Chapter 3

The rude alarm made its way into Aden's rim sleep. He had been dreaming of that saucy little wench named Rita; she was from his contacts in Dublin. He had just pressed his lips to hers and they were about to go to the next level when the beep, beep, beep, of his terminal awoke him and he sighed. "Next time Rita."

Rolling from the bed he began to mutter to himself as he brushed the sleep from his eyes and made his way to the terminal alarm that had now began to sound like a red alert klaxon. "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I'm coming sheesh mom what if I don't want to go to school?" He smiled, that is how he always felt when his mother had awakened him to get ready for school.

Sitting at the terminal he punch with some degree of irritation at the button to shut the damn thing down, murmuring he waited for the message to appear, "No rest for the weary or wicked I suppose." Aden waited with the patience born of his training not his instincts while the computer moved through the paces to bring him the news. He sat up and waited for his computer to go through its paces to the screen he would need.

Bringing up the GPS locaters he began to mentally and systematically assemble a strike team. His instincts had told him prior to drifting off to the warm embrace of Rita something was about to happen. He hated that he had premonitions on more than one occasion and he felt this was something big about to break loose and he wanted to be ready.

Muttering he typed in his teams ID numbers and smiled. Bifurcating his screen to another identical screen he entered a command to the left screen. "Locate Jeanette Collins and Jeremiah Collins." It was just a matter of seconds when the locater brought up their locations and he sat back.

"Show activation status for them in 4 hours. Recall for short duration and put the others on standby." Aden sighed deeply as he set back and bridged his fingertips together. "Where will it come and who is the target." He mumbled while he continued to run the statistics through the main systems.

He hated that for some ungodly reason at this hour his system always seemed to run slow. "Where are you? What are you up to now? Who is your target? Not me." He paused and wondered at his sanity when he had spoken his thoughts out loud to himself.

Realizing he had answered his question he reached over and made a note on his to da list, 'have psyche eval done first thing Monday.' Satisfied he waited watching the screen begin to load his data, "Small incursion of demi demons. They can handle that fairly quickly and be on their way to the family's Liberty Ball."

The small red Miata pulled into the long paved driveway. For a moment Josette Collins, daughter to Victoria and Barnabas Collins smiled and then sighed. She was home. The past month had been grueling and she wanted, no she needed a break.

Slowing the car down she stopped at the open gates of her home. She took a long appreciative look at her family home. It was an impressive structure of turn of 18th century engineering. Her family had lived here since the late 1600's and had built this house in the late 1700's. The front had been restricted in the mid 1800's adding the colonnades as a decorative front to the home.

Her father had poured a fortune into returning it to its former glory. It was not until he had married her mother that he had capitulated to updating the house to modern conveniences. He just had to make sure it still kept its 18th century charm.

Her mother working with Willie Loomis had taken special pains to keep the house as original to the 18th century she could and maintained the integrity while still adding the modern conveniences that would be needed to make the house comfortable for the needs of a growing family.

After rescuing her mother from the blood thirsty Vlad Tepes, he had brought her back to the old house where they began her family. Her father had been happy that they had made only slight changes to update the house.

In door plumbing, electricity, a telephone and a more modern kitchen along with a few servants to help out, after all they had a growing family and her mother needed the help with such a large house and grounds. Her father had loved her mother completely and was willing to sacrifice the integrity of the original house to become more modern to accommodate their growing family.

Josette was the product of a marriage between a time folder and a vampire. The irony of it all was her mother did not realize she was a time folder and her father had finally confessed to her mother that he was the original Barnabas Collins she had met in 1796.

Josette suspected her mother had figured out what her father had been and that in fact he was the original Barnabas Collins. Something that would play a benefit to Josette and her talents at a later date, but that was another story for another time.

So currently, it seemed that the fact her father had once been a creature of the night was kind of irrelevant. Perhaps it was because Josette had been chasing shape shifters and demons for the past month.

She was one of a few people that knew the ugly truth was these nasty elements were real and existed. Mankind would never know the fact she could not acknowledge her part in maintaining the balance between two worlds in general.

Those that had touched the darkness would soon believe it had all been a nasty nightmare and nothing more. Unless they were a casualty of the war of the inhuman and had suffered the major sacrifice of all and that was their death.

Her standing in the community had been a part of her deep cover. She was after all, a part of an elite covert team of government employees hired and trained to run down the nastiest of hell spawn that went bump and crunch in the night. Her job had been to capture and contain them for recruitment or neutralize them.

Josette did whatever it took to keep the peace and status quo of normalcy alive and well on a hell mouth. She was responsible for maintaining the balance between her world and the darkness that would consume the world. Sometimes that balance came with a price and it seemed her family was the first to pay that price.

If containing them meant she had to destroy them, then they were destroyed. If it meant they could be rehabilitated into normal society, then she relocated them for rehabilitation. She was one of the few people that also knew about the hell mouths and where they were located. As it would happen, her ancestral home sat on one of the east coast hell mouth.

Josette noted the driveway was repaved and black topped. Smiling her gratitude to her mother's insistence of modernizing the drive. It had been getting pretty rutted and her father simply had to give in and let time have its place.

She knew it had been a soft tussle between her father and mother over the updates in the end she knew her mother would win, she always did. Josette suspected her mother had used more than her feminine wiles to get her father to acquiesce to her demands.

Pushing her sunglasses back up on her pert little nose, absently she combed her fingers through her short unruly curls, and then she sighed and was all smiles once again. The sea breeze kissed her golden skin and tickled the back of her neck.

That is when she knew she was home and it felt good. In three days she would turn 25. Her mother and father had pressed her to be home for her birthday. They had not seen her in six months and they wanted her home.

Putting the car in park, she undid her seatbelt, opened her car door and stepped out onto the driveway. Glancing around she saw the huge oak tree she had climbed as a child. The same tree she had climbed later to escape a weir wolverine.

That was when she discovered she had abilities that were supernatural. Josette, the petite brunette with a slender build was far more than a normal 12 year old. She was a day walker with day walker abilities. She had been forced to use these abilities to her benefit on more than one such occasion.

That was the day she realized she could shift her form into mist and float to a place of safety. She could touch someone and immobilize him or her with what was later termed vampiric touch. Josette learned she could see in the dark, could charm someone with a glance or look. She had a hypnotic affect on people. That also included weak-minded weir wolverine or demi demons or newlings. What she termed the just turned wolf.

Summer was making its advance and the day held a hint of humidity, which usually indicated a storm, was forthcoming. Taking a deep cleansing breath of the New England air she felt at peace and for once for the first time in a very long time she could relax and she smiled.

Tipping her nose up to the sunlight, she squinted her gaze. Direct sunlight had no affect on her, but it would give her a headache if she looked directly into the sun. She smiled seeing her mother had pruned the roses and was working on getting the garden around the house ready. Her father had already hired more staff including a Gardener, but her mother insisted on tending to the roses.

Glancing around she could feel the warmth in the air, the soft scents from the garden and the moist earth from last nights rain. In another two weeks summer would begin its final climb before its decent down to the upcoming fall.

She had hoped that maybe they would be lucky and have a warm fall beginning for a change. She actually was looking forward to walking the beach and lying out to soak up a few of the sun's rays. That was as long as she could keep from being summoned to take care of a Dark Powers Incursion.

She would be 25 in 3 days and that meant she would be in a new insurance bracket. Maybe she could buy that fast sports car she wanted. Feeling the vibration of her cell phone, she reached into the pocket of her three-piece dove grey suit and pulled out the compact device looking at the screen she smiled. "Darling, are you going to stand down there all day or are you coming up to the house?"

Josette chuckled at her mother's soft admonishment, "Well, I was just thinking about climbing the oak tree, want to come and climb it with me?" She thrilled at the sound of her mother's laughter. It was something she always loved to hear. It was one of the main reasons she had joined the S.H.A.D.O.W.S ops team. That reason was to preserve her parents happiness.

Angelique Bouchard had spent centuries trying her level best to keep her father from finding love, thus the reason she had cursed him. As the old saying went a woman scorned was always out for vengeance.

Only Angelique was no ordinary woman scorned. She was a witch with dark powers. She had spoiled her father's chances for love in the 18th century; he was at that time, chained in a coffin for all of the 19th century and released in the late 20th century.

He was misdirected with his search for a lost love he could never have, until he met her mother. "Well, it is tempting dear, but I believe I will leave your tree climbing partners to your cousins or Daniel. He still climbs that tree." Josette was brought back from her reverie with visions of Daniel in her tree. Josette opened the door to her car and slid behind the wheel.

"You mean the football jock takes a chance and climbs my tree? Mother how could you let him desecrate my tree?" Victoria chuckled, and watched as her oldest child navigated her car up the driveway and around to the garage. One more concession to modern times her father had agreed with her mother, and had allowed the garage to be built.

The garage had been part of the renovation along with the refurbishing of the old stables and barn. Victoria had been reminded over and over again how hesitant Barnabas had been to bring the property into the 20th century.

However after the first hurricane had destroyed her car, and her mother's car, Barnabas was more than agreeable to have a five-car garage built. His excuse was to allow Victoria to use a portion of the structure as her storage for her gardening projects.

Victoria chuckled now because later she teased him about knowing they would need that large a structure for all their children to park their cars. Barnabas had kissed her forehead and smiled. "Had I known we would be so fruitful, I would have had another garage built.

Vickie had felt so safe and secure in his arms and had smiled. "So, shall we?" She had teased back with him and for a moment he thought she was going to tell him she was pregnant again. Barnabas had cupped her chin and turned her to face him, and that was when she smiled and nodded. This would later be the stillborn child she had.

Josette waited for the door to open. She had pressed her clicker and was getting impatient when the door had not responded. Throwing her clicker into the glove box she found the one for her family home and was annoyed she had not noted the difference. She had been getting forgetful more lately and was not feeling her old self. That was why she knew she needed the next two weeks off.

Pulling forward and setting her car in park, she moved to the doorway and pressed the button to close the door, she caught a flicker of something dark dart across the driveway. Immediately, she went into defensive mode and reached for her stun gun. Just as the door slid shut, she saw the fluffy tail of a skunk and laughed. "That could have been distasteful." She wrinkled her nose and opened the garage door and moved along the covered entrance to the kitchen.

"Hello Mrs. Miller, ooh that smells so good. No wonder I look forward to coming home." The robust figure of the dark woman turned and a smile cut across her pretty dark face. Since Mrs. Cook's death some eight years ago, her mother had been beside herself who would they get to replace Cook, who had been there for most her life. That is when Clara applied and was readily accepted as part of the family.

"Why Miss Josette, you come here and give old Clara a big ole hug. DeWayne was asking when you might be home again. He has something he wants to show you."

Josette moved to hug the cook and kissed her cheek. "Really? How old is young DeWayne?"

Clara Miller was so proud of her grandson; she was helping to raise him and his sister Marquetta. Clara's daughter and son in law had been killed in an automobile accident. Leaving the two orphaned and needing guidance, which their Grandmother was glad to oblige.

Since that time, Clara had taken the responsibility of raising her grandchildren. Victoria and Barnabas had given her the use of the cottage rent-free. This had a great benefit for Clara and had endeared her more so to the Collins family.

Beside Clara, there was Mr. And Mrs. Hart, who had replaced the Hudson's' whose age had forced them into retirement when Josette had reached the age of 16. Since then the Harts had been a part of her parent's employ and they too had been adopted into the family. With them here to help with the house chores and handyman chores had taken the stress off her parents.

They lived in the house. Victoria and Barnabas had allowed Mr. Hart to convert 3 large rooms into an apartment. That and the installation of bathrooms and electricity were some of the major concessions her father had allowed to be made on the house.

Clara gave Josette a huge bear hug, and Josette felt she would get a cracked rib. "Oh my goodness he is a growing up so fast. He will be 10 next month. Remember his birthday is close to yours."

Josette loved the smell of Clara, she always smelled of fresh bake goods. "Oh that's right. I had almost forgotten. Did he complete that science project with the things I sent him?"

Clara chuckled and nodded. "Yes, he did and he got first place. That is what he wants to show you. His finished project and his ribbon."

Josette was happy to hear she had helped guide the young man into a field she would have chosen had she not been side tracked. It was her parents and the rest of the world believed she worked for National Science Academy.

It had been a good cover story and one she could sell that she and her siblings would easily employ. Once they were seniors in high school and had taken the science lanes they were setting up their exit to a college that appeared to be a part of the Academy.

The Government Recruiter had already directed them as to how they would be absorbed into the network of the S.H.A.D.O.W.S division of the covert operations. Apparently, the head of the agency had his eyes on her since her birth.

As a matter of fact, Josette and her abilities were first brought to his attention when her blood serology came back as abnormal. The blood was showing signs of abnormal category of day walker. A child of interest they would need to keep a close eye on her and her progress to maturity. This had come quicker than they could imagine.

"Well, I am certainly glad I could help him. He deserves it. I have a gift for him in my luggage. When you see Mr. Hart, would you please ask him to take my things up to my room?"

Clara laughed. "I will be happy to Miss Josette. Will Miss Nettie and Mister JB be home too?" Josette began to poke around at the covered dishes on the table, and got her hand slapped. "That be for later Missy. Here, I know you are always hungry and it's a long drive from D.C."

Clara bent over and opened the oven. It must have been a while since it had been on, the heat was far-gone and the only thing that remained was the tantalizing aroma coming from the covered pan she removed. Clara slid the lid off and pulled a fresh baked cinnamon roll from inside and laid two on a napkin.

Josette surmised that she must have just glazed them and was waiting to slice them and put them under glass for breakfast. "I know you love these for breakfast and made them fresh for you. So, you just sit down and I will get you a cold glass of milk, unless you want a cup of coffee or tea?" Jo felt

she was 17 years old again, it had been the first time she ate one of Clara's wonderful cinnamon rolls.

Josette shook her head. "Milk would be perfect Miss Clara." Tearing into the roll, she sniffed it first. "Perfection in life is time at home with family and loved ones and one of Miss Clara's cinnamon rolls."

Clara set the glass of milk on the table in front of her and hugged Josettes' shoulders. "It is good to have you home. So, will Mr. JB and Miss Nettie be home?"

Relishing the taste of the roll in her mouth and the savory flavor on her tongue, Josette chewed, took a drink of milk, swallowed and sighed. "Well JB has to finish up an assignment given to him by Aden, at the last minute. He should be home for a couple of days after my birthday. I do not expect him home before then. As for Jeanette, well she is in the process of packing when I left and she will be flying in tomorrow evening. I will pick her up in Bangor."

Clara clucked her tongue and sighed, "It be a shame to not have the whole family together."

Josette smiled, chewed and then licked her fingertips. "Well when you grow up Miss Clara there are those things called responsibilities. I was not sure I was going to be able to get the next two weeks off, what with all the crazy things going on at work."

"I know Miss Josette. But it would be nice for your momma and poppa to have all of the family here. But when you grow up, you sometimes grow away and not because of jobs and such."

Josette tipped the glass of milk swallowed and then took the back of her hand and wiped off her mouth, which sent Miss Clara into a roll of girlish giggles. "I swear you just looked like you did when you were 17."

Josette laughed and then picked up the napkin Clara had laid in front of her when she first set down. "Well let me assure you my dear Miss Clara, I have manners." She daintily dabbed the napkin on her lips and wiped her fingertips and then laid the crumpled paper napkin on the table

.

"There, see. I still have the manners my parents reared in me."

Clara bent over and hugged Josette again and then moved to the stovetop, hearing the sound of a bubbling pan lid demanded her attention. "Oh my it won't do to let these potatoes boil over. You done Miss Josette?"

Josette had already taken her plate to the sink and rinsed it and put it in the dishwasher. "Yes ma'am I sure am and it was delicious as usual."

Josette kissed Clara's cheek again and then moved to the doorway. She could hear her mother's voice down the hallway and figured she must be talking to Mrs. Hart. "And her room has been cleaned and is ready?"

The soft murmur of another voice confirmed her suspicions. "Yes Mrs. Collins, I have Miss Josettes' room, Mr. JB's room and Miss Nettie's room aired and ready for them."