Chapter 4

Collinwood Vicki's room

With darkness spreading it's deceptive blanket of calm over the land, Vicki stood before her dresser looking at her image and frowned. Tonight would be a good night to just stay in and go to bed early with a book. But she had promised Barnabas that she would like to visit with him in his home. Picking up her brush, she thought about brushing her hair, looking at her image, she saw she really did not need to brush it; her hair was already neat and orderly. Putting the brush down she glanced down at the ring on her finger and sighed.

"Oh Josette, how I wish you were here now." She muttered softly, turned walking to the closet and took her sweater out. Laying it on the bed, she reached for her comfortable shoes and slipped them on, putting her other shoes in the cabinet that was her closet. Facing the door she walked towards it pausing and for a moment felt the room shift and spin, backing up she sat heavily on the edge of the bed. Cradling her head with her fingers she waited for the feeling to pass. 'What is going on with me?"

Her thoughts were conflicted while she tried to clear her vision and get her balance back. Shaking her head she sighed deeply. Something was at play here and it had nothing to do with her or Barnabas, something was playing with her mind and her health. Feeling frightened she stood, took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Feeling a little stronger she stood continued to the door stepping to the hallway, where she found Mrs. Stoddard giving some instructions to Mrs. Johnson. "I know you are busy Mrs. Johnson but this would not take much time and won't interfere with your other duties, I have already made the bed up and all you need to do is follow the diet the doctor sends."

Looking at Vicki's approach Elizabeth smiled then her smile froze as she saw how pale she looked. "Vicki darling are you unwell?" She laid a hand of comfort on her shoulder.

Vicki forced a smile to her lips and shook her head. "No, no, I am fine, what is going on?" She looked at the sour faced Sarah Johnson then directed her attention towards her employer.

"Roger called last night, it seems that David and Maggie were attacked in Central Park. Maggie was injured more than she realized and she is on bed rest, so we agreed that she should stay here while recuperating. I have a room ready to put her in, but we needed a special diet, apparently she suffered four cracked ribs and she did not realize it, when she went out for dinner after returning. That is when it was discovered one of her ribs had punctured her lung."

Vicki was shocked, "And David? Was he injured?" Vicki chewed her bottom lip waiting for the report on David.

"David is the hero of this escapade it seems that when they attacked Maggie, he went after them and fought them, they knocked him down but did nothing more than cause a few scratches and bruises. According to the police they were able to identify one of the assailants by some bite marks David left on the man."

Vicki was astonished, "Oh my goodness. Well if you need me to help or you Mrs. Johnson, I would be happy to help." She offered a reassuring smile to the dour Mrs. Johnson.

"It is just one more thing for me to add to the numerous duties I have already but I will manage, thank you Vicki for your offer and Mrs. Stoddard I will be happy to cook whatever Miss Evans may need, will she be attended by that Daphne girl?"

Liz smiled, "Thank you Mrs. Johnson and yes, I have made arrangements for Daphne to help with her care once she is home with Roger and David. I believe Roger was going to try and hire a private plane and bring them home tonight, I had planned to go to the airport to pick them up."

"Oh, do you need me to go with you? I was just going to spend the evening with Barnabas, but if you need me I am sure he would understand." Vicki had used her hands when expressing her desire to help and Liz saw the glint of the ring on her right hand.

Reaching out to take the hand she smiled looking down at the ring. "I see he gave you Josette's ring." Her words were tinged with pride. "Congratulations Vicki, I know its just a promise ring but it means a lot to him and to us your new family that he wishes to pursue his interests in you."

Vicki noted that Mrs. Stoddard was beginning to choke up when she looked at the ring. "Do you mind? I know it's a family heirloom and well I would not like to accept it if you were to feel it was not appropriate."

Liz studied the girl and she wanted so much to tell her how much she loved her and was happy that she would be a Collins someday. She wanted to throw her arms around her and shout to those that would listen, 'This is my daughter! My first born and she belongs here and she is a Collins!' Instead she smiled held onto her New England breeding and shook her head. "No dear I am honored he decided to give it to you, you are family a part of our family and it is right that you should wear something that meant so much to him and another important member of this family Josette Collins. Now you run along and have a very nice evening and when you come home, you might want to check in on Maggie."

Vicki hugged Mrs. Stoddard and stepped past her and Mrs. Johnson. Head bent and feeling relieved that Mrs. Stoddard did not mind she had another family heirloom. When she got to the top of the stairs another over whelming feeling of dizziness and nausea hit her sitting down hard on the top step she put her fingertips to the bridge of her nose. Then she lowered her head to her arms to cradle her head with her hands and waited for the feeling to pass. This was beginning to annoy and frightened her.

Getting her bearings she stood and slowly walked down the stairs. To the door and stopped, then she heard it, a soft calling from the distance a voice that seemed to fill the very air around her and it was calling her name. "Victoria! Victoria come to me Victoria, I need you, you must hurry, come to me Victoria." Opening the door to a blast of wind, that enveloped her body, Vicki felt herself swept up in the icy cold and her body was thrust forward to the now black night that held for one thing an unknown danger that was now trying to pull her towards it.

Closing her eyes she shook her head and spoke harshly to the wind. "NO!" Stepping to the front lawn she began to walk at a brisk fast pace towards the path that would take her to the old house and to Barnabas. The wind seemed to direct her and howl in rage at her resistance while she internally struggled against that voice and the need to follow the wind. Briskly trudging along the pathway she found she could no longer contain her desire to run hard and fast away from the voice and the wind that beckoned her on.

Old House

Barnabas stood by the bay windows of the drawing room watching the front lawn and the path that broke through the wood line. He waited expectantly knowing she was on her way he could feel her, smell her and then he paused. The scent had changed, she was afraid. He could smell her fear it was almost palatable. Without hesitation he walked to the door throwing it open he shifted into mist form and floated into the night to follow the smell of her and the feel of her. He saw her below she was running as hard as she could and from behind he saw something feral and dangerous following behind her. Shifting into bat form he dove down to the image of a man, dressed in black with red penetrating eyes. Demonic eyes that caught and held his image.

The being saw the bat divig towards him, he threw his cloak over his head and was gone from sight. Barnabas swooped down to where he had last seen this figure and found it was no longer there. It was gone. Redirecting his bat like body, he flew over head watching Vicki below, pacing her until she got to the wood line and the front lawn of his home. Flying through the air faster than her eye could perceive he reappeared in the drawing room and reformed to human form. Rushing to the door he waited anxiously watching her approach. She ran then would look over her shoulders to see if she was being pursued.

She made the top of the stairs she ran full force into his arms and held onto him, her breath ragged and her voice quivering, she gasped, "Someone in the woods following me!" She clung to him; allowing him to lead her into the house and close the door. "Come my dear sit by the fire and warm yourself, and allow Willie and myself to go and see if we can find this person."

"No! Don't leave me alone! I . . . I don't want to be alone!" She clung to him he held her and he could feel how terribly upset she had become. Her body shivered.

"I won't be but a moment, I will have Willie sit with you, while I go check." Turning from seatting her in the fireside chair he took a couple of steps towards the stairs. "Willie!" Barnabas called up the stairs and waited for the boy to come down.

"Yes Barnabas." Willie skipped expectently down the stairs wearing his apron and it was apparent he had been working upstairs. He glanced around looking concerned he could see how pale and scared Vicki looked and his immediate thoughts were he tried to attack her.

"No Willie I did not attack or try to attack her, she was chased here by someone in the woods. I want you to sit with her while I go make sure he is gone."

Willie had heard him in his mind something he was getting used to and was not minding at this point. Willie shook his head acquiescing to Barnabas' request. Stepping past Barnabas; Willie sat next to Vicki. "Hi Vicki, do you need anything to drink?" He looked up hearing the door close knowing that Barnabas had left the house.

"No thank you Willie, I just was frightened by something in the woods, it seemed to be chasing me." She hugged her arms close to her body she watched the front door anxiously.

"You cold you want I should get you a blanket?" He stood and walked towards the hall cupboard. Willie came back with a soft blanket and covered Vicki.

Vicki smiled tensely, "Thank you Willie, this feels so much better, the wind was so cold and fierce and then there was the voice trying to call to me to come to it and I just got afraid!"

"You say a voice calling to you? You saw someone chasing you? Next time, call me Vicki, I will drive over and pick you up so you don't have to walk through those spooky woods at night. I never felt good about you doing that and now I am convinced you don't need to be coming through the woods any more until we find out what is going on?"

Woods between the Old House and Collinwood

Barnabas had shifted to bat form again and began to do a criss cross of the area, his keen eyesight looking below for the figure he had seen earlier. The air around the thing had been putrid and smelled of death and if he had not known better it reminded him of something he had seen a long time ago, on Martinique.

The old islanders had called it a Harbinger of Death, they appeared when death was about to claim the soul and take it to hell. He could not be sure that was what it was he saw but he was not going back to the house until he knew it was gone.

Making one more pass over the woods, he saw nothing and turned to returned to the old house. Flying to the front stoop he shifted into human form. Turning to look over the area one more time seeing all was right and he felt comfortable to return to the drawing room and noted how pale Vicki had grown. "Did you find anything?"

Willie along with Vicki stood when Barnabas entered the room, her eyes wide and filled with fear and concern awaiting his answer to Willie's question. "Nothing was there. It was long gone by the time I got out there. My dear sit and cover up you look pale as death." He held her close to his body and guided her gently to the chair.

Old House Naomi's sitting room.

Willie glanced around the room and quietly let them to their moment. Walking back up the stairs to Naomi's sitting room, where he had been working earlier. He had felt concern for Vicki looking as pale and afraid. He hoped that Barnabas could calm her down and then he thought about Beth and it brought a smile to his lips. He was beginning to have feelings for the girl. He knew how he would feel if someone had scared her he would want to beat the living crap out of the guy.

Turning back to look over the room he felt pretty proud of what he had done so far to this room, The paint was close to what it had been, the wall paper was an exact duplicate, and now he was putting up the bead board and it was coming together really well. He almost felt that Naomi could come into the room and feel she was at home. At the back of his mind he could not get past the thought that there was something off about this whole night and it all began with the appearance of Vicki.

Old House Drawing Room.

Vicki held to Barnabas laying her head against his shoulder. " I have to confess something." She spoke softly she hung onto him for dear life. "I was getting ready for our date, and I got dizzy and felt ill, it passed. I thought it was possibly the addiction nagging at me. It almost felt like withdrawals from the drug. Then when I got ready to leave Collinwood." She swallowed hard closed her eyes and let her head rest against his shoulder, "I heard a voice calling in the wind, it was wanting me to come to it. I fought the voice, and I began to run to the old house, that is when I stopped at one point and looked and there was this huge dark figure wearing black and it seemed to be chasing me."

She felt his arms tightened around her for security. "I am here my dear, you have nothing to fear now. I shall protect you always." His voice had been so soft and reassuring and it calmed her immediately to have such reassurances. Finally she relaxed in his hold and allowed him to lead her back to her chair, where he covered her again, smiling he turned to the liquor cabinet and pulled out the sherry bottle and poured her a small glass of sherry. "Now drink this and allow it to warm you."

Vicki curled her slender fingers around the stem of the glass. Smiling her appreciation she sipped the sweet liquor, setting the glass on the fireside table. "Now, my dear what would you like to do tonight?" He pulled his chair around and sat across from her watching her for any signs of feeling unease or ill.

"I think I would like to spend this night playing cards and talking with you about us." Her voice was so soft that he had to tilt his head to make sure he heard everything she had said.

"You wish to talk about us? I will tell you whatever you want to know about me and you must in turn tell me what you can about yourself." His smile was reassuring and his manner had become formal.

"No Barnabas, I want to talk about us, where you think our relationship is going and how you feel about me." She sighed pulling the blanket closer, slid back in the chair and studied him from under the fall of her heavy eyelashes.

Barnabas smiled, "My dearest Victoria, what is there to say. I am a man that has fallen hopelessly and forever in love with one of the most beautiful women I have the pleasure to meet. I find that you are the very epitome of what I want in a wife and mother of my children."

He had to pause a moment after saying the mother of his children, that was contingent on whether or not Julia and Eric were able to cure him of his curse without killing him. "I expect nothing but what ever you are willing to give me."

Vicki was touched by the words were so special to her and she had to pause to think about her next question. "Barnabas you said you were fond of me, and now you say you love me. A woman wants to know she is loved for who she is and not what she represents to the man. For me, I need a man to love me, not what I will be for that man other than the woman he loves."

Her words hit him hard, in the beginning he wanted her to be another he had loved, he wanted her to be Josette. He stood paced to the window and looked out to the front lawn. "Victoria, I want you to know that what I feel is for you, not another or an image of another. My feelings are so strong that I go to sleep thinking of you and awaken thinking of you. I find my days filled with when I shall see you again, how may I please you, how may I protect you and how will I live without you."

He turned walked to her and knelt in front of her and took her hand in his. "I think of the times we first met, how your name was so beautiful that you allowed them to take the very syllables that made you that beautiful away." He watched her blush and smiled, "Shall I tell you what it is about you that makes me want you as my wife and why I love you for you?"

Vicki felt her heart skip a beat, he was saying far more than even Burke had admitted to her about their relationship. This man was confessing why he was in love with her. She nodded not trusting her voice.

Taking her fingers in his hand, he studied the slender delicate looking fingers that denoted her as a musician or artist. "I met you and was drawn to you. You reminded me of someone I had lost a long time ago, in England. She like you had such tender qualities that took my breath away. Her laughter was like the sunlight of my day and her kisses were the passion of my nights. I loved her with all my heart. Then she died." He let his hand gently slide over her hand he thought about why he had come to this point in his life and why she was the one that was an important part of his life. "In her, I saw beauty where there was ugly, in her I saw love where there was hate, and in her, I saw my life only being complete if she belonged to me forever."

He took a breath and let it out slowly, a practice he had perfected since he did not need to breathe but give the appearance he was alive. "As death claimed her, my life was over, I died the day she died, and felt that I would never find love again or be able to love, then you were there. It was you who showed me how bright and articulate you were. It was you who showed me how to appreciate life for more than just living. There was you Victoria; you who would rather give up your life to save another, you whose laughter filled my heart with warmth that it had not felt in a long time." He smiled and watched the color of her eyes change with her emotions.

"I will admit in the beginning I did hope to make you over into the image of what I had once and knew I could love, at that time I was not sure I could love again. Then I found there was nothing about you that I would change. I found that when I tried to recall what it was about Jo. . . Josephine that I so loved." He had to stop before he said Josette and subsisted the name Josephine as a cover.

"The problem I found was that for everything I thought I loved about Josephine, it was Victoria's qualities and traits that had replaced those thoughts and images in my mind and slowly, god forgive me, slowly, what I had cherished so in Josephine was now Victoria. The one thing I see when I look in your eyes my dearest Victoria is; I see our children in your eyes. I never saw children in Josephine's eyes."

Vicki was stunned, she had not even considered such a thought but she had her answer she knew beyond a doubt he loved her, he loved her and not an image of who she might be. She leaned forward, closed her eyes and pressed her lips to his lips. "Thank you." she had whispered against his lips before he demanded a deeper kiss.

Barnabas pressed his lips to hers and returned the kiss with passion. Breaking the kiss he smiled, "Now, my turn my dear. I want to know how you feel about what I just told you."

Vicki sighed and looked down at their hands entwined together. "I have to confess Barnabas, I am scared to death. I thought I had found love with Burke, it had been a complicated and difficult relationship in the beginning, he had come to destroy the Collins Family and I simply could not allow him to do that."

She took a deep breath she was exploring feelings she had long denied and needed to purge. "I met you and there is not one moment that I cannot recall that when we were together that I was fascinated by you and your knowledge of the past. I wanted to live there, that is how much I loved the past and then I went there. I do not know how but I did and it really messed with my mind. I know that Reverend Trask wanted me; he would give up trying to prosecute me as a witch if I would just be his mistress. I refused, and I escaped him and when I came back, my world had changed."

She sighed deeply looked down feeling their hands and the tenderness with which he held her hand. She smiled looked up into his intense gaze she could see he was interested in what she had to say. "Then there was you. You Barnabas, who always treated me fairly and believed in me, you who were the kindest person I had ever met and only had my well being at heart. I found that there was a part of me that wanted to give my whole heart to you. Then there was this feeling a nagging feeling that there was something that you were not telling me and that you were trying to make me over into an image of what you expected me to be."

Barnabas did not falter his look; he continued to hold her gaze and let her speak. "I wanted to be everything to you. But I also wanted to be loved for me. Then when we began to grow closer, I needed a friend and you were there for me as a friend. Then I needed more, and I felt some reticent from you. That I was not exactly what you had hoped I would be and I suppose that was my insecurities coming out."

She felt his fingers press against hers and waited patiently for her to gather her thoughts. "You see, I had this conversation with Carolyn, and she reminded me of something. She likes being a girlfriend to Gregory Trask, because he considers her a trophy girlfriend and perhaps some day a trophy wife."

Barnabas did not understand this concept of a trophy wife. Realizing that in England they did not have trophy wives she smiled, "It means that if the wife can be the envy of the man to get him ahead in the world and to look good on his arm makes her a trophy wife. For me that kind of type would be degrading. I would never want to be a prize for some man to show off to his friends. I would want to be a wife and his partner."

Barnabas smiled, "For me you would be my partner and my wife not a prize, though in my heart, the prize I would seek would be your love and your heart." His words were said with such tenderness that it left no doubt he was being sincere.

"I want you to know Barnabas, there is a part of me that is scared to let go of being me, and to embrace sharing my life with another so readily. But there is also apart of me that wants to be loved and appreciated for being Vicki Winters and not another image or a prize, do you understand?"

He nodded and smiled, "My dearest Victoria, you are loved for being you. There is not one thing about you I would want to change. I would like to help you grow and learn with me but never change you from who you are and what you represent. And that is a woman filled with love and passion that wants to share it as a part of her life with the man she loves. I accept you from the top of her head to the end of your toes for who you are."

He watched the tears formed then her batting lashes flicked them to her cheek, where he took his index finger and captured the tear. "From you, I see diamonds in those tears and each are as precious to me as the woman that made them."

Feeling her nerves finally settling and her mind clearing she smiled, "Then kiss me Barnabas Collins, kiss me and hold me." Her words were so soft that they affected him to the point he gathered her close and pressed into her to kiss her deeply. He knew then she was in love with him; she just needed to realize it.

Kissing her passionately he broke the kiss and smiled into her eyes. "Now then my dear what shall we do for the rest of the evening?"

Vicki laughed, "I think I like what we were doing was just fine. Shall we continue?"