The Mina Murray Series Bundle, A Dracula Retelling: Books 1-3

by L. D. Goffigan

  My hands trembled as I turned away from him, subtly feeling for my weapons beneath the sleeves and bodice of my dress. Who was watching us? Vlad? Ilona? One of their followers? Regardless of who it was, I knew that I needed to appear calm and resolute. I did not want our voyeur to see my unease, so I kept my eyes focused on the window and away from the door, anxiously waiting for whomever it was to show themselves.

  Outside, I could vaguely make out distant figures in the trees that lined the grounds of the estate, and I felt a rush of relief. Abe and the others were here. We weren’t alone. I had to will my excitement away, schooling my features into an expression of detached calm.

  Behind me, I felt an increased tension from Jonathan, and the sensation of multiple icy eyes on my skin. Praying that my face was an unreadable mask, I turned.

  A group of ten vampires entered the drawing room, their furious gazes mostly pinned on me, and though they did not speak, I felt the hiss of Ghyslaine in my mind. Though I was not wholly surprised at the presence of other vampires, and we had anticipated this—Vlad would not be foolish enough to come here without protection—I did feel a fissure of alarm. It was crucial that we get the other vampires to leave.

  Vlad and Ilona were the last ones to enter. It was eerie to me how human they appeared. Vlad looked like an upper-class English gentleman, with his fine black sack-coat, grey vest and trousers; Ilona a society wife in her midnight blue silk dress. Their dark beauty was the only thing that set them apart from most humans—that and the glittering eyes that shone with suspicion and hatred as they settled on me. Monsters in human skin, I thought, recalling Gijs’ words. These two creatures were responsible for scores of deaths; including the death of my parents.

  But I held my hatred for them at bay, hoping that I looked appropriately reverent as they stepped forward, and forced myself not to flinch at their approach.

  Before Jonathan or I could speak, Ilona reached out to grab me by neck, lurching me towards her, her lips curled back to reveal her fangs.

  “Jonathan is bound to me. I knew he would come back to his maker,” she hissed, as I fruitlessly struggled to release myself from her grip. “My brother tells me you wish to join us. I think you are full of lies.”

  I watched in mute horror as she swiftly lowered her other hand towards my chest, going directly for my heart. She was going to kill me. I tried desperately to yank myself away from her, but she was far too strong, and Jonathan cried out in alarm, reaching out to attempt to stop her, but it was Vlad who yanked her away from me.

  “Not yet, Ilona!”

  “I will not listen to her lies!” Ilona snarled, stepping away from her brother to glare at me. “You are a fool to trust her!”

  “All that I have told you is true,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. I held onto the black rage that had recently become a part of me, allowing it to color my words as I reverently sank down to my knees. At my side, Jonathan followed suit. “Both of my parents lied to me for my entire life. They betrayed and abandoned me,” I continued, quaking with fury as I thought of their treachery. “I have never truly belonged to the human world, I bear it no loyalty. My dear husband is becoming vampire; I have chosen to join him. To join you.”

  Though my words were lies, the rage behind them were real, and I hoped that they could sense it.

  “Tell me what I want to know, and perhaps I will believe you. Tell me where the surviving members of the Order of the Dragon hide,” Vlad said, his dark eyes trained intently on me, reminding me much of his father, though his held no traces of warmth or humanity.

  I drew myself rigid, my eyes sliding to the other vampires as Jonathan and I climbed back to our feet. They were now regarding me with varying looks of suspicion, surprise, and lingering rage.

  “I will only tell you and your sister. This is not information for them,” I said, gesturing towards the other vampires.

  “You are not in the position to make demands!” Ilona spat, taking a threatening step towards me, but Jonathan moved protectively in front of me.

  “Trust needs to be earned on both sides. You both are far stronger than the two of us. We will feel safer delivering this information to you alone,” he said, his tone decidedly lawyerly and matter of fact, though I could sense his underlying panic.

  Vlad’s eyes met mine for several long moments, and I evenly held them, keeping my mind clear.

  “I could make you tell me,” he said silkily. “We have our ways. I am sure that Jonathan remembers.”

  “You do not have the time,” I said boldly, as Jonathan stiffened at my side, feigning bravery even as terror shot through me at the thought of being tortured at their hands. “You are very close to striking in London. I know that the members of the Order are trying to stop you even now as we speak. My information can help you rid yourself of them.”

  I saw a brief flare of rage in his eyes at my defiance. Next to me, Jonathan stood rigidly, his body vibrating with anticipation. He was expecting Vlad to strike, but to my great relief, Vlad turned to gesture the other vampires out of the room.

  As I watched them file out, the weapons beneath my clothes began to burn against my skin, as if they had somehow come to life and were aching to be buried in the flesh of the monsters before us. We just needed to get close enough to them both and strike at the same time, as we’d practiced. I could feel Jonathan’s continued tension; he was like a coiled snake prepared to strike. He was ready.

  Once we were alone, my lips curved in a sly smile, and I moved slowly towards Vlad, as Jonathan moved towards Ilona. Vlad remained stock still, his eyes intent on mine, searching for any traces of deception. Ilona looked as if she were going to launch herself at me at any moment, her eyes shifting from me to Jonathan with suspicion.

  “Now,” Vlad hissed. “Tell me, or I will kill you where you stand.”

  “The surviving members of the Order are in Constantinople,” I said, reciting the information that Anara and Szabina had given me that morning. “That is where they are trying to recruit more followers to destroy you. There are also a dozen members in London right now, trying to prevent your attack.”

  I nearly screamed as Vlad moved towards me in a flash, his cold hands pressed to the sides of my face, tilting my face up to his. He was searching my mind now. I could feel his presence there, like insects crawling beneath my skin, and I willed the rage to course through me, to keep my mind clear, to not flinch. If he sensed any sliver of deception, I was dead.

  After a long and charged moment, he seemed to relax, and his dark eyes went alight with a monstrous hunger.

  He believed me. It was time to strike.

  “Do you trust me now, Master?” I whispered, angling my arm so that my kukri knife could slide into the palm of my hand. “We kill them, and we wipe out the last threat to you.”

  But there were sudden shouts of alarm from the entrance hall—it was the other vampires.

  “There are others here!”

  “She has betrayed you, Master!”

  “The Order is here!”

  Abe and the others, I realized, panicked. They had been seen.

  I heard the front doors crash open, and the mingled scents of Abe and others from our group wafted in. Immediately, the sound of scurrying bodies, snarls, and grunts filled the hall as they began to fight Vlad’s vampires.

  I was momentarily frozen with terror as Vlad’s expression shifted from hunger to an animalistic rage. He was going to kill me. I had to act now.

  Moving faster than I thought was even possible, I lifted my kukri and sank the blade into the base of his throat. Dark blood seeped from the gaping wound as I yanked it out, and he stumbled back with a surprised and agonized howl. I raised the blade to sink it into his chest, but he reached out to grab my wrist, his grip so tight that my bones cracked, and as I screamed in pain, I was suddenly in the air, hurled back against the far wall with such force that I nearly lost consciousness, and the room blurred around me.

  Out of the corner of my e
ye, I could dimly see that Jonathan had managed to sink his stake into the side of Ilona’s throat, but she now had him pinned to the ground, her face savage with fury as she choked the life from him.

  Dazed, my entire body aching with agony, I struggled to get to my feet, but Vlad was instantly in front of me, lifting me up in the air with his hand on my throat, his eyes filled with blazing fury.

  “Even if you had succeeded, this does not end with me,” he snarled. “I will finish your traitorous line.”

  He yanked me down towards him, sinking his fangs into my throat. I screamed, but he held me still as he drank from me, draining me of my blood. I would soon lose consciousness. Think of something, I thought frantically. Think.

  But my mind grew increasingly hazy as I was drained, and the edges of my vision began to blur and turn black. There was one last thing I could try—it was the only way I would survive. I felt a miniscule flicker of relief when I saw that he was looking at me as he drank. I weakly met his eyes, probing his mind.

  I was stumbling through a forest, dizzy and weak. The flesh of my face and torso was ragged and torn by the cut of their traitorous knives; I was coated with their blood and my own. I sank to my knees and began to crawl, my rage paired with an equal amount of despair. I needed blood or I would die, and I could not allow myself to die. I was the most powerful creature in the world—the Dracula. I had to find a way. But I was too weak to continue moving, and fell onto my bleeding torso, my life’s essence draining from me.

  I was released as Vlad dropped me and stumbled back, his lips stained with my blood. I swayed weakly, barely able to hold myself upright as my vision swam. Vlad stumbled to his knees, looking ill. Ilona was preoccupied with Jonathan, who had somehow managed to scramble out from beneath her, and she now had him pinned him against the wall.

  My hold on consciousness was slipping. I had to strike with my little remaining strength. It would be the last thing I did before leaving this world.

  With my vision still blurred and my limbs keening with pain, I managed to reach down into my bodice, yanking out a wooden stake. Vlad’s eyes were shut, his hands on his head as he shook violently. I had the perfect angle. The perfect opportunity.

  I lifted my arm and launched the stake towards his chest.

  You cannot miss, Anara had said. You miss, you die.

  Time seemed to stand still as the stake flew from my hand and sailed through the air, landing solidly in the center of his chest—right in his heart. Vlad’s bellow of pain and fury seemed to shake the entire room, and as his eyes flew open, I removed my other kukri from my sleeve.

  This was it. I had no more strength left after this. I hurled the kukri, arching it towards his neck. My eyes met his, and I hoped that he could hear the words that I screamed in my mind, words that I was too weak to speak aloud.

  For my parents. Arthur. Lucy. Radu. And scores of other innocent souls.

  The blade careened through the air, and when it arrived at its destination, it tore right through the tenuous flesh of Vlad’s throat, severing his head from his body, and he fell lifelessly onto the floor.

  “NO!”

  Ilona’s agonized wail pierced the silence, and she launched herself off of Jonathan and towards me, her eyes wild with grief and rage. I stumbled to my knees, too weak to stand or fight, feeling a strangely calm acceptance of my death. Jonathan lay still on the floor behind her, his eyes closed, his chest unmoving. I allowed myself a brief moment of grief for him before meeting Ilona’s ferocious eyes. I would go bravely to my death.

  Her face was streaked with bloody tears, and when she reached me, she lowered her hand towards my chest. She was going to rip my heart out, and this time she would succeed.

  But she abruptly stiffened as a wooden stake jutted through her chest from behind, her eyes widening in shock and agony. My eyes weakly lifted, and I saw Abe standing behind her. He hurled a knife that lodged solidly in the back of her skull. I watched in a daze as her skin desiccated before my eyes; the pale smooth skin wrinkling, the green eyes turning black, blood seeping from the sockets of her eyes, her nose, her mouth; her true monstrousness finally revealed beneath the shield of her beauty. She slumped sideways to the floor, still and silent.

  The others raced into the room behind Abe. In the hallway outside, I could dimly see the dead bodies of the vampires who had come with Vlad and Ilona.

  Abe and Gabriel dashed towards me. I was too weak to hear the words they shouted, which seemed so very far away. Abe lifted me in his arms, racing out of the drawing room.

  “Burn it down!” someone—Seward?—shouted, and I could smell smoke as Abe dashed with me down the entrance hall and out of the estate.

  He kept running until we were on the far edge of the estate grounds, near the towering trees. The world around me had become increasingly dim, and I felt as if I stood on the precipice of consciousness, teetering on the edge, and I had no strength to remain upright.

  Abe stumbled to his knees, setting me down on the ground, his face filled with panic and anguish. He was shouting, but I could only faintly hear his words.

  “She is dying! We need help! Mina, my heart, stay with me. Please. Please.”

  He began to weep as he gazed into my fluttering eyes. I held them, those eyes that I knew and loved so well, glad that they would be the last thing I saw before departing, and I welcomed the darkness that claimed me.

  15

  Goodbye

  A black void surrounded me.

  In the far distance, I could hear the vague murmur of voices, faint as whispers. I felt a powerful yearning to draw closer to them, but I could not move, and the voices continued to drift in and out of my awareness like the ebb and flow of a tide on a faraway shore. I willed myself to concentrate, to hone in on the voices, until one particular voice seemed to rise above the others. It was deeply familiar, and I clung to the steady rise and fall of its cadence, until the words it spoke became clear.

  “Robert once told me that he hoped I would always look out for you. He was quite perceptive. I think he knew I loved you before I did. He always had a way of seeing—”

  The words faded back into that distant murmur, becoming unrecognizable once more. I desperately wanted to cry out for the voice to return, to not leave me alone in this place. But more familiar voices came into clarity, and I clung to them like a lifeline.

  “You told your first governess you’d no reason ta learn embroidery—you were goin’ ta be a scientist li’ your father. You made ‘a cry . . . ’n you were just a lass o’ ten. Any other parent would’ve been furious, but Robert was only amused. After your third governess quit, he hired your first science tutor. Oh, Mina,” the voice continued, beginning to quiver. “Your father’d not want you ta drift away so soon. You’ll see your parents again one day, but not yet. Come back t’ us, bairn.”

  “I never should have allowed you to take on those monsters,” a different voice said. “I’m unworthy of you, of your love. Mina, I vow to give you your freedom, to allow you to live the life you were always meant to lead, if only you would open your eyes again,” the voice broke, dissolving into heartbreaking sobs.

  I wanted to respond, but I was paralyzed in the darkness, and silence surrounded me once more. I tried to seek out more voices in the deafening quiet, and I soon heard another familiar voice.

  “I was quite lonely as a child,” the voice said. “I . . . hated what I was. I desperately longed to be human, and I was envious of you. You got to live with our mother, you knew your father, and you were so loved by them. My envy was so great that I did not want to watch over you, but I made her a promise. I am glad that I did. I am glad that I came to know you. Sister, you are stronger than most. Do not succumb to the darkness. Do what you do best. Fight, Mina. Fight.”

  “I never wanted to marry,” that first familiar voice spoke again, the one that initially brought me out of the blackness. This time, I willed myself to hold on to it, to use it as an anchor to pull me from this dark abyss. “I
could tell that my parents never loved each other, they just did what was required of them. My life was to be dedicated to study, teaching, and scientific experimentation. But then I met you, and everything changed. I . . . I love you so, Mina. Even after you broke my heart, I never stopped. Even when I learned you were engaged to Jonathan. Even after you married him. Even now. I will never stop, though I know that I must love you from afar,” the voice continued, now strained with tears. “I love you. Please, come back to me. Come back.”

  I continued to cling to the voice, and realized that I could now feel. There was a firm grip on my hand, a hot breath close to my ear. I continued to hold onto the sensations, until I could hear the distant rumble of footsteps and voices, birds chirping outside of a window. I felt the cool air of a room, and a dull pain in my wrist, my ribs, my back.

  The darkness dissipated, and I opened my eyes.

  I was in a hospital room, lying in bed. There were bandages wrapped around my torso beneath my gown, and around my wrist. Abe sat at my bedside, one hand clutching mine, the other hand covering his face as he silently wept.

  My senses were no longer heightened. Everything seemed muted now, like vibrant colors reduced to gray. But I felt relief. It meant I was no longer undergoing the transformation, and I was fully human again.

  It took great effort, but I managed to squeeze his hand with my own. He stiffened, lowering his hand from his face as his tearful blue eyes met mine.

  “Mina,” he whispered, the dark shadow lifting from his visage, his eyes going wide with both astonishment and relief.

  I managed to give him a shaky smile, and he reached out to pull me into a gentle embrace, weeping openly now. Though my body was still sore and aching, I clung to him, flooded with relief and love. I buried my face in the crook of his neck, breathing him in, grateful to be out of the darkness.

  And then the memories of what happened at the estate flashed through my mind. My kukri severing Vlad’s head from his body. Ilona’s snarl of rage before Abe staked her. Jonathan’s still body. Jonathan . . .