The Elixir

by George Willson

  * * * * * * * * * *

  Van Helsing arrived in the mid-morning at the Westenra house and was surprised to find Seward at the door, ringing the bell. He had come on the earliest train from Amsterdam, and did not expect to be arriving at the same time as Seward.

  “John, are you only just arriving?” Van Helsing asked.

  “Yes, sir, I confess that I had my own altercation last night, and I failed to look at your telegram until this morning,” Seward said. “And now, no one will answer the door.”

  “Let us go around the house then,” Van Helsing suggested. “Perhaps they are outside.”

  “I fear that something may have happened in our absence,” Seward said.

  “Then we may find evidence of that or even another way in,” Van Helsing said. “Regardless, it appears nothing is to be gained by continuing to hang on the bell.”

  They walked around the outside of the house and for a time, all appeared to be in order. Then they reached the back patio and saw the door. Together they ran inside and saw Lucy and her mother on the bed amidst the broken glass.

  They checked both women, and found that Lucy’s mother had died. Seward spoke of her weak heart and surmised that if something dramatic had caused the destruction, her heart might have finally given out. He confessed he expected it at any time. Lucy was still alive, but Seward found her skin cool to the touch, possibly because of the open air from the destroyed door.

  “Draw her a warm bath, and we will try to raise her body temperature,” Van Helsing said once Seward had finished his evaluation. “I will carry her into the living room to get her out of the air, and then see if I can determine what happened here.”

  He had hardly lain Lucy on the couch when the doorbell rang. When he answered it, he was met by a portly, bearded gentlemen in a well tailored, grey, three-piece suit.

  “Who the devil are you, then?” the man asked.

  “Dr. Abraham Van Helsing,” Van Helsing replied. “I’m a friend of the family assisting with their daughter.”

  “Yes, I had heard something was going on with her,” the man said and walked inside.

  “And whom do I have the pleasure of addressing, sir?” Van Helsing asked the man as Seward reentered the room.

  “Is anyone else here with you?” the man demanded.

  “Hello, Mr. Stoker,” Seward said holding out his hand for the man to shake. Stoker returned the handshake.

  “It’s Seward, isn’t it?” Stoker asked. “I’m afraid I’ve only had the pleasure once or twice.”

  “Yes, sir,” Seward said. “Dr. Van Helsing, this is Mr. Bram Stoker. He’s the business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London. Henry Irving’s theatre.”

  “I’ve heard of him,” Van Helsing said. “Been meaning to go, but I’m afraid I’ve never been able.”

  “I have the bath drawn,” Seward said.

  “Very good,” Van Helsing said. “I’m afraid we’ll need to get her undressed ourselves. There is no opportunity for ceremony here.”

  “I will have to inquire as to what is going on here,” Stoker insisted. “I can’t have you two disrobing poor Lucy without some kind of explanation. Her fiancée, Arthur Holmwood, sent me over here to see how things were going, and I’ll have to confess this is the last thing I expected to find.”

  “Miss Westenra has been infirmed as of late,” Van Helsing explained. “On death’s doorstep on several occasions. This last evening while neither John nor I were present, something destroyed the door in her room, and her poor mother passed in the night. We are now attempting to warm her up by immersing her in a bath.”

  “Oh, my goodness,” Stoker said. “And you’re both doctors?”

  “We are,” Van Helsing said.

  “Well, carry on then,” Stoker said. “I expect you know what you’re doing.”

  As Van Helsing lifted Lucy from the couch, she mumbled something about seeing a wolf before drifting back into unconsciousness. The three men looked at each other.

  “I do recall there being something in the papers about an escaped wolf,” Seward said.

  “A wolf could not have caused that level of damage,” Van Helsing said. “It is likely a hallucination resulting from her constant blood loss.”

  “Blood loss?” Stoker asked.

  “We’ve not been able to explain it,” Seward said.

  “And we would also like to ask if you would mind giving some blood for her once we get her in the bath,” Van Helsing said as he walked to the bathroom. Her body was lightweight, and once he removed her clothing, he noted just how emaciated she really was. He immersed her in the bath, and called the other two in.

  “Mr. Stoker, the only thing we’ve been able to do for her so far is to give her periodic blood transfusions,” Van Helsing explained. “It has helped, but I fear it ultimately will not save her. However, we are quite unwilling to just let her pass without a fight. Would you mind?”

  Van Helsing placed a chair with its back to the tub. Stoker nodded, removed his jacket, and rolled up his sleeve. He sat in the chair and allowed Van Helsing to hook him up to Lucy. Van Helsing felt of her temperature as she rested in the tub. As Stoker’s blood flowed into her, her complexion improved. Once Van Helsing removed the tube from Stoker’s arm, he returned to the living room while Seward and Van Helsing removed Lucy from her bath and redressed her.

  They placed her on the couch in the living room, and Van Helsing told Seward to sit with her while he investigated the ground outside her room. He did not believe there was an animal out there, but also did not know why the door would have been destroyed for any reason. The garlic was still in place, so if it were a Mutation, it is extremely unlikely that the creature would have come into the room.

  The ground was relatively soft and ignoring the footprints of himself and Seward, he noted two other sets near the doorway. One was barefoot, which was common for Mutations, but the other was clearly in boots. He looked at the distance between the various footfalls across the yard which indicated traveling at inhuman speeds and concluded that not only was there a Mutation outside her door, but the Mutation was fighting with a Fempiror. He wondered which had flown through the glass door. He also wondered if he would know either of them.

  He returned to the living room to find Stoker resting and Seward calmly watching Lucy.

  “We will need to wire for her fiancée, I imagine,” Van Helsing said softly.

  “What about the blood that Mr. Stoker gave?” Seward asked.

  “Bought us time, but little else,” Van Helsing replied. “Hopefully, it will give her fiancée time to get here before it happens.”

  “How long do you think she has?”

  “A day at the most, I would wager.”

  Seward nodded and stared at the girl for whom he clearly still held feelings. Van Helsing wondered if he should be the one to go, but although Seward might appreciate the time, only Van Helsing knew everything about the condition. He would give Seward a few minutes before insisting. There was still a little time for her fiancée to make the journey.

  It was not long before Seward left to send the telegram to Arthur, and a few hours later, Holmwood arrived at the Westenra house to see his weakened fiancée. Few words were spoken among the men as Arthur walked across the living room to Lucy reclining on the couch. As he knelt beside her, she opened her eyes, turned her head to look at him, and gave him a genuine smile. Indeed, he was the one who made her the happiest. She lifted her arm and touched his face.

  “My love,” she whispered, a tear rolling down her face. “I am sorry I was not able to make it to our wedding.”

  “You have nothing to apologize for,” Arthur assured her. “I don’t need a wedding to say that I love you. I promised that I would be with you to the end, and even without the priest, I will do that. I will not leave your side.”

  “You’ll stay right here?” she asked.

  “Nothing on heaven or earth will separate us,” he said.

  “Kiss me one more time,�
� she asked. Arthur looked to Seward who looked at Van Helsing. While some small risk existed in this, he doubted that in her weakened condition, Lucy would be able to infect Arthur, so he nodded his assent to the gesture between the unfortunate couple.

  Arthur leaned in and kissed Lucy in a long embrace that would have been considered improper under any other circumstances, but as it would likely be their last, no one thought anything of it. When they stopped, they stared at each other for what seemed like forever.

  “I will miss you,” she finally said. Arthur was clearly struggling to maintain his composure at this point, and he only nodded and wrapped his arms around her. She relaxed and he let her lie down on the couch and rest. He stood over her as tears welled in his eyes, and his face shook as he worked to hold back the grief.

  Without a word, he left the gathering and walked outside. No one had to ask what he was doing, nor did anyone speak of the wail they had heard from outside the house shortly thereafter.

  About an hour later, Arthur returned with a red face and bloodshot eyes. Without a word, he moved a chair to the head of the couch and sat silently with Lucy as she slept.

  Night turned into day, and Arthur never moved. During the next day, the men continued taking shifts watching Lucy as the others slept, though whether waking or sleeping, Arthur remained in the chair beside her. At one point, Seward received a telegram, but he only glanced at it and put it away.

  As the night set in, Lucy reached out and took Arthur’s hand. Their eyes met for one last time before she closed them of her own accord and was no more. Arthur rested her hand on her chest and looked to Seward who listened for Lucy’s heart with a stethoscope. He solemnly lowered his head and stepped away from her. As far as they knew, it was over.

  Stoker left for London after giving his condolences to Arthur, and Van Helsing met with Seward outside.

  “So what is to become of the Westenra estate then?” Van Helsing asked.

  “When Arthur and Lucy were engaged, her mother rewrote her will to make Arthur the beneficiary. With both of them gone, all of this is his responsibility,” Seward explained.

  “Good heavens, the poor man,” Van Helsing replied. “I do have to ask you about interment practices here in England.”

  Seward shot him a confused look, and before he could ask, Van Helsing continued.

  “Mainly, do you practice any sort of embalming or anything else that modifies the body prior to its burial?”

  “Why is that important?”

  “Because, as I’ve said, I’ve encountered this condition before, and while you may find it disturbing to hear, I have to tell you that while Miss Lucy is certainly no longer herself, her body isn’t exactly dead.”

  “I beg your pardon?” Seward said indignantly.

  “She is continuing to change,” Van Helsing continued. “If her body is embalmed, then that will stop the process, and all is well. However, if she is simply interred as she is, then she will, shall we say, awaken in a couple of days and be quite dangerous.”

  “Dr. Van Helsing,” Seward said, clearly restraining his anger. “I have accepted everything you have proposed to this point, no matter how insane I felt your hypotheses were. I could not deny the evidence of my own eyes, but I also cannot deny them now. I checked her heart and she is most clearly dead. We tend to bury our dead as they died, and so, there will be no change to the body whatsoever.”

  “Is she to be buried then?” Van Helsing asked.

  “If I am not mistaken, I believe the Westenra family has a mausoleum in London where they are interred,” Seward said.

  “Coffins on shelves then,” Van Helsing said.

  “Yes, why?”

  “John, I know this will be difficult to accept, but we will need to stab Lucy through the heart to ensure that she remains dead,” Van Helsing explained. “We can wait until the services are over, I’m sure, but-”

  “Doctor, this woman is not some kind of experiment!” Seward interrupted. “She was a poor child who experienced a most horrific end. I will not have her body defiled in some vain pursuit.” Seward closed his eyes, and Van Helsing could see he was fighting back his grief. “Whatever it is you think will happen, I will need some time to adjust to this first. To make matters worse for me, I need to return to Purfleet. One of my patients has escaped yet again and is attempting to harass the gentleman unfortunate enough to have taken residence next door to the asylum. I’ve actually been meaning to talk to you about him at some point before all this came up, but now is not the time. Whatever you do, please do not disturb Arthur or Lucy. The last thing that man needs is more grief.”

  “Don’t wait too long on this,” Van Helsing said.

  “Good-bye, doctor,” Seward said, and he went back into the house. Van Helsing walked toward the town to catch a train to London. He would need to keep in touch with Seward in order to find out where Lucy would be interred since in only a few short days, she would awaken as a new Mutation. And she would be hungry.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Much had happened to Mina Harker since she had left Whitby to be with Jonathan in Hungary. In order to maintain a level of decorum, and for the sisters to allow her to remain in Jonathan’s room without them, she became Mrs. Harker in a ceremony in the chapel of their hospital. It was not the wedding or the honeymoon of which she had dreamed, but she was overjoyed to be his wife.

  He continued to recover over the next couple of weeks before they finally deemed him well enough to travel, though he would continue to recover over time. Many of his injuries were not physical, and there were several nights where he awakened screaming about something she did not understand. He seldom spoke about what had happened in Transylvania at the castle of the dignitary for whom he had acted as a solicitor, and though he had kept a diary of his journey, he asked that Mina never read it. As a good wife, she had honored his wishes and sealed the diary.

  She had heard little from Lucy during this time, though she had sent a few letters keeping her appraised of her own travels and experiences. She was not sure how much time she would have for Lucy once they returned home since Jonathan would take up much of her time for awhile during his ongoing recovery.

  Upon their arrival in Exeter, they met with Jonathan’s boss, Mr. Hawkins, who welcomed the couple into his home, as the man had no family of his own. In addition, since the sale of the Carfax Abbey did go through without any business related problems on their end, Mr. Hawkins made Jonathan a full partner in his business, and further, he had made Jonathan the beneficiary of his will for when the inevitable should come.

  She had written to Lucy of all of this and regretted not being able to come and see her due to Jonathan’s weak state of health. On one occasion, she had taken Jonathan to London with her to gather her belongings from her flat and settle the rent with the landlord since she would no longer be living there.

  They had arrived around lunch time, and rather than go straight to her flat, they had gone for lunch. The skies were overcast that day, and Mina had hoped that their day would not be dampened by rain. While in an outdoor café, Jonathan became agitated and pointed to a man who stood on the opposite side of the road looking at him. The man looked to be around thirty and dressed in a dark riding coat, and while Mina saw nothing remarkable about him, Jonathan seemed to believe he had seen him before in Transylvania. She had glanced back to Jonathan to see him hide his face in his hands, and then when she looked back to the man, he was gone.

  They left the café, and went to a park where Jonathan could sit in the relative peace of the greenery before continuing on their way to settle her affairs in London. Upon their return to Exeter, Jonathan went to bed, and she asked Mr. Hawkins what he thought she could do about this. He seemed to think it was all temporary, and once Jonathan was able to find himself again in the life they were creating together, he would settle down and all would be well.

  Before she went to bed herself, Mr. Hawkins remembered a telegram that had come for her while they were o
ut. She noted it was from Mr. Arthur Holmwood, Lucy’s fiancée, so she excitedly opened it thinking that it might be a wedding date or possibly even the news that they had done it while Mina was away. Her exultation turned to grief when she read that Lucy had died two days prior. She had always hoped that they would grow old together talking about the woes of their husbands and children, but now, her friend was gone. She wanted to find out what happened, but with her life in its present state of chaos, she knew it would have to wait.

  Alone with the telegram and the thought of Jonathan’s fragile state, Mina knew what she had to do. She had been sitting at the desk in the study of the house staring at Jonathan’s sealed diary that contained his account of what happened in Transylvania that put him in his present state of mind. He had been so adamant over her not reading it, but she did not see how she could help him without knowing what happened to him.

  With a pensive heart, she broke the seal she had placed on the book and opened it to the first entry dated “3 June 1889.”

  * * * * * * * * * *

  Even though David had found him in Whitby, Karian had strayed far from Lucy’s home. His first concern was for his own safety should David find him again, since he knew that David would be looking. He hated to change people into Mutations for the sake of having bodyguards, but he could only trust those who were like him.

  He found a pair of men walking late one night and attacked them together. He had learned over time that he could speed up the transmutation process if he almost fully drained the victims of blood after he had shared the serum with them, and so after restraining the pair he had taken, he opened the wound on his wrist and forced them both to drink. That being done, he bit into each of their necks and drank of their blood until they each passed out which reduced the normal ten day time frame of the first phase down to only one or two. He figured by the time Lucy awoke, these two would be by his side.