Chapter 24

The Sad House by the Sea

Seaview Cottage Collinsport Maine

The long shadows had not begun, only the hint of shadows beginning was filtering across the grounds. Vlad arose from his bed, sat up and looked around at his surroundings. Dusk had arrived and he was not fully awake from his death's sleep. Adjusting his eyes to his surroundings he smiled, he was free of the cage that had held him for almost thirty years. He could sense her close by and knew she would come to him. Closing his eyes he visualized her sweet innocent face, the purity that in the beginning had attracted him to Josephine. Victoria was truly blood of his blood through Josephine, his wife. He had been drawn here because of Victoria. He thought at first it was to find the woman doctor Julia but then something else had distracted him.

He of course was put out with Alexandru and had been sorely tempted to take him and make him over in Vlad's image. However, he did not wish to upset his Josephine. Following the scent of Alexandru he found Victoria, his granddaughter a recreation of Josephine; except this one was pure and innocent. He had been delighted but nearly loosing her had caused him a moment's hesitation and then he knew he would take this one under his control. Now she had some of his blood in her system. She could not resist his call. "You touched her didn't you my love. You gave her a part of your blood."

Vlad had stood and walked to the covered window and opened the curtains to peer out over the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean, he knew she had joined him in the room and had felt her approach. He waited and then he had felt her hand glide over his shoulder and the press of her body into his back. "It has been too long my love, far too long." She had laid her head upon his shoulder and for the first time in over three hundred years she felt his body tense at her touch.

Jerking her head back she frowned. "You are thinking of her! You want her and not me." She pouted with those full lush lips that he had loved kissing. She broke her hold on him and walked across the room. She had summoned him here to this house. This was the cottage house by the sea that she and Alexandru had sought refuge in earlier. "Why are you ignoring me my love. You know I love you with all my heart and now you are treating me like a stranger."

"If I thought to treat you other than you deserve my dearest Josephine you would be dead. You left me to those torturers and never once did you talk your son into getting me released, never once did you find a way to come and rescue me, so why should I not seek another beside you to fill the needs of my heart? The difference this time is she is related to you through your family. Our close association of marriage does not relate her to me unless I give her some of my own blood. Which I did last night to save her life.. An odd situation we find ourselves in is it not my love?"

Josephine felt her eyes prick with tears she had lost him, the love of her life and now that silly girl she had tried so hard to get from birth was now occupying his thoughts. She watched his back as he continued to stand and look out at the moonlight that was bathing the beach. "You hate me?" She had said it so soft and filled with so much hurt and anguish he half turned giving her a look of slow and even contemplation. He dissected her with that single gaze then turned his back to the room and watched the night.

Off in the distance he could hear them, the children of the night and they bayed a welcome to him from a distance with the sound of them coming closer with each echoing howl. "I do not hate you my dearest Josephine, I am angry with you. You have disappointed me." He turned slowly and leaned against the window seal watching her pose in the tragic figure drama play. "You left me to be tortured while you took your time with your life and sought what you wanted and how many lovers have you taken Josephine in my absence?"

She could truthfully say she had seduced many to take their blood but having taken them as a lover she honestly say none. "I took no one to my bed that I actually had my love, I took them to bed to drink from them but never to make love to them. I want only you!" She turned and held out her arms to him. "Forgive me my love, come to me and forgive me!"

He looked at her dispassionately, "I should forgive you so easily my love? Why, should I forgive the countless hours of being poked, burned, tormented by those scientists to forgive you so easily?" He walked towards her and stopped. "You think all you need to do is shed a few false tears to make me feel sorry for you and then take you in my arms?" He walked closer and pulled her roughly against him, bent her head back; his eyes glowed with a blue intensity as he looked at her throat so pure and white. He could smell she had already fed and it would be simple to drain her to a husk but even he could not dare think of destroying such perfection represented in this cold beauty. "You always expected to be given what you wanted because you are so beautiful."

He gently stroked her cheek with his folded fingers and looked into a face that had haunted his dreams on those nights that the tests were unbearable. It was that smoldering look of lust in her eyes that held him to this life when he began to age and grow very old and feeling the age caught up with him and then the blood lust would over take him and they kept him only on enough to keep him alive. He watched those dark eyes glow with a blue intensity with his touch, she fluttered those long lashes over her eyes and a smile of ecstasy filled her face as he allowed his fingers to glide down to the swell of her breasts.

"Yes, my love take me, make me yours again and again!" her breath was raspy with her pent up sexual emotions. "I am yours to take my love, take me." She opened her eyes and he could see her sexual desire smoldering in those eyes. Lowering his lips to her throat he licked her neck and felt her quiver then with as much control as he could exert to not rip her throat out he threw her to his bed.

"No, you will learn your place Josephine, for now you can take your place with the rest of my blood brides. You will do as I say and when I say it and you will not harm that girl! Is that understood?" Spinning around he glared at her cowering on his bed. "You will come when I command you to come and you will earn your place next to me as my first chosen. Until then you will not come to me unless I command you is that understood?" He watched her push herself up from the bed, her shoulders slumped her chin tucked. "I asked you a question Josephine, do you understand me?"

She nodded her head and sniffed delicately, 'Yes my husband I heard you and I understand. I won't trouble you no more." In her mind she had made it up that she would kill Victoria before she was sent back to Romania. She was filled with rage that he had found another that took his fancy. It was his fault that she was as she was, he made her into this thing he had grown tired of and she would make sure that he would never have another like he had her." Pushing her self off the bed she walked to the door, he grabbed her arm and pulled her around to face him.

"I mean it Josephine if I find you have harmed one hair on that girl's head I shall rip your head from our body and feed you to the fishes in the ocean. Then I will put your head on a pike facing east. When the morning sun's light hits your head you will be no more." His voice had grown deadly cold. His face was set only as she had seen him look one other time and that was when he was meting out his type of justice to others that had annoyed him. "I will not tolerate you or any one else harming that child. She belongs to me and if you go near her, I will know it."

This she knew was the truth, if she had tasted his blood she belonged to him and there was nothing she could do except kill him to break the hold or get him to voluntarily break the hold. That she knew was not going to happen. "You will prepare yourself and go back to Romania and wait for me there with my other brides. Is that clear? You have done a lot of damage here." He was still angry she had turned a Collins other than Barnabas. It had been a waste and she had risked exposure by taking Daphne the way she had. It had more than annoyed him. He had to find out what else she had been up to and what other mischief she had plotted and done while he was being held.

"Vlad, my love will you ever forgive me" She asked softly, her voice was filled with recrimination and sadness. She had walked to the door her head hung low and her mind still trying to figure out how she could get to Victoria and kill her. She was filled with jealous rage and now she wanted to seek her revenge against Vlad for forcing her to share him with the others he had discarded but insisted on calling his brides.

He turned and looked at her and still found she was incredibly beautiful and desirable but she had abandoned him to the fate of the keepers of that facility. The had previously deemed would be his life. He was silent so long that she thought she had her answer and she turned. "I will always love you my dear it is just for the best for now that I love you from a distance. You forgot your place at my side and your vow to be with me. You avoided capture and you left me to die and how can I forgive that so quickly. You have been on your own for too long and it is time you remember who and what you are Josephine until then you will return to Romania and await my return there." He turned his back on her and did not see the blind hatred that flashed into those dark eyes.

She opened the door and walked out closing the door softly behind her. Blind rage filled her to the very fiber of her being and she wanted her own satisfaction. She shifted to mist and floated from the house by the sea. She would be damned if she would go back to Romania and wait with those commoners that called themselves the brides of Dracula. She was his wife and perhaps it was time he realized he could loose her as she had lost him. She needed to find her man and she would have him take her from this state and from the control of Vlad. She would if she had to divorce her feelings from him.

Collinwood

Elizabeth stood poised in the drawing room and smiled, she was home, her home and she did not have to worry about Victoria, Carolyn or David. They were safe here and she was finally able to relax and feel safe and secure. Sitting on the sofa she ran her hand over the arm of the sofa and looked around at her furniture. She had to admit the castle had more opulent furnishings but her furnishings had been in the family for generations. They were a part of her heritage. Closing her eyes she took a deep breath and smiled. "Do you know how much I have missed that smile? I went all the way to Romania to bring that smile home and got hijacked."

Elizabeth opened her eyes and her entire face brightened seeing Elliott standing in the doorway. "Elliott! It is wonderful to see you made it home!" She stood and walked towards him extending her hands to him. Elliott pushed her hands away and scooped her up and kissed her deeply. Elizabeth put her arms around his neck and for the first time n a very long time gave into her desires and needs and returned the kiss. Elliott broke the kiss. He pulled back and smiled noting the soft flush on her cheeks and the sparkle in her eyes.

"I have missed you and I was really put off that our date was interrupted. Now my dearest Elizabeth please tell me you missed me too?" He looked deeply into her eyes. Bending forward to nuzzle her neck and whisper in her ear. "I have thought of nothing else but this moment and now I have you in my arms." He pushed her chin up, dropped his lips to hers and gave her a kiss that was filled with promise.

Elizabeth was almost breathless with the passion she had withheld for so long and now she was in his arms and she was excited to see him. "I have missed you and every day I was locked in that pretty prison with Andréas promising me that I would marry him after Victoria wedded Drake, all I could think of was you Elliott. It was you and praying and hoping that you would come for me."

Elliott held her tightly, pulling her head next to his cheek and he whispered into her ears. "I came and I would have been there to bring you home my sweet Lizzie, but unfortunately the government had other plans for me." He pushed her back at the sound of a throat clearing. Julia and Eric stood in the doorway.

"Maybe you two should get a room?" Eric teased entering more fully into the room. With a feeling of familiarity he walked to the liquor cabinet. Pouring himself a drink he turned and smiled, "Anyone else want a drink?"

"None for me thank you." Julia walked to the sofa and sat. "I think I would like some tea is Mrs. Johnson still under the care of her sister?" She turned looking to Elizabeth for the answer to her question but it was Carolyn entering the room that answered the question.

"Yes Martha is making tea as we speak. She has been preparing dinner for your return. I believe she said we were having Yankee pot roast with new potatoes that seemed to be important to her that we understand they would be new potatoes as to old potatoes." Carolyn chuckled at her own little joke and walked to Eric hugged him. She paused long enough to pat Elliott on the shoulder as she passed her mother and him in the doorway and sat crossing her leg on the sofa next to Julia. "I see you made it back in one piece and you missed all the exciting fireworks at our arrival home."

"Carolyn, I see you have rested well, where is Victoria?" She let Eric lead her to a chair and help seat her. She looked up to see a woman slightly younger than Sarah Johnson enter the room with a tea trolley. Elizabeth had noted they did look like sisters with their pure white head of hair; she had the same slender build and blue eyes.

Roger entered the foyer; paused hearing voices in the drawing room and turned walking to the entrance to the drawing room he smiled. "Well it looks like everyone made it back safe and sound. Did Barnabas and Quentin drive to the old house? I suppose they will be joining us for dinner tonight?" Roger walked to the liquor cabinet and poured himself a drink; leaning against the cabinet next to Eric he glanced around the room.

Julia looked down, "I believe he has been hosting Drake Florescue at his house since Elizabeth kicked him out of Collinwood." She had not said it to be disrespectful she merely was repeating what she had been told earlier on their drive home.

Elizabeth sighed, "Well the man was deplorable to us while we were in his country and he was forcing Victoria to marry him." She felt Elliott squeeze her shoulder and he spoke softly but encouragingly to Elizabeth.

"My dear Elizabeth, the man you knew as Drake in Romania is not this Drake. That man had his body taken from him by a very dark and very vile demon and the man himself was trapped in his own body and not in control. I think from what Barnabas and Quentin have told me this man was as much a victim as you and the rest of the family."

Vicki walked into the room and now it appeared most in Collinwood that were to be in this place at this time was there. "Actually I got to know him a little bit today when we took a stroll on the beach. He is very nice Mother and he is not the same man that you and I remember. He is in control of his mind and his body now and he is actually quite charming."

Elizabeth looked down at her hands and sighed deeply, "Elliott would you be kind enough to drive me to the old house so I might extend an apology to the man and invite him to return to Collinwood?" She glanced up with a plea in her gaze and how could Elliott resist such a charming plea?

"Of course I will, I would like a chance to meet someone that was able to best Diablos." He extended his hand to her and helped her to stand. "If you all will excuse us we will be back for dinner." Sliding his arm around her waist he led her to the foyer and out the front doors. "Would you like to walk or do you wish me to drive?"

Elizabeth had slid her arm around his waist peering up she in a she spoke thoughtfully, "I think tonight I would like a stroll. It will give me time to think of a humble way to apologize to the Duke." She smiled brightly hugging her body close to Eric's.

Old House Drawing Room

Barnabas paced the floor, he was thinking about what Willie had told him earlier, that Drake had taken a stroll with Victoria. A part of him felt jealous and another part felt challenged to court her in earnest. Perhaps he had not been perfectly clear he had a deep affection for her. That she had been taken before he could tell her how he felt. "Um Barnabas all they did was just walk on the beach and he didn' touch her or anythin they just walked."

Willie was shifting uneasily from one foot to the other. He was worried he had seen that look once before and it was when he had decided he would not have anything else to do with Miss Winters and was going to become as he was, it was as if all of the world had turned against him, the serum had aged him, he had attacked Carolyn, the doc was against him, and then Miss Winters went away to a place that had scared him so bad he had sat in the house and brooded. Now it was as if all that was coming back to haunt him again.

Willie wanted him to have some fun and find some happiness. He always seemed so sad. "Um anyhow she came here once she got back and she spent the night here and then that lady that looked like her and said she was her Aunt came here and well it got all funny weird and then she was gone and Miss Winters was . . . "

Barnabas turned and studied Willie. "She was what Willie? Finish your sentence and tell me what was Miss Winters?" He watched him shift from foot to foot and then put his hands on his hips when he was trying to find the words to say what he needed to say.

"She got like all forgetful and stuff. Then she just wanted to stay here and be safe and all." He sighed and looked down. He had not seen her like that before and it had bothered him and he did not want to leave her. But she had told him she would be all right. So he had left her.

"Forgetful? What does that mean Willie?" Barnabas had turned and was watching him shift again.

"Um yeah, she and Roger um I mean Mr. Collins were arguing at the top of the stairs and well she fell down the stairs and hurt her head. She um had to go to the hospital and they said she kind of well she lost her memory. So, when she came back to Collinwood, she wanted to come here because she said she felt safe."

Barnabas smiled and looked to the stairs towards Josette's room. "She wanted to come here and be safe?"

He smiled and Willie relaxed and nodded. "Yes, she said she felt safe here." He heard knock on the door turning he looked to the door then to Barnabas. "Um do you want me to get that?"

"Yes Willie that is your duty to answer the door go see who it is." Barnabas stepped back and allowed Willie to answer the door.

Willie opened the door to see Elizabeth and Professor Stokes standing there. "Hello Willie is Barnabas at home?" Elizabeth smiled waiting to be invited in. Willie stepped aside and did an awkward half bow.

"Yes ma'am he is in the drawing room, please won't you come in?" He had heard his auntie say that often enough so he knew it was the polite thing to say.

Elizabeth nodded turned to Elliott and smiled, "Thank you Willie will you please announce us to Barnabas?" Willie closed the door and turned stopping when he saw Barnabas standing in the doorway.

"Elizabeth so nice of you to come and call and to see you back where you belong." Barnabas stepped forward reaching for Elizabeth's hand and drawing it to his lips to kiss. "I must say I am happy to see you are unharmed from your experience and I for one am excited to have you home. Do come in and may I get you something to drink? Perhaps a cordial?" He led them into the drawing room.

Elizabeth took a seat on the sofa. Elliott sat next to her and lifted her hand and laced his fingers through her fingers. "I for one am most certainly glad she has returned. Nothing for me Barnabas."

Elizabeth looked around at the lovely room then smiled. "I would enjoy a small cordial. That would be nice Barnabas thank you." She cleared her throat and then asked. "I was wondering is Drake at home?" She had felt a little apprehensive about meeting him again after she had lost her control and sent him packing.

"He is resting upstairs do you wish to speak with him?" Barnabas looked to the door seeing Willie still poised in the doorway he spoke softly, "Willie would you inform Drake we have visitors and his presence is requested?"

Willie nodded and turned to scamper off up the stairs to the second floor. "Now, Elizabeth your cordial." He had gone to the liquor cabinet and poured out a light cordial in a crystal glass. Walking to hand her the cordial he smiled.

"So, how are Carolyn and the others, I assume they made it back and are doing well?" He was referring to Maggie and Roger since he had not seen them. He had caught up with Stokes, Julia and Eric.

"Roger and Carolyn are fine. Maggie has taken a trip to Portland today something about picking up something for her father."

Drake walked down the stairs and paused seeing Elizabeth he was about to turn when Barnabas glanced up to see he was not sure if he should join them. "Please Drake Elizabeth specifically asked to speak with you so do come join us."