Page 63 of Now Comes the Mist

I sit bolt upright in bed. In the mirror across the room, I see that my face has drained of all color. Vlad is here. He has found me, and in a moment, the housekeeper will invite him in.

My head throbbing, I leap off the bed and hurry across the room. My hand is on the doorknob when I hear Mina’s light footsteps downstairs, followed by her clear sweet voice. “What a pleasant surprise to see you in London, Count. I’m afraid Mrs. Westenra and Lucy are both resting at the moment. Perhaps you might call another time, if that is convenient?” Her tone is as proper and polite as ever, but I detect the degree of strain within it.

“Ah! I am sorry to be a bother, Miss Murray.” Vlad’s voice is so warm, so familiar, that for a moment I have to brace myself against the door to keep from falling to my knees. I know every cadence, every vowel, and even the rhythm of his breath. “I only wished to say hello now that I am settling into my new home outside London. Forgive me. I will leave you to your quiet.”

Moonlight on water. The ocean breeze in my hair. My hand in his, and his lips on mine.

I close my eyes against the powerful longing for him, despising myself for it.

“Please wait a moment,” I hear Mina call. “I know it is not me you have come to see, but I would like to hear more about your new home. Shall we sit in the garden? May I offer you tea?”

I hear Vlad’s coat rustle as he looks up at the sky. “I believe it will rain.”

“Perhaps, but it has looked that way all morning. And it isn’t as chilly today, I think.” There is a note of steely determination in Mina’s courteous voice. “All I ask is a few minutes of your time. I know you came to see Lucy, but I would like to speak to you, sir.”

“With pleasure,” he says with an unmistakable smile in his voice. “No tea, thank you.”

I hear clattering as Mina collects an umbrella from the stand by the door. And instead of taking him through the house to the garden, she leads him around the side. I sink onto the chair in front of my dressingtable, deeply grateful that she has taken my warning seriously. My heart is drumming so loudly that I am afraid I will miss even a second of their conversation.

But Mina’s voice comes as clear as a bell. “How do you like your new house, Count? You say it is outside of London. Where, exactly?”

The iron chairs scrape gently against the terrace as they sit down.

“I have purchased a lovely property in Purfleet. Not far from you here in Hillingham. The house has a small library, a parlor, and a garden. Even a conservatory.” Vlad says the last word with such playful meaning that I am absolutely sure he knows I am up here listening. A little joke, a secret between friends. An involuntary thrill of pleasure runs through me.

“Purfleet?” Mina asks. “The Westenras have a friend who lives and works there. His name is Dr. Jack Seward, and he runs a very respected hospital.”

“Ah! What a coincidence, for the young doctor happens to be my neighbor. His mental institution is adjacent to my land. In fact, I can see it from my windows.”

I tense in my chair. First, Jonathan Harker helped Vlad purchase his home, and now, the property is next door to none other than Jack Seward. These are far too manycoincidencesfor my comfort. Something tickles the back of my neck, like the sensation of eyes watching.

“You say Dr. Seward is a family friend?” Vlad asks. “Of the late Mr. Westenra, perhaps?”

It does not take supernatural ability for me to know that Mina’s cheeks are coloring. “Dr. Seward was a student of Mr. Westenra’s personal physician,” she says carefully. “And he and Mr. Westenra were friendly, but the doctor is more closely acquainted with Lucy, I believe.”

“Ah, withLucy. I see.”

I, too, cannot help blushing at Vlad’s tone of knowing amusement.

Mina clears her throat. “What is the name of your new property?”

“Oh, I have already forgotten,” he says carelessly. “Something neither sentimental nor poetic, and my heart did not thrill to it. I have given it a new name, which has a bit more significance to me. I am calling it Carfax. It means—”

“Crossroads.”

There is a moment of surprised silence. “Yes, Miss Murray, that is correct.”

“From the Latinquadrifurcus. The place where four roads meet. I have developed a taste for folklore, as Lucy has always enjoyed reading it.”

“Excellent,” Vlad says, pleased. “As you know, legend has it that they bury murderers at a crossroads to keep evil ghosts from finding their way home. Other stories say the dead who lie there come back not as ghosts, but as something else entirely. So it is good to confuse them, no?”

Something else entirely.I know what he means, for I have read the tales and seen the illustrations in Papa’s books: pale, creeping, blood-drinking monsters. Vampires.

Down in the garden, Vlad laughs, as though he has heard me thinking the word.

“Indeed.” Mina sounds unsettled and quickly changes the subject. “How did you learn the property was for sale? All the way from your home in the Mountains of Deep Winter?”

My heart seizes within me. Vlad never confirmed living in that specific region of Austria-Hungary to Mina, and I know at once that she has put two and two together. Her logical brain has been ruminating on my words since we left Whitby. She has deduced that Jonathan is connected to Vlad because he helped him purchase Carfax, and now she wants to hear it from Vlad himself.

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