Part 24 (1/2)

'She is nothing to me,' Dracula answered. 'Mere refreshment.'

'Liar.'

So saying, Beherit gripped Mina in both hands and held her out over the drop! She came to life, struggling and gasping in breathless horror; becoming as suddenly motionless when she realized that her struggles made it more likely that she would fall. She was coughing, her eyes streaming from the * stench. 'Van Helsing's face worked with impotent fear and he cried out in protest, to no effect. I grew afraid for him, his face was so ill-coloured.

Dracula roared, 'Beherit!' He made an abortive lunge, stopping dead as stone when the demon gave Mina a threatening shake.

She made not a sound, but her face was ashen.

Beherit said, 'Either you throw yourself into the Abyss, Count Dracula, and give yourself up to our sovereign - or I cast your beloved into the fire!'

I had never seen Dracula so racked with despair. He took a step towards Beherit, who stepped neatly away. 'Thrust me in and she goes with me,' Beherit said. 'What choice have you? I heard the words you spoke to her in your grief. She rejected you, and you answered that without her love, you have no reason to continue. From this death there is no return. You know I would throw her to h.e.l.l without a second thought. I have no mercy.'

Dracula's face was hideous with anguish. He seemed to age as I watched him! In the pause that followed, I felt a growling undernote, as if the roots of the mountain were trembling. I was almost faint with dread. How could we be sure that Dracula would not destroy Mina to save himself? For Beherit to gamble with her life in this way was an atrocity, never part of our plan!

When Dracula spoke his voice was hoa.r.s.e and hollow as death, 'And what guarantee will you give me that if I do throw myself through the Gate, she will live?'

'My promise, that is all. Here stand her dear friends, her champions. Once you are gone from between us, I will hand her back to them. I have no interest in causing her death for its , own sake. You must believe me. For if you don't, she will die.

Dracula stared at Mina. She raised her head and stared back at him, her face pallid with terror and appeal. 'No,' she said, to my shock. 'Don't do it, not for my sake.'

'Count Dracula, you must!' Van Helsing broke in harshly. 'For her, and for all the sorrow you have caused!'

Dracula pointed a shaking finger at Van Helsing. 'I curse you!' he said. 'May you know how it feels to the as my beloved women died, pierced to the very heart! I curse you!'

'Your life,' said Beherit, dangling Mina over the boiling chasm, 'or hers.'

Dracula became very still and dignified. He gave Van Helsing and me a hard, cold glare. 'I charge you to hold Beherit to his word. May you save Mina or share my fate! My will to live has been taken from me - but remember this, that I put her life, her priceless blood, above my own!'

Then he looked at Mina, and his eyes became tender, his demeanour gentle. So n.o.ble and dignified he seemed in that moment, the knowledge that such a man had devoted his life to evil seemed an insupportable tragedy. Mina gazed back at him, her mouth open and tears flowing down her face. In the reflected light the moisture shone like fire. Ah, I would have done anything to s.h.i.+eld her from such suffering!

'Mina,' said Dracula, 'all my desire for life was contained in you, in your blood and flesh and soul. And you have rejected me.

You are a crueller lover than ever I was! Since one of us must die, let the remaining life be yours. Much as I have loved my existence, I love yours more. Remember: I do this so that your son may not be deprived of his mother's tender love! Farewell, Mina. Take care of the child.'

And with those words, Dracula stepped to the very edge and leapt.

An ear-splitting cry of anguish rang off the walls. 'No!'

It was Mina who cried out. The agony of grief and loss in her voice rent me to the core. It will haunt me for ever; I might have expected to hear no more and no less for the death of her very son! 'No, no!'

Dracula's form plummeted towards the flames, black against the red, his clothes fluttering in the fierce updraught.

He broke the glowing crust and was gone. But then the Abyss began to roil and heave, and the heat came boiling upwards so strongly that I feared we would all perish.

Beherit was laughing. He set Mina down rather carelessly, as if he were not so much eager to keep his promise as no longer interested in her. Van Helsing and I started towards Mina. At first she appeared dazed, tear-streaked. She turned a little, saw us coming, but did not fly to our arms. Then, a change! I had never seen her face so resolute, so absolutely pure in its intent - as if Dracula's death had redeemed her, his sacrifice transforming her from fallen soul to fierce saint.

Above us, the fence was descending as Kovacs turned the wheel.

As it fell, Mina turned again to Beherit. With his arms raised in exultation, he was paying her no heed. She ran at him and with her little hands gave him a quick, strong push. Beherit slipped. His face dropped in horror. He fell.

He went curving, tumbling down the drop, and the fire swallowed him in a great gout of molten gold droplets.

I screamed, for Mina, too, lost her footing and was slipping towards the edge! Then the railings came down with a great clang, the Gates of h.e.l.l indeed, and she slid against them and came to rest on the very lip.

I reached her first, leaving Van Helsing behind. Mina clung to me, shuddering with spent emotion. As I helped her up, she gasped and said, 'Oh, Dr Van Helsing is ill!'

I saw the Professor, my dear friend, leaning against the railings a few feet from us. He was clutching his chest, his face was grey with pain; yet he was waving his free hand at the shadows, trying to tell us something - trying to warn us, as I realized too late!

'Seward - ah, the pain, my heart -' and all this time the fires went on churning, the mountain rumbling ever more violently.

Through it came an indistinct, half-human sound, a, sort of keening. Had I only understood what it was, could I have prevented - ?.

As Van Helsing extended his hand helplessly to me, the keening I could not identify rose to a full-pitched, ghastly, deep scream and Kovacs came rus.h.i.+ng towards Mina, brandis.h.i.+ng a length of metal like a spear. It was the implement I had used to jam the door, now held with the sharp end aimed at Mina's heart. I have never heard such a cry of animal grief! 'Beherit! You killed Beherit!'

I was paralysed, too slow to pull Mina away. Instead, it was Van Helsing who flung himself in front of her! I stared in unutterable horror as Kovacs drove the spear-tip into Van Helsing's chest; only then did I wrench Mina backwards, just barely in time, for the sharp point came right through his body and would have pierced her too! As we got clear, Kovacs bore Van Helsing down and pinned him to the rock.

Our poor, dear friend! Mina hid her face in my shoulder but, G.o.d help me, I shall never forget the look on his face! Kovacs glared at us, his unhuman face ghastly and flecked with red foam. I thought he would attack Mina again. I was ready for him.

Instead he seemed to have a change of heart, as if some unbearable despair Overcame him. With a hoa.r.s.e groan he turned away, forced his way through two of the railings and leapt, flailing, after his evil companions into the maw of flame.