Chapter 7

Edmund looked a lot less belligerent than he had been in the Old House. Certainly being adopted by Carolyn had been to the best, even if Barnabas did not want to admit it.

Edmund did not show any hostility towards her. His manners were a lot friendlier than they had been when she had first begun teaching him. She represented no threat to him now.

He actually was curious as to why she was so swollen up. Which had led to an impromptu Sex Ed class. Maybe she told more than Carolyn would want. On the other hand, those questions were a bit overdue for a child of Edmund's age.

Absentmindedly she scratched her neck. There was a sore spot in there...


"Peter?" Jessica insisted "Peter?"

Yolanda entered the room. "Don't push him Doctor King. Peter responds better to gentle coaxing."

Her words were polite, but her expression indicated that Jessica was trespassing.

Yolanda was being professional. Yes, she subtly patronized her. The same subtle patronizing that she was guilty of in dealing with her own patients...It was a professional deformation...

She had to remember that Yolanda was the professional. . She had had her contact Audrey Morton, who had given her a glowing evaluation. And Peter was showing improvement under her care.

Still, she could not get rid of the antipathy she felt, the more strong because it was so patently groundless.

What was it? Jealousy? Of whom? Zeb? She knew better than that. Peter? Why should that be? She had been wary of him coming to stay with them, in the first place.

Maybe she resented Yolanda, because she allowed Peter to stay with them longer, driving a wedge between her and Zeb.

It was not even Peter's fault. It was what he meant to Zeb. More ammunition to his obsession with Barnabas Collins and Sheriff Brant...

Maybe it was lucky that Yolanda was with them, because she did help Peter. And Peter needed help, not to be used as a pawn in Zeb's games.

Still, she did not trust her...


Nunez' look was one of pure hatred. "So you plan tom keep me locked her during the day?" he said defiantly as he surveyed the cell in the basement.

"It is that or sleeping pills. Or being tied up. I can't turn you back into a dog every day."

"No!" Nunez shouted. "It makes no difference. You said that I would enjoy a few days of normality. And now you are stealing the daylight hours from me."

"Sleep during the day. And I promised you that it would be within the bonds of reason. I can't have you trying to run away. And besides, you are in no position to make demands."

"Of course." Nunez looked down in mock humility "I am your prisoner, completely dependent on your goodwill."

"Yes. You are. I am glad that you finally understand what your position is. You can't bribe or coerce your way out. For your safety an well being you have to rely wholly on my own innate decency, no more, no less. And you can be glad that I am not like you."

"You judge me." Nunez said bitterly "and you aren't even human. You aren't even properly alive. You live off the blood of the living, and you still dare to judge me."

"I have a right to judge you."

"What right?"

"Right of conquest, if you will. I imprisoned you, by the right that comes from my being stronger than you are. This is a right that you certainly understated. And a right based on the proposition that a torturer is an enemy of humanity and that I am empowered to make a citizen's arrest. I can't tell you exactly what it was that you broke, what law, what compact between men, but I know it makes you less than human. I gave you the appearance of a beast, but it was you woo worked to debase the inside. It is your nature to be less than a man."

Nunez groaned. Another lecture yet. As if it was not bad enough already.

"You never dreamed that a price would be extracted from you." Barnabas continued, oblivious of Nunez's reacting. "you have good qualities, Nunez, but those are qualities meant for a faithful dog, not a responsible, reasoning human being. You chose blind loyalty over reason and gave loyalty where it was not deserved. All right, Enough of that. What is it going to be? The cell, or sleeping pills?"

Nunez looked around, still proud in his manner, still aloof,. "I'll take the cell. If I am a prisoner, I will be treated like one."

Barnabas refrained from telling him that he would not be treated like his own prisoners, and that he should be thankful for that,.

"Good. I'll see what I can do to make the cell more comfortable. I'll get you blankets, books, and plenty of food and drink. And how that the days are getting shorter, it won't be so bad."

He felt a twinge of uneasiness about it. But then, it was only kind of vacation that Nunez would get. And anyway, Nunez needed some lessons in humility, in service, in giving uncritical love... He might not be the most appropriate person to teach it, but still, someone had to do it.


Elsa read in her bed, late at night in spite of her parents' injections to turn off the light and go to sleep. She should, but the book was so absorbing! How could she stop reading? Her eyes were pulled to the next word, and the next, and the next, and the next, savoring them, devouring them...

"Turn off the light, young lady! Now!" the voice of her father came from the hallway.

"All right, daddy." She turned off the light and laid herself on the pillow.

She did not close her eyes, waiting for her parents to fall asleep so that she could turn the light back on. Nevertheless, lying there, immobile, waiting, her mind began to wander, and dream images began to form in her mind.

She began drifting into sleep without noticing it.

There was a fluttering outside the window..

She sat up.. or thought she was... "Barnabas?" she asked.

The bat kept fluttering outside.

"Well, come in." her lips formed the words, though no sound came. She was asleep, but also aware...

Someone was at her side.

"Barnabas?"

Liz looked at her in the darkness. Was she asleep? She seemed to be saying something, moving... but her eyes remained closed... she just talked in her sleep.

Liz approached her. Elsa seemed to sense that she was there, lying on the pillow, stretching out her neck...

Liz bent over her. She bared her fangs and touched the skin with them. She tried to get the feel of the vein underneath.

"Barnabas?" Elsa said again. :"I knew that you would come to me."

... It was a child. Liz felt shame. But she felt hunger too. Not pain, not yet. But if she did not finish the task that Yolanda had given her, the pain would return. She needed Yolanda. She had to feed quickly and go back to digging for Yolanda... She could not waste time looking for someone else. It had to be Elsa.

She bit into the throat. The blood flowed into her mouth. She welcomed it for the warmth that began to grow in her.

She managed to remember to pull out before it got dangerous.

Elsa's eyes were still closed, lost in her dreams "Barnabas" she whispered again.

And Liz was gone, on Yolanda's errand.


'What's wrong, Barnabas?" Willie asked "Don't tell me that it is nothing."

"I worry about Vicky. I wonder how the pregnancy is progressing. If it will be an easy delivery or... In my time, delivery complications were the main cause of death for women..."

"Well, talk to her doctor. Doctor Taft."

"You think I should? He somehow does not trust me around her."

"His experience with Derek, and with Carolyn's pregnancy might have soured him on the, er,, unusual members of the family. Burt if you ask him, he should give you some answers. But I imagine that he will tell you the same thing that I will."

"Which is?"

"Welcome to the club."

"What club?"

"The club of first time fathers who act so crazy that they drive their wives nuts."