Lost Without You

~35~

"It was the last day of October eighteen-ninety when I reached the castle ruin of Poenari Citadel," Stoker said, his eyes trained on the lively flames dancing in the fireplace behind me, refusing to look at either me or Lucas directly.

"Wait, what?" I asked, surprised. "You crossed a time passage in Poenari?" So that's where the other one is...

"Do you really think that I'm uneducated, Samara?" he scoffed, his eyes focusing on me. "I had done a lot of research before going on my vampire quest to Romania. I had read everything about them, and your husband, whose name was tagged to most vampire stories, originated in that part of Europe. And whereas I had never found a confirmed connection between him and Castelul Bran, I knew that the Citadel always belonged to his family," Stoker explained.

"But..." I said, feeling confused and uneducated myself.

I remembered how when I organized the trip to Romania for me and my two friends, the name of the Poenari Citadel only came up once among the places connected to Bram Stoker and his Dracula book, which were worth visiting. We were basically pushed to choose Bran...

"I know," Stoker said, his lips curving into a faint smile. "These days, they channel all the tourists to Bran Castle. I must take part of the blame for that, for having chosen the surroundings of that castle as the setting for a few scenes of my story." He shook his head guiltily. "I would never have done it if I knew how it would end. See, I promised your husband to keep his existence secret. The last thing I wanted was attracting attention to his castle."

"Anyway," he continued after a while, his eyes strolling back to the fire, as neither I nor Lucas said anything. "We travelled to Poenari. There was no such thing as tourist guides back then, and my friend and I were among just a handful of visitors that evening. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. The only warning we received was from the owner of the inn where we were staying. The man told us to avoid the castle ruin, especially on Samhain, or Halloween, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. He said that a few people disappeared among the ruins without a trace over the years, and others were found dead. But, despite having read so much about vampires, I never believed in them. The old man was to me just one of the many superstitious locals, a fool. If only I had believed him!" Stoker exclaimed, his voice filled with helpless despair despite the many years that had passed since that night, as he buried himself deeper in his memories.

"What happened?" Lucas prompted when the seconds of silence following his uncle's exclamation stretched into minutes.

Stoker sighed, his voice barely audible over the hiss and whisper of the burning wood this time. "When we reached the top of the castle hill, we separated. My friend joined two men suddenly appearing in front of us from behind the collapsing, ancient walls, and I... I followed the most beautiful woman I had ever seen through a crumbling stone arch and... fell into a courtyard of a medieval castle."

"Wow..." I said, recalling how something very similar happened to me, but Stoker raised his hand to halt my words. Apparently, once he started, he wanted to tell me everything before he could change his mind.

"The two men whom I had seen outside reached us soon, but my friend was not with them. Only later, when I got back into my own time, I found out that he was dead. His body was found the following day among the ruins of Poenari Castle, drained of all blood," he said, looking at me again. "That's it."

"That's not it!" I called, disappointed. I needed to know more, everything! I wasn't going to let him get off the hook this easily once I had him here.

"You really are annoyingly curious, Lady Samara, I don't understand how someone like Lord Vlad, so noble and perfectly behaved, could get smitten by someone like you." Stoker grinned exasperatingly.