William lay in a stubborn silence, holding Alex tightly in his arms until the dawn came.

Later...much later, I felt him stir and sniff at the air. "You got your breakfast then?" he murmured.

For a moment I was puzzled as to what he could mean, then I realised that he had spoken aloud to the girl who was sitting up beside him. She answered him and he began to relax back into sleep.

Then suddenly he stiffened and opened his eyes again. Alex was asking him about the two blondes I had chosen for us and...yes! He was embarrassed! I listened in astonishment as he answered her guiltily and defensively, trying vainly to excuse my actions and then finally rolled over and buried his face in the pillow. He was truly mortified by what I had done! He quite obviously felt that Alex was justified in becoming angry with him despite the fact that he had not been able to do anything to stop me at the time. I was puzzled by his reaction for more than one reason. Firstly I still could not really accept that her opinion should matter to him at all, he was her master wasn't he? She should just accept his actions and consider herself fortunate that he did not punish her for her presumption in daring to question him! Secondly, it truly had not been his fault!

He had tried to explain to me that he cared for her, loved her even, but I had not really taken it seriously. She was merely a mortal after all. But somehow this strange reaction, his shame and the humiliation he clearly felt now that she knew what he had done made me think again.

Alex put down her coffee and leaned against him, her arm around his shoulders. "It's okay, you're right, I saw what had happened to you, what she had done to you….." she snuggled up against him "Never mind that now" she said. "You need to rest, you'll get the bleeds." As she comforted him I could feel his agitation fading and her turned to her kissing her forehead gently.

"So, what do we do now? Do you think that Berenice and her followers will still accept you as the incarnation of the Goddess, or whatever it is they think you are?" she asked.

This was a good question and one which had been troubling me as well. If he continued to hold me back as he had been doing I seriously doubted whether Berenice and her followers...wait a minute! My followers... good grief, I was beginning to think like him! The point was, she was right but William did not seem to understand her reasoning.

"Why wouldn't they" he asked, sounding surprised.

"Well..." she turned to look at him. "You sure don't look like you did last night!"

William pushed the sheet back and looked down at himself. "Well, I'm clean. That's good right?"

"That's not what they expect though is it?" she pointed out reasonably.

William looked thoughtful for a moment and then lay back and closed his eyes.

"Lilith? Can you hear me?"

The temptation to ignore him was almost overwhelming. I hated the thought that he was summoning me like a servant, but this might just be my chance.

"I hear you!"

"Do you understand my problem?"

"Do you really expect me to help you?"

I felt him chuckle to himself.

"No indeed! I would not expect that. But I would expect you to help yourself. You know that Darius and his followers disliked me from the moment they realised what Berenice had planned. What do you think they will do if they believe that something has gone wrong...that you no longer live in me?"

"Give me control William...trust me, they will not doubt you!"

He smiled.

"Oh I'm sure they wouldn't! But I don't think that wholesale slaughter is necessarily a good plan."

"It's always worked for me!"

"I was thinking of something less destructive but perhaps, equally shocking..."

A few moments later he opened his eyes and sat up, turning to Alex who was sitting, staring at the apparition before her.

"What do you think?" he asked. "Is that more...believable?"

"Oh yeah! That's... how did you do that?" she asked.

"I didn't do it" he said, examining his hands. "She did it."

I smiled to myself, it had not been too difficult in truth. I had simply made a tiny drop of blood leak into every cell in William's skin so that it appeared the colour of blood. I had to admit that it was a startling transformation. As a vampire it would not harm him and would fade in time, although I had shown him how to dispel the colour himself. He was a fast learner and was surprisingly adept in his use of my power, although the effort had obviously tired him. He smiled at Alex and slipped back into sleep.

When he woke Alex was no longer beside him, but when he turned his head I saw her coming towards us rubbing at her long dark hair with something. She was naked and her skin looked pink and flushed. I felt a surge of arousal which I could have been his or mine, I was no longer sure.

"Er...Bill" she asked tentatively. "You can change that skin colour back can't you?"

He laughed. "Why...don't you like it?"

"Well...no!" she said. "It's just not you, is it?"

"Yes. I can change it back. But I'm definitely still me! Honestly. Why don't you come over here and find out?" he asked reaching for her hands.

He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her onto his lap. I relaxed as she touched him gently, tentatively at first, closing her eyes to block out the alarming sight of his blood red flesh. Soon her knees were resting on either side of his hips and her warm soft lips were on his, nuzzling at his mouth, exploring with her soft tongue. Almost before I realised it he had pulled her down, impaling her on his stiff shaft and lifting her up and down in a rhythm which became faster and faster until she cried out and began to shudder in his arms in a delicious climax which made her internal muscles clutch and squeeze at him, milking him until I slipped away into a satisfied daze.

When I came to we were heading down towards the basement cells.

"Hmmmm...one human girl not enough for you?" I murmured.

"On the contrary, she's more than enough...we intend to release the prisoners."

For a moment I was convinced that I had misheard him.

"What?"

"I'm sure you heard me."

"Why on earth would you do such a thing? You said yourself that Darius and his friends were likely to cause trouble for you. This is hardly going to gain his approval now is it? Why did we just go to the trouble to change your appearance if you're going to behave like a mainstreamer!"

"That was before I understood what was happening in The Authority."

"What have they got to do with this?"

He sighed and kicked open the door leading down to the cells, gesturing to Alex to preceed him.

"They have to work with the human authorities" he explained patiently. "And those authorities are putting pressure on them to deal with your little group of followers here. They want to fire the place and burn out the nest!"

I was astounded. "They...they wouldn't dare!"

"Certainly they would, why not? It would make them look good to the mortal authorities and at the same time, rid themselves of a troublesome group who don't agree with their agenda."

"I am their Goddess! How could they even consider such sacrilege!"

"But they don't know that yet do they?"

"Then we must leave, immediately!"

He ignored me and I lashed out, driving a spike of pain into his head. He gasped and put out a hand to steady himself against the wall.

"We can't just leave!" he hissed. "There are innocent people locked in the cells. Besides, what about your followers, what about Berenice?"

"They're expendable, I have many followers. You, on the other hand are valuable to me!"

"I'm touched, really I am, but I have a better idea. We must negotiate with them. Vampires and humans alike must learn to deal with the Goddess! But, as Alex has just pointed out to me, if they find a group of naked people locked in cells in the basement they're not going to be in the mood to talk with us now are they?"

By this time we had reached the bottom of the stairs and at the sight of William every single human in the cells shrank back against the walls in a horrified silence. He retreated back into the shadows, leaving Alex to talk to the mortals in the cells.

As she was speaking to them the door opened and the two guards came in. They stared at her in astonishment. "Well I'll be..." the first guard grinned at her. "I've no idea how you got loose, but you are going to pay for this!"

"Oh, I don't think so" she said with a smile. "Now open up these cells right now or you'll be in big trouble!"

He laughed. "Are you crazy? You can't possibly imagine I'd be scared of you!"

She smiled at him again. "Oh no...I'm not a very scary person at all." His expression changed when William stepped out of the shadows. "But my friend here? Well he's a really scary guy!" She turned to William. "He's the one who broke my arm by the way!"

I could feel the anger prickling over William's crimson skin at the thought of what this vampire had done to his lover but he controlled it and merely said politely, "Open the cells please."

The guard refused and I felt William deliberately block me as I prepared to destroy him. "Very well." he said. "I'll do it myself." He closed his eyes for a moment and reached into his mind. To my surprise he seemed to simply draw on my power, there was a bang and all four locks burst at the same time.

I admit I was shocked. "How did you do that?" I asked. "I didn't teach you that!"

"I simply used the power to move the metal of the locks in the same way that you moved the blood into my skin."

I remained silent, considering this slightly worrying development as William opened the doors and cast a glamour over the humans in the cells. He seemed able to draw on my power for this too. I could not decide if I was pleased that he had proved to be worthy of me, or concerned that I did not appear to be able to control him.

When I brought my attention back to William he was inside the cell kneeling on the floor before a girl I recognised as the little redhead Berenice had arranged to have brought to his room. He was asking for her forgiveness! Oh please! This was not the way vampire Gods behaved! I could not be bothered to argue with him at this point and so I just waited. Sooner or later he would make a mistake, and I would be ready.

William's next challenge was to be convincing Berenice of his new status. He and Alex headed back upstairs to the room Berenice and I had shared for the last few nights. I smiled to myself as it became obvious that Alex was well aware of what had happened between us and wasn't at all happy about it. I observed their interaction carefully hoping that, if she angered him sufficiently, he might just lose his temper and his loss of control might provide me with the opportunity I was waiting for.

Rather to my annoyance William showed a remarkable tolerance and understanding. Holding her in his arms he comforted her and reassured her of his love, thus managing to elicit a similar tolerance and understanding from her. I had just about given up on him in disgust when my attention was caught by a mention of his trip to the Mill House while in the blood trance.

He kissed her gently. "I know it must be hard for you, especially after all you've done for me and knowing that Berenice is an old friend only makes it worse. But I love you Alex." He paused for a moment. "You remember I told you what had happened when I first tasted the blood. You said that you felt me that night, at the Mill House? Well, when Berenice gave me the blood she said that it would take me to my heart's desire. She assumed this meant that I would see Lilith but she was not quite right. I did see the Goddess, but first the blood took me straight to you." He kissed me again. "You are my heart's desire Alex."

So I had been right! She had somehow been aware of our presence. I had recognized by now that they had a blood bond but this was more than that…much more. I had to consider this carefully.

When we entered Berenice was sitting at a dressing table brushing her long black hair. She turned and glanced over her shoulder when she heard the door open. She was, understandably, horrified to discover that her Goddess had been supplanted by a vampire a mere century and a half old. She was outraged at his declaration that he had no intention of giving over his body to me and told him firmly that he should be honoured to do so. I began to feel a little better and wondered why on earth I had not stayed with my initial plan to take Berenice in the first place!

William began to explain to her his changed plans.

"I'm going to need your help to convince the others, to get them to change their thinking. They are your followers. They will listen to you."

"What do you mean, change their thinking?" she asked looking confused.

William began to look a little uncomfortable at this point but he carried on, his tone firm and uncompromising. "I have released the humans from the cells. We cannot continue to prey on humans the way we have in the past, not now that they know of our existence. We have to modify our behaviour and embrace mainstreaming from now on. It's the only way forward."

"You've done what?" Berenice was clearly horrified. She staggered back and sat down on the edge of the bed "But William, this is not what she asked of us. This is not what she wanted!"

"No," he said, "it is not. I do understand what she wanted Berenice. But she lives in me now. Her plans for us would have brought us all to destruction. Surely you can see that. You cannot imagine that humans would allow us to take over without a fight! She was living in the past. Thousands of years in the past in fact. In her time humans lived in terror of the night. They lit fires and chanted spells to hold back the darkness. But that time is long gone. Adam's children have grown up. They have made so many advances since her time, yours too. To attempt to bring about her new world would only cause unimaginable horror and pain and in the end we would lose! We would all be wiped out. She is our mother Berenice. Do you think that is what she wants for her children?"

He paused and took her hands in his.

"She understands now why this would never have worked."

"I most certainly do not!"

"Quiet!"

"She knows this because I know it and I cannot lie to her. She had no idea what had happened in the outside world because you did not really understand it either. You were so isolated you were unable to give her the information she needed."

Suddenly Berenice's face fell and she looked completely devastated. "Are you saying that...that I have failed her?" she asked in a small voice.

"No!...no of course not!" William brought her hands to his lips and kissed them gently. "For two thousand years you cared for her and protected her. You had no life of your own. She appreciates that, really. But she needs to know what's happening now, out there in the real world. I can give her that knowledge."

"She no longer needs me?" she asked.

She was clearly upset and embarrassed at the thought that I had not considered her worthy and, rather to my surprise, appeared devastated at the idea that, now that William was able to advise me, I did not require her and that he did not intend to take her with him as his consort.

I simply could not understand why she was so upset about this.

"Don't be so insensitive!" William hissed at me.

"But she is free now! She can do whatever she wishes."

"Lilith, I know that you consider us to be expendable once we have served your purpose but please try to understand this. She was created to serve you. Her goal was to be the vessel for the Goddess. That was her sole purpose, it is all she has ever done….now she thinks that you don't need her any more and naturally she's upset. The reason for her whole existence has suddenly been taken away from her!"

He looked down at Berenice and his voice was harsh and determined.

"You know you need me Lilith and I will help you, I promise, but you have to meet me halfway. She loves you. She doesn't deserve to be abandoned like this. You are her mother Goddess, she has served you all her life and you will damn well comfort her whether you like it or not!"

He knelt before her and placed his hands on either side of her face. I found myself looking out into her familiar brown eyes, slightly pink with tears. I felt William's consciousness push at me and suddenly I could feel her pain and distress, sense the empty place in her heart where I had lived for centuries. I felt a sudden surge of love for her. How could I have forgotten her long years of patient service so easily?

"Oh Berenice my dear child, please forgive me. I never meant to hurt you, I never gave a moment's thought to your feelings and I am truly sorry."

I could feel the distress ebbing away as she heard my voice in her head.

William released her and she reached up and took his hands.

"I felt her, William!" she whispered. "She spoke to me." She gazed up at him in awe. "She really does live in you!"

"Yes" answered Bill. "She does. But, as I said, I'm going to need your help convincing the others that she does. This..." he gestured at his body, "this is an outward sign of the Goddess, but what I have to say to them isn't going to go down too well!"

She looked surprised at this. "They will do as Lilith commands!" she said firmly.

Now that was more like it! She had a serene confidence in my power which was very comforting after William's arguments.

He smiled and sat down on the bed beside her. "I wish I had your confidence" he said. "But somehow I don't think that everyone here is quite as dedicated to the Goddess as you are my dear. Perhaps I'm just being cynical but I have a suspicion that some have attached themselves to your movement simply because they like the idea of causing trouble for the Authority and killing humans. They are using the worship of Lilith as an excuse to behave like animals. Dangerous animals."

This was a new idea. I had assumed that I was using them, it had never crossed my mind that they might be using me! I considered this idea while William explained to her how Ulrich Von Schröder had visited Alex and told her that the Authority was being pressured to take action against us. That he had asked him to come here for talks and to bring his colleagues from the Ministry of Defence with him. "They will be here in a few hours."

"Darius is never going to agree to this" said Berenice. "He didn't even want you to be involved in the ceremony at all. He'll never believe that Lilith has changed her plans."

"Then you must convince him my dear! For all our sakes."

Berenice looked from William to Alex and back again. "Well...I can't say that I approve of your association with a human, but...Oh William, when you touched me I could feel her within you! I heard her voice in my head. I have no option but to follow her instructions. My whole life has been dedicated to Lilith, this was why Mekure made me, to care for her and protect her. I always believed that when the night of resurrection came she would take me. It simply never occurred to me that she would chose another..." For a moment she looked completely lost, like a frightened child thrown out into the world alone.

"William, what shall I do now? My only purpose was to serve her."

He put his arm around her shoulders. "She still needs you Berenice" he said comfortingly. "These people are your followers, she needs you to keep them true to her. When this is over, then...you can do whatever you wish. Make a life for yourself."

She gazed up at him. "But not with you?" she said sadly.

"No" he said, "not with me."