"Although you may not believe me now, the information I am about to convey is critically important for you to understand. Please try to relax and listen. I shall start with some religious background to help you relate to us. You went to church as a child, did you not?"

I realized that I desperately needed to remain in control of myself; Julius' voice was having the same effect on me as before, at that party. It was hypnotic. I left the question unanswered, although of course I had gone to church. My mother made me go every Sunday, no matter where we were. Did he know this already?

As if reading my thoughts, he smiled and I looked away.

"Before Adam or Eve, God created good and evil as a means of separating the souls of the world."

"What's the matter with you? Can't you tell I don't care?" My voice no longer sounded like my own; it was hysterical, in spite of my best efforts at outward control.

Julius continued, regardless. "The Bible called it separating day from night, a metaphor for separating humanity from Vampires.

God needed a place in which good and evil could be manifest. This was the actual purpose behind what Adamites call the Creation. It was not simply the dispersion of the seeds of humanity but rather a cosmic circumstance pitting good against evil."

"You're wasting your breath. Can't you see I don't give a shit about your little fantasy?"

"My dear," his shoulders slumped, "please refrain from commenting unless it is to ask genuine questions."

"I'll say whatever I choose," I snapped back, not because I thought bitchiness would have any impact on him, more because I was truly afraid. "I think that is well within my Queenly rights," I continued. "I will not listen." I covered my ears with my hands.

Julius sighed again and made a slight motion in Elita's direction, a tiny nod of his head. I spun around to face her and she walked toward me, smiling.

"Someday," Julius intoned, "I will look back on this moment as Adamite parents look back on their child's toilet-training. As with those same parents, I look forward to the time when you are my equal, Lizzie, and not merely a child."

Moving faster than I could resist, Elita sharply pulled my hands from my ears and handcuffed my arms behind my back. I sputtered and swore and she stuffed a gag in my mouth, a silk gag, but a gag nevertheless.

"Learn your place, little girl," she whispered in my ear, out of Julius' range of hearing, "and patience."

Bitch, bitch, bitch! I screamed inside. I kicked my feet, stood, struggled against the handcuffs, but to no avail. I was stuck, feeling more terrified by the minute. This was bad, really bad. What would happen to me?

"Thank you, Elita. Now, I shall continue."

I sat back down but made a point of turning so that my back faced him. At least he wouldn't see me cry that way. Tears dripped down my cheek and I tried to find the switch in my mind that would shut them off. When I looked up, Elita was watching me, smiling like it was a big joke. Bitch.

"We shan't bind your ears, at any rate. Now, as I was saying, Vampires are a repository of evil. We are, in fact, a separate race of beings. A race to which cruelty, perversion, and exploitation of the weak are noblesse.

"This is not to say that humans do not possess evil. They do, as evidenced daily, and as shown rather elegantly by some quite remarkable men in your history. However, at heart, humans throughout history have always believed that good is the better of the two. At the bottom of all human evil there is always a nagging doubt, a recognition, an admission that what had transpired was wrong. Human evil is, thus, empty wasteful and petty."

He paused. I could hear, although my back was still turned to him, Julius taking a delicate sip of cognac. I watched Elita's eyes following his every movement with longing and expectation as he began to speak again. Her shoulders relaxed, almost imperceptibly. She was in love with him, or something resembling love, I thought.

"Vampires, on the other hand, have made a virtue of evil. It forms the basis of our moral code. To the undead, with our mirror-image morality, evil is our greatest aspiration. Anything good done within that framework is salted with the notion that at heart, it is still evil. Vampires are as convinced of their inherent evilness as humans are sure of their goodness."

Julius contemplated the weight of his own words. What a pompous pig he was. During the flow of his soliloquy, I had gradually turned so that I could now stare up at him, my mouth and hands still bound, but trying my best to burn my eyes into his soul.

Wasn't there anything I could do to make him just a little bit uncomfortable? He smiled down at me like a paternalistic deity and continued.

"In the last several decades, with the destruction of your historic moral fiber and with no replacement waiting in the wings, a moral vacuum has been created. Inside of this vacuum, human civilization has spiraled downward. For the first time, Vampires are poised to replace humans as the ruling elite of this tired old globe and the morality of evil will finally replace the age-old morality of goodness."

He smiled, a huge toothy effort and to my surprise, leaned down and pulled the silk scarf from my mouth. His hand lingered on my cheek, traced the contours of my lips. Slightly parting my mouth, he inserted the tip of his finger inside. I fought the urge to vomit, to snap the end of his finger off between my teeth, but all the while he cautioned me with his eyes. One false move, one misplaced word, and I would be bound again. Again, an almost imperceptible nod to Elita and she moved behind me, pressing her body against mine so that I felt her breasts against my back. She unlocked the handcuffs and let them drop with a soft thud to the carpet.

"I'd like a glass of water," I said quietly, just after Julius removed his finger from my mouth. I wanted to wash out the stinking taste of him.

"Of course," he said, smiling at my acquiescence. "Elita, please take care of this request. And send for a snack, too. She should keep her strength up. There's so much to cover in such a short time. Your turning will be tomorrow night, no matter what." I felt Elita's nails through my blouse as she drew her hands up my back, lingering on my neck, beneath my hair. She left the room.

Julius watched my eyes throughout.

"I have a question," I said, massaging my bruised wrists. If I feigned interest, maybe he'd feel closer, personal, enough to let me go. Maybe I could convince him that I could be his voice into the Adamite world, write a bunch of articles or something.

Showmen love publicity and he seemed like a real circus barker.

"Yes, my love?" he smiled, a parody of sweetness.

"What did you mean about the destruction of humanity's moral fiber?"

"Excellent question. Let me elaborate. Your world has been beset by sweeping social movements and upheavals in the last several decades. While I certainly have my own personal hypothesis as to why this is so, the only relevant point to this discussion is the consequence of these events. Unfortunately for humanity, your collective conscious-mind was simply not ready for these socio-evolutionary shifts. Your intrinsic sense of good was evolving, but remained incomplete. One need only turn to your history books and examine the difference between Christianity now and during the Crusades, for example, to see that humanity has been evolving, albeit slowly, toward a greater goodness. God gave you a code to live by and for centuries, under a wide variety of circumstances, it served you well in its many forms. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and the many variants; underneath them all was one common element, namely, love both thy neighbor and thy God. Unhappily, your God-given code has all but crumbled here in the twentieth century. In this country it has been amply demonstrated by the so-called sexual revolution, the poverty of your inner cities, rampant crime, and the many other ugly stories that fill your newspapers daily. And there is ample evidence throughout the rest of the world to bolster my argument. The once-proud society of the Adamites has become one of every man for himself."

It was hard not to hear inherent sense in what he said. Countless books and articles have chronicled this collapse of morality Wasn't that the reason everyone was in therapy searching for something? But hearing it all from this man, this sick man, made me want to vomit. How dare he pass judgment on anyone? His eyes burned into mine with condescension. Had he again read my thoughts?

"Psychologically humans are like children, controlled by peer pressure to be good. As with a child, this would have eventually matured into a framework moral code embraced by each individual, rather than enforced by religious coda. And then, quite frankly, Vampires might have disappeared. My personal belief is that this may have been what God had been hoping for, relegating Vampires to a role as the repository of true evil until, well, until Adamites matured into something more closely resembling God Himself. Then what need would there be for us?"

Despite myself, I was growing curious. Julius was a candidate for the funny farm, but he told a great story.

"For the first time in history, Vampires have been given a chance to assume the mantle of power. Perhaps God is testing us both, for we, too, are his children. The balance in the Adamite world has tipped, very slightly and precariously, but it has indeed slipped toward the side of evil. What is it you Adamites are so fond of saying? He who hesitates is lost. Rest assured, I shall not hesitate."

"Why do you need me?" I asked timidly, not sure I wanted to hear the answer.

"Lizzie, my dearest, your interest gives me great pleasure. Please understand that I am laying at your feet the most extraordinary adventure you could ever hope to realize in your simple human existence. You will be the envy of the entire world. You see, my sweet, you carry the blood of an ancient Vampiric family royalty and you are our rightful Queen. I am here to serve you, to guide you through the change. The world will be yours and you will be the world's, a symbol of nobility."

He waited for my response. I tried to be as royal as possible and said nothing. He smiled, again as if reading my mind.

"Yes, we still have a monarchy. You did not expect the undead, with our reverse morality, to have such a thing as democracy, did you? I get ahead of myself. First you should understand how it is you came to carry this royal Vampiric blood."

"Wait. One more question," I interjected. "What makes you so all-powerful?"

"Quite simple. I have the power to turn. I am the only one with this power. I pick and choose who inhabits the elite world of the undead. I am as unto a God."

Fantastic. Of all the undead megalomaniacs to get stuck with, I get one who has a God complex. "The power to turn?" I pressed for more explanation.

Julius gently stroked my head, reminding me in a sick way of Mother and how she used to stroke my hair until I fell asleep.

"Your questions will all be answered, but first, let us take a short detour through our history Like you Adamites, we too have a Bible. The recorded words of God that tell our creation story and establish certain mandates and universals, only from the perspective of our unique history and future."

Julius picked up the leather-bound book he had been reading earlier. "Let me read from the first few chapters of our Genesis.

You may recognize some of the material." Julius cleared his throat, swirled a little more cognac back, and began to read.

In the beginning there was silence and God. God spoke and the silence was destroyed and from His words came the heavens and earth. God said let there be light and darkness and there was light and darkness where before had been only silence. And God saw that light was easy and bright and called it day. And God saw that darkness was challenging and hidden and called it night Thus were night and day brought forth and it was one day.

He looked up long enough to ascertain he had my attention. He did, all of it. "I fear this shall become tedious, being somewhat familiar." His finger made a dry, whispery sound as he dragged it down the aged paper. "Let's move to the sixth day."

Then God said let the earth bring forth man according to his own kind who shall have dominion over the house of Day and all creatures who dwell within and so the earth brought forth a man and a woman and God saw that it was good and blessed them that they may be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue the Day and have dominion over all who move through it, all the birds and fishes and beasts and creeping things and plants that seek the sun. And it was so and it was the sixth day. Thus on the seventh day God rested and beheld his work and saw that it was good and only good thus God spoke and said let the earth bring forth Vampires each according to their kind who shall have dominion over the house of Night and all those who dwell within and so the earth brought forth a man and a woman who were not like the first man and woman but also not like the beasts of the earth. And God saw that they were not good and blessed them that they go forth and multiply and subdue the Night and have dominion over all that move through it And so it was and it was the seventh day and God spoke and blessed the seventh day and hallowed it because on the seventh day, God gave flesh to evil that the earth be separate from the heavens.

I realized I was holding my breath. Could any of this be true? Of course not, but what sort of brilliant, twisted mind could create an entire world, including a creation story, for the sake of his Vampiric game? He put down the Bible.

"Let me summarize the next few centuries. From the dawn of creation, the two separate species have lived apart from one another. Vampires of course knew of and despised Adamites because our human brethren had the enviable quality of contentedness, due largely to the fact that time has a sense of meaning for Adamites. This is, of course, because they experience death. Time was measured by the extent of their lives.

"For the most part, Adamites have known nothing of the Vampiric world, except for those upon whom we preyed, mostly the weak and sick. We lived in darkness, shunning the light not because it would kill us - at that time we were not so sensitive - but rather because we were reptilian-like and it was more comfortable in the shadows. Our genetic material, lent from the cold-blooded serpent, predicated that we seek out dark and wet surroundings. We were like animals, reptiles, but with human attributes."

"From the serpent?" I asked incredulously. This gets more intriguing every minute.

"Yes. God experimented with our form in the early days. Whereas Adamites arose from the dust of the earth infused with God's breath, Vampires arose from the bodies of serpents bent by God's will into manlike form."

I couldn't help myself, I interrupted with a question. "Do you have an Original Sin also?"

"Please, Lizzie, think of what you ask. How could we have an Original Sin when sin has no meaning to us? We are sin. To a Vampire, the only sin is an act of genuine goodness. But there is a critical event that occurred for us and not for the Adamites.

You see, we ate from the Tree of Life, which bore the fruit of eternity, not the Tree of Knowledge from which Eve tempted Adam.

"This was the cruelest joke God played, an irony that even now amuses me. With death, as reprehensible as it may seem to you, God gave Adamites the gift of context. And with the promise of an afterlife came meaning, a place to aspire to, a means of reinforcing your desire to do good. In contrast, we were granted eternal life. It should have been granted to those who ostensibly embody good, the Adamites. Rather, it was given to us, an entire race of men and women whose essence relies on spilling the blood of others. I suspect God had intended it to be a balancing factor, but it backfired. We had no pride, no sense of ourselves as a cohesive people. Instead, we were little more than simple animals, living in the shadows of the Adamites. Scurrying about in the darkness and seeking blood where we could. A miserable eternal existence, don't you think?"

Julius motioned for Elita to bring the crystal decanter and he refilled his snifter. He smiled darkly before continuing. "Twenty centuries ago, this all changed with the coming of our Messiah. His name was Susej. You laugh, but why should his name not be a mirror of the Adamite messiah? For in fact, he was just that. A mirror image, an evil balanced to good. If anything, God is just.

Our Messiah existed parallel with Jesus and was active during the same time. He too died on the cross, although not on the same day as Jesus, but shortly thereafter. He died not from simple blood loss or thirst, but rather because his body was raised upon the cross and as the sun rose, he burned to death. Thus came the greatest change in Vampiric history.

"There are many fables associated with his life, teachings, and parables, but what is important to our story was his mission. He came to restore faith among the Vampires, faith in the morality of evil, faith that God had not forgotten us. He did this in two ways.

"First, he died on the cross to give us the gift of darkness. By embodying darkness, he gave power absolute to light. For the first time, those who accepted his teachings no longer found the sun merely uncomfortable. They found it terminal. In one stroke he managed to give form to the blackness of our heritage. By investing the sun with power to destroy us, he made us absolute rulers of the night. This may sound implausible, but no more so than the notion of one man dying for all humanity's sins. Susej died for our everlasting glory.

"As Adamites ruled the day, the night now firmly belonged to us. For the first time, it seemed, we were on an equal footing. God had attempted this in the Beginning, but somehow we had strayed. Susej showed us the value of one gift God had given us: Night. At the same time, he also gave us the gift of an afterlife."

"I don't understand," I said, "how could an afterlife have meaning for the undead? After what?"

"Susej died on the cross and was resurrected that night. Not three days later, as was Jesus, never to be seen again. Each night we repeat and relive this miracle. Every day we are dead and every night we rise from that state to live again. Susej showed us that we could exist by being daily resurrected. For the first time, we had a spiritual life. Each dawn we die with the spiritual knowledge that we will be resurrected at twilight. It is a miracle. For the first time, our status as eternal beings had meaning, the now and the afterlife became one and the same thing."

"What happened to Susej? Does he still live?" I wished I could feign disinterest. I could not.

"As I already said, he died on the cross, by sunlight. Susej was evil made flesh and his body turned to ash by the dawn. But his spirit was taken to heaven. The holy spirit. He sits to the left of God, Jesus to the right."

Julius was lost in the power of the tale he was spinning. His mesmerizing voice dropped to an even softer level. "Not only have his teachings survived, so have his progeny. You, my dear, as well as myself, are direct descendants of Susej."

Elita returned with a silver tray laden with cheeses, breads, mineral water, wine and chocolate truffles. I opened a mineral water and helped myself to a chocolate truffle, grateful for the diversion.

"Please, refresh yourself. Elita, will you join me outside for just a moment?"

MANHATTAN COMPOUND

October 10, 2001, 3:08 A.M.

"My, my, I never knew you were such an actor."

"Really You think it's going well?" Julius responded.

"It's hard to say. She is intelligent enough to not reveal what she's really thinking."

"Good point. But the truths of our Bible, our ancestors, are powerful. She can't help but believe. And the seeds of my deception are well hidden inside these truths."

Elita wrinkled her nose in distaste. "I don't see why you care. I say just turn her and be done with it. You don't need her cooperation."

"Ahh," Julius sighed, "but how much sweeter it will be to have it. Imagine Lazarus' face when he sees the new Queen at my side, a willing consort." Julius' face radiated with a childlike pride as he imagined such a victory.

"You want her to fall in love with you, don't you?" demanded Elita, trying hard to keep her jealousy covered.

"Call it what you will. Remember how much her mother cared for me? That was one of the easiest seductions I've ever orchestrated. Such a silly, lonely woman. I'm surprised she was able to raise our daughter to turn out even marginally strong."

"Bad mothers often raise the most interesting daughters."

"Hmmm? What?" He had already skipped ahead by a memory "Oh, yes, mothers and daughters. Well, now it's time for a really bad father to take over."

"Why not just tell her that she's your daughter? She'd be more willing to do your bidding."

"No, that won't do at all. Adamites are such prudes about sexual relations between family members."

"I guess I don't fully understand this part of your plan."

"Nothing short of total destruction of her innocence. She will give herself freely to me and when the truth arrives, it will be far too late. The rest of eternity at my side she will be as a mindless slave. A hollow shell of a woman. Nothing else can balance the scales with Lazarus for robbing me of my prize 700 years ago."

"Vengeance, while a laudable goal, should not be allowed to stand in the way of the greater evil to be attained in this circumstance," Elita added circumspectly.

Julius was lost in his own thoughts. "Imagine the sweetness of absorbing the power that she unknowingly carries in her blood. It will catapult me to the highest realm of power ever known in the history of Adamite or Vampire." He laughed. "And I get the pleasure of her body I shall take her to heights she has never experienced; only then will I reveal the truth about her paternity How devastating." Julius chuckled in anticipation of his pleasure.

"How utterly vicious and delicious," said Elita, internally grateful that Julius intended to destroy this woman. She would be nothing but a royal figurehead. There was no need for concern. Was there?

"Let's return to our protege, shall we?" Julius said, offering his arm to Elita.

"With pleasure, master," she said.