Free Slave Of Dracula by Barbara Hambly Page B

Arthur told me he liked helpful women and I’m trying very hard to impress him!”

When she passed his chair, young Arthur’s gray-gloved hand sought hers. The look that passed between

his blue eyes and hers tore Renfield’s heart.
    ***
    Such prey is the source of his strength, he thought, lying the next night on the thick canvas

flooring of his cell, the reek of ancient filth and decades of carbolic rising dimly through it from the matted

coir beneath. Without her death, there would be no life in his hands, to give out to

those who serve him.
    Renfield pressed his face to the padded floor and wept. He wanted Catherine desperately, wanted only

to see her smile again, to hear her voice. Where Life flows, Loki had sung-Wagner’s music had

sung-in Water, Earth, and Air … What could a man find, mightier than the wonder o f

a woman’s worth? … In Water, Earth, and Air; the only Will is for love.
    How long had it been since her laughter had bubbled in his cars, sweet as spring rainfall? He could not

even recall. Now it was only with terror that he thought of her at all, fearing that even in these dark hours,

while Wotan’s mind was elsewhere, Wotan would somehow learn of her, somehow know where she and

Vixie were hidden.
    Fearing that he would find them, as he would find Lucy no matter where she went.
    Renfield hugged himself, as if he could crush his bulky sixteen-stone-plus into a ball the size of an apple,

the size of an apple-seed … too small to be found by those all-seeing crimson eyes. Hurting for comfort,

he called to mind-just once, like a quick glance at a photograph hastily stowed in hiding again,-

Catherine’s face as last he had seen it, asleep and so peaceful, with her long dark lashes veiling those

pansy-blue eyes and her wd hair unraveled over the pillow.
    Beautiful Catherine. Beautiful Vixie, as delicate as Lucy but ~,vith Miss Mina’s exquisite darkness,

laughing over some passage in her Latin lesson or holding out her finger in breathless wonder as a yellow

butterfly floated in from the garden, landed on it with tiny pricking feet.
    Just let me be with them again, Renfield whispered to the God whom he knew Wotan would

never allow him to peti-tion. I know my sins are many ,, my offenses rank in your sight, but please,

please, let me finish my task here, and return to their side.
    Day was coming. They would strap him up again, pour lau-danum down his throat. He felt the

Traveler’s mind, as the thing he knew as Wotan drew near to his lair in the rotting chapel at Carfax again,

seeking the bed of earth upon which he must sleep. Why earth? he wondered. Why that particular

earth, which he’d brought in such quantity upon the haunted ship? He wanted to ask, but dared not.

He was there only to serve, only to do the bidding of the Master who, for all his terror, was his best and

only hope.
    ***
    Seward had left the door of the padded room unlocked through most of the night-Renfield heard them

whisper about it in the corridor. But beyond a flicker of contempt for such an obvious attempt at trapping

him, he felt no interest in the matter. The Traveler was abroad in the night; of what use was it to knock

upon the door of his empty house? And Renfield was weary, weary unto death, and hungry with a hunger

that he knew could never be filled. No fly, no spider, not the smallest ant crept into the dreary canvas

confines of the padded cell. Only, if he lis-tened, deep beneath the matting he could hear the rustle of tiny

creeping beetles, of crawling fleas.
    And they did him no good at all.
    Catherine, my darling, he thought as he felt the Traveler’s mind begin sinking into its day-sleep, begin

to burn like creeping fire at the edges of his own, dream of me now, between your sleep and your

waking. Remember that I love you.
    He heard the key turn in the lock.
    Not many minutes after that he began to scream.
    ***
    Letter, Dr. Patrick Hennessey, M.D., M.R.C.S., L.K.Q.C., P.I., etc.,