The Devil's Liege

  Mathias looked at him. “Mine.”

  * * * * *

  They laid him out on the floor. Mathias didn’t bother to ask why. He knew why with the way they were acting. All serious and shit. It was pretty easy to guess that it was going to be bad and there was a big possibility that he’d lose control of his bowels. It wasn’t like he hadn’t done it before; just like those times he had gotten sick on the street. And well, sometimes a mud puddle was useful to clean the shit out of your clothes.

  The table had been pushed over next to the wall. The carpet had been rolled up and pushed under the table. Technically, yeah, they could just blink it back, but even Mathias felt it would be gross to put a shitty carpet back down, blinked clean or not.

  Azazel was crawling around on his knees, spreading out candles around Mathias. He didn’t ask why he just didn’t blink them into place. There probably was a very good reason, but it wasn’t what mattered. He knew enough about magic that sometimes, it was all about the ritual. So, Mathias didn’t say anything. There was nothing to say. This was going to suck.

  “Are we sure he can withstand this?” Vlad asked Azazel.

  Yeah, sure, talk about me like I’m not here. It was weird for Mathias to view them from this angle. They were all chin. He rolled his eyes. “I can handle anything you put in front of me.”

  Vlad looked down at him. “That is not what I meant, Mathias. You did just get out of the hospital.”

  Here we went with the big deal again. He wasn’t dying. Shit, he wasn’t even close to being dead now. “Look, if it kills me, at least I tried.”

  “We cannot risk your death,” Stuart said from the other side of the room. He was crouched over a large mortar and pestle mixing something Mathias couldn’t see. It smelled herbal.

  Here it was. Maybe he could finally get some answers. “What the fuck is it about me that’s so goddamn important?” He had to ask. He was really getting tired of all the word mincing. There was something he was missing about this whole thing and they seemed hell-bent not to tell him about it. And, well, since it pertained to him, he had a right to know.

  Vlad looked at Azazel. He looked back.

  “What?” Mathias asked. This was getting to be ridiculous.

  Stuart cleared his throat, walked over, crouched down, and looked at Mathias. He seemed so much more sinister at that angle— like a raven perched on a tombstone. It was almost as if Mathias was getting a glimpse into the man’s true nature, when before, he thought of him as this nice kid. Maybe nice wasn’t the proper word.

  “What these cowards are afraid to tell you is that since Lilith is dead, you are the last mantle,” Stuart said.

  “The last what?” Mathias had visions of scarves and fireplaces bouncing around in his head. It didn’t make any damn sense.

  “We aren’t sure what will happen if you die,” Stuart said. “Lilith was the oldest living vampire on earth, and in your previous incarnation, you were the first vampire from the Father. These things mean something to some people.”

  Mathias sat up. It was so stupid. “So, they’re scared that what? If I die, all vampires will die too? Come on.”

  Stuart shook his head. “Not that the vampires will die, just that they will lose their souls.”

  Mathias blinked. He’d lived in a world where that type of thing, well, people barely thought about anymore. It was almost like he was transported back in time a hundred years. “You seriously aren’t going to use that as an excuse for me to not help find Nossy, are you?”

  Stuart moved so that his head was leaning directly over Mathias’ head. “Of course not. Vlad just doesn’t want you to die. Azazel is worried that if this spell kills the king, what will it mean for him.”

  Mathias shrugged. He still couldn’t believe this was what all the big deal was about. “If that’s all it is, I’ll sign a release right now. That way, no one will be at fault but me.”

  Vlad sighed. “If only it were that simple.” He turned to Azazel. “Get it over with.”

  Azazel nodded and pulled out a silver knife that had various rune marks carved into it. He looked at Mathias. “Get ready to bleed.”

  * * * * *

  Mathias would have liked to have said it was a piece of cake, but it wasn’t. There was nothing that could have prepared him for it. Except, well, maybe Azazel explaining all of it to him before he did what he was going to do, but Mathias wasn’t sure if it would have made that much of a difference. Especially after Azazel had cut his arm and put the fang inside the incision. That hurt bad enough, but it was bearable. It wasn’t until the man had finished saying something in a language Mathias did not know that the true pain began. What a fucking spell.

  “Sheet-a-shee Ka!” Azazel spread his arms toward the ceiling. There was no lightening flash, no explosion of smoke, just the sudden unrelenting pain.

  It started. With every beat of his heart, white-hot pain flashed through his body. It was strong enough to make him double over even though he was lying down on the floor. He was grateful for the floor now. At least he had nothing to fall down on. A table would have been a bad idea.

  Finally, he straightened back out. Staying curled up was pointless. It didn’t stop the pain. It didn’t even lessen it at all. “Is it worse for Nossy?” he asked with his teeth clenched together. This was so much worse than being shot. It felt almost like his body had been blown up, and then haphazardly put back together, all without anesthetic.

  “I really don’t know,” Azazel said. Then, he pulled the fang out of the cut on Mathias’ arm and bandaged it. He handed the fang back to Mathias

  “I thought that you said the object would be destroyed?” Vlad asked.

  Mathias took the fang and stared at it. Minus being a little bloodstained, it didn’t show any damage or anything.

  Azazel smiled. “It usually is. No matter. If I did the spell right, the pain will get worse too.”

  “Worse?” He couldn’t imagine it. He was almost to the point of wanting to kick himself for agreeing to this now. Not that he needed a reminder, but pain was not something he enjoyed. Maybe, one day, he’d learn to listen to what other people thought about things instead of being bull-headed.

  Azazel laughed. “Now, try to rest. I’ll put together what we’ll need for our journey.”

  Mathias didn’t argue. With pain like this, true rest wasn’t going to happen for a long time. All he felt like doing was wallowing in his bed. “How will we tell which direction we need to go in?”

  “By how bad your pain is, of course.” Then, the man smiled.

  It left Mathias a bit uneasy that Azazel found this entertaining, but then, he didn’t have the nickname The Prince of Hell for nothing. Maybe the man wasn’t exactly a vampire? He once thought vampires were the stuff of imagination too.

  * * * * *

  Needless to say, rest wasn’t easy. Every heartbeat, the pain would come. Mathias was starting to wish he’d learned how to meditate so he could slow his heart rate. But there had never been a need before, so he was fucked.

  Hell, he even wished he could nab some of his dad’s old blood pressure medication, not that Mathias thought that would actually work, but whatever. He’d do just about anything at this point to make the pain stop.

  He knew humans couldn’t live without sleep for a long period of time, but vampires? Who knew? It was too late to worry about it now. He’d dealt with a lack of sleep before, but this was different.

  The pain of this spell was worse than Lilith’s torture if such a thing was possible. At least, when the torture got to be too much, he’d passed out. But this, so far, the pain wasn’t putting him down for the count. Wonderful.

  He wished he understood how this spell worked, but since it had required that he lay down amongst the candles, he hadn’t seen much. He saw Azazel wave his hand and blink all the candles lit. Then, there had been a lot of chanting. He might as well have been watching one of those old Christopher Lee movies where they brought Count Dracula back to life with a
mixture of old Drac’s blood and some random crap.

  Laying down during the chanting hadn’t been too hard, just weird. The fang being inserted into his arm long ways had sucked, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. This pain, however, the pain of the completed spell, it was like nothing he could have imagined.

  “Hope he doesn’t expect me to fly,” he mumbled.

  Mathias could just imagine leaping into the air, the flash of pain, and him promptly crashing into a tree like that old cartoon he used to watch on TV. It has disaster written all over it. Plus, it didn’t help that he was already a klutz. He didn’t need any help.

  He had to figure out a way to make himself not notice the pain so much. Distraction sure as hell wasn’t going to work. So, that left him getting used to it, and the only thing he could figure is that it was going to take time.

  They said you could get used to anything. Guess he was going to test that idea out himself. Too bad no one he knew had done this before, otherwise at least he’d have someone to ask for advice. Technically, he guessed, he could ask Azazel, but he still didn’t trust him, not yet anyway.

  He knew of no spell that would help him out, and even if he did, the pain made concentration practically impossible. Besides, this was meant to help find Nossy. He’d already had the spell done. He might as well see it through.

  * * * * *

  “I don’t like this,” Vlad said in the other room while watching Azazel shove food and other items into large packs. It didn’t seem like nearly enough for a long journey. If he had his way, Mathias would have stayed there and rested like he was supposed to. Now, the boy was going off half-cocked. At least, he was going with plenty of fluids in his system.

  “Too late for that now, don’t you think? I mean, the pain can’t stop until Nosferatu is found,” Azazel said.

  Vlad watched him toss some extra sweets into the pack meant for Mathias. While, kind, not exactly comforting.

  He shook his head. He knew he never should have agreed to allow Mathias to do this. Now, they were stuck with the aftermath, whatever it turned out to be. He just hoped that Mathias would not come out of this permanently damaged. If he did, Vlad wasn’t sure he could live with himself. “What if you can’t find the body?” he asked.

  Azazel blinked. “Oh, we always find the body. Even if we have to climb down a crevice in a mountain.”

  That didn’t leave Vlad feeling very relieved. Best case scenario, both Nossy and Mathias would come out of this okay. It wasn’t looking very good for Nosferatu. “We’ll just have to hope that Nosferatu remains in someplace safe,” Vlad said. He was starting to wish Stuart had stayed to deal with this, but he’d gone off to deal with what was left of the Order. If they weren’t behind the family, things were going to get much, much worse.

  Chapter Seven

  “Mathias, get up,” Azazel said.

  Mathias jerked awake. His heart hammered in his chest. Azazel’s voice had been right next to his ear. Just like her’s. His lungs felt funny. He looked around for a minute while he got his brain working right. Azazel wasn’t next to him at all. Very odd. Sadly, the pain was still there. “I can’t believe I fell asleep.”

  Azazel nodded. “It is amazing what our bodies will do to survive.”

  Mathias watched Azazel look him over. Every place his eyes landed, Mathias felt a slight chill.

  “Are you ready to go?” Azazel asked.

  He gingerly sat up. The pain made his muscles clench, so his movement was very stiff. He felt like he hadn’t gotten out of bed for at least twelve hours, and he hadn’t even been down for two. “I guess.”

  Azazel patted Mathias on the shoulder. “Good. Get a shower and put on these clothes.” He pointed to a stack sitting in the chair next to the window. “Then, meet me in the main room in twenty minutes.”

  Mathias watched the man walk out and close the door behind him. The light was a lot dimmer than earlier. The days were so short here in December. The urgency of the situation didn’t escape his notice; it just felt like the end of something.

  It was almost like it had been before when he went to fight Lilith. The trepidation. The stress. He’d barely survived. And then, he didn’t have the pain coursing through his body. If he was placing a bet, he sure as hell wouldn’t place it on him.

  He shook the thoughts from his head and took his shower. It wasn’t an easy thing to do. Every time he moved, the pain would hit and he’d get off balance. Hell, when he got out of the shower, he almost busted his ass trying to step out of the stall when a pulse of pain hit. Cracking his skull open would have been a great way to begin this trip.

  Drying off went okay. Mathias found that if he kept his teeth gritted, the pain was bearable. Almost. Logically, he knew he couldn’t grit his teeth all the time, but knowing that it helped was something useful to know. Or maybe, it didn’t help at all, but his brain was satisfied.

  Getting dressed was a little easier, only because he could sit down to do some of it. He only had to stop a couple of times. The pants were this weird plastic material. The shirt was somewhat similar. It didn’t shine or anything, but you could tell it wasn’t regular like cotton or something similar.

  Like much else in the castle, the clothing had been brought by an unseen servant. Well, Mathias had seen them, but they usually slipped in and out of the rooms when he wasn’t looking and wasn’t paying attention. In this case, they must have brought everything while he’d been in the shower.

  On the bed, a thick winter coat with a fur lined hood was draped over the gold brocade comforter. Near as Mathias could understand, it was possible for him to freeze to death. But, there was some possibility that he could be brought back to life if thawed out. Still, frostbite was an issue.

  What type of life would he have if he froze off half his foot or something? That would kind of negate the advantage of being a vampire. If that ever happened to him, he might as well just be human. Too bad the clock couldn’t be turned back.

  He grabbed the coat and headed out to the main room.

  * * * * *

  A zinging jolt of pain shot through Nossy’s body. It flashed through his skull like a brilliant light, and then faded. “What the hell was that?”

  He looked around, but saw only the darkness that had been his friend for so long now.

  “Great. They’ve decided to torture me now. I probably should have heeded the Greek warning about Pomegranates.”

  The pain kept pulsing. If he hadn’t already been sitting, he would have sank to his knees. “Probably punishment for taking off the hood,” he mumbled. Nothing would surprise him, especially since he hadn’t had food or water since before he was captured.

  No direction he moved seemed to stop the pain. It was in sync with his heart. This was the last thing he needed. The hunger had been had enough. Now, he had this to contend with. It made things so much harder.

  There was nothing left to hope for except a release from the pain. And, well, the easiest way to get release was for him to die.

  He glanced around the blackness again and still saw nothing but the darkness in front of him. He steeled himself against the pain. The longer this went on, the more of a chance there was that he wasn’t going to be rescued. That wasn’t an easy pill to swallow. He didn’t want to die. He still had so many things he wanted to do. He could only hope that Mathias would raise revenge. Now that would be something to live for

  * * * * *

  “Ready to go, Mathias?” Vlad asked when Mathias walked into the main room.

  Mathias draped his coat over a chair. Could he really ever be ready for this? Probably not. “I guess.”

  “There’s still time to back out,” Stuart said from his chair next to Vlad at the table.

  “No, there’s not,” Mathias said. If he backed out, he’d be a coward, and of all the things he’d been called over the years, that wasn’t one of them. “If I don’t go after Nossy, I won’t be able to live with myself.” It was true too. His dreams haunted him bad
ly enough without guilt. If he had something to feel guilty about…

  “Or live at all,” Azazel countered.

  “What?” Mathias asked.

  Azazel clicked his tongue against his teeth. “You can only put up with the pain for so long. Eventually, it could drive you insane. And perhaps, to suicide.”

  Mathias put his hands on his hips. “And just how does a vampire commit suicide?” Not that he would do it, but it wouldn’t hurt to know.

  Azazel blinked. “You should know.”

  Mathias paused. Yeah, technically he’d starved himself to death in Lilith’s rose garden. He remembered what that felt like. But, his body had also been broken to the point of no return. Who would want to live forever being practically a vegetable? Well, it wasn’t quite that bad, but he’d been a warrior and been reduced to being an invalid. It was better to die. At least he stopped the torture. Still though, he would have loved to kill her then. Even in this life, he’d been too weak to do it. Maybe that’s why he still had the dreams.

  “Okay,” Mathias said. “How are we going to find our direction?”

  Azazel smiled. “We go outside and where you feel the worst, that’s where we’ll go.”

  The pit in his stomach grew larger. This is going to be so much fun. Even he couldn’t stop the sarcasm in his thoughts.

  “Mathias?” Stuart asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “Vlad and I plan to continue the investigation while you are gone. If we find more that are associated with Nossy’s kidnapping, what do you want us to do?” Stuart’s eyes seemed a little droopy. Almost like he’d either not been sleeping enough, or he’d been worrying himself sick.

  Mathias didn’t even have to think. “Kill them.”

  “And what shall we tell the people?” Vlad asked.