Chapter 23

Angelique felt the strength of his fingers around her throat and the need to breath imminent. Jeremiah bent her neck and bit into it and drained the life giving blood from her body turning her into nothing more than an empty husk. Then with superhuman strength he pulled her head from her body and held it up peering into the lifeless eyes that stared back in horror and disbelief now completely glazed over.

"Yes my dearest love, the curse now holds you to its breast and you are now a part of the non living." He pulled her head to his lips and kissed her forehead and then her lips and sighed throwing the head into the coffin he had just vacated, he lifted the lifeless headless body up and put her in the coffin and then took the time to neatly arrange head to body and cover her with the satin lining that was a part of the coffin.

Putting the lid on the coffin he smiled. "Oh this is just too good. I shall entomb her in the family mausoleum and wait for the others to come and see me off to my just rewards and see how they react when they see I am not dead!" He laughed at his own joke and then his thoughts were immediately fixed on Victoria. "Now my errant lovely wife, we must see what we can do to find you."

Naomi waited a month before she made a trip to the cottage. She had sent Ben and Daniel with supplies and was surprised to hear that a tribe of the local Native Americans was camped out in her cottage protecting her. This allowed Naomi to feel some modicum of relief that she was not isolated or alone.

Daniel reported that Vicki was feeling movement from the baby. In his excitement he continued to say that she was feeling secure with her new protectors. He was to give Naomi a message, that the four were watching over her and that she would understand.

Naomi smiled the four would be the elementals that had disappeared and now seemed to have returned to protect Victoria. Waiting for the passage of time had been difficult, she had thought Jeremiah had died and they had gone so far as to lay him to rest only to discover that he was not dead but suffering from some horrendous type of malaise that gave the appearance of death.

The problem that niggled at her sub conscious was the fact that now Jeremiah was seen mostly only in the evenings or night and never during the day. The servants had reported he had his bedroom moved to the tower and that all the windows were painted black and no daylight was permitted into his bedroom.

That his doors were to remain locked during the day light hours and he would unlock them and come out at night. She recalled how he had presented himself to her one evening when she had gone to the mausoleum to place flowers on his tomb and that of Joshua's.

She was startled at seeing him standing so smugly waiting for her to finish her tribute and he even laughed. "Oh dear Sister in law you seem disappointed to find that I did not die."

Naomi had backed up noting how pale he looked and the way his eyes took on an ice blue glint to them as he stared at her intently. She knew in her heart that he had changed and was no longer of human form but she could not figure out what form he had taken.

She suspected vampiric but he could also have been a demonic influence too. Fingering the cross around her neck she watched him watch her and had averted his eyes. Again, not conclusive that he was a vampire. She knew that a demon would avoid the sign of a cross. "Jeremiah, I am glad to see the reports of your death were greatly exaggerated."

Jeremiah kept his distance from her circling her watching her pivot like a ballerina on her toes. "I look forward to seeing you and the other members of my family at Collinwood. As a matter of fact, I must insist that you all move back to Collinwood, there really is no need for the family to be separated."

Naomi narrowed her eyes and asked, "And seeing Josette and Barnabas will not bother your sense of propriety and you will not taunt them or make remarks or call her names?"

Jeremiah sighed dramatically. "My dear sister in law, my feelings were long ago dispatched where Josette was concerned. I have a new wife a very beautiful wife and it is her that I wish to share my life and be at my side. It is her duty to help me with Collinwood and the perpetuation of the family line. The problem is I do not know where she is, do you?"

Naomi shook her head and looked him in his eyes. Her first mistake, she could feel the hypnotic draw of those eyes that burned with an icy blue intensity and then she felt her resolve beginning to wane. Blinking she turned and looked away from him. "I have told you Jeremiah I put her on a coach to the east and I have not heard from her since the day I saw her go."

Which statement was true, she had driven east in her carriage, which was the nearest conveyance to a coach, and she had not seen her since she took her to the cottage. She only had it on Daniel and Ben's authority that she was there. Then again from the reports she had received there were times that the new friends she had made were known to take her away from the cottage and on a trek to their village.

Jeremiah watched her and found she was truthful but there was something she was holding back and not telling him. He had tried to exert his will on her but she had an extremely strong will and her mind was resistive to his new found powers. He was glad he had fed earlier on one of the household maids, because he was sure he would have been tempted to take Naomi here in front of her husband's tomb. "So Naomi, as I was saying, I insist that you all move back to Collinwood. It is important to keep a strong front for the sake of our family would you not agree?"

Naomi moved around the sarcophagus that belonged to Joshua and put it between her and him. "I would say at this time to put the whole family together would be a strain on all our relationships Jeremiah."

Jeremiah moved to stand directly across the sarcophagus and smiled. "My dear you do not understand I am not giving you a choice."

Naomi smiled, "Jeremiah, everyone has a choice. I own the old house and the property around it so yes we could easily refuse your gracious offer."

Jeremiah sighed and shook his head. "No my dear, you do not own the old house, I do it was all part of the estate transferal that went into affect the day you signed the transfer. There was one little clause that was interposed on the original contract between Joshua and myself when we switched homes and I was relegated to the Old House to live out my life."

Naomi had forgotten that stipulation and now he was using it. The clause did state that if the head of Collinwood had a heir, then he could in effect claim all of Collinwood and its surrounding properties. The day Victoria became pregnant they all fell under his auspices.

"I see then you know she is pregnant?"

Naomi said as a hint to get him to admit he knew. "Yes, I know she is pregnant. I said as much the day I came to the old house and wanted to know where she was. Now as a father to that child, I want to know where my wife has gone, can you not see that it is that important to me that I would demand that you all move into Collinwood?"

Naomi felt her heartbeat pick up as she thought of Victoria with him again. "You beat her Jeremiah, you hurt her horribly and nearly killed her why would she even consider coming back to such treatment let alone subject her child to that kind of father."

Jeremiah frowned and turned pacing to the entranced of the family tomb. "Naomi, I have changed in more ways than one and now I have a reason to want to see my wife safe and our child born at Collinwood."

Naomi heard the sincerity in his voice but found it hard to believe he would be so eager to change that much in that short period of time. "You are not human any more are you Jeremiah?" The question caught him off guard and he spun around his eyes wide and his mouth open and his teeth exposed. Naomi startled took a classic pose of drawing her hand to her mouth in shock.

Jeremiah looked around and then to her. "I promise you this much Naomi, bring Victoria home to have the baby and I promise you that I will allow you to destroy me."

He was stricken by his deformity and his inhumanity was growing more with each victim he had claimed and he knew he had to leave a legacy behind and he wanted to see his son or daughter born in the house he had built.

Naomi thought about his offer and nodded, "I know you want to see your child born but the blood that the birth will bring will bring on your blood lust and you could kill Victoria and the child."

Jeremiah thought a moment then offered, "Then when she goes into labor bring her back and I will allow you to lock me in a coffin in the secret room here. After the birth, and the blood has been cleaned up, let me out so I can see my child and then you may destroy me, that is all I ask of you Naomi, allow me this and you can send me to hell."

Naomi thought and nodded, "I agree but she cannot come back until its time for the birth she is very protected right now Jeremiah so none may get near her. "

Jeremiah frowned, "Who protects her?" Naomi shifted on her feet, she was feeling the damp of the tomb and the hardness of the floor on her feet and it was climbing up into her back and a part of her screamed out to not trust him that he was one of the devil's own and now he could kill her easily with little thought to what pain he would bring her to her.

"The protectors of the land and the wood and the sky Jeremiah, she is guarded by a very powerful shaman and her life and the life of your child are being well guarded by the elements as well. I will take your request to her and those that protect her and see what they say. However, the elements will already know what has happened to you and I can assure you they will not readily agree to her being alone or near you. They have seen what you have done to her in the past and they were not happy."

"Then reassure them I only wish to see my child before I allow you to kill me."

Naomi moved around and stood facing him with barely five feet between them and she studied his sincerity and found with a vampire that was very hard to do. "Jeremiah, I am asking you now do you mean what you are saying? Will you be on your best behavior and not harm Victoria?"

He nodded without hesitation and that gave her pause. "I am going to ask you again, you will allow me to dispose of your body as I see fit once your child is born and you see him or her?"

He nodded again and she relaxed. "Then I shall try and locate her through my sources present your offer and leave the choice up to her."

Jeremiah smiled and bowed to his sister in law. "I never agreed with Joshua with his choice in choosing you as his wife, but I accepted you and then admired you even when he was beating the hell out of you, I admired your stamina."

Naomi looked down and sighed sadly, "He cost us three children with his beatings. I lost three children because of that temper Jeremiah why I could not bare to have Victoria go through what I did with Joshua."

Jeremiah looked surprised and then saddened by the news. "I am sorry Naomi, why did you stay with him?"

Naomi turned and moved back to the tomb that was her husband's final resting place. "Because despite it all I did love him. Barnabas was his child and he thought it was another's. The child he beat out of me was the pirate's child Jeremiah, but he would have raised that child as his own. I know that he thought Barnabas was not his yet he still raised him as his own."

Jeremiah frowned, if you loved him, why did you have an affair with the Pirate?"

Naomi smiled, "Because he offered me what Joshua could not, he offered me tenderness."

Jeremiah would have flushed if his body had permitted, "Tenderness is such a fallible emotion."

Naomi felt the sadness of what she had missed with Joshua, "Jeremiah, you must understand, Joshua thought of me as his property. Not a living person that wants to be owned like property to be trotted out and shown off and displayed for public view then be shoved back when you are done with them. It not only is degrading its downright inhumane. We are living, feeling and most certainly breathing human beings that deserve being loved in return."

Jeremiah moved to the wall, pressing his back to the wall and sliding down on the floor. Pulling his legs up and pressing his knees to his chest he was this night, a night he should be trolling the docks because of the heavy fog predicted looking for a feast.

Instead here he was getting educated by his sister in law whom he hated, loved, despised, respected and resented these past many years. She was a part of his life. Pressing his head to the wall he closed his eyes and sighed deeply, "For so many years, I thought that to get respect from someone you should demand it or raise your hand or take a rod to them."

Naomi nodded, "and that is what Joshua thought too until he had a servant bigger than him take the rod from his hand and break it and then tell him to respect him and he would return the respect."

Naomi smiled sadly thinking about that time. "Joshua was furious and almost had him taken out and horse whipped, but Barnabas stopped him and told him to do so would be wrong and unethical. That the servant was right."

Curiously Jeremiah lifted his chin and gave her a questioning look. "It was Ben that dared to stand up to Joshua. Ben Stokes that told him no more beatings that he would rather die than take another beating from your brother and if he wanted his respect, then respect him as a man."

Naomi leaned against the sarcophagus and sighed deeply, "I heard the altercation between the two and had to agree with Ben, I then found my own voice and when he went to hit me because he was mad at someone else I told him then, he would do well to just beat me senseless or kill me with a pistol than to be slapped around again. I told him what it had cost us both with all his ill tempered beatings and that if he continued I would leave him."

She felt the tension she had been holding in start to release and she looked down the sound of her voice growing distant and soft. "I told him, that I would not be treated like his chattel nor would I tolerate any more beatings because he thought that was the right thing to do because he was angry and had to blame someone. That was when I was pregnant with Sarah. I tell you this now that it stopped after that. I was not going to risk loosing another child because he was feeling ill tempered for whatever reason and its one of the reasons that after Barnabas was born that I found my comfort with a glass of cordial every night and one glass became another glass and another glass until I was drunk and did not care if he beat me."

Jeremiah was stunned he knew she loved to have a glass of cordial in the afternoon but he never knew the reason why. "Your brother never told me he loved me, he never showed me kindness. He thought by giving me a fine home clothing and food I would know that he cared for me and was very fond of me. I will tell you this much Jeremiah no woman wants to hear that someone is fond of them when they are their wife. They want to hear that their husband loves them and then they would follow him to hell and back if that would please him. So, I hope you take something out of this and understand why I did what I did to get Victoria away from you."

Jeremiah's own voice had grown soft and coldly detached he felt his shame over what he had done and what he was doing now. He felt the disgust of what he had become and what it was forcing him to do. "Do you know when the baby will be born?" His voice sounding nothing like the Jeremiah she knew.

"Soon, she is in her final month of her pregnancy and I understand she is glowing with health and is being very well protected by many. She has made so many new friends that they are showering her with love and gifts for the baby."

Jeremiah smiled, "She is not the original Katharine that came here so many months ago."

His confession was coming without his trying to stop it. "I know who she is Jeremiah, she was brought here to give you a child. Once she had done that we will allow her to go home."

Jeremiah looked up and frowned, "What do you mean we?" Naomi sighed softly and looked down.

"There are bigger things in this world than you know Jeremiah, just as I did not wish to marry Joshua but when I met him I fell in love with him and decided then and there that the path that had been chosen for me a long time ago, would be followed without rancor or anger and I accepted my duty to the sacred circle. A circle of very special people that have a specific duty to perform to keep this life we know safe and secure. When you killed the other potential member of our sacred circle we needed a replacement so we moved out of this plane of existence. I know this is probably over your head but try to understand something Jeremiah there are safety guards in place to keep this world safe, this Victoria is bringing in one of those protectors with the birth of your child."

Jeremiah was trying to understand all she was saying and found it hard to conceive such a notion that there was out there in this world something on a grander scale than what he had previously thought. He had been so narrowed minded and so caught up in his own desires and needs that he had shut himself out of what could and should have been.

"So the things she told me when she first appeared in the hallway of the Old House was true?"

Naomi nodded. "Oh yes very much the truth and to have to take your brutality and still continue to stay to provide you with a child so that we will continue to have a safe and secure world for our future generations makes her one of the most admirable people I have had the privilege to know. She is very remarkable and it was totally unfair to her to ask her to do this for us and she does not even come from our time or our world."

Jeremiah was stunned by the revelation of what he had just heard. "I threatened to have her locked up and declared insane you know."

Naomi took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "I figured you must have threatened her for her to tolerate so much of your abuse. I commend her for her fortitude and the degradation she must have suffered at your infidelity with that harlot. I understand that Angelique has left Collinwood?"

Jeremiah pushed himself up from the floor and moved to the door and looked out into the now fog filled night. "She is dead. She was a witch and she put this damnable curse on me. The problem was the curse was for any that loved me to die, well she loved me and now she is dead, buried here in this mausoleum in my coffin."

Naomi looked shocked and somewhat stunned by this confession. "I think she should have been punished for her treachery but she certainly did not deserve death."

Jeremiah shrugged, "it was her or me. I chose to make it her. Needless to say she will not bother any more in the Collins Family."

Naomi moved to stand next to Jeremiah, "I am sorry Jeremiah. I will make you two promises. That is if you are sincere about allowing me to destroy you when the baby is born."

Jeremiah turned and looked down at his sister in law. "I am very sincere, in the beginning I was planning on making you think that I was sincere and that once she and the baby were back here I was going to take her and the baby and we were going to leave Collinwood and then I was going to come back and destroy you and the rest of your family."

Naomi felt the fear building as she stood and listened to what he had originally planned. "Now, I am sincere, I do not want to live the life knowing I will have a child that will carry on with the Collins family legacy and be something important some day. I am also moved by your words and I can sincerely say they have touched me Naomi, they have given me pause and I don't want this life that Angelique laid at my feet. I don't want Victoria to die or the child that will be mine to die. I want this great family and the name Collins to be carried forward for many years to come and if I stay around here they and all of you will die."

Naomi should have smiled but she could not find anything to smile about all she could do was look sadly at Jeremiah and sigh softly.

"I commend you for your action and your honesty Jeremiah and now this family will have a chance to live on and become what we all prayed and hoped would happen. The name Collins goes far into the future and the legacy of Collinwood live on in those times."

Jeremiah looked away and nodded, "I am glad to hear that we do live on. It was Angelique's hope that we all would die with me. I chose a different path for her and for us. Now, I will leave you and expect to see all of you moved into Collinwood by tomorrow evening."

He said no more and took to the now growing and deepening fog. "Good night Jeremiah." She called to the night and then pulled her cloak closer to her body and moved off becoming nothing more than the figure of a moving wraith in the night.