The Mammoth Book of Dracula (34 page)

I digress. Accept the apologies of a garrulous old man who sees so little charming and intelligent company. Be seated, here in this wing chair by the fire where it is most comfortable. In a few moments I will join you and we can converse. But first, allow me to serve you. A little cold chicken and salad? Some wine perhaps?

I am rambling away and forget my manners. You, I know, are Miss Roisin Kennedy of Boston, Massachusetts. I have lived in Boston, a charming city. How wild and remote these forests and hills of Oregon State must seem to you, although they comfort me greatly for they are so reminiscent of my beloved Carpathians. Ah, there I go again ... In my clumsy way, my dear, I am trying to express regrets for not yet having properly introduced myself to you.

My given name is Vlad. I have been known by other names. Once I was called Tepesch but I may be more familiar to you as Dracula.

No, I beg you, do not look so alarmed. You are not in the presence of a madman. You are in none of the danger so common in the movie entertainments of such as Mr Hitchcock. I am speaking nothing but the simple truth. I am indeed the
Voivode
Vlad Dracula, late of Transylvania, late of London, late of... so many places.

I am Dracula the terrible, Dracula the arch-fiend, Dracula “the fearsome lover who died yet lived” as one old movie poster described me, Dracula the ... much-maligned.

You still seem to be a little agitated, which I can understand. Yet you must have courage for having undertaken your long journey into the unknown. A glass of wine, that will soothe you. Here is some good Tokay, one of the finest years. Is that not excellent? And see, I drink with you.

You laugh. That is good. And I know why you laugh. It is from sheer relief. You think that as I am drinking wine with you I cannot possibly be who I say I am. And yet am I not a nobleman of a lineage centuries-old and proud before Columbus set out on his voyages of discovery? Is not wine a natural drink to one such as I? To tell the truth, I can stomach only a little but if I sip slowly all is well.

There, a little more in your glass. And a toast—to our friendship! You must not believe all that you see and read, particularly if it emanates from such a place as Hollywood. I blame a certain clumsy playwright and that terrible old Mittel-European actor with his oh-so-studied poses.
“I do not trink…vine ..
.” Hah! A nonsense! As far as I recall, not even Stoker used that. He simply had me say that I had dined and that I did not sup, which was literally true.

What is that you say? I am
“putting you on”?
Ah, I understand: you believe that I am jesting with you. Dracula was a fictional character, you are sure, based loosely on a real-life fifteenth-century tyrant who died in the year 1476 and who anyway is always destroyed in the book and all the plays and movies. If you bear with me, I will explain all that in due course.

First, I must thank you for answering my advertisement and for having the courage to attend this meeting. So few persons, men or women, would have agreed to an assignation with an unknown person in a place so distant and remote.

So, you were intrigued by my wording. That was my intention.
“Reclusive European nobleman, living far from civilization, promises an inquiring soul unique experience, interesting narrative and rich reward. Intelligent young persons only, of sturdy good health, apply to Box Number V1214”

The truth is, my dear, that even one such as I can be lonely and at times must have an outlet for a very human vanity. I purposely placed this advertisement in a great variety of newspapers and journals, rightly guessing that many of the responses would be unworthy of my consideration. As it is, I received few replies and was immediately able to dismiss most of them.

Several were obviously from persons who were little more than panders and I admit to an outdated moral outrage towards such creatures, so much so that I was tempted to meet with and destroy them. This was just a foolish whim which would have achieved nothing and I dismissed it.

Others were from persons who seemed to lack the intelligence that I sought or whose cupidity shone through their every word. There were those urbanites whose idea of “living far from civilization” is that they need travel no greater distance than the edge of the city.

Your letter, though, was interesting. I have it here. I was impressed at the outset by the fact that you took the trouble to write by hand, and legibly at that. In this age of typewriters and other mechanical devices, you demonstrated a rare—an almost obsolete—courtesy. Then your style of writing, your use of language and choice of words, indicated that you are well educated and intelligent, that you are worthy of my cultivation.

What follows is what decided me.
“I want no rich reward”
you wrote,
“I was born to wealth and privilege and the consequential first class education and all my life I have wanted for nothing. Yet I remain dissatisfied for I have never had to struggle to attain anything. Everything in life has been handed to me and I am bored.

“If you can indeed offer me a unique experience, ‘reclusive European nobleman’., then I wish to meet with your

You say that you want no rich reward, and yet your time must be recompensed. As promised when I first wrote to you, I have paid your travelling expenses. Your background is wealthy, you say, but it is my experience that even the wealthy can always use a little more wealth. This leather pouch contains a considerable sum in antique gold coins, crowns, thalers, double-eagles and the like, for which I can provide authentic provenance. Distribute them slowly and carefully among a variety of dealers and you will receive good prices without arousing suspicion.

Now, to convince you that I am who I say I am. The human race, whether or not they believe in such as I, call us Vampire,
Nosferatu—
Undead—Monster. I eschew such pejoratives. Were I to choose a description it would be along the lines of
“Homo superior”.
There, I did tell you that I have a very human vanity. However, the accepted human terms are convenient ones and so I will use them.

I will offer strands of evidence which I hope will weave themselves into proof. The light in here is low but I am sure that you can note the pallor of my skin. And no, I am not a recently released felon as I believe you may be thinking. Prison pallor is quite different.

Here is my hand, take it in your own. Ah, you are startled. Is not my flesh abnormally cold? Unlike your own fingers which are silken soft and warm with the vibrancy of the
living blood
flowing in your veins. And witness the palms of my hands, the coarse hairs which grow upon them. No human, however hirsute, would have hair growing there.

Unnecessary to say that I do not keep mirrors about me but I believe that my hair and moustache must at the moment be grey, perhaps even white. You nod. A sign of ageing? Or is it, as in my own circumstances, a sign of long abstemiousness? No, 1 do not offer the lack of colour in my hair as proof but simply point out that it shields more evidence. See, I move the locks aside and reveal how pointed my ears are.

And if I draw back my lips. Observe my canine teeth which are longer and sharper than those of any normal man. Yes, you are right. They could be false, or I could have had special dental work performed to fuel my fantasy. But it is not so. Here, feel the weight of this huge fire iron. How many men do you know who could bend it in two with such ease—
thus?
Now I will offer you two final pieces of evidence which should fully satisfy you that there is no trickery in what I tell you. Come, stand next to me here at the fireside.

See how your own shadow stretches away towards those shadows beyond the pool of light cast by the flames. Where then is
my
shadow? So, I have your interest. Now, I doubt not that in your handbag—forgive me, your purse—you carry with you a small mirror as do all women. Hold it before me.
Where then is my reflection?

At last you are convinced as to what I am if not who I am, I can see it in your eyes, I can feel it in your aura. There is realization and there is belief and there is fear. Yet underlying the fear I sense a steely determination to see this adventure through and I salute you for it. I chose wisely.

Resume your seat, Miss Kennedy. I may call you Roisin? Then please, take your seat my dear Roisin. In a short space of time you have had so many surprises. At first you probably thought you were travelling to meet an eccentric dilettante, then you had the brief worry that you were trapped with a maniac, and now you realize that you are the guest of an infamous ... vampire.

I regret that I must test your strength of purpose just once more. As a sign of good faith, I must ask a small
quid pro quo
for my hospitality. It is long since I have fed and I ask for a little of your blood. Please, hear me out. I intend you no harm and upon this you have the word of a Prince. No more than a sip, and then my story.

The choice is yours. If you do not agree, then I will honour your wishes and you may leave immediately with your gold. Although I must point out that the limousine driver who brought you here was instructed not to return until the morning. There is no telephone in this house nor is this the sort of area where one can find a taxicab, either by day or night. Furthermore, the roads are dark and treacherous and there are wild animals. You could so easily meet with a terrible accident if you were to attempt the many miles to the nearest village.

You are willing? Then I did not misjudge you. You have fire and determination and you are indeed a worthy guest. A sip, no more I guarantee. I promise that you will feel no pain; only perhaps a little lassitude, and possibly a tingle of ecstasy. If you will kindly bare your neck—yes, just there where I can see and scent the rich veins throbbing beneath the fine skin ...

~ * ~

Thank you my dear. That was not so bad, was it? Here, a little more wine to fortify you. You will forgive me if I do not partake this time. I will not sully the bouquet of the wine that
I
have just enjoyed.

Now that we are both comfortable, I will tell you of Dracula and how he comes to be sitting before you rather than being ancient dust long since dispersed by capricious Carpathian winds.

Ask not how I came to be
Nosferatu
for I do not know. I died and then I awoke as I am now. It may be that somehow my behaviour in life marked me, for I freely admit to being a cruel and unrelenting tyrant. But I lived in a different world to the one that you know and I was probably neither worse nor better than many other fifteenth-century rulers. I justify myself by saying that I was a man of my time.

With the condition of Unlife comes enhancements and limitations. My life is eternal, barring interference by those who have the knowledge and there can be few of them today. How grateful I am for your modern scepticism and cynicism.

I have supernormal strength and yet I can pass—wraith-like -through the merest crack in door or window. I can take the form of animals and mist and moonlight and as such go where I will, once I have been invited. The powers of mesmerism and persuasion are mine and I can hold the most strongly willed person in thrall when I so wish. I can control animals, bending them to my bidding, although I admit to a distaste for domesticated hounds, cringing, fawning wretches that they are. Within limits I can command the elements, bringing about localized storms and fogs and blizzards at will. I regret, though, that I am unable to retard or to stop time.

Balanced against all these is the fact that certain of my extraordinary powers are limited to the hours of darkness. Outside of these times my strength and swiftness remain constant but my ability to change is impaired. I cannot endure certain things held by men to be holy, but again—who today believes, save for a few scattered peasants in the old countries of Europe? Direct sunlight is anathema to me although I can walk abroad on cool and cloudy days. This is the result only of centuries of Unlife and a young
Nosferatu
exposed during the daylight hours would suffer the most agonizing death.

You have read Stoker’s novel? Good; I feared briefly that perhaps your exclusive education might have narrowed your mind against works so lacking in literary merit. Know that the book was literally true.

The general belief is that Stoker was inspired by earlier works, such as those of Le Fanu, and that his research among old books led him to select myself as his central character. Not so. The nature of Stoker’s work brought him in touch with many people at all levels of society, among them the person he called Arthur Holmwood, Lord Godalming, although that was not the noble lord’s true name.

Like many who have endured traumatic experiences, Lord Godalming needed the catharsis of confiding in another, an outsider. In Stoker he found a sympathetic, if perhaps a doubting, ear.

Through him, Stoker became acquainted with the whole of that group. I am sure he did not believe their tale but he could see its potential as High Gothic romance. After long negotiation, all gave him permission to publish subject to concealment of their true identities. Moving in society, they did not wish to compromise their positions.

They handed to Stoker all of their diaries and papers and with careful editing and some dramatic licence these became the novel
Dracula.
To avoid confusion, I will continue to refer to the persons involved by their fictional names.

I am sure that their underlying purpose in giving permission to Stoker was a foolish optimism that the world would come to believe in and take arms against we superior ones. Despite the depth and breadth of his learning, I believe that Van Helsing was naive enough to seek such an outcome. Stoker was more worldly-wise. He would have realised that those most
likely
to believe—villagers and peasants and suchlike in the Balkans and surrounding lands—were the most
unlikely
to hear of or read the novel anyway. Stoker, I am sure, sought only fame and riches, and good fortune to him.