Here's a tip for any and all other vampires: if you are lucky enough to have a comfortable, roomy, marble coffin, don't use a small, rickety, wooden one instead. For several days I slept in the "travel" caskets and had to fend off claustrophobia attacks. These things are just plain tight and uncomfortable.

The 29th of June, the day before my lovely guest "left," I woke up, stretched, and went back upstairs into the castle. I found him in . . . wait for it . . . wait for it . . . the library, asleep on the couch with a book- thank God not the Law List again- open on his chest. The Brides had learned their lesson, and stayed far away. I shook him awake.

"Ah . . . wah?" Harker slowly pulled out of sleep and sat up. "Hmm-" and then he seemed to wake up more fully. "Oh! Count!"

I nodded and studied him seriously. Harker looked a great deal different from when he arrived: his hair was now threaded through with silver, there were smoky shadows under his newly bloodshot eyes, and he no longer appeared so youthful as he had when he had come. "Tomorrow, my friend, we must part. You return to your beautiful England, I to some work which may have such an end that we may never meet. Your letter home has been dispatched. Tomorrow I shall not be here, but all shall be ready for your journey. In the morning come the Szgany, who have some labors of their own here, and also come some Slovaks. When they have gone, my carriage shall come for you, and shall bear you to the Borgo Pass to meet the diligence from Bukovina to Bistritz. But I am in hopes that I shall see more of you at Castle Dracula."

Harker most certainly looked all the way awake now. He stared at me for several minutes and finally asked bluntly, "Why may I not go tonight?"

Well, at least he didn't beat around the bush now. That was improvement. I stood up, lifting the lamp off the end table, and walked to the door; Harker was a half step behind. "You English have a saying which is close to my heart, for its spirit is that which rules our boyars, Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.' Come with me, my dear young friend. Not an hour shall you wait in my house against your will, though sad am I at your going, and that you so suddenly desire it. Come!" He followed me downstairs to the door, where I paused. "Hark!"

I heard howling from very far away again, and very soon after, howling from very close. So close it could have easily been right on the other side of the door. I started pulling back locks and chains; the nearby yowls grew louder and more aggravated. The door opened a little more- the animals on the other side whined and pressed their faces against the widening opening. I listened to the barks and snarls of anticipation with a sense of peace.

"Shut the door!" Harker shrieked in a high voice, and put his face in his hands, the universal gesture of defeats. "I shall wait till morning."

I slammed the door shut. The waiting wolves wailed and cried and growled at their lost meal, but that soon faded. Harker and I returned to the library, from where he excused himself and went to bed. After he closed the door, I went up to lock it. Katherina misted out of thin air, quickly followed by her sisters.

"Is he done yet? Are you done yet?" she whispered.

I looked at the three. "Soon, soon, I told you you'd have him, didn't I? Now go back." They didn't move an inch, only glowered at me as if I was cheating them out of their kill. "Back to your own place! Your time is not yet come. Wait! Have patience! Tonight is mine, tomorrow night is yours." Kat giggled, at what I have no idea.

The door banged open and I vanished on reflex. My Brides froze like deer in the headlights; Katherina and Harker locked eyes, and she laughed again, grabbed her sisters' arms, and the trio disappeared. My guest stood trembling for a moment, and then the door fell back into its place. I took this opportunity to lock it and go back downstairs for some rest.