Awaken, Excerpt
Staying at Dracula's castle as his guests had been unnerving for everyone except Abraham. Mina was nearly as unflappable as the hunter, but she was concerned for Johnathan. Of them all, he was clearly the most unsettled and unbalanced by staying here, and John was worried.
The vampire had stayed well away from them, either choosing to be near Abraham or staying outside the castle much of the time. This, as well as the social contact with his wife and friends, and the distance Johnathan was from his former chambers...helped. But Seward had noticed the man's increasing nervousness. He startled at everything, and gave suspicious looks to any mouse or spider he encountered. He truly loathed the Romani, and didn't hesitate to glare and mutter insults when they encountered each other.
Seward was simply grateful that the Romani were both unable to understand English and unwilling to anger the Count by a more physical response. They simply glared back, then shrugged and went about their work. So far, Johnathan hadn't managed to provoke them, but it was definitely a trial of his wife's patience and creativity to keep him both occupied and away from the Romani. Their belongings were almost entirely patched, repaired, and replaced, the party almost back to full health after their ordeal in the blizzard, and Johnathan was bored.
The man had entirely too much time to think, far too many bad memories, and a terribly active imagination. Abraham insisted that the Count humor him, and it had been a fight for Seward not to show the grin that was struggling to twist his lips the previous evening. The Count had just arisen, and as was quickly becoming an established habit, had gone to find Abraham immediately. Seward and Van Helsing had been deep in discussion of train schedules, supplies, the party's health, and an estimated departure date. Yawning, great fangs gleaming, the Count had contributed a bit of information about the weather for the next few days.
And then he'd looked utterly peeved. With a great huff and a dirty look at Abraham, he'd launched himself upwards, folding into a tiny black shape...and then hanging from the ceiling as an unobtrusive little bat. Red eyes had blinked down at Abraham, who had pointed firmly towards a corner...and the little bat had shuffled reluctantly across the rough wooden beams of the ceiling to hunker in the dark area Abraham had indicated. It had been terrifically amusing, to see the looming monster as a tiny disgruntled bat, and only a healthy respect for his own well-being had kept the humor from showing on John's face. He suspected the Count had noticed anyways.
Johnathan and Mina had entered mere seconds later. While Harker had given the room a suspicious glance, he'd failed entirely to look up and see the irritated bat. Seward had remained far too aware of the glowing and angry red gaze, and Mina had looked up at his nod towards the vampire and spotted the bat herself. But the Harkers needed the doctors to check over their frostbite and damage, as John required them to do multiple times each day, and Johnathan was distracted from looking for the vampire.
x x x x
"Ouch!" With a glare, Johnathan jerked his hand away from Seward, and John had to fight a little smile off his face yet again. He'd slowly realized that, even with accomodation made for the stress the man was under, Harker was a little... lacking...in social graces. Utterly devoted to his Mina, but a bit of a boor. Even so, he was a boor that had just confirmed feeling in the tips of all 8 fingers and both thumbs, and Seward was relieved to give him a clean bill of health.
He himself had suffered worse damages than the others had. Unlike them, he'd made a sizable and unwilling donation to the vampire shortly before, and the low blood pressure and lack of vital fluid had caused damage he hadn't managed to heal yet.
Abraham's calloused hands turned his own over, pinching and prodding. "Make a fist, please," was followed by "Squeeze my arm, as hard as you can," and various other orders. The concerned look continued to fade from Van Helsing's face. "Bend your toes," and "Spread your toes," and some exploratory prodding, and the look of concern was replaced with a warm smile.
"John, you are one of the luckiest bastards I have met. I'd have sworn you'd lose a toe or two, or have damage in your joints that would be permanent. But it looks like you won't even lose a nail, and your grip has gotten stronger each day. You have feeling in all fingers, though a few are still numb at the tips and the skin isn't done peeling. You can fully flex and extend your hand, and the numbness will be gone in a week."
Mina's relief nearly matched his own, though Johnathan was staring, distracted, out the window and missed the good news. "And with the three of us recovered or nearly so, how much longer will we need to stay?"
Abraham flicked a glance towards Johnathan, before continuing. "The weather is going to remain very cold for a few more days, but it should begin to warm to closer to normal either the day after tomorrow or shortly afterwards. We'll be able to leave then." John was surprised to notice the bat startle, black wings unfurling slightly and suddenly as the bat twisted to watch Abraham. Van Helsing carefully didn't mention where he'd gotten the information about the weather from, but even with that care, Johnathan turned from the window.
"And I suppose your monster told you that? And you really believe him?" His scorn was obvious. "He's not exactly an honest creature. Spiteful, hateful, evil, and devious. And the weather is clear, right now. We could leave." A glare. "He's delaying us, trapping us here longer and longer, and you're allowing it!" The man was almost frantic, shouting at Abraham, clearly becoming more and more frantic at the thought that he'd be spending another two to three nights in Dracula's home.
Mina, bless her, distracted him with a mention of going to the stables and checking on the health of the horses. Once she'd left, the little bat dropped from the ceiling, reforming in front of Abraham.
"I need to hunt. They rarely bring meat when they come to visit, and the Romani will make short work of the deer and rabbits I already brought." He waited, but Abraham very quickly stepped aside and motioned towards the window. Feral grin on his face, the vampire swept towards it, somehow squeezing through the tiny slit and disappearing into the incredibly chill night.
x x x x x x
John wasn't surprised to see a half-dozen additional deer, wild boar, masses of rabbits, and even some game birds piled into the courtyard over the next two days. True to Dracula's prediction, the weather had remained bitterly cold. Without the wind of the blizzard, it was tolerable during the day, but he dreaded, simply dreaded, the thought of being out in that cold at night. Mina had been more clever than he thought, taking John to the stables. The man had been half-frozen and shivering before they'd made it across the courtyard to the stables even during the warmer daytime temperatures, and had admitted to his wife that it was simply too cold to leave. They'd spent a few hours in the stable, Mina ostensibly teaching him some of the finer points of caring for the horses while in actuality keeping him away from the house and the vampire until he was ready for bed.
A borrowed horse-blanket had kept him from freezing on the way back into the castle, and he quieted his plaints about leaving until the day had dawned with a chilly but not cold dawn. The air simply felt different, and Dracula had announced that it would be a bit foggy until noon, then clear off substantially and stay like this for the next couple of days. He could not sense or forecast the weather beyond that with any real accuracy, but experience told him they were for a bout of relatively mild weather. The monster was clearly flagging, with the sun already above the horizon, but equally unwilling to head off to his sleep without a decision being reached.
He'd been doing his best to stock the larder of his Romani. John had peered out the window last night to see the monster dragging an entire deer to the gates, another draped over his shoulders, and carrying a bag bulging with game animals. It had been a rather gorey sight, and Dracula had seemed fatigued as he dropped off his kills outside the kitchen, resting briefly before turning to leave the courtyard and hunt again. He'd apparently come home some time shortly before dawn, and John privately thought the monster had killed enough meat to equip a small army for a few years.
"Wood." They all turned at his voice, Johnathan frowning in irritation that the monster had dared to speak. "They have enough food, but not enough wood. I need to bring them some." A faint smile lifted the corners of the tired monster's mouth. "They'll be chopping it themselves, but I need to bring it." A rough chuckle. "Normally, I'd spend most of the winter gathering this as it was needed. Let the roads melt today, the snow compact, and let me prepare for my servants before I leave them."
Johnathan argued fiercely against it. He wanted to leave, and immediately. John and Mina left him to argue with Abraham, heading down themselves to see the woodpiles prepared for the Romani. And they both agreed; there was not nearly enough to keep the families warm for the winter. A return to Van Helsing's room gave them a surprise; Dracula was gone, but the coffin remained open and empty.
"He's gathering wood during the day." Abraham looked worried. "I'm not happy about it, the sun is bright and it's reflecting off the snow, but he insists he'll be fine. I suspect he's lying, but he has a strong sense of responsibility to his servants. There's a reason they were willing to die for him; he is very protective and careful of them. He's likely to come back very burned, but it's his decision."
Abraham slept most of the morning, and it was early afternoon, just past lunch, when the vampire showed up. As Abraham had predicted, he was badly burned, his face raw and painful to look at, scorched to the point of being blackened. He'd lumbered into the room, woken Abraham, and then fallen directly into his coffin. The courtyard outside contained entire trees, chopped off at the base with axe blows harder than any human could have achieved, then pulled bodily through the forest to the castle. The trees were dead, but the feat of dragging them through the snow and the forest still left John in awe. The vampire had managed six trees, nearly one each hour, and it was enough wood to fuel the Romani for more than a month.
x x x x x x
As the vampire had asked, Abraham woke him shortly before sunset. It was difficult, the vampire's face still burned and puffy though much better than it had been. But he was thin, painfully thin again, his hair thin and white. Once awake, Abraham had attempted to help Dracula out of the coffin, only to be hissed and snapped at for the effort.
He withdrew, and cringed a bit inside as he saw the painful and graceless way the injured and exhausted vampire clambered out of his coffin. Tired red eyes met his. "I'll need to eat, and then I'll look much better. You worry too much." And the vampire didn't worry enough, but within the hour he was back out in the dark, bringing back all the wood he could find for his people. He'd looked better as he went out the door, but still stooped and exhausted.
The vampire staggered back into the room shortly after dawn, still worried about the lack of wood. Abraham looked out, seeing the yard beyond the courtyard stuffed with trees, some dead, some oozing sap. The vampire had given up on finding dead trees, or at least a sufficient number close to the castle, and had simply started felling live trees in the interest of time. And he'd felled many, many, many of them, well over a dozen. The Romani would have a job cutting up all that wood, but the wood was there. It seemed like enough wood to him, but then again, he was not used to heating a great stone castle in the mountains of Romania. If Dracula claimed it was not yet enough, he was inclined to believe the beast.
And his vampire, faded and exhausted, was collapsed into his coffin, expecting to be woken shortly to help load the wagon. Abraham waited until he slept, then went to find John and Johnathan. They would not be leaving today after all. But they needed a distraction, especially John, and Mina could sit with Dracula in case the monster should awaken. It took a bit of work to make themselves understood, but before long they'd left the steady thumps of the Romani axes behind. There were a pair of bright axes in the sled behind them, a pair of draft horses pulling, and a Romani to guide them.
They might not bring in the sort of wood a vampire could, but Abraham and the other men might just bring in enough to satisfy the vampire. And they didn't have to chop it into small bits, either.
The first tree fell with an enormous crash not far from the castle, and the great branches were lopped off, piled into the wagon. The driver left with the first load and Johnathan, and John and Abraham worked on chopping the remaining branches free of the trunk and into ten or so foot sections. Within the hour, the wagon was back, and with two additional horses in harness following it. To Abraham's surprise, the horses were hitched directly to the trunk, and hauled it smartly off to the castle under the guidance of a grinning and proud Romani adolescent.
He grinned himself. This was looking more and more doable. Not long after, the branches they'd prepared were loaded into the wagon. The Romani headed off with that load, and the three men went back to work. It wasn't long before a second tree was down. The five men worked for a few hours removing the branches and hauling them to the castle, then finally following with the trunk. It was nearly dark, and they were tired...but they'd added two very large trees to the pile.
And kept John from harping and whining and wearing himself to a frazzle as well. The man had regained some of his good humor, though it wore off and his smile faded back into a frown as they approached the castle. He'd wanted to leave that day, but Abraham had tired him out and distracted him, and hoped that the man would sleep well that night.
Dracula woke himself an hour past sunset, furious that Abraham had left him to sleep that late, and confused that he hadn't been awakened several miles down the road, either. He was shocked at their efforts to help him, tired eyes wide with surprise as he viewed the new wood they'd brought in. He thanked them all, then left to gather just a bit more himself. Before midnight, he was back, had fed, and spent the remainder of the night walking the halls of his home with Abraham.
The sun rose, and Abraham left him sound asleep until it was time to load the coffin into the wagon. They passed through the kitchen, where the others were finishing their breakfasts, and wasn't surprised to see the vampire detour for a brief private visit with a rather sad-looking Romani woman. He'd returned far less faded but no less tired, loaded his coffin, and crept inside to sleep.
Abraham, who had waited up each night and most of the day from concern for his vampire, added on to his own exertions gathering the wood, was nearly as exhausted as the vampire. His own sleeping schedule had shifted dramatically as he adapted to his nocturnal charge as well. While he was still too awake from the excitement to sleep, he expected he'd be napping in the wagon bed shortly. With a smile of anticipation for his future, which now looked as though it would be anything but boring, he snapped the reins.
The horses pulled the wagon with its human and the two silent coffins through the castle gates and back down the road towards Home.