Chapter 25

Barnabas and Maeve looked at the unconscious woman lying on the bed. They took turns sleeping during the night so one of them could watch over Max. Right after they discovered Roger had died, Max fell into a deep 'sleep'. Barnabas carried her upstairs to a room and they've been watching over her ever since. No one else in the family came to the room to check on them, and they were grateful.

He sat on the bed next to his daughter and looked into her sleeping face. "Max, dear, can you hear me?" He bent over and gently placed a hand on her shoulder to shake her awake. She did not stir a muscle. Worried, Barnabas turned and looked at Maeve. "What's the matter with her?" Barnabas asked.

"I don't know, Barnabas. She was acting strange last night. She didn't seem herself."

"What do you mean?" Preoccupied while telling his secret to everyone, he didn't pay too much attention to Max, except her behavior was odd in the beginning.

"She seemed to know more than she should have about your life and," Maeve said as she walked closer to Barnabas. Looking down at Max, she continued, "when she touched David, he remembered things from his past. Then Carolyn remembered something from her past. Max seemed very pleased as if she knew what they were remembering. It was very eerie."

"What made her know so much?" Barnabas asked suspiciously. "Does it have something to do with the, what are they called, 'the 'Powers-to-be'?"

'Where am I?' Max looked around in the darkness. 'What's happening to me? Am I dead?" Max listened but only heard muffled voices in the distance. "Who's out there?" she called out. "Hello?" At first, no one answered her. Then she heard them.

'Do you remember anything?' the voices asked her.

'Who are you?' she asked.

'You must remember everything before you return,' the voices told her.

Puzzled, she asked, 'Return from where?'

'Remember, Max, who you are and where you come from.' The last word she heard was 'learn.' Then the voices were gone. She was alone again.

Max tried to remember anything before this moment in time. Images started to appear in her mind and she witnessed events that occurred in her past. Then memories returned from the present. She felt strong emotions stirring inside her. She looked down at her body but could not see anything. Memories continued to return, up to the time she and Barnabas broke their bonding.

'What happened after that,' she wondered. An image started to come into focus and she saw the drawing room of Collinwood. Everyone was sitting around listening to Barnabas tell a story. What was he telling them? She tried to listen but she felt herself very withdrawn from the others. She started to hear voices and then Barnabas' strong baritone voice became clear. She heard him tell his secret, from the beginning, in its entirety. She became very agitated by the thought of not being in control of herself.

'You were there,' the voices said, returning.

'How? I don't remember this ever happening.'

'You were with us,' the voices informed her.

'What? You mean you had control over me?' She did not feel comfortable with that idea.

'Yes. It had to be that way. The secret had to be told to those who needed to hear it. Your father needed coaching. You would not know what to do or say, so we did it for you.'

She did not like the idea of someone else controlling matters for her, so she asked, 'Are you always going to be able to do that?'

The last words she heard from the voices were, 'We have always been with you.'

"Barnabas, do you remember what happened to you when you were linked to Max?" Maeve asked, wanting to put the pieces together. This was a critical time for both father and daughter.

"Yes, I believe so." He looked down at Max for a moment and then looked back at Maeve. "Does that have anything to do with what's happening to her now?"

"It could. Would you tell me what happened?" Barnabas looked into Maeve's eyes and knew that if he told her what he remembered, drastic changes were going to happen. So he told Maeve all about his 'joining' experience with his daughter. Maeve remembered some of it too.

As Barnabas finished telling Maeve about his experiences with Max, they heard a knock on the door. "Come in," Maeve replied. The door swung open as David and Carolyn walked in. Barnabas worried about this moment, not knowing what his family would say or do. After all the excitement last night, people seemed to ignore Barnabas' two-hundred year old secret.

"Good morning," David and Carolyn said politely.

"How is Max feeling this morning," David asked concerned as he looked upon her motionless body on the bed.

"She doesn't look too well," Carolyn interjected.

"We don't know," Maeve said. "She has been sleeping through the night and we haven't talked with her yet." Maeve did not think it was wise to offer too much information after the ear-full they heard last night. Barnabas rose from the bed and stood next to Maeve. He watched David and Carolyn very closely. David scoped out the room avoiding eye contact with Barnabas. "Do you need something?" Maeve asked breaking the silence.

"Yes I do. Did you know about my cousin Barnabas when you met him?" David asked outright. He wanted to know everything and he did not want any more secrets. His words were polite but stern. Maeve knew her secret would have to be told but didn't know when. Maybe it was now. She looked at Barnabas as he looked down at his hands. Realizing she was on her own, she said, "Not at first but soon after I met him, I had my suspicions. We met last year but I felt like I'd known him most of my live."

"But he's a vampire," David snapped, "one of the living dead from the 18th century! How could you be with him?"

"Because, she is a vampire slayer," a voice said from behind them. As they all turned to look, they saw Max climb out of the bed and walk over to David. "She's my ancestor dating back to Barnabas' time." Max looked at everyone's stunned faces and grinned. "I only learned of this recently, David. I did not know I was related to you until after I met Barnabas." Eyes opened wider as David and Carolyn both looked at each other and then at the other three people occupying the room with them. "There is quite a bit of information you need to know," Max started to say.

"MAX," yelled Barnabas startled by this revelation. "Do you think it's wise right after Roger's death?" He walked over the Max and held her arm. Trying to guide her to sit down in a chair, Max pulled away from him to tell more of her story.

"There's nothing wrong with me, father, I'm quit alright." As their mouths dropped opened, the shocked Carolyn and David stared at Max in a quiet stupor. Maeve and Barnabas looked at them.

"I think the both of you should sit down," Barnabas said to Carolyn and David, offering them the bed to sit on. Maeve frowned at Max for being so forthright with sensitive information but she realized the 'Powers-to-be' were behind this outburst.

Max looked at her newly found family and took a deep breath. Finally, she knew the truth about her life, about her parents and all the secrets that have haunted the Collins for over two centuries. Knowing she was a Collins, she felt these people needed to know the truth too. So Max told the story of Maeve's beginnings from what she witnessed while linked with Barnabas and a little help from the 'Powers-to-be'. Learning that Maeve was as old as Barnabas seemed too hard to believe, but David and Carolyn would never forget the last twenty-four hours for as long as they live.