While they drove on south, they discussed the experience. Cern noted that, to Radu, Dema had appeared unusually vulnerable. He saw her as an easy mark, and indeed he had manifested to her quite clearly. Due to her shaman nature, he found it easy to intrude on her internal reality.

As they moved further south Dema continued probing the surroundings for links to her distant past, and there were many places along the way that resonated enough for them to stop so she could sense them more intimately. 

They encountered other vampir. It seemed that, unlike Avram, in the more remote villages some of the vampir had returned to their old ways, preying upon the living. They watched Dema closely, and she watched them closely in return. Because of the dark side of this manifestation, the Lamia remained aroused in her, and Dema knew she had to find a way to lessen the predation of these misguided spirits on the innocents around them.

Cern was experiencing the same thing. They knew what to do. As with Radu, things Avram had told Dema were key. The misguided beliefs the older vampir had drawn upon and strengthened when he made them compelled these second-generation vampir to follow the same pattern. They needed their victims to believe as well. 

Even in Romania the mythos had faded, and many of the vampir had already faded along with it. Only the strong and clever remained, ones who could play upon the deeper desires of the soul and summon up the old beliefs in those who were open enough to accept their advances. Like Radu, these vampir thought Dema would be an easy mark.

Dema didn't know if it would always work, but she and Cern found it possible to engage the vampir from within the same dream-reality they were projecting. The trick then was to get the vampir to realize they were no more and no less dead than other bodiless spirits.

Luckily, they had assistance in this from some of the truly ancient earth spirits of the region, who were becoming aroused by the Lamia's activity in their realm. These spirits understood her intention, and were able to help the vampir accept their spirit form and move on.

But there were some hard cases who professed to like their condition, to be serving the will of the master vampir who made them, and who saw the Lamia only as a threat. While she could weaken these and make them fear her, she could not undo the harm they had suffered.

Cern noted that Dema, while outwardly normal, had taken on the Lamia form within her shaman dream, and the vampir they encountered now saw her that way immediately. He suggested she should change that.

"I know, but I can't."

"Can't, or won't?"

"Well, won't then. It's too much who I am. These vampir spirits are a threat to the innocent. But they are also victims. They have been misled about their true nature. They believe they have been endowed with special powers, that they are superhuman, when in fact they have become subhuman. And this is happening right here in the homeland of the Lamia, may have originated here. The Lamia in me cannot set that aside."

"Not even if it will help you to help them?"

"In what way?"

"Dema, somehow the vampir see the Lamia as a threat. We can't undo the harm that has been done to them when they respond that way. The Lamia is a symbol of retribution, and even though that retribution is often gentle and for their own good, they resist it. It makes our job harder."

She looked at him, and saw that he was seeing this through his own shaman nature, his inner empathy for the spiritual side of his surroundings. She realized that it had been him, not her, who had drawn the local earth spirits to their aid. But it was still hard for her to quell the urgings of the Lamia.

"What would you have me do? Look all innocent like Buffy and then ward them off with a cross while I drive a stake through their hearts?"

He laughed. "Would that work?"

She chuckled too, but said, "It will if they believe it will. And from what I've picked up from them I'm pretty sure they do. These ideas come from somewhere. The cross is a powerful icon of faith here, one they inwardly believe they defy at their peril, and if the vampir believe that a stake through the heart will cause their physical form to dissipate, then it will have that effect."

"I'll keep that in mind next time we run into one who actually has a body."