Series 10/Chapter 3: THE MOON CURSE

A spring evening in Collinsport was still met with the chill of a winter frost. The bite of the sea air floated across this sea-side town like a ghost passing through a wall undetected, unseen but felt. In the revitalized down-town area, the 8-story Collins Fishing Fleet office building stood as the tallest of the buildings in town and weathered every single icy cold wind that the Atlantic could muster. Inside this tall glass building, Siobhan Morgan Collins was visiting her husband just before the last few hours of his work day.

Siobhan sat on a large custard colored canvas sofa in David's 8th floor white painted office. The carpet was as white as the snow melting on the streets below. She kissed and coo-ed with little baby John in her arms as David signed off on a few Fishing Fleet documents and was about to leave for the evening for dinner with his wife and new son.

"Sorry hon, I'll be done in just a few seconds." David said smiling at his wife as his pen scratched the papers in front of him.

"He's so adorable!" David's secretary said sitting next to Siobhan and the baby.

"He's growing so fast. I can't believe it's been almost 3 months since this little man came into our lives." Siobhan said proudly.

"Has he gotten used to living in such a big house?" The secretary asked as he played "I got your nose" with little John.

"I don't think he's noticed yet!" Siobhan laughed at the secretary's silly question.

Just as the small talk continued, David's secretary Daniel, got a call on his desk telephone from the door man in the lobby. Daniel patched the phone through to the blue-tooth ear piece he was wearing that he used to answer phone calls when he was away from his desk.

"Yes Carl?" Daniel asked. "One second I'll ask him. Mr. Collins, there's a Detective Loomis McGovern here to see you from the police department, Carl from the front desk says the detective says he needs to talk to you about your son Christopher's case. Should I have Carl let him up?" Daniel asked.

"Yes, please!" David said putting down  his pen.

After a few moments of nervous looks between David and Siobhan, David's glass office doors and Loomis walked in.

"Loo! Good to see you." David said shaking Loomis' hand.

"David, Siobhan." Loomis said shaking David's hand and greeting Siobhan who was still seated on the sofa with baby John.

"Whats up?"  David asked.

"Well it's about Jeffery Shaw, I'm afraid. And it's not great news." Loomis began.

"Not great news? I hate when conversations start out this way." David said.

"It's really the D.A's office that's the bad news, they've read over the medical examiner's report and have agreed that Christopher's death was an accident. They're not going to press charges on Shaw." Loomis finished.

"That's ridiculous!" Siobhan scoffed.

"Why would they decide that it was an accident? Alex said someone pulled up in a car next to them both, shot them with tranquilizers and took Chris, when Chris was found he was dead! How is that an accident!" David replied angrily.

'I know, I know, I'm totally there with you. But they're saying that they don't have proof that person was Jeffery Shaw, and they say that Jeffery actually tried to save his life. There's no evidence that what Alex actually saw connects to Shaw and what happened to Chris." Loomis explained further.

"That is ....that's absurd!" David said throwing his pen on the desk.

"Clearly, Loomis, something is fishy here. We all know Jeffery had everything to do with Christopher's kidnapping and his death, not to mention the assault on Alexandra. Why would the DA not even attempt to look into it?" Siobhan asked as she rocked baby John in her arms.

"I don't know, Siobhan, and trust me, I'm with you on all of this. I don't know how the medical examiner came to his conclusion either but it's really hard to convince the DA when they've already decide not to file charges." Loomis said in a defeated tone.

"So there's nothing we can do? He's just going to get off?" David questioned.

"At this point, there is nothing we can do. I wanted to tell you both first before anyone else in town, or the papers found out." Loomis said.

"And Maggie and Sebastian? They're the ones who found Andrew, do they know?" Siobhan questioned.

"I'm going over to Maggie's cottage later to let her know." Loomis added.

"This just doesn't make any sense. None. How would could this happen?" David wondered.

"The guy's got a good lawyer, what can I say? She's one of those sprites that turn up somewhere and know how to turn a clear-cut manslaughter conviction into something like a parking violation." Loomis answered sarcastically.

"Who's his lawyer?" David wondered.

Loomis grabbed the papers from the reports that he had given David and began to skim through to find her name. He found the page and pulled it out to show David.

"I met her the night Shaw made bail." Loomis said handing over the paper signed by Jeffery's lawyer.

"Quinn Devereaux." David read aloud.

"That's her. Spit fire, I'll tell you. But listen, I'm going to keep my eyes on Shaw as long as he's in town and I'll make sure he get's no where near your family or Collinwood." Loomis reassured.

"Thank you Loo." Siobhan said smiling and rocking the baby.

"Yes, thanks, man." David said shaking Loomis' hand again just before he left.

"What's that look in your eyes?" Siobhan asked of David's expression as soon as Loomis left the office.

"What?" David said, coming out of his thoughts.

"What are you thinking?" Siobhan asked now going over to the desk with the baby in her arms. "I can always tell when you're thinking of something that might get you into trouble. Your left eyebrow goes up and you glaze over."

David took a deep breath and sat back in his chair and motioned for Siobhan to hand over baby John. She handed the baby to the new father and he looked down at his new son with a sparkle in his eyes.

"All I want to do is protect my kids. I've failed over the years with Caleb. I guess that's why he's so detached and traveling around the world with his own family and barley makes contact with us. Then when I adopted Chris after his father Victor died...I mean he's Caleb's half brother. I felt like I needed to protect him too. And then I let him die in this horrible way...  I look down at this baby and all I can do is think about how much I want to protect him from all the horrors in this world. Like I should have done with Caleb, and how I should have done with Christopher." David said in a sad voice.

"Honey, Christopher's death wasn't your fault. You had no idea that was going to happen to him. How could you have known? And Caleb adores you. He's just on a very long vacation. After the whirl-wind he and Kat had before they left they deserve it. He doesn't blame you either for anything that happened in his past." Siobhan said to a guilty feeling David.

"You don't know that." David demurred.

"David..." Siobhan began before David interrupted.

"I could have done more. I could have done so much more to keep them safe. My own childhood was..." David paused to think. "I don't know, I can't really explain everything that happened to me without sounding insane. All those years with my mother's mental illness, and my father being so distant. All I had were My Aunt Elizabeth and Carolyn and Vicky. But...still I let it all just happen."

"Those things weren't your fault either and you can't say that you blame your own father for those things can you? You were all in it together and you all made it out." Siobhan asked.

"I can say that my father surly didn't help in times I needed him." David replied.

Siobhan sighed and sat on the arm of David's desk chair. They looked down at their new baby with glowing eyes, both parents knowing that they'd do anything and everything to protect this new life from all that could hurt him, that no one would come between them. No one at all.

David handed back the baby to Siobhan and grabbed the papers Loomis had brought to them of the report from the DA. He looked over them again and read Jeffery's lawyer's name.

"I'll be right back, I'm going to change the baby one more time before we leave to dinner." Siobhan said as she walked out of the office leaving David alone.

David watched as Siobhan walked into his office's waiting room through the glass doors and as soon as she disappeared behind one of the large white pillars, he grabbed his cell phone and dialed Loomis.

"Hey, Loo, Listen, I know you just left and but there's something I gotta ask you." David said.

"What's that?" Loomis asked over his cell phone.

"I need you to look into Quinn for me, I know that that may be against all sorts of ethical rules you and the department have but.....this whole thing isn't right. You know it's not right!" David said.

"Look into? You want me to secretly investigate her?" Loomis asked.

"There has to a connection between her and the DA and the medical examiner. That has to be why the DA would just drop charges on the man that killed my son. Loomis, please, is there anything you can do? You can see that there's something a-miss here!" David said.

Loomis thought for a second, and looked up at the Collins office building from the parking lot. He hadn't even left the grounds before David made the call. Loomis looked around the parking lot and turned away from people walking from their cars to the building so that they wouldn't hear his response.

"Alright. I'll see what I can dig up, but whatever we discover, you didn't get it from me." Loomis said as he hung up the phone.

****

As the wind's from the east picked up with an icy spring blast of air, the sky turned dark with clouds. It was as if the clouds around Collinsport were beginning to know that something was about to happen and that they needed to cover the sky and everything that in it from the horrors that were about to unfold.

At The Collinsport Inn, Jeffery Shaw was about to see what his experiments with Christopher's DNA were to produced.

Jeffery stared out of his hotel window looking out onto the ocean crashing against the rocky beach below. He drank from a tumbler of brandy when his lawyer Quinn Devereaux came in with a smug, yet irritated look on her face. She was dressed in a perfect power suite, a pencil skirt and matching jacket. She slapped down a stack of papers on the coffee table to get Jeffery's attention.

"Hope you're happy." She said as Jeffery turned to look at her.

"How'd you get in?" He said not remembering he gave her a key card.

"Jeffery sign these so that I can go back to Boston and get out of this town." She said rolling her eyes.

"You act as if I'm not  paying you." He said just as annoyed with her.

"You're not, the people who employ you are paying me to make sure their company's name doesn't get dragged into the papers over a murder charge. Not that any of the little papers in this town would make it out of this area and cause them a scandal, but I digress." Quinn said pushing the documents over to Jeffery.

"What are they?" He asked sipping his brandy.

"It's from the DA. You have to sign them. I've convinced them not to press charges on you for anything that happened to Christopher so long as you leave town." She said.

"That was the one provision?" Jeffery asked as the sky began to darken with clouds and the night began sky began to turn a purple hue.

"They just want to make sure you and whatever kind of crazy crime you committed disappear as soon as possible. Jeffery, this wasn't easy and what I had to use against the DA was not something I want to keep remembering so if you could just please sign this so I can get out of here." Quinn said.

Jeffery looked at her with disdain and bent down and signed where the documents were marked for him to sign.

"I'm not leaving." He said to her surprise.

"What are you talking about? You have to." Quinn replied.

"My son is still here and I need to be with him. I'm not leaving without him." Jeffery answered.

"Fine, you can both leave. I don't care, do you understand me, you can't stay in Collinsport, there's too much around here that I choose not to remember and I've put too much of myself on the line to get you off these charges." She answered just as Andrew walked into the hotel room, breaking the court imposed restraining order that was on his father.

"Andrew!" Jeffery said happy,but shocked, to see his son finally walking in and brushing past Quinn. "You're not supposed to be here!" Jeffery added.

Andrew seemed nervous, his heart was pounding. He had been out all day and this was the first real interaction he had with his father since leaving the hospital weeks prior. Andrew stood in the foyer of the large hotel suite and was unsure where to go, he almost felt like a trapped rat as his father approached. He was feeling ill, and restraining order or not, he needed his dad.

"He can't be here!" Quinn, in frustrated lawyer mode said shaking her head throwing up her arms.

"How are you feeling?" Jeffery asked grabbing a quick one sided hug from Andrew and dismissing Quinn's objection to Andrew's restraining order defiance.

"Fine I guess. I mean I was feeling fine earlier, but just a little while ago I started to feel a little strange. Hot. But cold." Andrew said. "I didn't know what to do. So I came here. Could I get some water?" He added quickly making his way over to the small wet-bar and pouring himself a drink.

After Andrew and Alexandra's chance meeting on the dock's, Andrew began to feel strange. His heart was beating fast. His eyes felt like they were seeing things pass him by quickly, like in a blur.

"You do look like you have the flu." Quinn noticed as she gathered the papers on the coffee table.

"Who's this?" Andrew asked gulping down his water.

"No one. You look a little ill, son. It was good that you came here. Did you have anything to eat?" Jeffery asked reaching for his doctor's bag.

"Eat?" Andrew replied confused at the question.

"Yes, lunch? Did you have lunch? It's almost 8pm, if you haven't had a good lunch that could be why you've suddenly started to feel ill." Jeffery said pretending it could have been something normal that made Andrew ill, but he knew full well this could be direct side-effect to the DNA transplant.

"I don't remember." Andrew said in a fog.

"Your body has been through a lot in the last week. You're exhausted. Its been traumatic." Jeffery continued, his fatherly instincts mixing with this medical background knowing that Andrew had probably not had any big meals since his release from the hospital.

The thought of eating repulsed Andrew to his core. He stood there for a second and began to feel dizzy. Everything he was looking at began to spin. His eyes were blurry and the room and his father and Quinn began to look like they were double. He suddenly fell to his knees covered in sweat. His body was aching. His arms and legs especially.

"Andrew? What's wrong? What's happening?" Jeffery said falling to his knees next to his on.

"Jeffery?" Quinn said in a terrified voice. "Should I call an ambulance?"

"Andrew what is it? what do you feel? Jeffery said patting the sweat from Andrew brow.

As the panic filled the room, the moon in the sky finally peeked through the clouds. The fullness of the white orb that floated in the sky pressed it's soft white rays against the glass of the hotel windows and down into the hotel room where Andrew was now on all fours coughing and writhing in pain.

"Whats happening to me?!" Andrew said, now holding his stomach.

Before their very eyes, they began to see Andrew's teeth sharpen, his finger nails became longer, and the hair on his body suddenly thickened. Andrews eyes too quickly changed from a soft brown to a feverish yellow. His heart was beating fast, his body was convulsing and the clothes on his body were beginning to stretch.

"What is happening to me!!!" Andrew said again, the pain of his body changing was almost too much to bare.

"Hand me my bag! Hurry! Hand it to me!" Jeffery said pointing to his medical bag that was sitting next to one of the luxurious sofas.

Quinn stood frozen in panic at what she was seeing. She was seeing a complete transformation of a human being into something she could not explain. It was almost revolting to her, the young handsome man that had walked in just a few minutes earlier was now in between human and monster. She was petrified to move. She was shaking, so much so she dropped all of the legal papers Jeffery had signed on the floor, they scattered all around her.

"Damn it!" Jeffery said getting up from his son's side and rushing over to his medical bag himself.

Jeffery quickly opened the bag and pulled out a syringe and a vial of liquid. He stabbed the syringe into the liquid and with the plunger filled it then rushed back to Andrew who was quickly changing before their eyes. Jeffery grabbed one of Andrew's arms and penetrated his skin with the syringe then slowly filled the liquid from the vial into Andrew's body.

The reaction was almost instant. Andrew suddenly calmed and his body stopped it's convulsions. The hair began to go back to normal, his eyes too turned back to their normal color.

"Help me take him to the bed room." Jeffery said as Quinn silently obeyed.

They dragged the sleeping Andrew, now back to his normal self, into the other bedroom in the suite. They put him on the bed and slowly backed away from the room.

Quinn was still shaking like a leaf. She was stepping all over the papers that she had dropped and grabbed herself a brandy. She adjusted the hair on her face that had been sticking to her skin from the panic sweat, and leered over at Jeffery who grabbed a cigarette from his jacket pocket.

She walked over to Jeffery and grabbed the cigarette from his hand and puffed on hit herself then she put it out and slapped Jeffery across the face.

"What the hell have you done?" Quinn said with tears in her eyes.

Jeffery said nothing.

"What did you inject in  him?" She asked but no answer. "Damn it Jeffery, what the hell is going on here? What happened to Andrew?"

Jeffery grabbed the brandy from Quinn's hand and quickly gulped the remaining alcohol in the cup. He wiped his mouth and sat on the sofa, still catching his breath.

"It's a reaction from the DNA that I gave him. When I did my research about different typed of genetic therapy I could use to bring Andrew back from his coma, I came across a journal from Dr. Kimberly Grayson-Collins. She had used this same type of therapy on her own son, who just happened to be Christopher Reed. I had no idea Christopher was in this town, but as my luck would have it, here he was." Jeffery explained.

"And the serum?" Quinn asked.

"It's a type of antidote. It represses the lycan impulses in his body from the transition. I made a few vials just in case this would happen." Explained.

"So you knew this would happen?" Quinn asked in shock.

"I know it was a possibility."

"You're a monster. You're a monster!" Quinn said in a loud voice. "I'm only going to tell you this one last time, get your things, get your son and get the hell out of Collinsport. Whatever you've done here I can't protect you from, whatever you have done to your son, I can't protect you from. When people find out...."

"No one is going to find out, do you under stand me!" Jeffery said quickly lunging at Quinn from the sofa and grabbing at her shirt.

Quinn pulled off Jeffery's hand and looked him directly in his eyes.

"Get out of Collinsport. Pack your things tonight and leave in the morning." She said.

"And if we don't?" Jeffery replied to Quinn's surprise.

Quinn didn't answer. All she did was pull out the last legal form from the District Attorney with Jeffery's deal. Quinn put the paper up in front of Jeffery's face and tore it in half.

"The deal is off if you stay, and I won't defend you otherwise." She said as she gathered her things and left the hotel room.

Jeffery poured himself another drink and walked over to the large windows that looked over the harbor. The large full moon sat over the town of Collinsport, glowing and framing the rain clouds around it like a perfect scene from a winter's painting, even if it were already spring.

Jeffery knew it wasn't leaving Collinsport. Not in the morning, and not any time soon. No, he had many more things to accomplish in his time in town, and Serena Bellmoore was first on his list.

****

As the moon quickly became covered up by a thin layer of cumulus clouds, the occupancy at the Blue Whale began to fill as the night progressed. Sitting alone in a booth, was Curtis Winters drinking his after work cocktail. He sat staring out of a window watching the ocean water splashing up against the sides of boats as they sat tied to the docks in their slips just outside.

"I hate to do this to you but can I join you?" A female voice the opposite side of Curtis. He quickly turned towards the voice and saw a beautiful blond with grey/blue eyes standing there with a grin on her face as bright as the lighthouse that brought ships into shore. It was Angelique Bouchard.

"Oh! Uhh, sure, please!" Curtis said standing for the young woman as she sat down on the others side of the both with Curtis.

"I know it's weird. Why would a stranger just all of a sudden want to sit down here, right? Well, I can see that you're alone and I'm alone and I don't know anyone in here so I thought I'd take a chance. My name is Cassandra."

"Curtis." He replied as they shook hands.

"What brings you here today?" She wondered, after using her fake name.

"Ugh... work. It was a bear. Sometimes I just need a break before I go home." He answered honestly.

"I bet." She replied. 

"So you're knew to town?" He wondered. 

"Mmhmm." She confirmed as she sipped from her beer.

"How do you like it so far?" Curtis asked as the music and noise in the bar got louder.

"Well, It almost feels like I've been here before, know what I mean? It's that kind of town. I guess if you've been to one you've been to them all." She answered. 

Curtis smiled and drank from his beer while Angelique stared deep into Curtis' eyes. He began to feel as if something were locking his gaze directly o her. Nothing could break it. It was her eyes on him, his eyes on hers. It was as if no one else was around. The loud bar suddenly became silent. He could see in his peripheral all the people but there was not a sound in the room.

Her eyes were like two giant moons swimming in the bright sky. Angelique carefully reached over and grabbed his hand and placed it palm up in her hand, with her other hand she pulled a small pin from her jacket and pricked his finger. She pulled his hand up to her mouth and licked the tiny blood drop from his hand. 

She smiled again and he smiled back, his gaze still locked on her. He began to feel like everything in the world revolved around her, there was no one else he needed and nothing else he wanted. Just this woman that called herself Cassandra. 

"Cassandra." He whispered. 

Angelique smiled and put her hand over his pricked finger, it quickly healed over. She stood up from the table and kissed him on the lips. They could taste the beer on each other's tongues.

"I think we'll be seeing a lot more of each other, won't we Curtis?" Angelique said as Curtis quickly came out of his trans and the noise in the room came back up to normal.

"I'd like that." Curtis said with a giant grin.

Angelique smiled and walked out of The Blue Whale leaving Curtis sitting alone again in the booth. 

Her love spell complete. 

****

In the drawing room of Collinwood, Carolyn stood at the large windows that faced the sea. She held them open allowing the fresh night air in filling the room with a the salty cool air from the sea the reflected the full move above. Carolyn crossed her arms around her body and warmed the exposed skin over harms. The quiet of the room was soon broken by Julia Hoffman entering the room.

"Carolyn." Julia said with a cold stern voice.

Carolyn turned to see the latest house guest enter the room.

"It's Barnabas." Julia said in a hushed tone.

"Barnabas?" Carolyn asked concerned, knowing that anything involving her un-dead cousin could mean danger.

"I had a slight run in with him earlier, have you seen him?" Julia asked.

"No. I haven't seen him in a while. Strangely I was hoping he'd left Collinwood. Although I know that was a bit of wishful thinking. What did he want?" Carolyn questioned with a snobbish tone in her voice.

"He knows." Julia said.

"Knows?" Carolyn replied as she moved to the sofa.

"He said that he knew that I tried to kill him. He said--specifically--that he knew that at the old house I tried to kill him. How could he know that?" Julia said concerned.

"What do you mean? You said you didn't find him. Neither of us did. Did you lie to me?" Carolyn questioned.

"No! Don't you see!? Someone else did. Someone else was at the old house and they tried to kill Barnabas too, only he doesn't know who and believes it was me. Carolyn, we are all in real danger here. When Barnabas wants something he gets it, no matter what it is. Good or bad." Julia explained.

"You don't have to remind me. I know all there is to that man. He's done horrible things to the people I love. I just can't believe I once trusted him." Carolyn answered. "Where do you think he is?" Carolyn questioned some more.

"I don't know. He left the house after our altercation, but I'm worried he'll try to get to Siobhan or the baby. I can't let him near that baby." Julia said.

"I agree." Carolyn answered. "But how do we keep him away? Barnabas can enter any place he wants without any of us knowing."

"There are ways. He's a man of shadows a person like that has their limits and there are ways to secure a place as sacred ground. I'll make sure John's room is protected. All our rooms." Julia said.

"That still leaves him on the grounds. I don't know if I feel safe with him here...not after what he did to Jude." Carolyn said, reminding Julia that she discovered Barnabas had killed the man she loved while they were in London.

"No one is safe so long as Barnabas Collins roams Collinwood grounds. We have to make sure it ends, Carolyn for the sake of our families. It's time that all of this ends." Julia said with an eyebrow lifted.

"I have to say, Julia, this new version of yourself surprises me. After all you married the man and raised a daughter together. Maybe I'm being foolish, maybe I'm falling for some kind of trap the two of you are setting. What's in it for you to get Barnabas out of the way? The Julia I remember was just as self-motivated as anyone else." Carolyn said, her mind quickly going to a place of rightful suspicion.

"You're right. You're absolutely right. I did marry him. We were very happy in those days. With the help of a doctor in Singapore I was able to cure him and we lived quite a normal life. That is, until Victoria showed up in my living room telling me Barnabas from the future needed me. I should have know better than to come... but..." Julia said trailing off in her sentence admitting to her mistake to have time traveled with Vicky.

"What do you think has changed?" Carolyn wondered.

"I don't know. But whatever it is, it turns my blood ice cold." Julia replied.

Carolyn sat for a second with the idea Julia had proposed. She could easily write Julia off and do what she wanted, but in truth, she knew deep down inside that two heads were better than one, and if Barnabas was going to be destroyed and the family protected she would need an ally that knew Barnabas down to his very core---Julia was that person.

"So what do you think we should do? If he thinks you were the people who tried to kill him he'll be watching you like a hawk." Carolyn reminded.

"Even Barnabas has his weaknesses. I've known him long enough to know where we can break him. It's just a matter of when." Julia said.

Carolyn stood up and went back to the window. She had felt this kind of fear before. It was the type that made her feel like spiders were crawling all over her skin. She knew that Barnabas' dangerous side was the side of him could destroy the whole family with a snap of his finger but she couldn't help remember the softer side of him. She was caught between a rock and hard place. She, like Julia, wanted to protect the family at all costs. She, like Julia, wanted to get justice for all the wrongs Barnabas has done in the past years but her heart felt heavy at the idea of reacting irrationally as they had at the old house a few weeks before as the two hunted for Barnabas with stakes in their hands ready to piece him in the heart, ending his reign of terror forever.

"What is it?" Julia said, standing directly behind Carolyn at the windows.

"I think about everything that he's done and I wonder if this is the right decision. Is this really where we've all come after all these years? I admit, I feel like he's gone too far in many aspects but..." Carolyn admitted as Julia interrupted.

"That is not how you felt when we searched for him at the old house. Think of Jude, think of Jack, think of all the people in your life he's hurt." Julia pointed out, reminder Carolyn Barnabas has a hand in the deaths of  both men she loved.

Carolyn turned back to Julia, Jude's death the last straw, and Carolyn's turning point and Julia knew it. It was a perfect motivator.

"Carolyn listen to me, there are a lot of things we cannot control if Barnabas is free to just do what he wants with no repercussions there is absolutely no telling what will become of this family if this man is allowed to carry on. Think of your daughter, or my daughter, and now my grandson who happens to be your second cousin. Barnabas will stop at nothing, Carolyn, nothing to get what he wants and I don't know if we can continue to allow that." Julia explained, trying to ease out of the cold way she brought up Jude.

Carolyn walked past Julia and over to the portrait of her mother Elizabeth that hung over the fire place. Elizabeth stared down at her with warm eyes. She had a slight smirk on her face. It made Carolyn feel as if someone was watching over her. It almost gave her permission to go along with Julia's plan to end Barnabas' life once and for all for the safety and the survival of the Collins family. Elizabeth, more than anyone else on the modern Collins family tree, worked tirelessly to preserve the Collins family; a dynasty that was as treacherous as it was prestigious. It was Elizabeth's only wish, that all in her family could live with the dignity of their last name. To Carolyn, this version of Barnabas, was destroying that dream.

"So, I'm going to ask you again: What do you propose?" Carolyn asked turning away from the portrait and back at Julia.

Julia only grinned and crossed her arms satisfied with Carolyn's decision. Julia's plan would be set into motion soon, but as long as she had Carolyn in her corner she knew that nothing could get in their way. Carolyn, like her mother Elizabeth before her, was a force of nature and the best ally to have in a fight.

The women discussed their plan alone in the drawing room. They sat and felt safe that what they were sharing with each other was private and secret...except for the fact that deep in the shadows, just below the drawing room window hidden where no one could see him was Barnabas Collins listening in the ice cold  Atlantic wind. His eyes glazed over with the knowledge of his impending doom orchestrated by the woman he believed attempted to kill him and his own beloved cousin, both at the moment hated his whole existence.

He listened, secretly, know their plan in full.

It was true Barnabas had weaknesses and Julia knew how to get at them, but it was also true that Barnabas was more cunning than he was reckless and cruel. He would not go without a fight and there would be a fight. A fight for life, and death and only time would tell which fate would apply to each member of the Collins family.

Series 10/Chapter 2: IN THE SHADOWS OF FEAR

The sea was quiet and splashed up against the docks in small waves that kissed the decades old wood that held them up. The smell of salt filled the cool air in sprays of sprinkling water that came down on a young man's face who gazed out onto the Atlantic contemplating where he had been for the last decade.

It was Andrew Shaw, freshly released from Collinsport Hospital. His mind was filled with the confusing memories of a man he did not know, and of people he did not recognize, all of which belonged to the mystery man's DNA. "How could this be happening?" he thought. "What is going on inside of me?"

As his mind continued to glaze over the sea a beautiful blond came out of a coffee shop just across from him at shore line. She was bundled up in a white jacket and grey scarf. Her eyes were a blue grey to match the late winter/early spring sky. It was Alexandra Throne.

Andrew's eyes instantly locked on her. He couldn't stop starting from the dock. He knew her yet he didn't. He had memories of her, but yet he didn't.

Alex, clutching a warm coffee and searching for her car keys could also feel the heavy gaze of someone. Her instincts were to quickly get away from whatever, or whom ever, was staring but she ultimately looked up and saw Andrew standing now at the edge of the street just across from him. Their eyes met...connected. Or Reconnected as it were.

She knew who he was. She had seen his photograph in the paper. She knew everything about his accident, the one that made him fall into a coma so many years ago, she knew what his father Dr. Jeffery Shaw did to get him to wake up, she knew that Christopher's DNA, her beloved Christopher was now a part of him and she knew that Christopher was dead so that Andrew could live.

Alex, seeing no way around not going over to him, took a step forward and turned toward Andrew who nervously turned back towards the sea, shying away from any formal introduction.

"Oh!" Alex said, frustrated with her own awkwardness. She walked slowly almost as if giving herself time to back out of the meeting but within seconds was in front of the man who was alive because her beloved Christopher was dead.

"Excuse me." She said in a small voice eaten up by the lapping waves below.

Andrew turned around then a flash hit him, his mind quickly flew into a tailspin of memories, all of them Christopher's. It was as if he were in Chris' shoes; Kissing Alex, hugging Alex in London's Hyde Park, running after Alex in the foggy mist of what looked like a large lawn. Seeing Alex's face screaming...all of this, the good and the bad, were Chris' memories, some too confusing for him to put together in a short period of time and under the pressure of having Alex right in front of him.

"Are you ok?" Alex ask seeing Andrew fall into a sort of spell.

"What? Oh, yeah yeah, I'm fine. Sorry." He said, trying to cover for the few seconds of strange silence.

"Listen, this is going to sound very weird, and I know you'd probably not want to talk about it, but I know who you are, I know what happened to you. I know pretty much everything." Alex offered with a little giggle.

"You do?" Andrew asked with twinge of embarrassment.

Alex nodded her head confirming.

"Christopher and I were together. He was my boyfriend. The night he was taken, I was with him, and they just left me there for the police to find me." She explained.

"Christopher." Andrew repeated, hearing the name of the man's DNA running through his body for the first time. "I'm so sorry for your loss. I know that it was a really horrible thing for you and your family. I just hope that, for what it's worth, I can help everyone's grief. I don't know how I could, but I'm willing." he finished, reminding Alex so much of the kind spirit Christopher was.

"Thank you." Alex said with a twinkle in her eye. "How have you been holding up?" She asked quickly changing the subject.

"I just got out of the hospital a few days ago. Everything seems to be working." he joked. "Thank's to Chris' stem-cells. It's amazing how much I've missed since I've been ...you know, out of it." He said referring to his coma.

"Right...it's been a really crazy last 5 years for me too. And..." She paused unsure of how to ask the next question. "What about your father?"

Alex felt uncomfortable bring up Andrew's father Jeffery, the man that did all of this. The man that gave Andrew Chris' DNA, thus killing him. But she had to know She had to see and hear for herself how Jeffery was getting on now that it all was said and done. Surly, he too, was suffering she hoped.

Chris could see tell Alex didn't really want to hear that Jeffery was adjusting fine knowing that he had committed a crime.

"He's still at the Inn. I was actually hoping not to run into him around town."

"So you're staying in Collinsport?" She questioned.

"Yeah, someone was kind of enough to get me a small studio apartment here in town for a few months while I get myself back on my feet." He answered.

"Oh! That's great. Your father?" Alex asked, wondering if the horrible Jeffery might have been the one.

"No, no, I haven't spoken to him at all yet. Uhh...there's a restraining order on him. He can't come within 20 feet of me after what he did. I really hope, for your family's sake, that he goes away for a long time." Andrew stated.

"I hope so too. Look, the whole situation isn't your fault. You never asked for any of this....here...." Alex said pulling out a scrap of paper from her purse and scribbling down her number. "If you ever need some time to just talk or feel like you need a friend, please call me. Ok?" Alex continued as she handed over the paper.

Andrew smiled, and reached for her Alex's phone number, he was grateful for the new friend. As their hands met, his finger quickly touched her's and suddenly Alex's own mind went back to memories of her life with Christopher that flooded her mind. Once she let go of the paper, those memories quickly disappeared.

She was startled, she was confused. Why did that happen? What had caused her brain to suddenly go into that kind of memory parade when they touched. For many years, she had suppressed the powers that she had inherited from the time Claudia Bouchard had possessed her body. She forced herself never to use the small amount of magic that she had, but with this added powerful jolt she received from Andrew's touch, she knew something was different and she had an advantage in her blood to figure it out.

"So...call ok?" She smiled nervously and turned and walked away.

Andrew looked down at the paper, but he didn't need it. He already knew her number by-heart. He already knew so much about Alex without even asking. Her touch. Her face. Everything was there.

He would call. He would definitely call.

****

The midday sun filled the landscape of Collinwood, bathing it in golden sunlight that warmed the dewy lawn. It was a happy moment, a new life had begun with the birth of David and Siobhan's son John, and the family was now beginning to feel the joys of having a child in the house again. But this joy was not without it's shadowy danger, as Julia knew all too well the dangers of forgetting what was just outside their door living at the Old House.

Siobhan carefully tucked baby John into his crib. He was smiling up at her wiggling his little feet. She smiled and reached down into the crib and shook his little foot. He smiled again.

"He's perfect." Julia said from the nursery doorway.

"Are you all settled?" Siobhan asked her mother referring to her moving back into the mansion. Julia nodded yes.  "You know, for what it's worth and the strangeness of how it all came about, I'm grateful you're here. It's like a dream come true, I can have my mother here to help me raise my baby. It's what all mother's want." Siobhan added.

Julia smiled an uncomfortable smile.

"What is it?" Siobhan asked.

"Darling, there are things about this place that I don't --I don't know if you understand. Many years before I left with your father to Singapore I lived here, and I don't really know if its a good place for a baby." Julia said to Siobhan's surprise.

"I understand your concern, mother,  but I don't feel unsafe, not even after all the things that have happened since I've moved in and gotten married. David wouldn't let anyone or anything hurt us. After all he was a child once here too. Who better than him to protect us?" Siobhan replied.

Julia smiled, and grabbed her daughter by the shoulders and looked into her eyes intently. She could see how much Siobhan loved David, but the fear and the anxiety of living at Collinwood again wouldn't leave Julia.

"I know you want to believe that, but darling, I have my reservations. I've seen it all before. But, listen, I won't stand in your way. You want to stay here...and so will I. Whatever David can't protect you and John from know that I will. I won't let anything hurt any of you." Julia said.

"What is it that you're so afraid of?' Siobhan wondered.

"I ..." Julia paused.

"Mother...." Siobhan said, knowing exactly what Julia was feeling even without her saying it.

"He's not who he once was. He just isn't the same person. I don't know what's different but he's not the same." Julia said turning towards the window.

"Barnabas has been through a lot over the years since you've been..." Siobhan paused just before saying the word "dead". It felt odd to refer to her mother as dead even though she was standing right in front of her, a figure from the past brought back by the incredibility of time travel. "Everyone knows that over time we all change. It's just the nature of human beings." Siobhan finished, her psychiatrist hat firmly in place.

"Human?" Julia said turning back to her daughter. "That's where you go wrong, honey, the first step to understanding who your father is, is knowing that there is hardly any part of him that is human. I helped him get back to what he once was before his curse, I cured as much of this disease as I could. But he's never been fully human again. But that was then. Now? Well now, he's back to how he was when I first met him. It's a full regression into the darkness and frankly I don't know if we can steer him back. Mistaking that for humanity is a downfall I don't think you or anyone else who thinks like you, have the luxury of making." Julia warned.

"He would never hurt us." Siobhan replied, her voice now flipping from soft to resolute.

"He's unpredictable," Julia shot back. "That's all I want you to remember."

Siobhan said nothing more, Julia gave her a half smile and hoped that what she had said would stick with Siobhan. She only wanted her daughter to be careful, and to stay safe now that there was a little one around. The threat of Barnabas Collins lurking around doorways and in the shadows was something Julia believed to have gone with the times, but she could see now that it was as it once was before. She would do everything in her power to protect her daughter Siobhan and grandson. Nothing would stop her.

Julia left Siobhan and the baby alone and walked through the sun-kissed halls of the third floor down into the parlors of the main floor. She could sense the past filling her mind with memories of Elizabeth and Roger, of little David and Vicky, of everything that had happened in those walls. She remembered the night terrors and the feelings of uncertainty, of the many times her life was at risk.

She knew that what she and Carolyn tried, and failed to do, the night Curtis staked Barnabas would come back to haunt should he ever discover it, and that would also mean the end for her.

Julia understood full well that she needed to protect more than just herself, now her child and grandchild's lives were at stake. This new growing little family was all she really had.


Julia stared off into the emptiness of the parlor on the first floor flicking through a magazine. The 2018 pages of Vogue were completely foreign to her. The fashion was believable.  Her mind then went into blank memories of the past floating off into the distance of the magazine's pages; her life before Singapore, before she saved and changed, Barnabas into the good man she had remembered, not the monster he had once again become.

"You seem to have settled in nicely." A cold voice said from the door. Julia startled, turned quickly to see Barnabas, her husband, standing there in his dark coat with the collar pulled up around his neck, his cane glistening in the sunlight that came in through the parlor window.

Stunned at who saw looked back at her, Julia backed away.

"What are you doing here?" She said, her voice shaky.

"Why are you afraid of me? Have we not enough history between us Julia, that you can't find a way to trust me?" He said.

"That was then. I don't know why, but the person you were when I was in Singapore is not the person you are here. I don't see that sparkle in your eyes. There's nothing in your eyes. What are you doing here?" Julia said, quickly changing the subject.

"I've come to see my new grandson John." Barnabas stated.

"Absolutely not!" Julia said with her voice raised to Barnabas' sour response. "I won't let you near that boy."

"Julia, you've gone mad." he chuckled as he walked closer to his one time wife. "I can see it in your eyes, something is snapped deep inside that little head of yours." He added now inches from her face.

"I won't let you hurt anyone anymore, Barnabas. Not anymore. You brought me back from the past for your own twisted sense of reality, but maybe my real purpose was to return to keep Siobhan and her baby safe from you." She replied.

"Yes, you are mad." He confirmed for himself in a cold and monotone voice. "You see Julia, there are often times we forget how to behave, and when those times arise we must be punished because the truth of the matter is, I have no intention of hurting anyone. Not my grandson, not my daughter, not even you. Because I am not the one who misbehaved, am I? I'm not the one who took drastic steps to remove someone from all existence. Wouldn't you think that kind of person was more dangerous, then me?" Barnabas said, looking Julia up and down dropping hints that he believed she was the one who staked him in the chest.

"What are you talking about?" She bristled.

"Don't you remember? Or has time travel erased that part of your memory too!" Barnabas said, throwing the fact that Julia had suddenly gotten her memory back, and forgetting that she had been pretending to have amnesia from her time travel.

Julia only sneered at him.

Barnabas turned and walked towards a plush leather sofa in the room and removed his coat and carefully placed his cane over it. He adjusted his sleeves and cuff-links and turned back to Julia who's breathing had become shallow with nerves.

"I know what you did. I know that you somehow escaped the room I had you in and I know you came into my chamber and tried to kill me. There's no use in pretending, there's no use in saying you didn't because I have it on good authority that it's true. Did you think you would get away with it? Did you really think that I would just be gone so quickly?" Barnabas said, his face turning cold, his eyes as black as night.

Julia's brow furrowed, she had no idea what he was talking about, she and Carolyn never found Barnabas that night and failed to kill him. But Angelique's lie was firmly in place and Barnabas was in revenge mode.

"You're the one who's mad, I don't know what you're talking about!' Julia said, but Barnabas suddenly lunged at her and grabbed her throat. His ring siring a mark into the soft flesh of her neck.

"I could kill you right here right now and make life so much easier for myself. But as usual, I'm torn, Julia, torn! I brought you back because our love was so strong at one point. We lived and loved each other all those years in Singapore, you must remember that!" Barnabas said, his lips closer to her ears, burning each word into her mind. His body conflicted between lust and hate for the woman he was touching.

 "That's gone. All of that is gone. It's the past. Neither of use---can---bring it back." Julia said, struggle to speak with  his hand around her neck.

"No, we can't. But you trying to kill me is something I never expected." Barnabas said tightening his grip. "I should do you the favor and take you out of your misery, you're miserable, aren't you Julia? You're stuck in this new time away from the things you knew and trapped here with me and miserable. I can snuff you out, I can take it all away, just say the word." He added, as Julia attempted to release his grip.

"Siobhan.....would....." Julia said, her voice struggling to escape her strangled throat. "Never....forgive you Barnabas." She manged to say.

With that one mangled sentence, Barnabas instantly let go. His daughters were always the key to his humanity. Siobhan and even Claudia. Both of those girls brought him pain and joy. Barnabas stared down at Julia who was now rubbing the redness off of her neck. She could see him bitterly battling the fact that he wanted her dead for attempting to kill him but he backed away. The key that always unlocked his human side was to use those he loved to bring him back from the brink, and Julia was always the consummate locksmith.

Barnabas adjusted his jacket and turned back to Julia still rubbing her neck.

"There is nothing in this world more important than Siobhan's happiness. But how would she feel to know that you tried to kill me? Wouldn't that put a small damper on your own happy reunion?" Barnabas said.

"It's not true, and she wouldn't believe you. I didn't do it." Julia said still rubbing her sore neck.

"Keep your secrets my love, because I will expose them. Trust me on this. I will not be vanquished so easily. Not now, not never, and certainly not by you." Barnabas quipped as he gathered his things and walked towards the door.

"NO!" Julia said standing in front of him. "I won't let you see the baby!"

Barnabas looked at Julia who had her arms and legs making an X over the door. He could easily overtake her and charge his way up to the baby's nursery to see him, but Barnabas was smarter than that. He knew that  Julia would make a scene and he knew that that scene would cause a panic in the house and every one would see him as the aggressor--as he often was.

"Step aside." He said softly.

"Over my dead  body." She replied.

Barnabas' nostrils flared at her persistence and he said "Don't tempt me Julia."

"Over. My. Dead. Body." She again stated.

Barnabas backed away from the door and stood back in the center of the room. He wanted her dead more than anything, and she was piratically tempting him to do it. But perhaps Julia was worth more alive than dead. She was, after all, the woman he chose to adopt a daughter with. Without Julia, his access to his beloved Siobhan would be cut.

"Have it your way." Barnabas replied, knowing full well that leaving Julia on a cliff unsure of his neck move would be just as torturous than actually killing her. He placed his coat over his shoulders and snapped his fingers the quickly vanished into a puff of black smoke that chocked Julia and stung her eyes.

As soon as the smoke evaporated she saw that he was gone.

She looked around thinking perhaps it was another trick. But there was no Barnabas. Julia was only left with more questions than answers: How did he know she had tried to kill him? Why did he actually think she went through with it when in fact she hadn't?

Angelique's lie blaming Julia and covering the true attempted assassin was now in full effect. Julia had to find Carolyn. They had to come together and figure their way out of this.

Once and for all.

****

As the sun began to fall, in a small 4 block neighborhood in Collinsport named 'The Mists', for its close proximity to the sea that sprays a misty glaze over the house, Curtis was going over paperwork he brought home from work at this kitchen table. He sipped on a glass of wine and carefully went over purchase orders, and filled out forms that the Collins Fish Co. needed done by the morning.

The kitchen table was crowned with an overhead light that hung in a orb open at the bottom on a golden wire from the ceiling. As Curtis stared intensely over his work, the wire began to swing the orb light fixture from one side to another like a pendulum.

Curtis did not notice. Then, all the electric objects in the apartment flickered on and off, on and off, on a off in quick succession. This got his attention. He quickly stood up and dropped the pen on the table as he looked around. His long lean body standing tall, alert and slightly shaking.

"What was that?" Curtis' mother Victoria said coming from down the hall.

"I don't know." Curtis replied looking around the apartment.

Just over in the corner of the apartment, hidden under the shadows of the dark living room, stood Angelique, invisible to the mortal eye, staring into the kitchen at Curtis and Victoria. Her eyes fixated more on the beautiful man she saw at The Old House staking Barnabas.

"And now .....what's that? Do you feel that?" Vicky asked, feeling another strange sensation aside from the oddity of the electricity flickers.

"What? I don't feel anything." Curtis said, confused as there were no other flickers.

"You don't feel that?.. ....... who's there? Who's there!!" She said, sensing Angelique's invisible body.

"Mom? What's going on?" Curtis asked concerned.

"I can sense something here. There's a presence here. Something not of this world...its a dark presence...malevolent." she answered. "Barnabas! Is that you!?" She called out, to the one person who could make her feel this way,  but no one answered.

Curtis could see the stress of the last few weeks was getting to his mother. She was no longer the young woman she once was, the woman who ran across Collinsport in the past dealing with the un-dead, the twisted evils that haunted her and this town for over 50 years. Her body was tired, and the pain and overwhelming powers that had come to face her were now taking their toll. She was now a woman in her late 60s, ready to enjoy her life after decades of trauma, but still the scars of the past always seemed to open up as fresh wounds.

"Why don't you go rest." Curtis said turning his mother from looking into the darkened living room. "It's starting to get late and you've had a really rough go the last few weeks. I don't know really know if you've slept." he added referencing Barnabas' blackmail to get her to bring Julia back from the past with her time-travel.

Angelique invisibly looked on the two in the kitchen and got closer to the mother and son but remained hidden in the shadows.

"It's been impossible. I've been on red-alert since, well since I can remember." Vicky answered.

"I know. Maybe it's time that you tried to let all of that go. Maybe go speak to Siobhan. She's a psychologist, she can help you." Curtis said.

"How can I? With Barnabas out there under no one's control. Honey, his powers are truly indescribable. If he regains the strength he had way back when, there's no telling what he could do to anyone. Especially you...and me." Vicky explained as her voice trailed off in worry.

"That won't be a problem." Curtis answered cryptically.

"What do you mean?" She wondered.

"Barnabas won't be a problem for us or anyone anymore, I can guarantee that." Curtis explained.

"No one can guarantee anything when it comes to Barnabas Collins. He's unpredictable, and for the fact no one has seen or heard from him in a week makes me even more worried." Vicky said, noting the fact that she could still feel the presence of something or someone in their apartment.

"Well there's a reason people haven't heard from him." Curtis replied to Angelique's delight.

Vicky began to pick up on what Curtis' small hints. He had done something, something to Barnabas.

"Curtis, what have you done?" She wondered.

"The evening of Christopher's memorial, I needed a break from everything going on in the drawing room at Collinwood. I needed a breather, so I went into one of the studies. I found something that David had hidden away in a drawer. It was a stake." Curtis explained.

"Curtis, you didn't." Vicky said softly.

Curtis turned to his mother and looked deep into her eyes. He knew that Barnabas scared her to death. There was still an awful hold the vampire held over her, even if her secret about Curtis' true identity was out of the bag in terms of Curtis' knowing.

"He's gone. He wont bother us ever again." Curtis answered incorrectly.

Vicky turned from her son, there were tears in her eyes. She knew that if that were true, she would have know. Someone at Collinwood would have found Barnabas and the news of his vanquishing would have spread through town like wild fire.

But there was no wild fire. There was only silence from the family. Even Curtis, who works with David everyday at the Cannery offices never mentioned anything about whether or not there was something strange about Barnabas'. It was clear to Vicky that although Curtis had thought Barnabas was gone, it wasn't true.

"If that were true, we would have known. We just would. You can't tell anyone what you just told me. No one." Vicky said turning back to her son who looked confused. "I don't believe Barnabas is gone, and if he ever finds out it was you that tried to kill him ---my god--he can never know, do you understand me?  He can never ever know!!" Vicky said her voice raised in fear for her son's safety.

"Why? How can you be so sure he's not dead? I saw his body begin to---" Curtis said before being interrupted by Vicky as Angelique continued to watch invisibly from the shadows.

"CURTIS! Listen to me, Barnabas is NOT dead. I would know. He's here. I can sense him. Something in this room is telling me....I can feel it as if I were looking right at him in his face. There is no doubt about it, in my heart that his presence is still in Collinsport, and if you want to keep us safe, you will never, ever go back to The Old house and you'll stay away from Barnabas Collins." She warned.

Vicky's fear of her son's safety suddenly turned into frustration over her son's recklessness. She turned from him and went back into the guest room of his apartment where she was staying leaving Angelique to stare into Curtis' handsome face.

Curtis was confused by his mother's reaction. He thought that by killing Barnabas he was doing not only his mother, but the entire Collins family a favor. He thought it was some how, a gift he was giving them even if he never told anyone.

But, he thought, was she right? Was Barnabas really still alive?

Angelique knew. She was curiously circling Curtis now, in a long white flowing gown as he sat back down to finish his work.

She was astonished at how handsome he was. She could see into his soul, she could see how kind he was, how true to his heart and love his mother he was. She could tell that there was a beauty within him that she had never seen anyone one else. This pureness and humanity was something she had craved for so long, and wished for herself.

She reached for his face, her hand invisible caressed his check. Curtis felt the icy chill. This startled him, he bounced out of his chair, that flipped backwards and fell to the floor. Angelique was smitten. An instant falling in love. She was sure of it, and she felt stupid for not seeing it before: the only way back to her own humanity was not through Barnabas but through Curtis!

There in that room, as Curtis continued to search for what made his lights flicker and what cold hand made his face feel the ice cold touch of death, Angelique made a vow to herself: She would not allow Barnabas to ever hurt Curtis. She would protect him at all costs, even if she had to kill Barnabas herself.

 However the vampire of her past, the love of her life--at one point--could never ever know, or it would mean disaster for her plans for full domination. Angelique, needed to play both sides, continue to use Barnabas to unite their powers, and somehow find her humanity with this new man she had unexpectedly fallen for.

Or everything she wanted for herself would fall apart. Forever.

Series 10/Chapter 1: ANGELIQUE SPINS HER WEB

The old house will still. Like the very early morning hours when on one is awake. The eerie silence was an easy and anxiety building, it felt like at any moment something would crack and break through the silence like a thunder clap in a soft storm.

Angelique Bouchard, the silent witness to the assassination attempt on Barnabas Collins, stood in the a room looking out onto the great ocean crashing against the black rocks of the Maine shoreline and recalled the moment she saw that person plunge a wooden stake into her Ex-lover's chest. it. She saw that person's face over and over again and it brought her much joy---the fact that she knew their identity and could lord it over Barnabas for all it was worth.

Angelique then walked down a hall following the smell of burning candles that filled the air. The smoke of melting wax and a burning wick circled her as she made her way into a study where Barnabas was staring into a giant antique globe, spinning it around and stopping it suddenly with his finger landing on an ancient Romanian city with a history of creatures like himself. He was fuming over his latest return after the staking...thanks again to Angelique's black magic.

"Penny for your thoughts." Angelique said, appearing in the aura of the room's dim candle light and late evening sunshine the peeked through the bare branches that hung outside of the large windows like stick fingers crisscrossing the glass.

Barnabas only sneered at his ex-wife. A woman he despised with all his might. She was the one who made him this way. She was the one who created the person, the thing, the creature he was today.

"Now, now, that's no way to look at someone who saved your life--again! What are you pouting about?"

Suddenly, and like a flash of light, Barnabas lunged at Angelique. He grabbed her by the throat and pushed her backwards towards wall. His hand slowly tightened around her neck. She grabbed at  his hand but smiled as if to show him he had no power over her.

"Pathetic." She said through a strained voice.

Her face and body were untouched by time. She glared at him with her youthful beauty that screamed of pity and disappointment. She could see that the man she was obsessed with for centuries was not the same as he once was. He was now desperately clamoring for any kind of control of his life that was careening out away from his clutches. His survival was at steak.

Angelique cunningly knew this would be her way back into the fold.

"Who tried to kill me. You told me you would tell me! Now tell me!" Barnabas growled, his fangs thirsty for Angelique's poison witch blood.

Angelique, who was stronger than Barnabas remembered, squeezed her fingers in between Barnabas' hand and her neck and released his grip with a snap. She rubbed her now marked throat and giggled at what she saw was a vampire tantrum. Angelique held all the power now. She knew it. She could feel that Barnabas was in the palm of her hands. He had become a pariah within his own family, an island of his own making on the Collinwood compound. No one wanted anything to do with him. He was cursed, banished and someone tried to snuff him out --once and for all. Angelique knew who. She saw who did it, and she dangled that little twinge of untold bait over Barnabas like a carrot on strong.

"I didn't save your life for nothing, nothing in this world is free. You should know that by now. The information I have for you is incredibly valuable. I can tell." She answered as the redness around her throat faded.

"I would give you nothing. Everything you have ever done to me has always been about you, why would I ever give you anything?" He questioned.

"Because, you need me to tell you who tried to kill you. Who was it, you think, that staked you in the chest? Hmm? David? He's always had it in for you. Your beloved Julia? Maybe Carolyn? Who Barnabas? Everyone's a suspect." Angelique said grinning in Barnabas' face.  "Without knowing who to go after, you're just ....lost..... aren't you?." Angelique added.

"Why do you do this to me!!" Barnabas growled, frustrated with Angelique's games.

"One sided secrets are always so....boring, aren't they Barnabas? How can you seek revenge without knowing who to seek it from? And I can give you all that you need. So I won't keep this secret for too long." She teased.

"You’re a viper, your very existence is a curse on us all. Always twisting things around so that every terrible thing that happens to someone else some how benefits you." Barnabas quipped back, his hatred for the witch that cursed him began to boil over.

His eyes seething with anger. How could he trust her after all that she had done. She was getting under his skin again, just like she always did, just like she knew she could.

"You have forgotten, I know you better than I know myself, don't I? Why don't you sit down, relax and let me tell you my terms." Angelique said as she poured Barnabas a brandy from a wet-bar near a desk in the study.

"Terms? What terms?" He asked as if he had just forgotten Angelique said nothing was for free.

"Did you think that there wouldn't be any?" Angelique laughed. "I've been trapped in a world of dead and angry spirits for over 50 years, and I've gotten a second chance at living the life I was always meant to live, and you're going to give me everything I want because I know something you want to know. It's a simple as that. Tit-for-Tat." The witch said as she handed Barnabas his drink.

He squinted his eyes in mistrust, and grabbed the brandy from her. He slowly made his way to a leather sofa and sat down. He took a sip from his brandy and waved away spoke from a candle next to him. He elegantly crossed his legs and felt the smooth brandy fill his veins with calm.

"What do you want?" Barnabas asked with a cold tone of voice.

"Now, see? Was that so hard?" She asked with a coy smile.

"What do you want Angelique?" He repeated.

"First....my daughter." She said in a sinister tone.

"Claudia! Impossible! She's disappeared. No one knows where she is and that may be a blessing for us all. When she's here, Collinwood is a place of chaos and utter panic." He said.

"So normal?" Angelique joked.

"The apple didn't fall far from the tree." He answered back, referring to Angelique’s past troubles at Collinwood.

"By the way, her name is Evangeline! Those nuns gave her that horrid saint name of Claudia." Angelique bristled. "Besides, added chaos to an already chaotic lifestyle is a  risk I'm willing to take. Find her." Angelique said still in her cold tone.

"I already told you, I don't know where she is and I wouldn't know where to find her or to look for her. She's incapable of contact. And finding those who do not want to be found is not in my wheelhouse." Barnabas said, brushing off Angelique's request. "You'll have to find her yourself."

Angelique sighed, she did know Barnabas well, and even though he was the reason Claudia was taken from Angelique as a baby she knew that there was nothing he could do to really find her.
Claudia had left Collinsport a year ago to search for her son that Caleb and Kat were mistakenly raising as their own son --- and they were traveling the world, far away from the foggy banks of Collinsport harbor.

"My daughter is not the only thing I want returned that you took fro me Barnabas." Angelique informed her former lover. "Powers. I want more. And only can give them to me." She added.

"Powers??" Barnabas laughed. "You're mad!"

"Am I?!" Angelique exclaimed as she rushed up to him, and moved in close. "Imagine this Barnabas, the two of us together. As one unit. You have no idea what the two of us can do together if we really tired, do you? You have no idea the worlds we can create, the damage we can inflect. There's so much more out there Barnabas, so much more than you really know because you never allowed me ...allowed us...to fully connected. But we can now. If you let down your guard and let me in. Unite our powers, Barnabas." She added with a cold hush of a voice.

"Am I supposed to believe you? You're a sick woman who's only wish was to torment me and make me suffer --forever. You've done what you wanted. I don't see what else there is for you to take." He answered to her almost automatic scoff.

Angelique scoffed at his blame. She turned away and poured herself a drink. "Because of you, I lost everything. My child, my home. Before you destroyed me, I was fine living the life of ---" She began before Barnabas interrupted.

"As what?! Cassandra Collins, the dutiful second wife of Roger who just happened to be tormented by the devil himself. Please!" He said, mentioning Angelique's time in disguise as David's step-mother Cassandra before Barnabas discovered her and killed her.

Angelique was fuming. Everything she had ever worked for, everything she had ever wanted was constantly being taken from her. She was furious, but she had to continue to keep calm, or nothing would pan out. She did indeed know Barnabas better than anyone else, and she knew his thirst for revenge was stronger than his thirst for blood. There was no way around it.

"Face it Barnabas, you may want to pretend that the information I carry in my mind--who I saw try to kill you--isn't worth giving me what I want in return but I know its eating you alive to know that someone, very possibly someone you thought was a trusted member of your family stuck a steak into your chest and wished for you to die. I can solve that for you ....very quickly." Angelique again teased exposing Curtis as the attempted assassin for her own gain.

"All of this, this is all insane! I can find out who tried to kill me without your help, I don't know why I would waste my time with you. You've done nothing but betray, lie, and manipulate the world around you just to suit your vicious games. How could I even believe you if you told me anyway?" Barnabas said, frustrated with his interaction with Angelique.

"You've always been so impatient." She said in a hiss.

Barnabas got up from the sofa. He placed the empty glass of brandy on the side table and shook his head at Angelique who was standing in front of him. There were face to face again, scorned lover against scorned lover. He snarled at her and made his way towards the door of the study.

Angelique suddenly began to feel the same feelings she felt so many years ago. He was dismissing her. He was pretending she didn't matter and that the information she had wasn't important enough to even stay in the same room for. She was feeling the bits of anger starting to bubble up in the pit of her stomach. She turned quickly and lifted her hand, the might of her powers gripped the door that slammed in Barnabas' face keeping him in the study with her.

He quickly turned around and she was inches from him now, her eyes, cold icy blue. He looked deep into them and started to feel as if things were going in slow motion. He began to feel as if the walls of the study in the Old House were swaying and moving. He looked away from her, but she grabbed his face and made him stare directly into her eyes.

"No! NO!" He screamed.

"This won't hurt a bit...." She said, gazing deep into  his own dark eyes. She needed him to listen. She needed him to hear what she had to say and the only way Barnabas would listen to her was to lock him in his place...by a spell.

"Look at me, look into my eyes Barnabas!" She said, her hands forming a firm grip around his face.

"So.....so blue..................." he said as he began to fade into a trans.

"Listen closely as I tell you well....You will do what I want you to do, Barnabas Collins, you owe this to me. You took our child from me when she was a baby, and you sent me to the world of the dead all those years ago. But I have risen, and I will do everything in my power to stay in this realm, now and forever. You will do everything I say." Angelique said slowly in a tone that flowed into Barnabas' mind like the smoke from the candles all around them.

Barnabas began to feel a warmth in his body, it was as if she had entered inside of him and switched on a light that was glowing from deep in his chest. He could feel the coldness of his body vanish and the warmth of something brew in his heart. She was controlling him, she was possessing his mind turning him into something that she wanted, something she could control something she could keep in her pocket for as long as she wanted. She had not aged, and neither had her ways of magically manipulating the people around her to get what she wanted.

"What is it that you want?" He said, his mind slow and passive and attentive.

"I want you to find my daughter , and...." She paused as he looked at her in a trans..."I want us to be married. Once and for all, I want to be the wife of Barnabas Collins and take my place among the family just as I should have all those years ago. You will do this for me. Together we are stronger. Together, as one, we could rule over this land like never before. Together, as husband and wife, we will be indestructible."

Angelique blinked her big blue eyes, releasing Barnabas from her magic hold that locked him in attention. He was back to himself again. He knew now that she was still very powerful and that rebuffing her could be disastrous for him. He reluctantly agreed to her terms, even though he had no idea where to find their daughter Claudia who had left Collinsport 2 years earlier to follow Caleb and Kat Collins who were touring the world with Claudia's son.

"You'll get what you deserve" Barnabas said cryptically, "now, tell me who tried to kill me." Barnabas added, his voice deep and angry again.

Angelique turned to pour herself more brandy form the same cup Barnabas drank then turned back around to face Barnabas, the light from outside shined in through the large second story windows and cast her in silhouette among the skeleton like bones of the shadows of the tree branches. The natural light of the sun spun around her like a halo and the candle lights flickered at her side.

Angelique thought for a second and grinned. The opportunity to turn the tables on all who had wronged her in the past, had come, and then... then she remembered who the moment the stake went into Barnabas' chest, she remembered the face. She remembered how that face made her feel:

---***---

In the Old House, in an upstairs bedroom, there was a deathly silence. A person stood over an open coffin with their hands lifted high in the air as they tightly gripped the end of a sharpened stake that at any second would be driven deep into the chest of the one and only Barnabas Collin. The person took a breath and drove the stake down into Barnabas’ chest and watched as Barnabas' body quickly reacted to the sudden deadly strike.

As the vampire squirmed in his coffin, clamoring for any chance at life, the person ran off, but not before turning to face the light of a window where the witch, Angelique,  was standing, invisible to the naked eye.

There Angelique saw the face of Barnabas' would-be murderer. 

The face of Curtis Winters, Vicky's adopted son who had come to the Old House to avenge his mother for all the decades of trauma, terror and manipulation. His was a face so handsome that it took Angelique's breath away at first glance. She was stunned at how beautiful he was. She was in awe, and torn. The man she once loved was being attacked by this suddenly new and fresh fascination of hers. 

She stood there, invisible, and watched as Curtis  dashed out of the Bedroom leaving Barnabas to die a painful and vanquishing death.

 ---***---

As quick as the memory of that moment came to her mind, it went away again like a flash of white light...she stood there listening to the great ocean crashing against the black rocks of the shoreline. She saw Curtis' face, frozen in her mind as Barnabas's attempted murderer.

"Well?" Barnabas said in frustration.

Angelique turned, and paused. Then revealed the name of the would-be murderer.

"Julia. It was Julia Hoffman." Angelique said lying through her teeth.

Barnabas' eyes widened in shock. His breathing shallowed. His mind went wild at the thought of his beloved Julia attempting to kill him. How could she try and destroy him? How!?

"Julia?" he said in a whisper, shocked and gutted at the idea.

"That's right, the one one woman you risked everything over to bring back here to this time tried to take your life." Angelique said, continuing the lie that it was Julia and not Curtis who attempting to assassinate Barnabas as he lay in his coffin.

"No. That's a lie. You're lying. Surely." He whispered again, turning away from her as if to block out the truth of what she was saying.

"It's true. Julia Hoffman wanted you dead and gone. She's always wanted you dead and gone, to be honest. The thing about her Barnabas, is that you believed what she told you. You believed that she really did love you, didn't you?" Angelique continued.

"She did. We were happy once. In Singapore...we were together for so many years, we raised Siobhan there...happily...we loved each other." Barnabas said in a voice that showed Angelique he was painfully beginning to believe her.

Angelique only scoffed and sat down on a leather sofa in the center of the room. She sipped on her drink and rolled her eyes.

"What can I say? People change." She offered.

"But...to kill me?" He asked.

Angelique could see the old Barnabas, the angry, cruel side of him was finally surfacing again. She began to breath heavily and pace the room. There was something viscous in Barnabas that always made Angelique shake in her shoes, but this time she knew that the wild blood-thirsty creature everyone feared would return forever was focusing on someone else this time--not her.

"Get out." He growled never turning back to face her.

"You'll see....I have always had your best interest at heart, Barnabas, always. But sometimes it takes a stake to the chest to realize just who your real friends are. Don't forget---I brought you back...again! Once you do finally do understand, that everyone here at Collinwood only want you dead you'll give me what I want."

"I SAID GET OUT!" He growled again.

Angelique smiled evilly. The seed was planted, but she remained in his presence in the room.

Barnabas's face was changing. His eyes turned black, his anger raged inside. He screamed something...something loud, something animalistic. His fangs returned, he began to knock over the candles, pull down pictures frames, and he lifted the desk in the study and turned it over knocking things to the grown.

"She'll pay. She'll pay....she will PAY!" He said in a monstrous growl, then left the study, allowing Angelique to sit with her lie still burning on her tongue.

Angelique's web of lies was only beginning to be spun. With Julia out of the picture, Barnabas could devote himself to her; her return to Collinsport was about bring more chaos to the Collins family than any one could ever imagine. And perhaps a new found love with Curtis Winters in her dangerous eye.