InsaneJournal

Current mood:	working
Current music:	Muse - Knights of Cydonia
Entry tags:	challenge: yuletide, character: dracula, character: mina harker, fandom: bram stoker's dracula, pairing: dracula/mina, title: awakening

Yuletide: Awakening
Title: Awakening
Fandom: Bram Stoker's Dracula
Pairing: Dracula/Mina
Word Count: 1139
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Mina and Dracula belong to Bram Stoker, though Dracula might argue differently. I'm just borrowing them and will put them back when I'm done.
Summary: How Mina really felt about Dracula's visits....
Author's Note: Written for Yuletide 2008.


MINA HARKER'S JOURNAL

3 November.--The first time the Count came for me, it seemed as but a dream, for how else could a such a mist creep through the cracks in the door frame, and then coalesce into a thick cloud in the center of the room? I could not move as red eyes like fire gazed out at me. I felt as if I were falling, but not through space, through time. Visions swam before my eyes, images from another life, making me dizzy with their intensity. Overwhelmed, I swooned as a white face emerged from the mist and loomed over me.

There were marks upon my neck when I awoke the next morning, and I felt so very weak and tired. A sleep disturbed by such vivid dreams would explain the fatigue, and I rationalized away the pinpricks in my flesh as having scratched myself as I flailed about when I awoke. I did not mention the dream nor the marks to Jonathan or the others. They had enough on their minds to worry about.

Two nights later I attempted to sleep with the aid of a sleeping draught I had requested from Dr. Seward, but unlike Jonathan, who slept soundly beside me, I could not fall into a peaceful slumber. And then he was there, the Count, standing beside the bed. The moon lit up the room enough to see clearly, and Jonathan and the others had described him well to me, so I knew instantly who the man was. I opened my mouth, though what I had planned to say or scream I can not say. He pointed to Jonathan and whispered, "Silence, do not awaken him." And I obeyed.

The Count beckoned to me, and I rose and pushed aside the blankets, kneeling on the edge of the bed and facing him. He touched a cold hand to my face, and I shivered. "Mina," he whispered. The sound of my name on his lips made me shudder even more. His hand slid to my shoulder, and he moved the other to tilt my head. I closed my eyes, both fearing and desiring what was to come next. "This is not the first time, or the second, that I have tasted your life," he said as his lips touched my throat. He pressed a kiss upon my neck, and then I felt the sharp sting of his teeth sinking into my flesh.

I cried out then, a soft noise that for a moment I feared would disturb Jonathan's sleep. He remained unconscious, however, completely oblivious to the seduction of his wife just inches away. My own hands came up to clasp the Count's shoulders, and I clung to him lest I swoon. The pain that radiated from my neck somehow became hot waves of pleasure shooting through my body in ways that Lucy had teased me about to make me blush, yet Jonathan had never made me feel.

I had no concept of time, I know not if it was minutes or hours that passed as he drank from me. When he finally drew away and slid his fangs from my neck, I whimpered at the loss. I could see my blood upon his lips as he spoke. "The others hunt and frustrate me, but they left their most precious treasure unguarded. You, my Mina, will be mine once more."

"Yes," I whispered. "Yours."

His hands moved to my gown, ripping it open. I was so wanton, arching against him as he kissed my throat and breasts. There was still the worry that my moans and sighs would awaken Jonathan, which somehow seemed to stimulate my passion. I clawed at the Count's shoulders, tangling fingers in his hair until once more he pulled back, this time to yank open his own shirt. He scratched his nails across his chest, slicing open the skin so that blood began to flow. With one hand he seized my wrists and held them tightly. His other hand slid round my neck, tugging my head forward. "Drink, my Mina," he hissed, and I leaned forward eagerly, my lips pressed to that gash in his chest, suckling as a babe would at its mother's breast. I feared it would make me gag, but it was as if I were drinking a fine wine.

And then the door burst open, and Dr. Van Helsing, Dr. Seward, Lord Godalming, and Mr. Morris spilled into the room. The Count growled like a wild animal and pushed me down upon the bed. He leapt upon the intruders, then recoiled as they raised crucifixes. He became as mist once more, then vanished from the room.

I knew what this surely must look like to the men, and I knew I must act quickly. I threw my hands before my face and screamed and sobbed, rocking myself in the bed as the Van Helsing and Seward attended to Jonathan. They managed to rouse him, and he looked around the room in confusion. "Dr. Seward, Dr. Van Helsing, what is it? What has happened? What is wrong? Mina, dear what is it? What does that blood mean?" As he spoke the words, he must have realized the truth, or what I would have him believe of it, for he jumped from the bed and began to dress, intending to go search for the Count.

Lord Godalming and Mr. Morris had already fled the room in pursuit, and I knew I had to give the Count as much time as possible to escape. I reached for Jonathan and clung to his arm. "No! No! Jonathan, you must not leave me. I have suffered enough tonight, God knows, without the dread of his harming you. You must stay with me. Stay with these friends who will watch over you!" I feigned hysterics to keep the men at my side, and spun a tale that painted me as the picture of ravaged innocence. I twisted his words and claimed the Count had threatened Jonathan's life if I resisted him. I protested that much as I had wanted to, I could not disobey his commands. He sought to corrupt me as revenge against those who hunted him, and I begged them to protect me and save me.

They believed me, of course, for they thought I was my old self, the proper Madam Mina. They would never understand how the Count's touch had changed me. Mina Harker was no more. I was the Count's bride now, his love for all time, his beloved mate. These mortal men would think to use me now, to make me lead them to the Count, where they could destroy him. I would lead them, but it would be to their end, for it is I who will use them to return me to my love's side.

X-posted to Yuletide 2008 (here)