| As my eyes opened involuntarily I saw his strong... 703 |
[Jan. 29th, 2010|07:30 am] |
As my eyes opened involuntarily I saw his strong hand grasp the slender neck of the fair woman and with giant's power draw it back, the blue eyes transformed with fury, the white teeth champing with rage, and the fair cheeks blazing red with passionBut the Count! Never did I imagine such wrath and fury, even to the demons of the pitHis eyes were positively blazingThe red light in them was lurid, as if the flames of hell fire blazed behind themHis face was deathly pale, and the lines of it were hard like drawn wiresThe thick eyebrows that met over the nose now seemed like a heaving bar of white-hot metalWith a fierce sweep of his arm, he hurled the woman from him, and then motioned to the others, as though he were beating them backIt was the same imperious gesture that I had seen used to the wolvesIn a voice which, though low and almost in a whisper seemed to cut through the air and then ring in the room he said,
"How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you cast eyes on him when I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me! Beware how you meddle with him, or you'll have to deal with me
The fair girl, with a laugh of ribald coquetry, turned to answer him"You yourself never lovedYou never love!" On this the other women joined, and such a mirthless, hard, soulless laughter rang through the room that it almost made me faint to hearIt seemed like the pleasure of fiends
Then the Count turned, after looking at my face attentively, and said in a soft whisper, "Yes, I too can loveYou yourselves can tell it from the pastIs it not so? Well, now I promise you that when I am done with him you shall kiss him at your willNow go! Go! I must awaken him, for there is work to be done
"Are we to have nothing tonight?" said one of them, with a low laugh, as she pointed to the bag which he had thrown upon the floor, and which moved as though there were some living thing within itFor answer he nodded his headOne of the women jumped forward and opened itIf my ears did not deceive me there was a gasp and a low wail, as of a half smothered childThe women closed round, whilst I was aghast with horrorBut as I looked, they disappeared, and with them the dreadful bagThere was no door near them, and they could not have passed me without my noticingThey simply seemed to fade into the rays of the moonlight and pass out through the window, for I could see outside the dim, shadowy forms for a moment before they entirely faded away
Then the horror overcame me, and I sank down unconscious
CHAPTER 4
Jonathan Harker's Journal Continued
I awoke in my own bedIf it be that I had not dreamt, the Count must have carried me hereI tried to satisfy myself on the subject, but could not arrive at any unquestionable resultTo be sure, there were certain small evidences, such as that my clothes were folded and laid by in a manner which was not my habitMy watch was still unwound, and I am rigorously accustomed to wind it the last thing before going to bed, and many such detailsBut these things are no proof, for they may have been evidences that my mind was not as usual, and, for some cause or another, I had certainly been much upsetI must watch for proofOf one thing I am gladIf it was that the Count carried me here and undressed me, he must have been hurried in his task, for my pockets are intactI am sure this diary would have been a mystery to him which he would not have brookedHe would have taken or destroyed itAs I look round this room, although it has been to me so full of fear, it is now a sort of sanctuary, for nothing can be more dreadful than those awful women, who were, who are, waiting to suck my blood-I have been down to look at that room again in daylight, for I must know the truthWhen I got to the doorway at the top of the stairs I found it |
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