by James Lyon
‘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.
‘Will her family be a problem?’ Mrs. Lazarevic asked.
‘Maybe not, at least for a while,’ Bear said. ‘Her parents are divorced. Her mom’s in Sarajevo and can’t leave because of the siege; her dad’s some big shot communist who lives in a big new apartment in Novi Belgrade with a new wife Tamara’s age… sometimes they don’t talk for months. Tamara lives by herself in her mother’s apartment…’
‘Any family who’ll miss her?’
‘She has a sister in South Africa and an Uncle in Australia.’
‘Because this is on TV, I don’t know how we can find a priest who will let us bury her on holy ground or who will conduct a service,’ said Mrs. Lazarevic.
Silence followed as they looked at each other.
Steven finally broke the silence. ‘I’m a priest… I could do it.’
‘You’re a priest?’ Bear looked at him in shock.
‘Yes, it’s a long story…and I know where we can bury her.’
‘I knew there was something special about you,’ said Mrs. Lazarevic with a faint smile. ‘Then we must bury her immediately, while it is still the Lord’s day.’
‘How? We need to wait for nightfall or someone will see us,’ protested Steven.
‘If you bury her after dark then she might become a vampire. It must be during the daylight!’ Mrs. Lazarevic was adamant.
‘This will be a problem,’ said Steven.
‘Vesna will be a bigger problem. The vampire now knows the taste of Vesna’s essence and will not be satisfied until she has taken the rest of it. They are compulsive, you know…once a vampire tastes your blood it cannot rest until it has finished. Natalija will do all in her power to track Vesna. And because she has Vesna’s blood inside her she will be able to sense Vesna’s whereabouts. If Natalija is in the vicinity, then my wards can no longer conceal Vesna. We must get her out of the country. Only distance will conceal her.’
‘We could kill her,’ Bear suggested.
‘Kill Vesna?’ exclaimed Steven. ‘Are you crazy?’
‘I meant the vampire.’
‘You? Kill her? I doubt it,’ Mrs. Lazarevic said. ‘If it was indeed Natalija then she is one of the twelve and is too powerful. The three of you must leave the country at once.’
‘But she’s at Debauchery,’ Bear objected. ‘Stojadinovic said so. We’ve got to…’
‘Don’t chase Natalija.’
‘I need to go back to Belgrade,’ Steven said. ‘I left most of my things at the Popovics.’
‘Forget your things! Your life is more important! You may not go to the Popovics. Nor may you call anyone you know.’
‘I want to kill her, damn it!’ Bear shouted.
‘Stay away from her!’ Mrs. Lazarevic said sternly. ‘Do you understand?’
‘Hell no!’ Bear exclaimed, but nonetheless nodded reluctantly. ‘Who’s Natalija?’ he asked.
‘She was Marko’s wife. They were madly in love with each other, but their love and her beauty were fatal. She was young, immature, spoiled, vain, jealous and unable to control her passions. Less than a week into their marriage she became suspicious of a servant girl and accused Marko of cheating on her with the girl, and killed her, so Marko’s mother and Uncle annulled the marriage and sent Marko away on a voyage to the Levant. It created quite a scandal, but because she came from a noble family everything was hushed up. Nonetheless, rumors spread and no other family would consider her for their sons. She died shortly thereafter under unclear circumstances. Some say she was strangled by her father to restore the family honor. In any event, she became a vampire. Marko still harbors an irrational affection for the girl. Rather than kill her as the Order instructed, he became convinced he could find a way to reverse the process of vampirism. He was the one who convinced that foolish Emperor to imprison them under Petrovaradin, all so he wouldn’t have to kill Natalija. He has spent much of his life searching for a cure for the curse.’
‘Who’s Marko? What Emperor?’ Bear asked.
‘I’ll tell you later,’ Steven answered.
‘Bear,’ Mrs. Lazarevic said as she fixed him with a strange look. ‘What is your real name?’
‘Simic, Teofil,’ Bear answered sheepishly. Steven started. All this time and he had never learned Bear’s real name.
‘Okay then, Teofil, do you have a passport?’
‘Yes, in Belgrade. But they won’t let me leave the country until I’ve served in the army.’
‘We shall fix that. First you must go to Belgrade and get your passport and Vesna’s. And you must do it quickly before they discover your identities. Steven, you will go with Teofil to get Vesna’s passport.’
‘But how will we get to Belgrade without being caught? They’ll recognize my car.’
‘Did they get a good look at it?’ she asked.
‘I don’t think so. There are thousands of Yugos on the street. But they’ll be looking for us. There are military police everywhere rounding up military-aged men…they’ll catch us for sure.’
‘No one will arrest you. Leave it to me,’ she said authoritatively. ‘I shall make arrangements for the three of you to leave the country unseen.’
Both nodded.
‘Now, let’s bury Tamara.’
* * *
Vesna shivered under the blanket as she leaned back against the trunk of a large tree and thought of warmth, love, and the life that had so nearly been drained from her. Mrs. Lazarevic sat next to her and held her hand as they watched the sun glisten off the Danube’s brown waters to paint the speckled patchwork fields across the river a late afternoon orange. Tamara’s body, wrapped in a rug, lay next to them in the waist-high grass of the hilltop pasture surrounding the Chapel of Peace.
In front of the church’s main entrance a large stone slab the size of a coffin lay flat in the grass, its mossy surface covered in Latin inscriptions commemorating a Venetian diplomat buried during the 1699 peace conference. The late afternoon sun beat down on Bear and Steven as they attacked the slab with shovels, prying it up on its side. They dug underneath it until the hole was about five feet deep. Neither said a word as Steven and Bear unwrapped the rug and lowered Tamara’s body in the grave. Mrs. Lazarevic stood at the edge, sprinkled herbs and handed Bear an icon to place next to Tamara. Steven climbed out and watched as Bear knelt next to Tamara, said a prayer, crossed himself and kissed her one last time. Steven offered his hand and pulled Bear from the grave.
The sun was beginning to set as Steven pulled out a folded, yellowed piece of paper and began to read nearly verbatim the words he had read two years earlier over a frozen grave. ‘Dearest Tamara, your life was taken by the evil serpent, the son of darkness, in an act of monstrous violence. But what one serpent has taken, another will return. The Apostle John told us that “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” This everlasting life awaits you, Tamara, not in the corrupted form of a vampire, with which the Dragon has cursed this land, but as something higher and purer.’ He looked at Bear, who knelt on one knee, his head bent over the grave.
‘The Apostle Paul,’ Steven continued, ‘tells us in his first letter to the Corinthians that “the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”’
Bear sobbed softly.
‘Dear Tamara, I promise you that everlasting life awaits you, with God and his holy angels. I bless your grave that it will be hallowed up to God, that it will be a place of repose and rest for your mortal remains. By the power of the priesthood which I hold, I consecrate this ground and bless you that you will arise in the resurrection of the dead, to have your corruption clothed with incorruption, your mortality with immortality. For the prophet Job told us “I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God”.’
‘Tamara, you will live once again to see the face of God and those who love you. I bestow this blessing on you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.’
‘Amen,’ murmured Bear softly as he rose to his feet and crossed himself. ‘Amen’ whispered Vesna from where she sat. ‘Amen’ said Mrs. Lazarevic.
Bear reached down, picked up a clump of earth and threw it into the grave.
After they had filled in the hole and replaced the heavy stone slab, they stood silently, watching the sun’s last glow from over the hill to the west. Bear stared at the dark stone slab for a long time, then whispered ‘I’ll see you again.’ They all walked slowly down the hill, Steven carrying Vesna in his arms as a brilliant full moon rose slowly over the Danube to illuminate the night sky and the dark land beneath.
* * *
‘They’ve escaped,’ the woman said, her voice dampened by the heavy insulation inside the phone booth.
‘Escaped!’ said a male voice on the other end of the telephone line. ‘How?’
‘The ceiling collapsed.’
‘When?’
‘I don’t know. It’s been a while.’
‘All of them?’
‘Yes.’
The line crackled with the static of a bad international connection.
‘Was anybody hurt?’ he asked.
‘Yes. One girl was killed and another bitten.’
‘Who did it?’
‘Stojadinovic.’
‘Damn! I should have guessed.’
‘He’s dead. Steven killed him.’
‘He’s a good lad. Where is he now?’
‘Tomorrow they go to Belgrade to get his girlfriend’s passport.’
‘A girlfriend? Good for him. Do you think he can handle one of our women?’ he asked with a chuckle.
‘Just because you couldn’t doesn’t mean he can’t,’ she taunted.
‘That’s not fair.’
‘It’s very fair, Marko. This is happening because of your stupidity.’
‘Mariana, you don’t understand...’
‘Don’t lecture me on love, Marko. You will always lose that argument. You don’t lock someone you love in a casket for three hundred years and throw away the key. If you really loved her you would have killed her and ended her suffering. This is about your selfish perception of love, not real love. When you love as strongly as Rade did, then you can say something. He loved me enough to sacrifice his immortality, which is more than you ever did. And that’s why I married him and not you.’
A long silence followed.
‘So Natalija has escaped?’ he asked eagerly.
‘She attacked one of the girls in the tunnels. Or at least Steven thinks it was her. How would he know who she is?’
‘He saw her picture at my place.’
She sighed deeply.
‘Will Steven be safe in Belgrade?’ Slatina asked.
‘I’ve disguised him well. And he has a girlfriend who survived the attack, which means you have another recruit. They need to leave the country.’
‘Can they get to Ram?’
‘Ram?! You’re playing with fire.’
‘It’s the main smuggling point and the only way we can be certain they aren’t being followed.’
‘You’ll need to arrange asylum for two, Vesna and Teofil.’
‘I’ll start on it right away. When can they cross?’
‘In two nights.’
‘I’ll send a boat to pick them up.’
Again the line crackled.
‘What will you do with them?’ she asked.
‘What I should have done years ago. The Order must be restored, and they will help me. I have asked Katarina to assist.’
‘Please Marko, take care of my Katarina. She’s all I have left. And make certain she marries a good man. There are so few of them left. I had hoped that Steven would find her interesting, but apparently not.’
‘Patience, Mariana. You need to…’
‘Don’t tell me to be patient. I’m mortal and will one day die.’
‘Katarina is still young and is enjoying the innocence of life in America. I will care for her as though she were my own daughter. I swear on my mother’s grave.’
‘She would be your daughter if you had been more of a man!’
‘That’s not fair, Mariana.’
‘Marko, I must be going.’
‘Mariana, it was good talking to you.’
‘Likewise, Marko.’
‘Do you need anything? Medicine? Money?’
‘No. I have sufficient.’
Mrs. Lazarevic hung up and stepped from the telephone booth, wiped the sweat from her brow with a handkerchief a
nd went to the counter to pay.
* * *
‘You will cross the Danube at Ram,’ Mrs. Lazarevic told them. ‘Go to the landing at midnight two nights from now. A boat will come for you.’
‘But why there? Isn’t it easier to cross the border somewhere else?’ Bear asked.
‘Ram has been the main crossing point between Serbia and Romania since time immemorial. The people there are experienced in the river smuggling trade and will turn a blind eye.’
‘Okay.’
‘There are two ways to get to Ram. You should take the longer road. It is worse, but safer. It goes through Kisiljevo.’
‘Kisiljevo?!’ Steven exclaimed. ‘That’s where they had that famous vampire incident in 1725. Is it safe?’
‘How do you know?’ asked Bear.
‘I read about it in my research.’
‘More vampires?’ blurted Vesna, clutching her throat. ‘Please, can’t we go another way?’
‘For you it will be safe. For those who follow, perhaps less so.’
‘What do you mean?’ Bear asked.
‘The villages around Ram always had problems with vampires…Kukljin, Kisiljevo, Klicevac, Kurjace, Zatonje… Dracula used to visit Ram every year and gaze in sorrow across the Danube at his beloved Wallachia, knowing he could not cross. He always lashed out in frustration at the villagers. But long ago Marko showed them how to defeat him. You’ll be safe there.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Steven asked. ‘Are you sending us into something dangerous again?’
‘My dear Steven, the path that you and your friend have chosen means that you will be in danger for the rest of your lives,’ Mrs. Lazarevic answered soberly. ‘But for now, the danger to you comes from man, not the supernatural. The supernatural will help you.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Bear.
She ignored him. ‘Do you remember the motto of the Order of the Dragon?’ she asked.
‘O quam misericors est Deus, Justus et Pius,’ Steven answered. ‘O how merciful is God, Just and Faithful.’
‘If you encounter trouble, simply repeat the motto.’
‘But what’s this all about? What type of danger are we getting into?’ Bear was agitated.