Chapter 11
"Sheriff" Derek was blushing slightly "There is something that you should know."
"That you think highly of me and that you want me to invest, and that you like me better than Patterson?"
"Patterson has been saying... certain things about you. About your sex life."
"And you want me to tell you that they are not true?"
Derek shook his head. "He should not talk that way. But I know that you and Barnabas Collins are lovers."
George stared at him, not sure what he was leading to, while Derek reddened visibly..
"You see, I got to watch once... while I was still flying around. I happened to be outside that particular window and... I saw."
"You didn't!"
"I did not mean to spy on you. I just wanted to talk to you about something or other, but Barnabas was already there. I decided to wait until whatever business you had was finished. Only it took longer than I expected..."
He was beet red now. George felt pity for him.
"All right. you found out. And you said nothing."
"What was there to say? I told you, I like you. You are the first cop who treated me decently and that counts a lot in my book. "But Patterson is making trouble, and..."
"Derek, don't worry about Patterson. You just take him for what you can get. If it gets too bad, I'll handle him."
Urien tried to find his way. Where was he? What was happening to him?
He knew who he was. Urien Yost. No, not Yost anymore, Urien Collins. He had been adopted by Barnabas Collins, the vampire and regular busybody of Collinsport.
He worked as a volunteer at the Environmental Center, and wanted to become a biologist...
But he was somewhere else now... His body did not feel like his anymore... Something had happened to him...
Why couldn't he open his eyes? Why couldn't he move?"
And he was now floating somewhere else... he was sure of that...
He could hear other noises, could hear Barnabas' voice, too, but far... far away...
His name was Urien... Collins... He had been a hustler, a male prostitute, for a while, then a vampire had decided to reform him...
His name was Urien.. Yost... he was floating somewhere and could not open his eyes to know where he was. His faced ached, but dully...
Maybe if he strained enough he'd be able to open his eyes...
Little Phillip gawked at the seagulls swooping down the water. He pointed at them, trying to draw Vicky's attention to them.
Vicky was glad to see him so animated. She was feeling a lot better now herself. She was getting more students, to the point that she was thinking of hiring another teacher to share the load. She was teaching some computer courses too, not just literacy classes...
Megan had give her wise advice.. she only wished she was there so that she could thank her for it. The food pantry and soup kitchen was working out too. While Trask wondered if she would have the time to do it all, she had chosen several of the pantry's clients to do some of the tasks, as a way to pay for their food. She made it clear that there was little money to be had in the outfit yet, that they depended on donations, so they could not afford to pay wages. But there were extra cans of food, and extra bowls of soup. And sometimes donations of a different kind, and those who helped out had first pick of those..
Things were getting better bit by bit...
If only she knew what had happened to Phillip...
She no longer felt lost, as if she had no protection, no means of support without her husband. She could manage by herself. But if she did not miss Phillip materially, she missed him most terribly emotionally. She needed him, as he had needed her.
Sometimes she thought that he could still be alive... But could it really be?
No one had found the body, true, and because of that the insurance company had refused to pay. That and the suspicion that he had committed suicide...
And Phillip had gone missing once, and returned. Why not now?
She looked at the sea, but there were no answers, just the waves crashing on the shore.
She looked back at little Phillip who ran laughing to her. Yes, she had little Phillip. that much she was certain about...
Zoya put the hand on the ground, by her side. It was hers at last. And with it she no longer feared Hallie. Let her try to send her salamanders. She was ready for them...
She may even destroy Hallie herself.
"Chris Jennings seems quite content with the idea." Julia told Richard, or rather Howard as she tried to teach herself to think of him, "He says that you are welcome to make a go of his farm. And if you feel in the mood for planting turnips or something like that, he wishes you the best of luck."
"So there will be no problem there."
"None. He is happy enough where he is. He and his wife are adopting threechildren, a two boys and a girl. There were few takers for them, since everybody wanted perfect babies, so the adoption was quite easy for them."
"Chris Jennings, is he the werewolf?"
"Yes. His wife's a werewolf, too. A reporter who got infected while chasing a story."
"You'll have to tell me then whose story one of these days. Does he know about me? I mean the whole story?"
"No one knows apart from me, Barnabas, Frances, and Angelique."
"Megan doesn't, I take it."
"No, she doesn't. It was Angelique's condition for helping you."
He shrugged. "I imagine that she mourned me in a highly theatrical fashion.
"She was hurt."
"Yes. She was. The pain was real. But still, there was a theatrical aspect, too. I bet."
Redwolf felt that he was facing the gypsy equivalent of Old Munsungan. And why not? What could be said of the shaman could also be said of Ruslan Romano, even to the claim of supernatural powers.
He regretted now his modern ways that made him lose contact with the kind of world these two were so comfortable with.
He wondered about other similarities. Instead of being confined to reservations, they were instead condemned to eternal wanderings in their caravans. But unlike Indians, they cold take off their traditional clothes and blend into the general population without losing their ways.
He gave Ruslan Munsungan's letter. He wondered how could a gypsy read the signs that only an Indian could understand. But then, there was much that escaped him and which Munsungan knew.
"Has he seen the fire?" Ruslan asked.
"Yes. he said that it will consume everything unless we find the hand."
The old man nodded grimly "It is true, we have to find it."
'He will help you as much as it is needed. I will take you to him."