Chapter 8
Into the Arms of the Coven
Vasile pulled out two bird-shaped masks and handed one to Anton. “This’ll keep you from becoming infected,” Vasile explained as he placed the mask on his head. Anton put on his mask and smelled the pungent odor of the vinegar and spices as he watched Vasile through the glass eye pieces.
“The smell keeps you from breathing in the infectious miasma, and turning you into a vampire,” Vasile explained, “Try to breath through your nose.”
Anton nodded, standing up and following Vasile forward towards the body. Vasile had both of his crossbows ready and pointed at the vampire, and Anton imitated him by pointing his longbow at the motionless creature.
“Keep your weapon ready,” Vasile instructed, “They’re still dangerous. If he’s able to, he’ll try to attack. And if he can attack, he’ll kill.”
There was no perceptible motion from the fallen vampire whom Vasile and Anton approached, but Vasile put two more crossbow bolts into the vampire’s head and neck from a safe distance, while Anton, following his master’s lead, put one arrow through the chest, just to be sure.
Assured that it was dead, Vasile stepped forward and placed the two hooks under the shoulders to drag it. Anton stepped forward to grab the rope and Vasile warned, “Remember, we don’t want to get infected. Don’t touch him. Don’t let any of his blood touch you. Don’t even let his smell touch your nose.”
Anton nodded and began to pull, discovering that the vampire was incredibly heavy, especially for what looked to be a lean twenty-five year old male of only average height.
“They’re very heavy,” Vasile smiled understandingly with a small laugh, “And they only get heavier as they get older. This one’s probably as old as I am.”
“How can you tell?” Anton asked, inspecting the vampire with a puzzled look.
Vasile strained to think of a way to explain this to Anton. He finally said, “Vampires don’t age like you and I. Once a person is infected they age towards their peak. If they’re older than about their mid-twenties, they get younger; if they’re a child, they get older. Once they hit their peak, they stop aging and just get stronger, heavier, leaner, and… well, to be honest, more beautiful. You’ll be able to tell after a while. It’s not something I can really teach you, just something you’ll learn by experience.”
Anton looked down at the vampire again, pierced through with arrows and bleeding from many wounds and saw the image of a martyred St. Sebastian he’d seen in a book once, bound and writhing while arrows pierced his body. The vampire was pale and slender like a sickly young adult, but strong as a horse and nearly flawless in handsomeness. It was a figure that looked at once attractive and yet also pitiable because it looked so weak and vulnerable.
“You’ll find it’s a long slog to Andrei’s,” Vasile said, interrupting Anton’s musings, “And dangerous. This is the time when the vampires would most love to catch us. And we unfortunately can’t just leave him here in the open until morning. We have to take him now.”
Anton began to rapidly drag the body, while Vasile pulled with him alongside. When they finally reached Andrei’s, the apothecary was at the door in a flash, putting on his cloak, hat, mask and gloves, and opening the way for them to enter.
He openly admired the vampire as they dragged it into the cauldron, saying with pleasure, “This one is very ripe.” He explained to Anton, “The older vampires make better medicine. The vampire wares we get from them are more potent. Whatever it is that extends the lives of the vampires seems to accumulate in their body as they age.”
Vasile removed his outer clothes, put them in a separate pot to heat and boil and instructed Anton to do the same, telling him, “This’ll remove any of the infectious miasma that might have been absorbed in your clothes. We take many precautions.”
Once he removed his own outer clothes, Andrei was eager to congratulate Anton on his first kill, rushing forward, shaking his hand and hugging him. Andrei added with excitement, “And we’ll have to pay you of course. Let me get the gold right now.” Andrei walked away, continuing to talk, “I pay Vasile monthly, but you and I can work out whatever schedule you prefer. For this first time we’ll pay you some gold up front.”
Andrei was still speaking while he was out of sight in the other room. When he returned Ileana was besides him in her nightdress.
“Your first kill already,” she said to Anton and gave him a smile, then addressing Andrei, “You know what this means about me winning our bet?”
Andrei shook his head in disappointment at his wife and then dropped four beautiful gold coins into Anton’s hand. Anton looked at the coins, silent and astonished. In his hand was as much money as his father would earn in a year.
Andrei explained the calculation, “This vampire weighed about two hundred twenty-five fonts, and I pay Vasile a font of gold for every five hundred fonts of vampire mass. That adds up to forty-five hundredths of a font of gold for you two, which is seventy-one and one tenth of a dram. Divide that by two and you each get thirty-five and fifty-five hundredths of a dram. So, that adds up to three ten-dram coins, with a little left over. But, as a gift for your first kill, we’ll round it up. So, that adds up to 4 ten-dram coins.”
Anton had nothing to say, and Andrei tried to encourage Anton’s smile by spreading a large smile on his own face.
The only thing Anton could say was the understated comment, “My family will be pleased.”
Despite this joyous occasion, Vasile had to deflate the mood. “Though we bagged the vampire, tonight was a failure,” Vasile soberly admitted. Andrei and Ileana looked to Anton, who lowered his head and nodded.
Vasile continued, “Apparently there was an attack on Terem. We saw the signal and ran in that direction.”
“It’s been years since the vampires have launched any serious attack on Terem or anywhere, for that matter. They used to happen all the time, but the last time it happened Anton was probably still a boy. Now people just quietly disappear, and they don’t even do that as much as they used to,” Andrei said.
“The vampires aren’t out at night as much,” Vasile said, “As I said to you before: I think they’re in decline. I can’t imagine there’s more than five or ten of them left in all. But as we were heading towards Terem, we saw four vampires and they had taken three females hostage. All three women appeared to be alive. And we couldn’t stop them. We only got the one vampire.”
“Alive? Why?” Ileana asked, “Have you seen them taking people alive before?”
“It’s usually hard to say. It’s hard to get a good look at something that’s flashing by in the middle of the night,” Vasile admitted, “Tonight they were definitely alive, but I don’t know why?”