Kiss Of The Butterfly Part 24

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

THE HILLTOP GRAVE.

Novi Sad, Sremski Karlovci, Belgrade: 16-18 May 1992 Mrs. Lazarevic clapped a hand over her mouth when she saw Steven and Bear carrying the girls, but quickly ushered them in.

'Vampires,' Steven blurted as he carried Vesna in his arms. 'We were attacked by vampires in the tunnels.'

'Dear Lord have mercy! Place the girls there,' she motioned them towards the sofas in the sitting room. 'And this one?' she looked at Tamara and saw the remains of her savaged throat.

'She's dead,' Bear intoned emotionlessly.

'Oh no, poor thing,' she exclaimed, rus.h.i.+ng to help Bear with Tamara. 'What happened?'

'Stojadinovic was a vampire,' Steven panted, out of breath. 'And he had help...from Natalija.'

'Natalija? She was there?' Mrs. Lazarevic gasped. 'Then they have escaped. I should never have let you go down there. Were you followed?'

'No. We got away. They killed Mr. Niedermeier,' Steven continued, fl.u.s.tered. 'We found his body down there...then we had to run...the police and DB are after us...we're in big trouble.'

'What about the girls?' Bear interjected gruffly.

'Leave them to me. Steven, go clean up immediately! You too, young man, whatever your name is!'

'This is Bear, my friend,' he said. 'Can we help?'

'Go clean up!' She ordered. 'This is my job and you know nothing about it.'

'Do you have a grill? I need to burn something.'

'Pardon me?'

Steven dumped Stojadinovic's head onto the sitting room table and watched it roll across the white lace tablecloth, splattering behind it a trail of gore and body fluids, its eyes open and alert. Mrs. Lazarevic started at the sight.

'Not on my good tablecloth!' she shouted angrily. 'My Rade always ruined my tablecloths like that, and I won't have you doing the same. Take it down to the cellar immediately! There is a furnace my Rade used for that sort of thing. You will find wood and coal. Then wash off in the downstairs bathroom!' she ordered, as though severed vampire heads rolled across her sitting room table every day. 'We shall discuss this when you return. Now go!'

The furnace sat in a corner of the vaulted brick bas.e.m.e.nt, its mouth gaping open, waiting to be fed. They tossed wood inside, started the blaze, and placed coal on it. When they were satisfied the temperature was hot enough, Steven pulled Stojadinovic's head from his backpack by the hair. At once the head cried out: 'No, not that. Please, I beg you. If you kill me they'll only come after you.'

'Shut up,' Bear said, now clearly enraged.

'It's not my fault. I didn't want to become a vampire. You must believe me,' he pleaded. 'I'm really not like the others. I died two years ago...had a heart attack and my family didn't protect my bed while I lay waiting to be buried. It's not my fault.'

Steven looked at him skeptically. Bear approached and knocked the head from Steven's hand with a blow that sent it spinning across the dirty floor into a corner.

'You son of a b.i.t.c.h! You killed Tamara! And now you want to make good?'

'I'll give you anything you ask,' Stojadinovic's voice was m.u.f.fled, his head mouth-down on the floor. 'I have money. I know where the others keep their treasure.'

'Treasure?!' shouted Bear. 'Treasure won't bring Tamara back.' He kicked the head into the wall.

'Careful,' Steven said.

'Ow,' Stojadinovic whimpered, 'that hurts! Great treasure, hidden by the Twelve throughout the ages. I can lead you to it. Gold, gems and silver. They've even added bearer bonds and cash...lots of German Marks, Swiss Francs, British Pounds...You could be fabulously wealthy.'

'Listen, you slimy low-life,' Bear followed the head across the room. 'I'm going to stomp you to death.'

'Won't work...you've got to burn him,' said Steven, his voice cold as he nudged the head gingerly with his foot.

'You think everything has a price, huh?' Bear said. 'You can't pay for human life.'

'Really, I can make you rich,' Stojadinovic pleaded. 'I can lead you to treasure.'

'And what do we have to do to get it?' Bear asked.

'Simply return my head to my body. Then I'll lead you to it.'

'First you tell us.' Bear drew his leg back as though readying to kick again.

'Stop! If I tell you first, then you'll kill me and take the treasure. You have nothing to fear from me. You have already burned my shroud...I'm powerless.'

'But you killed Tamara.' Bear said.

'Yeah, and Vesna.' added Steven.

'They made me do it. I didn't want to. They made me. I have the power to bring your girlfriends back, both of them. Don't you want them back?'

'How?' Bear asked skeptically. 'We burned your shroud. You yourself just said you have no more power left.'

'I can't believe we're talking to a head,' Steven said. 'Anyway, he's lying!

'How about eternal life,' cried Stojadinovic. 'Immortality? I can offer you...' and then he screamed horrifically as Bear picked him up and tossed him through the open door into the maw of the furnace. Stojadinovic's shrieking head landed with a splash of sparks on the bed of coals and began melting, the hair and skin dripping and burning away as though made of flammable gelatin. In less than half a minute the head was gone and the drippings burned off.

Steven and Bear looked at the furnace for some time before Bear said: 'it's hot in here. Let's wash up.'

They looked in the mirror of the large white-tiled downstairs utility bathroom. Bear was covered in mud, his hair and face streaked with sweat. Steven's arms and chest still bled from the gashes left by the werewolf's claws and he rubbed his hands over his hair, face and beard, trying to remove traces of Stojadinovic's blood and the mud of the tunnels. It was clear why Mrs. Lazarevic had been shocked by their appearance.

Bear sat on the toilet seat and watched silently as Steven began was.h.i.+ng his face. 'You owe me answers...you knew there were vampires...you brought a stake...ate garlic. You came prepared. Why didn't you tell us? Tamara's dead and Vesna's going to die and they'll both turn into vampires. What the h.e.l.l's going on?'

Steven continued was.h.i.+ng without answering.

'I can't believe it...vampires...are we on drugs?' Bear asked.

Steven remained silent as he looked in the mirror and tried to figure out what had happened over the past few hours, unable to believe that vampires actually existed. Even when confronted with proof, it still seemed so incredible as to defy reason. Had he actually killed one? And with a stake? Even now the thought sent s.h.i.+vers down his spine.

'Come on,' Bear prodded. 'You've been Mr. Vampire since you came to Belgrade. You killed Stojadinovic like a pro. What are you, a vampire slayer? I mean Tamara's dead, for G.o.d's sake. She's dead.'

Steven turned to face Bear. 'A vampire-hunter? Me? Hah! Do you really think I know what the h.e.l.l I'm doing? I'm definitely not a vampire-hunter...or maybe now I am...I don't know any more. What I'm trying to say is that I'm still trying to figure it all out.'

'Stefan, those were real vampires!' Bear said adamantly. 'Stojadinovic changed into a werewolf and the other one changed into a b.u.t.terfly.'

'Yeah, I saw,' Steven agreed as he sat on the edge of the bathtub. 'But was it wrong for me to kill Stojadinovic? I mean...I killed someone.'

'Are you kidding me?' Bear sputtered. 'He killed Tamara, he tried to kill us, he was a vampire and a werewolf...it was self defense.'

Steven looked at him for a long while. 'I'll tell you what I know, but first you've got to promise you won't say a word. To anyone.'

Bear grunted affirmatively.

'No, say it. Promise.'

'I promise.'

Then Steven told him about the Order of the Dragon, Slatina and the twelve vampires. 'When I came to Yugoslavia I didn't have a clue what I was getting into. I honestly didn't think we'd find vampires down there. They told me it was safe. And I had absolutely no idea about Stojadinovic.'

'You've got to be kiddin' me,' Bear exclaimed. 'Twelve vampires?'

'Yeah, that's what Slatina said. You saw Stojadinovic. You saw what happened to Tamara and Vesna. You saw Stojadinovic's head. We're mixed up in something really big, and I don't have any idea what to do or where it's going to take us.'

'I can't believe it...this is crazy...but it does explain what's going on right now in Yugoslavia,' Bear exhaled, looking Steven in the eyes. 'Are you a member'?

'Of the Order? No. It's fallen apart. But I think they may restart it.'

'I want to join.' Bear said suddenly. 'I want to avenge Tamara.' He stood up. 'Give me the soap.'

Mrs. Lazarevic sat next to Vesna's limp figure and tenderly rubbed salve into the wound on her throat with one hand; in the other she held Vesna's hand as she half-chanted, half-sung in an obscure tongue. Three candles on the table cast amorphous shadows on the wall above the sofa. Mrs. Lazarevic ignored Bear and Steven as they entered.

'Where's Tamara?' Bear asked softly.

Mrs. Lazarevic turned and fixed him with a stare that indicated silence was in order, and then gestured with her head towards the back rooms.

Bear found Tamara in a bedroom, arms folded peacefully across her chest with a cross in her hands, large gold coins over her eyes. Mrs. Lazarevic had wrapped a white scarf around Tamara's neck to cover the wound and placed herbs on it, but blood had begun to seep through. An icon sat above her head and small wood carvings had been placed around the room as wards. Bear stepped over the makes.h.i.+ft barrier of tables, chairs and chests that had been constructed around Tamara, then fell on her body and began to sob uncontrollably. Over and over he asked her forgiveness, professed his undying love and vowed to avenge her death. He then began to sing lullabies.

In the sitting room Mrs. Lazarevic placed Vesna's hand in Steven's and continued chanting, while the sound of Bear's lament drifted in from the other room.

Mrs. Lazarevic taught Steven the words to the chant and said: 'You must keep repeating that.' She stood and walked to her china cabinet, removed gla.s.s jars filled with herbs and gra.s.ses, opened several, sprinkled their contents gently on Vesna's throat, and rubbed them into the wound. The puncture marks glowed red and angry against Vesna's pale skin.

Vesna moaned softly, then opened her eyes and looked at Steven with a vacant stare, as though unable to focus. Her mouth tried to form words, but no sound emerged. He leaned closer and whispered 'Vesna, please come back.'

'Stefan...' she whispered in barely audible tones.

Steven took her hand and kissed her gently on the forehead.

'Vesna...I've been...are you all right? I've been so worried.'

'I feel cold and my neck burns,' she murmured. 'What happened? Where are we?'

Steven hugged her. 'You're safe, very safe, and I will warm you,' he whispered as he hugged her gently. 'I thought we had lost you.'

'I'm so sorry,' she whispered faintly. 'This wasn't how I planned on spending our first night together...' she smiled weakly as her voice trailed off and her eyes closed.

'Keep chanting,' Mrs. Lazarevic said.

'But she's...'

'Keep chanting if you want her to live.'

He chanted in time with Bear's sobbing lament, their voices blending in hope and anguish, healing and death, to fill the entire house. A warm spirit entered, settled over both of them and brought comfort as they raised their voices against the evil that permeated the land. Mrs. Lazarevic listened to their strange duet, a smile of longing and hope on her face.

Sunrise found Bear asleep on the floor beside Tamara's body and Steven in the sitting room slumped next to Vesna, her hand in his as he mumbled the chant in his sleep. Mrs. Lazarevic entered the sitting room carrying coffee on a tray, then returned bearing another tray loaded with fresh bread, cheese, tomatoes, and a jar of jam. She roused Bear and Steven, marched them to the table and sat them down. 'Eat,' she commanded.

'Tell me what happened last night,' she ordered sternly.

Between mouthfuls of food the two told her of their discovery of the secret door, the flooded stairway, the hole, Stojadinovic's betrayal, the appearance of the female vampire and their escape from the Labyrinth.

'It was strange,' Steven said. 'Somehow I knew what to do. The vampire thing was bad enough, but when he turned into a werewolf I freaked out. Yet somehow I knew what to do.'

'Yes, you did. You held Rade's stake,' she said. 'The more times a stake kills a vampire, the greater the power it confers on its bearer. You were fortunate that you had a venerable stake to guide you. But you have stirred up a hornets' nest. This morning on the RTS news they reported that Mr. Niedermeier had been kidnapped, tortured and killed by a ring of drug addicts...and they put Steven's picture on the television as ring-leader and called him a foreign spy. They seem to know only Steven, otherwise they would have put all your pictures on TV also. For now, Bear, Vesna and Tamara are unknown, but the DB will start asking at the university to find out who your friends are. I hope they find nothing, but if they do, then your families will be at risk.'

'What do we do?' asked Bear.

'You must leave the country.'

'But what about Tamara? Is she going to turn into a vampire?'

'Probably not. She has led a good life, no?' she looked at Bear for confirmation and he nodded.

'And I built a barrier and placed wards around her body, so I see no reason for her to turn into a vampire, provided we give her a proper Christian burial in holy ground with a priest.'

Bear looked relieved.