Chapter 6

Castle Darkhart

Carpathian Mountains, Romania

Dinner was excruciatingly long and insufferable. Victoria had long lost her appetite. All she wanted was to go to her room and lie down. She had a growing and annoying headache from the tension of sitting across from a woman that was alleged to be her mother. An answer she had sought for the past twenty plus years. She had been dropped off at a fire station with a note pin to her blanket, "Her name is Victoria, I cannot take care of her."

She had received a pittance of money from a law firm out of Portland until she reached the age of twenty-one and then the money quit coming. She felt her hand tremble as she pushed the food around on her plate. She refused to look up at Drake at the end of the table, she knew he was watching her and he was not happy that she was not so communicative with their guests.

"Victoria, I wanted to tell you myself. I did not intend for this to go on for as long as it did. I wanted to tell Carolyn first then tell you so you could be brought into the family with a little more dignity than what we have experienced here." Elizabeth's voice was soft and filled with sorrow and regret. "I did not wish you to be subjected to this from . . . " she glanced to Andréas at her side.

Victoria looked up at the woman that sat across from her, then to her daughter and finally to the man that had claimed to be her father. Andréas frowned deeply, "She thought you would be used in a game of political intrigue and the dark arts my dear, and obviously she is somewhat correct on some of that assumptions. You were bred to be his wife and now you are here and you will be his wife."

Victoria stood, which immediately caught the attention of everyone at the table. Her eyes were filled with frustrated tears and it was obvious she was upset. "Victoria please take your seat you are upsetting our guests." Drake's voice held an edge of command to it as he too now stood lying his napkin on the table next to his plate.

Victoria turned her attention to all the curious looks she was getting from those seated at the table. "I hope you all will forgive me but I am feeling ill, I really must beg your pardon and excuse myself before I embarrass my family and my um future husband. Good evening everyone." She turned and rushed from the room making haste to grab her skirt in one hand while she bit back the bitter tears. She had made it as far as the grand staircase when she felt her arm jerked and she tumbled backward against the strong chest of Drake.

"Where do you think you are going?" He turned her to face him and shook her in his hold. Her head bounced back and forth like a bobble headed doll.

"I am ill Drake, please let me go. I am not feeling well." She looked up with her eyes wide and filled with fear and hurt. He could see the pain edging her gaze until she fluttered those thick fall of lashes over those great huge dark eyes that had held him and almost made his heart skip a beat as he realized he was feeling sorry for her.

"You are embarrassing me in the company of my contemporaries. Do you think I could forgive this lack of good breeding for this action?" His voice had grown hard and cold with the narrowing of his eyes.

Vicki's head was pounding with an intense pain, she saw that all the lights had halos around them and the bright light was making her light sensitive. His shaking her had not helped and all she cold so was gasp softly, cry out in pain then collapse in a heap into his arms. Sweeping her up he sighed; he should have recognized she was ill. Carrying her up the stairs, he carried to her bedroom, calling over his shoulder, "Mattie! Come attend your mistress!"

Gently he placed her on the bed, brushing his fingertips over her cheek he sighed as Mattie entered the room. "Get her comfortable and send for Dr. Rowland, I need to make sure it was noting more than a simple case of hysteria." He looked at her through narrowed eyes then ran his fingertips over her stomach and frowned. There it was what he suspected was the true reason for her illness. She was with child. She had Collins child growing in her womb and this angered him.

Even she did not know what he knew or suspected at that moment and if this were the case he would raise this child as his own and he would use it as his sacrifice. This was his solution to being robbed of his rights. Andréas entered the room looking at Victoria lying pale and unmoving on the bed. "What has happened My Lord?" He stood next Drake and stared down at his daughter.

"You brought me damaged goods, she was with Collins, she gave herself to him and if I suspect and think she is pregnant that is Collins child."

Andréas paled, "That is impossible, Collins is undead he cannot produce children. You surely are wrong. I knew she was getting close to him and they had run off together to hide from Angelique's mischief but for her to be pregnant that is impossible my Lord."

"Do not grovel Andréas it is demeaning. We will hold judgment until I have the test results and I want Collins brought here. When he arrives turn him over to Angelique." He turned on his heel marched from the room with contained anger burning inside his body; if she were pregnant he did not think he could forgive that. Then again she was his, she belonged to him conceived through the dark arts for the specific purpose of being his chosen one.

Andréas sat on the edge of the bed and peered upon the woman that was his daughter. "Oh Victoria what have you done? To anger Drake is to tempt all our lives to damnation forever." With fingertips that were gentle to touch he stroked her face and remembered when he first met her mother Elizabeth. "She was so like you in so many ways. Now, I fear we have a problem."

Rising he thought a moment if she were pregnant she carried his grandchild, and child that could easily be persuaded to join them. If it were half vampire it could be as immortal or the most fearsome demon ever to be born. What would it do to its mother if it was a daywalker it could pose a serious threat to others of his kind including Barnabas Collins its father. Moving towards the window he peered out at the newly budding trees. Spring in the Carpathian's could be beautiful and this child could be something that might be able to bring about a new world. Was this not what Diablos wanted?

He would need to think about this. Perhaps this was something he could change to his advantage. A slight smile spread over his lips as he thought about a world filled with a multitude of vampire killers and demon hunters is that what this child could do? He turned and walked from her room to the room that now held Elizabeth. Opening her door he looked at her standing before the window. Like him she had been looking at the lovely scenery that was springtime in the mountains.

"I don't know why you deny that you were to be for me Elizabeth? Why you keep denying me all the love you should share with me? That girl is now pregnant and she is carrying our grandchild."

Carolyn stepped from the bathing chambers looked at her mother and then to the man that said he was Vicki's father. "Vicki is pregnant."

"Do not call her Vicki, she is not common, she is royal and you as her sister should afford her more respect." Andréas had snapped his irritation at the little vixen before him. She was all of what Victoria was not. She was a temptress and truth be told she should have been his daughter and not Victoria.

Where one was pure and sweet the other was seductive and cunning. He wished he had met this Paul Stoddard that fathered this child so he could draw comparisons. He had been curious to see what it was that had attracted her to him. Turning to Elizabeth he frowned deeply, "You bore that man this child and he left you, did you ever wonder why?"

Elizabeth puffed her chest up and glared back at Andréas. "I was wed to the man my father chose for me, did I want Paul as my husband! No, but I did what any Collins was expected to do and that was do as my father said and who says he left me, I threw him out when I found him trying to embezzle all of Carolyn's inheritance. I ordered him out of the house when he said he did not love me or his daughter!"

This had been a shock to Carolyn, something she had not expected to hear and when she gasped at the revealed truth Elizabeth turned with a look of constricted regret to Carolyn, "I could not allow him to take what would be yours and Victoria's some day Carolyn. I was not about to allow him to run off with your fortune. We did not toil that land and make our fortune for your father to come in and throw us to the wolves!"

Andréas was surprised at the show of courage and spirit that Elizabeth had just displayed he watched as more secrets were revealed and the touching scene that it evoked between mother and daughter. "Carolyn I am so sorry. I never intended for you to know the truth about your father."

Carolyn studied her mother and rushed to her arms and hugged her, "Mother he was never around so I figured it out, he did not care about me or you. If he had loved me or you he would have at least tried to contact us but he has done none of that." She kissed her mother's forehead and held her close. Looking with open defiance at the man in front of her. Carolyn lifted her chin and glared at Andréas, "you have what you wanted your precious daughter why don't you let us go. We can do no harm for you or her."

"Ahh, but my dear, my daughter loves you, your mother and David, she will not wish to stay unless she knows you are here, she would want to return to you and resume her old life with the Collins family." Andréas walked to the door and stood in it noting Dr. Rowland making his way to Victoria's bedroom. Looking back at the two women who stared at him in open defiance he sighed deeply.

"The Doctor has arrived to check on Victoria and soon enough we will know if she is with child." He closed the door behind him and locked them into the room. With trepidation and a need to confirm what was happening he walked to the door of his daughter's room and leaned his ear to the door hoping to hear what the doctor had to say.

"Matilda, come hold her legs for me while I do a preliminary exam."

"But doctor why would you wish to do an exam of that nature, she has not been with the Lord. Are you making sure she is capable of bearing children?"

"No, I do as the Lord directs and I check to make sure she is not pregnant by another."

There was a soft gasp. "But how is that possible?" The young maid looked wide eyed to the doctor as he pulled on a latex glove. Moving his hand under her dress and into her vagina he began to press down with his other hand over he ovaries and tubes.

"It is possible as it always is possible my dear, she lays with a man they have sexual relations and do not take precautions and wella a baby is made. Now hush while I finish." He frowned slightly looked confused then sighed deeply. "I think the Lord over reacts she is fertile. If she is pregnant she is not far enough along for me to be able to tell. We would need to take some blood. "

Pulling the glove off his hand he turned to the Maid who held a trashcan lined with a small plastic bag. Moving up to the head of he bed, he allowed Mattie to lower her legs and get her in a comfortable position. Lifting her eyelids he looked pupils which were like pin points. Peering into her eyes he turned to his medical bag and pulled out a small ophthalmoscope peering into her eyes he frowned deeply. "It appears she is having a problem a migraine. That is my first assessment. Without proper treatment they can be detrimental to her continued good health."

He dropped his tool into his medical bag and turned to Mattie. "Keep the drapes drawn, give her an ice pack and if that does not seem to alleviate her pain, then call me and I shall give her a shot so help her rest easier. She should not be disturbed for the next twelve hours. Tell the Lord that I shall send a technician over to draw blood and we shall rush the blood test to see if what he suspects is true or not." He snapped his bag shut, lifted it then walked to the door.

Andréas stepped away from the door as it opened and looked at the doctor. "Is she going to be all right Doctor Rowland?"

Rowland waved him off, "You worry overly much just like the Lord, she is having a stress induced migraine headache, I would suggest you take the pressure off of her and allow her to rest." Rowland pushed past Petofi and walked briskly down the hallway and from sight.

Collinsport Maine

Collinwood's Drawing Room

Maggie stared at the man in front of her, she felt light headed and sighed deeply leaning back against the sofa. "I see images and visions that I have no control over Ramon, or should I call you Mr. Raymond?" She pushed her hair from her face looked down at the toe of her foot and slowly let her breath out, the man was magnetic and disturbing for her own good. She glanced over at Nicholas sitting quietly on the sofa watching her with such intensity it made Maggie uncomfortable with him too.

Ra turned his attention to Nicholas and smiled, "You desire her don't you? You hope to bring her over to your side and make her a gift to your dark master Diablos." Ra chuckled, shook his head. "I think Diablos has allowed his minions too much leeway without his supervision. You have feelings for this mortal?" He waited for Nicholas to respond.

"I don't know this woman how can I have feelings." He lied with ease to this obtuse and grandiose man that wanted everyone to think he was superior to his dark master.

"You are an excellent liar my dear man but it means little to me just a question that needed to assuage my curiosity that most of your kind fall victim to your own emotions and feelings. You might do well to devoid yourself of those cumbersome feelings so that it does not interfere with your duty to your master." He turned and walked from the room leaving Nicholas still frozen to the sofa where he had been relegated by the ass that had just left the room.

He turned with a charming smile to Maggie, "my dear I do believe we did meet briefly the other day when I chanced upon your father's bar in town. I am . . . . "

"Nicholas Blair, you introduced yourself to me when we met. So why are you here?" She slid back and wished she had a cigarette she dearly needed one after that last vision.

He chuckled uncomfortably so with his predicament and prayed that the man that had held him here by some odd spell would remember him and come back to release the spell. "I am Quentin's legal advisor. I understand that you are soon to be related to Quentin through marriage?"

"Yes, that is right Mr. Blair, Roger Collins, a pleasure to meet you." Roger had entered the room walking to stand in front of Nicholas.

Without realizing it, Ra must have released the spell when he left the room because Nicholas could find that he was able to stand and take Roger's hand. "Nice to see you again Mr. Collins and may I say you have a very lovely fiancé." He smiled his sleazy smile turning a quarter turn to Maggie; turning back to Roger he released his hand and took his fingers on his left hand to play with the black onyx ring on his pinky finger on his right hand. "I was wondering where Quentin might be?" He turned to look around the room thinking that this action might actually make Quentin suddenly appear.

Roger walked to the liquor cabinet, turned looked at Nicholas, "I would imagine that he is in his room, would you care for a drink Mr. Blair?" He poured two glasses of the amber liquid from the exquisitely cute crystal decanter.

"No, no thank you, I think I will try to find Quentin, but I do appreciate your hospitality and thank you for your courtesy. Miss Evans, Mr. Collins." He made a courtly bow to her then turned and walked briskly form the room. Nicholas headed to the front door and found that he was unable to leave. Something barred him from going any further to the door or moving his legs forward. He swore softly turned and walked to the stairs and headed straight to Quentin's room.

Collinsport Maine

Old House Drawing Room

"I dare say that we will need to make arrangements to travel and my question to the two of you," Barnabas turned his attention to the two doctors that sat side by side. "Will I be able to tolerate the sunlight and take this trip? I am sure you can understand my concerns." Barnabas had moved to fold his long form onto one of the fireside chair that faced the sofa that sat perpendicular to the fireplace.

"I do not see any reason why you could not tolerate the sunlight. I feel that we have made enough of the solution that we can easily take some with us to inoculate you." Eric stood walked to the window that over looked the front patio.

"My concerns are once we get there, if this dark lord or evil entity decides to defy our claim to your family members, will you be prepared to do whatever it takes to bring them home?" He did a quarter turn to look over at the contemplative look on Barnabas' face.

"My dear Doctor, I am prepared to do whatever it takes to bring Victoria home and to keep my family safe. If it means to sacrifice what I am striving to achieve, which is a normal life for myself and hopefully some day for Victoria then I shall do what it takes." Barnabas had never meant anything more than what he had just stated to this man that was fast becoming his lifeline and friend.

Barnabas stood and walked to the fireplace looking into the fire he lost himself in the flame when he spoke his voice was very soft and filled with the passion of his feelings. "You must understand I lost everything when I became what I am. I abhor and despise what it made me do. Acts that were so despicable that it sickened my very soul and made me regret I was ever born. So can you not see I would be willing to give up all that I have achieved to just bring my family home?"

Eric sighed deeply, "I have to say Barnabas I believe you from the depths of my soul, it is that you are dictated by your needs when you are caught in a bloodlust. I do wonder though if you were the one that killed Daphne who else are we up against and will they factor into this venture we are about to take."

Julia stood and stepped towards Barnabas to rest a hand of comfort on his shoulder. "Barnabas do you know whom it might be?" She was concerned because she never considered that thee was another force at work here in Collinsport that they all might have to contend.

Barnabas shook his head. "I know that when I awoke I was off balanced from the transition of one world into another. I know I needed blood, I had a blood lust which I had never experienced before and I thought I was mad but just as I met Daphne not knowing who she was there was a feeling a distant feeling that there was another of my kind nearby and perhaps watching me. You must understand at that moment the only thought I had was to feed and it was unfortunate that Daphne was the one I chose. I would give anything to have found another that night but it was as if I were being directed to her."

Julia looked to Elliott for a possible explanation. "it could have been her directing him or it could have been Angelique. However, I think it was the mysterious vampire we have yet to meet. I do not believe that Angelique knew he had been released until after he attacked Daphne. You did say she came to you here through a picture that was in the diary of your sister Sarah correct?" Elliott turned his attention back to Barnabas.

Barnabas nodded, "That is correct, after I burned her picture, her apparition appeared in front of me it scared Willie so badly he hid behind my legs and cowered on the floor. Barnabas had vividly recalled the night that had happened. How after he tossed the picture into the fire, that the fire flared up and around him and Angelique was imbedded in the image of those flames and how she had screamed out in a spectral voice her screams of delight at finding him but having her picture burned.

Turning he sighed, "There were two such appearances by her and each time she chose to appear to me when Willie was present and you Doctor, you surely remember her appearance by the staircase?"

Julia shivered she sure did remember and it was very upsetting and disconcerting. "I recall very vividly and I remember how your face looked when she appeared in spectral threatening form and then disappeared.

"What you fail to realize Julia simply because you did not know was Angelique is the reason Josette threw herself form Widows Hill, she was responsible for Sarah's death and had she been successful she would have killed Daniel and Victoria, she had Victoria set up as the witch and knew she was going to be tried and convicted and had she been successful in killing Miss Wick before Victoria returned Victoria would have hung and died."

Eric frowned hearing that Julia had been subjected to this person called Angelique. "Do not remind me of her power Barnabas, I was under her influence when Joe tried to end your life." Julia trembled then looked at Elliott to explain, "She took possession of my body and had Maggie not tried to expel her and then taken the spirit of Angelique into her body I am sure I would still be under her control."

Elliott nodded slowly, "Possession a very hard process to expel the invading spirit. Well it seems we have our work cut out for us if she is a part of this conspiracy to destroy the Collins Family."

Barnabas watched the flames. "I can assure you of one thing Dr. Lang, Mr. Stokes, she does mean to end this family because she is extremely angry with me for trying to kill her." His statement had been said with little or no emotion and drew the attention of all those in the Drawing Room.

"What do you mean by that statement Barnabas? Are you telling us that you actually tried to kill her?"

Barnabas turned back to look at the room with a distance to his demeanor and no emotion to his voice. He stated simply, "Yes."