Tail of the Devil Read Online Free PDF

uniform. And again, Master Tepes seemed to read his mind. Mathias felt a strange probing in his brain, a probing he could not see.
    “Mathias, you will have regular clothes. You are completely unfit for a classroom environment. Mostly because the moment one of the children makes you angry, you will become violent. I understand; you are used to that. You’ve had to learn to do it to survive, but we cannot have that here.”
    He stopped in the middle of the hallway. “How did you know what I was thinking?”
    Master Tepes stopped and turned seeing the anger in the young man’s eyes. “I apologize, Mathias. It is something that our kind is rather adept at. Remind me to teach you to block your thoughts before the day is out. Now, may we continue?”
    Mathias decided not to fight any of it. It was better to go along with things for the time being. So, he allowed himself to be led down another maze of hallways. It was all so different. He never felt so out of place in his life, and at this point, that was saying something.
    * * * * *
    After getting some clothing that fit from the tailor, Master Tepes led Mathias back to his office.
    “Just wait out here, Mathias. I need to make a call that I forgot about.”
    “You mean you can actually forget something?” Mathias asked, smirking.
    Master Tepes smiled. To Mathias, it looked kind of friendly, but he’d learned not to necessarily trust that.
    “Give me a few minutes and I will show you your quarters.”
    Mathias nodded and watched the great door close without the Master even touching it. “It’s gonna be cool to learn how to do that.”
    Suddenly, he heard a roar. Wind hit him so hard that his wings blew backwards. He looked around, but saw nothing. It was odd. Wind wasn’t supposed to blow at random moments indoors, but then, he had to wonder if there was anything normal about this place. He felt something coming toward him. Dread crept up his spine. His heart hammered in his chest. Some sort of suppressed instinct was telling him that bad crap was coming. He readied himself.
    And then the wind stopped. In front of Mathias, there stood two young men who looked to be around his age. The taller of the two seemed to be in charge. He had a presence, like he knew he was better than everyone else. They were both dressed in the school uniform, which was opulent enough, but he could tell from the snobbish expressions on their faces that both probably had money.
    “The first rule here is that the lesser look only at the feet of their superiors,” the tall one said.
    Never one for rules, Mathias glared into their eyes. “And who the fuck do you think you are?” he asked and crouched down with his hands up in front of his face in case he had to fight.
    The tall one looked shocked. Mathias guessed that the kid had expected him to cower or something
    He was blonder than anyone Mathias had ever seen, except maybe that elf guy from those Peter Jackson movies. “I am Konstantin Nikolayevich Karsavin, of the Moscow Karsavins. If you were not a member of the lower class, you would know what that name means.”
    Mathias allowed the taller boy to push him. The kid didn’t understand that death was staring him in the face.
    * * * * *
    His mind flip-flopped. Instead of this Karsavin guy in front of him, he remembered Timmy, Rick, and Claire. His own bullies. His cousins. Mathias couldn’t imagine how they were related, but they were.
    * * * * *
    Mathias was sitting outside, his back up against a tree. There was a dog pen beside the tree. The dog inside it was a scruffy old thing with fur that was a mixture of brown, white, and tan. Mathias didn’t know what type of dog he was, just that he was a mutt. Timmy, Rick and Claire hurt the animal, and Aunt Annette allowed it. Mathias was starting to feel like he had more in common with the dog than his relatives. There was no escape.
    He stuck his fingers through the box wire of the dog fence.
    “Here boy.” Mathias said softly.
    The dog