'You know what the most difficult thing is about immortality?' Dracula said.
'What is it?' Royston Tanner asked.
'The waiting.'
'I see.'
Dracula laughed. 'You do not see,' he said, 'but I appreciate the effort. I always need to find new and interesting ways to fill my time.'
Royston Tanner nodded servilely to his master. And Dracula was his master. His all-knowing, all-powerful master. There was no doubt in his mind about it. Before meeting Dracula, his life had been unfulfilled. He had been a London lawyer, and every day had been much the same: the handling of wills, contracts and similar paperwork. Back then, his wife and three children had been the driving force behind his life.
A single meeting with Dracula had changed all that.
Who needed wives, children, or careers when you served a master who was all-knowing and all-powerful? It was as if God himself had come to Earth and chosen Tanner to be his assistant.
It was a privilege.
No.
It was an honour.
Tanner surveyed the hall and saw without seeing the unspeakable horrors around him. Half a dozen of Dracula's women fed on unfortunate, nameless souls from the streets. A macabre pile of corpses lay in a corner. Blood covered almost every inch of the floor.
Tanner was always trying to think of ways to please his master, and so when one occurred to him, he felt he needed to share it immediately.
'Master?' he said.
'Yes, Tanner?'
'Perhaps we could paint the walls with blood.'
Dracula stared at him. For one horrible moment, Tanner thought he had overstepped the mark. Then his master smiled gently.
'I like your thinking, Tanner,' he said. 'Perhaps when all this is done, we'll do just that. Paint the walls with blood. And the ceilings.'
'Yes, master.'
Dracula sat on a throne on a raised platform at the end of the room. It wasn't a real throne, but it was the closest thing he could find in the building. Ransome Park belonged to the Baroness of Lenning and comprised more than a dozen bedrooms. The front of the building was made of red brick, reflecting its rustic, humble beginnings. Two wings had been added to the building over the last hundred years, and it contained many precious paintings and furnishings.
More than a hundred acres were attached to the property, including a hill topped by a grotesque folly, styled as a Roman ruin. It may have fooled visitors, but it didn't fool Dracula. He'd seen the real thing.
The baroness and her husband had been trying to sell Ransome Park, but without success. Then Tanner had introduced them to Dracula, and they had very kindly offered him the use of the property. That's how things worked for Dracula. That's how they'd worked for a very long time.
'Yes,' Dracula continued. 'It's the waiting. I have plans in motion that will affect the whole history of the world, but I'm an impatient man. You'd think I'd have developed patience by now, living for as long as I have.'
Tanner wondered whether he should speak. Finally, he dared to raise his voice. 'Master,' he said. 'What of the new girl?'
He motioned to the girl sitting in the corner.
'Ah, yes,' Dracula said. 'I picked her up on the way through from Salisbury. Her name is Cassandra.' He instructed her to come over, and she knelt obediently before him. 'I've always liked that name. Cassandra. I knew another woman by that name in Rome. She was lovely too.' He turned to Tanner. 'What should I do with Cassandra?'
Tanner wondered what would make his master most happy. 'You could drink her blood?'
Dracula smiled and shook his head. 'I have already done that,' he said. 'Just a little, though. Just enough to begin her transformation. No, I need something far more amusing.'
'Perhaps you could instruct her to kill someone.'
'That's more like it, Tanner,' Dracula said, pleased. 'Whom should she dispose of?'
Tanner cast his gaze around the great hall. Bodies were being fed upon everywhere he looked, but there was no one unharmed. He desperately tried to think of someone. Finally, an idea burst into his head.
'Me!' he said.
'You?' Dracula said, considering the suggestion. 'I suppose your legal work is at an end. You've acquired everything I've needed over this long year, opening doors that have set up all the pieces for my game.' Sighing, the vampire crossed to the window and gazed out. It was still dark, but the sun would rise soon and thus begin another day of slumber. Turning, he motioned Tanner to the window, and the man grovelled forward on his hands and knees.
'You will think this odd,' Dracula said.
'Master?'
'I've grown rather fond of you.' The vampire made a dismissive gesture. 'I've seen men and women come and go over the centuries. Thousands—no, millions of them. Humans live such brief lives on this Earth. Like little candles that flare brightly for a short time before fading into darkness.' He stopped. 'And yet I've grown fond of you. Perhaps it's the familiarity. Quite foolish of me.' Dracula patted him on the head as a man would pat his favourite dog. 'A man can't control the world if he can't first control himself.'
Tanner wasn't sure if it was appropriate, but he nodded.
'Cassandra,' the vampire said. 'Stand up.' Cassandra rose to her feet. 'Good girl. Now, Mr Tanner, you may stand as well. Good man. Now, Cassandra, I want you to bite Mr Tanner's neck and drink his blood. Take as much as you need. His time is finished.'
Royston Tanner obediently bared his neck for Cassandra Austen, and the girl obediently embedded her newly acquired canines into his throat. The lawyer felt the life draining away, yet he was strangely gratified. The memories of his wife and three children had long since been exorcised from his thoughts, and yet they came back to him now. It was as if a pathway in his brain had suddenly made a remembered connection.
It was that day at the beach. Summer 1790 it was. He'd just received a promotion and travelled to Brighton to celebrate. The weather had been perfect as they'd all played together. He and the children had raced up and down the beach for hours. He'd almost been like a child himself.
Most of the afternoon had been spent chasing the waves. They'd hurried after them as the waves slid down the beach, and then run away, laughing and screaming as the waves pursued them.
What a fun day that was!
Now he felt as if a wave were tearing up the beach after him. Crashing over his body, he was sent tumbling over and over in its churning embrace. Sparkling bubbles of air swam about his face as the undertow dragged him down into the inky, shadowy depths of the ocean. He followed one of the air bubbles downwards, swimming ever further into the deep until he finally became a part of the ocean itself.
The dead lawyer lay at Dracula's feet. Scrutinising Tanner's lifeless body, the vampire frowned as he peered at the odd smile on the lawyer's face. 'Whatever were you thinking of?' he wondered. 'Well, I suppose I'll never know. Cassandra, please dispose of Mister Tanner's body in a nearby lane. I don't want him on the premises.'
Cassandra nodded. Her face and chin were red with blood as she slung the dead lawyer over her shoulder with ease and carried him away. Drops of scarlet liquid dripped to the floor as she went.
Dracula swallowed uneasily. It was usually safest to dump bodies in the basement or bury them on the property, but he didn't want to do that with Mr Tanner. 'Could it be guilt?' the vampire murmured. 'That will never do.'
He snapped his fingers, and one of the blood-drenched supplicants came racing over.
'Mr Tanner's family are still in the attic,' he said. 'Bring them down. I think we'll have some fun with them.'