The vampires seated at the table looked at Nosferatu in unison. Their eyes glowed red in the candlelight.
“And what is this problem?” asked an old vampire with long white hair and wearing robes of royal blue.
“Speaker Tallus, it’s my mother. She is planning something horrible for the boy Mathias. I’ve seen it in my visions.”
Speaker Tallus rubbed his face with his hands, his claws so long that they caught in his hair. “Are you sure?”
Nosferatu nodded solemnly. “It is as we feared. Just having him around has brought back her insanity. I had hoped that by keeping them separate, there wouldn’t have been an issue, but I was wrong.”
Speaker Tallus nodded. “I think that for now, we will watch her. If things get much worse, come to us immediately. We may have to take more drastic measures.”
Nosferatu left. He wasn’t sure if they believed him or not. Watching and waiting wasn’t exactly a great solution. Maybe they would uncover something. Hopefully, before she managed to kill Mathias.
* * * * *
After he left the Order, he wandered around the castle, never settling on any one place. Nowhere felt calm. Finally, he headed back to his chambers and sat in the chair in front of his fireplace. He hadn’t used it in years, but it looked kind of spooky. The cobwebs in the opening were so thick that they formed a webby fabric. He was worried. Not only did he have to worry about his mother’s plans, but he had Mathias’ sanity to think about.
His capacity for anger was not good. All it took was one little thing to get the boy on the verge of complete rage. Underneath all of that, there was a good soul. And how the Queen could think of Mathias as unworthy was lost to him. He needed to do something, he just didn’t know what. If only he could make her see.
The question was, how? She never listened to him, and he didn’t really know if there was anyone she listened to at all anymore.
He got up from his favorite chair and left his chambers. Then, he headed over to the section of the castle he consistently tried to avoid, his mother’s chambers.
It wasn’t so much that he hated her, it was that he was still disgusted at the cruelty she had been capable of all those years ago. Although she knew the truth, she seemed hell-bent on snuffing out Mathias’ existence each and every time he came back.
She was obsessed with keeping the vampire world in the dark about how truly evil she really was. Everything with her was motive. Whether the evil had always been there, or whether it had grown over the years, he wasn’t sure. All he really knew was that his mother had been a different person before she had heard Lestan’s lie. After that, her heart had grown sour.
Her insanity had been kept hidden for so long that Nosferatu couldn’t remember how many stories he told over the years. But, with Mathias’ appearance at the party and exposing Nicolai Karsavin to one of his memories, well, that brought about some unrest. This was the first time Nossy could remember that doubts about the Queen popped up at court.
Nossy felt the air grow cold. Lilith’s anger always made him feel cold. He could only hope that he could manage to play her game long enough. Maybe, he could divert her attention onto something else for a while.
He raised his hand and knocked on the ancient door in front of him. At once, the door opened with a creak to reveal Lilith enshrouded in white funereal robes.
“Mother,” Nosferatu said stiffly.
Lilith smiled with a saccharine sweetness. “Oh Nossy, you’ve come to visit. Shall I put on some tea?”
Nossy shook his head. Sometimes his mother really did drive him batty. “I’m afraid that this isn’t a personal visit, Mother.”
Lilith dropped her façade and backed away from Nosferatu. “Well then, get on with it. Don’t waste my time pretending to care about me!”
Nossy could feel the cloud of guilt falling around his shoulders like a heavy blanket. He plunked himself down in an overstuffed chair and glared. “If that’s how you talk to Stuart, it’s no wonder he never comes to visit.”
Lilith’s eyes snapped to Nossy. “Very well. You’ve made your point. Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you’ve changed since he’s been around.”
“And whose fault is that?” Nossy gripped the arms of the chair so hard that the wood cracked underneath. Her guilt trips were really starting to irritate him. “I honestly did not come here to fight. I made the mistake that we could carry on a mature conversation.”
Lilith sat down in the chair opposite. “All right. So tell me, to what do I owe this visit?”
He sighed, not sure how to approach the subject. “It’s about the boy, Mother.”
She looked at Nossy with false confusion. “Which boy?”
Nossy rolled his eyes. “Which boy?” he asked incredulously. “You know very well which boy. Mathias Drvar, the boy whom you’ve threatened from the moment he’s been here.” It made it worse that she lied to him. If she was lying, she was plotting. That wasn’t good.
Lilith looked like she had just swallowed a rotten sardine. “Oh, that boy.”
“Why can’t you just do what I ask and leave him alone?”
“Because, Nosferatu, that boy has already destroyed my reputation. Why Vlad couldn’t have just let him die I don’t know.”
“Jesus, Mother. He hasn’t even reached adulthood. You know you were wrong.” She’d even admitted it to him before.
Lilith straightened up into the most regal post she could muster. “I might have been wrong to listen to Lestan, but you know Nossy, your Mathias was not a good person. The things he did in battle would have made you ill.”
“So?”
“So, he and I are very much alike.”
Nossy glared. This was so like her. “Mother, you forget. I knew him. Your propaganda will not go very far. Do you realize that there are some in the court who are already calling for your head?”
Her eyes darkened. “And that is why he must die! I will not allow him to destroy everything I have created.”
Nossy was tired of the game. Nothing was ever going to change her. “If you continue with this ludicrous plan of yours to test Mathias, you’ll be sorry. I’m not going to stand around and cover for you again. Once was enough. And now that Mathias is back, I’m sure as hell going to make sure it stays that way.”
He stood and left so quickly that the thin layer of dust rose from the furniture and the door slammed like a tomb behind him.
* * * * *
Nossy tried to calm himself down, but taking deep breaths just wasn’t cutting it. He didn’t get this mad often, but when he did, it wasn’t pretty. The only person who had ever been able to calm him when he got like this was Vlad. It wasn’t so much that he and Vlad were close friends, because they were. The truth was, he trusted Vlad more than anyone else.
It had been Vlad that helped him learn to live again after Mathias’ body had been found. Vlad had picked him up, taken him to his castle, and kept his eye on him. It hadn’t been easy for Vlad, Nossy knew that. He’d tried to kill himself several times; first with fire, the second with a guillotine. It was Vlad who nursed him back to health each time he’d tried to die.
They were really very different from each other. He’d been born during the time when there were no rules to speak of, not really. Governments didn’t exist then. Mostly there were just clans of nomads running around trying to survive. Vlad, however, grew up in royalty. Rules where what he knew and what comforted him. Most of the time, Nossy felt Vlad was too hung up by rules, but once in a while, his cool decorum came in handy. For Nossy, that meant survival.
Nossy found himself standing outside Vlad’s office without even realizing that his feet had taken him there. It was for the best, really.
Nossy raised his hand and knocked on Vlad’s door. In a moment, the door swung open of its own accord, Vlad was standing behind his desk, speaking into his telephone. Like the rest of Vlad’s domain, his telephone was something to behold. It was a fancy thing crusted in gold. It looked like it belonged in
a bordello.
“No, Karsavin, I refuse. Your request is completely ludicrous.” He paused and waved Nossy over to a plush, overstuffed leather chair. “Listen Nicolai, Master Mathias does not need to speak with you. Yes, I’m positive that your apology was sufficient.” Vlad rolled his eyes at Nossy and Nossy smiled. “If you wish to do so, I am sure that Master Mathias would appreciate the offer... Yes, I will propose the idea to him as soon as I am able. Nicolai, I need to go. Yes... Yes. Good-day.” Vlad hung up the phone and leaned onto his desk. “That man is going to be the death of me.”
Nossy cleared his throat. “Unfortunately, we have worse problems than your love of irritating phone calls.”
Vlad sat down in a nearby chair. “What’s wrong?”
Nossy took a deep breath. “She is hell-bent on “testing” Mathias. Truly she wants to kill him. No matter how I look at it, every option is going to be ugly.”
Vlad thought for a moment. “And what does the Order say?”
“For now, they will watch. But I think we can count on their support.”
“Then we need to come up with a plan.”
* * * * *
Mathias pulled clean clothing from the dresser and quickly yanked the shirt over his head. He felt alive, more than he ever had. It was strange really to know that he’d once been someone else- someone that even the vampire world didn’t know well. It was like watching home movies that only he had access to.
Part of him was grateful for the chance to live again, but when it came down to it, he was angry that once again the Queen was going to be the deciding factor on whether he lived or died. And if he had the ability to be truthful about it, he was afraid. Not of death, but of the possibility that his second chance might not amount to much.
He stepped out of his room and noticed that Nosferatu still hadn’t returned. Curious, he crept over to a door he hadn’t ever dared to enter— Nosferatu’s private bedchamber.
He knew that going into Nosferatu’s rooms without permission was a serious breach of etiquette, but he needed information. He needed to know more. More about Nosferatu. More about them all. What he knew of Nosferatu, he’d gained from the small bits of memory that seemed to be coming back- that and the journal Nosferatu had allowed him to read. It wasn’t enough.
He didn’t have any specific thing he was looking for. It was one of those things where he would know it when he found it. What he really wanted to do was patch the holes in his memory and try to be whole again. There was a memory of a young boy staring at him while he died, but Mathias didn’t know who the boy was. He cared about the child, but couldn’t explain why.
He might not have admitted it to anyone, but he was becoming obsessive. Mathias wanted to know everything about his life before he’d met the Queen. He hoped that there would be some clue, something that would help him protect himself against her. And hopefully, cause her death.
He paused. This had been the first time he’d ever planned to kill someone. Part of him was frightened that he had thought of something that heinous, but another part, the older part, was exhilarated by the idea.
He shook off the feeling and looked around Nosferatu’s room. Like much of the rest of Nosferatu’s chambers, the room wasn’t a mess per se, but an amalgamation of stacks of books and numerous old items that Mathias didn’t dare touch. Oddly, there was no bed, just a plush but moth-eaten old emerald green velvet chair that was rather dusty.
Suddenly, Mathias heard footsteps outside the door. He quickly looked around, but unfortunately there was nowhere to hide. The windows didn’t even have curtains. He did the only thing he could, and tip-toed as quietly as he could and hid behind the door to Nosferatu’s rooms.
“You might as well come out. I can smell you, you know,” Nosferatu said from the sitting room in a voice that certainly was not joyful.
Mathias took a deep breath. It was no use to prolong the inevitable. He stepped out from behind the door and entered the sitting room.
Nosferatu glared at him with eyes as red as rubies. “May I ask what you thought it was that you were doing?”
Mathias felt only slightly guilty. “Do you want what I had planned to tell you, or do you want to hear the truth?”
Nosferatu rolled his eyes. “Mathias, we do not have time for childishness.”
Mathias felt the ire rise behind his eyes. “It was anything but childishness that led me to look in your rooms. I’m not as stupid as you think.”
“Mathias, no one said that you were stupid.” Nosferatu threw himself down in the chair closest to him.
Mathias held up a finger as if to silence him. There was no way to say any of this gracefully. “I entered your rooms not to snoop about you, or play ludicrous fucking games. I went in there to teach myself about the things that no one else will teach me.”
“And what would that be, Mathias?”
“Information. In order to beat your enemy, you have to know your enemy, right?”
* * * * *
Nosferatu paused. It felt off, to be honest. One minute, Mathias spoke like the average sixteen-year-old. And, for him to speak that way was good. It meant he was recovering from the streets. But, then he would switch to speaking like someone much older was living in his body. That was the part that disturbed Nossy. He stared into Mathias’ eyes. “You know, before you manage to do much else, you are going to have to figure out who in the hell you are.”
Mathias raised his head like an asp. “What do you mean by that?”
Nosferatu shook his head. “Just listen to yourself! If you go much further, you’re not going to have to worry about whether the Queen will permit you to live! You’ll be in a nuthouse!”
Mathias slumped into the other chair. “What am I going to do?”
Nosferatu grinned. “There is only so much you can do. First, you will continue to train. Second, I believe that now is not the time for schoolwork. The Queen has seen to that. And third, I want you to spend some time each day not worrying about this and do something for yourself.” Nosferatu got up and went into his private chambers, slamming the door behind him.
* * * * *
Mathias sat up and straightened his clothes. Perhaps Nossy was right, but he knew no way of fixing his brain. He tried to assemble his thoughts into one cohesive line, but it just didn’t work. It was going to take time, and he hoped that it wasn’t going to take forever.
Chapter Fifteen
Vlad straightened his suit coat and took a deep breath. Another thing the myths got wrong. They weren’t dead. Vampires were just transformed into something different. It wasn’t that they had to breathe to live, they didn’t have to.
But breathing had its own purpose. Filling his cells with oxygen made him feel stronger. It also helped to calm him down. Sometimes it seemed like he breathed a lot, but things kept happening that forced him to calm himself. Otherwise, he would explode.
He knew that he and Nossy had to think of something. He just didn’t know what. The fact remained that now Lilith had been angered by Nosferatu, the wheel they had hoped would break was now set in motion. He could feel it. Any day now, the Queen would issue the document that would demand Mathias appear for testing. Hopefully, they would be able to thwart anything bad before it happened.
If they failed, he wasn’t sure that he could stand to live with himself. After his fall from Heaven, he’d been alone until Mathias had demanded his capture in the fifteenth century. Even he had to admit things had gotten out of hand in the small area of Wallachia he had governed, and it had been Mathias’ right to demand that he toe the line.
When he’d been captured by Mathias’ Myrddin army, The Hungarian Empire army to the mortals, he hadn’t been sure what to expect. He didn’t even know that Mathias was his long ago friend from his days as an angel until he’d seen the spark of life behind Mathias’ eyes.
As soon as he was presented to the king of Myrddin, he was surprised to find himself treated more like an honored guest rather than a prisoner. He’d been gi
ven a room of his own, was allowed to attend courtly functions, and even more surprising, he received several private audiences with King Mathias.
It was over these meetings that their friendship was renewed. After he’d been released to re-seize his throne in Wallachia, he and Mathias had retained their friendship through letters and other means of communication.
In fact, it had been Mathias who had recommended that he, someday, run for the position of headmaster at the University. This was a singular honor. At the time of Mathias’ death, the University was the first vampire school to allow vampire children of different races within its walls.
Over time, all vampire children ceased being taught at home, and the laws were changed so that all vampire children must be trained at The University before being allowed entrance into vampire society. He was proud of what he’d accomplished.
Vlad shook himself out of his thoughts and made his way to Nossy’s chambers.
* * * * *
Lilith smoothed her hair. She had an audience with The Order of the Dragon and she knew that she had to look completely trustworthy and in control. To help her achieve what she wanted, she purposefully dressed in a cream colored suit with a skirt that reached down to her knees. She chose her most understated gold jewelry and had pulled her hair up into a French twist. She looked a good bit like a lawyer she had seen on television.
She moved through the hallways, not fast and not slow. She didn’t want to draw extra attention to herself, but she held her head high. The best way to get people to believe you was to act like nothing was wrong at all. Her high heels clicked across the stone floors, but she made sure that the sound was not too loud. If she let her anger take over, her footsteps would have sounded like the heels of her shoes were chiseling into the marble as she walked. Finally, she came to the headquarters of the Order.
The headquarters were located in a large room that was completely below the ground. It was the most underground chamber connected to the castle. This was done for safety reasons, and because the location of the Order was a secret, having it inside another important building was an intelligent bit of security. The headquarters was separated from the rest of the castle by a great iron door. The door, given its location, should have been rusted a long time ago, but not a speck of rust could be seen on the door at all. She knocked on the door. She did not have to wait long before the door opened and granted her entrance.