Series 10/Chapter 5: DEMANDS OF THE DAMNED

A heavily clouded sky hovered over Collinsport that showed the face of a rain storm to come. The various shades of grey of the rain clouds mixed like the watercolors of one of Maggie's paintings. The clouds churned in the sky in volatile formations that made the guests at the Collinsport Inn restaurant shutter with the chill of the coming storm. Two of those guests were Vicky and her beloved son Curtis, who were just finishing up their dinner and were ready to escape back home just before the rain began.

"Why don't I rush over to get the car before the rain comes." Curtis said as his mother fixed her lipstick at the table after dinner.

"The valet can get it, hon." Vicky responded.

"They're busy, if we wait for them we might get stuck in the rain. I won't be long."

Curtis carefully folded his napkin and placed it on the table then dashed over to the valet booth in the lobby of the fancy hotel to retrieve his keys as he turned to leave he saw a vision of blond beauty standing directly in front of him blocking his way out of the lobby. It was the recently smitten Angelique or Cassandra as she had introduced herself the other night at The Blue Whale.

"Curtis." She said with a bright grin with no explanation as to why she was there.

Curtis' eyes shined like two diamonds, he licked his lips with a bit of nervous tension.

"Cassandra. I--uhh, Hi!" He answered nervously like a schoolboy talking to his playground crush.

"I'm beginning to think you're following me. What are the odds we'd bump into each other again so soon." She said, knowing full well she was the one following him.

"That's funny! Actually I'm having dinner with my mother. She's been in town for a while and I'm a terrible cook so I thought I'd spare her one of my awful grilled cheese sandwiches and spring for a nice dinner." He said again his nerves getting the best of him.

"That's very sweet." Angelique said again with her beautiful smile. "Are you on your way out?"

"We are, the rain looks like it's on it's way so I thought I'd get ahead the start before it came down. Are you here alone?" Curtis wondered.

"I am." she replied quite quickly, "I just came in for a drink at the bar." She replied. "They've changed this place so much. It's huge, so much more lavish." She continued.

Curtis looked at Angelique confused. In their first meeting she had alluded that she had been in town for a short time, and the hotel had been in it's current state for more than 30 years. How could "Cassandra" possible know what it looked like before that.

"How do you know what it looked like before?" He questioned as she quickly rebounded with a slick answer.

"Photos. Research. I do that kind of thing when I'm coming to a new place. I like to be sure I know what I'm in for. Especially little places like Collinsport." Angelique said, quickly correcting herself.

"Ah...Got-cha." Curtis said, beguiled by her beauty enough to believe anything. "Listen, since we're running into each other, maybe we can actually plan something together. You know, when you have time or...like whenever."

"Are you asking me on a date?" Angelique said teasing Curtis with a small little tap to the arm.

"A date? Uhh...", he was blushing,  "yeah, I guess. I mean if you're up for it." He replied.

"That would be great. Here...." Angelique said as she quickly wrote down a phone number on the back of a business card she pulled from the valet booth. "Let's meet soon."

"I'll call you. Yeah!" Curtis said smiling.

Angelique had fallen for Curtis, and she had certainly made an impression on him even if it were somewhat because of a little spell she put on him. Either way, she saw a light in him that she had not seen from anyone in centuries. There was a glow that came directly from inside of him that Angelique craved for herself. She wanted it, she wanted him, and she would do anything to protect him from all that threatened his pureness. She'd even go as far as double-crossing Barnabas for it.

This new infatuation was completely unexpected, but inside of her cold heart, Angelique knew this new passion of hers, Curtis Winters, was who she was meant to be with. His kindness, his love and energy was what would truly fulfill her, not the darkness she was surrounded by her whole life, but his pure light.

As the two continued to chat, Vicky came from around the corner wondering where Curtis had been the whole time. She passed a large potted plant and came face to face with a woman she had not seen in what felt like a millennia. Vicky's heart stopped--her body froze--her mind flipped like a picture book back to the past. Angelique Bouchard was standing in front of her talking to her son, still young, still beautiful, and most likely still dangerously evil.

Vicky quickly interrupted and pulled Curtis a step back away from Angelique.

"You!" Vicky said in a loud voice.

"Mom!" Curtis said, seeing his mother suddenly place herself between him and the woman he knew as Cassandra.

"Hello." Angelique said, playing as if she were confused, but knowing Vicky had recognized her.

"How did you.... How ...?" Vicky said, trying to sort out why she was looking at the face of the notorious Angelique Bouchard. "This can't be....you're dead....get away....get away from us!" She continued, her voice now echoing in the lobby.

"Mother what are you doing, what are you talking about? Keep your voice down." Curtis instructed as he pulled his mother back.

"Curtis, this woman is a viper! She's done horrible things. I can't even believe I'm seeing her, right here, in front of me again like this" Vicky said, turning back to Angelique who's face was suddenly turning angrier when she suddenly connected that these two were related.

"What? You have her confused with someone else. This is my friend Cassandra." Curtis answered.

"Oh, you're using that name again? How convenient. Her name isn't Cassandra." Vicky said, tossing her head back and forth from Curtis to Angelique as if she were watching a tennis match.

"You're making a scene. Her name is not Angelica....Angela...whatever. I don't know who you think she is, please, don't raise your voice!" Curtis said grabbing Vicky by both arms.

"Curtis, listen to me," Vicky said as Curtis saw the look on his mother's face was now serious. "you don't know what she is capable of. You don't know the hurt she can cause. I do, I know her!" Vicky exclaimed.

"Is there a problem madam?" the Maitre'd  asked Vicky as he rushed over from the restaurant side of the hotel.

"I'm sorry if I've caused any confusion, I don't want to upset anyone. I'll just cancel my plans and head home. Excuse me." Angelique said attempting to make her escape but not before Vicky grabbed her arm.

"Listen to me Angelique," Vicky said as she pulled Angelique back.

"Excuse me!" Angelique replied angrily.

"Don't you dare sink your hooks into my son. I swear to you, I'll..." Vicky began before being interrupted by Angelique.

"You'll what? I think threatening me with any form of violence Ms. Winters would be a very, very big mistake. Now let go of my arm." Angelique replied in a cold and calm manner.

Vicky stared her down as Angelique carefully removed Vicky's tightly gripped hand from around her arm.

"Cassandra, I'm sorry. I'll give you a call." Curtis replied as Angelique smiled softly and slowly made her way out of the lobby.

"You'll do nothing of the sort! Curtis, why aren't you paying attention to me? That woman's name is Angelique not Cassandra, and she's dangerous!" Vicky scolded.

"Excuse me but I think..." The maitre'd began to say before Curtis understood his body language.

"Don't worry, we're on our way out." Curtis answered as he grabbed Vicky by the arm and walked her out to the font of the hotel where tiny little sprinkles of rain began to drop on their heads.

"You have to stop treating me like I'm some kind of child, mother! I don't know what's gotten into you lately, but your superstitions have gotten the best you of. Cassandra is not this person you call Angelique and Barnabas Collins is dead! I told you I killed him!" Curtis reminded his mother as she shook her head in disbelief.

"No. No you didn't Curtis. And trust me, this woman is not who she says she is. I promise you. What can I do so you'll understand that I'm telling you the truth?" Vicky begged.

Curtis didn't know what to say. he was tired of the constant struggle dealing with his mother's past. It was always bubbling up in every aspect of his life. He thought that staking Barnabas in the heart months ago would have changed things, that everything would have been set right but everything felt like it had drastically gotten worse.

"We just need to get out of this rain and go home. I can't talk to you right now!" Curtis said as he quickly escorted his mother off to their car and out of the rain.

The danger was not so easily quieted, for in the shadows watching this exchange pass her by was Angelique now confronted with exposure on another front. On one side she had Barnabas hot on her heels of her new love interest Curtis, on the other, Victoria recognizing her---a surprise Angelique did not expect in her courting of Curtis.

Angelique would soon change that because when she removed Vicky's hand from her arm after she grabbed it a stray hair that had fallen to Vicky's sleeve found it self intertwined in Angelique's wicked fingers. Angelique twisted the long brown hair around her finger tighter and tighter and whispered a spell that would soon grip Vicky in a way that would eliminate her as an obstacle.

"Twist the lines of one woman's heart" Angelique whispered as the hair encircle her forefinger. "Find her quick, and then start, the willows fold, the sound of cold, tell Victoria Winters secrets silence foretold"....the spell continued.

Angelique closed her eyes while the rain began pouring down and just like a wisp of cold of spring wind, she vanished into thin air, her voice continued to echo the spell over and over again following Vicky and Curtis on their way home.

"Twist the lines of one woman's heart
Find her quick and then start,
The willows fold, the sound of cold
Tell Victoria winters secrets of silence foretold"

As they drove home Vicky and Curtis never said a single word to each other. He was furious at her behavior. She was concerned he was making a terrible choice in dating "Cassandra".

When they arrived home the wind cruelly rushed over them with an icy bite. Vicky stepped out of the car and shuttered in place as she looked up at the sky; the black, evil faced sky filled with rain clouds.

She cleared her throat that began to itch. There was a soreness. There was a pain in her throat. But she thought nothing of it and rushed into the apartment right behind Curtis never knowing that her own life was now in danger.

****

Collinwood. A mansion on the edge of a steep cliff. It's majesty soared over the small town below like a medieval castle towering over it's peasant subjects. In this rain, like on this evening it was even more grandiose. The windows reflected every splash of lightening that cracked the dark sky. And in the distance, a small car drove up the crooked drive way all the way the other small homes on the Collinwood land. It was Detective Loomis McGovern, back to tell David what he had discovered about Quinn Devereaux. 

Siobhan quickly let Loomis in from the rain. She greeted him with a warm smile and took his soggy trench coat and hung it up just next to the main door in the foyer. She escorted him into the drawing room where David was sitting with a mug of tea to warm his own scratchy throat. In between cordial greetings flashes of the lightening painted the walls with the bright light illuminating the ghostly faces of the portraits on the wall. It had been a long time since Loomis had been up to Collinwood at night. Some things never change, he thought.

"You didn't have to come over in the evening to talk about Devereaux but thanks for coming. Tea?" David said offering him a mug as well.

"I thought it was important that you knew right away what I discovered. I hope I wasn't intruding on anything." Loomis said apologizing to both David and Siobhan.

"No, not at all. I just put John down. Carolyn, and my mother are upstairs, and Alex is out, so it's fine." Siobhan responded.

"You must of found something big in Quinn's background to suggest that she's involved in something dirty to get the DA to drop the charges on Jeffery to rush over here." David thought.

"Actually, I didn't see anything like that, but I did see something else that seems a bit strange to me. Maybe strange is not the right word." Loomis said handing David the background report.

David furrowed his brow in confusion and took the papers from Loomis' hand. He quickly shuffled through them to find the various places Quinn had lived, names of her former employers, then the names of her family members who were, by-and-large, all deceased. 

"I don't get it." David said confused. "What am I looking for?" 

"You don't see the name listed as Quinn's paternal grandmother?" Loomis asked as David checked again.

"Julia Devereaux? What about her?" David asked still not seeing the connection, but Siobhan perked up now more interested. 

"Julia H. Devereaux. I thought that name seemed too coincidental. That perhaps there was more to that than just a letter. H can be anything really. But I just had a hunch. I checked into it. It's definitely what I thought." Loomis confessed.

"You're not suggesting my mother Julia is Quinn's grandmother. That....that just can't be." Siobhan said.

"It is, I'm afraid." Loomis said.

"Julia H, is Julia Hoffman?" David said again bewildered by everything. "I just.... Julia never told us anything about her life before she came to Collinwood. I just imagined...." David said before he was interrupted.

"My ears are burning." Julia said, as she walked into the drawing room upon hearing her name from the foyer.

Loomis' mouth dropped. He had no idea Julia was there. He had always assumed this news would be shocking to Julia's surviving family, not a surviving Julia.

"What...What's going on here?" Loomis questioned as he stood up and looked at Julia alive and well in front of his very eyes.

"Julia Hoffman, how do you do?" She said extending her hand to Loomis.

"How? How can she be here? According to these forms, Hoffman..." Loomis said turning back to David confused by the living woman who's death certificate read 1987.

"There was a mistake." Siobhan quickly said. "My mother is alive and well. She had been only presumed dead all those years ago."

"But that was over 30 years ago. How does she look..." Loomis again said before Julia interrupted.

"I'm a scientist Mr..."

"Detective McGovern."

"Detective McGovern. I specialize in psychology and I've also dabbled in rare blood disorders that have a surprising effect on the genetics....its a fountain of youth if you will." She said to Loomis' still shocked reaction. "Now will someone care to explain why there's a detective at Collinwood on such a late part of the evening?"

David and Siobhan looked at each other unsure of how to bring up to Julia that they knew she had a family before she had ever set foot on Collinwood soil. They weren't sure how she would take it. There was a reason she had kept this family from them all these years, and bringing up the revealed past would most certainly sting Julia, who was as secretive as they came.

"Mother, David had Detective McGovern looked into Jeffery Shaw's lawyer. He thought that there might be something underhanded going on between this lawyer and the DA because they dropped the murder charges for Christopher's death." Siobhan began.

"Oh, and what did he find?" Julia wondered.

"Well, they found you." Siobhan answered.

"Me? I don't understand." Julia replied.

There was an awkward pause between the conversations. No one quite knew how to bring it up, but David ripped the band-aid off and laid it all out.

"Julia, listen, what Loomis found was ...well, information about your and your past. I know how very guarded you are about --everything-- but...I need to ask you: before you came to Collinwood did you have a family? Did you have a son named Michael?" David questioned.

Julia stood in the center of the room with three faces staring back at her waiting for her reply. The wind and rain pushed the branches of the trees outside scratching the glass on the windows. Julia remained stone faced and still.

"Mother?" Siobhan asked, waiting for Julia to reply.

"I don't want to talk about it." Julia said quickly turning to face away from the prying eyes.

"Julia, you should know that we didn't just find the names of your son and his father. We discovered that the lawyer we were investigating is actually this Michael Devereaux's daughter. In essence she's your grand-daughter Julia." David said as Julia turned around quickly as to notion of a granddaughter.

"That's impossible, I ..." Julia said pausing in mid-sentence as the thunder continued to roll over the mansion.

"What? You what?" Siobhan asked grabbing her mother's hands.

"I don't want to talk about it." Julia said again.

"Loomis, thank you for coming by. As you can see this is a sensitive family issue. I really appreciate your help." David told Loomis seeing that Julia was feeling put out by the news.

Loomis nodded his head, understanding the discomfort in the room, and quickly made his exit, leaving Julia, Siobhan and David to grapple the confusing story.

"Julia, she's your granddaughter. Her name is Quinn Devereaux and she basically is alone in this world. But now she has family. You, Siobhan, me, John. Don't you want to reconnect with her?" David questioned, knowing how hard it was for him to lose his mother at a young age and feeling the painful icy distant love of his father his whole life.

"What happened, mother, tell me." Siobhan said, her own psychologist had firmly in place.

"I was married, yes." Julia said, the thunder crashing just as her sentence finished.

"And it..... didn't work out?" Siobhan asked.

Julia  paused  before she replied attempting to find the words to describe her first marriage but only could muster a soft "no." in response wit her arms tightly wound around her own body.

"What happened?" David asked.

Julia turned and looked at David and Siobhan both in their eyes. She became suddenly frustrated with the questions and the prying into her past. She tore through them both but Siobhan grabbed Julia by the hand and held her in place.

"Mother, please! We have to straighten this out. Don't you want to meet your granddaughter?" Siobhan questioned.

"All you need to know is that I was married, I had a son, and things did not work out with his father Laurence and myself. I drove myself into my work and eventually found myself at Windcliff. I was happy. My son Michael was better off without me. That's all you have to know." Julia said, as she stormed off upstairs leaving Siobhan and David with more questions than answers in the drawing room.

Now alone in her room, Julia nervously paced her bedroom. In all the years of her life, she had been able to keep her past a secret. No one ever thought to go digging around. No one ever thought to even question who she was or where she came from. The idea of these revelations coming to light made Julia sick to her stomach. The truth could never be revealed. Never.

The rain continued to pour like a small waterfall down Julia's bedroom window. She looked out onto the dark ground of Collinwood and thought about her secrets. The past had been buried for decades and now, it had been unearthed like the opening of a grave. The truth about Julia's husband and son was much more macabre than anyone really understood, and even if Siobhan and David discovered the truth about Julia's past it would devastate the image she had always worked so hard to keep up. The strong willed, powerful woman that nothing, not even a man like Barnabas, a creature of the shadows, could shake.

But this shook her.

Julia sat on her bed and began to think on her past. A phase of her life she believed to be long dead and buried in the depths of her mind. She worked so hard for so many years to keep these secrets from ever escaping the realms of her past, but now those ghosts were coming back for her; the icy hand of death and lies had reached back from beyond time and touched Julia's present, her mask about to drop, and she did not like it one bit.

****

The night sky over Collinsport was splashed with the cracking of thunder shattering the peace of the rain falling to the ground. In this downpour of a early spring storm, Serena Bellmoore stealthy made her way into the Collinsport Inn. Her covered herself in a dark trench-coat and black silk scarf over her hair. She was there at the request of Jeffery Shaw. It was invitation he insisted on.

She hopped into the elevator and made her way up to the hotel penthouse where Jeffery and Andrew had been staying. She knocked on the lacquered white door with golden door knob. She watched as it turned from the other side opening the door revealing Jeffery dressed in all black with the front room behind him dimly lit with only a few lamps lighting her way in.

"Be quick." Serena said removing her scarf from her head.

"The rain comes down so hard in these parts don't you think?" Jeffery said, purposefully stalling his time with Serena.

"I said be quick. What do you want Jeffery?" She questioned as she sat down on the plush white hotel sofas.

"The DNA that is flowing through my son's body has done it's job for the most part." Jeffery began as he slowly turned in his all black outfit looking as if he was floating in the dim light of room. "But there are some slight side effects that are more than I predicted." Jeffery said alluding to Andrew's transitions.

"Like what?" Serena questioned.

"The lycan DNA hasn't only given my son a second chance at life by corrected and healing the damaged cells in his body, it...." Jeffery paused because he couldn't believe what he was going to say next. "....it's also mutated his cells."

Serena's eyes widened. Her heart felt like it sunk into her stomach. The idea of what was in her mind about the word "mutated" could only mean one thing.

"He's changing?" She said softly fearing the confirmation that was surly to come from Jeffery's mouth.

"Yes." he answered quickly.

Serena got up quickly from the sofa and grabbed her scarf.

"No, I can't be involved anymore. Do you understand how dangerous this whole situation is? When we researched Sebastian's life, when you wanted his DNA, we read about what happened to his body, we read about all the things that could happen. I can't be apart of any of this anymore." Serena said as she started to make her way to the penthouse door.

"It's too late Serena, you already are. And the good thing about that is, no one knows just how involved you and Sebastian, really are. All that can change with one phone call. I can make sure that everyone, including Maggie Evans, go down. I'm not the only one with Christopher's blood on my hands...you're the one that took him instead of Sebastian like I asked you." Jeffery said. "So, if you want to keep it that way, if you want to keep the DA out of Maggie and Sebastian's hair, I suggest you stay here and listen to what I have to say." Jeffery said as the storm sent another thunder clap over the hotel flashing brightly in the hotel room.

"I said no." Serena replied.

"The Collins family is out for blood Serena, and now that I've been cleared of any wrong doing, you can bet their money and power in this state will put pressure on the district attorney to find someone responsible for Chris' death, and if it's not me...well..." Jeffery said, causing Serena to pause.

"I should have never helped you. I should have gone to the police when I hit Andrew with my car all those years ago and just gone to jail instead of dealing with you and your sick mind." Serena scolded, but she relented and sat back down to listen to Jeffery.

"I know, it's all so horrible. So, are you ready to hear of what I need from you?" Jeffery said smugly.

Serena looked at him and gave him a silent motion with her hand and facial expression showing that she had no choice, he had put her in a spot, there was no way she would let Maggie and Sebastian get tangled up in Jeffery's games.

"I thought you'd see it that way. Now, this shouldn't be too hard for you to do. The Collins family isn't as innocent in all this as they may seem. Christopher's altered DNA wasn't some insane environmental accident, and he certainly wasn't born that way, no, his mother was sicker than you think I am." Jeffery explained.

"How?" Serena questioned.

"Further reading in this log book in the research I found," Jeffery said, tossing Serena a book of notes he had taken on Sebastian, "shows that Sebastian's DNA, which is tied to Christopher's was synthetically created by a doctor named Kimberly Grayson-Collins." He finished, as Serena's eyes lifted when he said the Collins name.

"I thought that would spark your interest." He continued.

"So, Christopher was created that way too?" She wondered as she flipped through the notes.

"Yes, his mother planned to use Christopher as his lycan alter-ego to her advantage. It didn't work out, as we can see, but there are vials of antidote she created somewhere in her old office that I need you to retrieve. This serum can control Andrew's changes and it's only in one place." He explained.

"Where?" She asked.

"Kimberly's office in Collinwood." He explained.

"You have to be kidding me. You want me to, what? Break into that mansion and take vials of serum for you? How am I even superposed to do that? I wouldn't know where to start." Serena said.

"I'll help." A voice said from just over the living room area in the hotel suite.

Both Serena and Jeffery turned to see that Andrew himself had been listening the whole time.

"Son." Jeffery said standing up and coming over to Andrew who angrily rebuffed his father.

"Andrew, I..." Serena began to say, it was her first time really speaking to him in years after his coma.

"I'll help you get what I need to correct this, or make it better or whatever." Andrew said coldly to the two people who made him this way.

"I don't know if that's a good idea, son. It's not only the moon's pull and power that can alter you into ..." Jeffery paused before..."Alter you." He corrected himself, unable to call a werewolf by it's name. "There are other factors." Jeffery added

"Like what?" Serena questioned as the rain continued to pour.

"Stress, the amount of stress Andrew goes through can alter him as well. This would be too stressful." Jeffery said.

"No. If anyone is going to make sure that I don't hurt anyone with what you have done to me, It's going to be ME. No one else. I can do this, and I will do this. I'm taking control of myself, and making sure that this is the last time you are ever involved with my body. This is it." Andrew stated matter of factly.

"Well?" Serena said tying her scarf around her head as she began to make her exit.

"No. You're helping me too." Andrew ordered.

"You said you could do this?" Serena said attempting to skate Scot-free from her part in his altered state.

"You're just as guilty as he is. If you hadn't taken Christopher he would be alive today, and he's not. So you're to blame for that. So you're going to help me. I have a way into the mansion." Andrew said.

"How do you have a way?" Jeffery asked.

Andrew looked at his father who didn't know that Chris' memories were now his memories. Chris's past and life were now, too, apart of him. What Chris saw, Andrew could now see as if he saw it with his own eyes. Collinwood was not a strange place to Andrew even though it should have been.

His eyes knew the layout perfectly, and Alexandra, his new friend, would be his key in the front door.

Without replying to his father, Andrew pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed Alex's number.

She answered.

"Hey! Alex, it's Andrew?---I'm good, good, so listen, I was wondering if we could get together............tomorrow evening? Yes, that's ....that's perfect. I'll come by your place and we'll make a date of it ok? Great.... See you tomorrow."  Andrew said as his quick phone call finished.

Jeffery and Serena stood in the hotel suite in silence.

"This is going to be done my way, and my way only." Andrew said, as the thunder and lightening clapped again, illuminating and flashing on Andrew's face.

**** 

As she usually did around 10pm, Carolyn lay in bed reading. Her warm lavender bedding caressed her exposed feet and the rain soothed her while she flipped back page after page of Wuthering Heights. Her mind felt calm even though a storm raged just outside her window, in more ways than one.

As she began to fade off to sleep, she felt the staring of eyes upon her from the darkest corner of her room. She knew what this meant. She knew who it was. He had come to her like this before. It was how they usually had their most private and intimate talks and consolations.

As the thunder clapped and the flicker of lightening flashed in the room she saw him standing still in the corner staring at her with his cold eyes. Her decades old ancestor: Barnabas Collins.

Carolyn closed her book and said nothing to him, but stared back, fearless and sure of herself allowing only the fire in her fireplace to speak for her in crackles and sparks of burning wood. She continued to stay silence, defiant in his restraint to speak first, but within minutes he relented, something he always did when it came to Carolyn. He never could get one over on her.

"Wuthering Heights brings me such good memories." He said stepping out of the shadows.

"Why wouldn't it? It's about a man struggling to find his place in the world around him, doing all he can to connect to the one he loves even after she's gone from this world. I'd say it's practically your biography, give or take a few deaths." Carolyn mused.

Barnabas smirked and sat on the white sofa in her bedroom suite just across from the bed. He placed his cane firmly between his legs, his hands clasped over it's wolf handle and looked at her as if he wanted to know why, why would she and Julia attempt to kill him, but deep down he knew why. He just couldn't bring himself to admit he had caused all of their pain in the first place. Especially Carolyn's. Jude's death was solely squared on Barnabas' head.

And she knew it.

"Why are you here Barnabas? What do you want?" She said breaking the silence between them.

"We haven't had a chat in a while, Cousin. There is much we should discuss, I assume you'd like to get things out in the open as well." He said, his Cheshire cat grin blaring wide hoping she'd confess to conspiring with Julia to destroy him.

"As a matter of fact I do, I do have something to tell you." She answered in between rumblings of the storm outside.

"Very well." Barnabas said as he sat back to listen.

"I know what you did to Jude, I know everything there is to know. There's nothing you can say to me that will take away the anger that I feel towards you for killing him. To think, the only way you'd get what you wanted was for him to be out of the picture so that we'd all come back to Collinwood and recreate some sort of family just for you....it's stupid. And Selfish. Both things I can't put past you. I just wish ...." she paused before saying what she truly wished, that he was dead.

"Wished what? What do you wish for Carolyn?" Barnabas questioned feeling exactly what she really wanted to say.

"It doesn't matter. Nothing I really feel really matters to you anyway. You have no heart, only some sort of withered piece of muscle that drives you into more and more madness as the years pass you by." Carolyn answered.

"I'm sorry you feel that way, and I'm sorry you believe that I had anything to do with Jude's death." Barnabas said, trying to avoid the truth of what he had done.

Carolyn shook her head in disbelief that Barnabas was still denying it even after it was clear she had made up her mind and knew the truth.

"There really isn't much more we need to talk about, Barnabas, you have always know that I valued the way we could always be truthful with each other. After years and years of secrets in this house it was good to know that we could all at least live in honesty --between  us. But now I don't know how I can move forward knowing what I know." Carolyn said.

"Funny." Barnabas quipped.

"What is?"

"The idea of honesty, is such a important trait. Something that you do seem to value but I'm curious as know if you only value it those who are honest with you.... but you're not honest with them." He said hinting at something he knew too.

Carolyn's face changed. Something in her told her she was in danger. Barnabas stood up from the sofa and walked over to her bedside and grabbed her book. He smirked and began to flick through the pages.

There was a thunderclap, a spark of light from outside lit the windows up in bright white stormy light highlighting the worry written all over Carolyn's face.

"The main character in this book struggles, you see, he struggles to find his true place in society and often times finds it hard to trust those around him because, my dear cousin, a lot of times those that are the closest to you are the ones that end up betraying you the most. Wouldn't you agree?" He said slamming the book closed.

Carolyn said nothing.

"How's Julia? I know you two have been close. I know that you're the reason she's no longer with me, at the old house and here, with you....happy. Safe. Comfortable." Barnabas said, his voice calm and cold.

"She's getting more acquainted with Siobhan and little John. It was better for her to be here." Carolyn said, her words coming from her mouth slowly as if the caution would slow down Barnabas' next move.

He sat on her bed.

"You two have gotten close then, haven't you?" He said handing her the book back.

"Somewhat." She answered, she could tell now he knew that they had tried to kill him. She could see it in his eyes, she could tell there was a darkness in him that she hadn't seen in decades, something that felt more sinister than ever before.

"I don't like to feel betrayed Carolyn. Not by anyone. Especially not by the ones I have fought so hard to keep protected from the creature that I am. I don't like to be made a fool of and you and Julia have certainly done that. You know what happens when I begin to feel cornered....you know what happens, Carolyn, when I begin to feel as if I can no longer trust those closest to me. So I ask you...why.....why would Julia decide to do what she did..." he asked in a groan, then suddenly he lunged at her throat and growled "and why did you help her!!"

Carolyn swung her hand back and slapped Barnabas across the face with her book. The book flew out of her hand and crashed into the lamp exploding the bulb and breaking the base in a large pop of sound, this left the room pitch black with only the light from the fire glowing an orange/yellow haze across the large bedroom.

Barnabas took a breath after backing away from the blow to the face.

Within seconds of the altercation Carolyn leapt out of her bed and rushed to the open bedroom door but not before Barnabas made a fist with his hand. His leather gloves squeaked as the leather constricted around thick fingers. With this gesture the bedroom door slammed shut and locked, barring Carolyn from exiting.

She turned and looked at her ancient cousin who had a very small wound near his eye where the corner of the book sliced his skin open.

Barnabas removed his leather glove and felt the cut on his eye, a small drop of blood smeared on his finger, he licked it off and the wound began to heal itself and then vanished as if were never there.

"You're afraid of me." Barnabas said as he slowly made his way over to a shivering Carolyn who was standing in the orange glow of the fireplace.

"You're dangerous. I have always known that, but I never thought that you'd..." she said before he interrupted.

"That'd I'd what? That'd I'd come for you?" Barnabas giggled. "We all have our reckoning Carolyn. And helping Julia attempt to destroy me was perhaps your biggest mistake. But I'm not going to hurt you." He said as the tears began to well up in Carolyn's eyes.

"You've changed so much." Carolyn said in a whisper.

"I will always be here to remind you just how close you came to death, just how close I came to make sure Alexandra lost another parent. Now, my dear cousin, you'll remember where you stand in this place. Collinwood was my home first, and I decide who stays and who goes." Barnabas asserted.

"Don't you dare threaten me, Barnabas Collins, we all sleep at one point or another, even you. I wouldn't be so bold with words, I can make a stake out of just about anything." Carolyn said, her words burrowing deep into Barnabas' mind.

She was indeed a formidable opponent, but Barnabas' plans with Angelique were now taking center stage. He would take control over his childhood home, he would overpower everyone who stood in his way, it was only a matter of time, and Carolyn would live to fight another day.

"I see." Barnabas said replacing the glove on his hand. "Then it seems we've come at an impasse. You stand on one side and I on the other, but Carolyn only one of us can succeed at what we are attempting to do. Please don't forget that the strong willed Collins blood that flows through your veins has flowed through mine much, much longer and with much more ruthless rage." He said as her bedroom rood unlocked and slowly slid open revealing the darkened hallway.

The vampire, cold and angry was working through all the betrayals he had suffered at the hands of the people he believed loved him. He slowly made his way back to shadowy corner of Carolyn's room from which he came. He turned slowly to his shaking cousin, who never moved from her spot in front of the door, her arms firmly at her side, her legs solid in place as if to tell him she was not going anywhere either.

Then he smiled at her.

"I'll be by to see my grandson John very soon. I'm sure Siobhan wouldn't mind....Oh! And one more thing...." he paused. "Tell Julia I'll be back for her soon."

And with that cryptic warning for Julia, the woman Angelique made him he believe stabbed him with a stake, Barnabas disappeared. His body dissolved into the black shadows of the night leaving Carolyn alone in the room She fell to the bedroom floor releasing all of the tension she had held up while Barnabas stood there.

Carolyn's body was trembling, her mind was racing. Nothing could make her feel better about what had just happened, not even the soothing rain, or the soft white carpet her terrified body tried to seek comfort in. Her mind could only see the cold and vicious truth: Someone would have to end this curse forever and that meant Barnabas Collins could not survive.