The Devil's Liege

  Elias nodded. His face was strained. The manacles he was chained to stretched his arms out taught against the floor. His wrists were red where he’d been pulling at them.

  “What did he promise you?” Mathias asked him.

  Elias tried to readjust, but the binds were so tight that he could not move. If he kept it up, he was going to tear the skin around his wrists.

  “Don’t make me ask again,” Mathias said.

  Elias looked up at Mathias, glared, and spat in his face. The gob of yellowish phlegm stuck to his cheek. Mathias wiped it off with his hand and flung it to the floor. He forced himself to think about control. If it wasn’t for the fact that this asshole was needed, he would have killed him right there. But, Nossy was more important. He calmed himself…to a point. Fine. The bastard would learn.

  Mathias made himself still. He focused his energy and let it build. Then, he threw it all at Elias’ mind. The man’s blocks seemed to explode at Mathias’ force. Thoughts and images rushed through Mathias’ mind. Everything was there. Then, Mathias slacked off the power and slowed down the rush of images, searching for anything to do with Nosferatu. It wasn’t like looking through a computer for files or anything like that. More so, the thoughts appeared as whispy things amongst something that looked not unlike a solar system except the stars were not twinkly.

  Finally, he caught a flash of an image of pomegranate seeds. He followed it and his brain opened another section of Elias’ mind. Colors burst forth and Mathias saw Elias meeting with Tallus, the bowl of drugged pomegranate seeds presented to Nosferatu, and Elias running out of the room. He flipped back through everything like pages in a book, but there was nothing about where Nossy was to be kept. No conversations. Nothing. This had been a complete waste of time.

  “Fuck.” His mind snapped back into himself and Elias cried out in pain. Good.

  Mathias looked over at the table. “He knows nothing.”

  “What do you want to do?” Stuart asked.

  Good freaking question. Now, all he had to go back to was those books. He had to keep hope that there would be something in there that he could work with. But, Elias, however, was not going to live to see the result. “Kill him. I need to finish my research.”

  With that, he walked out of the room and went back to Vlad’s. If there wasn’t anything in those books, Nossy was so screwed, and he would have failed. He didn’t like to fail.

  * * * * *

  Mathias took a deep breath after he seated himself in front of the great book. It was as huge as one of those old dictionaries you used to see in libraries. The thing was at least ten pounds. It was going to take him forever to try to read through the whole thing, even with changing the language to something he could read. There had to be an easier way.

  He sat there for a minute, thinking. It had been a hell of a day, and it was getting later as he sat there. He didn’t want to overload his brain or anything, not with how unstable he knew he was, but his sanity was worth losing if it meant saving Nossy. It was probably a really crazy idea, but, at this point, he felt like he was backed into a corner. His options were limited.

  He owed Nossy. Even if there had been times that things had been weird between them; like the time almost a millennium ago, when he’d arrived at his home and Nossy came onto him. Poor Nossy. He couldn’t help the way he was just as Nossy couldn’t help his nature. He’d let him down as careful as he could, and they’d still remained friends as a result of it.

  He remembered the hurt in Nossy’s eyes. That was something he would never forget. If he could have done anything to make it hurt less, he would have, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Nossy had had to learn how to live with it, and he had.

  Mathias lay one of his hands on the book, careful to not cut the pages with his claws. Last thing he’d need to do is damage the thing and cause who knew what types of problems. It was bad enough he didn’t know if this was going to work anyway. Then, he took a deep breath and concentrated.

  He felt his energy push out from his hand and surround the book. He couldn’t see it, but he imagined it enveloping the book in a cloud. It was so much easier than trying to pull information out of Elias’ brain. Mathias wasn’t sure if he should be happy about that or unsettled.

  “Come to me,” he mumbled. At first, nothing really seemed to be happening. Then, after a minute, the cloud glowed slightly and it felt like tons of information was being downloaded into his brain. Or cramming it in there. The energy felt like it was ripping his brain apart and putting it back together in a giant mass of goo. When the connection severed, Mathias fell off his chair and collapsed onto the floor. His head felt like it was going to burst.

  Suddenly, he felt like his nose was messed up, so he reached up and wiped at it. He looked down. His hand was covered in blood. “Shit.”

  Then, the darkness took him.

  * * * * *

  Landing on the roof felt a little weird. He landed heavy, leaden almost. With as light on his feet as he usually was, it wasn’t normal. The shingles were softer than he expected. He hoped the sound would scare them. They needed to be scared. Mathias jumped off the roof and landed in the yard with a much softer thud this time. He tucked his wings back inside his back, feeling the familiar stretch of tendon and bone. There was no sense in risking them impeding his movement. He had plans.

  After adjusting his leather jacket, he walked up the front steps of the old white farm house. The front steps gave a little when he stepped on them. The last thing he needed to do was fall through the porch. Yeah, real scary.

  He reached up, grabbed the brass knocker, and knocked. Once. Loud. He had a statement to make, after all.

  He could hear her yelling from within the house. It was her. He remembered her voice well. The screech, the nasal quality, the sound of a bird of prey with an identity crisis.

  The door swung open. Her badly dyed blond hair stood out from her head like a steel wool pad. More hair had grown under her chin. It was pale and long. She looked like she was starting to turn into a werewolf.

  “What do you want?” she asked. Her voice scraped at him like fingernails on a black board. He so wanted to remove that voice box. Nothing would give him more pleasure.

  “You don’t remember me, Aunt Annette?” he asked. If it wouldn’t have been stupid, he would have mwahahahah’ed her. Instead, she could just have the shock of him as huge as he was.

  She swallowed hard and stepped back. He felt his eyes change color when his rage bubbled to the surface. He didn’t need to control himself. Not anymore. “We have a lot to talk about.”

  She screamed.

  * * * * *

  “Dammit, Mathias. Wake up!”

  Mathias’ eyes popped open. He wasn’t at his Aunt’s old house at all. He was back in Vlad’s rooms. The light looked different. Lighter somehow. Vlad was looming over top him.

  “What’s going on?” Mathias asked. It had been a hell of a dream. Maybe the stress really was getting to him.

  Stuart leaned down and grabbed Mathias’ hand, helping him sit up. “What were you doing?”

  Mathias looked around the room. Vlad’s eyebrows were pursed together. He looked over at Stuart. Then he remembered the blood and the book, and well the whole damn mess.

  “I was reading,” Mathias said.

  “Last I knew, reading didn’t give you a nosebleed,” Stuart said.

  Why didn’t they let him finish for once? Mathias laughed, then stopped and held his head. The pain was just too much. He had hurt himself more than he realized.

  “What did you do to yourself?” Vlad asked.

  Mathias rubbed his temples for a minute, trying to ease some of the pressure. It didn’t seem to help very much. “I know we have to find Nossy as soon as possible. So, I sat here at the books and thought, why not use my magic to just put the information in my head.”

  “Oh, Jesus,” Stuart said.

  “I guess it wasn’t a good idea,” Mathias replied. It had been bet
ter than what anyone else had come up with at that point. It wasn’t his fault it was a bad idea.

  Vlad shook his head. “That would be one way to look at it. But, you should know that you are lucky you are still alive.”

  His life wasn’t all that important. He’d give it up in a minute if it meant that Nossy would be okay. This time, it would be his choice, not some evil bitch who had a chip on her shoulder. He shrugged. “A little more scrambling can’t make my brain much worse.”

  Stuart laughed. “So, boy wonder, what are we going to do with you?”

  Mathias slowly got up. He had to go slow, otherwise he was going to face plant the floor. His head was swimming. “What happens with me doesn’t matter. We need to find Nossy.”

  “Not until we get you checked out properly,” Vlad said.

  Mathias rolled his eyes.

  * * * * *

  Even Mathias had to admit that the infirmary wasn’t all that bad this time. He wasn’t strapped to the bed. They allowed him to sit up. In fact, all they had done was put these weird white disk things on his head and then attached them to a machine. There was an IV in his arm, giving him blood and fluids. Vlad stood by, watching everything they did like a hawk.

  The disks felt cold and sticky. They did not hurt.

  Mathias looked at Vlad. The man was watching so intently that Mathias was glad that x-ray vision didn’t exist. He didn’t exactly want Vlad to have personal knowledge of his underwear. Still, guess being king meant that no one could be trusted.

  But, with Tallus dead, the threat wasn’t as bad. It couldn’t be. They just had to track down the rest of the traitors and find Nossy. Actually, fuck the traitors. Find Nossy first, then he’d deal with the rest of them. Death would come to them all, eventually.

  “Sir, he has some unusual brain activity,” a nurse said to Vlad. She was a small, slight lady. Her hair reminded him of his mother’s, brown with flecks of gold.

  Mathias watched Vlad walk over and look at the screen the nurse was looking at. Mathias could only see the back of the machine, not that he’d know what unusual brain activity looked like anyway. His brain brought forth images from movies of weird spikes from paranormal activity. Not exactly helpful. He was paranormal activity.

  Vlad grunted. “This aside, is he going to be all right?”

  “Dr. Koroba said that the bleeding has stopped, but to make sure King Mathias rests for at least a week,” she said.

  Vlad nodded.

  Fuck that. There wasn’t time for him to sit and heal. If he ended up permanently brain damaged, fine. That was up to him. Mathias yanked the disks off his head and ripped the IV out of his arm. They might want him to rest, but it wasn’t going to happen. Nossy was too important. If he had to make himself a vegetable to do it, he would.

  “I see you are ready to go,” Vlad said.

  “Really? Ya think? Get me out of here.”

  * * * * *

  The walk back from the infirmary hadn’t been fun. With each step, his head pounded more. Sometimes, the pain was enough that his knees went weak, but he held it together. Vlad strode in front of him, but Mathias didn’t dare tell him to slow down. There wasn’t time for slow. And, besides, he didn’t want Vlad to haul him back to the infirmary.

  Finally, when they got back in Vlad’s rooms, Mathias noticed that the books he’d been working on were gone from the table. He didn’t remember blinking them anywhere. In fact, he didn’t remember much of anything.

  Mathias looked at Vlad. “Where are they?”

  “Where are what?” Vlad guided Mathias to a chair at the table. He let him. It was easier. Plus, Mathias wasn’t really all that sure how much longer he could stand without falling on his ass.

  Mathias sat. “The books.”

  He couldn’t say much else. The pounding in his head was too great.

  Vlad patted him on the shoulder. “In your room. I know there is no way to get to you rest for a week.”

  Mathias raised an eyebrow. Maybe the man knew him better than he realized.

  “So,” Vlad said as he sat down across from Mathias. “Stuart is meeting with Azazel. He has a lot of experience finding escaped prisoners. Perhaps one of his methods will work to our advantage.”

  Mathias readjusted in the chair. He didn’t really know how to respond to that. At least they were doing something. “I’m going with him to find Nossy.”

  Vlad sighed. “I expected as much. Do me a favor?”

  “What?”

  “Try to keep yourself alive. We didn’t go through all of this for you to die in some horribly stupid way.”

  Mathias bit his tongue. If he argued much more, Vlad would change his mind. For now, he was getting what he wanted. Best just go with it and not antagonize the elder vampire any more. Besides, anything to hold this up would really hurt Nossy. “All right,” he said. “I’ll rest. Just keep me posted on what they come up with.”

  Vlad nodded. “Of course.”

  * * * * *

  Stuart made his way down to the dungeon. He didn’t mind the trip all that much. Places he frequented in South America were much worse. The smell really wasn’t all that bad. Azazel, at least, kept it clean, so foul smells were at a minimum. It reminded him of a barn, to be honest.

  He stepped through the door to the dungeon. The halls were lined with torches. The cells were dim, but fresh hay lay on the stone floor. In the center aisle, the stone floor was swept clean of hay and had been recently sprayed down. Stuart could still see the moisture collected in the crevasses of the stones.

  “Azazel,” Stuart said. He didn’t want to make the dungeon master uneasy. It was better to announce his presence.

  “Hold on,” Azazel called from somewhere that made him sound muffled. Where that could be, Stuart didn’t know. It wasn’t like there were a lot of hiding places in Azazel’s domain. Finally, he came out from behind a wall.

  “What were you doing?” Stuart asked.

  “Inspecting the shackle supports.” Azazel pulled leather work gloves off his hands. “Standard procedure. After every prisoner leaves, I inspect everything and make sure it’s ready for next time.”

  Stuart fought not to twitch. The dungeon master was so weird. It wasn’t the preparations that he was making that made Stuart feel off, it was the glee with which he did them. He felt a shiver creep up his spine and his wings twitched anyway. “Not that you’ve had any, but do you have a way to track escaped prisoners?”

  Azazel smiled. “Yes, but it isn’t pretty.”

  “It doesn’t have to be,” Stuart said. He thought for a minute. This was looking like their best shot. Pretty or not, they needed to do something. “Follow me.”

  “Where are we going?”

  Stuart smiled. “We are going to see the king.”

  Chapter Six

  Mathias stayed seated at the table. Light was shining fully through the windows now. Day two of Nossy’s kidnapping. It would probably have been better to lie down, but he didn’t feel like it. Not yet. Not when there was still so much to do. There was no way he was going to miss the information with Azazel, even though Vlad had offered to tell him everything. He’d been down that road before.

  Vlad wasn’t exactly trustworthy when it came to details. He still remembered Nossy having to explain to him the vampire laws because Vlad hadn’t bothered to educate him in the beginning.

  Maybe he could have been better prepared for when Lilith did her big plan, but no sense in worrying about that now. It was all done. Still, he wasn’t going to make the same mistake. He wanted the full story, the full ramifications, and he wanted them now. How bad his head hurt didn’t matter.

  Vlad had stepped into his bedchamber a while ago. Mathias figured either Vlad needed some rest himself, or a break from everything. Maybe both. Either way, Mathias didn’t mind the solitude with his thumping head. He used to get a little stir-crazy if things were too quiet, but not now. In fact, if he really thought about it, he’d been used to quiet for a while. Not having t
o sleep on the street will do that to ya.

  Suddenly, Mathias heard footsteps in the hallway outside the chamber. He raised his head and adjusted his ears so he could listen better. He’d noticed that flexing his ears backwards on his head seemed to sharpen the sound. Thank God he had normal ears and didn’t look like a sci-fi show reject.

  There was more than one set of footsteps that he could hear. The first was heavy, almost as if it slammed the stone with every step. The other was softer.

  Then, he heard a knock on the door. Just as Mathias was about to get up, Vlad flew out of his room and motioned for Mathis to stay where he was. Good God. It wasn’t like he was in that bad of shape. He was capable of basic tasks, otherwise he never would have made it from the infirmary.

  It pissed him off. He wasn’t dying. His brain would heal. The hovering Vlad was doing was driving him crazy.

  He was getting tired of not being allowed to do anything, and it had only been a couple of hours. What was he going to be like a few days from now? He was going to have to figure out some amazing master plan or he would likely finally tip over and fall off the sanity edge. Mathias slumped back in his chair and watched Vlad open the door.

  In the doorway stood Azazel and Stuart. Azazel towered over the shorter man by a good six inches. He was one of those people you could have imagined being a Viking. The plaits didn’t help, but he had that thick hair that Mathias had seen in movies and in pictures. The only thing he was lacking as a beard. He was huge, though Mathias had to admit that even he had trouble remembering how big he was now.

  In his mind, he was still the scrawny, starved, street kid who would do anything for his next meal. He’d been so small then. It was hard to forget. Now, he was tall enough that he had to duck through some doorways. It was weird.

  Stuart walked in first and Azazel followed after. Mathias straightened up in his chair. No sense in looking like a kid if he could keep from it. Plus, maybe it would also make him look healthier than he felt. He needed to do everything he could to be involved. He didn’t think he’d survive being stuck back at the castle with Vlad while the others went out to look for Nossy.