The Elixir

by George Willson

  “We are special,” Karian said. “We are strong. We will live a long time. We can even climb walls.”

  “But,” Renfield began, his breath quickening in a panic, “I don’t want to be different. I thought it was fine for a time. I even told that strange doctor, but I don’t want to be different. I want to be myself. I want to be like everyone else. Different is bad. It’s very bad. I know it is. I just want my life back. Can you give me my life back?”

  “No,” Karian said. “There is no going back. Ever.”

  “Is this need for blood the reason I obsess over life?” Renfield asked. “The reason I need to feed on the vermin that inhabit my room?”

  “You needed their blood,” Karian confirmed.

  “I never wanted to do that,” Renfield said. “I just felt like I had to. And you did this to me?”

  “Yes, I did,” Karian said. “It is what I did to those who crossed me in the mountains. You were going to live with me and my other children there.”

  “Where are your children now?”

  “All dead.”

  “So I would be dead if you had had your way at the time?”

  Karian paused at the question. The man was definitely intelligent beyond even what Lucy had retained, but another part of him held a strange innocence that Karian feared he might not be able to get past. He finally answered, “Yes.”

  “And where would we go from here?” Renfield asked.

  “I have some scores to settle here before we go,” Karian said.

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means there’s an old friend out there that needs a little convincing to do what I tell him,” Karian explained thinking little of it. “He holds a fondness for a young woman who is in this very building. She will become like us unless he is able to deliver on a promise he made me long ago.”

  “You can’t do that,” Renfield said.

  “Of course I can,” Karian scoffed.

  “No,” Renfield said. “Mrs. Harker is a kind soul. She was nice to me when I saw her. More so than anyone else who has bothered to see me. She does not deserve this fate.”

  “Neither do we,” Karian said.

  “You’re right,” Renfield agreed, “but I didn’t have a choice then. I would choose now not to change her.”

  “If you’re not coming, then you can stay here and live out your days in this squalor.”

  “No!” Renfield screamed. “Help! Help me! He’s in here! Help!”

  Karian could not allow this outburst. He grabbed Renfield and tossed him up against the ceiling where the man’s face planted into the rock that made up the room. As he fell to the ground, Karian grabbed him by the neck and thrust him down into the floor, cracking the concrete beneath his body and crushing his neck.

  He looked over the body of the only Mutation he had ever killed and part of him regretted it. This was only the second Mutation he had created that kept any kind of sanity. He was not certain if there would ever be another at this point.

  He knew Renfield’s outburst would bring the other men down, so he had precious little time to finish what he had come here to do. He crawled out through the window and up the wall to the room he had previously seen Mina Harker asleep in. Through the window, he saw her in her dressing gown preparing to lie down as her husband stood with her.

  He could not risk the time it might take for the man to leave. He opened the window and crawled inside. The husband immediately attacked him, but a swipe of his hand tossed the man across the room where he slammed into the wall and dropped to the floor, groaning.

  He walked to Mina who sat frozen on the bed, watching him.

  “I remember you,” she said, her voice shaking. “It was your face I saw that night in St. Mary’s graveyard. It was you who changed Lucy.”

  “Very good,” he said calmly.

  “You were here,” she continued in realization. “I thought it was a dream, but you were here in my room last night. I woke up and saw you, but I didn’t realize it.”

  “Right again,” Karian said. He grabbed her and bit into her neck, drinking deeply from her. She gasped, but could only get out a whimper while he removed her blood. He stopped after a moment and looked at her.

  “You have been chosen for a great purpose,” Karian said. “We need to show several people who is in control in this situation.”

  “I don’t understand,” Mina replied, barely audible through her fear.

  “But we’ll have to make a bit of a show of it,” he continued. “There cannot be any doubt in anyone’s mind as to what has happened.”

  “What are you going to do?” she asked.

  Karian bit into his own wrist, and his blood flowed freely. He moved behind her, held her head against his chest, opened her mouth and placed his bleeding wrist against her lips. Her breath was hot against his wrist and knew the blood was filling her mouth. She coughed once, but he did not release her. He held her to face the door as he heard voices outside of it.

  “Drink it, or everyone dies starting with your husband,” he warned her. Tears flowed down her face. “Do it.”

  After a moment, he heard the reflex action of her swallowing, and he laughed. He laughed as the latch on the door and the window shattered together.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  David stood at a window on the second floor of the Carfax Abbey overlooking the distance between him and the asylum next door like a sentinel. Because the asylum was to the west of the Abbey, he was unable to truly keep an eye on the place until after sundown, but from his vantage point, nothing yet had happened. While Mr. Harker had told them that the asylum was not visible from the Abbey, he was grateful that piece of information was completely inaccurate. Not only could David see the asylum, but he could see most of both floors from where he stood.

  A few minutes earlier, he had seen what appeared to be Mr. and Mrs. Harker enter one of the rooms one the second floor, so he knew she was still all right. She looked so much like Beth that it was difficult for him to take his eyes off of her, but as he wanted to respect the modesty of their room, he concentrated on the asylum walls and grounds. After all, that was where the danger lay; not in their room.

  “How long do you intend to watch them?” Voivode asked as he entered the room. “They’re not going anywhere.”

  “Until the problem is concluded, of course,” David said. “Karian has got to show up at some point. I know where she is, and I know she is all right for now.”

  He turned from his watch to look at Voivode. “It’s my fault, as usual,” he said sadly. “Maybe we shouldn’t have left Transylvania. It’s as fine a place as any to atone for our sins for the rest of our days. I only wanted to help. I wanted a better life for both of us, but it seems that no matter what I do, the plans go wrong, and people get hurt. You know, someday, I’d like for something to actually go right so that I’m not the catalyst of death everywhere I go.”

  “You can’t blame yourself,” Voivode assured him. “You don’t make everyone’s decisions for them. You’re not out there telling the evils of the world to set themselves on the innocent.”

  “I know that,” David said, “but in every case of my life, had I not been there, people would not have died.”

  “Come now, you don’t know that.”

  “No?” David said. “Had I obeyed my ridiculous little town’s directive that night, I would not have been changed. If I had obeyed Zechariah and stayed with him, I would have lived on and neither Beth nor Abraham would have been changed. Abraham’s change led to the creation of the Mutations and Beth’s death. More than that, the visit of Beth and I to Hauginstown, that I did for her benefit, led to my brother being changed which led to destruction of Hauginstown itself, and the death or transmutation of everyone I knew there. I left the Rastem in an attempt to spare everyone my bad decisions. I loved Yori, and I left her to save her. All I’ve really managed to do is stave off the problem for a few years, because here we are again. I convinced you to move to England becaus
e I ran across Karian on my patrol of the area around the castle, and instead of escaping it, I brought the problem with us.”

  “In all honesty, I thought it was a good idea,” Voivode said. “You could not have anticipated this.”

  “Knowing what happens to me, I should have,” David said, and he turned back to look at the asylum. His eyes scanned over the building, and his instincts told him something had changed. He checked the Harker’s room, but it seemed quiet. What was different?

  Then he spotted Karian climbing out of a window on the bottom floor. That was the change. The windows on the ground floor all had bars on them, but the bars of this one had been removed, presumably by Karian, for some reason. He climbed from the first floor toward the Harkers’ room. He had to move.

  “Check all the doors,” David said as he ran out, “make sure this place is locked up tight.”

  He did not wait for an answer. He charged down the stairs and ran out the back door since it sat more parallel to the Harkers’ window. He immediately turned toward the fence separating the two properties, and although it was a six foot wall, he jumped over it easily. He looked toward the asylum, and Karian was no longer on the outside. He assumed the old Mutation had thrown caution to the wind at this point and went straight into the Harker’s room, making the need for his arrival that much more desperate.

  He ran toward the asylum considering what he should do to get inside. He could not climb the wall once he got there, and even if he jumped to grab the window sill, Karian would have time to deal with him climbing in the window. He had one idea, but he had never tried it before. With his drawing ever closer to the asylum, he had no time to work out the details, but decided that it was his best hope of entering that second floor room as quickly as possible. It would be an impossible feat for a human, but for a Fempiror, it could be done.

  He reached what he figured to be just the right distance from the wall, said a prayer, and jumped like he had never jumped before. He soared across the last few yards, heading straight for the half open window ahead of him. He braced for impact, and hoped that the window would not cut him to pieces when he hit it. He placed his arms in front of his face and crashed through the window, shattering the glass and frame across the floor of the room.

  He rolled as he hit the floor, but immediately jumped to his feet, drew his sword and looked over the room. There were a group of men standing at the door to the room, but their point of focus was not him. Rather, they were looking to the center of the room where Karian stood smiling behind Mrs. Harker with his wrist planted firmly at her mouth, blood trickling down her chin and tears streaking her face. He released the young woman and pushed her to the floor where the men rushed in and caught her.

  “For Lucy and for the cure,” Karian announced, still laughing. “You have ten days.”

  David drew his sword and swung for Karian, but Karian dodged the blade, pushed past David and jumped out the window. David decided the young woman would have to wait, and he hoped whoever it was that knew about Mutations was part of this group. Karian was his priority.

  He jumped out the window and saw that Karian had run around the back of the building away from the main road. David chased him and found that the old Mutation was moving at his full speed, making it extremely difficult for David to catch him. However, the young warrior proved to be faster on his feet, so as they neared the Thames, David caught up to his target and tried to catch him with a sword swing. Karian anticipated the swing, and dodged it, but his momentum was lost in the defense.

  David took several more swings for Karian, but the Mutation continued to outwit him before delivering a swift kick of his own to David, throwing the Fempiror off his feet. Karian took off again, running along the river’s edge with his opponent tightly on his heels. David cut to one side of the old man in an attempt to force him toward the water. As David swung his sword, Karian instinctively avoided it, but as he changed direction, he was forced onto a wide pier that extended several yards over the river.

  The aged Mutation turned to his young aggressor, and David could see the concern in his enemy’s eyes. David continued to approach him forcing him to back further onto the pier. Karian tried to duck past David, but the young warrior was quicker this time, and Karian narrowly avoided the blow. David swung several more times in attempt to strike his prey, and though the old Mutation was able to continue to avoid those strikes, he was forced closer and closer toward the end of the line.

  “So you think you’ve won, then?” Karian asked, panting heavily.

  “Not until you’re dead,” David said.

  “You were never a killer, David,” Karian said calmly as he regained the demeanor that David had always known him for. “You have always been a little tailor’s apprentice who accidentally ended up with a sword.”

  “That won’t stop me today,” David warned.

  “I think it will,” Karian said backing toward the edge of the pier. At this time of night, the sound of the water rushing past the pillars supporting their walkway was all they could hear. There were no people; no animals; not a sound except for the two of them and the fate that stood between them.

  “You can’t win this way,” David said.

  “You think I believe I can win?” Karian asked. “I know my fate this day. You have youth on your side as well as the ability to survive a drop into this filthy water. You should be grateful that you cannot smell as well as I or the scent of this poor river would turn your stomach.”

  “If you try to jump over me, I will stop you,” David warned.

  “I know this,” Karian scoffed. “I’m not a fool. I was a fool to allow you to back me onto this pier, but normally, I can be quite clever. I fear my caution was somewhere in the wind at your back. I concede to your victory, little tailor. My death is inevitable at this point. Look at you. You’re fueled by anger – revenge. You are driven by the very might that the Tepish Order has always held so dear to them, but somehow, you’re doing it with a sense of justice. I can’t defeat that.

  “And for whom? The girl? We both know she is as good as dead. No one can produce a cure for the condition. No one. Perhaps I realized this a long time ago, but part of me held to some measure of hope that I could at least return to being a Fempiror. I never cared about being human again, but I loved my life as a Fempiror, and I suppose I held to the faintest glimmer of hope that I might have that once more.

  “So I decided my final act would be to turn the woman who would be dear to both you and the people who killed my dear Lucy. Somewhere inside of me I knew that it would be the last thing I did. There comes a moment in every man’s life where he can see the end approaching, and he has to accept it whether he wants to or not.”

  “So why don’t you just surrender?” David asked.

  “Because I know the code you live by,” Karian laughed. “I was there when it was written. I know you have to kill me. Look at what I’ve done?”

  Karian turned his back to his opponent, but David knew he was going nowhere. He never let his guard down, however, concerned that his target might still try to escape.

  “I know you’re not going to let me go, David,” Karian continued. “I have no chance of winning. I’m too old. My reactions are going to give out at some point, and then, you’ll have me. You’re young and quick, and I have so little time left. Maybe you’ll be lucky, and the girl will hold her sanity. That way, you get your precious Beth back. It was Beth, wasn’t it? It’s been so long.”

  “I know she isn’t Beth,” David said.

  “That did not stop your daydreaming, though, did it?” Karian asked. He sighed and turned back to the young man who had once failed to impress anyone.

  “David, you have won in principle alone,” Karian said, taking another step back toward the brink. “However, I will not give you the benefit of the final blow. No one will be able to boast that they killed Karian. Ever. I made my own way in this world for five centuries no matter what my hellhole of a life threw at me. This dec
ision I make for myself as well.”

  Karian took one final step backward and dropped into the river below. David ran to the edge of the pier and looked into the dark water of the Thames, but the Mutation who once ruled over the Fempiror race was gone.

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  Van Helsing had kicked the door open to the Harker’s room which destroyed the latch and swung the door open on its hinges. In the room, he saw Karian standing behind Mina with his wrist firmly planted against her mouth and Van Helsing hoped against hope that Karian had not opened a wound on himself to force Mina to drink his blood.

  While he and his companions were still taking this scene in, at the same moment that they had crashed through the door, someone else smashed his way through the window, sending fragments of glass, wood, and brick scattering across the floor. A shadow stood against the light of the moon dressed as he remembered the Rastem had a long time ago with their black shirt and trousers along with the dark, floor-length riding coat.

  It was too much to take in before Karian released Mina, and Arthur and Seward rushed forward to catch her. “For Lucy and for the cure,” Karian announced, laughing. “You have ten days.”

  The Fempiror in the window swung his sword, but Karian pushed past him and jumped out the window. The Fempiror wasted no time in jumping out after him, but the damage was done. Van Helsing knelt down over Mina as Seward held her head.

  “Let’s go, Arthur,” Stoker said. “We should look around outside to see if we can do anything.” Arthur looked at Seward who nodded, and the two of them ran out of the room, leaving Van Helsing and Seward to care for Mina and her husband, who was still curled up in the corner of the room.

  Mina was hyper-ventilating as she stared at her hands. She had touched her mouth which was dripping with blood and as such, her hands were also covered in it. She let out a shrill, ear-piercing scream before bawling into her hands, ignoring the blood. Van Helsing took her into his arms to comfort her.