originally published The Count Dracula Fan Club Annual, Vol. 5 No. 1 1985
Our narrator meets Aliah Warden in a solicitor's office in 1902. Aliah is an old, retiring lawyer with a curious appearance - squat, bow-legged, wide-mouthed. He lives in a village named Wrabley and shares the narrator's interest in witchcraft and devil worship (academically, of course).
He invites the narrator to come around his place, which is located in a marshy region near Essex. Aliah has the usual titles in his library. He reveals himself to be a deep one hybrid.
This story actually has a nice and effective build-up, and its a shame it shorts itself out with an abrupt and unfulfilling ending.
