Part Six

by Doreen Grégoire

She experimented with the revised formula on samples of Barnabas' blood, trying to devise an appropriate dosage. She discovered that too little would have no effect, whereas too much would kill the "vampire virus" but do nothing to stop the ravages caused by too many white cells in his blood. To be most effective, it would have to be given to him in small doses over many nights. And she laid a further restriction on him:

"It's very important, Barnabas, during the course of this treatment, that you do not feed. If even a small amount of blood other than your own is in your system, you will become very ill and we'll have to start all over again."

He was initially relieved to hear this. She thought to herself that it must be a horrible existence indeed to exist in parasitic dependence on others.

As the treatment went on, though, Barnabas' enforced fast began to take its toll. She had thought that his dependence on blood would wane as the vampire virus grew weaker. However, it was almost as if he had developed a dependence on the blood and the virus, much as an alcoholic is dependent upon a substance which weakens him as well. He grew weaker, forcing her to go to his home to administer the treatments. She and his assistant, William, spent many nights watching over his weakening body as he thrashed in semi-consciousness. And they were forced to immobilize him with chains when he sensed the nearness of their warm blood and struggled to attack them.

Eventually he became lucid again, briefly at first, then for longer and longer periods as the formula took effect. He agreed adamantly with the necessity for the chains, and when Julia would have removed them, he forbade her to do so. It was only after he had three consecutive nights with no bouts of blood-hunger induced madness that he finally allowed her to free him.

He sat up slowly, with William on one side and Julia on the other to hold him steady. Suddenly he sat still, a growing smile of complete wonder on his face.

"What is it?" Julia asked him worriedly.

In a voice filled with amazement, he announced, "Julia, I think I'm hungry!"

Julia and William glanced at each other worriedly, and William made a move for the chains. Seeing this, Barnabas laughed.

"No, listen! Julia, listen to my stomach."

Hesitantly she held a stethoscope to his stomach and was rewarded with a tiny gurgle. She moved it to his heart -- it was beating! Still faintly, but it had a regular beat that could only get stronger as its owner did.

She slipped the earpieces out of her ears and let the instrument fall about her neck. With a beaming smile she turned to William. "You heard the man. Get him some dinner -- just broth to start with."

William rushed to the kitchen to comply and she turned back to her patient and friend. "Don't get any ideas about doing too much too quickly," she told him. "In human terms, you're still a very sick man. You have a long period of recuperation ahead of you."

Grinning, he sank back against the pillows.

* * * * *

A time finally came when Julia announced that his treatments were complete and that he was cured. She had expected jubilation, but glancing up from putting her instruments away, she was met with trepidation.

"Barnabas, what's wrong?" she asked, closing her case with a snap.

He turned to stare out the drawing room window at the night. "For more than one hundred seventy years, I have yearned to see the sun." He paused in thought and then laughed mirthlessly. "I hid from it for so long that now I find the thought of a new dawn terrifies me as no other."

She walked over and stood beside him, laying a comforting hand on his arm. "You don't have to be afraid, you know. I exposed your treated blood to sunlight, and it acted like anyone's blood would. It didn't sizzle, burn, evaporate or turn to dust. It just sat there and coagulated. You are cured." She put a special emphasis on the words of the last sentence.

Seeing he wasn't entirely convinced, she turned him around to face her. "You won't be alone," she said softly. "I'll be with you."

He regarded her for a long moment, then covered her hand with his own, and said simply, "Thank you, Julia."

* * * * *

He chose to meet the dawn at the edge of a steep cliff close to his house, known as Widow's Hill. It was now late summer, and a cool breeze drifted down from the north, bring with it the first tangy hints of an early autumn. The world seemed still, suspended and quiet. The night birds had retired, and the day birds had yet to awaken. Even the sea, usually crashing violently against the rocks far below, was still and calm.

They stood close together, but not touching. Julia allowed him the space and silence to come to terms with this last change in his old life, and the start of a new one. She heard him gasp in wonder as the first pink tinges of dawn turned the black ocean to grey, and the black sky to deepest blue.

The sky grew lighter. He reached out and groped blindly for her hand, never daring to take his eyes from the lightening horizon. She took it and squeezed in encouragement.

Midnight sky lightened to royal blue. Pink dawn deepened to oranges and reds, streaking jubilantly across the night to announce the day, leaping into the sea and tinting it with their brilliant hues. He tightened his hold on her hand.

He held his breath as the sky lightened further, and the oranges and reds faded back to pink and gold, and the horizon grew brighter still.

And he exhaled in a rush, totally unaware of the tears streaming down his cheeks when the first rays of the new sun gently touched his face with their warmth.

The sun was only half-way up when he turned to Julia and saw tears in her own eyes as well. He wiped them away gently with a tender smile and pulled her close to him. They watched the sun come up the rest of the way with their arms around each other.

When it was done, he tipped her face up to him, and claimed her lips in a soft kiss.

"At last I can say it," he said softly.

"Say what?" she asked gently, gazing back at him, her wide, exotic green eyes still filled with tears.

"I love you, Julia. I have for a very long time, but couldn't allow myself to act on it for fear of what I could do to you."

"I know," she said simply. "That night in the woods--" he was going to interrupt with what she suspected was an apology, so she placed her hand over his mouth. "-- I came to realize something then, as well." He lifted his eyebrow in inquiry but said nothing, just held her and waited. "I can't live in fear because of something that happened long ago. If I pushed you away, I'd be missing out on the most wonderful thing there is." She pulled his face down and kissed him. "I realized that I love you too. I knew then that you weren't just an interesting puzzle to solve, or a unique challenge, although in the back of my mind, that's what you started out as. It was then that I realized I'd move heaven and hell to give you back the life you'd lost. I'd do anything because I love you, very, very much."

"My new life would be complete, but for one thing," he told her, a smile quirking the corners of his mouth.

"What's that?" she asked.

"A wife to share it with. Marry me."

Her affirmative reply was muffled in the deep kiss they shared.

* * * * *

And the soul in the void, once a gypsy woman named Magda, watched and smiled.

THE END

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