The Classified Dossier: Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula(16)

“But this,” Dracula continued, “is a matter of semantics for the philosophers.” He waved a hand dismissively, then came and sat down with us, helping himself to a cup of warm blood with no sign of self-consciousness. Even Holmes’s usually unflappable composure was visibly unsettled, and his visage went taut.

“Thank you, gentlemen,” Dracula said. “This will save time. I had not expected to find such a convenience. A product of modern thinking, no doubt.” He smiled a predator’s smile and the feeling of being unsettled deepened within me. I could see from a glance, however, that Holmes was quite resolute that we should have Dracula for an ally. I had always trusted in Holmes’s judgement before this, and even in this time of my greatest confusion, I could not help but do so now.

“Now,” Holmes said, his voice tight and full of forced bonhomie, “we shall have to give you that account of Count Dracula’s tale that I promised and there are further details I should like clarified.”

I hesitated. It seemed impossible that I should return to my old chair and listen to the beginning of another one of Holmes’s cases, as I had done so many times before, as if nothing had happened to me. As if I were still the same person that I had been before. Doubts filled me as to whether the word ‘person’ should even apply to me still. Yet, even with all of my trepidations, many years of routine and habit had clearly left their marks, for I found myself settling into the sitting chair by the fire, just as I had so many times before, for all the world as if I was still Dr John Watson and not some bloodsucking creature of the night.

Dracula loitered near the window overlooking the street. When he started to speak, it was in a distant voice, almost as if he spoke to himself rather than to us.

“Before I speak of our trip here,” the Count said, “my second trip, you understand, years later, with Mina – I should like to make you understand the signs of danger that came before, though I did not recognize them as such beforehand.

“My title is not an affectation for my ancestors were noblemen in my land, and though I was born to it, I earned it in battle against the Turks a hundred times over. ‘Count’ is not precisely correct, of course, being an English word. Voivode, I was called in my land long ago, though my legions have lessened in the last century. Be that as it may, the people of my land still pay me homage, particularly the Romany that make their home near Castle Dracula. It was through them that I came to discover a succession of foreign interlopers in my land, all of them focused on gathering intelligence on my homeland, my lands, and my person. Had Transylvania not been a remote place, much unused to strangers, it would likely have been far more difficult to realize what they were about, for they came in various disguises and with various stories. A few enterprising souls even managed to penetrate into the castle itself. But having been warned, I was able to… repel them.”

I shuddered, imagining the dark stone corridors of some largely empty castle and the exact form that the Count’s measures might have taken. He turned, a wistful and dangerous smile on his lips, one that didn’t reach his glittering black eyes. His expression suggested he’d guessed my thoughts and was mildly amused by them.

“Even then,” he went on, “I did not yet recognize the threat this represented to me. I had just brought Mina back to my home and there came a great deal of conflict between her and my sisters. Eventually, one of them, Dolengen, made an attempt on Mina’s life and I was forced to expel all three of them.”

“Excuse the interruption,” Holmes said, “but when you refer to them as sisters…”

“I mean, by this, that they are also vampires,” Dracula said. “We do not share mothers.”

“Why cast all three of them out?” Holmes said, “if only one made the transgression?”

“Adaliene,” Dracula said, “the eldest, felt that by protecting Mina, I was setting her above the three of them, and demanded Mina’s blood. The other two follow her in all things. I refused, of course. Casting one out was the same as casting out all three.”

“How long had they been with you at Castle Dracula before this?” Holmes asked.

Dracula seemed surprised, briefly, but whether it was at the question or simply the act of being questioned, I could not tell. “Centuries,” he finally said.

“Thank you,” Holmes said. “That is quite clear. When did this happen?”

Perhaps discerning one year from another was not a task the Count normally applied himself to, because he frowned, deep in thought. I shivered at the implications. Would I live so long? Would that kind of life, filled with pain and the faces of past victims, feel more a blessing or a curse?

“We are in the year of 1902 now?” the Count finally said.

“Indeed,” Holmes said dryly.

Dracula nodded his regal head, paying no attention to Holmes’s tone. “Then my first trip to London was in 1890, and Mina and I returned together to my home during that summer. Winter was just settling into the mountains when the sisters left, the very end of that same year.”

Holmes had opened a small notebook and taken some quick notes. “When did the foreign interlopers, as you say, start coming to your country?”

“The year afterwards,” Dracula said. “I became aware of the first in the spring of 1891.”

“Did they give you no indication of who sent them?” Holmes asked.