Subj: Love's Familiar Face ch19
Date: 7/7/99 8:52:10 PM Central Daylight Time
From: miranda

Chapter Nineteen
Parallel Time

"Awake Angelique. It is time to awake."

The blackness in Angelique's mind began to clear and slowly she began to regain consciousness. Her head spun as images of the last moments of her life flashed through her head. She began to relive the terror of Josette viciously mauling her body when through her disorientation she came to the realization that she should be dead. Why wasn't she at rest? The horrible truth suddenly dawned on Angelique; she died by a vampire draining her blood, so that made her… "No!" she mentally protested as she ran her tongue over the pointed teeth protruding from her lips. "Josette thinks she has won, but she was a fool for leaving me in this state. She should have staked me while she had the chance."

With a flash of rage Angelique opened her eyes and snarled. She tried to lurch forward, but was forcefully restrained. "What?" Her disorientation was such that she did not know the position she was in until she opened her eyes. She was in Eagle Hill cemetery lying on the ground in front of the Collins' family mausoleum. Her arms were stretched out from her body and securely tied to wooden stakes. A large silver cross weighed heavily on her chest, immobilizing her.

The sound of laughter drew Angelique's attention away from her troubling situation. Josette slowly opened the gate of the mausoleum and descended the steps. "Comfortable Angelique?" she taunted.

"Josette," Angelique seethed. "Release me at once."

Josette laughed mockingly. "I do not think so. You see Angelique my revenge has only just begun. The pinnacle of which will be when you are burned alive by the rays of the morning sun." Immediately, Angelique looked up into the pink hues of the morning sky. "Yes, Angelique, the morning approaches. It's something you fear now, isn't it?"

"So should you," Angelique spat.

"In the past, perhaps," Josette replied smoothly, "but not now. You see my beloved Barnabas has shown me a way to be free of the effects of the vampire curse. Someday I will completely free of it. Drinking your blood destroyed some of the progress I had already made, but enough of the serum remains for me to behold your final demise."

"Josette?" Barnabas called as he approached the mausoleum. He made his way through the old crumbling gravestones and untended bushes. He stopped in his tracks and gazed with great consternation upon Angelique's helpless position. He was shaken, but not as much for Angelique as he was at his realization that Josette was the one to put her in such a sadistic position. "What is happening here?"

"Barnabas, I'm so glad you came to join me in my finest moment, our finest moment," Josette smiled triumphantly. "Soon the sun will rise and Angelique will be no more."

"Barnabas! Help me please," Angelique pleaded.

Desiring to move away from Angelique, Barnabas ushered Josette inside the mausoleum. "Josette, what are you doing?"

"What do you think I am doing? I am ridding this world of Angelique."

"Why don't you simply stake her and be done with it?" Barnabas asked.

"Because she would not suffer enough, Barnabas!" Josette said between clenched teeth.

Barnabas was taken aback at Josette's sudden mood change. "But…but I thought you had accomplished all you wanted when you bit her. You assured me yourself she would not rise as a vampire."

"I told you that you needn't fear about her rising and victimizing anyone. Did you actually think simply draining her would be enough after everything she has done to me?"

Barnabas saw that arguing with Josette would be fruitless at this point. "Very well," he conceded. "At least it will be over. Even though your progress was thwarted by drinking blood again, soon the injections will finally make you completely human and we can live normal lives."

"Soon," Josette said, "but not immediately. I have further need of my vampire abilities before I totally give them up."

Barnabas suddenly felt as if he were hit in the stomach. "Further need?"

"Yes, I had planned on keeping it a surprise, but you always did make it hard to keep anything from you," she smiled. "You told me it was always your deepest desire, as it has always been mine, to live out our lives together just as we should have if we had married."

"Yes, of course. It has been my only desire," Barnabas said sincerely.

"Well, I know that if we had lived out our lives we would have become Master and Mistress of Collinwood. You would have run the family business and been the head of the family." Josette ran her hand over the cold cement marker for Joshua Collins and then turned back to Barnabas. "We shall have that of which we were robbed. We shall have what we are truly entitled to possess. With Angelique out of the way, we shall rule Collinwood."

"Josette you are forgetting that Quentin is Master of Collinwood, even without Angelique, and then there are the other family members…" Barnabas stopped himself as his mind finally comprehended what Josette was trying to say. "Josette my desire is to be with you, not to be Master of Collinwood. Even if it were, I would not want to acquire that position through the means by which you are suggesting."

"Barnabas, don't be so weak," Josette said almost to herself. She reached up and pulled on the ring in the lion's mouth to open the secret room. "We should be in charge of Collinwood and we shall be." She looked at the coffin hidden inside for her to retreat to once she beheld Angelique's destruction with her own eyes. She then looked to Barnabas, "I will rise tonight and immediately begin with my plans. First I will enslave Quentin and then Carolyn. I will take over the whole family and if anyone causes a problem…he will have to be destroyed."

"Please Josette, I do not care if you believe me to be weak. I want you promise me you won't go through with this simply because I am requesting you to leave the Collins family alone," Barnabas implored. "Even though this is not my time band I still feel a certain kinship with the them. I do not want them to become slaves so I can benefit."

"I'm sorry Barnabas, but my mind is set. I will begin tonight," Josette said firmly and moved to pass by Barnabas.

He grabbed her arm. "I won't let you do this," he said resolutely.

In an instant Josette had Barnabas by the neck and pushed up against the stone wall adorning his father's name. Her red eyes glowed with anger, "Know this Barnabas," Josette hissed, "I do not take kindly to opposition. If you were anyone else I would snap your neck right here and now, but because I love you I will give you another chance."

She released her grip. Barnabas almost fell down and was quite taken aback by the strength Josette exerted on him. Although he well knew the capabilities and cunning of a vampire, until this moment, he never really attributed such traits to his sweet Josette. In this instant he looked at her with new eyes and truly saw the stark difference between his memory and the woman who stood before him today. Whether it was due to the vampire curse, Angelique, or the tragedies she experienced over the endless years of night, Josette DuPres was no longer the innocent girl with whom he fell in love.

"You will meet me here tonight." Josette walked to the mausoleum gate and paused. "I trust there will be no further disagreements?"

"None, Josette," Barnabas answered obediently.

Josette opened the gate and was careful to stand just inside so the shade would protect her. Angelique writhed on the ground unsuccessfully trying to escape her fate. She could feel the dawn's approach, as could Josette. "Goodbye Angelique. I hope the pain you are about to feel will follow you down to the depths of hell."

As the sun slowly shone its face over the horizon smoke began to rise from Angelique's skin and she turned her face away from the dawn. Increasing amounts of smoke began to emanate through her skin until it poured out like steam from boiling water in a kettle. Angelique screamed as the first flames burst fourth and quickly kindled into a fire. Josette stood and watched until smoke began to rise from her own body. Her diabolical laughter echoed in Barnabas' ears long after Josette retreated to the secret room.

Barnabas slowly walked to the entrance of the mausoleum and looked upon Angelique's ashes blowing away softly in the morning breeze. He stood in silence for a long time pondering all the events that had taken place since he entered into this time band. He turned to the secret door of the inner room where Josette now slept and then turned his face once again to the bright sun. "Julia, I need your help."