Tail of the Devil (13 page)

Mathias snorted. “Yeah, I can kind of see that happening.” Vlad knew him better than he’d thought.

Vlad got up and walked away from the table and opened the drapes on the window closest to Mathias. “If I let you out, what would you do? Where would you go?”

“I don’t know. I just want to be a normal kid. I’m tired of having all this shit happen to me.”

“Mathias, I have news for you. You are a vampire. You will never be normal.”

“But I don’t want to be a vampire. I want to go home. I want my parents alive. I want to be normal.” He wanted to be with people he could trust again. Okay, so Vlad had ‘saved’ his life. But, at what cost? In the time he’d been here, he’d been exposed to an insane monarch, almost ripped apart by Vlad, and expected to counsel Nosferatu.

Tepes sighed. “Stop whining! Good God, you give me a headache. Mathias, this is your home now, you know that. If I could make time pass so that you could be with your family again, I would. But even Nosferatu doesn’t have the ability to roll back time.”

“Then what good are these magical powers, really?” Mathias asked.

“They have their place. You’ll find out in time.” Vlad placed his elbows on the table and laced his fingers together. “What Nosferatu did with the furniture was an illusion. When I said he was a show-off, I was speaking honestly. If I would have righted the furniture, I would have blinked it back into its rightful state. There would be no illusion of the furniture putting itself back together. It would have just suddenly been righted.”

Mathias placed his hands in his lap and slumped down into his chair. “I wasn’t whining. I was just talking.” Now, he wasn’t allowed to complain. Great.

“No, you were whining. The real reason I don’t let you loose is that there is a lot of prejudice. The ones who were born vampires tend to look down on those who were introduced to our world. Times have changed— the prejudice used to be between the vampires from Myrddin and the ones from Lilitu. Myrrdin vampires were created by a great wizard called Aurelianus. They primarily had darker fur on their wings, with the structure of their wings being more streamlined— like a gargoyle. Their fangs were also quite different. They were longer and more pointed— like those of a snake. Lilitu vampires were created by the Father. They had more bat-like wings, fur that was not so dark, and fangs that were just a tad longer than a human’s eye teeth.”

“And your point is?” Mathias asked.

“My point is that you have already seen what Konstantin is like. I am trying to avoid a war that will likely encompass the entire institution. Mathias was a Myrrdin vampire. And, you were created, not born. So, you are likely to have to deal with more than just Konstantin making things rough on you.”

Mathias rolled his eyes. Not one bit of that was important to him. He wanted things to be back to normal. The best he could do was try to convince Vlad to chill out. “Maybe I finally have someone I can whine to? Besides, you don’t need to worry about me; I can take care of myself.”

“And that is exactly what I am afraid of.”

Mathias glared. Apparently, nothing mattered but what Vlad wanted. “Why is it when I talk to you, it seems like nothing I ever say makes a difference? What good am I doing just sitting here? I need to get out of this place. I need to see the sun!”

Vlad moved his hands into his lap. “Mathias, you do not know everything you need to survive right now. For your own safety, I have to insist that you stay here, within my chambers, unless accompanied by myself or Nosferatu.” Vlad got up from the table and left.

Mathias heard the click of the lock. He couldn’t believe it. It was like the old vampire just glossed over everything he had to say. Not a bit of it mattered. He stood up from the table. Fine. He threw the table across the room where it shattered against Vlad’s desk. Papers and bits of wood went everywhere.

“Good.” He walked to his room and slammed the door behind him.

There was a part of him that wanted to smash everything that wasn’t nailed down. If they wanted him to act like an animal, he could. But, if he destroyed his bed, who could say if they would fix it. Having a bed to sleep on was a lot better than the floor. Plus, if he did completely trash everything, he knew that his mind wouldn’t leave him alone. He’d feel guilty that he couldn’t repay his keeper for the damage.

It wasn’t like he could “blink” things back like Nosferatu. And he doubted that Nosferatu would believe that a ghost cat came in and wrecked the place. At times, he really wished that he could sever the ties with the way things were on the street, but what he did on the street was what had kept him alive. What he wanted was his old life back, and it couldn’t be done.

Back when he lived at home with his parents, Mathias thought that vampires were amazing magical creatures who could do anything. They’d bought him as many books about vampires as he could read. But the books were wrong. The only thing that vampires were good for was being historians.

He sat down on the bed and tossed his dirty clothing to the floor. He just didn’t care anymore. When he’d been on the street, he would have killed for good clothes, but a fancy prison was still a prison.

His old clothes were neatly folded in the dresser. They might be full of holes, but at least they belonged to him. He felt like himself in those clothes. The fancy things were bindings to keep him where they wanted him to be.

He fought the tears forming in his eyes and pushed them back. Crying was stupid and pointless. It wouldn’t solve anything. He just wished he could have saved his parents somehow, told them not to go out. Something. They all could have watched a movie at home. But, he’d been more concerned with having the house to himself and being alone. At the time, being alone was fun and exciting. Now that he was alone, he knew it sucked.

“Guess I got what I wished for,” he mumbled. He sat in his bed and leaned his back against the pillows. It was going to be a long night.

* * * * *

Vlad unlocked the door and entered his chambers. The first thing he saw was the obliterated table. He blinked it back the way it was supposed to be, and gathered all of the papers from the floor. He looked around. Nothing else was out of place, but something still felt off. Then, he heard something that sounded like pounding.

“What is that?” He angled his ears towards the sound. It was coming from Mathias’ room.

Vlad walked over to Mathias’ door and knocked lightly. The boy must not have heard because he did not respond. Vlad knocked again, and when he did not get a response, he opened the door. Mathias was sitting in his bed banging his head against the wall.

“Mathias,” Vlad said, trying to get his attention. The pounding continued.

Vlad stepped lightly over the carpet, stood near the bed, and placed his hand in between the wall and Mathias’ head. ”Stop this.”

Mathias raised up and blinked at him. “Stop what?”

“This, whatever it is you are doing to yourself.”

“Just leave me alone.”

Vlad stepped away from the bed and sat down in an overstuffed chair next to the bed. “I believe it is time that you calmed down. Hurting yourself is not going to solve anything,” Vlad said.

Mathias shook his head. “Just leave me alone. I need to do this.”

“You need to repeatedly pound your head against the wall?” Vlad asked.

“Damnit. Don’t you get it,” Mathias said. “If I hadn’t been so fucking selfish, then maybe I wouldn’t be here.”

Vlad stared at Mathias. “It was an accident, Mathias. Nothing more.”

“How do you even know that?”

Vlad sighed. “Because you aren’t blocking. You always forget to block.”

Mathias took closed his eyes. “This is so pathetic.”

“No, Mathias. Not pathetic. You are a survivor, and sometimes, the stress and pain just becomes something that is so overwhelming that instead of harming someone else, you begin to harm yourself.”

“That’s weird.” Mathias sat up on the side of the bed and slouched.

“Come. You need some time out of these rooms.”

* * * * *

Mathias didn’t argue. Even though he was getting what he’d asked for, it somehow didn’t seem worth it anymore. No sense in bringing that up now. Vlad seemed to be trying, and Mathias knew better than to refuse a bone when offered. He followed Tepes down a myriad of hallways and outside the castle walls. The air already had a bite to it.

“Isn’t it a little early to be this cold?” Mathias asked.

Vlad took a deep breath. The air was cold and Mathias could see the air billowing forth from Vlad’s nose.

“We are in Siberia, Mathias. Although it is only October, winter comes quickly this far north,” Vlad said.

Mathias took a moment to look at the surroundings. Unlike the last time he’d been out, the flowers were gone. What was left was brown and dead. But, they’d gone beyond the central garden. This was the first time he’d been beyond the walls of the castle completely. H was surprised that the castle was in the middle of a very large plateau. He could see for miles around, the peaks of the mountains were snow covered. It was desolate. And, it suited his mood. He didn’t feel very happy, so the fact that everything was dead felt right.

He walked to the edge of the plateau and stared out into the dark sea.

“Don’t even think about it,” Tepes said; the edges of his mouth twitching.

Mathias ignored him. If he’d been human, it would be so easy. But, if he killed himself, even if he was able to, what would have been the point to even leaving his aunt’s house. His time on the streets, Lucretia’s life would have been for nothing. He stepped away from the edge. “Come Mathias. I do not think that you wanted to get out here to just stare at the sea.”

Mathias nodded and followed the elder vampire through the grounds. Eventually, they came to a strange maze standing on a flat area with stands placed around it.

“What,” he pointed, “is that?”

Tepes laughed. “That, my dear boy, is our games-sized flying course.”

“Flying course?” Mathias had never seen anything like it.

“Come now, I know that Nosferatu told you the story of Mathias and how he was a Vampiric Games flyer.”

The course was huge, probably at least the size of four or five football fields. There were areas like small European villages, areas with forested placed complete with felled trees.

“Do the games still happen?” Mathias asked.

“Of course they do. They are one of the few things that vampires from around the world agree upon. Not that competing really means anything. You’ll find no endorsement deals, no money prizes. To win a medal in our games is about the acknowledgement of artistry. You’ll find, Mathias, that we are rather harsh critics. If “the” Mathias was awarded the gold medal, it means that he was the best flyer we had seen up to that point. Gold medals are rarely given in our games.”

“When did the last Games happen?” Mathias asked.

“Only twenty years ago.”

“Twenty years!”

“You forget. Time is different to us. Four years to the humans seems to be just enough time to train. For us, twenty five years is perfect. Four games per century,” Vlad said.

“Did you ever compete?”

“Absolutely not. Mathias always said I was far too clumsy.”

Mathias stifled a snort and followed “the klutz” back toward the castle.

* * * * *

Once inside Tepes’ rooms, Mathias threw himself down into the chair closest to the door and relaxed. It felt good to step away from everything. He could hear the students moving through the hallways, it was time to change classes again. The only way he knew the classes were changing was the barrage of footsteps suddenly throughout the castle. There was no bell or noise; it was almost as if they just knew when it was time to go.