Angelique is held captive by Roxanne Drew after escaping Tom Jennings. Vicky Winters has come back but with a sinister agenda. Tom Jennings has been captured after wreaking havoc while possessing his twin's body, but not before a brutal assault on Phillip Todd. A reporter has, after being kidnapped agreed with Barnbas to kill the story she was chasing in exchange of new stories, the idea being that if Barnbas is a source, she will be duty bound to protect him..
CAPTIVE ANGELIQUE
Chapter 1
"You should rest." Delia said sternly to Oriana "you are not fully recovered yet."
"Just let me finish this."
"If you keep at it, you may not be discharged tomorrow. What is it that you are writing, anyway?"
"The article I came here for. Well, not really. But it is a good one, and Barnabas will like it. No, don't worry, I don't say anything there that I shouldn't"
"Can I read it?"
Oriana bit her lip. She wanted Barnabas to be the first one to read it. Still, if she didn't let Delia look at it, there would be rumors as to what actually she had written about, and more problems.
"All right, you can tell me what you think of it."
"Oriana will come back tomorrow." Phillip rubbed the table top with the dust rag. "I have come to see to it that her room is ready for her."
"I don't think that you need to do much. It is still the same way it was when... when she left."
Phillip continued dusting nervously, unable to remain still.
Barnabas nodded knowingly. It wasn't dust that bothered Phillip now.
"Come here, Phillip." he said, "sit down."
Phillip looked up in alarm "What is it? Something wrong?"
"Just sit down."
Phillip did so, looking warily around, ready to jump at any moment.
"You can't get over it, yet." Barnabas took his hand. "what Tom did to you."
Phillip nodded, gritting his teeth.
"Do you blame me for it?"
"You? For what?"
"It was me that Tom was looking for. You were just caught in the middle. If you hadn't been inside this house..."
"Where else could I have been?" Phillip managed a brave smile, not too well. "It isn't you that I am blaming."
"Who, then?"
"Me."
"But why? It wasn't your fault."
"I should have carried the saw inside when I heard Amy scream. I could have figured a way to jump him..."
"And get Amy killed?"
"He told me to gag her, and I did." Phillip said bitterly "Her and Oriana both. I tied them, and when I was done I tied my own legs and gagged myself. All he had to do was to tie my hands...he could have used that stake on you..."
"Well, he didn't"
"Not thanks to me. I should have done what you did."
Barnabas shook his head sadly. "You couldn't"
"It could be done. You managed it."
"Because I could disappear and reappear behind him. And because I knew, kmew, not just believed, that Oriana would be better off with her throat cut than in his hands. If it hadn't been for that, I would have done what you did."
Phillip didn't look convinced. Probably wouldn't be for a long time.
"What about your sax?" Barnabas decided to try another tack. "don't you play it anymore?"
"I...I don't feel like playing in public..."
"Why not?"
"I am afraid of...of the people. Of them looking at me. I mean, how long until they start wondering what it was that Tom did to me? Will they see me as you did, all trussed up, face down, my pants down to my knees...?"
He couldn't continue. He sobbed uncontrollably while Barnabas held him.
"You just play Phillip. You are good. For whatever reason they'll come to see you, they'll stay for the music."
Phillip shook his head. "No. I am too afraid."
Barnabas said nothing to this. He knew that the sooner Phillip started playing again and keeping busy, the better it would be for him, but it was difficult to convince Phillip of that.
"Is that the reason why you avoid Iris now?" he finally asked.
"Part of it."
"What's the other part?"
"I want to break off the engagement. I already wanted to before...before this happened."
It didn't surprise Barnabas. That engagement, as the affair that had preceded it, had been just the result of Angelique's magic. And now that was gone.
His face darkened remembering what he had been told about her. Tom had probably killed her and buried her body somewhere. Strange of Angelique to let herself be overpowered so easily. But then she had been on the edge of a breakdown the last time he had seen her.
That last time... he probably had pushed her into it, weakened her will, her fighting instinct, letting her be e3asy prey to Tom Jennings.
"I don't think that Iris really wants me. She just wants to get back at you."
"I suspected that."
"And you said nothing?"
"Iris is one of those persons who can get very obstinate if you contradict them. If prefer to let her find out for herself. What about you? Did you want her?"
"In a way. We had become friendly. She came to listen to me play and we talked a lot. I still miss Megan. Maybe I wanted to hurt you."
"Like I owed you a woman?"
"Yes."
Barnabas sighed. "But that's not a good basis for a marriage"
"No." Phillip agreed. "Do you know why she's mad at you?"
"I guess my fling with Maggie has something to do with it?"
"A bit. But most of all she resented the casual way that you were off to Wyncliffe and had not time for her anymore."
"But we agreed that we would not have a commitment."
"It is not that she didn't want one. She was just scared of what a commitment to you might mean."
Barnabas' hand rested over his mouth.
"That's right." Phillip nodded. "it scared her all right. She had hard time both puling you close to her and trying to keep at a safe distance at the same time."
"It is complicated, all right" Barnabas acknowledged.
Then Phillip shivered. Barnabas took him in his arms and held him there, knowing that it would take a time until Phillip calmed down.
What was happening in Vicky's room? Roger wondered. Still at this hour the light hadn't been turned off and there was a strange breathing noise coming from underneath.
Roger glued his ear to the door. Yes, it was a breathing sound, all right. He tried the door. Maybe he could open it a crack...
"Somebody is trying to get in" Nicholas said, taking a gun.
"No killing" Vicky said quickly "We cannot afford it. Send Derek to handle it."
There were two of them, Vicky and Nicholas. What were they saying? Roger bent forward, pushing the door open a bit more. Maybe he could see what they were doing...
Then strong hands seized him.
"Don't move." Derek said in a strange, dreamy voice "don't make a noise."
He opened Roger's collar with mechanical movements. "Just don't move and it won't hurt."
Roger shoved him back and ran for the stairs. Derek ran after him and caught him, trying hard to pinion his arms.
Nicholas ran out of the room, gun in hand.
Derek and Roger were on the floor. Derek had managed to put one hand over Roger's mouth and was using the other one to hold him down.
"All right" Nicholas put his gun to Roger's temple "Don't do anything or..."
There was a light, and approaching footsteps.
"What's the matter?" Quentin asked from the end of the corridor.
"I..." Nicholas made his speech slurred. "I tripped coming up the stairs."
"Drunk as always" Quentin shrugged and turned back.
Nicholas waited until Quentin had closed his door and turned to Roger.
"All right." he said opening Roger's collar. "now you be a good boy and let Derek do."
Roger would be now in Derek's control, just as Phillip was.
That is, if Phillip's latest experience hadn't dislodged it. Well, even if it did, it would make no difference. If he talked about bottles now, it would be about the one that Tom had used on him.
"Is it done?' Vicky asked him as he went back to her room.
"Yes. Roger won't give us any more trouble now."
"I hope so." Vicky shrugged. "Next time that you get a vampire under control, try to pick one who isn't a klutz."
Willie stirred the food in his plate. He wasn't hungry. In fact, the vegetables looked repulsive.
"Anything wrong?" Louella asked.
He shook his head. Anything wrong...when everything seemed to be wrong all at once.
"You don't like the food?"
He shrugged. If only she'd stop talking. Her voice made a rasping sound. It grated his nerves to hear her talk.
"Tell mw what's wrong" she insisted "Is it money? They shop?"
"Will you shut up!"
"Can't you tell me when he'll be back? Megan insisted.
"No, I can't"
There was something odd about Delia, Megan noted. It was as if...as if she was afraid.
Afraid of what? Derek? It made no sense.
"Why do you need him?" Delia asked warily.
"I want to offer him a job. I am somewhat shorthanded with Chris in Wyncliffe, and Angelique...:"
She didn't finish. She didn't want to remember what had happened to Angelique. Sandy had been lucky...but Angelique...
She had to get out of Delia's house.
She remembered how she had screamed at her, how she had humiliated her by demoting her and giving Tammy her old position... And now she could not tell her how sorry she was.
What had Tom done to her before he killed her? What she knew of what Tom and done to Sandy and Phillip...
She tried to hold on to hope, remembering that Angelique was hard to kill, and that sooner or later she would come back.
Frank was already getting drunk at the Blue What. Megan saw him from the window and decided to share his misery.
She sat in the stool next to him. "You are thinking about her, too." she said, sadly.
"I never gave her a chance." he said " Of course, she could not stop thinking of Barnabas. But I couldn't stop those thoughts I had, either. What she was, what kind of powers she had, what she could do to me if she got angry. I was afraid half the time that she did to me what she did to Barnabas... I never tried to know her.
"Do you want to hear my piece?" she said with bitterness "I virtually kicked her out. We were friends. The agency was both our idea. And she was good at it. But because of that one mistake in judgment when it came to handle the Falchi girl I humiliated her in public. I forced her to quit Collinsport. And...And that creep took advantage of that... Nobody missed her...We thought that she was away while she was...she was...
Tears ran down her cheeks. Frank held her hand and squeezed it.
"You didn't know it was going to end like this. "If you had known..."
"If I had known, I'd personally delivered that creep to Dr Hoffman. I hope he rots there!
