The Classified Dossier: Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula(17)
“As I said,” Dracula replied, “they came from a variety of countries and places, some as far as Germany or Switzerland. When questioned, they had little useful information except that all of them had the same mission – gather as much information as they could about my home and my own person. They were of various agencies. Banks and governments and other mercantile establishments.”
“But all with the same goals and agenda,” Holmes said with impatience. “Did you not consider how suggestive that was?”
Dracula looked regal and irritated and his eyes gleamed with dangerous anger, but Holmes did not seem to notice. “You believe,” the Count finally said, “that this is the work of one agency or person?”
“I consider it very probable, yes,” Holmes said.
“As do I,” Dracula admitted. “But I did not realize it until very recently. It has to be Van Helsing. The other men involved, Holmwood and the others, are young, and it seems unlikely that they would have had the patience, insight, and subtlety required. Only I can find no trace of Van Helsing, or any of the other men that follow him, either here in London or elsewhere. Understand that my research in this endeavour was only idle curiosity until they took Mina.”
“Tell us about that abduction and the events leading up to it,” Holmes said.
“Very well. We came by ship, which landed three days ago in your Portsmouth. Since it landed by day, I was forced to remain below until nightfall, though Mina, of course, could still take to the deck.”
“Why is that?” Holmes asked.
The Count looked suddenly very alert and cagey, but then his expression relaxed. “There is no point, I suppose, in dissembling, since I came to you for help. You and the Doctor will no doubt discover this in time on your own. Vampires become more stronger and more durable as we age, but also more vulnerable to sunlight, especially if we have not fed. The good doctor will find direct sunlight uncomfortable and a cause of great lethargy. A century from now, should he live so long, the benediction of the sun, if you have not recently fed, will cause you to burst into flame at the merest touch.”
“A factor, no doubt,” Holmes said, “of the ongoing influence of the blood disease. It gradually, over years, petrifies and ossifies the flesh, accounting for a great many features of the elder vampire. The great strength and resiliency, in addition to the vulnerability to sunlight, I should say. I should be very surprised if the elder vampire is not also much lighter than a comparable man, which goes a great way toward explaining the amazing climbing ability I’ve seen evidence of.”
“I once had a passion for your modern science,” Dracula said, “but discarded it when London became a sour place to me. Perhaps it may have some merit.”
“Perhaps,” Holmes said, a small smile playing for just an instant on his face.
Dracula’s gaze flickered to the laboratory table with all the Bunsen burners and retorts and an echo of Holmes’s ironic smile played around his own thin lips.
Holmes’s face took on a note of concern. “One question: you say that it takes a century to develop such a susceptibility to sunlight, and Mina has not been a vampire for so long?”
“Yes?” Dracula said, clearly not understanding Holmes’s question, though I did.
“The experiment with the finger!” I said.
“Precisely,” Holmes said. “Forgive me, Count, but this may be extremely relevant. We have the finger that may have come from Mina’s hand.”
Dracula nodded, very seriously. “This is known to me. It is part of why I have come to you. You have, as you say, some of the threads of the case in your hand.”
“Would you know her finger by sight?” Holmes asked.
“Most certainly,” Count Dracula said.
Holmes got up and, with a small moment of hesitation, retrieved the cigarette case that still held the finger. He held it out to the Count, who took it carefully, as if it held something both very precious and very fragile. He opened the lid slowly and his face became like a thing of stone. His eyes blazed with a terrible, unholy wrath. But he said nothing. Finally, he closed the lid and returned the case to Holmes.
“It is the finger from her hand,” he said.
“Help me understand, Count,” Holmes said carefully. “You say that Mina would not have burst into flames herself, in the sunlight?”
Dracula nodded. “You are wise to question, but the explanation is no great mystery. A new vampire, transformed less than a decade ago, will feel the pain of the sun, but will not burst into flame. Starve that same vampire for a week, perhaps more, and that will change. Direct sunlight could then produce combustion. Also, our flesh, detached, develops the same vulnerability. Take a sample of the Doctor’s flesh here. It need not be painful. A clipping of the nail will suffice. Take such a piece today and sunlight would not cause combustion. However, a week later, it would, since the blood has lost its potency.
He turned to me. “But know this. Blood is life to all things, even more so for you, now. A great deal will depend on how recently you have fed. Well-nourished, an elder vampire of sufficient will can brave even the full sunlight without fatal injury, though there is some pain. I myself have found your London streets during the daytime quite welcoming, since there are many days where the fog prevents anything like full sunlight. It is quite a natural harbour to vampires, in that sense.”