Tail of the Devil (21 page)

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 instantaneously 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.”