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bandaged as tightly as he could. He moved her to her bed, propping up her head with pillows so
she could breathe with greater comfort until her lungs cleared themselves of the blood.
"Keep her quiet, keep the wound covered and say your prayers that no infection sets in," the
doctor told us before he left. "One more thing: The monster cut through her larynx. She'll never
speak above a whisper again."
If so, how did she moan and unwittingly draw Colleen's attention from me? A mystery, perhaps a
miracle, though not the only one, since Essie did survive.
I never did ask where Arthur and vampire women went after they left my cottage that night. But
Colleen alone appeared the following evening so she could learn Essie's fate. As she held my
servant's hand, I could see the human part of her was still strong. Something of her soul had
survived her terrible death.
They are staying somewhere close to town. Arthur, still wary, does not tell me where. But
sometimes at night I or Jonathan will go to the cottage window and see Colleen in the garden
sitting with Essie, or glimpse Joanna walking among the flowers, breathing in the scent of roses
she is afraid to touch.
Special thanks:
As always, to Ray McNally for his outstanding research in vampire lore, and J. Gordon Melton for the
same. Also, to Tari Urecke, and to Elizabeth Miller, author of Reflections on Dracula and Dracula:
The Shade and the Shadow, for providing me with the Romanian phrases scattered throughout the
story. And last to Choral Pepper, whose excellent book Walks in Oscar Wilde's London has provided
me with both entertainment and illumination on how "those other Victorians" lived.
Scanned by Highroller.
Proofed by Roundears.
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