The Devil's Liege

  “He’s an unusual one,” Vlad said.

  “Yeah.” And Mathias found himself missing him already.

  “Want to see Nossy?” Vlad asked.

  Mathias nodded.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Mathias sat in a chair next to Nossy’s bed. It was strange to not be in a bed in this place for once. There were various beeps coming from the machinery monitoring Nossy’s condition. He was still skeletal, still mummified. The only difference was that a human would have needed a ventilator, well if they weren’t mummified that is. No human could survive that. Because Nossy didn’t need to breathe, there wasn’t a need for one anyway.

  He reached out and took a hold of Nossy’s hand. Gently, of course. He didn’t want to break it. “I’ll be here when you wake up. Everything is going to be okay now.”

  Mathias looked over at Stuart. Stuart nodded once, vacated the chair, and ducked out of the room.

  Mathias almost expected for Nossy to come back with some sort of smart assed remark, but there was nothing but the sound of the machines. He missed his friend. He was missing a lot of people now. People he’d become attached to.

  Slowly, Mathias’ eyes drifted downward. The stress of everything weighed on him. He leaned back in the chair. It was time to get some rest.

  * * * * *

  The next morning, Mathias woke to hearing a cart crashing into the wall outside Nossy’s room. Then, he heard someone say, “Oops.” Technically, they were supposed to be careful in here, but he didn’t want to risk waking Nossy or scaring him just because he wanted to blow his ass seeing the orderly had woke him up.

  He got up and poked his head outside the room. He looked down one side of the hallway and saw nothing. On the other side, however, an orderly was already heading down the hall. It wasn’t worth the trouble to say anything about it. He needed to check on Nossy anyway.

  Mathias walked back into Nossy’s room and picked up his chart hanging from the end of the hospital bed. He wasn’t sure what he’d find, but maybe he’d missed something while he was asleep. Well, if he could read the doctor’s handwriting anyway.

  He looked down at the paper. The entries were made in a spidery hand. Some of it he could make out and some of it he couldn’t. One thing he could read was the date, but something was wrong. He took a closer look. The chart was dated January 27, 2014.

  “Oh, shit.”

  Mathias’ brain faded back to the valley and the Snow Queen. The stutter steps down the mountain. The weight and the pain pulling on him. It wasn’t a mistake. Azazel had said time was weird there. Weird my ass. He’d lost over a year. She’d stolen a year of his life.

  “Fuck me,” Mathias said while setting the chart back into the holder on the end of the bed.

  “Not likely. You aren’t my type,” a gravelly voice said.

  Mathias looked down at the bed. A pair of blue orbs were looking at him from amidst wrinkly skin. Nossy’s mummified face wasn’t so dry anymore and it was smiling.

  Mathias rushed over to the bedside. “You’re awake.”

  “Looks that way,” Nossy said. He flexed his hands. The skin was starting to peel and come off in flakes.

  “That’s fucking gross,” Mathias said.

  Nossy shrugged. “I’ve seen worse.”

  Nossy kept moving his hands about so more of the dead skin would come off.

  “Who?” Mathias asked. He couldn’t remember having heard the other vampires talk about it. Not to mention, he wasn’t sure he really wanted to know, but curiosity had taken hold of him.

  Nossy glared at him.

  “Uh, yeah.” Whoops. Of course, he couldn’t be expected to remember his own death all that well. He remembered snatches here and there, but of course he had no idea what he’d looked like. It wasn’t as if there was a mirror staring at him in the rose garden.

  Nossy sat up. “Go fetch the worry-wart. I need to talk to him.”

  “Uh. Okay.” Who knew what this was about? There must be something important, maybe about the kidnapping. Mathias didn’t question it. He’d do whatever Nossy wanted. In his eyes, Nossy was the true king.

  Mathias left the room and headed toward Vlad’s chambers. He figured that Vlad was probably there instead of his office. It was still pretty early. He was most likely eating breakfast. Too bad he hadn’t even made it to his room last night, otherwise he could have just texted Vlad, after he charged his phone that is. No way it would still have a charge when he’d been gone so long.

  He hurried through the maze of hallways that led from the infirmary to the main part of the castle. It seemed almost empty this time of day. There was only the housekeeping staff doing their tasks before the day truly began. If he felt more solid, he would have just blinked himself there, but he hadn’t had any blood in so long, he was surprised he was still living. All of this magic shit made no sense, and it left him totally confused about what he was even capable of now.

  Mathias opened the door to Vlad’s chambers once he arrived. It smelled just like he remembered. Furniture polish and metal. He was becoming obsessed with smells. They kept him grounded. And maybe, anything that smelled good was a comfort, especially after what he’d smelled in the tomb where Nossy had been kept.

  Vlad looked up from his breakfast. “Mathias.”

  He walked over and paused in front of the table. “Nossy’s awake and he wants to speak to you.”

  Vlad blinked. “Did he say about what?”

  “No.” It must have been something important for him to send Mathias to get Vlad that quick though. Usually, Nossy would have just chatted with him for a while.

  Vlad put his napkin on the table and walked out. Mathias sat down at the table and stole a piece of bacon.

  It tasted so good to eat regular food again. The saltiness coated his tongue and put him in that happy place you get when everything is right with the world. It had been so long since he’d had normal stuff to eat. He grabbed Vlad’s glass of blood and downed it. That tasted good too. Salty with a hint of meatiness. The coppery taste that used to seem so strong when he was human was gone now. Plus, he felt a little more alert after drinking it.

  Then, he got up out of the chair and went to his room. It was just as he remembered it. Neater, perhaps. The only thing missing was the pile of books next to his chair.

  “Well, shit.” It made sense to put them back in the library with as long as he’d been gone, but it still sucked. He could still remember where he’d left off in reading half of them. Now, he officially, had nothing to do.

  “What is the matter?” He heard a tinkling voice ask.

  Mathias whipped around. This was not in his head. There she was, right in front of him. The Snow Queen. Thoughts ran through his mind. How did she get in there? What did she want? Was she going to haunt him forever?

  “What are you doing here?” he finally asked. He really wanted to ask her a hell of a lot harsher than that, but he also wanted information, so he remained polite. For now, anyway. Maybe if he was nice, he could get all of his questions answered.

  She looked down at some small white flowers she was holding in her hands. She wore the same sparkly blue dress. “I thought I would come and check on Nosferatu.”

  She had balls. He had to give her that. She brought him flowers for God’s sake. “You weren’t invited,” Mathias said. Screw it. Her gall pissed him off.

  She laughed. “I don’t need permission. Winter comes whether you want it to or not.”

  To hell with it. “How’s this? Get the fuck out!” Mathias stalked over to the window and looked outside, turning his back on her. Maybe she’d get the hint.

  “What’s wrong, Mathias?” Vlad asked.

  Mathias whipped around. “I was telling her—“

  “Her who?”

  Mathias looked all around the room, but she was gone. Lovely. Now they were going to think he’d gone nuts. “Never mind.”

  Vlad stepped closer. “Are you feeling all right, Mathias?” he asked.

&nb
sp; He didn’t even know what was right anymore. She’d been there. He knew that was true, but how was he going to explain that to Vlad? “As all right as I can be I guess. That is when you realize that this morning I found out I’m almost eighteen.”

  Vlad blinked. “You are eighteen.”

  Mathias rolled his eyes. “I’m keeping my birthday.”

  Vlad laughed. “That is your right. But, keep in mind that under our law, you are already aged. Your birthday is just a day. Aging to us is aligned with the beginning of the year so that those of us who no longer have a calendar base for their age can have an approximation. So, you need to realize that under our law, you are already aged.”

  Mathias shrugged. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter.”

  Vlad’s eyes were twinkling. “Of course not.”

  Mathias sighed. Vlad hadn’t changed. Not at all. “Anyway. You can call Azazel in if you want, but I know exactly where I lost time.”

  Vlad brushed by him and sat down in the chair near the window. “And where was that?”

  Mathias stared at him. “At the Snow Queen’s castle.”

  Vlad pursed his eyebrows together. “Nossy did mention something about an odd castle.”

  Mathias sat down on his bed. “Oh, it was more than odd. Believe me.”

  He could still remember the frost cutting into the palms of his hands on his way down the hall to rescue Nossy.

  Vlad leaned forward. “How so?”

  “Snegurochka wants to rape him,” Azazel said.

  He’d slipped in without a sound, so quiet that even Mathias hadn’t heard. Mathias looked up at his friend.

  Vlad cleared his throat and looked at the quasi-demon. “Who is that? Does she live at the castle?”

  Mathias rolled his eyes. “Focus. Jesus Christ.”

  Azazel snorted. “To answer your question properly, she is the witch that built the castle. Those that delivered Nossy had given her a soul in exchange for allowing them to keep him there.”

  “Who’s soul?” Vlad asked.

  “Tallus,” Mathias replied.

  * * * * *

  “So, tell me about this hot snow demon,” Nossy said later that day. Mathias had gone to see him. Vlad kept staring at him like he’d gone insane. It was starting to get annoying. Plus, with this idea in his head, he had to have talked to Azazel. Great.

  “You never saw her?” Mathias asked.

  Nossy shook his head. “Nope. Had a bag over my head.” He looked a lot better now. Most of the bad skin was gone, replaced by new growth and he was filling out. It wouldn’t be long before he looked like himself again.

  “She is Chinese, I think,” Mathias said.

  Nossy blinked. “What’s a Chinese demon doing in Siberia?”

  Mathias darted out of the chair and started pacing. “I don’t fucking know. You’d have to ask her.”

  Nossy laughed then started coughing.

  Mathias froze and watched his friend. He didn’t want to be the cause of some set back with all of this stupid shit. Besides, Nossy was trying to heal. The intricacies of some demon could wait.

  Finally, when he was finished, Nossy motioned to Mathias with his hand. “Go on.”

  Mathias went back to the chair and sat down. “She has these freaky blue eyes and hair that’s almost white. She reminds me of this woman in this one Asian horror flick I saw a while back.”

  Nossy leaned forward. “And she likes you?”

  Mathias rolled his eyes. This was so not amusing. Next time he saw Azazel he was going to kick him right square in the ass. “She’s a pain in the ass. Besides, she about killed you.”

  Nossy leaned back in the bed. “Only because someone paid her.”

  “That doesn’t make it okay.” In fact, in Mathias’ eyes, that made it worse. It took a special type of person to just let someone else almost starve to death. If that wasn’t cruel, he didn’t know what was.

  Nossy shrugged. “Depends on the deal.”

  Mathias glared at him. “I swear. You get well enough to get out of that bed and I’m going to beat the shit out of you.”

  Nossy chuckled. “You can try.” Then, he wiggled his eyebrows at Mathias.

  It was just what he needed. Having to be king was bad enough without yet another evil queen making his life miserable. Somehow, the others thought it was funny as shit. Mathias, well, he viewed it as something to ponder. Nothing more. But, at least Nossy felt well enough to joke around. That was the positive thing he was going to focus on.

  She was not someone you could trust. Hell, she’d allowed the kidnappers to use her spelled castle to hide Nossy for fuck’s sake. Not to mention that she stole a year of his life by proxy. No, this was not someone to be amused by. This was a parasite.

  He patted Nossy on the leg and left. There was no sense in risking taking his frustrations out on Nossy. He’d already gotten him coughing. No reason to make things worse.

  He couldn’t get her out of his mind though. She was a total psycho. But, he was a teenage boy and the lady was hot. Then, there was the fact that he had some serious shit on his plate besides getting laid, things like keeping himself and his friends alive. His brain bounced between wanting to show her just what happened to the people that hurt his friends and wanting to kiss her. Not good.

  He got to the door of Vlad’s chambers when he heard a twinkling giggle.

  Shit.

  He looked around. There was no one there. Either he really had gone batshit crazy or the Snow Queen was trying to convince him he had. If she wanted him nuts, he couldn’t for the life of him, figure out what the advantage of that would be. It wasn’t as if she could rule the vampire world. She wasn’t even the same species.

  After all, Lilith’s voice had been absent ever since he told it to go away. What that meant was anyone’s guess. It could be that the new queen was stronger than Lilith’s ghost. Not exactly something great to think about.

  Mathias entered Vlad’s rooms and went straight to his bedroom. Maybe some sleep would help.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “What the hell happened to them out there?” Vlad asked.

  They were in Stuart’s apartment. Stuart was lounging on his white sofa, a glass of red wine in his hand. His hair was askew. Honestly he just didn’t care. The important stuff was that Nossy and Mathias were okay. Sort of.

  “Nossy hasn’t said?” Stuart asked.

  Vlad sighed. “Nossy’s told me what he knows, which isn’t much. Just being dumped in a room with a bag over his head after being drugged.”

  Stuart set his glass down on the coffee table. “That’s not very helpful.”

  “No, it’s not. He doesn’t even recall hearing a voice at all.” Vlad rubbed his face with his hands. “Mathias, however, looks almost shell-shocked.”

  Stuart paused for a minute. He’d seen Mathias and he had a feeling Vlad was over-reacting a bit. But, he wasn’t about to bring that up right now. There was too much stress already. “Did you ask Mathias?”

  Vlad looked down at the floor. “No, I walked into his room and he was talking to himself.”

  Stuart knew the elder vampire did that quite often, but he bit his tongue so he wouldn’t mention it. Though the irony didn’t escape him. “What about Azazel?”

  Vlad looked up at Stuart with a huge grin on his face. Then, he must have realized what he was doing and went back to his usual somber expression. “I have not.”

  He nodded to Stuart once, then left.

  Stuart picked back up his glass of wine. Vlad’s moods were going to make him seek out a lobotomy.

  * * * * *

  Vlad headed straight for the dungeons. Leave it to Stuart to come up with what could put him at ease. Well, or confirm that Mathias had gone insane. Either way, it was something proactive he could do.

  Azazel was probably the only one who could truly confirm or deny Mathias’ sanity. He’d gone on the trip with him after all. He’d seen the things Mathias had seen. If the boy was ill, they would have to do som
ething. What, that was the question. There wasn’t exactly a vampiric asylum, otherwise Lilith would have been placed there a long time ago. But insanity had its merits, and her paranoia had served the country well until she’d gone too far concerning Mathias.

  The closer he got to the dungeons, the louder he heard the clanging of metal. What was going on now?

  He stepped into the archway and spied Azazel over in the corner striking something metal with a huge mallet. Over and over he pounded, so hard that orange sparks blew up into the air.

  “What are you doing?” Vlad asked.

  Azazel looked up and set down the metal and the mallet. “Repairs.”

  Vlad walked closer. “Why not just blink them?” Some things the dungeon master did confused him, but he’d learned not to question long ago. Which, of course, caused him to ask mundane questions instead of the things he really wanted to know.

  “Stress release,” Azazel said.

  Vlad opened and closed his mouth. It wasn’t often that someone could break through his guards on his mind. “Okay … so, the reason why I’m here.”

  “Yes?” Azazel asked.

  Vlad took a deep breath. “What happened while you were out with Mathias?”

  Azazel got a bit of a knowing smile. “So, you think he’s going crazy?”

  Put like that, he did seem to be jumping the gun a bit. “Well …”

  “He is,” Azazel said. “Just not in the way that you think.”

  Vlad leaned against the wall. “Mind explaining what you mean by that?”

  Azazel grunted. “He’s seen things the rest of us have not.”

  Vlad closed his eyes for a minute. He had to keep a cool head. This one was tricky, but he’d known that long before Mathias came back. “Without the riddles please.”

  Azazel laughed. “All right.” He took off his metal working gloves and threw them down on the table. “Follow me.”

  Vlad stood back up. “To where?”

  Azazel didn’t answer, so Vlad followed him anyway. He needed answers.

  The man led him through the dungeon and through another archway that turned out to be the top of a stairwell. He then proceeded to climb down the flight of stairs. At the bottom of the stairway was a small, arched, wooden doorway. Azazel opened the door and motioned for Vlad to enter.