Chapter 7
"This is indeed the card" Amy told Jessica. "And you claim it."
"It was given to me, so I must be the one to claim it."
"Do you know why this card was given to you?"
"Because I am close to great danger. Because I may, unwittingly become the source of great danger. Because of the child I carry and the bond that Zeb once had with Laura."
"Yes. Though you did not wish the evil, it might come because of you. So it must be that you have been chosen to be one who will help push the evil back again. The risk is greater for you than for anyone else. But the risk of doing nothing is greater still."
"So I have to do as you say."
"For the safety of all."
"What must I do?"
"Go to Buffy as you leave here, and take the herbs which she has ground, Deadly Nightshade is one of them. Bring them , by moonlight, and add some to some blood samples that your husband keeps in the refrigerator, in the back."
"Those vials..."
"They hold nothing that pertain to your work. Zeb is more involved that he knows. He is nota aware of what he does, or why he does it, except by flashes."
"My husband..."
"You are the Tower, Jessica. You can be the gate that leads to destruction, or you can be the source of strength that will sustain us. Which will you be:?'"
Jessica did not hesitate. "I shall be your strength."
"Good. Now take a card for the next person to come."
It was the Page of Wands.
The bars would not budge. Strain as he did against them, he was helpless to make them open enough, so that he could escape.
Why didn't he give up? It was no use. He had tried. They had all tried, and no good had come of it. All it ever did was doom Amy...
Yet for all that, he had to continue struggling. Maybe he'd get lucky. Maybe he'd get a chance...maybe.
Whatever it was, he could not let Hallie take him to the fire without a struggle, if not for himself, then for Eliot.
Maybe this one bar was loose... maybe if he tried hard enough..
Amy passed by, sweeping ahead the floor that she could not see. David moaned to see her thus.
He should break the bar, he should break free, take Amy with him, and flee. He had to put all his strength at once on the bar, even if it killed him, and not let go until the bar gave.
Amy knew that he was struggling, and guessed what must be going through her mind because of her presence.
A mad desire came over her. What if he broke free? What if they both escaped? They might have a chance... Yes, of course, she was still holding the ladder, in her dreams. The ladder promised freedom. But it had its own risks. Hallie had already taken Quentin's blood before Jessica could add the powder... Not Barnabas, thankfully, and that had been treated. When Zeb added Chris and Oriana's blood they would also be treated by the time Zeb gave them to Hallie...
But what if Jessica could not figure out who the Page of Wands was? Why not take a chance with David?
Because the Tower of Destruction had arisen in the spread. Because there was danger in impatience. She must not give in, no matter what the temptation.
David strained further, pushing the bar, feeling how it gave, knowing that he would be free soon.
"Amy, we are going to make it."
He might. And take her with him and...
The bar broke, and acting as if she was startled by the noise, she dropped the broom and screamed.
'No, Amy, don't scream. It is me. We are going to get out of here."
She screamed, louder and louder, as if in panic, making herself drop to the floor, refusing to go with him.
"Amy... Amy... come with me. Hurry up, or they will catch us."
She struggled as she heard the footsteps arriving. She felt's David's hand clamp on her mouth, and then the blow on her head. She knew that he was carrying her and then that he had stopped...
David struggled, held by the Golden Falcon.
"Why did you fight?' he asked, bitterly, to Amy. "We could have made it out of here, the both of us."
"You could not. And she knew that she would be severely punished if she helped you." Hallie kicked the semi-unconscious Amy, who whimpered at the blow. "She knows her place, and so she behaved accordingly." she looked at the cage. "You did break the bar, didn't you?"
'Yes. Anything not to be with you."
"I believe you. But you have no choice in the matter. You will be put in a stronger cage, that's all."
David protested as he was led away.
"It is your heritage, David. Do not fight it. Rejoice instead in it."
Amy whimpered again, and Hallie kicked her, not roughly, jus to remind her what she was, and where she was.
Then she left, to take care of two businesses that she could not postpone. Take possession of Quentin, and keep George Brant from looking too hard in her direction.
The glistening wall into which she was looking became transparent, and through it she could see what George Brant was doing.
Brant probably by now had heard of her lawyer's car accident. He would still be in the hospital, and charged with drunk driving. That would make her suspect Carolyn even more. A bit more nudging, and Brant would take the legal route to get Eliot back to his mother...
At the moment Brant was talking with Derek Pearce...
Brant's face was grim. He evidently did not like what Pearce was telling him... probably about Egg City (she had heard about it.) Seems that there problems there...
George felt uncomfortable hearing about the problems. He should do something about them. He should go there and check by herself. But with all the things going on, with her daughter, and what Barnabas had gone through, it had slipped her mind.
Still, the situation could deteriorate fast. If he did not make time for it soon, it would reach the point of no return.
He continued interrogating Derek. Up to now, Howard's opposition to his ideas were grounded on reasonable grounds. But for how much longer? He said that he wanted to make sure that they would not be sold into prostitution before he allowed Derek to bring women out of the egg... He insisted that training programs for young people should lead to make the egg more self sufficient... And if there were scheduling conflicts with those programs with the classes that Derek taught, well, the training programs took priority...
But Derek quite often could not object. Because both Frances and Roxanne backed Howard... And Patterson was not enough of a counterweight...
Add to it the young men who worshipped Howard to the point of losing their judgment, and that they handled weapons...
He had to go there..
As soon as the solstice passed, as soon as he had returned Eliot to his mother...
Strange that Roxanne did not back Derek. Or rather to be expected. Howard was just too dashing...Maybe she thought that she had married the wrong one... Or Howard was already married, and Derek was second best.
"Maybe if we had children..." Derek said. "But we can't. Vampirism can sterilize you, and the fact that you go back to normal does not change that..."
"You know that I have a daughter?"
"A daughter? How?"
Hallie stopped watching. She had learned what she sought. George was too torn between different claims, and could not concentrate on any of them. And he no longer suspected her.
It was time now to take control of Quentin. She would hold drinking Barnabas' blood as well that of the tow werewolves until the solstice, when she came to claim Eliot.
Now it was Quentin's time.
