Harker and the Count: Chapter I

JONATHAN HARKER’S JOURNAL

17 April 1893. Exeter.

When I was a child, my mother insisted we keep to ourselves, having as little contact with le Gazhe—white outsiders—as possible.

As consumption slowly claimed her, she kept me by her side, forcing me to watch the vitality slip from her flesh. On the last day of her existence, she pulled my ear to her lips, whispering a final message.

“Keep away from the world, Jonathan.” She added in Rrómani shib, the tongue of her people:— “Yekh dilo…