Kira is dead, and the riot has died down. Those who had been fooled by her have learned the truth, and what had been done to their children. Barnabas has moved to Wyncliffe, and Julia has put him to work as an ombudsman/therapist. Willie has a broken arm. The sheriff has Derek spying on Carolyn as she continues to be an habitual troublemaker.

THE COLLINSPORT SYNDROME

Chapter 1

Roxanne Drew came into Julia's office.

A shiver ran through Julia. She looked the same way she had in 1970. And 1840...But it couldn't be her. her body had been dissolved by the sun's rays.

"Dr Hoffman?" Roxanne hesitated as if she wasn't sure what she was going to say.

"Yes. That's me." Julia's reply was more curt that in was needed. What do you want of me?"

"Help. If you are willing to give it to me."

"Depends on what kind of help you have in mind."

"I want to know who I am and where I come from."

"You don't know?"

"I call myself Roxanne Drew. But whether that is my real name..." she shook her head. "For all I know it might well be Josephine Knickerbocker Gundulf, or some other ridiculous name."

"You have no idea?"

"None whatsoever. As for your next question. I don't even remember not being a vampire. I know it must have happened, but how and when." she tapped her forehead "It is all a big blank...And I have other blanks..."

"How far back can you remember?'

"1850. Maryland."

"What can you remember? As far back as you can."

Roxanne's eyes became dreamy. "I remember a woman named Harriett Tubman... She asked me for help,... she knew there was something special about me... I had fed from her and unlike others she had not forgotten me... I remember being lost, not sure what to-do next. I figured that helping her would make me remember. Or at least know what I was supposed to be doing..."

"Is that all you remember?" Julia could not keep the skepticism from her voice.

"You don't like me much, do you, Dr. Hoffman?" Roxanne asked without rancor.

"It is not that..."

"You cannot forget what I did...what I tried to do to Maggie in 1970."

"In a way."

"I had my reasons."

"What were your reasons?"

"Since you are studying Sabrina's tapes you must also know that Maggie was a junkie at the time. And that I had kicked the habit myself not too long ago. She just hooked me again. As to why I attacked her the first time... let me ask you one thing? Have you ever loved somebody? Have you cared for him, protected him, given him hope when there was none? And then did you have to watch him turn away from you and go after some girl whose only claim on him was that she was sweet, and young, and virginal?"

"What does it have to do?" Julia bit her lip nervously.

"That's what happened to me and Sebastian. I picked him up from the gutter. If it hadn't been for me, he'd have O. D.'d a long time ago. I put him back on his feet. And the, came Maggie and took him away from me. Did you expect me not to fight for him?"

"Only it did not work."

"No. It didn't. It just got me kidnapped. I didn't enjoy the experience. And I appreciated even less being locked up while you told Sebastian to run away with his precious Maggie."

"But he came back for you."

"Because he found out that his precious Maggie was a junkie."

"And later you used it to blackmail her."

"It was easy money. Anyway, I got into plenty of trouble because of it." Roxanne became serious. "Dr. Hoffman, would you like a piece of advice? Better forget anything about Maggie being hooked on anything. And better find a way to protect yourself once you are done with the tapes.

"What do you mean?"

"Sabrina Jennings. I saw her kill Sister Kira. I agree that she needed killing, but still... You better not find out how far she will go to protect herself and Maggie."

"Thanks for the advice. Are you following it yourself?"

"Yes. I don't care to have her tape Sebastian's mouth and nose, as she did to that woman." Roxanne shivered in spite of herself. "She sat on her arms until she stopped twitching. And it took he a while to do so."

"Does killing bother you?"

"Yes. And don't look at me that way. I don't need to kill to sustain myself, so I don't."

"As far as you can remember."

"Yes. But that's not much, is it? Not with the kind of holes I got."

Julia sighed. "I think I may help you better if you told me as much as you could about yourself."

Barnabas studied the struggling man in the straightjacket. He had to be restrained, he knew, because otherwise she would hurt himself.

But how would being restrained like this help him to calm down?

He put his hand on the man's forehead and made his face turn. The man tried to escape him and snapped at his hand.

"Calm yourself. I mean you no harm."

The man hissed and tried to squirm away. Barnabas caught his head with both hands and kept staring straight at him.

"Look into my eyes." he said.

The man tried to look away, fighting Barnabas every inch of the way.

"What are you afraid of?"

"They..." he managed to answer "they want to kill me. They come with their pills and shots... they are doing it slowly.."

"Nobody wants to hurt you."

The man smiled ironically, moving his pinned arms as much as the straightjacket would allow.

That was an interesting problem. The restraints kept him from hurting himself and others. But they also reinforced his delusions.

It was David's problem all over again. The chain had prevented David from either running away or going back to the drugs. It also prevented him from doing anything that would make him want to be cured...

There had been a solution for David. It should work for this one, too.

As he was drinking he thought wryly about Julia ordering to feed off the patients, to help know what was in their minds. Well, he was doing as she asked.

The man's expression was somewhat calmer now. It was an artificial calm. But it was a start.

"You are going to be all right, now?' he said, while untying the straightjacket.

Xavier and Harry finished taking inventory of the damage.

"Not as bad as we had feared " Redwolf said.

"No. But you get here five minutes later and you'd have found me swinging from a lamppost."

"Well, we came as fast as we could" he shook his head. "It was a good thing that Phillip Todd had the brains to come to us as soon as he saw the trouble starting. I imagine that the opening will have to be delayed."

"Yes. And I will use some of the extra time to weed out the applications I received." he bit his lip angrily "Anyone who's a born again Christian goes to the circular file."

"I agree. If I never see any of them again it will be too soon for my taste. Do you want me to keep my men as security guards?"

"It would be better. The security the sheriff can provide is between zero and nonexistent."

Amy dreaded seeing Chris at the foot of her bed. His body tense, his face twisted, trying to look cheerful, trying very hard to make conversation and never finding an appropriate subject. Sighing...looking blankly ahead.

Why did he act like that? Was it because of what had been done to her? Did he think she was... defiled?

She whimpered. Would she ever able to forget those men grabbing her, throwing her down, tearing her clothes? Could she ever forget those faces, those hands? Could she ever be free of the revulsion that shook her body with every breath she took?

"Amy don't cry." Chris said bending over her.

But he pulled himself back. A man's hand over her body again...no, she couldn't handle that.

"He does not want to touch me" she thought, and sobbed again.

Roger showed his discovery to Delia.

"They were all buried in that place, just as I told you they would be."

Delia gulped. Those were strange contraptions, all right. She didn't remember seeing anything like it.

"Are you sure that was the site?"

"It was some yards off the site, but it was there."

"They were buried?" The unease she felt at seeing the strange objects made her voice queasy.

"Of course, it was buried." Roger looked at her. She looked strange...sounded strange...

"You think I am crazy, don't you? You don't believe me!"

"It is not that!"

"That's what you really think!"

"Roger, please."

For a moment it looked as if he would strike her. but then, some part of his mind remembered the beating he had taken from her. He just grabbed the box with the objects, and went to the door.

"If you don't believe me, Davenport will!"

There was a piece of string lying on the ground. Barnabas bent down and picked it up. He was tying one of its ends to the ball he always carried in his pocket when Sabrina came in.

"Don't tell me you have taken to saving string."

"Well," Barnabas did not want to admit he had. "I don't like to see tings lying around . How are you doing? he asked, quickly changing conversation.

"Could be worse." Sabrina said between clenched teeth.

"Too bad about Amy."

"Amy. And Chris. And everything."

"Trouble with Chris?"

"No. He just doesn't want me anymore." she turned her face away.

"Would you like a shoulder to cry on?" Barnabas offered.

"What's the matter? You hungry again?"

"Not really. But I developed this compulsion to lend my shoulder to people."

"Why do you do it? You get a kick out of it?"

"I did not realize it at first.. They just took advantage that I was there, and that my mouth was busy, and used my shoulder to cry on and tell me their troubles. Then they thanked me afterwards. And because listening to troubles over and over can be a bit depressing, I tried to do something about it. Either give advice, or come up with a solution...and when that worked, it made me feel good about myself, and what I had to do."

"And you want me to make you feel good about yourself now?"

"Well, if you think it helps you do it. But you should tell it to someone, even if it is not me."

"You've been reading psychology books again."

"They come with my new job."

"Well, what can your books say about Chris threatening to tear my throat out if I don't keep away from him?"

Barnabas nodded sadly. "He's very angry these days. And it isn't only because of Amy. There is too much rage bottled up inside of him."

"Rage? At me?

'You. Me. Julia. And now everybody in town.

"Why would he hate you or Julia? You are his friends. You helped him."

"We were always telling him what to do." Barnabas sighed "he never had the chance to make his own decisions. I used to think that my case and his were alike. But I was wrong. There was an experience of his that I didn't share."

Sabrina made herself listen without injecting a biting comment.

"He grew up with the knowledge of his curse. Can you imagine what growing up must have been like for him? Children get angry at adults. They try to rebel. And when they reach a certain age they do, and go on their own. But he...each time he tried that it was treated as the curse coming earlier than expected. He learned that he could not afford anger. He couldn't afford to rebel against adults. He couldn't afford to try to make his own decisions. He needed to be guided at all times, if he was to keep the wolf under control. So he's been always pushed around. For his own good. But for his own good or not, he still was pushed around twenty four hours a day. He never learned how to make decisions, because he was not allowed to.,"

"He did. He had a vasectomy. And never told me."

"Is that why you are so angry with him?"

"I can understand him doing it. But lying to me about it...going behind my back.."

"He was probably afraid that you'd not agree."

"I am not that hard to convince."

"But he does not know how to convince. All he knows is how to plead and how to obey. Megan told him to go into business with her, and he did. You told him you wanted a detective agency, so he agreed. Julia told him...well, you see. No one asked him what he truly wanted. Not until Amy moved back with him...There is a lot of rage bottled up in him, and now it is coming up."

"And what do you suggest I do?"

Barnabas sighed. He knew how little she would want to take his advice. As little as he'd want, were their positions reversed.

"Keep away from him. Leave him alone to find his way."

"To sink his money into another worm farm?"

"If needs be, yes. He needs to make his own mistakes too, and learn from them."

"That's easy for you to say."

Barnabas was about to reply to this when Julia appeared on the corridor, looking angry.

"Barnabas, will you come into my office? I want to talk to you."

Barnabas went, leaving Sabrina alone.

"With that kind of look, she may fire him today..." she said to herself.