Chapter 6

There was plenty to read. Julia had not lied about the disorganization of Professor Stokes' notes. Any deputy of his who made such a jumble of notes, he would fire. But Stokes had been a professor, a noted intellectual, and had to be allowed his quirks.

He felt a pang of guilt for spending so much time reading, instead of attending to his duties..

This was also part of his duties. As for the rest, he trusted his deputies to handle things. If they could not, then he would do it. Now, he was trying to solve several kidnappings.

He did not make much sense of what he read. That was not what Julia wanted. She wanted him to scan the papers quickly, looking for certain keywords, and separate those who had the keywords on them. That, and number them so that the notes that were kept apart could be read with the pages before and after...

He wondered if it did any good... well, it kept him calm, as he waited for the deadline that would let him contact Angelique.

He tried not to think what they could be doing to Barnabas. He remembered those days when he had been missing, and were it not for Ruby Tate, he'd still be strapped to that guillotine...

He would get him back again. He had to.

"Behold my throne room, Barnabas Collins." Vassily Petofi gestured around. "It is as grand and rich as the czar's"

"And what happened to the czar?"

One of the guards hit him without warning. He doubled over in pain.

"No." Vassily said to the guard. "he asked a good question."

He waited for Barnabas to straighten himself up. "The czar was foolish and lost the throne that had been for centuries in the Romanov line. I shall not be so foolish."

"The Romanov line died with Catherine the Great's husband. her son was Orlov's child."

This cost him another blow, but Vassily was not angry.

"You do not understand, do you? No, you are not used to royalty and its ways. The accident of birth is inconsequential. The descent in the Romanov line is the descent of hereditary power, not the descent of genetic material. Many times the descent has gone through channels such as Catherine the Great used. Many times there were king unable to procreate, either for a physical defect or for being unable to lie with their queens like man and woman. But the line must continue. So another men would be brought in to father the heir to the throne, and allow the line to go on. It is known and understood. Catherine did her dynastic duty when she sought Orlov to continue the line. The essence is that the line continues unbroken, and that the king is not overthrown."

Catherine' husband was overthrown and murdered."

"By a close relative. It does not count. Imperial families squabble as much as commoner ones. But no doubt must be raised to the legitimacy of the ruling family's power. That's why I say that the Romanov line endured for centuries, to be smashed in 1917."

Barnabas could not help but be awed by this sophistry.

"My line shall not be overthrown. I am no fool. I rule my kingdom with an iron hand, and on one seeks to overthrow me. Time passes differently here, and I have no present need of an heir, and should I wish for one, I can get one without pressing my servants to provide it." he grinned to Barnabas. "For I do not share Cousin Andreas' inclinations. But it was not mere lust with him. There is magic power to be found in coupling with one such as you.. I coupled once with a vampire to gain power to build this kingdom. Her name was Roxanne Drew, and she never knew what she gave me... But there is another way that I can extract the power from you."

Time passed so slowly... George read again the instructions that Angelique had given him. He knew them by heart, of course.

But in never hurt to make double sure.

But time was so slow...

"You will be taken to the wheel" Vassily said to Barnabas, smiling cruelly.

"The wheel?" Something in the word made Barnabas afraid, very afraid. He was helpless, he could not stop him from doing anything he wanted with him. He recalled Andreas Petofi and how easily he had had his way... it was no different now.

"You can't be a slave. Vampires make dangerous slaves. It was the vampire slaves' revolt that destroyed much of our power centuries ago. But still a use can be made of them."

They descended long stairs, Barnabas being regularly prodded with a sharp instrument. A sword or speak of some sort. They were well below the ground, into the cellars, and the stairs kept winding down and down.

There was machinery at the bottom. It looked powerful, but it was not moving. And in the middle there was this big wheel, connected by gears to everything else.

"It is beautiful, isn't it?" Vassily spoke with pride "but it does not work, yet. There is not enough power to get it started... Now I have this power."

Barnabas understood. They would use his life force to power it.

Vassily saw that he guessed, and gloated. "you cannot escape it. Do not fight and it will go easy on you. Resist and they will enjoy punishing you for it."

They made him lie down and strapped him.. A wooden wedge was pushed between his teeth, to keep him from biting his tongue off - Vassily said.

Then they started the wheel.

"You will be glad to know that we do not need Peter anymore. We will stop draining him."

The life began to drain out of him. As he had felt when Adam was being brought to life, as it had been when Urien had been restored... But it went past that point. His muscles relaxed, and his eyes began to lose focus.

The wheel moved faster and the last of Barnabas' consciousness vanished.

"It will work." Vassily said happily "It will keep the wheel running for as long as he lives."

And that meant that the would have to be taken care of. Regular blood transfusions would have to be arranged to keep him strong. And there should be servants assigned to keep him clean and comfortable at all times, to turn him over regularly to keep him from bedsores and other ailments. To keep him healthy and make sure that his effectiveness as an energy source never dwindled.

"I will have to arrange for proper maintenance." he said to himself. "Now I have to enjoy this."

In the hospital, Peter's eyes fluttered open.

"I am hungry, Aunt Iris." he said.

Zeb kicked at the men who tried to hold him down. He kneed a couple of them in the groin and managed to hit one of them in the stomach with his fist. That was the last blow he landed. There were too many of them, and they beat him mercilessly until he submitted.

The needle was inserted in his vein ad the blood began to flow into the bottle.

"What is it for?" Zeb asked. "Why do you need it?"

A blow across the face told him that they did not want any questions from him.

He had to wait until the bottle was filled before they let him go.

He got up unsteadily and walked away. He wondered about Jessica. Had they done this to her, too? Or to any of the others? And why?

They had no right to do this. Or anything else that they did to him and the others. He knew his rights...

But he had no rights anymore. He was no longer in the U.S. dealing with Brant who was constrained by the Bill of Rights. He was a serf in the estate of an old style Russian aristocrat, and only the goodwill of his master kept the knout off his back.