The Bathory Curse Read Online Free PDF Page A

but find
a way to stop it.” Bendis shrugged, trying to look nonchalant but
Nea knew better.
    “And if I do?”
    “I will personally take you into the underworld to
be with your family…If that is what you still wish.” Bendis leaned
down and placed a kiss on Nea’s forehead.
    “Wait. Earlier you told me I wouldn’t have gone to
my afterlife.” She was confused, and really didn’t like the Goddess
touching her.
    Bendis sighed, “Yes, it is part of the curse....
Women in your family who reach puberty do not go on to be
reincarnated or any sort of afterlife where they are rewarded or
punished…they wind up in purgatory.”
    “Wait…. Is that where my mother is? In purgatory
with all these hideous women?” Nea paled, the thought of her kind
mother spending time with the likes of Catharine, Agata and the
rest, a nightmare.
    “Yes and there is nothing I can do about it. When I
found out they were being kept in Limbo I did what I could….founded
a sort of inn where they stay…They understand they are dead but not
completely. Most are content to try and hurt each other and do what
they did while they were alive and my minions try to accommodate
that.” Bendis explained, grief in her words.
    “No, that’s not acceptable. I can’t do this knowing
my mother is in some sort of Limbo Inn with
members of her family she ran away from.” She was scared and angry,
a bad combination.
    “I know how you feel. Would it make it better if I
promised to take you there? Your mother is safe and happy. I
promise, she is not alone with these monsters. I would not leave
her to that after the good life she lived.” For a moment Bendis
looked so remorseful it pushed back the loud emotions swirling
inside Nea’s head.
    “Good, but you still haven’t told me how I make a
Strigoi.”  Nea was tired, this was all too much, but she would
hold the Goddess to her word and see for herself her mother was
fine.
    “You will just know. You must make one every five
years to satisfy me, it seems like a lot, but only the cleverest
Strigoi live longer than a decade.  I must go, the night is
ending and I still have other things to do.”
    “Wait! You’re going to leave just like that?” Nea
exclaimed
    “You are a grown woman my Strega. You have seen a
marriage bed, birthed two healthy sons and seen bloodshed. I think
you can manage. If you truly need me then call for me, but I won’t
always come.” With those words she was just gone and Nea shivered
in the hallway.
    “Well I did not think she’d ever leave.”
    Nea spun around at the voice. There was a young
woman standing behind her. She was slim wearing a velvet dress of
deep green, her very red hair was in a thick hair net called a
snood and her green eyes had amusement in them. Staring at her Nea
felt a not unpleasant tingle from her fingers straight up her
shoulders.
    “Yeah that would be your first lesson, that tingle
means you are in the company of another Strega.” The girl had a
strange accent, one that Nea had never heard before.
    “You’re a Strega?” Nea asked, distrust lacing her
words.
    “Yes. My name’s Sabine. Been with the Mistress here
a while. So when she figured on you for a new recruit, told her I’d
be happy to teach you the ropes.” She shrugged.
    “Where are you from?” Nea just had to know, this
woman spoke so strangely. Nea understood the words, not so much the
context.
    “Scotia.” She winked.
    “How did you end up here?” Nea knew from maps her
father had that Scotia was very far away. As she followed her down
the hall she watched her, this Sabine was probably a spy for the
Goddess.
    “Hecate. She grabbed me up from death and made me an
offer I could not refuse. C’mon let’s get you settled in. Follow
me, lass.”
    “Hecate? And I am a married woman, certainly not, a
lass.”
    “Meant no offense, with those hips I can tell you’re
no maiden. And Hecate is my name for Bendis.”
    Nea wasn’t offended by Sabine’s words. She was