Tail of the Devil (6 page)

Mathias turned to Tepes. He watched as the child wiped his face with his hands.

“Why?” Mathias asked.

“You do not look well.”

The boy smiled. “Nah, all this is just weird. So, uh, how long is this going to take?”

* * * * *

They left the dorms and entered another hallway. Mathias wondered how he was ever going to remember how to get around in this place. But then, he got used to Nic’s, so he could get used to the castle.

“This is the building in which classes are held. As I am sure you’ve noticed, it is quite dark. Some of our professors prefer the dark, but you won’t need to worry about that,” Tepes said.

Just as soon as those words left Tepes mouth, a wisp of a woman with long dark hair walked past. Her frame was small and slight, almost like a fairy. Her chin was slightly pointed, and the whole effect was somehow beautiful. She was wearing a burgundy dress with gold threads. Her chest billowed out of the top of it just slightly. When she saw Mathias, she acted as if she might know him, but then she quickly ducked her head and darted down the hall. Mathias was puzzled. “What was that?”

Tepes laughed. “I think you mean, ‘who was that’. That, Mathias, is our queen.”

“If she’s the queen, why’s she here?”

“Because she teaches here. Her villa is in Italy.”

“Why doesn’t she have a castle?” Mathias asked.

Tepes smiled. “You haven’t seen the size of her villa.”

Mathias stopped. “What’s wrong with her?”

“Why do you ask that, Mathias?”

Mathias rolled his eyes; it wasn’t worth his time to explain. “Never mind.”

“Come Mathias. I think you’ve been through quite enough for one day. Let’s get you to your new home.” Tepes motioned for Mathias to follow, and he did.

* * * * *

Mathias was uncomfortable. His new “home” was so opulent that he imagined that Buckingham Palace would be ashamed. He had never seen so much gold on any surface in his life, and to be honest, it made him sick to look at it.

He would have been happy with a room; a clean room would have been great. He didn’t even need a bed, but this was verging on ridiculous. First of all, his room was the size of the old house he’d lived in with his parents. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he had a small area that housed a refrigerator, a living area complete with a couch and a large TV, and that wasn’t the worst part. His bed was massive. It was a four poster with a canopy. The entire monstrosity was draped in burgundy velvet. To say that Mathias felt completely out of place would be one hell of an understatement.

He did not complain, however. It wasn’t because he was afraid. No, it was better to play it safe and act like nothing was wrong. If he complained, well, the last time he complained, his aunt had hit him, and these were vampires. Who knew how many years of experience they had. Not to mention, knowledge of torture.

He thought it was nice to be off the streets, at least for a while. He didn’t belong here. For Mathias, the idea of a street punk living amongst all this stuff just didn’t make sense. He’d let Tepes get him in decent shape, and when he knew what he needed to know to survive, he’d jam.

There was a knock on the door.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“Mathias, may I come in?” Tepes asked through the door.

“Uh... sure.” Mathias smoothed his clothes, and felt fascinated by the texture of the new cloth. Magically, his wings fit exactly outside of his shirt, and when he’d asked, Tepes had said it was magic that was developed by a vampire centuries ago.

Tepes entered the room with a concerned look on his face.

Mathias looked around, trying to figure out what was wrong.

“Mathias, I am worried. Your thoughts are all over the place. I can hear them through the door.” Tepes settled himself on the couch and rested his hands on his knees.

Mathias sat down on his bed and sighed. It was going to be hard to get away with anything here. “Why are you worried? You know I can survive.”

Tepes sighed. “But Mathias, this is Siberia. Surviving in Siberia is different than surviving in the city.”

Mathias didn’t understand. It was strange to have someone worry about him when there was nothing to worry about. “I still don’t understand why you give a shit.”

The great vampire raised his wings and then resettled them around his shoulders like a cloak. “Mathias, where do you really have to go? Why don’t you just give me a chance to make your life better?”

Mathias raised his head and stared. It was hard, so fucking hard. He wanted to trust someone, but it was too soon. “It would be easier if I knew why you were doing it.”

“I know you, Mathias. Probably better than you know yourself. You never could stand to have someone take care of you. You were always so independent.”

“Uhh...” Mathias stared and cocked his head to the side like a dog.

And then, it was almost as if Tepes realized what he had just said. “I apologize, Mathias. I know that this is a different time, a different place. You see, the first Mathias was my best friend. He was like a brother to me. And you are so much like the man he was.

“He was independent to a fault. I remember once that Mathias was in battle and had broken his leg badly in a fall. Rather than getting off the battlefield, he continued to fight with that broken leg. I still don’t know how he did it. Sometimes he would be hopping around; other times he would actually put weight on that leg. It was something to watch.”

Mathias paused. Not only was what Tepes talking about completely bizarre, but this was the first time he’d been called a man, not young man, not boy, but
man
.

“Sir?” he asked, very surprised when the name of respect flew out of his mouth. He wasn’t being controlled, it just happened.

Tepes wiped at his eyes. “I’m sorry, Mathias. I came in here to comfort you, and here I am, blubbering like an idiot.” The man got up and began to walk across the room, but his feet got tangled and he fell like a load of dirty laundry, hitting his head on a nearby table in the process.

Mathias couldn’t help himself and snorted, trying to keep his laughter at bay. Gone was every image of the composed and poised ruler, and in its place was this person he never knew existed.

“Yes, yes. I know. I should watch where I’m going,” Tepes mumbled.

That was all it took. Mathias exploded in laughter and promptly fell off the bed.

“Ah-ha!” Tepes pointed his finger at his laughing charge. “You are not any different from me. It is very easy to fall.” He waited for a moment, Mathias was still laughing hysterically.

“Oh, go on. Laugh your head off for all I care,” Tepes left the room in what could only be described as a sulk.

Mathias rolled on the floor to face the door. “It might just be worth staying.”

* * * * *

At first, Mathias spent the majority of his time with Master Tepes. Most of this time was spent on so-called “vampire lessons”. He learned that he could still eat food and drink whatever he wished. Strangely, though, the eating and drinking only supported part of his nutrition. The blood was needed to keep his body from deteriorating.

So, drinking blood became normal, and after a while, he didn’t even think about it. The blood, he’d learned came from donors who willingly sold their blood to the school. The students never came in contact with them and the blood was stored in the infirmary, much like at regular hospitals, for when it was needed. That way of storage was supposed to keep the blood the freshest.

Tepes taught him how to trust his wings and take flight. This ability came naturally to him. It did not require a run beforehand, as was the norm with many new vampires. For Mathias, he could simply leap into the air and feel completely at home. As soon as he was up in the air, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had flown before, it was that easy for him.

He still did not trust those around him, but he was getting used to the routine. His day began at dawn, just as it had on the street.

* * * * *

“So how can we run around in sunlight?” Mathias asked, looking over his notebook.

Tepes smiled. “I was wondering when we were going to get around to talking about that.” He grabbed Mathias’ notebook and other books and placed them on the floor. He put his elbows on the table and leaned forward. “Sunlight is something that you will never have to worry about, Mathias. At one time, there were two distinct types of vampires. One was called Lilitu and the other Myrddin. You would be considered to be of the Lilitu type. The Myrddin type has all but been wiped out except for some minor features.

“When peace finally occurred after the last war between the races, thanks to your namesake, the Lilitu vampires shared their blood with the Myrddin vampires. This allowed the Myrddin vampires to walk in sunlight and eat. The myth about sunlight was lumped into vampire mythos because of porphyria, which was a horrible blood disorder that amongst other things had a side effect of severe sunlight sensitivity.”

Mathias looked around, and finally looked back into Vlad’s eyes. “So where did we come from?”

Tepes laughed. “That is the very question that every species has been asking on Earth since the beginning. Though honestly, it is a very long story and we have much more to deal with today.”

* * * * *

Several mornings later, Mathias found Tepes sitting at the dining table surrounded by a mountain of food, most of which Mathias had never seen. Tepes’ rooms were simply a continuation of Mathias’ own, lots of red and ornate smatterings of gold spread about the room. He wished he had some knowledge of style, but that information was beyond his grasp. The décor was just something completely unexpected, and Mathias had no idea what the elder vampire thought about how he was perceived in the “other” world.

Mathias sat down at the table in the chair across from Tepes and began grabbing things that looked familiar from the various platters spread in front of them.

Tepes cleared his throat loudly and ruffled his wings in the process.

“What?” Mathias asked.

Tepes stared at him, and then looked down at the table. “Have you no table manners?”

Mathias looked down. He had spread crumbs everywhere. Some of them had ended up in his orange juice.

“Okay, so I’m messy,” Mathias said.

“There is much more to it than that. You’ve seen how we hold ourselves here. Look at my place at the table.”

Mathias looked at the elder vampire’s place. Minus a slight bit of butter on the butter knife, there was nothing out of place. “So, nothing I do is right?”

He figured the man was being nice to him. If he wasn’t good enough to stay in Tepes’ rooms, why did he bring him here? They were all the same. People only wanted what they could get from you.

“That I did not say. You need to learn from example, become the vampire you were born to be.”

Mathias didn’t know what Tepes’ plan was, but he was having no part of it. He looked up at Master Tepes. “Fuck you.”

If Tepes wanted a little peon, he could use someone else.

Tepes raised an eyebrow and breathed loudly through his nose. “Mathias, we do not speak with such vulgar language here. I’ve let you get away with quite a lot of bad language. And when you first came, we talked about that, did we not?”

“Well, this is the way I speak. If I’m such a goddamn mess, why did you bother?” Mathias tried to get up and leave the table, but quickly found that Tepes was once again asserting dominance. He simply could not move.