COLLINSPORT 1979

Seven years have passed. A lot can happen in seven years, specially in Collinsport. So, we find our characters in changed circumstances. Barnabas and Angelique are together at last. Barnabas is still a vampire, but has learned to live with it. Megan Todd - who is alive because Willie flunked anatomy - came back and put him straight about a few things, mainly that vampirism is no excuse for stupidity. She taught him to be smart about his need for blood, and that made things better for everybody.

But some people can't stay out of trouble. Some characters are still around. Some are temporarily absent, and old characters may return. You just have to be patient...

Chapter 1

Angelique wished she hadn't seen Quentin. He had been after her, asking her to repent of her sins in that droning way of his.

"You have to obey the will of God. You have to follow his plan."

"For God's sake, can you stop talking in clichés?" she has asked, irritated.

"They are the truth. They changed me. You remember how I used to be in the old days. But no more... If you and Barnabas were to repent..."

"He didn't get into trouble that way. I did something terrible to him and I cannot undo it.."

"Ask Jesus. Ask him to come into you life. I did and my life has been changed."

"So now you are going to destroy your portrait?" Angelique burst out.

The shot had told. Whatever his faith, it wasn't enough to risk dying of old age. Or going back to howl at the moon in all fours. Christ Jennings had adapted to it, but Chris was basically a normal, dull person. If he hadn't had the tendency to turn into a wolf every now and then, he would have ended up a CPA. It wasn't likely that the accident-prone Quentin could manage that well.

The main trouble with Quentin, she realized now, was that he had not sense whatsoever in his stupid head. Even after being "born again", common sense was not one of his virtues.. She remembered all the things he had gone through: he had been a ghost, a zombie, a werewolf, had been given eternal youth, and somebody had exchanged minds with him. Then all those women... He had seemed so heartbroken when Amanda had been lost to him. But before long, he had been back in the running. She knew of at least two illegitimate children. And there would have been more if it hadn't been for the Pill. One thing about Quentin, he was reliable. You could always rely on him to get into trouble.

" I trust Jesus to guide me. The Lord is my Shepherd" There he was, preaching again.

She stood up, impatiently. "I will not stop going to be with him. I love him, and he needs me."

"Are you happy? Are you really happy?" His face showed that he thought they were not.

"Of course, we are."

"So why don't you look it?"

"I do not know what you see or imagine you see." she said defensively "we are both happy. As happy as we can possibly be."

Finally she managed to get rid of him. Damn it, he was right. She didn't look happy. She wasn't happy. It would be ironic if after all those years she had scrambled to get Barnabas, she would tire of him so quickly. She remembered how she felt the first time she had seen him. How she desired him. Year after year he rejected her, and year after year she yearned for him more and more. Finally he had come to her. In pain, as his little world collapsed around him. Oh, she was so happy then... And a few months later, where had the happiness gone?

She rubbed her face and tried to compose a smile. He must never know how she felt. She couldn't reject him now. Julia had quarreled with him. Carolyn wouldn't talk to him. She knew that for him Carolyn was the daughter he could never have. Maggie was in Washington, doing a good job in the House of Representatives and eyeing Muskie's Senate seat. He knew that Maggie didn't love him. It had been a staffer's mistake when he received a letter addressed to Dear Constituent. But he got the idea all the same.

Nothing was the way it had been. David and Amy living in a commune, dropping every now and then to bring some organically grown squash and pot. Roger went around accusing everyone of framing Nixon. Elizabeth had married a man much younger than herself and gone away. It made you yearn for the good old days when occult forces were gathering to attack them from every quarter. Once the threats were gone, nothing could keep the family together. She suspected that all the guilt Barnabas had been suffering for his need for blood was nothing compared to the depression that hit him when the family fell apart and he couldn't do a thing about it.

She had come to her. In pain. And she had closed her arms around him, digging her nails in his back. She had finally gotten him! And in her triumph, she didn't notice his pain.

And now...what was there between the two of them?

She came in. He wasn't there. Out in some business of his own... Which meant either of two things. He was out to lunch, or he had run into someone who needed help. She suspected the latter. He liked to help people. That seemed to be the only thing that could get him off his depression. He did have a nose for trouble... He had also ran Maggie's firsts campaign, and was always circulating petitions or soliciting contributions for worthy causes. What was the last one? She should be able to remember it. After all, living together as they did, she should know of these things.

Perhaps that was it. In all those years she had been trying to get him, she had never stopped to find out what he was really like. Maybe she had known him once. But after so much time, she had forgotten he could change. Or that she herself could. When he came to her, what did she care? She had landed him, hung her trophy on the wall.

She went to the liquor cabinet and poured herself a drink.. She swallowed it in a gulp and poured herself another. She hated herself. She remembered the day she had put the curse on him. All because he didn't want her. Well, now he wanted her. She didn't want him, and he was still cursed.

She sobbed. If he could at least blame her, she would feel better, but no, he never spoke of the past. He just told her he loved her. Why did he have to be so damn decent about it? Why couldn't she love him? Why did he need her so much?

Suddenly a bat flew in through the window. She jumped to her feet, but it was only her friend, Megan Todd.

"Her isn't here" the newcomer said. "which means I can smoke."

"There are no ashtrays."

"That bad, eh?" Megan shrugged in her usual fashion. "All these moral uplift commandos are the same. They are always trying to improve the rest of us, whether we ask them or not. Do you believe that he's warned me about lung cancer? As if I could catch it.'

"He means well. And he feels responsible for you."

"Well, that's water over the bridge. I don't blame him for that. Just bad luck. If only he hadn't tried to get me killed..."

"You must understand, being what he is terrible for him."

"It isn't so terrible for me. After all, it helped me make a bundle out of draft dodgers before Nixon screwed me up by abolishing the draft. He could have made a bundle, too, if he had wanted."

"He couldn't have done that."

"I know. He is not a hustler. He isn't at all like you or me. The problem is that he might have to learn the tricks in a hurry."

"What do you mean?"

"His money is running out"

"What do you mean?"

"Willie asked me to check it out. He got to figuring that Barnabas was always spending money and never earning it. You know how he helped Willie get back on his feet after that deal of his.":

"When he bought that Florida swampland from my worthless brother."

"So he feels he must now help Barnabas."

"Well, what did you find?"

"He had bought some quite a number of shares before... before you ran into him. Some joint venture between him and his uncle. When he came out, he still had them, and they were actually worth a lot. So he used that money. It would have lasted longer considering all the expenses he doesn't have "- she looked around quickly. "This place is not even wired for electricity. But he is too generous for his own good, and now he's touching bottom...in short, we better get him a job, quickly."

"Well, what can I do?"

"Convince him to take any job that is offered to him. Willie is now in Washington, trying to get Maggie to help. We figure that with luck he'll land a Federal job.":

"Why a Federal job?"

"Federal employees cannot got around circulating petitions or soliciting contributions."

"Only collecting taxes."

"It isn't the same things. Tax collectors do not risk getting tarred and feathered the way Barnabas might end up."

"Tarred and feathered why? He's nor hurting anyone. The know that. You are the only accident he had here."

"They do not object to that. Of course, they would like for him to do what I do. Have sex at the same time... Say, your sex life is all right?"

"He's not impotent."

"Sometimes he acts so screwed up that I wonder. Anyway, what they really object to is being wakened up in the middle of the night to sign a petition to try Kissinger as a war criminal."

"But Kissinger is a war criminal."

"And for that you fly into people's bedrooms and waked them up at 3 AM? People like their eight hours of sleep. And I will make sure they get them before they get violent."

"I hope they don't" Angelique shuddered.

"Forgive me for prying, but are you happy with him?"

"Of course." Why did she ask the same question as Quentin?

"So those are tears of happiness, I see. Look, I know that something is wrong with you two. And I have a hunch I know what it is."

"What is it, then?"

"You two do not belong together. You are a hustler, like me. He is an idealist with a thousand causes, and he gives his all to each and every one of them. You don't what they are and you don't care. I don't think that you would have worried about Kissinger if you hadn't heard from him. If he did not feel so damn lonely and you so damn guilty, you would have realized it long ago."

Angelique tried unsuccessfully to deny once more.

"You are wrong. We are both happy."

"I wish it were so. It breaks my heart to see you like this."

"Are you trying to seduce me again?" Angelique smiled.

"No" Megan shook her head. "We tried that once and it didn't work. I just can't be faithful to anyone. It is a good thing that Philip is dead and can't see me now. He loved me too much for my own good."

"Do you need the sex or is it just a way of getting at the blood?"

"Don't be silly. Of course, it is just the sex. I can live very well on animal blood. But I need to have sex. And biting can make it more interesting.

"I see."

"Don't you two ever do that?"

"Never."

"You should try it. But I guess that he is a special case. he feels awful guilty about it. And he just loves poking his nose into everybody else's business. He's the champion dispenser of unsolicited advice in the area. So every time he bites someone, he has a wonderful opportunity to feel guilty and to unburden his conscience by subjecting his victims to his unsolicited advice. That's why I thought about a Federal job. Seems a good place for him to end up. He might drive his boss crazy, but he will be getting paid for it, so that's OK."

"And you want me to talk him into accepting it?"

"Yes, after Maggie, Willie, and me have got it."