Subj: Dare story 12
Date: 9/3/01 3:34:17 PM Central Daylight Time
From: Liz the Lucky

When the smoke cleared, Elaine found herself immersed in the past. Then she realized that she wasn't caught up in a flashback (unlike her brother) and that Angelique had, indeed, sent her traveling through time.

The question was, when. Horse sounds and the lack of cars meant it was before the nineteen-twenties, most like. And the mix of mostly gas and few electrical lights pushed the date to the turn of the century.

She was still somewhere in Collinswood, that she was sure of. Nicholas' opinion of Angelique's abilities was ... less than complimentary, so she doubted the witch could manage both time and distance relocation.

"Who are you?" A demanding voice shattered her thoughts.

Turning, Elaine found herself facing an upper-middle aged man with graying hair and mutton-chops. He was wearing black clothes and held a pistol in his hands.

"Are you an angel, sent to welcome me into heaven?" he continued, giving Elaine the once over. "Or a demon sent to torment me?"

Great, a religious fanatic. He probably curdle in Elaine's stomach. But beggars can't be choosers, and she would need more strength to get back home. Besides, given the musty feel to the air, the man wasn't going to last much longer anyway, so taking him would almost be a mercy.

"What do you think I am?" she asked, taking a step closer to him.

"I ... do not know," the man admitted. "You are so beautiful. But your clothes...."

Right. She'd forgotten about the changes in fashion over the years. Poor guy'd probably just seen more flesh than the entire time he'd been married.

"But theah's nothin' wron' with mah clothin'," the told him. "In fact, yah find them quite enjoyable."

"Quite enjoyable," he repeated in a monotone voice. "Nothing wrong at all."

"In fact, if yah like, Ah'll take them off fah yah." Before the man had a chance to answer, Elaine slipped her dress over her head and dropped it on the floor.

The man continued to stare, opening and closing his mouth wordlessly.

Oh great. She was going to have to lead this puppy by the nose.

"Ah'm cold." Elaine wrapped her hands around her arms, rubbing her shoulders and stepping closer to him. "Know anay way of wahmin' meh?"

Instead of answering, the man grabbed her and kissed her passionately.

Score! Even if he wasn't that good of a kisser.

Elaine maneuvered the man around, backed him into the one chair in the room and gently pushed him into it.

Sitting sideways in his lap,Elaine whispered into the man's ear. "yah wah wondahrin' if Ah was an angel oh devil. The answah is, Ah'm an angel. Of death. _Yah_ death."

Before her words had a chance to register in the man's mind, Elaine sank her fangs into his neck. The man flailed his arms and cried out silently, then collapsed into oblivion.

The phone rang, waking Elaine from her reverie.

**Must beh Judith,** she realized, crawling off of Gregory's lap.

Should she answer it? It might be fun, telling Judith she'd just killed her husband. But she needed to get back to her own time, and she didn't know how much longer Nicholas' blood would last.

So instead of picking up the phone, she found a mirror. A wave of her hand, and the image changed from herself to Angelique and her mortals.

Elaine watched as Angelique went up in a blaze of fire and the rest ran outside. Good. Nobody messed with her mortals but her. Especially not that b--witch of a witch.

So all that was left was to get herself back home. Elaine found another mirror and set it up next to the first. Now all she had to do was transpose her image in the second mirror to the first one with a wave of her hand.

A pair of voices in the distance distracted her. Quentin and Charity/Pansy Faye. They ought to be fun to play with.

"Show me," she told the second mirror. It did, making the twosome appear in the glass. Perfect.

Oh, how nice. Charity was dancing for Quentin. Not for long, though.

A wave of Elaine's hands caused clouds of smoke to surround Quentin and Charity. She then 'moved' the clouds, and the humans, into the first mirror. Not too close to her mortals, though, and separately. So who knew when they'd turn up.

That done, she changed the second mirror back to herself, and repeated the spell. Time to go home.

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.