Dracula The Undead Part 11

Dracula looked at her. I could have slain him for that look! 'Five. Sit down, then. Let us all sit down.'

'We prefer to stand,' said G.o.dalming.

'As befits a hero,' said the Count. 'As you wish. You are good hosts and I have not forgotten how to be a gracious guest.

Although I have had little practice of late, my memory is long.' Then he inclined his head to each of us in turn in a courteous greeting - or the mockery of one. 'Doctor Van Helsing .. . Mr and Mrs Harker .. . Dr Seward .. . Lord G.o.dalming.'

The Count's gaze met Mina's again; she stared back at him in such wide-eyed horror that my heart broke to see it. Fearing he was exerting some vile influence on her, I drew her head down on to my shoulder. The Count gave a soft laugh at this, as if my gesture was expected, but futile. I raged silently at him. I wondered if the poker might make a weapon with which to strike him through the heart, but I was powerless - whether through his influence or my own weakness, I couldn't say.

It was as if we were all paralysed, bound in our impotent circle by the chill blackness of his will. Mina, despite her terror, was perfectly composed; her spirit seems unbreakable. Van Helsing had a forceful but controlled pa.s.sion about him. But the Count was wholly in command of the situation. 'I have not come to harm you - although I have every cause to desire vengeance.'

Then why - what do you want of us?' Van Helsing said gruffly.

'I simply wish you to know dial you have not destroyed me. That you cannot. My l.u.s.t for life is greater than ever your desire to extinguish it could be.'

'No,' I answered, unable to contain my rage. 'It is more likely that you are so evil, even h.e.l.l itself rejected you!'

The Count laughed to himself, as if at some private joke. His mirth aroused my hopeless anger all the more.

Van Helsing asked, 'How did you cheat death? What did we do wrong?'

Another laugh. 'That is a puzzle to exercise your great mind, is it not?' The Count turned back to the desk and picked up the bundle of papers, brandishing it contemptuously. 'Is me answer in here, in this collection of rambling nonsense?'

'Put dial down!' Mina cried. 'It is not for your eyes!'

Dracula appeared to mock her courage; he could never appreciate the value of such qualities in anyone. 'There is nothing,' he said, addressing her in a low, ambiguous tone that repelled me, 'that is not for my eyes.' Mina looked away from him, blushing.

How violently I hated him! I stirred, but felt Van Helsing's hand on my shoulder.

The Count went on, 'You have seen that I can enter your minds - yours, Mr Harker, even yours, Professor, though you fought me manfully. Even that of your little cat. Who then is safe from me? Your son?'

Mina went white. She leapt up, but Seward held her back.

'You have no defence against me,' said Dracula, 'for you do not know when or how I may next strike. You cannot escape my revenge. All your lives, I will be there.'

Van Helsing broke in pa.s.sionately, 'Have we not suffered enough at your hands? We did nothing but good to you! We tried to bring peace to your restless soul, an end to your accursed existence. Surely you cannot wish such to continue? Even the Devil, they say, will repent and be redeemed at the end of time!'

'You term it "good" that you destroyed those I love?' The Count's sharp tone deepened my fear.

'The three hateful fiends in the castle?'

'Hateful to you,' Dracula said softly, a baleful gleam in his eyes, 'but not to me. Who are you to judge what is hateful? You know nothing of love.'

'That is not so. You are the one who put aside love, put aside the grace of Heaven, the day you chose to become Undead.'

The Count's expression became fierce; his red lips lifted over the dreadful teeth, his nostrils flared. 'Do you love life, Van Helsing?'

'Of course. It is G.o.d's creation.'

'You grow old, Professor. You grow weary of life and wish fondly for death. You will never know what it is to love life as I do - to love it so pa.s.sionately that you are prepared even to cheat death. To love it so deeply, indeed, that you cannot die - or cannot remain dead! What can you know of such pa.s.sion? How then dare you judge me? Those three were not fiends to me. They cannot come back as I have. In my destruction you broke your own rules. Meditate upon your mistakes; you have time. Months, or weeks, or a lifetime of looking over your shoulder, watching and waiting for me to come again.' He shook the sheaf of papers. 'And I shall find much amus.e.m.e.nt in discovering what it is that you think you know of me.'

At that - taking all of us by surprise - G.o.dalming seized the poker on which I had cast my own eye, and lunged at Dracula. The Count seized the shaft before it came within a foot of his body. G.o.dalming cried out and released the handle; the poker fell, and singed the carpet, though it had been in its stand and not in the fire. At the same instant, Dracula threw our typescript into the air, and vanished. The pages scattered into a snowstorm. As they settled, we saw a layer of mist flowing out between the window and its frame.

G.o.dalming was cradling the hand in which he had wielded the poker. Mina and I went to him; the moment Dracula disappeared, the nightmarish chill left the air and we could move freely again. 'Foolish, foolish,' Van Helsing murmured. 'You should not have let your pa.s.sions get the better of you.'

'D'you think I don't know it?' G.o.dalming grated.

'Were you burned?' Mina asked anxiously.

'The poker was cold when I seized it. But as he touched it, the handle turned red-hot! It is nothing, a slight burn.'

'I can't believe this is happening!' Mina exclaimed. 'Hurry, I must see that Quincey is unharmed. If ever Dracula harms him-'

We rushed into the hall and up the stairs. 'At least the enemy has shown himself!' I said as we went. 'Now we have a solid enemy to fight, instead of phantasms. It proves we are not mad!'

'But how did he get in?' said Van Helsing, hoa.r.s.e and agitated.

'What?' I said. 'I don't know.'

'For he cannot enter a dwelling unless he is invited in by one of the inhabitants! So who? Who invited him to enter?'

Chapter Ten.

JONATHAN HARKER'S JOURNAL (Continued)

Mina was now so pale I feared for her, but she hushed us as we entered Quincey's room. We found the boy sleeping peacefully; nothing had been disturbed in the room, the windows were firmly shut and there was no sign of any injury upon him. He barely stirred as we examined him, keeping our voices low so that he should not be disturbed. He looked so innocent, with his fair hair dishevelled on the pillow, his round angelic face abandoned to sleep. The thought of any harm coming to him causes us unspeakable anguish!

As we left, Elena came out of her room, which is next to Quincey's. She was yawning, her hair loose, her face pale but for a rosy flush in her cheeks. 'What is wrong?' she asked.What could we tell her? Nothing!

Mina guided her back to her room, saying, 'We thought we heard Quincey crying. It must have been the wind. The weather is so wild tonight, I was worried it might have disturbed him.'

The other men and I returned to the parlour. Van Helsing sat down and closed his eyes; I have never seen him look so weary.

Soon Mina returned and said she had given Elena a cross and asked her to wear it at all times. 'She was puzzled and a little frightened. I told her I would explain, soon enough,' Mina sighed. 'We must tell her something!'

Van Helsing opened his eyes. I thought he had been resting - but of course, his mind was at work. 'We must tell her the truth,'

he said.

'I dreamed of the Count last night,' said Mina. 'He appeared in my room and told me that I must give him my blood of my own free will! Oh G.o.d, now I fear it was not a dream!'

Van Helsing was by her side in a moment, looking carefully at her throat. 'There are no marks upon you. You have no memory of him attacking you? No weakness?'

'None,' said Mina. 'I am sure he did not touch me.' Then she lowered her head, pressing her fingers to her forehead in anguish. I went to support her.

Van Helsing exclaimed, 'Ah, but now we have the advantage!'

'How so?' Mina asked.

'Our enemy is physical - therefore we can use physical means to keep him out! But of course we must explain to Elena the reason for this, and tell the boy some tale to lull his curiosity. Tomorrow we will set to work.'

I said with fervour, 'I wish Elena and Quincey were away from here. And Mina!'

Van Helsing shook his head. 'Impossible. They would not be safe. Without our protection they would be all the more vulnerable to Dracula. We must all stay here.'

(Continued in Jonathan Harker's own hand.) Van Helsing has called a halt, saying, 'Go to bed, my friends; I will keep watch.

Dracula's purpose was to frighten us, which he has admirably achieved. I think he will not come back. But in case.'

Mina has gone to sleep with Quincey. But knowing I would not sleep, I am sitting up with Van Helsing.

So we pa.s.s the night in a state of siege. My right arm is still in a sling, but by wedging the pen between my fingers and bracing my wrist against the table, I can just manage to write legibly. It is very slow and laborious. Van Helsing says I should learn to use my left instead - the side of instinct and intuition, so he says, the irrational feminine side of ourselves - but I think he is putting up a joke on me. He will always find something to laugh at, even in the direst of circ.u.mstances. I am determined to use my right, the side of G.o.d and the masculine!

The wind gusts unceasingly round the walls; I hear voices in it, semi-human groans, the howling of dogs. The sound is enough to drive a man mad. Although we have turned up the gas lamps and lit two candelabras, there never seems enough light. I check on Mina and Quincey every hour, but they sleep soundly. At least they are at peace.

Now is the blackest hour before dawn rises in the windows. I feel sleep falling heavy on me at last, and Van Helsing is urging me to bed.

11 November, morning Strangest, most horrible of dreams. I fell asleep, exhausted -it must have been four in the morning by then - and dreamed that a woman came into my room. I saw her leaning over me, her white nightdress shadowy grey in the darkness, her dark hair hanging heavy as snake's tails around her shoulders. It was Elena and yet it was someone else - Lucy? A fiend from Castle Dracula? I lay in that state between dream and consciousness, when one seems to be awake yet cannot move a muscle. She seemed to be all women; or rather, the archetypal dark woman, Eve, who sided with the serpent and dragged mankind into sin. I thought I had experienced enough terror for one night, but this woke new depths in me.

Elena - the woman who looked like Elena - bent lower and lower over me, and I saw her pink tongue moving over her deep red lips, making the lips shine. The tongue protruded further and further, sliding over the pearly teeth, longer and longer, and I saw that it was forked at the end like a snake's.

My whole being withered in dreadful antic.i.p.ation as I waited for the two tips of the tongue to flicker on my neck. The skin tingled. My paralysed body stiffened and arched, wanting to escape yet wanting her to draw nearer - the two desires in exquisite conflict. She lay down upon me and I could not stop her; almost did not wish to stop her, to my shame. She spoke and it was Elena's voice. 'You do not want your wife,' she whispered, her voice a hiss that hurt my ears. 'You want me.'

With this, her jaw opened so wide that it seemed to unhinge. Two great fangs appeared, long and thin and curved as a snake's, as if they had unfolded from the roof of her mouth. A clear liquid dripped from them, and in the dream I knew it was poison. I tried to cry out; she lunged, and I felt a burning coldness in my throat, and my soul seemed to lurch right out of my body in a spasm that sent me falling down into greyness; drowning greyness, like the bottom of the ocean.

G.o.d, how horrible now I recall it! Why must I suffer such vile nightmares, in which apparitions come to me and tell me lies? I feel that I can never bear Mina near me again -that she is soiled and fallen, as are all women. No, I will not believe it! My love for Mina is pure - as is hers for me. Dracula is the one who wishes to sully it. He makes unclean all that he touches!

Later In the light of day, with a good breakfast inside me, I feel renewed. We are in better spirits. I told Mina of the dream, for I want there to be no secrets between us. She comforted me and a.s.sured me that it was only a dream. Thank G.o.d for her strength.

Van Helsing's plan is in motion. Initially he will protect the house by placing wild rose and crucifixes on all the doors and windows. He has also sent for garlic wreaths, which we know will prove a powerful deterrent to the vampire.

What a fool I was to refuse these safeguards when he first arrived!

Seward and G.o.dalming will a.s.sist him, and begin the search for Dracula's lair. Meanwhile, the Professor insists on my taking Mina, Quincey and Elena out for the day. I argued, but in the end was forced to agree. A day at the seaside (we shall take the train to the coast) will do us all good.

While Mina was getting ready to go out, I asked Van Helsing, 'But for how long shall we live in this state of siege? If anything happens to Mina or Quincey - or indeed to Elena, whom we love like a sister -'

He broke in, 'How long? Until we find the monster's lair and destroy both it and him.'

'And how shall we destroy him?'

'In the manner in which a vampire is destroyed!' Van Helsing answered irascibly. 'We pierce the heart and sever the head.'

'But we have done that once, and he came back!' I cried. 'Perhaps there is nothing that can destroy him - or else he is G.o.d's alone to destroy, at the end of time!'

Then I regretted my outburst, for Van Helsing's face went white and haggard. 'The truth is, Jonathan, I do not know. We use all the knowledge and experience at our disposal to outwit him - but until we find a new way, a certain way, I do not know!'

Now here is Mina in her coat and hat. I am glad to go. We shall have a pleasant day, and forget all this.

ELENA KOVACS'S JOURNAL.

11 November He came to the house last night, my Dark Companion. I stood at my window waiting for him, my breath clouding on the gla.s.s, until I saw his shadow. I threw the window wide; the night smelled of damp leaves and smoke, and he brought in the smell on his clothes. 'Welcome,' I said. 'Enter.'

He did not take my blood, only stroked my cheek and gave me a single kiss on the lips. Then he softly opened my door and was gone. Without my invitation, he could not have come in. But I wish I could have been a witness to the scene that followed - to the horror of his enemies when they saw him in full, magnificent existence!

I write this quickly before we go out. Quincey is dressed and ready, sitting quietly on my knee as I write.

I am growing a little nervous. This morning, before breakfast, Van Helsing found me alone in the nursery. He said nothing of last night; the only sign dial anything had happened were the shadows beneath his eyes, a deeper creasing of his flesh. He asked me if I was happy with the Harkers; I replied that I was.

'I have not had the chance to tell you, Miss Kovacs,' Van Helsing went on, 'how very sorry I was to hear of your father's death.'

I thanked him. I did not want to speak of it.

'And your Uncle Andre,' he persisted. 'You have still no news of his expedition?'

'None.'

He shook his head gravely. 'Nor I, though I contact his housekeeper weekly. The poor woman is very worried. She is concerned about you also; that you left so precipitously.'

He smiled as he spoke, and his questions were fatherly and friendly; but there was a keenness in his eyes that made me suspicious. 'There is no cause for her to be concerned. I am a grown woman.'

'Nevertheless, what happened in Transylvania must have caused you deep distress. The English way, to keep the lips tight upon grievous losses, is not my way. It is better to talk freely of such matters, is it not?'

His questions caused me discomfort. 'My father's death was an accident. I grieve in my own way. I thank you for your concern, but..."

'Transylvania ... a land of great mystery and beauty - and danger. A place where the supernatural is as common as the natural, where the barrier between our world and the spirit world is thinner than tissue.'

'Only to the peasant mind,' I said, sharp now. 'I am surprised at you, Professor.'

'Ah, but such strange beasts as werewolves and vampires cannot all be dismissed as superst.i.tions. Such things may be as real as you or I. To refuse to believe in them is playing into the Devil's hands! But you are a good, church-going woman, of course, and have no cause to concern yourself with such matters.'

'No, and I do not.'