Tail of the Devil (4 page)

“Mathias, relax. You have much to learn. Forget what you think you know. Your books and movies will only confuse you. Come. We have much to do.”

Calm down, yeah right.
Somehow, though, he suddenly felt calm. It wasn’t natural; it was just there. Mathias tried to speak, but the only thing that was coming out of his mouth was gibberish.
What did he do to me?

“You needed to calm down, did you not? I simply aided in that process. You do not want to spend another minute in the infirmary, do you?”

Mathias shook his head. It wasn’t as if he needed to be there, but he didn’t know what to do. Could he trust Tepes? He had no idea, but he wasn’t going to accomplish anything just sitting there, so he leapt from the bed and trailed Master Tepes down the hall.

* * * * *

It wasn’t that Mathias trusted Master Tepes; he just didn’t know what else to do. No one had hurt him... yet. But that didn’t mean much.

The hallways were cold. The cold that only occurs in building made of old stone. The walls were dotted with numerous arched wooden doors, each more ornately carved than the last. Finally, he let himself be lead into what turned out to be an office. Now, he was confused.

Master Tepes patted a chair in front of the desk. Mathias sat, not wanting to piss off his possible captor. He watched the tall vampire cross the room and sit behind the massive desk, place his elbows atop it, and lace his fingers together.

“Now, Mathias, what are we going to do with you?”

Here it is. The catch.
“Well, that depends on what type of scam you’re running here,” he said to the tall vampire. He reached out and grabbed one of his wings. They felt soft and velvety, but strong. There were muscles in there. He let go of his wing.

Master Tepes sighed. “Mathias, we have no scams,” he leaned back into his chair.

Mathias glared. He felt that everything was just going way too easy. “Then why am I here? And why did you—“

“Make you one of our kind? Mathias, what else was I to do? I am not a cruel man, contrary to what you may believe. I saw a young man in dire straits, so I helped in the only way I could. Would you rather have died?”

Mathias took a deep breath and slouched into the chair, “No.”

“You are here because this is where the children of our kind learn. You are currently housed inside the walls of the only school for young vampires in the entire world. It is called a simple name, the University. It is taken from the old Latin meaning of the word.”

I’m in a school? Great, just great
. He twitched, his wings rustled.

“It isn’t as bad as that, Mathias. Yes, we do have rules here, but for the time being, I only expect you to try to stay out of trouble and pretend to respect me. Most of the rules will have no use for you. But we expect you to respect your elders, keep your bad language at a minimum, and above all else, try to be a kid. You will not be attending classes with the others. The rest of it will come in time. Is that agreeable to you?”

Mathias thought for a moment. “I either stay here or go back on the streets. Not like there’s really a choice there.”

“Now, we need to get you some clothing and show you where you will live while you are with us.”

He hoped he wouldn’t have to wear some dorky uniform. And again, Master Tepes seemed to read his mind. Mathias felt a strange probing in his brain, a probing he could not see.

“Mathias, you will have regular clothes. You are completely unfit for a classroom environment. Mostly because the moment one of the children makes you angry, you will become violent. I understand; you are used to that. You’ve had to learn to do it to survive, but we cannot have that here.”

He stopped in the middle of the hallway. “How did you know what I was thinking?”

Master Tepes stopped and turned seeing the anger in the young man’s eyes. “I apologize, Mathias. It is something that our kind is rather adept at. Remind me to teach you to block your thoughts before the day is out. Now, may we continue?”

Mathias decided not to fight any of it. It was better to go along with things for the time being. So, he allowed himself to be led down another maze of hallways. It was all so different. He never felt so out of place in his life, and at this point, that was saying something.

* * * * *

After getting some clothing that fit from the tailor, Master Tepes led Mathias back to his office.

“Just wait out here, Mathias. I need to make a call that I forgot about.”

“You mean you can actually forget something?” Mathias asked, smirking.

Master Tepes smiled. To Mathias, it looked kind of friendly, but he’d learned not to necessarily trust that.

“Give me a few minutes and I will show you your quarters.”

Mathias nodded and watched the great door close without the Master even touching it. “It’s gonna be cool to learn how to do that.”

Suddenly, he heard a roar. Wind hit him so hard that his wings blew backwards. He looked around, but saw nothing. It was odd. Wind wasn’t supposed to blow at random moments indoors, but then, he had to wonder if there was anything normal about this place. He felt something coming toward him. Dread crept up his spine. His heart hammered in his chest. Some sort of suppressed instinct was telling him that bad crap was coming. He readied himself.

And then the wind stopped. In front of Mathias, there stood two young men who looked to be around his age. The taller of the two seemed to be in charge. He had a presence, like he knew he was better than everyone else. They were both dressed in the school uniform, which was opulent enough, but he could tell from the snobbish expressions on their faces that both probably had money.

“The first rule here is that the lesser look only at the feet of their superiors,” the tall one said.

Never one for rules, Mathias glared into their eyes. “And who the fuck do you think you are?” he asked and crouched down with his hands up in front of his face in case he had to fight.

The tall one looked shocked. Mathias guessed that the kid had expected him to cower or something

He was blonder than anyone Mathias had ever seen, except maybe that elf guy from those Peter Jackson movies. “I am Konstantin Nikolayevich Karsavin, of the Moscow Karsavins. If you were not a member of the lower class, you would know what that name means.”

Mathias allowed the taller boy to push him. The kid didn’t understand that death was staring him in the face.

* * * * *

His mind flip-flopped. Instead of this Karsavin guy in front of him, he remembered Timmy, Rick, and Claire. His own bullies. His cousins. Mathias couldn’t imagine how they were related, but they were.

* * * * *

Mathias was sitting outside, his back up against a tree. There was a dog pen beside the tree. The dog inside it was a scruffy old thing with fur that was a mixture of brown, white, and tan. Mathias didn’t know what type of dog he was, just that he was a mutt. Timmy, Rick and Claire hurt the animal, and Aunt Annette allowed it. Mathias was starting to feel like he had more in common with the dog than his relatives. There was no escape.

He stuck his fingers through the box wire of the dog fence.

“Here boy.” Mathias said softly.

The dog came over, sniffed his fingers, and began licking them. Mathias sank to his knees by the pen keeping his fingers where they were. Tears fell. It was as if everything, his parents,
his
situation had come to a head. What hurt the most was that the only thing around that cared enough to comfort him was the dog. He missed his mom so much. “If I ever get out of here, I’m taking you with me,” he said to the dog.

And then, he heard footsteps behind him. Mathias turned his head. The bulk of his cousin stood over him. At sixteen, Timmy was about six feet tall. He wasn’t fat, but he was solid. To Mathias, he looked like a bear.

“Aww, widdle baby misses Mommy and Daddy?” Timmy said in a bizarre high-pitched voice.

Mathias wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “Just leave me alone, okay?”

Timmy grabbed Mathias by the front of his shirt and pulled him so close that their noses were almost touching. “Listen, you dick. You don’t order me. I’m in charge, get it?”

The big oaf dropped Mathias to the ground with a thud. Before Mathias could move, he kicked him hard in the ribs.

Timmy stood there, grinning. “Remember, cross me, and you’ll get it.”

Timmy turned and went back into the house. Mathias watched, trying to catch his breath. As Timmy walked into the house, Mathias looked up and saw his aunt at the window. She was smiling. She had to have watched the whole thing. But, what scared him the most was that it was a proud smile. He was doomed.

* * * * *

On the day of his parent’s funeral, Mathias woke to the sun shining. It was ironic that on the day that made it official that he was never going to see his parents again, the sun would be shining. Most people would think that it would be a sign from God that
everything was going to be okay, but Mathias knew better.

He was in a daze getting ready. Almost as if he was trying to make it all not happen by not being consciously there, but when he saw his parent’s caskets he couldn’t stop himself and began to cry.

He felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. Mathias turned him head and saw Timmy, smiling.

“Fucking pussy.” Timmy whispered.

Mathias didn’t grace his cousin with an answer and turned his head back in the direction of his parents. He didn’t want to say goodbye like this, but it wasn’t as if he had a choice.

He stood there as long as he was allowed. But eventually, he felt fingernails press into his arm.

“Come on Mathias, we need to get going.” His aunt said.

He let her to lead him away. There was no sound. No breeze. No nothing. It was almost as if time has stopped for that one moment.

He didn’t remember being in the car. He didn’t remember the reception at the church, although he was somewhat aware that he’d eaten. The only thing that he was conscious of was his head hitting the pillow and everything going black.

* * * * *

The day his aunt decided to leave him alone with the “monsters”, that had been the worst. It was a normal day; at least it felt like one. Up at dawn to start breakfast, Mathias hurried through his chores. He was just placing the food on the table when Aunt Annette stormed in.

“I’ve had enough of this rat hole. I’m going to Harrisburg. I need a new dress anyways
.
I’ll be home sometime this evening. Timmy, you’re in charge.” She smiled. “Make sure to take care of things the way I like.”

“Yes, Mommy,” Timmy said.

A chill crept into Mathias’ bones. Timmy was the mastermind behind most of the tortures that he was always being subjected to. He watched his aunt leave and hoped to be able to hide out the day, but he wasn’t that lucky.

Timmy was a giant compared to Mathias. And he had the mind of an amoeba, but he was strong. Mathias knew that if the larger boy managed to catch him, he might as well figure he was done for. Rick and Claire wouldn’t be any help. Nine and ten respectively, they adored their older brother and did everything he said. Nothing ever seemed to faze them. They were like smaller smarter versions of their older brother.