Phineas sat still, in a near meditative state. He was on the grounds behind the school, very near where he had tried to abduct Kyle. The wind washed over him, and there appeared to be not another soul about, yet Phineas did not slip as deep as he could into his trance.
Not with that damned Hunter somewhere about, he thought.
He was taking this time to finalize the steps of his plan. He had several issues to work out, but he was certain they could be overcome.
First, he needed to get that globe away from the increased security placed on it by that witch. He could unravel her spells eventually, but he didn't think he had that much time left. There were 3 days until the full moon. He would need to be ready by then.
Next, that Hunter would need to be neutralized. Far too dangerous to leave running around loose. Phineas smiled, for he had thought of an easy way to keep him busy. The Hunter's friends would all pay for opposing him, as well, but the Hunter himself must be safely out of the way first.
Then, this school would have to be sealed off from outside intervention for the duration of the Master Ritual. There were only a few worthy adversaries here. He didn't need them calling for help and bringing in more.
Finally, he had made a decision that had little to do with his Master Ritual. It was probably best that he forego this task, but something inside of him could not let it go. He would have to complete it before the Ritual, just in case things went awry.
He just had to experience Elizabeth Saltzman.
The girl's beauty was truly sublime. He could not deny it. And such passion…when he had seen her furiously pleasuring herself in the woods the other day he had wondered what it must be like to bed such a fierce specimen.
At the time, he had been more focused on finding Kyle, but after seeing the girl off and on during his stay here, he couldn't leave without giving her the gift…of himself.
Phineas smiled again. He could remember when he was growing up, all he could think about was women…their shapely bodies, their mysterious ways. If he was honest with himself, it was one of the reasons he became rich.
Back then, someone of his station did not have their pick of available partners. He knew he had to change that situation.
Over many years, he had worked his way up the chain of labor. From dock sweeper, to dock loader, to warehouse manager, to front office accounting, and finally, with a bit of murderous sleight-of-hand, he had secured a partnership in the Crane Shipping Company.
It had taken another decade to force the last surviving Crane out of his own company, which he then renamed Carter Co. Shipping.
With the money and respect that came along with it, Phineas had been the toast of Wall Street, he attended all the best parties, ate at all the best restaurants…and was introduced to all the best ladies.
But there was one thing money couldn't buy…youth.
Many of his good years were spent actually acquiring the wealth he enjoyed in his later years. True, he was able to 'procure' women, and even had some young ladies clamoring to marry him, but he knew it was all an act. They saw an old man with money, and they either closed their eyes and did what they had to do to get that money, or they kept their eyes open, looked at him with naked ambition and tried to use their feminine wiles to seduce him.
Phineas couldn't take it. When he had been younger, women's heads always turned to watch him. He could have bedded any one of those devious harlots for a night back then, although they would not have been caught dead with him in the daytime.
He wanted his youth and the money. As science couldn't give him what he wanted, that's when he had turned his attention to the study of mysticism.
The immediate method of gaining immortality was to become a vampire, but that would leave him old and wrinkled for eternity. Plus he did not intend to be a slave to the hunger for the rest of his days.
Another solution was called for.
He had burned up quite a bit of his fortune tracking down a real, actual witch. He remembered not believing her powers, even though he himself had been hoping they were real.
Claudine Bennett was the kind of Negress he did not like. Opinionated. Always offering her own suggestions when they were not asked for.
He had finally had to track down her progeny, a boy and a girl, and threaten their lives before she would cooperate. That's when she advanced the doppelgänger method.
Phineas would enter a state of suspended animation upon his 'death', following which Phineas himself would be reproduced as a doppelgänger in succeeding generations.
Each doppelgänger would soak up more and more 'life', passing that power down to the next generation. Finally, when enough power had been accumulated to guarantee immortality, Phineas would wake and go to collect the energy from the doppelgänger.
Except…he had realized too late that the Bennett witch had failed. His son…he couldn't tell at first, but he could tell by the time the boy was a teenager…he was NOT an exact duplicate of himself. He only resembled Phineas as much as any son might resemble his father. He had many traits of his mother clearly visible, which others remarked on.
He began searching for Claudine. It soon became apparent from the way she ran from him, always one step ahead of him, that this was not a simple mistake. She had done this, crossed him, on purpose!
When he finally found her, he had already found more of her loved ones and kept them hostage in order to control the foul Negress.
Phineas smile, thinking of all the things they had done to her. His men knew how to administer pain, and keep it coming.
She had admitted that she had corrupted the spell. Now she told him that only once every couple of generations would a doppelgänger appear, and even then not a 100% doppelgänger.
She told him that he would never collect enough energy to make him immortal, that when he died he would fall into suspended animation and never awaken!
Oh, how he had wanted to tear her to pieces then, but he needed her to correct her tampering.
Yet, it would be difficult for him to know if she had until after he died. To that end he held the traitorous witch hostage for years, while attempting to learn as much as he could about sorcery from other witches…who's names he forced from Claudine.
He had encountered many beings during those days. Hunters, werewolves, vampires, witches and warlocks. All out for their own singular agendas. Just like him.
He had been on one of his excursions, taking lessons from a witch in New Mexico, when word had got back to him that the Bennett witch had escaped. This was unfortunate.
Phineas had been growing older and older, and his tired body could not take the strain of much more travel.
He made a difficult decision. Knowing he was near death, he decided to attempt correction of the spell of immortality himself, not knowing what would happen, hoping to counteract death long enough to fix the problem.
Finally, he made sure all of his instructions on what to do with his body after he died had been carefully and concisely spelled out. There could be no mistakes here.
Phineas remembered being weak, enfeebled, but looking forward to death so he could be reborn in his new, immortal body.
And then…he had woken up. In this distorted, rotted husk. The immortality spell had done the best it could. He had come back to life, and he had been made powerful, but he could feel the life draining out of him.
His doppelgänger did not contain nearly enough life energy to make him truly immortal, but he hoped that taking that energy could gain him at least a century. Time enough to discover a true solution.
Plus, being at this school provided other opportunities. On the night of the full moon, there would be scores of werewolves transforming all at once here. The energy released would be tremendous. He would be ready to drink it all in.
He suspected the werewolves would die when he did so, but he found them disgusting, so it would just spare him having to kill them later.
Then, if he could get the Nemetine Scroll linked to the globe artifact, he could also draw on every place of power on Earth.
It still would not equal the combined life energy of generations of perfect doppelgängers, but that much power would surely gain him a thousand years of handsome health. And surely he could find the answer to true immortality by then.
Phineas began humming to himself, enjoying the positive thoughts he was thinking.
If he could find a reputable witch, he could start the doppelgänger process all over again, and this time he would do it right.
And the best part of all…
…Elizabeth Saltzman would be just the woman to bear his child…