hypnotic trance, tell what the count see and hear, is it not more that he who have hypnotize her first, and have made her drink of his blood, should compel her mind to disclose to him what she know of us?'
Seward had to agree, and it was decided to again reverse policy and exclude Mina from all councils of war. On that evening, before they had been forced to break this sad news to her, 'a great personal relief was experienced' by both doctors, as Seward wrote, when 'Mrs. Harker… sent a message by her husband to say that she would not join us at present, as she thought it better that we should be free to discuss our movements without her presence to embarrass us.' Mina of course had caught some hints from Jonathan as to which way the wind was blowing, and had also caught from me a mental signal that I was a-thirst to visit her that night.
Actually my small, furry shape alighted on her bedroom windowsill just as she was packing her husband off to join the other men in their deliberations below. She closed the door of their sitting-room behind him with a sigh of relief, and came tripping gaily into the bedroom. Her face brightened further as she caught sight of the transformed count with bat nose pressed against the pane, impatiently awaiting audience.
She moved at once to open the window for me-that I might avoid the inconvenience of a shape change to get in-but her first glance at the bat-form as it hopped inside was not without an admixture of repugnance. I made haste to swell into human shape as soon as I was well within the room.
'Think of it as a mere disguise,' I murmured when we had kissed. 'No more than a suit I sometimes wear. But tell me, why such a joyous dance step, fair lady, as that with which you crossed the sitting room just now?'
'Besides the joy of seeing you again,' Mina answered, 'it was just sheer relief at not having to endure another of their meetings.' She told me how she had just anticipated her re-exclusion by their leadership, and sighed as if at the removal of an ill-fitting shoe. 'They all sit there, scowling or open-mouthed, listening to Van Helsing rant on about how hideous vampires are, as if that had no connection at all with me. That is, until one of them remembers the mark of Cain upon my forehead, and sneaks a look at it; and then his eyes slide almost guiltily away as soon as they come near to meeting mine. Even-even Jonathan is no longer quite willing to look me steadily in the face. He loves me still, I think, but it is as if-as if he has grown somewhat ashamed of me.'
She raised her fingers to the red scar that marred her beauty. 'Vlad, speak fully and honestly, as your love for me is full and true. What can be done about this? Is there no way to make it disappear?'
I was now sitting on her bed, my legs crossed, swinging one of a pair of stylish new English boots. I supposed I might possibly have applied some hypnotic powers of my own to rid her of the scar, but it had been my experience with similar hysterical manifestations that if they were suppressed in one form, without the root cause being removed, they were likely to reappear in some new form even more discomfiting.
'Not without considerable risk to you,' I answered. 'Not at present, anyway. Remember, Van Helsing would probably be gravely suspicious that you were truly turning vampire if the scar, or the small marks on your throat, were to suddenly disappear. But take heart, in time we shall find a way.'
'But, Vlad, why should Dr. Van Helsing's touching me with the Host have left this hideous stain for all to see? I still cannot understand; be patient with me. Why must I bear this mark if-if I am not in fact…'
'Unclean and evil? Be assured that you are not. That mark can have come only through Van Helsing's mesmeric power, whether under his deliberate control or not, acting on your body through a part of your own mind that is not conscious.'
'But how can a mind that is not conscious act?'
'I do not know how.' In that year of 1891 a young doctor named Sigmund Freud was only beginning his researches into hysteria. 'But I have seen similar things before. Mina, I myself may be evidence of a superior kind of hypnotic power.'
'What do you mean, Vlad?'
'I mean a power basically similar to hypnotism, but carried to an extreme degree, far beyond what Van Helsing or Charcot or any of the regular practitioners of today can hope to accomplish. Surpassing their best efforts-or the best efforts I could consciously make-even as the steam locomotive transcends the power of the boiling tea kettle.
'I should have died of sword wounds, Mina, in the year of Our Lord 1476. My lungs stopped, and my heart, but I feared neither death nor life… do you know the writings of the American, Poe? Or of Joseph Glanville, your own countryman? 'Man doth not yield him to the angels, nor unto death utterly, save only by the weakness of his feeble will.' It was no vampire woman's embrace that made me what I am.'
She stared at me so strangely for a little while that I had to smile to reassure her. 'But it is frightening, Vlad,' was all she said.
'Any human life can frighten the one who lives it,' I told her softly, 'if he or she will let it do so.' Still smiling, I caressed her cheek. 'Then simply trust me. To frighten you again is the last thing that I want. In good time both our scars will disappear. Come, now, will you not smile again for me? Ah. That is one ray of bright sunshine that I find most pleasant.'
After we had talked of happy matters for a little time I said: 'I am very glad to have you with me now. But at the same time I could almost wish you were below at the men's council, that we might be fully informed of all their plans. Is your latest exclusion from their meetings permanent, do you think?'
'Oh, pooh! I can find some way to rejoin them, if you think that there is something truly vital I might learn.'
'There are several questions whose answers may be vital to me. For example, when and by what means do they intend to pursue
Mina was now sitting on my knee, rubbing her face against mine, then tilting back her chin so her long throat passed against my lips. 'I will try to make certain, of course-ah. But as for telegraphing ahead, I think not. I think they want the satisfaction of destroying you with their own hands.'
I held her at arm's length, and spoke with utmost seriousness. 'And you had best take care, my sweet, that they never turn on you with the same thought in mind. I have seen things in Van Helsing's eyes, and heard things from his lips… his own wife's not in a madhouse for nothing, in my opinion. Give him any evidence that he can interpret as just cause and he'll be delighted to hammer a stake through your soft heart and watch you jump with every blow. Or, more likely, he'll talk dear Jonathan into doing it for your own good whilst he and the others watch. As he convinced Arthur to send his beloved Lucy on to her reward.'
'I have thought about it.' But now Mina did not seem especially frightened. She nodded, narrow-eyed, at me and smiled. 'There is one almost infallible way by which a poor simple girl like me may turn away strong men from almost any course of action.'
I loved her. 'And that is?'
Her smile widened. Were her teeth, in truth, a very little sharper now? 'Suggest it to them as my own idea, and keep on reminding them that it is mine.'
And true to her word, a few days later she got all the men to swear that they would kill her should they ever decide she was so changed toward vampirism that such a move would be best for all concerned. She told me later that whilst she made her moving plea. Van Helsing for once rather sulked in the background. Needless to say, is it not, that the act never came near accomplishment?
She was able to pass on to me also some matters which were meant to be kept secret from her but which she was able to learn without difficulty from a servant who had been sent to arrange for railroad passage.
'They are going overland, Vlad, departing from Charing Cross station for Paris on the morning of October twelfth; in Paris they plan to board the Orient Express. Exactly how far they mean to go by rail, or what are their plans for intercepting you at their destination, I have not yet been able to learn. Oh, what will they do, what will I do to explain my faulty visions when it is discovered that the box is empty?'
'Mina, I have been giving the matter long thought, as you may well imagine. We must face facts. From what you tell me, Jonathan seems more mad than sane with the wish to do me harm, and if that were not enough to keep the others going, there is the professor, who will not let them turn back from the hunt. Nothing but evidence of my death is going to satisfy this crew. That box, when they open it, may not be empty after all.'
