Mina closed her journal and rubbed her temples to dissipate some of the tension building in her head. It had been a long day, and a few difficult days before that. She and her husband arrived in London the day before with the sad purpose of attending Mr Hawkins's funerals, the man who had let them everything he owned. That very morning, while they were waiting in the hotel for the time to leave for the ceremony, she made the mistake of opening a newspaper that informed her of the deaths and funerals of both Mrs and Miss Westenra. Mina considered herself a capable woman and not one of those fragile ingenues people saw in novels, but when she read this news, she almost fainted. Jonathan, dear Jonathan, had found her in tears among the discarded pages of the newspapers and had to support her to the nearest chair. After weeks of worrying for Jonathan's life, after the long to Budapest to discover him in such a sad state, it was awful to return to England only to learn of Lucy's death. Without Jonathan to comfort her with his tender care, Mina may have died from the shock.

If they had been at home in Exeter, Mina would have been more reluctant to make the trip to London for the sole purpose of visiting Lucy's grave, especially when Jonathan's health was still so fragile. Physically, he had recovered from his nearly fatal trip, but Mina knew he still suffered in silence from terrible nightmares and she worried for him. When he learned of Lucy's death, Jonathan insisted they went to visit the young deceased right after the funeral. Perhaps he hoped such a dreadful distraction would take him away from his dark thoughts. And indeed, Mina felt better after praying in front of the closed vault, which was now Lucy's last resting place, but she couldn't have done it without Jonathan by her side.

When they returned to their lodging, they discovered a telegram waiting for them. Mina had sent a letter to Lucy's fiancee to send him all of her compassion, with the name of their hotel enclosed. This telegram, written by a man called Van Helsing, invited them to visit Lord Godalming as soon as possible, not at his home but somewhere in Carfax. If they couldn't, Van Helsing wanted to know what would be a good time to meet at their hotel. He and his partners in a certain business needed to talk to them. From the telegram, it appeared they wanted to talk about the circumstances of Lucy's death. Doctor Van Helsing's tone was urgent, which prompted them to respond immediately, despite the late hour. However, as Mina didn't feel she could meet Lucy's fiance or a stranger tonight without bursting into tears at the memory of Lucy, so alive, so cheerful, and eager to get married when they parted, she stayed at the hotel.

Poor Lucy. She had been so happy for Mina when they learned Jonathan was so alive, so sure they would both be married women soon.

Their plan made, Jonathan left for Carfax. Depending on what happened there, he would come back in the middle of the night or sleep there. As for Mina herself, she hoped a good night's sleep would give her back some of her strength. She would need it to talk with lord Godalming, for she wanted to tell him in person how sorry she was for his loss and how she loved Lucy and had wished them both happiness. Before he left, Jonathan had kissed her and encouraged her to work on her diary to help her calm down. After that awful day, she had feared having neither the desire nor the energy to do that, but the memory of Jonathan's kiss helped her to transcribe all the events of the day, for she felt his love even in his absence.

Mina finally closed her diary, and noticed night had fallen. September was here, but the nights were warm enough and it was hot in her room, enough to give her a headache, so she moved to open the window and breathe some fresh air - or as fresh as London could offer - before she settled down to remove her pins and let her hair down. Hoping that Jonathan would return sooner than expected, Mina took her time getting ready for the night, but she put on her nightgown and folded her clothes with no other news from him. She couldn't hide her disappointment. After she waited another few minutes, she finally went to bed, wondering what Van Helsing wanted to tell them, but before she could think about it, she fell asleep. She had been more exhausted than she had thought.

In the middle of the night, Mina woke to find the place next to her still empty and cold. It took her a moment to remember why. She felt a pang in her heart. It was the first time they had been apart for so long since their marriage, but she couldn't complain. Tonight, another man would go to bed alone because his fiancee died too young. Mina turned over and tried to go back to sleep, only to find she couldn't. She had fallen asleep easily the first time, exhausted by the events of the day, but now her mind refused to slow down. On her closed eyelids, she kept seeing Lucy's sweet smile, and she wondered what happened. The newspaper said nothing of the causes of her friend's death, nor who died first between Lucy and her mother. Mina had left her to help Jonathan recover from his strange ordeal in Transylvania. Had Lucy died in a sleepwalking fit? Had her mother's heart not withstood such a shock? If Mina's absence had precipitated the events, she doubted she would ever forgive herself. That fear had stopped her from following Jonathan tonight. Mina couldn't face such a fear by night. In daylight, she hoped her thoughts would be less dark.

Suddenly, she had the strange impression someone was watching her. She opened her eyes and gasped. In the moonlight, she thought she saw Lucy leaning on the window. She must have fallen asleep again, because Lucy was wearing her ball gown, was leaning against a third-floor window of a London hotel, and, of course, she was dead.

"I am dreaming," she said aloud.

Knowing you dreamed was never enough to wake someone. As far as she knew, it only happened in novels. From her place at the window, Lucy chuckled. She was as beautiful as when she was alive, so beautiful Mina wanted to cry.

"It may be a dream. Who knows? May I come in?"

"What are you doing here?"

"You came to visit me earlier, didn't you? I smelled your perfume all over the cemetery when I woke up, so I followed you here. My dear Mina, I missed you so much!"

"I missed you too," Mina whispered with a heavy heart. "I'll miss you for a very long time."

Trouble seemed to bring a cloud over Lucy's beautiful face, giving her a cold, calculating look that made Mina shiver. As if her nightly visitor had realised that, a smile returned to her lovely face, softer than ever.

"I'm cold, Mina. Won't you let me come inside and warm up?"

Her voice was so sad, so full of sorrow, that Mina immediately rose on one elbow to offer Lucy a hand before her instinct stopped her. It was only a dream, but she thought she saw an unnatural hunger in Lucy's eyes. Her friend shivered and rubbed her arms with her hands.

"I've been so cold since they put me on the ground," she whispered. "If only you knew, Mina, how boring it is to be dead! And the coldness... You wouldn't want to be in my place, let me tell you! They put me in a beautiful vault, but the air is icy down there, and my mother is even quieter in death than when she was alive! And the days are so long! I've only had visitors once since I moved in, except you, but I was asleep and the fools didn't even leave their card!"

Lucy's pout was so typical of the one she adopted when she was alive that Mina couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation. It was a strange dream. She hoped she'd remember it in the morning.

"Don't make fun of me," Lucy pretended to scrowl. "Do you think I have fun? You always dreamed of a quiet life, but not me! There are no balls in the cemetery. I'm bored, and my best friend leaves me at the window where a police officer on patrol might look under my skirts! I don't want to appear in a society magazine like the dead woman who scandalised all of London! What if I slip?"

Mina couldn't stop laughing. Maybe this dream was exactly what she needed. It was good to dream of the happy Lucy she loved instead of her icy tomb. Mina rose and put on her dressing gown to offer Lucy a hand.

"Thank you", Lucy said as she climbed inside at an uncanny speed.

"Your hands are cold," Mina exclaimed.

"Is it that surprising? I died. But let's not talk about such sad things! Did you marry Jonathan? Tell me everything, I'm dying to know how it went for you both!"

She pushed Mina towards the bed, away from the window, and made her sit down before doing the same beside her. Mina described her marriage, the happiness she felt leaving with Jonathan, the love and respect they shared, and her concern for him after the strange experience he had had in Transylvania and which he could not speak.

"I am happy your married woman's life is so fulfilling," Lucy sighed when she was done. "Did you know Arthur said he considered us united by the sacred laws of marriage at my funeral? He was so sweet. The poor dear gave me his blood and kept me alive a little longer. For him, it was enough to make him my husband. I was asleep, but I still heard it."

Mina blinked. The conversation was getting stranger and stranger.

"I'm glad he did it. Poor man."

"Indeed, he is a poor man." The mockery in her voice was unfamiliar to Mina. "Of course, he would be less enthusiastic if he knew three other men did the same. Look at me now! Here I am, dead and polygamous. Would you have done it, Mina? Would you have given me your blood?"

"Of course."

"How much? A few drops? An ounce? All the blood in your body?"

Mina shivered. Lucy's icy fingers moved to the vein in her throat to feel her heart beating. Her breast rose under her ballgown.

"You're cold," Lucy noticed. "I don't feel the cold anymore."

"You said..."

"Do we believe half the things we say? You're cold, but your neck is warm, so warm, Mina. Let me warm you up."

In a rustle of silk and satin, Lucy moved behind her to embrace her. Mina swallowed. The body behind her was cold as snow. She should have felt Lucy's breath on her throat, given their proximity, but she didn't. Mina wanted to push Lucy away, but she was holding her too tightly. It was no longer a dream. Either it was a nightmare, or Mina had to consider it was real. She prayed it wasn't. It would be worse than what Jonathan saw in his nightmares.

"Don't you remember?", Lucy whispered in her neck. "Our nights spent in the same bed?"

Mina nodded, panting. Lucy let go of her arm and moved her right hand to the base of Mina's neck.

"You were supposed to watch over me, to be my roommate, chosen by my mother. How silly she was, wanting to be sure I would be a pure virgin on my wedding night. These sleepwalking spells started right after and she was so relieved to have made this decision. You too, weren't you?"

"Yes."

"Because you love me."

Lucy's nails scratched her neck. They were thick as claws. Mina whined as she felt a drop of blood on her skin. Behind her, she felt Lucy's nostrils quiver and her body curl against hers.

"I love you", she promised, without knowing if she was stating a simple truth, a buried secret, or if it was her survival instinct speaking. The claws became caressing hands. The right hand went down to her throat, the left went up to her breast.

"Yes," Lucy purred. "You love me, my tender and sweet Mina. Have you ever wondered why these crises? Not because I slept too deeply, but because I couldn't fall asleep at all. How could I, when I could feel your breath on my skin as you drifted off to sleep? Has your Jonathan ever told you how beautiful you are when you fall asleep? I closed my eyes, and I still saw your chest rising to the rhythm of the waves, rising toward the moon. You were so pretty in the moonlight, your breast white and round like her."

"Lucy..."

"You make me crazy. I stayed awake for hours looking at you, wanting to touch your chest and your lips, wondering what would happen if I dared too if I only dared..."

"Lucy..."

Mina wasn't sure what her plea was going to be. The words didn't come out. Through her nightgown, too light and too heavy at once, she could feel icy fingers brushing against her skin. Only Jonathan had touched her like that, and she remained there, her heart and body on fire, unable to reject the caresses, unwilling to accept them.

"If only you had opened your eyes then, what would you have done? Can you tell me?"

"No, Lucy."

A sharp nail sliced through the strap of her nightgown, revealing her skin. Lucy put her lips against her neck, inhaling her scent. This time, Mina couldn't hold back a moan, half complaint, half begging. Lucy laughed against her neck. Mina's head fell back helplessly, stopped only by Lucy's blonde hair. Her hair seemed to be some kind of net, created to imprison her and drag her to the bottom of some dark water in which Mina could only drown.

"I'll tell you what I would have done. I would have kissed you. I couldn't have resisted any longer. But you didn't wake up, so I fell asleep, begging you to wake up, and I wandered in my sleep, looking for you but never finding you, even when you were so close. Why did we part, Mina? I wanted you forever by my side."

Mina tried to turn her head, but she couldn't see more of Lucy than her halo of blonde hair and her long, thin hands which constantly brushed against her lips, her throat, her breast, her legs, and even her eyelashes. She recognised her friend. It was her and it wasn't her, with her velvet lips that looked like a cherry, her skin pale as the mist, her dark eyes red as a burning fire. Mina wanted to scream.

Instead, only a long moan escaped her throat, almost a death rattle. Mina felt like she was on fire, not knowing whether to blame Lucy's cold skin, the insane words that fell from her scarlet lips, or the delicious brush of those fingers. Even in the privacy of their bedroom, Jonathan never touched her like this. He was calm and measured, his passion held firmly on a leash by his tenderness and consideration for her. Never had his fingers played on Mina's skin as if she were an instrument to be flattered in the hope of extracting some extraordinary music from it. The claw that had cut the top of her nightgown ventured lower. The fabric tore with a whisper or a roar of thunder.

"Yes, Arthur's speech was very nice", Lucy continued in a calm voice, as if she didn't realise what her hands were doing. "He said a part of himself would stay in the grave with me for all eternity. But men are fickle things... With time, he will forget me. But you won't, won't you? Love is fleeting, friendship is eternal. Say you won't forget me."

Her sharp nails played on the corner of Mina's lips.

"I won't forget you," she swore. She would have promised anything for Lucy to stop. Or to continue. She didn't knew anymore. "Lucy..."

Lucy kissed her on her temple in thanks. It was almost a bite. Mina almost cried with relief. Lucy continued her speech as if she had not heard her.

"I could only think of one thing while he was speaking in my honour. I wanted it was you, standing there. He only knew me as that young beauty he hoped would stand by his life until death do us part. He knew some of my dreams, but you, Mina, know them all. We shared everything, our everyday life, our most intimate secrets,… All we lacked was the intimacy of the flesh. Now, do you regret sleeping while I stared at you as much as I do?"

Lucy's hands fell completely away from her. This time, Mina couldn't hold back a sob. She burned so hot she needed the coldness of Lucy's skin against hers.

"Yes, she cried. Yes. Lucy..."

A single finger slid from her throat to her leg, as if to praise her for her honesty. Mina felt her heart beating fast. Something awoke inside her, something unfamiliar but marvelous.

"Do you feel how my skin warms up when it touches yours?"

Mina nodded her head in agreement, still frozen by the contact. Lucy rewarded her by placing her other hand on her hip, under her nightgown. Suddenly, Mina was conscious of how little clothes she wore.

"Would you send me back to my cold grave, Mina? Could you pretend when you woke up that it was all just a dream?"

"No."

"You can help me, you know? Give me a little of your warmth, that wonderful warmth which has deserted my flesh. Would you give it to me?"

"Yes."

Lucy let out a delighted sigh. Her lips left Mina's temple to descend, placing dozens of kisses along her cheeks and neck. Mina felt Lucy's tongue taste her skin, and then something stung her deeply. Mina arched her back violently. It was as if a violent electric current was running through her, or one of those enormous waves that crashed against the pier at Whitby. In a flash, Mina saw two tiny holes in Lucy's neck again, then stopped thinking completely, lost in the overwhelming sensations. When Lucy withdrew, she moaned in protest.

The next moment, Lucy had her on the bed, positioning on top of her, one knee between her legs, one hand on her chest. Her lips were the colour of blood now, and blood spread across her chin, slipping onto her silk dress. Fascinated and revulsed in turn, Mina saw a drop of her blood fall onto Lucy's breast. She didn't understand what was happening. She didn't want to understand, she just wanted to drown, and for Lucy to touch her again, anywhere, to help with the fire building inside her. Her head was spinning.

Lucy leaned towards her. Once again, her blond hair imprisoned Mina in an unescapable golden cage. Lucy's mouth brushed against her, and a drop of Mina's blood fell from Lucy's lips onto hers. Mina's eyes widened. Lucy wasn't breathing.

"Thanks. I'm less cold now. But tomorrow..."

"Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow I will be alone again, alone and cold, without you. Except..."

Lucy abruptly turned her head. She listened to something in the distance. Mina could only hear the beating of her own heart.

"They're coming, that doctor and your husband," Lucy said in furor. "What do they know?"

Mina shook her head. Words had deserted her. Her head felt heavy and she couldn't breathe.

"They're going to separate us," Lucy threatened. "Except…"

She took Mina's trembling hand between hers and put it against the medallion that closed her ballgown. She forced Mina's hand to close around her, and forced her to tear the dress, revealing Lucy's white throat beneath. When she let go of Mina's hand, Mina found she couldn't let go of the fabric, like it could stop her from drowning. Languorousny, Lucy placed two sharp nails against her chest and pierced it. Blood flowed, Lucy's blood, and maybe a little of the blood she took from Mina. She violently brought Mina's head to the wound.

"You love me?"

"Yes!"

"You don't want to forget me? You don't want to leave me alone in my cold grave?"

"No!"

"Drink, then, and flee with me. Taste my blood as I have tasted yours, and you'll be mine as I'm yours. We'll sleep on the day, but every night we'll rise together. I will touch you there and make you cry just from my touch. We'll have all eternity to learn how to make each other scream. Do you like what my fingers are doing to you? You can have that, Mina. You just have to drink."

Half fainted from pain and lack of blood, transported by an unknown madness, hypnotised by the desire in Lucy's eyes and to which her own responded despite herself, Mina stretched her lips towards the bloody stream. She could hear running down the stairs, Jonathan's voice calling to her in anguish. Jonathan. She had forgotten he existed, lost in Lucy's caresses, in the call of her blood. Mina could call for help. She should call. She could also answer to the temptation and taste Lucy's blood and Lucy's skin, that skin that filled her entire field of vision.

Mina inhaled and her lips parted to utter the cry of anguish or ecstasy that lay dormant deep within her.