I sat silent and confused. I had so many questions in my mind and no one to ask them of. Where exactly was I? Why was I here? How did I get here? Why would people think my insane? Part of me worried that something had happened to Raoul. I had expected that doctor to return some time ago. Perhaps I should have told him where to find Raoul. I had been waiting pensively for hours, changing between sitting and pacing the small room.

It is now dark and I feel so alone. Perfect silence, except for the sounds of patients moaning far away. It is so cold and I am shaking slightly, perhaps in fear, nervousness, or just the cold, but as hard as I try I can not stop myself. I am so close to breaking, though I feel foolish to cry, for I know at any moment Raoul will come down the hall to take me home.

Then I heard a sound that gladdened me, the sound of footsteps. At first I hoped for Raoul, but it was not, these were much lighter and the stride much smaller. I quickly composed myself and stood just in time to see someone walk up to the door, it was that woman, Mina in her night clothes.

"Mina!" I exclaimed in surprise.

"Sh, sh, sh!" She quickly silenced me as she began to unlock the door. "Doctor Seward does not know of this."

"What? What about-" I started ignoring her plea for me to be quiet, but she interrupted.

"Please Misses De Changy," She protested as she entered, closing the door behind her. "I am trying to help you, but I need you to calm yourself."

"Why?"

"Sh, please, someone will hear you!" She said in a harsh whisper.

"Yes and why would that matter?" I asked slightly annoyed.

"I should not be here." She said in a strange tone. "Really, I should not be talking to you."

I finally calmed myself down, or at least appeared to be calm. I have never been good at hiding my emotions. Then I asked, "Why are you here?"

"The doctor, he does not believe you. He believes you to be insane."

I once again lost my composure, "If you could just talk to my husband he-"

"Christine!" She said sternly, in a way that surprised me. She had seemed such a mild mannered woman up until this point. I can not think of a time when I had ever been addressed in such a way by a woman. "There is something I need to tell you about your husband."

"Has something happened to Raoul?" I blurted. She stood unwavering with the same emotionless face she had been maintaining the whole time she had been conversing with me. I searched her face for a few moments, then finally she looked down and sighed, hiding her face from my view and handed me a small shred of paper that I had not noticed her clutching. As I looked down I realized it was news print, my eyes were drawn immediately to the heading, the world stopped for this moment, it was like a knife had been plunged into my stomach…

"The Missing French Vicomte De Changy Found Dead in London!"

Everything that happened, all of the pain, the memories found themselves in my mind. Traveling to London, Raoul lying in bed, the doctor when he told the vile culprit: "consumption," the blood, the fever overcoming him, and finally his death.

No sooner had I looked down at the paper than I heard a most hideous sound, the howling of wolves! I turned to see Mina's face change as she turned her face to the moon. He was here! All of this was so much to take in all at once, but I know I must warn Mina! I could feel myself falling into shadow, it felt like I was falling forever into nothingness, but I knew I was falling a mere few feet onto the floor in the corner of the room. Then everything went black.

X X X X X X X X X X

I awoke to an alarming sound that caused me to nearly choke on the very air that I was breathing. It was the sound of nearby howling wolves. Why are there wolves in the middle of Carfax? The sound might not otherwise have been such a shock but the close proximity from which it came and knowing what we now know of the Count's ability to control the creatures of the night, it was reason for pause.

I was certain that my darling Mina would have been waken by the sound. I turned to find her absent from her place beside me. I looked about the room. She was gone!

I fled into the hallway looking franticly for some sign of Mina. The whole situation has made me more protective of her than ever before. God only knows what may have been happening to her at this very moment that I stood in the hall like a dimwitted fool.

Then, in my panic, I saw, coming towards me, Doctor Seward. It was as if, for that moment, my worry struck me dumb, for I did not think to ask Doctor Seward about Mina until he said shakily, "My keys are gone!"

"And Mina is missing!" I said as if adding my comment to his, as if Mina had anything to do with his keys. They were, of course, at this point of marginal importance to me. He stopped a moment and then his eyes widened.

"No." He said, as if musing to himself.

"What is it?" I asked, still in a very rushed intense manner, knowing the importance of time.

"Follow me!" he said and we were both off at a running pace down hallways and through corridors. Given the frenetic state we both found ourselves in, it was quite taxing on our bodies.

I had no proof that the Count was here, but it felt as though his presence was. It was the same sinister feeling I felt at the castle when he was near, like anything could happen, and you had no control of it, his evil force was just too powerful. Amidst this feeling, at the forefront, was Mina. So many thoughts ran through my mind. She never should have come. She should be far from all this. I feared the worst. I imagined his breath, that reeked of death, upon her neck, his hideous fangs piercing her flesh.

Then I saw something that was upsetting, however given the thoughts in my mind, was also relieving. Mina was unharmed, but she was in an entirely different quandary. For, on the floor of a cell, lied the body of a woman and Mina was standing over her.

"Mina!" I exclaimed.

"Jonathan?" She called back to me obviously in shock still, for she seemed dazed and confused, her eyes fluttered at if just waking from a dream, or as if she was not sure I were really here, then she added, "Doctor Seward?"

"My God! What happened?" Doctor Seward asked as he approached the bars.

"I do not know." She answered plainly.

"Quickly Mina, the keys!"

"I dropped them ."

"Where? Where did you drop them?" asked Seward tersely.

She did not speak, she merely pointed out into the hall where the keys lied probably five feet from the door.

"You what? Never mind!" The doctor picked up the keys and opened the cell door and lunged down beside the woman. I followed behind him and stood beside Mina. I was so relieved there was no little thought I could have besides relief. I turned to her and smiled, she looked at me with an odd blank expression. I really could not expect a smile back, given the situation. She was safe and that was all that mattered. Then my mind looked back at the woman on the floor and my mind came back to normality. What was Mina doing in here?

"Thank the good Lord!" Seward exclaimed gaily, "She is breathing. She is just unconscious. Jonathan help me move her onto the bed." I moved from my wife and down onto the floor with Dr. Seward. As we moved her onto the bed I noticed something.

"There is something in her hand." I pointed.

The Doctor proceeded to pry the thing from her hand. It was a scrap of newsprint. He looked at the paper a moment then looked up at Mina.

"Mina! What happened?"

"She fainted."

"Does this have something to do with it?" He said holding up the paper.

She nodded. I could see the heading now, or at least part of it. "French Vicomte Raoul De Changy Fou-" I realized what Mina had done. She had told me of this woman earlier that day. This was not like Mina. Mina does not operate on emotions.

"Why?" he asked, "You know she is a lunatic!" He waited for a reply. "I know about such things, do you no trust me?" Still no reply. "Mina, she could have killed you!" Once again he paused, this time to compose himself, then he laughed. "She will probably wake in the morning and be fine. In the future can you trust me to be the Doctor and I'll trust you to stay out of the affairs of my patients. For now though, I think we should all go back to our beds." The three of us walked out of the cell and Dr. Seward locked the door behind us.

"Mina, please walk back to our room. I will be there soon." I watched as she walked away and then I turned to Seward and said, "Dr. Seward I apologize for my wife's temporary lapse in judgment."

"All is forgiven, and I will not mention it to anyone." He said lightheartedly.

"Thank you my friend. I do not know what has happened to her, this is so very unlike her." I said, slightly embarrassed.

"I know," he replied "that is why I was so shocked. Knowing Mina I am sure she feels just awful. I do not expect a repeat of tonight's actions from her."

"Yes. I am sure you are right." I told him, "Goodnight Doctor." Then I returned back to my bed room.

There I found my wife sitting on the edge of the bed. I needed to calm myself, I had never been so angry at her in all of my life. I paced back and fourth across the room before I spoke.

"What where you thinking?" I asked, "I have never been embarrassed by something you have done up until this evening!" I was positively fuming with anger. Her eyes drifted off as if she were dreaming. I grabbed her by the shoulders violently. "LOOK AT ME!" Her eyes shifted their position and her green eyes stared into mine. Then her whole face seemed to change.

"Oh Johnathan please do not be angry with me." She said playfully, which only made me more furious.

"Mina, this is not a joke!"

"Of course not!" She said running her fingers through my hair.

"Mina I am serious!" I stated, trying to gain her real attention.

"So am I." She half smirked at me. "I want you Johnathan." Her whole demeanor changed. I had neaver heard Mina talk like this.

"What?" I said, knowing perfectly well what she meant but shocked to hear her say it. She did not answer me, but kissed me fully on the lips. She kissed me in such a way that I had never been kissed before I felt exposed. I felt as though I did not know my own wife. It both frightend and enticed me. This was not this sweet tender kiss that I had become accustomed to, this was a passionate intense moment, like the ocean waves that swell until they crash on the rocks. There was no escaping now, it was inevitable, once the fire is lit there is no stopping the flames. I finally pulled away from her lips and asked, "What has gotten into you?" She did not answer but just laughed and pulled me back to her and kissed me again. This time I succumbed.