Dracul 03 by Lord of the Vampires

Author:Lord of the Vampires
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Now I am on the boat home, where I’ve found myself a secluded spot down below (it is a beautiful day and everyone is taking sun up on the deck). Here, I let myself go deep into trance and found my connexion with Mrs. Van Helsing. The threads tying us are rather weak, though with practice they will strengthen. This is what I saw, only moments ago: A small, plain room with white walls, a window with black iron bars marring the view of a flower garden below. Over the window, a small gold crucifix.

Behind me, the sound of a door opening; a man’s soft, deep voice calling: “Gerda, dearest…”

Gerda, yes! That was her name.

The view swings one hundred eighty degrees; I now find myself looking at an older man with white speckling his golden hair and thick eyebrows, and a smile meant to mask the worry in his blue eyes. He has not recently shaved, and the sunlight pouring in through the window catches the silver hairs on his chin and ignites them. There is such an air of heaviness about him, as if he were like Atlas, bearing the world’s weight upon his shoulders.

At the same time, there is an air of goodness, too, reflected in his eyes and the simple, rounded features on his face.

There is something familiar here, something disturbing: I look at him and think of my dead brother, though they look nothing physically alike. I know this man, but for an instant, I am stymied, for he is almost a quarter-century older than the last time we met, and the years and tragedy have aged him.

Bram, Gerda thinks, but the deep sorrow within her holds her tongue so that she cannot speak—and I at once remember. This kindly older man is my nemesis, Van Helsing, the murderer of my little Jan, who would still be beside me today had Van Helsing not killed my immortal adopted child.

So. Van Helsing is with Gerda—in an asylum, I think; how else to explain the bars? And at that very moment, he begins to ask her questions:

What do you see now?

“I’m not sure. I see water, a great deal of green water —and disappearing behind me, a coastline with tiny windm—”

I pull her up short before she can utter the word windmills, although damage has already been done. He will know now that I have gone to Amsterdam—but damned if he will know when or if I have returned to London.

He asks other questions, but she remains steadfastly silent, until he surrenders and leaves.

When I emerged from the connexion, I wrote this all down at once, lest I forget any detail. I will tejl Elisabeth about the fact that Van Helsing is in Purfleet, somewhere near Vlad. She will be angry enough at the wasted time-so I must never tell her about my terrible error in forgetting about Gerda; she will never forgive me.

And if we fail, I will never forgive myself.

At the same time, I am deeply troubled.

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