Chapter 2

Quentin looked with disgust at the invitations that Carolyn was writing.

"Why not a simple ceremony?" he had pleaded.

"I want to make it big. I want everyone to know that I am Carolyn Collins, and it will be my children who will inherit the family business.

Her children. That was all she wanted from him. So that her children would have that magical last name of Collins...

He wondered why he let himself be used that way. Why couldn't he have the courage to tell her to go jump in the lake, and to Hell with the consequences.

Julia sat on one of the outdoor cafes. The hustle and bustle of the summer season was all around her. All that gayety hurt her. But there was nowhere else for her to go. In the hospital they had hinted rather strongly that she was getting in the way. Going to Barnabas' wouldn't help. He wouldn't be up until dusk. All she would do there is get in Phillip's way.

So she sat there and watched people go by."

A woman moved past her, aiding herself with a cane.

Julia recognized her. She had been in a wheelchair less than two months ago. They had said she would never walk again. But Sister Kira had proven them wrong.

"Sister Kira's a fraud" She heard Kenneth's voice in her mind. "that was just an incorrect diagnosis of a psychosomatic aliment."

Yet she walked while Kenneth...

Kenneth didn't believe in many things she knew were true. Hadn't he been surprised that someone as intelligent as Barnabas believed in ghosts?

Sister Kira caressed the little wooden doll she had used on Dr. Anderson. By stroking the doll daily she made sure that the vertebrae in Dr. Anderson's neck remained out of joint.

The doctors must give up on him before she tried anything.

She felt a tug under her fingertips. Kenneth Anderson's bones were trying to fit together again.

There was a lot of fight in the man, yet.- Kira respected that - he was a troublesome fighter.

She pushed her fingertips hard against the doll's neck. There, the bones would be out of joint a bit longer.

Angelique held the model of human vertebrae in her hand. She had to make those bones align themselves and to mend the damaged nerves so that Dr. Anderson could move again.

She felt herself shake. There was no strength in her hands as she fought against the simulated bones. She twisted them more or less into shape, but they pulled themselves out of joint again.

Tears came to her eyes as she remembered the words "Much better at putting curses than at removing them."

But Dr. Anderson did not suffer from a curse. It was an accident. A stupid accident..

She tried again...It had been so easy to blind Sam Evans...so easy to make Sarah sick...it was so easy to do harm.

"Why won't you obey me?" she said venomously to the plastic bones. "Am I not good enough for you?"

"Where's the report you and Angelique were supposed to get ready for today?" Megan asked Tammy.

"You can have my material." Tammy shrugged to show her opinion of Megan in particular, and of Collinsport in general. "For Angelique's half you'll have to find her. She hasn't been around for two days now."

"I see. All right, give me your half."

Tammy opened her drawer and extended the sheaf of papers stiffly.

"You are still at it." Megan commented.

"Still at what?"

"Oh, little things like making sure I don't touch you." She saw Tammy's protest and cut it short. "Do you act that way around Angelique? Because I got a thick skin and don't care what you do or say. But she's been rather sensitive lately and you might be the reason she hasn't shown up."

"I never said anything to her. She's probably busy with some mumbo-jumbo of hers."

"Mumbo jumbo? Is that what you call it?"

"It is a good name for it." Tammy said insolently.

"So that's what you said that made her upset. That, and acting as she was something the cat dragged in."

"So what if I did?"

"So what?" You are a good operative. But so's she. And she's a lot more pleasant to work with. If I have to make a choice between the two of you, I won't pick you.

"No. You won't." There was grim amusement in Tammy's voice. "of course, you prefer your own kind."

"My own kind?" It was an effort to keep her temper with Tammy around "what do you mean by kind?"

"That you are white. Or that you are a bloodsucker. Take your pick. But then all brothers know that honkies are bloodsuckers."

Megan looked up, begging for patience. "And I thought that Sabrina was abrasive" she muttered.

"You wanted to see me?" Barnabas asked Louella gently.

"Yes." Louella crossed and uncrossed her hands nervously. "I had to see you before I went on vacation.

"I hope you take the bus or the train. This way you'll avoid the gas lines. Willie's truck burns too much gas. I tried to get him to get a more fuel-efficient one."

Louella nodded impatiently. "Yes. yes."

Barnabas decided to cut his lecture short. The energy crisis would have to wait until Willie came back. "What was it that you wanted to tell me?"

"I wanted to.. to apologize to you."

"What for?" he asked, surprised.

"The way I treated you. I never though of you like a human being. I never tried to get to know you..."

"It is difficult at first." he smiled ruefully "there was a time when I didn't treat myself as a human being."

"I should have tried. I shouldn't have believed Quentin."

"Part of what he said was true." Barnabas said apologetically.

"He never told me the other parts. And then the other one...the one who saved me from the gulls... He's like you."

"In a way" Barnabas laughed good humouredly "but I promise you that if you invite me over, you won't have to hide the good silverware."

"What you mean by that?"

"That he will steal it." he sighed "Derek has many good qualities. Honesty is not one of them. He has an habit: playing the horses. He is keeping three bookies off welfare all by himself.."

"You are putting me on."

"He told me so himself." he put his hand on Louella's arms. "Do you understand what I am trying to tell you?"

"No"

"You have been afraid of me for a long time. More than it was deserved. And now you might be going to the other extreme. We are not the devils we are painted to be. But still there is a lot to be desired in our behavior. You can ask Chris what I tried to do to Amy. Or ask Joe Haskell for a description of Maggie when she went mad. As for the others...Derek is a petty thief, and Megan commits a Federal Offense a month."

"I treated you rotten." Louella shook her head.

"And don't do the same thing with Willie, either. You shouldn't have left him. But it was his fault, too. So don't go on acting as if you owed him something. Don't go on any guilt trip."

"I want to make it up to him for what I put him through."

"Don't. You'll be doing him no favors. "Barnabas caught her by the shoulders and made her look at him. "Willie was a battered child. I know because he told me so himself. And that thing keeps passing on. I don't want Willie to become a child abuser. Or a wife beater. And it might happen if you go on a guilt trip. You have to understand, for a long time love for him that someone was getting hurt. I beat him badly inn 1967. I am ashamed of it now.. But I know that his attachment to me began with those beatings. Now that you hurt him, he loves you too. He has yet to learn to love without the hurt, Please help him learn that."

Barnabas wondered how much sense Louella was making of this.

"If you have any problems, let me know at once. Don't make excuses for him."

"I hurt him badly. He's so trusting, so lovable...And I believed that nasty lie about you and him..."

"There, you are doing what I told you not to do." He sighed. "All right, if you want to feel guilty, come to me and cry on my shoulder. But never, never, do it with Willie."

"Cry on your shoulder?" She asked with surprise.

"I got a lot of practice in it."

"Yes." Louella nodded "I remember what Frances told me. That if you hadn't been there she'd have died."

"Yes." Barnabas was embarrassed. "But I was looking for something else when I went to her."

"I know." she twisted her hands again. "Willie told me something about it. It was one of the reasons why I left him."

Barnabas knew what she meant, but said nothing. It was all up to her, now.

"He said that I was afraid of you because...because you had never done to me what you did to Frances. That if you did, I'd know that it was such a little thing, that mattered to little."

Barnabas nodded, understandingly.

"Would you...would you do it to me now?

Barnabas considered it. He had to be very careful how he moved now. She was more scared than it showed. All it would take would be a wrong move of his part...

"Do you want it?" he asked gently.

She nodded. "What do I have to do?" she said, wringing her hands.

"Is Willie out?"

"Yes."

"Good. It would be...embarrassing if he were to walk in while we are at it." he laughed, knowing that he tension was communicating to him. "I don't like to be watched when..."

"You'd rather not be caught by the husband in the act?" she giggled.

He was threading a fine line. He'd better be quick about it.

"Come sit by me."

She let him guide her to his side. She wished she could keep from shivering.

He put his hand on the back of her neck, noting the tension in her muscles.

"Try to relax" he told her while massaging her shoulders. "it will be better if you do."

"I'll try" the giggle that accompanied those words told him that she wouldn't succeed.

He made her forehead rest on his shoulder. Her neck muscles were taut. She'd be hurting later because of it.

He ran his lips over her neck, trying to find the vein.

"Are you done, yet?"

It wasn't going to be easy...

"I have to find the vein first..."

"I have small veins..."

"Give me your hand." he took it, noting how small it was. "When I find it, I will squeeze. Then you tell me to go ahead. I won't bite until you say it."

Having some control over the situation would help her.

"Only don't let too much time pass between my squeezing and your telling me, or I may lose the vein again."

She nodded. Maybe she was a little less tense now. He couldn't swear to it.

His lips found the vein. He moved his head ever so slightly so that his teeth would only need a slight push to pierce it. Then he squeezed her hand as he had promised.

He felt her suck breath desperately.

"Go ahead."

There were no lights in Angelique's home when Megan went in.

She wondered if Angelique could be inside. It was so quiet and dark...

For a moment she wondered if Angelique might have fallen into a time jump. Back to the past. Or the future, to see if she could get Barnabas that way...

Then she heard the weeping... a soft noise, like a rustling.

"Angelique!" she called.

The weeping seemed to stop. And there were some faint breathing sounds. She turned on the lights. Angelique was lying face down on the sofa.

"Honey! What is it?" Megan knelt by her side "What's wrong with you?"

Angelique just shook her head.

"It is Tammy, isn't it? I will fire her. I don't care if she throws the Civil Rights Commission at me."

"It isn't her.." Angelique sobbed "it is me."

"What is wrong? What happened?"

"It is the way I am. Nicholas is right about me. I am evil. I cannot change."

"Oh, no! Not that song again!"

But it is true. I am better at putting curses than at removing them."

"I told you before. You can choose the way you use your powers."

"But why can't I...?"

"Can't what?"

"Fix Dr. Anderson's neck. Make him well again. I tried to do it. tried it real hard... but I can't do it."

Megan let out a stream of four letter words.

"Megan!" Angelique was shocked.

"Sometimes I worry about you, kid." Megan said after she calmed down. "Sometimes I wonder how you managed to survive on your brains."

"Don't you what it means?"

"Yes. That once again you expected things to fall on your lap. You don't have the experience for that short of thing. Sister Kira herself does not try to cure that sort of injury."

"Why should it be easier to hurt than to help?"

"I might as well ask why it takes nine months to make a man, and only a second to pull the trigger to kill him. It is the nature of things. Anyway, I don't think you got your curses right, either, when you first tried them."

"But I tried so hard..."

"Tackling the toughest assignment you could find. Expecting to get it right the first time. You want it all now." Megan sighed. "Your problems start when you want something for nothing. You wanted to have Barnabas, without wondering what life with him would be like. You wanted Frank, but not enough to work at keeping him. Why bother when you can make it hard on your lovers if they try to leave you? Well, kid, it is about time you learned that there is no such thing as a free lunch."

Angelique dried her tears and nodded.

"And, by the way, you are late with your report. I expect it on my desk first thing at lunch."