Tail of the Devil (22 page)

“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. Nobody 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.”

The vampires seated at the table looked at Nosferatu in unison. Their eyes glowed red in the candlelight.

“And what is this problem?” asked an old vampire with long white hair and wearing robes of royal blue.

“Speaker Tallus, it’s my mother. She is planning something horrible for the boy Mathias. I’ve seen it in my visions.”

Speaker Tallus rubbed his face with his hands, his claws so long that they caught in his hair. “Are you sure?”

Nosferatu nodded solemnly. “It is as we feared. Just having him around has brought back her insanity. I had hoped that by keeping them separate, there wouldn’t have been an issue, but I was wrong.”

Speaker Tallus nodded. “I think that for now, we will watch her. If things get much worse, come to us immediately. We may have to take more drastic measures.”

Nosferatu left. He wasn’t sure if they believed him or not. Watching and waiting wasn’t exactly a great solution. Maybe they would uncover something. Hopefully, before she managed to kill Mathias.

* * * * *

After he left the Order, he wandered around the castle, never settling on any one place. Nowhere felt calm. Finally, he headed back to his chambers and sat in the chair in front of his fireplace. He hadn’t used it in years, but it looked kind of spooky. The cobwebs in the opening were so thick that they formed a webby fabric. He was worried. Not only did he have to worry about his mother’s plans, but he had Mathias’ sanity to think about.

His capacity for anger was not good. All it took was one little thing to get the boy on the verge of complete rage. Underneath all of that, there was a good soul. And how the Queen could think of Mathias as unworthy was lost to him. He needed to do something, he just didn’t know what. If only he could make her see.

The question was,
how
? She never listened to him, and he didn’t really know if there was anyone she listened to at all anymore.

He got up from his favorite chair and left his chambers. Then, he headed over to the section of the castle he consistently tried to avoid, his mother’s chambers.

It wasn’t so much that he hated her, it was that he was still disgusted at the cruelty she had been capable of all those years ago. Although she knew the truth, she seemed hell-bent on snuffing out Mathias’ existence each and every time he came back.

She was obsessed with keeping the vampire world in the dark about how truly evil she really was. Everything with her was motive. Whether the evil had always been there, or whether it had grown over the years, he wasn’t sure. All he really knew was that his mother had been a different person before she had heard Lestan’s lie. After that, her heart had grown sour.

Her insanity had been kept hidden for so long that Nosferatu couldn’t remember how many stories he told over the years. But, with Mathias’ appearance at the party and exposing Nicolai Karsavin to one of his memories, well, that brought about some unrest. This was the first time Nossy could remember that doubts about the Queen popped up at court.

Nossy felt the air grow cold. Lilith’s anger always made him feel cold. He could only hope that he could manage to play her game long enough. Maybe, he could divert her attention onto something else for a while.

He raised his hand and knocked on the ancient door in front of him. At once, the door opened with a creak to reveal Lilith enshrouded in white funereal robes.

“Mother,” Nosferatu said stiffly.

Lilith smiled with a saccharine sweetness. “Oh Nossy, you’ve come to visit. Shall I put on some tea?”

Nossy shook his head. Sometimes his mother really did drive him batty. “I’m afraid that this isn’t a personal visit, Mother.”

Lilith dropped her façade and backed away from Nosferatu. “Well then, get on with it. Don’t waste my time pretending to care about me!”

Nossy could feel the cloud of guilt falling around his shoulders like a heavy blanket. He plunked himself down in an overstuffed chair and glared. “If that’s how you talk to Stuart, it’s no wonder he never comes to visit.”

Lilith’s eyes snapped to Nossy. “Very well. You’ve made your point. Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you’ve changed since
he’s
been around.”

“And whose fault is that?” Nossy gripped the arms of the chair so hard that the wood cracked underneath. Her guilt trips were really starting to irritate him. “I honestly did not come here to fight. I made the mistake that we could carry on a mature conversation.”

Lilith sat down in the chair opposite. “All right. So tell me, to what do I owe this visit?”

He sighed, not sure how to approach the subject. “It’s about the boy, Mother.”

She looked at Nossy with false confusion. “Which boy?”

Nossy rolled his eyes. “Which boy?” he asked incredulously. “You know very well which boy. Mathias Drvar, the boy whom you’ve threatened from the moment he’s been here.” It made it worse that she lied to him. If she was lying, she was plotting. That wasn’t good.

Lilith looked like she had just swallowed a rotten sardine. “Oh, that boy.”

“Why can’t you just do what I ask and leave him alone?”

“Because, Nosferatu, that
boy
has already destroyed my reputation. Why Vlad couldn’t have just let him die I don’t know.”

“Jesus, Mother. He hasn’t even reached adulthood. You know you were wrong.” She’d even admitted it to him before.

Lilith straightened up into the most regal post she could muster. “I might have been wrong to listen to Lestan, but you know Nossy, your Mathias was not a good person. The things he did in battle would have made you ill.”

“So?”

“So, he and I are very much alike.”

Nossy glared. This was so like her. “Mother, you forget. I knew him. Your propaganda will not go very far. Do you realize that there are some in the court who are already calling for your head?”

Her eyes darkened. “And that is why he must die! I will not allow him to destroy everything I have created.”

Nossy was tired of the game. Nothing was ever going to change her. “If you continue with this ludicrous plan of yours to test Mathias, you’ll be sorry. I’m not going to stand around and cover for you again. Once was enough. And now that Mathias is back, I’m sure as hell going to make sure it stays that way.”

He stood and left so quickly that the thin layer of dust rose from the furniture and the door slammed like a tomb behind him.

* * * * *

Nossy tried to calm himself down, but taking deep breaths just wasn’t cutting it. He didn’t get this mad often, but when he did, it wasn’t pretty. The only person who had ever been able to calm him when he got like this was Vlad. It wasn’t so much that he and Vlad were close friends, because they were. The truth was, he trusted Vlad more than anyone else.

It had been Vlad that helped him learn to live again after Mathias’ body had been found. Vlad had picked him up, taken him to his castle, and kept his eye on him. It hadn’t been easy for Vlad, Nossy knew that. He’d tried to kill himself several times; first with fire, the second with a guillotine. It was Vlad who nursed him back to health each time he’d tried to die.

They were really very different from each other. He’d been born during the time when there were no rules to speak of, not really. Governments didn’t exist then. Mostly there were just clans of nomads running around trying to survive. Vlad, however, grew up in royalty. Rules where what he knew and what comforted him. Most of the time, Nossy felt Vlad was too hung up by rules, but once in a while, his cool decorum came in handy. For Nossy, that meant survival.

Nossy found himself standing outside Vlad’s office without even realizing that his feet had taken him there. It was for the best, really.

Nossy raised his hand and knocked on Vlad’s door. In a moment, the door swung open of its own accord, Vlad was standing behind his desk, speaking into his telephone. Like the rest of Vlad’s domain, his telephone was something to behold. It was a fancy thing crusted in gold. It looked like it belonged in a bordello.

“No, Karsavin, I refuse. Your request is completely ludicrous.” He paused and waved Nossy over to a plush, overstuffed leather chair. “Listen Nicolai, Master Mathias does not need to speak with you. Yes, I’m positive that your apology was sufficient.” Vlad rolled his eyes at Nossy and Nossy smiled. “If you wish to do so, I am sure that Master Mathias would appreciate the offer... Yes, I will propose the idea to him as soon as I am able. Nicolai, I need to go. Yes... Yes. Good-day.” Vlad hung up the phone and leaned onto his desk. “That man is going to be the death of me.”

Nossy cleared his throat. “Unfortunately, we have worse problems than your love of irritating phone calls.”

Vlad sat down in a nearby chair. “What’s wrong?”

Nossy took a deep breath. “She is hell-bent on “testing” Mathias. Truly she wants to kill him. No matter how I look at it, every option is going to be ugly.”