Mathias looked at him in shock. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand. He just hadn’t expected to dive right in without any warning. “Um...yeah.”
Nosferatu glared. “You will address me properly, or this training will end here and now.”
Mathias cleared his throat. “Yes, sir.” He bet Nosferatu was enjoying this.
Nosferatu stood tall and puffed out his chest. “Very well then. Off you go. Run. I will let you know when you can quit.”
Mathias took a deep breath, and then began to run. He ran around the area they were in, dodging the equipment. He ran around the castle. He even ran around the flying course. Mathias felt as if he might die. His lungs burned in his chest. His brow dripped sweat into his eyes. Finally, he stopped in front of Nosferatu. If the stamina training was this bad, Mathias wondered how bad the rest of it was going to be.
“Did I say you could stop?” Nosferatu said, grinning.
Mathias panted. “No.” He took a few breaths.
“Then why did you?”
Mathias looked at the old bat in shock. Did he forget that technically, I’m still fifteen? “Can’t you see I’m dying here?”
Nosferatu chittered discouragingly. “If this is the farthest you can go, how do you expect we’ll ever make a warrior out of you?”
Mathias stared. Stamina was one thing, the lengths he would go in battle were another. “How far did I go?”
Nosferatu rolled his eyes. “Boy, you barely made it ten miles. You must learn to push yourself.”
Mathias shook his head and started back on his pace. Arguing was pointless. He was weak. Not only was he weak for a vampire, but he was weak for a human.
“Over time,” Nosferatu yelled after him. “You will learn to ignore the discomfort. Remember, it was once you who told me all of this. Now, it is my turn to return the favor.”
Mathias groaned. It figured. His former actions did come back to haunt him, and he was paying for it now.
* * * * *
Mathias felt light-headed. His running had stopped and he was limping along. His feet had blisters upon blisters, his wings were broken, and his back hurt. His heart hammered in his chest. And then, a loud whistle sounded. Mathias looked up to see Nosferatu motioning for him. He limped across the field to where Nosferatu was sitting. Once he got close enough, Nosferatu threw a towel around his neck and forced a bottle of water, and one of blood, into his hands.
Mathias started to sit down.
“No, not yet. Walk for a bit.”
Mathias looked at Nosferatu. He was starting to wish he had a ‘death glare’. “Why?”
“If you sit down now, your muscles will seize. Walk a bit until your body has had time to cool.”
Mathias grunted and dutifully limped around the field. After a few moments, he didn’t feel as shaky, and he began taking sips from the bottles.
Nosferatu waved Mathias over, and Mathias fell down in front of him in a heap.
“Now, you will rest. This afternoon is where the real work begins.”
“This afternoon?” Mathias groaned.
“Yes,” Nosferatu chuckled. “This afternoon. Your mornings will be spent increasing your endurance, your afternoons, however, will be spent learning to fight.”
“Gah! I don’t know if I can take it.”
“Now, that’s what I like to hear, such enthusiasm for learning. Besides, I do believe it is time you had some breakfast.”
That did make Mathias smile.
Chapter Fourteen
After breakfast, Mathias was treated to several hours of his usual academic studies. While he wasn’t crazy about them, he gave up trying to make sense of why he was learning certain things. Right now, it was just that doing the things that would possibly help to save his life interested him more than worrying about the hypotenuse of a triangle.
It was weird. Sometimes he forgot where he was and what time he was in. Sometimes, things looked like now until he saw a ghost of someone walking past in old -fashioned clothing. Memories and experiences blurred together until Mathias no longer felt separate from his former self. It was like he was suddenly a spliced together mutant. This did not mean he was back to his former strength. Unfortunately, he was still in the body of a child, and that left him weak. He didn’t like it, but he had no choice about everything that had happened to him. There was no way to turn back time. His mind was lost.
After stamina training, Mathias was led back inside to work on homework. His favorite thing to do. He couldn’t say that Nosferatu was a better teacher, but he was a lot more interesting. He’d only been at it for a couple of hours when Nosferatu began looming over him.
“Done yet?”
Mathias jerked. “Huh?” He looked up into the large black eyes of possibly the most insane vampire at the University.
Nosferatu cackled. “Are. You. Done. Yet?”
Mathias rolled his eyes. “Well, you know, I would have been done sooner if someone hadn’t given me so much work.”
Nosferatu tapped a claw on the table. “But I thought you were smart.”
“I am.” Mathias felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise in time with his anger.
Nosferatu looked at him, almost as if he got a kick out of making him annoyed. “Well then, hurry up and finish. We have much to do today.”
Mathias did his best to finish his algebra assignment. Not an easy task with a vampire prancing in the background, but he managed though he wouldn’t place any bets on passing. As soon as he lay down his pencil, Nossy grabbed him by the sleeve and dragged him out of the room. After another set of hallways, and down a couple of staircases, they were outside. Soon, they were walking away from the castle towards the mainland.
“Don’t you miss having friends?” Nosferatu asked as he led Mathias to a secluded area within the woods near the castle.
“What do you mean?”
“You are young yet, and I often hear you wishing to be ‘normal’.”
He really needed to remember to block his mind. Between Vlad and Nosferatu, he had no secrets left.
Nosferatu shook his head. “I can only read your mind because you have an awful habit of projecting your feelings for the world to hear. Yes, you do block, but you are your own worst enemy.”
“As if I don’t know that. Just how, in God’s name, do you propose I stop?”
Nosferatu held up a hand as they reached the edge of a clearing. All that was there was a structure made of wood with boards stretched across it. “You will stop projecting once you are secure with yourself. But for the moment, you have not answered my question.”
“What question is that?”
Nosferatu cuffed Mathias on the back of the head. “You know very well what question, Mr. Smartass.”
Mathias laughed. “Yeah, I guess you could say I miss having friends. But it’s just not worth it. The last friend I had ended up dead. I don’t know if I can take it.”
Nosferatu nodded. “I know exactly what you mean. But I think you have more friends than you realize.”
“I’d rather not think about it. It’s easier that way.”
Nosferatu clicked his tongue. “One day, you’ll see. Friends are very important, even if they are only with us for a small time.”
“You are so fucking weird. I swear. I can hardly keep up between your switching between slang and weird formal English,” Mathias rubbed his hands through his hair. “It’s hard enough for me to keep the past and the present separate lately, and with you and your speech, I am going out of my mind.”
Nosferatu tapped his fangs with a claw. “I do not think I am weird.
Mathias raised an eyebrow and stared at the vampire for a few seconds. Before this was through, this damn vampire was really going to make him lose his mind. “Ok, what am I supposed to be doing?”
Nosferatu walked over to the wooden contraption and held out his hand. His fingers were straight and his fingertips were touching the board. Then, using only the length of his fingers, he instantaneou
sly made a fist and punched through the board.
Mathias stared at Nosferatu wide eyed. “How in the fuck did you do that? And why are we reliving a scene out of some weird Quentin Tarantino martial arts movie?”
Nosferatu laughed. “One, I happen to like the movie. Two, vampires are different. We are stronger, faster, and more balanced than humans. But even then you need to learn not to allow your thoughts to reach your eyes. It is best if your enemy cannot tell where a strike is coming from.”
“And how is breaking a board going to do that for me?” Mathias asked.
“It won’t, but it will teach you about pain.”
Mathias nodded and walked over to the contraption and waited patiently while Nosferatu fitted another board to the supports. He held his hand as he’d seen Nosferatu do and tried to break the board. He jammed his fist into the board and did nothing but jar his shoulder and bloody his knuckles. “Goddamn, that hurt!”
Nosferatu tutted at Mathias. “Mathias Drvar, what in the Father’s name are we going to do about your language.”
Mathias smiled. “As if my language problems are nothing new. Really, Nossy.”
It was Nosferatu’s turn to stare wide eyed. “I haven’t heard you use my nickname for so long, I forgot how it sounded coming from your voice. I missed that.”
Mathias almost rolled his eyes. It was just his voice. “Nossy, you really are weird. If I didn’t know better, I would think that you had other intentions besides being my friend.”
Nosferatu smiled. “You’ll not goad me with such talk. Besides, I hardly think who and who I do not have relations with is any of your concern. Besides, you are, after all, sixteen.”
“Yeah, don’t remind me.” Mathias tried again to break the board. This time, the board broke, but did not split completely. His knuckled split under the strain, he could see the bone.
Nosferatu walked over and gently took Mathias’ hand into his own. “It will be all right. It will heal.” And it did. “I would highly advise concentrating when you try to do this.”
Mathias took his hand back. Nossy waved his hand and the board repaired itself.
Mathias grunted and tried again. Once again he came away with bloody knuckles. “What was the purpose of this again?”
“To teach you control over your power. Besides, in order to be a great warrior, you must learn to make pain your friend. Make it work for you. Turn the pain into strength.”
Mathias took a deep breath. He closed his eyes, felt the energy coursing within him. He opened his eyes and precisely placed his hand in the proper position and let loose. He heard a crack. The pain coursed through his body. He looked down at his hand; one finger was bent in an impossible angle. He put his finger back into place, winced at the pain, and waited a moment for the bone to heal. He looked up at the board and found it bloody, but otherwise unmarred. He couldn’t take it anymore and punched the board with his hand repeatedly. Blood flew from damaged skin. He punched the board until his hand went numb.
Nosferatu coughed.
“What?”
“Get over here. I think it’s time you took a break. Fetch some water for us, and when you come back, you can try again.”
Mathias looked around and Nosferatu waved his hand and a bucket appeared on the ground in front of him. He shook his hand until the feeling came back to it. He grabbed the bucket.
“Where is it?”
Nosferatu smiled. “Follow your nose. You should know what water smells like.”
Mathias grunted and set off. At times, Nosferatu treated him like an old friend; other times, he seemed to treat him like he was such a small child that he couldn’t be trusted to do anything. He didn’t like having to fetch things just because someone wanted him to.
But at least the walk would give his hand time to heal as well as give him time to try to figure out what Nosferatu was talking about when he mentioned “friends”. All the secrecy was driving him crazy. He didn’t need extra things to worry about. He already had enough to worry about as it was. The dreams and the flashbacks were bad enough. And adding more secrets, he wondered was else was going to happen.
Suddenly, the light scent of rain filled his nostrils. He looked around and found a small pond. He dipped the bucket into the water and began the hike back to the clearing.
He knew that somehow the secrets had something to do with the Queen, but he knew damn well that she wasn’t an ally. She planned to kill him- obliterate him like Nosferatu could shatter a piece of wood. Not everyone would believe that, but he had the feeling that Nossy suspected it.
But one thing that really bothered him was that they let the Queen be there in the first place, amongst all of these children. Of course, it was possible that it was only he that she treated the way she did. That would be his luck, out of all the vampires in the world, he was the only one that she hated. Flipping back through his memory, even she wasn’t always cruel to him. But the lie that Lestan had told, that had changed everything.
He was too young to have to deal with all of this. He didn’t know how to react, or how to fix things. And it was up to her whether or not he would be allowed to live. If she deemed him unsuitable, he would be put to death. His only answer would be to be prepared to fight if he had to, but the easiest solution would be to see if he could change her opinion of him. Maybe if he got close enough to her he could extract his own pound of flesh.
He walked into the clearing, set the bucket at Nosferatu’s feet, and walked over to the apparatus. With revenge in his heart, he struck. The board shattered.
“What’s next?” Mathias asked.
Nosferatu paused. He cleared his throat. “That must have been some walk.”
“You could say that.”
Nosferatu patted the log next to him and offered Mathias a drink from the bucket. “I think that is enough for today.”
Mathias sighed. “How did I get into this mess in the first place?”
Nossy looked up. “What do you mean?”
“With Lilith in this life. I mean all I did was die, Vlad did the rest.”
Nosferatu got up from the log, walked over to Mathias, and placed a hand on his shoulder. “In a normal world, there would be nothing for you to worry about. The normal vampire only has to abide by a small number of very important rules.”
“Which are?”
Nossy rolled his eyes and dropped his arm. “You mean Vlad didn’t tell you this either?”
“Tell me what?”
“Mathias, you are going to drive me to drink. What about your vampire lessons?”
“You mean vampire history?”
Nossy looked at Mathias- deadpanned. His face devoid of expression. “Vlad told you none of our rules?”
“All I know is that after the Queen had her shit fit at the party, Vlad mentioned something about it being his fault.”
“Oh good God! Does that man have no brain?” He sighed. “There are only a few rules to worry about really. One- keep what you are hidden. We don’t need multitudes of renegade vampire hunters coming after us. Two- keep feedings discreet. Human blood is best, but be discreet about it. We don’t need to send an assassin after you because the humans are talking about a vampire killer.”
“What about animal blood?” Mathias asked.
“You can live on it, but it tastes like shit.” Nossy grinned.
“What?” Mathias began to laugh.
“Don’t tell me you’ve never seen Crocodile Dundee?”
Mathias rubbed his stomach. “You kill me.”
“Anyway, the last rule that is usually worried about is loyalty to the royal family. Treason is punishable by death, unless it is sanctioned.”
“Sanctioned treason?” Mathias raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t mock, it happens. Now to your predicament. Technically there is a sticky little law about having to be approved to make new vampires. It is actually an old law from the Myrddin side that you created after the army was getting a little too loose with their powers. Nobo
dy has followed it in centuries, but my mother is an evil bitch.”
“So she’s doing this just because she can.”
“Yup.”
Mathias sat down on the log, grabbed the bucket, and took a long drink. “About those friends...”
Nosferatu chuckled. “Stubborn to a fault, aren’t you? You’ll learn about them soon enough.” He patted Mathias’ head. “Go take a shower and nap. You’ve earned it.”
Mathias barely made it to his bed before he passed out.
* * * * *
The Order of the Dragon came to order in a room that was really like no other on earth. The inner walls were covered in frescos that were centuries old. It was all to give the impression of power. There were scenes of vampiric wars, biblical scenes, and views of ancient lands that danced around the walls. It was not the sort of place where you felt at home. Light came from strategically placed candelabras that helped illuminate the scenes on the walls. Where there were no frescos, there was grey marble. The natural stone made the room consistently cold.
The Order itself was the ruling class of the vampire world. Technically, they were what congress was to the president of the United States. Nossy always felt as if someone in the U.S. government had known someone who knew about the Order. The difference was, the vampire world also had their monarchs. The Queen was kept and respected, but decisions had to be voted on and approved before the Order would pass the laws on for the Queen to sign. Usually, it worked. But his mother hadn’t been acting herself. Unlike congress, the entire royal family were members of the Order and could vote on various issues. The Order did not have a leader and all members were equal in terms of voting power, but there was one who spoke for all— the speaker.
The current members were seated around a huge semicircular table. The table was massive, made of mahogany.
This was it. He was about to betray his mother. He didn’t want to do it, but she’d left him no choice. Nosferatu stepped forward to the podium in the center of the semi-circle. “We’ve got a problem.”
Tail of the Devil Page 17
