Chapter 18
Barnabas watched the ancient eldritch enter the room. He was dressed impeccably in a suit of superior fit. His eyes were directed to those in the room and they lay on Elizabeth. He smiled watching her being slowly pushed behind Barnabas. "Does she belong to you brother?" The man's accent was dated somewhat but held a hint of an education over the ages. He had just called Alexandru son and with a look at him, he could easily pass for Alexandru's brother.
"Father, I heard you were about and perhaps might pay a visit and here you are." Alexandru looked to Barnabas and smiled, "Perhaps you should take Mrs. Stoddard to her room and be sure to show her a proper accouterment that should be worn." Turning his attention back to the man that had entered the room he tightened his smile. "I hope this is just a visit to relay to me you had decided to return home from your prior accommodations?"
Vlad shifted his attention from Elizabeth, lifting his nose to sniff the air and smiled. "The fear in this room from you mortals is absolutely exhilarating. I can't tell you how much I missed that part of my life son. But then again, you were responsible for my newest accommodations and I came to personally thank you for your efforts." The words held a hint of a threat and for that Alexandru smiled.
"Anything to see to your comfort and entertainment father. Now, if you have completed what you had come to complete." He kept his gaze on his father and within a blink of an eye the man that had entered the room and called the host of those present was across the room, but so was Barnabas baring his fangs and looking at the elder vampire with a hint of protectiveness.
This did surprise Vlad and he smiled and stepped back with a bow of his head. "I would guard well what you call your own Mr. Collins." He saw the surprise written on Barnabas face that he knew who he was. "You are a young one, and would be no match for me. I will allow you this misstep in protocol this time but next time, I won't be so lenient.' He bowed to Barnabas turned to Elizabeth and noted the other human in the room had advanced to stand protectively in front of her and he sniffed and frowned. "Another eldritch in the room? One who is a fledgling brother and other a lycan. Interesting company you keep these days son. I look forward to seeing what else is awaiting my inspection at a later date."
Turning he left them as he entered the hallway his body began to dissolve and form into a mist and he floated from the castle and through the protective greenish and blue fire that surrounded the castle. The only reminder he had been there was the drift of his laughter as it filtered down the hallway. Alexandru leaned against his desk.
"We were perfectly safe in these surroundings he is limited to what he can and cannot do while under my roof. I would suggest though you collect your friends and you should head to your home by tomorrow. I cannot promise that what was done to him has enhanced his abilities or debilitated them." He sighed dramatically. "I know you have a few questions, but I would prefer to discuss them in private and have Mrs. Stoddard safely ensconced in her room." Pressing a buzzer on the side of the desk he leaned against he waited for a servant to appear.
A timid looking young girl walked to the door and curtsied to the County. "My Lord?" She tugged at her black skirt nervously and from her reaction to his summon he was very much aware that the staff knew his father had escaped and had been in the castle and they were nervous and afraid.
"Please escort Mrs. Stoddard to her room. Have her wear the necklace that I planned to give her and the others as a gift from me until she has left the castle." She nodded and turned to Mrs. Stoddard then paused and looked back at the count.
"Should I instruct the staff to wear the same necklace as well my lord?" It was a fair enough question but it also annoyed him. He was not annoyed with her but with the fact their peace of mind had been disturbed by his father.
"Yes, Larisa by all means do have the others wear their necklaces as well and to stay close to the castle. You know there is little he can do in this house." She nodded offered a timid smile and turned to Mrs. Stoddard.
"Madam will follow me please. I shall also affix the crucifix's at the windows my lord." She said over her shoulder as she guided Elizabeth from the room. Liz was curious but knew better than to push the topic until she could get Quentin and Barnabas alone. Larisa closed the door behind her as Elizabeth passed her as she walked to the hallway.
With the door closed Alexandru finally totally relaxed against his desk. He had tensed when his father entered the room because he did not want there to be any injuries to Elizabeth. He was after all subtly courting her daughter. Looking down at the floor he used that moment to collect his thoughts. "I know you have questions allow me to explain my life and my life style."
He extended his hand to the two chairs in front of his desk, and then pushed from the desk and walked to take a seat behind the desk. Folding his hands in front of him, he hunched his shoulders forward and studied the top of the desk. "Perhaps I shall begin at the very beginning and perhaps you will fully understand my life."
"Are you undead?" Barnabas had not felt that was his lot in this life but had an unsettled feeling that there was something definitely off about this man. He breathed, he bled, and he was old, very old obviously if he were a son of Vlad Tepes. He studied the man before him and saw him smile.
"Hardly, but I am over two hundred years old, which makes me considerably older than you Quentin and close to your age Barnabas." He watched them show no signs of being appalled or upset or afraid which to him was a good sign. "I was born through sorcery and dark magic in the year 1762. My father had already embraced the undead life and it was thought he could not produce an heir. Then he met my mother Josephine and with her he wanted children before he brought her over."
He paused a moment remembering how it was explained to him his birth was decided. "Unfortunately, a deal had to be made with a older demon power to bring about my birth. You see my family had been told of the birth of a twin daughter to one in France and that the mother could not care for the child. So she was given over to a noble family and was raised as their own. The child was treated as Princess because she was to be the bride of a Prince. That Prince was my father. What they did not know or realize that he was a member of the undead."
Quentin and Barnabas turned to peer at one another then looked back and waited for him to finish his story. "The girl was one of exceptional beauty, charm and grace. She grew into an incomparable beauty and when she met my father some say it was an immediate attraction. I would not say it was love but there was a great deal of sexual tension between them. She of course did not discover what my father was until about three years into their marriage. Then she became consumed with wishing to join him in his undead life." He looked to the window.
"My father agreed to turn her as long as before that moment, that time, she gave him a son. What he did not realize was she was a twin that produces twins." He stood and walked to the window and continued with his story. His voice had dropped fairly low. It must have been a difficult story to tell by the way he was acting. My father went to a man known to practice dark arts. You know him as Count Petofi. Petofi agreed to ask his master Diablos to help produce a son. "
Looking down at the floor Alexandru turned. "So, the demon that now occupies Drake's body agreed to this very dark very devious plan to impregnate my mother. After the dark ceremony was performed on my mother, she became pregnant." He sighed deeply.
"Like those of her line had always done she was pregnant with two sons. But Diablos or Petofi told my parents that there were twin boys growing in my mother's womb. When the day came to birth, Petofi, Diablos and my father were present. Diablos even summoned a eclipse so that my father could be present."
He took another deep breath and continued with the story. "They all stood outside the room and waited. I was delivered first. I was given over to my mother in her loving arms and when she cramped again, the mid wife told my mother that she was delivering the afterbirth, when in fact she delivered my brother Drake Darkhart. As we were not identical twins when we were separated at birth it would not be evident that my mother had birthed two males from a black mass."
"So is this why you are not so quick to harm Diablos in his current form?" Quentin was beginning to see why things had happened the way they had. He watched the man nod.
"Where I went on to study magic and the properties of those magical arts both white and black magic, my brother was given to my Aunt and Uncle, as my aunt had been able to conceive a male heir, they agreed to take my brother and they named him Drake. You can imagine my shock when I learned the truth about Drake much later in my life."
Barnabas felt sorry for the man, to have a brother and not be able to cherish him as he had Jeremiah and Daniel. Although he had never intended to shot Jeremiah, he had grown up loving his brother. They had their share of fights growing up but that is what made them brothers and family. "I see so this Diablos had always intended to use your brother's body? He like you must be the same age?"
"Yes, he had outlived most his family except for myself, my father and of course my mother." Quentin shifted uncomfortably in his chair. The whole story of speaking with a fellow immortal was unsettling to him.
"So, Diablos needed the body to what? Quentin watched him walk back to his desk and retake his seat.
"This is the part of the story where you come into the picture, or I should say a member of your family comes into the picture. You see Petofi was my Uncle, the very same man that took my twin and helped raise him for the purpose of Diablos taking his body so he could produce a child with his intended wife." He looked at Barnabas.
"You see, your cousin Victoria Winters is actually a Collins and Petofi, she was the illegitimate daughter of Elizabeth Collins Stoddard. Created during a black mass to Diablos. The intent was to make Diablos a bride so she could sire him twin sons. He had my brother's body to appear normal while here, and why not take the body of a man that would some day be coroneted as a King." "
"I thought you said you were the oldest, why would you not claim the crown?" Quentin had thought about that statement and wondered why Alexandru would give up the crown.
"Because I don't want to be King, but apparently Diablos wants Drake so he could have the power, the wealth and the status to go with the fixings when he married Victoria. I was not about to let that happened so I arranged for them to be rescued, and sent my mother to watch over Victoria while she is home. Apparently another demi god has made his presence known because when they kidnapped Carolyn, David, and Elizabeth to hold their lives against Victoria they made a big mistake involving David."
Quentin shifted uncomfortably, "Laura." He said softly and looked away from the two men sitting in the room with him. Of course this statement confused Barnabas.
"Why would Laura have a stake in this macabre game that was being played out at the expense of Victoria?" Barnabas ventured his observations and was curious how Laura or for that matter why she would be involved.
Alexandru fixed his stare at Quentin and spoke softly, "I will allow you to explain to your cousin why Laura has a stake in this deadly game of Diablos and Andréas." He watched Quentin squirm.
"You see Barnabas, I am as close to being an immortal as anyone can be. I was born in 1824, which was why your mother Grandmother Naomi kept calling me Jeremiah. She would cup my chin and smile at me and brush my hair back and softly talk about my Uncle Jeremiah"
Barnabas stood and looked at the man that had tried to kill him, and now knew why. Not because he thought he had killed his daughter Daphne, but because of what he was and who is was, the original Barnabas Collins. "So you are Daniel's son?" His voice had cracked and he watched Quentin nod slowly. "Victoria saved your father Quentin, she went back in time to preserve our family from Angelique and kept Daniel from being taken by a fever that took our dear Sarah."
Quentin lowered his gaze. "I know the story and how she claimed to be from the future, but can you imagine I had not even thought about that story when I first came back to Collinwood? I had no idea it was the one and the same Victoria that everyone had spoken about while growing up being this young woman that looked so much like the tragic Josette. But why Laura has claim in this, is David."
Barnabas was trying to process the information. He looked from Alexandru to Quentin, "I am awaiting the reason, what has Roger's wife have to do with this whole sordid mess?"
Quentin sighed deeply, "You see cousin Daniel's family was as messed up as your family. My father sired four sons, Edward, Carl, Gabriel, and myself. Laura was married to my brother Edward and she had an affaire with me and gave birth to Thaddeus we called him Tad."
"But that was a Laura Collins from that time, this is the one from the 20th century." Barnabas argued softly but was curious as to how delusional this man could become believing such tripe.
"Laura had pledged herself to the demi god Ra one hundred years prior to that time Barnabas, she in order to be granted her life of an immortal and to be a hand maid to Ra must take someone with unconditional love for her into the sacrificial fire with her to Ra. That was Thaddeus but we stopped her from doing that. So she was not allowed to come back as she usually does like the eternal phoenix that she is. She had become the right handmaid to Ra and her next sacrifice was going to be David."
He rubbed his hand over his face and looked down sadly, "Something I had planned to circumvent, one of the reasons I came back to Collinwood. My main focus was to come back to stop Laura. You see I had been keeping an eye on her while I was traveling and when I heard that she had been released. I came back to Collinwood and fell into this whole mess that seems to have over taken our family."
Barnabas was trying to comprehend what he was saying. "So this Laura that has come to Collinwood, comes to claim her sacrifice to her demi-god Ra and she was also the Laura from the time of your original life time?" He knew it was possible he had after all been cursed by a witch and was an example of an undead creature that had to roam the night in search of a blood source to live.
"Yes, exactly that is what I am saying. I cannot tell you what this means to me at this time, but I do know that Laura must have summoned her big gun in the form of Ra to come up against Petofi and Diablos, but the picture is still not quite complete why are you involved and how was it that you stepped in. Surely, you did not do it to protect your brother, I would presume that there was no love lost between the two of you."
Alexandru offered a tight smile, "I did if for my mother, whom by the way bears and incredible resemblance to your Victoria Mr. Collins. She is the great, great grandmother to your Victoria of that I am sure. If that is the case then we all are related to one another. In Victoria's case she would be a direct descendent from my mother and therefore one of our descendants and she would be entitled to property and lands and titles in this country. It would not be beyond the dictates of some in the country to sanction a marriage between Drake and Victoria because she would have been an issue from Petofi's side of the family and ours. With enough distance between our blood ties she would be acceptable as a bride to my brother."
He sighed and looked down, "I fear that they would invoke the old code of keeping the bloodline pure by marrying within the family. For Diablos it would be his means of procuring two sons and living on through them."
Barnabas felt his stomach knot there was no way in hell or earth he would allow Victoria to succumb to such a diabolical act. He clinched his hand. "But that is sick and twisted in my estimation. It should never be allowed." He looked from Quentin to Alexandru.
"I would agree, but my views are not those of my brother. I can assure you that were Drake in control of his body. Here he paused and looked embarrassed. "I am not so sure the beauty of a woman that looks exactly like his mother would not attract his libido and his attention. He always had this fascination for her from the moment he discovered who she was. You must recall he was not raised by her and had always found her beautiful and strangely compelled to fanaticize about her When we were younger and visiting one another."
Quentin found it strangely fascinating and had to ask, "When did he discover who she was and did your mother ever realize he was her son she never knew existed until then?" It was so convoluted that he thought he might use it in a sub plot of his next novel.
"I believe mother realized what happened about the time he reached his prepubescent age of twelve, that is when she demanded from Petofi the truth." He smiled and remembered how angry she had been when she had come home that night and laid into his father for allowing this to happen. I can't blame her since it had happened to her at birth, she was an identical twin to her sister and was not allowed to grow up with her."
Barnabas was doing the calculations in his head and she turned to Alexandru, "Do you have a picture of your mother?" Alexandru stood from the desk and walked to the door.
"Follow me gentleman, it is one of the few portraits I have left of my mother, she tried to destroy most of them after her last fight with my father. I believe that they are what you would call estranged, it became one of those distancing marriages after he turned her to what he had become and made her one of the undead."
Walking down the hallway, he stopped and looked up at the portrait that hung in the stairway going to the north wing of his castle. Barnabas felt his whole world begin to tumble and fall around him. "It is her! The one that brought me over! The one that looks like . . . "
Quentin looked up and he was as shocked at Barnabas, "Josette!" Both men turned to look at one another but then they both turned their gaze back to the dark eyed dark haired beauty that coldly peered down her haughty nose at them from her chair she reposed on for her portrait. Except for the cold calculated look that hardened her eyes and made her appear aloof and distant, it was Josette in face, and body.
"Josette was her sister, the one her mother kept but gave Josephine away." Both men were totally shocked to the very core of their beliefs and it showed by the look of horror written across both their faces. Alexandru nodded slowly understanding their reaction. "So the family does come full circle, you can imagine how I felt the night your Victoria came here to this castle running from the very man that had devised her birth and her ultimate destruction."
Alexandru leaned against the newel post of the railing for the grand staircase. "I understand this is a great deal to take in. I would like to get my brother back and I would like for Diablos to go back to hell where he belongs and leave the mortals and the eldritch alone. I fear that before this whole mess is over that we will have a demi god war on our hands and that will cause a lot of damage to the innocent and non deserving of such acts."
Barnabas nodded slowly, "I too would like to get back to Collinwood and would extend an invitation for you to come join us at Collinwood so we might be able to get this sorted out. Don't you agree Cousin Quentin?"
Quentin looked from the portrait to Barnabas, "She is the one that killed my Daphne, so pray I do not see her first cousin, I have a debt to settle with her over the death of my daughter." His mind was working fast on how he would handle this new mess that just seemed to be getting deeper and far more complicated than originally thought.
Alexandru frowned, "I was never informed of this, we always suspected that it was you Barnabas that had brought her over to protect your identity." He was immediately becoming defensive for his mother's sake and did not wish to see this create a bigger problem than they already had. "Perhaps I should join you on your return to the states, as my mother is there watching over Victoria, it would also allow you the expertise of my abilities when you have to deal with Diablos and Petofi."
Barnabas frowned, "Why do we need to concern ourselves with these two obvious troublemakers? From what you just explained, Ra or Ramon as he is being called while at Collinwood is there would they make a move against Victoria with him present?"
"I can assure you that the fact Ra-mon is there would mean noting to either of these men. They would move heaven and earth to see Drake wed to Victoria and brought back here."
Quentin sighed deeply, letting his breath cleanse his anger, he was he knew finally going to be able to avenge his daughter's death and save a member of their family in the process.
"I suggest we pack and get ready to leave tonight, the jet is fueled and awaiting us at the private airport in Bucharest."
Alexandru smiled, "I have my own means of transportation gentlemen and I suggest we leave this evening, unfortunately your friends are locked down in a secured facility until they can get the demi-humans under control, they will be unable to leave. I could leave word for the government officials over seeing their safety to have them brought home by my own jet."
Quentin frowned, "They are in danger?" He looked from Barnabas back to Alexandru.
"My understanding is they are protected but until the emergency which obviously resulted in my father's release has been contained they will need to remain safely placed where they are."
Barnabas stepped next to Quentin, "Then I suggest you allow us to speak with them directly to tell them what our plans will be."
Alexandru smiled, "Absolutely, come gentlemen shall we return to my library where I can connect you directly with them."