by Kim Newman
Edwin let go of her hand, picked up his kitbag and walked away.
Charles laid a hand on her shoulder. She had forgotten he would know what she was feeling.
'He is too young for you,' Charles said.
'So is everybody.'
'As you well know, there are far older creatures than you strewn about the world.'
She turned to face Charles. He was calm again. Secret wars had been fought and he had his balance back. She was encouraged by that.
Edwin disappeared from sight, lost in the crowds of soldiers and their sweethearts. Their link was broken.
Dravot let Edwin go. He was staying with Charles now.
'So, will you depart for the Russias and become a heroine of the bolsheviki?' Charles asked.
She shook her head. 'Not yet a while, I think. This corner of the world interests me still. The old men are not exhausted. It would be a sin to let them be just now. There's the war, and then there's the matter of Ireland. Countess Markowitz and Erskine Childers have asked me to be on a committee for Home Rule.'
'Tell me no more. We may be enemies.'
She stroked his lapel. 'I hope not, Charles.'
'Ruthven still reigns, even as his Cabinet conspires against him. Dracula, though demoted, remains close to the counsels of the Kaiser.'
Kate considered the situation.
'All Europe is stark mad with red thirst. All America, for that matter. All the world. But that's no reason to merge with the killing hordes, no reason not to struggle against the dead hands at the wheel.'
Charles was smiling. He looked younger. She knew he was on the ascendant. Edwin was dead to her, and maybe to himself. J But Charles soldiered on.
Fresh troops, conscripts and volunteers as yet unblooded, broke from disorderly queues and shoved past to board the boat train. Their open faces, warm or vampire, bothered her. All they : knew of war was fire and glory. Insanity would continue as long as lies were perpetuated.
'I should have you arrested,' Charles said, 'before you make more mischief.'
She thought of what she would write next. About the war, about the government, about the old men. She would write and shout and wheedle and nag until her voice was heard, drowning out the drumbeat of jingo and the blather of politicians. She could not be the last priestess of the truth. People would listen. Things would change.
'Mischief, my dear,' she said to Charles. 'You don't know the half of it.'
Author's Note and Acknowledgements
This should be considered an addendum to the already lengthy enough roster of credits and mentions appended to Anno Dracula. Works that have proved useful for The Bloody Red Baron are: The Imperial War Museum Book of the First World War, Malcolm Brown; Vampire: The Encyclopaedia, Matthew Bunson; Richthofen: A True History of the Red Baron, William E. Burrows; Reel America and World War I, Craig W. Campbell; Voices Prophesying War: Future Wars 1763-3749, I. F. Clarke; The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, John Clute and Peter Nicholls; The Transylvanian Library: A Consumer's Guide to Vampire Fiction, Greg Cox; Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape, Robert Cremer; The Haunted Screen, Lotte H. Eisner; Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age, Modris Eksteins; A Nation of Fliers: German Aviation and the Popular Imagination, Peter Fritzche; The Great War and Modem Memory, Paul Fussell; The Blue Max, Jack D. Hunter; A War Imagined: The First World War and English Culture, Samuel Hynes; The Camels Are Coming, Biggles in France, Biggles Learns to Fly, Biggles Flies East, Captain W. E. Johns; Richthofen: Beyond the Legend of the Red Baron, Peter Kilduff; From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film, Siegfried Kracuaer; Sagittarius Rising, Cecil Lewis; 1914-1918: Voices and Images of the Great War, Lyn Macdonald; The Golem, Gustav Meyrink (Introduction by Robert Irwin); The Extraordinary Mr Poe, Wolf Mankowitz; The Pocket Encyclopaedia of World Aircraft in Colour: Fighters, Attack and Training Aircraft 1914-1919, The Pocket Encyclopaedia of World Aircraft in Colour: Bombers, Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft 1914-1919, Kenneth Munson; Winged Warfare: The Literature and Theory of Aerial Warfare in Britain 1859-1917, Michael Paris; The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger; Imaginary People: A Who's Who of Modern Fictional Characters, David Pringle; The Red Air Fighter, Manfred von Richthofen (Preface by Norman Franks), Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance, Kenneth Silverman; The Monster Show, David J. Skal; Dracula, Bram Stoker; Snobbery With Violence, Colin Watson; The Fossil Monarchies: The Collapse of the Old Order 1905-1922, Edmond Taylor; Queen Victoria's Children, John Van Der Kiste; The First of the Few: Fighter Pilots of the First World War, Denis Winter; The Annotated Dracula, A Dream of Dracula: In Search of the Living Dead, Leonard Wolf; and Winged Victory, V. M. Yeates (with a tribute and preface by Henry Williamson). For historical, aviation and cultural input, I'd like to thank Eugene Byrne, Mark Burman and Tom Tunney. For other kindnesses, thanks are due to Gail Nina Andersen, Susan Byrne, Cliff Burns, Jacquie Clare, Julia Davis, John Douglas, the Dracula Society, Martin Fletcher, Christopher Frayling, Gabriela Galceran, Kathryn Greene, Antony Harwood, Andre Jacquemetton, Peter James, John Jarrold, Stephen Jones, John Phillip Law, Paul McAuley, Thomas Mohr, Bryan and Julia Newman, Sky NonhofF, Jenny Olivier, Quelou Parente, Marcelle Perks, Stuart Pollak, Mandy Slater, Adam Simon, Helen Simpson, Richard Stanley, Jean-Marc Toussaint, Caroline Vie, Nick Webb, Linda Ruth Williams and the Lord Ruthven Assembly.
Kim Newman
Islington, 1995
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