by Brian Lumley
“You mustn’t talk like that!” said the ex-New Yorker. “If she were to hear …”
“She’s up in her tower,” said Delia. “Up there behind her thick velvet curtains, where never the sun reaches. And do you know, I’ve thought of a way?”
“A way?” Anna’s voice was a shivery croak.
“A way to be rid of this vampire bitch,” said Delia, “and so to rid the world of her!”
“She’ll hear you!” Anna began to shrill. “She’ll hear you and punish us. She always hears!”
“Shhh, now,” said Delia, clasping the other and putting a hand over her mouth. “Or she really will hear us! But think on it now: if we were to go up against her as a body—huh! or as an ‘order’—and if we took her in her tower room at noon, and threw open her curtains to let the sun blaze in … what then?”
“We’d burn, too,” said Anna logically.
“But not as hot or as fast as Vavara. And wouldn’t it be worth it, since we’ll be burning soon enough whether or no?”
But now Anna was sobbing bitterly to herself. “Are we so reduced then, that we’ve come to this? Have we no hope, except we resort to murder? And even if we could, would the other sisters follow our lead? Vavara took us last, because we held ourselves off from her lying beauty. But the others … they dine on each other!”
“Huh!” Delia grunted. “Don’t tell me you think that’s all they do. Haven’t you heard them on the creep when she’s asleep? Haven’t you heard them laughing ? They strap on wooden cocks, to imitate the men that she won’t let them have! Are you a virgin, Anna? Before you took your vows, perhaps? I think not. I wasn’t, you can be sure. There’s precious few virgins of my age in Ireland! I caught a dose, do you know what that is? And when I was cured I came here, I was that ashamed. So I did without men for twelve long years, stuck to my vows, didn’t even finger myself. And for what? So that this beautiful bitch can visit me in the night to bite on my breasts and fill me with her special brand of poison? Ah, but if only there was a cure for this … !”
“Do you think they’ll come for me?” Anna gasped. “I mean, with their wooden … things?” She pressed down on her cassock, between her legs, as if to protect herself.
“You can be certain of it,” said the other. “By which time you’ll probably be ready for it. For don’t you see, we’re falling more deeply under her spell—and more deeply into evil—day by day, or night by night. As for myself, I’ll be the last. I’d rather a wooden stake than a wooden cock. Oh, ha-ha-ha! For I’ve had the real thing!”
“No, no!” Anna clutched at her, glanced all about with eyes that were very slightly feral. “You must be quiet now, or someone will be bound to hear us.”
“Well, what of it?” said Delia. “The sooner the better, and let’s be done with it. But still I tell you, it’s her or us. Do you think she won’t deal with us as she dealt with Sister Sara? She knows which ones of us resist her, so it’s only a matter of time.”
“Sister Sara?” Anna’s hand flew to her mouth. “Is it true, then? I had heard whispers, but—”
“Oh, it’s true,” Delia cut her short. “What, are you that much of an innocent, then? Did you really suppose that Sara was locked up in her room all this time? Well listen, and I’ll tell you the story as I have heard it:
“Sara was the strong one, the wise one. And she was first in the long list of those whom Vavara would seduce and convert. Alas, she thought it was love! She thought that our new ‘mother superior’ had fallen in love with her, and in spite of an initial repugnance she couldn’t refuse her advances—but then, who among us has refused them? For when this bitch Vavara turns it on, blood turns to water, or to poison. And so Sara was turned. But it was love not lust betrayed her. And with a creature beautiful as Vavara, she thought it was heaven- not hell-sent.
“But of course, our mother superior, Eileen was the first to pay the price. She was old, frail, no match for Vavara. And when that one first came here—so beautiful, and so penitent of her sins, filled with the need to be one of us—how could old Eileen refuse her? There was no way of knowing, not then, that this Lady was anything other than she pretended; she kept tight rein on the blood-lusting thing within, and no one ever suspected until it was too late. Yes, of course old Eileen would take her in, and in her turn be taken in. But the bitch saw no need to recruit her. Frail as a wrinkled, late autumn leaf and all dried up, the mother superior was no great challenge.
“Three months to a day after Vavara came, Eileen was dead and buried here in the crypt. But is she there now? Ah, she is not! For where Vavara is concerned, even dead women have their uses. And old Eileen, she was from my country, so she was, and I know she was a saint … also that she died before her time, by Vavara’s will. All the more reason to loathe this vampire.
“Anyway, Sara was next. Next to be recruited, changed forever. But when she saw how Vavara proceeded—when she knew she was only the first of a long process which must eventually consume the entire monastery—then Sara rebelled. Ah, and strong in love she was also strong in her hatred, her will to survive, to fight the evil come among us.
“Vavara locked her away—to ‘repent,’ or so she said, the clever bitch!—and meanwhile went on recruiting all the senior sisters. In no time at all they were hers. But can we think ill of them, even as they are now? No, for this creature is a hypnotist without peer. Anything and everything that was good in the sisters, Vavara switched it off as surely as she’s switched off the lights, so she did, and everything that was bad, she switched it on. For in our minds we are all wicked, as you must know, Anna. It’s why we’re here, so it is …”
“But that’s not true!” the other gasped. “Or perhaps it is true, now that our minds have been made to dwell on … on such wicked things. But please say it wasn’t always so?”
Delia sighed, nodded, and said, “Yes, you’re right, so you are. Most of our sisters were here because of their purity—as pure as the driven snow—and only a small handful, of which I was one, to improve themselves. Oh, yes, in me there was plenty of room for improvement. But no good to deny wickedness, Anna, or to pretend it doesn’t exist. For if that were the case, then why would any of us ever have needed to be here at all, at all? And then there’s Vavara, the living proof of wickedness itself. She has defiled us, and all good things are flown. That is why you shouldn’t listen to some of the things I’ve told you, some of the things I’ve said. For when my head is clear I know it’s only the filthy stuff in my blood—the evil that she has put there—that makes me think and talk that way.”
“We weren’t strong enough!” said Anna, wringing her hands. “Like our Lord, we should have put this devil behind us …”
“Hah!” said Delia. “Listen to you—such silliness! Where do you suppose mere mortals might find such strength? In faith alone? I wish it were so, but flesh is flesh and iron is iron. And Vavara is iron! Only try telling her to get behind you … and oh, believe me, she will!”
As Delia paused for breath and to order her thoughts, Anna gave a small gasp and whispered, “Hush, now! Is that a light up there, in her room?”
They drew back under the leaves of the fig tree, peered up through its branches at the highest windows in the square tower where Vavara had her apartments. Was that a glimmer of light up there? Had the Lady lit a candle?
“Moonlight on glass,” Delia hissed in a while. “That’s all it is.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. You’re letting the night and your imagination run away with you, that’s all. And anyway, we have a right to be here. Indeed we’ve no right to be anywhere else, for it’s our watch. Hah! To think we keep guard on this place—on this monster—as if it were her fortress instead of a sanctuary …”
“But it is. It is her fortress!” said Anna. “Her aerie.”
“Yes,” Delia nodded, “so it is.” And after a moment: “Anyway, where was I?”
“Sara,” the other whispered. “She was jealous.”
“Eh?” said Delia, frowning her surprise, her yellow eyes blinking. “Why, yes, I suppose she was. And hell hath no fury, eh? But it’s true, it’s true! And Sara in a double hell: first poisoned by Vavara, and now betrayed by her.
“And so Sara set about to defy Vavara at every turn. She escaped from her room, tried to make a run from the monastery. But Vavara caught her and locked her up again. And for the benefit of the sisters not yet taken—for there were still one or two, including ourselves—it was put about that Sara was a mad woman bent on mutilating herself. Her illness was temporary; it would pass eventually, until which time she must stay confined, ‘cared for’ only by Vavara and those seniors among the sisters who were Vavara’s slaves.
“And so she was kept in what amounted to solitary confinement for two more years, tormented and tortured by this vampire bitch Vavara, who had determined that Sara would never get out. Not alive, anyway.
“But she did get out, just nine days ago, or should I say nine nights? For like the rest of us, and more than some, Sara had given in to her poisoned blood and could no longer bear the sun on her flesh or in her eyes. So she made her last run, in the evening while Vavara was still in her bed, down the road to Skala Astris, from where she’d take a taxi into Krassos town to the police station there. She would telephone the headquarters of the order in Athens; she would see doctors and show them her … her disfigurements, and she would make charges against Vavara and bring her evil reign to an end.
“How do I know these things? Because I was on watch that night as a penance for looking at Vavara in a certain way. She thought she had glimpsed hatred in my eyes—which she had—and warned me that there were greater as well as lesser punishments. But her threats had only strengthened my resolve, so it had. So then—why didn’t I go with poor Sara to Krassos town and substantiate her story? Because I thought she would fail. Having watched Vavara for long and long, I knew it could never be as easy as that. And if Sara failed, who would there be to avenge her and put right the wrongs done to her and to others—indeed to all of us—in this fane of evil? Ah, but who better than someone already here, in the dark heart of the place? Who better than myself?
“And so I looked the other way, wished Sara well, and let her go, despite that I thought her errand was doomed. But you know, she might have succeeded—she just might—except that was the night ‘father’ Maralini came. And he was coming up the road as she was going down it.
“When he appeared at the wicket door—in his hooded robe, with his voice out of darkness … and that swooning bundle in his arms, which moaned and drooled—I knew that Satan himself had come visiting. I felt it: an enormous vileness swelling out of the night. And I even said so! Falling back, and refusing to turn the key to let him in, I gasped, ‘Is it Satan, come to see his children?’
“And his eyes flared red as he answered me though the bars. ‘Shaitan? Ah no!’ he said. ‘But I almost met him once in a far cold land, and know him for a Power! I thank you for your compliment, sister, if that’s what it was. But no, I’m not Shaitan—just an old friend of your mistress, Vavara, here on business. Now let me in, for I’ve come a long way.’
“He stood Sara on her feet, held her there with one long-fingered hand, and thrust the other through the wicket’s bars. He caught my wrist, and oh … the shock of terror, the bitter chill that went through me then! Look!”
Delia showed her wrist, and Anna’s night-seeing eyes were drawn to the long white burn of four fingers and a thumb. And: “Not Satan, no,” said Delia, “but Maralini’s evil is as great, I’m sure. While he held my wrist I felt … I felt my thoughts and memories going out of me into him. He was reading my inner being, and his red eyes flared again as he said, ‘And so I was right: you are indeed one of Vavara’s. Now, save yourself some trouble and let me in. Your mistress is expecting me.’
“How could I refuse him? When he held my wrist like that, my mind was his to command. But he had seen into my thoughts; he knew things from my past; he smiled as I turned the key and opened the wicket gate. Such a smile! So handsome! So wicked!
“When he stepped in and after he had lain Sara aside, he turned to me. As quick and as brazen as that, he unfastened my cassock and fondled my breasts where I stood frozen. And after a while he said, ‘Ah, but I know why you are here! Never fear, Sister Delia, your wasted years are at an end …’” And while I stood near-fainting, he gathered up the hem of my gown.”
Sister Anna’s face was ghostly pale in wan moon- and starlight. “And did he—?” she gasped, squeezing hard on her cassock between her legs. “Did he—?”
But Delia shook her head in mock sadness and said, “Oh, ye of little faith! Only see how you are taken! And you say you’re worried about their wooden ‘things’? Why, you are almost ready, Anna! Ready and willing, for anything. And so are we all. Which is why we must see to Vavara at our earliest opportunity, while yet we are able. And after Vavara, this so-called priest, Maralini.”
“Yes, yes, you’re probably right,” Anna whispered hoarsely, with a voice that might just as easily be hoarse from lust as from fear. “But go on with your story. Did he take you?”
“He might have,” Delia answered. “His hands were hot on my body, and yet they were cold. And how his red eyes drank me in. ‘But if you only knew,’ he said, ‘how hungry I am.’ And then he kissed my hard-tipped breasts.”
“Ahhhh!” Anna gasped, and clutched Delia’s arm.
“Right there and then,” the other went on, “I expected to be taken. And I knew it would be quick and hot and hurtful, but his fluids would be cold inside me. I was open, waiting, wanton and wanting. But Vavara … was up and about!” And now the bitterness in Delia’s voice was almost regretful. “A candle glowed into life in her high room, its flame flickering in the window, and the night was suddenly alive with her presence. She was up, and she knew that someone was here—but don’t ask me how. They sense such things, these creatures. Perhaps they can sense each other. And would you believe that I actually found myself warning him? But it’s so, so it is. ‘She comes!’ I told him. ‘Vavara comes!’
“‘Indeed she does,’ he answered in a whisper. ‘And so shall we, together you and I. But some other time.’
“I put right my clothing, stood back from him, and barely in time. He took up Sara, whose cowl was back so that her face was visible. And oh, that poor ravaged race—that poor soul—if she yet had a soul!
“But her face! Do you remember, Anna, how pretty Sara had been? Why, she was even as pretty as you yourself. And now with her hair all shorn, most of it pulled out by the roots, and her lips cut away so perfectly, so precisely, to make her look like a fish, and her yellow eyes—like yours, like mine—and her ears … but oh, she had no ears!
“And Maralini gathering her up, saying, ‘Ah, but see. Your mistress hasn’t lost her tender, loving touch.’
“At which Vavara came out of the tower stairwell, floating across the courtyard to the door under the archway. And:
“‘Malin—!’ she said or started to say, as she jerked to a halt. She was plainly startled, even agitated. And despite that her voice was, as always, the very sweetest thing—in tone, I mean—still it was stinging and angry. But he had stopped her midway to say:
“‘Ah, no, neither Malin nor Malinari, but Maralini. Father Maralini, Vavaaaara! ’ His voice was a breath from hell.
“‘But we had our plans,’ she said. ‘We had a pact, that we would not come together until all was secured … and then only in order to set the boundaries of our territories. And didn’t I ask you not to come here? This is the worst possible time, when I have problems of my own to deal with.’
“‘So it would seem,’ this ‘good father’ answered Vavara’s angry words with ones that were carefully measured. ‘Indeed, I believe that I may have bumped into one of your problems on my way up the road.’ And he showed her Sara, drooling in his arms.
“‘Your touch?’ she said then. ‘And did you see into her?’
“‘I saw,’ he answered. ‘Enough to know that without I put an end to her flight, you were in serious trouble. Which would mean, of course, that I was in trouble, too. And I’ve had more than enough of troubles just lately. But—’(and he turned to look pointedly at me) ‘—shouldn’t we be talking in private?’
“‘We shouldn’t be talking at all!’ she answered him. ‘You shouldn’t be here. But since you are, and since it appears I’m in your debt—come with me.’
“Then Vavara turned to me, saying, ‘You, Delia—take care of … of this.’ She meant Sara. ‘You know where she belongs. No need to lock the door—’ And she glanced knowingly at Maralini, ‘—not any longer. Sara is safe now and will never try to run away again. She doesn’t know how to …’
“And then, before Maralini could give Sara to me, Vavara took me by the shoulders and shook me. But ah!—her unnatural vampire strength! ‘We shall speak later, you and I, Delia,’ she hissed. ‘About Sara—how she got out while you were on watch!’
“But since then until now, she never has mentioned it. So perhaps she’s forgotten all about it, for there have been other things on her mind. For which I’m glad, so I am …
“Anyway, it was my watch for the rest of that long night. And don’t ask me, Anna, for I still don’t know why I didn’t run away myself in the nine nights gone by since then. Or perhaps I do, for I fancy my fate would be no less monstrous than Sara’s. Which is what keeps all of us here: fear of this vampire bitch, Vavara. And now of Maralini, too.
“Later that night I saw him. He was up and about, acquainting himself with the place, I thought. He came to me and asked about Sara: how was the poor creature? As he had last seen her, I told him: drooling, feverish, moaning in her cell in the west tower. And he nodded as if he truly cared, and said, ‘Aye, your mistress has not been kind to her.’ Then he went away—in the direction of the west tower.
