In the morning, Steven and Joey returned to the studio, and tried to make the best of it. Joe kept looking at them strangely, he wanted to start the next song. Joe wanted to see the new lyrics, but Steven hadn't done that, either. Steven scoffed at the idea working on the new song, and he mostly listened to the recordings made the day before. He didn't have the energy to sing, and he knew that Joey didn't have the stamina to record a new track.

    Soon it was lunch, the day seemed to be flying; in what seemed to be a blink of the eye, it was time to call it a day. He was glad that no fights had been waged.

    Steven and Joey sat on the couch; Thorpe came at exactly sunset. He had brought along another man, who was introduced as simply "Nicholas". They were both beginning to set up in the bathroom when there was a knock on the door.

    "Answer it, but be careful," Thorpe started to pull his gun out of the holster.

    Steven opened it slowly, he was shocked to see Joe, Brad, and Tom. "Oh Jesus Christ! What the Hell are you doing here?"

    "Thanks," Tom sourly replied, "Great to see you too."

    "What are you three doing here?" Thorpe angrily asked.

    "We wanna know what's up? Joey's walking around like a zombie, and you" he pointed at Steven,"You look like what the cat dragged it!" Joe looked at the Thorpe and Nicholas, "Who are they?"

    "Joe, I'll explain it tomorrow." Steven tried to calm him down.

    "We wasted an entire day, two if you count how you two were fighting yesterday," Joe continued, there was no stopping him when he was on a roll. "We are already behind schedule, we got Kevin riding our asses to get this thing done and we're pissing around with this petty shit that we can't get around 'cause some of us are in the dark!"

    Joe drew a deep, relaxing breath,"Now, something's up, both of you are on edge; we're part of this band, we're brothers, and we have the right to know what's effecting us." Joe stared at Steven, he was demanding an answer. He wouldn't let up until he got one.

    "Joey's got a stalker, a woman's been after him for two nights." Steven thought that he'd simplify it as much as possible.

    Joe relaxed his stare, anger was replaced with sympathy. "What happened?"

    "Listen," Thorpe stepped forward, " I understand your feelings but you are seriously jeopardizing this entire maneuver, you must leave immediately."

    "Who are you guys, cops?" Brad asked, "I didn't see anyone hanging around the studio?"

    Nicholas looked out the window, "I don't think we have the time for this, it almost dark."

    "Right; change of plan stay here, and try not to get in our way."

    "What? You know she's coming here?" Tom asked. "Why isn't she in Joey's-"

    "Please!" Thorpe interrupted, "You'd better tell them so they will shut up!"

    Steven filled them in on Lilith, how she had appeared out of nowhere, and her story, he told them about Thorpe's theory on her and drug addicts. The only thing he left out was their desicions; Joey's no fucking way, and his moment of doubt. He simply didn't know how they would react, if they would go with her or stay. He was met with some skeptical looks but no one questioned the validity. When he was done, he sat down, and looked between them, "So call me crazy."

    Tom looked between Joey and Steven. "Are you serious?"

    "Hey, I couldn't have EVER made up something like this!"

    "I must tell you, that everything Steven told you is the truth, she is a vampire. They are a rare bunch, but they do exist. She has made it clear to certain parties, that she is out for all of you. She'll want all of you, or destroy all of you."

    "Sorta like a set?" Tom gave a shrug.

    Thorpe raised his eyebrows, "I guess you could say that."

     Thrope quickly tore some pieces of paper and wrote on them, "I want you all to listen to me. Soon, Lilith will arrive, and she will want to take all of you into her circle, and make you vampires. I," he handed each one piece of the paper, "must know how you feel. No discussions, we don't have the time. Circle your answer, and fold the paper in half. Answer this question: Do you want to leave your family, your friends and your soul?"

    The paper simply had a YES and a NO. Each did what they were told, and handed the answers back.

    Thorpe unfolded each, he made no face, nothing to elude to them what their answers had been.

    Steven looked at each of his friends, he knew his answer; he knew Joey's answer. What would happen to them if one or all were to leave?

    Thorpe stood behind Steven, "I am proud to say that all of you have made the same decision," he held out the five pieces of paper, each had a circle around the word NO. He folded the papers, and placed them in his pocket, "I am happy that you have all chosen the best answer. However, we can't let Lilith know this, we don't want her to bolt away."

    There was a knock at the door.

    Thorpe and Nicholas took up there positions. Steven drew a breath and opened the door.     "Good evening, Lilith," he greeted her; silently, he shivered, the room seemed to drop about ten degrees.

    "Steven," she entered, and stopped dead, looking between each of them. "I thought that you two were going to keep quiet about this?"

    "I just told them, nobody else," Steven figured that he'd take the blame.

    "Well, I guess it's all right. I saves me the trouble of doing it." She looked at Joey, "Are you feeling better?"

    "Yeah, I'm just tired."

    "Have you told them of my proposition?"

    "I told them everything," Steven answered.

    She gave a nod, then turned to them, "So, gentlemen, what say all of you? Yes or no?"     The moment of truth: Steven took a step forward, "I speak for all of us, as usual, we accept."

    Lilith gave a smile, "You don't know how happy you have just made me. I suggest that we all retire to my home-"

    The bathroom door opened, Christian Thorpe stood there wielding his gun, "It's over, Lilith."

    She spun around, "Christian? Christian Thorpe?" She seemed to be stunned to see him.

    "I'm going to stop you, you aren't taking these men."

    She gave a little laugh, "Why?"

    "You are pure evil."

    "Well, isn't this the pot calling the kettle black!"

    Thorpe continued, "You're not ruining them like you did me."

    "I saved you, you idiot!"

    "You damned me."

    "You mean," Steven slowly began, "that you're a vampire, too?"

    "Not by choice," he leveled his gun at her. "I was taken against my will." He then turned his attention to her. "I have played this moment over and over again for a long time."

    Lilith shrugged.

    Thorpe continued, "All I am to you is some sort of twisted joke. Take a vampire hunter and turn him into the thing that he's sworn to fight."

    "I felt sorry for you, I didn't know who you were until later," she gave another shrug. "I guess that I should have let you stay on that horrible battlefield. The smell of war can be so disgusting, the mustard gas, the gunpowder. The screams of the wounded, and the silence of the dead.

    "I always found several meals in and around the trenches, I think most were glad to get it over with. What difference does it make? What's done is done; you can't change things, you might as well learn to live with it."

    "Is that how you became an addict?"

    She gave a frown, "Addict?"

    "Morphine was a God send in World War One. Is that how you found out about the thrill? How wonderful the blood tastes with morphine surging through it?"

    "I don't care for morphine in the blood, it makes it rather bitter, besides I don't have a problem."

    "Oh, of course you don't. So did you like taking the veterans? Is that how you got hooked?"

    Lilith pulled her collar up, and gave him a cold look. He knew he was right.

    "I've always wanted to ask you something," Thorpe declared.

    "Yes."

    "Why me? Why out of all those men in that trench, why did you pick me?"

    "Christian, honestly you reminded me of my husband. I didn't know you were a hunter, not until it was too late," she pursed her lips, "You just struck me as a survivor, you deserved to live. We are predators, we can find every weakness, but when I saw you, all I saw was this incredible will to survive. You deserved life more than any other person, and you are welcomed."

    "I never thanked you. I never wanted any of this, Lilith, and neither do they."

    She squared off in front of him, "So, you have set a trap is for me?" she motioned to the band, standing beside the wall. "And they are the bait?"

    "They had no intention of going with you."

    Lilith looked hurt for a second, "I see. So you intend to stop me?"

    She turned to Steven, he was standing the closest. In an flash, she had one arm around his shoulders and one hand under his chin. "Fight me, and I'll snap your neck in two."

    Steven couldn't do anything, she was unbelievably strong. Lilith positioned him as a shield.

    Lilith narrowed her eyes, "So Christian, going shoot now?"

    "Let him go, Lilith," Christian held up his gun, and slowly put it on the table. "We can talk this over."

    "Unfortunately, time for talking is done my dear Thorpe. Since you have been following me through most of the North American continent, I imagine that you just won't rest until I'm in Hell."     She tightened her grip on Steven. He could barely stand her cold hands, it was like having an icicle on his throat.

    "Something like that. Why don't you let him go, and I'll go with you. You can do to me whatever you want to, just let him-"     Nicholas bolted out the door, aimed and fired.

    A shot hit her below her eye, just narrowly missing Steven's head.

    Lilith screamed out in pain, and Steven made his move; he broke free, and felt someone pulling him away. He looked up to see Tom, pulling him to the wall.

    Lilith held the wound; in an instant it had healed over.

    "You bastard!" She screamed at him, then she turned back to Thorpe. "Wow! Now you go out in teams, just like nuns!" she exclaimed.

    Lilith made the first move; in one kick she knocked Thorpe over the table. She followed and elbowed him in the face, pulled him up by his collar and punched him hard enough that everyone in the room heard bones break.

    Thorpe broke free, punched her hard, once in the face, and once in the stomach. He slammed her head first into the wall; it didn't phase her. He grabbed a chair and broke it over her back, but she just turned, as if he'd tapped her on the shoulder.

    She came at him with a right, and a then a powerful left. She got him down and began choking him, when she felt a gun barrel beside her temple. Nicholas stood over both of them, she released her grip, and let him stand.

    Christian Thorpe retrieved his gun and aimed it at her; Nicholas returned to his side. Her face fell a bit, she seemed to be weakening.

    "Get up, slowly. Keep your hands where I can see them." He wiped the blood off his face. In a minute, he was healed, too.

    She obeyed, "Phosphorous bullet?"

    Thorpe nodded. "You lied, Lilith. You are an addict. The phosphorous should have hit you this quickly, not even a shot in the head should have affected you this fast."

    Lilith just stared at him, "I have been trying to cut back," she held her head in her hands, "I am your master. I gave you eternal youth, I saved you from a certain death. Do you have any idea of how many people would kill to trade places with us?"

    She looked at him, took one step to him, but she was fighting to stand, "I know you better than you know yourself, I am the ultimate predator, I know your weaknesses. You doubt yourself."

    "You claim to be my master; you aren't a master, you're just a parasite."

    That angered her, more than anything else. "We are on the very top of the food chain. I haven't killed for food in a hundred years, I've lived off of bovine blood, just like you, I've only killed for sport, only ten or so a year! I have to keep my skills up!"

    "How many did you kill to survive in eight hundred years?"

    "Don't you dare judge me you little son of a bitch!"

    "I must tell you this, for my own sake, as well as yours. Lilith, I spent alot of time hating you, and a part of me will never forgive you. I do forgive you, but only for what you have done to me. I hope that God shows you mercy. Lilith, do you have any last request?"

    She gave a little chuckle, and began to walk to the sliding glass door. "Go to Hell."

    Lilith was defying him, she was certain that he wouldn't shoot.

    Thorpe leveled his gun, and fired three times.

    Lilith crumpled to the floor. She didn't really seem to absorb the power of the shots, it looked more like she had just fainted.

    Thorpe kept his gun aimed at her, as Nicholas turned her over, she was still breathing. She began to shake, and fixed her eyes on them.

    Thorpe began to recite the Lord's Prayer.

    "You; I will be waiting in Hell for you two. All I have to do is wait for time-" her eyes rolled back, and coughed, "I'm really dying."

    "Yes, Lilith," Thorpe stood over her, he still had his gun drawn.

    "Will you take me back? Back home to Oxford? Scatter my ashes in the field-"

    "Yes, Lilith, I'll take you home. I know the place."

    She let out a horrible gasp, then nothing.

    "Is she gone?" Steven asked.

    "Yeah, she's dead." Nicholas answered. "I'll get the trunk."

    Thorpe kept his gun on her.

    "It's too bad," Tom said, "She was really beautiful."

    Nicholas returned with a large trunk, rope, and a sheet. He placed the sheet on the floor, and moved Lilith onto it, "Are you gonna help or just stand there?"

    Thorpe kept his guard, "I don't trust her."

    "She's definitely dead."

    He handed Steven the gun, "If she moves, shoot."

    They wrap her in the sheet and tied the rope around her, and placed into the trunk.

    "What now?" Brad asked.

    "We have a place out in the country, we'll have a small ceremony and cremate her, and I'll take her back to Oxford. That's where she always belonged."

    Steven stood there, watching him, "You were a solider?"

    "Yeah, World War One, I was a German sargent at the Battle of Verdun. A shell exploded, as I was leaving the trench, I was cut to ribbons. The explosion collapsed the trench, killing all of my friends. I had just crawled out, and she was standing over me. At first, I thought she was an angel, sent to take me.

    "She was right, in a sense. There's no way to change back, I've done what I set out to do, I'll still continue my work, but this," he motioned to the shrouded body, "Is what I really wanted."

    They stood there in sympathetic silence. What could anyone say?

    Steven looked at the room, it was trashed. "Looks like old times in here." He handed Thorpe back his gun. "We owe you alot, what can we do to repay you?"

    Christian Thorpe looked at each of them, they were confused by the very existence of vampires, in shock by an execution, and tired. They didn't deserve to carry around this emotional baggage: they were innocent victims of Lilith.

    "All you have to do is each of you go back to your rooms and forget that any of this happened. You never met Lilith, Nicholas, or me. Vampires don't exist."

    His voice was hypnotic, he kept repeating it, over and over. Each left, and did as they were told, which left Steven. He watched his friends walk out on single file.

    "What are you talking about? I'm not gonna forget this! How could I possibly-"     "I was afraid of this." Thorpe frowned, "You're resistant."

    "What did you do to them?"

    "Just exactly what I said. Right now, they are going to their respective rooms and going to go to sleep. In the morning, they will have no recollection of anything that happened. I figured I'd have a problem with you, you seem a little extra sensitive."

    In the meantime, Nicholas hauled the trunk out of Steven's suite. When he returned he began to clean up the mess.

    "I just wanna know," Steven said, "Did you know that we would all say no?"

    "No. Don't feel ashamed that she convinced you. The others might not have been so strong if they had faced her."

    Thorpe continued, "Now, I want you to relax, and concentrate on my     voice. Please don't fight me, it's for the best.

    "Forget everything pertaining to this event. Forget about your conversation with Joey, forget meeting Lilith, forget meeting Nicholas, forget meeting me. Nothing happened here," he looked around at the broken furniture, "except that you had a tantrum, and took it out on the room.

    "Now, you are tired, and you want to sleep."

    Steven almost collapsed, it was a success. Thorpe helped him into bedroom, he repeated the chant again. This time it took.

    Nicholas finished, and followed Thorpe out of the suite; they walked in silence until they reached their truck.

    "It was a good night," Nicholas remarked, "It's a too bad that Tyler's going to have to pay for the furniture."

    "He can afford it."

    Nicholas drove out of the city, "Are you really going to do it? Are you really going to take her ashes to Oxford?"

    "Yes, I am."

    "Why?"

    Christian Thorpe turned to him, "Because she was my master, and I sincerely loved her. That's really why I had to destroy her, I had to set her free."