Since I left Lorena I had found many human women who were attracted to me, who wanted my body, and I had been happy to oblige them. Although I was always careful to hold the worst of my lust in check, not to let myself hurt them, I found to my shock and disgust that I sometimes missed the wild, violent, unrestrained sex I had been used to with Lorena. At the time I had hated it, hated the way she used me, but I had to admit that she had been right in her assessment of my physical needs. I had never felt this way during my lifetime. The thought of doing anything like this to my beloved Caroline filled me with horror. No, this was the beast, the monster which now lived within me. He wanted this and he would not be denied for long.

"Yes! Oh William...that's right..." she was moaning with pleasure now, squirming against my thighs. Suddenly with a little cry she wriggled out of my grasp and pulled away from me. The beast within me snarled and reached for her again but she slipped away from me and lay down on the bed on her back, smiling up at me in anticipation. I flung myself on her and thrust myself back inside her with another snarl. She gave a contented sigh and reached around me running her hands down my back. I felt her hands move downwards and then she had grasped my buttocks in her hands, digging her long fingernails into my flesh pulling me into her. I reared up and back, shocked by the pain and she sank her fangs into my throat causing me to explode inside her in the kind of ecstatic climax I had never before experienced.

After a short while I rolled off her and lay on my back on the bed, stunned by the speed and power of what had just happened. Anastasia turned onto her side and examined me for a moment.

"Not bad...not bad at all for one so young" she said thoughtfully.

I must have looked highly offended as she collapsed in my arms laughing hysterically. "Oh William!" she cried "you are so sweet! and so innocent!" she looked at me speculatively, stretching her body out across the bed like a little cat and watching with approval as my member began to twitch and stiffen at the sight. "You have so much potential" she said lazily "there's so much I can teach you about how to please a woman."

I laughed. "You mean how to please a vampire! What makes you think I would want to learn that?" I loathe the thought of what I have become. I'm ashamed of it."

"Oh, poor William!" she whispered trailing a long fingernail down my stomach, making the flesh jump and twitch. I noticed with a slight shock that the tips of her fingernails were red with my blood. "So beautiful but so…..conflicted. You hate what you do and yet you long for it…..you tell yourself that you don't want to take me again, right now! But I know you do!" Her trailing hand had reached my betraying manhood which was standing up hard and eager for her. She curled her hand around it, drawing a groan from my lips. "This tells me the truth." She murmured. "Do you think that human females want something different from you? They don't, they want the same things I do."

I sighed. "Don't be foolish woman!" I said. "I could never do that to a human...I'd likely kill her!"

She laughed softly and placed her arm across my chest. "So you will need to learn to do it...differently. To be less...harsh, but to produce the same effect. I can teach you. Believe me, if you can learn to please me then you could have any human woman you want!"

I turned on my side and looked into her bright green eyes. "Why are you doing this?" I asked.

"Why, because I enjoy it!" she said "It's probably the only reason I do anything!"

I chuckled. "No, I meant why me?"

She lay on her stomach, her chin propped on her hands and gazed at me for a moment. "Because I want to help you" she said quietly. "as soon as I saw you by the river I could see it in you, a sadness, bone-deep sadness. You are so beautiful William, I couldn't just walk away and leave you. Let me try to help you?"

I couldn't help but smile back at her. "Very well" I said. "Perhaps I'll stay for a while."


"I stayed for four years, until the War broke out in 1939." said Bill ruefully. I never really meant to, but somehow it was almost impossible to leave her!"

"Did you love her?" I asked.

Bill smiled. "No, I didn't love her. And she didn't love me. There was...affection, yes. We were fond of each other. But it was not love."

"What happened when the War broke out?" I asked.

"We both decided to leave England. It would have been too dangerous to stay. We travelled together to France and then split up. She wanted to go back to Italy, I tried to dissuade her but she was determined. I was afraid that I would never see her again but she is a lot tougher than she looks." He smiled. "When I returned to Oxford in the 80's she was back at the club as if nothing had happened."

"What did you do after you split up." I asked.

"Well, actually I was picked up by a German patrol in occupied France and interned. But I managed to glamour my way out of it and escaped to North Africa. To Morocco."

"What on earth did you do there?"

"Well, believe it or not, I got a job!" he said proudly.

"No!...Really? Doing what?"

Bill lay back with a reminiscent smile. "I was a nightclub singer!" he said with a laugh.

I laughed as well. "You're joking!"

"No, actually I'm perfectly serious" he said. "I played the piano and sang in a nightclub in Marrakesh called The Purple Veil."

I stared at him astonished. "I know I said that I didn't know everything about you and I didn't suppose I ever would, well I don't know the half of it do I?"

Bill chuckled. "No, you don't sweetheart. Perhaps I'll tell you about it one day." He leaned over and kissed me.

"So" I giggled, stretching out on my back "Anastasia taught you a lot about how to please a woman huh? So...how much of those lessons do you remember?"

Bill leaned back and relaxed. "Oh! All of them!" he said with a laugh. "In hundreds of positions. I know the Kama Sutra back to front and sideways." He grinned at me wickedly "sideways is quite fun actually!"

I started to laugh too. "Come on! There aren't that many in there...are there?"

"What!" he said, putting on a shocked expression "you don't believe me?" He rolled over onto his side, facing me "I can see I'll have to demonstrate!" He reached over, took hold of my left leg and lifted it up over his hip, turning my body away from him. He pulled me closer so that I lay on my back at ninety degrees from him, one leg flung over his hip and the other over his thigh. He put a hand under my bottom and eased his hips forward until I felt his thick shaft slide over my already wet lips.

He lifted my bottom off the bed with his hand and the head of his swollen member slid neatly between my lips and into my entrance. With a swift flick of his hips and a pull with his hand he half drove himself into me and half pulled me onto him.

"Oh Bill!...that feels... so good!" I groaned, pushing my legs apart. My thighs sliding over his cool skin, one over his waist and the other over his thigh. My feet flat on the bed behind him. My body was stretched out across the bed sideways with my hair falling over the far edge as Bill gently flexed his hips, working himself deep inside me. His hand slipped around and I felt his long fingers probing between my legs, spreading my lips wider and moving in time with his thrusts. I gasped and tried to push myself up with my feet, arching my back to give him better access, my hands grasping convulsively at the sheets.

Bill moved his upper body towards me and reached for my arm with his other hand, I felt his tongue curling around my fingers and his soft lips planting kisses on the palm of my hand and then suddenly I felt the sharp pain of his fangs piercing my wrist and the blankness in my mind exploded into a field of stars as I felt Bill's familiar intense pleasure at the taste of my blood pour into me through the bond.

After a while I felt Bill move away and he reached over and picked me up, I hung in his arms, limp as a rag doll and he laid me down carefully and pulled the quilt up over me. He leaned over and gave me a gentle kiss. "One down, ninety nine to go!" he whispered, his bright blue eyes alight with mischief.

"Oh please no!" I gasped "you'll kill me! I believe you, honestly!"

He laughed. "Well I wasn't planning on demonstrating them all tonight! Are you okay?"

"I think so" I answered. "Except that my legs feel like they belong to someone else!"

Bill laughed again. "Anyone in particular?" he asked giggling. "They certainly feel like yours!"

"Don't be so silly! I meant they feel like they're made of jelly! You've worn me out!"

I turned to him and asked suddenly "do you miss her?"

"Who?" asked Bill surprised.

"Anastasia" I said "or, not necessarily her specifically. Do you miss...female vampires?" I paused, unsure of how to frame the question. "I know you hold yourself back when you make love to me Bill, that you don't want to hurt me. Don't you sometimes wish...that you didn't have to. That you could let the beast loose and not have to worry about hurting someone?" I lay silently watching Bill, almost wishing that I hadn't asked the question. Afraid of what his answer might be.

"Perhaps" he said quietly after a moment's thought. "Sometimes...yes. I miss being able to let go, to..." he paused and shook his head. "But I think that being with you is worth it" he whispered, pulling me closer.

"But you miss the sex?" I asked "You miss not having to worry about hurting your partner?" I looked over at Bill wondering what the hell I was doing. Why couldn't I leave this alone? It was like picking at a scab, I knew I shouldn't do it, but I had to know.

"It's hard to describe how our…..well, lust I suppose…for sex and for blood is so strong. As we get older we are better able to control it" he explained haltingly. "Although many don't want to." He gave me a slightly guilty look "I can understand why. The pleasure is simply unbelievably intense. It would be easy to become addicted to it. It's complicated" he said with a sigh. "Let me try to explain. Vampires who are not tied to each other as maker and progeny don't generally tend to be in relationships, at least not for very long. Any relationship between two vampires tends to be about power, rather than friendship, or companionship. The older is in a position of power over the younger. My relationship with Lorena was like this. She relished the fact that she had power over me. Many makers don't actually release their progeny but at least allow them a measure of independence. Lorena refused to do this, she was obsessed with me, with a need to make me love her, something which I could never do."

I lay propped up on my elbows and watched him. "I've read theories about relationships between humans and vampires" I said."They claim that humans who are in relationships with vampires are naturally submissive, that they want to be dominated."

Bill stared at me in astonishment for a moment and then burst out laughing. "Well, yes that's probably true in a large number of cases" he chuckled. "But I'm having a little trouble seeing how it applies to you!" He leaned over me and whispered seductively "do you feel a need to be dominated?"

I grinned up at him. "Only on special occasions!" I said.

He laughed again. "What was I saying? Oh yes, vampire relationships…..they tend not to last long but they can be very intense simply because of the sex. In fact we are the classic example which proves that there must be more to a relationship than just sex, no matter how mind-blowing. This is also why many vampires seek relationships with humans, because they can dominate them." He eyed me speculatively, "well, some of them at least. They are the stronger and have the most power in the relationship, which is what they want most, even if the sex is not quite so incredible."

I thought about that night, the night when he had lost control and taken me with a truly animal passion. I had honestly believed for a moment at least, that he might kill me. But the ecstatic pleasure he had given me had been so intense that I had not cared. But I knew that he was right. That kind of intensity was dangerous. For me certainly, but also for him. His horror and remorse when he realised what he had done had been almost equally intense. I knew I could never let him do that again.

"So you have the worst of both worlds then!" I said cheerfully. "You don't get to dominate me or to get the mind-blowing sex either?"

Bill stared at me for a moment and then burst out laughing again. He pulled me into his arms and hugged me so tightly that, for a moment I could hardly breathe. I gave a little squeak of alarm and he released me. I screwed up my courage and took a deep breath. "If you ever felt that you needed to...do that..." I looked into the depths of his blue eyes. "I'd understand."

Bill lay silent and absolutely still, staring at me. "Are you saying you'd understand if I had sex with someone else?" he asked incredulously "another vampire?" He paused for a moment "because I could never do that with you...not again. I couldn't risk hurting you. When I saw what I had done to you I..." his voice faltered and stopped.

"I wouldn't like it" I said quietly "but I think I could live with it. I'm beginning to realise that there are...adjustments I'll have to make, if I'm to be with you. It's like I said earlier. I know you're not human, I appreciate that you have different ...needs, requirements. When you bite me it's...the pleasure is not only from the bite, the sexual rush, it's from knowing that you want me, that there's something of me that you need, and I can give it to you. Can you understand that?" I paused, looking up at him, struggling to find the words I needed, to explain. "But I know that there are things you need that I can't give you. Well, at least..." Bill put his arms around me and pulled me close into his embrace. Bloody tears marred the brilliant blue of his eyes as he whispered "Alex my precious darling, anything that you can't give me, I can live without."