Chapter 1

Prolog

My name is Victoria Winters; my life has not been the same since my return from the nightmare that was the past. I find that I am confused, afraid, and lost in what was my life. The man I knew in this time was a kind, generous and caring man. The man in the past was very much the same but he had taken paths that lead him to the death of most of his family.

In that lifetime, which is what it seems it was, the Peter Bradford that so strongly resembles Jeff Clark could be as Barnabas from the past and today; one and the same man. I must admit that Trask from then and the Trask today are vastly different. Where one was a lascivious debauched man of lust to the Trask of today; who is focused, directed and somewhat possessed for success may be the same but something about them is different.

Where one-man wants to make a name for him self as a successful lawyer the other wanted to make a name for him self as a successful witch hunter. Now I find myself once again surrounded by familiar faces, yet unfamiliar and it unnerves me. Those from the past have contemporaries' in this time but in different veins. Again, I am confused and afraid. I cannot say why but I know that my life is in danger and hangs in balance between light and darkness. My skin crawls with the ambivalent feelings of flux and calm.

Widows Hill

Victoria ambled towards a path that had been worn down over the many years of others traveling to the location known as Widows Hill. The sun was just beginning to fight for its last hurrah guiding itself to the west horizon to set in a final burst of orange, red, yellow and a hint of grey as the thin cloud bank that preceded a front was making its way to the coast.

That was what was so upsetting. She had remembered going back in time and living with people that she had read about in the Collins Family History and some she had not read about. She knew how close to death she had come and she was frightened at the thought that she might not have made it back to her time, to this place she had come to love. She sighed stepping to the edge of Widows Hill and looked down at the crash of the waves in their deadly pursuit to try and wear down the rocks that had formed this hill many thousands of years ago.

This was the place, that Josette had plummeted to her death and there had been nothing that Vicki could do to prevent her death. She was so beautiful and sweet and so much in features like her dearly departed friend Maggie Evans. Vicki had been struck at how close her resemblance was to Maggie.

Looking up at the now darkening sky she felt the rise of the wind. A wind that if one listened close enough could swear that it was wailing out the names of those that had jumped willingly from this cliff so long ago. It was a sound that had called many to their deaths to the rocky abutment below.

"Why Josette? I know you loved Barnabas not Jeremiah? Was it guilt? What sent you over the edge to the embrace of such a cold painful death below?" She had not realized that she has spoken aloud and when the deep sad voice behind her answered,

"Perhaps it was because she was running from something that frightened her more than her guilt, her love or her common sense and was fighting it when she fell?"

Hearing that voice she spun around and nearly lost her own footing and felt that sickening uncontrolled feeling of falling. "VICKI!" His voice was filled with panic and fears he rushed with inhuman speed to reach out and grasp her hand and jerk her body back and close to his. He could feel her heart beat in her wrists. He held them tightly to his chest, and in her chest, her heart was racing with her fear of nearly tumbling off that cliff to certain death below. He could smell the pheromones of her fear on her body. The very palatable smell of a heightened chemical reaction of fear filled his senses and then amongst that was her smell, the smell she used in her shampoo, her soap and her perfume.

The smell she chose that was what was hers; lilacs that now filled his very sensitive senses. His nostrils flared with the scent of something different than her fear, her anxiety, and her lilac smell. There was another close by and he could smell him too. Her breathing began to slow and relax and she swallowed to keep her voice steady, she rested her forehead against the strong expanse of his chest and it felt normal again, it felt right and it felt secure. Her words were soft and it held a hint of regret. "Barnabas. You can let me go, I think I am fine." Barnabas smiled and stepped back with her still held tightly and close to his body. She awakened in him something he had not felt for a very long time. The feelings surprised him. It was a long forgotten feeling, ones he thought he would never have again.

Old House earlier after rising from his sleep of the dead

Barnabas had arose from his sleep, he gently stroked the top of the highly polished coffin and sighed, looking around what had become his life, he walked slowly up the steps to the drawing room and paused looking around the area. His thoughts began to drift back to a time he was trapped and unable to live his life. He began to remember those long nights he laid awake in his coffin, and thought of Josette falling to her death off that cliff, the feelings of want and need he felt the blood lust wash over him and the thought he would lay in this state until the end of time. Oh how fortunate for him he had connected with Willie Loomis standing in the grand foyer of Collinwood and craved those jewels as much as Barnabas craved blood. To manipulate his mind through his portrait had been too easy, something he had learned over years of isolation was to focus and see the changes while they occurred and the people that now occupied the great house of Collinwood.

There was the lovely visitor Maggie Evans, she who so resembled in his fever filled mind his Josette and he knew that she had arrived to be friends with the very pretty governess, and then there was the woman that now was the matriarch of the house that so closely resembled his mother. He could not forget the weak chinned male that was like his father, and the boy that looked so much like Daniel. He hoped that this is what was awaiting him on his homecoming. He in his way prayed it was not because of his delirium from the blood lust.

Barnabas had learned to focus his thoughts and project his senses through that portrait and in his way he was no longer lonely. He had found a way to live on through his picture. It did not help his need for blood or the waves of pains that rushed over his body when the cravings sometime consumed him. It was during those times that he was using his ability to focus through his portrait to circumvent madness that surely threatened to over take him and find a calm learning to wait and be patient.

Then 'he', the overbearing being that was named Jason Maguire had come into Collinwood. Arrogant, mean tempered, and filled with lust and need. A need to be rich and do what he wanted when he wanted. Oh yes it was through the pale-faced man with a mean temper and greedy young man that Barnabas would seek his release. That was how Barnabas would tempt Willie Loomis to release the force of darkness over Collinwood. There was weakness in him and Barnabas knew he could exploit that with his vampiric senses. It began with the sound of a heartbeat coming from the picture, a simple suggestion projected to his weak mind. He could see through the portrait into Willie Loomis' psyche and could see what he was thinking though his gaze. Willie's eyes were in deed windows to his soul and his soul at that time had been black and unredeemable.

Barnabas could easily manipulate those thoughts that seemed to be transmitted to him in his coffin through the portrait into Willie's greedy soul. "Jewels, beautiful, and expensive they are just waiting for you Willie. They want you to find them, so come and see, come and find them. They are doing nothing but lying around the necks of decaying corpses, no one will miss them." So simple it had been to watch from the portrait his slow cruel smile slide across those thick lips that were made for such smiles. Oh so easy it had been to guide him to Barnabas' resting place and then to help him find the secret lever and the sealed coffin.

Then there was the look on Willie's face when he opened the coffin and Barnabas opened his eyes and smiled at him, revealing the teeth that would easily pierce his skin to taste of blood that then flowed down his long parched throat. He had to be so careful, not to drain him completely, Willie was going to be his slave and do his bidding and he could not kill him, not yet that is, he had a need for him. Taking enough blood to put him under his control, Barnabas remembered going to mist form and floating out of his prison and heading to Collinsport to reform in his dated clothing and look with shock and astonishment at the changes that had occurred over nearly two hundred years. He changed again, knowing the way he was dressed he would be noticed and that was something he had not wanted.

Floating to the place he had known as the Eagles Nest he had discovered it was now called the Blue Whale and there she was Maggie Evans the woman that so closely resembled his darling Josette. She was with a tall handsome youthful looking man wearing a seaman's peacoat and knew he would be no problem should he decide to transform this beauty into more than what she was. For now though she would have to wait. He needed to feed and he had seen a delectable young thing on the docks that needed his immediate attention.

Widows hill current time

Those thoughts slipped away and now he was brought back to the present and to the lovely woman that was held in his arms that trembled at how close she had come to death. His thoughts were, "How tragic that fall would have been to loose Vicki as I had lost Josette." Pushing aside that thought he looked down at the top of her head and then rested his chin in her hair and inhaled the scent of her. She was so much like Josette in many ways and then there was this familiar part of her that rang in his subconscious mind that was now filling his thoughts of a woman that had shown up with a memory loss. She had been there in the past and he had taken note of her and now he held her in his arms. "Victoria?" He pushed her back to look into her eyes and smiled seeing how they changed colors with the flush of emotions she was running through her mind by being in his arms. It was those hazel colored eyes that were not a true green, or grey, or blue. They held a hint of all colors with each emotion she expressed within her mind. "Victoria are you recovered?"

He watched her blush she reluctantly pushed away from him. "I am sorry for being so childish."

Barnabas held his emotions in check; to give in to them he would give the watcher in the woods a hint at what and who he was. "It is not being childish to nearly have plummeted to your death below my dear. To me it seems it should be a natural reaction." He reluctantly released her and stepped back adjusting his cane to a more supporting position instead of draped over his arm. "You really should not be out here alone and so late my dear. Had I not seen you headed this way while in route to Collinwood, I shudder to think what could have happened."

Vicki pushed her hair back and was suddenly uncomfortable with their isolated position on widows hill. "Yes, I am very grateful for your intervention, thank you Barnabas." She stepped back and then around him to the pathway that would take her back to Collinwood.

"Am I interrupting?" The deep voice that Vicki had remembered from her trip so long ago, caused her to instinctively step next to Barnabas' body, and felt his protective arm go around her waist. "Trask? What brings you out here?"

Gregory Trask stepped into view. An easy faux smile played across his lips as he looked from Victoria to Barnabas. "I was looking for Miss Winters and hoped to find her here, when she was not at Collinwood."

Barnabas could feel her trembling she had averted her gaze from Trask and focused on him. He could feel her need for his protection while in the company of Trask. Barnabas smiled inwardly he could see his previous suggestion was still in place or . . "Well yes, she met me here because we were planning a sunset stroll along the beach and then we were going out to dinner."

Trask's smile tightened, "I see, well perhaps we could make a party of it?" He stepped forward with a tight smile edging his eyes and darted his gaze from Vicki then to Barnabas. Trask gently took her hand in his and drew it to his lips to place a moist kiss on her knuckles. Vicki forced herself not to recoil from his touch. Though he was younger than Reverend Trask he still looked remarkably like him and she was filled with revulsion.

"Why would we wish company on our date Mr. Trask?" Barnabas found the man to be impossible.

"To kill two birds with one stone so to speak." He smiled and that smile was a reminiscent as the one Reverend Trask had used when he was plotting something. "That is supposed to mean what Mr. Trask?" Vicki spoke softly in the close protective confines of Barnabas' hold.

"That means my dear a chance for someone to explain the night of the party and your disappearance and then sudden reappearance."

Vicki lowered her gaze and bit her bottom lip and sighed, then turning to look up at a well beloved face before her trip back in time and then her return she felt even closer to this man. He had become her protector from all things that were a threat to her health and mental well being. "I have no objections to his joining us Barnabas as long as you do not oppose it?"

Barnabas knew that if he did object he could bring about unnecessary notice to him at a time he could not afford this extra scrutiny he nodded, "It would be our pleasure, we were going to Lookout Point."

Vicki put a hand to his and shook her head. "I was thinking tonight could we go to the Blue Whale?"

Barnabas bent over and whispered in her ear. "My desires are your desires my dear of course the Blue Whale."

Barnabas studied Trask and like Vicki was finding similarities to him and his Great, Great Grandfather to be a little to close to home. Just as he did not like Gregory Trask he was finding the junior Trask equally disagreeable. However, not wishing to create a problem that would be unnecessary to his plans, he smiled his own humorless smile and nodded, "As the lady wishes, I am sure she would like to change before our date, so shall we adjourn to Collinwood?" Barnabas shifted her so that she stood at his side and he gently tucked her hand into the bend of his arm. With a courtly bow to Trask he stepped forward with Vicki taking the path back to Collinwood.

Between Logansport and Collinsport

Maggie walked along the roadway with the little girl she had come to know while held captive at the old house. "Sarah, I am growing tired, how much further do we have to go?"

Sarah shrugged, "Not much further, come on if we sing along the way it won't be so spooky and will make the time move faster."

Maggie chuckled softly as she fell into step with the sweet child at her side and together they began to sing the song that had gotten Maggie through days of hell while locked in that cell below the old house. "London Bridge is falling down, falling down, London Bridge is falling down, falling down, my fair lady. Take the key and lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up! Take the key and lock her up my fair lady. . . "

The two voices blended together and floated through the night air to lie upon the innocent ears of another that stood and watched curiously as the lovely red haired woman and the small oddly dressed child walked along the wooded pathway. The tall angular featured man with long side burns smiled and his smile was not pleasant while he studied the two. "Oh my yes how delightful, and this plot could work into my plans perfectly." Turning from the flat tire he had finished changing he turned to offer them a ride and was surprised to see they both had disappeared and were no longer in sight.

Collinwood

Vicki walked into her room and studied the minimal wardrobe in her closet and finally decided on the pink dress with the deep purple belt. Pulling it out she laid it on the bed and stepped back and sighed, she really had not planned on going out tonight with Barnabas or for that matter that man Trask and she was certainly glad Barnabas has shown up when he did otherwise she might have found herself alone with a man that was the exact double to a man that had terrified her in the past. She folded her arms and felt the scar that had been the gunshot from Jeremiah's missed bullet. That was enough proof to remind her that she had gone into the past. Otherwise, from where would that gunshot wound have come? Lifting the dress she unhooked it from the hanger, inserting the hanger back in the closet. Taking the dress she walked down the hallway to the bathroom. Making a quick shower and change into the dress, she put her other dress into the dirty cloths hamper.

Stepping back to her room she combed her hair, tied it up with a ribbon the same color as her belt then turned and grabbed a deep purple sweater, The short sleeved dress with the empire waistline was not going to be warm enough for the Blue Whale. Spritzing a small amount of lilac perfume over her body she stepped back and smiled. She was ready as she turned to exit the room she pulled the door shut softly and from the corner another figure stepped out to look over the room. Walking to the dresser the transparent figure gently ran her fingertips over the beautifully scripted gold and glass music box and a sigh escaped, "Oh Barnabas can you not find happiness with this one without trying to make her over in my image?" She drifted about the room then stopped, perhaps there was one that could help her, and it was a mater of finding him and sending him to the Blue Whale. Slowly the figure of Josette disappeared from the room leaving behind only the smallest scent of her jasmine perfume.

David's Room

Vicki having forgotten her clutch turned back and walked into the room and paused, the strong scent still covered the room even in the smallest of a hint and Vicki smiled, "I am glad you are still with us Josette, I hope you can forgive me for not saving you." She sighed softly, walked to the closet and removed her clutch. Leaving her room she walked down the hallway when she was drawn to David's room. He sat at his small table and worked on his lessons. Glancing up he smiled seeing Vicki dressed in her best dress.

"Hello Miss Winters, are you going out?"

Vicki stepped in to see where his progress was on his homework, "Almost done?"

He smiled, "Gee you look pretty." She bent over and kissed his forehead. "Thank you, and it looks like you are on the last lesson."

David looked up finishing his last problem. Smiling brightly he said, "All done Miss Winters. I hope you have a nice time tonight, who are you going out with? Is it that nice Mr. Garner?"

Vicki glanced at his papers and curbed her natural instincts to take and grade them and then remembered she had guests waiting on her. "Actually Barnabas and Mr. Trask are both taking me to the Blue Whale tonight." David scowled as he thought about her going out with those two.

"Sarah says that you need to watch out for Barnabas that he is dangerous. She also said Mr. Clark was evil and that he is using Carolyn and that Mr. Trask wears too many faces to be trusted."

Thinking about the Sarah she knew in the late 1700's she felt this was not Sarah's words but more of David's words. That she suspected, as he was getting older he was getting interested in girls and had formed a light crush on her.

"Well you can assure Sarah that I shall take her words to heart and consider them. But for tonight I am going with Mr. Trask and Barnabas to a very public place."

Again as an after thought she bent and hugged David, "You smell too good for them."

Vicki giggled, "And you are growing up so fast. Now take those papers down to the library and leave them for me on the desk. Good night David." She walked from his room and towards the second story door that led to the upstairs landing.

Drawing Room Collinwood

Trask paced the drawing room checking his watch and looking towards the doors. "Why is it that women take so long to get ready?"

Barnabas smiled patiently and glanced to the mantle clock then back to the furiously pacing man that seemed to hate being kept waiting. "You know a beautiful woman is worth waiting any amount of time. That is the problem with men of a modern age, they are impatient and expect it to happen instantly. When in actuality things worth waiting for last a lifetime."

Barnabas spoke with a confidence of a ageless gentleman.

Trask stopped pacing looked impatiently at his watch. "Yes, but when you want to spend time with the lady in question every minute spent in her company far out weighs the time wasted waiting for her."

The door opened and closed with a slam and a very petulant Carolyn sauntered into the room. "Men!" she gasped out in anger and frustration. Both men taking exception to that comment looked at the lovely blond girl with a pouty look on her face.

"What puts you into such a mood of pique Cousin Carolyn?" Carolyn walked to the sofa and slumped down next to Barnabas and then looked up at Trask,

"Because you are more fickle than we women." She crossed her arms to accent her words.

Trask studied the blond beauty before him. "And who has earned your disagreeable mood my dear?"

Carolyn stood and marched with a sense of irritation, very reminiscent of her Uncle Roger; to the liquor hutch and poured herself a strong drink of brandy and drank it down and felt the burn of the liquor as it slid down her throat. "Why that Jeff Clark, he is a pig! He said he wanted to see me tonight and when I went to Lookout Point he was wrapped up in the arms of some blond hussy!"

Barnabas shifted uncomfortably knowing full well what blond woman he was with and having his arms around. She had come back even from the dead but was not undead as he and Peter Bradford, she was alive and warm and breathing and the crux of his curse. "I see, well what about Willie? Did I not see you with him at the ball?"

Carolyn turned and glared at Barnabas, "He can't leave the house because he is doing work for you and now here I am alone for the night and bored, bored, bored!"

Barnabas slid a sideways glance to Trask. "Well as it would happen my dear cousin, it would seem that Mr. Trask is a third to our party tonight and I am sure he would not mind your tagging along with us to the Blue Whale."

Trask being put in a corner on this particular comment smiled graciously, "I would be honored to have you accompany us to the Blue Whale tonight."

Carolyn brightened and started to giggle, "So things could work out for all of us tonight!"