And she was about to use that admiration to get herself inside the Collins inner circle to find out what really happened to Jack.
Kat sat in a leather jacked and black top, causally listening to the house jazz band play some standards while the noisy bar carried on with their own conversations never paying much attention to the hardworking musicians. The 50 year old jut-box sat in the corner, a small reminder of the old days of The Blue Whale were the music wasn't life but from the old box that required a dime a song.
A waitress named Leigh smiled and poured another drink for Kat.
"Don' tell me he isn't coming." Leigh said.
"He's coming! ...at least I hope." Kat nervously grinned.
"I'll keep your tab open." Leigh smiled a cynical grin and walked off.
Kat waited for another 15 minutes and two more of Leigh's sarcastic laced drinks and finally Caleb rushed into the Blue Wale and made his way to Kat's table, clearly flustered on his tardiness.
"I was just about to give up on you." Kat said with a snap in her voice, after all she didn't really want a date, just an inside look to the Collins family, Caleb's heart was the key.
"I'm so sorry I'm late Kat, I had a little bit of car trouble." he said pointing to Leigh to bring him the same drink as Kat.
"Car trouble? Aren't you a member of the wealthiest family in Maine? You own half this town. Money shouldn't be an object for repairs or a new car." Kat asked sarcastically as she sipped her cocktail.
"I see you've jumped on to that bandwagon." Caleb said before Kat interrupted.
"Bandwagon?" She laughed.
"The family has hit some hard times, it's not as it used to be. The fishing fleet has slowed down, the investments my family had have dried up, money is tighter. You've seen the mansion! It's not up to its hay-day glory. That's why Jack was here in the first place. We were planning on selling everything off." Caleb explained as the waitress Leigh plopped his drink on the table with an annoyed look on her face.
Kat nodded, she could see it was a touchy subject, but she was happy to hear he brought up Jack.
"But anyway, I'm glad you asked me out tonight." Caleb moving on to the next subject.
"Me too. Its been so long since we last hung out, and since it's all been so crazy I thought you needed a night away. How're your cousins holding up?" Kat asked.
"Better then I thought. They had Jack cremated and buried on the Collinswood grounds. So, it all went fast. Poor guy." Caleb said reciting the tale Carolyn and Leopold had crafted for the body of the transient Leopold killed.
Kat was stunned, she hadn't expected the remains to be given to the family so quickly, and certainly not before she could order a second autopsy.
"Cremated? They cremated Jack already?" Kat asked surprised.
"Yeah, that's what Carolyn said he wanted. Why?" Caleb asked starting to feel interrogated.
"Just seems so quick." Kat said noticing his discomfort.
"Did you call me out to ask me about my cousin's funeral or, did you have ulterior motives? Because I'm certainly hoping for ulterior motives." Caleb boyishly grinned as he sipped from his beer, trying to make sense of her scattered conversation.
Kat did have ulterior motives, but they weren't the kind Caleb was hoping for. She had an itching feeling the Collins family was hiding something and that the body found in the water wasn't actually Jack. But now with the body gone it would be harder to prove.
And just as the two got a little deeper into their conversation, Leigh brought over something different to the table to see Kat and Caleb: a tall beautiful blond woman dressed all in white. Her hair coiffed perfeclty, her eyes blue and bright. She was tall, and had a smile that would light up Collinsport's darknest night.
"Kids, Sorry to interrupt, but she said she was looking for you." Leigh said walking off leaving the blond at the table.
Caleb's eyes became wide and filled with a look of utter shock. He stood, and looked at the woman in front of him as if he had seen a ghost. This was a woman he hadn't seen in over 15 years, a woman that came back from his past.
"What are you doing here?" He asked, his voice slightly monotone and timid.
The woman removed her gloves and put her chilly hands on his face and smiled with a little tear coming down her cheek.
"I've come back. I'm here." The tall blond said to Kat's surprise.
"Where have you been? What have you..." Caleb said, his voice trembling.
The woman only smiled and pulled Caleb in for a big hug. She held on to him for what seemed like hours. Kat sat at their table, the lights from the Collinsport marina shining in from the docks and reflecting off of the tall blond's beautiful face.
"Kat..." Caleb said releasing himself from the hug. "This is my mother."
****
Over on Collinwood, Leopold sat in his darkened room lit only by a small candelabra nearest the window. He was thinking about what his life would be come. Everything that was, was gone, now the only thing left behind was a creature created selfishly by a witch to use for whatever cruel plot she had in mind.
. As he sat in silence there was a knock on the door. Leopold paused for a second and thought that it was his imagination, but it wasn't. The front door of the old house squeaked open and in walked Carolyn, Jack's beloved wife.
"Carolyn, what are you doing here?" He asked as he stood up from his chair.
"I needed to see you. I know that now things are awfully changed, and we can't go back to how they were but...I just needed to see you." Carolyn standing in the foyer and looking into the room Leopold stood in.
"I can't begin to express how sorry I am that this has happened to you and to Alexandra, but I hope that we can all still somehow be a family. At least in some sort of capacity." Leopold said.
"Here, I wanted you to see this. Its a photograph and Jack and I when we were younger. You look so much like him, and yet so different." Carolyn said walking closer.
Leopold smiled and took the photograph and stood shocked how just how much he did look like Jack.
"There's still so much of Jack inside of you Leopold, I can see it. I hope that in the future when you feel that inside...you'll remember the human part of you. The Jack side of you." Carolyn said adjusting her coat from the chill of the room.
"Thank you for this." Leopold said as he placed it over the open flame of the candle and let it burn.
Carolyn stood in the room shocked and confused. "What are you doing?!?!" She yelled.
And to her horror Leopold began to morph from the light skinned, amber eyed man before her into the witch who created him, Claudia Bauchard, laughing at the pain she was causing Carolyn.
"Do you think he's still the same man? The same man that still loves you?" Claudia hissed. "Did you think coming here with this photo would turn him back into your old withered husband. It's over Carolyn those days where you believed in true love are gone---forever!" Claudia said, coming closer to Carolyn.
"Stay back!" Carolyn said. "Stay back or I'll scream!"
"Scream all you like but no one will hear you. I control everything there is around Collinwood now, and everyone on this land. Even Leopold. He's mine now." Claudia said reaching for Carolyn to grab her.
Just then out of the shadows came Leopold's arm. He grabbed Claudia's wrist and yanked her to the floor knocking over furniture and old photo frames that were caked in dust and webs.
"Leave her!!" He growled as his eyes changed from amber to red.
"Careful my love, if your hungry, I am not the one to bite." Claudia warned again with a smirk, reminding the novice vampire of the toxicity of witches blood.
Carolyn stood in the foyer with tears in her eyes, not knowing what do next. She just stared at Leopold who had Jack's young face and couldn't believe her eyes.
"You think you have all control, but you have none." Leopold said lifting Claudia up.
For all her power of the people of Collinwood, Claudia made a crucial mistake in the spell over Jack when she turned him into her lost love Leopold Deverniet. her powers had only turned Jack into Leopold and gave him immortal life as a vampire but that's where the spell ended. She had no more control over his actions then anyone else and the will of his mind was still that of Jack Thorne.
Claudia tried to get away but Leopold's grasp was like a bear trap around her wrist, they struggled as he pulled her around the foyer and towards the front door, dragging her kicking and screaming.
"Where are you taking her?" Carolyn said from behind.
"Our little witch friend wants everyone here to suffer but never thought she'd have to suffer herself. But she will." Leopold said coldly as Claudia continued to struggle from his grip.
"Release me!!" Claudia screamed.
Leopold yanked on Claudia's arm and pulled her out into the snowy evening as Carolyn followed. He pulled her and pulled her all the way past Widow's Hill, the cliff-side which was at the far edge of the Collinwood property. The kept going further and further into the frozen night Claudia continuously locked in Leopold's strong hands.
Claudia tried desperately for release, muttering spells as she went, but nothing worked, Leopold's bewitched hand had severed her touch with black magic, and just then, they arrived at their destination. The Collins' Family tombs, Claudia's face turned serious, her once she stepped on to the hallowed grown of a cemetery her powers were useless.
Leopold kicked in open the gates and dragged a fighting Claudia onto the hallowed ground, Carolyn in tow. The walked over the frozen ground under the large canopy of beech-birch trees.
"Leopold what are doing?!" Carolyn screamed as she saw him go to her mother Elizabeth's tomb.
"Locking her away forever, so she cant hurt anyone ever again." He said as he opened the tomb next to Elizabeth's and threw Claudia down inside of the heavy stone sarcophagus that belonged to Elizabeth's grandmother Catherine.
Claudia screamed as she fell into the sarcophagus face first, as she turned her body around all she could see was a giant slab of stone close down upon her and lock. She pounded on the stone as much she could but she was trapped. Her powers were useless and she was locked away inside forever.
Leopold grabbed a horrified Carolyn and whisked her back to the main house at Collinwood, leaving a screaming and pounding Claudia alone inside the family mausoleum scratching and clawing at the stone cover powerless and livid.
But she had one more trick up here sleeve that didn't require black magic, just very deep concentration, and it involved sweet Alexandra Thorne. Alexandra, Claudia thought, would be the key to her freedom.
