Tail of the Devil

  “Is anything wrong?” Nosferatu asked.

  “I can read it.”

  Nosferatu laughed. “Well, of course you can. Surely, you don’t think that I would be foolish enough to present you with a book that you could not read.”

  “But, when you were born, English hadn’t even been invented yet.”

  “No, it was not. I think, Mathias, that you have forgotten one thing about vampires.”

  Mathias waited.

  “We can ‘blink’ things into existence.” Nosferatu said with a smug smile.

  “I thought it simply had something to do with moving from place to place.”

  “No, Mathias. Think of it as a type of magic for our kind. It is what enables us to change our form, disappear and reappear in a different area, and create things. Granted, there are limits.”

  “What type of limits?” Mathias asked.

  “Well, the more powerful you are, the more you are able to do. But not many have great amounts of power. I have been around for thousands of years, and even I do not have the ability to bring someone back from the dead. We can only save those who are in the process of dying. You, at your age, should be able to create small things. As you get older, you will find that you can do more. An adult vampire is easily able to ‘blink’ themselves places. For now, you are still developing.”

  Mathias hadn’t thought about it before. If he’d been able to “blink” he’d never had been stuck with his so-called family. He could have gotten himself somewhere good. Somewhere nice. Somewhere kind of like here.

  A shiver traveled down his spine. He realized he was actually happy and grinned. Finally, he had something to be excited about.

  “Now, read, Mathias. Take the story for what it’s worth. Just be careful with the book, you are the first person I’ve let read it in quite a long time.”

  “I’ll take care of it,” Mathias said.

  “Good. I will be back for you this evening. Maybe reading about him will help.”

  “Help what?” Mathias asked, his forehead clenched.

  “It doesn’t matter.” Nosferatu shook his head, bowed his head, and scurried out the door.

  Mathias downed his blood and pushed his food to the side and settled down into the chair. He hoped that the story of Mathias lived up to the legend.

  Chapter Five

  From the memoirs of Nosferatu, Prince of the Lands of Lilitu:

  When I first saw Mathias, I was not struck by his power, but rather his grace. When I saw him competing in the Vampiric Games, I was astounded. True, I had heard many times that he was the greatest flyer ever born, but it took me actually seeing him up close to believe it.

  The man walked with a stride so powerful that it was difficult to look in the opposite direction. He was tall, well over six feet, and had dark hair that seemed to catch on the wind. He was neither thin nor heavy, but rather, had the build of a predator— sleek and strong. His eyebrows swept across his brow in a finely sculpted arc. But it was his eyes that tended to make you stop. They were the color of gems. The finest sapphires didn’t have the fire his eyes held. Never had I ever seen eyes like that before, in a vampire or a human. He was simply beautiful.

  All I knew of Mathias was that he had once been born to my mother. His birth occurred long after I had already left her nest. But his life with Lilith was shortened. One evening, while fighting an opposing army from the lands of Myrddin, Lilith left her child alone in her home. She believed that he could be safe, but unfortunately, the Myrddin troops got to the boy before she returned. They torched her home, the boy who would be Mathias trapped inside the burning inferno. By the time she returned from battle, all that was left of Mathias and her home were large mounds of smoldering ashes.

  Mother was never the same after that. But she did what she had to do. She moved on and helped the vampire world survive. And then, Mathias was reincarnated again.

  * * * * *

  After Mathias won the gold medal, I approached him outside the arena. To say that he was surprised would have been an understatement. My appearance was well known, and I couldn’t be missed as Lilith’s son.

  He walked over to me, sizing me up. He smiled with an arrogance I had come to accept.

  “Can I help you?” he asked in his language, which was an early version of Russian.

  I held out my hand to him and told him, in my language, how much I admired his flying. After a few moments, it was apparent that he knew as many languages as I. We settled on Italian, for that was the location of the royal seat of Lilitu.

  That was all it took for us to become fast friends. After that, we were practically inseparable. It was as if he was relieved that someone on Lilith’s side had finally seen him as something other than a monster. At the time, I think that Mathias thought the whole mess was an amusing game. Him being the warrior king of Myrddin, friends with the crown prince of the enemy.

  * * * * *

  It was Mathias himself who told me how his life began. Not long after I had made his acquaintance, I was enjoying an evening with him in his lair. He and I had been drinking and talking for hours when I asked him what his childhood was like. Surprisingly, he chose to tell me.

  “It had to have been centuries after the war between Myrddin and Lilitu was resolved with a peace treaty, probably first century. The peace did not last long, and a general in the Myrddin army raped a human woman,” he said as we lounged on the sofa in his lair.

  “How did you know?” I asked.

  “Because I remember everything from the time my soul was first created.”

  I couldn’t do much else but accept what he said. It was odd, to be sure, but who was I to question anything?

  “So, I was born again, brought into this world as my mother died having me. We were north of Mecca, near the part of Russia that meets the Middle East...

  “With my mother dead, I was scooped from her body and placed in an orphanage. If you remember, Nossy, they were horrible.”

  I conceded that fact. It was difficult for me to hear, but I was the one who had made the mistake of asking.

  “I grew up being nothing more than a beggar and a thief. Though sometimes, we were sold to men for the evening to do what men do.” He rubbed his hands over his face.

  “Are you sure you want to talk about this, Mathias?” I asked, wholly concerned.

  “No sense in stopping now, you wanted to hear it,” he snapped.

  I shut up. Once Mathias got started on something, he always had to finish it. I motioned for him to continue.

  “I was a freak. My father had marked me well. I was skinny with stumps that grew out of my back like the beginnings of wings with little patches of black fur. I guess I should consider myself lucky that I was also part human, which enabled me to eat and meet the sun. If I would have been full Myrddin, I would have been allergic to garlic, only able to ingest blood, and fried at the first rays of dawn.

  “But since I was deformed in the eyes of the humans, with my fangs and wing protrusions, I had the worst childhood of any child in that orphanage. When I was young, I could hide the protrusions by wearing several layers of clothing and was able to bring in enough money that I was fed regularly. It wasn’t until I began to grow in earnest that things got really bad.”

  Mathias stopped then, got up from the sofa and walked to the bar to pour himself a drink. He downed it quickly, then poured another glass and brought it to me. It took it and sipped.

  “Anyway,” he continued as he sat back down on the couch, “as I grew, the protrusions became more pronounced. People avoided me as if I had the plague and I was slowly starving to death.”

  “A fear of sickness ran through the city, and because my orphanage was known to house me, it was burned to the ground. I suppose you could say that I am lucky that I didn’t die in the fire, which would have been ironic, but irony aside, I could find no work after that. I died, slumped against the stone wall of an alley.”

  I felt for my friend. His life had been horrible
compared to mine, but there was nothing I could do. Mathias’ eyes had glazed over. I could tell that he was lost in his memories. After a few moments, he continued.

  “The very next evening I woke. I was no longer a freak, but a full blooded Myrddin vampire...by the way, thanks for the sip.”

  At first I was puzzled, but then I remembered, I had shared my blood with him some nights before. It was my blood that allowed him to walk in the sunlight again.

  Mathias stretched and placed his feet on the table in front of us. “Anyway, when I woke, I had grown to my present height. My wings were full, and the first thing I did was go on a rampage. I killed everyone in sight. After I had my fill, I cleaned myself up in the water of a mud puddle.”

  He paused and took a deep breath.

  “I thought that if I would ever have a chance, I would seek out your mother.”

  I was more confused now. “How did you know about my mother?” I asked.

  “Nossy, sometimes you are so innocent. Did you forget already that I explained that I remember everything? I remembered your mother in my lifetime before this one.”

  I rolled my eyes. That was the trouble with Mathias; sometimes he could really be condescending. “Mathias, go on with the story, I don’t feel like arguing with you.”

  Mathias laughed and patted me on the head. I hated it when he did that.

  “I wandered the world in search of your mother, but I soon found out that I was wasting my time. By the time I found her, Lilitu had been established as the ruling kingdom, and Lilith was the ruling monarch of the empire. Since I was of my Myrddin race, clearly evident by my snake-like fangs and black somewhat hairless wings, she refused to see me.

  “With her rejection in mind, I sought out a branch of the Myrddin army and joined up. I told them nothing of my past, even when going through the tortures of their initiation process. Over time, I developed my skills and became the strongest and most fierce warrior they had.”

  “Don’t you think that you are embellishing just a tad?” I asked.

  “Why, Nosferatu, it is your people who have proclaimed me most fierce warrior in the world. I think a bit more realistically,” he replied, a sarcastic smile on his face.

  “You realistic, I’d like to see that.”

  “Nosferatu, if I didn’t know any better, I would think you jealous. Or is it that you regret never fighting in battle?”

  He had me. I was never permitted to fight in battle. I suppose it had something to do with mother not wanting to lose the only son she had left. I had heard the horror stories-- heard how Mathias had conquered the lands of Eastern Europe, even controlled Vlad Dracula. Mathias had fought in every battle he could, never stopping. In fact, I had heard that if he was injured, he would refuse to be healed and continue to fight. I personally thought he had a death wish.

  “As always, you are correct, Mathias.” I said.

  “At any rate, after the namesake of the Myrddin kingdom died, they decided that I was to be Supreme Ruler of Myrddin.”

  “Why did you start sending armies into Mother’s territory?” I asked.

  He smiled at me. “Because I wanted revenge. I managed to conquer much of her territory, did you know that?”

  I shook my head.

  “It was a bit of closure for me when she came to me, begging for peace. I agreed, only after she agreed to let me have half of the land I conquered. You know what is most ironic, Nosferatu?”

  “What?” I asked.

  “I don’t believe she even knows who I am.”

  * * * * *

  After a while, Mother asked to meet my friend. Of course I had never told her his identity; doing so would have made things very uncomfortable at home. I did not live with her, but I was expected to be there often. And when she told me to invite my friend for dinner, I was at a loss. I did as I was told, and hoped that they didn’t try to kill each other.

  Later that day, when I walked into my Mother’s dining room with Mathias, I thought the house would fall in around us. Her black hair was pulled up from her face with rings of curls surrounding it. Her green eyes were bright, and she was dressed in a simple white shift that both covered her body and exposed it. The fabric was a thin silk, and it completely outlined her figure, leaving nothing to the imagination. At first, she seemed so livid she couldn’t think, but she seemed to calm herself enough to carry on.

  “Mathias, I bid you welcome to the home of the empire of Lilitu,” she said.

  Mathias smiled and offered her the bottle of wine he’d brought along. “Thank you, your eminence.”

  We sat down to dinner, gently indulging in the first course, which was my favorite being a pomegranate sweet.

  My mother kept looking at Mathias, almost as if she thought she knew him from somewhere before. Mathias met her eyes. A connection of sorts occurred, and it was as if I ceased to exist. They began to speak in a strange language I had never heard before. Annoyed with the progression of the evening, I cleared my throat.

  “Nosferatu, darling. I apologize,” she said. “I suspect I had better explain.”

  I glared at her, impatient and tapping my fingers.

  “I figured out that I knew Mathias from before,” she said.

  Mathias sat quietly, an amused look on his face.

  “Yeah, Mathias already told me he was once your son.”

  Mother laughed slightly. “No, Nosferatu. I’m talking about even before that. Mathias and I were some of the first angels created. You know about it. I’ve told you about it before.”

  She had, but I didn’t know it was her and Mathias. My Mathias.

  * * * * *

  Mathias sat up and set the book down on the table. Is this who they really think I am? In a way, he hoped not. This Mathias seemed kind of an asshole.

  He groped around and popped a grape into his mouth. It was a lot to think about. Why did Nosferatu and Vlad even like this guy anyway?

  “Nosferatu told me to read the book. Guess there’s something in here I’m supposed to know. I hope this isn’t some weird idea to try to get me to “remember” my past life.”

  Mathias picked up the book and once again dove into the story of “Mathias”.

  * * * * *

  Things were good for a while. Mother, and her consort, Lestan, had a child whom they named Stuart. Mathias was fascinated with the child, but unfortunately, Lestan was jealous of Mathias. He thought that Mathias was trying to steal Lilith away from him.

  Mathias was unaware of Lestan’s feelings and continued to come over to the house and spend time with Stuart and I. He was finally where he belonged— with the woman who was once his mother.

  One evening, Lestan and Lilith had an argument. Lestan repeatedly tried to get Lilith to admit that she was having an affair with Mathias, but she wasn’t. She tried telling him that she simply cared for Mathias, nothing more, but he didn’t want to listen. In her eyes, Mathias was the child she lost; it was Lestan that she loved romantically. But her explanations didn’t stop Lestan from starting a confrontation.

  Mathias was playing with Stuart and was bending over his crib, tickling the infant’s feet. When Lestan walked in, after just having his argument with Lilith, he misinterpreted the scene. Somehow, he thought that Mathias was hurting Stuart instead of playing with him. Without any warning, Lestan attacked.

  I ran into the room as soon as I heard the noise. If something wasn’t done soon, they were going to rip each other apart. I tried to step between them, but was tossed to the side by Lestan. Mother, never liking to see me hurt, tried to stop them. But in the midst of it all, Mathias accidentally struck her instead of Lestan. She was slammed against the wall and knocked unconscious.

  By the time she woke, Mathias was preparing to leave.

  In the meantime, Lestan was waiting until Lilith woke and lied to her, saying that Mathias had touched Stuart inappropriately. That was the reason that he gave Lilith for the fight.

  Maybe it was all the stress, or maybe it was the unspent rag
e she kept inside, but either way, she went insane. I heard her raving about how Mathias was the supreme source of evil in the world, and she knew that the Father wanted her to blot him out. She then stormed into the sitting room and forced me to leave her home because I “brought evil into her house.”

  Mathias and I fled to his lair which was in a cave he kept in the Balkans; the same cave where he had explained his childhood to me.

  We managed to hide there for several weeks, but eventually, she found us.

  The evening was uncommonly cold. Mathias and I were sitting on his sofa in front of a fire, enjoying a fine glass of brandy when the front door was blown off its hinges. Everything happened so fast. I turned to see my mother standing behind the remains of the door— eyes blazing.

  Before it really sunk in what had just happened, she was upon us. She stalked him like a cat hunting a mouse. I had never seen anything like it before. I wish I could have helped and done something, anything, but she froze me with her gaze. She managed to overpower him and dragged him out of the cave.

  I was both hurt and confused. Why did she do this to me? I had no way to gain an explanation. It took everything within me to try to figure out why Mathias let her overpower him. Later, I came to the realization that Mathias had been so hurt by Lilith and Lestan’s accusations that she was able to overpower his mind. I could only think that maybe he just remembered his previous life and how she had abandoned him and left him to burn. I imagine that he also must have thought about how she rejected him when he’d sought her out.

  I think that she must have truly believed the lie that Lestan fed her. And it was that and how Mathias died, when I ceased to think of Lilith as my mother.

  * * * * *

  Lilith jailed Mathias in a cell. Where it was, I honestly do not know. All I do know is that Stuart described it as a dark place with moisture coating the walls. It must have been, at one time, part of a castle dungeon. Bars lined one wall of the enclosure and Mathias was held behind them.

  She threw him into the barred room, clanked the door shut, and screamed at him for hours. Once she was done screaming, she left. Stuart remembered Mathias saying that she didn’t return for a solid week. When Lestan tried to get her to let Mathias go, she almost ripped his wings off. So he did nothing.