Chapter 23

She stopped and looked around the room. "So, when will this procedure happen?" Jeanette smiled reassuringly at her mother, "Soon, Timothy left so he could prep. He is scrubbing up now. What I need to do is get you ready so you need to come with me." Vicki blindly followed this mirror image of herself to the table in the center of the room.

Jeanette moved to a cabinet and pulled out a hospital gown. "We need to get you in this gown then on this table mother."

Vicki slowly began to undress handing her clothing over to her daughter. This whole situation was surreal to her thoughts were tumbling over and over while slipped on the gown.

"I promise you that before I take you back and we erase your memory, that I will let you see what Josette looks like. She is a duPres through and through."

Vicki gave her a fearful little smile laying back on the table. A team of people moved through the door, they were dressed in black surgical scrubs. Moving to surround Vicki on the table she felt like an alien abductee and was about to be probed.

Working in tandem they hooked her to an intravenous with plastic bags hanging from the little silver poles extending from the ceiling. "Mother, you will need to close your eyes and begin to count back from 10."

Vicki felt a rush to her head closing her eyes and said "10" and the room went dark.

It seemed just a few seconds later, Jeanette was speaking to her gently, "Mother wake up."

Vicki opened her eyes and looked at her daughter and smiled, "Hi," she said softly and blinked. "Is it done?"

Jeanette nodded, then glancing at the tube she smiled, "Look."

She nodded to the huge tube she had taken her to earlier it was filled with viscous fluid and something floated serenely in the tube. "Mother its time to meet your daughter, Josette."

Jeanette helped her mother from the table. It was odd she thought she should feel some pain or discomfort but she did not. Moving to the tube she pressed her fingertips to the tube and watched as her baby girl floated from her umbilical cord.

Vicki pressed her fingertips to the tube's side and smiled, "Hello darling I'm your mother." The fetus sucked her thumb and opened her eyes. That is when Vicki felt she smiled at her. Vicki felt tears prick her eyes as she looked upon her child.

Movement in her stomach caused her to look down. "Oh, well I see what you were talking about." She put her hand over he stomach. "So now what happens?"

Jeanette looked up at Timothy coming into the room. "Well we want you to get dressed and then Nettie will take you back, once you lay down in bed, Nettie will give you a shot and you will go to sleep, when you wake up, you won't remember anything until Nettie comes to get you again."

Vicki reached up cupping the young doctor's face looking into his gaze she smiled. "You have your mother's eyes."

He took her hand and kissed her palm. "I know, she taught me a lot and so did you."

He released her hand and turned to Jeanette, "You will be good to go for time fold in 20 minutes."

Vicki turned her head and found her clothing neatly folded. Jeanette picked up her clothing and smiled at her mother, "Come with me mother, you can use my room to change. We will go to another part of the building to take you back."

Vicki took one last look at her baby; kissing her fingertips she pressed it to the tank then turned not seeing the fetus move close to the place her mother had touched and reached her tiny hand over to press her fingertips to the side of the tank. If she had she would have broken down in tears. The fetus watched her mother leave the room.

Vicki awoke with a start, what was it that had startled her awake. Looking around the room she felt she was not alone.

"Who's there?" She called softly.

The figure moved from the window to her bedside. "I tried to tell you and you would not listen to me. Now he is coming back and there is nothing I can do about it."

Vicki looked frightened, "Jeff?"

He nodded, "He wants you and I have to take you to him."

Vicki looked confused, "How did you get in here?"

Jeff looked around the room. "I climbed up to the window and entered the room down the hall."

Vicki looked shocked, "You came in through Josette's room?"

He nodded. "I don't want to hurt you but now you gotta come with me."

Vicki shook her head. "I am not going anywhere with you."

Jeff looked around the room and with resignation he overpowered Vicki and pressed a cloth to her face. The smell was nauseating. She struggled for a moment and then felt herself tumbling into a pit of darkness collapsing in his arms.

Jeff Clark wrapped her in the blanket tying her up with cording. Then carefully he lifted her from the bed and carried her down the hallway to the stairs making sure no one was up, he made his way to the front door.

Making his way to his car he gently placed her in the backseat and sighed. "I don't want to do this."

He slid the car into gear and away from the old house heading to Lang's house in Collinsport. Driving to the rear of the house he pulled into the garage. Getting out he looked around to make sure no one was watching and lifted Vicki from the rear of the car and carried her into the house and down to the basement.

Putting her in a cell in the basement he backed away. "I can't help myself. I have to do what he tells me to do." He looked at the figure resting on the cot and closed his eyes he spoke softly. "I am so sorry."

Jeff rubbed his throat as he spoke he looked very much like Willie when he was forced to keep Maggie captive for Barnabas. He looked down at the recumbent form of Vicki, as she lay unconscious. "I'm sorry Vicki, I really am sorry."

It was an unbearable hunger that gripped her when she awoke. She lay on her back draped in a sheet. Vicki wanted to rip her skin from her body, her blood lust was so intense as she lay in her undead state.

Like a wild animal she twisted against her bonds, her eyes fixed on the overhead ceiling that held a golden crucifix. It burned her to see it and she wanted to be away from it. Lang walked into the room and smiled. Vicki could see his pointed teeth. He was like her, a vampire and he was enjoying this time with her.

"Welcome Vicki, tonight you will experience two lives. The newest one you have just succeeded in obtaining and the second, the baptism of being reborn into the life you have always known. The difference is you will be tied to my immortal creation."

Vicki wanted loose so she could tear into his throat. She fixed him with a gaze that threatened to pierce his inhuman heart with daggers of hate. "Let me go. Let me go and I will let you live."

Lang moved a table next to hers. "Behold my dear, my creation." He pulled the sheet back to reveal a massive mummified figure. Lang moved to place two cylinder metal helmets that had wires attached to her crown and the creatures crown. Lang placed one on Vicki's head and one on his creations head.

Lang scurried about his lab throwing switches watching monitors. The monitor the read from 1-100 percent, he watched the arrow shaped like a clock's hand began to climb, from 0 slowly making its way up to 30, then 40, then 50, the needle bouncing wildly.

Vicki watched as the arrow moved like the dial on a speedometer of a car, with the power surged forward 80-90, then the needle nailed and buried into 100 and Lang threw a heavy switch on the wall.

Vicki felt the power surge through her body and she screamed. It was a horrifying scream that told of a body being torn apart on a molecular level. Every fiber of her being felt the drain of her life when the power surged through her body, traveled up threw her head and out of her body.

The body on the table next to her began to spasm and buck and jump, the actions were so violent, that an arm came loose and dangled off the table. Lang shouted, "Shut it down!" He rushed with stethoscope in hand to the body on the table and listen. It was faint but it was there, he had a heartbeat.

Vicki lay drained and no longer afraid of the crucifix overhead or feeling the unbearable blood lust she had earlier. Lang moved to her and listened to her heart and found it too was now beating and then he listened for fetal heart tones. They were there, faint but a heart tone. "Lay still for a few minutes then we will move you to a more comfortable place."

From across the street, the wolf could hear her screams, they ripped him apart and drove him to want to do to whomever was hurting her what he had done to that vile creature that tried to cut her throat.

He got what he deserved, and he would see that the animal that was doing this to her now would suffer the same fate. He just could not enter into the house that bore crosses at every window and door. He was frustrated feeling so helpless. So he sat on his haunches and watched.

He began to pace back and forth watching the power surges that ran through the current of the house. Blood red eyes fixed to the house and he had to sit and wait but not too long daylight was coming soon and he would need to see the darkness and let the time pass and hope he would not be too late to save her.

From the darkness behind him, he smelt her. It was a familiar scent. From the darkness she stepped in black leather jumpsuit with tiny sensors over her body. "Easy Radu, she has to go through this."

He turned and saw her, the guardian herself was here watching, as her mother was tortured, she had to endure hearing her scream too. His eyes studied her and then looked back to the house across the street.

"Time, due time Radu and I promise you the kill. You can have him to do with as you see fit. This is part of her initiation as the protector of the guardian."

He cowered down and lay at her feet. "I know it is killing me knowing what she has to go through. It will make her stronger and she had to infuse Adam with the nanites and her life force. There is always a good reason for someone's pain that wishes to protect the world from nasty's. Something we all thought you were at one time."

He stretched out and lowered his head between his paws and whimpered. She put her gloved hand through his fur and scratched his ears. "Tell you what, I can't go back to my home office until this trial is over, would you like to come with me and meet my sister Jeanette?"

He lifted his head and looked at the house across the street then back to her. "It's dark where I am going with artificial lighting. You will be safe, you see you are a part of our future too, so we will become co-workers in the future and you will watch my mother grow older and become a grandmother."

He stood gave the house across the street one last look then fell into step next to her. She pressed an odd looking watch she wore on her left wrist and he watched the darkness appeared to tear apart, leaving another portal into darkness. He sniffed the air found nothing to alarming except for a antiseptic sterile smell and followed her through the time fold.

The creature opened his eyes and looked around the lighted room. He lifted his arm and looked at his hand and flexed his fingers, and then he lifted his other arm and flexed those fingers. Moving his hands to his face, he carefully felt the bandages on his face.

He was like a newborn only fully grown in a six foot six frame of muscled bound body. Tearing at the bandages he unwrapped his head and felt his hair, letting his fingertips travel to his face and could feel his skin, it was uneven and had strings in his face.

Rising slowly he moved around the room and stopped. On a bed next to his lay another being, smaller than him covered in a white sheet and shaped oddly. Moving to the figure he stooped down and pulled the sheet back and stared at the face. It was smooth; the skin was almost porcelain white. The body had long hair on the end of its eyeholes and a small pert nose.

Dark hair lay over its head and down its side and over its front. The front was what was the most odd; it had bumps. He looked down and did not see bumps on his front. He reached out and pushed the bumps on its front and felt its hands come up and slap at his hands.

"Stop that!" He moved his hands back and looked at the other larger bump on her front. The creature protectively put her hand over the large bump on her lower front and he covered her hand and then felt something odd, it had a pushing sensation against her hand and his.

Curiously he looked at the raised belly then he was hearing two heartbeats. It was similar to his heartbeat. The heartbeats were coming from her chest and from her stomach. Gently, he laid his head on the large bump and her hand and could hear another faster thumping sound.

The hair on her eyeholes moved and it opened its eyes. It made a slight gasping noise as it looked at him with his head on the raised bump. Lang watched this with much curiosity with Jeff and Danni at his side.

"Look he is learning, I am wondering if he will try and protect her once they bond to each other."

Jeff did not want to look he glanced away, "That is sick, what if he huts her and the baby?"

Lang waved his hand, "He is a baby himself, but his mind is like a sponge and the world is his water to soak up. If he tries to hurt her, he will feel the pain and if he learns as quickly as it seems he is doing now, he will learn not to hurt her."

Danni looked at Jeff with a hint of resentment, it was always his concern for her, for his precious Vicki. Well if she had her way Vicki would meet her end soon enough.

Vicki looked at the man with a patchwork face stitched together. She thought about being afraid and saw when she felt fear his eyes reflected that he felt fear.

Softly, her voice dry she spoke, "Hello."

He opened his mouth and grunted, putting his fingers to his mouth thinking he could draw the words out with his fingers. She recognized he did not understand her words but he could feel her emotions, so she smiled and watched him return her smile then he touched her face and her lips.

Again he grunted and made mewling sounds in frustration. He wanted to make noises like her but could not form the words. She held her hand up and spoke softly. "It's ok, I will teach you. I am Vicki. . Vi kee."

She sounded out her name and watched him try, "V. . V. . Vi . . k..k…k .. e.e.e?"

She smiled and nodded, "Vickee, and you are? "

Lang pleased seeing how quickly he was adapting moved to the door and opened it. "His name is Adam, Vicki."

Vicki seeing Lang immediately grew afraid and pushed back against her bed. Adam immediately blocked Lang from approaching her. He could sense her fear and an instinct made him want to defend her.

Adam pushed at Lang, grunting for him to leave. Vicki held out her hand and gently touched his arm. "Its ok, Adam." She encouraged him to relax and looked at Lang. "How long do you plan to hold me here?"

He shrugged, "For as long as its necessary."

Vicki shook her head. "I know what you are Dr. Lang. My family will search for me and you will be found out."

Lang laughed, "Really? What am I?

Vicki shuddered, "A blood sucking fiend that lives by night and must rest during the day."

Lang laughed, "As long as I take my shots, I do not have to fear the daylight or the crosses. If I were you Mrs. Collins, I would be a little nicer to me because you also must depend on my serum."

Vicki shook her head. "No, because when you transferred my life force into this poor creatures body, my affliction was taken from me. I pray he does not become what I was."

Lang laughed, "I underestimated your intelligence. You are an apt student and you are right, you will no longer need to fear daylight or the crosses around my house. You are cured, your life force transferred only the strength and cunning of your vampiric senses into that creature, the problem is, should that creature die you will die and revert back to what you were. If you die, he dies. You two will be tied together for the rest of your lives."

Vicki shook her head, "What about my baby?"

He shrugged, "Your baby is fine, she weathered the transfer better than you would have thought. I really felt that the baby may die during the transfer but she is fine. Do you realize how fortunate you are to be a part of this incredible experiment."

Vicki shuddered and immediately saw Adam shudder and glare at Lang. "You tried playing God Dr. Lang, people that try to go above what they are usually pay a terrible price."

There is was again, that humorless laugh, "And I suppose you think you will be the one to put me in my place? Mrs. Collins, you forget you are my prisoner therefore you are beholden to me, I am not beholden to you."

Vicki pulled her arms around her body. "I think this conversation is over Dr. Lang."

He grew angry and drew his hand back to slap her and felt his hand caught in a vice like grip and stared into Adams glare.

"It would seem Adam has grown tired of your prattle as much as I have. I would if I were you Dr. Lang call it a night before Adam experiments on you to see if your body will break with enough pressure on your wrist."

Lang tried to pull his arm away and Adam glared at him. Vicki spoke softly, "No Adam let him go." Adam looked down at her then back at Lang and with a flick of his wrist flung Lang into the wall like a rag doll.

Jeff and Danni rushed into the room with a syringe with the intent of sedating Adam, Adam shoved them both away and grabbed Vicki from the bed and ran from the room. Feeling a sense of elation, she instructed him where to go and soon they found themselves out on the streets of Collinsport. Adam continued to hold Vicki protectively in his arms heading with her towards Eagle Hill Cemetery.

Vicki was amazed at the strength he had and the speed at which he could travel. She wiggled in his arms and that communicated to him that he should put her down. "We need to hide Adam, we will hide until I feel its safe for us."

Taking his hand in hers he paused and pulled her small hand up and looked at it, pushing his own hand to show the difference in size.

She smiled, "I will teach you Adam but we need to keep moving."

Curling her soft fingers around his large hand she slightly tugged him to follow.

She moved him past the Collins Mausoleum taking the pathway to Collinwood. The night was brisk with cold and she shivered which made Adam shiver. "Come, we have to hide where no one will find us."

She led him on the path that trailed around to the back of the house to the west wing ballroom. Pushing the door, she found it was locked and sighed, and then looking around she saw the side window was slightly ajar. If they did not get in out of the cold soon, they would soon suffer from exposure.

Moving to the window she tried to climb up and through the window and found she was not tall enough or nimble enough. Then she felt Adam lift her; it was like he could read her thoughts. Helping her through the widow she made her way over to the door and opened it.

Taking Adams hand she led him into the large ballroom. The room was cold but not as cold as it had been outside. "Come on, I know where we can get warm and be safe."

Smiling at him she took his hand and led him out into the main hallway. Tracking to the end of the hallway she found the west wing stairs indicating they should go up the stairs. Adam wanted to go first his protective mode coming into play.

Vicki shook her head. "This is my home, I know where we are going." She stepped in front of him showing no fear. He followed at a more cautious pace.

Vicki led him to the servant's quarters and found a room that had a small wood burning stove in the corner. She looked around the room and found some paper and balled it up, and then in a basket from some bygone days there she found some coal.

Searching for matches, she found them tucked away in a drawer. She struck the match Adam grew fearful then curious and went to touch the flame. Vicki shook her head.

"No Adam, it will hurt you. Burn, it will hurt you a oww.' He tried the word oww and she nodded. "Do not touch." She set the match to the paper and watched as it caught the smaller coal pieces on fire and the embers began to glow. "Good it will feel better in here soon."

She looked around and saw some dusty blankets and wrinkled her nose. 'You stay here, I am going to the other part of the house and get us some warmer blankets."

Adam started to follow her and she shook her head. "No you stay here." She slipped out of the room. Adam went to look at the stove curious he put his fingers to the surface and quickly brought them back "Oww." Sucking his fingertips he sat on a chair and watched the door like a devoted pet.

Vicki made quick work of finding the extra sheets and blankets. Going to Quentin's room she found one of his sweaters, a pair of his pants, socks shoes, and shorts. Then sneaking into David's room she fund some of his rudimentary grammar books, some paper and pencil.

Moving quickly back to the west wing she made her way to the room. Opening the door she moved into the room. "Now, I brought you some warm clothing, down the hallway there is a bathroom. I am going to show you what you need to do to bathe yourself and then you change into the new clothes I brought you."

He looked at her curiously. "Then while we wait for Lang to grow tired or get scared we have told on him, I will teach you to read and write." Though the conversation seemed to be one sided she felt he understood she had his best interest at heart.

They settled in for the night, she covered the man-child Adam with a blanket then curled into a ball. "Barnabas, I need you so much. Please come home to me soon." Vicki closed her eyes feeling her life had taken more twists and turns that she did not know if she was going to make it back from this journey.

Slowly she gave in to her exhaustion and slept, after all tomorrow would be another day, it could not stay winter forever the calendar had said it was the first day of spring. She just hoped she could make it to summer and she let her dreams lead her to the Summer of shadows and new nightmares.

This concludes Shadows Spring of Collinwood. The next installment will be Shadows Summer Nightmares. In this installment, Vicki must depend on a man-child named . While on the island of Martinique Julia and Daphne search for Quentin, Barnabas, and Elliott. The family will once again face a danger from the past and old allies join forces with new ones as the hellmouth gives birth to hell on earth.

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