"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 in a faint smile. "These days they channel all the tourists to Bran Castle. I must take a 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.

I blushed at his words and Lucas chuckled when he noticed. I glared at him, then back at his uncle.

"I don't care what you think about me, just tell me what happened to you while you were on the other side. How did you get back, how did you become a vampire and how come no one knows that you have visited Romania before having written that book of yours?!"

He shook his head at my insistence but continued, resigned, "We travelled under false names. That's why my true identity was never disclosed there."

"Fine. That only answers one of my questions though. What happened when you crossed the passage?" I pushed on, relentless.

"As you may have guessed, the woman I followed was Lady Jusztyna. She liked me enough not to kill me and I... I fell in love with her, I admit. She was so... refreshingly different from the women of my own era," he said matter-of-factly.

My skin crawled at the remembrance of my and Lady Jusztyna's encounter, as I recalled how 'different' she was indeed. I shivered and when Lucas noticed my uneasiness he left his seat on the sofa and came to sit next to me.

"Are you alright?" He asked, drawing the other armchair close to mine and putting his arm over my shoulders. I nodded, smiling tentatively at him, not wanting him to worry. "All good. I need to know everything." I told him.

He nodded, then looked at his uncle. "But... how could you...? You were married when you travelled to Romania, you had a son..."

"You both are old enough to know that we cannot command our feelings, oblige our hearts to obey our minds. Don't you judge me!" He warned, his gaze flickering between me and Lucas as we sat there in front of him, huddled together. "My marriage to Florence was not what you would call a love match. And Noel, he was nearly thirteen, a young man by the Victorian standards. I was sure that if he ever found out, I'd be able to make him understand..."

"So," I prompted, not paying much attention to Stoker's latest words. There were more important things I wanted to know right now. "I guess you let her change you, believing you were in love with her, and that she loved you too?"

"Yes." He whispered, looking at me. "The transition was awfully painful and long. It took weeks. Once I healed, I was a bloodthirsty new-born vampire. And to be perfectly honest with you, at the very beginning, I enjoyed it. I was the same as her, and as long as we were together I did not mind."

I nodded, not approving of, but comprehending his point.

"Unfortunately, our 'love' did not last long," he shrugged, letting his eyes stroll to the hearth again. "In less then six months she was bored of me and I understood that... her heart had been broken beyond repair, that she would never be able to genuinely love anyone apart from your Vlad." Stoker announced, his words sending the room spinning around me.

It wasn't completely unexpected, but hearing it said aloud, having it confirmed by him, made it seem finally true. I could only watch helplessly the vision his words brought to the forefront of my mind, the picture of Vlad and Jusztyna, her hand on his cheek...

I closed my eyes briefly trying to banish the memory and Lucas, perceiving my inner turmoil pulled me closer. "Uncle... " he reproached.

"She asked!" Stoker said defensively, glancing at me. "Do you want me to stop?"

"No." I said. "Tell me... about them. Please."

"See, Samara, Jusztyna was brought up for him, the man who chose you instead. Their marriage was contracted when they were mere children, that's how it used to be back then. And, unlike so many women of her era, she even managed to fall in love with her husband-to-be during their brief and rare encounters. She was happily anticipating the day of their wedding, when the rumours about his secretly marrying you reached her. It broke her heart. However, she still married him later, once you were gone, and gave him his three sons."

"I know that," I muttered, feeling faint.

"As soon as I understood that our relationship had no future," Stoker continued, "I was cured from my infatuation. And just when I was starting to despair and loathe myself for what I had become, I was introduced to you stepson, Young Vlad."

"Junior." I said, feeling weird at hearing my best friend on the other side being referred to as my stepson. I miss him as much as I miss my Vlad, I realised with a pang.

"Junior, as you like." Stoker smirked. "He told me about your husband, about how he was helping those like me. With Junior's help I left Poenari and arrived at Bran. Soon, Lord Vlad and I became friends and I spent the rest of my time in your world at your husband's court, teaching him some English and learning from him how to become human-like again." Stoker said, smiling at me.

"Why did you come back? Did you not want to stay?" I asked.

"They told me that it was probably not possible for me to remain inside forever, but even if it was, I would not want to stay. I had had enough of that world and was ready to return home. I walked out of the time portal in Bran Castle, after what was a year to me and a few minutes to  those on this side of the passage." He paused, collecting his thoughts, then continued. "After a few days I travelled back to Poenari. Not wanting to raise useless suspicions, I dealt with the formalities of my friend's death fast. Then, shattered by all that had happened, I left for home, promising myself never to set foot again to Romania. And I never did." Stoker concluded, looking directly in my eyes. "But we stayed in touch through letters, as you already know."

"One more thing, Samara," he added before I could say anything, "Jusztyna is not... completely bad. She may well hate you, but she loves him still, and, I'm sure, she'll try anything to..."

"Uncle!" Lucas called accusingly as I inhaled sharply, bringing my left hand to my heart, when Stoker's cold words caused me a nearly physical pain.

Suddenly I couldn't listen to him any longer. I was exhausted beyond measure, I needed time to think his words through. "I... we should go." I mumbled to Lucas, turning my ring around and closing my fist safely around it. As long as I have my ring...

"Let's take you home," Lucas said, scattering my thoughts. "You need to rest." 

He stood up and pulled me to my feet, then we followed his uncle to the door.

"Here," I told Stoker, pulling my notebook out of my bag, after Lucas helped me into my jacket.

"Great. I'll read it tonight and give it back to you tomorrow when I pick you up after work."

"Why are you picking me up?" I asked him, puzzled. I was used to Lucas always being around by now.

"Because I'm meeting your friend Lia, in your flat, anyway. And I need Lucas to do something for me tomorrow afternoon. Our blood supplies..." Stoker said, one of his hands on the door handle, the other clutching my notebook to his chest.

"Uncle, that's really enough!" Lucas whisper-shouted as Stoker opened the door and ushered us into the freezing, misty darkness shrouding the world outside.

"Why? She knows about us at least as much as you, if not more. Off you go now, I've got things to do. See you tomorrow, Samara." He added before the door of his house shut noisily behind us, the sound shattering the near-perfect silence reigning over the street.

"He is..." I said, shaking my head incredulously, groping for the most fitting words to describe Abraham Stoker, as I laced my arm through Lucas' on our way to his car.

"I know! But I'm sure that he'll help you to return to your other world, if that's what you really want, Samara..." he let his sentence trail behind us unfinished, as if he wanted to add something, but not quite.

"It is." I replied decidedly. "I hope you are right..."

My voice morphed into a low sigh as it was carried away by a sudden gust of gelid wind, making us draw closer together.