Barnabas Meets Roxanne 1970 Parallel Time  By Nancybe

Julia opened the door to the hidden room in Stokes' cottage.  

"So this is the body that has made Angelique live," Barnabas said in his rich voice.  "So another innocent must die."  

"Barnabas, I know what you're feeling, but she's not really alive, and if she stays the way she is, many more will die.  I'm certain of that."  

"Yes . . . yes. . .yes," he agreed slowly.  

Julia opened her bag and withdrew the knife.  "It must be done," she said resolutely.  "Then we must decide what to do about Stokes so that he doesn't find another body and have Angelique live again."  

Barnabas looked at the still body with sorrowful eyes.  "It never ends, does it, once one begins to unravel evil."  

"Now, Barnabas."  

"Yes, now."  

Julia handed the knife to Barnabas and drew back the sheet that covered the body.  Barnabas raised the deadly weapon high above his head and prepared to drive it into the body that was giving life and breath to the despised woman at Collinwood.  Julia held her breath - it was never easy to take a life, but sometimes it was absolutely necessary.  She waited for Barnabas' arm to drop, but it had halted in mid-air.  She glanced at his face which was now dominated by  hazel eyes which had grown wide.  

"Barnabas, what is it?"  she asked in alarm.  "Barnabas!"  

"She's so beautiful," he said mournfully.  

"Yes," Julia agreed, but her heart had begun to beat wildly in her chest.  What was he thinking this time?  Was he going to screw this up, too?  

"I've never seen another face like hers.  I cannot do it," he said turning away from the woman who lay on the table.  

Oh, shit, Julia thought, not again.  Another young bimbo with perky breasts, and he can't think straight.  What the hell am I going to do?  

"Because she's beautiful?" she asked in exasperation.  

"In a world where's there's so much ugliness, have I the right to destroy her?" he asked in a pained voice.  

This is our chance and he's turning into a freaking poet, she thought angrily.  "You are destroying Angelique," she said through gritted teeth.  

"We'll have to find another way," he said, knowing he was being foolish and unreasonable but unable to stop himself.  

"There is no other way."  

"There must be," he insisted stubbornly.  

"Angelique would kill you if she had the choice," Julia persisted.   

"I know that.  I will deal with Angelique," Barnabas declared although he had no idea how he might do that.  

"How?" she pressed him as he turned away from her.  "Tell me a way, Barnabas," she said in frustration.  "We've been given this one opportunity.  I feel as sorry for this girl as you do."  

"Sorrow is not all that I feel," he said enigmatically.  

His words made her blood boil in rage.  Here she was in a parallel time to save his ass yet again, and he was thinking with something other than his head, as usual.  What an idiot!  

Julia abruptly reached around in front of him.  "Barnabas, give me that knife!" she demanded as she wrenched the instrument from his grasp.  In a flash, she had raised it and plunged it into the girl's heart.  She turned to him with a satisfied smile on her face.  

"Julia!" he screamed, his face a horrified mask.  

 ***  

In the drawing room at Collinwood, Angelique alias Alexis Stokes was enjoying a drink with her father and gloating about the future, or lack thereof, of the Collins family.  Suddenly, she shrieked in agony as searing red-hot pain pierced her chest.  Clutching her heart, she fell stone cold dead to the floor as her father looked on in astonishment.  

 ***  

Julia gazed up into Barnabas' shocked face.  "It is over, Barnabas.  She is dead, and if there is a God in Heaven, Angelique should be dead by now, too."  

"Yes, Julia, you did the right thing," the vampire sighed.  "Once again, I was not thinking with my head.   What would I do without you?"  

"Damn straight you weren't, Barnabas," she answered with a small smile as she tucked her arm into his.  "Let's go home."  

Julia looked back at the body as Barnabas opened the door.  Funny, she mused to herself, I kind of expected those things to deflate once she was dead.  Shrugging her shoulders, she let Barnabas lead her out the front door.