Chapter 10
Verhoff rose with the dusk.
He felt strange, As if the word around him was not truly real.
And then he realized. He was himself again.
Burke was gone. He had been in control when dawn had forced him into his coffin, but now he was nowhere...
His mind was his again...
And if felt so strange to be in possession of it.
Someone had promised him that... and he had delivered.
He was free...
He remembered what he had done. The face of Barnabas as the pain tore through him, the pay, the whimpering...
And the refusal to be broken...
Did he hate him still?
No, he did not. He just wanted to forget Burke Devlin and all of it.
He was free...
"Do you think so?"
He turned, shivering. Burke stood there, in a gleaming light.
"You recognize me, don't you?"
Verhoff snarled at him.
"Yes. You recognize me. And you know how useless your fangs are against me. I just took advantage of your sleeping to go around and find out what is going on... But you are not rid of me, Not while I have a use for you."
"No!" Verhoff howled at him. "You won't use me again!"
"You cant stop me."
Verhoff lunged at him. Burke just laughed as Verhoff fell on him, and through him to the floor.
"You can't fight me Verhoff. You should know it."
He could not. He tried turning into a bat, into mist, to escape somehow.
Burke was still at his side.
'You are mine, Verhoff. You must do as I say."
"She sent me to you." Edmund told Barnabas. "And you know why."
"Burke is here. And he knows... He forced it out of me. He will come after you next."
"Burke? Here?"
"He is possessing Dr. Verhoff. Get back to the labyrinth. Warn Amy."
Amy already knew it. But he did not say it. He did not want Burke overhearing it. Better let him believe that he had beaten them.
"Amy must know... Get back, Edmund, please...If you stay here, he will destroy you."
Verhoff felt his body rise on his feet. He had lost the fight. Burke had returned and had proven to be the stronger. And this time he let him know what was done to his body... and that he would have to face ronin retaliation, afterwards for what he was doing to Barnabas Collins...
"No!" he wanted to protest "Don't do this to me, to him... don't force me."
Burke knew of his anguish and mocked him.
Would nothing come to stop this? He had been promised help... where was that help, now?
"Burke! Burke Devlin!"
"Who are you?" Burke turned, stung by the reproach in the voice that reached him. A voice that he knew too well.
"You know who I am. You know me well."
Burke seemed paralyzed, and Verhoff felt hope return to him. Here was the help promised him! Here was his chance to throw off Burke's yoke.
"You have no right!"
"I have every right. You would not have done much of what you did without my help. And you turned it to evil purposes."
"So you helped me once. And I know what payment you wanted. But in the end I made myself what I am. You have no right to impose your rules on me. Not when you wanted something else from me."
"Burke, there is a debt between us that has to be settled."
"There is a debt between you and Barnabas! I am avenging you! Isn't that what you want?"
"No, Burke. The payment that I demand is more convoluted, and believe me, Barnabas has settled his debt on my terms. It is your debt that is pending."
"And what would my debt be?
"To turn from your ways. To stop using your gifts to wicked ends."
"You always said things like that, didn't you? Well, what did it get you to follow your own precepts? You got killed, that's what. While I grow in power, living or dead. Barnabas is helpless in my hands, and you might have wished he could be in yours. But you would not believe it in doing it my way."
"You have chosen wrong, Burke. You are not the only person in the world that deserves consideration. You suffered, right, but others suffered too, and you never cared enough to help them."
"I have heard you say this a hundred and fifty times before, and I did not care. I do not care now, either... And then, who are you trying to kid? You were never that selfless. I know what you wanted of me, what you wanted of all your boys."
"You said no, and I respected that."
"You hoped to wear me down, tell the truth I know what you wanted to make out of me. Some sort of Boy Scout, doing a daily good deed, and fucking you besides. Well, tough luck. I am going to settle my account with Barnabas. You can watch me if you wish."
"Hallie ran a hand over her face. "I do look like her, don't I?"
"Yes."
"I have forgotten how I look." she said, with more than a hint of a complaint. "I haven't seen my face for a long time."
"Neither have I." Amy reminded her.
"True. I spoke wrong. I presumed too much." Hallie looked down, trying to seem penitent
Humility did not come easily to Hallie...
"You have so much to learn, Hallie. This new life of yours is hard, I know. I appreciate it that you try. But has it occurred to you that I am the last person you should complain to?"
"It is not... Amy, I am sorry I hurt you."
"Maybe you are... No I think that given how it turned out you regret it bitterly."
"But you are the only person who knows anything about Collinsport and the rest. You are the only one who know David. Mistress Wick doesn't."
Amy softened. "I am your only link with what used to be. What you had, and what you threw away."
'Yes. Please, let me remember."
"Yes. Maybe you should. Those memories will help you become what you should be. If Mistress Wick approves, I shall help you. If I am satisfied how you serve me now."
Hallie nodded. Questions had come to her, about David and Eliot. Questions about her uncle, if he knew of what had happened to her, and if he would condemn her...
But not now. Not while they had Burke Devlin to deal with.
"I tried to fight it... but he kept tormenting me... I tried not to tell... I held out several days..."
"It is all right, Barnabas" Edmund tried to reassure him.
"It is not all right. He knows our plans. Get back to the labyrinth. Now."
"It is too late for that." Burke said, striding into the room.