Mina Read Free Page A

body
would not be easily found. I would have time to wake, to walk the night as he
does, perhaps even to search out my new kin.
    Yes, though
it was hard to accept, Van Helsing must have been right. The thought of suicide
seemed so sweet because the
    vampire was already calling
to me!
    Yet the terrible, alluring thoughts that were not entirely my
thoughts tumbled round in my mind. I managed to hide them well until the
moment when Van Helsing had finished leading us in prayer then lifted the host
above my head and called upon God to protect me. As the wafer touched my
forehead, I thought of my passion, of the vampire's blood flowing so willingly
in my veins, and I felt the searing pain the host gave to my flesh.
    I screamed. I cried. I was damned
and would not be comforted, not even by Jonathan, who left a message in his
journal that should I become vampiric, he would join me in my terrible
eternity. He knew I would transcribe it with the others. Perhaps his decision
was genuine, motivated by the love we have for one another. Perhaps he thought
to give me one more reason to live. I cannot condemn him for that, but I have
grown cynical in the days since I drank Dracula’s blood. I see things more
clearly, and I am not so trusting as I once was, not even with my husband.
They all manipulate me.
    When they saw the mark the host had
made, the men became desperate. Though it pained Jonathan to leave me, they
departed for London to search out more of Dracula's earth boxes and, perhaps,
find the monster himself and destroy him when his powers were weakest. Van
Helsing says they must do this. If Dracula escapes, I will never be free of
him, and when I die, I will rise into his world of eternal night.
    I remained at the asylum listening to the constant cries, the
swearing of the guards, the smell of urine and feces that permeated even these
private rooms. By afternoon, unable to bear the confinement any longer, I
slipped outside. I was certain to let no one see me leave, for I did not know
what orders Seward had given his staff concerning me.
    The sky seemed unusually bright, the
grass and trees of the sloping asylum grounds iridescent green. The brilliance
of it hurt my eyes, and I hurried forward to the shade of a thick stand of
trees that grew along the wall separating the asylum from the grounds of Carfax.
    It was
daylight. Mortal time, not his, and I felt the need to see what the men had
done to his home, to see if he could indeed walk
    the exorcized grounds or
sleep in the boxes defiled by hosts and holy water.
    I searched
the wall until I found a low wooden door hanging partway open, enough that I
could squeeze my body through.
    On the
opposite side, the once beautiful gardens were overgrown with weeds and scrubby
bushes. The abbey church that had
    undoubtedly once been
beautiful was covered with dead ivy that surrounded the vaulted stone frames
empty of their holy glass.
    What had
happened to the order that had once lived here? Did their ghosts still walk
these quiet grounds, desolate souls among
    broken dreams?
    Did the
vampire's soul walk with theirs?
    "Dracula,"
I called.
    A sigh on
the wind answered me, coming it seemed from the church.
    I went into
the building, through the dark, empty hole that had once held its doors. He
might be waiting for me in its darkness, but
    he could not harm me any
further. I was mated to him now. The worst had already been done.
    Inside, I
smelled the ancient earth scattered all around me. As my eyes grew accustomed
to the darkness of the space, I saw the
    broken boards, the scattered
earth still damp with holy water, the crumbled hosts strewn above it.
"Dracula," I called again.
    No response,
yet I knew I was not alone.
    I walked
toward the great stone of the altar and saw that it was slightly skewed from
its base.
    I did not
see him, but I knew he rested in the hollow beneath it like some ancient saint.
All I had to do was find a stake and a

stone to drive it, and all
our trials would be