Tepes pinned Nosferatu against the opposite wall. “Ready to give in?”
Nosferatu hissed. “Never.” And then he vaulted Tepes off him with a vicious knee to his stomach.
It was getting out of hand. Mathias blinked. No, it had been out of hand. Now it was just nuts. Tepes grabbed Nosferatu by the throat and looked him in the eyes. Mathias thought that is was over- he was going to rip Nosferatu’s head off. But then, he licked Nosferatu’s eyeball.
Mathias lost it. He laughed so hard his sides began to hurt. He knew then he didn’t have anything to fear. They were like kids, big insane overgrown kids with wings.
Seeing the two old vampires act the way they were, well it was the most fun he had in a very long time. If this was the type of thing he had to look forward to, he knew that he definitely wasn’t going to be bored.
Chapter Seven
Mathias couldn’t stop laughing. Finally, he looked up. Nosferatu and Tepes were standing apart from each other and staring at him.
“What?” Mathias asked.
Nosferatu laughed, waved his hand, and every bit of furniture that they had destroyed was restored to its original state. If he didn’t know better, it was almost as if someone took back time, yet he remained as he was- remembering what the furniture looked like when it was mangled.
“How did you do that?”
Nosferatu chittered. “We can do anything we want to do. You just have to be strong enough to do it.”
Vlad walked over to Mathias and placed his hand on his shoulder. “Nosferatu can be a bit of a show off. He is one of the strongest vampires in the world, Mathias. If you live to be as old as he is, eventually, you will be able to do the things he does.”
“But you’re old, how come you didn’t do it?”
“Because,” Nosferatu said. “He’s an old stick in the mud. He prefers to do things the ‘human way’ because he believes, perhaps misguidedly, that doing things the human way will keep him human. Too bad his clothing is at least twenty years out of date for the human world.”
Mathias snorted.
“Shut up! You overgrown winged wonder,” Vlad took Nosferatu by the head. “Mathias doesn’t need more stories. I’m having a hard enough time getting him to respect me without you bringing up ‘fire monsters’ and my lack of magical skill.”
Wait, where was the raging vampire whose eyes glowed like fire? Mathias was totally, stunned. He couldn’t help himself. “But you’re the great and all powerful Dracula, what happened?”
Nossy grinned and brushed Vlad’s hands away from his face. “Don’t let Vlad fool you Mathias. He is capable of just as much as I am. He just chooses not to use it.”
Maybe there was more to Tepes than the regal man Mathias had come to know. Here, he was acting like a kid. It was nice actually to see that he and Vlad really weren’t all that different.
Vlad turned and looked at Mathias. “Yes, I do choose not to use it so much. Each time we use this power, it upsets the natural balance of things. If we upset the natural balance with silly acts, we could cause something horrible to happen.” He turned back toward Nosferatu. “So sue me if I choose to use my hand instead of magic to open a door.”
Mathias was flabbergasted. Nosferatu had Vlad Tepes talking...well talking almost like they were both his age, perhaps a little older. It was strange to see the contrast between the hard vampire who had once impaled enemies on stakes and the vampire who was currently joking with Nossy.
“That’s the difference between Vlad and me, Mathias,” Nossy said. “I am too lazy to do things the ‘human way’. I leave all that up to Vlad. The way I figure it, if I can be as lazy as I want to be. Then Vlad will come along and do things the more difficult way and everything evens out. That way there is no disruption of the balance between the lazy and the unlazy.”
“Both of you are totally insane.” Mathias walked over to the door and opened it. “Can I please have some time alone now?”
Nossy laughed. “Come on, Vlad.”
When they both left the room, Mathias closed the door behind them. There was too much crap rolling around in his brain and he needed some time to think.
* * * * *
Nossy stared at Mathias’ door. Then, he turned to Vlad. He was doing his best not to smirk. “Do ya think he likes us?”
Vlad tapped his claws against his lips. “Nosferatu, I have no idea.”
Chapter Eight
Mathias had to admit, he wished he had this “blinking” power a long time ago. If he’d had it, he would have been able to do so much, maybe even prevent Lucretia from dying…
Lucretia made sure he had plenty to eat. When she worked, which was often, he would either stay upstairs and watch TV or he would hang out with Carl downstairs. Sometimes they’d watch TV there, but most of the time they played cards.
One morning, Mathias was jerked awake by Lucretia and almost fell off of the bed.
“Shh!”
“What’s goin’ on?” Mathias asked quietly.
“We gots us a trip to make that Dequan can’t know about.” She shoved clothes into Mathias’ hands and once he was dressed, she led him out of the room, locked the door, and the two of them took the steps down to the main floor and left through the back door.
“Where are we going, Cree?” Mathias asked.
“We gonna fill the escape fund.”
“Escape fund?” Mathias wrinkled his brow.
“I gotta get away from Dequan one of these days, an I gotta get enough money to live on. Thas a big part of it. I got something on the side with this guy in hell.”
“I thought we were in hell.”
“Sorta, yeah. But this place... it don’t feel right. Kinda right it been deep inside hell’s kitchen dontcha think?”
Mathias shrugged and followed her. Soon, he knew what she meant. It was quiet, too quiet for the city. There was fog in places where there shouldn’t be fog and Mathias could not shake the creepy crawly feeling going up and down his spine. Finally, they arrived at an old brownstone that bore a large N carved in the brick above the door. Lucretia knocked three times on the door. After a moment, the door opened and Mathias followed her into the dark.
* * * * *
The door closed behind them, but there was no one at the door.
“Where are we?” Mathias asked in a whisper. “There’s nobody here.”
“This is Nic’s place. He... he... he magical. Not boy wizard cracker jack magical, but like evil hoodoo scary shit magical.”
“So I’m scary am I, Lucretia?” a voice said from somewhere in the dark.
“Hell, yes you scary, you sick sombitch. Come outta here. I gots business.”
Nic appeared on the other side of Mathias. He didn’t come out of the shadows. He didn’t walk into the room. He was just suddenly there. Everything he wore was black. It looked as if, somehow, any other color would have been offensive to the odd man.
Mathias jumped. “Jesus Christ.”
Nic laughed. “You will not find him here. Of that I can assure you.”
Nic was of average height with salt and pepper hair. He could have been Italian, but Mathias couldn’t be sure. He led them through the labyrinth of his home. Mathias was aware that they were going underground by the slanting of the floor, but he had no idea where they were going.
Nic led them into what must have been his workspace. They walls and floor were made from a black stone that somehow wasn’t matte, but did not shine. A pentagram was inlaid into the floor with silver and mother of pearl. Various tables lined the walled along with bookcases that held ancient texts and strange looking jars.
“Now, Lucretia. What do you have for me?”
Lucretia pulled a plastic bag with a bloody rag in it out of her purse. It seemed to hold something, but Mathias couldn’t tell what.
“Ah, yes,” said Nic. “My very own unbaptized child! What a wondrous thing.”
Lucretia coughed. “How much?”
“Silly girl. While unbaptized chil
dren aren’t that hard to find these days, an unbaptized child freely given by its mother is another thing entirely. Very useful, my dear.”
Mathias eyes grew wide.
Lucretia turned away from Mathias. “Come on, man. How much?”
“Whatever it is that you want, my dear.”
“Anything?” she asked.
“Yes, anything. Give me your wish.” Nic smiled.
There was something about Nic’s smile that bothered him. Of course everything about Nic bothered Mathias.
Lucretia took a deep breath. “I want off the streets. I don’t want to have to worry about Dequan no more.”
“So be it,” Nic’s smile grew wider. “Go on home now, little one.”
He turned toward Mathias. “If you ever need anything, anything at all, please feel free to come by. I’m sure that we can work something out.”
Mathias nodded respectfully. Lucretia left the room and Mathias followed. They walked out of the building and down the street.
“What was that about?”
Lucretia sighed. “What feels like a lifetime of work. You do Nic favors. Get him what he wants, and somehow, don’t ask me how, he can give you anything. I just got myself off the streets because I got him something he really wanted.”
“Was that baby yours?”
“Miscarried it this mornin’. Thas why we had to go quick.”
Lucretia led them back to the hotel. Mathias couldn’t help but notice that when she asked to get off the street, she didn’t say a word about him. He didn’t know if he could trust her or not, and to make matters worse, he had no idea what was going to happen.
* * * * *
Just as they got to the stoop, Dequan started.
“Where the fuck you been, Cree?”
Lucretia paused. “What, I can’t go out in the morning no more?”
They walked up the steps.
“Where the fuck is my money, bitch?”
Lucretia shoved the key into Mathias’ fist. “Run.” She whispered.
Mathias ran up the stairs to their floor. He opened the door to their room and shut the door behind him. He leaned against the door, listening.
The elevator reached the floor. Lucretia screamed.
“Fuckin’ bitch, you give me my money.”
Mathias heard thumping along the wall as if Dequan was dragging Lucretia down the hall.
“Get in that fucking room, bitch.”
The door slammed open and Mathias had just enough time to squeeze himself in behind the door. He watched Dequan throw Lucretia on the bed.
“Where the fuck is my money?” Dequan punched her in the face so hard that Mathias saw blood spatter from her nose.
Lucretia quickly reached and opened the drawer to the bedside table. Dequan pulled out what could only have been a few hundred dollars.
“Fucking whore! Hold out on me! Nobody hold out on me!”
Mathias watched in horror as Dequan pulled a gun out of his pants and held it to Lucretia’s head.
“Say goodnight, bitch.”
The gun fired. Grey matter, bits of skull and blood spattered against the wall. Mathias stayed behind the door, shivering.
“Fucking bitch.”
Mathias watched as Dequan unzipped his pants and urinated all over Lucretia’s body.
“Take that bitch.” Dequan turned around and left, closing the door so hard behind him that the door jamb splintered.
Mathias couldn’t stop shaking. He stepped out from behind the door and shoved his things that weren’t covered in blood in his bag. He had to jerk the door several times before he got it open. Then, he ran down the hallway, down the stairs and into the street.
He heard a shot. He began zigging and zagging as fast as he could. He looked behind him and saw Dequan on the stoop still holding the gun.
“You better run, boy! Cree ain’t here to protect to you no more! I find you, I kill you, you fucking piece of shit!”
Mathias ran until he could no longer breathe. He ducked into an alley to catch his breath. After a moment, he ran again.
* * * * *
Lucretia hadn’t been careful enough. And, Mathias had been lucky to escape, sorta. If he hadn’t met Lucretia, he would have either really died or ended up back with his aunt, which meant he would have died anyway. He rubbed his chest where the bullets had pierced him. It wasn’t a nice memory, being shot.
He needed to forget it all, but it was so hard. He shook himself. He knew he needed to get a grip on reality—the current reality. Otherwise, he was going to lose all the sanity he had left.
* * * * *
Later that evening, Mathias sat at the table in the main room. He was supposed to be working on his homework, but he just couldn’t make himself care about getting it done. He tossed his schoolbooks to the side.
“And what was that about?” Tepes asked as he walked into the room.
“I’m just sick of it. I’m bored. I’m sick of reading these books. Why do I need to know algebra when I’m a vampire, will you tell me that?” It wasn’t like algebra was going to keep him from anything bad that could happen. Algebra didn’t give you anything to trust in.
“Mathias, you need to be educated. You have centuries to fill, and education, believe it or not is important. You need to study history so that you can recognize when it begins to repeat itself. You need to learn as many languages as you can so that you can converse with anyone around the world. While you might not think you need to know algebra, you need to know that it exists in case someone brings it up in a conversation. Remember, being a vampire means that we exist in secret. And there are only so many wars you can participate in without just wanting to kill everything in sight and be done with it.”
That’s exactly what I want to do. He took a deep breath. “Then why am I studying Latin?”
Vlad sighed. “Because a lot of our documents are written in Latin still today. In the human world, Latin isn’t used very much, but here, it is used rather often.”
“So, I have to learn Latin just because it is used here, and I have to learn Algebra because the humans know it? The algebra part doesn’t make sense.”
“Mathias, you have been without any education for such a long time. It will do you good in the end, even if you don’t think you’ll need these things now.”
“Well, studying might do me some good, but I need some fresh air. I don’t think I can stand to be locked in here much longer. Besides, nothing ever happens.”
Vlad sat down and placed his head in his hands. His claws became entangled in his hair, but he looked like he didn’t care. “Even you cannot believe that. Not after what happened this earlier. You are not a prisoner, Mathias. I am keeping you here so that you do not have any untoward encounters with other students. The last thing I need for my sanity is for some dopey kid to make you mad, and then me having to explain to his parents how he ended up with his wings shoved up his ass.”
Mathias snorted. “Yeah, I can kind of see that happening.” Vlad knew him better than he’d thought.
Vlad got up and walked away from the table and opened the drapes on the window closest to Mathias. “If I let you out, what would you do? Where would you go?”
“I don’t know. I just want to be a normal kid. I’m tired of having all this shit happen to me.”
“Mathias, I have news for you. You are a vampire. You will never be normal.”
“But I don’t want to be a vampire. I want to go home. I want my parents alive. I want to be normal.” He wanted to be with people he could trust again. Okay, so Vlad had ‘saved’ his life. But, at what cost? In the time he’d been here, he’d been exposed to an insane monarch, almost ripped apart by Vlad, and expected to counsel Nosferatu.
Tepes sighed. “Stop whining! Good God, you give me a headache. Mathias, this is your home now, you know that. If I could make time pass so that you could be with your family again, I would. But even Nosferatu doesn’t have the ability to roll back time.”
“Then
what good are these magical powers, really?” Mathias asked.
“They have their place. You’ll find out in time.” Vlad placed his elbows on the table and laced his fingers together. “What Nosferatu did with the furniture was an illusion. When I said he was a show-off, I was speaking honestly. If I would have righted the furniture, I would have blinked it back into its rightful state. There would be no illusion of the furniture putting itself back together. It would have just suddenly been righted.”
Mathias placed his hands in his lap and slumped down into his chair. “I wasn’t whining. I was just talking.” Now, he wasn’t allowed to complain. Great.
“No, you were whining. The real reason I don’t let you loose is that there is a lot of prejudice. The ones who were born vampires tend to look down on those who were introduced to our world. Times have changed— the prejudice used to be between the vampires from Myrddin and the ones from Lilitu. Myrrdin vampires were created by a great wizard called Aurelianus. They primarily had darker fur on their wings, with the structure of their wings being more streamlined— like a gargoyle. Their fangs were also quite different. They were longer and more pointed— like those of a snake. Lilitu vampires were created by the Father. They had more bat-like wings, fur that was not so dark, and fangs that were just a tad longer than a human’s eye teeth.”
“And your point is?” Mathias asked.
“My point is that you have already seen what Konstantin is like. I am trying to avoid a war that will likely encompass the entire institution. Mathias was a Myrrdin vampire. And, you were created, not born. So, you are likely to have to deal with more than just Konstantin making things rough on you.”