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As you said, Katie, I aer I was trained to be a Victorian wife, which involved a coe ement Any of my class could run a country, an arination than the overgrown schoolboys who hold positions of power Ifsociety not to the principles of Karl Marx or Henry Ford but those of Mrs Beeton

When I became the effective head of the House of Dracula, I finally found a position These last few years, I have been Dracula I have maintained his correspondence, played off the world leaders who&039;ve flirted with him I have procured for him, found him war sacrifices, I have fed hi it from my veins into his reat fortunes of the world, and will now be dispersed as I see fit, to deserving causes throughout the globe The House of Vajda, as represented by poor Princess Havisham, wished an alliance so they could return in triuht would happen after the wedding This was one of my attempts to stir the Count from his lassitude It was plain he would never consider , and pre-Renaissance savagery It was e would wake hiain

I suppose I loved hi Charles While I was delirious and dotted with leeches, I drea out the heart you had taken fro it dry in your face

I did kill Dracula

I have toldHe was the last of my warm life I&039;m sorry, Katie, but you&039;re not alive Likehost

It was ed the world, who had spread the rot of the twentieth century I knoas living a contradiction For years, I&039;d thought I was bringing Dracula to the point where he e, but I was always aware that in the end I would kill to prevent that great return I ae s in my mind at once I know you understandin advance I had the weapon brought to the palace by the warm tool I then schooled to take the blaold to purchase the silver scalpel of Jack the Ripper, the weapon that killed Art and the old Queen, that was the syainst Dracula in which you, Katie, distinguished yourself It was stolen for e, a fine Victorian scoundrel, and sed with the murder of Count Dracula Don&039;t feel too sorry for hienuine and unprincipled va at times

I had the scalpel forthe knife, and now I held itthe tingle of silver through cotton I touched its point to ue once, and shocked myself unconscious I am sorry not to have it still It has so ive it yet onefor Charles to die

Maybe I aiting for an audience

Maybe I aiting to be convinced against my plan

This story is not all to reat personal trial I saw I had miscalculated and that she intended to force e She was furious that Dracula would not coan to suspect an i practised She re doubles to take his place on the field of battle - do you recall that Hungarian actor who perished in the First World War, Katie? - and wondered if I was not trying to palm a survival of that practice off on her

If I were a passionate murderess rather than a scientific one, I should have cut her throat and left her to drain As it turns out, that ht have been a mercy Whatever happens, I shall see she is taken care of In her current state, she&039;s no har of a continent, and Princess Asa&039;s mind has been sucked into the maelstrom by the aves

Dracula athered for the ball, you sa many were imitations of him They dressed in fashions he once set and then abandoned, all those red-lined black capes and starched evening shirts They styled themselves Counts and Princes and Barons as he did They relived excerpts of his biography, like the leadinghis deeds always

Why was it I who killed hi, Katie? And you kno Mr Stoker in his strange book i the Count and cutting him down? In Mr Stoker&039;s world as it should have been, they were all strong - Mina, Jack Seward, Jonathan, even Art - and in the ordinary course of the world as it was, they would have been strong enough But Dracula was more than a man,si of complicated questions We cannot blame him We chose him

It was time someone ended all that

I was best placed for it I was not, so far as I am aware, a puppet of that creature we encountered in the Colosseuht about that, Katie I think her ideas about vampire elders were shaped by his presence, just beyond the boundaries of her territory Everything she assumed about him and read in the hearts of those ere imitations of him, was untrue of you, Genevieve, as it will be untrue of you, Katie But it will be true of one There will be no more

When I entered his tomb, the Count made no attempt to resist It was not a scene like the one Mr Stoker describes: the ti ood to overco o to his own party

I killed hi he had done to my world I killed him because I loved him, and wished to save him from the humiliation that would coe I killed him because I could

I stuck the scalpel into his heart He took hold of it - very perceptive, Katie - not to pluck it free but to hold it in place, as if he didn&039;t trust his heart not to spit it out of his chest

You see, in my crime, I had an accomplice Count Dracula himself

At the end, as his heart burst, I saw the old life in his eyes He had triumphed over death for so many years, but his final victory was over life His own It took all his great strength, and he could not have done it without me

I think I was his creature, as the Crimson Executioner was that witch&039;s creature He took h subtle influence, shapedtoo uilt from my shoulders That would be quite in character, as I&039;m sure you can attest, Katie

I left him to die alone

It was the child, I a of it As we know, she is inclined to the theatrical I think ere supposed to see that flourish, the head on the pike, as a warning She didn&039;tI can&039;t explain that, but I think we have learned not to ask for explanations with regard to her You got caught up in all that, Katie You were the one there when the girl fetched off his head and all the blood poured out I am sorry I did not mean for you to be hurt This was a private matter, between myself and the Count But it could not remain private, for youThat used to annoy me a lot Now, I am thankful for it

There Now you have it My story