Free Mina by Elaine Bergstrom

seemed triumphant at their victory over the vampire. The others only
mourned.
    As we
traveled down the mountain, Van Helsing looked up at the castle, noting the
wisps of smoke rising from inside its walls. He
    glanced at me and I met his
gaze steadily. "Let it burn," I said.
    He did not
question me.
     
    We held the final meeting of our quest after we returned to
Galati. Arthur, who had lost his love and one of his closest friends, seemed
the most affected by the events, the most sedate as we discussed our future. He
had already decided to take Quincey's body back to America. Van Helsing
declared his intentions to remain in the area and continue his research on
vampires.
    "Everything
is finished. We've won, haven't we?" Jonathan asked with concern.
    Van Helsing
knew the truth as well as I, but he replied, "Of course. But there may be
more of those creatures. We must be
    careful." Van Helsing looked directly at me as he continued,
"And you must keep silent about what we have done, particularly what happened
to Madame Mina."
    "I
hadn't intended to speak about any of it," Arthur said. "But why
shouldn't I?"
    "I
obtained my knowledge from others who are just as determined as I to end the
vampires' curse. Some of them are not so
    trusting in God's grace and
goodness. Do not draw their interest."

Van Helsing
had been fanatic enough. I gripped Jonathan's arm and nodded. I was thankful
that I had not mentioned to Jonathan
    the journal I had taken from
the castle, for he would certainly make me give it to Van Helsing.
    When the
others retired for the evening, I stayed behind to speak to Van Helsing in
private. I think he waited for me to confess
    that I had seen the women's
bodies. Instead, I spoke as candidly as I dared, dreading his reply. "It
isn't really over, is it?" I asked.
    He took my
hands, his own shaking slightly with fatigue or age or emotion. "I know
much, Madame Mina. I know not everything.
    Here I will hope to learn more. Go home. Be wife to your husband,
the strength he needs. I will write, hopefully to say that all is as well as I
believe it to be."
    He kissed my
cheek and held me tightly. "Daughter," he whispered as he let me go.
I saw that the word had not been said lightly,
    for there were tears in his
eyes.

PART TWO: MINA
FIVE
    On the train
ride west, Mina finally gave way to the exhaustion of the long ordeal and slept
late the following morning. At
    breakfast time, Jonathan knocked lightly on the door to Dr.
Seward's compartment and received no reply. Thankful for the time alone, he
dined quickly then retreated to the smoking car. The crystal chandeliers
tinkled lightly from the swaying of the train, reminding him uncomfortably of
the laughter of the vampire women. He ordered a double brandy neat and stared
into the glass, thinking how luminous their skin had been, how glowing their
eyes.
    Now they
were dead and he was alive and everything could be the way it had been. Except
...
    He explored
his despondence, finally focusing on the truth of what he had done.
    He was a solicitor. The others had
been interested in revenge and adventure and, particularly in the case of Van
Helsing, a rigid form of righteousness. Jonathan had joined them because he
had no choice. With Mina's soul hanging in the balance, he should have reveled
in the act.
    Instead he had suffered the quest
with stoic misery, fighting his terror every step of the way. Even when he and
Quincey were in hot pursuit of the cart carrying Dracula's helpless body home,
Jonathan had decided there was something to be said for being a poor rider. He
would not be the one to reach the cart first. Then he had been caught up in the
final heroic moments and, determined to insure that his wife would not turn
into one of those terrible and alluring creatures he had faced in the castle,
he had gripped the cold hilt of the huge kukri blade he carried and spurred
his horse onward. He hardly recalled the final moments of the ride, or how he
had jumped from his horse to