Spiro stood by the drinks table, glowering at the dance floor. Liv had been entirely too tied up with the bloody Prince for him to even get close to her. It was like the man had bewitched her or something. She actually seemed to enjoy his touch.

He knew there was something about Kenan Barak, and it had nothing whatever to do with the made-up title of Prince. It had everything to do with whatever it was he was mixing in Liv's drinks.

It was hard not to notice she was greatly changed. She held herself differently, seemed distracted at times, and oddly more certain of herself and less deferential to her superiors!

Spiro hated the whole bunch. The put-upon airs of the Italian, the casual dismissal of him by the Greek. And what was with the guy named Zak?  He chugged down another drink.

"It is nice to see you again, Inspector," Beth said.  "I haven't had a chance to speak with you all evening."

Spiro glumly eyed Beth. He wasn't quite certain how or where she fit into the scheme of things.  "Hullo," he replied.

"Not really enjoying yourself?"

"Should I be?" he asked.

"Well it is a party," she said, amusement mingled with sympathy.  "And Thanos does know how to entertain."

"Well, it is certainly ostentatious, I'll give him that. He likes to make a statement, doesn't he."

Beth looked around, considering the ambiance.  "I wouldn't have said so.  But perhaps it's an x chromosome thing.  We women are more naturally inclined to enjoy entertaining."  She looked over at Kenan and Liv.  "He doesn't seem to be enjoying himself either."

"Well, he's certainly monopolizing Liv," Spiro muttered.

"Really?"  She set her wineglass aside.  "Well I understand he's very protective of her."

He turned to frown at her. "What gives him that right?" he hissed, as he looked back to glare.

"They've been seeing each other for a while, I think," she explained mildly.  "She seems very attached to him.  I haven't yet said hello to her and I must leave soon.  Would you like to join me?"

"Yes, yes I would," he agreed and offered her his arm as they walked off toward where Kenan and Liv stood speaking to one another, off in their own little world.

"Liv, it's lovely to see you.  And completely recovered I see.  I am so glad," Beth said, reaching out to touch her arm gently.

Liv smiled at Beth. "Yes, it was a bit frightening, but I'm almost fully recovered, thanks to quick thinking friends. How are you, Spiro?  I'm sorry I didn't have a moment to speak earlier."

"Yes, I'm sure you are. If you'll excuse us Prince Kenan, I need to speak to my colleague alone."

"At a party?" Kenan asked mildly.  "Surely business can wait."

"No it cannot, since I've had some difficulty finding her at home," Spiro growled.

"And now that I think of it, she's been suspended hasn't she?"  Kenan frowned.  "Do you know anything about that?"

"Yes, and it is with regard to that I wish to speak to you, Inspector Scott," he replied, ignoring Kenan now and concentrating on Liv.

"Oh?  I was told the review would be at higher levels, Spiro. I was given the distinct impression I was not to speak to any of my colleagues until the hearing."  Liv managed not to raise her voice.

"So I guess the answer's no," Kenan drawled after a moment of silence, satisfaction flashing through his eyes.

"Liv, I insist," Spiro hissed.

"Oh?" Liv replied, eying Spiro with a frown.

Kenan moved a fraction, slipping his body between Liv and Spiro.  "I don't think she wants to."

"It is none of your business," Spiro said, frowning at Kenan.

"You think not?" Kenan said, his voice low and soft, dangerous.

Across the room Sybilla laid a hand on Carmine's arm, drawing his attention to the scene unfolding by the terrace doors.

Carmine's eyebrow rose. "The inspector has a death wish," was Carmine's comment, even as the inspector in question replied, "I am speaking to Livinia."

Liv then spoke, "It's all right, Kenan. I have no objection to speaking privately with Inspector Moran."

Kenan lifted the hand he held to his mouth, kissing her knuckles, saying things with his eyes, as if they were totally alone.  Then he kissed her on the mouth, swift and hard and stepped away.  "I'll get a drink while you talk, would you like one?" he asked, as if neither Beth nor the Inspector were there.

"Yes please." Liv said to Kenan, her eyes on him as he walked away.

"What are you thinking?" Spiro asked grabbing her wrist with his hand.

Kenan paused and turned, a snarl lifting his lip.  "I do not think she wants you touching her."

"He's right, Spiro. Take your hand off my wrist." Liv met Sprio's eyes. "Say what you wish to say to me and then please leave."

"I... come on the balcony with me. I'd rather not speak in here," Spiro countered.

"It is here or no where," Liv replied quietly. Then she added, "Beth, I'm sorry. I've not had a chance to say more than a word to you.  I wanted to thank you for all the help during my recent ... difficulties."

"It is what friends do," Beth said.  "I was glad to help."  She looked at Kenan at the bar, smiling.  The she touched Spiro again, her palm flat on  his arm, drawing his eyes, holding them for an instant.  "But the Inspector has business with you and he wishes it to remain private.  I'll leave you alone so that you can deal with things before Kenan returns."

Liv watched her walk away then turned, with a frown, toward Spiro. "Don't be an ass."

"Then come out to the terrace with me," he countered, taking her elbow and steering her that way.

Sybilla stiffed, her hand tensing on Carmine's arm.  "She is using power," she said.

"But she's walked away," Carmine pointed out, although he steered Sybilla toward the patio and began weaving them through the crowd in that direction, his eyes on Liv and Spiro.

"Perhaps," Sybilla said.  She tried to focus, but there were to many people between her and the couple stepping out into the night.

"What is it you want to tell me here, that you couldn't tell me inside," Liv asked Spiro exasperated. "I'm not sure I even want my job back, so it isn't as if I'm banging on the boss's door asking for a hearing."

Spiro stepped toward Liv, making her back up abruptly.

Inside Sybilla paled, turning slowly towards Beth who was speaking with Zsofia and Vasily, obviously saying good night.  She could feel the power prickling along her skin, subtle, focused.  She needed the people out of the way, to stop shifting. She clenched her fist, digging her nails into her hand and images exploded in her head, sending pain stabbing in her temples, wrenching a low moan from her.

Near Kenan at the bar, Zak looked around, suddenly alert.

Carmine used his prince connection to call to Kenan and alert him as he grasped Sybilla and towed her by sheer force of will toward the terrace.  Kenan broke off what he was saying and strode towards the terrace, following them.

"No!" she made it a command, her voice low.  "It's in here, not out there."  She felt like she was moving in slow motion, pulling back towards main room.  Over the murmur of conversation, the music playing in the background she heard Beth laugh at something, the sound musical, and watched as her hands traced a graceful arc as she illustrated some point to Vasily that had them all laughing again.  But she couldn't focus on it, the edges of her vision becoming a black frame to the bursting points of light that dotted the scene in front of her.

She bit down hard, savagely on her lower lip, tearing the flesh, drawing blood, welcoming the pain of it, the metallic taste flooding her mouth.  But Beth's hands were moving in the air again and Sybilla flinched, her own coming up in self defense, sketching a symbol of protection in the air.

Carmine realized what had Sybilla's attention, but his was on Liv's well-being. He allowed himself a moment of distraction when he saw Kenan moving toward Liv and Spiro. Liv was backed up against the balustrade and there was something threatening about Spiro, in a way that was entirely different from the normal man's mien.

Sybilla took a step away from Carmine.  By the bar, Zak was moving as well, Thanos with him, to intercept Beth as she strolled with Vasily and Zsofia.  Next to her Vasily put his arm around Zsofia pulling her away from Beth on the pretext of of affection.  But still there were people between Sybilla and Beth.

She lifted both hands, while she positioned her body directly between the doors to the terrace and Beth's line of sight out the door, blocking it.  The power slammed into her, malignant, drenching in her in malevolence.  The air felt slimy, oozing like oil along her body, sprouting needle sharp teeth that sank into her.   She ignored the pain, deliberately closed the link to Carmine and lifted her hands in front of her.  Behind her, from the terrace, she heard the sound of anger, felt the waves of emerging violence and ignored that too.  Her palms were bloody where she'd cut them with her nails, her fingertips dyed carmine.

Across the room Beth met her eyes.  Vasily yanked Zsofia away from her.

Carmine opened the link with Sybilla and began pouring what power he could through it to Sybilla.  Sybilla tensed, absorbing the flow of energy from Carmine, sparing a second, a vital part of her awareness to send the message back through the link to him that Beth could use it.  She could follow the pathway back into his mind and destroy it.  Then she lowered a barrier between them and closed her mind to him, sealing it.

As fast as she did it, Beth felt her distraction and attacked, her hands like claws, nails like knives carving through the air as she chanted, the words low and guttural.  Energy crackled, gathering, shaping itself, thickening the air.  Behind her on the bar, the sound of glass shattering erupted and Beth freed the energy, loosening it and the glass from the terrace doors burst inward, the shards deadly projectiles.

Sybilla reacted an instant too late, feeling the first shards cutting into her back and legs before she could turn the rest into powder.  She pushed the pain away, rejecting the distraction as her hands moved, commanding power that she shaped into a weapon with her voice, making the air a rushing force that slammed Beth back against the bar, causing her to stumble.  Beth snarled defiance and rage, her hands cutting through the air.  She deflected the power back to Sybilla and disappeared.

Carmine caught Sybilla before she collapsed onto the floor, sweeping her up into his arms. "Do you need a doctor?" he asked, carrying her off and away from the party.

She closed her eyes.  "With a pair of tweezers?"

"Si," the vampire said, using his link to Sybilla to send her toward oblivion.  She fell into the mental state he'd used his powers to induce, blissfully free of the agony of the glass in her back.

Zak was beside him in a moment. "Bring her this way. I'll fetch a doctor."

Carmine followed Zak to a bedroom upstairs and laid her gently on her side on the bed, holding her mind in his, to keep her protected from the pain.

The moment he could the djinn zipped off.

Carmine waited, somewhat impatiently for the doctor, tempted to rip the dress away from the wounds and begin the glass removal himself.  But finally Zak arrived with a doctor in tow.

Liv, on the terrace, let Spiro touch her then somehow or other focused, and as she did so she began to glow golden, the disk at her throat flaring into brilliance.

Before Kenan could reach Liv, she held out a hand palm outward and Spiro flew backwards in through the shattered glass door to land on his backside amidst the rubble, skidding to a halt against the remains of the door.

Kenan stared down at him, rage glittering in his eyes.   "If it were me you'd be dead."

"How did you.. What... " Spiro sputtered, picking himself up.

"I suggest you leave, Spiro," Liv replied quietly, as she laid a hand on Kenan's arm, hoping to help him contain his anger.

Spiro looked from one to the other of them. "What the hell are you?" he asked, his voice going hoarse.

"Someone you don't want as your enemy," Kenan said.

"You should leave now Spiro. And I wouldn't come back if I were you. And if you come to my apartment I won't be responsible for your safety. Do I make myself clear?" Liv asked, her voice calm but cold and quite deadly.

Spiro hesitated a moment then, putting his chin up, turned on his heel and marched off.

Kenan stepped closer to Liv, putting his arms around her.  "Tough lady, huh?"

"So don't get any ideas, buster," she replied, looking up at him.

He grinned.  "But I have this sudden image...black leather, thigh high boots with very high heels..."

She shook her head at him. "I notice you left off the whip."

"You think you might need one?"

Liv eyed him thoughtfully. "No, no I don't."

He kissed the corner of her mouth.  "Are you alright?"

"Yes. I hope Sybilla is. Let's go check on her. I'm afraid we're no further along with regard to Beth. She'll still be out there."

"Well we are in the sense that we know it's her."  Kenan steered her towards the stairs, keeping her next to him with his arm around her waist.  "Our problem now is going to be finding her."  He looked down at her, his expression neutral.  "I don't suppose there's any point asking you to let me handle her."

Liv bit her lip. "I think my new-found sisters will see it as their business, which, I suppose, makes it mine.  It's all rather confusing, I'm afraid."

Kenan paused, his hand on the doorknob.  "Confusing?"

"Well, I didn't realize I could do that to Spiro. It sort of... happened."

"Ah.  Well then I guess I'd better be careful around you for a while."  He opened the door, allowing her to proceed him.

"Sybilla?" Liv called softly as they entered.

Carmine stood off to the side, his hands crossed on his chest, for all the world like some sort of protective guard over Sybilla, who lay on the bed on her side, the doctor having done his best for her.

"Liv, cara.  Are you alright?" Sybilla tried to shift to see her, biting back the pain.  It was like fire on her back and legs, but she'd refused to allow the doctor to give her any pain medication.  In a few moments she was going to have to try to find Beth.

Liv walked over and knelt down beside the bed, reaching out and taking Sybilla's hand in hers, covering it over with her other hand as well. She willed relief to Sybilla, unsure if she could even do such a thing.  "I am fine. Please, don't worry for me. I am so sorry, Sybilla, that Beth attacked you."

Sybilla squeezed her hand.  "There is no need.  It is not your fault.  I was careless.  I should have expected that she would be ruthless if she felt herself trapped."

Carmine shared a look with Kenan then said, "All creatures are dangerous when they feel trapped. The secret is how to manage things the best way possible."

A tremor ran through Sybilla's body and she closed her eyes willing self-control.  "We are sisters," Sybilla said, her voice barely audible, filled with grief.  "For hundreds of years we have always had a care for one another.  All of us.  I did not think she would...I suppose the truth is I did not wish to think she would ever really try to hurt me."  Sybilla's hand clenched the bedclothes.  "We would, all of us, have given her what ever she asked."  She raised her eyes to Carmine, her own awash with tears, her voice pleading.  "So why is she doing this?"

Carmine shrugged. "Your guess is far better than mine, cara. But apparently Livinia's return set off some series of reactions that have led to this."

Liv looked stricken. "I wish I knew why, or how. Or that.. Well, that I hadn't ... awakened."

"Oh no, cara," Sybilla said.  "Don't think that, not ever.  It is better.  The Aegis is safe with you.  And to have not awoken to this part of yourself would have been to remain only half alive."

Liv kissed Sybilla's hand. "That I have your friendship is wonderful. But now, I .. With Beth suddenly being an enemy... It is as if I found a family but must be wary of them too."

"I'm so sorry," Sybilla whispered.

"Not your fault, no need to be. It must be very difficult for you, since you've thought of Beth as family all these years.  How can I help?"

"Live and be happy,' Sybilla said.

"I might say the same to you," Liv replied gently. "And I want to help you do that."

"You already do."

"I do?" Liv asked doubtfully. "I haven't... all I've done is create problems."

"No, cara.  You have not created the problems.  Sambethe has."  Sybilla's voice was firm as she spoke.

Liv thought about that for a time. Then said, "The others, can we trust them?"

"I do," she said.

"Good, then we can all help deal with Sambethe," Liv replied. "No more trying it on your own."

She shook her head.  "No cara.  I do not wish to be unkind.  But you can not hope to confront her yourself and win.  You are too new to the power you wield."

"I have no intention of confronting her on my own. I'll do it with my sisters," Liv replied.

Kenan stirred behind her and then stilled, biting back his protest.

Sybilla sighed.  "This battle will be with fought power, what you would call magic, using the things of the elements...air and water, fire, earth, light, even spirits...can you defend yourself against those things?"

"Not yet, true. But I can help you raise power. I've understood that already. And besides, Sybilla, what makes this your fight alone. It is me she tried to kill."

"I have not said it is my fight alone.  But, of all of us, I am the one who comes closest to being her equal in power and skill.  She and I are the oldest, our blood the strongest, the most potent.  I am the only one she didn't train or mentor in using the gifts that are ours.  Because she was their teacher she knows them intimately, she can predict how they will both attack and defend.  So for those reasons I have the best chance of defeating her."

Sybilla tightened her hands on Liv's.  "It is you she has tried to kill and it is your right to call her to answer for her crimes against you.  Just as it is your right to claim her life because of her threats against yours."

Sybilla struggled, wanting to sit up, hating her vulnerability.  "But we are sibyls, sharing in the power of the gods themselves, my sister.  She and I have studied that power, as have all of us because it is part of our responsibility to ourselves and to those around us.  Sambethe and I, in particular, have been seeking and sharing such knowledge for centuries.  It is a field of many paths, some of which should not be traveled.  I am very afraid, from the things that I have sensed, both tonight and at your apartment, that she has delved into those things better left alone, choosing paths that lead to the things of the darkness.

Sybilla's skin was pale, almost gray, lines of strain biting deep around her mouth and perspiration sheened across her forehead.  She needed to sleep.  And she needed to find Beth.  She drew in a breath and her voice hardened.  "So know now that if you must do this thing, you must be very clear that you may not survive it, even with the help of the Aegis.  And I may not be able to aid you either."

"Rest, sister. Be at ease. I will do nothing now. Regain your strength," Liv soothed. "We will talk again soon."

"I would like very much to do so," Sybilla said, smiling.  "But the longer I delay, the more difficult it will be find her."

"That may be, but you are in no condition to face her," Carmine said from where he stood. "You will do no one any good if you go against her too soon. We will find her when we want her."

"No, she said, shaking her head.  "We need to find her now."

Carmine reached in along their blood bond and gave her rest.

"Do not worry, Livinia, I will make her rest before she searches for Sambethe."

Livinia let go of Sybilla's limp hand and then kissed her cheek. "Thank you. Carmine."

"Now, you go and rest. You also have had a difficult day," Carmine added, looking down at the newest Sibyl.

Kenan pulled Liv close again, while he grinned at Carmine.  "I would guess she is going to be very angry with you, my friend."

Carmine shrugged then smiled at Kenan. "See that this one is not as mad at you."

"I'll let Thanos know you're staying.  Last I saw he was soothing his guests.  Is there anything I can have them bring you?  A drink perhaps?" Kenan asked, his eyes amused.  "You are staying, I assume?"

"Si, I am staying. I have need of nothing at this time, but thank you for informing Thanos."

"Thank you for taking care of her, Carmine," Liv said as Kenan led her toward the door.

"E niente, bella."

The sun was sneaking in through the crack in the curtains.  The narrow band of it falling across her told her so.  On either side of it she felt cooler.  She extended her senses, trying to identify where she was.  For some reason it was important that she answer that question before she opened her eyes and allowed the past to rush back in.  She was sure it was somewhere she'd never been before.

She sensed no threat to herself.  Then she caught his scent and it all came back to her.  "You do not decide for me," she said firmly, without even opening her eyes.  "I am not a member of your court."

There was no answer, nor any answering movement. When she did open her eyes he stood at the foot of the bed, hands crossed on his chest, feet spread, one eyebrow raised.

A brow of her own rose in response.

The corner of his lip quirked upwards.

She lifted her chin, preparing herself to glare.

He remained unmoving, apparently unmoved.

Her lips thinned and her eyes narrowed.  "You will not do such a thing again."

He met her eyes calmly.

She threw up her hands.  "Lei è impossibile!  E l'arrogante!"

"Si, Nicco," Carmine replied.

Sybilla gasped, giving him a look meant to at least wither and maim and preferably kill.  He was hopeless.  Absolutely hopeless.  She sat up, muttering imprecations under her breath in Italian as she looked around for her clothes.  Every muscle protested the movement.  Not finding them she hissed in frustration.  "My clothes, se lei per favore?"

"Awaiting you in the bathroom, for your shower," the prince replied easily.

"Grazie," she said, sweeping past him regally.

"Your breakfast will be ready on your return," the prince said.

"Bene."

Slightly placated by the hot water she rejoined him in less than half an hour having decided he was too male and too vampiric, all of which made him too bossy and too high handed, not to mention unpardonably impertinent.  Comparing her to Nicco, indeed.  Who did he think he was?  It was very clear to her that letting him get away with this would set a dangerous precedent.  But she did not see what she could do, short of disappearing from the bathroom, to bring him to an understanding of his faults.  And she would not be so ill-mannered.  On the other hand there was nothing keeping her from sticking her nose in the air...ever so slightly.

So deciding, firming her back, she returned to the bedroom.

The prince stood behind a chair to the small table on the balcony, where her breakfast was laid.  He held her chair for her and motioned for her to sit.

"Grazie.  Thank you, signore," she said as he seated her.

"I am pleased to do it, cara. You are feeling better after your rest? Shall I call for the doctor to see to your back again?

She shook her head as he poured her coffee.  "No, I am fine.  I have disrupted Thanos's household enough as it is.  And imposed upon you as well."

"I am only relieved that you are now in far better shape than you were last night, cara. Taking on a major task when not at one's best is never wise. "

Was he offering her an oblique apology?  Impossible.  "I am grateful for your concern, but sometimes it is unavoidable."  She nibbled a piece of toast, eying him carefully.  "Are you always so managing of your friends?"

"Only when they need a reminder that their life and well-being are important," he replied.

She gave him a friendly smile.  "And if one were to impose their will on you in such a manner?"

"Several have. I have seen the wisdom in their assistance, and have thanked them for their concern."

"How long afterwards?"

The prince gave it some thought and smiled. "I claim no inhuman wisdom and admit it took me quite some time to appreciate my friends. In one case it took a duel for me to work out my irritation."

"It will be very much more difficult to find her now," Sybilla said, content to have made her point.  "And, it would be much better if Liv did not involve herself, in spite of her right to do so."

"It would be even better if you allowed myself and Kenan to assist you."

"And impossible to stop at least you from doing so?" she inquired.

"If you request me to leave it to you, I will. I understand your need to do this, even if I think it a mistake for you to take it on alone."

Her answer was a sigh as she stared at her plate.  "I have killed before," she said, her voice low and vulnerable.  "Always it was in self-defense or because, so far as I could discern, it was the lesser evil.  But never like this."

"Whereas others of us have killed without much remorse and in other circumstances. I have killed in revenge, in anger, in need, because I could. Do not become like me, cara."

"So what would you have me do?" she asked after a long silence.  "I touched her mind last night as she was using the Inspector, trying to incite him to kill Liv.  She felt nothing at all."

"I would have you do what is necessary and wise. Only you can make that determination," Carmine replied. "I will help as I can, as much as you will allow me. As will Kenan. He will keep Livinia safe."

"Si.  I know you are right.  This is not a thing I can do alone.  If only because I know it is possible that I will not...that I will hesitate when the moment comes."

"Then, if you fear that, you must take me along. And Kenan. Of us all, he will not hesitate."

"No, he would not.  For her he would do anything.  She is blessed to be cared for like that.  But even so, I would prefer..."  She stopped, looking up to meet his eyes.  "I would rather not.  I do not want him to have to lie to her and it is possible he would have to do so to prevent Liv from risking herself, too."

"I believe you underestimate her. She understands she is vulnerable. But as you wish, then it will be you and I."

Sybilla stood up and went to stand against the balcony railing, holding the metal bar tightly as she looked out into the distance.  "Is it underestimating her to want her to be free of this burden?"

"No, I would wish her to be free of any burden. But my prime concern is that you live well with the consequences," Carmine said as he walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.

She turned in his arms, letting the feeling of being held flow through her.  "Why are you doing this?"

He pushed her hair gently back from her face. "For you."

"Thank you," she whispered.

He leaned down and brushed his lips across hers.

When he lifted his head she touched her fingers to his lips.  "Have I the right to protect Liv as I am doing?  Or is it managing her for her own good as you did me me last night?"

He smiled. "I suspect it is a mixture of both. We do what we must, to care for those we love, do we not?"

"Si."  She was about to say more when there was a knock on the door.  "It is Thanos I think," she said.

"So it is," the prince replied. "Come," he called out to Thanos, not stepping away from Sybilla.

Thanos waited until he reached the balcony to speak, kissing Sybilla's hand as he greeted them.  "Kenan and Liv are here.  She has a very determined look on her face."

"Thank you, Thanos. For your hospitality and your good care. Shall we go down?" Carmine added, looking back to Sybilla.

"Yes, thank you Thanos.  Grazie prego."  She kissed his cheek.  "We probably shouldn't keep them waiting if she is as determined as you say."

Thanos led them downstairs to the now nearly deserted terrace where Kenan and Liv stood by the railing looking out over the sea.

Liv turned as she heard them approach.  She smiled with relief to see Sybilla. "You look much much better than you did last night. The rest helped."

Sybilla hugged her.  "Yes.  And you?" she asked looking at them both.

"I am very well," Liv replied. "Although I admit to fearing for you."

"But why, cara?" Sybilla protested, genuinely at a loss.  She moved towards the table set near the steps down into the garden and took a seat, knowing if she did Liv would too and then the men would relax.  Some might say chivalry was dead, but none of them knew the Vampire Princes of the Mediterranean.  They retained the courtly habits of a long gone time.

"You looked very ill last night, Sybilla," Liv replied, sitting beside her and taking her hands. "I do not want to lose you so soon after finding you."

"You will not, I assure you.  It was tiredness, nothing more.  And the signore has a way of dealing with such things."  She smiled.  "You have, as Thanos says, a very determined look in your eyes."  She glanced at Kenan out of the corner of her eye.  His face was impassive.  But there was a watchfulness, a quality to his stillness, that spoke of a predator already on the hunt.

"Yes, well, I'm determined not to let you take on Sambethe by yourself. Please, let your friends assist you. There is no need for you to take this on by yourself. I admit I don't understand how you will fight but others can help who do understand such things," Liv replied, staring into Sybilla's eyes as if to make her understand and agree.

Sybilla didn't look away, didn't hide her thoughts.  "It is not a simple thing to kill another, regardless of the reason for such a deed.  I know you know this.  And I would spare you if you would let me.  I promise you I will not try to do what must be done alone."

"There is no choice but to kill her?" Livinia asked quietly.

Sybilla didn't answer in words.  She reached out, merging her mind lightly with Liv's, showing her what she had seen in Beth's mind last night.  Whatever Beth had been, whether forever lost or just subsumed by something else, was gone.  In it's place was a personality in thrall to a need for power, for dominion.  It was a personality devoid of feeling for others.  They had become tools, things to be used and then discarded.

Sybilla's profound sorrow, the bafflement she felt at the loss of a woman who had been more than a friend, who had been in truth the sister she called her was plain.  Her feelings were so entwined with the reality she'd found in Beth's mind that she couldn't have hidden them if she'd wanted to.  And coupled with both were her memories of the person Beth had been.

"I am so sorry, Sybilla. It's a horrible loss. Has she been poisoned by the powers she's used? If we separated her from them... would she be back to the woman you love? Could we try to save her that way?" Liv asked.

Sybilla made a helpless gesture.  "There is no way that I know of, short of death, to do that.  Nor, I think, is it something I would do if I could.  To do so would take from her so much that the life she would have left, I think, would be a kind of half life, a living death.  Better I think to free her spirit and return her to the wheel of life.  This will not be the final death.  It is, as has been said by the ancients, merely a passageway to someplace else.  And in that there is hope, is there not?"

"If you believe in that sort of thing," Liv replied. "I suppose I ought to consider such things possible now..." Livinia's voice trailed off as she thought about the profound changes to her life, to the very fabric of her being. And all the assumptions and 'truths' she thought she knew that had so recently been so profoundly shattered. Magic, vampires, sibyls... Death. Perhaps death wasn't what she thought it at all.

Thanos handed Liv a cup of tea and set one in front of Sybilla.  "Would you go back to what you were before?" he asked Liv.  "To only what you thought you knew?"

"Yes," she replied quickly, then, her eyes finding Kenan she doubted again.

"Why?  Isn't it better, knowing what is real?"

"Because I .. I don't think I'm a person who should make decisions for everyone.  I'm not sure I know what is real now, Thanos. I thought I knew that before. What's to say there isn't yet another level of reality I'm not aware of?"

"Nothing of course.  But tell me, why do you think that you now make decisions for other?  Even I, as prince, with the responsibility of that and the need at times to decide whether someone lives or dies...I don't think I do that."

"And yet you see layers of existence normals in your country cannot. So you do make decisions for them. Keeping them in the dark, keeping predators away, hiding things from them, pretending you are something you are not so that you will not upset them.  Isn't that arranging their lives for them?  Taking away their options?"

Thanos spread his hands as he answered, his voice gentle.  "Is it doing that when as a policewoman you did the things you did to protect others?  Did they need to know how close the darkness sometimes came to them, or how ugly it could be?  Was it necessary that they experienced what you experienced?  Saw what you saw?  There are an infinite number of sides to life.  To walk in this world, human or supernatural, is to see some things and not others, no matter how long one's life is."

Sybilla reached for Liv's hand, holding it between hers.  "Cara, to think that before you weren't a sibyl and now you are is to misunderstand what has happened.  You were always a sibyl, just as from the instant of your conception you were female.  What happened is that a part of you that you could not reach before is now within your grasp."

"I find that the strangest thing of all of this. That I was something else all along. It is very hard for me to accept, Sybilla. I am sorry I am so difficult, but it is what bothers me most."  Liv sighed and looked out at the sea.

"In the child you were when you were small, the woman you have become also lived, even though you did not know her.  This is the same thing."  Sybilla move a strand of hair back from Liv's face.  "But even with that it is not an easy, I know.  Give it time, miele.  It will sort itself out."

"But it seems there is no time," Liv replied. "I'm putting people at risk with my ignorance."

"Because of Beth?" Kenan asked.  "What she's doing isn't your fault."

"Perhaps not, but it is my ignorance that was the opening she used," Liv explained. "If I were still unawakened, or awakened with an understanding of things, she'd still.. still be your friend."

"No."  Sybilla said it adamantly.  "What has happened to her did not occur because the Aegis made its way to you.  She made a choice, when I do not know, but a choice all the same.  There is the taint of darkness about her and in her use of power.  The decisions that lead to those things are always willed."

Liv nodded. "Even so..."

"There is no 'even so,'" Thanos said.  "Don't take to yourself what is not yours.  You will have guilt aplenty in this life without that. Besides, it's more reasonable to blame me for this since perhaps if I hadn't arranged for the Aegis to be stolen in the first place it might never have come to you."

Liv's hand reached up to touch the small golden disc embedded at the base of her neck. The gesture looked unconscious as she pondered all they'd said.  "But none of this helps you, Sybilla."

"I will help Sybilla.  You must allow Kenan to keep you safe until you are fully at home with your new existence," Carmine commented.

Sybilla nodded.  "It would ease my mind greatly, miele."

"I'm not used to being kept safe," Liv replied.

"Enjoy it while it lasts," Sybilla said.  "It may not always be so."

"No?" Kenan asked, his voice velvet over steel.

Liv turned to look at the Turkish prince. Her eyes softened.

"So it will be, so long as she has friends. As do you," Carmine put in.

Sybilla winked at Liv.  "It's a guy thing, isn't it?"

"So it would seem. Or perhaps more a prince thing, since I haven't known that many men willing to put themselves on the line for me before," Liv replied, her lips curving up into a soft smile.

"Maybe a male vampire prince thing," Sybilla mused.  "We will have to study this phenomenon, I think, don't you?"

Thanos raised his hand.  "I'll be happy to help in anyway I can."

"I'll just bet that you would," Liv replied laughing.  Then she sobered. "So I am not to be allowed to help."

"To fight?  No," Sybilla said.  "To find her, absolutely."

"I don't like it, but I'll accept it. Tell me how I can help you find her."

"It will be a matter of creating an illusion and then sustaining it," Sybilla said.  "Just like we all knew through the common link we share, when the Aegis found you, awakening you, we will be able to find her.  But that also means she will know what we are doing.  So you will have to stay connected to her, convincing her I am still with you, while I 'catch' up to her.  The danger will be that she might try to attack you before I can reach her."

"All right," Liv replied without hesitation.

"What does she do if she does attack," Thanos asked.

"Chances are it would be a psychic attack," Sybilla said.  "I can teach her how to protect against that, and what to do until we can stop it.  Zak can probably help there if he is willing to involve himself.  If it is an attack in person, then you and Kenan will have to stop her however you can."  She looked all four of them  "Last night she took control of the inspector, using him as a weapon.  She could also do that again, too, even from a distance."

"To one of us?" Carmine asked.

"It depends on you.  Both on how susceptible to something like that you might be and on how quickly, if at all, you are able recognize that sort of intrusion.  It is more likely it would be someone around you.  Someone not gifted or magical.  They are much more vulnerable."

"Thanos, I suggest then you be certain any servants or other normals in the house be kept away from Liv," Carmine said. "I doubt she could take over a prince. Certainly not without us knowing she were trying it."

Thanos nodded.  "I will give them the afternoon off," he said.  "And I'll call Zak."

"Bene," Sybilla said.  "I would feel better if he was here.  As princes you have your own magics, but a djinn or even a mage can shield her in ways you might not be able to."

"It will be all right, Kenan," Liv said, eying the frown on Kenan's face.

"If she attacks here," Sybilla assured him, "I will know and come back.  I will not permit Beth to harm her."

Kenan nodded slowly.  "When will you start?"

"There are things we must do.  Thanos must speak with his staff and contact Zak.  And I must teach Liv to guard her mind.  If there are things you need to see to, there is time," Sybilla said.

"I would like to feed," Kenan said.  He glanced at Thanos and Carmine as he said it.

"Yes, we all should. Best be at our most powerful for this," Carmine agreed.

Thanos, his cellphone out, nodded.  "I had planned to do so."

Sybilla cleared her throat.  "Scusarmi, but I will need a silver bowl.  It does not need to be large, but it must be solid silver, not plated.  And a mirror.  Unframed. To fit in the bowl. I am truly sorry.  I know that silver is a problem."

"I will take care of it," Thanos said and relayed the requests to Zak.

Zak arrived not long afterwards, carrying the requested items.  He looked around at the tableau. "Off you guys go. Get some dinner. I'll watch over the ladies, if they need it at all."

Sybilla waited until they were gone before she turned to Liv.  "I have touched your mind as you know.  You are very strong mentally."

Liv frowned. "I'm not sure I understand how you mean that."

"It is a combination of many things.  You have a very strong sense of yourself, of who you are and what your boundaries are.  But it is also a matter of the will.  The first is what contains you, the repository of your soul if you will.  The second is what must govern you."

"I see, I think. So that is how to protect myself, with the boundaries, already in place," Liv said.

Sybilla nodded.  "Who and what you are, letting go of all else, you must place within those boundaries and center yourself there, in that place of safety and calm, the wellspring of all your power.  It helps sometimes to visualize it.

"Everything I will teach you will begin with this one thing, with centering yourself there, detached from all around you, and remaining there.  It will be like standing within the eye of the hurricane.  Things will conspire to pull you out, to shatter the calm and serenity you find in that place.  You must remain there and doing so is a matter of the will.  Once there you must know with everything you are that you can not be forced out unless you will it so."

"I see," Liv replied. "There I am safe and within the walls of my power, and there I shall remain."

Zak, listening, nodded.  "She'll do."

"Yes, she certainly will,"  Sybilla agreed.

Sybilla's magic was blood magic, drawing its power from the very essence of herself, from the life that flowed in her veins.  It was so for all her sibylline sisters.  The ritual that bound the sibyls together, enacted when a new sibyl reached menarche and hence, in the ancient world maturity was older than history or legend and secret.  It created a blood bond between the new sibyl and her sisters and reaffirmed and strengthened the bonds between the others.  The rite tied them together mentally and in the realm of magic and spirit.  It tied them together with the love shared between women.  Once this ended they would share the rite with Liv.

Sybilla set her grief for Sambethe in a place inside of herself where it wouldn't distract her or have, she hoped, the power to sway her. Her sister was lost somewhere and the woman she was about to confront was someone else.  Still, that woman had the blood of all the Sibyls in her veins and through that blood access to Sybilla's thoughts.  It was the greatest difficulty she faced and one that would take all her power to overcome.  She hoped it would be enough.

Carmine and the other two princes had returned and were there on the terrace along with Zak and Liv.  All three wore their swords, the Prince swords.  Her own was worn on her back, in a simple leather sheath, her daggers strapped to her wrists and hidden by her sleeves.  She'd changed to leather pants and a leather camisole over a simple white cotton shirt.  Clothing that helped protect against wounds but didn't hinder her freedom of action.

She took a long swallow of the water she held and set the plastic bottle aside.  Then she moved to the table where the bowl she'd asked for was set, the plain mirror sitting inside of it and her ritual knife sitting next to it.  She smiled reassuringly at Liv, wondering how she was going to handle the next few moments.  Handle as opposed to what she'd actually let the world see.

"Grazie prego.  We are ready?"

Liv, dressed as she would for an active day as a police officer, in jeans and a teeshirt, with a kelvar vest over it, met Sybilla's eyes. "Yes, I am ready."

Zak, looking seriously djinn-like for some reason, nodded, as did Carmine.  "I will monitor the area for any sense of her, you concentrate on what you must do," Zak added.

Thanos and Kenan, flanking Liv, just nodded.

Sybilla smiled again at Liv and then met Carmine's eyes briefly before letting her own close.  She shut out everything around her, drawing three slow breaths as she centered herself.  Then on the fourth, she began to chant, her voice low, melodious, filled with a haunting purity.  She moved between three or four notes, each Latin word drawn out as she lifted the knife and holding her hand over the bowl slashed a line across her palm with it.

Thanos noticed two things immediately.  The first was that her palm was totally unscarred, even though he knew for a fact she'd done this before.  The other was the blood itself.  It pooled on the mirror in a slow, steady drip, the drops landing individually, creating a line drawing of connected drops that formed Sambethe's face.

Liv's eyes were glued to the bowl and mirror, already reaching with her mind, outward toward what she recognized as Sambethe.

Carmine stood ready, only a hair's breath apart from Sybilla.

Zak's eyes spun as he monitored the area.

The mirror under the blood clouded as the drops traced the image.  As soon as the last drop was in place the blood flow ceased, while Sybilla's voice went on.  The clouds on the mirror face boiled and shifted and the blood outline firmed, became a living face.  Behind it the clouds on the mirror face moved, parting, revealing a room.

Thanos studied it carefully, noting the art on the walls, the cap and jewel work in the wainscoting and the mantle piece.  And next to it, the wide doors open to the late morning sun and the sea beyond it.  He knew the room and the view well.  "She's at her apartment.  It's just outside of the city, on the coast at Sultanahmet."

"Hello, Sambethe," Liv said.

The face in the mirror stared back at Liv, her surprise quickly hidden.

Sybilla touched Carmine's hand as Liv said the name aloud and they disappeared.  She zapped them just outside to the room Sambethe was in, on the balcony.  Inside, Sambethe was still returning Liv's greeting.  Sybilla laid her life in the hands of the gods she served and stepped into the doorway, reaching back with both hands to draw her sword as she moved.

The shifting shadows caught Sambethe's attention and she spun around, her lips pulled back in a caricature of a smile.  "Darling Sybilla.  What a surprise."

Sybilla stayed silent, moving two steps into the room, her sword held in a two handed grip, point down in front of her at a forty-five degree angle from her body.  Her eyes, devoid of expression like her face, were on Sambethe.  They were separated by the length of the room.  She felt the air move along her neck as Carmine gliding in behind her, taking a position just to her left as she advanced another two steps.  She moved like a dancer, fluidly, all of her body in union with itself, her weight on the balls of her feet.

"And the delicious Italian vampire.  How nice."  Sambethe let her eyes linger on the sword.  "But why the theatrics?  Surely you aren't threatening me with that?"

Sybilla refused to respond.  To engage her in conversation would give her power.  She could feel Beth beating at the walls of her mind, searching for a way in past her mental defenses.  It was an assault she repulsed with ease, taking care to consume as much of Beth's attention as she could draw to herself, removing it from Liv.  She let the sword sway a bit from side to side, creating a deliberate pendulum motion, another potential distraction for Sambethe.

Carmine moved further off, so that Sambethe had to turn her head to watch him, now unable to keep the both of them in sight at the same time. He moved as a vampire, so swiftly and fluidly his movements were nearly impossible to actually see. One moment he was in one place, in the blink of an eye another.  His sword was in his hand, an extension of himself as if it were melded to his body. He watched Sambethe but said nothing.

Sambethe shifted to the right, edging towards the opening to the rest of the apartment.  She kept her attention equally divided between Carmine and Sybilla her eyes constantly moving from one to the other. "I see.  You are threatening me with that sword.  It explains the oh so gauche outfit; something I never would have expected from you."  When neither responded she sighed.  "Is this going to be a duel or an execution?"

Sybilla just kept advancing, one slow step at a time, keeping her eyes on Sambethe's.  Any second now she expected her try to seize the offensive.  As she shifted to the right, Sybilla moved with her, trusting Carmine to keep the other side, closest to the rest of the apartment blocked.  Sambethe had no weapon close to hand that Sybilla could identify, so her first attack would be magic.

Sambethe didn't surprise her.  "Ah, no answer to that?  Then is it my decision?"  As she spoke, she struck.  She slammed a bolt of power at Sybilla and then whirled, heading for the exit and kicking a table in Carmine's path as she went.  She sent the table slightly to his left and then feinted to his right.  As soon as he shifted she slipped further left and reached the hallway.  Her own weapon was off the wall and into her hand in a flash of power and she was turning to face them.

Sybilla deflected the power easily, sending it outside and slamming harmlessly into the sea, and then followed Sambethe.  Her eyes narrowed slightly in concentration as she settled into fighting stance, turned slightly so that her profile was presented to Sambethe and not her full front.

Carmine advanced toward Sambethe, unconcerned by the magic she'd used. His Prince sword had its own magic an addition to his vampire powers.  His advance forced Sambethe to back up to the wall behind her, and she sifted her sword a bit as she eyed first the vampire and then the sibyl and then back again.

Sybilla, watching her, spoke for the first time, addressing Carmine.  "In case I forgot to mention it, caro, killing a sibyl is like killing a vampire.  You must take her head, or else consign her to the fire.  I have no proof, but I believe staking is effective as well.  But I would then cremate the remains immediately."

Carmine smile was feral. "I have much experience in taking heads. And it is always well to burn the evidence. Fewer questions that way. Are you ready to die, cara?" he added to Sambethe as he raised his sword and advanced.

Sambethe snarled and struck, deflecting Carmine's first strike and then lashed out at Sybilla.  Hatred took over her face, ending all her efforts at subterfuge.

Sybilla met the attack, connecting with Sambethe's sword at the midpoint of its drive towards her throat.  She ground her blade along the edge of Sambethe's, raining sparks on what was probably a priceless carpet, as she let her opponent's momentum move her two steps back, leading into the curve in the hallway.  There she went the offensive, attacking with a fast series of blows that sounded loud in the hallway pushing her back towards Carmine.

Carmine waited patiently, letting the two women fight, waiting for Sambethe to drop her guard as she tired. He had every intention of killing Sambethe swiftly and with as little fanfare as possible.

Sambethe fought back, meeting Sybilla blow for blow, ending a fast parry that shifted Sybilla's guard slightly.  She feinted, then slipped inside with the tip of her sword, cutting a long slash down Sybilla's upper arm.  Sybilla, knowing it was coming, accepted the wound, trading it for the opening she needed.  As Sambethe's sword tip cut her arm open, she ducked then came up, her sword swinging a two handed arc, whistling through the air, a killing stroke aimed for Sambethe's exposed neck.  But she'd taken the opening a split second late and Sambethe was already moving out of range as she connected, her blade slicing deep into her collarbone instead.

It was then that Carmine, forgotten by Sambethe when she was fighting off Sybilla, struck. His sword sliced across toward Sambethe's neck.  The blow would have cleanly severed the sibyl's neck only it was then, just as the blade reached her that Sambethe winked out. Carmine staggered a moment as he pulled up, struggling to stop the blow before it could accidentally reach Sybilla.

"Mannaggia," the Prince cursed.

Sybilla, holding her arm, echoed him.

"Can you find her again?  Although I suspect she's headed straight for Livinia," the Prince said, as he sheathed his sword.

"Si.  She is.  She is laughing at me, letting me know she thinks she has won."  Sybilla said it tonelessly as she reached for Carmine's hand.  She zapped them out of there and back to Thanos' terrace, where a half a dozen Sambethe's were fighting.

"Aiee," Carmine muttered as he drew his blade again and waded into the battle. Everyone who could was fighting. Even Livinia, who, with no training in swordsmanship still seemed to be doing a creditable job of it. Kenan was only a foot away from her, Thanos guarding her other side. Zak fought with magic, not swords.

The problem was that once a clone was felled another merely took her place.

Sybilla fought off the clone coming at her with magic, leaving her sword in its sheath on her back and reached outward with her senses, looking for the real Sambethe.  She had no idea how long Sambethe could keep up the illusion, for illusion is what the clones really were.  She blasted energy through the clone in front of her and then sent another bolt into the one crowding Liv from behind, her mind racing.

Kenan, pressed hard, his back to Liv, didn't have the luxury of energy bolts.  But he was a superb swordsman and it showed as he fought off clone after clone.  He drove a two handed blow through the neck of the one in front of him and rebalanced to engage the next while he surveyed the battle.

With Sybilla and Carmine's return the flow had shifted for a moment and then the number of clones had doubled.  Instead of facing one clone now, he was battling three and they all seemed to know his every move before he made it.  He held his sword in one hand holding off two clones, and kicked out at the clone on his right with vampyric strength, connecting with its chest and crushing it.  Then he shifted the sword to his other hand in a blurred motion as he spun, the blade hitting his palm and moving into a whistling arc almost simultaneously.  He put all his strength into it, slicing through the closest clone's torso, severing it and just kept moving, driving the blade into the third clone's side, driving for its spinal cord.  He cut through it and was pulling his blade back when he felt the blow from his other side, hitting his collar bone and driving deep, through flesh and sinew and into the bone, the cutting stroke wielded with a strength to equal his own.

Sybilla saw the strike and knew.  She sent a bolt of energy toward's Sambethe's back and wanted to snarl as it missed, absorbed by a clone instead.  "Thanos," she screamed above the noise.  "That's her."

It was Liv who reacted. She paled to see Kenan go down and then, finding a deep well of wisdom and knowledge deep within herself reached outward toward the real Sambethe and raising her hand sent a scorching stream of power toward Sambethe, even as she knelt down toward Kenan. The shield at her throat pulsed and added more power to the stream of magic that struck Sambethe hard in the chest, driving her back and against the wall of the villa, even as it burned through her chest making her scream in agony.

"Kenan!" Liv cried out.

Thanos was already on it, Zak helping him.

Sybilla advanced on Sambethe, Carmine approaching from the other side, her sword drawn again.  She neared her cautiously, reaching with her mental senses as well as her physical ones.  Liv's energy bolt had drilled a hole through her chest the size of a cantaloupe, taking her heart with it.  She tightened her grip on her sword, her eyes never wavering as she stood looking down at her.  Then she lifted her hand and let the blood from the cut on her arm drip onto Sambethe while she intoned a word of power.  The energy arced white hot and blinding from the sky and slammed into the body, incinerating it.  "Farewell my sister-friend," Sybilla whispered.

Liv had fallen to her knees in front of Kenan, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Kenan... Oh, god..."

Liv's sobbing brought Sybilla to her side.  Zak was working on the wound while Thanos was already giving him blood.  She put her arm around Liv's shoulders, hugging her.  "He is not going to die."

"No, he's not," Zak added.  "He's a vampire. He'll heal."

Liv's eyes were huge in a pale face, her thoughts not on Sambethe at all, but focused entirely on Kenan.

"I should take him to a room," Zak said.  "Where?"

"I'll show you," Thanos said, slipping his hand gently between his wrist and Kenan's fangs.  "Upstairs."

Sybilla helped Liv stand up while Zak rose in a single movement, holding Kenan in his arms like he weighted no more than a baby.

"She's dead?" Liv asked Sybilla.  "Truly?"

"She's dead," Sybilla said.  "You saved his life."  She said the last deliberately, wanting her to focus on that and not on Sambethe.

"Si," Carmine said from behind them. "Come, he'll want to see you are safe when he opens his eyes."

Liv nodded and let Carmine put his hands on her shoulders and aim her toward the stairs where Zak was already taking Kenan.

"You did well, cara. A true sibyl," Carmine added softly to Liv, whose eyes were locked onto Zak's back since she couldn't quite see Kenan.

Thanos opened a door at the top of the stairs.  "I'll call his villa," he said as Liv went in behind Zak, "and let his people know.  I imagine Iskandr will be here shortly, with his doctor."  He considered Liv's pallor.  "And I'll send up some tea."

Liv moved to sit on the edge of the bed, taking one of Kenan's hands in hers. "Is there anything more we can do?" she asked, her eyes huge in her pale face, looking at Zak.

"He should awaken soon. You need tea, and possibly something more," Zak replied.

"No, I'm fine," Liv replied, clearly dismissing them all from her attention, totally focused on Kenan.

Zak rolled his eyes. "We should leave them in peace then until his doctor arrives."

Thanos grinned.  "I'll send up some tea anyway.  Sybilla you should let Zak take a look at your arm."

"Yes, let me close that up before we have two pale sibyls on our hands," Zak added as he led them out of the room, leaving Liv sitting on the side of the bed, staring at Kenan as if she could will him to be better.

Sybilla sat passively while Zak closed her cut.  More than anything she wanted to go home but she didn't feel like she could leave Liv yet.  She accepted the brandy Thanos handed and took a sip, the burn of the alcohol pulling her back from the apathy she felt crowding at her.  She looked around the terrace.  Almost all evidence of the fight was gone.

"She'll be ok, Sybilla," Thanos said as he handed a drink to Carmine and Zak.

"Si," Carmine agreed, reaching out to pull Sybilla up against his chest. "She knows the choice was right. If anything she will worry for you.  She knows you once loved Sambethe."

Sybilla rested her forehead against his chest.  "I'd rather she worried about Kenan."

"I'm sure she's going to do that too," Thanos said, considering his scotch.  "And I'm sure he's going to actively encourage her."

"Really?" Zak commented doubtfully. "He strikes me as the sort who wants to seem invulnerable. Particularly to his lover."

"Oh he is.  But at the moment he's still bonding, securing her as his lover," Thanos said.  "He'll use this as glue."

"So he's planning on a permanent arrangement, is he?" Zak asked, shaking his head at the foibles of humans, vamp or otherwise.

"Kenan?  Of course he is," Thanos snorted.  "This time next year she'll be his consort.  I guarantee it."

"Perhaps you'd best allow the lady a say," Carmine commented. "She's a lot on her plate already. Perhaps such a permanent tie to the council won't appeal."

Thanos grinned.  "After her reaction today?  She'll just aim the Aegis at them if they get in her way."

"Hmm. We'd best watch our step then, and not piss Kenan off, eh, Thanos?" Carmine said with a grin. He looked down at Sybilla. "You are tired. You should rest. We can call you if Livinia has need of you."

She was tired.  But she suspected it wasn't the sort that sleep would be able to help much.  Still...She nodded.  "Si, if you wouldn't mind, I would appreciate it.  Grazie, Zak," she said, smiling at him.  "For taking care of the cut."

"I'm glad that was the only injury for you," Zak said.

Carmine stood and picked Sybilla up in his arms. "I'll just see you are comfortable," the Italian prince said as he carried her off.

"I'll just bet he will," Zak commented, his lips twitching. "Wonder how pissed off Helena is going to be."

Thanos watched them leave, a thoughtful expression on is face.  "I can't decide whether he really doesn't care, or if he's looking forward to finding out or both.  In fact, I don't quite know what to make of his relationship with her and I'm not sure he does either."

"Well, Helena is one of the few women strong enough to deal with him on an equal footing. I suspect he finds that a relief. He's brutally honest with her, and open about it in public."  Zak shrugged. "Whether he likes any woman, I've never been able to figure out."

Thanos lifted an eyebrow, his lips not quite straight.  "I meant his relationship with Sybilla."

"Ah. Is there one? Or is he merely ensuring she survives for Italy's sake."

"Is there a difference between Italy and him?"

"Is there one between Kenan and Turkey?  I won't ask you, as you are new to the position."

Thanos met his eyes blandly.  "If there were a difference for any of us, new or not, we'd never have accepted the job.  But in Carmine's case, and a few other's, like Vasily for example, it goes deeper than that I think."

"Which makes me wonder what came first. Did the man change to become the country or the country grow in the shadow of the man.  I need more scotch if we're going to delve quite so deeply into complex matters."

"I need more scotch even if we aren't," Thanos said as he refilled both glasses.  "It will be nice to be home again."

"And nice if you don't call me every five minutes to appear," Zak muttered as he poured. "Despite appearances, I do have a life beyond Greece."

Thanos saluted him with his glass.  "But I miss you."

Zak snorted.

Carmine magicked open the door to Sybilla's room and walked over to deposit her gently onto the bed. She looked completely drained. Of emotion, of energy, of everything else.

"Is there anything I can do for you, cara?" he asked gently.

She looked up at him.  "She should not have had to do that," she said finally.  "And still, I feel as if I were the one who killed her.  I keep thinking and I can't find the time when I stopped really seeing her but I must have or I would have known she'd changed like she did.  Wouldn't I?"

Carmine sat down on the edge of the bed and took her hand. "Sybilla. I know she was your friend. I too have had friends who have changed. And no, we do not always see the changes. Particularly if they wish us not to see. While Sambethe may have once been a good woman, for whatever reason, she no longer was such a one. She chose her own fate. We were merely fate's tools. I should think you, of all people, would know that."  The last he said most gently, as he ran a hand along the side of her face, willing some of his own strength into her, she seeming so fragile just then.

"I know," she said, her voice raw with pain.  "I know she chose.  But still..."  Her mouth trembled.  "Who is left in your life who was there from the beginning?  Who remembers all that you remember?"

He was silent for a time. "My oldest friend Anton died last year. There are others as old as I but none other who knew me well."

"Then you know," she whispered.  She stopped holding back the tears then.  Instead she just let them fall, a silent ceaseless cataract of grief that gathered at her jaw and then fell into her hands.

He pulled her roughly up against himself and rocked her, not offering any words of sympathy, for there were none that would do. All he could offer her was to share her grief and be there for her.

She took what he offered and clung to it and to him.  And when her tears stopped as simply as they began she lifted her head, searching his face.  Then she lifted her hand to his face, caressing it, tracing his mouth.  "Show me that the past is not all there is; but that the present is just as real."

"The past is where we were forged, where we learned who we are. But the present... It is where we are manifest."  He leaned down to plant a tender kiss on her cheek, licking up a leftover tear. Then he moved to her lips. He was gentle and moved slowly, one hand wrapped protectively around her shoulders.

She responded the same way at first, soaking up the tenderness.  Then, fed on its richness, the passivity fell away and hunger for something else flooded her.  She arched closer, a soft whimper of need escaping her as her hands tightened on his arms and her mouth melted under his.

He laid her back on the bed and began to undress her, trailing kisses across the exposed skin as he did so. He wouldn't let her do much, just gave her every bit of his attention and care until she was undressed. He slipped out of his own clothes then and lay down beside her, looking down at her, his eyes caressing her body, a hand stroking and combing her hair. His eyes met hers and he leaned down to kiss her.

She needed to give and she gave to him.  She didn't question why.   And whatever she'd given him before it was as nothing to this.  She transmuted her grief -- a grief that went beyond Sambethe -- into something else she didn't try to name or understand and lavished it on him with every touch of her hands or mouth or tongue.  So she set out to make him wild, to snap his control, wanting him to just accept and not question whatever it was that was pouring out of her in torrents.

Her need, her desire, did break his control. He responded to her and matched her, taking in what she offered him without hesitation, accepting it, and transforming it into passion and an intimacy of sex they'd not had before. How long it went on neither knew. He was vampire, she sibyl. Their needs, their energies, their passions different and on a level beyond normal humanity. And both finally found surcease and exhaustion in each others arms, she drained of grief, of need, and he filled to the brim with the gifts she'd given him.

The doctor had been and now was gone. A pot of tea, long since cold, sat on a nearby table. Livinia Scott, once just a normal woman who happened to chase down art thieves, sat on the edge of the bed, worrying her lip, trying not to think about how close she'd come to losing Kenan.  If he'd died... For her... A tear escaped her and she swiped at it angrily.

She hadn't spent much time regretting her response to Sambethe. What regret there was focused on Sybilla, who'd ended up fighting her long-time friend for .. her. If she hadn't gotten involved in the theft of the Aegis so long ago (was it only weeks?) none of this might have happened. She wondered if Sybilla would forgive her.  She wondered a lot of things, many of them revolving around the man who lay white as death in the bed beside her.

Kenan swam up to consciousness, aware of throbbing pain, a hand holding his and not much else until he opened his eyes.  She looked miserable, so lost and forlorn and worried, the faint stains of her tears still visible.  He automatically tried to lift his free hand to her face.  The movement drew her attention and he smiled, or at least tried to.  "What's wrong, sweetheart?" he asked, surprised at how hard it was to say the words.  If he hadn't been a vampire he'd have said he was parched, his throat felt so dry.

Some of the worry disappeared from her face at his words. She took hold of his other hand and lowered it to the bed. "Other than being terrified for you, you mean?  Lie still, you were badly injured. Your doctor says you will recover but it may take some time. Do you need blood?" she asked as she turned her wrist toward him.

He blinked he was so surprised.  He'd never taken blood from her before, not even as part of their lovemaking.  He had no real idea of how she felt about the fact that he was a vampire and that he preyed on humans for his sustenance.  He glanced at her wrist, the fine-grained creamy skin that showed the tracery of blue veins under it.  He could smell her blood, a spicy sweet scent he had come to know intimately that identified her to him.  Using it, he would always be able to find her.  He could hear it now, along with the scent, pulsing in her veins and hunger rose up in him, so sharp and demanding his fangs lengthened instinctively. He suspected that if he ever tasted her blood he would be addicted to it for all time.  He needed blood but...

"Sweetheart," he said, clamping an iron hand on his need to sink his teeth into her and drink deeply of what she was offering, and offering freely.  How did he ask her what he needed to know without hurting her?  "You don't have to do this."

"I know. It's.. Let me help you as I can."  Her eyes were soft, worry lines between them. "I can't stand the thought that you were hurt because of me."

He lifted her wrist to his mouth slowly, giving her time to change her mind, keeping his eyes on her.  He kissed the silken softness, warming it with his lips and then he licked her pulse, his teeth scraping over it once, twice before swirling his tongue over the spot, soothing it before he let his fangs pierce her skin.  This wasn't sex, he knew that.  But he needed her to know that to him, regardless of his hunger, he wasn't just feeding, and she wasn't, could never be, what the humans he usually fed from were.  He would never be able to just feed from her; underneath it, inseparable from it, was his love and desire for her and his need to give her pleasure.  Between them, to him at least, it would always be erotic, intimate, a sharing unique to a vampire and his lover.

Her eyes closed, as the wash of erotic sensation entered her even as her blood entered him. Color flared in her cheeks, her breathing became erratic. "I.. Is that normal?" she whispered.  "It's, uhm, nothing like I expected."

He retracted his fangs, sweeping his tongue over the tiny punctures to close them, leaving no trace.  Then he tugged her closer, close enough so that he could kiss her.  "Yes," he whispered against her lips.  "And it only gets better," he added before he claimed her mouth.

When he ended the kiss she sat back, wiping the back of her hand, across her lips. Her hand was shaking. "Hard to believe," she said, a tiny smile forming.

"I'd be delighted to prove it to you," he said, his eyes sweeping her body with wicked intent.

"You are recovering, so get your mind off that now," she replied. "I want a doctor's note before we even talk about going there."

"You have a lot to learn about vampires, sweetheart.  We won't be talking about it," he said, pure self-satisfied male amusement plain.  "We'll be doing it.

"If you aren't going to behave I'm going to leave you here alone. Seriously. Give your body a chance to heal. Please. If .. If you'd .."  She looked away fighting for control.

He enfolded her in his arms, his lips moving on her hair.  "Shhh, sweetheart.  It's alright.  I'm very hard to kill and it didn't happen.  You're not going to lose me, I promise."

Tears came then, despite herself. She clung to him. "I don't want to be a sibyl. I just want to be me. Just us, without all this other stuff. I know, you didn't want to be a vampire either. But.. I'm not Sybilla. I'm not wise, and sure and powerful. The stupid shield chose the wrong woman. I've tried to explain that to it, but it won't listen."

He stroked soothing circles on her back, his cheek resting on her head.  "I don't imagine Sybilla thinks she's wise and sure and powerful.  Give it time, darling," he said when the tears started to ease.

"I just .. I know. But I've brought you nothing but trouble since we first met. And I regret that, Kenan. I don't want to...to do anything to hurt you, and it seems as if that is all I do."

"You most emphatically are not hurting me and you aren't trouble either.  You make me very happy in fact.  You aren't responsible for Sambethe or her decisions.  You aren't responsible for the fact that Thanos arranged for the Aegis to be stolen.  And you certainly aren't responsible for the fact of the Aegis."

"I know. But somehow knowing and feeling aren't understanding one another. I'm afraid I'm slightly irrational where you are concerned."

"I can live with that," he promised.  "It's only fair.  I'm a lot irrational where you're concerned."

She sighed. After a time she said, "I need to go to the office and see if I have a job."

He studied her eyes trying to understand if there was more she wasn't saying.  "If you need some time on your own, I understand.  I meant it when I said I wasn't going anywhere.  I won't like it, but I'll be here when you're ready."

Her eyes opened wide as she regarded him. "What are you thinking?  Really, I just.. My office knows I almost got blown up. God knows what they think about me disappearing afterward, and no telling what Spiro told them.  For all I know I'm a fugitive."

"I'm saying a lot has happened to you in a very short period of time.  Most of it you aren't...comfortable with and that if you need some room to sort it out, then I understand that and I'll back off until you've sorted it out.  I don't want you to do that.  I would much rather you let me share it with you, but it's more important to me that you have what you need than that I get what I want."

Liv bit her lip and finally said, "I hate whining to you."

"Whining?  Where did that come from?"  You've never whined to me once."

She shook her head at him. "Liar. You promise to rest right here, and I'll go to the office and come back, and then I'll cry on your shoulder and whimper and rail about how unfair life is, all right?"

He kissed again.  "I'll never understand you, but I love you.  And I promise to rest right here."

"I'm holding you to that. I'll stop and talk to Sybilla if I can, too. I promise I'll be back in a couple of hours."

"And I'm holding you to that."