Chapter 23

Staggering from the house, Jeremiah had one destination in mind and that was the old house. Arriving he barged through the front door to the expectant and disapproving look of Naomi standing her ground in the front foyer. She had been dressed to go out and was interrupted by the arrival of the disagreeable and very hung over Jeremiah. "WHERE THE HELL IS SHE? VICTORIA! VICTORIA! PRESENT YOURSELF TO ME NOW!"

Naomi stood in front of Jeremiah, her eyes were narrowed and her humor gone. Naomi took off her cloak, laid it over the banister and then turned squaring her shoulders she glared at Jeremiah and said very evenly and low, "Lower your voice now! Sarah is not feeling well and has been put to bed for a nap."

Jeremiah towered over his sister in law and moved to go nose to nose with her and Naomi could smell the after affects of his night out and was so glad she had removed that poor woman from his presence.

"She is not here, and if she were smart she is long gone and headed back to her father from which you bought her and brought her here."

Jeremiah pushed past Naomi and moved to the steps intending on barging his way up the stairs and search the entire house if he had to. "You will tell me where my wife is Naomi or I shall bring the bailiff here and have you all carted off to the goal!"

From the top of the stairs Josette appeared and crossed her hands over the front of her dress, behind her stood her dutiful husband and he like Josette acted like a barricade from Jeremiah's intrusion into their home. Barnabas spoke softly, "Uncle, I would do as my mother says and leave our house, you have no domain over this house any longer. You wanted Collinwood and mother has graciously given you the entitlements as head of the Collins Estate. Now leave."

Jeremiah glared up at his nephew and his wife. "I see you are protecting her, well let us see how you react when the bailiff comes to remove her from this house and I have you all thrown in jail!"

Naomi turned and looked up at her son and his wife and shook her head. "Let him look all he wants he will not find her here. Why not come down and join me in the drawing room while he does his search." Her tone was politely cold and formally correct she turned and moved into the drawing room to have a seat on one of the fireside chairs. Jeremiah waited for Barnabas and Josette to move down the stairs.

Passing him Jeremiah shoved past Barnabas and bounded up the stairs shouting out the whole time, "Victoria! Show yourself!

Josette and Barnabas moved into the drawing room with Naomi and they sat and waited patiently hearing Jeremiah rushing through all the rooms in the upper portion of the house. He must have searched all the second story rooms they could hear him thumping around in the third story section and then finally they heard him in the servants quarters.

"What does he hope to accomplish by this?" Josette hissed to Naomi and then looked apologetically to her husband. "I suppose that he can impose his will and make her do whatever he wishes."

Naomi looked at her hands and sighed softly, "She is with child, and he would kill her if he kept on with how he was treating her." Both Josette and Barnabas turned with astonish looked upon their faces. "Pregnant?" You are saying she is pregnant with his child?"

Naomi nodded slowly, "She carries his child within her womb and he had no clue and had treated her most cruelly and would have come home drunk and beaten her into submission son. I had to let her out of his room and help her get away."

Josette looked around anxiously then leaned towards her mother in law and asked, "She is truly gone?"

Naomi nodded, "She is safe and away from Collinsport. When she has the baby she may or may not come back. But it is her choice to for the safety of the baby to stay away from Jeremiah."

Again, like a bull running through the rooms upstairs, they could hear him going back and forth searching rooms he had searched before calling out demanding she show herself. They sat and they waited until they were sure he had exhausted all his possible avenues of his search and started back down the stairs to the foyer and then the drawing room.

"You will tell me where she has gone! I demand it!" Naomi looked up from her seated position in the chair narrowed her gaze and she spoke softly, "I will tell you only this I do not know where she has gone. I know she left as soon as she was released from your room, I doctored her lip that you had busted, helped her pack, gave her funds and saw her off in a coach."

Naomi kept her back ramrod straight and spoke evenly. "I asked her not to tell me where she was going because then I would not be tempted, coerced or bullied into telling you where she was. She left Jeremiah, and was glad to leave because she like me did not wish to be beaten or raped repeatedly by a man that claimed his husbandly rights without tenderness but expectations."

Josette lowered her own gaze and flushed deeply, she knew full well that it was like to be in demand for his husbandly rights and if she had resisted her would raise his hand to strike her but she had the grace to faint before she could feel the back of his hand across her face or the side of her head.

She would awaken with a bruise or knot but she did not have to be awake for such harsh treatment. Barnabas frowned deeply watching his wife and knew what she was remembering and his hand went instinctively to her shoulder to give her a reassuring squeeze of comfort and support.

However, Barnabas' gaze was fixed to his uncle he watched him clinch his hand and draw his fist back thinking about cockling his mother. "Jeremiah I would think long and hard before you take an action like that, I assure you, you will not harm a hair on my mother's head for speaking the truth."

Jeremiah shot Barnabas a long dark look. "I should have challenged you to a duel when you ran off with my wife, your whore." This time it was Barnabas taking a step forward his own hand drawn back to deliver a blow.

Josette stood up and between the two men. "Both of you stop it! Jeremiah you have a wife, you abused her and she has run away from you and she like me had no wish to be treated like property. We have feelings and emotions and we are more than something that belongs to another. You debased her, you beat her and you locked her up like some prisoner, what did you expect?"

Jeremiah looked at the spark of self-righteous anger in the eyes of the little mouse and laughed. "Now you find your back bone! Well whether or not you like it, she is my wife and under my power and my authority. I will find her and when I do she will be brought back and until she learns her proper place, shall be locked away in the tower of Collinwood!"

Naomi gasped and Josette echoed the gasp. "You would not dare!"

Naomi whispered softly placing a hand to her mouth in shock and dismay. Jeremiah paced like a caged animal. "I would not dare? When she is found watch and see what more I dare, I shall have her declared demented and make sure she is locked away under my careful eye."

Naomi shook her head and looked down tears stung her lovely blue eyes and she shook her head. "Then I pray she is never found by you Jeremiah. That she finds happiness away from Collinsport."

Jeremiah turned and charged from the house slamming out of the door and heading down the pathway. Moving with such a furious pace he failed to see the deeply rutted pathway had been covered with damp leaves. From over head he could hear that the day was going to be turning into another stormy day and he cursed then felt his toe catch a root and he tumbled falling forward and hitting his head sharply on a stone on the pathway.

The day did not matter as he saw the light fade and he knew nothing more. There he lay while the storm clouds gathered. Protected somewhat by the sheltering trees, Jeremiah lay on the path. The storm abated and the daylight began to fade. Dusk took the daylight and the moon began to make its rise into the night sky, he slowly sat up rubbing his head.

Somewhat dazed and confused he realized what must have happened and he pushed himself up to stand on unsteady feet and look around. Where had the day gone? Then ahead on the pathway he saw her. "Victoria?" He called to her softly, thinking to lull her into a false sense of security he walked towards her and stopped watching her move to him.

He smiled watching her open her arms and she cried pitifully to him to forgive her that she had not intended to leave him and only wanted to be in his arms. He reached out and grabbed her close to him bending her back to peer down at her and then grabbed her by her hair and slammed her against the tree.

Ironically she laughed at his rough treatment of her. This confused him and he stepped back to look at her again. This creature that stood before him was not his Victoria. Was Katharine haunting him? The Katharine he had murdered in one of his rages.

This woman now stood before him taunting him with Victoria's face and body. "No my dear man, I am not Victoria, I pity her but for you I have something very special planned." She advanced on him and then lunged at him surprising him with the strength she held in her arms as she bent him backwards and exposed his neck. "I bring the curse that Angelique wished you to suffer, you will now belong to the night and to the undead world!"

Katharine opened her mouth and he saw her teeth they were long and canine looking and she bit into his neck and began to drink from him tearing at his throat in her need and lust for blood. Draining him down to near death she bit her wrist and forced the blood of her body onto his lips. "Drink my love, drink! You will die to be reborn to the night!"

Katharine watched as he drank from her wrist then threw him aside and she shifted and the form she took was no longer that of Katharine but another female with long blond hair and obsidian dark eyes that glowed a icy blue tinge of death. Turning she shifted away from him in mist form and floated off, the sound of a hideous haunting laughter filled the night air and from the depths of the woods another form stepped forward.

"Now it begins, those that love you and those that love you will all die. You will be left alone and wanting Jeremiah Collins, you will regret your actions and never will you treat another like you treated me with your sweet kisses of promises and then to beat me and leave me. I loved you Jeremiah all you had to do was love me in return. Now you will see what you have wrought on this family called Collins!"

Jeremiah looked up at the beautiful face of Angelique and reached for her. "But I do love you Angelique, help me! Help me!" Angelique had turned and was moving away when he said he loved her and she turned and a part of her called out to rush and help him. She did, rush to his side and helped him to stand. "Come we must hurry back to Collinwood before you die! If you die you will come back as an undead!"

Supporting his body to her body, Angelique led him back to Collinwood pushing open the door she screamed out, "HELP! The master has been attacked in the woods by an animal!"

The servants moved from the kitchen area, from the drawing room Peter and Julia rushed to her side. "By the goodness of all that is holy Julia! You must help him!"

Peter took Jeremiah's weight from Angelique and helped to move him up stairs to his bedroom. Stepping back after placing him in the bed, he allowed his manservant to undress him he went to find Julia's medical bag. Julia waited while they dressed him in his nightshirt then moved into the room and looked at the wounds on his neck.

She gasped seeing the damage done. Checking the pallor of his complexion she shook her head. "He has lost a lot of blood. We may have to try something I have seen done by the Egyptian medial doctors. It's a transfusion. Peter roll up your sleeves, be quick we may be able to save him. "

Using rubber tubing and a glass bottle, Julia began to draw blood though a pump from Peter and directed the flow of the blood into the bottle on the floor. Once she had a bottle full of blood she began to transfer it by using the pump to infuse the blood into Jeremiah's arm. She watched anxiously as his color seemed to become a healthier color.

She stepped back finishing the transfusion and turned to the manservant. "Please take my husband to our room. See he is given lots of fluids. Make sure cook feeds him a medium rare steak. He may not wish to eat it but he must."

Julia moved to a chair by his bed and sat down. "We will know by daylight if this is going to work." She had spoken to Angelique who had stood anxiously in the doorway. "You might as well come in and sit with me." Angelique moved to the side of the bed and sat on the edge of it. The tears of guilt lay heavily on her cheeks as she looked down at him. "

He has to live through this, he just has to!"

Julia sighed and folded her hands together; "I suppose we should send word to the Old House that he is near death. They may wish to come and see him before he dies."

Angelique turned and glared, "He will not die, and you must make sure that he does not die."

Julia sighed, "Angelique I have done all I can it is up to him to see if he withstands the transfer of the blood I have put back in his body. This only has worked on rare occasions many of those that go through this procedure die from the procedure itself."

Angelique stood from the bed. "I will go and tell the others and bring them back here. In the meantime, you do all you can to make sure he does not die. Do you understand Julia, he cannot die, it would be far worse for all of us if he dies."

Julia was now beginning to understand there was something about his dying that was important to Angelique other than her love for this despot. Julia stood and moved to the other side of the bed and looked down at the man that lay on the bed appearing to be in the last throes of his life he laid like death upon his pillow. "I will do everything I can to make sure he lives it is all I can do. As I have said it is up to him."

Angelique gently stroked his hair from his brow and then leaned over and placed a light kiss on his cheek. "I am sorry Mon chéri forgive me." She turned and moved from the room leaving a very curious and confused Julia.

Naomi had intended to go to Victoria and check on her well-being. Afraid that Jeremiah may be watching her to see if she would go to Victoria, she decided to wait a day. Moving back to her room, the day had been trying, Sarah was ill with a chest cold and the cough was getting worse with the passing hours and she was truly concerned for her daughter's welfare.

She was running a fever had taken a hold of her. The fear that edged Naomi's heart was she knew it was coming to a time of mourning that her beautiful Sarah was predestined to die at an early age. She had hoped she would have a little longer with her but a pall had fallen over Collinwood and now it had followed her to the old house

Sitting by Sarah's bed she watched her child struggle with each breath. So much could happen and then again she knew it was coming close to the time for her to pass on and become a part of the history that was to be Collinwood for future generations. That was why she justified doing what she had done to Victoria. This was a part of it all they all had to suffer.

She knew this Victoria was not a part of this time but she was needed to bring forth the new generation of Collins. That within her womb she carried the only hope that this Collinwood had to prevent the hoard of demons that lay beneath the surface of the east coast would enter into this world through a hell mouth that was a part of Collinwood.

Hearing the carriage pull up in front of the house, she moved to the window and looked down to see Angelique rushing up to the front door. This could not be good news and she waited so see what was about to unfold. Turning to face the door she waited patiently with her hands folded neatly in front of her as Barnabas along with Josette escorted Angelique into the room.

"Mrs. Collins you must come quickly! Jeremiah is near death and Julia says if you wish to see him before he dies you should come now."

The woman was near enough to hysteria and despair that Naomi felt halfway sorry for her. But she could not find too much pity since she also knew what was about to happen had been predestined as well and this woman was a part of that tragedy that was to befall the great house on top of the hill.

Playing her part of the innocent and uninformed she asked coolly, "What malaise had stricken the lord of Collinwood?"

Angelique took a deep breath composing her voice she spoke softly, "He was attacked in the woods by an animal. It nearly ripped out his throat and now he lays near death." Josette gasped and turned her face into the comforting expanse of her husband's chest as he gently patted her back as she cried softly against his shoulder.

Looking somber and sadden by the thought he glanced at his sister in her labored breathing and then to his mother. "We will go mother, you stay with Sarah if it worsens I shall send for you so you may come and pay your last respects to him while he lives."

Naomi nodded and smiled her thanks to her son. "Thank you Barnabas." Naomi moved to Sarah's bedside and sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at her daughter and sighed.

Barnabas moved to his mother's side bringing Josette with him. "We must believe this will not be the end for her mother and she will fight the fever and grow stronger and be up and playing with young Daniel soon."

All Naomi could do was nod. "Yes, my son. I know. Go on to Collinwood and then let me know if I am needed."

Julia stood vigil over Jeremiah while the family members moved into the room to look upon the unconscious Jeremiah that lay in his own world of near death. Only moving his fingers to signify that he was aware that they were near him. He muttered softly one word over and over.

"Victoria."

Julia was equally glad that Angelique was not in the room to hear him call for Victoria up and until he took his last breath he asked over and over for Victoria. It was not until that time that he did take his last breath and had been delirious that Angelique laying over his body crying and begging him to live that she finally heard the name of the woman he had asked for up to his death.

Pushing off his chest she glared down at him and then realized he was dead and no longer a part of this world and what would happen when nightfall arrived. Standing she moved on wooden legs out of the room. She had to make sure he would not rise at dusk.

Moving quickly she found the stakes she had prepared the night before and hid them in a bag under her bed. She knew they would prepare him and then put him in a coffin and lay him out for viewing in the drawing room. She would sneak into the room and wait. She would wait for the sun to set she would lock the door and drive the stake through his heart.

Tears streamed down her cheeks thinking of having to watch him die again. "Forgive me but I still love you my love. Why could you not love me?"

Moving to find her black dress she changed into her gown of mourning and sat on the edge of her bed. All she had to do now was wait for dusk and then she would do what must be done. As much as she abhorred the idea of this task, she knew it was the only way.

Taking a deep breath she sat still as death itself as she waited for right time to leave her room. She gaged her time by the fall of the shadows across her room. When they grew longer she knew that the daylight would be fading and then she would go.

She had heard the activity of the household and knew that they would have prepared his body, cleaned it, dressed him in his finest clothing, brought in a coffin, lined it with a blanket then lay him to rest in the coffin. She had heard the arriving of carriages and the voices off in the distance, knowing the villagers must have been told by the tolling of the church bell that the great lord of Collinwood had died.

Because the body had a tendency to start to spoil they never held the bodies out for long so the villager knew they would have to hurry to visit if they wanted to see the inside of Collinwood and let the Collins Family know that they cared. The only word she could think of when she thought of those commoners that would come were they were hypocrites and only wanted to rub elbows with the rich and elite Collins Family. They hated Joshua and she knew they had hated Jeremiah.

The house grew more settled and the day had grown short and the night was upon them, she stood and moved to the door and opened it. Stepping out into the hallway, she tugged the bag she had brought with her closer to her own body. Moving towards the main part of the house she moved on silent footfalls and began to whisper a spell of concealment.

"Do not see me, look away and see another day, do not see me." She moved her fingertips and brushed them over her skirt and she shimmered from view and moved like a wraith into the foyer where the last of the visitors had come and were standing.

Glancing into the drawing room she took a deep breath and moved to the doors. No one was in the drawing room. No one knew he was not really dead only during the day time he would appear dead at night he would rise and roam, searching and looking for what would sustain him, the blood of the living.

Closing the doors, she locked them and then turned and moved to the coffin. Setting the bag of stakes on the table she opened it and took one out and turned to plunge the stake into his heart she saw he was no longer in his coffin. She felt the cold grasp of his hand jerking her around to look down at her and smile. "Hello darling happy to see me?" He looked at the stake then to her panic stricken face. "Jeremiah! You are alive!"

He laughed, "As if you did not know? I suppose I have you to thank for this my love?"

She felt him grabbed her arms and pulled her close to his body. "Jeremiah! Let me go!"

She struggled and then felt his mouth on her throat sinking his teeth into her neck and drank deeply from her veins. Growing weak she had enough strength to push back and take the stake in her hand and ram it into his chest. She stepped back shocked and aghast that she actually had done it. She watched him crumple forward and fall to his knees. His hand grabbing the stake in his chest, he looked down and then he looked up and smiled, "You missed my heart my dear."

He pulled the stake from his chest with a sucking sound the wound closed over she watched shocked and scared. She had never had the need to fear or worry unless it was to disappoint her master and now she was struck with fear. Jeremiah laughed and stood holding the stake. "Now what to do about you my dear Angelique. The curse was that those that love me should die. You love me Angelique, you will be a part of your own curse now!"