Bathory's Secret: When All The Time In The World Is Not Enough (Affliction Vampires Book 1)

by Romina Nicolaides

  “I don’t know what priest, or which books you refer to, my dear Madame, but I am astounded that you seem unaware of a simple fact pertaining to the Afflicted condition for one so old and I feel it is my sad duty to enlighten you. You see, when we begin to approach or pass the four hundredth year of Affliction, we too begin to age and then slowly pass away. We are not immortal as some would like to believe, we simply live a lot longer than anyone else. Some have been known to reach five hundred while others have even gone as far as six hundred but around our four hundredth year we begin to experience aging just like everybody else. There is mythology and research even of some of our kind managing to fool death with anthropophagy and the like but not with fool proof results, and it is not something we would encourage.”

  At that point my world collapsed. My breath began to shorten and I felt dizzy and disoriented to the point that I vomited the precious blood I had consumed and lost my senses. I came round suddenly to the smell of camphor in a dark room on a day bed with a young maid seated next to me. My conversation with the Secretary came back to me and I began to feel dizzy again. I got up to leave and she pushed me down. "You can’t leave now, it’s daylight out and the sun is bright.”

  “Please Madame, try to relax.” The Secretary came rushing into the room. “It is the natural order of things, you cannot panic like this, we all die sometime. At least we Afflicted are fortunate in that we’re given a little longer on this earth, that is all.”

  “But my son, who will care for my son after I am gone? I have struggled to find a cure for him all these years to no avail! If I am out of time then so is he! I must go immediately and double my efforts of finding a way to cure him!”

  “Maybe he is not meant to live like this Theodora…” said the Secretary casting down his eyes.

  “No, I do not want to hear that! He was born well and he will be well again!”

  He stood still for a moment and looked into my eyes. “Will you do anything for him?”

  “Of course!”

  “And at any cost?”

  “Yes, money is no object when it comes to my boy!”

  “Very well, come with me please.”

  He took me back into his study from where he produced a small red leather bound book. The title read “Cannibales: Las costumbres de los Indios Caribes.” “It only arrived from the new world some months ago. It speaks of Anthropophagic methods. Do you understand what that means? Cannibalism! The ceremonious harvesting and consumption of human flesh, a method that might be able to lengthen your lifespan, so you can cure your boy. They could have some validity but as we do not kill for our lifestyle we cannot perform many of the experiments in here and therefore cannot confirm their claims. Perhaps you will have more luck with it. It is in the Spanish language, but it is well illustrated and I don’t think that someone with your knowledge of Latin should have much difficulty.”

  I went to take it but he instantly pulled it back over his head and gave me that look again with some added expectation as he held out his chubby white palm.

  “I’m afraid nothing is free in this world Madame, and I have heard that you transact in gold coins.”

  “How much?”

  “One hundred gold pieces.”

  “I don’t have that much money on me.” My heart was racing, at the time I didn’t even have that much gold to my name. I took out ten pieces of gold and put them in his hand.

  “This is all I can spare at the moment but I’ll get you the rest as soon as I can, I promise.”

  The Secretary hesitated but eventually handed the book over to me. “I know you are a woman of your word so I will give you the book, but I expect the rest of the money by the end of the month or else the authorities will be notified, are we clear? I have a lot of connections in this town."

  “I’ll send you your money, I promise.”

  “Please be careful with it, there are only a handful of copies and if you are found with it, it could spell a lot of trouble for you.” He said handing me the book.

  “Do not be concerned Herr Schreiber, I too take great care not to be detected.”

  “Perhaps when you are feeling more up to it, and have a little more time you can come see me again. There is so much more I would like to talk to you about.”

  “I promise to return as soon as I have found a cure for my boy but I must be going, time is more of the essence now than ever.”

  “But it is light out Madame.”

  “I shall suffer it like I have done before.”

  Pulling on my hat and collar I tried to hide as much of my skin from the sun as I could and made a hasty retreat to my apartments, promising to return to the Läuse another time.

  Sixteen

  A knock on the door shook Kati from her thoughts and startled her. She realized that it was not the Countess as she had not heard the carriage arrive and the sun was far too strong for her to travel by day but all the same she felt incredible trepidation at opening it.

  A voice whispered, “Kati, open up, it’s me.”

  She got up from the floor and opened the door to find Miloš. She hadn’t come out of the room since the honey incident so she was pleased to see him.

  “Kati, I know you’re working but you better hurry up! I’ve heard she’s coming back the day after next and will probably not like the look of this,” he leaned into the room from the door frame getting a good look at the scene of disarray that was the binding room.

  “What on earth are you doing in here anyway?”

  “I told you, just some work she gave me. The less you know the better it is,” she said ushering him out. Kati shut the door and leaned up against it while her heart beat heavily in her chest at the thought of the Countess returning in two days when only two thirds of the books had been bound. She wouldn’t be able to read it all and would have to quickly finish the rest of the binding in the time she had left. She leafed through a few more volumes that spoke of her travels within Europe looking for anything else of importance that might catch her eye.

  Vienna April 7th 1604, 9:04 am

  …I have recently been most troubled by the news of my mortality. I have difficulty sleeping and when I do manage to sleep I have dreams of being back in that place, of Vyktor’s death, or falling into an endless black void. I keep seeing Valgt alone and abandoned and left to die, with no one to care for him and I cannot reach him no matter how hard I try. I wake up screaming drenched in sweat…

  Same day late at night

  This evening I found an inebriated courtier in the streets and drank from him. Drunks always have looser blood which flows freely like water and it leaves me with a merry sensation too. He was so confused he called me by the name of some noble woman who frequents court. I kept telling him I was not she but he insisted. He had a hefty pouch filled with gold on him. I took it, along with his chains. It will keep me for a few more weeks as this month's income has gone straight to the Sanatorium as well as the Läuse. I struck him over the head with a rock to make it look like a robbery and dropped him in a part of town frequented by a high number of harlots and criminals.

  Vienna April 12th 1604

  …Yesterday as I was walking around town at dusk I believe I saw the woman the courtier had confused me with. We are the same height and build but her coloration is darker than mine. I waited until she left and then went into the perfumery she’d entered. The vendor said she's some sort of wealthy countess from Hungary. She has been living in a castle away from anywhere and has recently begun visiting Vienna.

  Vienna April 15th 1604

  …The woman is called Erzsébet Báthory and has recently become widowed. From what I have been able to discover about her, her husband’s entire estate has recently come to her and she bankrolls the crown. I’ve decided I am going to try and take her place and assert myself in the castle. She has the means and the space that I need to conduct my work so it’s a risk I’m willing to take. I have never pretended to be anybody else before but in this instance I believe
I can do it.

  Yesterday I dared go out in daytime in order to approach her woman servant in the marketplace. She was easier to reach than I’d anticipated. My assistant served as translator.

  “Are you the maid servant of Countess Báthory?”

  “I am her medical adviser,” she said in slight offense. “Who are you?”

  “I am someone who I believe can be beneficial to you. Where can we go to talk? I will make it worth your while,” I said pushing one of my precious gold coins into her hand. Looking greedily at it she agreed to meet me as soon as her obligations permitted later in the evening. I sat at the prearranged location for almost two hours before she arrived and was starting to think that she wasn’t going to come when a woman with a head covering approached my table. Lifting the veil to show me it was she, she replaced it and sat down across from me.

  “I apologize for my tardiness, but the Countess was particularly demanding this evening. Won’t you please tell me more about your offer?” She cut straight to the chase.

  “As I was saying earlier today, I can offer you a lot more than being a mere ‘medic’ ever can. Tell me, do you like your mistress?"

  “No more or less than any servant likes their mistress. She keeps me well. She is strict but fair and she pays a decent wage. What have you that she or I might envy?”

  “What if I told you, you could keep both your lodgings and your wage?”

  “Nothing different there then.”

  “And what if I told you I could make you live forever, Madame Darvulia? Can your mistress offer you that?”

  “What manner of madness do you speak of? I might be of lowly birth and lack education but please do not waste my time with crazy talk.”

  “I assure you, I’ve no intention of wasting any of your precious time. The years we are given on this earth are never enough and must always be cherished. Give me your knife please.”

  Making sure that no one was watching, I took her knife and cut a deep gash into the top of my forearm, and right before her eyes I healed it just as it had been before. She gasped, her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. I had her undivided attention. “I have been on this earth for over four hundred years but I have come into hardship and I need somewhere to continue my work. If you help me take over your mistress’ operation I promise to give you everything she does and the gift of eternal life as well.”

  “But how?” Her voice was trembling now.

  “We are in allegiance to the same entity, you and I. You as a witch, or medic as you like to call it, and I by different means.” Once again the human obsession with the Devil assisted my cause.

  “The Dark Lord lets you live forever?”

  “Indeed.”

  “And you will do the same for me?”

  “I will in time.”

  “How much time?”

  “As long as it takes to complete my work. I believe I am close, I just need the space and money to do so.”

  “What kind of work is this?”

  “Magical work, the kind our Master approves of.”

  “Then you have my assistance in whatever you want. What do I need to do?”

  “Tell me everything you know about your mistress. If I need something and you do not know it, you will find it out. You will be my right hand with all matters pertaining to my becoming Countess Erzsébet Báthory. However if you break your promise or breathe a word of this to anyone then I shall become the stuff of your nightmares and I'll suck you dry of your blood and leave you to die.”

  “I understand.”

  Vienna April 24th 1604

  The witch woman’s allegiance was easy to secure. She has furnished me with invaluable information about her mistress down to the finest detail. From the time she wakes in the morning to the time she goes to bed at night, her dress habits, her eating schedule and her mannerisms. We sit in my rooms by night and practice both speech and countenance and she even gave me hidden access to the Countess’s apartments one evening so that I could observe her for myself. The witch has also told me about her ample properties including one away from prying eyes which I might be able to use to my advantage…In regards to our appearance we have the same height and build as well as similar hair color and I am quickly learning to imitate her mannerisms and posture. The only barrier is the color of our eyes. Mine are green while hers are a dark brown, almost black, and then there’s the matter with the language once again…

  I’ve had my assistant follow her during daylight hours and tell me exactly what she does when she’s in Vienna. I’ve been spending all my hours learning Hungarian and at night I watch her closely. It is fortunate that she speaks Latin and German fluently so acquaintances won’t be hard to fool. It is only the closest members of her staff and family that will need the most persuading… The centuries have been good to my skill of adaptation.

  Last evening I went into a cloth merchant’s she frequents in the city center to test the quality of my transformation. I have concentrated a lot of my energy into expanding my pupil to overtake the iris so that my eyes look as black as hers and I believe I have succeeded. The process requires tremendous amounts of concentration and causes terrible headaches but the witch gives me herbs for them. The only problem with this effect is that it makes me even more sensitive to light. At first I was apprehensive but in testament to my brilliant transformation the merchant was completely fooled and even offered to send the material to Csejthe Castle for me. Eventually I told him to do whatever we had agreed at our previous meeting, so he was none the wiser. Also the intermediate quality of my German didn't seem to concern him…

  My final attempt at integration in Vienna will be at the Emperor’s ball this coming week. I’ve brushed up as much as I could on my German and Hungarian. I won’t say it’s been easy, but I’ve been exposed to a lot of languages in my life, and grasping the basics of one has become a necessary tool for my survival. The help of the witch of course has been imperative in all this. My plan could not have been completed without her assistance and once again I am grateful for humanity’s greed. Thankfully she is a deranged occultist who has jumped at the chance to become Afflicted if she helps me with my work in prolonging the condition.

  Vienna May 23rd 1604

  The night of the Emperor’s ball I was let into Báthory’s apartments by the witch.

  “She is by the mirror dressing herself, my lady.”

  “You may go.”

  “As you wish,” she did a little curtsy and left the room.

  “Darvulia, where is my pearl headpiece? I need it now!” Her voice cascaded from the other room.

  “Darvulia, where is my pearl headpiece? I need it now…” I repeated in a final attempt to imitate her pitch. She was in a black silk dress, sewn just for the occasion to denote both sorrow at the recent loss of her husband but also to highlight her wealth and status. Somewhat ostentatious for my taste but such were the ways of true nobility. I quietly approached her from the back and said nothing. Noticing my form in the mirror she continued to speak.

  “Darvulia, are you deaf, woman? Where is my headpiece?”

  “I have given Darvulia leave for the evening, what can I do for you?”

  “You did what? Who are you to give my staff leave?” She turned sharply around with a face like thunder.

  “I am a great admirer of yours. I have come to assist you in your preparations.”

  On seeing my appearance her face dropped. I’d done my hair up like she’d planned for the evening and wore a dress I’d stolen the night I was in her room. My pupils were fully dilated and I had powdered my complexion to be a little darker. The transformation was uncanny if I say so myself.

  “What is the meaning of this, impostor? I have guards outside and all I need to do is call them.” I could sense alarm begin to simmer in her voice.

  “The guards have also been given the night off, in fact they were given the rest of their lives off, I hope you don’t mind,” I said as I slowly approached her.

  �
��What on earth is going on here? If this is someone’s idea of a jest then it’s in poor taste. Reveal your intentions at once."

  “This is no jest Erzsébet, I assure you. Sadly for you, you have what I need to save my son’s life and I have come to appropriate it.” I spoke calmly but I could feel her panic rising all the same. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead, her breath quickened and I could hear her heartbeats getting louder with each passing moment, her poor heart was ready to jump out of her chest.

  “What do you want from me? I will give you all the money you want, there is no need for all this drama,” she said as she backed away from my approach. Drool was beginning to form at the edges of my fangs and pool behind my closed lips.