It was the evening of a new moon, a fresh breeze from the departing storms swam into the atmosphere like a bird flowing into it's nest, chilling every person in town. As the clouds continued to leave the sky and open up for the new moon a star twinkled between the eyes of the constellation of Medusa; the most powerful celestial moment of the year.
As the dangers of this new moon occurred, Andrew and Serena made it over to great house of Colliwood in a desperate attempt to find any remaining serum created by Kimberly Collins years ago that she used to treat her own werewolf creation, her son Christopher.
"She can't see you, do you understand? Whatever happens in the next few hours, Alexandra cannot see you or hear you or even know you and are I mixed up in all this together. It's very important." Andrew said as he and Serena sat in the car just outside of Collinwood waiting for the right moment to make their move.
"You really like her don't you?" Serena asked.
Andrew only looked out of the car window, his feelings for Alex were so powerful, yet he had just met her. The memories that he could see were so vivid it was as if he had lived them with her instead of only inheriting them from Chris. But they were real none-the-less.
Serena noticed his confused reaction to what she had asked and tried to adjust the mood in the car.
"Listen, I know that what I have done to you is impossible to forgive, but...I really want you to know that I'll do anything I can to make sure you're safe from now on. There's nothing else I can do, but try. What I did was terrible, Andrew, and as I said before, I'm really sorry. We're going to make you better. I promise."
Andrew turned back to Serena and gave her a small smile.
"Thanks." He said softly. "We should get up there. Just stay behind me and when Alex let's me in I'll leave the door leaning on the lock so that you can come in after me. Just be sure, like I said, that no one sees you." Andrew said as the two got out of the car.
Andrew and Serena quietly made their way up to the front of the main house on Widow's Hill. Andrew was awestruck. The house was much larger in person, as he had only seen it in the distance while he roamed around town and different vantage points around Collinsport.
He stared up and the murky sky, the clouds, steel blue in color, swiftly crossed the deep grey of the sky. She continued to look at the architecture of the house. The stain glass window over the main staircase, the small gargoyles at the top of a chimney staring down on the front lawn like guardians protecting a castle from intruders.
"It's magnificent." Serena said, who had never been to Collinwood either.
"It's like a castle in a fairy tale." Andrew said.
As Andrew continued to look at the mansion in awe, a sudden flash in his mind sparked. It was so bright and so white, it was as if someone had shined a flashlight in his eyes. With this flash came a stabbing pain in his head and then something awful, another one of Christopher's memories came in to view.
Andrew could feel fog, and ice cold wind, he could feel grass beneath and dirt sticking to his wet feet, when he looked down his feet were paws. His actual feet were paws. He looked around again, this memory, and he could see thick layers of forest all around him. It was dark, it was misty. He was chasing someone. He was after someone, and he could taste in his mouth the thirst for killing whomever he was after.
Andrew could see in this memory, that this person was right in front of him, it was a woman. She was screaming and running and trying to get away, terrified for her life. He could feel his heart pound while on the chase and hear himself growl and groan. Then lights. Something bright.
As he finally came to almost catching the person the bright lights of a door step illuminated the woman's face. It was Alexandra standing on the very same door stop of Collinwood pounding on the door for someone to let her in.
"Hey, Andrew...Hey!" Serena said, snapping Andrew out of the memory from Christopher.
"He tried to kill her." Andrew said out of no where.
"What? Who?" Serena asked.
"Christopher. He tired to kill her once."
"How?" Serena asked, unsure if she really wanted to hear the answer.
"He had changed into....that....thing, and he was chasing her and he came here. Right here, this very spot and tried to kill her. Oh my god, do you think that'll happen to me too?" Andrew worried.
Serena became a bit nervous. She had no idea how to answer. All she knew was that in a few hours the moon would be full again and Andrew would be in desperate need to get away from anyone and everyone.
Serena took a breath and shook her head of the awful thoughts of Andrew hurting anyone while under the power of the lycan moon's pull.
"Just focus on us getting the serum...everything will be alright." Serena said unsure of how much truth there was in what she had just said. She then stepped a side and hid away as Andrew knocked on the great oak doors.
Andrew took his own breath and stepped into the door way that was slightly lit by small orange lantern on either side of a large oak double door etched with a square like pattern. He reached up and grabbed the ring in the lion's mouth of the door knocker and used it to knock again.
The sound was like a timpani drum echoing through an empty room, ringing loud so that everyone in the house could hear.
Andrew waited a few seconds and looked behind him. Serena was completely hidden.
The door opened, and there stood David Collins.
Their eyes met instantly. This was Chris' adopted father. The man that took Chris in after the tragedy that was Christopher Reed's biological father Victor Reed's death. Chris' memories had yet to remind Andrew just how Victor died. David, too, suddenly felt a warmth in his body looking at Andrew. He remembered that quick moment they shared in the hospital when Andrew came to and called him dad, a side-effect of Christopher's memories.
"Well, this is a surprise." David said.
"Mr. Collins, hi. How are you?" Andrew asked, nervous from the start.
"Doing well, thank you. Please come in! Come in!" David said stepping aside for Andrew to enter, but not leaving the door knob loose for Andrew to rig for Serena.
Andrew looked down and saw David close the door completely behind him, he gulped with anxiety.
"What brings you up to Collinwood?" David asked as he took Andrew's coat and the two stood in the foyer.
"I'm actually here to see Alex. We have a date this evening. Did she step out? Or?" Andrew asked shyly.
"Oh!" David grinned. "No, no I'm sure she's here. You know this house is so big we sometimes don't know who's home and who's not, who's coming who's going. It's a pain really. Please come in to the drawing room. Relax." David said now ushering him into the next room.
"Wow." Andrew said as he carefully looked around the old room filled with historical family paintings and artifacts of years gone by. The walls even looked as if they were somehow ready to tell a story even without the faces in the frames looking back.
"That's my father. Roger." David said to Andrew who was looking at a portrait hanging close to the fireplace. "He died many years ago."
"I'm sorry." Andrew replied.
"It's fine. I've been able to grieve in my own way over 30 years ago. He and I had a ..." David paused. "Complicated relationship to say the least."
"I can definitely relate to complicated relationships with fathers." Andrew joked.
"That's right. Your father is ...well, a complex person too I'm sure. The police told me he won't be charged with my son's death. You should all be very pleased with that." David said, trying to pretend to be happy for Andrew's father, even though he was furious.
"I don't know if I would say that exactly. Mr. Collins, for what it's worth and I know it sounds hollow coming from the person who benefited most from Chris' death, but I am really very sorry about what happened to him. If I could ...I would....I ..." Andrew said as he looked past David and saw that Serena was slowly sneaking into the house from the main door that David evidently closed shut but did not lock.
"Would what?" David asked waiting for Andrew to finish his sentence.
"Huh?" Andrew said his mind now in two different places.
"You were saying something about Chris and how if you could you would ...." David said now seating himself on the sofa across from Andrew who followed David's lead and sat down as well.
Andrew's mouth dried up. He was suddenly stricken with panic as Serena disappeared in the house in search of whatever she could find that would make Andrew from changing.
"Andrew?" David said, but Andrew only looked at David with eyes of panic and worry.
While the two men talked in the drawing room, Serena quietly made her way around the first floor of Collinwood where she was told she would find the old office that Kimberly used to make the various amounts of serum that would slow and ignite Christopher's werewolf transitions.
The serum, created decades ago by Dr. Kimberly Collins, was used on her infant son Christopher's body that had been infused with mutated DNA that gave him all the superhuman strength and agility of a full lycan without having the child bit by a werewolf at all.
Christopher was born to be used as a weapon decades ago by The Organization of the True Hearted, hell bent on destroying the supernaturally cursed family in Collinsport. All of this: Chris' lycan transitions, Kimberly Collins and Victor Reed's affair that produced Chris, the werewolf DNA, the attempt to use Chris as a weapon against the cursed Collins family was all exposed years ago, but the serum was still a mystery to those new to the DNA now running through Andrew's body.
Was there more? If there were more, could it still be used to cure Andrew?
Serena walked slowly in the halls. She carefully peered into the various rooms she came across. All of them dark, and gloomy and none of them looked like an office that Kimberly would use, or a lab, or anything remotely like what Serena and Andrew were hoping for. She continued on her way through a group of smaller rooms, studies, and a small office, with each and every step she burrowed down into the body of Collinwood she felt as if she were being watched, as if something, somewhere were making sure she were getting lost. Every hall began to look the same, every room began to seem stranger and more repetitive. It was as if she were in a maze, losing herself, losing track of time and losing her mind.
Serena suddenly realized she had to snap out of it. Whatever was keeping her running around in circles on the first floor would no longer occupy her time. She believed perhaps, that the Kim's office was down a second hall that she saw as she passed through the foyer. She turned back around and made her way towards where she came from as quiet as she could so that David did not her hear.
Finally, she found her way back to the main entrance and the foyer; slowly, quietly as to not make noise on the foyer's tile ground. She slipped past the staircase and was about to turn down the second hallway when someone at the stop of the stairs cleared their throat. Serena looked up and saw Alexandra, standing stern and furious at the intruder.
"I thought I felt something rummaging through an old part of the house. I guess my little maze trick didn't work." Alexandra said, admitting to being the person behind Serena's feeling of being caught in an ending maze with her psychic abilities.
"I..." Serena said not knowing what to say next and being trapped like a rat.
"What are you doing here?" Alex said as she slowly made her way down the stairs.
Serena quickly backed up and hid herself in the hallway frightened Alex's voice would alarm David.
"I asked you a question." Alex said again.
Serena put her finger up to her lips shushing Alex. She had nothing left to lose, if anyone would understand what she and Andrew were trying to do, it would be Alex, the woman who loved and suffered along with Chris.
"I'm sorry. I'm so very sorry for coming here like this. But we didn't know what else to do." Serena said in a hushed voice.
"We?" Alex asked.
"I'm here with Andrew. He came to pick you up and I was supposed to look for something. Something that he needs." Serena explained.
"What are you talking about? What does Andrew need?"
Serena didn't know how to tell Alex what Chris' DNA had done to Andrew. She was terrified that Alex would overreact and cause even more problems for herself and perhaps for Andrew. But she had no choice, Andrew needed the serum and if anyone knew where it might be it would Alexandra.
"Chris' DNA is having adverse effects on Andrew's body. He's ..." She paused. "changing."
"Oh my god. Not again." Alex answered as she turned from Serena in a worried stance.
"You know then." Serena said, confirming that Alex understood exactly what happened to Chris.
"I know." Alex said softly.
"Alex, where's the serum that cured Chris. It was something his mother Kimberly made years and years ago that she would use on his to make him change and then to change him back when she needed to. We heard that it was made here and if there's more we could use it on Andrew and save his life. Please..." Serena begged. "Where is it?"
Alex slowly turned away from Serena. There was a stark and painful truth to everything that was about to come out of her mouth. The truth was there was no more serum. It had been destroyed in a cruel and jealous argument years ago at her own hands. Alex had destroyed the serum in a fight with Chris over his affair with Claudia.
"There's no more Serena." Alex said.
"What do you mean?"
"It's all gone. There's no more serum, I destroyed it a long long time ago." Alex said with tears in her eyes.
"WHAT?" Serena gasped.
"It was a mistake, and Chris was cured, for the most part, because his mother was still alive and was able to create more doses using notes of the antidote. But she's gone now and so are her notes. There is nothing left." Alex replied.
Just then, as the it all began to sink in to Serena that there might be no hope for Andrew, a scuffling sound came from the open door of the drawing room. The two women turned to see what it was. It was David slowly walking a slumped over Andrew into the foyer.
"Oh my god! David, what happened?" Alex said rushing over to Andrew, Serena quickly following.
"I don't know. We were talking in the drawing room waiting for you and he suddenly started to sweat and he turned pale, and his eyes started to glaze over." David said. "I was going to take him to the hospital.
"He's soaking wet!" Serena said, as David looked over at her confused as to how she was even in there in the first place.
"We have to get him out of here." Alex said.
"I'll drive him to the hospital!" David said.
"NO!" Both women shouted, knowing that Andrew was going through his lycan change.
David looked confused.
"His car is just outside, we'll take him. Don't worry." Alex said with a nervous smile as Serena placed one of Andrews arms around her neck and Alex did the same with the other.
Andrew started to groan. The moon was slowly passing over into position as the time and the night went on. The two women quickly got Andrew outside and into the backseat of the car.
"Where do we take him?" Alex asked, her whole life with Chris flashing before her eyes.
"Jeffery has a place. We have to get him back to the hotel before he changes completely."
Serena started the car and spun out in the Collinwood drive way and quickly made their way through the fog down to the village to get Andrew to a safe place before it was too late.
****
While the drama unfolded at the main mansion up at Collinwood, there were just a few more bits of moon-light phenomena happening at the old house. It was time for the union that Angelique had been promised.
Angelique prepared for her final union with Barnabas, a step that would finally combine their powers and ultimately allow them to be indestructible.
This was a feat Angelique had wish for 5 decades ago. She knew that the two of them could attain so much power if they worked in concert instead of against each other. Getting Barnabas to sign on was as complex as it could ever have been but Angelique felt as if she had him right where she wanted him. Like a spider trapping a fly in her web, slowly and carefully waiting to devour him in one full swoop.
As Angelique prepared for the ceremony in the Old House drawing room, Carolyn began to feel an uneasiness all the way from the big house of Collinwood. She paced back and forth in her room, her stomach doing somersaults over and over as if it were preparing to jump out of her body at any turn.
She drank water, she sat down, she got up, she paced, she drank more water. Nothing would shake this feeling. Nothing Carolyn tried would stop this bizarre nervousness from falling flat and putting her back to normal. In all her life she knew, that only one person made her feel this way.
Carolyn looked out of her window and stared over the large green hills that stood between Collinwood and the Old House.
"What are you up to?" She whispered to herself as she thought of Barnabas and their last volatile confrontation.
Carolyn grabbed her coat that was hanging on the back of a love-seat in her bedroom and made her way over to the Old House.
Angelique, dressed in an ice blue gown covered in diamonds came down the main staircase of the Old house Barnabas was already awaiting her in the drawing room where the thick curtains had been pulled back allowing the orange and pink glow of the setting sun to enter the room.
"How do I look?" She said at the foot of the staircase to Barnabas who was staring up at his own portrait above the lit fire place.
He had to admit to himself how beautiful she looked. Her eyes and dress were sparkling like a summer sea. Her skin was a perfect peach tone and the diamonds around her neck reflected on her skin like tiny stars in a night sky.
"Let's get this over with." Barnabas said, not giving into Angelique's treacherous beauty.
Angelique lifted an eyebrow in frustration and came into the drawing room where a book of spells had been placed on a podium in front of the window facing the setting sun.
"This has been a long time coming, Barnabas. Together you and I can take over the world if we wanted to. We could rule over this place and any place ... all our dreams will come true after this, you'll see!" Angelique said to a uninterested Barnabas.
"I'm only allowing you breath in your body at this very moment because you provided me with information on the person who attempted to take my life, if you had never told me it was Julia, I would have you dead in a new grave faster than you could blink." Barnabas growled, still unaware that Angelique had lied to protect Curtis--the real culprit.
Angelique, rolled her eyes "You flatter me, now place your hand on the book." She said.
Barnabas complied.
Angelique closed her eyes, and placed her own hand next to Barnabas on the other page, careful for them not to touch, and began her Latin chant, combining them in an unholy union that would make them richer in powers, stronger in all aspects and turn the world of the Collins family upside down with all of the energy of the new moon.
"Lunam intra corpus levius. Sit tibi, nos ambo suimul.
Lunam intra corpus levius. Sit tibi, nos ambo suimul
Lunam intra corpus levius. Sit tibi, nos ambo suimul!"
Barnabas began to feel warmth under his hand. A small breeze began to blow from out of nowhere and blew the fire out in the fire place. He kept his eyes closed but could feel the heat warming through his hand and up his arm.
Angelique continued to chant.
"Lunam intra corpus levius. Sit tibi, nos ambo suimul.
Lunam intra corpus levius. Sit tibi, nos ambo suimul
Lunam intra corpus levius. Sit tibi, nos ambo suimul!"
The light of the sky was now a deep purple. The sun was setting. The moon would soon fill the sky in the position of Medusa's third eye. The energy began to flow from Angelique's words into her body, and she too began to feel the warmth of power serge through her. It was working. The two were combining, uniting, a powerful force that could take over the world.
"BARNABAS!!!!" A voice screamed from the open front door.
It was Carolyn in complete shock at what she was seeing.
Angelique and Barnabas opened their eyes and turned to the sound of the voice seeing Carolyn, the spell only half way done. Barnabas lifted his hand from the book ending the spell before it could finish crippling Angelique with only half of what she needed to be the most supreme sorceress on the planet.
Carolyn was shaking, she could not believe what she was seeing. She remembered Angelique for so many vicious and terrible reasons. She remembered just how horrible and cruel she was. And she especially remembered 5 years ago when Angelique, still trapped in the underworld tried to pull Carolyn into the mirror locking here away in that same black space.
"Leave." Barnabas said, his voice soft and concerned towards Carolyn for the first time in almost a year.
"What have you done?" Carolyn asked stepping forward into the room.
"Carolyn please...you should not be here." Barnabas said stepping in front of Angelique, he was finally feeling a guilt that had alluded him. Something had switched. Something had turned. This was not what he wanted. This was not what he felt was in his soul.
"Nice of you to drop in---unannounced--Carolyn." Angelique hissed.
"What is she doing here? Did you...? Barnabas did you bring her here?" Carolyn asked seeing the witch Angelique.
"How very typical of you, Carolyn, to think that every little bad thing that happens around here is Barnabas' fault." Angelique said, stepping around Barnabas to confront Carolyn. "When in fact, it was you who summoned me back here in your little seance. Remember?" the witch teased.
"No." Carolyn said in denial.
"Yes." Angelique quipped in return. "Your little seance to conjure Jude did more than just that. It brought me back, ma petite cherie. So ...it was you. You are the one you brought me back." Angelique explained to a disgusted Carolyn.
"Why would you...what are you....? Barnabas!?" Carolyn said changing the subject quickly her mind going in several directions unable to grasp what she had walked in on.
"You don't understand." Barnabas said in a solemn voice.
"What have you done? Have you sold yourself to her again? Barnabas.....how could..." Carolyn said, tears in her eyes as Barnabas interrupted her.
"I had no choice.!" He yelled back, seeing the terrible pain he was causing his cousin. "I was enraged. I was convinced of something that I could not began to fathom and now I had to comply with what was given to me as the truth. My life depended on it." Barnabas continued to explain referring to his deal with Angelique for the information on who tried to kill him.
"How could you? Angelique is evil incarnate! What on earth could she have given you in return for this....this...unholy union?" Carolyn responded.
"I find that rich coming from someone who came here not too long ago with a stake in her hand with Julia Hoffamn." Angelique shot back.
"What?" Barnabas said in shock, he had only been told Julia was the original attempted murderer, he had never known Carolyn too had come that first night.
"That's right my love," Angelique said with an evil grin. "I tried to protect you from the truth, I know how much it would have ruined your little fantasy of a happy family if you knew that not only did your dead-ex-wife Julia tried to stab in you in the chest but so did your lovely cousin Carolyn."
"Carolyn....It was you....You tried to kill me?" Barnabas said, his voice cold and sad. His heart now breaking at the realization that his beloved cousin had also been involved in Julia's plot to kill Barnabas and not Curtis.
Carolyn looked away in shame. But she knew that what she had planned on doing was for the good of not only her family but possible all of Collinsport.
"Barnabas, could you blame me? You were not making things easy for anyone. None of us." Carolyn explained.
"And the other one?" Angelique said adding fuel to the fire.
"Julia." Barnabas growled.
"Can you blame Julia too? We were trapped in this world with you for all those years. You know the hell it brought us. You know the terrors and darkness that came into our lives. It destroyed our life just as much as your! This curse, this evil, vicious curs that made you who you are right now has been a malignant tumor on our family for centuries. Barnabas...we had to end it. Julia and I ....we had to end it! And now, look at yourself! You're joining fores with the viper that made you this way! It doesn't make sense." Carolyn said, her concern and truth flowing out of her body in the shape of words hitting Barnabas like a ton of bricks.
"You would have killed me to save your selves." Barnabas said in a sad tone of voice.
Carolyn walked up to him, she grabbed him by the arms and looked him in the eyes. She saw the pain and struggle he was going through, he saw the hurt and sorrow that he caused, it was a chain reaction and they were all apart of the curse, not just Barnabas. But he knew that what Carolyn did, what Carolyn and Julia tried to do was for the better and save them all. The pain of the realization still stung just as much.
"We do love you Barnabas, but ....you just haven't been yourself. Look at where we are now. Look at the situation we're left in. Look around you! We felt like we had no choice but to save ourselves from whatever danger you could bring us. Our futures depended on that. It seems horrible and selfish, and wrong, but how could we continue to protect our family if you threatened to destroy us at any chance?" Carolyn said, trying to get Barnabas to see that his evil ways in the past year had been his own undoing and that the attempts on his life were justified. Carolyn and Julia wanted to free themselves and their families forever, and Barnabas dying was the only way out they thought.
"I had to protect myself too." Barnabas said, unsure if he really meant it.
"Protect yourself." Carolyn scoffed thinking he was only lying, that his thirst for vengeance on those who sought to destroy him were more powerful than the understanding that he was the root of all of their problems and suffering.
"Think about what you just said....you wanted to protect yourself by way of hurting those you loved even more...with no regard to our lives. We're not immortal Barnabas. Once we're gone--we're gone! And getting help from...her...of all people? She's the one you choose to seek help from?" Carolyn shot back.
"How rude!" Angelique said cynically. "I'll have you know, Carolyn, that the information I gave Barnabas was pure and true. He had to repay me. That's how these things work. I can't imagine you would ever understand what that's like, as you've never had to pay for anything your whole life."
"That's not true. I've lost many people. MANY People to the curses you creates in this house. I've lost so many. I've paid the ultimate price. Barnabas, look around you, I may not be the creature Angelique created, but aren't I in the same prison of darkness as you? Aren't we all? I did come here with Julia to kill you. I DID....but I swear to you... we never found you. We never saw you. It wasn't us." Carolyn explained, her sincerity finally shining to truth in Barnabas' mind.
"She's lying." Angelique growled, noticing Barnabas was believing her.
"Barnabas, please, whatever you've agreed to, whatever you've given her, please tell me you can take it back. She's evil. She is what made you this way! She is the reason you have lived this life of never ending horrors and terrors. You made a deal with her and now you have to break it, you have to, Barnabas! For the sake of the family!' Carolyn said ignoring Angelique completely.
Barnabas couldn't get his thoughts together, but something inside of him, the human side of him that still lived in his heart and mind believed the cousin he loved so dear.
"If not you or Julia who?" Barnabas said....then he remembered Curtis and how protective Angelique had been lately to him. It was obvious now, Angelique had been lying the whole time.
"You BITCH!" Barnabas screamed at Angelique who quickly backed away.
"It's too late honey." Angelique said in a loud voice. "He's already chosen his side, and he's sided with me to get his family back. That's the whole point. Together he and I can do everything we've ever wanted. And soon you and little David and which ever random Collins family member pops out of the wood-work will be gone forever, isn't that right Barnabas?"
Barnabas stood in silence. His regrets were starting to fill his mind. What had he been doing? What was he thinking? Why did he do this? He never needed to bring his family back from decades and decades ago, his family was already here, at Collinwood. He just was looking in the wrong place. Attempting to recreate what he had before with Julia was never going to work out, he had to do what he had always done before and reinvent his life with whatever family fate had given him.
He had been selfish, and confused. He had been greedy and ill-informed. But now he could see his wrongs. The light of truth was shining bright in his eyes, he had been so very wrong all this time.
"No, I don't want this. You've been lying to me!" Barnabas said to Angelique.
"You can change it back!" Carolyn said.
Angelique's nostrils flared. Barnabas' guilt was once again giving him second thoughts. She was beginning to see her deal with him fly out of the window.
"It's too late. ITS TOO LATE"! She screamed in a wild rage that shook the foundation of the Old House rattling the windows, picture frames and chandeliers from by-gone years.
Carolyn looked over at the book on the podium facing the window and lunged for it. She grabbed it and began ripping pages from it the area that it was open to. She took the ripped pages and held it over the flame of an open candle.
"It's too late." Angelique said again, her eyes glowing with hate. "No flame, no fire, no burning hot light can take away what Barnabas has already done tonight." She continued in a spell like verse.
Barnabas only saw one way out, he had to kill Angelique where she stood. Once again. His eyes turned black his fangs released, he hissed and jumped in between Angelique and Carolyn who was still holding the pages of the book over the flame.
The witch's face turned from smug to concern as her former lover's face was only filled with rage. He stepped closer and closer, and Angelique stepped backwards slowly trying to make sure he did not touch her. Her heel snagged on the hem of her ice-blue dress and she fell to the floor. Barnabas lunged at her and picked her up, turned her around so that they were now both facing Carolyn, he pushed her neck to the side exposing her neck and opened his mouth wide, his fangs ready top pierce his perfect peach skin.
"NO STOP!" Carolyn screamed, dropping the pages to the ground. "You can't do this. You know what will happen." She said.
It was true, Carolyn knew the truth, and the effect and what the toxicity of witches blood would do to a vampire: dust.
Barnabas looked up at Carolyn, his eyes still a deathly black, his mouth salivating for the first drop of Angelique's acid like blood.
"I must!" he said in an attempt to save them all from Angelique's terror.
In that moment of pause, Angelique saw her opportunity and kicked Barnabas in the groin, he fell to the ground writhing in pain. Before the witch could turn to face the woman who interrupted her whole operation, Carolyn jumped on Angelique's back pulling at her hair, and weighing her down.
Carolyn was taking matters into her own hands.
"Get off! GET OFF!" Angelique screamed.
The two women scuffled on the floor knocking over candelabras, hitting their extremities on the legs of chairs, and tables, knocking over plants. Until finally Angelique gained the upper hand on the much older Carolyn and pinned her to the floor. Barnabas, regaining his strength from Angelique's kick, came over to the two and pushed Angelique off of Carolyn who quickly got up.
The moon overhead began to find it's place in the constellation Medusa. Angelique could feel it in her bones. She began to laugh when she realized that the powers she had taken before Carolyn had entered were working. She could feel the strength in her body building.
Carolyn began to feel her anger build just as much at Angelique's laughing. She was furious. She was tired of being pushed around. Carolyn lunged at Angelique ready to take her life, but a blast of energy from Angelique's body hit Carolyn like a freight-train freezing Carolyn in her place.
The bright light began to harden Carolyn's body. She began to feel heavy in her feet. She looked down and her body was turning to stone. First her shoes, then her legs, then her waste, then her chest, her neck and just before she could scream for help her mouth and eyes.
There, standing like a statue from medieval times, of hard rock and stone, Carolyn's body.
"What have you done?" Barnabas said, his eyes now back to normal as he caressed Carolyn's stone face.
Angelique wasn't having any of it. She was furious that he betrayed her and stopped the spell mid-way. He broke his vow, and he broke the pact they both made.
She walked over to him and slapped him across the face causing a giant energy serge to go through his body. In that moment, the truth came pouring out of Angelique's mind and into Barnabas' like a movie playing out what really happened. Barnabas began to see the the lies were now unrevealed: Julia was never the person who stabbed him with the stake, it was and always had been Curtis.
"You. Lied. To. ME!" Barnabas screamed!
As he lunged back at Angelique and grabbed her by the throat, his eyes black, his fangs out. Angelique was chocking, he had lifted her by the throat 6 inches from the ground. She began beating his face with her bare hand, and finally, with every once of strength she had she sent another bolt of energy from her body into Barnabas turning him to stone as well just as she did to Carolyn.
Angelique tore herself from Barnabas stone hands that still remained frozen in the shape of Angelique's neck.
She stared at the two statues in the drawing room of the Old House, panting on the floor as she regained her breath.
The moon, now in the position of the power third eye of Medusa, had helped her gain more powers, and turned her biggest foes into actual, real cold, hard stone.
Angelique was now free of her biggest obstacles.
