We had all moved into the dining room which Berenice had arranged as a conference room with a long dining table in the centre. The talking had been going on for about half an hour but no progress was being made. The main problem seemed to be the attitude of the humans towards William, and also towards me.

It was obvious that the mortals could not, or would not, accept that William was regarded by the Sanguinistas as a God. After twenty minutes or so of fruitless arguing he had looked down at himself and said "well, I can see that this is wasted on you." As they watched in astonishment the vivid colour of his skin began to fade and within a few minutes it was back to his normal ivory hue.

One of the uniformed men, the most objectionable in my opinion, raised his eyebrows and replied "Nice! But it still doesn't make you a God!"

"This is painful William! I've eaten things that didn't argue this much! "Who is he?" I asked.

"He is a Colonel in the Army" explained William calmly. "He's in charge!"

"He does not appear to be very powerful to me. I could crush him! I could give you the strength to crush him." I offered.

William was silent for a moment. "You need to understand Lilith, that the power of mortals lies not in their individual strength, but in their numbers. Yes, I could crush him even without your help, but there are many more like him…..too many!"

I growled with frustration, just as Alex spoke up for the first time. "But does it matter?" she asked. There was a sudden silence and everyone stared at her.

"It isn't necessary that you believe it surely? Just that they do!" she said.

The Colonel glared at her across the table for a moment, then his young aide gave a tentative little cough. "The young lady has a point actually Sir" he said.

"So long as they obey him" she said "what does it matter to you what their motivations are?"

"Well I think we've demonstrated that they will obey us already!"

After William had allowed the limp body of Darius to fall to the floor there had been a shocked silence for a moment and then one of the armed mortal soldiers has taken a step towards the little red-haired girl, obviously intending to help her. However she had panicked and fled, but not to her own people...of all the creatures in that room, she had run to William. To the monster who had just half killed one of his own followers for attempting to defy him. As he walked back to the throne with her all the assembled vampires had knelt before him and bowed their heads.

After Alex's intervention things seemed to go a bit more easily. William relaxed a little and left most of the talking to Ulrich and a tall blond woman who appeared quite at ease and almost seemed to be enjoying herself.

"Who is she?"

"Her name is Nan Flanagan. She's a public relations consultant for the Authority." A little smile appeared on William lips. "She's a pain in the ass, but she's very, very good at her job!"

There was one awkward moment when Ulrich and the Colonel's aide were arguing about methods of dealing with vampires who did not fall in line with the Authority's rules. Ulrich was, understandably, very reluctant to hand them over to the army for punishment but the infuriating Colonel evidently wanted to be judge and jury, and possibly executioner as well. I could feel William becoming angry again when they both suddenly fell silent, their eyes on him. I glanced down and saw swirls of red running down his arm.

Suddenly there was a warm hand on his thigh under the table and I felt the taut muscle relax and William's anger began to fade. That wretched girl again! He gave a little sigh and his hand closed over hers.

Hours later we were back in his room and William was lying on his back on the bed complaining that his head ached! And for once it wasn't my fault! Alex sat down on the edge of the bed with a sigh. "I think you're going to have to get used to it you know." she said.

William sat up and leaned back against the head of the bed, reaching over and pulling her up alongside him. They talked quietly together for a while until my attention was caught by a question.

"How did you get in?" he asked.

"Oh that was easy!" she said "I just hung around outside and let one of the guards catch me. I was dragged inside and slung into a storeroom for a hour or so then hauled up before you and Berenice. Then they dragged us downstairs to the basement, made us strip off and slung us in the cells."

Oh, those idiots! This girl had ruined all my plans and they had brought her in themselves! Still, I supposed that I couldn't really blame them, I had thought her harmless myself.

William was looking horrified. "Oh Alex you poor thing! They made you strip? What on earth for?"

"Well I did ask actually...but I just got a slap around the face." she said. "I imagine that it was just because they could, and humans tend to feel much more helpless and less likely to put up a fight when they're stark naked!"

Hmmm...I must remember that.

"Was that the same guard who broke your arm?" asked William, his eyes narrowing. I noticed that his fangs had slid out a little. "I think I need to have a little word with him!"

He was very protective of her, maybe I could use this knowledge to my advantage.

"I don't really think that would be a good idea do you?" She asked. She put her hand on his chest and began to stroke him gently. "Um...Bill?" she asked carefully. "What exactly did you do to Darius?"

"I'm not entirely sure" he answered. "But when I thought of what Lucy had been through in this house at the hands of vampires and realised that he intended to kill her, for no better reason than to demonstrate that he could, well...I just lost my temper. I was furious with him, I wanted him to suffer, I wanted to inflict agonising pain on him and so Lilith obliged me..." He turned to look at her. "You know...I don't know that I would have stopped, or even if I could have stopped, for anyone else."

"Why?" I asked. "What's different about me?"

"Good question" I thought to myself, what is different about her?

"I told you before that she fears you, but it's not that exactly." William was clearly struggling to express some concept that he did not really understand himself. "She fears my feelings for you. Because she doesn't understand them. She understands fear, anger even lust, but that's not what I feel for you" he glanced at her for a moment. "Well not all the time anyway!" he smiled. "But love, tenderness...she doesn't seem to understand them."

Well, really! I most certainly did not fear her! But as I considered his words I realised that he was not too far wrong after all. I didn't understand his feelings for her and that meant I didn't understand him...I resolved to study their relationship more closely.

"I'm lucky to have you with me" he said softly. "You say things to me that no-one else would dare to say."

Well that was certainly true enough. She showed him no respect whatsoever, on the contrary she teased him unmercifully and not only did he fail to punish her for this disrespect, he appeared to welcome it!

"Promise me something Alex! Promise that you'll never leave me! I know it's going to be difficult for you from now on but I need you now more than ever. I need you to tease me, to take the mickey out of me. To say those things that other people won't dare to say. To stop me from taking myself too seriously. I need you to keep me sane. To remind me what it is to be human."

I sighed to myself. Yes...she definitely had to go.