The Leviathan have been defeated. Peace returns to Collinsport. But the aftermath of a battle is rarely joyous. There are casualties with wounds that take long to heal. Among those are Phillip, Vicky, Carolyn, Derek, and Sandy. And Roxanne who is losing more and more control each day
ROXANNE DREW
Chapter 1
Angelique was acting absentminded, to say the least, Megan noted, and she had been doing it for too long.
"Anything wrong" she asked sympathetically "You think that they might be coming back again?"
"Not for a very long while"
"Then why aren't you acting happier?"
"It is Sebastian..."
"Sebastian? You mean the one who lives with Roxanne?"
"Yes. I am worried that Roxanne will make him pay for not keeping a stricter watch on me."
"The way she loves him? Not a chance."
"There is something about her that scares me."
"Like a guilty conscience?"
Angelique shook her head with conviction. "It is more than that. Sebastian himself told me how she changed since she got her memory back."
"Will you mind explaining yourself? What is with Roxanne's memory?"
"Roxanne survived as a pawn for the creatures who employ her. She does their dirty work. And believe me, they had plenty of it. They might be more well intentioned than the Leviathan, but their methods are too similar. Eventually it gets too much for Roxanne. She tried to get hooked, so as to be useless. Instead they erased her memory, and allowed her to believe that she was a different person. One who was helpful, and devoted to good causes. And who could not always remember much... but who remembered that she was a good person. Until she was needed again. She did again the dirty work, and once it was done, her memory was wiped out... At some point her secondary personality must have suspected the truth, and that's when she finished hooking herself. Then she met Sebastian, and loved him. Between the both of them, they kicked the drug.. She though that they had a future together. Then she got her memory back."
"Whatever her personality is, she loves Sebastian. I talked enough with her about it."
"But what future can he have with her? Suppose he...converts him. It is not only vampirism. It is working for those... creatures. Sebastian does not know what will happen to him."
"So you want to rescue him?"
"Yes."
"And take something else from her? Something of value? Persecute her again?"
"But..."
"Look you are the last person who should interfere there. You have done enough harm to her. Let her enjoy what she can of her existence."
"But Sebastian..."
"Is old enough to make his own decisions."
"He shouldn't be subject to that!"
"Neither should Roxanne. But you condemned her to it. So leave her alone. Let her have Sebastian."
Vicky stared at the ceiling, not a muscle moving in her face.
"She's been like that since that...thing left her body." Julia said with weariness in her voice. "Nothing seems to bring her around."
Barnabas touched her cheek. Only its warmth told him that Vicky was still alive.
"Roxanne said that she went through the Ring." he said, dully "she never learned of anybody recovering form that. But then, they were not looking for a cure too hard."
"Don't put your hopes too high. She might never recover."
"Still we have to try."
Julia sighed. "Yes, we have to try. It seems so hopeless... And the Ring is still there, and it is still being used..."
Barnabas smiled crookedly "Is that a hint to tell me to hurry in getting the information out of Phillip?"
"Roxanne might lose her patience and take matters into her own hands."
"I will keep her away from Phillip. If she still wants to get even, she can collect on me, not on Phillip. He never hurt her in any way."
Barnabas picked up Vicky's hand. It might well have been a rag that he was picking. He held it, squeezed it, pressing it against his cheek..."
Vicky's eyes remained empty as he let the hand fall down again.
"I have to go." Julia said. "but you can stay with her if you wish."
She went out, while Barnabas' eyes never left Vicky's face.
Vicky. Victoria Winters. Memories rushed back to him. She had sought happiness first with Burke Devlin, and then with Jeff Clark. And he had been in the way. It gladdened him that at least he had caused neither Burke nor Jeff's death. But he had wanted to... And if Vicky had married Burke none of this would have happened to her...
No, Burke had to die to keep him from marrying Burke. The Leviathan had her eye on her and would not tolerate interference of any kind. If need be, they would have used him to remove Burke as they had used him to remove Jason McGuire...
He should feel relieved to know that the responsibility for that death was not wholly his. Nor the responsibility for Carl Collins' death. But it did not make him feel better. It made him feel worse... To know that he had been a pawn, that he had been used so easily... the sense of personal violation would not go away...
He wondered what had happened to Jeff Clark/Peter Bradford. According the Phillip, when Peter came to his cell, claiming vengeance against Jeb Hawkes he had a noose around his neck... So he had not really saved them in 1795 with his trip to the past...
He rearranged Vicky's hair to keep it away from the face and adjusted the bedcovers. In a couple of hours she would have to be moved so that she didn't develop bedsores...
"Is that all we can do for you now?" he asked, sick with the knowledge that it probably was.
"Maybe there is more." A voice said behind him.
He was not surprised to see Peter Bradford there, the noose still around his throat.
"So there was no happy ending for you too."
"You tried. but... but you did not know the whole story."
"What did they do to you?"
"They captured her and took her away. As for me, it was an easy matter to frame me for some murder and let me hang.. So they did."
"I... I am sorry."
"For what? It was none of your doing. All you did is believe that you were giving us a future... They just used you. You were as much property to them as Vicky was." he paused and added bitterly "You should have cut off my head, as Lang said. Then none of this would have happened."
"I should never have tried to do that."
"It would have been better for everybody if you had. I would not have pulled Vicky back to them. She would not be like this now... It might even have been better if you should have made her like you... that would have protected her..."
"It didn't protect me. It didn't protect Derek."
Peter shook his head." I should have never set eyes on her. Never returned her love. When she came to me I should have beaten and raped her..."
"No, you should not have."
"Why not? Look what my love did to her."
"You didn't know it would end like this."
"Does it matter what I knew?"
Barnabas decided it was time to change conversation. "You said that there is something I could do.".
"Yes. It is a long shot. You, due to your condition, have certain powers. Maybe you could use them to reach into her mind... If she still has any mind to be reached."
"You think it is possible?"
Peter bent again over Vicky. "Do what you can for her."
"I will. If there is a way, I will find it."
"Good." he straightened , slowly. He stood erect, as he probably had that morning when the rope had been fastened to his throat. "I will hold you to it."
"Uncle Roger..." they took my baby" Carolyn wept. "They killed it, and now I will never have another one."
Roger patted her hand. He didn't understand much of what had happened... he seemed to remember strange things, too weird to be real, and too vivid to be dreams... But he knew that Carolyn was crying and that he could do nothing to help her.
"They tell me that it had to be done." Carolyn had forced out of her mind the memories of being shut in a dark place, or of the snake mouth opening to swallow her... it was all dreams caused by the anesthetic, she told herself..
"Her child could not do what they said he did! It was a trick. At trick of Barnabas! The monstrosity that Kenneth claimed had been the fetus.. She couldn't have carried it inside of her! They were lying, all of them! "They... they killed my baby" she repeated.
"Who were they?" Roger asked.
"Barnabas. He wants to be Master of Collinwood, and my child was in the way."
Barnabas had done this to Carolyn. Roger straightened up slowly. It was all his fault... He should have known that Barnabas would do something like that... He had tried to protect Carolyn, but he had failed...
He had failed the only person who cared for him.
But he would not fail her again. Barnabas would pay for this.
Carolyn moaned, hiding her face in the pillow. Her baby, her beautiful baby, gone... There would be no more babies, no more Collinses...
And they wanted her to believe that she had been pregnant of a monstrosity ...Liars... all of them liars...
"Oh, Jebb, I am so sorry.. I lost our baby..."
Nicholas looked at the stumps of his arms. He had no more hands. They had been amputated as they had been too mangled by Sandy's teeth. They said that he could use prosthetic devices. Hooks, which, as they said, could do as much as his own hands...
Except make magic passes properly...
He had been attacked by a werewolf... But he could not count on the full moon for the pleasure of tearing up the throats of those in his personal enemies list. Come the full moon, there would be no metamorphosis. A small ceremony by Angelique had destroyed the cures. A ceremony that had a small window of 48 hours after infection to be effective...
There was a cough by the door and Sheriff Brant entered the room.
"You came here to gloat?"
"I came to deliver a warning."
"A warning?"
"You lost both hands. Maybe that will be enough to teach you to stay out of trouble."
"They made me do it! Vicky Winters, she forced me into it."
"There is no way we can prove otherwise." George said "still, the way Derek remembers it, in that little ceremony you subjected Mrs. Collins to, you were a too willing participant. Roger, Derek, and Dr. Taft were all sickened by it. But you just taunted Mrs. Collins."
If Derek had recovered his memory to that extent...if his power was all gone again..."
"You are a lucky man, Mr. Blair, relatively speaking. We cannot prove that you were a willing participant."
"You call this lucky"" Nicholas lifted his arms.
"Yes. Because Mrs. Collins doesn't believe what we tell her. She keeps insisting that it is a trick of Barnabas to get rid of her baby. That's why she had not hired Angelique to put the shadow on you again."
Nicholas gulped.
"If I were you, I'd get out of town in a hurry. Go back to selling Florida swampland."
