CHAPTER 4

I do not own Doctor Who, and I am making no profit off of this.

Lilith was furious at having had Rose taken from her. Luckily she hadn't heard exactly what it was that they were going to do to the executives of the publishing company or when they were going to do it. This still gave them the advantage for now. Still the Time Lady knew too much, and that was never good.

She turned to her two mothers who were still on the crystal ball watching everything. The three of them began to make plans on how to deal with the Time Lady if she returned. They were finally so close to having this world in the palm of their hands, and they weren't going to be stopped now.

Meanwhile Ileana was still in the building conducting her own search. She had found out nothing so far. She decided to go talk to Victoria as nothing else had panned out for her so far. Rose was convinced that the werewolf was innocent, but Ileana had a gut feeling that she was connected to what was going on somehow. She never ignored those feelings. Whenever she had, it had always gone badly for her in the past.

When she approached Victoria, she could see the fear on the woman's face. She supposed that it was the werewolf in her having an instinctual reaction to a vampire.

She immediately acted to calm her down as she said, "Relax! I just want to ask you some questions. I don't consider you a suspect okay, but you're the only one here that I haven't questioned yet. You're probably the only one who will give me an honest answer anyway. Everyone else won't give me anything useful to go on at all."

Victoria actually smiled at that as Ileana had hoped that she would. Now that she thought that she trusted her maybe she would be a little more forthcoming with her.

"You said that you were kept late the other night by your boss. Who is that again?" Ileana asked her.

"Her name is Lilith Bouchard. She's in the office down the hall. She's never been what you'd call a friendly person but maybe that's changing. She actually gave me some extra money for staying late. She even said how great an employee I am. I think that she's finally noticing me! Isn't that great?" Victoria said with a huge grin.

Any suspicions that Ileana had about her were dispelled in that moment. She saw that she was just an ordinary person despite the werewolf part of her. Alarm bells did go off about her boss though. Her sudden change in behavior towards Victoria made her immediately suspicious.

"That's wonderful. I hope that it continues for you. Is your boss busy? I think I'd like to talk to her now," Ileana said.

"You're not going to tell her what I said are you? I don't want to get into any trouble with her if she thinks that I sent you after her," Victoria said warily.

Ileana smiled at her reassuringly and said, "No, of course not. I won't say a thing about you. Don't worry about it!"

Victoria nodded, but Ileana could tell that she was still worried about her going to talk to her boss.

Ileana walked down the hall to Lilith's office and knocked on the door. She had heard the sound of three voices talking until she had knocked, and then two of the voices suddenly went silent. Something was wrong here. She was sure about that now.

As soon as Lilith opened the door, Ileana's senses screamed 'Carrionite' to her! She had met her species before. Some Carrionites had attempted to use the writings of a then obscure horror writer from New England once before in 1935 to free their sisters. Luckily Ileana and her daughter had been on hand to deal with them. She had learned a great deal about them and their methods in the meantime. She knew to be very wary around this woman and to shut her up quickly if she started rhyming.

"Hello! I'm sorry to interrupt your business conference, but I had some questions to ask you about the strange death that occurred at your company's press conference," Ileana said.

"Oh, that's okay. It was nothing important," Lilith said with a fake smile.

"I'm Helen Stoker," Ileana said as she shook Lilith's hand.

"Very nice to meet you, Miss Stoker," Lilith said as she shut the door to her office and drew the blinds.

Then the woman's expression changed as she whirled around and said, "Or should I say Mrs. Van Helsing?"

"I thought that you recognized me. I certainly recognized what you were as soon as I saw you. Whatever you're doing, I'm here to end it. Nothing else is going to happen to Verity Newman while I'm here," Ileana promised her.

"Fool! Verity Newman isn't our true goal at all. It seems that your reputation isn't all that it's cracked up to be. From what I'd heard about you, you sounded like a force to be reckoned with. I don't think so highly of you myself though after seeing you in action. You should be rather easy to take care of I think. You, Ileana Van Helsing, have a heart that's bold even though your blood runs co . . ." Lilith managed to say before she was suddenly cut off.

Her spell was abruptly broken before she could finish it as Ileana suddenly grabbed her throat with one hand and cut off her air supply with a steely grip.

"What do you think of me now, Carrionite?" Ileana asked with a wicked grin.

Lilith struggled for breath, and she used all of her remaining strength to punch Ileana in the gut in an attempt to free herself. The vampire laughed at her. She had barely felt her attack. She was made of much sterner stuff.

Victoria suddenly opened the door and shouted, "What are you doing? Leave her alone!"

"You don't understand. She's the one behind all of the strange things that have been going on lately," Ileana tried to explain to her.

"You're crazy. She's harmless. Let her go now!" Victoria said in a rage.

"No! She's dangerous. She wants to destroy this world. Back down, Victoria! Don't make me hurt you!" Ileana threatened.

Victoria' anger got the better of her at those words, and she began to change for the first time in the daytime!

"No! I can't stop!" Victoria said with fear on her face. She had realized too late that her anger was triggering the change.

In less than a minute, she was fully transformed and leaping for Ileana's throat!

"Somehow I can't help but blame Joan Redfern for all of this!" Ileana said just before Victoria attacked.

Lilith would have laughed if she had any breath left. Their plan was less than an hour away from going through. Let these two idiots fight and waste time while her mothers carried it out unopposed. She had already given them their instructions before Ileana had interrupted her. No one could stop them now!

Meanwhile in the front lobby of the publishing company, a man in a bow tie stopped at the front desk and said, "Hello! I believe I'm expected. I'm the Doctor."

Martha Jones came walking up to him with a frown on her face.

"You have a wonderful sense of timing as always, Doctor!" Martha said with a groan.

"You have a wonderful sense of gratitude, Martha! I didn't have to come and help you know," the Doctor said with a pout.

"You came too late! Rose is already here, Doctor," Martha said with a pointed look at him.

The Doctor's face blanched as he realized what this meant. He had never wanted her to find out about Joan. He hadn't wanted her to be hurt by it.

"She knows, Doctor! I'm sorry. I had to tell her," Martha said with a sad look on her face.

The Doctor looked miserable. He would have to talk to Rose soon and tell her about what happened. He didn't look forward to it at all. He'd rather face the Weeping Angels or an army of Daleks any day! The most they could do was kill him!

Next: Ileana vs. Victoria! Rose and Sister of Mine return to help stop the Carrionites. Plus the Doctor!