Chapter 3

"You don't really go to back to Collinsport, do you?" Urien asked David.

"Of course I do." David almost snarled as he spoke. "Just because I don't want to put up with Carolyn's nagging doesn't mean that I don't want to see my son. I just did what I thought best. And who are you to ask me that kind of question? Barnabas, always analyzing people, whether they want to be analyzed or not?"

"I did not mean to offend, but..."

"It is all right. It is not your fault. I am on edge after Carolyn gave me the third degree. As if she did not know any better. I don't know why she insists. It only makes thing worse."

He did not realize that he had referred to Eliot as his son. He was too busy being angry with the pressure everybody felt they had to put on him.

"She means well."

"They all mean well. If it is not her, it is Barnabas. And then Julia will put her two cents' worth. And George, who is such an expert on fatherhood will contribute. I am a bit sick and tired of being their social reclamation project. I agree, I was in quite some trouble once, but that is over. I straightened my life. I am grateful for all they did, but that does not give them the right to go on deciding what's best for me. I am not a kid anymore. And then, they miss the point of it. All they see is that Eliot does not have his father around. So he is abandoned and neglected. They don't see a child well cared for, given the affection he needs, not being forced to endure the bad temper and other less lovable qualities of an emotionally unstable man who happened to have fathered him. They don't see that I am sparing him the kind of childhood that my father forced on me."

Urien nodded, saying nothing.

"It is not that I don't live my son. I do. I just know myself too well to think that good intentions will be enough. I mean, I can take chances that I will do the right thing, and gamble that I will never want to take drugs again. But why have Eliot run the same chances?"

"You are not using drugs, that I know."

"No. I am not. But I have been tempted. Well, I handle the temptations alone. If I am strong enough, I will vanquish it. If I am not, I'll succumb to it. But why should be Eliot be in the middle of it? What has he do with the fact that his father is a yo-yo?"

"You are not a yo-yo."

'My father is, and I have inherited quite a bit of him, even if he does not believe that I am his son. Do you know that I once tried to kill my father?"

"You tried to kill Roger?"

"Yes. Tampered with his car. That was the kind of son I was. That was the kind of father he was. I was still a kid, but I still knew how to do it. Why is everybody so dead set against my wanting something better for Eliot? Why torture him too? They think that I am repeating my father's mistakes. And in a sense I am. Married someone who had a child, and then took, lovers, and finally abandoned both of us. In that respect, Hallie is just like mother. And I am the same fool that my father was."

Urien stiffened at the mention of Hallie's name. Did David suspect what she had done to him?"

"Not that I think that Hallie is a phoenix. Just a slut."

"Phoenix?" the question came out of him before he realized it."

"My mother was not a human being at all. She was a fire demon. Or fire elemental. She has to go up in flames regularly to renew her strength, or had... I don't know how it is with her, now, and I don't really want to know. And every now and then, she has to take a half-human child into the flames."

"And she tried to take you with her."

"First as a child. Then as a mate. You see, father was not the firsts Collins she married. First there was Jeremiah Collins, but there were no children. Then, in the last century, she married Edward Collins, and had Jamison and Nora. She tried to take her children with her into the flames with her, but did not succeed. But that was no great setback, since she married father, who as Jamison's son, was a quarter phoenix. I am five eights phoenix because of that. And it was because my phoenix blood is so strong that Laura thought I could be a mate for her."

"A mate, but she was your mother?"

"She did not care about that. She was from Ancient Egypt, where the Pharaohs married their sisters."

Cold sweat ran over Urien's body. If he had known... The falcon was of Egyptian design. Had he known abbot Laura, he could have avoided being enslaved to Hallie Collins.'

Who was a phoenix, just as Laura was.


Hallie knelt by the fire.

"The time draws near." she said to it. "And I shall do as I am bid. When the time comes, I will bring my child to the flames, to soar by the stars. And with him, if it is possible, I shall bring my husband, to reclaim his heritage, which he so foolishly rejected."

She rose again, and shed off her white robe. The purification rite, which must take place before her first pyre, had to begin. To sacrifice her child on Ra's altar, no impurities of any kind should be on her.

Salamanders rose around her, naked., with shimmering red hair reaching to the floor, with eyes who shone like embers. They encircled her, as they extended incense holders in their hands.

She stood straight in front of the flame. The flame rose and shot to the ceiling as a single lance. Hallie stood immobile in front of it. She extended her hands to it, and the flames caressed her fingers, enveloping them without burning.

The salamanders sang and swung the incense burners. The fire moved from her fingers to her wrists and arms, and continued down her body, enveloping her.

Hallie began the Purification Prayer, asking the fire to remove whatever was still human in her, to destroy the weak human flesh that still clung to her essence, to kill any unworthy feelings.

The fire enveloped her completely, and she gave herself to it. First it was red, then bright yellow, then white. And all the time the salamanders swung the incense to and fro, adding their voices to the prayer.

She went down to her knees, then laid herself down on the floor. And waited till the flames darkened again. and then moved back from her body to her arms, to her hands, to her fingertips, and then back to the central flame, from which they had sprung.

"Thank you, Ra." she said.

The salamanders lifted her to her feet. They placed the robe on her shoulders, the earrings on her ears, the bracelets on her wrists, the anklets on he feet, the rings on her fingers, the falcon at her throat. They braided her hair with red silk and gold. They perfumed her, and finally placed the scepter in her hand.

"Hail to you, our Queen."

And possessed still by the fire of Ra, Hallie felt as if indeed all humanity had been burned out of her. She knew that it was not true, that it would take many more Purifications for that to happen. But now she knew what to strive for.


"You haven't felt anything strange lately?" Frank asked Zeb.

"Strange like what?"

"You were one under Laura's influence once."

"And I'll never live it down, it seems." Zeb said bitterly "Look, I am sorry. I was an ass. I should not have, and all that. But for how long are you going to hold that against me?"

"I am not blaming you. God knows that I am guilty of the same thing myself. But there is this feeling of menace at home, and sometimes I hear voices coming from the fireplace."

"Does your wife?"

"Thins are strained between us. But I need to talk to someone who was under Laura's power once, to see if I am seeing things... Zeb, your wife is pregnant. You know that makes her a target where Laura is concerned."

"Yes. She is." Zeb blanched.

"You have dealt with Laura. Did you make any promises about your unborn child?"

"What?" Zeb almost shouted. But he knew what Frank was aiming at.

"When I was in Laura's power, Laura had gotten Louella to give up her unborn child. She did not realize what she was doing, nor what Laura wanted. Did you make any foolish promises?"

"I.. I..." Zeb wanted to deny it. say that, of course, she had not. But he did not remember what the false U.F.O. ad told him nor what he had answered. Maybe he had promised Jessica's child..."

"They said that Laura could not escape."

"Well, they could be wrong. Listen Zeb. This thing started when I heard voices coming from the fireplace. I am hearing them again. And if Buffy was not so harried and strung out, she probably would hear them, too... At least Lyndon has been born, and we never promised him. But still, I am scared,"

"So what do you want to do?"

"I would try to get some confirmation. And then tell Barnabas and Angelique."

"Confirmation? How?"