Chapter 3

Nicholas ran to the door. The smoke burned his lungs and eyes. The fire encircled him... the was going to die in there, listening to her laughter...

"Urien!" he called "Urien!"

Slowly Urien began moving, eyes blank, oblivious of his surroundings.

"Get me out of here!" Nicholas howled "get me out!"

Urien reached Nicholas, caught him by the shoulder and dragged him out, even crossing fire to do it. Nicholas screamed as the fire touched him, but Urien got him through and he was outside, with Urien beating off the flames from his clothes.

Painfully Nicholas got up and watched how the flames devoured the cottage.

And his tools were inside. They would be lost. And also the money he had. And...

"Go back inside!" he ordered Urien "Get my things!"

Urien obeyed and reappeared after a few minutes carrying a load. His hair was on fire. He dropped his load and made as if to return inside.

"Come back!" Nicholas ordered, realizing for the firsts time what he was doing.

Was he crazy? Did he want to kill the kid? Whatever powers he had now came from the kid's life force. He needed him to live far more than he needed his other things. Feverishly he extinguished the fire in Urien's hands and clothes, wondering how damaged he was. He had to live. He needed him alive.

"Let's go Urien. Leave. Let her think that she killed me."

Sandy had not changed much since the last time he had seen her. Still angry, still defiant.

But now she was angry at a different set of people. Or maybe the same ones. She was angry with him because he had not been up to convincing her in the past that her chosen path was wrong.

She had once loved Barnabas and shrank from that love with terror, as the dutiful wife she decided she was. She had shielded herself from those unwelcome feelings by bigotry.

But that had failed her. She found herself the object of the same bigotry that she used on others, Unwisely, she decided that she was now free to pursue Barnabas. Only Barnabas was not interested in her.

She had grown angrier and shriller in her rejection of the causes she had once espoused, angrily, and shrilly. She had settled for Chris Jennings. If she could not have the vampire, she would have the werewolf. But Chris was not what she wanted, could not be Barnabas, only Chris. Maybe not even Barnabas could come up to the idea of Barnabas that Sandy had...

At some point she admitted to herself her failure, and so she was here, back at the beginning.

Only, as Megan had told him, there was now a threat hanging over her head and her children's.

"Sandy" Anselm begged her once more " think of your children."

And once again Sandy rejected his pleas. "I have listened as much as I possibly can out of you., Reverend, Now get out!"

Anselm got up. It was no use. Argument with Sandy brought only hysterics and wild accusations.

Yet he would not admit defeat. Not in this.

Yolanda studied the mask, admiring its beauty. She ran a finger over the golden cheek, and around the holes that were the eyes.

"This is mine! You stole it!"

She turned to Quentin with disdain. "It was never yours."

"I found it! It is mine!"

Yolanda extended her hand, with the mask in it "You want it?"

He moved closer. "Give it to me, thief!"

And as Quentin lunged to grab it, a flash of blue light ran from it to Quentin's arm.

Quentin could not even find the breath to scream with. He fell to his knees, panting, holding his arms, as tears streamed from his eyes.

"Come, take it. If you dare." she invited him again ."

Quentin whimpered, still holding his arm.

"Let that be a lesson to you. Don't bother me again."

George looked at the charred remains of the cottage with misgivings.

Fire was bad enough. He had seen the results of it too often. But this was worse. Some of the bent metal objects that he had found suggested it

He walked over the site, shifting the ashes with his foot.

"No bodies?" he asked.

"No, no bodies." the deputy confirmed "Whatever was inside here managed to escape."

"And kept clear of us. No one has been to the hospital for treatment of burns? Smoke inhalation?"

"No."

He liked it less and less. He had been around Angelique long enough to recognize some of the ritual objects and instruments that she sometimes used. And some of the other metallic objects were parts of orthopedic devises. Like hooks used for hands.

It seemed that Nicholas Blair was back in town. And he might have grown hands, if he had left the prosthetic ones behind...

Urien was feverish. Nicholas fed him, watching him shiver.

He had been burned badly and was now paying for it.

So was he. And this cave in which they had found refuge was not the ideal place to stay. But it had been the best that he could do. he could not afford to be seen or Yolanda would begin to hunt for him.

Urien had to live. if he died, it was all over. He needed Urien's life force. Without Urien, without the ritual objects that he had lost in the fire, he was helpless.

He needed the mask. But Urien could not get it now. If he tried he would die on the way..

Urien had to get better soon.

Was it right to do this? Derek still did not like the idea... he had never done anything like this before..

Still, the money was good. and he needed it. He had made a bundle with the horses last year, but it was not enough and he did not thing that it was wise to repeat it too soon.

It wasn't as if he was preying on some unsuspecting or helpless victim,. It was a business arrangement. Payment over value received. What he had to offer was of value to her.

So why look at a gift horse in the mouth? Just take the money and run, as he always did.

Barnabas sat at Liz's bedside.

"You have helped me." Liz said "it feels better now."

"I am glad I was of help."

"You won't have to do this much longer. I haven't got long."

Barnabas nodded, involuntarily reminding himself of all the deathbeds he would have to be at, the goodbyes he'd have to make... even George...

"I had so little time." Liz said wistfully "I never did what I really wanted to do... Paul... when I think of all he took from me I could kill him, for real, this time."

"Jeb Hawkes did it for you."

"Good for him. There was something good in the boy, after all. And now, that I am beginning to enjoy myself, this happens. It isn't fair, you know."

"No, it is not."

"I saw Sandy today." There was weariness in Anselm's voice as eh spoke to Megan "I wonder whether there is any point in my talking to her."

"She was always stubborn. At least for a while she listened to me. Now, no one can reach her."

"But we can't sit and wait for the full moon so that she kills her children!" Anselm shouted.

"No, we can't" Megan threw her chair back. "Do you realize, Rev, that you are asking me to do something that might be unethical, and certainly illegal?"

"I understand that."

"Good." Megan's eyes met Anselm's' "As long as we understand each other. You want it done?"

"Yes."

"I don't want you to get squeamish afterwards."

"I won't" Anselm protested.

"In which case I will do it. Free of charge. I still have some guilt feelings where she is concerned. I have a senses that this is one debt that I have not yet paid.."

Very soon Comet would be ready for Wyncliffe. Barnabas patted him on the head, pleased that he was adjusting so well.

"You are going to be a good animal therapist." he said "and you are going to earn your keep."

"Barnabas!" Buffy's voice reached him. "You are wanted on the phone."

Barnabas let Comet go and ran inside, almost stepping on one of the cats, who looked on him reproachfully.

"Thank you." He looked at Buffy wondering how much Frank 'didn't mind' that she was doing cleaning. But then they had run into expenses and they needed the money. And after Urien... after what had happened to him no one had taken care of this place.

No...he had to have hope for Urien. He would be found. Alive.

He took the phone.

"Barnabas!" It was Vicky at the other end of the line And she was crying.

"Vicky! Is that you? Is anything wrong?"

"Phillip's disappeared." she managed to say "and I am pregnant. And... I have no money."

"What happened?"

"We ran out of money. Phillip could not get enough jobs playing. And the expenses were more than what we made. and I got pregnant and one day he id not come home. The police looked for him and could not find him. I don't know if he's dead or...

"Calm down, Vicky. I'll send you money and a ticket back here. When you get here you can tell me all about it. Come back, Vicky. You know you always have a home here."

Quentin should have learned his lesson. If he did not, then it was up to her to give him more of the same.

But Quentin did not matter. it was not with him that she had to deal.

She had to punish the adventuress, the deceiver.

Nicholas had said that Angelique had powers. As he himself had. But she had overcome Nicholas, and she would overcome Angelique.

What would she do? First , she planned to get her to confess to bigamy. That and getting Uncle Schuyller's money back.

But that did not seem enough. After dealing with Nicholas and Quentin, she was aware of more delicious fates that she could impose on Angelique There were many things that a witch was vulnerable to. Like fire. Like cold iron.

She wondered where she had learned those things. She had not known of it when Nicholas had lured her into Collinsport... Well, she did now. Maybe she had heard it from Nicholas. Maybe she had learned it from the mask.

Never mind that. She would handle Angelique. Make he sorry that she had ever looked at Uncle Schuyller.

"Do I have to go through it again?" Megan was becoming irritated. "We do not have that many choices" she sighed. "sometimes I regret that you reformed. You ended up with more scruples than Barnabas."

"I do not like doing this to Sandy." Angelique said.

"We did it to Iris. I know, we said that it was to make sure that when she broke down, it would be in a way that did not hurt anyone, not even herself.."

"I am still uneasy about it.."

"Are you uneasy about Delia and Violet?"

"We had to do to save Tammy and Iris."

"And now we are saving Sandy's children. That's good enough for me."