Subj: Collinsport -- 60
Date: 7/4/99 11:34:59 PM Central Daylight Time
From: DSRules
Barnabas handed the fare, plus a generous tip, to the cab driver as he stepped
out at the intersection of Houston and St. Mary's Streets, nearly colliding
with the green cast-iron clock standing on the corner. He glanced down at the
plaque on the ground at its base. {The Hertzberg Clock,} he read. There was
a lot of other writing on the plaque, but Barnabas had no time to read it. He
had a date with an 'angel.' *
* * * * *
About half an hour after he'd disappeared up the staircase, an empty-handed
Adam reappeared at the top and descended the stairs again.
"So? Did it work?" Azura asked.
Adam smiled as he hugged his daughter. "It did. It really, really did. I nosed
around a little to make sure that I was in the right time. Unless there've ever
been another couple named Sarah and David with a child named -- never mind.
Let's just say that I'm certain that I was at least 20 years in the future."
Quentin shook Adam's hand. "Well, we've still got a couple of hours until moonrise.
Why don't we go out and get something to eat? Changing to a wolf takes a lot
out of a guy, and I think I'd better be prepared."
Azura took her lover's hand and gave it a squeeze. "Nonsense. This will work.
I'm sure of it."
* * * * *
Barnabas walked through the glass doors and into the lobby of the office building.
"May I help you?" The receptionist asked.
"Yes. I'm looking for Rosie de la Cruz."
The receptionist blinked a few times while she thought. "I don't think I've
seen Rosie today. Just a second." She picked up the phone and dialed. "Tony?
There's a man here looking for Rosie. Have you seen her today?" She paused.
"I didn't think so."
She hung up the phone. "I'm sorry, sir. Rosie's not in today."
"Could you give me her home address, then?"
She shook her head. "No, sir. I can't give out that kind of information."
"Could someone in your personnel department?"
"I don't think so."
"It's vitally important that I find her."
She seemed unimpressed, so Barnabas decided that he had to make it clear to
her just how important it was. "Do you know Rosie very well?"
"She kind of keeps to herself, but she's worked here for about five years now,
and I've seen her every day."
"Then you might recognize this." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled
out the ring.
The receptionist gasped.
"I see you do recognize this. I'm fairly certain that she's never without this
ring, am I right?"
"I've never seen her without it."
"Then you do understand how important it is that I find her."
"Yes, sir."
* * * * *
Minutes later, Barnabas' cab pulled up outside the security gate of the apartment
complex. The complex wasn't much to look at, which stunned Barnabas. He always
assumed that she'd never settle for anything but the best.
He paced around for a moment, contemplating how he was going to get through
the security gate. When he had been a vampire, a small thing like a wrought-iron
security gate never would have stopped him, and even in his younger days as
a human, he could have climbed over that gate easily. However, he was neither
supernatural nor young anymore, and so it would take finesse to get through
to Rosario's apartment. He considered simply going into the rental office and
asking to be let in, but, somehow, he knew that they'd never consider that.
If they wanted people to have unrestricted access to the complex, they wouldn't
have the gate in the first place. He considered briefly asking to be shown an
apartment and then finding Rosario's apartment after knocking the rental agent
cold, but he was saved from having to do that by a large moving van that drove
up. He simply waited for the movers to get the rental agents to open the gate,
and then sneaked in behind the truck.
* * * * *
"Well?" Azura asked as they drove southwest out of town towards the lighthouse.
"Do you feel any different?"
"Why? Did you poison my food or something?" He asked jokingly.
"Of course not. But I was thinking that the portrait might be. . . "
"What? Keeping me young? Alive?"
"Well, yes. I was wondering if you were . . . feeling your age yet."
Quentin shook his head. "Nope. I feel as young as I did in 1897."
* * * * *
It took Barnabas a few minutes to locate Rosario's apartment. Finally, he found
it tucked away in a corner above the laundry room. He carefully climbed the
steep steps to her apartment and knocked on the door.
He knew that his face was the last thing Rosario would want to see, so he held
up something that he was certain would make her open the door - her ring.
He almost was afraid that he'd been mistaken in that assumption. The blood was
beginning to drain from his arm by the time she threw open the door and snarled,
"What do you want, Barnabas?"
* * * * *
Immediately upon their return home, Quentin and Azura sent Margaret back to
her home with their sincere thanks for watching Zoe for them while they'd been
out. After Margaret had left, Quentin had told his daughter good-night and then
he and Azura headed upstairs.
There were a few false tries before Azura was successful in getting Quentin
shackled to the chair they had purchased. Without explaining their reasons,
they had asked Sabrina and Chris how they dealt with his lycanthropy, and had
been advised that heavy iron chains and a wrought-iron lawn chair were the way
to go.
Quentin tugged on the chains, which held. "Now you should go downstairs and
keep Zoe company."
"No, Quentin, I'm staying right here in case you need me."
"I won't need you." He snapped. "Not anymore than I normally do, anyway." He
amended with a smile. "Now go downstairs."
"No."
The minutes ticked away as they stared each other down, Quentin willing her
to go downstairs, and Azura willing him to let her stay with him, until it was
too late.
* * * * *
Subj: Collinsport -- 61
Date: 7/16/99 12:10:25 AM Central Daylight Time
From: DSRules
Quentin watched the moon rising through the dormer window, bracing himself for
the first pains of his transformation.
* * * * *
"Sabrina!" Chris exclaimed.
Fearing that the transformation was worse than usual, Sabrina clutched her husband's
hand. "What?"
"There's no pain!"
She couldn't believe her ears. "What?"
"No pain! Nothing!" He glanced at the moon-lit landscape outside the window,
laughing hysterically. "None whatsoever! Is this a dream, Sabrina?"
Sabrina brushed tears from her eyes as she enfolded her still-chained-down husband
in a warm hug. "I hope not. I truly hope not."
* * * * *
You are my home
You are the one that I come to
You are the shelter I run to
To keep me safe from the cold
You are my home
You are the love that completes me
You are the touch that has freed me
I look in your eyes and I know
You're my home
"You Are My Home," from the Dance With Me Soundtrack Album
===
"So? Have you come up with some other piece of family heirloom jewelry that
you think I have?" Rosario asked caustically.
Barnabas neatly stepped beyond her into her apartment, which was a sort of semi-studio
affair, with walls separating one room from the next, but no doors in between
them. "No, Angelique," he said, going out on a limb, "I know for certain that
you don't. You see." He handed the ring back to her. "I have the earrings."
"Earrings?" She feigned confusion as she slipped the ring back onto her wedding
finger.
Barnabas smiled to himself. She hadn't been able to pull the wool over his eyes
in a very, very long time. He could tell that she knew full well that he was
talking about the ruby earrings that he'd given her for a wedding present.
For the first time, he let his eyes meet hers. Instead of the cool blue he was
used to, her eyes were now black, as though her pupils had swallowed her irises
whole. But he could still see the same fire there that had been there that last
day in 1971. The same devotion.
"Why?" He asked her.
"'Why?' Why what?"
"Why did you do it? Why did you sell your soul again?"
She dropped all pretense. "You know that my soul has never done me any good,
Barnabas. Not without you."
"That's not true." He hurried over to her, grabbing her upper arms in his hands
firmly. "You are a wonderful, beautiful woman and I . . . "
The ardor in his eyes was making her toes tingle. She unconsciously wet her
lips. However, the more rational part of her knew that she had to get a grip.
Before things went too far. "Stop. Don't say another word, Barnabas." She pulled
away from him and crossed the room to sit in one of the armchairs.
Barnabas sat on the loveseat, way over to the right-hand side, clearly leaving
space for her in case she would choose to join him.
"You asked me why I sold my soul again, Barnabas." She broke the uncomfortable
silence, never moving from her chair.
He nodded.
"It was for Julia."
"Julia?"
"Yes." She looked down. "You're happy with her. Happier than I've ever seen
you."
"That's not true." He protested. "When we were married . . . ."
She snorted derisively. "Which time?"
"You know which time I meant." He turned to face her. "That's why I took that
ring from you. I felt that it was a defilement of our marriage, when you finally
were able to wear it as I'd always intended that you should." That brought another
question to mind. "How did you get it back? I buried it with you in 1971."
"When he found that I'd been reincarnated, Neil went to the mausoleum and got
it. That's how I kept it all those years. Whenever I died, in 1796, in 1840,
in 1971, he's always found it and returned it to me."
"Neil. My . . . sire." The words were spoken without any ire or bitterness,
just a simple statement of fact.
Nevertheless, Rosario felt overwhelmed by guilt. "Yes. Your sire. I had no idea
that he did that to you."
"What?" She could almost feel the shock in his eyes.
She was glad to be able to unburden herself and tell him everything, after more
than 200 years. "It was all a terrible mistake. Neil thought he was doing me
a favor. He knew how much I loved you, and that I would have done anything for
you. He had been there on Martinique, and knew that you'd been in love with
me, too. He wanted to give you time to realize how much you loved me, too."
"You didn't intend for me to become a vampire?"
"Of course I didn't! I did everything I could to stop the transformation, but
it didn't do any good. Finally, I decided that some higher power . . ."
"Diabolos?"
She nodded. "I finally decided that maybe he," she couldn't bring herself to
say the name, "decided to make Neil the instrument of my curse." With these
words, tears began spilling down her cheeks. "And once I started down that path,
I didn't know how to stop." She broke down completely, then.
Barnabas hurried over to her, wrapping her safely in his arms. He perched on
the edge of her chair, rocking her back and forth in his arms. Several minutes
after she'd calmed down, he ventured to speak. "You know, he was right."
She pulled her head up from his shoulder, confusion obvious on her tearstreaked
face.
"It did give me time to realize that I loved you. Actually, it gave me time
to come out from under the spell that Natalie DuPres had cast on me."
"Natalie?"
"Yes. My centuries-long infatuation with Josette was a love spell of some sort.
David broke it. He didn't know what he'd done, of course . . ."
"What did he do?"
"Natalie had made some kind of doll out of one of my handkerchiefs and filled
it with Josette's hair. Somehow, that made me love Josette."
"You would have loved her anyhow. She was the sort of person that everyone loved."
"But I had already found my soulmate. You."
The passion in his hazel eyes was too strong to resist. Rosario closed her eyes
and gave herself up to his kiss.
* * * * *
Whoops of wild laughter filled the upstairs of the lighthouse. "I didn't change!
Azura! I'm free! Finally, completely, free!"
_________________
* If you want to read about the history of the Hertzberg Clock, the "Reader's
Digest Condensed" version of the text on the plaque can be found at the San
Antonio Conservation Society home page.