The Bathory Curse (32 page)

“
Was that all these two years were to you, just
duty?” The woman who touched her gave a easy smile, her voice
softening.

“
No, we had so much fun, no one could have taken
me where you did, showed me what you showed me.” They had done
wonderful things, she had been to Rome, Cairo, ancient cities long
since gone, she had even sat and had her portrait painted, none of
which she could have afforded or been able to do on her
own.

“
And the other things.” The voice filled with
lingering heat and a blush came to Mariska’s cheeks.

“
Were caused by strange wines and strange
spices….”

“
You didn’t enjoy yourself?”

“
You know I did….”

“
Peter will not pleasure you like I can.”

“
Don’t speak like that! It’s wrong….and while yes
I liked it…I do not love you like I love Peter and you cannot give
me the children I want…” Even to Mariska the excuses sounded
weak.

“
So you are refusing me? A place by my side, in my
court and my bed?” The other woman’s voice was now colder than the
winds.

“
Yes, I am sorry… I also have to ask you not to
come again…I can’t explain you to Peter, to my family….” Mariska
felt tears fall and a hand wiped them away.

“
You are not as sorry as you will be, Mariska
Bathory. After your first child is born you shall descend into
madness, and each girl child of your line after shall follow you.
No true joy shall your family ever know, before this night is
through this curse will be iron clad.”

Mariska gasped, reaching for the woman, but her
hands grasped nothing but air, “Oh no, Bendis…no.”

Daniela woke up, laying in her grandmother’s lap,
she released her white knuckled grip on Mariska, who smiled sadly
and backed up, stroking her new doll and whispering nonsense words
to it. Daniela opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She
felt strong and powerful, but her voice wouldn’t come.

“Oh Ella, you’re ok….You fed on Mariska’s memories…
you are a memory feeder instead of an emotion feeder…Give it a
second, the first feed it always the hardest.” Nea looked over her
granddaughter’s head at her mother’s worried face.

Catching her daughter’s eyes Jenica mouthed, “NOT
GOOD.”

Mariska wandered back over humming to herself.

“It must be her…. But not her, older her by….” She
counted on her fingers, “eight years.” She gave a half smile and
danced off.

Daniela struggled to sit up a little and took a deep
breath, finally able to speak, “It was Bendis, Grandma….She cursed
our family.”

“She is coming. She can’t come here, she promised me
I would never have to see her again.” Mariska squeaked from the
corner.

A loud boom thundered through the room, Nea and
Daniela were jerked from Limbo and slammed back down in their
library, startling Mihail and Stasi. A young, limber and manic
Bendis stood in the center of the room, her foxes giving off low
warning growls around her.

Nea began “Bendis, please-

“No! I will not hear excuses!” Bendis yelled, her
voice shaking the very walls of the house.

“She’s only a child!” Nea pleaded.

“Mama, what happened?” Stasi ran over, putting her
arms around her daughter.

“She broke the rules! I cannot abide by that and
punishment must be issued!” Bendis exclaimed, the air electrified
around her, she seemed to swell in size.

“Punishment? What rule did she break?” Mihail put
himself between the angry Goddess and his family.

“I knew she shouldn’t have gone, you shouldn’t have
taken her!” Stasi’s words were filled with blame as she looked at
her mother.

“She spoke directly to Mariska.” Nea too stepped in
front of Stasi and Daniela. Daniela was crying, scared, in her
mother’s arms.

“Punish me Great Goddess, not my family, I am to
blame.”

“Mother, no!” Mihail grabbed her arm.

“You warned the girl, you are not at fault.” Bendis
glared, arms over her chest, she pointed a finger at Stasi and
Daniela, “move away from the child Anastasia.”

Nea had pleaded and offered herself, nothing else was
working, she thrust herself into Bendis line of sight and gathered
her power, it swirled around her centuries accrued, it filled her
eyes, and her hands with golden light and the room with the warmth
of ten fire places, “you will have to go through me Bendis.”

“And me.” Sabine was suddenly at Nea’s side, she
slipped a freckled covered hand into Nea’s and joined their magic,
the gold became tinged with green and the smell of peat moss filled
the room causing Bendis’ fox familiars to cough.

Bendis stared at her Stregas, unbelieving and her
anger died, her own magic settled back into her skin. She wasn’t
willing to kill two of her best and favorite Stregas over this one
point.

“I have to punish her, if I do not, my word means
nothing, and I am compelled to keep it,” Bendis said, her voice,
taking on a more pleasing tone.

“She is just a child, my granddaughter, Mariska’s
blood.” Nea drove home the most compelling point. “It is your fault
her family line is cursed, you can afford to be lenient.” Sabine’s
hand tightened in Nea’s at this news. Stasi gasped in shock and
Mihail groaned under his breath.

“This is all your fault. You did this to our line
and chose to keep it from me, you could have ended this curse
yourself a hundred times over and chose not to. This is YOUR
secret, you can’t blame my Ella!”

“It matters not and if you value her life you will
NOT speak to me that way. So this is my punishment and decree. For
the next ten years, or until the curse is broken, Daniela is
forbidden from being in the company of you or Mihail. She and Stasi
will travel back to England and stay with one of my daughters, in
her care and safe keeping. You and Mihail shall have no contact
with Daniela until then.” At Bendis words there was a crack in the
air. Sabine and Nea let go of their accumulated magic and the room
went back to normal.

“You have one hour to say your goodbyes.” Bendis
nodded.

“No!” Nea was trembling with betrayal and anger, “you
kept me in the dark, you are selfish and cold. I had thought….I
feared this was always the truth, but I convinced myself you care
about my family and something was keeping you from talking. Now I
know it was just you. You don’t want to die!”

“I will not be spoken to as such and I will not
discuss this any further.” With those words the Goddess was simply
gone.

“Hecate can be a real bitch,” Sabine growled.

“Isn’t there anything we can do?” Stasi asked,
pulling Daniela over to Nea.

“I did what I could, I will just have to break the
curse in record time.” Nea sniffed, holding back her tears. She
enveloped both her girls in her arms, holding them tightly,
memorizing their shape, feel and smell.

“Grandma, I don’t want to go, I am so sorry!” Daniela
wailed.

“Hush, now Ella, we will all be together very soon.
I love you both.” She motioned for Sabine to follow her out of the
room, her last sight was of Mihail darting to his wife and child,
Nea’s heart broke a little more as she gave them privacy.

“Bunica!” Ruxandra and Marina were right outside the
door, Ruxandra’s eyes held concern and Marina was angry.

“You heard?”

“Everything, stupid Goddess, mucking up the works,”
Marina muttered, eyes darting around, hoping Bendis didn’t smite
her.

“I need you both to go and pack the essentials for
the girls, we can send the rest later. Make sure Mihail doesn’t
leave the house until I can speak with him again.” Nea ordered,
both women bowed their heads in acknowledgment.

“At least you know, Bunica, now all the pieces make
sense. Why she didn’t want you speaking to Mariska, why she refused
to answer your most basic questions. We will fix this,” Ruxandra
grabbed Nea’s hand and gave it a good squeeze before leaving to do
as she was bid.

Nea turned then and just stared at Sabine.

“I am sorry I didn’t get here sooner.” Sabine said,
into the awkward silence.

“Where have you been the last ten years? I missed
you. I called out for you.” Nea was trying hard not to sound as
pissed off as she was.

“I was mad, for the first year or so…then as the time
went by I was embarrassed, I caused such a scene and I didn’t think
you would welcome me back.”

“Your pride, you mean”

“Yes, fine, my pride. I had been eavesdropping a bit
lately, so when I caught the frantic feelings of your house and
felt and all powerful furious Hecate I boogied right on over to
help. Lesson 15; Stregas are true to each other first and foremost,
Lesson 27; in this life you have to learn to forgive and move on,
and Lesson 12: even though we are immortal everyone has to say
sorry and eat a little crow now and then.”

“So what you’re saying is…”

“That I’m sorry, alright? I should have come much
earlier and I wish I hadn’t waited so long…you gonna make me grovel
anymore?” Sabine gave her a hopeful grin, her eyes mischievous. The
two women hugged and Nea felt the tears come then and allowed
herself to be held by Sabine for a few moments while she grieved
and collected herself.

“I was wondering when you would remember your own
damn lessons,” Nea hiccupped, pulling away.

“Well, I am more stubborn than you.”

“What am I going to do now?” Nea pulled out a
handkerchief and began dabbing her eyes; they stung with the
Goddesses treachery. She had always known Bendis was using her, but
the perks she received outweighed the negatives, until now.

“We are going to Greece, we are going to figure out
this curse if it kills us, even if we have to kill old Hecate to do
so.”

Chapter 20

Greece Two Month Later

“I am sick of looking at old books.” Sabine slammed
another tome down, causing dust to swirl in the air and make her
cough.

“Me too, but there is not much more we can do,” Nea
said, gently using a piece of blue silk to mark her place and
closing her own giant leather-bound manuscript.

“Hey, be nice to my books, I have spent a lot of
time and money gathering these up,” Renata frowned.

“I just need to do something, anything,” Sabine
growled, head plopping into her hands.

“We are doing something, and we’re close I can feel
it,” Nea smiled. They had arrived in Greece three weeks earlier, to
Renata’s delight.  She had stumbled upon a bit of a dead end
and thought two new pairs of eyes would be a great advantage. She
had moved to a small village outside of Thessaly in Greece because
all her research had led her there, but that’s where it stopped she
could not find anything more to locate the flowers.

“At least it’s pretty here,” Sabine said, eyes
lighting on a bronzed young man working in the garden.

“Eyes on the prize,” Nea chuckled.

“They are…” Sabine snickered back, she stood up and
stretched, she was wearing a very gauzy white night gown and
matching robe, stating it was too hot to wear anything like normal
clothes.

“You will scandalize the whole neighborhood,” Renata
sighed, realizing they were done for the day, the sun was starting
to set and they were about to lose the good light.

“Like they aren’t already, with us living here,
three women, alone.” Eyes wide Sabine faked shock, she was about to
saunter from the room when a knocked sounded through the villa.

“Were you expecting someone?” Nea asked.

“Not today anyway.” Renata responded, all three
women turned as a tired housekeeper bustled in, staring at the
floor.

“There is a man here to see
you,
Kyria
.”

“Thank you, please show him in.”

“You know they call you the equivalent of Missus
right?” Nea raised her eyebrows.

“It makes it simpler if they think I am a
widow.”

“Be simpler if you just got Hecate to give you a
proper housekeeper,” Sabine snorted.

“I don’t care for that practice.” Renata’s eyes
narrowed as an elderly man was shown into the study.

“Ion!” Nea exclaimed, she jumped up and embraced her
Strigoi, she hadn’t seen him in at least 10 years, not since she
told them she didn’t need to see them once a year anymore. Sabine
had given her lesson 41, Strigoi do not have to feed the Strega
that made them, though it’s preferable, they can instead feed any
Strega in the area.

“Nea, it’s a pleasure.” He bowed low, his blue eyes
twinkling.

“What are you doing here?”

“Ruxandra contacted me and mentioned the project you
were working on, we have been sending letters back and forth for
over a year. When I arrived at your home Mihail told me you were in
Greece, I came at once.”  He looked past them at the books,
“and not a moment too soon I gather.”

“I feel so silly, I didn’t even think of asking for
your help.”

“Well, I haven’t been in contact much these past few
decades so I can understand. I have news to share with you, but
first why don’t you feed?” He seemed a bit edgy and Nea knew it was
probably years of built up emotions.

Nea leaned and placed a kiss on her old friend’s
wrinkled cheek and drew in years’ worth of magic, him feeding on
superstition and ignorance all over Europe. It made her feel heady
and a bit drunk, so much power and magic in one feeding, she
couldn’t take it all, even a Strega has a limit to how much she can
absorb.

“Thank you Ion, you are full enough that I am going
to offer the rest to Sabine and Renata, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all. I had a Strega take some of the excess
while I was in China, but…” Ion seemed uncomfortable still.

“But it doesn’t quite do it like the Strega who made
you, I understand.” Nea motioned to Sabine and Renata who both
looked at Ion hungrily, Sabine stroked his other cheek while Renata
took his hand, both women closed their eyes. Ion sucked in a
breath, shuddering a little, his eyes rolled back in his head and
then he sighed. Both women took a step back, cheeks flushed.