Tail of the Devil (14 page)

“Mathias?” Tepes asked.

“Yeah?”

“I think that you are right about something.”

“Huh?” Mathias hated it when Tepes talked in riddles.

“I have been keeping you inside for far too long.”

Mathias was a bit surprised. Maybe the vampire had listened to him after all.

Tepes continued, “I think that I’ve been trying to protect you, but in doing so, I have made you feel trapped. I apologize for that.”

Mathias shrugged. “It’s okay.” Just cause he had a bit of a mental breakdown didn’t mean that he needed an apology.

Vlad walked around and rubbed his chin; thinking. “How do you feel about officially announcing yourself to our world?”

“I don’t know.” Mathias stared into his hands, trying to not think about it. Why couldn’t he just wander around with everyone else? Being announced? No, way.

“No,” Tepes raised his hand, “not like that. It’s just that many of the families wonder about you. I was thinking that we may have a sort of “family” event. Then they will see that there is no great mystery.”

Mathias tried not to roll his eyes. He hated “family” days at school when he had a family, and now that he didn’t, there just wasn’t any point to him attending one. It would be depressing, most likely. Not exactly fun times.

Tepes smiled. “You are not in as dire straits as you might think. There are many things that I have not told you yet.”

“You know,” Mathias said. “Sometimes you mess it all up. Just when I start to think about trusting you, you let me know that you are still keeping shit from me. What’s your problem?”

“Mathias, did it ever occur to you that I am giving you information gradually? I am trying to tell you without bogging you down with too much detail.”

Mathias grunted and went into his room, shutting the door behind him.

He supposed that he could handle having to go to the party if he had to, but truthfully, he found it kind of interesting that the families of kids he’d never met wanted to meet him. The families only wanted to meet him because he was the latest novelty. Not because they honestly wanted to meet him.

The truth was, that Vlad Tepes probably told them all that he’d found “Mathias”. And, now that they thought their king was back, they wanted to suck up. Too bad it was a stupid delusion. If only his mother had given him some normal name like Bob. There was no way in hell that anyone could take “Bob the vampire” seriously.

And, if he really was some lost king, how come he couldn’t reap the benefits from it. Like he’d had this stupid idea when he was on the street that one day he’d show up back at his aunt’s house all rich and famous. His cousins would bow down to him cause they wanted his money, and he could get his revenge on them by buying their house and kicking their asses out. But, he wasn’t a lost king. He was just a street kid with a goofy name.

What really kind of scared him was that apparently the Queen was one of the people that thought he was this old vampire from eons ago. If she was as crazy as Nosferatu’s book said she was, how well was all of this going to turn out? The bad part was that he didn’t even look like their idol if the statue was to be believed.

But if Vlad wanted a stupid party, Mathias would go to the stupid party. It was probably easier to just go than to try to convince him that he wasn’t “Mathias”. Maybe, if things didn’t go very well, he’d never be expected to go to another stupid party again.

* * * * *

That evening, as Mathias into bed, he began to plan. Leaving wasn’t a very good option. At least he wasn’t starving here. If he wanted to be truthful about it, when he’d last been on the streets, he’d been starving to death. So, while he was here, he might as well make the best of it. After all, so far no one had harmed him here.

But if he were to stay, he had to have some answers. First, he needed to figure out how to unobligate himself from Vlad the Impaler— not an easy task. And second, he wanted to track down the Queen and figure out if she really did believe he was “the Mathias”.

Hopefully, by the end of it all, he’d still be living. But to do everything he wanted to do, he first needed to survive the party and convince Tepes that he could be trusted around other people. But he knew it wouldn’t be easy if all the brats were like that blonde and his friend he’d met his first day. He still wondered if it had been the blond that was tormenting that kid outside his room.

“What the hell was his name?” Mathias tapped a finger against his leg.
Crabby. Fuck-face...
He laughed at “fuck-face”.

“No, it started with a ‘K’ sound. What the hell was it?” He thought some more. Then, suddenly, it popped into his head.

“Konstantin.”

Chapter Nine

October thirty-first, the night of the party. Mathias wiped his hands on his pants. He couldn’t stop them from sweating no matter what he did. He hated parties, mostly because he always had to pretend he was something he wasn’t, but this time it was worse. He was only going to this party because, supposedly, it would make the vampire world happy. And maybe, they would see that he was not who they thought him to be.

He stared and looked at himself in the mirror. The clothes were all right he guessed. He was wearing a black coat with a Mandarin-style collar, a black shirt, and black pants. When he’d opened his wardrobe the other day, the clothes had simply been inside it, waiting for him. It was almost as if there were vampiric underwear gnomes who gave you clothes instead of stealing them.

He adjusted his back. His wings fell around him gently.

There was a knock at the door.

“Who is it?” he asked.

“Do you need any help, Mathias?” Tepes asked.

“I dunno. You can come in if you want.”

Tepes walked into the room and smiled at Mathias in the mirror. “You’ll do very nicely I think.”

“What do you mean?”

“You clean up very well, Mathias.”

Mathias coughed and blushed. “Umm. Thanks I think.”

“Now come, Mathias. It is almost time for the festivities to begin.”

His feet would not move. His body began to sweat and he felt sick to his stomach. “I... I don’t feel so good.”

“Mathias, stop being so ridiculous. I will be there. Nosferatu will be there. We will not let anything happen to you.”

Mathias took a deep breath. After several minutes, he nodded at Tepes and followed the older vampire out the door.

* * * * *

Tepes led Mathias down a stairway he’d never seen before. It was lighted with old fashioned torches that were burning softly and filling the stairwell with a warm glow. He could hear the crowd before he could see it. His breath came in short gasps. Once again, he sweated.

Mathias stood back inside the stairwell and allowed Tepes to enter the room. The elder vampire was so graceful and sure of himself that Mathias really felt out of place. What business did he have being there? He was a street rat for god’s sake, and dinner parties were not something he had any business of attending.

The room was dark, but not dark enough so that Mathias could not see. All around were candles that tried to take away the shadows of the room, but the shadows were stubborn. Mathias watched as they seemed to undulate around the light from the flames and sometimes try to chase the flames away, but the light continued. In the dim illumination, he could see ornate tables with white tablecloths and gold cutlery. Maybe the room was supposed to look inviting, but it didn’t. Mathias felt like something was going to come out of the shadows and eat him.

Tepes paused. Mathias watched him. He seemed to then notice that Mathias had not entered and turned around, motioning for him to follow. No backing out now. Mathias took a deep breath and sincerely hoped that no one would notice him.

Multitudes of eyes stared at Mathias from every corner of the room as soon as he entered the room. There were no friendly conversations to be overheard, no laughter. Vlad had entered to a room full of friends. Mathias entered to complete silence. He tried to keep calm, but nothing kept him from feeling totally out of place. All he wanted to do was get the hell out of there.

“May I present, Mathias Charleyevich Drvar!” Someone announced. Mathias didn’t see who had said it. There were too many people.

The crowd roared. Then, the vampires closed in around him, smiled down at him. Their fangs glinted in the candlelight.

Mathias wanted to disappear. It was bad enough that he didn’t like to be noticed, but this was so much worse. Suddenly, almost as if on cue, all the vampires in the room, minus Tepes and Nosferatu, bowed to him. If Mathias didn’t know better, he’d say it was staged, but it wasn’t. It was just weird.

He smiled slightly. “Hi.”

Without any direction, the vampire families formed a receiving line. There were so many that Mathias didn’t know how he was ever going to get through them all. He didn’t recognize many of them, but he noticed Konstantin immediately.

Then, Konstantin smiled at him. Mathias didn’t like it, but he didn’t have time to think about it. A pair of piercing grey eyes blocked his view of Konstantin.

“Your Highness, it is a pleasure to know that you are with us once again. I would like to introduce myself. I am Nicolai Antonyevich Karsavin.”

Mathias watched the man turn and motion for his wife and son to step forward. Konstantin and his mother looked most alike, while his father wasn’t dark complected; it was clearly his mother from which Konstantin inherited his extremely pale looks. “This is my wife, Antonia. And Konstantin has told us so much about you.”

Mathias smiled. “I’ll bet.”

He wanted to yell at the hall of vampires that he was just a kid with a goofy name, but the next family in line appeared all too quickly.

“I am Prince Ashoka from the Ramayana clan.” The Indian vampire said. He was dressed in what looked to Mathias like an old nightdress that men used to wear a long time ago. But it was white covered in gold decorations.

Mathias smiled yet again and filed the information away for future use. He never knew that there were Indian vampires before.

The man motioned to his family. “This is my wife, Rana, and my son, Viraj.” Rana wore a turquoise blue sari and Viraj wore an outfit very similar to his father’s. All three had large dark eyes and straight black hair.

Mathias was taken aback when Viraj walked out in front of his parents and bowed. The other kids had stayed with their parents in a group. This kid was the only one who stepped out on his own.

“It is my pleasure to meet you,” Viraj said.

* * * * *

Before Mathias knew it, the collective of vampires had all passed before him. His mind swam in a daze. There were so many of them that after a while, it seemed like all of the vampires said the same things and looked the same. His head was filled with a “vampire soup”. There was no chance he’d remember much of anything, except that there were vampires from all over the world. He guessed that this was all so that he’d have the chance to "greet his subjects”. Lots of fun there. If they would just realize that he wasn’t that moldy king, everything would be okay.

He wandered around the room, looking for anyone he remotely knew, but they all seemed to have disappeared. Finally, he spied Tepes standing near a table of refreshments, talking to Nosferatu.

“Thanks for leaving me alone to face the mob.” Mathias snatched a few pieces of chocolate and plunked them down on an abandoned plate. Vlad could have stayed with him and guided him on what he was supposed to be doing instead of standing there like an idiot.

Tepes looked down at the boy, winked at him, and then smiled. “Why Mathias, so good of you to join us.”

Nosferatu snickered and poked Vlad in the shoulder.

“I thought you said that they just wanted to meet me.” Mathias growled under his breath.

“And they did.” Vlad said, trying to hold back the grin that was tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“Yeah, but you forgot to tell them that I’m me, not some corpse wrapped around a rose bush.”

“Semantics, I assure you Mathias.” Nosferatu said as he loaded Mathias’ plate down with a variety of treats. “Besides, if Vlad here had told you what they really thought, what would you have done?”

Mathias glared. “I would have told him he could shove his soiree up his ass.”

“And that, Mathias, is why I did not tell you,” Tepes said, placing his hand on the boy’s shoulder.

Mathias rolled his eyes. “Well, maybe some of these people should hear ugly things once in a while.”

“And you think we know nothing of ugly things?” Tepes asked.

“I don’t care what you think. I really don’t. I don’t give a shit.”

Nossy smiled. “We know that’s one hell of a lie.”

* * * * *

Later that night, Mathias sat on his bed, expensive clothing strewn to various corners of the room. The whole night was a disaster. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but Mathias never liked being the center of attention. It just wasn’t safe.

For the months that he’d already been there, he was relatively sure that Nosferatu was safe, Tepes was questionable, and the others...well he hadn’t been around them enough to tell. It was hard. The last time he’d truly felt safe had been when his parents were still alive. Everything after that had been hell.

He just wished things would be simple. But that didn’t appear to be happening. The irritation and frustration he now felt was making him bitter. If things didn’t improve, he was destined to be an old crotchety vampire. He would end up like Tepes, alone, without anyone to call family. And maybe he’d be lucky enough to have some crazy friends around, but those friends wouldn’t be enough. They’d never be enough to kill the ache in his chest.

And then, he remembered something. In all the books he’d ever read, once vampires were made, they never aged. He couldn’t be stuck like this could he?

Mathias jumped up from his bed and slammed open the door to his room. He heard several crashes and a resounding thud. After a moment, Vlad opened the door to his bedchamber. “Mathias, is anything wrong?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Mathias asked.

Vlad scratched at his head. “Tell you what?”

“That I’m stuck like this for the rest of my life!” Could he be more dense?

Vlad was completely confused now. “Stuck like what? I’m not sure I follow.”

Mathias motioned his hands over his body. “Like this! Why didn’t you tell me I’d be fifteen for the rest of my life?”

Vlad motioned for Mathias to come forward and placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “How many times have I told you that you must look at the things you’ve read as nothing but books for entertainment? I never told you such a thing because you will age, but only to a certain point. Our aging stops when our bodies are at their prime. This is usually between twenty and twenty-five mortal years.”

Mathias took a deep breath.

“The next time you get an idea in your head, how about asking instead of working yourself up into a fit?” Vlad turned him toward his own bedroom door. “Now, get back to bed. You have a busy day tomorrow.”

Mathias started to turn his head, but Vlad pushed him forward.

“No, I will not tell you about tomorrow. It is a surprise, and one I think you will like. Now, get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Mathias slunk back into his room, closing his door behind him. He thought there was no way he could go to sleep now— not with the promise of the unknown. He was much more tired than he thought, and was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

* * * * *

The next day, after breakfast, Mathias was led by Tepes through the school for his “surprise”. He had to follow closely behind the elder vampire because he was moving so quickly that Mathias could barely keep up.

“Where are we going?” Mathias asked.

Tepes paused. “Right now, we are going to the main hall. The students have been directed to be there this morning for a short message from me. I thought you would like to get out of the rooms.”

“Am I going to be going to school with the rest of them soon?”

“No, Mathias. I honestly don’t think you would be good in a classroom. Besides, you are smart enough that you are picking things up quickly. I think you will do just fine with the tutoring.”