Chapter 14

"You think that you got it now?" George asked Barnabas

"Yes. I do think that Burke told us what we need to do."

"And you think that it will work?"

"I must hope so. If not, we will interrogate him gain. I hope not. Honestly, Howard gives me the creeps. But we need him. We need his expertise. But I wish we did not.:"

"Yes. There is something about him that gives me the creeps too."

"You know that he has a dagger disguised as a cross? That he has killed more than once with it? He showed me... the blade as it came out... and... and I still shaken by it."

"And what did he say about it?"

"Welcome to my world."

"Yes. That was his world for quite a long time. He is an efficient killing machine, and that is not going to change. But if that returns Phillip to us, I am willing to accept it." he bent down and kissed Barnabas. who pulled away.

"I am sorry, George. I must abstain. From sex and other tings. Build up the power inside me that way."

"You do not need to thank me, Mrs. Todd." Howard said to Vicky, who had asked him to come to her room.

"No, I mean, I am grateful, but that's not why I asked you to come. I have a couple of questions to ask you."

"What is it?" he wondered how much she had been told of him.

"I understand that you have specialized training. That you can find certain things. Tell me, how could I find out more about a place in Brazil called San Cristobal das Montes? A small village, that was destroyed by fire in the late fifties. How could I find out more?"

"You could find about it in the newspapers. Any good library could let you have access to them. A University library... But you are in no shape to go there now. Why do you want to know?"

"Tammy found where Burke kept his money stashed away. As we figured out he had cleaned the estate's accounts, They kept the finder's fees, and I am keeping some out of it. I now want to know to whom to give it to. From what Burke told me, he had burned this village when they did not want to sell their land to the company that he worked for. I want to know how bad it was, and if anyone died. And how much it would take to give the survivors a new life."

"That might be tougher to find out. And I don't have access. But I can talk to Tammy and Joe and tell them where and how to look. I imagine that they have tracked also the origins of Burke's fortune. And they better be careful with the Brazilian government. Some things they do not want to make public, and they can be quite brutal. But I think that we can find some missionary group, or organizations such as CARE to give us a good background. I can give you a list of people that can be contacted..."

"Thanks..." she looked straight at him. "Have they decided what to do with Burke?"

"No. We are keeping him drugged. At least until we can get Phillip back to normal."

"And have they decided what to do with him afterwards?"

"No, not yet."

"There is only one thing to be done. And you know what it is." Vicky's eyes darkened. The last of her young girl illusions had died away. For the sake of her husband, of her child, she must let go of it, and accept what must be done.. And she knew that this man knew it as well as she.

"Yes. I do."

Barnabas rose from his coffin in silence. The ritual demanded that he should not speak, not until the faced Phillip.

Howard and George took him by the arms. and led him. Barnabas, lost in contemplation, seemed blind to the path that they were taking. They went out of the Old House, towards the beach where Phillip waited, by the surf, the waves every now and then washing over him and keeping him moist.

Barnabas walked as if in a trance. The ritual that he followed demanded not only that he abstain from sex, but also from feeding, or even leaving his coffin for two full nights. There had been some panic when he did this, but then he had meditated and gathered the power into himself until he had fallen into a trance, as he was supposed to do.

He walked on the beach feeling the droplets strike his skin. He was hungry too, and he wondered, which one of the two, would serve to appease it. Probably George...

Phillip looked at them with hungering eyes. Had he gotten it right? Had Burke told them all that he needed to know?

There was only one way to find out.

Phillip laid on his back, spread eagled, with his eyes closed. Barnabas bent over him and gently touched his eyelids and gills.

He then rose and took a clump of earth and some dried flowers that George had gathered for this. Then, in his other hand, he took kelp and sand.

He moved around Phillip three times, letting the flowers and earth fall upon Phillip, while scattering the kelp and sand away.

Then he removed his coat and threw it over Phillip so that he was wholly hidden from view. He knelt by Phillip's head and began the chant, gathering his powers all together, forcing them to come through him to Phillip.

There was movement under the coat, and a soft moan, almost as if Phillip was in pain. He did not relent. He continued the chant and the moaning grew. He gestured to Howard and George who fastened themselves to the coat, holding it down, it spite of Phillip's attempt to slough it off.

The moaning had become shouts now, and it took the three of them to keep Phillip covered. George looked at Barnabas with concern. Was this supposed to happen? Yet he did not speak.

Then the screaming subsided, as did the movement. Then it was just a soft moaning, and the coat rose and fell following Phillip's breathing.

Barnabas lifted the coat.

Phillip had sloughed off his fish skin, and lied there, all naked, in pink raw skin, not trace of the fish being left in his body.

They helped him to his feet.

He was shaken and accept their help and the clothes they offered him. He did not speak, not yet, but he would as soon as he left the beach. He touched his arms, testing that it was really his own skin that he now wore.

He looked down at the skin left in the sand. What about it?"

"Let the sea reclaim that which is rightfully his." Barnabas said, "as it returned that which was not."

They left the beach, and soon as they entered George's car and drove away from the ocean, turning their backs to it, Phillip began to both cry and laugh with relief.

It was a short drive to the hospital, to get Phillip admitted, and to get Vicky in to visit him. Phillip was tended according to the instructions that Kenneth had set, and Vicky needed to be alone, so Barnabas and George went away. Barnabas was still hungry, and George was willing. And then other hunger came to the surface between the two.

No one wondered where Howard had gone...

Howard knew what was needed. Even if Barnabas and George did not want to think about it. Vicky understood it, better than anyone. Any scruple she might have had been washed away with the thought of what had been done to the people she loved. She would do anything to protect her child, anything and not bat an eye when she did it. She had endured Burke's rape for the sake of her son. She was quite willing to condone what must be done.

What else was to be done with one such as Burke Devlin? No jail could hold him. Keeping him constantly drugged was not an option..

He got into Devlin's room and closed the door behind him. He went to the IV that fed the tranquilizer into Burke's body. Quickly he took the hypodermic syringe that he had borrowed from Frances and used it to inject the poison into the IV bag.

He then left the room, not waiting how see how it slowly took effect.