In the next year or so it gradually became clear that my doubts about what had become known as "Mainstreaming" were well founded. A group of vampires arose who called themselves "Sanguinistas". Vampires who considered themselves to be fundamentalists, to live in the old ways, by the old rules. They dedicated themselved to Lilith the Mother Goddess and claimed that they lived by the Vampire Bible. These vampires were hunted by the Authority, who were doing their best to convince the mortal authorities that vampires were harmless, friendly creatures from whom humans had nothing to fear. Well some were, but many others certainly were not! There were groups of these Sanguinistas based all over the world but the one in which I was most interested was based at a large country house just outside London. The leaders of the group lived at the property which was owned by a vampire named Darius Ashman. He had interests in the middle east and visited Cairo frequently so I had arranged for Berenice to travel to Cairo to meet him and discuss her interaction with his group.
Berenice travelled with a guard of younger vampires from her congregation and it was immediately obvious that Ashman was impressed with her both personally and in her capacity as Guardian of the shrine. After several meetings, with judicious prompting from me, Berenice was able to persuade him that the time was right for him to issue an invitation to Berenice and her followers to join him in England, and to bring the sacred blood with her to facilitate the resurrection of the Goddess. I had shown Berenice a vision of Ashman's house, of the resurrection ceremony, and I had placed an image of William Compton beside her. Now I merely needed to arrange for him to be present.
The members of the Authority in London were well aware of the activities of the Sanguinistas and, as I had anticipated. Ashman's success in aquiring the sacred blood made his group somewhat over-confident. Their actions had not only come to the attention of the Authority but also the mortal authorities who were putting pressure on their contacts in the Authority in London to do something about them. Von Schröder required information about what was going on in Ashman's house. He needed someone on the inside, and who better than someone who had known Berenice in Egypt? I gently planted the idea in his mind that he should ask William Compton for help. This would bring together all the players I required. The time of resurrection was now imminent.
Berenice had confidently informed Ashman and his friends of this and also that the arrival of her old friend William Compton would be the sign. Most of my time was now spent at the country house which Darius Ashman had placed at Berenice's disposal and a few nights later I sensed something, someone approaching. I made the slight effort of will required to look outside the house and saw a sleek black car coming up the gravel driveway. It pulled up outside the front door underneath the overhanging porch roof and the door opened and William Compton got out.
Evidently Von Schröder had succeeded in persuading him to assist the Authority. I smiled to myself. Now everything was ready, his arrival, the fulfillment of Berenice's prophecy, would convince even those few of her followers who still doubted her connection to the Goddess. I followed him into the drawing room and watched as he pressed his ear to the door to listen to the conversation of Darius and Hayden. He had been sent in as a spy! I had to laugh, Von Shröeder had played right into my hands. Whilst intending to bring down the Sanguinista movement he had unknowingly delivered my consort directly to me.
I stayed with Berenice now, watching as she walked into the drawing room and took William's hands in hers. Watching as his brilliant sapphire eyes reflected his smile as he took her hands. After a moment she drew him after her and they walked down the corridor to the stairs. I saw Darius watching them from a doorway and Berenice waved a hand at him, gesturing to the door, indicating that he should have William's bags brought in from the car. He didn't look happy. On reflection I should have taken more notice of him but my attention was all on William.
I expected Berenice to take him to her room and was surprised when she headed in the opposite direction down the upstairs corridor. Curiously I listened to his thoughts and heard relief that Berenice had accepted his explanation for having another room. I could feel that he was fond of her but realized that there was someone else, someone that he cared for very deeply, so much so that he felt that lying with Berenice would be a betrayal. This was a mortal concept which I had some difficulty understanding, but I accepted that he was still young. It took time for my children to shake off the shackles of their human morality. I wondered briefly who this woman was. Perhaps the dark haired girl I had seen with him before?
Berenice left him to settle into his room, saying that he must be hungry and she would arrange for someone to be sent up for him. I watched as he prowled around the room, examining the bed and the furnishings with apparent interest, although the pair of handcuffs set into the wall above the bed appeared to disgust him. As he was examining an adjoining room the door opened and one of Ashman's guards appeared holding a naked and terrified girl. He tossed her to the floor and left, closing the door firmly behind him. I saw William look out from the adjoining room and watched him, curious to see what he would do. I had discovered that you could tell a lot about a vampire's character by watching them feed. William came into the bedroom and walked slowly towards the girl, who had squeezed herself into the corner of the room and was pressed up against the wall staring at him with wide terrified eyes. She didn't scream or try to run away, doubtless she was well aware of her fate and of the futility of trying to fight against it.
I watched as William squatted down on his heels before her, talking to her in a low comforting voice, reaching forward slowly to gently stroke her pale cheek, brushing the red curls back from her face. She began to relax as his glamour took her but she did not get the glassy, robotic look of the heavily glamoured, he had simply used a little of it to calm her.
Some vampires liked their prey to scream and struggle. It appeared to arouse them. Darius was one of these. Others preferred to glamour their prey into complete submission. William did neither of these things, he simply picked the girl up in his arms and carried her gently to the bed where he sat down, holding her in his lap. He spoke quietly to her for a while, stroking her gently, calming her as you would a nervous young horse. She stared up at him and, rather to my surprise, made no attempt to move away when he bent his head to her throat and sank his fangs into her flesh. He fed quickly and cleanly, taking only what he needed and just as he drew back from her the door opened and Berenice entered. I smiled as she chided him for leaving the girl alive and called for one of the guards to take her away. I had been correct in my original assessment of him, he was a gentle soul who clearly did not wish to hurt the girl or to cause her unnecessary suffering. He was still young enough to remember his mortal life and keep a measure of fellow feeling for mortals. He would grow out of this in time.
William's eyes followed the girl as the guard dragged her out of the room but Berenice ignored them both and turned to William eagerly, telling him that there was to be a communion ceremony in the drawing room where they would taste a drop of the sacred blood. He looked a little doubtful but agreed to accompany her. Good! I was convinced that, like the others, once he tasted the blood he would be mine.
My blood was unlike that of any vampire, much more powerful and able to induce in vampires a similar state of euphoria as their blood induced in mortals. Some simply accepted the relaxed, drug induced state but the blood enabled others to see visions, even to appear to travel to other places. I was curious to see how William would be affected. When he and Berenice arrived the rest of her followers were already waiting and she introduced William. I watched their faces and saw a mixture of surprise and exultation that her prophecy had been correct, but also jealousy that he so obviously held a place in her affections. He knelt before her and she carefully placed a drop of the blood on his tongue. I allowed myself to slip gently into his mind as his eyes rolled back in his head and he slid to the floor and lay still.
To my delight it appeared that William was one of those on whom the blood worked surprising and enlightening effects. He appeared to be floating, and I floated with him. Some simply passively accepted the effects of the blood but William appeared to be one of the rare ones who was able to use it to his advantage. He was looking down, examining the countryside below us and then, suddenly, he began to move. After a while I realized that he was following the river. This was no effect of the blood! He was actively directing himself, fascinating! I moved with him, seeming to fly across the English countryside until we reached a house set in the bend in the river. I recognized the place immediately. It was the house where I had seen him and the two women unloading his car and I realized that he had been actively searching for this place. I had never before seen this level of control over the blood trance in any vampire. I wondered if he was aware of his influence over the trance, or if he were directing himself unconsciously.
Suddenly he vanished and I made another effort of will to follow him. He was standing in the hallway of the house looking over at a couch by the fireplace. Yes! It was the same woman. She was sitting on the couch, reading a book and was obviously unaware of our presence. This degree of manipulation was beyond anything I had seen before. I willed myself to appear to him inside his vision of the house and walked towards him. As I did so I was astonished to see the woman get up from the couch and turn towards us. She could not possibly see or hear us. We had not moved from Ashman's drawing room, we were inside a vision in William's mind and yet, somehow, she was aware of our presence. I barely had time to appreciate this thought when William woke up lying on the rug at Berenice's feet.
I drew back observing him as he rose shakily to his feet, clearly stunned by the vision. There was power there, a strength that even he was unaware of. There was much that I could teach him. I paused, struck by a sudden thought as he and Berenice returned to his room. Why should I not take him as the vessel instead of Berenice? He was young certainly, but I could give him the physical strength and power he lacked. He was certainly more flexible in his outlook than Berenice and he had a strength of character that I was drawn to. In time he could become a partner to me. Not at first of course, I was vastly more powerful than he and I would always be in control. I began to consider the advantages.