Chapter 21

Portland University Square

Professor Stokes' Cottage

Driving down a narrow street with a very neatly set of cottage style houses Quentin pulled up in front of a two story house that was a little run down but neatly kept. The yard meticulously groomed, the shrubs cut to perfection and a nice flowerbed to break up the monotony of green that seemed to cover the ivy covered house. "He is gonna regret that one day if those vines get under his shingles." He muttered slamming the car door and stretched those long legs up the walkway to pause at the front door. He smiled watching the door open and a pretty blond girl of fourteen stepped out of the house carrying a book bag over her shoulder. She paused when he saw him. Quentin could see she had pretty features and bright blue eyes. She looked at him cautiously.

"Hello." Her voice was cautiously low but sweet. She studied him with assessing eyes and he noted with her curiosity she held a hint of caution edging her eyes.

He was surprised as well, he knew that Elliott did not have children and she definitely came from this house. "I was under the impression that Professor Stokes lived here."

"He does. He is inside going over some new books he brought back from Romania, may I tell him who is calling." She had hesitated in allowing him access to the house and Quentin could not imagine where she was headed since most schools were in session.

"Would you tell him his old friend Quentin Collins has come calling and. . . " He reached into the backseat and pulled up a cut glass crystal bottle with a label that indicated it was filled with sherry. " . . . I come baring gifts?" She finally smiled looking from him to the bottle.

Turning quickly caused her full dress to flare out then fall and shift with its weight around her body and she walked back to the front door opened it and called, "Uncle Elliott you have a visitor, a Quentin Collins and he has Sherry."

'Uncle Elliott' she had called him uncle, so this must have been Joseph's daughter Haley, Harriett, no Hallie. That was it this was little Hallie all nearly grown up. "My goodness you have grown up Miss Hallie and how pretty you are."

She smiled and looked at him with those ever dissecting and bright blue eyes she said softly, "Poppa used to say that simple flattery should not be given credence and that honest flattery should be accepted at face value but appreciated." She sounded just like her father another extremely educated man that had chosen the field of archeology as his field of endeavor and that was where he had met Kathleen his wife and they had one child and now that child stood in front of him. The problem was when she had spoken of her father she had done it in a past tense and in sad fashion.

The large barrel chested man with heavy jowls and a bright enough smile and full lips opened the door wider and peered over to the man detaining his niece. "Hallie move along now Miss Jennings is expecting you to get you up to par with your studies before we enroll you in your school."

Hallie smiled and curtsied to her uncle; an action that was a little out dated but nonetheless charming. "Yes Uncle Elliott, I shall be home no later than five p.m."

He nodded and watched her stroll with a natural grace down the pathway and out of sight. "She looks more and more like Kathleen every day. Pity she won't be able to know her better."

Quentin looked from Hallie back to the Professor and frowned, "I did not get to know Kathleen and why the deuce not?" Quentin sounded defensive for the sweet girl and wondered if she was here because of a fall out between the parents.

"Quentin dear boy come in do come in." Smiling widely he noted the bottle in his hand, "Oh and you brought some of that lovely Collins sherry I do so love." He stepped aside to allow Quentin access to his home. Quentin stepped in and felt the hominess of an educated man that had filled his life with books, study of the occult, and artifacts that held an ageless smell of the past. Stepping into the cozy cottage he stepped to a chair and dropped to it making himself at home. Handing the bottle up to Elliott who had followed Quentin smiling and pointedly eyeing the sherry bottle. "Ahh excellent, would you like a nip before we get down to the reason you come to me on my first day back from Bucharest?"

"I would love to share a nip with you Elliott old boy, and I have a question and favor to make of you." Quentin thought it best to not dance around the reason for his visit. He knew time was of the essence.

"Would it have to do with Alexandru Mircea?" He handed the glass to Quentin's nerveless fingers. Quentin caught the glass as it began to slip through his fingers and clutched the delicate stem tightly in his hand he looked at Elliott in shock.

"How in the name of Hades could you have possibly known I was here to talk about Alexandru?"

"Because my dear boy, I saw him while I was in Bucharest and he was extremely agitated with you and Gregory Trask and a gentleman by the name of Barnabas Collins. I do believe he had some poor unfortunate young woman held captive because of you and those other two gentlemen."

"Well he does have a Collins family member held captive because I have the ankh of the dead and was not going to give it to him. So he was quid pro quo in hopes of forcing me to do his bidding."

Elliott sat down then leaned back and sighed as he breathed in the smell of the excellently blended sherry in his hand and now under his nose. He practically drooled for a taste of this exquisite blend. Lifting it to sip it and hold the flavor to his tastes buds he closed his eyes and smiled. "Just as I remembered. It is excellent my dear boy. Now do catch me up on what has been happening and then I shall tell you of my newest charge that found herself orphaned and on my door step."

Obviously Quentin was sad to hear this about Joseph and his wife were possibly dead but he did need Elliott's help. However, before he told him everything, he needed to find out what Alexandru had wanted with him. "Well Elliott we have a bit of a pickle. We have or rather I have created a huge problem and I have inadvertently put Miss Winters in some serious danger."

Elliott was savoring the flavor of his drink while he listened, he appeared to be more interested in the drink he held than what Quentin had to say but Quentin knew it was the opposite he just held his feelings in and his thoughts would not be offered until he was asked for them. "Do go on, I am listening."

"Elliott, before I go on, I need to know what Alexandru wanted with you."

"He wanted me to translate some artifact he had, a book of the living dead or some such none sense. He feels he can bring back someone that had died by using this book."

Quentin frowned, "Did you translate it?"

"Of course I did, it was a fascinating read and very informative. However, the book is useless without two other components. He does not have them at this time so he cannot bring back anyone. I can hardly see him trying to do a black mass to any ancient god and hoping that some urn filled with dust will suddenly come to life for him." Elliott looked at his friend, "Are you afraid to tell me what is going on for fear I will betray you to him? I can assure you my association with Alexandru who by the way is a direct descendant of Vlad the Impaler also known as Vlad Dracul, was informative and purely investigatory for academic purposes."

Quentin knew he was being very truthful; taking a big deep breath he closed his eyes and began to speak. "What if I were to tell you we have our hands on an actual living dead being, a vampire?"

Stokes nearly choked on his sherry he sat forward and his eyes widen and he opened and closed his mouth sat back, composed himself and then spoke softly, "Go on you have my complete attention."

"We have at Collinwood in the Old House there a man that lived back in 1797 and was cursed by a witch and was turned into a vampire. His name is Peter Bradford and he is at this time slowly being changed back into a warm living and breathing human being that will not crave or need blood to live out his existence."

Quentin's voice had grown soft while he spoke and the room had taken on an eerie silence when Quentin paused to organize his thoughts. Quentin began to speak calmly and in low voice. "I wish to tell you that Alexandru Mircea is also as old if not older and had a grudge with Mr. Bradford. He hates him intensely and we have captured Mr. Bradford in hopes of convincing Alexandru to release Miss Winters unharmed."

Elliott stood and walked to his desk and shuffled through some papers he had and then lifted up a file and turned back to face Quentin holding the file out for him to take. "Here is everything I have accumulated over the years on the subject of vampires. I always felt they did exist and that perhaps at one time Alexandru may have been the original Dracula. However he was seen during the day and he has a reflection in the mirror, I really believe he likes spending time in front of his mirror."

Quentin took the folder and smiled, "Thank you Elliott but I was wondering if you would like to come back to Collinwood with me tonight and to the Old House to meet this man that had made Baron Mircea angry. Barnabas Collins resides in the old house and has a romantic interest in the woman that Alexandru his holding."

"I would be extremely interested in meeting this Barnabas Collins and the vampire where is he?"

"We have him contained in the cellar of the old house and you could examine him if you wish."

Stokes held up his hand. "Merely to look up on such a creature would finally validate what I have always known must exist."

His beady eyes shone with excitement then he sighed. "But I must arrange for Hallie to stay somewhere before we go, I simply cannot leave her here alone so soon after loosing her parents."

"I am so sorry to hear this Elliott what happened?"

"The details are still sketchy her parents were doing an archeological dig near some ruins in Samaria and they disappeared, leaving Hallie alone in their tent and poor girl was in shock and she cannot recall what happened. Of course as distressed as she was they needed to place her with someone with which she could feel safe."

"Well why not bring her back with us to Collinwood, I am sure Elizabeth would welcome here there as a distraction for David. With Miss Winters gone he has been a bit at odds and into more trouble than most boys his age, which by the way he is close to Hallie's age."

"Mrs. Elizabeth Stoddard, interesting and lovely woman, have not seen her about or heard anything of her in over twenty years, is she still the ravishing beauty she was in those days?"

"Elizabeth is still very beautiful and very kind hearted and she hired Miss Winters as David's governess and has adopted her into the family and considers her as family now."

"I see, well we shall await her return from her classes and then I shall propose the trip to her, I am sure she will not mind."

"I shall call Elizabeth and speak with her about Hallie."

"Good, good, and then you can go over that file and see what I have collected. So you say someone is trying to 'cure' him of his vampirism that might that be?"

Quentin had stood and stepped to the phone and began to dial Collinwood. "Doctor Julia Hoffman and Dr. Eric Lang."

"Fascinating, I happen to have copies of their dissertation papers for their post graduate thesis that they claimed the only thing that separated the vampire or potential vampire was a destructive cell in their blood stream that would prohibit the development of more cells to produce their own blood so that was the main reason they craved the blood of others. I would be most anxious to discuss their theories with them and look forward to this evening with great anticipation"

"Hello Carolyn, this is Quentin is your mother there?" Quentin had waited for the phone to be picked up on the other end while it rang through. He heard Carolyn's happy cherry voice and smiled asking for Elizabeth. Hearing her lay the phone down and bellow in typical Carolyn style he waited. He did not have long to wait for the phone to be picked up.

"Hello this is Elizabeth Collins Stoddard how may I help you?"

"Liz dear it is Quentin."

"Quentin my goodness where are you that you need to call me?"

"I am in Portland with a dear friend that is a rather staid and staunch old bachelor that has just found himself with his fourteen year old niece and well I was bringing him home to Collinwood and we were wondering if we could bring Hallie?"

"I would be delighted to have her, so do bring her here and we shall make her welcome and if they must spend the night I can have Mrs. Johnson make up rooms for them."

"That would be wonderful Liz, thank you so much for your assistance in this." Quentin rang off and smiled, "She would be delighted to have you both spend the night and will set up rooms for you. That way you can quiz Dr. Lang all you wish, unfortunately Julia is in Bucharest at this time checking up on Vicki."

"As long as I can speak to one of them it will suit my needs and answer my questions although I would very much like to meet the lovely Doctor Hoffman. I understand she is brilliant."

Quentin chuckled, "Sounds like to me you got a crush on her and you have not met her."

"Don't be ridiculous, I admire her mind and her tenacity of sticking by her thesis she was laughed out of the auditorium when she presented her paper and rather made fun of and eventually went into obscurity, I fear her talent was wasted wherever she went."

"Oh I can assure you she went to a Sanitarium and followed her second field of study which was psychology. She has been running her father's clinic for many years from what I understand she made quiet a name for herself in the field of mental diseases and curing drug addicts."

"Ahh so she is that Dr. Hoffman, she was just listed as J. A. Hoffman in the research records and I assumed she was her father James Allen Hoffman."

"I think she took his initials to hide so she would not be turned down outright for her abilities, she has been successful in memory recovery and she is currently working with Eric Lang on the theories she outlined in her papers here." He had fished through the file and had done some speed reading and skimming and got the gist of what she was saying in her paper.

Elliott Stokes pursed his lips and recalled the fiery redhead that stood proud and angry as the crowd snickered as her dissertation when she read from her paper. At least the science community found it interesting enough not to deny her Doctorate, the fact her grades had been impeccable and the highest grade point average attained by most of the students that year would preclude her from loosing her position to obtain her doctorial degree. He knew she must have had it mailed to her, since she was absent from the roll call for handing out graduate degrees from the podium.

He had been somewhat sadden that he knew he would never see her again and sorry that the narrow minded community that was a part of his fellowship had been so harsh to her and he could not wonder if they had done it because of the fact that she was a woman.

He would finally get to formally meet her he supposed, he looked at Quentin studying the file. "Quentin you said you had a favor of me?"

"Oh yes, we need a neutral point for the exchange of the vampire, and the ankh and Miss Winters. We were hoping we could use your house for this exchange."

"I am not sure I am comfortable with having Alexandru in my home, I would like to suggest a better place for the exchange and one I think would be a bit more open and public to assure that no chicanery is attempted by Alexandru or Klaus I really do not trust either man."

"We don't either but we could not think of any where here but your place when Alexandru suggested here, we know this is where he kept his private plane that he transported Vicki out of the country and where Julia was taken to be flow from the country."

Elliott frowned and stood walked to his desk again and shuffled through his mass of disheveled papers on his desk. "Interesting he would wish to use Portland as the exchange point, I know the man fairly well by his nature and he appears to be a man that has a hidden agenda."

"Well actually it was Barnabas that would not agree to turn over anything to him unless it was here in the States, and naturally Alexandru did not want to give us advantage on our home court, so he suggested Portland."

"No he manipulated you to get you here to Portland, I think he anticipated that you would want to do it here in the States there had to be a reason for this and I am pretty sure and I suspect I know why."

Quentin looked up studying the kind and brilliant older gentleman. "And what do you suspect."

"He knows that the old ruins near the outskirts of the woods here holds a special alter that has puzzled many for years but holds a special interest for most of those that practice the black arts. I suspect they are sure they can get the help of the Leviathans or one Judah Zachary to help him effect his black mass he hopes to perform"

Neither name meant anything to Quentin he thought about what he knew of the Leviathans he knew they were an ancient and dark occult group that dated back to the beginning of time and that they had some wild idea of hoping to bring a super race to conquer the world, but it had all been speculation and things fairy tales had been made of nothing substantial to support it. As for Judah Zachary was a name he had never heard of.

"I know a bit about the Leviathans but it was mostly hearsay and thoughts or suppositions, nothing concrete or substantial. As for that other name, never heard of him."

"Well my boy, in that file you will find several references to both and you will also find references from past Collins family members that had run ins with both and how they dealt with them."

Quentin began to read again only this time he read more slowly so he could absorbed more of what had been written and the more he read the more he was convinced Elliott was right, Alexandru had manipulated them to have the exchange here and one of the reasons was that he would need a sacrifice for his raising of the dead and the victim had to be a virgin.

Then it struck him, Alexandru never had any intention of giving Vicki back to them, he was going to use her as his sacrifice to bring back his long lost love, her pure soul for the soul of his lost love. "My God, the man is insane." Quentin glanced and watched Elliott nodded his head.

"My thoughts exactly dear boy, my thoughts exactly."

Collinwood

Quentin escorted Hallie and Professor Stokes into the foyer and closed the door. He watched Callie's eyes widen and she smiled then she whispered to her Uncle. "Uncle Elliott it's like a castle!"

From the top of the stairs the voice of David spoke loudly "Yeah a haunted castle." He had spread his arms along the upstairs landing's bannister and looked with interest at the pretty blond girl with wide blue eyes.

Elliott chuckled watching Hallie not react to the threat of hauntings in a huge house. "My dear young man, you will find that Hallie has spent many a year with the dead and objects of the dead."

"Yeah I know that is what Sarah said and that she was coming, why don't you come on up here Hallie and I will show you where you will be staying, I am David Collins." He waited watching her looked from her Uncle to him and then smiled and d on delicate footsteps walk towards the grand staircase and fingered the finely polished wood while she glided her hand up the bannister with each step she took.

"You have a very lovely home David. Who is Sarah and how did she know my name?" David watched and rolled his eyes he turned to lead her through the door into the private sleeping area of the Collins Family.

"Sarah lives here as a ghost, she knows everything." His voice disappeared with the closing of the door and left Quentin setting bags and baggage down in the hallway.

"Why don't you go on into the drawing room and I will find Elizabeth and let her know we are here."

"Not necessary Quentin I am here. Would you be kind enough to take Professor Stokes bags to the blue room and I put Callie near David in the green room."

Elliott turned to peer at a very stunning and aging beautifully Elizabeth Collins Stoddard a Grande Dame that define the word elegance and decorum. "Mrs. Stoddard I am charmed." He bowed then took her hand and kissed it with a tenderness that showed he had been raised and cultivated to the qualities of a gentleman.

Elizabeth flattered by such a show smiled her most charming and natural smile turned and extended her hand. "This way Professor, I understand from Quentin your drink of choice is Madeira or no it's sherry correct?"

"Yes my dear lady, Sherry is preferred though I would never turn down a good year of Madeira one is from Spain and the other is from Portugal and they both have their qualities but I must say my palate does lean more towards a good glass of Sherry."

"Then I am glad I had Carolyn bring up both so you can choose which you would like and do make yourself comfortable. I fear dinner will be delayed this evening due to Mrs. Johnson's sister. She fell from a ladder and had to be taken to the hospital and it appears she has broken her ankle, so I am preparing our meal and I got started late." Elizabeth folded her hands together and smiled while she directed Elliott to the sideboard that held the various decanters of liquors.

"Thank you for your generous hospitality and taking us on so short noticed. I believe dinner will coincide with our return from your cousins home, the old house?" He poured himself a small glass of sherry, lifted it sniffed, swirled it in the glass, tasted by swirling it around in his mouth and swallowing with a delighted sigh. "Ahh excellent year. If the Madeira is as good as this Sherry I may be tempted to taste it later."

"Please feel free to do so." Liz strolled across the room, still carrying herself as the matriarch she was and folded herself with grace on the sofa. "So, you are here to meet and visit with Barnabas? I know that Quentin has been spending a great deal of time at the old house of late, which pleases me that he is getting to know Barnabas. He has become an extended member of our family and we enjoy his company tremendously."

"I do so look forward to meeting him, I understand he had history pertaining to the time that my great, great grandfather lived in this area and look forward to conversing about the times."

"Well yes, it appears he has made his study of the past as an avocation of our history and study of the late 1700's and early 1800's but his research was mainly involving the Collins Family so I am not sure how much help he may offer." Elizabeth politely offered her smile as a form of an apology and found the gentleman rather pleasant to converse about history.