CHAPTER IV:  THE BUTTERFLY’S KISS

The train ride to Vladivostok felt like a prolonged and unhurried journey, as though time itself had slowed down to accommodate Alexei's deep contemplation of thoughts from the past and of the inevitable future which was prophetically laid out before him.

For as long as he can remember, Alexei had spent years travelling around Europe, battling against the evils brought about by malevolent Lycanthropes who cultivated the malicious intent of enslaving and ruining the lives of mankind. As numerous were the number of evil-minded werewolves that he vanquished, so too were the number of humans he had saved from the werewolf's curse, allowing them a second chance to be able to return to their humanity through the sharing of his blood. This precious supernatural aptitude was a divine gift of power fostered from the destined union between his outcast Lycanthrope father, who was contrite of heart being untempted by bloodlust and his God-fearing mystic mother who was pious in her daily conducts.

Alexei was not one who believed in coincidences. For him, each and every incidence or circumstance that took place, be it good or bad, had a predetermined purpose for its occurrence. He comprehended of how peculiar it is for a werewolf to be able to speak of God and to be free to dwell in churches and in sanctuaries on holy ground but he undoubtedly knew that these things are possible if one choses to preserve their contriteness and renounce their blood-thirsty inclinations, rejecting all murderous urges to harm a human despite being a supernatural creature born out of darkness.

He was aware that with his rare and unusual gift that could bring salvation to all those who were damned by the werewolf's curse, he had much work to be done, for the spirit of goodness that labors to confront evil; striving to bring about curative change never slumbers nor does it take leave of its mission until all that has been preordained comes into fulfilment, and so it was with his mission here at the shipping ports of Vladivostok.

For many years, a group of unruly Lycanthropes under the rowdy leadership of two of Lel's many male offsprings, Jaka and Dusan, have been ruthlessly monopolizing various businesses in the port area plus exploiting the use of shipping containers and their vessels to facilitate their illegals activities such as the transportation of recreational narcotics and the kidnapping and selling of young women for the purpose of flesh trading, both literally as well as in the erotic context. There apparently seemed to be a raving demand for the flesh of young women especially of virgins as their meat were found to be pleasantly tender and their blood tantalizingly sweet to the taste buds, making them a sought after delicacy prominently among the aged Lycanthropes. The number of young girls and adult women who were thought to have runaway or deemed missing over the last few years in the far eastern regions of Russia were staggering and all these incidences were attributed to the underground activities of these diabolical werebeasts.

In order for his rescue plan to succeed, this time, he required the help of two of his good comrades, Pyotr and Niklaus. Pyotr Lazlo was an upcoming scientist in the city of Moscow, a molecular biologist who was forced to work for the Lycans after his unfortunate amorous entanglement with a beautifully irresistible woman whom later to his horror turned out to be a werewolf. For many months after being bitten, Pyotr was kept in secret confinement and forced to drink specific amounts of a Lycanthrope elder's blood in order to enslave him with their telepathic mind-control to keep him working in their underground laboratory. His task was to extract fetuses from a group of kidnapped pregnant women and to store them in cryogenic suspension to be devoured later as an exotic delicacy by elite werewolf elders. Alexei had chanced upon him during his rescue mission to release these kidnapped child-bearing women and cured him of the werewolf's curse by sharing his blood with Pyotr. Niklaus Yakov, a drunk ex-military soldier on the other hand was a victim of a savage werewolf attack. Left to die on the street alleys of London with his innards having been disemboweled, Alexei saved him with the help of his Christian missionary partners who assisted in transporting Niklaus to a red-cross medic camp.

Together they planned to ambush three of the shipping containers located west of the port's docking bay, all suspected to be carrying a total of seventy-seven young girls and adult women who had been drugged and restrained in cuffs and chains. Their aim was first to create a diversion that would draw the attention of most of the werewolf henchmen who were vigilantly guarding the three containers and their precious cargo. With the help of Pyotr who forged a bunch of Composition C-4 explosives for Alexei, he stealthily approached the frozen fish storage shack located in the eastern section of the docking bay to plant the explosives.

The asbestos boxes supposedly holding frozen fish were actually containing recreational narcotics that were cleverly concealed between the piles of ice shavings and fishes, all ready to be transported out either in reefer containers or in insulator trucks. Alexei intentionally chose this location to set off the explosion for by destroying the hundreds of kilos of these hazardous drugs, he would indeed be saving the lives of countless young people from being entrapped in drug addiction and at the same time force the industrious illegal activities operated by these profit-seeking werewolves to go into a chaotic shutdown.

All set for detonation, Alexei's plan was soon to be in motion. A powerful blast shook the entire port, causing panic and distraction among the guarding werewolves forcing them to split in various different directions to investigate the source of the explosion. The blazing flames and permeating black fumes were a perfect camouflage for Alexei to launch his attack on approaching foes. One by one, Alexei struck them down, making conditions easier for Pyotr and Niklaus to execute their rescue efforts but unknown to them, two unexpected impediments were awaiting them in one of the cargo containers. Jaka and Dusan who were in their partial Lycanthrope form, were voraciously gorging on the sumptuous flesh of some of the girls in the second container while the rest of the women huddled together in fear.

Usually, the female captives who were kept in the cargo containers were off limits to Jaka and Dusan for they had already been reserved for the buyers or bidders from the Lycanthrope upper classes and high societies but their insatiable lust for fresh blood and meat had overpowered their senses. Finishing his task of doing away with the henchmen, Alexei raced to assist with the extrication of the captives. Niklaus would cut the chains and cuffs off the women and girls while Pyotr would administer tiny vials of Alexei's blood to those who were emaciated after only being forcibly fed with highbred werewolf blood in order to trans-mutate them into becoming subservient werewolf servants, to be handed-down as mistresses or concubines to certain perverse and corrupt Lycanthrope leaders.

Alexei and Pyotr managed to free those in the first and third containers that were nearest to them leaving Niklaus to gather the girls into a sizeable chartered passenger bus. The second cargo container was situated at the edge of the docking bay as it was scheduled to be shipped out later that night. Alexei and Pyotr sprinted to it where Alexei began to bash and tear down the container's metal doors with his muscular werewolf arms and sharp claws. Hearing the repeated pummeling on the container door, Jaka and Dusan immediately ceased their activities. Shortly before this, Dusan had cruelly tortured one of the girls held captive, a courageous young lady by the name of Kaleena which in Slavic translates to 'Beautiful Flower,' describing the lovely white-petaled blossom known as viburnum.

Dusan was a despicable debauchee who had no respect for women and only conceptualized them as sexual objects. When he sought to brutally assault and ravage one of the teenage captives, Kaleena attacked him from behind by climbing on him and wrapping and tightening her steel chains around his neck, almost choking him to death but unfortunately his brother Jaka saved him by punching Kaleena in the face, causing her to collapse to the ground with a bloody nose and bruised right cheek. Enraged with Kaleena's rebellious action, both Jaka and Dusan transformed into their full werewolf forms, instantly frightening all the girls in the container into screaming and wailing frantically for help.

Dusan growled and snarled violently; pounding his werewolf fists left and right on the metal walls of the cargo container as he was exceedingly infuriated with Kaleena. As punishment for what she had done, Dusan stuffed her mouth with an old rag and dragged her to the back of the container where he began to run his piercing claws into her arms and legs, tearing into her skin one scratch at a time. He noticed she had an image of a butterfly tattooed on her right wrist. In his sadistic madness, he carved a similar butterfly image on her left wrist, intentionally inflicting immeasurable pain upon her. "If you had remained quiet like the rest, you may have had a chance of still being alive but now, I am going to torment you by cutting out your flesh, piece by piece until you scream to death!!" he yelled in his disgruntled werewolf voice.

With every ounce of her energy already spent, Kaleena hung her head down in defeat. In her heart, she helplessly thought that there was no longer any hope of her escaping from this wretched hellhole. Just when circumstances seemed utterly bleak, Alexei came thrashing through the container, dragging both Dusan and Jaka with him as they came bursting through the rear of the cargo container, falling off the docks crashing into the waters of the surrounding sea. The jolt to the container from Alexei's forceful attack turned it over, tumbling off the edge of the shipping port into dark seawaters. Waters came gushingly quickly into the container. Pyotr and Niklaus had to make swift to get these women out of the sinking container before the rising waters drown all of them as they were still bounded by cuffed chains. While Niklaus cut the chains, Pyotr assisted the girls especially those who couldn't swim to a small set of stairs found on the side of the port.

As Kaleena held her breathe while floating under the waters, waiting for Niklaus to break open her chains, she watched Alexei from the container's thrashed open rear, battling with Dusan and Jaka. It was an incredibly bloody underwater fight with Alexei savagely assaulting them both. Clouds of fresh blood enveloped Jaka whose head had been brutally severed, leaving his lifeless body to slowly drift into the darkness of the ocean's bottom. Witnessing Jaka get beheaded crippled Dusan with fear. He struggled to land a blow on Alexei as he was rather inexperienced in underwater combats. Resorting to any cowardly move to save his life, Dusan pulled out a small pen knife which was laced with silver nitrate from his trousers' side pocket and stabbed Alexei in the abdomen. Despite the excruciating pain in his stomach, Alexei was determined not to let Dusan escape. Using merely the claws of his muscular left hand, Alexei crushed Dusan's skull until pulps of bloody brain matter came bursting from Dusan's werewolf head; not stopping there, Alexei further tore Dusan's head from his neck and kicked his body to drift away deep into the sea.

It wasn't long before the silver nitrate from Dusan's dagger started to exude its toxic effect. Alexei struggled to breathe under water as the poison greatly interfered with his lungs' capacity to retain air causing him to slowly drown. Suffocating in the deep waters, he began to regress to his human form. Alarmed after watching Alexei lose consciousness, Kaleena frantically signaled to Niklaus to undo her chains. Having been freed, she swam quickly to rescue Alexei. Using her head and arms, she pushed him little by little through the waters till they both reached the surface where Niklaus aided her to bring Alexei unto the grounds of the dock.

Locking both her hands together, she pressed repeatedly against his chest hoping to revive him. "Please don't die!… You saved my life just now!… Please let me save yours in return…You can't die! Please wake up!" she cried out while continuing to resuscitate him. Feeling that his heart was no longer beating, she wept bitterly as Niklaus watched sorrowfully from her side. Grasping Alexei's pale face with her chill and tender hands, she leaned over him and kissed him passionately on the lips, later whispering in a prayerful voice, "Please God, return him back to me…please don't let him die…please…"

Once again, air began to flow into his lungs and Alexei began breathing again. Kaleena was filled with so much joy that she kissed him again on the lips causing Alexei to be taken aback a little. With his eyes half open, his sight came to behold a luminous and lovely face which expressed the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. In a soft muffled voice, he asked, "Who are you?..." With smiling eyes filled with tears of happiness, she answered, "My name is Kaleena… Kaleena Dementy… what is your name?" Taking a few moments to catch his breath, Alexei later replied, "Kaleena Dementy…I'm Alexei…Alexei Gavril…and I'm very glad to have been saved by you…"

"And it's the same with me too…" she replied with a gleaming smile and a rosy blush on her puffy cheeks.

Niklaus was so relieved that Alexei was alright. Though his abdominal injury was healing rather slowly due to traces of the silver nitrate still in his bloodstream, yet he managed to get onto his feet on his own effort. Pyotr rushed back to them from the passenger bus and warned that they should leave the docks as soon as possible before the mob of Lycanthropes known as the Pack Warriors who dwelled in the city center arrive at the shipping port. Alexei walked Kaleena to the bus and kissed her hand before holding her tightly in his arms while saying, "We will meet again… I will come and find you, I promise" She nodded and gave him a sad smile before climbing unto the bus. As Pyotr drove away in the bus, taking the rescued women to a safe secret haven, Niklaus and Alexei remained for a short while at the docks for they had some unfinished business to conclude.

As predicted, the mob of warrior Lycanthropes arrived at the shipping port to investigate the explosion that occurred. Unknown to them, Alexei and Niklaus had already booby-trapped the three empty cargo containers with Composition C-4 explosive detonators. As soon as these werewolves took a step into those containers, an enormous blast wiped out their entire pack, sending pieces of bones and flesh splattering all over the shipping port area creating a scene similar to a bloody massacre. While this incident had taken place, Alexei had prepared an extremely grievous warning for Lel which was soon to arrive at his lair.

The atmosphere of the werewolf lair which was usually filled with the echoing sounds of humans being assaulted or being devoured within the underground dungeons suddenly became filled with turmoil due to an ironic twist of events. Verene, Lel's Alpha partner or otherwise known as his Luna consort, howled and screamed in horror as she opened a large shipping crate which was found at the mouth of the lair's entrance. The bottom of the wooden crate was heavily soaking and trickling with water. As she ordered her werewolf henchmen to pry open its wooden covering, she almost lost her sanity after finding the heads of both her sons, Dusan and Jaka, cold and drenched in blood inside the crate. She slumped to her knees wailing and shrieking her heart out, as she mourned the horrible manner of their deaths.

Meanwhile another unforeseeable occurrence had taken place involving Alexei's good comrade, Pyotr whom after safely sending the rescued women to the secret shelter was attacked by a pack of Gamma werebeasts while he was returning to reunite with Alexei and Niklaus. The chartered passenger bus which he was driving had been savagely attacked and overturned by these werewolves who came scouting in search of the kidnapped young girls but before they could torture him to get information, Pyotr blew up the bus with his self-prepared C-4 explosive, sacrificing himself and killing the whole pack of Gamma Lycanthropes.

Alexei who was travelling on the same highway to come meet Kaleena at the shelter was deeply grieved upon coming across the burnt, blown up wreckage containing Pyotr's charred remains. He was also sorrowed with the news that Kaleena had ran away from the protective shelter and the other girls had no idea as to where she might have gone. For years, he continued to search on for, hoping that one day their paths would unmistakably cross again…

News of the gruesome demise of Dusan and Jaka had finally reached the ears of Lel. He had become like a maddened wild dog that was vicious and insanely impetuous, wanting to maliciously take revenge and punish its enemy. From that moment in 1972 until this present time in 1982, Lel has been obsessed with trying to track Alexei's trails after the later had murdered a number of his offsprings beginning with Dusan and Jaka, and recently – Tomir. Lel was exasperated with the knowledge that he could not avoid the prophetic revelations with regards to Alexei's role in altering the future of the Lycanthrope kingdom which could directly change the course of history in the world of Lycanthropy but as always… an malevolent egotistical maniac such as him will never grasp the reality of his inevitable downfall at the hands of truth and justice.

~ The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough ~

Rabindranath Tagore