Thirty-five minutes later, a mud-splattered, once-white Land Rover rolled to a stop not four feet from the front door. The driver twisted in his seat to lift a large folder from the back seat, then exited and made his way to the passenger door. He opened it to help his mate from the vehicle. The wind had eased considerably once the sky had cleared enough to allow the late morning sun to penetrate the gloom. Sparkles of light danced on the raindrop-laden scarlet roses lining the borders of the entrance porch. The ozone generated from the lightning that accompanied the unwelcome visitor earlier that morning, heightened their aroma. He stopped on his way to the front door to pluck a perfect sample from the multitude and passed it to his wife.

Liz smiled, flicking it toward him so the lightly scented water splattered his face.

"I make a romantic gesture and you throw it in my face." He sighed, pulling a cotton handkerchief from the breast pocket of his suit jacket to mop the moisture from his face.

"It's lovely, Stephan. Really, but now is not the time for romance," Liz replied, still giggling at his shocked expression.

The door swung open and Chris ushered them in. "They're in the front parlour. Second set of doors on the left." He then sprinted upstairs to join his two friends, Nico and Mike, who were packing their belongings in preparation for the flight home.

"I don't see why we have to leave anyway," Mike complained when Chris stuck his head around the doorframe.

"If we stay, we could put Callie in more danger. You heard what Sam said. We know she can make Nico shift and she can hear all three of us when we're in animal form. There is no way she is mate to all of us. No matter how I much I want her to be mine." Chris countered from the doorway.

Nico threw the jeans he was about to fold down on top of the case. "No, I can't just leave her. My wolf won't let me. I have to stay and protect her."

"Same here," the other two agreed.

"Right, then let's go tell them we're not leaving."

Nico, having been elected spokesperson, stepped forward from the others when they entered the room. "We're not leaving. No one can protect Callie better than us," he stated. "So we're staying."

Sam closed his eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling it slowly. "Guys, it's your being here that is putting all of us in more danger. If Demetrius can control Callie enough to have her make you shift, then he will take her from us and use her to further his goals. If you feel about her the way I do, you will fight him and then we will all die in the attempt. He cares only for his own gain. Our lives mean absolutely nothing to him."

"Then we fight for her," Chris spoke up from behind Nico.

Callie jumped up from the seat by the window and stormed up to the three of them. "No! That's it! No one is going to die because of me." She poked each in the chest as she spoke their names. "Nico, Chris, Mike - all of you go home now. Get packed. Get on the plane and leave."

"Okay." Mike shrugged and turned from her.

"Will do." Chris complied, turning at the same time.

Nico ground his teeth, clearly trying to fight the order. "I will be back." He looked pointedly at Sam. "You better have more shifters coming cause if they don't see any here they'll know what you're hiding and take her anyway."

"Your three replacements will arrive around 9pm this evening," Sam assured him. "Would you ask Brian to join us please?" Sam turned to face his fellow vampires seated around the room. "Before Brian gets here, I should tell you that he has been kept in the dark about events so far, which is the only reason he was able to answer Morag's questions without giving us away. I'm going to give him the choice of leaving now and hope Morag doesn't notice the difference if a replacement takes animal form or I'll have to compel him to think the replacement shifters are really our three and hope that it holds up under Demetrious' scrutiny."

"I'll hang around as long as you need me Boss," Brian assured Sam from just beyond the open doors. "I think it best if I don't know why my friends are leaving. I trust your judgement. If you wouldn't mind waiting until the others get here before you compel me, I'd like to see these three off at the airport."

Sam stepped forward to clasp Brian's hand in his. "Thank you, friend. I owe you one."

Once the shifters left the property a short while later, the large double doors to the front parlour were closed and locked. Stephan pulled the coffee table in front of his seat and opened the thick folder. One by one, he removed the sheets of white A4 paper and lined them up on the table to form one continuous banner.

"This is a copy of a scroll that was unearthed in Serbia just after The Great War. It's been carbon dated to be 3250 years old. Most of it was intact at the time and preserved with the development of recent technology. Roughly translated it tells of how a young witch defied the will of one of the sea gods to raise the bastard child of his daughter as her own. A girl whose beauty was admired by all who looked on her but she bore only one male child before she was taken by the walking dead.

"She was then followed and worshipped by all she borrowed life from, whether animal, human, or un-dead and through this worship was able to command them to her will. She was nicknamed The Enchantress. Her final death is also recorded." Stephan began to pull more sheets from the folder. "This one documents a similar occurrence some 1500 years later. Again she had one son and was later mated to, I quote, 'a creature of the night'. Only it claims that the woman was a descendant of Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

"Now according to any records or legends I have been able to unearth, Aphrodite had only two daughters and neither was able to carry children to term. Unless you believe the first scroll that claims otherwise and would genetically link the two incidents." He started to pace around the room, pausing only to refill his glass.

"Is that it?" Sam asked, getting impatient with his friend's dallying.

"No, the genetic link sent me on another tangent and this is where the complication starts. Thankfully, I have access to a programme on the database that let me into the old records and helped narrow things a little. I traced the family tree of the male child born to the second Enchantress - no easy task I can tell you. All of his descendants had only one child, a male. The trail went cold after World War II when both parents were killed and the child disappeared with the possibility of an unrecorded adoption.

"It took some searching but I eventually came up with a name; Thomas was allegedly born to a middle-aged couple around that time. I was suspicious because of their age, so I traced him and he too had only one male child." He stopped pacing directly in front of Callie. "His name was James Williams."

"Are you trying to tell me you think the Greek goddess Aphrodite was a distant relative?" Callie asked, after the initial shock had worn off a little. "Wait, there's a slight flaw in your working out. My father wasn't an only child. He had a brother, George."

"That was the only discrepancy I found in the entire line, but as it turns out George was born to a teenage relative of your paternal grandmother's and taken in as their own when they discovered they couldn't have any more children. So it would appear that I was correct in my theory that only females born of this blood line carry the Enchantress gene," Stephan concluded and sat down to wait for any questions the others may have.

"Both these other Enchantress' drew vampires as their mates?" Sidney asked in curiosity.

"That is what it looks like. Yes," Stephan answered. "Although they didn't have her power. Magic, it would seem, is an added bonus from her mother's ancestors."

"What about Adie then, is she an Enchantress too?" Callie asked him.

"It would seem that the Enchantress side only became apparent when you and the other two became vampires. The enchanting works through your bite, so unless your sister also becomes one of us, the answer would be no... Not yet anyway."

"Good." She stood and kissed Sam lightly on the cheek then addressed the room, "Please excuse me, I'll be in the library if you need me." She patted Sam's shoulder when he made to rise from his seat. "I'm fine and you probably have a few things to talk over with Stephan. Call me if you need me." Her mind raced over Stephan's revelations. She vaguely remembered seeing a book about the Greek gods in the library and went to do a bit of research on her ancestor.

Aphrodite, the book said, was the goddess of love and had numerous children to several different gods and mortals, but only two daughters to the sea god. Callie nearly choked when she read his name. Poseidon She then scanned the page for the names of his daughters. Rhode and Herophile she read a few pages later.

"Well holy shit," she exclaimed. "I'm sure Lucien said Herophile was the name of his woman, and if the scroll is right, then that would mean her baby didn't die! It would explain why he thinks I look like her too if I'm a descendant... Wait that means I'm related to him too."

She was just about to call his name but thought to try it out on her own first. She made herself comfortable on the same big armchair she sat in that morning and closed her eyes. With his bed chamber pictured in her mind, she willed herself to be there. On opening her eyes again, she found herself standing by his bed. He wasn't there of course, so she ended up calling him anyway.

"Lucien, Master of the Seventh Underworld, blah, blah, blah. I know you can hear me. I have some news and I'm in your room if you want to hear it."

She made herself at home wandering around the room while she waited for him to arrive. Coming to a stop when she found the symbol names he had translated for her.

"Two visits in one day, I am honoured," he joked as he appeared directly behind her, making her jump a mile.

"You are so not going to believe the news I have for you. Sit," she ordered. "Okay, I need to clarify a couple of things first. The name of the woman you wanted to marry was Herophile?"

"Yes," he replied tolerantly.

"And the name of her father was Poseidon, as in the Greek god Poseidon?"

"Yes," he replied again.

"Was the name of her mother Aphrodite by any chance?"

"It was, yes. Is there a point to these questions?" he asked, his tolerance waning.

She clapped her hands excitedly. "I have it on good authority that the baby Herophile carried didn't die as Poseidon thought. She was secretly raised by a witch after she was born."

He scowled at her. "This is too cruel a joke Callie. Please don't say such things as it will only invoke my anger."

"It's true!" she affirmed and proceeded to tell him of the scroll Stephan had revealed to her. She left nothing out, including the part about her being an Enchantress. "So when he went through her descendants he discovered that I'm one of them, and that means that we're distantly related."

Lucien stared into space for several minutes before a smile slowly appeared on his face. "I had a daughter." He turned to her and pulled her into his arms, squeezing so tight that, had she been mortal, he would have broken several ribs. "Thank you." He beamed and kissed her forehead then flung himself backwards onto the bed. "I had a daughter... I wish... I wish I could have known her." A tear fell from his eye and he dashed it away with his sleeve. "Would you mind leaving me now? I'd like to be alone for a while," he asked, wiping away another tear.

She squeezed his knee in understanding. "I have to get back anyway. There are some vamps on their way who want to use me and my power. We need to get ready for the fight."

He absentmindedly nodded and waved her off. Moments later, she sat up from her seat in the library.