Tail of the Devil (17 page)

Before he had a chance to pretend to be asleep, her demonic and yet beautiful face peered through the bars of his cell. He scrabbled across the floor, through his waste and huddled into the far wall. She laughed manically.

“Why, Mathias. One would think you fear me!” She laughed again running her fingernails along the bars causing a horrible scratching sound that sounded like the screech of a bird of death. Her scent seemed to undulate about the room. He felt as if with each breath he was being smothered by her scent. The roses and the musk seemed to want to enter his body and never leave.

Mathias simply stared. Long before, he’d learnt to keep his mouth closed. Anytime he made a sound, her tortures became worse.

She waved her arm in front of the door to his cell and the door opened without a sound.

His heart began to beat faster and faster. He knew what was coming, but still be prayed to the Father to spare him somehow, but he never answered his prayers.

“Thias, don’t make me come in there and get you.” She said in a sing-song voice. “You remember what happened the last time you forced me to come in after you.”

Mathias remembered well what she’d done. She expected him to voluntarily lead himself to his own torture. The last time he’d refused, she’d come into his cell and chopped off his feet with her katana sword. She licked the blood from his stumps, and only then did she
allow
him to drag himself into the main room for the rest of the day’s torture. Where she’d gotten the sword, he’d never know. After the day’s torture was through, she’d rubbed sea salt into the remains of his legs. Then she lashed the stumps to his legs- the pain being greater because his body had to heal around the salt.

Without a sound, he crept out of his cell and cowered in her presence.

“Onto the table!”

Mathias gingerly crawled onto the table. She secured him to the table with bands of leather tied at various points over his arms and legs and torso. The leather was so tight that the bindings dug into his skin.

He heard clanking, and then, “Snick, snick.”

She peered into his eyes and held up a pair of iron pliers. “Ready to play?”

Mathias winced. And then, he felt her hand on his ankles. He screamed when she began ripping his toenails out by the root.

* * * * *

Mathias woke, panting and sweating. He was in his bed. He was all right. He looked around his room. Everything was as it should be.

“Where did that come from?”

Just as he started to relax, that was when he realized something was wrong. He had memories in his head that shouldn’t be there. “Am I losing it?”

Mathias searched his brain and found things he shouldn’t know, like a memory of a scrap of fabric the other Mathias had snatched from another orphan when he was a child, how Nosferatu’s wings twitched in his sleep, the sweet smell of Stuart playing in the grass.

He didn’t want to think about what these memories meant. If he did, he’d be admitting to the one thing he didn’t want. The thing that Vlad surely believed.

“It doesn’t make any sense.” He hunkered back down into his bed.

Finally, after a time, he drifted back into a fitful sleep.

* * * * *

The next morning, when Mathias woke, he lay in bed staring at the ceiling. More and more, it appeared that the Queen was a threat. Mathias just didn’t know what she wanted to do with him. He wondered now. The dreams were too realistic, and granted he’d always had very realistic dreams, but these were much more than that. Where did Vlad fit into it all? Was he really being brainwashed or was everyone else right? He didn’t know.

He didn’t feel right in his own skin. He got up and got dressed and then stared out the window trying to make sense of everything.

“Mathias, are you awake?” Tepes called from the other room.

“Coming!” He grabbed a quick shower, got dressed, and walked into the living area. Tepes looked up from the book he was reading.

“Is everything all right, Mathias? You look very pale.”

“Everything’s peachy. I feel like I’m losing my mind, but besides that, I’m great.” Might as well be honest. Maybe it would buy him some answers.

Tepes squinted his eyes, almost boring into every part of Mathias as he looked Mathias up and down. “Maybe you need a change.”

Mathias nodded. He gulped down a goblet of blood that had been left on the table. “Can I get out of here for a while?”

Tepes took a few minutes to think. “If you want to wander, I don’t think that would be so bad. If you cannot find your way back here, I’m sure you’ll be able to find someone who could help you.”

Mathias paused, grabbed a croissant, and walked out of Tepes’ rooms.

* * * * *

Nosferatu knocked on his Mother’s door. After a few moments, the door swung open gently.

“My darling, come in.”

“You are planning something. I can tell.”

Lilith was seated in her plush velvet chair. She was wearing a grey silk suit that was cut low, just exposing the inner edges of her breasts. Her skirt was knee length. The whole effect was both stunning and sophisticated, and yet somehow inappropriate. Her dark hair was swept up in a French braid. Her green eyes narrowed. “Oh sit. You always over exaggerate.”

Nosferatu stiffened his spine. “We know that isn’t true, Mother. Now what are you planning?”

She closed her eyes and slowly opened them. “I’m worried, Nossy.”

“About what, Mother?”

She sighed. “That boy.”

“You leave that boy alone, Mother. He’s been through enough. He doesn’t need all of this. Vlad is trying to get him to remember. You’re trying to figure out his motives when he’s a fifteen-year-old kid, and I’m trying to give the kid a normal life, or at least as normal as we can make it. Can you please leave him alone?”

“Oh Nossy, don’t get so upset.”

Nossy glared. “Mother, I think I have every right to be upset. He is
not
the Mathias you knew. He isn’t the Mathias any of us knew. He is himself.”

“Oh Nossy, if only it were that simple.”

* * * * *

Mathias wandered through the hallways. It was interesting to look at how far they went, and it was nice to be somewhere by himself where he wasn’t locked away. The last time he’d been able to do wander around like this was before he’d arrived at the school. He’d been here for months. It felt good to have a little freedom.

Suddenly, he came to a cross-chamber that intersected several hallways. Nosferatu stormed out of one of them, passed Mathias by without saying a word and stormed off into the hallway Mathias had just come out of.

Unable to hedge his curiosity, Mathias wandered down the hallway Nosferatu had just vacated. It wasn’t long before he smelled roses and musk.

“I see you there,” she said.

Mathias stopped. He felt something rub against his arm.

“You have come to me, I want to know why?”

“I...I was exploring, and I saw Nosferatu come from here.”

She let out a long slow hiss. “My son is angry with me.”

Mathias breathed deeply. Her perfume was odd, but then everything about her was odd. He felt her power and the danger it possessed. He was doomed.

“Do you know who I am?” Her voice echoed oddly off the stone walls.

“Lilith.”

“Yessssss.” Her voice seemed to undulate over his body. Mathias knew she was a vampire, but she could have been a demon. Maybe that’s why the history books said she was both.

He felt her rub her hands along his back. He was rooted to the spot. “What do you want with me?”

She giggled. “I could ask the same of you, little boy.”

“I don’t want anything from you. Can I go now?” Mathias asked.

“Are you sure Mathias? Are you sure that you don’t want to revisit my talents? Revisit the cell?”

Mathias wished he knew how to blink himself away. It was his only escape, but he didn’t know how. Besides, she held him with her power. There was nothing he could do.

Suddenly, she scratched her claw across his face. Mathias could feel the blood well to the surface. She came around to the front of him and showed him the blood on her claw and licked it. “Ahh, it is good to taste you again. Yes, my darling. You can go.”

He felt her power release him. He turned and ran. Her laughter followed him until he got to the cross-chamber. He didn’t stop running until he reached the site of his own grave.

It was cold, so very cold. The snow swept around the grounds. It was so deep that most of the twigs were buried. Mathias wandered over to where his last body lay. His grave was covered in drifted snow, and the bush was covered in ice. He could clearly see the bones in the mass of twigs that made up his grave. He was
the
Mathias. He knew that now. Her smell was unmistakable. His dreams, her mention of the cell, it was all there. He wasn’t the simple street kid he thought he was. He
was
Mathias, former king of Myrddin. And Lilith was very much insane.

He collapsed in the dirt next to his grave. He felt so many things all at once: betrayal, anguish, anger— it was all the same. He’d been better off not knowing. His curiosity got the best of him, and he should have left his contact with the queen well enough alone.

He clenched his fists and dug his claws into his hands. “He fucking did it. Why, I don’t know, but he fucking did it. How could Vlad bring me here with her?”

* * * * *

Vlad sat in his chambers, staring out over the grounds. It was difficult for him, but he knew what had to be done. He was going to force Mathias to remember. He’d spent too many years without his friend.

“Vlad.” Nossy said.

Tepes jumped. “I hate it when you do that!”

Nossy smiled sadly. “You can blame Mother for that ability...but I’m here about far more important matters than my abilities.”

Vlad stepped away from the window. “What’s wrong?”

“My mother. I don’t know. It’s almost like Mathias being here has brought back that side of her.”

Vlad’s eyes widened. “What makes you say that?”

“I was just with her. Granted, she’s never been right, but she has that look in her eye again. The same look she had when it was bad before. She’s acting strangely and refuses to leave Mathias alone.”

“Where is Mathias?”

“I passed him on my way here. He was wandering the hallways, but I do not think that he is there now.” Nossy walked over to the window and looked out. In the distance, he could see a small black lump beside the rose bush. “He’s at his grave.”

“Myrddin be damned. How long has he been there?”

Nossy scratched at his head with a claw. “How in the hell am I supposed to know?”

Vlad nodded and left the chambers.

* * * * *

Mathias still could not believe how he’d been betrayed. Tepes had placed him within the jaws of the beast. It was almost as if Tepes wanted him to die at her hands. Try as he might, Mathias just wanted to forget about everything and go back to being that ignorant confused boy he’d been for the last few months. But wishing was pointless— that he knew implicitly. There was no way to quiet the truth once it surfaced for good. It was time to buck up and face the music.