“She could have taken me out-right then!” He never made mistakes like that. His time as a child was making him soft. He needed to think more like a killer.
Vlad rubbed his hands over his face. “Mathias, she isn’t going to take you out.”
Mathias shot a glare at Vlad. “How would you know? Talk to me when you’ve seen the things I’ve seen.”
Nosferatu planted himself at the table. “The both of you need to calm down. Nothing happened. Let it rest. Vlad, stop poking the boy’s bee’s nest. Mathias... Mathias, look at me when I’m talking to you.”
Mathias looked up.
“I think it’s high time you stop this childish fit. While what Vlad did was certainly sneaky, and not especially intelligent—“
He was not a child. If wasn’t like Mathias was the one acting like a buffoon half of the time.
Vlad snarled.
Nosferatu made a funny face at Vlad. “You don’t scare anybody.”
Vlad slumped back into his chair like a reprimanded four-year-old.
Nosferatu continued. “At any rate, Vlad did not mean you any harm. He wanted you to remember who you were. That is all. He just wasn’t smart enough to see that this wasn’t the best of situations.”
Mathias glared at Nosferatu.
“Don’t give me that look, Mathias. Your bizarre feud has gone on long enough. Now, I want you to enjoy yourself this evening, you hear?”
Vlad rolled his eyes. “Now, that was astute.”
“Vlad.”
“Yes, Nosferatu.”
“Shut up.”
He couldn’t take it anymore. Their bantering was just too ridiculous. Once he began laughing, he couldn’t stop. At least, not until he fell off his chair.
* * * * *
As the evening wore on, Mathias was surprised to find himself enjoying the entertainment. Dancers, acrobats, and musicians mingled with the revelers, giving a magical air to an almost normal party.
Over time, Mathias zoned out. The din of voices just blurred together for far too long. Then, he heard Vlad clear his throat in the center of the room.
“May I have your attention please!” Vlad said.
At once, the hall became silent.
“While I realize that this year has been especially plentiful, I still would caution you to enjoy what you have and not discount the achievements of the passing year. It is my hope that this coming year will be every bit as joyous as this one has been!”
The hall erupted in applause. Suddenly, Vlad turned to Mathias.
“Mathias, come up and say a few words to our people.”
Mathias felt the implied order. He had a choice, he could choose to appear like a spoiled brat, or he could choose to play along. This was a different world than the street. He chose to play along.
Carefully, he made his way to the center of the hall. As he passed, vampires from all over patted him on the back in encouragement. It was all he could do to keep from cringing. He stepped into the open space surrounding Vlad. He took a deep breath.
“I don’t really have much to say, I didn’t know I’d be making a speech.” Mathias took another deep breath. The clutch of vampires laughed.
“In the short amount of time I’ve been here, I’ve met a lot of good people.” Mathias paused. He knew that he had to be careful. “You’ve treated me, for the most part, like one of your own, and for that, I am grateful. I hope that the coming year turns out the way everyone hopes it will.”
Mathias stopped. The crowd was silent. From the back of the crowd, Mathias heard a somewhat familiar voice call out, “At least he’s honest!”
The crowd laughed again. The awkward moment was gone. Mathias found himself led back to the table by Nosferatu.
“You did rather well, you know.”
“I’m just glad that’s over.”
After awhile, Mathias was tired of watching older people dance. A few older women, who seemed to be simply drawn by who he was, tried to approach, but were stopped several feet from the table by a simple glare from Nosferatu.
In some ways, Mathias was thankful. The last thing he wanted was to be forced to play nice and answer the same questions over and over again. That left him sitting silently watching Nosferatu tap his nails against the crystal at his place setting. He was starting to wonder why he even bothered to attend this stupid party to begin with.
“Karsavin, surely this can wait until the morrow? I would like to enjoy myself this evening,” Vlad said loudly. Mathias could tell that Vlad was getting tired of all the BS.
Mathias looked up and saw Konstantin’s father standing in front of Vlad. Konstantin was standing a few feet behind his father, with a red face and looking as if he wanted to hide from the world.
“No, this cannot wait until tomorrow. I believe you have wasted the time of our children long enough. Do we even know that your precious boy is who you say he is? And for that matter, shouldn’t you be treating all of our children like royalty?” Karsavin grabbed Konstantin and dragged him forward. “Maybe my son would like private lessons with Prince Nosferatu. I’m sure many of the other families would like the same for their children.”
Vlad glared. “Fine. If you want to discuss such matters in a public forum, fine.” Vlad turned toward Mathias. “Mathias, would you mind humoring me for a moment?”
Mathias nodded slightly, got up from the table, and walked out into the center of the room where Vlad stood.
“Mr. Karsavin does not believe you are the reincarnation of our lost king. Do you think you could drop your shields for a moment, and let him see what you have seen?”
Mathias did one better. He allowed his shields to drop, and with it came the sweat down the length of his spine. This was his chance to show them what their glorious Queen was capable of. If he could instill some fear into this pompous ass, he was going to enjoy it. He opened his mind, letting all that he could remember about his past life flood his mind. Finally, he settled on one specific memory that would serve his purpose nicely. He grabbed a hold of Karsavin’s hand and tapped into his memories of the past. Soon, Mathias felt the tingle of energy spread through his body. He let the energy flow into Karsavin. Once the connection was made, he gave the scene to him, making sure that the memory of the pain went right along with it.
* * * * *
Again, he was strapped to the large flat stone in the center of the room that housed the cell. The smell of dampness, mold, and roses lay across him like a funeral shroud. It was heavy, and difficult to breathe through. Besides smelling her, he could just feel that she was there. And then, her footsteps pattered across the floor like the almost silent feet of mice.
In an instant, her beautiful, yet horrifying face loomed over his own. Her eyes were glassy with madness, and twisted in the cruelty of hate.
“I think today will be especially interesting.” The Queen smiled and leaned over the slab.
Mathias could hear the clanking of metal. It was about to begin again. If he was fortunate, it would be over with quickly, but nothing about him was lucky.
Before he could even blink, the Queen forced a sharp hook through the flesh of his side. He cried out, the pain rushing over him. He could feel the blood drip down his side where the hook had torn through his flesh.
“Now, now Mathias. Don’t start crying yet. We’ve only just begun. There is much more pain in store for you today. It would be wise to control yourself.”
Mathias felt cold sweat dripping down his body. He could feel the shock on his system taking over. Too bad it would never kill him. There was no relief in sight except the knowledge that the Queen’s stamina did not hold forever. She would get tired. It was just a matter of time.
And then, she laughed in her crazy way and she leaned over and licked the sweat from his brow.
Quickly, she forced another sharp hook through the flesh of his other side. Again, Mathias cried out- the hook had glanced off a rib.
“What happened to the strong warrior I used to know?” She ask
ed, a mocking tone in her voice.
Mathias heard her walk away from him and to the other side of the room. He heard heavy chain clanking along the floor.
“No!” Mathias struggled against the binds that held him, the hooks stretching his skin where they held him.
The Queen laughed and bent over him, placing her elbows on his stomach. “But why? You really are no fun at all, Mathias.”
She attached the hooks to heavy chains she had brought with her. The weight made the hooks pull his damaged skin to the point that Mathias wished his skin would just break, but it didn’t. All he could do was grunt at the pain.
“You know, Mathias. If you beg for forgiveness, I might decide to be merciful.”
Mathias knew it was a trick, but he couldn’t help himself. Her control of him was much too strong.
“Please,” he whimpered. “Please. I’m begging you. Don’t do this. I... I want to be forgiven.”
She laughed again. “Oh my.” She shook her head. “That wasn’t convincing at all, I’m afraid. It looks like you’ll just have to take today’s punishment.” She walked over to the pulley system attached to the chains and began to crank a large metal wheel. The chain began to pull Mathias from opposite sides, the hooks stretching his skin so far it felt like paper.
“I’ll do whatever you want! Please! No more!” The tears rolled down his face. There was no sympathy. There was no God, no Father. No one ever was there to save him, and he was completely unable to save himself.
He heard her chuckle diabolically. It was a dark sound, too dark. She roughly cranked the wheel until the hooks tore the skin from the sides of his body. Mathias howled. As he lost consciousness, the only sound that kept him company was her laughter, her evil laughter.
* * * * *
Karsavin collapsed to the floor once Mathias let go of his hand.
“My liege...” Karsavin said, looking up to Mathias from the floor. “Forgive me for my impertinence.”
Mathias rolled his eyes and held out his hand to help the elder vampire up from the floor. Karsavin refused to take it. The fear in his eyes was knowledge enough. Karsavin got himself up off the floor. Once he was standing again, Mathias could see the tears in his eyes. He patted Mathias on the shoulder in a comforting way.
“Now, what was that I heard you yelling about before I came over here?” Mathias asked. “Something about me getting special treatment? As far as whether I’m being treated like royalty, who knows, I wouldn’t. I think you know now what I’ve been through. Wanna trade? At this point I think I deserve something as mundane as private lessons, don’t you?”
Karsavin nodded slowly. “Again, Master Mathias, I apologize. My family and I will bother you no further.”
Mathias sneered as Konstantin’s father grabbed his son and led him out of the hall. He’d only given Mr. Karsavin a taste, but it had been enough.
He nodded to Vlad and walked away, back to the table he’d been sharing with Nosferatu. “I can’t deal with this anymore. I’m going upstairs and going to bed.
Nosferatu’s eyes took on a sad light. “What about your gifts?”
“I’ll open them tomorrow. It was what I used to do anyway.”
Mathias left the Great Hall quietly, keeping to the outskirts of the party. No one seemed to even realize that he had gone.
Chapter Thirteen
The next morning, Mathias was greeted with the smell of cinnamon in the air. He slowly opened his eyes, almost expecting to be back in his old house in West Virginia, back with his real family.
Every Christmas, his mother had simmered potpourri on the stove that made the entire house smell like cinnamon and pine. There was a small part that wondered that if he died, if he would even see them again. Instead of what he wished for, he saw the same dark room he’d slept in since coming to stay with Nosferatu. For a short moment, he longed for the warm room he’d had when he stayed in Vlad’s quarters, but he pushed that thought to the back of his mind.
He crept out of bed and walked to the door of his room. He placed his ear against the door and heard the sound of silverware clanking and the ringing of crystal. Something wasn’t what it seemed to be. He took a deep breath and opened the door.
A chorus of voices sang to him. “Merry Christmas, Mathias!”
He smiled when he saw Nosferatu, Vlad, and Lestan sitting around Nosferatu’s cozy little table enjoying Christmas breakfast. The smile still felt wrong though. He had nothing to give them in return, and because of that, he felt out of place. Mathias saw in their smiled that they cared for him. But, it wasn’t the same. There was no way he could be happy when the last people he shared Christmas with had been his parents before they died.
“Good Morning,” Mathias said. He sat down in the last empty chair at the table.
“We were beginning to wonder if you were ever going to wake up,” Nosferatu said, a silly looking grin on his face.
Vlad laughed. “Well, Mathias. I supposed the question would be, do you want to open your presents before or after breakfast?”
They looked at him expectantly. He spied the pile of presents stacked in the corner of the room. He walked over to the pile and threw himself to the floor in front of them. He was trying to force himself to get excited, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
The childish part of him knew that if he grabbed from the bottom, he’d create an avalanche, but maybe that would be enough to disguise his unhappiness. So, he grabbed the first present he saw at the very bottom and snatched it from the pile. The pile of presents crashed down on top of him.
“That’s what you get for grabbing from the bottom,” Nosferatu said.
Mathias just shook his head. He opened present after present. MP3 players, various game systems, books, and more clothes were only the beginning. His favorite present was an antique dagger with a golden hilt. Ironically, it had come from Vlad.
By the time he was finished ripping through the stack of presents, the paper was strewn all across Nosferatu’s chamber. The mess was kind of funny. It would have been funnier if it wasn’t so easy for Nosferatu to clean it up, but Mathias had to take what he could get.
The rest of the day passed by in a blur. He tried to ignore the sadness of the memories of his family, but it was hard. Without his parents around, Christmas just wasn’t the same. He didn’t have a choice but to make the best of it. His parents weren’t coming back, and there was no magic that would bring them back- even though he wondered if Nic would know how. Nic, after all, was an evil old wizard. Sometimes, Mathias wondered if he had anything to do with what had happened to him. He kept going back over everything that had happened with his aunt, with Lucretia and the time on the streets, but he came up with nothing. There was no way he could ask Nic for anything. Whatever Nic created would be evil, and not anything like his parents at all.
* * * * *
The Queen paced across her sitting room. She clutched a glass ornament in her hand. “How dare he.” She crushed the ornament. A shower of broken glass fell to the floor. “I cannot believe that he had the gall to show Nicolai Karsavin... My reputation is ruined!” She crumpled up the note that had been passed under her door only minutes before. It was good that she still had some supporters that had been at the celebration last night.
She grabbed a carved wooden chair from near her desk and threw it as hard as she could against the wall. The plaster of the wall exploded, leaving a gaping hole. The chair was a smattering of splinters.
“And my son, my own son betrayed me. All for that no good brat. I never should have allowed him into my house in the first place. Then all of this never would have happened.”
She sat down in another chair, panting. Her eyes red with rage.
“They will learn. Oh yes, they will learn.”
* * * * *
The day after Christmas, Mathias woke up with a claw being steadily pressed into his cheek. At first, he ignored it, but the pain gradually increased until Mathias thought the claw might go through his
cheek. His eyes popped open and he saw Nosferatu perched above him.
“Wakey, wakey!” Nosferatu scampered over to the window and pulled back the drapes, letting the bright sunlight flood into the room.
Mathias raised his hand to shield his eyes. “Jesus Christ! What is your problem?”
Nosferatu laughed. “You are the one who asked me to train you. We begin, today.”
Mathias slumped his shoulders. “Okay, I understand that part, but why jab a claw into my face?”
“To show you exactly how unprepared you are! Once I am through with you, your subconscious will be aware at all times. You will no longer be a... sitting bat!”
Mathias groaned as Nosferatu threw the covers from him. It was perfectly clear. Nosferatu wasn’t going to allow any mess-ups.
* * * * *
Mathias made the mistake of thinking that Nosferatu would go easy on him. It being the first day of training and all. But he was wrong.
He found the loose-fitting clothes, almost like black pajamas draped over a chair. He dressed and met Nosferatu at the door to his chambers.
“Ready?” Nosferatu asked.
Not really. “Yeah, I guess I am.”
Nosferatu pushed Mathias out the door and then walked quickly through the maze of hallways until they reached a part of the grounds Mathias had never seen before.
In front of him were various refined instruments of torture. There were pedestals with multiple arms coming from the center pole, and a apparatus that looked like someone could be strapped to it and then stretched- it wasn’t a rack exactly, just odd.
“Now, Mathias, for the rest of the month, this shall be your home. I will not fool you. Expect to ache, bleed, and break. Every time you think of quitting, remind yourself that your body no longer belongs to you, but to me. It is my instrument to tune and refine until I see fit to return it to you.”
Mathias stared. Standing in front of him was not the Nosferatu he knew. Gone was the goofy energetic vampire he knew. This Nossy was the evil twin, and Mathias was wondering what he got himself into. “Now,” Nosferatu said as he tapped a claw against his chin. “I suppose you’ll be wondering what comes first.” The vampire smiled. “Your first lesson is one of stamina. I expect you to do nothing but run until it becomes second nature to you. You will eat, sleep, train, and rest, all by my watch, do I make myself clear?”
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