Chapter 11
"I know what you are going to say, Reverend." Megan made chopping gestures with her hand. "that I should send Sandy back to her husband."
"I can understand why she would not want to go back. Still,"
"Still, if I sent her back I could not trust her to drive by herself."
"That bad?" Anselm Trask's voice held no real surprise. He had expected something like this on his own.
"That bad. She has already experienced enough rejection without my adding to it."
"She hasn't been rejected..."
"Not overtly, you mean." there was bitterness in Megan as she spoke. "I know how it is. I have been there."
"But you..."
"I got back on my feet. Yes. So will Sandy. But she hasn't made it yet. And you should refrain from making demands on her until she's strong enough to handle them."
"There is the question of her marriage."
"Can her husband accept that she is a werewolf?"
"I understand that her condition might well be temporary."
"It is not over yet. And what happens if the cure fails? She has to be fully accepted now."
"It might be difficult for Herbert. He is trying..."
"Yes. He's very trying... Look, why do you think I forced Phillip to divorce me? Because I knew that he could not accept it. And Phillip is a lot more understanding and sensitive than ... that lump Herbert. Sandy should have divorced him long ago."
"Do you know that Sandy has a crush on Barnabas Collins?"
"Who doesn't?"
"Maybe that is the reason why she is so willing to leave her family."
"It is Herbert's fault, if that's the case. This wouldn't have happened if he was one tenth as concerned and caring as Barnabas is. Barnabas isn't interested in Sandy that way. If he were to go to bed with everyone who has a crush on him, he'd be out of breath by now. Sandy will eventually get over it, Reverend. Now I have to worry that she does not have a nervous collapse. One thing at a time."
"Still I think it is wrong."
"In the abstract or the particular?"
"In the abstract." Anselm admitted.
"Well, we are not dealing with an abstract case, but with a very hurting woman. So save the speeches for when she is able again to make a rational decision."
Phillip watched Vicky as she tried a few unsteady steps on the lawn of the sanitarium. He face still bore the marks of her ordeal.
He remembered her, beating her fists against the glass walls and shuddered.
But that was over...
He wondered if he should go to her... and then what? Talk about the good old days?
"You are going to be all right." Julia told Vicky as she helped her walk. "Just don't strain yourself."
"Julia" Vicky hesitated "Where is Barnabas now?"
"He's busy. You'll see him later."
"Why can't he come out for just a few minutes?" There was an undertone of fear in Vicky's words now that Julia did not miss.
"Why is that important to you?" she asked, as gently as she could.
"I...I heard certain things about him... when I was still in the bottle... and remembered others..."
Julia wondered how to phrase the next words. She said the wrong things, and Vicky would regress,
"What things?" she asked, trying to buy time.
"I don't want to think they are true..."
"Whatever it is, Vicky, I can assure you that he would never hurt you."
Roxanne stood at a distance from the entrance to the clinic.
"Come to me, Phillip" she ordered in her mind. "Phillip Todd, I order you to come to me."
She pulled at the mental leash she had established when she had bitten Phillip before leaving. It was still there, still ready to use. Not like the loose job Barnabas did. Unlike Barnabas who consciously tried to blot their patterns from his mind, having discovered that the link could be more costly to his psyche than he had ever suspected, she never tried to sever the connections, only loosen them."
And she was going to use this to kidnap Phillip from under Barnabas' nose.
She would get Phillip to that room she had just rented, the one Sebastian knew nothing about and then she would get her revenge on Barnabas...
Phillip felt the pull. Knew who was calling to him. He tried to resist it, tried to call for help, call Barnabas... but the scream did not form, and Barnabas, engrossed with Vicky did not notice him...
Roxanne waited for him, smiling all the time. He would come. He would not be able to resist her... Phillip would make the same trip those other men had made. But first he would have fun with him, she promised herself. And she'd make sure that Barnabas learned all of it.
Phillip stood now in front of her, still trembling, still helpless...
"I have plans for you, Phillip." she said coldly "get in the car and lie on the back seat."
Phillip had to obey... there was no way he could not...
"You are still resisting" Roxanne said, amused, as she taped Phillip's eyes "It will do you no good, you know."
"Barnabas..." Phillip began, but could not finish as Roxanne taped his mouth closed.
"Barnabas won't be able to stop me. No, Phillip, I am afraid that you are done for."
"Julia said that you had much to talk about with me." Barnabas was careful to keep his distance from Vicky He knew what the talk was to be about, and he had to be as little threatening as possible. "that you had questions for me."
"I just... just wondered why weren't you outside today."
"Why do you think that is?"
"When I was in the bottle they... they told me about you... I don't want to believe it."
"What was that they said?"
"That you had this... condition that did not allow you to face the sunlight... and that you needed to drink blood."
Barnabas nodded. "And you want me to tell you that it isn't true?"
"They were lying, weren't they?" she begged him. "Tell me that they were lying."
"They were not." Barnabas spoke slowly "but you should not be afraid of it... I have found that there is little harm in it, and much potential for good."
Vicky's eyes had been frightened a few seconds ago, but now they were glazed, her expression withdrawn.
Barnabas shook her by her arms. "Vicky, look at me." he commanded her. and continued holding her until expression returned to her eyes.
"Don't do that again" he said severely "I don't expect you to like me or even approve of me. But you are not regressing into catatonia, understood?"
Caught in his eyes, she could only nod.
"You are... really..." she managed to say.
'Yes, I am. I put those wounds you have in your neck. That was how I could bring you back. And I am going to use that link again. I am going to tell you what to do."
Vicky nodded again, unable to resist.
"You are to get better. You will get well enough to leave this place. You will be able to lead a normal life. You will never again retreat into yourself. You will not even want to."
Another nod from Vicky.
"That's better" he released her "I regret I was so rough, but I was afraid I lost you."
"I can't understand you..." Vicky finally said.
"Don't worry. I am here to understand you, not the other way around."
"Well, Phillip, this is it" Roxanne said truculently "you are going to spend your last days here... Of course you will not be truly dead... but still, nothing will be the same again for you."
Blind and mute, Phillip could not respond, could not resist, as she tied his hands in front of him, and then hung him from the ceiling by his wrists
"There. You won't go anywhere now." she tore the tape from Phillip's mouth, none to gently "Well, aren't you going to beg?"
Phillip said nothing.
"Not even asking me to take the tape off your eyes?"
Finally Phillip could speak "What are you going to do to me?"
"I will feed off you for a while. Then you won't be good anymore, not to me at least. But there are others who will be interested in you once you have grown fangs. Like the creatures who use me. They always need new talent... You will work for them. You won't like it, but there will be nothing you'll be able to do about it."
"No..." Phillip whispered, pulling at his bound hands.
"Yes, that's exactly what is going to happen to you. You better learn to like it."
"Barnabas will find me first..."
"He won't. I made sure of that."
She breathed with open mouth over the side of his throat. He bristled at it. She licked her lips, flicking her tongue over his skin. His attempts to evade her touch amused her. Then she touched the points of her fangs over the vein that she knew ran there...
She knew how the slow anticipation was torturing him. She savored it.
"Get on with it" If she kept at this, he would start screaming, he knew, and he did not want that...
"In good time, darling, in good time.."
Finally she bit him. She drank freely, without the restraints she usually imposed on herself, specially with Sebastian... only the knowledge that Phillip was supposed to last several days made her stop.
Phillip's knees buckle and only his bound wrists kept him upright.
"You don't like it, eh? Some day you will be doing this yourself."
Phillip didn't answer. He felt too weak for it. He felt the tape being put back over his mouth, and then Roxanne spoke again, telling him over and over what his future held.
