I woke at about midday and rolled over in bed stretching myself out against Bill's lifeless body. I really wanted to go back to sleep again but I had to use the bathroom. Grumbling to myself I got up and headed for the door. I was just about to get back into bed when I noticed an envelope on the table by the bedside. Curious, I sat down on the edge of the huge four poster and picked it up. It had my name on it! Curiouser and curiouser, I thought as I pulled open the flap. It felt heavy and the reason became clear when I opened it and a set of keys fell out into my hand. Folded around them was a note in Bill's elegant handwriting.

Darling Alex,

I would find it impossible to express the extent of my gratitude for what you have done for me in the last few nights. You risked your life for me, knowing full well that if you failed I would, very likely, kill you. Without your intervention, everything that I am might have been lost forever and my kind, destroyed in a catastrophic war against yours.

Nothing I could give you would ever repay you for this but I hope this will be a start at least. Just promise me that you'll be careful with it!

I love you more than I can say,

Bill

A tear dropped onto the note, smudging Bill's words and making the ink run. Oh Bill, I thought, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand, I only ever wanted to get you back! I looked down at the keys in my hand and realised with a slight shock that they were car keys! He'd bought me a new car! There was no logo on the leather key fob, only the name of a dealer which I didn't recognise. What was it?

I jumped up and raced back into the bathroom to wash and clean my teeth, my sleepiness completely forgotten in my excitement. Pulling on my jeans, an old shirt I found in the closet and my shoes which I'd found in the basement store room, I turned to the door. Pausing for a moment, I turned back and crept to Bill's side of the bed leaning over to kiss him gently. "Thanks Bill!" I whispered. He shifted slightly in his sleep and murmured something but I was already heading out of the door.

The enormous steel security door was locked and bolted and it must have taken me about five minutes to work out how to undo all the bolts. I was muttering crossly to myself as I finally heaved it open but to be fair, I supposed the paranoia was justified! I stepped out into the sunshine and there, parked neatly on the gravel drive before the front door, was my new car.

For a moment I forgot to breathe. It was a sports car. My dream car. A TVR Chimaera in a deep rich blue. Finally remembering to take a breath I went down the steps in a daze. She was the most beautiful car I had ever seen. I walked around her examining her carefully, a neat little two seater with a detachable roof in a matching dark blue fabric. The sleek elegant bonnet was almost half the length of the car with two curving vents along the sides to help cool the massive four and a half litre V8 engine.

I pressed the button on the key fob and heard the "clunk" as the locks disengaged. She had no door handles to mar her elegant lines but when I pressed a button hidden under the wing mirror, the driver's door popped open invitingly. The interior was a rich cream leather with blue stitching and blue carpets with cream piping. I knew that TVR had stopped building these cars about ten years ago and, judging by the registration number, she was about twelve years old but she was perfect, a classic, she looked like a new car! Where on earth had Bill managed to find her? I slid carefully into the driver's seat and slipped the key into the ignition. I turned the key tentatively but nothing happened. Looking down to examine the ignition I saw a little red light blinking. An immobiliser? I pressed the button on the key fob again and the red light went out.

Taking a deep breath I turned the key again. On the first click I heard a hiss as the fuel pump fired up and then on the second, the harsh cough of the starter motor. After two turns the engine caught and fired with a roar. I sat back in the leather seat listening to the growl of the big V8. Oh yes! This was wonderful! I pressed the throttle gently and the growl of the engine deepened to a roar. I was turning my head to reach for the seat belt when I noticed the front door was still open. I couldn't leave it like that could I? With a sigh I reached for the keys and switched the engine off again. It was only then that I noticed another key on the ring. Could that be a front door key?

I jumped out of the car and raced back up the steps. The key seemed to fit. I stood on the step for a moment, indecisive. If I pulled the door shut and it locked and the key didn't work I'd be locked out. But would that matter? I could get back in after dark easily enough couldn't I? Bill might worry if I wasn't there when he woke, but my phone was still in the pocket of my jeans so I could always call him. I pulled the door shut with a sharp tug and tried the key. It worked! Great, I could get back in when I returned. Feeling more comfortable I hopped back into the car and fired up the engine again. I snapped on the seat belt, mindful of Bill's instructions to be careful, shut the door and slipped the car into gear. Easing up the clutch gently I felt her shake as her big back tyres slipped a little on the loose gravel and headed gently down the driveway. Once out on the road with a little more grip I opened her up and was soon flying down the country lanes. With every mile I got to know her a little better and after a couple of hours we purred back into the village and pulled up in the car park by the river next to a little pub I had noticed on my first visit. I found a few banknotes in my back pocket and headed into the bar.

I was sitting outside on a bench in the sun watching the ducks on the river when a voice called my name. I turned around to see Lucy coming out of the bar with a drink in her hand.

"Lucy! Hi!" I called. "Come and join me?"

She came over and sat down opposite me, putting her drink down on the wooden table.

"Hi Alex" she said with a smile.

"Hey, how are you?" I asked. "I kind of lost track of you last night."

She grinned back at me. "Yes, you looked pretty busy at the time!" she said. "One of the soldiers took me outside and there were three Army trucks parked out there. He put me in the Colonel's staff car and drove me home. I live just outside the village. My parents were frantic, I'd been missing for two days!"

"Oh my...what did you tell them?" I asked, wondering if maybe Bill should have glamoured her after all.

"I told them I'd stayed over at a friend's house. Said I'd had too much to drink and forgot to call them. Frankly they were so relieved to see me that I don't think they were really interested."

I took a swig of my wine, watching her carefully. "Why?" I asked eventually. "Why didn't you tell them the truth?"

"I didn't want them to know the truth" she said simply. "I don't think they could have coped with it. Besides, if it weren't for Bill I'd have died in that house, twice in fact. I didn't want to cause trouble for him."

I reached over and took her hand. "Thank you" I said. "I'm very grateful, and he will be too."

"He's going to help us isn't he?" she asked. "He's going to try and stop all the killing, try to get vampires to live in peace with us?"

"That's the plan, yes" I answered.

"They worship him don't they? I saw them all bow down to him. What is he Alex? Do you know?"

For the next hour or so we sat in the warm afternoon sun and I tried to explain my relationship with Bill and what he had become. It wasn't easy since I didn't really understand much about it myself but she accepted what I told her.

"There's going to be a lot of work to do mind you" I said with a sigh. "There are a lot of humans who hate and fear vampires, and I can't say that I entirely blame them." I looked over at her with a smile. "After what we saw in that house I can quite understand it in fact. Although I also know vampires who are perfectly accepting of humans, kind and gentle even. Who only want to live their lives in peace alongside humans, without having to hide their very existence from us." I thought for a moment. "Well maybe "living" isn't quite the right word, but you know what I mean!"

Lucy laughed. "Yes, I do" she said. She reached into her bag and took out a notebook. "Look, this is my number" she wrote it down, tore out the page and handed it to me. "If there's anything I can do to help..."

I was astonished. "After everything you went through, you're still prepared to help us?" I asked.

"Well, as I said, if it weren't for Bill I'd probably have died in that house. I'd like to help him" she answered with a smile. "Besides, I never want anyone else to have to go through the horror that we went through in there. If you and Bill can stop that from happening again then I feel I should do all I can to help. After all, I have first hand experience of what could happen if you fail!"

I reached out and took her hand. "Thanks Lucy, I'll tell him and I'm sure he'll be very grateful for the offer."

I got back to the house before dusk and parked carefully to one side of the driveway. Opening the huge front door I slipped inside and slid back all the security bolts and locks so that hopefully no-one would notice that anyone had been outside the house. I caught myself thinking this and wondered for a moment why I was concerned. After all, I was the favourite of their God wasn't I? I could do whatever I liked!

Then I remembered that Darius had been carried off by his friends and was presumably recovering somewhere. I shivered. Somehow I didn't think he'd be too happy to catch me wandering around his house alone. Although after what Bill had done to him he might think twice about harming me.

I decided that I didn't want to take the risk of running into anyone and hurried up the stairs and along the corridor to Bill's room. Opening the door quietly I saw that he was still sleeping and I crept over to the big four poster bed and looked down at him. He looked peaceful and relaxed but I wondered what was going on inside his head. Was Lilith talking to him? Trying to influence him while he slept? I kicked my shoes off and wriggled out of my jeans. Careful not to disturb him I climbed into the bed beside him and lay on my side watching him.

After a few moments he seemed to sense my presence and opened his eyes. He smiled at me and then looked puzzled. "Why are you wearing a man's shirt?" he asked.

"Because you ripped my T shirt last night" I answered, tapping him on the chest with my forefinger for emphasis "and it's the only one I have here! I found this in the dresser over there."

He gave a sly little smile. "Up and dressed huh? I guess you found your present them?" I flung myself on him and began kissing him frantically.

"Whoa! Easy there girl!" He put his hands on my waist and held me off a little, laughing. "I gather from that little demonstration that you approve of it?"

"Oh Bill, she's wonderful! She's just perfect! Where on earth did you find her?"

He grinned at my excitement and pulled me down next to him, his arm around me.

"I borrowed a laptop after you'd fallen asleep last night" he explained. "There's quite a wide range out there, different ages, prices and conditions. But fortunately one of the biggest dealers is just down the road from here so I called them and told them to send over the best one they had." He kissed me tenderly. "I see that it lived up to your exacting standards."

"Mmm...yes, it certainly did!" I murmured, cuddling up to him. "It's the best present ever!"

He smiled down at me happily and kissed me again. "Oh good, I'm so pleased you like it."

We lay comfortably together for a while, Bill gazing thoughtfully up at the crimson canopy above us.

"Do you think I'm doing the right thing?" he asked suddenly. "Getting the Authority involved? working with humans? It's just going to be a constant struggle, arguments...I could just deal with it all myself you know. Lilith could make them obey me."

"No!" I said firmly.

Bill looked surprised at this. "That was very emphatic" he said. "Why not?"

I lay back wondering how to put my thoughts into words. "There's an old saying Bill" I said. "Power corrupts – and absolute power corrupts absolutely." I reached out and stroked his cheek gently. "I don't doubt for a moment that you're capable of dealing with all of them on your own, but you shouldn't. The more you exercise power, the more of it you want, and I suspect that the more you use Lilith's power, the more power she will have over you."

Bill lay back and put his hand over mine. "You are so young" he said. "Little more than a child compared to most of us, and yet wiser than any of us."

I smiled to myself. "With great power comes great responsibility!" I said solemnly.

Bill looked puzzled for a moment. "Winston Churchill?" he hazarded.

"Spiderman!" I said with a giggle.

Bills eyes widened in surprise and then he gave a great roar of laughter and caught me up in his arms.

"You must ensure that you only use your superpowers for good!" I gasped through hysterical giggles.

There were tears in Bill's eyes, he was laughing so hard. "You see!" he gasped "this is why I need you! No-one else in the world would dare to compare me to a comic book superhero!"

I lay with my head on his chest trying to catch my breath. "But that doesn't make it any the less true though" I said.

"No" he answered. "That's why you are so invaluable to me. You have an amazing ability to keep me normal, well...relatively normal anyway!"

I rubbed my hand over his stomach, petting him as I would a furry animal. "Well I hate to mention it but you should probably be getting up. Checking up on what your worshippers are up to."

"You should be getting something to eat!" he said. "You need to get your strength back." He rolled over and kissed my throat, nuzzling gently at the spot on my neck that he loved to feed from. "I'm getting hungry myself!"

"I got something to eat at the Pub in the village while I was out" I said, wriggling away from him and getting out of the bed. "Oh! I forgot. I saw Lucy there."

Bill sat up. "Is she okay?" he asked. "I didn't see her again after the incident with Darius."

"Yes, she seems fine" I said, pulling my jeans back on. "One of the soldiers drove her home in the Colonel's staff car."

"That Colonel was useful for something then?" said Bill rather scornfully. "I did wonder!"

"She gave me her number. Said she'd be happy to help if you needed her."

Bill stopped halfway out of bed. "Really?" he asked. "I would have thought she would never want to see another vampire as long as she lived!"

"She's a very sweet girl" I said, fastening my jeans. "And you made a very big impression on her. It really shocked all the humans in the hall last night when she ran to you for protection. They had just watched you use some terrible, unknown power on Darius and yet this helpless little girl still felt safer with you than with anyone else in that room. That story's going to run and run!"

Bill stood up and gazed down at me solemnly. "I didn't intend it to happen that way" he said.

I smiled up at him. "I know that Bill" I said. "It's just the way you are. And that's why you're the right person...possibly the only person to do this."

Ulrich and his colleagues in the Authority had tried to insist that Bill returned with them to London for more talks, but Bill was determined that he was going home with me. The only concession he was prepared to make was that he would stay at the Mill House since it was closer to London. He also reluctantly allowed the Authority to provide him with a security detail consisting of five very large, very scary looking vampires in combat clothing occupying two large blacked out vans. The vans were now sitting on the sweeping gravel driveway as Berenice and Ulrich tried to persuade Bill to travel in one of them.

"I thought we'd agreed that Gerry was going to come and pick up your car?" said Ulrich.

"Yes, that's right he is" said Bill with a smile "but Alex is going to give me a lift home."

There was a shocked silence. For a moment it was almost as if I could see into their heads. Neither of them could imagine allowing their God to put himself at risk with a frail human girl in an overpowered sports car. But neither of them had the courage to actually say so in front of me.

I smiled brightly at them, got into the car and opened the passenger door. "Are you coming?" I asked Bill.

With a polite nod to Ulrich and Berenice he got into the car and fastened his seat belt, somewhat ostentatiously. The disapproving expressions on both their faces had annoyed me intensely so I popped the clutch and roared off down the drive in a highly satisfying shower of gravel.

Bill turned to me with a slightly worried expression. "You will be careful with this won't you?" he said. "I'd never forgive myself if you killed yourself in it!"

"Yes! Yes! I promise." I said, pulling out of the ornate wrought iron gates and onto the main road. "It was just the obvious reluctance to let you get in a car with a mere human….."

Bill smiled gently. "Yes, I know. It's ridiculous really. They think that those security guards are going to be necessary to protect me? I could wipe out all five of them just by thinking about it."

My mouth dropped open and I turned my head to look at him. "Are you serious?" I asked.

"Eyes on the road please!" said Bill. "Yes, I'm perfectly serious."

"Oh Bill..." I didn't know what to say to this, so I concentrated on driving instead. I could see the two black vans behind me and I smiled to myself and began to speed up a little. Whatever training Ulrich's security vamps had received it certainly wasn't as drivers! Within five miles or so I had lost them. Bill was watching me with a tiny smile and I caught his eyes glancing in the mirrors a few times. He gave me an indulgent smile.

"You are aware of the fact that they don't know where the Mill House is?" he asked patiently.

"I'm counting on it!" I replied.

He laughed. "Look, I know they're annoying but I really think you should pull over and let them catch up."

"Oh...you're no fun!" I grumbled, pulling into a layby and turning off the engine.

"No?" he asked, leaning over to me and putting his hand behind my head. I leaned in towards him and his mouth closed over mine. After a minute or two he pulled back and glanced over his shoulder. "How long do you think we've got?" he asked with a seductive little smile.

"Not long enough" I answered, looking up into the mirror. "Here they come."

The driver of the first van had obviously spotted us as he slowed to allow me to pull out in front of him. I saw the bad tempered glare he gave me through the windscreen so I drove sedately the rest of the way back to the Mill House. I pulled up in the yard, hopped quickly out of the car and fled into the house, leaving Bill to deal with them.

Later that evening as I curled up on the sofa I noticed the carved wooden box containing the vampire testament on a shelf beside the fireplace. I got up and opened it carefully, wondering what was written on the ancient papyrus scroll.

"Perhaps I should get you an English translation?"

I jumped guiltily and turned to see Bill leaning on the kitchen door frame.

"It's okay" he said, coming over to me "in fact I think you should read it. You probably won't like it very much but it will help you to understand how Lilith's worshippers think. That knowledge could be very useful to you in future. That is...if you still intend to help me?"

I put the box down carefully and turned back to him. "Of course I will. I'll do anything I can to help you Bill, you know that."

He reached over to me and brushed my hair gently back from my face with his fingertips.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked, concern written in his eyes.

I stepped forward and he gathered me up in his arms. "What is it precious?" he asked.

"I had a nightmare last night" I said quietly. "I was back in that cell, naked and shivering with cold and fear, waiting to die." I looked up at him, into his gentle blue eyes. "We can't let that happen again Bill. Not if there's any way we can stop it." I sighed and he hugged me tighter. "I know it's probably happening somewhere right now and I can't bear to think about it. Anything I can do to help you, I will."

Bill gazed down at me sadly. "Things are not going to change immediately, you know that. What we are doing is trying to change habits, a way of life that vampires have followed for centuries. But at least now we'll have Lilith's power with us instead of against us." He ran his fingers through my hair stroking it gently. "That's thanks to you Alex" he said "you've already done more than anyone could reasonably expect. You'll be with me all the time and my first priority will aways be to keep you safe."

He turned suddenly to look out of the window into the night and I saw the darker shadow of one of the black clad security guards patrolling outside.

Bill gave a little sigh. "Somehow I don't think my existence will ever be quite the same again, but I can cope with that as long as I have you."

"Then you'll be fine" I said, smiling up at him. "Because you'll always have me."