The Stories in Our Veins

by victorianpining

Summary:

You hold in your hands a leather-bound book inscribed with the title The Stories in Our Veins. No author is named by the cover. On the first page, the following passage has been written in an elegant, cursive hand:

A confederate who foresees your conclusions and course of action is always dangerous, but one to whom each development comes as a perpetual surprise, and to whom the future is always a closed book, is indeed an ideal helpmate.

Sherlock Holmes in “The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier,” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1926.

Notes:

Dear reader,

I readily admit that it is more than a little strange to have devoted more than two years of my life to a story so entangled with BBC Dracula which—for all that I adore it—I must acknowledge is not especially popular. I've known all the while that the premise alone would be a fairly large barrier to entry, to say nothing of the darker elements of the material. If you've decided to join me in spite of those obstacles, know that you have my undying gratitude. In return for that small act of kindness, I offer you the portion of my heart and soul woven into the fabric of this narrative—I lay them before you freely and of my own will.

My eternal regards to my beta readers, particularly Jones whose enthusiastic feedback continued to inspire me whenever I began to lose hope that this story would ever come together (I hope you enjoyed all the extra s4 references I worked in for you), Wes for her invaluable suggestions on how to refine Watson's voice in the early chapters which helped me narrow in on his final characterisation throughout, and HB for their amazingly quick feedback and for catching the many typos and punctuation errors I somehow always miss when editing myself; to Sally for drawing the beautiful cover art for this story not once, but twice; and finally to the two men who in many respects remain my literary forefathers for telling the story of a lone vampire hiding himself the shadows and his battle of wits with the woman desperate to understand why with such great care—it seemed only fair to return the favour.

One final note: with the exception of this one, all chapter notes are diegetic to the text.

All my love,

Rebs

Listen to the soundtrack to The Stories in Our Veins on Spotify

Chapter 1: Foreword

How these volumes have been placed in sequence will be made manifest in the reading of them. In the interest of transparency, no changes have been made that would alter these documents from their original form, though as a result these histories often appear at variance with themselves. However, this decision does provide another singular benefit—in spite of the difficulties in this realm which you will soon discover, there is no statement of events where memory may err, for the records are all contemporary and relay the feelings and suspicions of the moment they occur. 

I regret that I can provide no further defence of this work, but my particular knowledge of its author proves him to be a most prolific liar. In that regard, this story is the truest possible representation of both the events described and the man who wrote them.

Yours sincerely,

JHW