The Devil's Liege

  Really? There wasn’t time? Mathias threw his hands down and flapped his wings hard. Once. So that they made a smacking sound. “I swear, you keep doing this shit and expecting me to think it’s all okay?”

  And they wondered why he had anger issues.

  Vlad’s eyes clouded a little. Then, he sighed again. “Mathias,” he motioned with his hand toward the chair. “Please sit.”

  Mathias did only because it was easier than fighting over that too. Why couldn’t they just leave him alone?

  After he was settled, Vlad pushed an old piece of paper toward him on the desk. The parchment was so old, it was very yellow.

  “What’s this?”Mathias asked.

  “The family tree of sorts. The list of those who are eligible to rule.”

  Mathias glanced at it again. It consisted of a long list of names and lines indicating how they were related. His name was at the top of the list, but there was new ink drawn straight from his name at the top to his name at the bottom. “Okay. Where is the part that says I’m the only choice?”

  So, he was at the beginning and at the end. As far as he was concerned, that meant nothing.

  “There are rules about the number of years you have to set aside before you can rule again. Nossy, Stuart, and you all have eligible states,” Vlad said.

  Mathias tapped at the paper. “Well, sort of. Nossy was already ruling…”

  Vlad nodded. “So, that left the choice between you and Stuart. Who do you think the people are more apt to follow?”

  He did not want to think about that at all. His past had nothing to do with what was going on now. He wasn’t even the same person. Why couldn’t they see that? “I don’t understand why it had to be now. Nossy’s just missing isn’t he?”

  Vlad nodded again, calmly laced his fingers together, and rested his hands on the table.

  Mathias had a bad feeling that this was going to be yet another complicated situation.

  “We’d know if he’d been killed,” Vlad said. “We had to claim the throne before those that apparently want the rule had a chance to make their move.”

  Mathias grunted. “So, now Nossy is a liability and they want to kill me?” One of these days, he was going to show himself to be one crazy motherfucker. Then, all of this shit would stop. But, for now, he had to wait. He still didn’t know enough about all of these laws and shit to know what he was doing.

  “Unfortunately, yes.”

  He stared at Vlad. Sometimes, he really couldn’t believe the man. Jesus Christ. “And this was the best option?”

  Vlad nodded.

  “We are so screwed.”

  * * * * *

  If someone would have told him that a little over a year ago he’d be king, he’d have laughed in their faces. He still remembered what it was like to sleep on the streets on the remnants of a cardboard box just so he wouldn’t be sleeping on the cold concrete. It wasn’t pretty, but he’d survived.

  Mathias was sitting in his room, staring at the floor. It wasn’t every day that he had to deal with something this bizarre. If he had the ability, he’d tell Vlad to shove it. Well, technically, he could say it, but it wouldn’t do any good. Once Vlad made up his mind, that was that. If there was one flaw that vampire had, that was it.

  Still, he had to wonder what the man was thinking. He wasn’t exactly king material. Mathias still remembered digging through garbage bins outside of restaurants just in case something was edible. What the hell did he know about being a king? If you asked him, his answer was, “Jack and Shit.”

  Okay. Yeah. Sure, he’d ruled a long time ago, back when they still slaughtered animals for a big feast after a won battle. He knew nothing of modern warfare. If human movies could come up with guns that could vaporize a vampire, what had the vamps come up with?

  Not to mention that he never followed politics. It never interested him. On top of all of this, he had no training. Then, there was the Nossy mess. It all weighed heavily. His best option? Probably digging in Nossy’s journals. If, he could find the latest one that is. The last time he’d done it, it hadn’t turned out so well, but what choice did he have?

  * * * * *

  Stuart tapped his claws against his lips. “You didn’t expect him to be happy about it did you?”

  Sometimes, Stuart could not believe how stupid Vlad could be. Mathias did not need this extra stress. He’d had enough to deal with already, at least in Stuart’s opinion. Now, Vlad had to add something else.

  Vlad shrugged. The red velvet coat he was wearing rumpled. The wrinkles seemed lighter somehow than the rest of the jacket. Stuart supposed it was the light bouncing off the pile.

  “I suppose I just thought he’d take it better,” Vlad said.

  Stuart shook his head. The elder vampire just didn’t understand. He couldn’t tell if he really was that pointless or operating in a permanent state of denial. Stuart straightened his silk jacket around his waist and tied the sash. “Really, Vlad? Come on. The kid’s what, sixteen? Almost got killed what, nine months ago? Jesus.”

  Vlad got up from the sofa. “You’re right.” He held his head in his hands then let go. “I just don’t think.”

  Stuart laughed. “That’s one way to put it. In fact, that might be the understatement of the century, but focus man.”

  Vlad patted him on the arm. “What do you suggest?”

  Stuart walked across the room, went into his kitchen area, opened the fridge, and pulled out a bottle of water. He unscrewed the cap and took a drink, and then put the bottle back into the fridge. “Right now, what do you think he’s doing?”

  Vlad paused for a moment as if thinking. “Probably trying to find Nossy.”

  “Exactly. And, he can’t do that. He needs a trusted guard 24 hours a day now. Especially since we don’t know exactly who took Nossy.” Stuart left the kitchen area and walked back into the sitting room.

  “Good point,” Vlad said. “So, who’s going to guard him?”

  Stuart smiled.

  * * * * *

  Mathias strode through the halls toward Nossy’s rooms. He didn’t feel exactly right doing this. The last time hadn’t gone do well. True, back then, he had the ability to ask first, but still, he’d pissed off the elder vamp enough to know that it wasn’t going to be too great if he did it again. There was a small part of him that had this stupid giddy thought that he was a lot bigger now too, but he pushed the stupidness away. Nossy was old as shit. He wasn’t someone to fuck with—even for a little bit. Sure, he’d be pissed. Mathias had to expect that, but if he found something that could point directly to who did it, well, Nossy wouldn’t be all that mad would he?

  Mathias shook himself out of his thoughts and straightened his t-shirt. What people thought didn’t matter right now. The only way any of this was going to work was if he could save Nossy and get Nossy’s ass back on the throne. That way, Nossy would be safe, Mathias would no longer be king, and everyone could go back to ignoring him. Exactly how he liked it.

  He finally reached Nossy’s chambers high up in one of the towers of the castle. The air smelled mustier than he remembered. Surely someone had been up there since then? He reached out and tried to turn the door knob. It didn’t budge. It was locked.

  “Shit.” He reached out and jimmied the knob again, but nothing different happened.

  “Yeah. That was pretty stupid.” Even he had to admit that. It wasn’t like the door was going to magically not be locked. If he could, he would have rolled his eyes at himself.

  He focused his attention and then tried to “blink” it open. But the door wouldn’t move. He had been blinking for months now. What the hell was going on?

  He shifted his feet. It was embarrassing. He had to be doing something wrong. He couldn’t even get a door open. Yeah, big bad vampire over here.

  His mind wandered back to the motions Vlad had made with his hands to get into the Order library. The sorta cross-like thing. That was it. There must be some pattern Nossy used. Granted, he hadn’t
had one when he lived with Nossy, but anything could change. And, who knew what weird symbol the man had decided on. Probably something weird that no one else had ever seen before. Or something in some obscure bat language. Mathias waved his hand using the cross pattern that was used to get into the library. He forced his power out as he traced the pattern with his hand. He doubted it was going to work, but he had to try.

  When he finished, nothing happened.

  “Shit.” What was the use of all this blinking crap if you had to have specific patterns? There had to be some way to crack the code. And, well, breaking the door wasn’t the answer. He needed to learn how to tap into his powers further. He didn’t remember having any issues opening things in the time before. That meant that they either came up with something new, or he hadn’t tapped into some part of his powers yet. He wasn’t that dumb. It was something else to add to his to-do list.

  But, that didn’t help the current situation. He didn’t have time for this shit. He shifted his weight again and tapped his foot for a minute. The tapping didn’t exactly help him think, but at least he was doing something. Finally, a thought popped into his head. What he came up with what was probably the most idiotic idea in the world, but it was his best shot. Or rather, his only shot.

  Mathias took a deep breath and tried to pull the energy he could feel in his feet up through his body. Then, he said in the highest pitched voice he could, “Teeny tiny bat, teeny tiny bat, teeny tiny bat.”

  “You know you aren’t Judd Hirsch, right?” Stuart asked from behind Mathias.

  Mathias jumped. “What the—?”

  It figured. He had to be caught. He felt his face grow so warm it was almost burning. He was officially a dork.

  “You didn’t think that would really work? I mean, damn. The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t?.’” Stuart asked. He was wearing a black turtleneck that looked suspiciously like silk and a pair of designer jeans. His brown hair was messy, but in the way you see actors try to look cool. His grey eyes had a Nossy-esque mischievous glint to them.

  Mathias really missed Nossy.

  Leave it to Stuart to know the reference. Again. Reason number 1,769 he should not be king.

  Mathias shrugged and looked at the floor. “I was desperate.”

  “Obviously.”

  He felt like crawling under the door. Too bad he was too damn big to even fit in a coach airline seat. Thank God he could fly himself wherever he wanted. He took a few deep breaths. The pissy part of him wanted to explode all over Stuart and hide his embarrassment with some insane violent fit, but he knew better than to pull that. Mathias exhaled slowly, keeping his temper in check. “So, are you going to help me, or what?”

  Stuart shook his head. “You are going to the throne room to meet your subjects.”

  Wasn’t anyone going to do anything? “But what about Nossy?”

  Stuart gently pushed him away from the door. “Anything you want us to look into, you tell us. For now, you need to be protected.”

  “Fuck.” He wasn’t that goddamned important. So they made him king, so what. Someone else would do a hell of a better job. And now, he had to earn his freedom again. Being a vampire really sucked, but being the king of the vampire world? That was way worse.

  Chapter Three

  He’d grown up enough to know that sneaking away from Stuart would be a bad option. Well, it wasn’t like you could easily hide from a vampire in the first place, but there was more to it than that. One: if he was discovered missing, they’d freak. Especially with Nossy missing. Two: he still didn’t know where to look and his pitiful attempts at getting into Nossy’s chambers, well, were piss poor. Three: it wasn’t like he had anything better to do now. His attempt at finding something about Nossy was pitiful. For the first time in a while, he felt like a stupid kid instead of the adult he’d been pretending to be.

  As much as he wanted to rely on himself, he couldn’t. He didn’t have the skills for it. Plus, now there was this whole king thing to worry about. The stress alone was enough to shatter the mind of a normal person. Would he ever be in a situation where someone wasn’t trying to kill him? A little voice in the back of his head told him, “probably not.”

  He followed Stuart back down to the main floor. Stuart then led him into what Mathias guessed was an anti-chamber near the door to the throne room. If his judging of the area they were in was correct, that is. His memory of the maze of the castle wasn’t exactly great. The only thing he’d managed was to never head down the hallway that once housed Lilith’s rooms again. It could be that part of himself purposely forgot how to get to places just so he wouldn’t goof and go there. Maybe Vlad was right. Maybe he did have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

  The antechamber was stark. There was nothing in the room but a chair, a bookcase, and a set of hooks on the wall. Like just about everywhere else in the castle, minus the dwellings, the walls were simple stone blocks. Everything was empty except for the hooks. Well, most of them anyway. On one hung a black robe.

  “What are we doing in here?” Mathias asked.

  “You can’t very well enter the same way as the others anymore. You have to look like their king,” Stuart said.

  Mathias raised an eyebrow. Wonderful. Just what he wanted.

  Stuart laughed. “Look,” he said. “I’m serious. You have to make them afraid of you.”

  He didn’t exactly see how a robe was going to help them be afraid of him unless he crawled out from under a rock looking like a zombie. But, these were vampires. Were vampires even afraid of zombies? “This is about Nossy, isn’t it?”

  Stuart nodded. “I’m going to bet that some of the Order members are in on it. That’s one thing that makes sense.”

  This was so not how ruling a kingdom was supposed to be. Even his old memory, he hadn’t had to make sure of every little thing. Of course, back then, people feared him more too. All of them seeing him as a kid before didn’t help matters. To them, he was just “all grown up”. “So, I should clear house?”

  Stuart paused. Mathias watched him for a minute.

  “If that’s what you want to do,” Stuart said.

  There were two ways he could handle this. He could just remove them from service, or he could kill them. The old part of himself voted for death. And, well, if that didn’t scare them, nothing would. “How much time do I have?”

  Stuart pursed his lips. “Not a lot.”

  Mathias straightened his spine. It was time to be ugly. Death would come soon enough. But for now, he needed answers. “Imprison the lot. We shall do our own interrogation. Allow their screams to be heard. In the mean time, I have two advisors, you and Vlad.”

  Stuart swallowed hard. “You’re scary when you do that.”

  Mathias took a good look at Stuart. He had to remind himself, Stuart had only known him before when he was ill. He’d never seen the old warrior. “I know.”

  Stuart snatched the great black silk robe from the hook and draped it over Mathias’ shoulders. The robe had silver stitching at the edges in the shape of a line of bats. Mathias thought it was kind of stupid to have a “royal” robe. When he’d been king before, he just flopped in wearing whatever he had on, sometimes still wearing the gore from battle. It was better that way. This sparkly crap wasn’t going to scare anyone.

  “For now, you can’t be wearing the regal symbol,” Stuart said.

  Mathias blinked. “What are you talking about?”

  There was more shit he had to wear?

  Stuart’s left eye started twitching. “The necklace.”

  “Oh. That.” Just what he needed. Some other bobble to proclaim him “king”. He was half tempted to fly in like a cartoon character and proclaim that he was going to save the day, but even he wasn’t that stupid. It wasn’t like doing that was going to help him find Nossy. So, if wearing all this shit would help, he’d do it. But, after all of this mess was over, he was going to find some way to put an end to a lot of this crap. That is, if he was stuck being king forever
.

  Stuart looked at him sadly. “It is still in the evidence packet connected to Nossy’s kidnapping.”

  Mathias nodded. He didn’t want to get into how the necklace should be tested and swabbed, but when the guards handled it with their hands, any evidence was compromised anyway. “I don’t need a symbol to rule.”

  Stuart cleared his throat and gestured toward the door that led to the throne room. “Shall we?”

  Mathias adjusted the robe and let his wings settle gracefully. Might was well get it over with. “Okay.”

  Stuart pulled open the door. Mathias could hear a lot of voices, some of them seemed angry. There wasn’t anything for him to get upset about, not yet. They had every right to be angry and to demand to know what was happening. He took a deep breath and stepped through the doorway. The hall fell silent.

  * * * * *

  The throne room was decked out like nothing he had ever seen before. It was way more opulent than when Nossy took over as king. He didn’t really want to think about the significance of that. Of course, he was unconscious the first time Nossy sat on the throne, so maybe this was normal for the first time. There were great banners in red and black hanging from the ceiling. Each banner had a coat of arms outlined in what looked like real gold thread. Mathias did not recognize the coat of arms. Maybe it was some modern representation of what he once had.

  He felt like he’d just stepped into another world.

  Stuart outstretched his hand toward the throne. It had been repaired since Nossy’s kidnapping. Probably blinked back together by Vlad. It was this old carved wooden chair. Ironically, ornate only in its carving. The back had a high Gothic arch to it. Mathias walked over to it and sat down. His wings settled behind him and the bottoms of them stretched out onto the floor. The robe was heavy as hell and made him feel claustrophobic.

  Then, he looked at the sea of people in front of him. It felt like a thousand sets of eyes were trying to bore into his soul. Each person was either scowling or glaring. Lovely. This was not going to be fun. Nothing like having no idea what the hell he was supposed to do. Not to mention, he looked like an idiot doing it.