Free The Devil's Liege (The Mathias Saga Book 2) by Danielle DeVor Page A

slow. And, besides, he didn’t want Vlad to haul him back to the infirmary.
    Finally, when they got back in Vlad’s rooms, Mathias noticed that the books he’d been working on were gone from the table. He didn’t remember blinking them anywhere. In fact, he didn’t remember much of anything.
    Mathias looked at Vlad. “Where are they?”
    “Where are what?” Vlad guided Mathias to a chair at the table. He let him. It was easier. Plus, Mathias wasn’t really all that sure how much longer he could stand without falling on his ass.
    Mathias sat. “The books.”
    He couldn’t say much else. The pounding in his head was too great.
    Vlad patted him on the shoulder. “In your room. I know there is no way to get to you rest for a week.”
    Mathias raised an eyebrow. Maybe the man knew him better than he realized.
    “So,” Vlad said as he sat down across from Mathias. “Stuart is meeting with Azazel. He has a lot of experience finding escaped prisoners. Perhaps one of his methods will work to our advantage.”
    Mathias readjusted in the chair. He didn’t really know how to respond to that. At least they were doing something. “I’m going with him to find Nossy.”
    Vlad sighed. “I expected as much. Do me a favor?”
    “What?”
    “Try to keep yourself alive. We didn’t go through all of this for you to die in some horribly stupid way.”
    Mathias bit his tongue. If he argued much more, Vlad would change his mind. For now, he was getting what he wanted. Best just go with it and not antagonize the elder vampire any more. Besides, anything to hold this up would really hurt Nossy. “All right,” he said. “I’ll rest. Just keep me posted on what they come up with.”
    Vlad nodded. “Of course.”
    * * * * *
    Stuart made his way down to the dungeon. He didn’t mind the trip all that much. Places he frequented in South America were much worse. The smell really wasn’t all that bad. Azazel, at least, kept it clean, so foul smells were at a minimum. It reminded him of a barn, to be honest.
    He stepped through the door to the dungeon. The halls were lined with torches. The cells were dim, but fresh hay lay on the stone floor. In the center aisle, the stone floor was swept clean of hay and had been recently sprayed down. Stuart could still see the moisture collected in the crevasses of the stones.
    “Azazel,” Stuart said. He didn’t want to make the dungeon master uneasy. It was better to announce his presence.
    “Hold on,” Azazel called from somewhere that made him sound muffled. Where that could be, Stuart didn’t know. It wasn’t like there were a lot of hiding places in Azazel’s domain. Finally, he came out from behind a wall.
    “What were you doing?” Stuart asked.
    “Inspecting the shackle supports.” Azazel pulled leather work gloves off his hands. “Standard procedure. After every prisoner leaves, I inspect everything and make sure it’s ready for next time.”
    Stuart fought not to twitch. The dungeon master was so weird. It wasn’t the preparations that he was making that made Stuart feel off, it was the glee with which he did them. He felt a shiver creep up his spine and his wings twitched anyway. “Not that you’ve had any, but do you have a way to track escaped prisoners?”
    Azazel smiled. “Yes, but it isn’t pretty.”
    “It doesn’t have to be,” Stuart said. He thought for a minute. This was looking like their best shot. Pretty or not, they needed to do something. “Follow me.”
    “Where are we going?”
    Stuart smiled. “We are going to see the king.”

     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Six
     
     
    Mathias stayed seated at the table. Light was shining fully through the windows now. Day two of Nossy’s kidnapping. It would probably have been better to lie down, but he didn’t feel like it. Not yet. Not when there was still so much to do. There was no way he was going to miss the information with Azazel, even though Vlad had offered to tell him everything. He’d been down