Old Loves, Old Lies
-by Baron Karza von Karnstein
-dedicated to Diane Neal
N.B. I do not own any of these characters. Dan Curtis owns all the Dark Shadows Characters. Joel Soissons and Patrick Lußier own all the Dracula II: Ascension Characters
VII
Tanya was supporting Kenny, her right arm under his left shoulder. Kenny was favouring his tender right side, and he was not steady on his feet. Liz was also not too steady, but she managed to stay standing while her left arm was tucked under Luke's right shoulder, helping him to stand up. All four of them had their backs to the Saint Andrew's Cross in the empty pool, and were facing Lowell and the G-36 wielding-Eric, who both stood safely behind the table on which the switchbox for the floodlights sat. Lowell had already deactivated and packed the web cam.
"Why, Lowell, why?" asked Liz, a pained look upon her face.
"Why, my dear Lizzie? You can't figure it out?"
Lowell sneered
"I should really have a chat with the admissions department. People as dumb as you should have never been accepted to med school. Come to think of it, all women should be kept out of med school. You're all dumber than dogs, anyways!"
Lowell draped his right arm around Eric. Then he planted a huge kiss on Eric's left cheek.
"I mean, you are soooo easily satisfied. All it took was a PhD and my sad story to get you to bark like a dog for me!"
"Lowell, please!" begged Eric mockingly "I just ate!"
"Oh, I wouldn't knock it, Eric!" replied Lowell "It got us this far, didn't it?...yeah…I wonder what kind of tricks Tanya over there had to pull—or maybe I should say, 'turn?' –just to stay in the programme!"
"You're a BASTARD, Lowell!" Tanya spat out defiantly.
"You deserve to die!" added Liz with a cold look in her eyes.
"There you go again, Liz, with your hopes, theories and speculations!" laughed Lowell. "Women! You're also so emotional! It was a minor miracle that I managed to put up with you for so long! But, I'm not going to be doing any dying today. No, if there's any dying to be done here, Eric and I won't be the ones doing it."
Eric, leering sickly, slowly swept the G36 back and forth, covering and mentally torturing the four medical students within his arc.
"But, first, we still have a little business to take care of."
Lowell picked up the box of vacutainers which he had brought over from the back room and had dropped on the table. He tossed it towards Liz. The box landed at her feet.
"Our friend over there…"
"He has a NAME, damn you!"
"Oh, Liz, you're getting tiresome!" Lowell stated with annoyance "Our friend over there still has some product left in him. You, my darling, are going to make yourself useful again, and you are going to collect my merchandise for me."
"That's all this was ever was to you, Lowell?" asked Liz "A chance to make a fast buck?"
"Have you ever tried to live on a Professor's salary, Liz? Oh, why am I asking? Of course you did! You were mooching of off ME until I made you get that job at the morgue. But it was never your concern, was it? You never had to pay for the bills!
"But, to answer your question Liz, no, it wasn't all about the money. Remember the other day in class, how I was talking about indulging in the conceit that we will live forever? Well, I don't have to 'indulge' any more! Hell, I AM going to live forever now! And if you're polite enough, I just might let you in on it—NOT!"
This brought a sick laugh from Eric.
"Yeah, that was a good one, now, wasn't it, Gov?"
The smile disappeared from Lowell's face.
"Alright! Enough! Lizzie, you know what to do!"
"Go screw yourself, Lowell!"
"Screw myself? Nooo. Liz! Screw LUKE!"
Eric whipped the G36 sideways until its barrel was trained on Luke.
"No!...No! Don't hurt him!"
"Ha-ha! I KNEW there was something between you two. And you give ME dirty looks for what I'm doing to you!"
"Tell him to point the gun away, Lowell, and I'll get you what you want."
"Sounds fair enough, wouldn't you say, Eric?"
"Sounds fair, Lowell. But let me turn up the lights first. No use in having our friend bite that bitch before she gets our merchandise, now is there?"
"If you turn the lights all the way up," interjected Liz, "I won't be able to see what I'm doing!"
"You have to admit she has a point." commented Eric. "Fair enough, I'll just turn 'em up three-quarters of the way."
Lowell grunted. "Let me just get a pair of sunglasses on, first. No use in me ruining my twenty-twenties."
Lowell donned sunglasses. So did Eric, albeit one-handedly. Neither of them made any move to toss a pair to Liz, who would also be caught in the glare of the floodlights.
Eric began to turn the dial on the switchbox clockwise. He stopped before he had turned it halfway.
"What the bloody hell?"
Lowell and Eric ripped off their sunglasses. The four medical students, who had been facing the Lowell and Eric, turned to face the Saint Andrew's Cross.
The Cross was bare. The restraints had been undone.
Before anyone could react further, there were two light crashing sounds, like that of shattering glass. Then the floodlights went completely dark.
"So!" Barnabas' voice filled the room "You thought it would be that simple!"
Eric whirled around to face the door at the other end of the pool, thinking Barnabas was there, speaking through Lowell's lip mike. He loosed off a long burst from the G36.
"Tha-that should have nailed the wanker! Those were silver bullets."
There were two dull, smacking sounds in rapid succession, and the G36 spun rightwards, and out of Eric's hands. Then double-cough of two rounds fired from a silenced gun echoed across the pool.
Eric whirled to his left to face this new threat. Lowell's eyes followed him.
A tall man, whose dark sideburns looked like natural extensions of his dark, knit watch cap, was looking down on them from the side of the pool. He had what looked like a long-barreled rifle behind a thick cylindre pointed in the direction of Lowell and Eric.
"Where are your silver bullets NOW, Eric?" Barnabas' voice mocked, booming across the pool.
"Why don't you come down HERE and tell that to us, Collins?" roared Lowell.
"Ah..I see that you have finally learned my name!" answered Barnabas' voice. "But you have learned so little of your powers. I will have to show you."
Lowell felt a sharp gust of wind blow by him, from right to left. In a blur, Eric was gone from Lowell's side, but his screams filled the room.
Lowell turned to his left. He saw that Barnabas was holding Eric by the jaw and the left arm, lifting him painfully off the ground by the jaw, pushing the jaw backwards and backwards to expose his neck before the terrified quartet of medical students
"No!" screamed Lowell.
But it was too late. Barnabas sank his fangs into Eric's neck, ignoring his screams, and those of Lowell and Tanya. Kenny, having regained some of his footing, held tightly on to Tanya. Luke had found a new strength, and, had turned Liz around, away from the sight of Barnabas draining the blood out of Eric, and pressing her up against his shoulder.
Lowell jumped from the floor onto the table in a single bound. He was ready to jump on Barnabas and pull him off Luke when he felt two strong punches to his lower leg and lost his balance.
"Well, well…" began the sideburned figure at the side of the pool in a calm Southern drawl, as he lowered his rifle. "Barnabas is right. You still have a lot to learn!"
With a growl, Lowell got back to his feet. Then he hurled himself up at the taunting rifleman. Milliseconds later, he screamed out in pain, as he plummeted back to the floor of the pool. The sideburned shooter had pulled out a shiny metallic cross, which had stopped Lowell in mid-flight.
Barnabas dropped Eric's lifeless body to the ground. With Eric's blood streaking the left side of his chin, he turned to the frightened quartet that had watched him.
"Do any of you have a cross?" he asked
Luke raised his hand. "I do…"
"Get it ready!" ordered Barnabas "He might come to at any moment."
Barnabas then turned towards Lowell. He walked over, picked up the crumpled, moaning form, and began to drag it over to where the others were. Then he looked up at the sideburned sharpshooter whose cross had brought Lowell down.
"Quentin, would you come down here?"
"I'd be delighted, Barnabas!" responded Quentin, turning towards the stairs.
Quentin had joined the others by the time Barnabas had dragged the sagging, limp Lowell over to the spot where the floodlights had earlier shone down excruciatingly upon him. Barnabas hissed in a sharp intake of breath.
"Could you put that away, Sir? I can handle these two from here!"
"Do it, Luke."
"No, Liz! I don't trust this one, or his friend, either!"
"Luke, he had the perfect chance to go after one of us after he took out Eric. If that's what he wanted to do, would he have told you to pull out your cross in the first place?"
This placated Luke. He pocketed his cross.
"Thank you…Luke, is it?"
"Yes…your Barna—Mr. Collins."
"Please! Call me Barnabas! And let me introduce to you my cousin Quentin!"
"How do you do?" asked Quentin, as he bowed slightly.
"Quentin!" exclaimed Liz. "My grandfather's sister was married to a Quentin Collins!"
Quentin looked at Liz, focusing closely on her face for the first time. A look of astonishment swept across his face, followed by a look of sadness.
"The resemblance is…striking…if it weren't for the clothes…"
"Yes, I know, Mr. Collins—"
"Please, Ma'am, it's Quentin. You wouldn't want to mix me up with my dear cousin, here, now would you?" The traces of a smile began to appear on Quentin's face.
"Thank you…Quentin—as I was saying, I saw the photographs…you look EXACTLY like the man who married my great-aunt Abigail!"
"I did marry Abigail, Ms.?"
"Blaine, Liz Blaine. Please call me Liz."
"Thank you, Liz! I did marry Abigail, but that was a long, long time ago…"
"What? But how? Are you a vampire too?"
"What the hell is going on here?" demanded Luke.
"There will be time for that later!" interceded Barnabas. "Right now, we have more pressing matters to attend to. Quentin, did you bring that hatchet you are so fond of?"
"Sure di—"
Before he could finish his sentence, Eric suddenly came to, opened his eyes, and lunged at Quentin.