H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set
Author: H.T. Night
Date: 2012-06-15 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Vampires; Paranormal; Paranormal Romance; Fantasy; Fiction; Romance; Supernatural; Horror
Description: Eight bestselling vampire novels from #1 bestselling author, H.T. Night, including: VAMPIRE LOVE STORYJosiah Reign is a lover and a fighter. Out for a simple jog, he happens upon a young woman who needs help. So Josiah does what he does best. He takes on her attackers...all five of them, in fact. Little does Josiah know that this one act of goodwill will introduce him to a very strange world, a world of dreams...and nightmares. THE WEREWOLF WHISPERERFor Josiah Reign, life as he knows it has been forever changed. In two shorts months he went from unbeliever to the "The Chosen" - savior of the M
Publisher: Smashwords Edition

H.T. NIGHT’S

8-BOOK VAMPIRE BOX SET

1. Vampire Love Story

2. The Werewolf Whisperer

3. Forever and Always

4. Vampires vs. Werewolves

5. Werewolf Love Story: Part One

6. Werewolf Love Story: Part Two

7. The Rise of Kyro

8. Bad Blood

by

H.T. NIGHT

Acclaim for the novels of H.T. Night:

“Vampire Love Story is a passionate story that is told from a refreshing perspective. This book was a blast. Night invents a brand new world for the Vampire genre. Great Job!”

—Summer Lee, author of Angel Heart and Kindred Spirits

“Vampire Love Story is a hip and timely vampire novel filled with real characters and some of the coolest vampires since The Lost Boys! You’re going to love Night’s completely original take on the supernatural.”

—J.R. Rain, author of Moon Dance and The Body Departed

“Night is a true story teller. Winning Sarah’s Heart is thoughtful and inspirational! I enjoyed the ride.”

—Elaine Babich, author You Never Called Me Princess and Relatively Normal

OTHER BOOKS BY H.T. NIGHT

The Fourth Sunrise

Romeo and Juliet: A Vampire and Werewolf Love Story

VAMPIRE LOVE STORY SERIES

Vampire Love Story

The Werewolf Whisperer

Forever and Always

Vampires vs. Werewolves

One Love

Divine Blood

Sons of Josiah

ENTWINED SERIES

Werewolf Love Story: Part One

Werewolf Love Story: Part Two

The Rise of Kyro

Loving Maya

Werewolf Without a Cause

VAMPIRE SUPERHERO SERIES
with Elizabeth Basque

Vampire Superhero No. 1

Vampire Superhero No. 2

Vampire Superhero No. 3

WINNING SARAH’S HEART SERIES

1. Episode One: Back to School

2. Episode Two: Boys Being Boys

3. Episode Three: Looking Good, Cody Greer

4. Episode Four: Saying Goodbye

5. Episode Five: Something Special about Silence

6. Episode Six: Junior High

7. Episode Seven: Finding Cody

8. Episode Eight: Lovesick Quarterback

9. Episode Nine: A Very Cody Christmas

WITH J.R. RAIN AND SCOTT NICHOLSON

Bad Blood

POETRY

Everlasting Love

SCREENPLAYS

Getting Yours

Jocks

H.T. NIGHT’S 8-BOOK VAMPIRE BOX SET

Published by H.T. Night on Smashwords.com

Copyright © 2012 by H.T. Night

All rights reserved

Smashwords.com Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Vampire Love Story

The Werewolf Whisperer

Forever and Always

Vampires vs. Werewolves

Werewolf Love Story: Part One

Werewolf Love Story: Part Two

The Rise of Kyro

Bad Blood

Reading Samples

About the Author

VAMPIRE LOVE STORY

Book #1

Published by H.T. Night at Smashwords.com

Copyright © 2010 by H.T. Night

All rights reserved.

(Author’s note: All characters depicted in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older.)

Dedication

I dedicate this novel to my family.

Acknowledgment

Special thanks to J.R. Rain and Sandy Johnston for all their help.

Vampire Love Story

Chapter One

I rolled over in my bed and looked at the time on my cell phone. It was 9:30 p.m. and my twenty-minute power nap had turned into a two-hour snooze. Oops.

I glanced out my bedroom window to check the weather conditions. It was completely dark with a lot of wind. Definitely not ideal jogging conditions, but it would have to do. I needed to get in a workout or Tommy was going to kill me for slacking off. My best friend, Tommy, often got on my case, which was ironic, because the guy was always getting into trouble himself.

I threw off my blankets and pushed myself out of bed. I gave one good yawn with a long stretch then plopped back on my bed. I knew if I didn’t run at this very moment, there was no way I’d run at any other point in the night. It was now or never.

I am a professional mixed martial arts fighter, and training to be the best has many drawbacks. The worst one, by far, is working out when my body is dead tired. The last thing I wanted to do tonight was exercise, but I knew I had to push past my desire to be lazy. Because right about now, grabbing a bowl of Cap’n Crunch cereal and flipping on an episode of CSI sounded a whole lot better than running the streets of San Bernardino in the dark of night.

There was a knock at my bedroom door.

“Come in,” I called out.

“You decent?” It was Tommy, and he was just outside my door. Not only was the guy my best friend, he was also my housemate.

“Would I say ‘Come in’ if I wasn’t decent?” I laughed.

The door swung open slowly, and there stood Tommy, wearing nothing more than a tiny towel, showing off his perfectly chiseled body. He motioned to his abs and said, “Maybe because you are secretly in love with this.” He flexed his stomach muscles and popped a sexy pose.

Damn, he was a clown.

“Save it for your girl groupies, bro. What do you want, Tommy?”

“I want to borrow some cologne. Is that cool with you?”

“Go ahead. They’re on top of the dresser.”

He clapped his hands and strode into my room over to my dresser where I had a collection of cologne. I had everything from Old Spice to high-end brands that cost a plenty penny in the nicer stores.

I watched as Tommy looked for his favorite. He was like a kid in a grocery store, trying to pick out a favorite cereal.

“So, what’s with the cologne?” I asked.

“I got a date with that box girl at the supermarket, and I want to smell real nice, if you know what I’m saying.”

“You finally got the nerve to ask her out?”

“It had nothing to do with nerve, brother. I finally wanted to ask her out. She’s been eye-balling me for years.”

I rolled my eyes and started to get dressed for my run. “So, it took you two years to want to ask her out? That’s the story you’re going to stick with?”

“You know me, Josiah. I like to take things slow before I go in for the kill.”

“That sounds very romantic,” I said.

“Kid, when are you going to realize that romance only gets you hurt in the end?” he replied. “I’m done trying to Don Juan my way around girls. I’m taking a cue from the wild animal kingdom.”

“You’re just going to jump on top of women and not even say hello?” I laughed.

“No. I’m just not going to waste unnecessary time making beds in a burning house.”

“Okay, that analogy makes no sense. Which is the burning house? The women or the romance?”

Tommy thought about it and then laughed. “It made a lot more sense in my head than it did out loud.”

“I bet it did. Where are you taking her?”

“I’m taking her to Murphy’s.”

“Wow, classy.” Murphy’s was the fanciest place to eat in San Bernardino. It had it all: ambiance, location, and hot female clientele. “You sure you’re not trying to romance this girl? I only take a girl to Murphy’s if she earned it.”

“She will,” Tommy replied.

“All I’m saying is you better keep your eyes on your date and not the waitresses.”

Tommy picked the cologne he wanted from the top dresser. Of course, the guy picked my favorite cologne, Drakkar Noir. He sprayed his upper body and both his legs and even lifted his towel to do a meticulous squirt inside the towel.

“That’s enough. You wear the cologne. Don’t let the cologne wear you.” I walked over and grabbed the bottle from Tommy’s hand. “Like I said, you’re all class.” I pushed Tommy out of my room. “Now get out, so I can get ready for my run.”

Tommy stopped himself and turned around. He looked at me seriously, which he rarely did. “Don’t run too far tonight. I’ve got a weird feeling.”

“You do?” I asked, legitimately concerned. Tommy’s feelings were eerie. I shrugged. “Okay, I’ll be careful. I’ll run to the college and back.”

“Get back in an hour and you’ll be fine.” Tommy thought for a second and then added, “Yeah, an hour will be fine. One more thing, Josiah, the Commission is going to let us know tomorrow who we’ll fight next month.”

Tommy was also a professional fighter, and good enough to be a contender for the title.

“I hope the Commission will give me a real fight this time,
I said. “Maybe I’ll have a shot to move up in the rankings.” The Commission tended to think I was still a cherry, and they were taking me along a lot slower than I wanted.

“Maybe if you didn’t wait till 10:00 o’clock at night to get in a workout, you would be ready to have better fights.”

I sighed. Tommy always brought up my workout regimen. Tommy and I couldn’t be more different when it came to our workout routines. Tommy’s workouts were epic. They made pro boxers’ workouts look tame. I, on the hand, have always gotten by on pure talent. I have an insane ability to fight and my instincts are off the charts. I got away with hardly working out, and finally, it has caught up with me.

“You know you and I will never agree on how I should be working out, Tommy. You should be pleased that I want to run tonight.” I paused, and then I asked, “What kind of fight are you looking for with the Commission?”

“I just need a tune-up before my title fight. I need to work out some kinks.” Tommy was fighting for the title in four months.

“You’d better hope the Commission gives you just a tune-up fight and nothing more. The last thing you need is to get hurt before your title bout.”

“I’m not going to get hurt; I’m 18-0! Remember that.” Here Tommy went again with his undefeated record. He wears his record like a badge of honor, even a braggart. It was quite amusing, especially when he brought it up in bars and tried to impress girls. Usually, they had never even heard of mixed martial arts.

Tommy seemed to forget I was undefeated, too, even though I didn’t work out nearly as hard as him. “You aren’t the only one who is undefeated,” I reminded him.

He stood at my doorway. “Yup, you sure are. Your little 4-0 record is very cute, Josiah.”

“I only have four wins because the Commission takes forever to give me a fight, unlike you, who they throw on the card every month.”

“What can I say? I’m an excellent draw. Chicks dig themselves some of the ‘Tom Man.’” Tommy was now starting to get full of himself, and that was my cue to kick him out of my room. Again.

“For the love of God, Tommy, just go on your date!” I shut the door in his face.

“Not cool, Josiah.”

“And neither is wasting all my favorite cologne.”

“Touché.”

I grinned at the exchange I just had with Tommy. I enjoyed his company. Having him around made my life easier. In our friendship, we took turns on who was the responsible one. Even though, Tommy is ‘a good’ five years older than me, people wouldn’t know it by how he behaved sometimes.

I peeled off my shirt, and I looked at myself in the mirror. I needed to lose around ten pounds before my next fight. Did I even have ten pounds to lose? I was six feet tall with very little body fat. I pinched my belly and grabbed as much fat as I could get. I got a decent handful.

Okay, maybe I did have ten pounds to lose.

I studied my face. It was clean, with few marks and scars, not like some of the other professional fighters I knew. The ones who had been in it for a while usually sported knots, bumps, scars, broken noses, busted cheekbones, and more. My own face was remarkably unmarred, considering I had never said ‘no’ to a fight in my life. In fact, I had been fighting off bullies since I was seven years old. My shiny blonde hair, as pretty as any girl’s, had made me a target for bullies who called me names and took their shots at me, thinking that my angelic appearance translated into an easy target for beatings. In those years, me, the pretty boy, had to fight my way into Respectville by pummeling the neverending parade of bullies. I got so good at defending myself on the street that I turned it into my lifework. I was a natural, really, growing from a much picked-on kid into professional fighter.

Nowadays, I looked more like a surfer than a mixed martial arts fighter. People often misread my casual beach bum look and underestimated me. That was a good thing. Interestingly, there’s something about the way I look that makes most guys want to start a fight with me. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I look as if I should be singing lead in a boy band or that I’m extremely confident. Anyway, there’s something about me that makes random strangers want to mix it up with me—constantly!

Too bad for them.

An ex-girlfriend once asked me why I love to fight. My answer was simple: Some guys were born to fix cars or play football. Some guys were born to be astronauts or to hit a fastball. I was born to fight. It’s the only thing in this world that ever made perfect sense to me. When I’m in a fight, time stands still. I see everything in slow motion. My brain goes into Good Will Hunting mode, and I’m able to quickly determine what I want to do to inflict the most damage to my opponent.

Anyway, I put on a pair of sweats, a t-shirt, and my running shoes. Once done, I headed outside the house that Tommy and I shared, and did some stretching next to the tall sycamore tree in the front yard.

I was still stretching when I heard a familiar kee-eeeee-arr cry from above. I looked up, and there was Daphne. Daphne was a beautiful red hawk that seems to have developed a fondness for me over the past couple of years. She made herself known each day by crying her distinctive call or sometimes a shrill chwirk sound while flying low enough, so I could see her. I still have no idea where she came from or why she seemed so interested in me. I named her Daphne one day after watching an episode of Scooby-Doo. They were both redheads, so the name seemed to fit her. I have been known to be partial to redheaded women.

“I’m off for a run, Daphne; try to keep up with me.”

I gave Daphne a wink and took off running. The beautiful bird let out an amicable loud chwirk as I headed down the street. At first, I went fairly slow with my run. Daphne followed me for about a block or two and then pulled back. I kicked up my heels and began to run at a faster pace. I quickly ran out of the neighborhood and headed for the main street that led up to Cal State San Bernardino. I liked running at the college. It was peaceful at night and, as long as I avoided campus police, I usually had no problems.

I turned left and headed down University Way toward the college. I could hear loud music, which meant that I was approaching the Gamma Phi Beta frat house. They always had a party going on, and this Thursday night was no different. Their frat house was a massive two-story white house that stood out like a sore thumb in a neighborhood that was filled with smaller houses.

As I ran toward the house, I noticed that the party was in full swing. Animal House style, there were a lot of cars parked out front, and people milling around outside in various stages of dress, undress, and loudness, depending on how much alcohol they had consumed. Music thumped from the open front door, with the bass so loud that the people inside were sure to go deaf for a couple of days. I hurried past the house, so I wouldn’t have to hear drunk frat boys yelling out things like “Run, Forrest, run!”

As I was about to pass the house without incident, underneath the thumping hip-hop, I heard a chilling scream. The scream was so distinctive and piercing that it made me stop in my tracks.

I turned around, and as I did so, I heard it again. It was coming from behind the house. The gate was open, so I walked toward it. I thought it could just be college girls having a good time, but then I heard it for a third time. This time, it was louder and more uneasy.

As I neared the back gate, I saw movement in a window. A young, dark-haired woman wearing a black dress was desperately opening a window. I picked up my pace, running now. She wrenched up the window, looked over her shoulder, and then jumped from the upstairs window.

Holy shit.

She dropped behind some hedges, where I heard her scream and crash through something wooden. She reappeared a moment later, limping badly and bleeding from fresh scratches along her face and elbows.

She and I reached the side gate about the same time. Amazingly, I recognized the girl. In fact, we had gone to high school together at Eisenhower. She was one of those girls who had been into Goth and had kept to herself in an emo way. I saw that she was barefoot, and her black dress was torn at the right shoulder. Blood oozed from the opening. Her jet-black hair was messy, and she appeared to have been crying.

I would be crying, too, if I had just jumped from the second floor.

I failed to dredge up her name from my memory bank. “Hey, Eisenhower girl!” I shouted, joyful that I remembered her at all. And then I demanded to know, “What the hell is going on?”

Chapter Two

The girl’s eyes met mine for the first time, and her initial reaction was to shrink away from me, but then they widened with what I could only describe as hope. “I know you!” She shouted at me. “Please! Help me, please!”

But before I could respond, she threw herself into my arms, nearly knocking me over. I tried to look at her face, but she held me tight.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Are you hurt?”

She released me and grabbed my arm. “Please, just get me out of here!”

“What’s going on?”

“Just get me out of here!”

“I don’t have a car. I’m on foot—”

“I don’t care! Just help me leave!”

I had just watched her jump from an upstairs window, and unless she was on a bad trip, she needed some serious help. But who was she running from? I wasn’t very good at this sort of thing, but then again, who is?

“Okay, then.” I grabbed her hand as we ran back around to the front of the house. The party was still raging. For the most part, her scream had gone unnoticed, although a few guys were watching me. Maybe they noticed her blood.

And just as we hit the front sidewalk, a plump redheaded guy, with flaming hair like a copper penny, vivid in that Carrot Top Thompson way, burst through the front door and down the porch, chasing us.

“Lena!” he screamed. “Where you going, baby?”

“I’m getting the hell out of here, Ron—or Ronnie—whatever the hell your name is. You and your friends can kiss my ass.”

I was still holding her hand. A crowd was gathering.

What the hell had I got myself into?

“Well, that’s what we were trying to do until you decided to be a tease,” the redheaded goon said. This guy was a piece of work. He had more freckles than any twenty-year-old man I had ever seen. He was heavy-set and could have used more time in the gym and less time drinking dark, imported brewskies at a frat party. The empty brown bottles littered the lawn. Damn, expensive stuff, too, that Carlsberg Elephant beer.

Ron smirked and started to walk toward us. Ron was about my height, but he outweighed me by seventy pounds. He looked like an oversized Raggedy Andy doll. Or, maybe a guy who ate an oversized Raggedy Andy doll.

“Don’t come near us!” Lena grabbed my arm.

“Who is this guy?” Ron said, and ignored Lena to point at me with his chin. Uh-oh. In fact, he walked right up to my face. I tried to size up the reach of his arms and legs, compared to mine, so I would know whose punch and kick would reach first. It wasn’t always all about technique or the size of the man, but the length of his limbs that also mattered.

I said, “I’m going to take her home.” I was unusually calm and in control. Deep breaths. I could feel myself flustering. I didn’t like guys coming up to my face and pointing at me with their chins. Big mistake on his part to assume that my surfer looks meant that I was a nice guy. I wasn’t.

“Who the hell are you?” Ron asked. He stepped closer to me. I could smell alcohol on his breath.

“Just go back inside,” I said to Ron. “Go back to your party. Chill.” I took a step back to appear less confrontational.

“And what if I don’t want to go back to my party? What if I am not in a chill mood?” Ron took another step toward me. A bigger step. An extraordinarily stupid step.

I looked at this guy. I would get kicked out of Mixed Martial Arts for even entertaining a thought to fight a guy who was this out of shape. And this drunk. I resolved not to throw the first punch or kick. It was the only way to protect my job, which I was more worried about protecting than my physical ass.

The guy let loose a burp, a very stinky roaring mega-belch that was permeated with imported beer fumes. Sheesh! The hops didn’t smell so good when they were already getting processed in a human being.

One problem: It was hard not to entertain punching a punkface like this into a pulp when you love to fight. And then taunted you by belching in your face and taking a fight stance, as piss poor as it was. To a professional like me, he was already toast. But, I again resolved not to throw the first blow. In a street fight, you never do that. Only in the ring. And then, only sometimes.

I felt my heart rate increase. Blood throbbed in my temples as my inner beast unfurled its fangs in wait. My left hand, my free hand, opened and closed. It itched to make a fist. It itched to connect with this douchebag’s speckled face.

“I asked you a question, Blondie.” And then he growled, “What if I don’t want to go back to my party?”

“Look, Spanky,” I said, taking a deep breath. “I’m sure there’s a whole plethora of girls inside just begging for you to slip them a roofie. Why don’t you just let us get out of here and then you can go back to raping and pillaging.”

“Raping and pillaging? Oh, you’re funny, back street boy. You’re not going anywhere. I took Lena to this party. If anyone’s taking her home, it’s going to be me.”

“I don’t see that happening,” I said. The throbbing in my temple increased. Adrenaline was flooding my bloodstream. “You seemed to have lost that privilege the second you and your frat buddies decided to commit a federal crime.”

“The last time I checked, it wasn’t a crime when a girl was asking for it.”

“So, that’s why her hair is messed up and she has a ripped dress.” I didn’t know if she had ripped her dress on the fall from the upstairs window, or if he had done it, but Ron answered my concerns soon enough.

“What can I say? I guess the bitch likes it rough.”

“You’re a fucking pig, Ron!” Lena yelled out.

“Look, whore, you know you wanted it, and you got scared once you saw how fat my cock was.”

My stomach turned. I stepped toward Ron. “Get the fuck out of here, you fat piece of shit.”

“And what if I don’t?” As he spoke, spittle flew from his mouth and hit my cheeks. I hate that. When someone spits on me, I usually lose my resolve not to beat the shit out of him.

I said, “Then this night will not end well for you.”

“Are you threatening me?” Ron bellowed.

By this time, twenty party celebrants in matching embroidered Gamma Phi Beta polo shirts with little alligator logos and tan Docker slacks had now made their way outside to see what the commotion was about. Among them were four or five of Ron’s frat buddies. His friends were of all shapes and sizes, none of them remotely intimidating. They walked over to us, eager to get in on the fun.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!” one guy chanted. Oh shit, but fighting was fun. Sometimes too much fun. Others egged on Ron by joining in the chant.

Anyway, now they stood next to him in a display of solidarity. Ron shouted to them, “This guy thinks he’s going to kick my ass.”

Ron had no idea what he was up against, obviously. If he had any street smarts, he would take in how I was holding myself. How I was prepared, at a moment’s notice to strike, and strike hard. Any fighter worth his salt knew immediately what he was up against, by the way his opponent held himself. Ron wasn’t a fighter. He wasn’t anything.

And he’s not worth getting suspended over.

I took in a lot of air. I had sized up my opponent and knew immediately what I was up against. Ron was doughy and out-of-shape. I could knock him out in seconds. His friends, on the other hand, might cause some problems if they decided to make this a group affair. I didn’t shy away from group affairs. I shied away, in fact, from very little.

I looked at his friends. Some looked cocky. Some looked confused. Most looked drunk. One or two of them were yelling for Ron to kick my ass. My best guess was that his friends were probably not going to jump, that they were going to allow this to be a fair fight, so I put all my attention on Ron.

Fair? I thought. You’re a trained fighter. There’s nothing fair about it.

Ron rubbed his soft-looking knuckles, sizing me up as I squared off in my own stance. He didn’t like what he saw. Now, I saw the fear in his eyes. Ron and I both knew he wasn’t tough. He was just big. A guy like this got through life barely fighting because he was usually bullying people into thinking he was tougher than he was. He couldn’t bully me, and he knew it. Tonight, he was about to be exposed for the fraud he was.

As he continued to stare at me, I said, “Look, Ron, I’m not falling in love looking at you this long. If you’re going to do something, do it. Otherwise, I’d like to make it home in time for Jimmy Kimmel.” I knew this would piss him off.

Ron continued rubbing his knuckles. He also continued not doing anything.

I gripped the girl, Lena’s, hand tighter. “All right,” I said. “Let’s go, Lena. Ron is apparently a nice guy and is going to let us leave.” I turned around and let go of Lena’s hand, knowing Ron would push me in the back, and sure enough, Ronny boy didn’t disappoint.

Like I said, when I get into a fight, things always go in slow motion for me—and they did so now. The moment I felt Ron’s hand on my back, I whirled around and grabbed his hand. Ron wasn’t prepared for me to turn. I’ve been told my reflexes are off the charts, my anticipatory skills are unrivaled. I credit it all to the slow-motion thing. How it works, I don’t know, but the world seems to slow down around me while I go to normal speed. So, while Ron’s eyes widened in fear as he saw me spin around, he was helpless to do much about it. I grabbed his right hand and pulled him forward using his own momentum. Ron stumbled forward and hit the side of an oversized SUV parked on the street near us. He bounced off the door and fell straight to his ass. I heard chuckling from the crowd.

Ron got to his feet slowly, watching me. People were still laughing behind us, and I could see that their laughter was making Ronny-Boy increasingly angrier. There was a red mark on his forehead where it had bounced off the side of the SUV.

And that’s when he charged at me in a clumsy, uncoordinated motion. I wasn’t sure if he would try to punch me or grab me. Regardless, I turned my body to the left and got into a perfect position to throw a vicious uppercut with my right hand. And that’s what I did. My punch landed directly on his chin, and Ron flew backwards onto the sidewalk, landing hard on his ass and back, his head bouncing off the concrete like a basketball. To my utter surprise, he scrambled quickly back to his feet, where he stared at me unsteadily. I think his eyes might have crossed a little. He staggered once, twice, and then fell backward.

I looked over at Lena. Her eyes and mouth were wide open. I couldn’t tell if she was scared or excited. Then she pointed, and I turned quickly and saw four of Ron’s frat buddies surrounding me. I’ve been jumped before. Being jumped isn’t a big deal if you know how to fight, and there are no weapons involved. As far as I could tell, these guys were packing nothing but their soft fists. And since the crowd was composed of a lot of women, the guys would be less inclined to fight dirty. At least, that has been my experience. Then again, these were the same scumbags who had just tried to hurt Lena, so all bets were off.

The group backed up a little. And once again, I marveled at my propensity to get into fights. Some guys attract money and girls. I attract fists.

The guys were staring at each other, trying to decide what to do. They were waiting for a signal. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of them nod, and I thought: Here they come.

And they did, all four charging me at once. Except, of course, they charged at me in slow motion, my brain once again slowing things down like it always did. The first two guys tried to throw punches in the direction of my head. I easily ducked and sidestepped and gave a sharp left cross to the guy on the right—and broke his nose on contact. Blood spurted down his face and over his shirt, and he screamed and fell away. One down. Three to go.

Nearly simultaneously, I gave the second guy, coming up behind me, a back kick that hit nothing but manhood. He fell to the ground, holding his gooseberries. Two down. Two to go.

The next guy jumped on my back. I threw him over my shoulder, and he landed on the guy with the bloody nose. Three down. One to go.

The last guy just charged me like a football player. I took a step back and gave him a high kick to the chin that made him stagger back. He came at me again and I gave him a four-punch combination, with my last hit breaking his nose. All were down.

My adrenaline was pumping, and I felt as if I could do this all night. By the looks of it, these four couldn’t. They were done. Unfortunately, the Gamma Phi Betas brothers weren’t. The whole fraternity—or at least what was left of them— surrounded me. There must have been twenty-five guys out there. I was good, but I wasn’t that good.

I was about to say something that would call attention to how unfair the numbers were, when something excruciatingly painful exploded in the middle of my back. I fell to my knees and then to the ground. I turned around, and sure enough, Big Red Ron was standing there holding a baseball bat, sporting a shit-eating grin. He raised the bat again.

I hate when that happens.

Chapter Three

Ron looked like a kid ready to hit the crap out of a piñata. He was the deranged kid and I was the piñata. Already, I figured he had done some serious damage to me. He had either chipped my vertebrae, or ruptured my kidney, or both.

As he wheeled back to take another swing, and as I was about to dive under the nearby SUV, we both heard a commotion coming from down the street. He stopped in mid-swing, and I stopped in mid-dive, and promptly coughed up some blood.

And while I coughed, a van appeared around the corner, screeching on two tires. Three guys in black trench coats hung out of the open van doors, whooping and hollering at the top of their lungs. I had just propped myself up on a knee when the van burst over the curb. It bounced and skidded to a halt, tearing up the lawn next to me.

You have got to be kidding me. What the hell did I just get myself into?

All of the doors to the van seemingly opened at once, and three guys poured out of the van, all wearing trench coats and looking as if they had just gotten back from a Marilyn Manson concert. Oddly, they looked alike: tall, pale, and with long, greasy black hair.

I coughed, and more blood came up. I stood slowly. I think Ronnie boy had cracked a rib, too. As I stood, I felt a gentle hand under my elbow, helping me. Say what? I looked, surprised, wanting to know who it was. Lena! She smiled at me, but the smile quickly faded. Her eyes flashed a warning in the direction of the death rock trio.

As I steadied myself, the tallest of the van freaks—easily seven feet tall—rushed over to Lena, who was still holding my arm. He grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. She pulled me with her a little, and I spun, too, nearly falling.

The giant weirdo said, and none too politely: “What the hell are you doing at this meathead party? I warned you to stay away.”

She stood her ground, looking up at the guy. “You think I wanted to come to this party, Atticai? One of these assholes drugged me at the club, kidnapped me, and brought me here.”

A woman got out of the driver’s side of the van. She had dark reddish-maroon hair and was paler than all the guys put together. She was stunning. She too, wore all black, but it looked like a jumpsuit, and she had a bull whip in her hand. She cracked it in the air for effect, not hitting anyone, but it was one of the sexiest things I had ever seen. Hot damn. This night was just getting better and better.

“They drugged you?” asked the tall guy. Atticai, I assumed.

But before she could answer, one of the frat guys yelled out, “Hey, Freak Show! Get your fucking van off my lawn or I’m calling the police.”

“Who said that?” Atticai said, scanning the crowd, which was pretty easy for him to do, since he was the tallest guy I had even seen up close.

A real muscular guy came forward. “I did,” he said. “Now get your fucking van off my grass or I’m going stick my foot deep in your bony ass.”

Atticai turned away, ignoring him. He took both of Lena’s shoulders in his abnormally large hands. “Did they hurt you?”

Lena looked away. There were tears in her eyes. Hell, there were tears in my eyes, too. “Almost.”

I looked at Ron. He was standing with his back to me, holding the bat loosely, completely absorbed by the three strangers. My back throbbed to the rhythm of my heartbeat.

The tall guy said, “So, which one of these young men thought it would be okay to drug a young woman and take advantage of her?”

Without hesitation, Lena pointed at Ron, who stepped back a little and gripped his baseball bat. “Hey, man, I don’t know what she’s talking about.”

“Of course not,” said Atticai. “Lena, get in the van and shut the door.” He looked back at Ron. “My little ginger-haired friend is going to be taught the correct way to treat a lady.”

Lena grabbed the tall guy’s hand. “Atticai, please. Someone already took care of it. Just let it go.”

Ron, hearing this, took a step back. He also raised the bat again. Atticai continued looking at Ron. “Yes, I can see that someone did some damage to the boy.”

“Who are you calling boy, punk?” Ron jutted the fat part of the bat in the direction of the tall figure.

Atticai’s face hardened. He looked back at Lena. “Get in the van. Now.”

Lena looked at me one more time, tried to smile, and then hurried over to the van. I want to say something, but I’ll admit, I was awkwardly caught up in the scene. Besides, Lena seemed to know these weirdos and didn’t seem afraid. Or, at least, she seemed less afraid.

I had been in enough brawls to know that one was about to go down, and I was pretty fought out for the evening. Getting hit in the back with a bat has a way of doing that to you.

I told myself: This is none of your business. Leave now before this gets ugly.

Easier said than done. For now, it was all I could do to suck in a deep breath, let alone walk away. Besides, there was the small matter of a little payback.

Let it go, I thought. And get the fuck out of here.

“So, you play baseball, Fatty?” Atticai asked to Ron. From somewhere deep inside the tall man’s trench coat, he removed a length of chain.

A woman in the crowd gasped. A lot of people did. Lena was watching from the front seat. She looked sick.

Ron dropped the bat. “Look, no harm, no foul. You guys can just go.”

“Oh, we can?” Atticai began circling Ron. The chain hung limply from his long arm. “How very generous of you.”

“Please—”

“If only life could be so simple, Red.”

“My name is Ron.”

“Thanks for clearing that up, Red. So, you met a pretty young girl at a bar, slipped something in her drink when she wasn’t looking and thought that you and your buddies would do the unthinkable to her. But, somehow, your plans didn’t quite go as planned.” Atticai smiled at his little play on words.

Ron gulped audibly.

Atticai continued circling Ron. The gaunt figure, easily a head taller than the cherub-faced Ron, looked at me and caught my eye. He nodded perceptively, and I understood the meaning. He was thanking me. Atticai looked back at Ron. “Unfortunately, for you and your sick plans, you didn’t count on others helping her. You sick rapist fucks never figure that in... that some people truly love these girls who you hurt.”

“Look, man. I’m sorry. I didn’t do anything. You can even ask her.”

“I don’t need to ask her. You want to know why? I can see through you. I can see your heart. I can see your soul. And you know what? You aren’t a righteous person. So, that is why I’m going to finish giving you the beating that someone else started.”

Ron faded to a whiter shade of paleness that was so light that his freckles stood out like black polka dots on his skin. Then again, that could have just been a play on light. Either way, he started walking backwards—and promptly tripped over the garden hose. He screamed as if he had been shot, scrambled to his feet, and made a mad dash toward the front door of the house.

Atticai watched him with a bemused expression on his face, and I thought that was going to be it. Ron would run to his room, and everyone would disperse, and I would limp my way home.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The tall man swirled his long chain like a lasso and what he did next defied logic and reason. He threw the chain, which whipped through the air, humming as it went. The chain wrapped around Ron’s legs perfectly and the burly dope pitched forward onto the house’s concrete steps. My mouth had barely dropped open, when this Atticai character somehow, miraculously appeared on top of Ron.

Then Atticai opened his mouth, and in the ambient street and house light, I could see that he had filed down his teeth. What the hell? A second later, he buried his teeth and face into Ron’s neck. Ron screamed like a girl. Someone else screamed, too. Ron kicked once, twice. More people screamed.

Was I being Punk’d? Was this happening?

A moment later, Atticai pulled his face away—a face now covered with blood. Ron laid perfectly still, with blood pouring down his neck; his blood splashed over the concrete stairs.

This was real. The seven-foot tall freak fucking bit into fat boy’s neck. And in front of a crowd of people. Unbelievable!

Atticai casually picked Ron up by his neck, lifting him entirely off the ground. Ron’s legs dangled like a five-year-old’s. And with a primeval growl, the tall freak threw Ron off the stairs and into the bushes nearby.

And that’s when complete pandemonium broke out.

Chapter Four

Most of the party goers took off running, but there were some unfortunate bastards who stood their ground trying to defending their frat house turf.

Like I said, unfortunate bastards.

The three guys in trench coats were moving so fast that they appeared more of a blur than anything else. I was beginning to wonder if I had been the one who had been slipped a “roofie.” Anyway, time skipped a bit. One moment, the tall, freaky guys were here. And the next, they were over there. In a blur, a blink, and sometimes, even instantly. Since I no longer had a dog in this fight—not to mention that I was seriously questioning my sanity—I decided to duck behind the Jeep and see how this all played out.

And then get the hell out of here.

The red-headed woman had now joined the three trench coats. All four, as best as I could tell, were laying beat downs with their chains and whips in a scene that could only be described as surreal, and one that made movie prison riots look tame. No one here had a chance.

The red-headed woman, who had just disposed of a man twice her size by throwing him hard against a tree trunk, suddenly stopped and looked straight at me. I wanted to duck, but it was too late. Her eyes narrowed and then she did something unexpected. She nodded slightly and motioned with her head. I frowned and was momentarily overcome with an impression that she recognized me somehow, although I was damn sure that I had no clue who she was. She motioned with her head again, and my foggy, dense brain finally understood the gesture. She wanted me to run!

Well, that sounded like a hell of a good idea, and so that’s what I did. Well, as I best as I could pull off. With a sharp pain ripping through my injured back—and pain that was eclipsed by a powerful surge of adrenaline—I bolted down the driveway.

And that’s as far as I got.

Before I could even get to the sidewalk, one of the trench coats guys had tripped up my feet. I fell to the ground. I tried to fight him off, but it was no use. He had the strength of ten men. He was impossible to move. I was a world-class mixed martial arts fighter, and this Goth dude was keeping me down? I rolled over, and he bit down on my neck. What the hell was this crazy asshole doing?

He was freaking biting into my neck! Really?

I had been in at least two hundred fights, in my life. Not one time did my opponent think that a smart move was to bite my neck.

I tried fighting him off, but it was no use. With everything I had—and using every wrestling technique Tommy had ever taught me—I broke his grip on me and heaved him off me. All in one motion. And as he went spinning and stumbling, I leaped to my feet and grabbed my neck. He regained his balance and turned and faced me, eyes wide with wonder and confusion. He didn’t plan on me being that strong. It was if that would be the first time anyone ever got the best of him.

I looked at my hand. There was a small amount of blood on it. “What the fuck did you do that for?” I said to the man who just took a bite out of my flesh.

“You should have never come,” he hissed, and lunged toward me again, his mouth wide. This guy also had his teeth filed.

What the hell was going on? They all had some crazy vampire fetish.

I landed a punch that did him little harm, although it slowed him down some. He shook off my blow and kept coming at me. The blow that I had landed would have laid out most people. People being the operative word here.

And in a move that would have made any MMA fighter proud, he grabbed my hand in a blink and pulled me forward. The movement was so sudden and powerful that I lost my balance. He yanked me again and now I pitched forward onto the grass. Not the world’s most graceful take-down, but it worked. Not to mention he still had me by the hand, which he had yanked awkwardly behind me.

Awkwardly and painfully. Too painfully. I turned my head and saw that the son-of-bitch had bitten down on my wrist. I tried to free myself, but I was in a hell of a twisted position.

He bit down harder, tearing away some of my skin.

This man was now drinking the blood from my wrist. I could see the crazy motherfucker swallowing my blood. I looked toward the grass, and the other two guys were biting their victims, too. I began to feel faint.

“Don’t hurt him, Wyatt!” a voice shouted, in the night. It was hard to be sure from where, exactly. Blackness had seriously started encroaching along the edges of my vision. The voice might have been coming from the van. “He’s the only one who helped me!”

And with that, the man let go of my wrist. My hand dropped, and I fell forward on my face. I was completely drained of all energy. I lost all desire to move.

As I laid there, feeling as if I had been attacked by a grizzly bear, I could hear the sounds of approaching sirens. I’m no stranger to sirens or even to being arrested. If you grow up as a street brawler like me, you get used to both; however, I was too weak to move.

Now, I seriously felt drugged, and my neck and wrist hurt like hell.

Suddenly, Atticai was by my side. He knelt down, which took him a heartbeat longer than most people, since he was so damn tall. He lowered his face to mine, and I was struck instantly by the strong scent of coppery blood on his breath. Indeed, blood was dripping in large globs down his chin. My stomach flip-flopped.

“Is this true?” Atticai asked me.

“Is what true?” I could barely muster out.

“Did you help Lena?”

“Yes,” I said. “Of course.”

He glanced over his shoulder to the others. “Then let’s get the hell out of here.” He looked back at me and grinned through all the blood. “And, you’re coming with us.”

Amazingly, he gripped the back of my shirt and lifted me clean off the ground. I found myself briefly dangling—and gasping for air—before he threw me into the back of the open van like a sack of potatoes. The rest of the freak show gang of blood suckers followed in behind me and the side door was slammed shut.

Wyatt, the same guy who tried to feast on my arm, started the van and threw it into reverse. Dirt, grass, and mud kicked up and soon the tires screeched rubber trails across the sidewalk and back onto the asphalt street. I heard it. I smelled it. Burned rubber, acrid against the metallic copper scent of their breaths in the van. There, Wyatt shoved the gearshift into ‘drive’ and the van literally squealed away, briefly slewing sideways.

Most of the seats had been removed from the van. The others freaks were hanging out the windows, bracing themselves against the madcap turns. Only Lena and the red-headed girl were looking at me. A brief thought ran through my head that I was in some sort of Scooby Doo horror flick in an alternate universe, or that I was having a pizza-induced nightmare, but the pain in my back, neck and wrist was so all-consuming that I knew it was real. I was hurt, bad. Me, martial arts professional, was nearly slayed by a baseball bat and a blood sucker.

I wanted to ask where the hell they were taking me—to a hospital?— but I was still weak and oddly drained of energy. I could not even speak. And so, I did the only thing I could think of. I closed my eyes and hoped that I would awaken from this terrifying nightmare.

Chapter Five

I must have passed out in the van.

When I next opened my eyes, the redheaded woman was half reclining next to me. She had my wrist in her hand and was swabbing rubbing alcohol on the bite marks from a first aid kit with a red cross on the container. “Does it hurt?” she asked.

“A little,” I said, not wanting to wuss out in front of her.

“Wyatt is terribly sorry for biting you. He thought you were one those pricks at the party.”

“Yeah, sorry about that, dude. That was totally my bad. I should have realized they were all wearing those matchy-matchy Izod polo shirts with their logo,” Wyatt said to me from the driver’s seat, without turning around. “I thought you were making a run for it.”

I had no idea how to respond to a guy who had just bitten my neck and drank blood from my arm. I’m sure my expression said it all. It was a cross between What the hell? And Seriously? You drank my blood?

Instead of answering, I turned back to the redheaded girl and asked, “Where are we going?”

She looked at me with a softness that was a complete one-eighty from what I had seen earlier, when she was whipping dudes into submission. “We’re headed to the Flatlands. It’s just north of Arrowhead.”

“We’re in the mountains?” I asked.

The girl nodded. “We weren’t about to stick around and allow you and Lena to get arrested.” She grinned a little. “We’re not complete monsters.”

Being arrested was nothing new to me. Then again, explaining the bite marks on my wrist and neck to the police might be hard to do. Yeah, it was probably best to get the hell out of Dodge. Then again, getting the hell out of Dodge with these weirdos might not have been my best choice, though. Not that I had much of a choice.

Atticai sat pressed up against the inside of the car door. With his long limbs bent sharply, he looked a bit like a giant praying mantis. He had his arm around Lena. A protective gesture. It reminded me of a father protecting his young daughter. Anyway, Atticai was staring at me, and it was making me feel extremely uncomfortable. I’m not used to feeling uncomfortable. I decided I didn’t like the feeling.

He stared at me for another few seconds and then asked, “Did you seriously beat the shit out of those five guys before we got there?”

I thought about his question. I wasn’t sure if the king freak would be impressed by that or threatened. Finally, I shrugged and said, “Yeah, I did.”

“With only your hands?” he asked.

“And my feet,” I said.

Atticai nodded. “Impressive,” he said. He was now stroking Lena’s hair, who sat impassively. I couldn’t see if she liked his touch or not. Anyway, he seemed to treat her more like a pet than a human being, which I found creepy as hell. He looked back at me. “So what’s your name?”

“Josiah.”

“Well, thanks, Josiah. I’m not sure what would have happened to Lena if you hadn’t stepped in.”

Was this guy for real? Was he truly acting this normal?

He and his buddies just finished literally ripping the flesh and drinking the blood of the party goers; he just sat there, calmly petting Lena, as if she was a pet cat. Austin Powers, he was not.

Something seriously strange and terribly wrong was going on here. And I was trapped in the van with the freaks from Gothville, still weak as hell from having my own blood feasted upon.

“What are you guys?” I ventured.

The third guy spoke up. “We might ask you the same thing. What are you?” he asked. “A superhero?” He sat in the front passenger seat next to Wyatt. He was as thin as the others and just as pale, but he had a Middle Eastern look to him.

I sat up a little more, feeling some of my strength coming back into my body. Or maybe I was just willing my strength to come back. The redheaded girl and Atticai were still staring at me. I guess I was just going to have to get used to these creeps looking at me and not talking. Granted, having a beautiful redhead staring at me was certainly not as creepy, but not by much.

I said, “Not a superhero. I just wanted to help Lena.” I looked over at her again. “We were acquaintances in high school.”

Now, she glanced at me and smiled, even while Atticai continued running his fingers through her hair. She had a zen aura about her now that she was obviously extremely safe.

Or maybe she’s just as freaked out as you, I thought. But I doubted it. She knew these people. And she wasn’t afraid.

“Well, you guys seemed to have things pretty well under control,” I said, purposely not mentioning the part where they also seemed to have enjoyed a late night snack. On blood.

Seriously. I worried about when they were going to tank up next. And on whom?

“No, really,” I said. “Who in the hell are you guys?”

The red-headed woman wrapped a bandage around my wrist. “My name’s Yari,” she said, taping on the bandage. Her touch was gentle, pleasant...and oddly cold. As if her fingers had been dipped in a bucket of chilled blood. The contradictory nature of all of these individuals was making my brain spin.

“Yari?” I asked, trying to pronounce it correctly. “Kind of like Tasha Yar from Star Trek? But with an ‘eee’ sound at the end?”

She smiled at me. She was incredibly beautiful. I felt like her bright, searching eyes could see right through me. “Yes...Yari, Y-A-R-I,” she spelled out. It rhymes with Atari.” She smiled.

As creeped out as I was, I smiled, too. “Wow! You made an old-school game reference. I’m impressed.”

“Oh, you have no idea how old school I am. Way older school than your Star Trek reference would indicate that you are.” She grinned, then flicked her gaze over to Atticai, who was still staring at me.

“The freakishly tall scary fellow here is Atticai.” She nodded toward the driver. “You already know Wyatt. And in the passenger seat is Hector. Hector likes to smile a lot and doesn’t say much.”

I nodded and tried to smile at everyone. I guessed introductions were in order, considering I was being kidnapped. Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

Wyatt suddenly turned the van hard to the right and hit the brakes. “We’re here.”

Atticai leaped into motion, his long limbs unfurling in a blink like some weird alien life form awakened from a space travel stasis slumber. He threw open the bay door, and he and Lena jumped out. I slowly followed with my bandage around my wrist and no doubt, a damn big hickey on my neck, compliments of Wyatt.

The Flatlands was a giant gravel parking lot that was surrounded by trees. We were obviously in the heart of the San Bernardino Mountains. The sky was lit up by stars that you just couldn’t see in the city, due to light pollution. There were several trucks and cars parked throughout the gravel area. Beyond the cars were fires and voices that belonged to many dark-clad figures. It appeared to be a giant party, a rave of some sort, except that everyone was dressed in black.

A freak convention, I thought. Of epic goth proportions.

There were bonfires everywhere and the sounds of old-school Suicidal Tendencies blaring. A quick scan and guestimate told me that there were at least a hundred or so of these “emo” characters in the gathering. I shivered, deprived of blood and still pretty shocky.

I was led over to one of the bonfires. Atticai still had his arm around Lena. He was still giving off this protective vibe when it came to her. It was surreal, to say the least.

Anyway, as we walked up, there was no doubt who was the alpha male in this group. A swath opened for him in the pressing crowd of black-clad bizarros, and he walked down the middle of it like a freaking king at his coronation. Everyone seemed to turn and watch him. I stopped at the edge of the fire with Yari and watched as Atticai took off his trench coat and then his T-shirt. He was pretty ripped. He was damn pale, granted, but the dude had some serious game in the abs department. His stomach looked as if it was carved out of alabaster by Michelangelo himself. No wonder Lena liked this guy. Even though he was a colossal freak, he was a man among pale, skinny boys in this adoring crowd. As he turned his back to me, I saw that he had a pretty strange tattoo covering the upper half of his back. It was, in fact, writing. Big, black Old English font letters spelled out the acronym, “C.O.N.”

Okay, whatever.

One of the guys at the party walked up to Atticai and handed him a wooden jug that looked like something out of 1800s. Atticai grabbed the jug and immediately jumped on the hood of one of the trucks and took a long drink from whatever was in the container.

He shuddered briefly then turned and looked straight at me. “Hey, Josiah! Want a swig?”

“What is it?” I asked from the other side of the fire.

“A little of everything. Tastes like shit, but that’s not the point.”

I was about to ask what the point was, but I decided I didn’t want to know. It was probably laced with God-knows-what. Whatever it was, I know I didn’t want it in my body. Not with my big fight coming up.

“I’ll pass,” I said. “I’m in training.”

“Training?” Atticai laughed. “Training for what?”

“For a fight I’m having next month. I’m a professional fighter.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep.”

“No wonder you kicked so much ass tonight. I didn’t realize I was in the presence of Muhammad Ali.”

“I’m not a boxer. I’m a mixed martial arts fighter.”

“You mean that crazy Royce Gracie crap?”

“It’s evolved since him, but, yeah. That is exactly the sport I’m in.”

Everyone at the party was now looking at me. They seemed impressed that Atticai was taking a liking to me. As if we were old friends or something. I still wasn’t sure what I thought about all this.

I was just about to relax a tad when someone shoved me hard in the back, my bat-beaten back. Again with the pain of great magnitude. I took a couple steps toward the fire and turned around and immediately dropped into a fighter position. Standing there was a bleached-blonde idiot about my size, staring at me.

“You think you’re a badass?” the guy asked.

You have got to be kidding me. Was I seriously about to have another scuffle?

This dude looked ridiculous. This guy wore a Danzig shirt and had several piercings in his face. One punch to his face would tear him to shreds, not to mention ruin about five hundred dollars’ worth of jewelry.

“No,” I said. “I’m just hanging around like everyone else.”

The bleached-blonde guy got up in my face. “I don’t like you.”

“Back the hell off, Rubidoux!” Atticai shouted.

“Why? If this guy is so tough, then let’s have him prove it.”

“Rubidoux, you’re tanked. Trust me, you don’t want anything to do with this guy,” Atticai insisted.

But Rubidoux didn’t listen. He took a swing at me, and I instinctively ducked. When you fight, you always go by instinct. You also have to account for your surroundings, and especially friends who might have your back. Hopefully, have your back. I had Lena, a friend. But a mere girl. As far as these other hinky guys, who knew if they would be friend or foe in a fight?

In this case, I knew that I couldn’t strike this guy or I might have dozens of guys on me. Punching out friends always has a way of getting other friends riled up. But friends will let a fight play out if it goes to the ground. Of course, what happens after that is anyone’s guess. I had many fights under my belt, street and pro, to know that until someone is down and doesn’t come up again, and the friends walk away in closure, the fight isn’t over.

Time to meet the challenger. I knelt down and shot my shoulders straight into his legs. In one smooth motion, I picked him up and threw him hard to his shoulders, pinning him down on his back, while holding down both his arms.

A perfect take-down.

I was particularly careful not to touch his face. Had we been alone, he would already have been knocked out.

“I don’t know you!” I said to Rubidoux. “I have no problem with you! You need to calm down!”

“All right, man, get the fuck off me.”

“Are you going to be cool?” I insisted.

Then, without warning, Rubidoux turned his head and puked all over the rocks. I jumped back as the dumbass wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

As I stood back, Atticai did a whooping warrior-scream at the top of his lungs. When he was done acting like a crazy man, he pointed at me and shouted, “I knew this guy wouldn’t disappoint!”

Everyone yelled and cheered and many mimicked his ear-splitting rebel yell. I was apparently caught up in a Goth pep rally, in my honor.

“On second thought,” I said to Atticai. “Give me some of that.”

I walked around the fire and over to him. He grinned and handed me the wooden container. I sniffed the contents and almost lost my own lunch and dinner. It smelled like dead fish and dead everything else. But it was too late to turn back. Everyone was watching me. Holding my breath, I downed the disgusting contents as if it was water.

Yeah, it was the worst thing I had ever drunk.

I tried not to puke. But I was fired up. As I pulled away from the wooden jug, I yelled at the top of my lungs—the same Braveheart warrior yell that Atticai seemed to prefer—and everyone immediately cheered.

And as they bellowed and whooped and hollered, I could only think: What the hell have I gotten myself into?

Chapter Six

Everyone went back to partying.

The music got cranked up louder, and insanity seemed to fill the air. I went and sat on a giant log next to the bonfire. I looked over at Lena, who was still standing with Atticai. For once, he didn’t have his arms around her. She caught me looking at her, and gave me a look that suggested I had somehow been accepted.

Did I even want to be accepted by these people?

That putrid drink was pretty powerful. I had a buzz going almost instantly. Redheaded Yari walked over to me. Damn, she looked terrific. Her black lace dress looked pretty spectacular on her, too. That Rubidoux character had gotten my testosterone raging and now Yari’s outfit was sending my hormones through the roof.

“You had quite a night,” she said, sitting next to me. She sipped a bluish drink in a clear glass.

“Whatcha drinking?” I asked. My voice, I noticed was slightly slurred. It also sounded distant, too, as if I had spoken from about ten feet away. Weird, I know.

“Oh, it’s my own peculiar blend. I call it ‘Sex On the Beach and Everywhere Else, Too.”

“Is that a joke?”

“If you want it to be.”

I looked at her. God, she was a bright light in all this Goth doom and gloom. She smiled at me. I smiled back. I wanted to kiss her, until I reminded myself that earlier tonight I had watched her drink from some guy’s neck. I said. “You know, you guys are going to have to give me back. Kidnapping is illegal in this state. And all other states, for that matter.”

“I’ll take you back any time you want. Do you want to leave?”

I thought about that. The party was raging around me. Bodies dancing around the massive bonfires. There was a sense of excitement, of freedom, of hungry passion. The hungry part, admittedly, made me a little nervous, but other than that, this was a pretty cool party.

“I guess not,” I said, shrugging. “At least, not yet.”

She smiled knowingly, as if she already knew what my answer would be. She said, “We figured those guys would have thrown you under the bus once the cops came. You were probably looking at about ten counts of attempted murder. No joke.” She was probably right.

“Luckily, none of those assholes even knew my name.” I guessed I should be more grateful that the Addams Family here took a liking to me. “I guess I’ll stick around for a while, as long as no one tries to eat me.”

She laughed. “Cool. Let’s go for a walk.” Yari took my hand and led me off the Flatlands lot and into the woods.

I was quiet for a bit. I felt safe with her. I don’t think I had ever met a girl who could kick as much ass as me. “Who are you guys?” I finally asked. “Are you all part of a band or something?”

“Why do you say that?”

“It makes sense. I thought maybe your band’s name was Con?”

“Con?” Yari laughed.

“The letters that are written across Atticai’s back.”

“Those are initials. It’s an acronym for Children of the Night.”

“And what—or who—is that?”

“Us. Our clan. Our group.”

“All those people back there?”

“No, just mainly the ones who kidnapped you.” Yari smiled at me again.

“So, what are you guys, then? A club?”

“Something like that. We’re just some people who have one or two things in common.”

I guess biting into people’s flesh and thinking you were vampires were the things they had in common, but I decided to keep that to myself. Instead, I said, “Are any of those guys back there your boyfriend?”

Yari smiled at me. “Do you think if I had a boyfriend back there that I would be out here in the woods with you now?”

“Probably not.”

“Besides,” she added, “I don’t do the boyfriend thing. Too much drama.” I could feel her eyes on me. “What about you? Got yourself a girlfriend?”

“It’s been awhile since I had one.”

“And why is that?”

“I don’t have the time. And, like you, I’m not into all the games.”

“I guess we have something in common, then.” Yari handed me her drink.

“I guess we do.” I took a sip. “That tastes pretty decent. Granted, that’s not saying much, but I think anything would taste better than the crap Atticai gave me.”

She smiled. “Well, despite popular opinion, I’m still very much a girl, and I like girlie drinks.”

“Trust me, you are very much all girl—or all woman— from where I stand.”

“Are you flirting with me, Josiah?”

“Maybe,” I said.

We stopped walking, and I leaned up against a tree. Yari sat on a giant rock next to me. I looked down at Yari—and decided that we needed to get real. “So, what the hell is all of this, Yari? And please be honest with me.”

“What is what?”

“You know, the ‘Hellbanger’s Ball’ back there. How many more guys like Rubidoux are going to want a piece of me before the night is through?”

Yari stood up and walked over to me. She was pretty tall for a girl, just a couple inches shorter than me, which put her at about 5’8”. She looked directly into my eyes. Damn, she was gorgeous. “Well, I can’t tell you everything; at least, not yet.” She then reached out with her left hand and started to play with my bangs. “But you do have that blond, surfer-boy thing going on. I guess you stick out here.”

“You think?” I said, trying to sound casual and confident. I had to admit. She made me nervous in more ways than one. “I don’t exactly blend in. I might be the most tanned dude at this party.”

Now she began to stroke my longish hair. Her red-painted nails scratched my cheeks lightly as she did so. “You’re very cute, Josiah.”

“Thank you.” I said completely thrown off my game. “You’re pretty cute yourself.”

“Cute, huh? Like a kitten?”

“Cute like a lioness.”

Yari laughed, but remained in control. “A lioness, huh? I just might devour you, watch out.” Yari leaned her body up against me.

“Please, no more biting.”

“I promise.” Now Yari ran her hand up my thigh. “So, is it fair to say that you like me, Josiah?” She was pressing all of her weight up against me now.

I swallowed.

“Oh, my,” she continued. “I think you do like me, Josiah. I can feel you.”

Yari’s hip had now pinned mine up against the tree. I stood my ground and instinctively licked my lips.

“So, you think I’m going to kiss you, huh? And why would you think that?”

“I don’t know...maybe it’s because you’re pressed up against me so tightly that, by now, I’m pretty sure you even know if I’m circumcised or not.”

“Oh, you’re circumcised.” Yari winked at me. I felt myself blush, damn her.

She leaned in and gently pecked my lips. I gently pecked her back. That seemed to be the invitation she was needing. She moved in even closer and now used the tip of her tongue to lick my lips. I stood there like a trained tiger. I wanted to pounce, but I allowed her to play her game. She licked my top lip first and then my bottom lip. She reached her hand down and slid it up my thigh, stopping just short of touching my livelihood.

“I think I’m going to save some for later,” she said. She then eased off me. “We should probably go back.”

“Really?” I said, completely shocked.

“It’s probably a good idea.”

I adjusted myself and hid the disappointment in my voice. “Hey, it’s your party.”

She patted my cheek. “Trust me, when I tell you that it will be well worth it. But I do want a taste.” Yari leaned in again and kissed me passionately. It was the perfect kiss. She came in slow and intensely sensual. Then there was a slight build-up, with just enough passion that it ignited all my senses. Now my hormones took over. I pressed her up against the tree. I grabbed her thigh with my left hand and slid my fingers slowly up her dress. I was just about to touch her panty line when she grabbed my hand.

“Like I said, I want to save some for later.”

“I guess you’re the queen of this jungle.”

“That I am.”

“Wow...what a night.” I adjusted myself and did a little shake dance to get the blood to other parts of my body.

Yari looked over at me. “You’re cute, Josiah. Almost too cute.”

“You should see me fight. In the ring. Against one guy. Trust me, there’s nothing cute about that.”

“Someday, I will.”

“Promise?”

“Yeah, I promise.”

Chapter Seven

Yari and I walked back to the party, which had devolved into something that looked straight out of Lord of the Flies. Shirts off and barefoot, people were dancing around fires in a ritualistic way that raised my eyebrows and sent a chill down my spine. Either that, or they were drunk out of their gourds. Also, there seemed to be a lot of birds flying overhead. I hadn’t noticed that before. The birds were large and black, and they appeared to be ravens. Maybe they were attracted to the fires? I didn’t know, and I honestly didn’t care—especially after that amazing kiss. Hell, it was all I could do just to keep my feet planted on the ground.

Still in a daze, we walked together to the same log, I had previously sat on. Atticai saw us and came over.

“Hey, Josiah,” he said, “Let’s have a little chat.”

Was Yari part of his harem? Did I just make a monumental blunder that would probably get me killed? Yari patted my hand reassuringly. I wasn’t scared of Atticai. Hell, I wasn’t scared of anyone. If that weird bastard attacked me, I knew I was in for the fight of my life, especially with all of his friends around.

I reluctantly parted from Yari and followed Atticai over to his van. He got into the driver’s side, and I got into the passenger’s side. He turned the key in the ignition just enough to power up. He turned the radio on. “What’s your music of choice?” he asked.

“I don’t care. Choose whatever you want.”

“I like classical. But the stations out here on the West Coast would rather go under financially with some God-awful hip-hop station than to give Mozart and Bach a chance.”

“I love classical.” And I did, too. I had a music appreciation class back in high school and had been introduced to all the greats in classical and jazz.

Atticai said, “You don’t strike me as the classical music type.”

“You’d be surprised what I like. Now about the real part of the chat you requested. Let’s get to it,” I said.

Atticai looked directly at me. I found his stare slightly unnerving. After a second or two, he said, “I see Yari’s made your list.”

Oh great, now he was going to give me the low-down. “Look, Atticai, I meant no disrespect. She wanted to walk, and quite frankly, I needed to clear my head. If you’re seeing her—”

“Relax my friend, it’s not like that. I’m just letting you know that you might not want to get too close to her.”

“Let me guess: for my own good?”

His lips peeled back into a dark grin. “Yeah, something like that.”

“Thanks, but I’m a big boy. I can handle myself.”

“Consider yourself warned.”

“Like I said, ‘thanks.’”

He nodded and put his seat back, and waved his hands in the air like a maestro. He rolled his head in my direction. “So what’s your story, Josiah?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’ve seen a lot of stuff in my time. But I can only count on one hand how many times I’ve seen someone like you.”

“There can be only one,” I joked, wondering if he would get the cultural reference to Highlander. He didn’t.

He paused and I wondered just how old he was. He made it sound as if he was ancient. He couldn’t have been more than a few years older than me. He went on, “When we arrived to get Lena, there were five guys sprawled on the ground, all beat to a pulp by you.”

I shrugged. “It doesn’t take much skill to beat up a few drunk, horny assholes.”

He was staring at me again. Someday I was going to wipe that weird stare off his face, but now was not the time. “Maybe,” he said. “But you also took care of Rubidoux, too. Do you know how tough Rubidoux is? He’s no pushover.”

“I can fight. I don’t know what else to say. That is the one thing I do know how to do and do well. It’s my greatest passion, my lifework, my pulse. I live to fight. I fight to live.”

“I like that. I like that a lot.” Atticai got real quiet. “Hey, check it out.” He finally found a classical music station. He cranked up the volume real loud. I didn’t recognize the piece, but it was classical, and that seemed to be all that was vital to Atticai. Presently, the long-limbed creature of the night seemed to be in a trance. He clenched his fists and raised them to his forehead. With his eyes closed, he tilted his head back and seemed to be experiencing each note individually. The music was doing something to him. It was ministering to his soul. For a brief moment, I envied him. I envied anyone that could be moved in this way over anything. The song ended, and Atticai opened his eyes. He looked at me. “That was pretty intense.”

“No kidding,” I said. “I guess you have a passion, too. I fight. You feel the music.”

He was staring at me again. Amazingly, I was getting used to it. “I like you, Josiah,” he said. He nodded, and then opened the driver’s side door. “Let’s head back so no one thinks anything homoerotic is going on.”

“I would hope not.”

“Oh, you have no idea around here, Josiah. You have no idea. Just remember what I told you about Yari.”

“Like I said, I’m a big boy; I can handle Yari.”

Atticai laughed. “Famous last words.”

We stepped out the van. I once again headed back to the clearing and planted myself on the same log next to the same bonfire. I looked around for Yari, but she was nowhere to be found. Lena, however, walked over to me and sat next to me on the log.

“What was that all about?” she asked.

“With Atticai? I have no freaking idea. I think he was just trying to feel me out.”

“Atticai is like that. He doesn’t trust anyone. He likes you, though. I can tell. You have no idea how rare that is.”

“Well, one thing at a time. I’m still having a hard time digesting this entire night.”

“Why? Did Yari freak you out? Don’t let her do that.”

Lena almost seemed a tad jealous. I looked at her. She was beautiful, too. No, not everyone was beautiful here. There were some real creepy-looking guys and girls. Lena wasn’t one of them. So, how the hell did she get caught up in this world?

I asked, “So, is this what you do? Hang out with these people in the woods?”

“You mean since Eisenhower High?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

She shrugged. “More or less. This lifestyle isn’t the norm. I know that. There’s a lot about this you’ll never fully understand.”

“What does that mean?”

“Trust me when I tell you that it is best not to know.”

Atticai, who had been talking to some guys near the van, high-fived a couple of them, and then headed over to us. No matter what, the man was a striking figure, and he seemed to command everyone’s attention. He was clearly the King Goth in this party of Goths. Of course, that wasn’t saying much. Still, as he headed over to us, just about everyone in the clan watched him at some point. And as he approached, Lena got up immediately, and Atticai slipped a long arm over her shoulders.

“I should probably get you two back home,” Atticai said. “It’s going to be sunrise in about two hours.”

I shrugged. “Sounds reasonable to me. I was just going out for a jog and seven hours later... here I am.”

“You guys are going back?” a voice said, from behind me.

I turned around and saw Yari standing there. I had no idea where she came from and why she would be behind me.

“Apparently, we’re leaving right now,” I said.

She smiled warmly at me. “Then I guess I’m going with you since neither Atticai nor Lena can drive.”

“Neither of you drives?” I blurted out, nearly laughing.

“Hey, I never got a license,” Atticai responded, shrugging.

Now, I did laugh. “Okay, now I’ve heard everything.”

If Atticai minded that I was laughing at him, he didn’t show it. A moment later, we all piled into the van, with Yari getting in the driver’s seat and me next to her in the front passenger’s seat. Lena and Atticai disappeared behind the back seats, in the space I had found myself in when I came to after passing out, post-blood sucking. I took only a quick glance at them, but they appeared to have disappeared under a blanket. What they were doing under the blanket, I didn’t want to know, but I could probably guess.

Yari reached out and touched my hand. “Put the seat back and get some sleep.”

I did as I was told, since I was utterly exhausted. And as I settled into the cushions, Yari drove the van out of the flatland rocks and made for the highway. As we drove, I found myself staring at her. She was acutely focused on the road. No surprise there, since there was a light fog over the winding, mountainous highway. She was an extremely fascinating woman. She was amazingly complex. I closed my eyes. I listened to the sound of the motor. The thrum of the pistons under the hood, in the absence of talking or music, was hypnotic and soothing.

“Wake up, Sleepyhead. We’re here.” I had clearly fallen asleep because when I opened my eyes, we were in front of my house. I said goodbye to everyone and stumbled out of the van.

Atticai called out, “Hey, Josiah?”

“Yeah,” I answered sleepily.

“When’s your next fight?”

“Next month.”

“Cool, I’ll check it out.”

I wasn’t sure what to think about that. A part of me was hoping that this was going to be the last I’d see any of these guys. That is everyone, but Yari. And maybe Lena.

I nodded at Atticai and turned around and trudged off toward my front door. The van drove away, and I could feel many sets of eyes on me. As I opened the door, something occurred to my sluggish, sleep-deprived brain.

How did they know where I lived? Okay, that’s freaky. Then again, so was the entire night.

I shrugged. Maybe Lena knew someone from high school, who themselves knew where I lived. Or not. I was too tired to care, truth be known.

When I unlocked the door, I found Tommy doing sit ups in the living room. Tommy had an incredibly strict workout routine and this morning was no different.

Tommy stopped in mid-crunch and looked up at me. “That was some run.”

“You have no idea.” I went to the fridge and grabbed the milk carton.

“You okay?” Tommy seemed concerned.

“I’m okay. Why?”

“You’ve got a bandage on your wrist and a hickey on your neck the size of a basketball.”

I had forgotten about my injuries. Tommy got up from the floor and walked over to the kitchen table and sat down.

“What can I say? It was a night to remember.”

“Jo, you need to take it easy on the partying. Don’t forget, we find out who we’re fighting today.”

“This coming from the guy who partied away all his money,” I said.

“That was before, Jo. You know I have been working hard on getting myself back on the right track.”

“I know. I just need to get to bed right now. I’m utterly wiped.”

“So, you’re going to skip your morning workout?”

“As far as I’m concerned, it is still last night. Besides, I had quite the mixed martial art workout last night.”

“Ah, hell. Don’t tell me you got into another fight.”

I was quiet.

Tommy added, “You know we can get sued if anyone finds out who we are. We’re pro fighters and we can’t just go around fighting ‘regular Joes.’ You’re not fifteen anymore, bro, and you can’t just go around bashing people’s heads in.”

“I know. Trust me, I wasn’t intending to fight.”

“But let me guess: You just couldn’t help yourself, right?”

“Tommy, look, when I wake up, you can rip me ten new assholes, but right now I need to get some sleep.”

“All right, bro. Go to bed.”

I laughed, which took my last bit of energy. “Thanks and good night.”

As I stumbled down the hallway on my way to my bedroom, Tommy called out after me: “It’s morning, jerk off, and you never even asked me about my date!”

“You can tell me all about it when I wake up.”

Once in my bedroom, I plugged my headphones into my stereo and laid on my bed. I had a Queen CD in the deck. Freddy Mercury seemed particularly fitting, considering the night I had.

I closed my eyes, and I was out.

Chapter Eight

I didn’t sleep as soundly as I wanted to.

I tossed and turned throughout my slumber. Mostly, I kept dreaming about the surreal night I had. I dreamed about Atticai, Yari, and Lena. I dreamed of kicking college punks’ asses. I dreamed of dark clearings and birds and long kisses. Some of the dreams were extremely erotic. And other dreams were not so much. Additionally, my body was painfully sore from the bat. It was, in short, one of the worst sleeps I’ve ever had. I eventually couldn’t take it anymore and just got up. I looked at my cell phone. It was 2:00 p.m.

I got up, and my back was still killing me. Not that I expected the pain to go away magically, but, damn, it seemed even worse. I walked over to the bathroom and took the longest shower of my life. Even the spray of water hurt my back. Without looking at it in the mirror, I knew how big the bruise was and what color it was today. While the hot water blasted me, I took the bandage from my wrist and washed the wound, too. As I washed it, I took a close look at it. It was truly one of the most bizarre injuries I’d ever had. There were two perfect teeth marks on my wrist. Wyatt feasted on my arm something fierce. What the hell would possess a guy to do that?

I got out of the shower and was drying off when I heard a kee-eeeee-arr squawk at the window. It was Daphne, my little red hawk friend. She was peeking through the window.

“Hey, girl. You like what you see?” I did a little dance for her.

Daphne gave a shrill chwirk. I laughed. Apparently she liked my jig.

I went into my bedroom and looked at my cell phone. I had a missed a call. I didn’t recognize the number. It was local, so I called it back.

“Hello,” A girl’s voice said. A cute girl’s, too, if I was any judge of voices.

“I got a call from this number—”

“Josiah? It’s Lena.”

“Oh, hello. What’s going on?”

“I got your number from Johnny Wade.” Johnny Wade was an old partying buddy of mine that apparently Lena knew, as well. Six degrees of Kevin Bacon and all that. Johnny Wade knew everyone who knew someone that he knew. He was the real-life Kevin Bacon connection in our city.

“No problem, Lena. What’s going on?”

“I need to talk to somebody and...I don’t know... after last night, I thought I could talk to you.”

“I was about to head down to the gym, but I guess I can talk.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, no problem. I had a pretty vigorous workout last night.”

“The fight or the time you spent with Yari in the woods?”

“Ha ha, very funny.”

“Can we talk in person?”

“Sure, do you want me to pick you up?”

“That would be great. I’ll text you my address.”

“Cool, I’ll be there in a half hour.”

I got off the phone and sat on my bed in my towel. I looked at myself in the mirror. Tommy was right I had a hickey the size of New Jersey on my neck. It was the most impressive hickey ever. World class. Too bad it was from a guy. If anyone of my friends, outside of Vampireville, ever found out, I would never hear the end of it.

I got dressed and headed over to pick up Lena, not bothering to cover up my world-class neck badge of courage. I drove to the ghetto part of San Bernardino. And I do mean ghetto. Her address led me to a rundown trailer park where a horror movie could have been made, if someone wrote a script about a haunted trailer park. It was broken-glass, trash-strewn borderline epic. Just like everything connected with Lena was epic.

I pulled the truck into the community, and Lena was right at the front, waiting for me. She was wearing a black tank top with short black skirt. She playfully stuck out her thumb, pretending to be hitchhiking. I grinned and stopped my truck. She jumped into the passenger side.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey, there. Nice neighborhood,” I quipped.

“Don’t harsh my hood,” she bantered back. “We’re getting a mini-golf course as soon as the meth factory pays off big on the next batch.”

“Mad props, then,” I said sarcastically. I flipped a sassy U-turn and pulled onto the main highway. I glanced over at Lena. Her eyes stared straight ahead.

“So, what’s up, pretty girl?” I asked.

“Are you hungry?” she asked.

“I’m actually starving.” And she smiled for a flash at the “pretty girl” compliment, as it registered with her.

She offered, “We can go to this mom-and-pop burger joint on the corner. We can talk inside.”

“You sure? We’re not going to get shot or anything?”

“It’s not that terrible out here. People out here are meth-heads, not gangbangers.”

“I’ll keep that in mind when a meth-head slits my throat for the twenty dollars in my wallet.”

“Trust me, it’ll be okay. I’ll protect you.”

“You’ll protect me?” I laughed.

“What’s so funny about that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because you’re a hundred pounds, dripping wet.”

“I can kick some serious butt if I have to.”

I glanced at Lena’s petite body. “I bet.”

“Pull over in there.” Lena pointed to a little diner on the corner. It had a sign out front that read “Burgers and Tacos.”

“Classy,” I said, pulling my truck into the driveway.

“Don’t be so mean. It’s affordable. It’s good. It’s a clean place. Nobody will bother us here.”

“So, what style of food do they serve here?” I asked. “I just hate when the name of a place gives you little idea what to expect. I mean, what if I want the prime rib but they are out of it and they try and bait-and-switch me to the petite filet mignon and offer A-1 Sauce with it? That would be a meat tragedy.”

Her mouth twitched in amusement. “I think they serve a little of everything. You might want to stay away from their roast lamb and mint jelly, though. It might really be mutton, you just never know.”

I laughed at our light banter and glanced at Lena. Our eyes met, and I didn’t say anything.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I said. “Or, well, I just think you should smile more often.”

“If you were as funny as you think you are, then maybe I would.”

“That so, huh? I didn’t realize Goth girls liked to laugh.”

“Goth girl? Is that how you see me? You think I’m some kind of ‘emo’ weirdo who cuts herself, starves herself and longs for death?”

“In a ‘Suicide Girls’ sort of way, you do wear a lot of black and your friends are pretty out there.”

“Black is an amazing color. Everyone could use a little more black in their wardrobe,” Lena said, looking at my colorful Ed Hardy T-shirt. “You might also want to let your legs breathe, ‘cause those jeans are snug.”

“The chicks dig the snug. All the way up the legs and to where they meet.”

“I’m pretty sure Yari digs your snug, too,” she said, with more than a little bite.

“Wow, where did that come from, Lena? I think you might be jealous.”

“Okay, now you’re getting funny.” Lena did a whopping fake ha-ha-ha laugh.

“I’m not so sure...” I said, letting my voice trail off.

“Why? Do you want me to be jealous?”

I once again stared at Lena. Her eyes were asking me ‘Well?’ I thought about it for a second and decided to leave the topic alone. After all, the last time I had seen her, she had been pretty cozy with Atticai. Instead, I asked, “Are you hungry?”

“Starving.”

We walked inside and gave our order to the old man who ran the joint. He gave us a number, and we sat down at a deep and comfy booth next to a window that overlooked the street. We were both quiet. Lena stared morosely out the window.

“Hey, are you okay?” I asked, genuinely concerned.

After a moment, she turned and looked at me. “You know, one thing was lost in the scuffle last night.”

“It was less of a scuffle and more of a battlefield. But what was that lost item?” I asked.

“That those boys at the party tried to take advantage of me.”

“It didn’t get lost on me. I have an aching back to prove it.”

“I know. I’m sorry. How’s your back?”

“It hurts like hell, but I’m all right. Nothing a bat to the chest wouldn’t set right,” I joked.

She nodded and reached out and patted my forearm. She retracted her hand quickly.

“Thank you, again, but I just feel so stupid.”

“Don’t feel stupid. That’s the last thing you should feel. Those guys were Grade A douchebags. They got what they deserved.”

“Did they?” Lena seemed upset.

“I’d say so. They got an ass kicking by me and then your friends beat the crap out of them, too, not to mention taking bites out of them in the process.”

“I’m just pissed that I let it happen.”

“Well, don’t be. We all make mistakes. Look at me, I made the biggest mistake of all. I decided to go jogging last night.”

“Very funny.”

“Hey, I almost stayed home. To slept the sleep of the just. I almost ended up sleeping the sleep of angels. A dirt nap, shall we say?”

Lena stared straight ahead. She had tears in her eyes. I finally got up and sat next to her.

“Sometimes, I need to feel normal,” she said. “Sometimes, I just want to be like everyone else.”

She wiped her tears with the back of her hand and so I got up again and got her a napkin. I handed it to her. She took it without comment and wiped her eyes.

“Look at me, I’m crying like a typical chick.”

“I have news for you, sweetie: you are a chick. And you’re human. You had an extremely traumatic thing happen to you last night. Don’t be so hard on yourself for feeling some aftermath.”

“Josiah, there is so much you don’t know.”

“Like what? Tell me.”

“Stuff.” Lena looked out the window again, this time up into the bright afternoon sky. I had at first thought she was gazing absently into the sky, until I saw her eyes tracking something. I turned and looked, too. There was nothing up there but some birds. Crows, I think.

“What are you looking at?” I asked, not sure why I suddenly cared if she was staring at the sky.

“Nothing.” She turned away and faced me again.

I could tell something was weighing heavy on her mind. So I decided to press, “Are you talking about Atticai and his buddies? Have they done some pretty bad things?”

Lena’s eyes focused on the napkin in her hand as she crumpled and uncrumpled it. I could tell she wanted to tell me something—but was afraid to. “Lena, you can tell me anything.”

“That’s the problem Josiah. I can’t. For your own good. I can’t.”

“For my own good? What will happen to me?”

“Josiah, let’s just change the subject.”

“Or what? Your wannabe vampire friends will try to eat me again?”

Lena took a pen out from her purse. She began writing on her wrinkled paper napkin. When she was done, she handed it to me.

It read: They are not wannabes, Josiah. They are real.

“Real what? Vampires?” I said out loud. “Just because someone decides to dress up like it’s Halloween every day doesn’t make them something that doesn’t exist.”

“Please stop talking about it, Josiah. You have no idea what you are doing or saying.”

“Are you kidding me? Vampires do not exist. For one thing, they were not sparkly in the least.”

“Josiah, please. Don’t even joke about that. There’s so much you don’t know. Please trust me. Don’t talk about it out loud. At all.”

“Why not?”

“Just don’t!”

“Why?”

“Because that’s what Mani want. They want you to know.”

I was confused. “Who the hell are Mani?”

Lena had the kind of look on her face that suggested she had just accidentally revealed the secret location of the Holy Grail, and that despite what Dan Brown says, it’s most certainly not under the Louvre in Paris. Her combination of horror and surprise was almost comical.

“You’re afraid of these Mani people. You better tell me what you are up against, so I can protect you. Help you.”

“Josiah, please. I promise you that someday I will tell you, but right now it’s not safe to talk about it.”

“Talk about what? I’m still lost.”

But Lena was as serious as a heart attack. I couldn’t believe that she thought her friends were really vampires. She was either delusional or on something. She shook her head, and like a little kid, mimed zipping a zipper across her lips, locking it at the corner with a twist and throwing away an invisible key. At that moment, she had never looked so vulnerable. So pathetic. So afraid.

“Okay. I’ll drop it.” For now, I told myself.

“Thank you.”

Chapter Nine

I sat there quietly for a moment. Unfortunately, my brain had a hard time dropping it. It kept replaying the word vampire.

Finally, I said, “Well, tell me this. How did you meet Atticai?”

Lena sighed, leaned back, and crossed her arms just under her chest. “I was at a party in Riverside about two years ago. A typical college party: stupid stunts, drunk assholes, beer bongs, and I was pretty bored, to say the least. I was sitting alone outside, having a smoke, when Atticai approached me. He seemed more out of place at the party than I did. He sat next to me, and we talked for hours. We ended up being the last two at the party. He took me home, and the rest is history.”

“It’s the rest that you can’t tell me about?”

“Not at this moment. But I can tell you that Atticai is the one who started calling me Lena.”

“Your name isn’t Lena?”

“You don’t remember? My name was—is—Donna.”

“Sorry. I remembered your face, but I never knew your name at Eisenhower.”

“Wow, no wonder why I hated jocks so much in high school. You didn’t even know my name.”

“Hey, we never talked. We didn’t have a single conversation.”

“Trust me, that was all you,” Lena said.

“Why is that?”

“I had a little crush on you.”

“You did?” I was extremely surprised to hear that. I wouldn’t have thought a girl like Lena would have given a second glance toward a guy like me.

“Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have your picture hanging in my locker or anything, but I thought you were pretty cute.”

“I wish I would have known.”

“What are you talking about? You didn’t even know my name. You’re were too busy dating cheerleaders and drill team girls.”

“I never dated those types of girls. It might surprise you, but I have always been interested in girls like you.”

“What type of girl do you think a girl like me is?”

I paused. “A thoughtful loner, who thinks independently and doesn’t care what ‘pop culture’ tells her to be like.”

Lena smiled. “I guess that is me. And you liked that?”

“Yeah, because believe it or not, that is how I am. You know, but as a guy.”

“I figured that what you meant. I didn’t think you were having a gender identity crisis.”

“Don’t get me wrong, Lena. I knew your face in high school. You were someone who I thought was hot, but thought I had zero chance with. I figured girls like you hated guys like me.”

She laughed. “Trust me—we did. No one knew I was secretly crushing on you.”

“How funny,” I smiled at Lena.

“Oh, don’t start getting all cocky on me.”

“I’m not getting cocky. Life is funny; that’s all. We never spoke in high school, but yet, after one night, you trusted me enough to let me help you.”

“I didn’t have much of a choice.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“What I mean is, at the time, you were all I had. If you turned out to be a creep, too, like those frat boys, I was shit out of luck. You not only turned out to be a fantastic guy, you kick more ass than any man I had ever seen.”

“Your boyfriend isn’t too bad in his own right.”

“Yeah, but he has an advantage.”

“What advantage is that? That he is so tall?” I laughed.

Lena looked at me as if she would open up to me about something, but then held back. Lena paused and took me in. Her eyes penetrated through me. “I want to trust you, Josiah,” she said. “I hope I can.”

“You can, Donna,” I said, winking at her.

“Please don’t call me Donna. I hate that name immensely.”

“So, why did Atticai rename you Lena?”

“The reason is a little bit on the weird side,” Lena laughed.

“Trust me, nothing you tell me about Atticai would make me think he’s any weirder than I already do.”

“No, this is pretty weird—even for Atticai. Okay, fine. Donna was his mother’s name.”

I paused. Atticai’s fear of an Oedipus complex factoring into their relationship swirled in my brain like curdled milk in hot coffee. “You’re right. That is pretty freaking weird. But I kind of get where he was going with the name change request.”

“I know. Right?”

“Your order is up!” The old man from behind the counter yelled out. I got up and grabbed the tray and filled up my Diet Coke. I brought the tray over and set it on the table. Lena tore open her burger wrapper and took a giant bite.

“I’m so hungry,” she said, wiping her mouth.

“Apparently so.” I watched as he devoured her hamburger.

Lena looked up from her burger. “Can I ask you a personal question?”

“Sure,” I said. I started to eat my fries first, as I always do. I think I secretly have a salt addiction.

“How much do you get paid to fight?”

“I’m fairly new in the sport. So, I get paid the minimum.”

“Which is?”

“About five thousand a fight.”

“Wow! That’s not bad.”

“It’s not for other fighters. When you only fight every three months, it ends up being a pretty remedial job.”

“Then why choose that profession?”

“I’m hoping I’ll get better and to win over a larger fan base. The idea is to get proficient enough to get on pay-per-view. That’s where the real money is.”

“Well, you’re as tremendous a fighter as I’ve ever seen. I’m sure you’ll get the big pay-per-view fights in no time.” Lena took a couple more bites of her hamburger. I decided to start on my own hamburger. It tasted delicious. This old man behind the counter could make a pretty tasty burger.

When we were done, I took Lena home. I knew she had more on her mind, and somewhere along the way in the conversation, she held back for whatever reason. I dropped her off and was just about to pull out of the driveway when I got a text from Tommy. It was a short text: ‘Get home. Now.’

Chapter Ten

I pulled up to my house and Tommy was outside sitting on the porch steps. I got out of my truck and headed over to him.

“So, what’s up?” I stood there looking at Tommy. He wouldn’t look me in the eye. “Tommy, what’s going on?”

He hesitated. “You know, we got our match-ups today. Aren’t you the least bit curious about who you’re fighting?”

“You know me, Tom. I genuinely don’t care. I fight my fight like an adrenaline maniac, no matter who it is. Look, if you’re pissed off that I took a day off from training...”

“Josiah, you have a tough opponent this time and you better start taking your training very seriously. Don’t be such a dumbass about your career.”

I shrugged. “Who did they give me? Don’t tell me that they gave me Marquez already.”

“No, your opponent is a little tougher than Marquez.”

“Who am I fighting?”

Tommy stood up and walked onto the lawn. He got into the MMA striking stance. And he said, “Me!”

“You?! You’re kidding, right?”

“I wouldn’t have asked you to come straight home if it wasn’t true.”

“Can they do that? I mean, everyone knows we’re practically brothers.”

Tommy laughed. “Josiah, they can do whatever they want. They are the Commission, man. They can make us fight a leopard in the ring if they want to.”

“I don’t understand. They told you this was only going to be a tune-up fight. They know I’ve knocked out everyone in the first two minutes of each of my fights. I’m anything but a tune-up.”

“It’s not your performance in the ring, Josiah. It’s who you are out of the ring. ”

“What does that mean?”

Tommy was getting himself worked up. “It means you don’t take being a fighter seriously, man. It means you get fat every time you’re done training. Don’t you think the trainers see that extra twenty pounds you’re carrying right now? They see you arrive late to do your training, and you’re always the first to leave. You’re looked at as being soft. Lazy!”

“That’s bullshit, and you know—”

“Josiah, they apologized to me that they couldn’t give me a better fighter.”

My ego wounded, my mouth dropped open. “You’re serious?”

He nodded. I knew this wasn’t easy for him.

“They apologized for not getting you a better fighter? And they were talking about me?”

He nodded again. “Look, Josiah, I know you’re tough, and I know what you can do. So, I’m telling you right now that you better train seriously. If I easily kick your ass, the Commission will think you threw the fight, and that would be worse than if I lost to you.”

“I can’t believe you assume that you’re just going to kick my ass. Do you have any idea what I’m capable of?”

“It doesn’t matter how tough you are, Josiah. You and I both know that. When two fighters are as skillful as we are we are, the winner is always the person who trains the hardest and who is the smartest. You and I both know I have you on both points.”

“Says you,” I replied.

“When you measure who has the edge, between you and me, it’s me, Josiah. Me.”

This was the first time in my life I ever wanted to punch Tommy in the face. How could he say these things to me? He was in my corner in each of my knockouts. He saw how easily I manhandled all of my opponents. The nerve of him, thinking he could just roll me over!

“Look,” I said, raising my voice, feeling that familiar surge of adrenaline. It was all I could do to control myself. “Do what you have to do, and say what you have to say to try to get in my head, to beat up my ego, to get your edge squared away out of the ring. Before you get in it, with me. Because there will be no mercy in that ring. None.”

Tommy stiffened, but didn’t reply.

I blasted on. “Tommy, I’m telling you right here and now that this is the worst thing that could have happened to you. You’d better train Rocky Balboa-style. I will not be easy on you. In fact, I will be the exact opposite. I’m going to kick the living shit out of you.”

Tommy had a cocky smirk on his face. “Good, that’s what I want to hear. Our fight is in 24 days. I think it would be best if I stayed over at my grandma’s house until the fight. You know how I get. All machismo. It will be just too weird running into you each day. We’ll end up beating each other’s cocky asses over the last protein bar in the house before we ever set foot in the ring.”

“Do what you have to do,” I repeated. “And don’t eat too much of your grandma’s cooking, or we’ll see who’s too fat on fight day!”

“Hey, you smell like burgers and fries,” Tommy said. “Cut that shit out.”

I brushed past him into the house. I went straight to my room, where I stripped off my shirt and jeans. They did smell of burgers and fries. Now, just in my boxers, I dropped to the floor and cranked out 4 sets of 50 pushups. If Tommy wanted me at the top of my game, then that’s where he was going to find me.

Chapter Eleven

I spent the next two weeks training three times a day.

My days started with a five-mile run and then a four-hour gym session. Each evening I did a six-mile run, just because I could pull it off. One thing I knew I could count on was that my legs were going to feel heavy, and little Daphne was always there to greet me before each run with a loud hawk squawk.

Each night before bed, I would visually play out my game plan against Tommy. My strategy was simple: I was going to strike. I was going to throw a storm of punches and kicks until I knocked him out. My arms and legs would be a blur. Tommy’s strategy would be to get me to the ground. Tommy loved to do submission moves, but there was no way I’d ever give him that chance. Never get under Tommy. I knew this from watching him fight. And he had watched me fight, too, and knew my own secrets for wining.

At the gym, I practiced my ground game with Mike Flores. Mike Flores was an ex-MMA fighter who had to quit cause he blew out his ACL in his knee. Mike had been in my corner in each of my fights, along with Tommy. Mike thought it was naive of me to think that I was just going to knock out Tommy in the first two minutes. We both figured that I needed to go over some ground defense.

So, I did. I worked out intensively with Mike Flores. And as the first week came and went, I had forgotten all about Lena and her crazy friends.

On a Saturday night, with seven days to go before the big match, I decided to take the night off. I was craving a slab of ribs from Hotlanta, a barbecue joint that served up some incredible quality old-fashioned soul food. It was in Riverside, which was about a half hour away, give or take traffic conditions. I could use a pleasant drive. I showered up and put on my only black T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans. I was in the bathroom combing my hair when I heard a knock on the front door.

I finished the last bit of styling of my beautiful locks and went to answer it. I opened the door and found Yari standing there. She looked incredible. She wore a long white dress that looked like something out of a romance novel. Her hair was fixed up, and her bright red lipstick made the color in her hair stand out.

“Hey there,” I said, surprised as hell.

“Hey, yourself,” she said, in a sultry voice.

I peeked out the door and saw that she seemed to be alone. There wasn’t even a vehicle in sight. “Do you want to come in?”

“Sure.”

“What were you looking for outside?” she asked.

“I don’t know...I thought maybe you had your friends with you.”

“Nope. Just little ol’ me. Sorry if you’re disappointed.”

I grinned. “I’m anything but disappointed,” I said. “I was just surprised to see you, that’s all.” I sat on my couch. Yari walked over and sat next to me, with about a foot separating us.

“I hope it was a pleasant surprise,” she said.

“It was a very nice surprise. You look ‘off the hook’ tonight.”

“Thanks. ‘Off the hook?’ I have never been told that before,” she giggled, almost girlishly. Which was odd coming from her. She normally behaved with an air of confidence that only the most beautiful women seem to have. You know, the kind of women who receive a steady stream of compliments by every man that enters their vicinity. “You’re looking nifty, too. Were you going somewhere?”

“I was just going to get a bite to eat.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “By yourself?”

“Yeah, I do most things by myself these days.”

“That’s too bad.”

“So, where are you headed? You look as if you’re dressed to go to a party.”

“That’s why I’m here. I’m heading over to a party in Victorville. I was thinking you might want to come.”

“You drove all the way out here to see if I wanted to come to a party?”

“Well, I didn’t have your number, did I?”

“How did you get here? There are no cars outside.”

“Some friends dropped me off.”

“And what if I wasn’t home?”

“Then I was going to call my friends to come back and get me. Your light was on so I told them to take off. What’s up with the third degree?”

“There is no third degree. I’m just flattered, I guess.”

“You should be. If you haven’t noticed, I look smoking hot right now. I don’t know how often a hot woman comes to your door and asks you to escort her to a party.”

“That happens like...never,” I said.

“Then do you want to scratch your pathetic dinner plans and come with me?”

I grinned. “Sure, let me grab a jacket.”

I went to the closet and did just that. When I returned, Yari was staring at me with a big smile.

“What?” I asked.

“You look good, Josiah. Real good. I just might want a taste before we go.” Yari leaned into me and kissed my lips. I kissed her back. I had a lot of pent-up energy considering that I subscribe to the no-jacking-off rule before a fight. Or a date, for that matter.

Her lips felt soft and tender. She was such an incredible kisser. I pressed her up against my wall in my hallway and turned her body around. Her dress felt unbelievable. It was silky and soft. I placed my hands around her body and onto her thighs. Her perfectly-shaped buttocks pressed against my groin. I kissed her neck and slid my hands up the front of her body until both my hands were cupping her breasts. She turned her head and kissed me. Her tongue was soft and wet. Her pheromones were flying off the chart, up my nose. She smelled incredible, and even her saliva smelled refreshing.

“In my entire life,” I said, “no one has ever turned me on the way you do.”

Yari stopped and looked at me with a tenderness I had not seen from her before. “That’s good,” she said. “We should get going.”

Then she walked to my door and outside my house. I was left there, turned on, but at least I did have a place to go with that pent-up power.

Chapter Twelve

I drove us to Victorville in about a half an hour. Victorville is one of those little desert cities along Highway 15 that people pass on their way to Las Vegas. The city is in the high desert. It still has an old-fashioned feel to it. It was a place where a young Clint Eastwood might squint and settle a score, in exactly that order. Him and me both.

Anyway, the party was another thirty minutes off the highway, and when we finally arrived at the house, I pulled into a long, narrow driveway. I noticed there weren’t many cars out front. I also noticed a lot of black birds flying around outside. They appeared to be the same birds that had been hovering around Flatlands. I looked up through the windshield at the house in front of us. It was, as Tommy would say, ginormous. It had a stately feel to it and seemed better suited for a governor or senator, ,not a place you would expect to be in the heart of Victorville.

“Am I going to know anyone at this party?” I asked Yari.

“Atticai and Lena should be here, along with Wyatt and the others.” Yari looked down at my wrist. “Your wrist seems to be healing.”

“Yeah, the teeth marks look more like I got branded than bitten.”

“You know that Wyatt feels bad about that.”

“I bet he does. I still have no clue why a grown man would want to bite me.”

“You can ask him, yourself.” Yari motioned to my rear view mirror. Sure enough, the infamous black van pulled up behind my truck.

I opened my door and got out.

Atticai stepped out of the van’s side door with his held high as if he was royalty. He turned and saw me, but gave no indication of recognizing me. His face looked paler than before. Lena came out after him. She saw me and ran over to me.

“Hey, you!” she said to me.

“Hey yourself,” I replied.

“What? Are you too good for me?” she asked, putting both hands on her curvy hips.

“Why you say that?”

“Ever hear of returning a call?”

I looked at Atticai. I wanted to see if he would be annoyed that his girlfriend was calling me on the telephone. Again, he had zero expression on his face. He just continued walking up to the house.

“Oh, sorry. I’ve been training hard for my next fight and turned my phone off. You know, to cut down on the distractions.” I winced at the moment that last sentence left my mouth. Yari whistled next to me.

“Well, it’s good to know that I’m only a distraction.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I’m just busting your balls. I know you’re busy. I was just wondering what happened to you. I guess I now know why. You look as if you’ve lost some weight. Damn, boy, you look skinny!” Lena leaned in to pinch my stomach, but Yari promptly blocked her hand with her own hand.

“You don’t have to touch,” Yari snapped at Lena.

“Wow, Yari. Down, girl. I was just playing around.”

“Nobody has time for your games,” Yari responded.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you had already marked him.”

“I haven’t marked anybody. Why don’t you go find Atticai and you can play your games with him?”

“Fine, I’m going to go inside.” Lena looked at me sadly and walked off.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I said to Yari. “She was just fooling around.”

“Look, you two can play grab ass all you want. I’m going inside, too.” Yari stormed off, and I was left alone with the guy who had enjoyed my wrist as a snack, just a couple of weeks earlier.

“Chicks, dude.” Wyatt laughed. “I have no clue what any of that was about.”

“You’re telling me,” I said.

We shook our heads some more in one of the strangest moments of male bonding I’ve ever had, and then he showed me into the house. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but I know I wasn’t expecting this. Except for a few dozen flickering votive candles, the whole house was entirely dark. I stopped in the foyer, but Wyatt urged me along. Deeper in the house I saw that there were candles placed just about everywhere, in every room and on every table. The candles provided just enough light so that I didn’t run into furniture, but not enough to make me feel anywhere near to the concept of comfortable.

What the hell was going on?

As I walked through the small party, I noticed a lot of couples making out. I had been to a lot of parties in my life but never one like this. It reminded me of a junior high make-out party. Well, everything but the insane candles. If I saw one Ouija board, I would be outta here.

Anyway, I made my way to the kitchen since I was starving. There was no food anywhere. Just tons of alcohol. I needed to eat something ASAP.

I opened the refrigerator, and I hit the jackpot. Chicken wings. A whole plate of them. I looked around to make sure I wasn’t snagging someone else’s food. Well, I was, but they didn’t have to know about it. I grabbed eight wings and sat at the table, near a stack of napkins and cups. I put the sticky wings on a napkin and poured myself some of what appeared to be straight tequila.

I took my time with the wings, enjoying each bite. When I polished off the last knobby bite, I quickly downed the two or three shots of tequila I had poured. I blew out of my mouth, the second the alcohol went down my throat. I learned that trick a couple years back. Somehow, blowing out of your mouth and not inhaling through your nose helps with the harsh aftertaste.

Almost immediately, the tequila seemed to be doing its job. I had a decent size buzz going. I felt a little more relaxed, considering I was in a house of full of self-proclaimed spooks. I decided to look for Yari, and see if she would be in a better mood. First, I looked around downstairs and ignored the folks sucking each other’s faces, but she wasn’t in the house.

I peeked in the backyard but no luck. No Yari. I went back inside and still felt buzzed, then headed upstairs. The second floor was almost entirely dark, and all of the doors were shut. All of them, except one. I had just decided to check it out when a drunk, pale-skinned, bald guy walked out of the open door and straight over to me. Amazingly, he leaned over me and sniffed me.

Yeah, sniffed me.

As he did so, he made noises that sounded disturbingly like lip-smacking. The same noises I had made just five minutes earlier when I had come across the chicken wings in the fridge. He continued on, stumbling his way downstairs. I half expected to hear him pitch forward and tumble all the way down. Somehow, amazingly, he made it without busting his ass.

Just then, Yari walked out of the same room the drunk guy had been in. “You don’t want to be up here, Josiah. Let’s go downstairs.”

“No problem. I was looking for—”

But she grabbed my forearm and steered me back down the stairs. As she did so, I couldn’t help but notice the woman’s grip. Sweet Jesus, she was strong. Once back down the stairs, I heard a squawk and saw two gigantic black birds flying in the house. I nearly dove for cover, but someone calmly opened the rear sliding glass door and the birds flew out of the house. Not a single person called attention to them or seemed to care that two big birds had been in the house. I looked around to get a reaction from somebody. Nothing.

What the hell was going on here?

Yari led me to one of the downstairs bedrooms. “Let’s go in here,” she said. She then opened the door. The room was lit by a couple of candles in the window still, and there was a mattress with a comforter on the floor. She reclined on the mattress, as I stood there looking at her, dumbstruck. I was still trying to wrap my brain around everything I had just seen, from the candles, to the secret upstairs bedroom, to the damn birds. And now, Yari was leading me to a bed. It seemed like we had skipped a few steps on the way to bed.

One weird thing at a time, I thought.

Yari’s eyes were bright and expressive, as if she was amped up on something. So, I started with the obvious question, even though I suspected I already knew the answer. “So, what was going on up there? Drugs?”

“No one was doing drugs, Josiah, but trust me when I tell you that ‘people’ were having a good time.” She stared at me long and hard, and I wondered if she was one of those having a good time.

A good time doing what?

I asked her, “Is this like, one of those sex parties or something? Or maybe is it one of those candle parties, the kind with the MLM recruitment to be a hostess and sell them yourself?”

She chuckled softly. “Why don’t you lie down next to me?” she asked.

“Look, if what you wanted is to fool around, then we didn’t have to come to the world’s freakiest party to do it. We could have just stayed at my house. If you want to fool around, I like my own turf better.”

“World’s freakiest party?” Yari then smiled really big. “Are you scared of these people?” Yari rubbed my leg and was trying to get a rise out of me.

Which kind of rise? I wasn’t exactly sure. I think she was succeeding at both kinds.

“I’m not scared. It takes more than a few pale-faced dudes and a house that seems to have zero electricity to scare me.”

“Oh, this house has electricity.” Yari took her other hand and rubbed it on my upper thigh near the goods. I drew in a slow breath, trying to think of unsexy activities: raking leaves, delivering newspapers, eating Kraft macaroni and cheese. Nope, none of that was working while she traced her slender fingers across my denim-clad legs. I chastised myself: No sex during training!

Yari was holding a silver flask. She reached up and grabbed a shot glass from the dresser next to her. “This looks clean.” She giggled and poured some red alcohol into the shot glass. She handed me the shot glass. “Try it, Josiah. You’ll love it.”

“Thanks, but I had some tequila; I’m feeling good.”

“Trust me, this isn’t tequila.”

“I don’t want to get wasted. I have to train tomorrow.”

“Josiah, you’ve been training hard these days. Tonight, let’s have a little fun.” She got up from the mattress and slipped behind me. I was wondering what she was doing until she put her left hand around my waist. She then reached around with her right hand and held up the shot glass full of red liquor.

I puckered my lips and turned my head away. “I said I don’t want any!”

Yari kissed my neck. I froze. She hit the right spot. “Try it...for me...please. You know I would never hurt you.”

I smiled at Yari and said, “I don’t know that to be true.”

“You need to trust me.” Yari slid her hand down and grabbed my inner thigh. “Please, Josiah, just one sip.”

I continued to resist the drink. And the more I resisted, the higher Yari’s hand rose up my thigh, massaging as she went. I let out a long, shuddering breath. Honestly, what guy could have resisted her? I clearly wasn’t strong enough. And besides, it was just something to drink, right? If these Goth nut jobs were going to poison me, they would have done it out on the Flatlands, when I drank that weird shit.

I said, “You promise you’re not trying to kill me?”

Yari leaned even closer and whispered real softly in my right ear. “I just want you to loosen up, so we can have some fun.”

Then she thoroughly grabbed my expanding goods, my package snugger than snug in my jeans. I gasped, all the breath leaving my lungs. She continued to massage me, not without considerable skill, I noticed. She knew her way around the goods. I was excited, to say the least. Then she lifted the flask to my helpless lips and gently poured the drink down my throat. It was thick and sweet. It didn’t taste anything like alcohol.

“All right. I drank it,” I said. “So, now what?”

“Now, here’s where the fun starts.”

Yari took me by the hand and led me out of the room, and back to the living room, where partygoers were kissing so deeply and rhythmically, that I suspected some of them were doing the dirty right then and there. But then again, with the absence of any real light, it was hard to tell.

Yari scanned the room, looking for something. And then she found it. A beautiful blond girl who was sitting close to an equally beautiful brunette. Yari took the blond girl’s hand, who rose from the couch without hesitation or question. The blond, I could see, was lean and supremely sexy. She smiled at me shyly.

As Yari held our hands, she continued leading us through the undulating party, where we stopped this time in front of a sexy Latina woman who was probably in her early thirties. The blond girl nodded and reached out her own hand. There was a chain reaction going on here that I wasn’t fully getting. The Latina simply nodded and took the proffered hand. Once done, Yari led the three of us back into the same bedroom with the mattress on the floor and locked the door behind us.

I heard Tommy’s voice in my head, mocking me not to have sex while in training for a big fight.

I think this is where I swallowed. Hard. What the hell was going on?

Yari led me to the bed. I went, to say the least, willingly. Without asking or hesitation, the Latina woman took off my shirt, and now the blond girl began kissing my chest. I don’t know what happened to my jeans, but suddenly, they were gone and took my boxers with them.

That’s when the room started spinning.

Or maybe it in was my head. But everything kept on spinning until I couldn’t see anything at all. It was a blur. I suspected I had been drugged, but I didn’t care, not with three women swarming around me, touching, kissing, licking. Sucking! All I could do was feel. And feeling was enough. Hands roamed all over me. My entire body was groped and kissed. Caressed. Teased.

“I have one rule, girls,” I heard myself say from somewhere seemingly outside my body. “No biting. Everything else is fair game.”

The next two hours were the greatest two hours of my adult male life.

Chapter Thirteen

At some point, I either passed out or fell asleep.

I opened my eyes and, as my eyes adjusted, I could finally see. I was alone in the room. I pulled out my cell from my pocket. The lighted display read 2:12 a.m. Four hours of my life had just vanished. I got up, and my legs felt wobbly. It had not been an Partylite candle party. It had been a party of the other type.

What the hell had been in that drink?

I slowly got dressed and weeble-wobbled to the bedroom door and then made my way to the living room. There were still a lot of couples making out. Smoke from the many candles hung suspended in the air. The whole scene was surreal and bizarre, and now I was a part of it. I needed fresh air. With my legs feeling a little stronger, I headed out the front door.

I stood on the brick steps and took in a lot of fresh air, which did wonders to clear my head. And that’s when I heard the sounds of crying. Off to the right, in a small patch of grass near the side of the house, was a swing hanging from the thick branch of a tree. Lena was sitting alone and crying softly, the sounds of her muffled sobs reaching me in the quiet night air. I walked over to her.

“Hey,” I said.

Lena looked up at me. “Hi, Josiah.” She wiped her eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“It doesn’t seem as if it’s nothing,” I said. “What’s going on? Where’s Atticai?”

“Atticai left with a couple of his friends.”

I looked over and noticed the van was still in the driveway.

“The van is still here. Is he coming back?”

“I don’t know. He doesn’t like to tell me what he does.”

I paused. “That’s a pretty weird party going on in there.” I didn’t mention the foursome I had, although thanks to the power of that witchy potion I had drank, I was beginning to remember less and less of it. Which was a damn shame.

“You have no idea,” she said. “Did you go upstairs?”

“For a moment, but Yari found me and said I shouldn’t be up there.”

“Be glad that she did, they might not have known.”

“Not know what?” I asked.

Lena looked at me. “You have no idea what they were doing up there?”

“I’m not stupid,” I said. “I assume they were doing drugs.”

“Drugs? You think that’s what this party is about? A drug free for all? Are you honestly that clueless?”

“What are you saying?”

“Open your eyes, Josiah!”

“This all comes back to what your freaky friends did at the frat party, sucking on everyone’s neck and wrists. Do these people truly think they are vampires?”

Lena gave me a withering look that seemed to imply I was the world’s biggest idiot. Maybe I was. “Josiah, they were feeding up there!”

“Feeding? Like eating?”

She shook her head violently, and she kept shaking her head.

“Feeding on what, Lena?” My voice growing higher, perhaps with panic. “What were they feeding on? People?”

“No, not people’s flesh, but people’s...”

“Blood? Is that even sanitary?”

“It is when you’re a vampire.” Lena stared at me with utter amazement. But I had better critical thinking skills than to believe that because people drank blood, it obviously led to actually becoming a vampire. People do stupid things for all sorts of reasons, even drink blood. To me, there was nothing magical about blood drinking. It was almost some kind of a sexual fetish.

I shook my head at her. No, this could not be! I would believe in vampires on the same day that I believed in fairies. Which would be never. One thing that I did believe in was mental illness and drug addiction; I thought this party was a sure sign of both.

I said, “Vampires? You have got to be kidding me.”

She wouldn’t look at me. “I don’t know why Yari brought you here. But now that you’re here you need to start opening your eyes. This isn’t a Halloween party. These people—or things—are truly real.”

“The only thing that is real about them is that they are delusional. If they are truly drinking people’s blood against someone’s will, then they are also committing a serious crime.”

“It’s not a crime if no one is alive to press charges.”

“Are you saying they’re killing people upstairs? You’re telling me vampires—real vampires—are running wild in the city of Victorville?”

Lena just stared at me. Above, I heard more birds flapping. The beating rush of their wings was powerfully loud in the silent night. I felt as if I was being watched, but I didn’t know by whom. Mostly, I heard the dull thumping of my heart in my ears and my own harsh breathing.

This was crazy talk, of course. I mean, c’mon. How could anyone believe in something so crazy? Worse yet, if she was telling the truth—at least about the killings—then I was stranded here with a bunch of psychos.

“Lena,” I said, trying again, “just because some people have a fetish for” —and I couldn’t believe I was about to say this— “drinking blood, that doesn’t make someone something they’re not.”

“You think all those people in there just have a fetish?”

My mind was spinning. I was still feeling the effects of whatever it was in Yari’s flask. “Of course. What else could it be?”

“We shouldn’t be talking about this.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s not safe for either one of us.” Lena looked away, pausing. “Josiah, I have seen things.”

“What? The biting? Please! Just because someone can puncture flesh with filed-down teeth, doesn’t make them a vampire.”

“Do you seriously think all those people in there are playing games?”

“Of course they’re playing games. And someday they’re all going to have to grow up and get real jobs and let the fantasy go.”

Lena seemed pretty upset. I thought she was going to storm off, and maybe that would have been for the best. I felt sorry for anyone who believed this crap, and Lena obviously did. She seemed like a reasonable person. Everything pointed to her not being delusional, but then again, I hadn’t spent a lot of time with her, either.

“You really believe this, don’t you?” I said.

“It’s not a matter of believing. Believing is what a kid does in Santa Claus. This isn’t faith. Faith and believing are what you do with the unknown. This is extremely real.”

I knew I’d better drop it. She looked particularly vulnerable. I took her hand. “Let’s go for a ride,” I said.

“But where’s Yari?” Lena asked, her round eyes meeting mine. A spark of jealousy flickered in her pupils.

“I have no idea. We don’t need to worry about Yari.”

“She’s pretty possessive.”

“Well, she is nowhere near being my girlfriend, so I wouldn’t worry about her.” Any girl that drugs me and brings in two other women was certainly not the possessive type, and certainly not girlfriend material.

Lena stared at me and then looked down at our hands. I could tell she wanted to go with me, but something held her back. She pushed through it and finally said, ”Okay, I would like that. Let’s get out of here for a bit.”

“Cool.”

Chapter Fourteen

Lena and I walked over to my truck. I opened the door for her, and she jumped into the passenger side. Lena smelled incredible, and she looked fantastic in her usual black attire.

I got into my side and keyed the ignition and reversed out of the house of horror’s driveway. I found my way back to the same road that I used to get here, and I just drove.

Just to lighten the mood, I said, “Even though it’s dark, I feel at peace out here.”

“Well, you are in excellent company. Everyone around these parts likes the dark; it’s what they’re all about.”

“Still on the vampire kick, eh?” But before she could answer, and we could get into another argument about the undead, I quickly added: “So, what are you about, Lena?”

“I like the dark. It makes me think of death.”

“You make it sound as if that’s a good thing.”

“Death, for some, is a good thing.”

I shuddered a little. Geez, dark girl. I said, “I have too much living to do to think much about death.”

We lapsed into silence after that rather lively exchange. If she continued to talk like that, then I was better off sitting in silence. Who likes to talk about death?

A few minutes later, I asked Lena, “So do you still live with your parents?”

“Unfortunately, I do. I have been hoping that Atticai and I could get a place.”

“Are you two pretty serious?”

“Yes and no.”

“What does that mean?”

“Emotionally, we are pretty serious. The physical aspect of us is a whole other story.”

“Physically? I’m confused.” I pulled the truck into a field and parked. “Explain yourself, young lady.”

“Young lady?” She laughed a little. “Okay, well, Atticai and I have never....” Her voice trailed off.

“Never what?” I asked eagerly.

“Never... had sex.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Nope.”

“Not one time?”

“We haven’t even been to second base.” Lena looked at me with almost of sense of irony.

“Whoa,” I was shocked. By the way, these two acted together, I would have thought there wasn’t a place in San Bernardino they hadn’t done it.

She said, “It’s pretty crazy, isn’t it?”

“It’s insane.” I couldn’t hide my surprise. Lena was extremely hot, and any guy would jump at the chance. “Is it you? Or is him?” I asked.

“It’s all him. I mean...yes, I’m a virgin, but I was ready to have sex with him a year ago.”

“So, what’s the hold up?”

“He keeps telling me that he wants to preserve my innocence.”

“What a crock of shit.”

“Atticai cares about me, Josiah. He told me that things will change in a couple of weeks when it’s my birthday. I guess it freaks him out that I’m still in my teens.”

“How old is he?”

“He’s old. His physical body is about twenty-eight.”

“His physical body?” I sputtered. What the hell did that mean?

Lena gave me a knowing look, one that seemed to imply I should already know the answer.

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, yeah, I forgot. He’s Dracula.” How could someone who seems to be so honest with herself be so clueless?

“I guess it’s a good thing you still don’t believe. It’s probably the thing that’s saving your life.”

“Saving my life? What are you talking about?”

“Never mind. Anyway, so what about you? Do you still live with your parents?”

I was still wrapping my brain around the ‘It’s probably the only thing saving your life’ comment she made. I made a mental effort to switch gears and answer her question. “No, I don’t,” I said distractedly. “I live with my best friend.”

“Do your parents still live in San Bernardino?”

I was quiet.

“Did you hear me?” Lena asked.

“Yeah, I heard you,” I said.

“Well, where do your parents live?”

I got out of my truck and walked over to the front of my hood. Lena got out and stood next to me.

“The moon’s pretty bright tonight,” I said. “Even though it’s only a half moon.”

But she wasn’t looking at the moon. She was staring at me. “I’m sorry if talking about your parents upsets you, Josiah. God only knows that I have a crappy relationship with mine.”

We were silent. I kept looking up at the moon. She kept looking at me. Finally, I said, “They passed away, back when I was in high school.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“They died in a car accident, along with my sister.”

“Josiah, I’m so sorry.”

“You didn’t know, don’t worry about it.”

“No, I pressured you into telling me about it.”

“You didn’t pressure me.” I jumped up and sat on my hood. “I wanted to tell you about it. Really.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, I don’t talk about it much, if ever. I just felt as if you are someone I can...” I shrugged, “I can open up to, I guess.”

“I am, Josiah. I want you to know that.”

I hesitated and then decided to tell her. “It was our senior year. I was on my way home from the gym, and I got a call from Tommy. Tommy had been dating my sister. He got the call first, since his was the last number my sister had called on her cell. He told me that they had been in a terrible car accident on the 91 Freeway, and all three were at the hospital. I remember just dropping my phone and flooring it to the hospital. They were dead before I’d got there. All three of them.”

Lena covered her face with her hands. “Oh my God, Josiah. I am so sorry. I can’t believe I didn’t hear about this in high school.”

“You didn’t hear about it because I didn’t tell anybody. I didn’t tell a single person in high school. To be honest, this is the first time I’ve ever talked about it.”

“But surely you and Tommy talked about it.”

I shook my head.

“You haven’t talked to anybody about it?”

I shook my head again.

“Never?”

“Never.” I said. “Not one time.”

“Wow, that’s pretty heavy. Why me? Why now?”

“I just felt safe enough to tell you.”

Lena reached over and held my hand. She had tears in her eyes.

“It’s okay, Lena. I’m all right. It was a while ago.”

Lena let go of my hand. She then got up on the hood and sat next to me. She rested her head on my shoulder, and we sat there in silence for a little while. I appreciated the silence. I felt particularly comfortable around Lena. She had a gentle way that was being masked by a tough female exterior.

I sat back on the hood and laid on my back. “The sky is spectacular. The stars look phenomenal tonight.”

Lena leaned back and cuddled into me. It was nice. For the first time in my life, I felt secure. I felt a release come over my body and tears drip from my eyes. I didn’t make a sound. This moment was perfect. This woman was perfect. She was these things and... she wasn’t mine. The thought of Yari—Yari naked—swam into my mind.

God, had that actually happened tonight? What would that be called anyway, a ménage à quatre?

I didn’t know, but I did feel weird lying there with Lena and soaking in her tender touch when I had been with not just one, but three women just a few hours earlier.

Anyway, we eventually got back to the party, and when I pulled in, Atticai, Yari, and the guys seemed to be waiting for us.

I opened the door and got out of my truck, expecting the worst. Lena got out on the passenger side. Atticai walked right up to me, looming over me like Lurch from the Addams Family, only paler.

“Josiah, when did you get here?” Atticai asked.

“Huh?” I asked surprised. “I saw you earlier.”

“You did?” Atticai walked up to me and put his hand on my shoulder and stared into me. Yes, into me. It appeared he was trying to look deep into my soul. Then again, maybe he honestly could. Maybe vampires were telepathic. Or maybe I was just losing my mind. Anyway, he did this staring thing for a while, looking at me intently with zero expression on his face. Eventually, he nodded and smiled.

“We’re all good here,” Atticai said, to whom exactly, I’m not sure. “Hey, Josiah, do you mind taking Lena home? We’ll take Yari back.”

“Um, sure, no problem,” I said.

Yari walked up to me and gave me a long, seductive hug. “You had quite a night,” she said. “The girls and I had some fun with you and apparently you still needed a little dessert.” Yari glanced over at Lena, perhaps implying something had happened between us.

“Nothing happened, Yari,” Lena responded. “We just went for a drive. We weren’t going to wait around for you guys to finish whatever it was that you were doing.”

“Oh, you know what we were doing, Lena.” Yari smiled rather sadistically at Lena. Yari then turned to me and planted a long, passionate kiss on my mouth. I was stunned. I didn’t resist, and decided to go with it.

“And there it is! Territory marked!” Wyatt said, laughing.

Atticai smiled at me and simply said, “Be careful, Josiah.”

Atticai then kissed Lena lightly on top of her head, and I had to admit that I now looked at their whole relationship differently now that I knew they hadn’t slept together. There was, in fact, something majorly asexual about them.

I said goodbye to the rest of the pale-faced gang and Lena and I got back into my truck and got out of there. She was asleep by the time we hit the freeway. I looked over at her quite a few times and just stared at her face. She seemed so peaceful, so innocent. She certainly didn’t belong in that world.

And what was that world? I didn’t know. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

An hour later, I dropped her off. I got out of the truck and walked her to her front door. “I enjoyed talking to you,” I said.

“Even if I am just dessert?”

“You’re more than dessert. You’re an eight-course meal.”

She laughed. “Oh, really?”

I hugged Lena tightly. After a few seconds, I loosened up to let her go, but Lena held me even tighter. So, I continued holding her. We stood out there and hugged for another five minutes. It wasn’t a sexual hug. As a matter of fact, it was the opposite. It was just two people who had found each other. Two people from completely different backgrounds who discovered they have a true connection. Finally, we released. As we did so, I kissed her forehead.

“Thank you, Josiah. Thank you for everything.”

Lena went inside her house, and I stood there and stared at the front door. What a night. I had sex with three women and fell in love with a fourth.

Chapter Fifteen

The next week was all about preparing for my fight with Tommy. I tried to keep my mind off Lena, but I had never genuinely felt these kinds of emotions before. I knew I couldn’t deal with them right now because it would only be a distraction. I needed to do what paid the bills.

On the Friday before the fight, we had our weigh-in in Anaheim. I easily made weight, as did Tommy. Tommy looked surprised to see how in-shape I appeared in such a short amount of time.

I didn’t hate Tommy, and this was going to be the hardest part about the fight. If I beat him, Tommy would lose a chance at the title. If I lost, it would be an enormous setback for me, one that I might never come back from.

In the sport, you’re only given a couple of shots to prove yourself to the Commission. And if you get a chance to fight someone of Tommy’s caliber, well, that someone needed to take advantage of it. And that someone, of course, was me. I needed to knock out Tommy.

It was the night before the fight, and I was going to bed earlier. I went to my room and found Daphne sitting at my window. She turned her head slightly and looked at me with what appeared to be a concern in her sharp eyes. Or maybe I just needed sleep, since I was seriously exhausted. I went over to the window, bent down, and stared at her. I looked deep into her hawk eyes, which I found oddly comforting. Daphne dipped her head in a seeming nod, as if to say: “You worked your butt off, buddy, now go take care of business.”

“Don’t worry about me, Daphne,” I said. “I’ll make both of us proud.”

And with that, Daphne flew off. I crawled into bed and was out cold in seconds.

* * *

The next day, I took things easy. I met up with my trainer, Mike, at 4:00 p.m. My fight was scheduled to go at 6:30. It was the third fight on the card.

In the locker room, Mike and I went over a few things.

“Just keep your head in the fight. If you do that, you’ll beat him.” Mike said to me, while he taped my knuckles.

We did our usual pre-fight routine, practice moves, going over pointers, stretching and loosening up, and before I knew it, it was time.

Mike and I walked out of the tunnel. I had to admit it was weird, not having Tommy in my ring corner for support. It had been the next best thing to having my dad, or an older brother. I walked out into the arena. Tommy was already in the ring. His eyes were locked on me. I refused to look at him. I didn’t have to do that to get psyched up. I would let him exhaust himself, mad-dogging me.

The announcer introduced both of us, and I headed to my corner. I looked into the crowd. There were about fifteen hundred people in the stands. I scanned the crowd to see if anyone I knew was out there. Sure enough, sticking out like a sore seven-foot thumb was Atticai. In fact, the whole gang was with him. Surprisingly, Yari and Lena were sitting next to each other. I made eye contact with Atticai. Atticai pointed to Tommy and drew his finger over his throat. Was he serious? I didn’t enter the ring to hurt anyone. At least not permanently.

I looked at Yari—and, man, she looked sexy as hell. I could see her red lipstick from the ring. Lena looked on with concern. Our eyes met, and she smiled. That was what I needed.

As I stood in the corner, Mike rubbed my shoulders and said in my ear, “This is it, Josiah. Tonight, Tommy is not your friend. Tonight, he is someone who wants to rip off your head. No mercy. Strike first and strike hard!”

The bell rang, and Tommy and I both ran out into the middle of the ring and hit gloves.

We circled one another for about 30 seconds, both trying to find an opening in each other’s stance. I noticed that Tommy would lose his focus about every 10 seconds, as if trying to regroup his thoughts or something. Weird what you notice when you’re fighting someone, but you always look for any advantage you can find. So, I counted off ten, and sure enough, his eyes dropped a little, and I swung a hard right hand that landed on the side of his face. He stumbled backwards a couple of feet.

“Watch his right hand!” Tommy’s coach yelled out.

Too late, I thought.

That right hand would have been enough to lay out anyone during a street fight. Tommy wasn’t just anyone. He was strong as hell, and I was going to need more than one punch.

He shook his head and came back at me. Then we circled each other again. Once more, I counted off ten seconds and threw a five-punch combination that ended with an uppercut that landed directly on Tommy’s chin. Tommy fell to the mat. I jumped on top of him and landed a series of punches. As I did so, Tommy grabbed my knee and was attempting a submission move. I knew better. I kicked it out. As I did, I hit my nose on Tommy’s right thigh. It blurred my vision, so I decided to jump up and go back to a neutral standing position.

I looked up and saw that we were three minutes into the five-minute round. This was already the longest professional fight I’d ever had. We circled each other some more. Tommy’s attention was now in overdrive. He stopped whatever he was doing earlier. Smart move for him. Now, I was going to have to strike him without an opening. I lunged forward and threw a powerhouse right. Tommy blocked it with his arms. He winced, which meant that just blocking my punches was going to hurt him and wear him down. Good for me. And so, that’s was what I did. I came in throwing powerhouse rights and lefts. Tommy couldn’t keep up with the barrage of punches. I saw an opening below and kicked Tommy in his right thigh, sending his body spinning to the ground.

I heard someone in the crowd yell: “Finish him off.” My instincts, of course, were to do just that. I jumped on top of him and wildly threw rights and lefts. Tommy’s eyes were rolling back. Why the hell weren’t they stopping the fight? Did they want me to kill him? I slowed down and pretended to be exhausted. Those assholes weren’t going to stop the fight because they didn’t think that I was capable of knocking him out. I looked down at Tommy.
“Don’t stop, Josiah.” Tommy said to me, his mouth guard muffling the words, but I understood them. “You’re not even breathing hard.” I held him down until I heard the bell. I went back to the corner.

Mike yelled at me. “What the hell, Josiah. Why did you stop?!”

“I was tired,” I said.

“You won that round. If you win this round, you have it. Just don’t get soft!”

I sat there thinking about the last round. Then, something dawned on me. Tommy hadn’t thrown a single punch. Tommy was reluctant to hurt me. Tommy was refusing to punch me. The bell went off.

Tommy and I circled each other. “You’re going to have to punch me, Tommy. You can’t beat me unless you punch me. You need to forget who we are. This is your fight. This is your career. You can go toe-to-toe with me, but you will have to strike, also.”

Tommy nodded—then lunged forward and threw a hay maker. It landed across my face. I stumbled back.

I grinned, despite the pain. “There you go, Tommy. Now it’s a fight.”

Tommy and I traded punches for almost three minutes. My arms were heavy. I was getting pretty exhausted, and for just a millisecond, I down let my guard. That was all that Tommy needed. He sprung in and grabbed my legs. I fell to the mat. He whipped around me. He was trying to get me in his famous front-choke submission. Luckily, Mike and I practiced defending this, but, damn, Tommy got a good hold on me. Tommy was strong. Stronger than I remembered. He locked his forearm under my neck and had it wedged in tight. I tried to fight it off but, I couldn’t. I couldn’t breathe.

I totally blacked out.

When I opened my eyes, I could barely think clearly. I could hear someone talking to me from seemingly far away. It was Tommy and apparently, I lost. Tommy and a paramedic team were crouched down next to me.

“Come back to us, Josiah,” Tommy said, and I had a feeling he had been saying it a few times before that, too. Tommy gave me a big, relieved smile when he saw me blinking and breathing.

Now a doctor started asking me questions to see if I would be okay. I could see they had brought out a stretcher, and with that, I jumped straight up. There was no way I would be hauled off on a stretcher.

“Stay down, Josiah.” Tommy said to me.

“No freaking way, Tom. You deserve a proper hug.” I reached over and embraced Tommy.

Tommy grabbed my face, squishing my cheeks. We had always been like brothers. “You kicked my ass that first round, you know that.”

“Only because you didn’t have the heart to throw a punch, dumbass. You got me, Tommy. You deserve it.”

“I’m coming home tonight. I’ll take you out, and we’ll head up to Los Angeles and wreck that city.”

“Sounds good to me. I might need an aspirin first.”

“Me, too.”

We both laughed. I looked out into the crowd and both Lena and Yari were standing ringside, both looking terribly worried. I gave them a thumbs up to let them know it was okay. They both exhaled. The crowd cheered. Wow, two beautiful women were deathly concerned for my well-being. Could be worse.

I noticed that Atticai was making his way to the ring, too. He motioned for me to come to him, and I did.

When I reached the ropes, he said, “It’s bullshit, man. They should have never allowed that thing in the ring.”

I blinked. “Thing? What thing?”

Atticai looked at me with cold eyes. “No Tandra can handle a Carni. It’s not a fair fight.” What are these words? Mani? Carni? Tandra. What the hell were these people talking about?

I said as much to Atticai, and he just shook his head and walked away.

What the heck was that all about? I swore everyone in that group was bat-shit crazy.

The announcer announced that Tommy had knocked me out, and I gave Tommy one more hug and told him that I’d see him at home.

Chapter Sixteen

I got home and took a long hot bath. Ironically, the only thing that hurt was my back. I swear it was still hurt from that a-hole hitting me with a baseball bat a few weeks ago.

After my bath, I put on a pair of sweats and laid on the couch and waited for Tommy. I thought about the fight. I couldn’t believe I’d lost. Honestly. I have only lost two fights in my entire life. I lost my very first boxing match when I was a kid, and I lost today. I wished my dad would have seen Tommy and me tonight. He would have been proud of both of us.

I closed my eyes and took a moment and thought about my parents, especially my dad. My dad was a lucid dreamer and loved to tell me his dreams. The last thing he had ever said to me was on the morning of their accident. I had just gotten up for school, and as I went into the kitchen, my dad was sitting there, staring off into oblivion.

“Hey, Dad, what’s up?” I had asked, still bleary-eyed from sleep.

He looked over at me. “Oh, I just had the most amazing dream, son.”

This wasn’t the first time my dad had told me about an extraordinary dream he had, but whatever this dream had been, well, it was obviously giving him some serious food for thought.

“What was it about?” I asked, opening the kitchen door and grabbing the milk. If my father wasn’t there, I would have downed the milk straight from the carton. As it was, I found a box of cereal and started making breakfast.

“It was about you, son.”

“Me?”

“It was about us. We were camping up in Big Bear. You were a lot younger, maybe around seven years old. I had lost you and went looking for you in the woods. I couldn’t find you anywhere, and I began to panic. I sensed you were in danger. Considerable danger. I ran and ran looking for you, until I reached an enormous cliff.”

“A cliff in the woods?” I said, confused.

“Hey, Josiah, it’s a dream. A big, pink Easter bunny could show up, and there would be no rhyme or reason for it, all right?”

He was so cranky in the morning. “Sorry, Dad. Go on.”

“Anyway, I walked to the edge of the cliff and I look down, and about 300 feet below, I could see you. You were calling out for me. I yelled down to you that I wanted you to wait there, that I would be coming down for you. But then something horrible started to happen.”

I was about to shovel in my first spoonful of Cap’n Crunch. I waited, genuinely intrigued.

He went on. “About twenty hyenas surrounded you. They were growling and hissing at you. And as they started closing in, all I could do was watch from above, feeling totally helpless. I was going to have to watch all these animals tear you apart, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. So without thinking, I jumped. It was more like a dive. It was instinct, you know? I had to protect you. And as I fell, something miraculous happened. My arms began turning into wings. My entire body had changed into a beautiful white bird. I swooped in and grabbed you, just in the nick of time.”

Now the first spoonful found my mouth. “Wow. That’s pretty crazy,” I said, talking with food in my mouth, which immediately irritated my dad.

He frowned at me. “Anyway, it was so real. Josiah, I can still feel the air beneath me.”

I had looked at my dad, and he had this amazingly peaceful expression on his face. Far-off and dreamy. A tranquility I had never seen in him before. The irony was, of course, that he would die eight hours later. He would never be able to save me from the hyenas.

As I lay there on the couch, remembering my last conversation with my dad, with tears filling my eyes, I turned on the TV. I put on some Jimmy Kimmel since it was 12:30 in the morning. So, where was Tommy?

I didn’t know, and soon I dozed off.

Chapter Seventeen

My cell phone was ringing. My eyes cracked open, and I tried to collect my thoughts. My body and mind were beyond the point of exhaustion. I grabbed the phone and did my best to focus my eyes on the Caller I.D. It was a local number, but I didn’t recognize it. And as I answered the call, I saw Daphne peeking in the window at me.

“Hello,” I said, as much to the hawk as to the caller. My voice sounded groggy as hell.

“Is this Josiah Reign?” A woman asked at the other end.

“Yes.”

“Are you a relative of Tommy Jensen?”

“No, I mean yes. We’re practically brothers.” Okay, now I was worried.

“Tommy has been in an accident.”

I sat up. “What kind of accident?”

“We’re not quite sure. We pulled his file, and you were the only contact listed. He’s in the ICU.”

“Which hospital is this?”

“San Bernardino Memorial.”

“Okay. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

I jumped up and put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and headed out the door. Daphne was on the hood of my truck, almost as if she were waiting for me. I got in my truck and honked my horn, so she’d fly off. She did, squawking at me with a shriller kee-eeeee-arr than usual, and I pulled out of the parking lot and headed to the hospital.

Twenty minutes later, I pulled up to the emergency entrance. Surprisingly, there were a lot of empty parking spots. Even at 5:00 a.m., I would have thought most of Southern California ER’s would have been busy. Learn something new every day. I went through the double doors and headed straight to the nurse’s station.

“Hi, I’m here to see Tommy Jensen,” I said to the dark-haired, heavy-set Latina woman behind the desk.

“He is in the ICU. Why don’t you have a seat and someone will be available shortly to speak with you.”

“But I got a call from you guys. Can I go back and—”

“Have a seat and someone will be out to speak with you.”

“All right.” I sat down in a seat near the back, my stomach churning. There were sure a lot of people in the waiting room, considering how few cars there were in the parking lot.

A police officer came in from outside. He walked over to the nurse, and the nurse pointed him in my direction. I guess the “someone” who was to speak with me was going to be a police officer. He came right over to me. “Are you Josiah Reign?”

“Yes, sir, I am.”

“I need to ask you a couple of questions.”

“Sure,” I said.

“What relation are you to Tommy Jensen?”

“There is no relation. He’s my roommate. He’s the closest person in the world to me, but there is we are not related.”

“Were you with Tommy tonight?”

“Well, sort of.”

“What does that mean?”

“Tommy had a fight tonight at the Honda Center in Anaheim.”

“A fight? You mean a professional fight? A boxing match?”

“Close. It was a mixed martial arts fight.”

“You mean like ultimate fighting?”

“Yeah, something like that,” I said.

“You were at the fight?”

This guy wasn’t going to believe what I was about to tell him, but it was the truth, so I had nothing to lose. “I was his opponent in the fight.”

“You’re kidding me? You fight also?”

“Yes.”

“And you fought Tommy tonight?”

“Yes.”

“Who won?”

“He did.”

“He did?”

“Yeah, he did,” I said, suddenly annoyed.

“Wow, there’s a first for everything.” The police officer sat down in the chair next to me. “So, what did you guys do after the fight?”

“Nothing. I went straight home. What is this about? Can I see Tommy now?”

“You didn’t stop off for a beer or an ice pack?”

“I received all the ice packs I needed before I left the arena. No alcohol at all after a fight. Gotta heal up.”

“What did Tommy do after the fight?”

“He had been staying at his grandma’s during training. After the fight, he was supposed to come over, so we could go out and celebrate our first fight together.”

The police officer stopped writing and looked me in the eyes. “You were going to celebrate getting your ass kicked?”

“No, not exactly. Tommy is ‘in line’ to fight for the title in our weight class.”

“I see.” The police officer paused. “Did you throw the fight?”

“Of course not.”

“Well, that’s neither here nor there. Have they told you the severity of Tommy’s injuries?”

“No. I don’t know anything.”

“Did Tommy call you and tell you that he was going to be late?”

“No, he didn’t. What has happened to Tommy?”

“We’re not quite sure. All we know is that he was attacked.”

“Attacked? After the ring fight?”

He paused and leveled his stare at me. “And, due to the nature of his injuries, it appears that he was attacked by some kind of wild animal.”

I think my eyes bugged out of my skull. Before I could speak, the officer went on. “Even more unusual, he was dropped off at the ER, where the nurses found his body lying near the door.”

“No.” A sense of dread filled me. “Who dropped him off?”

“We don’t know.”

“Someone just dropped him off and took off?”

“Exactly. So where were you at 1:00 a.m?”

“I was at my house just about to fall asleep.”

“Can anyone else vouch for that?”

“No. I was alone.“

“Well, hopefully Tommy will regain consciousness shortly and he be able to shed some light on what happened.”

The police officer closed his notepad, nodded at me and walked outside. I just stared at him. Had I heard him correctly? Tommy had been attacked by a wild animal?

I sat there and waited. And waited. Two hours later, I got up and went to the nurse’s station.

“I’ve been here for two hours. Is there anyone who can give me an update?”

“The doctor will be out shortly to talk to you.”

“The doctor?” I questioned.

“Yes, the doctor.”

I was about to head back to my seat when I heard someone call my name. I turned around, and there was a man of Middle Eastern descent coming toward me.

“Yes, I’m Josiah.”

The man walked over to me. “Are you related to Mr. Jensen?”

“I’m pretty much all he has. What’s going on?”

The doctor paused. “I’m sorry. He didn’t make it.”

I’ve been hit hard in my life, but never have I been hit harder than that. All the air left my lungs, and I struggled to find words.

The doctor went on, but his voice reached me as if speaking from a deep well. “Mr. Jensen was pronounced dead ten minutes ago.”

“His name is Tommy. Please call him Tommy.” My voice sounded strange to my ears. Panicked, strained, high-pitched.

“I’m real sorry.”

I took in a lot of air. I could tell I was close to hyperventilating. “But...what happened?” I managed to say.

“He had bite marks all over his body. It appears he was attacked by multiple animals. But that’s for the medical examiner to determine.”

“But this doesn’t make any sense! He was on his way home from a professional fight.” My brain spun. For all, I knew I was spinning, too. I wished like hell that there was something nearby to hold onto. I would have used the doctor, but I didn’t think his frail body could support me. “What kind of animal was it?”

“I have no idea. The bites were deep and unmistakable. The medical examiner will look into it, along with the police.”

“He’s seriously gone? Dead?”

“Yes, I’m sorry.”

“Just like that? One minute he’s full of life kicking ass in the ring, and twelve hours later, he’s…dead?” I wasn’t making sense, and I knew it. Who could make sense at a time like this?

“If you need grief counseling, we can provide you with that—”

“I don’t need grief counseling.”

I fell to my knees. I couldn’t think straight. What I needed was a hospital bed of my own.

Chapter Eighteen

I made my way to a chair in the waiting room. I leaned back my head and couldn’t believe that this happened to me again.

Fuck this!

I got up and stumbled toward the door.

What the hell was going on? Tommy? Dead!

I pushed my way outside and looked up into the morning sun. I dropped to my knees. My heart felt as if it was going to rip from my chest. I needed to get out of here. I went to my truck. But I didn’t trust myself to drive, not right now. So I started running. I ran past cars in the driveway and people walking to their cars. I got to the sidewalk and started sprinting down the street, heading the opposite direction of traffic. The sidewalk soon ended and I was now in the street, running in the direction of approaching cars. I didn’t care. Let them hit me. I didn’t care.

Fuck them. Fuck everything.

I kept running as fast as I could make my body go. Cars swerved around into the next lane. Horns honked everywhere. Tires screeched. And still I ran. Now, a car was coming straight for me. I refused to move over. It screeched to a stop, smoke billowing up around its tires. But I didn’t slow or deviate. Instead, I ran up onto its hood and ignored the shocked expression of the middle-aged driver. I ran over the roof and down the trunk, leaving massive footprints in the sheet metal. I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything.

Eventually, I turned a corner and found myself in a dirt parking lot. Some cars followed me in. I dropped to my knees, sucking air, trying to breathe, trying to die. Whatever came first, I didn’t care.

A guy in a big, black Ford truck got out of his vehicle and began yelling at me. “What the hell were you doing, you stupid asshole!”

I ignored him, hardly saw him. He was just background noise.

Another guy jumped out of a white Mazda. A chubby Asian dude. “You stupid piece of shit...what the hell were you trying to do?”

God, I was in so much pain. I didn’t care if these two guys wanted to kick my ass or not. I was going to let them just have at me. I dropped my chin against my chest. My heart was racing so fast. Finally, I just let out a long, bellowing wail. It was shocking, the level of animalistic grief in that long wail. It was a primal sound, one that I was freaked out came from within me. It woke me up, in a way, and I asked myself where I was running to. Tommy wasn’t out here. He wasn’t anywhere. He was gone.

One of the annoyed guys asked me if I needed help, but I didn’t respond. Eventually, they both got in their vehicles and drove off. From above, I heard the beat of Daphne’s wings and an occasional screechy squawk. I don’t know what it was about that bird, but she was attached to me. The morning sun beat down on my neck. Its heat comforted me.

Eventually, I made it back to my truck and drove home. I opened the door and went straight into Tommy’s room. He kept his room meticulous, just as he did everything else in his life. He still had pictures of himself and my sister on his dresser, even though she had been dead for three years. He had pictures of them at Disneyland and one from her senior prom.

On top of his dresser was a framed picture of Tommy and me. We had our arms around each other after my first MMA fight. I had knocked the guy out in one minute, so Tommy and I were sporting the number one sign. We both seemed so happy. This picture was about a year old, which would have been two years after my family’s accident. Tommy and I knew, without ever talking about it, that we were bonded for life, brothers not of flesh, but of hearts. Now...he was gone. He had gone to heaven. Now I had my pops, mom, sis, and Tommy all looking after me. From above.

I sat on his bed and lay back on his pillow and stared at the ceiling. Up there was a movie poster of Never Back Down. Tommy had eaten, slept, and lived mixed martial arts fighting.

“So, what am I supposed to do now, guys?” I yelled out loud. “You guys think I can do this alone? Well, I have news for all of you...I can’t.” I rolled over, and I got up. I looked at myself in Tommy’s mirror above his dresser. “But it looks as if I have no choice.”

Chapter Nineteen

I felt lost. I didn’t know what to do. I just wanted to get out of here. Go somewhere far away. I needed to talk to someone. I needed to talk to someone I trusted. I needed to talk to Lena.

I got in my truck and drove over to her house. She answered the door immediately.

“Josiah,” Lena said, surprised. “Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not.” I said. “Can we go somewhere to talk?”

“Sure.” She grabbed her coat, and we both got in my truck. I drove around the corner and parked in a church parking lot. I suddenly found speaking exceedingly difficult. I collected myself and, with her concerned eyes on me, I blurted out, “Tommy is dead.”

“How do you know?” she asked.

Her question was completely out of left field. “What do you mean, how do I know? I was at the hospital when he died. A cop told me!”

“Oh, no. This can’t be happening.” Lena covered her face and looked away.

Okay, either this girl had no clue how to console someone hurting, or something else was going on. “What can’t be happening? Lena, do you know something about this?”

She looked back at me. Yeah, something was wrong. “What is it, Lena? Please. Tell me.”

“You’re not going to believe what happened.”

“Tell me.”

“Let’s go for a ride.”

So we rode. I pulled out of the church driveway and soon we were cruising on a mostly empty freeway, going nowhere in particular. Lena turned in her seat and looked at me.

“Josiah, how well did you know Tommy?”

“I knew him like a brother.”

“Then perhaps even brothers keep secrets.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Tommy had a secret, Josiah. A big secret.”

I was in no mood, and, quite frankly, she was beginning to irritate me. I needed to be consoled, not presented with riddles. It took all my power to bite my tongue, and simply growl, “How the hell would you know about Tommy’s secrets? You hardly knew him.”

“Josiah, this might be hard for you to understand. This will be difficult for you to process.” She took a deep breath, touched my hand tentatively, and then retracted her hand.

“Just say it, Lena.”

She nodded. Tears were streaming down the side of her cheeks. This night was just getting weirder and weirder. “Josiah, Tommy is what’s called a Carni.”

“What the hell is a Carni?”

She was staring at me again. Even in my peripheral vision, I could see her lower lip shaking.

“Please, talk to me, Lena. I’m seriously confused. What’s a Carni?”

“They’re werewolves.”

I looked at her, and she was dead serious. She didn’t even blink. Her eyes were piercing right through me.

“Tommy’s werewolf name is Kyro. He’s one of the most notorious werewolves in the area.”

“Lena, listen to me. And listen to me good. You are freaking crazy. Atticai, Yari, Wyatt, Hector, all of you idiots are stone-cold nut jobs. Tommy was as normal as anyone I’d ever known. I was with him every day. I’ve never once seen him become a...” I couldn’t even say it. This was all far too insane.

I got off the freeway and got back on, going the other direction. I wanted Lena out of my car. She was only making a shitty night worse. I wanted nothing more than to dump her at her trailer park and never see her again.

“Listen to me. You never saw it, Josiah, because he can control it. Tommy is an advanced Carni. The only time they can’t control it is during a full moon.”

“What?”

“Think about, Josiah. Did Tommy mysteriously leave every month for about 48 hours?”

“That’s silly. Tommy was in the reserves. Of course, he would leave. He was on duty for the United States military. On rotation. Duty.”

“Other than his word, did you ever see proof that he was in the reserves?”

“In my world, someone’s word is pretty much enough. His was.”

“Josiah, the last thing I want to do is wreck your world. But you are going to have to open your eyes. Everything you know to be true is upside down. There is a whole world of Carni and Mani all around us. And by their mercy, they don’t kill the Tandra.”

“Tandra?”

“Yes. We are the Tandra...the mortals.”

I couldn’t wrap my mind around any of this. “How do you know so much?”

“Because they let me in. I don’t know exactly why, but Atticai says on my twentieth birthday next week, everything will be clear to me.”

“So who—or what—killed Tommy? That’s even if I believe this, which I don’t.”

Lena was quiet.

“Who killed Tommy, Lena, since you know so fucking much?”

“Atticai confronted him after the fight in the parking lot.”

“What?”

“Atticai approached him, and Tommy, of course, knows exactly what Atticai is. They got into a heated discussion. Atticai was defending you, saying a Carni had no business competing in Tandra sports. He told Tommy that if he continued to test the Triat, it would be to his demise.”

“What the hell are you smoking, girl? What the hell is the Triat?”

“The Triat is the unbinding force that allows the Carni and Mani to live in peace along with the Tandra.”

“You have fucking lost your mind, Lena. You’re making up a bad religion in your head to explain what you don’t understand.”

“Please—”

“Tell me what they did to Tommy!” I screamed, sounding as if I had lost my mind, as well. I pounded the dash and left a dent in it.

Lena shrank against the passenger side door. “Tommy challenged Atticai.”

“Where and how?”

“They went to old Rogue Field over by Wasserman. They knew it was isolated enough that they wouldn’t be seen by regular folks. Only Carni and Mani were invited. ”

I heard myself breathing. I heard my heart beating loudly in my ears. What the fuck was going on?

“Were you there?” I asked.

“Yes, I was.”

“So what happened?”

“Atticai and Tommy battled.”

“You’re lying. You’re crazy.”

She went on, ignoring me. “Your friend battled bravely, but Atticai had too much power.”

“Atticai killed him?”

Again, Lena got quiet.

“Did Atticai kill him?”

“In the Carni tradition, once a Carni loses to a Mani in a public fight, all the observing Carni mangles the remainder of the body.”

Honestly, how the hell was I supposed to respond to that? I decided to keep to the facts. “Who drove him down to the hospital? He was alive when he was dropped off at the door.”

“I don’t know who dropped him off, Josiah. He was left for dead.”

“But someone drove him to the hospital. Who?”

“I don’t know. Everyone left late in the morning. When we left, Tommy’s body was still out there.”

“I don’t believe you. I don’t believe any of this. Atticai killed Tommy because he’s a crazy, delusional, Goth-crazed psychopath.”

I exited the freeway.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to the Flatlands. I’m going to find Atticai.”

“Josiah, if you go there—and if you tell them that you know anything—they will kill you. Your ignorance of them is what keeps you alive. It’s what keeps all Tandra alive, by decree of the Triat—”

“Please, just shut your mouth.”

“Drop me off at my house because I don’t want to be a part of this.”

“I will gladly drop you off. But you were willing to be a part of it last night when Tommy got killed.”

She didn’t answer that, which was just as well. The more she opened her mouth, the more I started not liking her. After I parked in front of her trailer park, Lena got out and walked over to my window.

“Don’t go away angry, Josiah. Please. For me. Try to forget all of this and just go back to your normal life.”

“What life, Lena? Tommy was the last of my family, and your family killed him.”

She shook her head and stepped back away from my truck. I reversed out of her community’s driveway, tires squealing pas the 5 m.p.h. sign, and headed to the Arrowhead Mountains. I was going to find and hurt Atticai.

My mind raced as I drove. What if, on any level, any of this was true? But how could it be? This wasn’t freaking Groovy Goolies Saturday morning cartoon show where vampires and werewolves were the norm. This was real life.

My head hurt. My heart hurt. Everything hurt.

And one way or another, Atticai was going to hurt, too.

Bad.

Chapter Twenty

My truck bounded onto the rocks at the Flatlands, where I soon skidded to a halt.

There was a small party going on out here, maybe about twenty guys total. But they were scattered around, more casual than the other night. I jumped out of my truck and looked around for Atticai. Everyone stared at me. I stalked toward them. There, he was. The tall goon was standing by himself near a bonfire.

“Josiah,” he said, and turned to face me. The firelight highlighted his gaunt feature. His striking nose, his small eyes. He said, “You might want to watch your every move from this point on.”

“Why? You going to claim I’m a werewolf and kill me, too?”

Atticai’s dark eyes, reflecting the firelight, focused on mine. “Josiah, you will turn around and leave.”

“Are you seriously trying mind-control on me? You’re not a Jedi knight and I’m certainly not a Storm Trooper.”

I continued forward. Atticai, amazingly, seemed a little confused. Did he honestly think he could mind-control me? The depths of his delusion were unfathomable. I cracked my neck by turning it until sounds like popcorn kernels exploded. Atticai was going to get the beating of his life. I said, “Did you kill Tommy, Atticai?”

He didn’t answer me.

I kept moving, stalking through the low grass of the clearing. “Did you kill my best fucking friend, you worthless piece of shit?”

Atticai snapped his fingers. Suddenly, those people who were scattered throughout the Flatlands turned silently and left, getting into their various vehicles and leaving. I stopped in my tracks and watched them leave, one after another. All because Atticai snapped his fingers. Seriously, what the hell? Only Wyatt and about five others were left. The five guys walked over to the bonfire, which now separated Atticai and myself

“Only Mani are left?” Atticai asked Wyatt. Wyatt nodded. Atticai seemed pleased. “Josiah, what exactly are you intending to do here all by yourself?”

I got into a fighter’s position. That should have been answer enough for them.

“You seriously think you’re going to be able to fight all of us? We all saw what one Carni could do to you. I’d say you don’t have much of a chance.”

“I don’t want to fight everyone, Atticai. Just you, you disillusioned vampire fuck.”

“A disillusioned vampire fuck is it?” Attic repeated, laughing. “Wow, I have been called a lot of strange things over the last three hundred years, but that is one of the most amusing.”

“Three hundred years, my ass.”

“I’m glad you’re not a believer, Josiah, because that just might be what saves your life.”

“Because the supposed Triat will spare me?”

“Ah. So you know about the Triat. Your furry-face friend, Tommy, either let you in on his secret, or you’ve been talking to someone else. And since Yari knows better than to do that, well, that means you must have had been talking to Lena. Alone, no doubt.”

Atticai ran at me in a millisecond. He open-hand punched me with more force than I had ever felt in life. I flew backwards about ten feet.

“Did you put your grimy Tandra hands on her?” Atticai yelled at me as I rolled on the sharp rocks. Man, that was painful.

I got to my feet. “I haven’t touched Lena.” Atticai stared at me like a crazed animal. I didn’t know what to do. Atticai was the strongest human being I had ever felt strike me. I stared at his position. I needed for him to run at me again. If he did, I could drop my body to the left and use his momentum against him. It was a classic move, one that would allow me to get a good choke hold in.

Atticai came at me again. Fast—hell, perhaps even faster than last time. But I was ready for him this time. Or, at least, as ready as I could be. He was reckless, cocky, confident, and I used that against him.

As he raised his fist, no doubt to deliver a hell of a killer blow, I dropped, caught his arm and flipped him. In a practiced motion, I rolled with him, getting my other arm around his neck, in a perfect choke hold.

Fuck this piece of shit.

I locked in tight and hard. He kicked, struggling, fighting, gasping. I felt something warm spill over my forearm. Blood. Good. I squeezed even harder.

“Transition!” Wyatt yelled frantically.

Atticai was weakening. Did vampires need air? I didn’t know, and I didn’t care. Atticai should have been out by now. Hell, he should have been dead by now, but he was still fighting me, still struggling.

And that’s when something mind boggling happened.

Suddenly, I was holding nothing. Suddenly, where Atticai had just been struggling for air, a battered bird flew away. It was a black raven.

I didn’t have time to react. Everything was happening so fast. Dreams happen fast, too, or slow.

Before I could fully comprehend that Atticai seemed to have turned into a giant raven, Wyatt slammed into me hard from the side, tackling me to the ground. The impact rocked me, rattling my brain and teeth. It was all I could do to focus my eyes before Wyatt unleashed a ferocious pummeling, his fists moving faster than I could react. I must have taken ten or fifteen full shots to the face before he finally let up. I’ve been hit before, and I’ve been hit hard. No way was this fucker going to take me down. The moment he let up, I bucked hard. He lost his balance and now I was scrambling to my feet.

The world spun. Blood gushed from multiple cuts around my eyes and forehead. I needed just a moment to get my bearings, to clear my head, and then that fucker Wyatt was next.

He continued backing off. Good, I caught my breath. My eyes and head cleared slowly. Wyatt was strong as hell, too, and his punches had done some damage. And that’s when the battered raven flew back, alighting on the ground next to Wyatt.

A moment later, the raven began to spread out, to elongate. I was sure my head was still spinning. Perhaps my eyes hadn’t fully adjusted. I watched as each wing and spindly leg continued to stretch and reform and fill out. Perhaps ten seconds later, the wounded raven was Atticai.

My mouth dropped open. Blood spilled from my mouth, and there was an excellent opportunity. Wyatt had knocked loose a tooth. Still, none of that concerned me. All that concerned me was that I was convinced I was losing my mind.

Atticai straightened out his neck and spit out some blood of his own. “You can close your mouth, Josiah. It’s all true. Everything you might have heard. And you nearly killed me, too, which was an unfortunate move for you, bro. Too bad, too…I liked you. ”

Now I was certain I was dreaming. I mean, c’mon. Yes, that made a lot of sense. Perfect sense. It made the only sense. I was dreaming, and Tommy was still alive, and Atticai most certainly didn’t just turn into a raven—and then back again.

I stood before the four of them, too stunned to speak, waiting to wake up, willing myself to wake up. So far, my tortured brain felt it necessary to continue this bizarre dream.

Atticai and his four friends circled me. Dream or not, for the first time in my life, I felt fear. I powered through it.

“Face me one at a time, you vampire fucks. Or not, I don’t give a shit. Just do something. You’re certainly not getting any prettier.”

Famous last words. All five ran at me. Worse, all five turned into fucking black birds at the same time. One minute they were on their feet running, and the next they were black missiles were hurling at me. Missiles with claws and beaks and little beady eyes.

Okay, Josiah, you can wake up now!

No such luck. The first bird dive-bombed at my face. I threw myself to the ground, ducking. Now they were all on me, squawking and clawing and pecking. At first I thought they were trying to eat me alive. They weren’t. They were gripping me, hooking their talons into anything they could grab: my jeans, my shirt, my flesh. Amazingly, I found myself lifting up off the ground.

Oh, sweet Jesus.

I looked down, and I was flying. Cold wind rushed over me, whipping my hair crazily. They flew me higher and higher. I assumed they were just going to drop me, and that this was it for me. I said some prayers and just waited.

But they didn’t drop me, and as best as I could tell—since it’s hard to get your bearings when you’re flying over treetops at night—we seemed to fly in a massive circle. The Flatlands appeared below, a massive clearing in the high forest. The ravens somehow worked as one, and soon we were dropping together. Moments later, I felt the ground beneath me, and I had never felt so relieved in all my life. The massive ravens released their hold on me, and I tentatively found my feet. My knees shook.

I wasn’t out of the woods yet, no pun intended. The ravens weren’t normal sized. These suckers were big, and now I knew why. Want to know surreal? How about being stared at by five enormous, shiny black ravens?

Suddenly, Atticai and the others transitioned back into their human selves. Or vampire selves. Or whatever the hell they were. One moment, the five ravens somberly regarded me, and the next, the five men stood ten feet away, stretching their arms.

Atticai said, “You a believer now, Josiah?”

I was pretty shaken up. “I believe in something.” Actually, I believed in two things above all else: either I had gone insane with grief over losing my friend, or I was still dreaming.

“Now that you’re a believer, Josiah, we’re left with only a couple of choices. You see, you now know way too much. You’re a risk to all of us. We would normally just kill you at this point.”

He said this matter-of-factly, as if he had done this very thing before, perhaps dozens of times before. “Then why don’t you?” I said.

“Because even though you tried to kill me, I like you. I see your potential. You’re the toughest Tandra I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something. Imagine if you became a Mani. Imagine how powerful you’d be as a vampire.”

I wanted to laugh this off, but it was hard to laugh off five dudes who could turn into ravens and take you on a nighttime flight high above the treetops.

“A vampire? And what kind of life would I have?”

Atticai grinned. “A longer one than what you’ll have now. I’m giving you an offer of a lifetime. A chance to live forever.”

I hadn’t realized he was giving me an offer. I knew what I wanted, and what I didn’t want, was to be one of them. “Atticai, I don’t want to be a Mani. Or a vampire. Or a damn bird. I just want to be a regular person. You must remember what that was like...being a regular person?”

I wasn’t sure what I was doing, but I think I was trying to buy some time. If by some chance that this shit was real, there was a very real chance that I might not make it out of this clearing alive tonight. And I sure as hell didn’t want to go around sucking people’s blood for the rest of my unnatural life.

Listen to you. This is nuts.

Nuts or not, I had five guys surrounding me, five guys who had just taken me on a flight from hell.

Atticai was smiling again. For someone who had nearly been choked out of existence by me, the tall fucker was sure pleased with himself. “A regular person? Hell, that was back in the 1700s. Life was a little more boring back then, Josiah. We didn’t have the internet or Xbox or Starbucks. The whole vampire gig was a pretty decent deal.”

Wyatt grinned. So did some of the others. Somewhere in the near distance, I could hear a strange rattling noise. I didn’t think it was my own teeth, or my knocking knees. I felt fear, but I wasn’t afraid of Atticai, or anyone. I just didn’t want to die. Not out here. And not by them.

I said, “So, if I say no, you guys just kill me right here and now?”

“No, we won’t. The rattlesnakes will. You do hear them, don’t you? Coming for you? I’ve summoned them. It’s a trick of mine. It’s one of the bag of tricks I have in my arsenal, to summon the things that slither over this earth. Some of us can just do it better than others.”

I could hear a rattling. I could hear lots of rattling. Hundreds of rattling sounds rising in crescendo all around me, like maracas in the hands of possessed folk musicians. Okay, now my knees were knocking. Snakes? Hundreds of them?

Oh, sweet, sweet Jesus.

“I just want you to know one thing, Josiah. I did not kill Tommy. His disgusting Carni brothers did.”

“And why would they do that?”

“How would I know, Josiah? Maybe they mistook him for Kibble N’ Bits or puppy chow. They’re filthy animals; that’s all I know.”

The rattling seemed to grow louder. Were there seriously rattlesnakes coming for me now? I looked around, scanning the darkness around me. I couldn’t see anything, but I seemed to hear a whispering, the sound a slithering body makes moving over the earth. Hundreds of slithering bodies. And then I smelled them, the snakes. Snakes have a very distinctive smell when they are threatened, something I learned in high school biology. I smelled the slight skunkiness in the air—snake musk.

“Last chance, Josiah. Join me.” Atticai reached out his hand to me. “Join me and live.”

I looked at his proffered hand. The rattling was indeed getting closer. Good God, this wasn’t happening. Atticai might have liked me, but I hated him. He could say what he wanted, but he was responsible, one way or another, for Tommy’s death.

I shook my head. “I’d rather die out here.”

“So be it.”

Suddenly the five vampires transitioned into ravens. They circled me in what could have been a ceremonial farewell, and then flew off into the night.

Chapter Twenty-one

So, there I was, completely left alone to die. Not to just die, but die a horrific death at the fate of hundreds of approaching snakes. I spotted a long branch on the ground nearby and grabbed it. I looked up at the sky and looked for the North Star. I knew the way down was to go south. So, I needed to go opposite of the star. I tucked my pant legs into my Doc Martin shoes. I was still wearing my leather jacket, which gave me some comfort. Could snakes bite through jeans?

Next, I said a prayer and took off running south. There was some moonlight, and I was able to use it to find a game trail. I followed it and kept running, praying like hell that I didn’t break an ankle.

Or come across like…a million snakes.

That thought alone sent me scurrying through the forest, running as fast as I could run. My adrenaline was on high. I had never run so hard in my life. I was hopping over bushes and, yes, over snakes. I could feel them underneath me but, I refused to stop. I ran as hard and as fast as I could move. I had no idea how long I was going to have to do this.

It was nearly thirty minutes later when I looked up at the sky. Shit. I had totally lost track of my direction. I was now facing the North Star. Which meant I had been running in circles. I was exhausted, and my side hurt. Nearby was a giant rock. So I jumped on top of it. The rattling of the snakes echoed everywhere. I looked around me, and the ground seemed to be moving. Snakes, everywhere. Slithering, inevitably approaching me. My skin crawled. How Atticai had done this, I don’t know, but the man—or vampire—was surely dealing with some dark magic.

There was no way that I was going to make it around them. I was going to have to attack them.

I jumped down and started swinging the branch. I swung it like a crazed, steroid-induced baseball player. I tried to make room, so I could get around, but there were just too many of them. Snakes flew in every direction. I severed some in half; I bashed others. But there were just too many. I was tiring and losing hope, certain I was going to be smothered by thousands of rattlesnakes, when suddenly I heard a squawk. A familiar shrieking squawk. It sounded like Daphne: kee-eeeee-arr, kee-eeeee-arr.

This night was getting weirder and weirder.

She flew in like a missile, wings folded close to her body. It was dark, and I couldn’t see what the hawk was doing, but it was something. She flew in low circles, and the snakes began to scatter. I jumped back onto the boulder, and just stood there and watched Daphne in action. The undulating forest floor, once alive with snakes, now calmed. The rattling disappeared into the distance. In a matter of minutes, the snakes were gone, beaten back by the angry hawk with a shrill voice and no fear of them. Incredible.

All the snakes had gone away. Or so I thought. As I jumped down from the rock and moved through the high grass, I heard a sharp rattle, and then a biting pain. Turns out the little shits can bite through jeans.

I kicked my leg hard and the little fucker went flying. The pain in my ankle was intense and immediate. The poison quickly took effect, perhaps because I was depleted emotionally and physically. I fell to my knees. My eyes blurred. I was losing consciousness. I could hear a lot of noise nearby. More snakes? More birds? More vampires? I didn’t know or care.

Still, someone was close by. Someone or something. As strange colors flitted just behind my eyelids, perhaps an effect of the poison, I felt something bite deeply into my ankle, the same spot where the snake had just sunk its own fangs. Another snake? No. I could feel hands gripping my leg.

I closed my eyes. The pain in my ankle was excruciating. The person sucking the venom did so with ferocity. I forced open my eyes, and through the swirling colors and light, I saw Yari.

“Yari?” I gasped, convinced I was hallucinating.

“Shh. Quiet, Josiah. We’ve got to get you out of here.”

I looked at Yari, and she started transitioning in the way Atticai and the others had done. But Yari didn’t transition into a raven. Yari transitioned into…Daphne, my faithful hawk friend. Yari was Daphne?

It was then that I passed out.

Chapter Twenty-two

I opened my eyes, and I found myself in my bed.

Was everything a dream? I looked down at my ankle, and there were two sets of raw, swollen puncture wounds. The snake and Yari?

Not a dream, I thought. Last night was real.

So then how I was home?

I got up and went to the living room. It felt like morning, yet, my house was still completely dark. I soon saw why. Someone had duct-taped the blinds so that no light could get in.

A voice spoke from the darkness, startling me. “In about three hours, I can go outside.” Yari was sitting on the carpet cross-legged in the far corner of the living room. She looked as if she had been doing yoga in complete darkness. If not for her pale complexion, I probably wouldn’t have seen her at all.

“So, it’s all true,” I said, rubbing a hand over my face. “Vampires, sunlight, werewolves, full moons—all of it.”

“It’s all true, Josiah.”

“I still can’t believe it.”

“Believe, Josiah. You have seen it with your own eyes.”

I stared at Yari, sitting there in the corner of my living room, in complete darkness, a beautiful woman I had slept with just weeks earlier, a woman I had watched turn into a fucking beautiful red-tailed hawk. I sat down and held my head. I wasn’t suffering from overwhelming grief—although my heart ached heavier than ever, knowing that Tommy would never set foot in here again. I wasn’t running on adrenaline, and I certainly wasn’t high or drunk. This was real, and there was no talking my way out of this. Could I still be dreaming? Sure, maybe, but I doubted it.

This was real. Real.

I asked the only question that I could think of at the moment: “Since when did vampires start turning into birds? I thought it was supposed to be bats or fog or something.”

“You mortals—and your writers, in particular—were the ones who fabricated that nonsense. Hell, we don’t even refer to ourselves as vampires. We are something else.”

“Mani,” I said.

“Yes.” Yari stood up and walked over to me. “Josiah, I have done a horrible thing.”

“What would that be, exactly?”

She paused, and then sat down on the couch. She was being exceptionally quiet. I walked over and sat next to her. “What is it?” I asked.

“Josiah, I saved you. The Triat won’t like that. The Mani won’t like that, either. Especially Atticai.”

“Why is it so awful that I know? Lena knows, and nothing seems to happen to her.”

“Lena is different.”

“How so?”

“There is so much about us that you don’t understand. There is a history, and there are many things that have been prophesied. I can’t go into that right now. When I am at full strength, we need to get you out of here.”

“Where would I go, Yari?”

“Anywhere but here. Atticai knows where you live, and I know him; he’ll get suspicious if there is no word about a man dying in the wilderness. He will assume you survived.”

“So, what am I supposed to do? Run? I’ve never run from anything in my life.”

“Can the macho ego bullshit, Josiah. These guys will kill you without a second thought. The Triat gives them the right to do so. Please, we must leave. Soon.”

“And go where?”

“Far away.”

“Come with me.”

Yari stared at the floor for a moment before looking up at me. “Josiah, I will always be with you.”

“No, don’t be with me as Daphne, the hawk. I want you to be by my side as you...Yari. You. Whatever you are, I want to be with you.”

Tears glistened in her eyes. “Look, do you have an extra set of keys to Tommy’s car? It should still be parked at the ranch from the other night. His keys must have fallen out when he fought Atticai because he didn’t have them when I dropped him...” her voice drifted off.

“When you dropped him off at the hospital,” I said suddenly, as the realization hit me that it had been Yari who tried to save my friend’s life. “Why would you do that if you knew he was a Carni?”

She looked away. “Because I knew you cared about him. I did it for you.”

This whole thing was almost too much for me to handle. I sat down and cradled my head in my hands, thinking. “You’re going to have to turn into Daphne and go get his Mustang from the ranch. You are going to need to bring it back here. It’ll be dark soon, so I guess you won’t have a problem, you know, transitioning, or whatever you call it.”

Yari smiled and looked at me for a heartbeat or two. She reached out and took my hand, and we sat like that until the sun finally set. And when it did, she stood from the couch and stepped away from me. “Do you have an extra set of keys, Josiah?

“Yes, we both kept a set of each other’s keys in our bedrooms just in case of an emergency. Can you carry them as a hawk?”

“Oh, I can carry much bigger things than keys, Josiah. I’ll need the keys to the Mustang. Now.”

I nodded and fetched the keys, and when I returned, a beautiful red hawk was sitting on the arm of the couch. She opened her talons, and I carefully hooked the key ring inside the claws as they closed over the key ring. I opened the door, and the hawk shot out of my apartment like a cannon shot.

“Be careful!” I yelled after her, wondering what my neighbors were thinking. With any luck, no one saw the hawk.

About a half hour later, Yari made her way back in Tommy’s Mustang. During that time, I had packed a few things. We jumped into the muscle car and headed straight for the freeway. I kept looking up in the sky for ravens.

So far, the coast was clear.

We hit the 91 Freeway and eventually made our way to the 5 Freeway. I wasn’t sure how far north I wanted to drive, but Monterey seemed far enough. Monterey was a quaint beach city about five hours north, and it seemed as if it would be the last place anyone would think to look for me. If the Triat wanted me dead, I think she or it—or whatever it was—would have done it by now.

Then again, what the hell did I know?

Chapter Twenty-three

In Monterey, we stopped at a quaint bed and breakfast. I got us a room that only had one small window. Before the trip, I had packed the same duct tape that Yari had used to tape my own curtains shut. Yari and I proceeded to tape shut the curtain to this window, as well. We even duct-taped the blinds themselves, so that no light whatsoever could peek through come morning.

I was exhausted. In hindsight, I probably should have had the vampire be the one to do the driving through the entire night. Anyway, I got the room for three nights, so that we could figure out our next move. Even though, it wasn’t morning—in fact, morning was still a few hours away—Yari hit the sheets hard, crashing immediately. Dead to the world, so to speak. And for all I knew, she was.

I lit a couple of candles that I had brought and then I sat on the leather-back chair that was directly in front of the bed. Although Yari and I had been intimate previously at the party in Victorville, I felt I needed an invitation before lying next to her on this day.

So, I sat there and watched her sleep as the sun moved across the sky, which I only knew was happening from my wristwatch. I thought that I had read somewhere that vampires didn’t sleep, that they died all over again, and then were reborn come sundown. Well, say that to this softly snoring girl. She sure as hell sounded asleep to me.

I was exhausted, but was too wired to sleep. I didn’t want to put on the TV because the noise and light might bother her. So instead, I just stared. I sat there and looked at her in the candlelight. Her auburn hair flowed down her back like a red waterfall. Her body was long and athletic. She looked like a female superhero, something out of a comic book. And, like a heroine, she had saved my life. I didn’t know why, but she seemed always to be there for me.

I thought about everything, trying to wrap my brain around this vampire business. Had Tommy seriously been a werewolf all this time? The more I thought about it, the more it was adding up. Tommy had come out of nowhere. He had no family. He had an erratic temper that he seemed always to be trying to keep in check. True, he had disappeared for a few days, and, no, I had never seen any actual proof that he was in the Reserves. I just took him for his word. Who wouldn’t?

In fact, oddly—or perhaps hysterically—he even hated high-pitched noises.

My eyes were growing heavy, and I dozed off. Sometime later, I felt a hand guiding me to the bed. I cracked my eyes open and saw Yari pulling down the covers. She unbuckled my belt and slid my pants off like a mother putting a son to bed. Still wearing my boxers and T-shirt, she guided me into bed and tucked me in. She was sweet and gentle and kind in every movement she made. She slipped under the covers next to me, her body surprisingly warm.

“Aren’t vampires supposed to be cold?” I asked.

“I’m not a vampire,” she said patiently.

I nodded once. “You’re a Mani.”

“There’s a big difference.”

“Of course,” I said, and grinned.

I turned and faced her. “I don’t know what to do. Where do I go from here?”

“Don’t think about it, Josiah. Not right now. Tonight, just close your eyes.”

I could feel her breath on my face. I leaned in and kissed her forehead. “Thank you for saving my life.”

Chapter Twenty-four

I slept for a long time. It felt like years. I opened my eyes and saw that Yari had opened the single window because it was now dark outside. The clock on the nightstand showed 8:42 p.m. Wow, I had slept for fifteen hours. I sat up. The showerhead blasted the echoing tiles with water in the connecting bathroom. Considering that I had been out for the past fifteen hours, I needed to use the facilities.

Duty called. I eased open the bathroom door and could see Yari’s silhouette through the steamy glass shower door.

“Josiah, is that you?” Yari called out over the water.

“Of course it is. Who else could it be?”

“Who knows? Maybe the maid. I’m not sure how familiar the staff is at this bed and breakfast.”

I did my business. Luckily, she couldn’t hear it above the drone of the rushing water. When done, I started walking out the door. “Where are you going?”

“Outside. To give you some privacy.”

“Aren’t you dirty? Do you need a shower?”

“Yeah, I’ll take one when you’re done.”

“There’s plenty of room in here.”

I paused. “Seriously?”

“If you’re shy, I understand.”

“I’m not that shy.”

“Well, you better hurry up. I would hate to use up all the hot water.”

Oh, she was good. I looked at her silhouette one more time. That’s all I needed to see. My boxers and T-shirt were off in seconds. I walked over to the sliding glass shower door. I took a deep breath, as if I was about to enter a swimming pool. I pulled open the glass door. I looked in, and Yari faced me. Her body was perfect. The wispy shower steam did little to hide her curves. I tried not to stare, but the truth is, I haven’t seen that many women naked before—and the ones I had seen naked were nowhere near Yari’s jaw-dropping perfection.

Oh, my God.

Her skin was milky white. Her body as curvy and hard and smooth as anything I had ever seen. Her wet hair hung over her shoulder, and she put a long-fingered hand on one hip.

“You getting an eyeful, mister?”

So much for not staring.

“Uh, sorry,” I said. At least, that’s what I think I said. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I had any control of my mouth or my voice at that moment. My hormones were somewhere in orbit at the moment.

“Come over here, silly. I’m not lying about the hot water getting used up. This is a private bed and breakfast, not a Sheraton.”

I stepped into the hot shower, and she backed up underneath the shower head. The water flowed over her, accentuating her curves. I went straight to her like a moth to the flame, and into the epicenter of the water flow.

At first, the hot water shocked me and then it felt incredible. Yari turned my body around and began lathering my back and shoulders with a bar of soap. As she did so, she gently massaged my skin and muscles. Oh, dear Lord. She next guided my head so that the water sprayed directly onto my scalp, and then poured some shampoo into my hair. Now she was massaging my scalp, and I think I died and went to heaven. I tried to turn around, but she stopped me.

“Hold on,” she said. “I have to wash out the shampoo.” She rinsed my hair thoroughly. I relished the feeling of her gentle fingers on my scalp. I couldn’t take all this sensuality much longer. My passion was burning, and I was going to explode.

I turned around and switched spots with her so that now she was underneath the flow of water. I ran my fingers through her thick, black hair and pulled her toward me. She came willingly. I kissed her passionately, and soon we were pressed up against the side wall, kissing hungrily. I had never kissed any woman in my life with this much intention. I wanted her to know how much I appreciated her and wanted her. Needed her. I pulled back and looked at her intensely. Then I leaned in and kissed her again and again. It was the first time I had ever felt in complete control in her presence. Everything up to now, she had dictated. I sensed that releasing control was somehow turning her on—more so than I had ever seen before in my life.

Stumbling and slipping, I led her out of the shower and into the bedroom. I threw her on the bed softly and proceeded to kiss every square inch of her body. I was in the midst of kissing her belly button when she reached around me and grabbed my buttocks and pressed me up against her. Then she wrapped her arms around me and just held me close.

I look down at her, gasping. “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay, Josiah.”

“Are you sure?”

“Josiah, I...”

“You what?”

“Josiah, I...”

“You what?” I was anticipating her saying that she loved me, which would have floored me. To be honest, I wanted her to say it. So, I pressed again. “What? Please tell me.”

“Josiah, I... have to kill you.”

“What?!” I jumped off of her.

“I know I have to do it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Josiah, the Triat led me to you. I never understood why. I thought it was because it would have something to do with Tommy. But I think the Triat led me to you because you were going to ultimately mess up the prophecy.”

“The prophecy? What the fuck are you talking about?”

“The Children of the Night’s prophecy.”

I got up and put my jeans back on. Having someone tell you they were going to kill you sort of dampened the mood. “Sure, of course. That makes a tremendous amount of sense. Look, I was about to make love to you, and now I’m seriously thinking I have to stick an entirely different kind of stake in you. Start talking fast, or tonight’s about to get real ugly.”

I glanced around. I didn’t have a stake. Would a toothbrush do?

God, listen to me. I’m going nuts.

“Atticai, Hector, Wyatt, and I were all given the same prophetic dream. The four of us didn’t meet by chance. The Triat brought us together through dreams.”

“This just gets better and better. What was the dream?”

“The four of us were given the same vision in our dreams. This was fifteen years ago. We all had the same dream to meet on April 18, 1995, at midnight. We were to meet and form a clan called Children of the Night.”

“So you’ve known Atticai for almost seventeen years now?”

“Not quite. In the mid-1800s, Atticai and I were in a giant clan on the east coast. So, I met him first during the Civil War.”

“The Civil War?”

“Yes, Josiah.”

“You have got to be kidding.”

“Josiah, I was born October 18th, 1673.”

“You need to give me a moment here. You are over three hundred years old?”

“I look pretty good, huh?”

“I’ll say. Okay, so you and Atticai were in some giant Mani vampire clan during the Civil War? Just saying that out loud makes me think I’m crazy.”

“You’re not crazy, Josiah.”

“Says the girl who calls herself a vampire. Go on.”

“Not a vampire. A Mani.”

“Somehow that sounds even crazier. Anyway, go on.”

“Atticai was the head of our clan. There was a Mani named Krull who didn’t like the way Atticai ran things. Believe it or not, Atticai is not about death and destruction. He defends and protects the will of the Triat, but ultimately, he is a mediator.”

“Sure, he seemed real peaceful when he sicced half the rattlesnakes in California on my ass.”

“I can see how you would think that, but the will of the Triat is what makes him a killer. Mani, such as Krull, are the real killers. Such Mani are the reason why we often get referred to as vampires—and why so many Tandra—humans—have died over the years.” She paused and sat back on the bed.

God, I still wanted her. Did she just say she was going to have to kill me? Even that statement didn’t kill my desire for Yari.

She went on, “Krull and others like him want the Tandra to discover our world because then they have a license to kill. Atticai knew that’s what Krull and those who followed him were doing. Atticai put a stop to this, until Krull’s legions rose up over Atticai’s clan, and Atticai—and many others—were forced to flee.”

She paused and studied me a moment longer. Her eyes were so damn hard to read. “Josiah, there is a whole world of Mani out there that want to destroy all Tandra.”

“Where do werewolves—the Carni—come into it?” I discreetly moved over to my bag, where I had packed a pocketknife. I wasn’t going down without a fight. Even if I had to fight a female vampire.

Yari said, “The Carni are their own species and are equally protected by the Triat, although they have their own set of rules. The Carni have not as many rules to live by and are in constant opposition of the Triat.”

“Why doesn’t the Triat just have them killed off?”

“It doesn’t work that way. The Triat works through us and the only way the Carni will be destroyed is by the Mani.”

“Okay, that’s pretty heavy.”

“And that’s where the Children of the Night come in. For hundreds of years, there has been a prophecy. A Mani that will be so powerful, so pure, that he will restore order to the orderless. It is said that he will bring beauty back to us all so that we can live in peace.”

I nodded, not really understanding. Not wanting to, either. Because if I understood, then I would have to accept things.

Yari continued, “After Atticai, Hector, and Wyatt, and I all received our visions, we were told to form a four-person clan, or a cell. Once done, the next step would be revealed to us in further dreams.”

“And was it?”

“Yes.”

I nodded, guessing this part. “You dreamed of Atticai being the Chosen One.”

She shrugged. “Perhaps. There is no face to the Chosen One. At least, not yet.” Her eyes narrowed as she studied me. “Why do you think it’s Atticai?”

“It makes sense. He fights for humans—well, for the most part—and he’s a Mani.”

Yari continued studying me, then finally said, “Unfortunately, there’s nothing pure and beautiful about Atticai.”

“So you don’t think it’s him?”

“It does not matter what I think, Josiah. I am an extremely small fish in a much bigger pond. Anyway, most people think it’s going to be Atticai. Already he is prepping to harvest a virgin on her twentieth birthday. When he does so, he will, according to legend, transform into the white eagle.”

“White eagle?”

“As you know by now, all male Mani transition into ravens and the Mani women into hawks. The Chosen One, however, will transition into a white eagle.”

“Err, what exactly do you mean by harvest?”

“A Mani will drain all the life-blood of a Tandra—or Carni, for that matter.”

“Yeah, Atticai’s a real saint,” I said sarcastically, shaking my head. “So who’s this virgin that Atticai’s supposedly going to harvest?”

Yari was quiet.

I pressed. “There’s not too many virginal twenty-year-olds out there. Is he going to pluck a nun from a nunnery?”

“No. Our dreams were acutely specific on who the virgin is supposed to be.”

Confused, I looked at Yari and then it hit me. Everything now made perfect, twisted sense.

The virgin was Lena.

Chapter Twenty-five

“You’re talking about Lena, aren’t you?” I said. “Shit! Wasn’t it going to be her birthday any day now?”

“We all had the same dream and the same vision, Josiah. In each of them, Lena fits the image of the twenty-year-old virgin exactly. And as her twentieth birthday has come closer, the dreams have been out of control for us. Now we dream about what is to happen nearly every night. And just recently, there has been something else added to the dream. A new twist, so to speak.”

“And what is that?” I asked.

“There is this strong presence of evil. In the dream, Atticai is freeing us all by receiving the necessary blood. But there is an evil presence interfering that we can’t quite make out. We’re not sure if it is a fallen Mani or Carni. But there is something there, and it is exceedingly evil, and we are all on guard because of it.”

“Does Lena know any of this?”

“She knows only that, on that special night, she and Atticai will be joined together throughout all eternity.”

“But in reality, she’s not. In reality, Atticai is going to kill her.”

“Atticai is going to fulfill the prophecy, Josiah. He will then save the Mani. He will fly in as a white eagle. It has been prophesied for thousands of years. Do you understand how lucky each of us is to be asked to be a part of it?”

“About as lucky as a heart attack. And what if the virgin sacrifice doesn’t go according to plan? What then?”

“It has to come to plan, Josiah. Everything needs to come to pass. Every detail all the way down to whatever evil that needs to be taken care of.”

“Are you still planning on killing me?”

Yari stood up and came over to me. I slipped my hand in my bag and grabbed the knife. Woman or not, she was a Mani, and I knew these things were tough as hell.

She said, “If I was, I wouldn’t have told you everything.”

“Maybe you told me everything, so it would make it easier to kill me.”

Yari’s eyes burned through me. I knew then she was in absolute love with me. Her love for me, I knew, was the only thing keeping her from attacking me, from fulfilling her obligations to the Triat. Still, I kept the knife in my palm.

“There’s nothing in this world that could make me harm you, Josiah.” She touched my cheek, and I sensed genuine emotion from her.

I knew I needed to save Lena. But I needed more information. Everything I knew about how to defeat a vampire was from novels and movies. And, from what I was gathering, they had gotten things wrong. Dead wrong.

There was no doubt I cared for Lena. I wanted to save her from this crazy shit. I could give a damn if the Mani and Carni lived in peace or not. It was not my fight. But what could I do? The only thing I knew to do was to make sure that there was no way that Atticai became the Chosen One. Because if he did, Lena would have to die to make that happen. What was I thinking? These people were crazy, all of them. There was no way I was going to let Lena become a victim of their agenda, real or not.

I slipped the knife in my back pocket, leaned in, and put my hands around Yari’s waist. I pulled her in close and looked her in the eye. “But what if I wanted to harm you though?”

“You want to harm me?” she asked, with a soft and sexy surprise in her voice.

“How would a Tandra have a chance against a Mani like yourself?”

She studied me a moment, obviously debating how much to tell me. Finally, she said, “There are a number of ways a mortal could defeat a Mani.” Yari kissed me gently on the lips. “Why would you want to harm me?”

“Not you,” I said, but that’s all I would say.

She looked at me for a long time, keeping me at arm’s length. I could sense her inner conflict. After all, why should she tell me their deepest secrets, especially the one that could bring down the entire prophecy? Did she trust me? And why should she trust me? Hell, just a few minutes earlier, I was preparing to fight her. Eventually, she shrugged and pulled me in close. When she spoke, she did so in my ear: “You defeated Atticai last night. He was forced to transition to escape. I’ve never seen that happen before. Not from a Tandra.”

“How would I protect myself against your kind?” I asked.

“There is no protection, but there are two ways to defeat us.”

“A stake?” I offered.

“A silver stake,” she corrected. “And you need to pierce a Mani so deadly that it goes in through the front and out through the back. Complete impalement.”

I shuddered. “So, it doesn’t have to be through the heart?”

“If you want maximum chance at a permanent kill, then yes, through the heart.” Yari reached down and began unzipping my pants with her left hand while we still bantered face-to-face. Within seconds, she had me free, and in a tight grip, and after three hundred years, well, let’s just say she was exceptionally skilled at what she was doing. Blood started to rush away from my head as my thoughts went in other directions. Downward.

“And what’s the other way?” I struggled to say.

“Excuse me?” Yari had clearly shifted her focus to something else entirely.

I gasped and panted. She was good and mid-stroke, I asked her: “What...what is the other way a Tandra can defeat a Mani in battle?”

Yari turned me around and sat me on the bed. She lifted a leg and was soon straddling me. Within moments, I was completely inside her. She leaned in and our bodies began moving in a slow, sensual motion.

I moaned but, trying to maintain my focus, I repeated my question, in an abbreviated fashion: “Tandra vs. Mani. How can Tandra win the battle?”

“Well, Josiah,” she said, her voice husky in my ear, “the other way is to pierce a Mani’s neck from one side to the other with just about anything. Such a wound prevents us from transitioning. A Mani, you see, needs maximum air capacity to transition. After just a couple gasps, a Mani will be done.”

“Done?” I asked, wondering if she meant dead.

Apparently so, because she said, “So, there you go, Josiah. How to Kill a Mani for Dummies. Just don’t let our secret out, or I will have to kill you.”

She grinned and kissed me deeply, and I wondered how much of what she was saying was true. Had she seriously given me the recipe for defeating her kind? Just because I was in her? I didn’t know, and I didn’t have much time to ponder these questions, because soon Yari was doing delicious and dirty things to me that I swore I would never repeat to anyone.

And, I’m a man of my word.

Chapter Twenty-six

In the afterglow, I laid on the bed and was finally able to turn my head to look at the bedside clock. It was 10:00 p.m.

“Isn’t tomorrow night the big night?” I asked, when my head finally cleared. “Isn’t it Lena’s birthday in twenty-six hours?”

Yari was curled up next to me. Her body was warm, which went against everything I had heard about vampires. Hey, trust me, I was glad she was warm. The last thing I wanted was something cold and undead lying next to me. She was staring at me intently, while I looked up at the ceiling with my hands behind my head, trying to make the question casual, so that she would not suspect that I was planning anything. Which I kind of was.

She nodded. “Yes, it’s almost time for the prophecy to come to fruition. I can’t miss it. I’m going to fly back soon.”

“As the crow flies?”

“As the hawk flies,” she said, pinching me. “Crows are vile.”

“What’s the difference between a crow and a raven?”

“Do we really want to talk about it?”

I shrugged. “Probably not. So, does it have to be this way?”

“What way?”

“The sacrifice and all the bloodletting, or whatever it is, that Atticai plans on doing to Lena.”

“Yes, Josiah.”

“And where is it going to take place?”

“It’s only going to be the four of us and Lena. We’re going to do it at the old Savoy Ranch. That’s where it is in the dream.”

“Savoy Ranch is popular with hikers and campers. Aren’t you afraid someone will see you?”

“Josiah, we are not afraid of anything. And don’t get any ideas. I’ve spared you tonight. But if you want to live, you will stay here and wait for me. Once Atticai becomes the Chosen One, he might show you clemency. That’s what I’m hoping for, at least. Otherwise, you’re going to have to spend the rest of your life on the run.”

“Great. I’m once again at Atticai’s mercy. I saw what his mercy did to me the last time.”

I rolled over and pretended to go to sleep, like most Tandra do after having sex. Except, I was not like other Tandra. Yari was my 4-1-1 to the Mani and their diabolical plans to slay Lena. Like hell, I was going to stay here. I’ve never run from a fight in my life, and no seven-foot goon, especially a goon I had already choked out, was going to stop me from helping a girl I cared about: Lena.

Once Yari left, I had about 24 hours to convince Lena not to trust those bastards.

Minutes later, Yari kissed me gently on the head. I didn’t stir. She opened the window after first peeling off the tape. I cracked an eye open and watched as she transitioned back into Daphne, the hawk, and took off out of the screenless window. In a flash of wings, she was gone, and, as I stared at the window, all I could think of was that I just watched a woman I had just slept with—well not a woman but a something—turn into a bird of prey. A chill went down my spine.

I decided to wait about an hour just in case Yari decided to come back for any reason, even to see if I was following her. As I waited, I gathered my things and left $200 on the bed with a note to the bed and breakfast hosts, saying that we were sorry for leaving early. That we had an emergency.

An hour later, I was stowing my things in Tommy’s Mustang. I had a brief moment when the pain of his passing hit me hard, and I covered my face and sobbed deeply into my hands. Through all this madness, I hadn’t even had time to mourn Tommy. He had died only three days ago. Unfortunately, I was now caught up in a world that I needed to fix. Before another innocent person died. Her name hammered my heart like a mantra. Lena: A sweet, trusting, innocent virgin, who ate burgers and fries with me and was my friend and the gentlest girl who I ever knew.

Even more unfortunate was that I didn’t have anything close to a plan; that is unless you counted the general goal: find Lena. Fast.

I fired up the car and headed out. I intended to do just that.

Chapter Twenty-seven

I drove all night and got to Lena’s house at about 7:00 a.m.

There were no cars parked out front, and the lights were out. The trailer park looked deserted, and I suddenly felt hopeless. The only other place I could think to look was the creepy mansion in Victorville. I knocked on the door and waited. I kept looking in the sky for Daphne. Sadly, I knew that I needed to avoid her, too. Especially her. With a start, I realized that it was probably over for me and Yari. Me and Daphne. I was light. She was dark. And she was in a creepy cult clan with a terrifying agenda. And I…didn’t want to be.

Finally, I heard the door unlatch. It opened and Lena was standing there wearing white shorts and a red tank top. Her hair was messy, and I had obviously awakened her.

“Holy shit, Josiah, you’re alive!” Lena jumped in my arms and hugged me. “Come in, I don’t want anyone to see you.”

“Where’s your family?”’

“They took off to Vegas last night.”

Lena grabbed a blanket from the floor and laid it on the couch. I looked around the living room area. It was extremely conservative. There were crosses on the wall, pictures of Jesus, and posters with Bible verses on them.

“Wow, I guess you rebelled, didn’t you?” I said, referring to all the Christian stuff in the room.

“Don’t even get me started on the hypocrisy in this house. I am so happy you’re here.”

“You are?” I said, surprised.

“Josiah, I was so upset when I heard what they had done to you. You have to understand that Atticai had no choice. I know that on some level, he was hoping you would make it through the trial of the snakes. He just has to abide by the rules of the Triat. If Atticai wanted you dead, you would be dead. He gave you an out, and you made it.”

“Some out,” I said, thinking about all the snakes. I was going to have nightmares for the rest of my life. But the thought that Atticai wasn’t such an awful person or whatever creature he is, intrigued me. Indeed, if he wanted me dead, he could have just ordered for me to be dropped me from high above. I would have fallen a hundred or so feet, at least ten stories roughly. I would have been dead for sure. Instead, he sent snakes after me. How biblically symbolic of him. Still, the big goon had nefarious plans for Lena, and that’s where I drew the line. Atticai, in the end, was no friend of mine. Or hers.

And since when did I start using words like nefarious, since I started talking about vampires? Vampires and nefarious go hand in hand.

I shook my head, focusing my thoughts and pushing them out at Lena. “Well, before he decided to turn into his little black bird, I almost choked him out.”

“Be glad you didn’t. The other guys would have ripped you to shreds.”

“Why, Lena?”

“Why, what?”

“Why do you love him? Why do you want that world? Why do you have to be a part of them? You’re better than that.”

“Am I, now? Look around, Josiah. I live in a two-bedroom trailer house where my stepdad finds a way to put his grimy hands on me every day. And if he’s not doing that, he’s spying on me showering or changing.”

“Then move out. Go somewhere else.”

“Where? Where can I go?” She paused, perhaps sensing the silliness of her own question. A nineteen-year-old girl could go anywhere. At least, she could move in with friends, like Tommy and I had done. She steeled her resolve and said, “I love Atticai and he loves me. And that’s enough for me.”

“But he doesn’t love you, Lena. He’s using you.”

“What do you know? You didn’t know any of them until a month ago, and now you’re an expert? I know you lost your best friend, and I can’t imagine how bad that is screwing with your head, but I’m not you. This is the life I want.”

“Lena, listen to me: if you leave tonight with Atticai, he will kill you.”

“Kill me?! You don’t know what you’re talking about—”

“Lena, I know more than you know. I know about their prophecies. Atticai is to be their Chosen One. He is going to become some white eagle or something and save all the good Mani from the bad Mani. I know everything.”

“Then what’s the problem, Josiah? Atticai and I will always be connected. Don’t you see? It’s beautiful.”

“Wait, you know?”

“I know what I care to know. I know Atticai needs me to fulfill his destiny, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes and to do whatever he needs me to do to make that happen.”

“Even if it means killing you?!” I yelled. “He’s going to suck all the blood out of your body. You are basically going to bleed to death. You do understand that you are not one of them, right? You can romanticize it all you want. In the end, he’s going to kill you.”

“I see,” she said, but I don’t think she saw at all. “What do you suggest I should do then, Josiah, since you seem to have all the answers?”

“Run away with me. I have over a hundred thousand in the bank from my MMA winnings and inheritance. Run away with me, Lena, and we’ll start a whole new life together.”

“Are you in love with me or something?”

I looked at her and didn’t know how to answer that. “All I know is, I don’t want you to die. I want you to live. I’m willing to do whatever it takes. To save you.”

“Josiah, come sit next to me.” She patted the couch next to her, and I did as she asked. “I know a lot has happened since you stuck up for me. To be honest, I cried for hours when they told me that you were dead.”

I sighed. “We need to get going. Now,” I said firmly.

“Josiah, I believe that once in every lifetime, each of us is given a golden opportunity. We’re given a chance to be a part of something greater than ourselves. Some people never get this chance. I’m going to take it.”

“But you’re going to die. And for what? So some hidden underground societies have peace?”

Lena put her arms around me, and I found my head resting on her chest. I could hear the strong beat of her heart. She was so amazing. She was so comforting, too. I came here to try to save her, but instead she was comforting me. I was exhausted, and soon we both fell asleep in one another’s arms. There was nothing sexual about it. It was just two friends who discovered they loved each other.

Chapter Twenty-eight

We woke up around noon and I tried talking her out of it several times. Mostly, she didn’t want to talk about it. We got something to eat, and mostly I couldn’t eat. How can you eat, knowing the person sitting across from you, a person you had come to care about deeply, was going to die in just a matter of hours? We talked a lot, and I got to know her even more. Every time I brought up her upcoming birthday, she shushed me with a haunting smile. All in all, it was an extremely odd day.

Finally, it was about 10:30 at night.

“You’d better leave, Josiah. They’ll be picking me up at any minute to take me over to Savoy Ranch.”

I walked over to her and hugged her tight. I hugged her the way I would have hugged my mom and my sister on the day they got into their car accident, had I somehow known their fate ahead of time. I knew Lena’s fate if she did not come with me. I looked down at her and kissed her on the lips.

“Lena, whatever happens, please know that I care about you. That I always will.”

“I know, Josiah,” she leaned in and held me tightly and then let go. “You better go.”

I left Lena’s house feeling sick and disoriented. I needed to control something in my life. Everything important was spiraling in circles, just out of my reach.

What the hell was I going to do?

One thing I knew I could do was go to the hospital and try to see where they moved Tommy’s body. Was there a morgue in the hospital basement, like in the movies? It was a grim thought, thinking about my closest friend in the world’s lifeless body, stuck in a freezer, waiting for autopsy, burial, closure. It was all I had to grip onto at this moment while I waited for Lena’s sick and twisted demise. She seemed perfectly happy to go to it. I was aghast at her decision.

So, I went to the hospital in search of my other best friend, the dead one. I needed to find out where they had placed Tommy’s body. After all, I still needed to make funeral arrangements.

The eeriness of pulling into the hospital in Tommy’s car wasn’t lost on me. I shuddered slightly and felt sick again. I went straight to the front and asked them about the deceased. They sent me to the morgue in the basement, just like I visualized before I went there. After going through a bunch of doors and two different security guards, I found a pleasant-looking lady wearing horned-rimmed glasses sitting behind a desk. She seemed to be waiting for me.

“How can I help you?” she asked.

The room was cold. I shivered. I said, “My friend died in this hospital a few days ago, and I need to make funeral arrangements.”

I knew a thing or two about hospitals and death, since I had lost my whole family. I knew hospitals kept bodies until family members could make arrangements for a proper burial.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said, and to her credit, she sounded legitimately sorry. “What’s his name?”

“Tommy Jensen.”

She paused and stared at me. “You’re the family of Tommy Jensen?”

“Yes, more or less.”

“You need to go back upstairs and speak to Human Resources.”

“Why?” I said. “I was told to come down here. What happened?”

“I can’t get into it, young man. You’ll need to speak to a hospital administrator.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Do you have Tommy or not?”

She stared at me and, amazingly, I saw that her hands were shaking. What the fuck was going on? I forced myself to calm down, even though I felt my heart racing.

“Please, what’s going on? Tell me.”

She looked over my shoulder and then behind her. We were alone. “I’ve been working in this hospital for over twenty years, and I’ve never seen what I saw with your friend.”

Now my heart figuratively froze in my chest, but I could feel an actual chill tighten my breathing. “What are you talking about?”

“I shouldn’t be telling you this. In fact, I was told specifically never to mention again what I saw.”

I was suddenly finding it extremely difficult to breathe.

“But you’re here now, and...you have a right to know.” She took off her glasses and started shaking her head. “Screw my bosses. Sometimes, you just have to do the right thing.”

“Please,” I said. My voice sounded strangled to my own ears.

“Three days ago, I get this body sent down to me. He’s all scratched up and has bite marks all over it. I’m thinking this poor young man is a mess. Anyway, I do what I normally do to prep the body for autopsy.”

She paused again, and I found myself leaning over her desk, supporting my weight.

“So, I began to wash some of his wounds. But the weirdest thing happened. I would wash a wound, and the body would heat up, and the wound would...heal right before me. I called a couple of my colleagues over and we started cleaning all of his wounds. Two hours after he was pronounced dead, his pulse returned.”

“What?!” I yelled. I couldn’t help myself. The word just burst from my mouth.

“Quiet down. Please. So listen, we are all freaking out because we have a freaking miracle on the table. My colleagues and I leave the room to find the doctors...” Her voice trailed off.

It was all I could do not grab her by her damn uniform and shake the story out of her.

“What happened to Tommy?” I said sternly.

She hesitated and then said, “When we came back...he was gone.”

“What do you mean gone?” I asked.

“His body was gone. We had everyone searching, but he was nowhere to be found.”

I felt my knees buckle. I leaned on her desk, almost falling on it.

Tommy was… alive?

“Why, why didn’t anyone call me?”

“This is out of my hands; you’ll have to talk to someone upstairs. I already told you too much.”

“So, no one saw him leave? Not even the security?”

She shook her head.

I looked at the clock on the wall as the elevator closed. It read 11:30. Savoy Ranch was ten minutes away. I thanked her and left.

I wasn’t sure how but I was going to save Lena, but I was going to. I also wasn’t sure how I was going to find Tommy, but I was going to do that, too.

Chapter Twenty-nine

As I sat in Tommy’s Mustang, I wondered if Tommy had been back to the house. I also wondered if he had tried to contact me. He must have. I had been so caught up in all this crap, and I hadn’t been around to see him. Well, I still needed to do one more thing and, to be honest I had no idea if I would make it out of this alive.

We’ll find out soon enough, I thought.

I headed to the ranch. The ranch was tucked away in the canyon right before you head up the highway for the mountains. It’s a popular spot for hikers and campers...and apparently, vampires.

Tommy and I used to train up there, which is how I know about it since I’m not exactly the outdoorsy type. It was, admittedly, beautiful up there. Well, tonight there wasn’t going to be much beauty up there. Tonight was going to be anything but beautiful.

The Mustang bounded around hairpin turns and straight cliffs, as I drove wildly, recklessly. A few miles from the ranch, I turned off my lights. I wasn’t sure how acute a vampire’s hearing was, but I didn’t want to announce my arrival in a blaze of headlights, either. Using the moon as my sole source of light, I followed the slightly glowing road all the way to the Ranch, the Mustang taking the tight turns like a race car.

As I rounded the final bend, at exactly 11:50 p.m., I saw a flickering glow toward the back of the ranch. A bonfire. Surrounding the fire were four black-clad figures. No, there was a fifth, too. Someone dressed in a white gown. Lena.

It was now or never. I had no plan, other than to fight. Hell, that’s all I was good for anyway. I had a feeling that I was born for this moment. I may not be a vampire, but I sure as hell knew how to defeat an opponent, dead or undead.

On a whim, I opened Tommy’s glove compartment and could hardly believe my good luck. There was a long, rusty railroad spike inside. What he was doing with it, I didn’t know, but I had my suspicions. The spike made for a perfect stake. Granted, it wasn’t silver, but it would have to do.

I shoved the spike in my front pocket, took a deep breath, and stepped hard on the gas. Tommy’s Mustang responded wonderfully. The tires spun, rumbling loudly, no doubt kicking up lots of loose rocks and shredding rubber.

And I shot forward in the car like it was a rocket.

The pinpoint of fire that had been the bonfire grew rapidly in my windshield. Soon the fire and all five figures filled the glass, and I turned the wheel hard, tires screeching recklessly over loose dirt. Had the Mustang not been so low to the ground I might have flipped it. I jumped out of the car. Breathing hard, my mind was on the railroad spike in my front pocket.

Atticai, mouth open and as tall and gaunt as ever, just stared at me. “You’re alive?”

“Surprise, motherfucker!”

He nodded slightly and cocked his head. “I guess the evil has arrived.”

“The only evil is you, Atticai.” I looked at Lena, and she looked scared. She looked, if anything, as if she was having second thoughts about this, her compliance in her own demise.

“Lena, you don’t want to do this,” I implored.

Wyatt stepped forward. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing, Josiah? This isn’t about us. This isn’t even about Lena. This is about—”

“I know what this is about, Wyatt: killing Lena so that Atticai can become some super vampire to defeat the Carni and the fallen Mani. Yada-yada. And they all lived happily ever, except Lena.”

Atticai crossed his long arms over his narrow chest. “Oh my, I see someone was given a lesson in Mani prophecy. And since it’s not the Reader’s Digest version that we give to Lena, that can only mean....” He turned to another black-clad figure, the smallest of the four. “Was he worth it, Yari?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Atticai,” she said.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about, kid,” he said. “Don’t you think that I know you’ve fallen for Josiah? Don’t you think that I know the only way Josiah’s even alive tonight is because you saved him from the snakes?”

“It’s not true, Atticai.”

“Oh, it is true, but what I don’t understand is how the Triat has allowed it to happen?”

“You’re wrong, Atticai. He saved himself. He deserves your mercy.” Yari was grasping at straws.

“My mercy? A Tandra who refused a chance to become a Mani deserves my mercy? What the hell had got into you?”

“Please, Atticai, consider it.”

Wyatt snapped open his cell phone and looked at the glowing faceplate. “It’s almost time,” he said.

Atticai nodded. “But first things first.”

He grabbed Lena. Although she didn’t make a sound, the confident girl I had seen just hours before was long gone. She looked terrified. I wondered if Atticai had her under some spell, the same type of spell he had placed on the snakes.

Wyatt and Hector stepped in front of them, forming a wall between them and me. Atticai walked behind Lena and looked at his watch on his left hand. “Ten seconds,” he said.

Lena looked terrified. I didn’t blame her. Shit, she was surrounded by vampires, and her death was just seconds away. She suddenly began to struggle, the will to live in her strong and true.

I did the only thing I could think of. I removed the iron spike from my pocket and ran at them. Wyatt jumped up into the air, Karate Kid-like, and kicked me full in the face. Motherfucker, I hadn’t expected that. Not the face! Now I was furious. Actually, I hadn’t expected him to be that fast.

On the ground, I snapped my head around and watched as Atticai opened his mouth. Moonlight reflected off his elongated canines. He looked at me, smiled, and bit into Lena’s neck.

I jumped up and summoned all my fighting instincts. This was, after all, going to be the fight of my life. And Lena’s.

Wyatt came at me again. He tried the exact same move but I ducked beneath his kick, grabbed his leg and yanked him down to the ground. I punched him as hard as I could in the face. The blow rocked him enough that I jumped up and turned my attention to Hector, who was coming at me from the other direction. He hit me hard, so hard that I flew backwards and into something solid. A tree trunk. Air burst from my lungs as I sank to the ground. Good God, I felt as if I had been hit by a car. Oh God, my back. Not yet healed from the baseball bat injury, my back was on fire again.

And before I could fully clear my head and see through the bright lights that had burst just behind my eyelids, two powerful ravens—Wyatt and Hector, I assumed—grabbed me in their massive talons and flew me up into the air. Once again, I found myself dangling from flying creatures. Being lifted up above the treetops had a definite way of clearing one’s head. Far below, in a small glow of fire, I could see three people standing. Atticai had his face pressed into Lena’s neck, and Yari stood nearby—on guard, I presumed.

This time I was certain they were going to drop me—and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. I had failed to save Lena; in fact, I couldn’t even save myself.

But instead of immediately dropping me, they flew up, up. Now, Savoy Ranch was far below. They were going to drop me from hundreds of feet up, making damn well sure I was smashed to smithereens.

But they surprised me again, they circled back over a cliff’s edge, where they promptly landed, dropping me. What the hell? Both transitioned back into Mani and faced me. I knew then that they were both going to give me a thorough beating first, just like the undead scum they were. Mani bullies, really. No doubt they planned to drink from me first, too, and get a late-night snack squeezed in. After all, why let a good meal go to waste? Only then would they toss me off the cliff, dead and bloodless, to disappear in a broken heap of skin and bones.

Well, I wasn’t going down without a fight.

I charged forward, heaving my right hand at Hector’s face as hard as I could, while simultaneously kicking Wyatt with my left leg. It was an advanced move. Not something they teach you in MMA, since you don’t fight two guys at once. I had learned this one from Tommy. Anyway, the leverage I generated by hitting Hector transferred through me and gave my kick an amazing amount of force, a kick that landed square in the center of Wyatt’s chest. To my own surprise, the Mani tumbled off the cliff. I had no doubt he would transition back into a raven before hitting bottom. I would have looked for myself but, Hector had already jumped on top of me.

Good God, he was incredibly strong. Before I could grab the bastard, I felt his teeth sink deep into my neck. The pain was so intense, I dropped to my knees. The bite had an odd effect. Almost immediately, it sapped my strength. I reached weakly for Hector, my hand futilely slapping and grabbing at him. He sank his teeth even deeper, tearing at my neck. Good God, I heard him drinking from my neck, sucking on me like a monster.

Black encroached from the edges of my vision. I had been knocked out enough to know that I was about to pass out. And that’s when someone—or something—tackled Hector off of me. Both bodies fell off the cliff. I shook my head and grabbed my damaged neck. I crawled to the lip of the cliff and, bleeding and lightheaded, looked down.

It had been Yari, once again saving me. I looked down and watched as both Yari and Hector transitioned before reaching the ground. It was like watching two dog-fighting WWII aircraft, tumbling and battling, wings tangled. Raven and Hawk clawed at each other, all the way to the ground. Once on the ground, both transformed back to their Mani selves, and the fighting continued, only this time Wyatt joined in. Sweet Jesus, they were beating the crap out of Yari. Sure, she got some punches in, but two Mani were clearly stronger and more powerful than one.

Atticai was still sucking on Lena’s’ neck. Now I could see her fighting him, struggling. If ever someone had made a poor decision—Well, she wasn’t the only one who had made a poor decision. Who was currently sitting high atop a cliff at night, only moments from two vampires returning and finishing their job?

And the one person who had saved me and had my back was currently being pinned to the ground by Wyatt. From high above, I watched in horror as Hector removed something gleaming. Even from up here, I could see what it was.

A silver stake.

They were going to kill Yari. And Atticai was going to kill Lena, and any minute now they would return and kill me, too.

Good job, hero, I thought.

But there was nothing I could do. I was stuck up here. If I jumped, I would surely die. There is no way I could survive that fall.

But as I looked down over the cliff, something amazing happened. Simultaneously, both Yari and Lena yelled, “Josiah!”

That was all I needed to hear to know my fate.

Chapter Thirty

I stared, stunned. But I didn’t know what to do. But suddenly—amazingly—I wasn’t weak anymore. In fact, I felt incredibly strong. But they were still so far below. What could I do? Still, my body felt suddenly indestructible, stronger than I had ever felt before. I had never taken steroids, but I imagined this is what they felt like—times ten.

I stood up. I felt ten feet tall. I looked down...and without thinking, I jumped.

And I didn’t just jump. I dove headfirst, as if from a high diving board. As I fell, I stretched my hands and felt the wind thunder over me. I knew I was going to die. I had to die. What was I thinking? I wasn’t thinking. It had almost been instinct to jump. But an instinct bore from what? But it didn’t matter. I had jumped. I had just done it without thinking twice.

Too late now. Too late to even care.

But what a way to go!

I plummeted down. The wind whipped my clothes and hair crazily. My body felt unbelievably strong. I almost felt as if I could fly. Probably everyone who jumps thinks this. Perhaps this is the last thought all jumpers have before they hit bottom:

That they could fly.

But I did feel as if I could fly. In fact, I was suddenly certain I could fly. Of course, I was certain. I had no other hope to hang onto. I was about to get dashed across the rocky bottom and who wouldn’t wish they could fly?

And that’s when something amazing happened.

I stopped picking up speed. In fact, it felt almost as if I was slowing.

Maybe that was part of death, too. Everything slowing down, right before I hit bottom.

But I didn’t hit bottom. In fact, I was slowing down even more.

What the hell?

I looked at my arms, and that’s when I received the shock of my life. My arms weren’t arms. My arms were wings. Beautiful white wings. I instinctively angled my arms—or wings—and I swooped up, just missing the ground and the shocked faces below. I made my way up into the sky again. I yelled out, and an eagle-like screech echoed along the canyon walls.

Somehow, I had transitioned. Somehow, I had turned into...the white eagle.

Lena!

I looked down, and my eyesight was amazing. I could see all the details below. Lena was still in Atticai’s arms. Her head was forward. He was fastened to her neck like a goddamn sucker fish. He was drinking deeply, his throat working, swallowing her life force. A deep bruise had formed around her neck where he was sucking her blood, sucking and sucking...

I angled my wings, tucking them in, and dove down.

I shot through the night, going faster than I had ever gone in my life. It was exhilarating. Atticai never saw me coming. Someone—Wyatt, I think—shouted to his vampire leader, but it was too late.

I slammed hard into Atticai, piercing his neck with my great, hooked beak. The force of the impact was great. Atticai was thrown to the side, spinning through the air. My beak, I saw, had gone in one side of his neck and out the other. Just as Yari had said to do.

Atticai rolled across the dirt, and I rolled with him, tucking in my wings. We were still deeply attached. Finally, we stopped and he opened his mouth, gasping. His terrified, confused eyes fell on me. And they widened even more as he realized what he was seeing...a white eagle. His mouth worked. Blood poured out of his nose and mouth, dripping over my own beak.

“I don’t understand,” he whispered, unable to find his voice.

I considered killing him. I considered watching the bastard die, but he had spared me once—although it had been a half-assed gesture. Still, I decided to return the favor.

Except, I didn’t know how to transition back. What was I supposed to do? And suddenly, within seconds, I found myself—my normal self—lying next to a bleeding Atticai. Apparently, just wanting to transition back was all that was necessary to switch back and forth.

“You...” gasped Atticai, holding his neck and sitting up. “You were the one in the visions. I didn’t know. How could I have known? You were the Chosen One.” Atticai coughed, and more blood dribbled down his chin. “I was the evil. I was the evil in the dream.”

Atticai closed his eyes and then just disappeared. In a night, where I had found myself turned into a white eagle, seeing a man disappear in front of me, really freaked me out. But I didn’t have time to worry about it. Next on the list would be to save Yari; that is, if I wasn’t too late.

I scrambled to my feet, and discovered I was still wearing the same clothes I had been. Okay, now that was a neat trick.

Focus, Josiah. Find Yari.

But I didn’t have far to go, or much to worry about. She was standing with Wyatt and Hector, all three of whom were staring at me, open-mouthed. Yari stood still, staring at me as if she had seen a ghost. And that’s saying something about a girl who was already extremely pale faced and was a supernatural being herself.

“You’re the one, Josiah. You’re the Chosen One. I can’t believe it.”

“Never mind that, we need to help Lena.” I turned and spotted her lying on the ground. Blood dribbled from her neck, soaking into the dirt around her. I ran to her side and picked her up. She didn’t look as if she was breathing.

“What do I do?” I yelled. “Someone tell me what to do!”

“There is only one thing you can do, Josiah,” said Yari.

“What? Tell me!”

Amazingly, the others didn’t seem to care what happened to Lena. Why should they? They were used to killing; they were used to death. What was one more dead Tandra to them?

“Tell me, or I’ll rip all of your fucking hearts out!” I screamed.

“She is lost,” Yari said. “Unless....”

“Unless what?”

“Unless you choose to turn her.”

“What the devil are you talking about?”

“To save Lena, you will need to turn her into a Mani.”

“I don’t understand.”

Yari smiled gently at me. “You are one of us, Josiah. You have been bitten three times by a Mani. It takes three bites to turn her.”

Through my scattered, crazed thoughts, I realized she was right. The first had been when Wyatt bit me. The second had been when Yari sucked the poison out of me. And third had been Hector, up on the cliff. That’s why I was able to transition.

“You need to help her become a Mani, or she’ll die. She has lost too much blood.”

“But you just said three bites...”

“This will be her second bite.” Atticai was obviously the first one. Yari walked over and lifted Lena’s wrist and bit down into it, drawing a small amount of blood. Blood dribbled out, but certainly not as much as I would have thought, until I remembered how much blood Atticai had surely consumed.

“Now, you Josiah,” said Yari gently. “But you need to get her conscious.”

“Why?”

“Perhaps she should have some say in the matter?”

“Of course.” God, I wasn’t thinking at all. Who could, under these circumstances? But I did as I was told. I patted her face gently. “Lena, wake up.”

I repeated this a few more times until her eyelids fluttered and finally opened.

“Josiah?” she whispered.

I smiled down at her. She was still in my arms. “Yes. Lena, I need to know...do you seriously want to become a Mani?”

Lena smiled. “Of course, Josiah. That’s all I ever wanted.”

I looked at Yari. “Now what?”

“Bite her anywhere. Allow your new teeth to pierce her deep enough so that her blood flows into your mouth. Drink her and swallow. It won’t have to be much. Just enough so that the bond is felt by the Triat.”

“Okay.”

I ran my tongue over my “new teeth,” pausing at the canines. My tongue stopped and slid along the full length of them. They were as long as a mountain lion’s incisors. Hell, longer.

“Hurry, Josiah,” said Lena.

I nodded, opened my mouth, leaned down, and sank these new teeth deep into her neck, the opposite side where Atticai had feasted. Her blood tasted metallic and warm...and utterly delicious. I stopped, forcing myself to pull back. I released my teeth and looked down at her. And before my very eyes, the two puncture wounds in her neck closed. As did the wounds in both of her wrists. She looked up at me and smiled.

“You can set me down,” she said.

I did so, and she stood and rubbed her neck, and I could only stare in stunned silence. It was all so much to take in. I knew that at any moment, I would wake up from some long-ass dream, no doubt fueled by some highly illegal hallucinogenic drug, slipped to me by some nefarious means. But for now, I was awake. Wide awake. And I was a Mani.

“What happened to Atticai?” asked Lena, looking around. I knew then that she had sincerely loved the tall bastard.

“Atticai is gone,” Yari said.

“Is he okay?”

Yari shook her head, and Lena covered her mouth. Finally, she said, “So the prophecy wasn’t fulfilled?”

“Oh, it was fulfilled, just not by Atticai.”

“I don’t understand,” said Lena.

“Josiah is the Chosen One.”

She stared at me, and it was then that I also knew that she had strong feelings for me, too. Yari saw the look that passed between us, and didn’t like it, but she didn’t say anything. I turned to Wyatt and Hector. Both were openly staring at me, and both looked nervous as hell.

“Relax, guys.”

“We cool?” Wyatt asked. “I mean, no hard feelings about us, um, trying to kill you and all?”

“Oh, I’ll be kicking your asses later, but for now, we’re cool.”

They both grinned, and we all stood there in silence. I wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened, but I knew more would be explained to me, much more. But for now, there was only one thing I wanted to do. Well, two.

“Let’s get out of here, guys,” I said.

We all transitioned: Lena and Yari into beautiful red hawks, Hector and Wyatt into black ravens, and myself into the great white eagle.

We flew, together, over the San Bernardino Mountains. I was now part of the Children of the Night. I was now a Mani. I was now supposed to be their savior. But two beautiful women, C.O.N. business, and even the ass-kickings of my new henchmen would have to wait.

My first order of business was to find Tommy…

To be continued in:

The Werewolf Whisperer

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THE WEREWOLF WHISPERER

Vampire Love Story #2

Published by H.T. Night at Smashwords.com

Copyright © 2010 by H.T. Night

All rights reserved.

(Author’s note: All characters depicted in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older.)

Dedication

I dedicate this novel to J.R. Rain and Joshua.

Acknowledgment

Special thanks to Margaret Cervenka, April M. Reign, Liz Jones and Sandy Johnston for all their help.

The Werewolf Whisperer

Chapter One

It had been two weeks since the night I became a Mani. This wasn’t the life I chose. And this sure wasn’t the way I figured the world was run. One day, I was a mixed martial arts fighter trying to make a name for myself, and then suddenly, I was the chosen savior of the Mani people, or vampires, or whatever the hell they are–we are. How the hell was I supposed to live as a vampire? Or as an eagle? It wasn’t like I could transition and become an eagle whenever I felt like it. Some redneck would probably shoot me out of the sky.

I was now a Mani. Not by choice. Mani were vampires. Not your everyday Dracula vampires either. We didn’t turn into bats or fog. We could turn or transition into specific birds whenever we felt like it. The men transitioned into black ravens, and the women into red hawks. Me? Hell, I transformed into a giant white eagle. Yeah, you heard it right: an eagle.

I was the lucky one. I was The Chosen.

Somehow, somewhere, I was the one who was chosen to bring harmony to the Mani. Me? Of all people? I was chosen to save some crazy vampire race from becoming extinct? Are you fucking kidding me? Who wants that kind of pressure? I sure as hell didn’t.

One month ago, I didn’t even believe that vampires or werewolves existed. Now, I had been given the keys to the kingdom? But who the hell was I now? My name, Josiah Reign, seemed to be all that remained of my old life.

This Chosen One gig was supposed to be Atticai’s job. Freaking Atticai! What the hell had happened to him? Had I really killed him? Where had he disappeared to? Did he go to some kind of Mani heaven… or hell? I had no answers. I avoided the only ones who could give me the answers I needed. I wasn’t ready for the whole truth and I knew it.

I was turned into a Mani unwillingly, and I hadn’t quite wrapped my brain around that fact. My life, as I once knew it, was over. It was absurd to think that I could be okay with that thought. Sure, I needed time, time to adjust to my new reality, so I barricaded myself in my house. I had enough to eat and drink; I wanted nothing to do with anyone or anything.

Seriously? What did they expect me to do? Just assume the role of some chosen prophesied vampire and go along with their delusional ideas without even saying a word? The Triat never gave me a vision, the Triat never gave me a heads’ up. Where were my premonitions? Where were my dreams?

Dreams? That was a good one. I didn’t know if I even truly slept any more. It was like I closed my eyes and rested, not slept. Time skipped as if I was dreaming. I felt my muscles rebuilding, but somehow, the sleep part escaped me. Did I sleep or did I just regenerate? Did I dream or did I plot? Like that Star Trek episode where everyone on the ship was going crazy when they experienced REM-stage sleep deprivation, even my sleep life was surreal now, as if the very synapses of my brain were being totally remapped. I suppose, in a way, they were.

Also, shouldn’t those blood cravings be kicking in right about now? I thought vampires roamed the earth trying to find a good vein. Hell, any vein. So far, everything I eat seems to go down fine. I really had no idea what was myth or truth when it came to living as a creature of the night. The only vampire facts I knew, I had read in books and seen in movies. And I knew that watching Vampire Sucks a dozen times on cable wasn’t the best source for accurate vampire information.

I was waiting for this uncontrollable desire for human blood to take over all my senses. The only thing I had been craving these days was a mean peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich. So unless there was some secret human blood ingredient in Jiffy peanut butter, I hadn’t been hit with any intense cravings…yet.

One thing that was definitely not a myth was that sunlight was to vampires as deep fryers were to donuts. And I was the donut from sunrise to sunset. Unless I transitioned to the eagle, I couldn’t cope with any kind of daylight. It gave me the same dehydrated, overheated feeling that I always got after a fight. I felt nauseous until I got out of the sun. The times that I got caught outdoors in the sun, even for a few seconds, always brought to mind that scene in the Wizard of Oz where the witch gets doused with water and cries out: “I’m melting! I’m melting! Oh, what a world!” That scene pretty much summed up my fear of daytime hours, that someday, I would lock myself out of the house or something, and just…fry.

Every day for the last two weeks, Yari and Lena had both tried to contact me. I ignored their calls and their unannounced knocks at the door. What the hell did they expect? I turned into a freaking vampire, trying to save both of their lives. Which I did. But now, I needed some space to come to terms with my new reality.

My old reality consisted of training to be a mixed martial arts fighter and hanging out with Tommy, my best friend in the world. Apparently, Tommy isn’t even his real name. It’s Kyro. And he had been living as a werewolf the whole time I’d known him. And managed to keep it a secret, until recently. He covered up his own transformation life with the excuse that he was in the military reserves and had to leave for his duty every month. A sly, cool subterfuge.

Tommy’s state of being as a werewolf wasn’t the thing that most concerned me. What was uppermost on my mind was if he was even alive or not. He had been pronounced dead and sent to the hospital morgue. And then his body vanished! Did he come back to life and take off? I had no idea where he went, or even if he was still alive. I really needed Tommy right now. Werewolf or not, he was still my best friend and I considered him my only family. Maybe he could shed some light on all of this madness that was my new existence as a Mani.

Unfortunately, it was summertime. Not only was it hot as summer-shaved balls in southern California, it didn’t get dark till about 8:30 at night. I finally became restless and sick of being cooped up in my house. I didn’t want to talk to any Mani yet, but I just wanted to leave the house. Get out and stretch my legs. Maybe even my big white wings.

I laid on my bed, staring at the ceiling in my bedroom, which was also my blackout room, with the windows completely covered up, so that no glint of daylight would ever again penetrate the glass. I looked at the clock. It was 9:00 p.m. That meant that it was officially dark, and safe for me to go outside. I had serious cabin fever and really needed a change of venue. I had been wearing nothing but basketball shorts for days, and I figured I was in desperate need of a shower and a change of clothes. I stood up and stared at myself in the mirror. I had lost weight. My body was more slender and paler than I ever remembered being. My six-pack looked more like ribs etched into my skin, the muscles so defined that they looked like hard bones under my skin. My blond hair seemed a bit darker than before. Okay, I was dirty. Yeah, I definitely needed a shower. I peeled off my shorts and walked naked down the hallway to my bathroom. I turned on the shower. There was nothing like a scalding hot shower to lighten my mood. I always liked hot showers and tonight was no different.

I took a ten-minute shower, wondering if it was the greatest one I had ever taken. The water felt amazing. The shower penetrated my muscles. I couldn’t believe how refreshed I felt when I got out. Or perhaps it was just that it was night. And now I was a creature of the night. No, a child of the night.

I dried myself off and went to the bedroom. I decided to wear a pair of 501 jeans out of my closet and put on a plain black t-shirt. I decided to put on some hiking boots and splashed on some Drakkar Noir, an old-school cologne that seemed to appease my need for sensuality and sensibility. The familiar smell was sweet like the woods with a touch of pine and made me feel more comfortable in my own skin. I smelled like me again. Funny how a scent could do something that powerful. And then, there was the scent of blood. But I did not yet need to drink it to survive. Good thing, because I really liked human food.

Wyatt and Hector, my new henchman and friends, brought back my truck and left me a text message telling me they’d dropped it off, leaving the keys under the fender. I liked my white truck. It was one of the constants in my life, and I needed reminders of who I once was. That was going to be very important to me in the years ahead as a Mani.

I stepped outside and took a deep breath. Wow, the air felt so good. It was the first time I had been outside in days. Sure enough, my white Ford truck was in the driveway. It was a beauty. I walked over to my truck, found the keys, and got in. I put the key in the ignition. This was the first time I was going to drive as a Mani. Why did I even have to drive? I could transition into an eagle and go wherever the hell I wanted to. But tonight, I needed to drive. I wanted to feel normal. Have a little bit of fun and just forget for a couple of hours.

I put on some tunes. Dammit! A hip-hop station! I hated hip-hop! Give me the Beatles or Depeche Mode any day. I scanned the radio and found a song I liked. It was classic Pink Floyd. That was exactly what I needed right now—to feel comfortably numb. I leaned back and closed my eyes to listen to the lush rich sounds of “Breathe,” off the Dark Side of the Moon album, then opened my eyes again when I felt somewhat grounded, centered. I had no idea where I was going tonight, only that I just needed a change of venue, a fresh beginning for my new life that would wash away the agony of realizing what I was and somehow, find ways to embrace it as an asset. I got on the 215 freeway and headed toward Orange County. There was a lot more going on in that direction. I was in desperate need of a beer, or a shot, or both.

The 215 became the 91, and I headed to the 55 freeway.

I had carried a fake ID since I was seventeen and used it often when Tommy and I would go to local bars. Tommy had mentioned this dive bar called Slammers off the freeway, and it was about time I checked it out. I took the exit and headed to the hole-in-the-wall.

The parking lot wasn’t big. In fact, it was packed to the rim. I parked my truck in the only space that was open. The parking lot was full of pickup trucks and rundown cars. This was not going to be the type of bar that served high society. I sure as hell didn’t care. I was the furthest thing from that crowd.

I cautiously got out of my truck. I wasn’t here to pick up chicks, but I stopped and looked in my driver’s-side mirror anyway. I brushed my hair back. I looked good. I knew I had some serious game. Maybe I’d even flirt a little bit.

I started toward the bar. The parking lot was torn up as if a construction crew had gone through and ripped it apart. This was the kind of place where a fight would break out and the police wouldn’t show up until 20 minutes later. My kind of place.

I walked up to the guy at the door. He was an African American fellow and seemed bored to death. I pulled out my wallet and showed him my ID.

He looked over my driver’s license before he asked, “Hey, you’re some kind of fighter aren’t you?”

I was shocked. Not too many people recognized me. He must have been a fan of the sport.

“I used to be. I’m retired.”

“You’re kind of young to be retired.” He began sizing me up.

“It’s a tough sport,” I murmured.

“As I remember, you’re a tough son-of-a-bitch.” He handed me back my I.D. “Just keep it classy in there.” I smiled at the irony of that statement. I entered the bar and the room felt like it was 120 degrees. There were a number of people sitting and drinking at tables, playing darts, and shooting pool. Yeah, my kind of place.

There was a lot of facial hair in this place. Beards, side burns, and goatees were an obvious prerequisite to get into this joint. I hadn’t shaved in a couple weeks, so I assumed I was going to fit in. Boy, was I wrong.

I scoped out the joint to find a place to sit. This was a definite sausage fest. There were a few girls in the joint, but none seemed like they were here to do anything other than get shitfaced with their female friends. Something caught my eye in the back of the bar. Or should I say someone; he was the largest man I had ever seen. He looked like a Sasquatch. He had a braided brown goatee and a bald head shaved down to his scalp; just his presence alone demanded attention and, believe me, he had it.

I wasn’t in the mood to kick the biggest guy in the bar’s ass—not tonight. Thank God. But damn, he was a beast. I spotted an open stool in front of the bar area. I didn’t want to make much eye contact, because I really just wanted to chill out and drink. I did feel like every eye in the bar was on me. Even Sasquatch in the back was aware that I was in the bar. They must not get too many new folks in this place, I thought.

I walked up to the bar and sat on the lopsided stool in front of the counter. No wonder nobody was sitting here. The bartender’s back was to me. “Hey buddy,” I said, “I’ll have a Vodka Coke.”

The bartender turned around and he, too, had a goatee for days. He looked at me, slowly shook his head, and then turned back around.

“Excuse me,” I repeated. “I’d like a Vodka Coke.”

The bartender turned around again and motioned for me to lean in so he could speak in my ear. I obliged.

He whispered in my ear. “Get the fuck out of here you piece of shit. I don’t serve your kind.” And then he took a step back and smiled as if he had told me good wishes.

“My kind?” I said, shocked. “What the hell are you talking about? We’re both white males in our twenties. Except that you need a shave and a bath, we’re practically the same guy.”

“Listen you Mani fuck, I can have about ten Carni’s over here in two seconds. So, you either leave peacefully, or we can all have some fun tonight at your expense.”

I was completely surprised by the bartender’s comment. He knew I was a Mani? How could he tell? “How do you know?” I asked.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“I need to know. How could you tell?”

The bartender stared at me with utter amazement. “I can smell the filth on you. You reek.”

“Is that because you are a Carni?”

“Are you fucking for real, man?” The bartender was not having any more of my questions.

I didn’t care. I persisted, I needed to know. “Are you Carni? Is that why?”

“You have five seconds to leave.”

“Tell me and I’ll go.”

The bartender whistled across the bar. That was my cue to leave; he wasn’t playing games. Dammit, I didn’t even get a fucking drink.

I turned around and headed for the door. I could feel every eye in the place on me. My senses were tingling. This wasn’t good. I hurried out the front door and did not turn around. I passed the doorman. Was he a Carni? Did he set me up?

I was now in the parking lot and I could hear people behind me.

I got to my truck and reached into my pocket to grab my keys. I dropped them and leaned over to pick them up. Why was I so nervous? I unlocked my driver side door and got into my truck.

How the hell was I supposed to know this was a werewolf bar? Was there such a thing? Was I going to be running into this all the time? Had I been going to werewolf bars and clubs for a while now and never even known it?

I slid my key into the ignition. I put my truck in reverse, and began pulling out of the parking lot. Without warning, a man jumped on the hood of my truck like a wild animal. I slammed the brakes, the man leaped over my windshield and into the bed of my truck.

I jumped out of my vehicle. I guess this was going to go down. Dammit! Why the hell did things always have to go down with me?

“What the hell, man?” I yelled at the idiot in the bed of my truck. I turned around and there were five guys coming up behind me, one of them was that seven-foot monster. Fucking great!

“Look, I don’t want any trouble,” I yelled to the men approaching me.

“You asked for it, you Mani scum, the moment you set foot in our bar,” the smallest of the men called out. That was usually the case. The runt of the group always seemed to be the loudest.

I had no idea what I was up against if they all decided to jump me. How did I defeat werewolves? I was pretty sure all these guys were Carni; I had no idea how strong they could be. I knew that Mani strength was off the charts. But head to head, Mani versus Carni? I was in uncharted territory.

“Look,” I said, “this is all kind of new to me. So, let’s just call it a mistake and I’ll go on my way.”

“Ha ha. He’s a newbie,” the runt yelled out again. “Poor bastard. He’s just trying to find his way.”

“Exactly,” I replied, knowing full well I was being mocked by the little shit.

“Well just to let you know, rookie,” the little man continued, “when we have a dispute, we don’t settle it in bar parking lots. We have specific locations where we settle our scores. That way the Tandra don’t have to be involved in our business.”

“I don’t have a score to settle with any of you. I made a big mistake coming here. I’ll just leave.”

“This pretty boy is breaking my heart,” the guy in the bed of my truck said. “You almost want to just kill him here and put him out of his misery.”

“Is that what you think?” I asked. “That I’m a pretty boy?” Now my blood, or whatever runs through my veins, was boiling. It didn’t matter if I was human or vampire. I was still going to get no respect because of how I looked. “Okay, so how does this work? Do I fight one of you, all of you, or do I just pick which of you has the least teeth and we go from there?”

“This is between you and me.” A voice came from the bar entrance. It was the bartender. He had made his way out to the parking lot. He was about my height and about thirty pounds heavier.

“You?” I asked. “Why, because I ordered a drink?”

“No, because this is my bar and you disrespected it by coming here, knowing full well you aren’t welcome.”

“For your information, I was just telling the boys from Deliverance here that I haven’t looked online yet at which Carni bars and restaurants I need to avoid. This is all kind of new to me.”

“Mistake or not, you fucked up. We’ll meet at 2:30 at Barnes Ranch in the hills.”

“Where the hell is that?” I moaned.

“Someone get this fucker a GPS system or a Thomas Guide. It’s up in Anaheim Hills. Take Imperial Highway as high as you can. You can’t miss it. It’s the last ranch you hit before the mountains. So, go round up your Mani cohorts and we’ll make it a party.”

I stared at the bartender. If he was a human, I knew I could kick his ass in seconds. But I had no idea how strong a werewolf was. Did they only get strong on a full moon? I had no idea what the hell I was up against. I sighed and asked, “Are we done here?”

“You better show up, Blondie, or we’ll hunt you down.”

“Hunt me down? You serious?” The bartender glared back at me and I looked him in the eye, “I’ll be there, scruffy.”

The guy on the bed of my truck hopped off on cue. How did this happen? I wasn’t gone for an hour and I seemed to have pissed off all of the Carni Nation. I cautiously got into my truck. My door was still open from when I jumped out. I got in slowly and started my engine. I closed my door. I eased out of the parking lot, making sure I didn’t hit any of those assholes. God knows I wanted to.

What the hell did I just get myself into? A fight? At some ranch? What is this? The Outsiders? I looked at the clock and it read 10 p.m. I had four and a half hours before this stupid fight. They wanted me to round up my Mani counterparts. Did I have Mani counterparts? I knew four Mani, and none of them would be eager to come with me to a slaughter.

I decided it was time to go find Lena. I had ignored her long enough. I had enough time to find her before the fight, I just hoped she wasn’t too pissed at me for ignoring her.

I pulled into a Taco Bell parking lot. I figured I would transition into the eagle so I could get to Lena’s home faster. I hadn’t transitioned from Mani to eagle that many times, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure how to fully control it. It wasn’t like I could say something like “alla kazam” and presto, I was now an eagle.

I put my keys under my seat and left my door unlocked. I got out and walked behind a Dumpster so no one could see me. I closed my eyes and imagined I was turning into the white eagle. At first, nothing happened. How the hell did I do this before? I relaxed and concentrated. I felt a rush of wind come over my body, which is what happened the other times when I had transitioned.

In an instant, my eye level dropped three feet. I was no longer six feet in height. I was a three-foot tall eagle. I tilted my head to look at my body and extended my wings. Something caught my eye across the street. My reflection in the glass of an office building was magnificent. Damn, I was beautiful. What a gorgeous creature. For a brief second, I forgot I was looking at myself. It was like I was at a nature exhibit, staring at some rare, nearly extinct eagle. But I wasn’t, I was staring at myself. I was the white eagle. For the first time, the reality of me being this animal was extremely real to me. It was heartbreaking. I was no longer Josiah, the man. I was Josiah, the thing. I was a freak of nature, an unnatural beast-bird-man with a tragic path ahead of me, if the last two weeks were any indication of what I faced as The Chosen One. The body count alone was ripping up my heart and sometimes made me question who I really was now, and what I was. Was I good or was I evil? Was I a man or a creature? I didn’t have the answers yet. I didn’t know if I ever would. I teared up and shook my tears off my beak.

I looked around and saw no one near me, so I knew it would be safe to fly. I flew up awkwardly. Flying was surreal, and I didn’t quite know how to shift my weight just yet. I got some good momentum and flew high in the sky above the clouds so no one could see me. I still wasn’t fully comfortable with the whole flying aspect of all of this. It was terrifying at times. It was hard to judge my speed and landing was a total bitch.

I took off in the direction of Lena’s trailer park, hoping she would be there. The air felt amazing. Flying was a spectacular feeling. I’d had dreams that I could fly in the past and it definitely didn’t feel like this in my dreams. This had a sense of delicacy to it. It wasn’t a gliding feeling like I had imagined flying to be, it felt more like a sleek missile ready to barrel into anything in its way.

It only took about ten minutes to get back to the Inland Empire. I decided to fly over a park across the street from Lena’s place. There was an old barn at the Far East end of the park. And about two football fields’ worth of grass in front of it. I decided to land on the grass. I knew my landing was going to be rough;, it always was. I made sure no one could see me. I circled the grass a couple of times. Damn, I was horrible at this. I aimed down to the ground and of course, went much faster than I wanted to. I slammed into the earth and rolled like a sack of potatoes falling out of a delivery truck. I decided to transition back to my Mani form immediately, so I wouldn’t break my wings.

I finally stopped rolling and I was face first in the dirt with a mouth full of mud. Yummy. I got up, spit the mud out, and brushed myself off. Where did my clothes go when I transitioned? They were always back on my body when I returned to my human form. I couldn’t quite figure out why. Definitely something I need to ask about.

I jogged across the street over to Lena’s trailer park. I found her trailer and walked up to it. I knocked on the door. There was no answer. I knocked a couple more times and still there was no answer. I was about to give up when I heard a squawk from above. A beautiful red hawk landed right in front of me. It appeared to be either Yari or Lena.

Chapter Two

The mesmerizing hawk stared at me intently. I waited for it to change, to take on its human form. Instead, it stood perfectly still, staring me down. Minutes felt like hours when the bird finally bent down and transitioned into Lena. She still didn’t say anything. I could sense that she was not sure how to greet me. Quite frankly, I wasn’t sure how to greet her either.

“You look pale,” she said. Hmm, not exactly a hello.

“So do you,” I replied. But I thought, look who’s talking.

She glanced down at the concrete behind me. “I thought you had run off or something.” She then kicked a pebble across the asphalt.

“Run off? That’s not my way. I am sometimes just…incommunicado.” I watched her. She was beautiful. Her jet-black hair looked shorter than I remembered. She must have cut her hair since I’d last seen her. She was wearing a black tank top with black stretch pants. I stated the obvious. “You cut your hair.”

“Sure did.” She looked down and then back up at me.” Why didn’t you answer your phone calls or answer the door when I came by?”

“I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“Do you think I do?” Lena was now visibly upset.” Remember, I’m this way because of you.”

“It was what you wanted, Lena.”

“It was what I wanted when Atticai was here. Now, I’m not sure. I’m not even sure what our purpose is.”

“Don’t look to me for answers. I’m completely in the dark. Literally and metaphorically.”

“Yeah, that makes two of us,” she murmured. Lena opened the door to her trailer. “Come in.” she said. “You know that’s a rule?”

“What is?”

“We can’t enter a human’s home unless we’re invited in.”

“Really?”

“It’s a stupid rule, but we need to live by it.”

“Silly me. I didn’t get my rule book when I joined up.”

I entered her trailer home and apparently, her parents weren’t there. I didn’t see any cars parked out front. “I don’t even know which is myth, and which is real.”

“Most of what you find on Wikipedia is myth, but there are some serious truths.”

“I figured out the sunlight one real fast.” I mentioned.

“Yeah, that one’s a bitch, and the only way I can get out of that is to transition.”

I sat down on the couch in the living room and asked, “what about the whole drinking blood part?”

“There are ways around that. Eventually, we do need blood or we’ll weaken.”

“Are you able to eat other things?”

“Not really. I get very sick.”

“I haven’t gotten sick yet. I’m able to eat the same things I had ate before.”

“You’re lucky,” Lena said as she sat cross-legged in the middle of the floor. She was so much more beautiful than I remembered.

Lena caught me looking at her. I could tell it made her a bit uncomfortable. “Have you had any human blood?”

“Just yours.” I laughed awkwardly.

“I heard that once you drink blood, your stomach aches for more and your taste buds turn against human food. And then the desire hits you like a brick to your chest. You just gotta have it.”

“So, have you had human blood?”

Lena’s fidgety movements made me concerned. I wanted answers to my serious questions. “Yes, I have,” she whispered under her breath.

“Wow,” I said flabbergasted. “You didn’t waste any time.”

“Don’t act so holier than thou, Josiah. You’ll get a craving and when it hits, you will have very few choices.”

“Who was it?” I probed.

“Remember our little frat buddies?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s just say Ron’s fat ass had enough blood for four Mani.”

“Did you kill him?”

“I let him live.”

“Aren’t you afraid he’ll say something to someone?”

“You do know we have a thing called mind control? The weak Tandra are receptive to it. It actually saves their lives. Otherwise, I would have killed him because he knew too much.”

“So, mind control is true?”

“Some of us have it, and some of us don’t. We are all given gifts from the Triat. It’s up to us to figure out what they are. Some are prophets, some can heal, some can control minds, and some can read minds. Atticai was able to read minds. That’s why he liked you.” Lena paused. A longing in her eyes made it clear that she wasn’t over Atticai.

“Where do you think he went? Do you think I killed him?”

“I don’t know Josiah; you pierced his neck real good. Just like humans, none of us are entirely sure what happens to Mani when they die. The hereafter is all a big dark secret. There are theories but no proof.”

“So, no one knows where Mani go when they disappear?” I asked.

“There are rumors the same way there are with mortals. There are tales of an afterlife: Mani given a second chance, a rebirth, even a chance at being mortal again. But there are not enough facts about it. No one really knows what happens, not for sure.”

“So, when a vampire dies, they just disappear?”

“Yes. Otherwise there would be dead vampires everywhere. By now, humans would have had a field day with the autopsies.”

“Is that what happened to Tommy? Is that what happens to the Carni?”

“Actually, no. The Carni are as close to humans as you can get, with a lot of the DNA threads very common to both. Mani history goes back as far as 10,000 years ago. While Carni history is just 500 years young.”

“How’s that?” I had been under the impression that werewolves and vampires were manifested at the same time.

“Mani believe that Carni are an inferior species. Werewolves believe in a lot of myth and untruths.”

“Why do they do that?”

“It’s a way to justify giant mistakes they have made so they can be at peace with their form, their destiny.” Lena’s soft voice filled the room. I could see her desperately trying to answer my questions when she had questions of her own.

“I know about wanting to feel a sense of peace. For two weeks, I’ve tried to find my inner peace. I shut myself away so that I could seek my own truths and separate it from the flood of pop culture about vampires, werewolves, and related creatures. Are there any other creatures? I sort of wanna know.”

Her lips twitched into a semi-smile. I listened and she continued, “The blurring lines of truth and fiction have forced Carni to live far outside the Triat’s will. Mani believe that Carni have forgotten what their purpose is and they are no better than savages.”

“Purpose… I’ve been trying to figure that one out for two weeks. What is our purpose, Lena? Is it biological, ecological, spiritual? What must we do with what we have, what we are?”

“Well, you were chosen by the Triat even before you were a Mani. Josiah, there is something greater out there – something amazing.”

“What was amazing was my other life, my human life.”

“Yeah, but think about it this way, we are wiser than the average living species. We have a window to the world. People live and then die, and in the course of living, they know nothing. Perfect ignorant bliss.” She smiled at me.

“You have a way of making this sound . . . almost glamorous.”

“Maybe it is glamorous, Josiah. You’ve been given a gift. Don’t turn your back on the possibilities.

“Ah, so it’s not really a curse, it’s a gift. Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course.”

I needed to know more about werewolves, and unfortunately, I needed to know about them fast. “Do Carni become stronger once they are turned from Tandra to Carni?”

Lena thought for a moment. “Not like the Mani,” she said.

“They might get a tad stronger and quicker, but nothing close to what occurs in a Mani’s body after its transformation.

“Mani become much stronger?” I asked.

“Put it this way, Josiah, I could barely hurt a mouse when I was mortal. The other night, I was holding down that frat boy, Ronnie, like he was a kindergartner. I feasted away on his blood, close to sheer joy in the knowledge that I could have left him dead if I chose to and walked away with no regrets, with nothing more than a satisfied burp as penance. I let him live because I was full.”

I laughed. “So, I basically turned you into a bad ass.”

Lena shook her head at me. “Yeah, you did, Josiah Reign, and never forget that.” Lena then smiled brightly at me. It was the first time in a long time I had seen her smile like that. She was radiant. She had little dimples and frankly, my heart melted.

“So, what happens when they turn into a full-blown werewolf?” I asked.

Lena’s smile turned serious. “When a Carni turns into a werewolf, it can hold its own against a Mani. Most of the time, they are stronger. But Mani can fight with cognitive thought while werewolves are like wild lions that just want to tear through their prey. There’s not much thought to it. Mani think. Carni function on pure animal instinct. Remember, we Mani have 10,000 years of evolution under our belts, Carni only 500 years.”

“What about the full moon? Is that a myth, or is it real?”

“Oh, it’s real. Too real. It is then, and only then, they turn from Carni to werewolf.”

“So, your everyday Carni walking around is just slightly stronger than a human?”

“Yup.” Lena stared at me with wonder. “Why are you asking so many questions?”

“One more question,” I said. “Why would any Carni ever fight a Mani in a one-on-one fight?”

“Oh, they do when it’s a full moon.”

I looked up in the sky. It was a half moon. Why the hell would the bartender want to fight me if he knew I was a Mani and would be stronger? He must have thought he could easily take me. I was still getting zero respect. I guess being anointed the ‘Chosen One’ didn’t mean I was looked at as a bad ass.

“What’s going on Josiah? Why are you asking so many questions about the Carni?”

“Tommy disappeared from the hospital, so I’m thinking he is still alive. If he is, I need to find him.”

“He is alive, Josiah.”

I nearly fell to the ground. “What? He is? How do you know?”

“Some have seen him.”

“Where is he?”

“No one knows where he stays, but he is definitely still alive.”

I had a growing excitement spreading through my body. If anyone could tell me how to defeat a Carni, it would be Tommy. The problem was, I had no idea where he was staying. He was obviously hiding out for his own safety.

Lena could see my wheels turning in my head. “What is it, Josiah? What’s going on?”

“I have a scheduled fight tonight, not in the ring, but with a Carni.”

Lena’s mouth literally opened and her eyes stared at me hard. After a second of glaring she asked, “Where?”

“Some ranch in Anaheim Hills.”

“You’re joking?”

“I wish I was. I hadn’t even been out in public for an hour and one of those assholes picked a fight with me. Why would he fight me? It’s not a full moon.”

“Because Carni are arrogant, Josiah. It is why Tommy fought Atticai and got his ass kicked. Carni think they run the show. To them, we are just Gothic freaks who worship the devil.”

Stricken, I put my hand over my heart. “Oh no. Please tell me we don’t worship the devil—do we?”

“Of course not.”

I exhaled in relief.

Lena continued, “But that is what the Carni has reduced us to in their heads. They can’t explain how we are a more advanced race, so they just say our abilities are given to us from the Underworld.”

“Gothic freaks or not,” I said, “no one picks a fight with someone they know can kick their ass.”

“That’s the thing, Josiah. They don’t think you can kick their ass. It’s like they have a jock mentality. They can’t accept that the outcast freak-show can kick the captain of the football team’s ass.” Lena got up off the ground and sat next to me on the couch. “You know if you fight him, you cannot use any of your vampire powers as long as he’s not a werewolf?”

“Vampire powers? I don’t have any vampire powers.”

“You don’t know it, but you do. At this point, the only thing you need to worry about is not turning into the eagle. That will freak them out and they will probably think you’re Satan himself. If that happens, it could get real ugly.”

“Nice,” I said sarcastically. “I don’t even know how to fully control it. What if it happens by accident?”

“Don’t let it, Josiah. You have powers and abilities that no Mani before you has ever had or ever will again. No one knows exactly what you’re capable of. You probably have every gift that has ever been bestowed on the Mani and ones we still don’t know about. So, fight the guy straight up. Don’t do anything out of the ordinary.”

“Let me ask you this,” I said. “Can I bite him?”

“Yes, because trust me, that’s what he’ll try to do to you. You can fight him anyway you want, you just can’t use what they call ‘magic.’”

“They seem to think I’m going to bring a sea of Mani with me to the ranch for back up.”

“Because they don’t always play fair, you can’t show up there alone. They do have a strict rule of only fighting one on one. So, you won’t have to worry about being jumped by the pack as long as you don’t use any of your special Mani abilities.”

“Do I have to go? I have nothing to prove to those guys.”

“Did one specific Carni challenge you?”

“Yes.”

“Did you accept?”

“Yes,” I stated.

“Then, guess what? You better go, or you will anger the Triat.”

“Triat schmiat. I don’t even know what or who the Triat is.” I said defiantly. “No one has bothered to explain stuff to me. I am supposed to be the savior of the Mani and I don’t even know what the Trait is. Is it God, or Mother Nature, what is it?”

“It’s all those things and more. It’s the balance. It’s the code we all live by.” Lena took my hand. “Josiah, you need to respect the Triat more than anything you have ever paid reverence to. If you listen, and open yourself up, the Triat will guide you. You need to ask for guidance.”

“Seriously? Ask for guidance? You’re making it sound like a cult.”

“Don’t be skeptical. You will not be alone tonight. All of us will be there with you. We’ll make sure everything goes down the way it should.”

I looked at Lena. I didn’t want her to have any part in what was happening tonight. “Look, I’m going to go alone. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. Especially not you.”

“You know you have a family now. We stick together.”

“Not tonight. Let me deal with this tonight.”

“Don’t be so fucking macho. We’re going with you. What time is the fight?”

I looked at Lena and lied, “3:30 a.m.” I said, “Meet me there. I’m going to do a couple of things before I get there.”

“We’ll meet you a mile up at 3:15.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Everyone: Wyatt, Hector, Yari, and me.”

I didn’t think having just four Mani there was going to be very much help. Two of them were henchmen groupies, now my followers, who I easily defeated, and two of them were female, though I had to admit that Lena’s recollection of her takedown of Ronnie the Frat Boy for her supper had opened my eyes to her powerful bloodlust and the strength behind it. Still, I didn’t want her hurt. Or Yari, for that matter. And if I wasn’t allowed to unleash my vampire powers in the fight against them if they were not werewolf poetry in motion, purposely handicapping myself for a potential ass beating by a Carni, I might as well just go get beat up by myself. Hell, I didn’t want the girls to see me pummeled while I held back my superpowers for a fight with some Carni assholes.

“3:15 a.m. Sounds like a plan. See you all there.” There was no way I was going to have Lena go tonight.

She looked at me uncertainly, as if she knew I was lying through my teeth.

“I better go,” I said, wanting her to stop trying to figure out if I was messing with her about 3:15 a.m., which I was. It was nearing midnight, and if I was going to fight someone, I needed to at least prepare myself the way I did a mixed martial arts fight. I needed to go to my gym and pump up!

Chapter Three

After I left Lena, I transitioned into the eagle. I didn’t have a car and walking to my old gym would take entirely too long. I could feel myself growing stronger, and sleeker with this art of flying. The wind alone was exhilarating.

When I arrived at the gym, I noticed the second floor window was open. I challenged myself and flew into the small opening. I made it unscathed, but landed hard on the concrete of the gym, and rolled into the wall like a ton of bricks. I was dizzy and disoriented, but I found the strength to turn back into my Mani form.

The gym was dark, but there was an eerie glow, which came from a street light outside. I searched high and low; it was empty. It had been a long, strange night so far, and I thought I should stretch and meditate to make sure I was ready. I warmed up like I would before any fight. I worked out my legs, punched the big bag and let my heavy emotions dictate my moves. Tears ran down my face. I swung over and over as if every punch were the pendulum to turn back time—to take it all back. “Leave some for the fight,” a faceless voice said from a dark area of the gym.

“Who is it?” I called out.

“You cannot expect to beat a werewolf if you exhaust yourself before you actually fight.”

“Who are you?” I said again.

There was a man sitting in a chair in the dark. “I’m Mr. fucking Myagi.”

Holy shit. I knew who it was. Karate Kid was our favorite movie growing up.

“Tommy!” I yelled.

Tommy turned on the lamp beside his chair. “In the flesh.”

“Or should I call you Kyro?”

“Kyro is dead. I will forever be Tommy.” Tommy was still pretty scratched and bruised. It had been a couple of weeks, and his scars still looked fresh.

“Are you alive?”

“You mean am I some kind of Carni ghost that has come back to haunt you?” Tommy laughed. “No. I’m alive. I’m as alive as you used to be. What the hell happened to you?”

“You must smell it. The Carni at the bar did.”

“Josiah, you have no idea how many times I almost told you the truth. I couldn’t. So, what happened? Did you go willingly or unwillingly?” Tommy was obviously asking if I had chosen to be Mani or was it forced upon me.

“I didn’t choose it. That choice was definitely out of my hands. That’s not the worst of it.”

“What’s the worst of it?”

“I don’t know what you know about Mani lore, but apparently—”

“You’re the Chosen One. I know, Josiah.”

“How do you know?”

“Your hawk friend might have had something to do with it.”

“Yari, you’ve spoken to Yari? When?”

“The last thing I remember was this beautiful redhead dropping me off in front of the emergency room. Before she left, I asked her name. She said Yari.”

“Did you know a Mani was saving you?”

“I didn’t know much of anything. This ten-foot tall motherfucker kicked the crap out of me not even an hour after we had our MMA match. The guy looked like a freaking scarecrow.”

“His name is Atticai,” I said.

“I knew who he was.”

“And you fought him anyway?”

“Why not? Who was he to tell me what the rules were?”

“Apparently he was the judge, jury, and executioner,” I said.

“He was only the judge and jury. Goliath was the executioner.”

“Who the hell is Goliath?”

“He is another seven-foot beast, but he’s not a twig like Atticai. He weighs almost 500 pounds.”

“So, I take it that Goliath wasn’t his birth name.”

“It’s the only name that fits.”

“After your friend Atticai was done with me –”

“Trust me, he’s not my friend.”

“Anyway, I had the pleasure of getting my ass kicked again by Goliath.”

“It doesn’t make any sense that Carni do that to their own people.”

“We know the score if we challenge a Mani and lose.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. What a backward way of dealing with shit. They should tend to you. That is what Mani would do.”

“Nobody said Carni were rocket scientists.” Tommy got up and walked toward me. He grabbed a pair of trainer’s gloves and motioned for me to get into the ring with him. He still looked fit.

I made my way through the ropes, and met Tommy in the middle of the ring.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about.” Tommy gave me the motion to punch his hand. I threw a right cross and our gloves popped. “Good shot, Josiah.” I continued to do combinations that Tommy and I had worked on in the past. “You know Josiah, that seven-foot beanpole was actually fighting in your honor.”

“I didn’t ask him to,” I said. “He just wanted an excuse to fight.”

“Maybe, but in the end, he was defending you.”

“All of this is crazy.” I threw another four-punch combination, with the last punch making a popping sound that echoed throughout the gym. “The Triat used him as a pawn to get me. The more I think about it, it’s pretty fucked up how bad he was mind-fucked by the whole thing.”

Tommy put his gloves down, “Did you kill him?”

“I had to. He was trying to kill two people I care deeply about.”

Tommy nodded his head. I think Yari had let him in on all the details, but he just wanted to hear it from me.

“So, you’re the fucking white eagle that’s in all the stories, the legends, the truth. That’s unbelievable. You have no idea how huge that is. It sure beats a mixed martial arts title.”

“Can I ask you a question?” I looked at Tommy. I didn’t want to rub salt into Tommy’s wounds. But this had really been bugging me ever since I knew Tommy had been a werewolf. “Why would you fight me in a sport that is designed for humans?”

“Because I was a Tandra when I began my mixed martial arts training. I didn’t become a Carni until five years ago. I worked too hard at the sport to give it up. I wasn’t much stronger.”

“But being a Carni made you stronger?”

“A little bit.”

“And you don’t see anything wrong with that?”

“Josiah, if you want me to say I’m sorry that I fought MMA, knowing that I had an edge, I will. But I think the Triat gave me the punishment that I deserved. I was pretty much left for dead.”

“The hospital said you were dead. Did you die?”

“I’m not sure what happened. One moment, I was left at the door of the hospital and the next moment I woke up in the woods with dead rabbits and squirrels all around me.”

“You obviously turned into a werewolf on the following night. The following night was a full moon.”

“I realize that, I’m just not sure how it happened.”

“So, then what did you do when you turned back into a human?”

“I went looking for you. I was at the house and Yari was there to see you and said you weren’t answering the door for anyone. She told me that you needed time.”

“When was this?”

“About two weeks ago. She told me everything. She told me about Atticai trying to kill a girl named Lena. She said how you saved both Lena and her. She mentioned that you had been turned into a vampire. I felt awful for you, but I knew if anyone could help you deal with it, it was me.”

“I would have answered the door for you. You should have knocked.”

“I did knock—a couple times—but you didn’t answer. I figured you were dealing with a lot of major shit and I would speak to you when you were ready–”

“You being alive trumps anything I would have to deal with.”

“I just figured our time would come. I wasn’t going anywhere.”

My eyes began to well up. “Tommy, they pronounced you dead. I thought I had lost everything.”

Tommy put his hand on my shoulder. “I know, Josiah. I should have come to you sooner.” We shared an awkward silent moment that neither of us was used to. Tommy broke the silence with, “Show me the white eagle.”

“Seriously?” I said.

“Why not? I’m curious what you look like.”

“I don’t feel like it right now.” I really wasn’t in the mood.

“Come on, Josiah. Look at me. I’m beat up and broken down. I don’t ever ask for much.”

I looked at Tommy. His puppy dog eyes and bruised face and body were pulling at my heart strings. It was true. He didn’t ask for much, so I decided I would do it. “All right. I’ll do it this once. But this isn’t some kind of routine I’m going to pull out at parties to get you laid.”

“Very funny.”

I gave Tommy a look that said, ‘you better enjoy this cause this is the only time I’m going to do this just for the hell of it.’ I closed my eyes and concentrated. Immediately, I felt a rushing wind come over me and I dropped to the floor.

I squawked, as if to say, ‘here you go.’ I was the white eagle. I took off in flight, trying to navigate through the confinement of the gym. I nearly hit the ceiling and the walls right before I flew smack into Tommy’s arms. I was trying to land on his shoulder, but instead plowed into him. Damn, I was awful at this.

“Holy shit,” Tommy held me in his arms and petted my feathers. “You’re beautiful, Josiah! You have any idea what this means?”

Tommy let me go and I flew down on the concrete gym floor and transitioned back to a Mani. “What does what mean?”

“It means that you shouldn’t waste your time fighting Carni’s that you meet in a bar.”

“How do you know about that anyway?”

“Let’s just say I have been in the shadows.”

“Seriously? You have been following me?”

“Someone needed to make sure you didn’t do anything stupid.”

“Well, you did a great job with that,” I said sarcastically.

“You were bound to get challenged by a Carni out of the gate. Consider it a rite of passage.”

“I don’t need a rite of passage. I think defeating Atticai proved that I can take care of myself.”

“The Carni and Mani feud is epic, Josiah. You might have defeated a Mani stud like Atticai, but now you need to take care of your business with a Carni. Just kick his ass and get the hell out of there before they challenge you a second time. If you don’t leave after the first fight, you’ll be there all night. Trust me; you want no part of Goliath.”

“Was he that giant bald guy back at the bar?”

“Did he have a long, braided goatee?”

“Yup,” I said.

“That’s Goliath. And he is as filthy as they come. He doesn’t play by the rules, and he never quits a fight. No matter how long it takes.”

“Will he be there?”

“Oh, that grizzly bear wouldn’t miss a duel for his life.” Tommy slipped through the ropes and hopped on the concrete floor where I was standing.

“Any advice for me about the bartender?”

“The owner challenged you?” Tommy’s laugh echoed through the gym.

“What’s so funny?”

“You’ll have no problem kicking his ass. He’s all talk. A couple of high kicks should finish him off pretty quick. What time is the battle?”

I looked at Tommy. His bruises and scratches seemed fresh. I didn’t want him to get hurt anymore. This wasn’t his fight. It was mine, and I could take care of myself. “It’s scheduled for 3:30,” I lied. “3:30 a.m., of course.”

“Of course.”

Tommy said, “I’m going to meet up with Yari and we’ll meet up with you before. You don’t want to walk in there alone.”

“Tommy, you can’t go. You have been banned by them.”

“I just want to see their faces when I show up alive.”

“You think that would be safe?”

“Who gives a shit about safety? Those assholes left me for dead.”

I took a deep breath. “I’m going to take off and get some fresh air.”

“No more working out. Go have a Slurpee or a Red Bull. Find a nice tree and mentally go over your takedowns and submission moves. You probably won’t even have to use them, but you can never be too careful.”

“Will do, Tommy. Will do.” I transitioned and flew out the same window I had come in through.

Chapter Four

I took Tommy’s advice and flew over to Hillcrest Park in Fullerton. When I got there, I transitioned to Mani and spent about an hour lying under a tree getting my head right—getting myself in the right frame of mind to take on another immortal creature. The reality of the situation was serious because I was not sure how to prepare for the fight. Therefore, I prepared the same way I would for any fight. I meditated and walked through my takedowns and submissions. I went over and over them until I knew I was ready.

I thought about Lena, and how amazing she looked tonight. I couldn’t help but feel an immense bond with her. Why? Was it because I was the one who turned her into a Mani? Or was it because of something else, something deeper and less tangible? All I knew was that she would have no part of tonight; I would not allow it. No one would be involved except me.

I glanced at my cell phone and realized that I had 45 minutes until the fight. It was time to go. I transformed into the eagle and flew to Taco Bell to get my truck. I circled the parking lot, waiting for the night manager to get into his car and leave. When the coast was clear, I decided to try something different. I tried transitioning back to Mani simultaneously as I landed. It kind of worked. I didn’t land perfectly on my feet, but at least I didn’t fall down. I stumbled a little, but caught my balance.

I opened my truck and was pleased that no one had stolen my radio since I had left it unlocked. I reached down and grabbed my keys from under the seat. I started my truck and took off out of the parking lot.

I drove up Imperial Street toward the mountains. Sure enough, there was a giant ranch right before the mountain trail started. I guess that was Barner’s Ranch. I parked my truck at the bottom, and walked up the side of the road by myself. I looked up into the dark sky, “Well, Triat,” I called out. “If I’m the guy you want for all of this, then please keep me safe.” I continued to walk and I figured I should cover all my bases. I looked up to the sky one more time. “Whoever is in charge of all this? Keep me safe.”

I began my trek up a dirt path that led to a large ranch. I could hear Carni shouting and laughing like a lynch mob ready to jump me from all sides. Instead, they kept their distance while taunting me from dark places along the road. That’s all they did—taunt.

I was wearing the same blue jeans and black t-shirt that I had on earlier in the evening.

I had to admit I had never felt this way before an altercation. I almost felt like nothing could hurt me, as if I was protected by some supernatural force.

I approached a grassy field at the north end of the ranch. I stood there alone. On the other side of the field appeared to be at least 30 to 40 Carni. The area had about half a dozen giant rocks scattered throughout. They almost appeared to be boulders. Not sure what kind of landscaping design this was, but it was definitely different. The noise and laughter soon stopped as I approached. It was obvious these ignoramuses had no idea who I was. They all looked at me amused, as if I had walked up to my own execution. I liked to be underestimated, I liked that a lot.

In the middle of this hairy, dirty mob stood my opponent, the bartender. I don’t think he was thirty yet. But hell, he was a Carni; he could have been this age for 300 years. He made his way to the front. I was less impressed with the bartender’s stature and more impressed with the seven-foot-plus wild beast in the back. It appeared that Goliath had made his way to the show. Something told me he was not here as a spectator.

“You alone?” the bartender asked with a nervous crackle in his voice.

“Yes,” I said staring directly at him. I was amused that he appeared anxious.

“You really are new at this,” he laughed. All his Carni cohorts laughed like a grisly choir of deadheads. “You are either a bad ass or just stupid.”

“I would go with the first,” I said plainly. I walked a little closer to him. About seventy-five feet separated us. “So how do we do this?”

“You’re asking me how to fight?” He turned to the others and laughed.

“No, I definitely don’t need any advice on how to fight. I’m going to kick your ass, and I’m going to do it rather quickly. What I do want to know is this: once I’m done with you, is that going to be it?”

“You sound pretty confident, blood sucker.”

“It’s not confidence, hairball. It’s what I know. What I know is someone like you can’t last two minutes with someone like me.”

“I could kick this pretty boy’s ass,” a woman yelled out from the crowd. “Are we sure that this is even a man?”

I looked at the woman. She was at least fifty and about 50 pounds overweight. I smiled bemusedly at her. “Listen, ma’am. Do yourself a favor and don’t come anywhere near me.”

“Ma’am?” The woman said. “This little twig just called me ma’am.”

Little Twig? I decided to take off my shirt so everyone could see I was definitely not a twig.

“What?” the bartender said. “You think because you spent some time in the gym that it matters out here on the ranch. You’re going to need to do more than just flex, pretty boy.”

I stared at the grisly mob. They looked like something out of a bad seventies’ movie starring Billy Jack.

“Kick his disgusting Mani ass!” the fifty-year-old woman yelled out.

“Let’s get this going,” a man from the mob yelled out.

“Kick his ass, Brian!” another echoed in.

“Brian?” I yelled out. “Your name is Brian?”

“Why the hell do you care?”

“When I write my memoirs, I want to be able to call you by name.” I turned to the mob and said, “So, if one of you can grab a piece of paper and pass it around, would everyone sign it with your first and last names? I promise, you will all become infamous after tonight.”

“Kill him,” a man from the back yelled out. I looked over. It was Goliath.

Kill him? Damn this was real. This wasn’t a stupid college fight. This was as real as the night I became a Mani. At least then, I had Yari on my side. Tonight, by choice, I was alone.

I slapped my body all over to get my blood flowing, doing it the same way I would before a mixed martial arts fight. I didn’t know if I had blood anymore, but slapping myself was doing the trick. I was ready to go.

Here we go! I circled Brian. I had him come out to me by nodding my head and motioning to come and get me. This was a safety measure. It is common to circle each other in a fight. So, being that I was outnumbered 30 to 1, it was in my best interest to move the fight away from his friends. You never want to turn your back on a group that wants to rip off your head. These guys not only wanted to rip it off, they wanted to display it at their bar.

“It’s show time, you Mani piece of shit.” Brian charged at me. I focused my eyes on my opponent, and this is the part where everything goes in slow motion. All my life—whenever I fight—it would seem as if time would almost stand still. My brain goes into what I call Good-Will-Hunting mode. I am able to dissect and break down my opponents weaknesses in milliseconds. This would allow me to do the most damage by delivering the least amount of energy.

Brian, my werewolf friend, charged me like a bull. So, I knew that very little force would knock him down. As he came up on me, I bent down and swept my left leg, and tripped him. I hit his leg with an extreme amount of force. He did a face plant into the grassy dirt field.

Brian pushed himself out of the mud and got to his knees. He hollered out, “You better not use any of your Mani wizardry. The second you do, all bets are off.”

I didn’t know how to do anything other than transition to an eagle. Even that was a challenge for me. “You’re lucky, bar-back-boy,” I said as I circled around him on the ground. “I don’t know any magic tricks; I’m just one tough motherfucker.”

“We’ll see about that.” He got to his feet and came at me again. This time instead of charging me like a bull, he ran up to me and held firm like a horse being pulled in by a lasso. I just stayed there and did not waste a drop of energy. He was bobbing and weaving like Cassius Clay on speed. He was show boating for his Carni audience. He began peek-a-booing with me. That’s when a fighter puts his hands to his face and then drops them, so he is vulnerable like you would simulate a game of peek-a-boo with a child.

All I was doing was timing each peek-a-boo. Each one was two seconds faster. The last one he did was ten seconds, so this one should be eight seconds. I counted to seven in my head and I knew it would take only a second to high kick him like Tommy had told me to do. I raised my leg and high-kicked him right in his smug face and just laid him out. I had completely knocked him out.

The Carni ran over to their fallen friend and surrounded him like they were protecting a piece of meat from an opposing animal.

“Get him,” one guy yelled out. “He used Mani magic.”

“No, I didn’t! I did a standard high kick made famous by the Nintendo video game, Shaq Fu.”

“Someone take him to the hospital,” a large, toothless man yelled out.

“Wait a second. Your boy is done. I used no magic. As a matter of fact, I barely used human fighting. Isn’t this the part where you kick his ass some more and leave him for dead like you did to Tommy?”

“He knows Kyro!” the same toothless man yelled out.

“Nobody touches Brian,” Goliath yelled out from the back. “I’ll take care of him after I kick this pip squeak’s ass.” Goliath stretched his arms and walked toward me.

“Goliath, is it?” I asked in a cocky, but polite tone.

“You heard of me,” Goliath smiled from the corner of his mouth.

“Not until tonight. You’re kind of hard to miss.”

This guy was over seven feet tall and over 450 pounds. He was the largest man or thing I had ever seen. He was wearing cut-off jeans with a Harley Davidson T-shirt that was two sizes too small. I looked at his feet, of course he had 2-inch thick Doc Martens, so he could pound a guy even harder. Unfortunately, I was going to be that guy. I wasn’t looking forward to feeling his size 18 shoe crushed against my skull. His face was scarred in the way only a street fighter would appreciate.

“I guarantee one of your Bruce Lee kicks won’t even faze me, little man.” He then pulled out a chain that was apparently in his back pocket.

I looked up at the moon to make sure it was still a half moon. I couldn’t be too cautious.

I would hate to fight this guy when he was a werewolf. “That’s okay.” I said. “I didn’t even break a sweat.” My adrenaline was amped. I had just floored a guy with two kicks. I didn’t care that this guy was twice my size.

“All right,” I said. “Round two.”

Goliath stood there like a rhinoceros. His hands were up and his feet were shoulder-width apart.

It was obvious that he wanted me to strike first. A guy like this would wait for his prey to make a mistake and then pretty much sit on him and beat the crap out of him. He had one giant problem. I wasn’t going to make any mistakes. I knew if I made just one, it would be the end of me.

“Come and get me!” he shouted.

“Nah, big boy. If you want a piece of this; you’re going to have to come and get it.” I mirrored his fighting stance, and stood like a statue.

“Let’s go, Josiah Reign, Mr. MMA fighter. You had a 4-1 record and got your ass beat by Kyro himself.

This overgrown gorilla did know me. “Oh,” I said. “You know me. I feel honored.”

“Oh, I know you all right. I know that Tommy kicked your ass.”

“That he did, Sasquatch. But, I’ve ironed out a couple of flaws in my technique since then.”

“The lying flat on your ass technique wasn’t working for you?” All of Goliath’s Carni folk burst out laughing.

“Just to let you know, I was the one who beat Tommy to death. And if a bitch-ass like Tommy could handle a fluff like you, then this should make for a short fight.”

“I guess that doesn’t say much for your bartender friend, does it?”

Goliath didn’t like that comment. He broke his stance and came at me. I leaped forward with a roundhouse kick. I missed because Goliath moved out of the way. Goliath was agile. I was shocked. When my kick missed, I fell to the ground.

Goliath jumped on top of me. This guy was the strongest opponent I had ever felt. He picked me up right up off the ground by my neck. He held me up in the air with my legs dangling. I gasped for air; he walked me by my neck to an old eucalyptus tree that was near the flowerbed. With one slick motion, he threw me like a Frisbee against the tree. I hit the tree head first about six feet up, and then dropped to the ground.

I heard screams of excitement from the crowd. They were laughing at my expense. Damn, I hated to hear laughing and cheering at my expense. I was filled with anger, I turned around and opened my mouth, and I felt my incisors protrude out to razor sharp blades. I had never felt that sensation before. It felt like I was flexing my teeth.

“He’s vampiring up!” a man yelled from the crowd.

“Let’ him!” Goliath bellowed. “That will give us reason to rip him to shreds.”

I lunged at Goliath. I grabbed both of his ears with my hands and head-butted him right in his nose. Blood sprayed everywhere. Some got on my tongue. Wow, it tasted delicious and I felt an erection in my pants. Just the smell seemed to quench my every desire. Werewolves bled?

Goliath rolled backward and landed on his feet. “You taste good,” I said.

I grabbed my groin. “Now I’m ready to play.”

Goliath dove at me. I jumped ten feet in the air and hit the peak of my height. It felt as if I floated in midair for a second. I came down hard and fell to my feet.

“What the hell was that?” someone yelled.

“He just flew, that motherfucker just flew,” another hollered out.

When I landed, I collapsed on the ground. I had no idea what had just happened. My body just defied gravity. I almost couldn’t tell because I had been flying all night as an eagle. I had most definitely floated. No one told me that could happen in human form. I didn’t have the time to analyze what had happened. There was a 450-pound man ready to take my head off. Goliath jumped on top of me. It felt like I was on the bottom of a ten-person dog pile. He was hitting the back of my head with elbows, mixed martial arts style. I felt a sea of elbows hitting my neck, head, and shoulder blades.

I heard the strangest crushing and tearing sound come from the back of my head, he had cracked the back of my head open. I was disoriented. There was a large boulder to the left of me. As I continued to get the crap beat out of me, I stared at the large boulder. I felt helpless. Goliath was heavy and strong. I wished that boulder would just fly up and knock the fat motherfucker off me. I stared at the boulder as if I felt my will breaking. I continued to stare at that rock. In my mind, I was pleading for help. I zeroed in on the boulder. I then zeroed in on the crowd that was cheering for my demise. Something miraculous was about to happen. The boulder lifted off the ground and into the air, and then it shot 40 feet through the air and crashed into the crowd, knocking Carni over like bowling pins. I don’t know how I did it.

“He’s using magic,” a bearded man yelled.

Goliath grabbed me by both arms and stood me straight up. My head was killing me.

“Why the hell would you do that?” he yelled at me.

“Do what?” I yelled back at him.

“Use your bullshit Mani magic. Now we have every right to kill you.” Goliath held me tight in his grasp. I struggled, but it was no use. He had me in the worst bear hug known to man. I looked over his shoulder and tried to resist his squeeze. I could see the chain that he originally had at the beginning of the fight about fifteen feet behind him, he must have dropped it.

As he held me, I focused my attention on the chain. I imagined the chain flying in the air. I strained my eyes. Nothing happened. How did I make the boulder move? I looked at the chain, and then quickly looked at Goliath. The chain whipped off the dirt, flew up in a whipping motion, and wrapped around Goliath’s neck. It wrapped tight. Real fucking tight.

A woman yelled. “Get him! He keeps using magic.”

Goliath ripped the chain off his neck.

“No one fucking touches him, he’s mine,” Goliath gasped. Goliath threw the chain fifty feet in the air like a boomerang.

“So it’s going to be like that, you bloodsucking turd.”

I had no idea how I was making things move with my mind or how I floated in midair. This was definitely not in the vampire handbook that Lena had explained to me.

“Look,” I called out. “I’m not trying to use magic. I have no idea how I’m doing what I’m doing.”

“Shut up, you pale Mani,” Goliath screamed. “You’re finished.”

Goliath charged me. I jumped up and again I floated up 10 feet in the air. But, this time, I went faster and my body was jerkier. I landed 20 feet away from him.

“What the hell are you?” Goliath seemed angry and confused. “You’re only supposed to fly when you transition. What kind of bullshit is this?”

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on.”

“You have broken every rule in the book. I don’t care if you don’t know what the hell you’re doing. You’re going to die tonight.” Goliath rushed me again. This time I stood my ground. I high-kicked him the same way I had Brian, but with a much different result. Goliath caught my foot. I fell backwards, but did not hit the ground; instead, I spun around in the air. Goliath had my foot and he was strong enough to hold me in midair by my freaking foot. He spun me around like a lasso. I whizzed through the air and had the sensation of flying as an eagle. Without warning, that is exactly what happened, I transitioned into the eagle. Goliath let go of me in shock.

“What the fuck is that thing?” he called out.

At first, I hadn’t realized I had transitioned, but as I flapped my arms it had been my long wing. I was about two hundred feet in the air. I circled the werewolf party and squawked as loud as I could. I had broken every rule tonight, but had no idea how I was doing it. I couldn’t be criticized or judged for that. The Triat had to know I didn’t do any of that on purpose.

I needed to get out of here and that I did. I flew out of the ranch. I went straight into the sky as high as I could like a rocket. The wind got colder and colder the higher I went. The air felt incredible; I felt incredible. I had never felt so alive. I had never felt so much excitement. The euphoria was exhilarating–too exhilarating.

I stopped thinking about Josiah the eagle and I began reflecting on Josiah the man. That was another huge mistake. Somehow, I had transitioned back into my Mani form. How did I know this? I looked down and saw my human legs. I was a mile high without wings. I was a mile high and had no idea how to fly in my Mani form. I soon hit the apex of my ascendance and stood still in midair. For that brief moment, as I switched from ascending to the certain fall that awaited me, I had an amazing moment of clarity. I felt as if everything in the world made sense. That must be the feeling one gets right before he dies. It didn’t last long because I fell. And fall, I did.

My emotions went from euphoria to absolute terror. I was thousands of feet above earth. And now I was dropping at a speed that I couldn’t even fathom. The night was completely dark and I felt as if I was falling into a black hole. But I knew better. I was falling to the earth—an earth that would crush and destroy me on contact. What the hell was I to do?

I need to fly! I was going to make contact with the ground soon. The fear was indescribable. I couldn’t think clearly. I knew I needed to transition. Was this a faith issue? Was this a test by the Triat? Was I falling to the earth because I was allowing fear to beat me? The wind was choking me. I decided to look up and get a giant gasp of air, as if I was going underwater. I gulped as much air as I could and then I looked down. I concentrated on becoming the eagle. Nothing was happening! Why wasn’t I transitioning? I remained calm. I looked up and took in another gulp of air. I spread my arms out and began flapping them, praying they would turn into wings.

I looked down. It was no longer a black hole. I could see a sea of lights below me. I was getting closer to the earth. Dear God! This can’t be the way this ends! I straightened my legs as if I was doing a jackknife into a pool. I raised my arms straight up. Then something miraculous happened. I felt my body slowing down, as if I was a racecar driver that had taken my foot off the pedal.

As I slowed down, I could see shapes as well as lights below me. I knew I was getting closer and closer to the ground. With all that I had, and every bit of will, I stretched my arms out as hard as I could. I had nothing to lose; if it didn’t work, I was going to die anyway.

Then it happened. I could feel my body taking control of my speed. I had control. I freaking had control! I was no longer falling. I had somehow changed direction again. I was now going up again. I needed to reel this in.

I couldn’t let myself rise out of control again. I wasn’t going to let it happen. I had some bearing of control this time. It was like trying to ride an out-of-control horse. The problem was, I was the horse. I concentrated, breathed and did all that I could to recall the feelings I had had as the eagle, to try to control my flying. I had seen Superman and Greatest American Hero. They made flying look easy. I needed to relax. And relax I did.

The more relaxed I was, the easier it was to control my body. I was now flying, I was finally in absolute control. I was flying! Not as an eagle, but as me, Josiah Reign. I felt power underneath my feet. My energy was allowing me fly. It was the most amazing feeling I had ever experienced. This was more exhilarating than flying as an eagle. I could see my own arms, my own legs. It felt similar to swimming, but a lot more freeing.

As the eagle, I had felt light and delicate. At times, I got the sense of power when I struck a person or an object. But flying as a Mani felt like the dreams I used to have when I was mortal. I felt powerful and alive. And yes, I felt like Superman. I tilted my arms and leveled out my body so that I was flying parallel to the earth, Superman-style. I allowed myself to drop and then I would ascend. Flying felt like having ten orgasms back to back. It was the biggest rush I have ever had. It was more exciting than all my experiences combined. I felt like the most powerful man in the world. That was the problem. I was no longer a man, I was a vampire—and now I could fly. In my Mani body. I was jubilant.

Chapter Five

I flew around for the next two hours in my Mani form, arms and legs flapping in the wind. I noticed that I was less anxious about flying when I was lower to the ground, but I was risking being seen by the public. So, I was going to have to find a happy medium with all this flying business. I needed to fly low enough to feel comfortable and high enough to not be seen by the naked eye.

The sun would be coming out soon. I decided once again to go find Lena. I knew I had left her and everyone else stranded a mile down from the ranch. I doubted she was still there. I checked there anyway just to be sure. I scoped up and down from the sky and saw no one within two miles of the ranch. I decided to fly over to her trailer community. Hopefully, she had gone back home. I got to the trailer park in minutes. I spotted her mobile home from the air and noticed a car parked in the driveway. Her parents must have come home.

I decided to land in the park across the street. It seemed like it was the best spot because of the large amount of soft grass. I circled the park as I had done earlier in the night. It was different this time because I wasn’t circling the park as an eagle, but as a man. I was getting better at landing as ‘the eagle.’ This was a completely different ball game, trying to land with legs. As an eagle, I could pull back and delicately hit the earth, my wings lifting me at the last moment of touchdown. I had no idea at what speed I should hit the ground flying as a Mani. I didn’t want to crush my legs on impact.

There was a barn at the far east end of the park. It was some sort of petting zoo for kids in the area. As I circled the barn, I could see some bales of hay to the left of the barn. I decided to aim my landing in that direction. Hay on top of grass was double the protection.

I continued to circle around the barn, each time making the circle smaller and smaller. Each time I circled, I inched my way closer and closer to the earth. I was about twenty feet from the ground. I needed to land and I was becoming apprehensive. I dipped my legs down a tad, as if I was jumping off a roof of a house. That was not a good idea. I pulled back my motion as I got closer and closer to the ground. Right next to the barn was a scarecrow and I used it as my focal point. I pulled up hard, but I knew my speed was still too fast. I hit the bales of hay much harder than I intended to. I instinctively curled my body up in a ball to protect my vital areas. All that did was make me roll instantly when I hit the ground. And roll I did. I rolled out of control and crashed directly into the barn. I had hoped the barn would stop my momentum. No such luck. My body broke through the wooden walls as if I was a tank. I wrapped my hands around my head on contact to prevent further injury.

Finally I stopped and laid there flat on my back. I looked up and saw a brown horse looking down at me. It stared at me with a bewildered look as if to say, ‘Who the hell are you?’

I got to my feet as quickly as I could. My body ached all over. I had put my body through the wringer tonight. Although I was in immense pain, my adrenaline was still off the charts. I felt like I had just downed ten Red Bulls.

I wiped off the dirt and hay, cracked my neck, and walked out of the barn. The cold morning air hit my face. The sun would be up shortly. I walked across the grassy field and headed to Lena’s trailer park.

I felt like a superhero as I exited the park and went across the street. Cars passed me and for the first time, I had the feeling of immortality. Ultimately, I felt that nothing could hurt me. It felt insanely great. It was the high of highs. The surge of power at beginning to realize my own potential as a Mani.

I wasn’t even sure if Lena was home. Lena’s parents were home and that changed everything. I went to the side of the house and tapped the window to her bedroom. After just one tap, the lights in her room came on. Lena pulled back the curtain and I saw her face. She looked concerned and very beautiful.

She opened the window just enough to be heard, “Josiah,” she whispered, “Are you okay?”

“I’m more than okay,” I said, louder than I planned to.

“Shhhh, you’ll wake up creepazoid.” She opened the window more.

“Screw him. Let’s get out of here!” I whispered back.

Lena looked behind me. “Where’s your car?”

“I’m not going to need that anymore.”

Lena looked at me puzzled.

“Get some clothes together,” I said, “Let’s get out of here.”

Lena had a spark in her eye. “Really?”

“Of course, really. You don’t need to live here anymore. I have plenty of room, you can stay with me.”

Lena’s face looked like a child’s on Christmas morning. “Hold on!” She left for a moment and came back. She already had a suitcase packed with clothes in her arms and handed it to me through the window.

All of a sudden, I heard a deep voice, “Who the hell are you talking to, little woman?” Lena quickly jumped out the window and fell into my arms. We swiftly hid behind the trailer. We could hear Lena’s stepdad in her room. He was walking around. “That little whore snuck out again!” he said in a loud voice. He turned off the light.

I looked at Lena and I couldn’t help but have the biggest smile on my face.

She could see the excitement in my eyes. “What the hell happened tonight? Did you fight?”

“Yes.” I must have had a lot of scrapes and bruises.

“Did you win?”

“Yes and no,” I said.

“Well, you’re alive. That’s the only thing that matters.” Lena looked at the back of my head. “Josiah your head is cracked open. Do you feel alright?”

Goliath apparently had done a number to the back of my head. “Let’s get out of here. We need to take care of that.”

“Okay,” I said. “Put your arms around my neck.”

“Why?” Lena looked at me curiously.

“Just do it,” I said. Lena wrapped her arms around my neck. “Hold on tight,” I raised my arms as if I was a superhero preparing to fly.

“What the heck are you doing?” Lena gasped. I raised my arms again this time with some oomph. I had a small problem. Nothing was happening. Lena looked at me as if I had lost my mind.

“Uh… Josiah. What are you doing?”

“Hold on,” I said. “Watch!” I raised my arms again, this time I made a fist as if that would help. Again, nothing happened.

“What are you trying to do?” Lena asked laughing.

“I’m trying to fly,” I stammered.

“Well,” Lena said sweetly. “You’ll need to transition to do that.” Then we heard someone open the front door. “Transition, Josiah!” Lena immediately transitioned into a red hawk.

Dammit! I wanted to show her I could fly! Why couldn’t I fly?

Lena flew away, leaving her suitcase behind. I could hear Lena’s stepdad getting closer. I transitioned to ‘the eagle.’ I grabbed the suitcase in my beak and flew out of the area like a speeding bullet. Yeah, now I was the super hero.

Chapter Six

We both landed in my front yard and the sun was peeking up over the horizon. It was a beautiful thing to see. It would be something I couldn’t enjoy anymore. That was sad to me. That the sun was a deep fryer for vampires who had the stupidity to stand outside in it.

We both transitioned into our Mani forms on my front porch. I picked up the suitcase and grabbed a key that was hidden under a pot by the door. I knew any idiot would check there first if they intended to rob me, but I really didn’t care, I had renter’s insurance.

I unlocked the door and we went inside. I looked around quickly to see if Tommy had shown up. There was no sign that he had been in the house, everything was the way I left it.

“Let’s re-duct tape the curtain drapes and blinds.” I said to Lena. “Light has a funny way of getting inside.” I grabbed two rolls of duct tape off the table and handed one to her. I went around my house, reapplied duct tape on all areas that light could get in, and Lena did the same. In a few minutes, we had finished. We were sure that no sunlight could get in under any conditions. But then, neither could air.

We both went into my kitchen.

“So what happened?” Lena asked.

“With the wolves?”

“Yes, we all showed up at 3:15 a.m. and you were nowhere to be found. We transitioned and flew toward the ranch and saw Goliath finishing off one of his own, the way he did to Tommy. We all hoped it was because you worked him good. We flew around looking for you for a little while and just figured you had split.”

“I might have fibbed about the time.”

“Why would you do that?”

“I wanted to take care of my own business. And protect my friends.” I walked past Lena, went into the living room, and sat on the couch. Lena turned and followed me.

“Look, you’re going to need protection. Everyone does. No one expects you to fight 30 Carni all by yourself. That was preposterous, what you did.”

“Well, I did fine.”

“You can’t see the back of your head. It’s dented! Why are you being so stubborn?” Lena wasn’t messing around. She was becoming really upset. “You don’t have to do this alone.”

“Maybe I want to do it alone,” I said defiantly.

“Then you’re going to get killed. You might have been Chosen, Josiah, but don’t forget we all were. We have been called to help you. Serve you.”

I looked down at Lena. I needed to tell her the real reason why I gave her the wrong time. “I told you the wrong time because I didn’t want you to get hurt.” Lena raised her head and gently looked up at me. I looked down at her and for the first time, showed how vulnerable I was in her presence. “I don’t care what I have to do; I’m always going to make sure you’re safe.”

Lena reached out her hand and rubbed my arm. “Please let me help you, it’s what I’ve been called to do.” The slightest touch from Lena made me melt. She looked at me lovingly. Dammit, I was falling hard for her. “There is just so much I don’t understand,” I said and took Lena’s hand in mine.

“That’s why you need all of us. We all need you, too.” Lena sat next to me on the couch. Her legs were now touching mine.

I turned to her and said, “It’s hard for me to trust a bunch of people who were trying to kill me a month ago.”

“I know it is. But, you need to remember, you’re one of them now. We both are and we’re all in this together. Wyatt and Hector have had amazing lives. They are good men. They have seen and done things that would blow your mind. You need to trust them. And I don’t have to tell you about Yari. All of them will lay down their lives for you, the same way they were prepared to do for Atticai.” After Lena said ‘Atticai’ she stopped and stared straight ahead.

“Do you still love him?” I asked.

“That kind of thing doesn’t just go away.” Lena let go of my hand.

“Look, I know that there is this beautiful romantic part of you that wanted to live forever by his side. But, you are aware that he was only using you?”

“I know.” Lena held back tears. “I’m just confused.”

“Why?”

“I had my own visions, Josiah. I had amazing dreams where I was this beautiful angel watching over The Chosen.”

“Was it visions? Or wishful thinking?”

“All I know is that I felt so much love when I was watching over him.” Lena shook her head with disgust. “You’re right. It was just some little girl fantasy that got into my subconscious.” Lena now looked defeated.

I couldn’t let her feel this way. “Lena, don’t be upset with yourself. You are this amazingly beautiful woman inside and out. Your heart and soul is why the Triat chose you for this venture. Just because the details weren’t what they seemed, doesn’t mean anything less. You’re a spectacular woman.”

“I guess I’m still that.” Lena looked at her body. “I may be a Mani, but I’m still a woman.”

I looked at Lena and she was as beautiful as ever. “That you are.”

“The sun is up,” she said.

“Yes, it is. We should probably get some rest.”

I got up and Lena laid her legs across the couch. She closed her eyes. I went to the closet and got out a blanket out for her. It was an orange and white cover; one that my grandmother had made for me when I was five years old. It was my favorite blanket. I walked over holding the blanket and looked down on this beautiful young woman lying on my couch. Why did I have such intense feelings for her?

Lena opened her eyes and looked up at me. She gave me a warm smile. “Do you need something, mister?” she asked in a very sweet, innocent voice.

“Do you want a blanket?” I asked.

“That would be nice.”

I laid the blanket gently on top of her. I then sat on the floor and leaned my back up against the couch. I closed my eyes and sighed aloud. I just wanted to be near her.

Lena said softly in my ear, “Before all this happened, Josiah. What did you believe in?”

I sighed again. “I don’t even know.”

“Really?” You didn’t believe in anything?”

“Do you mean like God, heaven, and hell?

“Yeah. Did you believe in any of that?”

“I remember going to a church youth group when I was a sophomore in high school with a girl I was dating at the time. The pastor guy asked if anyone wanted to come forward to be prayed for. I remember wanting to believe in what he was saying so badly. I even went forward and got prayed for. The guy prayed with me. I had to admit, it was intense.”

“So what happened?”

“Nothing happened. I started wondering if what I felt was more of a belief in a Creator or for something greater than myself.”

“What do you mean exactly?” Lena sat up again. She seemed very interested in what I thought.

“Maybe what I felt was a hope that a God could exist and that my life had a plan.”

“But it does have a plan,” Lena said with conviction.

“I know now that it does. I’m trying to figure out what my stake in this is. I guess I can accept that I am needed to help make a change. But I still need guidance. I feel like I’m dangling. I feel the Triat, or whoever is leading this life, has left me to figure it out on my own.”

“Have you stopped to listen?”

“Listen to whom?”

“I’m not going to pretend I know the answers, Josiah. But one thing is for sure, I’m listening.” Lena closed her eyes. She lay back down and wrapped herself up in the blanket.

She was quiet and I just listened to her breathe. I had never done that with anyone before. It was comforting.

I got up and tucked her in, went to my room to grab a pillow and blanket and walked back to the living room. I made a little bed with my blanket on the carpet and lay on the floor next to Lena.

As I rested, I closed my eyes. I felt my body and mind drift off. I could feel my muscles rebuilding. I’d had an insane night and my body definitely needed to relax and recover. I concentrated on my muscles and tendons. It felt wonderful lying there. I was in harmony with my body.

Suddenly, I felt a jolt through my entire body. I opened my eyes instantly. I was in a dream; this was my first one since becoming a Mani. I was lying in a field on the side of what appeared to be a hill. I was in front of a gigantic beautiful white castle. The castle was huge and majestic. It was something out of a fairy tale. I got to my feet and walked toward this magnificent place. There was brush out front, and what appeared to be pine trees. At the front of the great white castle, I could see something moving. Whatever it was, it wasn’t that tall. I walked closer to this creature. It was a grayish-blue color. It almost looked like a gnome without the pointed hat. He was no taller than three feet.

A sudden burst of wind came over me. And the air became smoky. The little blue man walked over to me.

“Come and see me,” he said.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“As of right now, that will not be important. But I do have a message for you.”

This was definitely a vision. My surroundings felt as real as day. “What is it, friend?”

The creature looked at me with disdain, as if to say, “We are not friends.” He looked off to the side as if to purposely not look me in the eyes. Finally, he said, “Tame the wolf.”

“Huh?” I replied.

“If you tame the wolf, you will find yourself.”

I looked at the blue Smurf-like creature. “What wolf?” I asked.

“Tame the wolf and you will find yourself,” he repeated. He was obviously being cryptic on purpose.

“Will I see you again?” I asked.

“Most definitely,” the little man replied. “For now, you need to do what I’ve told you.”

With that I woke up and was staring at the ceiling in my living room. I looked at the clock, it was 7:00 p.m. Man I was out a long time. I could hear dishes being washed in the kitchen.

“What are you doing?” I called out to Lena.

“Cleaning up; you live like a pig.”

“I do the necessities.” I got up, stretched my arms, and then made my way to the kitchen.

“There is a green fungus growing in your sink that I’m pretty sure would have killed you if you were mortal.”

I laughed, “You don’t have to clean, especially a life-threatening green fungus.”

“Trust me, if I’m going to be staying here, it’s the least I can do.”

“I have a guest room you can sleep in. You don’t have to sleep on the couch.”

“That will be fine. Thank you.” Lena put the last of the dishes away in the cupboard. I liked seeing Lena in my kitchen. It felt right, almost natural.

“So, you’re pretty domestic?” I asked.

“Not really. I just can’t stand filth.”

“I guess I’ve been living like a slob as of late. That’s what barricading yourself in a house will do to you. Why don’t you put your things in the guest room?”

Lena nodded and walked by me to get to the living room where her suitcase was still on the floor next to the T.V. I caught a whiff of her perfume or deodorant. Whatever it was, it was intoxicating.

“Wow, you smell good,” I said, a bit awkwardly.

“Do I?” Lena stopped and smelled her shirt. “I’m not wearing fragrance. It’s just little ol’ me.”

“Well, you smell great.” Now I had made things even more weird by piggy-backing my original compliment. I tried to save myself, “I’ll go to the store later and get some things for your room. Who knows, I might even decorate it.”

“You don’t have to do that, Josiah.”

“I would love to. How about a nice ballerina theme? We’ll do the whole thing in pink.” Lena socked me in the arm playfully.

“You’re right.” I said. “You have gotten stronger. I almost felt the punch.”

“Oh really, tough guy? Almost felt it? I’ll give you something to feel.” Lena began playfully punching me all over. “Chosen One or not, I’ll whip your ass.”

“Oh, you think.” I grabbed Lena’s arms after her last punch nearly got me in the chin. I had a sister growing up so I knew how to be physical with a girl without being rough. In one quick motion, I turned her body around so her back was pressed against me. I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight in a bear hug. Not too hard, but I was definitely in control.

“Oh, big, bad, Josiah has to prove his manhood.”

“I don’t need to prove anything. Don’t forget I’m kind of special.” I loosened my grip. As I did, Lena paused and then backed into me as if to say, “Don’t let go.” That threw me off a little bit. But I definitely liked it. It was a subtle gesture. I leaned into her and my grip became a hug. I rested my head on the top of hers. She felt nice in my arms.

We stood there in my kitchen, just swaying almost as if we were slow dancing. Neither one of us said a word. We were two people, two new vampires, having a moment. One thing that hasn’t changed since becoming a Mani was my heart and my soul. I loved the same, maybe even more. It was like I could see truth in another light. Lena was my truth. She was my salvation in the midst of all this madness.

Lena turned around. “Josiah.” She cupped my face. “What have we gotten ourselves into?”

“I don’t know.” I looked at her and stared into her eyes. I felt her love toward me. My love for her was overwhelming. Why was I an open book to this woman? “This is hard,” I said. “I’m trying to be strong, but it’s damn hard.”

Lena turned around and now she was facing me. She was a foot shorter than me so I crouched a little. She touched my face with the back of her right hand. I could feel tears burning my eyes.

“Sweet, Josiah,” Lena whispered. “How did you, of all people, get caught up in this?”

“I’m a little more than just caught up in it. I’m being consumed by it.” I felt the warmth of Lena’s breath on my neck. She wrapped her arms around my waist.

“I’m not upset about Atticai. I need you to know that.” She looked up at me and tightened her grip around my waist. “I need you to know that I am very grateful that you saved my life.”

I looked down on this petite, delicate woman. She had my heart.

She said, “I’m glad you understand, because I would do it all over again.”

“I know you would.”

“Lena, can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“A lot of weird stuff happened last night during my fight. I knocked the first guy out quickly, but the second guy was a beast. And I was using powers by accident.”

“What kind of powers?”

I stepped back and Lena let go of my waist. I went back into the kitchen to the sink. I grabbed a glass and poured myself some water. “Okay, last night… during the fight, I was able to move a 400-pound boulder using just my mind.”

“Are you kidding?”

“No, I’m not kidding. I was able to move this gigantic rock just using my thoughts.”

“How did that happen?”

“I really don’t know. I was getting the crap beat out of me by this gorilla.”

“You were?” Lena seemed concerned.

“Obviously, I’m okay. I’m here with you now.”

“Alright,” Lena hesitated. “Go on.”

“This 450-pound man was on top of me and I had my face in the dirt. He was beating on me something fierce and I was running out of options. I could see a giant white boulder about 20 feet away. I could also see to the left of me a group of Carni laughing and mocking me. I remember just wishing in my heart that somehow that boulder would lift off the ground and fly into the crowd to shut them up.”

“Did it?”

“Not at first. I stared at the boulder as a point of focus. That’s something you learn from fighting on the streets. Whenever you’re getting the crap beat out of you, the way you don’t pass out is maintaining a point of focus.”

She got even paler than she was. “Okay, go on.” Lena did not like this story.

“I stared at the boulder and then wished in my heart this thing would lift up. I shot my eyes at the crowd. Then, as if the hand of God himself picked up the boulder, it rose off the ground and catapulted 20 yards in the air and crashed into the crowd.”

Lena looked at me with absolute amazement. “I have never heard of that. That’s telekinesis. That is unprecedented! No Mani has ever been able to do that. At least it hasn’t been documented.”

“That wasn’t the only thing. Every time I jumped, I would float.”

“Float?”

“Yeah, float like a helium balloon.”

“Not fly, but float?” Lena was even more bewildered.

“No, I flew too, but at first, I floated. I floated a few times until I realized my body was trying to fly.”

“Josiah, do you understand what this means?”

“No, not really.”

“I think the Triat has given you all the Mani gifts and more.”

“What are the gifts?” I asked.

“Most Mani are given one. It is up to them to find out what it is.”

“Just one?”

“Some Mani’s only gift is transitioning. But transitioning is what makes Mani who we are, so it’s not really a gift. It’s a given.”

“So what about the other stuff, Lena?”

“I have never heard of a Mani flying in their Mani form, nor to being able to move things with their mind.”

“Never?” I asked.

“I have only been in the know for a couple of years. There are a lot of legends and rumors.”

I walked back into the living room and sat in the big chair. Lena looked at me and grinned at the satisfied look I had as I eased into the chair. “Men and their chairs. You all have your thrones, even if they are only in front of a big-screen TV.”

“Ahh. Yep.” I closed my eyes and enjoyed the comfort of the chair.

Lena smiled. “Did you try to do what I told you to do when you went to bed last night?”

“Which was what?” I asked.

“Did you listen? Did you open yourself up to all of this?”

I smiled at Lena. “Actually, I did.”

“You did?”

“Yep, I did. And you know what? I think I had my first vision.”

“Really?” Lena was surprised.

“Uh-huh.”

“Anything you’d like to share?”

I wasn’t ready to share my vision. I wasn’t even sure if I was supposed to. “I will at another time.”

“When you’re ready, I’ll be here.”

“I’m counting on it.”

“Well, you do know, don’t you, the rest of us have had visions since that infamous night?”

“Everyone has?” I asked.

“Everyone has. Even Hector.”

“Well, what are they?”

Lena retracted in her body language.

“Is it bad?” I was now concerned.

“It’s not bad. I mean it could be if we don’t succeed.”

“Succeed?”

“Surely, you didn’t think this was going to end the night you turned into a vampire. That’s when all of this began. Josiah, when you’re ready to share your vision, we will all share ours with you. Otherwise, I’m afraid we will overwhelm you.”

It’s amazing how well Lena already knew me. “Okay,” I said. She was right. I wasn’t ready for her to dump a bunch of visions on me.

“So, what are you going to do right now?” she asked.

“I need to get some fresh air. I was thinking about going for a light jog.”

“Don’t go to any more frat parties.”

“Oh, I won’t.” I got up from the chair and walked down the hallway into my bedroom. I went into my closet and pulled out my running shoes. I sat on my bed and took off my jeans. My back was sore from sleeping on the floor. I decided to jump in the shower before my run to and allow the hot water to loosen up my back. It was a little trick I learned in MMA to shower before and after a workout. I removed the rest of my clothes. I stood in my bedroom looking at my naked body in the mirror. I stared at my skin. It was so pale. I use to be pinkish tan, and now I looked like someone had dusted me all over in baby powder. I grabbed a towel from my laundry basket and wrapped it around my pale body. I stepped out of my room and walked down the hallway to the bathroom. Lena was in there .

“Excuse me,” I said. “I’m going to take a shower.” Lena was embarrassed that I was standing there in just a towel.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I was just freshening up.” Lena walked by me and I could feel her eyes scanning my body from head to toe. I hoped she liked what she saws. She shut the door and I turned on the shower. I stepped in and let the hot water just run down my body. It felt so good, as if the water pressure was massaging my skin. Ever since I had transformed, I had a heightened sense of touch, as if new nerve endings had grown on the surface of my skin. I was hypersensitive to pleasure as well as pain. I cleaned off all the key areas of my body with soap and I turned off the water and stepped out. I dried off, and once again wrapped myself up in the towel.

I stepped outside and went into my bedroom. I put on a pair of sweats and a white t-shirt. I put on my socks and running shoes. When I walked into the living room, Lena was sitting on the couch watching TV.

“I’ll be back in an hour.” I opened the front door.

“No saving damsels in distress.”

“Oh, you will always be my first damsel.” I stepped out of my house onto the front porch. This was when I used to see my old friend, Daphne. The red hawk. She was always there. I missed that. I missed Yari, her Mani counterpart.

I stretched on my porch. Every joint in my body crackled as if I was setting off fireworks. I stepped onto the sidewalk and began my jog. It felt great to run. I could feel my body loosening up. I headed down toward Cal State San Bernardino. I passed the infamous frat house where this whole mess started. There was no party tonight. Not a single car was parked outside the house.

When I made it to the San Bernardino campus, I made my way to the running track. I looked at my watch and decided to time myself running the 440, which is one full lap around the track. My best time in high school had been 58 seconds.

I started my way around the track. I decided to pick up speed. I began running as hard as I could. Then, something strange started to happen to my body. I was running at an accelerated speed. It felt like I was running downhill. I zipped around the track like I was going fast forward. I looked down at my time, 33 seconds. Holy shit! That would be the world record if I were human. I was floored by my time. Not only could I fly, but I had super speed. I just might be Superman after all.

I decided to run up to the stadium. I ran up and down the stadium stairs. As I ran down the steps, my body seemed to glide, as if it was trying to fly. But I wasn’t allowing it to happen. I ran up the steps again. When I reached the top of the stadium, I looked down at the track. I could see a woman down at the bottom on the field. I recognized her. It wasn’t just any woman; it was Yari.

Chapter Seven

It took a few minutes for my heart to slow down. She was stunning as ever. I walked down the stairs toward her, watching her red hair blow in the wind. Not to mention her body was still in immaculate shape, which I couldn’t help but notice since she was wearing the cat woman body suit.

“So, this is what it’s going to take to see you?” she said. “I have to stalk you?”

“How are you, Yari?”

“Do you hate me?”

“Of course not,” I said.

“Then why haven’t you seen me?”

“I needed some space. I needed time to think.”

“Josiah, that night was intense for all of us. For you to cut me off and refuse to speak to me was awful.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

She reached out her arms to hug me, but I pulled back.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing, I’ve been in a hundred fights this past month. . . “ I stopped explaining when I saw her step closer to me.

“Come here, I won’t hurt you.”

I leaned in when I felt her arms wrap around me. “How are you feeling?” she asked.

“I feel good. I feel strong.”

“That’s good.” Yari was trying hard to connect with me and I wasn’t sure how to respond. I cared about Lena and was not willing to jeopardize that any further by being physical with Yari.

“It’s nice to see you,” I said honestly.

“Well, I was always a phone call away.”

“I know. I just needed to figure a couple things out.”

“You said that already. Josiah, I care about you. Do you have any idea what I have seen in the last 400 years? I’ve had every kind of relationship. I have met the most powerful men in history.”

I looked at her, wondering where she was going with this.

“I want you to understand this: No one, Josiah, ever made me feel the way you did!”

“Did?” I asked.

“Yes, did. You are a fantastic person, and I am touched to have been the one to lead you to become who you are for the Mani people. But your purpose is for greater than a schoolgirl crush. You’re The Chosen, and all I want to do is help you achieve your destiny. Help us achieve the destiny for the Mani people.”

I believed Yari. She had a peace about her that I had not yet explored. I knew I could always trust her. In some ways, I trusted her more than Lena. So I decided to tell her what everyone was dying to know.

“I had a vision.” I said.

“Just one?” she asked.

“Yes, and it happened today.”

“What was it?” Yari asked.

I paused and grinned at the absurdity that I was about to tell her. “A little blue man in front of a giant castle said I was to ‘tame the wolf’ and then come back to see him.”

“Are you sure it was a vision, or could it have been a bad sugar high?”

I laughed. “It was definitely a vision. It was my first and only dream I have had since becoming a Mani.”

“A little blue man, huh?” Yari took a few moments to think.

I tried to push the Smurf-like image into a gnome in my head. Yes, a blue gnome. That’s what he was.

Then she lifted her eyes and looked into the sky.

I followed her gaze and saw a sea of black ravens circling us in the sky.

“We have company, Josiah!” Yari yelled.

“Who are they?!” I hollered back.

“I don’t know.”

Yari and I were caught in the middle of something that was not going to be good. I could feel it. The ravens surrounded us in a perfect circle. Yari and I had our backs to each other. The ravens were loud and I had no idea what was going to happen. There was a slightly larger raven that had a white stripe along its wingspan, like a military officer of their ranks. I could tell that he was the leader, and my focus was going to stay on him.

Suddenly, in an instant, all the ravens transitioned into Mani men. The raven with the white stripe on his wingspan transitioned into a muscular Asian man that looked like what you imagine modern samurai warriors would look like.

“Josiah?” the large, samurai-looking man asked loudly, with a voice that sounded like a trumpet blaring.

“Yes,” I said.

“Walk up to me,” he proclaimed as if he was royalty.

“Excuse me?” I said.

“Come before me, boy!”

I looked at Yari and for the first time ever, she appeared to be terrified, and that wasn’t at all assuring.

“Do you question my command!?” the samurai-looking fellow yelled.

I stood my ground. “Look Genghis, I don’t make it a habit to bend over for every raven turned Mani who asks me to come before him. Or disrespects me by calling me ‘boy.’”

“Do you know who I am?” The man had a look of horror on his face.

He obviously thought my response should have been more like Yari’s. I looked this guy up and down and had no clue. He could have been an extra in a John Woo movie. Other than that, I hadn’t the foggiest idea who he was.

“He’s Krull,” Yari hollered at me.

“Krull?” I asked.

“You know, the fallen Mani.”

“I wouldn’t say I was fallen. More like reborn,” he stated. All of the Mani men surrounding us laughed. I looked around and this was the first time I got a good look at these guys. There were at least two hundred of them. Boy, were they a sight for sore eyes. Some looked like body builders, while others looked as if they had been on the high seas for months at a time. They looked shaggier than the Carni men from the other night.

“Okay, you’re Krull. Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

“You’re a cocky little shit aren’t you?” Krull would not tolerate my disrespect. It appeared that no one had talked to him in that way for years. He seemed flustered and confused, and I was enjoying that.

“This puny little man surely isn’t the Chosen One I am to kill?” Krull yelled out to the other Mani that surrounded us. “You’re just a child—a baby.” All the Mani surrounding us laughed again. “How long have you walked the earth, boy?”

“Walked the earth?” I asked. “What does that mean?”

“How long have you been alive?” Krull screamed.

“I’ve been alive for about twenty-one years.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Why? Do I look like I’m already twenty-one? There are few liquor stores that don’t card me.”

“Jokes? To me?” Krull looked as if he was going to lose his mind.

“Look, Krawl.”

“It’s Krull.”

“Krull, Crawly, Night Crawler, Creepy Crawler, —whatever. It really doesn’t matter to me. If you think you can intimidate me you have another think coming.”

“You have it wrong, young Mani. My intention is not to intimidate you. My intention is to destroy you.”

Krull then lunged at me and tackled me to the ground. I threw him off my back. He was strong, but I was stronger. Krull then came at me again and this time he glided toward me as if he could fly himself. As he did so, he kicked me straight in my chin. Damn that hurt!

“Josiah, we need to get out of here!” Yari yelled. “There’s too many of them. They are here to kill you.”

Now, Yari says this?

“I figured they weren’t here to get an autograph,” I yelled back. “Who isn’t trying to kill me these days?”

I looked up and Krull had completely jumped over me like in a video game. Prince of Persia came to mind, that old-school game. He landed behind me, and high-kicked me in the back of my head. I fell forward. I looked around and all the Mani men had come for me. Two very large men had grabbed me and were holding my arms so I couldn’t move. All of them surrounded me. One by one, they were punching me in the face as if each person could say they struck ‘The Chosen’ before he was killed. This wasn’t good. This was damn awful. Each punch was more intense and more painful. They were throwing me around like a rag doll. I knew I had to fight back, but the odds were against me.

“Yari, get out of here,” I yelled.

Krull laughed. “Don’t worry, Chosen Child—she ran a few minutes back, or should I say—flew away.”

“What do you want from me?” I yelled, while being tossed from one Mani to the next.

“Let him be!” Krull called out. The last Mani punched me in the ribs and I dropped right in front of him. “All I want is to destroy you. Your mere existence is going to mess up my plans—plans that have taken me 800 years to carry out.”

“I don’t know what your plans are, and I don’t care to know.”

“Shut up!” Krull stopped himself and then looked to the sky. “This is who you brought before me? A sniffling, teen-age boy?” Krull was horrified at the prospect that I was sent to stop him. Krull quit yelling at the sky and then turned his attention back to me. “They chose you!? You are the prophesied savior of the Mani people!? Look at you! You’re a hundred and seventy pounds dripping wet. This is insulting!” Krull began a frantic pace like a maniac on speed.

I got up and stood my ground. Truly, what else did I have to lose? I couldn’t get away. There were too many of them. I might as well go down swinging.

Krull then put his attention back on the sky. He was apparently showing his disdain for Triat. “Is this your way of MOCKING ME?!” Krull was screaming at the sky like a petulant child.

I looked to the sky to see the direction that Krull was yelling. Then I saw two red hawks, and two ravens coming toward us in a fury. Thank God. My two Mani women friends and my faithful henchmen ass-kickers were here.

Krull’s Mani clan saw the birds too, and two of them grabbed my arms. The birds circled above us, squawking and soaring. With utter quickness, the four birds dived down and clawed the Mani men holding me. They let go of me and I quickly transitioned into the great white eagle and flew up as fast as I could. I needed to get the hell out of here. Two ravens and two hawks followed me. Suddenly, one of the hawks began squawking uncontrollably.

I looked back to see if anyone was coming at us and I noticed on the ground the Mani had surrounded another body.

I circled and turned back around to see who it was. It was a man. Holy crap! It was Tommy! They had Tommy! What the hell was he doing here?

It was Tommy, one lone Carni against Krull’s gang of Mani barbarians that he’d been building for 800 years. I never leave a friend behind, never turn tail, never run when loyalty is on the line. And it was. Would I die to save Tommy? Damn right, I would!

I circled back and made an impulsive decision that took zero thought from my end. I flew down hard toward Tommy. Krull had Tommy by his throat. SCREW THAT SAMURAI PIECE OF SHIT! I aimed my beak at his back like a dagger and torpedoed down to the mob. Krull was right in the middle of the heap. I gave another burst of speed. My elongated beak cracked into Krull’s back, piercing through his skin and muscles. Krull was a specimen. I tore into him real good, but I had ricocheted off of him on contact. He flew forward and I flew backwards. It looked like a scene out of Rocky.

He let go of Tommy. I transitioned quickly into my Mani form and charged Krull. Krull turned around to face me. My beak had fucked him up pretty good. He was still in a daze. I gave him the hardest uppercut punch I had ever given in my life. He popped up about four feet in the air, I didn’t slow down—I roundhouse-kicked him right in his fat skull before he hit the ground, knocking him another ten feet in the air. I didn’t see what kind of damage I had done because I needed to get Tommy the hell out of here. I quickly transitioned back to the eagle, grabbed Tommy by the shirt with my claws, and got him out of there. I flew faster than I ever had before. My claws were deep into Tommy’s shirt, the Mani Chosen One saving a Carni. He wasn’t going anywhere with Krull. I had Tommy safely in my talons. The two red hawks and two ravens followed us.

Lena was right. Everyone had my back, even when the odds were stacked horribly against us. All four were there to help me, including Tommy. I turned around, expecting ravens to be close behind me, but we were alone. They apparently decided they’d had enough. I didn’t take any chances by slowing down. I kicked my speed into another gear with Tommy in hand—or should I say clawed hand. I had hit Krull real good and I would have loved to have been there when he realized that this boy just laid him out. I knew deep down that I couldn’t fight him straight up. I had to sucker punch him. But he had the numbers, and when you come to a fight with 50 times the numbers—all bets are off.

“Fly up the San Bernardino Mountains and head over to Running Springs,” Tommy said as he dangled from my claws. “We’ll all stay where I’ve been hiding out.”

With that, the six of us made our way up the mountain.

Chapter Eight

Tommy guided me to a cabin just north of Running Springs. I dropped him down on the front porch and then proceeded to land on the roof. I nearly fell off, but I had to admit my landings were getting better. I settled on top of the roof and watched my four bird-friends land next to Tommy and transition. I nodded my head to let them all know the coast was clear from where I was perched.

I lifted my wings, leaped off the roof, and landed next to my friends. We all just looked at each other and no one said a word. Somehow, through a will that was not our own, this group of six had found one another. If I was ‘The Chosen,’ then it was time for me to accept that these five were chosen with me.

“So, this is it,” I said out loud. “This is who we are going to war with?”

“Yes, it is,” Lena agreed.

“We’re all in this together,” I said, looking each of them directly in the face while nodding with approval. Again, no one spoke.

Tommy broke the silence, “Let’s go inside.”

“So, this is where you’ve been?” I asked Tommy as he opened the door. Wyatt, Yari, Hector, and Lena all walked in after him. Apparently, werewolves weren’t given the same courtesy as humans. Everyone walked in without an invitation.

“There’s an upstairs and a bath,” Tommy said. “My bedroom is upstairs and anyone is welcome to have it. One of the rooms is not in use though.”

“Why is that?” I asked.

“Check it out.” Tommy walked over to a room next to the living room. He went to the doorway and turned on the lights. I peeked in and saw a giant steel cage with bars as thick as 4x4’s.

“What the hell is that?” I asked Tommy.

“Sometimes I put myself in there.” Tommy walked inside the room and made his way to the cage. He opened the door of the cage and walked in. There were five lengths of thick metal chains complete with wrist and ankle holsters at the back of the cage. This is the type of cage I would have imagined they put ‘Hannibal Lechter’ in. The cage was big enough to house ten gorillas. “These metal bars are what keep me from being a killer.” Tommy was obviously referring to when he becomes a werewolf.

“Did you build this?” I asked.

“I got it from a zoo.”

“That must have been an interesting conversation.”

“The guys thought I was some sicko serial killer.”

“He sold it to you anyway,” I said, pointing out the obvious.

“Two thousand dollars cold cash has a way of allowing people to see things your way. For all I know, when I become a werewolf, I just might be a serial killer.”

“You don’t know?” I asked.

“Most Carni have no recollection when they become a werewolf. Some of the stronger ones can lead packs of werewolves and still have little recollection of the details of their night. Sometimes, I look at police reports to see if there is ever a file that fits my description.”

“What description is that?”

“Apparently when I turn, I become a six-foot-two gray werewolf.”

“A gray werewolf?” I laughed. “I knew you were older than what you admitted.”

“It has nothing to do with age. Look at Hector, he’s one of the palest guys I have ever seen, yet he becomes a black raven when he transitions.”

I looked over at Tommy and shrugged. “Can you believe all this? How the hell did we get thrown into the middle of this?”

“Sometimes I wonder what any of this means. Sometimes I feel each of us is just a pawn in the Triat’s twisted game.”

I paused and leaned against the wall staring at the odd visual of my best friend standing inside of a steel cage. “Thank you, Tommy,” I said.

“For what?”

“Coming to help me, and trying to take on 200 Mani vampires by yourself.”

“Yeah, I was a big help,” Tommy said sarcastically.

“It doesn’t matter. You risked your life for me.”

Tommy paused and smiled. “All right, Josiah. Don’t get all misty-eyed on me. You were the one who came back and got me.”

“You would have done the same if you could fly.”

Tommy nodded. “Let’s go out to the others.”

Tommy and I left the strange room and headed toward the kitchen. The kitchen was in the back of the cabin. Wyatt and Hector sat at the kitchen table while Lena and Yari looked through the cabinets.

“What are you guys doing?” I asked.

Lena looked over her shoulder and said, “I’m seeing what supplies we have if all Armageddon breaks out.”

“I don’t think we’re going to fight off a Mani army with pots, pans and a Sunbeam popcorn popper,” I said.

Tommy walked over to Yari and whispered something in her ear. Yari nodded.

What was that about?

“So, is this what we’ve been reduced to?” I announced. “We’re hiding out like fugitives. I refuse to live this way.”

“Look Josiah,” Wyatt spoke up. “You are not ready to fight Krull.”

“Huh?” I said to Wyatt. “Where did that come from, Wyatt?”

“None of us are ready to wage war against him and you sure as hell aren’t. Krull is the most powerful Mani ever. He possesses more Mani gifts than any Mani before him or since. You pegged him right. He is the Genghis Khan of the Mani.”

“Well, I’ve been doing some crazy shit, too, over the past two days. I just might have him beat.”

“Like what?” Yari asked, adding to the conversation.

“A lot of things,” I said. “What kind of gifts did Atticai have that you all knew about?”

“He had every gift that Krull does. They were pretty much equal except we all thought Atticai was The Chosen.”

I asked again. “What gifts did Atticai have that Krull still has?”

Hector who never says anything said, “They both can fly.”

“All of you can fly!” Tommy interjected.

“Not as a bird, but as a vampire,” Wyatt clarified.

“You’re telling me that seven-foot bean pole that kicked my ass could fly?” Tommy asked.

Wyatt grinned, “He had all the other Mani gifts as well. The only thing Atticai couldn’t do was see in the future. If he could have, he would have known he wasn’t the Chosen.”

“What if he did know?” I asked. “Maybe that’s why he left me for dead to be bitten by all of those snakes?”

“There is always a chance he did,” Yari said. “But I don’t think so. There was a lot of good in Atticai. He chose not to follow Krull. He and Krull had the ability to take over the world if they would have joined forces. Atticai refused.”

Tommy added, “Do you think it was in the Triat’s will that Josiah killed him?”

All of the other Mani looked at each other as if to say they didn’t know.

“You all look disappointed that ‘The Chosen’ wasn’t Atticai,” I remarked.

“We’re not disappointed,” Yari said. “We just had no idea it was going to be you.”

“The word isn’t disappointed,” Wyatt said. “We were just fucking surprised as hell. Then when you refused to talk to us for weeks, we wondered if it was all a mistake.”

“Do you guys think it was a mistake now?” I glanced at all of them. Lena and Yari both shook their heads. Hector and Wyatt however looked at me blankly. “Are you and Hector completely on board, Wyatt? I need to know. Because if you’re not, I completely understand and would hold no resentment toward you—if you wanted out.”

Wyatt paused and looked at Hector. “We don’t want out, Josiah. We just want to make sure when all of this is over and when we prevail over Krull that you don’t plan on killing us.”

“What?” I asked surprised.

“Why wouldn’t you, Josiah?” Wyatt continued. “We both tried to kill you. We’re two of the three reasons you became a Mani unwillingly.”

“All of that may be true, Wyatt. But that isn’t who I am. I respect that you were loyal to Atticai. You were only doing what you felt the Triat wanted you to do. I can’t be any angrier at you than I am at Tommy for kicking my ass in the ring a month back. He only fought me because the Commission told him he had to.”

“So, we’re cool?” Hector came out and asked.

I smiled at Hector and Wyatt. “We’re cool, guys. As long as I know from here on out that I can trust you, all is forgiven.”

My eyes went to an older needlepoint picture hanging on the cabin wall. The words seemed to fit the current mood in the room and I nodded at it, so that Hector and Wyatt would read it, too: ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’

Hector and Wyatt let out relieved sighs.

I looked at Yari. “So, what’s the deal with Krull? Is he going to hunt me down until he kills me?”

“Or until you kill him,” Yari answered. “Krull is a prideful son-of-a-bitch. Atticai was the only person who ever matched up with him. Since you laid him out, he now looks at you like a greater challenge. He had no idea what hit him.”

“Only because I sucker-punched him,” I stated.

“In a Mani-on-Mani fight, everything goes. You were well inside the rules. Krull won’t forget. But neither should you.”

“I almost wish we still had Atticai. It would be one more body.”

“Atticai would have never yielded to you,” Lena interrupted. “What happened to him that night was his destiny. The Triat knew he would never accept anyone else to lead us, no matter how much any of us cared for him. You did what you were supposed to do. You did the right thing.”

Wow, I was getting mixed signals from Lena. Was she happy or sad that I was now in charge?

“Okay,” I said. “If Krull is going to come after me, then that means he is coming after us. If this is too much for anyone and you want out—let it be known now.”

I looked at Hector.

“I’m in,” he said.

“Hey, I got Hector to talk again,” I joked. “This is an epic night.” Hector smiled. I looked over at Wyatt. “You in, Teethie?”

Wyatt laughed. “I told you that night that I didn’t know you weren’t one of those frat douchebags.”

“Did I at least taste good?”

“Oh, you taste good,” Yari responded. Yari had been my second bite when she sucked the snake venom out of me.

I looked at Yari. “You in?”

“I’ve been in for two years with you, Josiah.”

I nodded and looked at Lena. “What about you? You don’t have to be part of this.”

Lena shrugged. “You’re joking right? Josiah, this thing that we all are part of—is the only thing that matters now.” I nodded at Lena. I was afraid for her. She was barely five feet tall and maybe 100 pounds. This wasn’t going to be easy.

I looked over at Tommy, who by now, was making himself a sandwich. “How about you, werewolf boy? You want to stand and fight with a bunch of vampires?”

Tommy looked around the group. “Well considering none of you has tried to kill me yet, that’s what I plan on doing. I don’t really have too many options, anyway.”

“All right,” I said. “I need to know two more things. First, what is our money situation? Do you guys have jobs? How do you pay for stuff?”

Everyone laughed.

“We don’t need jobs, Josiah,” Yari answered.

“What? Do you all steal?” I asked.

“None of us are thieves. We all have our own money for different reasons.”

“Do you have bank accounts?”

“Swiss bank accounts,” Wyatt laughed.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

Wyatt looked over to Hector and Hector gave him a nod as if to say it was okay to tell me.”

“Hector used to be a prince.”

“Hector? A prince? You’re screwing with me, right?”

“Serious as a heart attack, Josiah.”

“Prince Hector?” I looked over at Hector and he grinned.

“Yeah, so he’s set,” Wyatt continued. “I’m set because of some great real estate ventures I made in the 90’s when the market was good. And Yari—”

Yari interrupted Wyatt and said, “I had a few ‘friends’ along the way that have allowed me to live comfortably for quite some time.”

“So, you’re a gold digger?” I asked.

“Not a gold digger. I like pretty things and men seem to like to provide me with that.”

“This is why I never cared to ask about your money situations,” I said. “I was scared to know.”

“Josiah, there is a combined wealth among the three of us that approaches Donald Trump.”

I looked over at Lena. “Don’t look at me. I’ve been sponging off my parents and these guys for the last couple years.”

“Well,” I said. “I still have a lot of inheritance left, so I guess money is the least of our worries.” I knew that Tommy had some money from his MMA winnings. “So, my next question is what Mani gifts does each of you have?”

“Don’t look at me,” Tommy goofed. “I can only bite people once a month when the moon is full.”

“What about you, Hector?”

“I can transition and sometimes see the future.”

“Wyatt?”

“The same,” Wyatt answered.

“Lena, what can you do?” I asked.

“I can erase thoughts and transition. I might have more. I don’t know.”

“Yari, what about you?”

Yari was quiet. “Yari?” I repeated.

“I can do everything, but fly in Mani form,” she said plainly.

“You serious?” Tommy said, nearly choking on his sandwich. He seemed impressed.

“I’ve been around a long time. You pick up skills along the way.”

“Then you’re going to be as valuable as hell,” I said, pleased.

“I’m not sure how valuable I’m going to be to the cause,” Yari said. “Mind reading and memory erasing only work on the very weakest Mani and Carni. My skills will be limited against Krull’s crew.”

Then something dawned on me. Yari said she had every skill except flying. That means she could see into the future. She must have known that I was The Chosen. I didn’t want to say it in front of everyone. But it all made sense now. The reason she saved me, and why she let me know how to defeat Atticai. I thought she did all that because she was in love with me. Apparently, she was only doing the will of the Triat.

“Don’t sell yourself short, Yari. The reason why I’m alive is because of you.”

Yari seemed pleased that had I said that. “I can tell you this, Josiah. Krull will not come for you here. You are going to battle Krull at another time. It won’t be here, and it won’t be anytime soon.”

“You know that for sure?” I asked Yari.

“As far as Krull and his minions are concerned, we will be safe here.”

“What about you, Josiah?” Tommy came out and asked. “What gifts do you have?

“I’m not exactly sure.”

“You said earlier that you could do some weird shit now,” Tommy added.

“I’m not completely sure what I can do.” I said again.

“You must know something.” Tommy persisted. “What things can you do differently? Are you faster? Are you stronger?”

“Well, I can change into the white eagle and…”

“Tell them, Josiah,” Lena said bluntly.

“Tell us what, Josiah?” Yari said. “What aren’t you telling us?”

I hesitated. Why didn’t I want to tell them the truth? Maybe I was scared that if they knew all I could do, they’d expect me to be some kind of Christ-like figure. I wasn’t ready to tell them. I looked across at Lena.

Lena said in a soft voice. “You need to tell them.”

I exhaled and said, “I can fly, too.”

“As a Mani?” Wyatt asked.

“Yes, I can fly even when I’m not the eagle. But I can’t control it very well. And I don’t know exactly how to start it.”

“Holy shit!” Hector spouted.

We all laughed.

“Anything else?” Tommy asked.

“Yeah, there is one more thing. But I have less control with this than I do flying.”

“What is it?” Yari stared at me intently.

“Tommy,” I said. “Do you have a Styrofoam cup somewhere?”

“Yeah.” Tommy opened the cabinet directly behind where he was standing in the kitchen. He grabbed a bag that had Styrofoam cups inside. “Do you need just one?” he asked

“One will be fine; you can put it on the table.”

Tommy placed the Styrofoam cup at the center of the table. “Everyone step back and stand next to me and look at the cup.”

Everyone walked over and surrounded me. The table was about 5 feet away.

“All right, watch!” I stared at the cup. Once I felt a connection, and a bond with it, I closed my eyes, turned my head, and opened my eyes, staring at the left wall. And, with a sudden boost of energy, the cup shot off the table and hit the ceiling.

“What the hell?” Tommy shouted. “You can move stuff with your mind?”

“Yes,” I said.

“I have never heard of a Mani being able to do that,” Yari said.

“Me neither.” Wyatt continued. “That must be a specific gift given only to Josiah. How heavy of an object can you move?”

I looked at the group and said, “I moved a 400-pound boulder the other night. It lifted off the ground and flew about 40 yards.”

“Can you control it precisely?” Yari asked.

“Not even close,” I said. “Just right now I tried to make the cup hit the left wall and it hit the ceiling instead.”

“So, you tried to move it in one direction,” Lena asked, “and the cup went in another?”

“I can move it, but not control it.”

“Do you have any control over it, whatsoever?” Tommy asked.

“I am able to connect with an object almost on a spiritual level; other than that, not really. Once I have the connection, the object moves whatever direction it wants.”

“Just like any skill, Josiah,” Yari said. “You’re going to have to master it.”

I was tired and once again had had an exhausting night. “All right, guys. I’m beat. I’m going to find a bedroom and get some rest.”

Chapter Nine

I found a room in the far west corner of the house that was some kind of guest room. It appeared to be a room that had been added onto the cabin after it was built. The room only had a couch and a very old TV. I flopped on the couch and stared at the ceiling remembering my vision from the night before. ‘Tame the wolf,’ I thought. I had very little experience, if any, with the species. Other than those Neanderthals at the bar, the only other wolf I knew was Tommy. Was Tommy the wolf that needed to be tamed? Was I to train him? Tommy was already a great fighter. If anyone needed training, it was me. I knew nothing about being a werewolf. How was I supposed to train him? I laid there pondering this and then it hit me! I jumped up and went back to the kitchen. Everyone was still sitting around shooting the shit.

“Hey, Tommy, I have a couple questions for you.”

“Yeah?” Tommy answered. All eyes were on me.

“Why exactly do you lock yourself in a cage when you become a werewolf? What are you afraid of?”

Tommy didn’t hesitate to answer my question. “I’m afraid of hurting someone,” he said, “or doing something that might cause someone to want to hurt or even kill me.”

“Do you have any recollection after you come out of your werewolf state?” I asked.

“I don’t have a stream of memory. I remember glimpses—or random moments.”

“Are there any specific details that you remember in those glimpses or random moments? Why do you suppose you remember those moments opposed to others?”

Tommy thought for a second. “Maybe I remember the times when my senses are heightened.”

“Really?”

“Where you going with this, Josiah?”

I looked at the group and said, “I had a vision last night. Or at least I think I did.”

“And...” Tommy pressed.

“I won’t go into the details of the dream, but I’ll tell you the message I was given. I was told ‘to tame the wolf and I will find myself.”

“And you believe that I am the wolf?” Tommy asked.

“Why wouldn’t you be? It’s the only thing that makes any sense.”

“So, what’s with all the memory questions?” Yari asked.

“I’m thinking somehow I need to tame or train Tommy when he’s in his werewolf state.”

“How are you supposed to do that?” Lena asked. “Have you ever seen a werewolf when it has completely shifted?”

“No. But I think that actually is going to rule in my favor. I won’t have any preconceived feelings about it. I am coming into it with a clean slate.”

Tommy seemed uneasy about what I was saying. “What do you mean by training?” Tommy laughed. “Do you plan on taking me to Vegas to do an act?”

“Not in the slightest.” I said. “I need to get face to face with you and have you trust me to the point that you don’t attack me.”

“What if I kill you when you’re trying to Lassie me up?”

“That’s the part we have to figure out. We’ll need to do the training in stages. Tommy, have you ever heard of werewolves having any kind of control during full moons?”

“Control?” Tommy thought about it. “The older werewolves might be able to. They aren’t as bloodthirsty as younger ones.

“Why do you suppose that is?”

“Cause they’re beat down and tired,” Tommy said plainly.

“What if…” I said. “It’s because they are more seasoned and they have figured out a way to control it?”

“Saying, ‘they can control it’ is a big leap. Werewolves are like psychopathic serial killers who have been chained up for twenty years and finally let out on the general population. Werewolves are told from the get go to figure out a way to go into hiding. Most go to caves and isolated areas so there is no temptation to kill humans. I think you might be reaching, Josiah. Werewolves are no better than wild animals.”

“That’s what you’ve been told, Tommy. What if you could be tamed and you never knew it? The way a lion-trainer tames a lion.”

“Are you intending to beat me with a whip?” Tommy asked humorously.

“No, you might enjoy that too much.”

“Okay, let’s say you do train me. What good will that do?”

“Tommy, the good it could do is endless. What if we could get you to a point of cognitive thought? What if you could decipher right from wrong?”

“Cognitive thought? That’s unheard of, Josiah; there is no way it can be done. Werewolves are mindless beasts who know only one thing — KILL. We act on instinct in our werewolf form.”

Tommy was going to need more convincing. But the more I talked, the more I believed in my heart that I was on to something. “I’m going to put more thought into this,” I said in conclusion.

“In the end, Tommy,” Yari spoke up, “it won’t hurt to give it a shot.”

Tommy glanced over at Yari. “You think?”

“Josiah had a vision,” Yari continued. “We need to respect that. God knows we are all here because we were all given relentless visions. Now look at us. What will it hurt?”

“It could hurt,” Tommy said. “It could hurt very much, if you let me out and try to train me and it doesn’t work. I could do a lot of damage to everyone. You all will be forced to fight back and someone might get killed. Hell, you all might be forced to team up and kill me.”

“That will never happen, Tommy.” I said. “I would never allow it. We need to do this in baby steps. We take baby steps first, and see if we are on to something. Let’s first see if I can build trust with you.”

“I don’t know, Josiah. Give me some time to think about it.” Tommy still seemed unconvinced.

“One last thing, Tommy,” I said. “Just imagine how powerful you would be if you were self-aware as a werewolf. Imagine how much good could come out of it.”

I was done talking and I was tired. I did one final look around the room to make sure everyone was on board. I stopped when I glanced over at Yari and motioned for her to follow me out of the room.

Yari nodded and followed me out to the guest room. “What is it, Josiah?”

“You knew, didn’t you?” I said.

“Knew what?”

“You knew that it was me and not Atticai that was supposed to be in charge of all of this, that’s why you followed me for two years.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Yari seemed worried.

“Look, I won’t say anything to anyone else. But if you are able to see into the future, you must have known.”

Yari paused for a very long time. She was really struggling with telling me the truth. Then, very softly, she said, “I knew.”

“Wow.”

“Are you mad?” she asked.

I wasn’t sure what I felt, but I was definitely not mad. Because of all of this, I was able to find Lena. I could never be upset about that.

“I’m not mad, Yari. Not at all. In fact, I’m honored.” I looked over to her. She was still very stunning and I cared for her deeply, although no longer in a romantic way but rather a protective way. I took her by the hand and pulled her close to me and hugged her tightly.

“You ready for what is to come?” Yari whispered in my ear.

“I hope so.” I said. “I sure hope so.”

Chapter Ten

There wouldn’t be a full moon for another two weeks. That gave Tommy plenty of time to think about what I requested. It had also given me time to consider how I would try to tame and train the wolf.

On one of the evenings, Tommy and Yari went out and purchased items at the local clothing store. They bought clothes for everyone. They bought me some comfy plaid pajamas. I’m used to sleeping naked, so wearing any kind of nightwear made me uncomfortable and itchy.

It was a couple of days before the next full moon. We were all watching Survivor on the tube. Tommy made eye contact with me across the room and mouthed, “I’m in.” I nodded and was very pleased. I turned my head and watched another blindside at tribal council. Damn, I loved Survivor.

It was the day of the first full moon. I went into Tommy’s room and he was lying on his bed listening to his MP3 player.

“What you listening to?” I asked.

“Some old-school Bobby Brown.”

“Nice.” I couldn’t help but laugh. “Tonight is the first night of the full moon.”

“I realize that, Josiah. This isn’t my first rodeo.”

“Just so I’m clear. You only turn into a werewolf when the full moon is seen at night?

“Yes.”

“And you shift back to a Carni during the day?”

“Yes.”

“How many days does it last?”

“Three nights.”

“Perfect! That will be enough time to do what I want to do.”

“Are you going to let me in on your plan?” Tommy inquired and looked down at his MP3 player.

“Yes, but I don’t want you to worry about it just yet. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”

“I sure hope you know what you’re doing.”

“I have a hunch, Tommy. I’m not sure where it came from. Let’s hope it’s from a higher power.”

Tommy stared at me for a few seconds and shook his head and laughed. “Let’s hope so, Josiah.” He then turned his attention back to his MP3 player. “If you don’t mind, Bobby is waiting.”

“By all means Tommy boy, that’s your prerogative.”

“Cute, Josiah.” Tommy put on his headphones and put his ear buds back in his ears.

I went into the kitchen. Hector, Wyatt, Lena and Yari were all sitting at the table drinking from Styrofoam cups.

“Good evening, sunshine,” Lena said with a little flirtation in her voice. I smiled in her direction. Our eyes met and we took a moment to allow each other in. I hadn’t tried to get closer to her the past couple weeks. I knew I had feelings, she knew I wasn’t going anywhere. So, why rush into something?

“Do you ever have cravings, Josiah?” Wyatt asked.

“For blood? No, not yet. But I did enjoy Goliath’s blood the other night when I got a taste of it.”

“That didn’t send your cravings into orbit? That doesn’t make any sense,” Yari chimed in. “All Mani have intense cravings, almost from the get go.”

Yari looked at me with skepticism.

“What? Don’t you think I’m a real Mani?” I said.

“The protruding incisors and that fact I get fried in the sun isn’t enough for you?”

“I just don’t like it that you can still eat like a teenage boy. It isn’t fair.”

“Seriously, Yari, has any of this been fair to any of us?”

“You have gotten the better end of the stick, you have to at least admit that, Josiah,” Lena added.

“Oh, don’t you start with me, little missy. Thanks to Yari, Wyatt, and Hector, I am who I am.”

“And thanks to Atticai, Yari, and you, I’m who I am, too,” Lena reputed.

“Touché,’” I said.

“You two just need to have sex and get it over with,” Yari just came out and said.

“No one is having sex with anybody,” I said. “Unless that’s how you and Hector roll?” I shot Wyatt a look and grinned playfully.

“Very funny,” Wyatt said. “I had enough tail in the 1920s to last any man a lifetime.”

“Hey, Josiah?” Hector spoke up. “Did your ...” Hector awkwardly looked in the direction of my groin.

“Did my… what?” I asked.

“You know, did your.... you know?” He eyed my package again.

“Did my what?” I said again. “Quit looking down at me, you perv.”

“I think what he’s trying to ask you is,” Yari said. “Did little Josiah get bigger when you became the Almighty Chosen?”

“I honestly don’t know,” I said.

“How’s that possible? Yari laughed.

“I haven’t had an erection since I became a Mani.” The whole room fell apart laughing.

“It made you impotent?” Wyatt marveled.

“No,” I said, insulted. “I haven’t exactly been in a romantic mood after having my life turned upside down.” I looked at Hector. “So, to answer your question, I don’t know. Why you need to know details of my member is creepy. Anyway, I have always been a grower not a show-er.”

Lena smiled at me. “Can we stop talking about Josiah’s package, if that’s okay with everyone?”

“Oh, you’ll find out soon enough, sweetie,” Yari stated to Lena. Lena ignored Yari’s comment. But she didn’t say she wouldn’t. Hey, every little bit helps.

“I concur,” I said. “So what are you drinking? Animal blood?”

“Not exactly,” Yari said.

“Human blood?” I asked, disgusted.

“No one that had to die for it, if that’s what you’re afraid of.” Lena laughed as she sipped her cup.

“That’s good,” I said. “Glad to see we still have our morals.”

“Don’t worry, I know the graveyard security guy at Running Springs Hospital. He hooked us up last night.”

“Did you and Tommy get it?” I asked.

Yari looked at me with a little disdain. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It doesn’t mean anything. I was only asking.”

“Yeah, Tommy went with me. Is that a problem? Or do you need to keep tabs on me?”

“Oh, you would like that, wouldn’t you?” I responded. “Yari, I have zero problem with you and Tommy being friends. As matter of fact, you can be more than friends. Go have tons of vampire and werewolf babies.”

Everyone laughed and Yari didn’t correct me. There was definitely something going on between her and Tommy.

I peeked in Yari’s cup. The Styrofoam cup was stained red at the bottom. I couldn’t help but gag and Yari saw it. “Seriously, ‘The Chosen’ just gagged at the sight of blood? What is wrong with this picture?” I left the kitchen and went to the living room and closed my eyes and rested a bit.

Some time had passed and Lena came over to me. “Josiah, you awake?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Just wanted you to know that it will be dark soon and our little friend is going to go all wolf-boy on us.”

“Where is he?” I asked.

“He’s putting extra chains on his cage.”

“Extra chains?”

“He thinks the fact that there will be so many Mani close by, the smell might drive him over the top.”

I got up and went into the front room where Tommy was. He was inside his cage locking chains on top of one another. He would yank on the chains to make sure they were locked in tight.

“What’s going on?” I asked him.

“I’m reinforcing the chains, so I will be stuck deep inside and not harm anyone. I’m already starting to itch.”

“So, that’s why you itch. You always said it was because you were nervous about leaving for the reserves.”

Tommy laughed. “I had to tell a couple of lies to keep my cover.”

I walked into the cage and knelt down next to Tommy to see if he needed my help. He handed me a chain while he connected the smaller end to the back bar of the cage.

“Did my sister know about you?” I asked Tommy.

Tommy was quiet. My sister was always a touchy subject for him. So, I respectfully waited for him to answer me.

“Your sister knew.” Tommy continued to work on the chains.

“Is that all?” I asked.

“She knew Josiah. She was the only Tandra that knew. She was the one person in this world I completely trusted.”

“Okay, Tom.” I decided to change the discussion. “I think we should have everyone else leave for the next 72 hours.”

“Why?”

“I want to do something with you that will take complete commitment from the both of us. It’s got to be about you and me, and you and me only. We need to connect in a way we never have before. I just think it’s in everybody’s best interest if we were left alone.”

“Have you let them know?”

“I wanted to run it by you first.”

“I think you’re nuts for trying this, but I’ll agree to whatever you want to do.”

“If there is the slightest chance that I’m on to something, this will be well worth it.”

“Well, you better tell your Mani buddies they need to find a Motel Six for the next three days.”

“They’ll stay at my house. Krull is only after me. Plus, Yari says our little showdown isn’t going to happen any time soon. I’m worried more about your Carni friends who will be in full werewolf mode during the next three nights.”

I stuck my head out of the room and yelled, “Can everyone meet over here?” Within a few seconds, everyone appeared. “Come inside Tommy’s lair.” I said. “I would like to speak to everyone.” Everybody stepped into the room.

“What is it Josiah?” Lena asked, concerned.

“Tommy and I were talking and we think it would be a good idea if everyone was to leave for the next 72 hours.”

“What the hell are you planning to do?” Yari asked, insulted.

“I plan on doing bonding exercises. The less distraction that’s here, the more Tommy and I will be able to connect. It’s going be extremely important for us to do so, if this is going to work.”

“Josiah, have you ever seen a Carni in its werewolf state?” Wyatt asked.

“No.” I said.

“It’s the scariest, most intense thing you’ll ever see,” Lena said, jumping in. “Are you sure you want to do this alone?”

“It’s the only way it can be done. I’m sure of it. I believe there’s more to the Carni than meets the eye.”

“What if there’s not? What if they are just crazed dogs?” Yari said intently.

“Then we’ll know for sure. As long as Tommy is willing to stand and fight next to us, we owe it to him to see what he is capable of becoming.”

“What about you, Josiah?” Tommy said. “You have talents that you haven’t even scratched the surface of.”

“My time will come. I believe it in my core. This is what we need to do first.”

“We all hope you’re right, Josiah,” Lena said with an assuring tone.

“I believe that there is a chance there is something great inside Tommy. The Triat gave me the vision and this how I’m interpreting it.”

“So, where should we go?” Lena asked

“Go to my house,” I said.

“Do you think it’ll be safe?” Wyatt asked. “We’re not exactly the most liked group of people in town.”

“I know,” I said, “but I’m sure you’ll be safe. Neither the Carni or Krull is after you. They are after me. If you do run into any trouble, just head to the Flatlands. At least you’ll have friends there.”

“Is that what you want?” Yari looked at Tommy.

“Yes, it’s what I want,” Tommy answered back.

“Then it’s a go.” Yari left the room. She seemed hurt, but this wasn’t her deal. She needed to trust me. Or at least respect the fact that Tommy trusted me.”

“Here are the keys to my house.” I tossed my keys to Lena.

“I guess we’re out of here,” Yari walked over to Tommy and hugged him. She let go and walked over to me. “I hope you’re right, Josiah. Your instincts have been right on so far. Please be safe.” Yari leaned in and hugged me tight.

Lena walked over to me also. “You sure about this?”

“Yeah, this is going to work.” I said. “I know it.”

Lena brushed the back of her hand on my cheek. It was a tender gesture, one that gave me goose bumps. “I guess we’ll see you two in a couple days.”

“I guess so.” With that, all of them left the room and got ready.

Chapter Eleven

Everyone had left and made their way to my house. There were about forty minutes until nightfall and then the full moon would reveal itself in glorious moonrise. Tommy and I were in the room.

“How do you go to the bathroom if you’re chained up?” I asked.

“That is what the cardboard is for in the corner. Most of the time I can make it.”

“Oh, this is going to be fun.” I said.

“Just show me the courtesy of not staring at my junk when I go.”

“I don’t see that being a problem, Tommy.”

Tommy paced around the room, stopped and looked out the window. “I think it’s time to lock me in. So, what’s the plan, Dr. Phil?”

“Well,” I said, “it is my belief that we need to bond in stages, or phases, if you will. Tonight, you will be chained in.”

“You’re planning on unchaining me at some point?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Josiah, if you’re wrong —”

“I’m not wrong.” I said confidently.

Tommy sighed then stretched as if he was preparing for a MMA fight. When he was done stretching, he entered the cage. I watched as a spectator and friend.

“Josiah, you really have no idea what you’re in for.”

“Nothing surprises me at this point. The last two months have been insane.”

“How do you plan to tame the wolf?” Tommy asked.

“In stages,” I repeated again. “We need to build trust—more trust than we ever had before.”

“Josiah, have you thought about the possibility that I’m not the wolf the Triat talked about in your vision? Think about it, I lost to a Mani, even though he did no magic whatsoever against me. I humiliated my own kind to the point they left me to die. I will never be forgiven by the Carni. I’m damaged goods. Why would the Triat choose me?”

“You might never be forgiven by the Carni, but there is no way in hell that you’re damaged goods. Look at you; you’re built like a pit bull. I know in my heart that the Triat looks fondly on you. The Triat knows you are a good man and full of character. You need to trust me and believe in me. Together, we will change everything.” I then gave Tommy a comforting nod.

Tommy nodded back. “I trust you, Josiah. What’s the game plan?”

“Let’s chain you up first.” I went in and helped Tommy chain himself. We wrapped the chains around his ankles and wrists, and then fastened all four clamps. We put additional chains around his chest and groin. We gave a little pull on the chains to allow him to do small amounts of walking. When we were done, I walked out the door and locked the cage.

I turned around and looked at my friend. It was odd seeing him chained in as if he was about to pull off a Houdini-type escape artist trick.

“Okay, Tom,” I said. “I’m going to give you two kinds of emotional indicators. The idea here is to get you to connect with me emotionally. The first wave will be verbal. I will give you commands as the ‘alpha male’, and you will need to submit to me. You will need to do all my commands. Once we have that mastered, we will do tactile. Through my touch, you will learn to trust me, as well as submit to me. Tonight we will focus on the verbal, and tomorrow we will concentrate on the touching.”

Tommy nodded. “What about the third night?”

“I’m going to play it by ear.”

“Play it by ear? What if none of this works?”

“You have my word, Tommy. I will not harm you, no matter what happens.”

“Josiah, if at any point—I turn on you—and you need to attack me to save your life, you’re going to have to do it.”

I looked at Tommy dead in the eyes. “It won’t come to that. I promise.”

“Are you in there tight?” I asked.

“As tight as it can be. We have about 25 minutes, so we better get started!”

“Okay, Tommy. You need to forget that I’m Josiah. You need to look at me like I’m your master. You need to take on the role of a typical dog who listens to the commands of his owner.”

Tommy looked at me perplexed. “Okay, then what?”

“You’ll need to obey my commands, no matter how lame they seem to you, or how silly you feel.”

Tommy chuckled. “All right, let’s do it.”

I took a deep breath and so did Tommy. I took a moment and just trusted the silence and then I began. “Tommy!” I shouted.

Tommy looked at me a bit startled and then lowered his head to show me that I was the one in control.

“Tommy,” I yelled again. “Look me in the eyes!”

Tommy eyes slowly raised and met mine. “Good boy,” I said. Tommy smirked.

“Tommy,” I pleaded, “please take this seriously. Concentrate on my command and just let everything go.” Tommy nodded his head.

“Sit!” I commanded him. Tommy hesitated at first and then obeyed. He sat on the ground.

“Good boy! Now stand!” I said with authority. Tommy stood up.

“I want you to sit and stand three times.” Tommy shuffled his feet.

“Do it now.” I commanded. Tommy obeyed and stood and sat three times.

“Good boy,” I said. “Now, howl!” Tommy howled.

It sounded almost as if he was whistling at a girl on the street from a construction site. But it sounded good.

We proceeded to a number of commands: showing me five fingers, answering ‘yes’ and ‘no’ questions by showing paws, sitting in the east and west corners of the cage.

The sun began to set and Tommy began to itch wildly.

“I guess this is it,” I said.

“Josiah, be careful and don’t move too quickly. Be absolutely sure you have my trust.”

I watched on as the full moon became more visible. Then something started happening to Tommy’s entire body. I was extremely curious how the transformation looked. From the south window of Tommy’s room he had a perfect view of the moon.

The moon was slowly developing into giant full moon. Right when the moon hit full view, Tommy began howling. He hadn’t changed yet physically, but the transformation had begun. I watched and studied what was to happen next. Tommy dropped to all fours and let out another frightening howl! I watched as gray hair protruded out of his skin. The gray hairs flowed out of his face, arms, head and ears. He still had his jean shorts on, and luckily, those bad boys didn’t fall off. That was going to be a problem when it was time for him to relieve himself. His hair was a beautiful, silver mane. His nose now began to elongate and his ears began to rise. Within seconds, Tommy had become a full blown werewolf.

Tommy’s head was down and I was certain that the beast had no idea I was accompanying him in the room. He would very soon; when that happened, he would want to take off my head.

I watched and what I witnessed was very trivial. Tommy was the same height and was slightly bigger in body mass. For the first time, I got a glimpse of his eyes. They were the color of the sun—bright yellow. He turned his large body around and laid flat on the ground, staring at the back wall. He was completely calm. This wasn’t the first response I anticipated him having. I thought he would be a crazed junkyard dog salivating for a killing spree. Instead, he was lying on the floor like a golden retriever on a hot summer’s night.

Then something unusual started happening. Tommy started to whimper and he began to whine like a sad puppy. He was still unaware that I was in the room. I remained extremely quiet as I watched further. I wasn’t ready to let this werewolf know I was present.

Tommy got to his feet. I thought he was going to turn around and notice me. I anticipated the worst as I held my breath. But the werewolf didn’t turn around; instead he walked over to the south window and stared at the full moon. Then, he howled a heartbreaking cry unlike anything I’d ever heard. It had a symphonic tone in its misery.

As I listened, I realized it was no longer a howl, but a full-blown cry. My best friend in the whole world was crying at the moon and it broke my heart. It was disturbing to listen to and it was really getting to me. I had to leave the room. I quietly backed up my feet and left. I went into the living room and sat in the big chair.

I sat there and listened to Tommy cry into the night. He did this for hours, three to be exact. I wondered if this was some kind of ritual—where werewolves go through some kind of grief period—at the beginning of their werewolf cycle.

I sat about 15 feet away from him in the other room, completely perplexed and dumbfounded the entire time. Then suddenly, he stopped.

The next thing that happened was even more bizarre than the crying. He fell asleep. I could hear the giant dog snoring.

This was not how I thought this night was going to start. Tommy slept for a good hour. We were now four hours into Tommy’s werewolf transformation and I had no clue what to make of it.

I dozed off myself. I was sitting in a big, comfy chair. Tommy’s snore had put me in a sleepy, hypnotic state. I was suddenly startled out of my slumber by a deafening, crazed, growl. This wasn’t any growl. This was the growl of a fucking werewolf.

Tommy was no longer sleeping. He was now a beast, a killer, something that wanted nothing more than to tear a Mani from limb to limb.

I took about ten deep breaths and got up out of my chair and crept over to the room. I slowly stuck my head in the door. Tommy saw me and immediately went absolutely ape-shit. I could hear the chains scraping against the bars of the cage. He zeroed in on me with his fierce, yellow demonic eyes. I nearly peed my pants. This was not my friend. This rabid beast had one goal; kill anything in its way.

I needed for this beast to get used to the sight of me. He needed to know I wasn’t here to harm him. I needed to stay in the room no matter how intense it got. Eventually, just like all living things, he would tire out. So that’s what I did – I stayed in the room.

This werewolf screamed bloody murder at me as it snarled, growled, and even bit the air in my direction. I calmly and lovingly looked at him and didn’t say a single word.

I just gave him a caring, empathetic smile. Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, the overgrown canine finally shut up. I was still looking at him. The wolf stared back at me confused; about every ten seconds he would do a small little grunt. He looked at me as if I was prey, determining which level of ferocity he would engage me in.

I figured this was the moment where the alpha is decided in the animal kingdom. I had to act now. I had to be larger than life. I had to make him submit to my commands. Hopefully, he will recall something we had done earlier when he submitted to me in his Carni form. I stood up and yelled “TOMMY! SUBMIT!”

Tommy lunged in my direction and was pulled back by the chains. The odd part about it, he did this without making a sound. I took that as a sign of weakness. “TOMMY!” I yelled even louder. “YOU NEED TO SUBMIT! This time he growled—not an attacking growl, but a growl to let me know that he was still there and he would defend himself if need be. This was good. He was no longer on the offense. He was now playing defense.

This was progress. This was damn good progress. “TOMMY!” I yelled one more time, “SUBMIT!” This time Tommy, the werewolf, lowered his eyes. He was well aware that I could be the enemy. I was aware I was still dealing with a wild animal.

“TOMMY! SIT!” I bellowed. Tommy took a step to the left and then another to the right. He stared at me unsure. He was listening. So, I calmly said, “Tommy. Sit.”

Then it happened. Tommy lowered his head and sat on the floor. Holy shit, he fully submitted. I immediately continued my commands. “Tommy,” I said with authority. “Look up at me!”

Tommy looked up at me. He no longer had the devil eyes ready to devour anything in its way. Instead he looked at me the way a dog would look at its owner. They were still as yellow as the night was dark.

“Stand!” I commanded him. Tommy immediately stood up on all fours. This was amazing. How amazing? I did not know. But this was definitely a breakthrough.

I proceeded to give the werewolf basic commands such as speak, roll over, and walk on two legs. Tommy was not only obeying, Tommy was having fun with it. I even saw his tail wag at one point.

It was nearing daylight and Tommy would turn back into his Carni form. I wanted to raise the stakes before that happened. I began asking Tommy questions, and having him raise his left paw for ‘yes’ and his right paw for ‘no.’

I stared at this amazing beast. “Tommy,” I said. “Are you older than me in years? Tommy stared and then slowly raised his left paw. That meant ‘yes.’ Tommy had answered it correctly.

“Tommy,” I said. “Did I win when we fought our only professional, mixed martial fight together?” Tommy looked at me with a familiar look. For a second, I saw one of Tommy’s expressions when he was being cocky. Tommy raised his right paw proudly. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Tommy.” I said, “Are you a Carni?” Tommy raised his left paw.

“Tommy,” I said, “Am I your best friend?” Tommy stared at me and I saw his yellow eyes gleam. He raised his left paw. This was fantastic! Tommy not only answered all my questions correctly, he was connecting to them on an emotional level.

I decided to once again raise the stakes. “Tommy,” I said. “Is it okay to kill a helpless Tandra, Mani or Carni?” Once again Tommy’s eyes looked up at me. This time he had a noble stare. He raised his right paw. Which was ‘no.’

“Tommy, have you been rejected by your own people?” Tommy didn’t like that question. Tommy barked and growled.

“Easy, Tom,” I said, “I’m sorry. I’ll ask you a different question.” But before I could ask another question, this amazing werewolf, slowly raised his left’ paw. He didn’t want to and I could see it in his body language. But he answered the question anyway.

“One more question, Tommy,” I said. “Do you trust me?”

Tommy calmly raised his left paw.

“That’s a good boy,” I said. Then it dawned on me, he must had been starving. He hadn’t eaten all night. “I’ll be right back.” I said. We had some leftover chicken breasts in the fridge. I heated them up in the microwave.

I brought a plate full of chicken to Tommy. One by one, I threw them in to him. He ate them up like they were chicken nuggets. I grabbed a breast and ate one myself. I leaned against the wall and stared down at my best friend. I had a smile on my face bigger than the full moon itself.

Chapter Twelve

I’d had an exhausting night and I was resting against the front wall. I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep. I was startled by a brush of wind hitting my face. I opened my eyes and was no longer in the room with Tommy; I was back at the castle. I was having my second vision.

Once again it was foggy. This time the fog was thick and had a distinct smell: a combination of morning dew and auto exhaust. The castle was about a hundred feet away. There was a siren in the distance. I definitely did not care to know what that siren meant; it was more annoying than a car alarm. I wondered if the siren was real or just a ringing in my head.

I got to my feet and walked up the hill toward the castle. The castle had layers to it and almost appeared to resemble a mission. I hadn’t remembered this detail from the last dream. At the front of the castle was distinct writing that was chiseled into gate. I could barely make out the letters , ‘B’ and ‘R.’ The rest was blurry as if water and age had deteriorated the remaining letters.

I worked my way up the steep hill and stood at the front of this magnificent castle. I approached the great castle and the doorway that the blue gnome had previously stood in was now closed. The blue gnome was nowhere to be found. I opened the unlocked door and walked inside the glorious castle. I was surprised to see the door led me to a middle courtyard. It was spectacular with a cathedral-like quality. At the other side of the courtyard was another door that was open. I decided to enter the door; I wasn’t sure what to expect upon entering such a glorious castle. As I made my way through the corridor, I could barely see. It was dark and I felt my way by touching the walls. The walls were coarse and prickly. It was like touching coral at the bottom of the ocean. I made my way to an open room in the back of the castle. I could hear someone talking inside the room. I peeked in and there he was—the blue gnome.

“Who are you talking to?” I asked.

“I was talking to you,” he replied.

“How did you know I was here?”

“How could I not. This is your dream.” The Blue Gnome sighed and got up to greet me. I motioned for him to sit back down.

“Have you tamed the wolf?” he inquired.

“Not yet, I’m working on it.”

“Very good. You must build a bond and then the wolf will break free.”

I was pleased to know my instincts were right and it was Tommy who was to be tamed. “What then?” I asked.

“When you are done, you must come back and see me. Then we will start your training.”

“Visit you? I asked. “In my dreams?”

“No, Josiah,” you’ll need to find me here. I will be here… waiting.”

“Here? Where?”

“Josiah!” Someone screamed loudly. I woke up instantly. It was Tommy. He had transformed back into a Carni and was drenched in what appeared to be water or sweat. His long, brown hair looked as if he had dipped his head in a pool.

“Are you going to let me out or what? I have to piss!”

“Oh yeah, where’s the key?”

“It’s in my coat pocket. My coat is hanging on the wall outside the door.”

“How did you get out of the cage the other times?”

“I had a friend do it, someone I trusted.”

“A Mani?” I asked.

“No, an everyday human: a Tandra.”

“It was my sister wasn’t it?”

Tommy looked at me with a desperate look, “Yeah, it was, bro. Now please let me out or I’m going to piss right here.”

“Why are you soaked?” I took the key out of his coat pocket.

“It’s what happens when we turn back. It’s sweat.”

“I think I’m going to throw up.” I unlocked the cage door. I entered the cage and Tommy was still very much chained up. One by one, I unlocked his wrists and ankles and then his chest. When I got the last lock off, Tommy bolted past me and ran to the bathroom. I heard him do one of the longest streams of pee I have ever heard in my life. I swore it took three minutes. He came back into the room with a look of relief on his face.

“Tommy, my sister died two years ago. Who has helped you since then?”

Tommy paused and looked at me. “You don’t know her,” he said. “It was someone I trusted and cared about.”

“You have a lot of secrets don’t you?”

“I need my secrets; especially now that I’m flying solo.”

“You’ll never be solo, Tom.”

“We’ll see.” Tommy had a familiarity behind his eyes I hadn’t noticed before. “So, how did it go?”

“Do you remember anything?”

Tommy just stared straight ahead. He didn’t say anything.

“Tommy,” I said waving my hand in his face. “Do you remember anything?”

“Josiah, I need to wrap my head around all of this. Let me get some sleep and we’ll talk when I get up.”

“Okay,” I said. I would have liked an immediate answer, but whatever floated his boat.

Tommy walked past me and went upstairs to his bedroom. That was weird. Then again, why would I expect anything less?

* * *

I went into the guest room where I had been sleeping for the last two weeks. There were no windows in the room, so there was zero chance for any kind of sunlight to get in.

I laid down and fell into a deep, peaceful slumber. I opened my eyes and it was exactly five hours later. I felt refreshed. I got up and decided to go to the kitchen and grab a glass of water. I was pretty dehydrated after a very bizarre night.

I noticed in the kitchen there was a Styrofoam cup that had some dried blood still in it. I dipped my finger in the cup and scraped out the remainder of the blood with my fingernail. I raised my finger to my nose—smelt the dry blood—then tasted it. I had to admit, the smell was intoxicating. I licked my finger and it tasted okay. Probably a lot better warm. I liked the taste of strawberry jelly better.

I decided to go take a shower. I peeled off my clothes and walked to the bathroom naked. I felt alive and free being naked. I wonder what it feels like to fly naked. That was definitely something I needed to try.

For now, I was going to take the longest shower known to man. The water was hot as it poured down my body. I closed my eyes and thought about the night before. I was acting on instinct. Or was I? About every five minutes, I made the shower hotter and hotter. The hotter it got, the more soothed I felt. I loved every minute I stood underneath the water; it was like having a masseuse applying pressure on my body. When I was done, I put on a pair of jeans and a black tank top.

I walked upstairs and into Tommy’s bedroom. I knocked at the door. “Tom,” I called out.

“Yeah,” Tommy yelled from inside his room.

“You up?”

“I am now!” He moaned like a teenager.

“Can I come in?”

“Sure, if you want to see me in all my glory.”

“Put some boxers on, weirdo!”

“Come in, Josiah, I’m kidding.”

I opened the door slowly to see if he actually was kidding. I wouldn’t put it past him to just be laying there in his best Playgirl pose. He had his boxers on and was sitting up.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“I’m a little amped up—and a little exhausted. You know a little bit country—a little bit rock and roll.”

I grinned and sat at the foot of his bed. “So, tell me, do you remember anything?”

“I do remember some of it. I remember seeing you. I remember hearing your voice. But I can’t remember details.”

“Really?” I said disappointed.

“I usually never remember anything.”

“I was hoping you would remember our questions.”

“You asked me questions?”

“Yes, and you answered them with feeling. You were connected.”

“Was I connected from the get-go?”

“No, not at all. You howled and screamed at me for ninety minutes. You finally wore out. That was when I started to train you. You were no longer this ferocious wild animal. You were almost kind.”

“You’re fucking with me, right? Kind?”

“Tommy, I’m not. For a good two hours you submitted to me.”

“Really?” Tommy seemed shocked.

“Close your eyes and try to remember. It’s in your memory bank. You and the wolf are one and the same.”

Tommy closed his eyes. “Okay, tell me something we did.”

“I was asking you questions. I asked you to raise your right paw for ‘no’, and your left paw for ‘yes.’”

Tommy appeared flustered.

“I asked you if I had beaten you in our mixed martial match.”

Tommy strained his eyes. He was really trying to remember. “I answered no?” Tommy was a bit uncertain.

“Yes, you did. Do you remember that?”

Tommy smiled. “Maybe.” Tommy paused and then said, “You asked me about five or six questions?”

“Yes,” I said. “Tommy, that’s good. Okay, there was one question really bothered you. Do you remember what I asked you?”

Tommy closed his eyes. “I was calm.”

“Yes, you were.”

“I felt secure with you.”

“Okay. Keep going, Tom. Concentrate.”

Tommy suddenly opened his eyes. “You asked me if I.... if we.....if you and I were best friends.”

“Yes, Tommy!”

“I answered yes!”

“Now, what was the question that bothered you the most?”

“You asked me if I had been rejected by the Carni and that angered me!”

“Yes, it did!”

“I remember, Josiah. I remember all of it.”

Tommy and I both jumped up and down on his bed like a couple of six year olds.

“It’s working, Tommy!” I said, as we stopped jumping.

Tommy hopped off his bed and landed on the wood floor, shaking the entire house. “This is amazing, Josiah, I actually have specific memories about last night. That has never happened before.” Tommy stopped and looked at himself in the mirror over his dresser. He began flexing. He was really feeling it. “What’s next?” he asked.

“We’re not having a pose off, if that’s what you’re insinuating.”

“Be thankful, Josiah. You want none of this.” Tommy looked down at his reasonably chiseled body. Tommy had a lot more mass than me, but was solid as a rock.

“You’re exactly right, Tommy,” I laughed. “I don’t want any of that,” referring to his body. I enjoyed the camaraderie, but I needed to get serious. “Tonight, I am going in the cage with you. I’m going to try touching.”

“Touching? Just keep your hands above the waist.”

“Very funny. We will go through the details about an hour before you turn into a werewolf again. That seemed to really work last night. We need to go with what’s working. There isn’t a Taming a Werewolf for Dummies book out there.”

“What we’re doing, Josiah, is pretty fucking groundbreaking.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. You should get more rest. I’m going to call Lena.” I nodded and went downstairs and collapsed on the couch. I took my cell phone out of my pocket and turned it on. I had turned it off last night so I wouldn’t have any distractions. When my phone turned on; it read that I had three new voice mails. I pressed the number one on my keypad and it went straight to my voicemail. The first two messages were hang ups, but last one was Lena.

She said, “Hey Josiah, what happened last night? Did it work? I hope it did.” She paused on the message and then said, “I just was hoping to hear your voice.” She wanted to hear my voice? I wanted to hear hers, too, and didn’t hesitate to call her back.

She answered on the first ring. “Hello,” she said.

“Hey, it’s Josiah.”

“Hey.”

“Hey,” I said again. This was starting out a bit awkward.

“How’s Tommy?” she interjected quickly.

“He’s great. We made a lot of progress last night. I think this might just work.”

“That’s awesome!” Lena seemed genuinely excited. “Josiah?” Lena said, with yearning in her voice.

“Yes,” I said.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m great, Lena.”

“That’s good to hear.” Lena paused. “Josiah?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“I miss you.”

“I miss you, too,” I said.

“You do?” she asked with a bit of vulnerability I hadn’t heard from her before.

“Yes, I miss you more than you know,” I assured her.

“This is so weird isn’t it?” Lena laughed sweetly.

“I don’t remember what’s normal anymore.”

“I know,” Lena said.

I wanted to say more to her. I wanted to tell her every beautiful thought I felt for her, but I didn’t know how to cross that line further, so I just said, “I’ll see you in a couple of days.”

“Okay, be careful, Josiah.”

“I will.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.” I waited for her to hang up. I didn’t hear her hang up. Instead, I could still hear her breathing. I waited about fifteen seconds and then I said, “Lena?”

“Yes, Josiah.”

“Forever...” I stopped talking. I don’t know why I said that word out loud. Forever.

Lena was quiet and then said, “... and Always.” She completed my thought.

We were both quiet. We didn’t need to say anymore. We were connected by something bigger than this world. I knew she was my destiny. Eventually, after a minute of very comfortable, loving silence—we both said goodbye. That was exactly what I needed to light a fire under my ass.

I leaned back and laid flat on the couch. I thought about Lena; her amazing brown eyes, her beautiful smile, her pale skin, her angelic face. I thought about how amazing she felt the other day in my arms. I closed my eyes and I thought of nothing but her.

Chapter Thirteen

Night was coming and Tommy had gone into his cage to chain himself in again. I stood outside the cage and looked at my friend like a trainer before a big fight. We both knew the stakes were high tonight, and it was going make or break us. We had 45 minutes until show time.

“Okay, Tommy, I’m going to enter the cage at some point tonight.” I said from outside the cage. “I’m going to touch your face. You will need to submit to me first verbally, then physically.

Tommy smiled. “Just keep it G-rated, Josiah.”

I smiled. “All right, no more jokes, Tom. We need to get serious.”

“Yes, sir!” Tommy gave me the military salute. “Let’s do this Josiah, I’m ready.”

I started to once again give Tommy verbal commands like I had done the day before. Tommy seemed more eager to listen and do what I had asked than the day before.

When I finished with the verbal commands I said, “Let’s move on to the tactile. I am coming into the cage. Do not attack! Keep your head down!” I knew Tommy wasn’t going to attack me in his Carni form, but I was paving his sense memory for tonight.

Tommy nodded.

I opened the gate and entered imagining Tommy was a werewolf, proceeding cautiously. Each time Tommy tried to raise his head, I commanded him to put his head down. I inched my way to Tommy and stood over him in an alpha male stance. I took my right hand and put it on top of his head. “Keep your head down!” I commanded him. I then gently touched the top of his head. I reached in my pocket and pulled out a stick of beef jerky. “Head up!” I said firmly.

Tommy raised his head; I fed him the beef jerky.

“Eat!” I said.

Tommy chewed the beef jerky.

I held my position like a boxer. “Good boy,” I said. “Eyes down.” I slowly knelt down and cupped my left hand placing it on his head. As I did so, I gently petted Tommy’s human hair back. “Good boy,” I said.

I spent about ten more minutes petting him and talking to him softly. When we were done, I left the cage.

“Tommy,” I said.

“Yeah, Josiah.”

“Good job.”

“You, too.”

We both smirked and knew we were walking a fine line. We were treading in waters that were very unfamiliar.

“You have about fifteen more minutes,” I said.

I left the room and decided to wait outside on this night as Tommy turned into his werewolf state. A few minutes passed and the sun was completely down. The sounds in the other room had led me to believe Tommy had turned werewolf—lots of howling and growling.

Then just like the night before, the poor wolf began to whimper into the night. I had forgotten to ask him about that today. His whimpering then became full-blown howling. Again, it was very heartbreaking to hear. I had no idea what part of this process was making a werewolf cry out. I wasn’t sure if it was a Carni deal or a Tommy situation. Nonetheless, it was one of the worst sounds I’d ever heard.

I stood by the door, while this went on for about two hours. Tommy had once again exhausted himself from howling and dropped to the floor and slept.

Tonight, I decided to come in and watch him sleep. I looked at the spectacular, gray wolf asleep on the ground of the cage like any ordinary house dog. This wasn’t a house dog. He was gigantic and very powerful looking. Tommy was six feet in length and built like a pit bull. This beast looked as if it could kill a bear in seconds. His teeth were thick and long, and his claws were the size of no. 2 pencils.

I sat there staring and studying Tommy for what felt like a long period of time. At times he was restless; at times he seemed peaceful. I knew I needed to take this bond to the next level. I hoped we were ready.

* * *

I slipped out of the room as Tommy began to wake up. I wanted to start the night doing the audible commands outside the door to hopefully keep Tommy from going as ballistic as he done the night before at the sight of me. I was counting on him recognizing my voice, and having a mental connection. It would be then that I would enter the room.

Tommy was growling and pulling at his chains. The chains were dragging and scraping on the ground. I took a deep breath. I called out, “Tommy!”

I heard the werewolf stop in his tracks. No sound, no snarls, nothing. “Sit boy!” I yelled from outside the door. I heard him pace for a few seconds. I repeated loudly, “Sit! Then it happened. I heard a flop sound. He sat. I then proceeded to give him the same basic verbal commands that I had done the day before. When I felt he trusted me, I entered the room.

This magnificent, giant werewolf was sitting and staring at me as if he was a lap dog waiting for a treat. I rewarded him and threw some beef jerky in the cage. Tommy caught it in his mouth then dropped it to the ground and sniffed it. He licked the jerky a couple of times and then decided to devour it like it was a Twinkie.

When he had finished his snack, I began running through more verbal commands with him. We did this for nearly an hour. There was a lot of trust and interaction between us. I decided to ask Tommy some questions that could lead us to a tactile situation.

“Tommy, if you trust me, speak!” I called out. Tommy yelped. Tommy’s yelp did not sound like a typical bark. It was a high-pitched growl. It was a tone that demonstrated obedience and dominance in the same melodic tone.

“Tommy,” I said. “Will you attack me if I came in the cage? Raise your right paw for ‘no’, and your left paw for ‘yes.”

Tommy stared at me, and calmly raised his right paw. That was a ‘no.’

“Do you promise, Tommy? Do you promise on the love you have for my sister that you will not harm me in any way if I enter the cage?”

Tommy raised his left paw. That meant he promised.

He was letting me know it was okay to come in. I didn’t know how smart this creature actually was. Could he lie and manipulate me? Was he capable of tricking me into entering the cage and then attacking me? He hadn’t shown any signs of deceit up till now. He had been 100 percent loyal. I had to trust him. This was my turn to believe in him.

“Tommy, would you like for me to come and see you inside the cage?” I asked.

Tommy raised his left paw. Yes.

Okay, this was it. I was going to go in. He was either going to attack me or allow me to sit with him. I had to trust my gut instinct. I believed him. I was certain he wouldn’t hurt me.

I took out the key out of my pocket and unlocked the gate and opened it. I cautiously stepped in and leaned my backup against the front of the cage. Tommy was in the back. There was enough length that he could at the least bite off a toe if he was aiming to attack.

“Sit! Tommy!” My voice had both command and love in its delivery.

Tommy panted and then sat. Thank God!

“Tommy,” I said. “May I approach you?”

Tommy panted like a dog happy to see his master after a long day. He confirmed by raising his left paw.

“Tommy, I am going to walk up to you and I’m going to pet your head.”

I took a big exhale and looked at this spectacular creature in his fierce yellow eyes. He didn’t have a drop of fear or uncertainty. He trusted me, and I couldn’t help but feel a powerful bond developing between us. It was different than the connection Tommy and I had in our human form.

I walked up to Tommy and slowly petted his head. Tommy liked being petted. I petted his back, and his face. I knelt down and massaged his forehead in a rhythmic motion. Tommy tilted his head and opened his mouth. His long sharp teeth were exposed. My first reaction was to jump, but I froze instead.

I stared down at the wolf’s gigantic jaw. His mouth was wide open and I was unsure what would happen next. I could see him salivating. I wasn’t sure if he was going to bite, but I remained calm. Then his long tongue came out of his mouth and he began licking my hand. Not in a way that he was preparing to devour it, but in a loving way that told me he was pleased that I was there.

I knelt down and Tommy licked my face. I laughed out loud as his long tongue tickled my nose and cheeks. I hugged him in a way a seven year old would hug his brand-new puppy on Christmas morning. This wolf, this six-foot-tall, 250-pound werewolf was loving on me, and I was loving on him.

“Tommy,” I said. “Are you aware that I’m Josiah?”

The wolf looked at me strangely.

“I’m Josiah,” I repeated. “Do you know me?”

Tommy once again licked my face.

If he didn’t know me as Josiah, his friend, he definitely knew me as Josiah, his master. “Are you hungry, boy?” It was funny calling Tommy boy, but it seemed like the most natural way to talk to him in this state. I had prepared a couple of steaks for Tommy earlier in the evening and went out of the cage and closed the cage door, but didn’t lock it. I mean after all, he was still chained in. Baby steps, I thought.

I came back and threw both steaks in the cage. Tommy went to town on them and enjoyed those steaks more than any human ever could.

The rest of the night Tommy and I played in his cage. He was still chained in, but at no point did I ever feel I was in danger. This was once again becoming an extremely productive night. This just might work.

The sun was about to come up, and I was very curious to watch Tommy transform back to his Carni form, as I had slept through it the night before. Tommy had put his head down and rested. I wasn’t sure if he was asleep, but I decided to unlock his chains. If he was going to attack me he would had done it by now. I unlocked all the chains that were tightly placed around his elbow and ankles and chest.

Tommy didn’t wake up and was completely still. I walked out of the cage and instinctively locked the door behind me. I stopped, and decided to unlock the cage. Not only did I unlock the cage, I left the door open. I was going to trust Tommy one hundred and ten percent. Tommy the werewolf and Tommy the man were no longer two separate things and were becoming one. I sat down outside the cage and rested against the wall. Tommy was snoring away. What a night! I was exhausted.

The sun was peeking over the horizon, so I decided to study the werewolf as he slept. Tommy startled himself awake, within a second, he went from werewolf to man. I almost didn’t catch it. It was a much quicker transformation than when he had turned into a werewolf. He laid there in his boxers completely soaked from head to toe. He looked up at me. “Josiah,” he said, “I remember everything.”

Chapter Fourteen

Tommy and I agreed we would talk after we both rested. Tommy showered and went up to his room to sleep. I went to the guest room, crashed on the couch and pondered the night—wondering what it all meant.

What was all this for? Would this give me an advantage against Krull? Or was I saving Tommy from himself? I didn’t know. Was Tommy ‘the werewolf’ and Tommy ‘the man” becoming one? If this was true, there might be a chance that Tommy may be able to transition the way Mani can. Who knew what could happen then?

I had dozed off and unless I had a vision, I didn’t dream.

“Josiah.”

I opened my eyes.

It was Tommy. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Want to talk about last night?”

“Definitely, Tom.” I sat up, stretched my arms, and wiped my eyes.

“Damn Josiah, you’re paler than I have ever seen you.”

“Not seeing sunlight in six weeks can do that to a person.” I laughed.

“So, what do you think?” Tommy looked at me intently as if I was given details by the Triat personally.

“I have a lot of thoughts,” I answered. “I’m just not sure if any of them are valid.”

“Valid or not, let me hear them.”

I got up and walked to the kitchen. Tommy followed. I poured myself a glass of water, and then sat at the table with Tommy across from me.

“It’s like this,” I said. “How many immortal species do you know of? I mean is it only Mani and Carni?”

“There are rumors of other species, but the only ones I know for sure are the Mani and the Carni.”

“Okay, let’s assume we are the only ones. We are both immortal right? So whatever DNA—or whatever it is that’s inside us—that keeps is from dying from old age is similar to one another. It has to be.”

“Okay.” Tommy was interested.

“What if the Mani is just a more evolved species?”

“Like you’re smarter than us?” Tommy said, insulted.

“Not necessarily smarter; it’s more like the Mani just know themselves better because they have been around so damn long.”

Tommy stared at me. He was slightly put off, but Tommy was a smart guy. I just needed to explain myself better.
“It’s like this,” I said. “The internet wasn’t invented in a day. First, there was electricity—then telephones—then computers—then the World Wide Web! What if the Mani are in the internet stage of the evolution and the Carni are still at the Franklin kite-in-the-sky electricity stage? Benjamin Franklin was one of the most brilliant men that ever lived; he would crap his pants if he knew what we could do with electricity now.”

“What if the Carni haven’t figured out how to transition at will, the way Mani can? What if the Carni had always had the ability but they had just been slaves to the full moon? What if they could resist the full moon and turn into a werewolf whenever they felt like it the way Mani can? What if you could control it by transitioning back to a Carni form when it’s a full moon and transition back to a werewolf during the day?!”

“Wow, I never thought of it that way.”

“We have broken huge ground in just 48 hours. I took your chains off and let the door open and you just slept peacefully.”

“I know. I was calm. I remember feeling safe, like I was home.”

“That is because of our bond.” I paused and looked at Tommy. “I have a question for you?”

“Okay.”

“You remembered everything from last night, right?”

Tommy was hesitant, “Yeah, I think so.”

“You’re aware that you were licking me like I was a 50/50 bar.”

Tommy laughed. “Yeah, about that,” Tommy stammered a bit, “all I can tell you is that it’s instinctive. I can’t high-five you or even give you a bro hug. When I’m in that state, licking seems perfectly OK.”

“As long as you only do the licking as a werewolf, we’re cool.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, pretty boy.” Tommy knew that calling me pretty boy pissed me off. “Are we done with that?” Tommy said, a little embarrassed.

“Yeah, we’re done, sloppy kisser,” I said with a chuckle.

Tommy shot me a look that pretty much said, ‘quit it, dude.’

“Okay, okay,” I said. “Now I’m done.”

“Josiah, there is one more full moon left. Do you think we can accomplish what we need to in one more night?”

“I hope so.”

Tommy nodded and went upstairs to take and a nap.

I decided to watch a Scorsese marathon on the tube. Raging Bull followed by The Departed. Damn, he was an intense director. I loved me some Marty.

Tommy came downstairs as The Departed ended. I looked up at Tommy and said, “How Mark Walberg didn’t win the Oscar for that movie I don’t know.”

Tommy ignored my sentiments for Marky Mark and had other things on his mind. “Yari called me,” he said. “She said they will come back tomorrow.”

“She called you? Are you guys like best friends now?”

“Relax, Josiah; you can’t put a claim on every woman in this house.”

I laughed. “I’m not jealous, Tom.”

“Then what are you?”

“I don’t know what I am,” I said.

“Look, I know you two slept together. I know she followed you for two years, but it’s obvious that you have feelings for Lena.”

“Huh?” I said, acting surprised.

“Jo, you have serious feelings for Lena. Anyone can see that.”

“I’ve never ever said anything to lead you after that conclusion.”

“Josiah, I’ve known you for a long time. You have the same look in your eye you had for Krista Gregory. And you had it bad for Krista Gregory.”

He was right, I was crazy about Lena. I cared for her in a way I didn’t completely understand. Every time I think about her, I got exhausted with the longing in my heart. “Yeah, I guess so, Tom,” I said.

“You guess so?” Tommy answered back.

“What do you want me to say?”

“You don’t have to say anything. I get it.”

“My sister?”

Tommy nodded his head and stared off. I knew he loved my sister deeply. “After I lost to Atticai and Goliath had beaten me further and left me for dead, I was lying there in a pool of my own blood. I had inner peace inside me, I figured I was done and I was about to go to the ever after. Then something extraordinary happened. I saw your sister. She was reaching out to me. I was dying and knew the end was near. I knew I was moments away from being with her.” Tommy stopped talking.

I waited patiently, giving him time to get himself together.

He tried to speak again but he was too choked up to do so. This was hard for him. Hell, it was hard for me to hear. “I could see her face, Josiah. I could see your sister’s face. She was reaching out her hand to me. She was there to take me with her. It was the most wonderful feeling I ever felt. I reached out my hand and she took it.”

“She took your hand?”

“I thought it was hers, but it wasn’t. It was Yari’s. Yari took my hand and wiped the blood from my eyes. I reached out for your sister, but Yari was the one there. Jo, Yari saved my life. I was left for dead. She risked everything to get me out of there.” Tommy stopped talking. “It was like your sister acted through her. Her touch was Yari’s touch.”

“Wow,” I said.

“I still can’t believe that seven-foot beanpole kicked my ass.”

“Atticai did look like a beanpole, but that was where it ended. He was the strongest man I have ever fought.”

“Stronger than Krull?”

I thought about it. “Yeah, definitely. Krull seemed more seasoned. Atticai had the heart of a lion.”

“All I know is that heart of a lion, scarecrow-looking, motherfucker kicked the shit out of me,” Tommy said, disgusted. He stared at me and didn’t say anything.

“What?” I asked.

“How were you able to kill him?”

“I was able to kill him only because I had become ‘the eagle.’ Man vs. vampire, he would have manhandled me. I don’t know if I could take him even now.”

Tommy’s expression was one of disgrace and confusion. He stood up from the table. “Anyway, so what’s the plan for tonight?”

“There is less of a plan for tonight and more of a plan for today.”

“Okay?”

“I just think we should just hang out today.”

“Just hang out?” Tommy repeated slowly.

“I’m thinking we just hang out together and forget about the sun going down. We just spend quality time together. I want to see if the bond we have right now can easily translate as you become a werewolf. I think if there is no change in your reaction we will be on to something.”

“You sure, Josiah? What if things don’t go as smoothly as they did last night? What if I don’t respond to you? Then it’s ‘Josiah vs. Werewolf,’ Part 1.

“I am going with my gut again on this one. This is going to work.”

Tommy was definitely unsure about my decision but he went along with it anyway. “All right. What do you want to do?”

“I thought we could either do some old school MMA training, or I could kick your ass in Scrabble.”

“You didn’t just lay down the gauntlet?” Tommy grinned from ear to ear. Tommy and I have had some epic Scrabble matches in the past.

“You have a board?” I asked.

“What do you think? It was the first thing I bought when I got the place.”

“Okay, Tommy boy. It’s time to triple letter your ass.”

“Triple letter? Son, I’m going to triple word your face into submission.”

Tommy and I loved to play our Scrabble. Tommy went to get out the board. It was 6:00 p.m. There was two hours until sunset.

Tommy laid out the board on the living room floor and we took our pieces to begin the match. I went first. I got double points; I spelled “rhythm.” There was no way Tommy could get a good word off of that. Tommy took his time and then got a familiar gleam in his eyes. Oh no, he was going to get major points, I could feel it. Tommy used my ‘y’ in ‘rhythm’ and made the word ‘oxygen’ going down and played the ‘x’ on the triple letter.

“Look, who just got his ass triple lettered,” Tommy said, as cocky a man could get playing a game of Scrabble. “That’s 32 points, son. Shabam!”

The challenge was on! Tommy and I were going to have another epic match. We played a long time and it came down to the wire once again with the score being ‘312 to 317’ with Tommy ahead. I had a letter ‘Q’ left and was down by five. There was an ‘A’ and a ‘T’ in the far right corner of the board. ‘QAT’ was a Scrabble word. I had no idea what the word meant, but I recalled seeing the word in the Scrabble dictionary. I was staring at the ‘Q’ with deep thought and had my head down. I closed my eyes and thought about it for a moment. Should I put it down? If I was wrong, I know Tommy would challenge it. I opened my eyes and said, “Okay, Tom, you’ll probably challenge this but I got to do it.” I was expecting Tommy to say, ‘challenge.’ But, there was a problem, Tommy wasn’t in the room. I got up and looked for him in the cage room, and sure enough, there he was. He had turned into a werewolf and I didn’t even know. I was too busy pondering the ‘Q’.

Tommy once again stared out the window crying to the moon. It was less of a cry this night and more of a plea. What was making him so sad?

I hadn’t interacted with Tommy during his howling out phase, but this time I needed to. I needed to bond with him immediately. I slowly and tentatively walked over to the giant, gray wolf. His beautiful mane encircled his huge head. I knelt down next to him and Tommy turned his head toward me and rested it on my shoulder. Whatever he was feeling inside, somehow my presence was comforting him.

Tommy walked on all fours out of the room. He continued upstairs and I followed him. He went up to his room and was looking under the bed. I walked over to him, and his nose was nuzzled under the bed. I looked under the bed to see what he was looking for and saw an envelope with pictures. I reached under the bed and picked up the envelope and sat on his bed. I opened the envelope to look at the pictures: it was pictures of us, pictures of my parents, pictures of Tommy and my sister.

Tommy jumped on the bed and sat next to me. I slowly went through each picture with him, tears burning my eyes. I hadn’t taken time to reflect on my family in a very long time. My family was Tommy’s family, and their death affected him the same way it did me. He loved my parents and they loved him. He and my sister’s love was one for the ages. I wondered why it took him to become a werewolf to properly mourn. He and I had never really talked about the day they all died in the car crash. We just went on with our lives and used mixed martial arts as a way to escape.

I put the pictures down and lay back on the bed and Tommy yawned and put his head on the bed. I decided to talk to him, not like a wolf, but as man. “I miss them, Tommy,” I said, “I miss them a lot.”

Tommy looked up at me.

I continued, “That day is a blur to me. When you called and told me they were in the hospital—I went into shock. I convinced myself they were dead even before I got to the hospital. That was the only way I could deal with it. It’s morbid, but it’s what I had to do. I don’t know how you dealt with it, Tom. You were in the room when my sister died.”

Tommy moaned. He laid his head on my chest. I quit talking. We both laid there in silence. This was the first time Tommy and I mourned together for my family.

Chapter Fifteen

After a while Tommy fell asleep on the bed. I got up quietly; left the room and walked downstairs. I decided to go outside; it had been three days since I had some fresh air. After a while I decided to go for a light run in the midnight air. I jogged uphill on a winding road. Running uphill always made me feel alive. The air is a lot thinner up in the mountains, so I didn’t push it. I wanted to feel the night.

I ended up at the all night 7-Eleven store, two miles up. I decided to go in and grab some hot dogs for Tommy and me. I went to the back where they kept basic items in the freezer. I grabbed a pack of dogs and a pack of buns from the shelf. I went to the condiment aisle and got some Gulden’s mustard. Neither Tommy nor I liked ketchup.

I walked up to the front counter to pay and scanned the magazines while I waited for the guy in front to me to pick out some lottery tickets. I looked at the tabloid magazines and newspapers. One cover read, “Real Vampires Wreak Havoc on Dracula’s Castle.” I laughed. Real vampires, my ass! I’d show you a fucking real life vampire! There was a picture of Dracula’s Castle on the cover of the magazine. As I stared at the cover, I dropped the hot dogs, buns and mustard.

There it was: a white castle with exactly the same building structure as the one in my vision, complete with hill and distinct-colored brush. Holy shit! It was the castle to a “T.” Was I supposed to go to Dracula’s castle? Was that little blue man supposed to train me at Dracula’s castle? Where the hell was Dracula’s castle located? I skimmed the article. Transylvania, Romania. Are you fucking kidding me? Could this get any weirder?

* * *

I got back and put the hot dogs and buns in the refrigerator and went upstairs to check on Tommy. When I got to his room, something was horribly wrong; he wasn’t there. My heart fell to the floor. Tommy was out of his cage! I totally forgot that he was still a werewolf. A werewolf that was capable of killing anything or anyone in a blink of an eye.

What was I thinking? How could I be so careless? I had let Tommy out and whatever happened would be my fault. I went through the cabin looking for him. I yelled out his name. Nothing. I went outside and looked in every direction. Nothing. I decided to head up toward the woods, I don’t know why that made the most sense, but it did.

I yelled out his name as I hurried deeper into the woods. I heard rustling in the bushes ahead of me and then I heard a familiar growl.

“Tommy!” I yelled. “Stop whatever you’re doing! STOP!” I was praying there wasn’t something awful behind that bush. I ran around the bush to see the potential massacre. There he was, Tommy—by himself. And he had obviously relieved himself. He looked at me as if to say, ‘Really dude?’

“Let’s get back, Tommy.” I said in a command. As we walked back, I said to him repeatedly, “I didn’t know, bro.”

When we got back to the house, it was 4:30 a.m. The sun was going to be up in two hours and I would have to wait a whole month for another full moon. So, Tommy and I needed to get to work. If my vision was right—or if I interpreted it correctly, Tommy should be able to transition the way Mani could.

Right now, there was an immense amount of trust between us. He went outside and didn’t have the need to kill. As far as I could tell—he didn’t even harm a small animal, not even an insect. I truly believed in my heart of hearts that he had been tamed to a certain extent.

I looked at Tommy. How was I going to take this up to the next level? How was I going to get Tommy to a place where he can transition the way a Mani can? Everything up to this point had just come to me. Almost as if the Triat was speaking through me. Now, I felt like I was dangling. I hadn’t a clue.

I sat on the couch and just closed my eyes. Tommy jumped on the couch and lay next to me with his giant werewolf body. The only thing that made any sense to me was to talk to him as Tommy my friend—not Tommy the werewolf.

“So, what now?” I asked him. Tommy looked up at me and seemed desperate for me to have some answers as if to say, ‘You don’t know? We have accomplished all of this, and now you’re stumped?’

“I know, Tommy. I am stumped,” I said.

I looked at this werewolf. He was quite the creature. If I didn’t know it was Tommy, I’d be scared to death. This killing machine looked ready to tear anything from limb to limb. Are we supposed to go out and fight? Or are we supposed to bond in another way? I had no idea. Well, that question would be answered soon enough.

Tommy’s ears pricked up and he ran to the door. Suddenly, I heard howls, but they were not coming from Tommy. I ran to the windows and saw something awful outside. As the full moonlight landed on the earth I saw what it was. It was five werewolves as big or bigger than Tommy creeping up to the cabin and I could see a sixth one in the distance. One of the werewolves was almost twice as big as the others. These must be the Carni from the other night. And the gigantic black one must be Goliath. He was already scary-as-hell-looking as a Carni, but as a werewolf, he looked like something out of the book of Revelations.

I looked at Tommy, “What should we do?” I whispered.

“I don’t know,” Tommy said back.

At first, I didn’t realize what had just happened. Then it became very clear to me. I’d just heard Tommy’s voice, or did I imagine that?

“You didn’t imagine anything, Josiah,” Tommy said to me. He was staring at me. His mouth wasn’t moving. I could hear his thoughts.

“We can read each other’s minds?” I asked Tommy in my head.

“You always had the ability to read my mind, but now I can read yours,” Tommy said through his thoughts.

“This is fucking huge,” I whispered out loud. “But we really need to talk about this later.”

“Josiah, talk to me in your head. They will hear you. Werewolves have keen hearing.”

“How do they know we’re here?” I thought to Tommy.

“This place wasn’t exactly a secret,” Tommy replied, looking at me.

“We have two choices. We can run, or we can fight.”

“I choose fight.” Tommy said. He wanted payback. Who could blame him?

“We are horribly outnumbered,” I said, still in my head. “If we choose to fight, we’ll need to isolate them.”

“We cannot allow them to attack us a pack.” Tommy agreed. We were on the same page. This wasn’t going to be a Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid going out in a blaze of glory. We needed to be smart about this.

“We need to split up,” I said. I figured Tommy and I could use our thoughts as walkie-talkies.

I peeked out the window. The werewolves were making their move on the house. “I’m going to transition to the eagle and fly out back. You go upstairs and climb out the window and get on the roof.”

“Josiah, whatever happens. Please don’t leave me here.”

“Tommy, there would be no way I would. I’ll die here tonight if I have to.”

Tommy nodded and headed quickly upstairs.

I ran out the back and transitioned into the eagle as I hit the back porch. I flew up by gliding my wings just high enough that the wolves couldn’t see me. I circled and looked down. I saw Tommy climb out his bedroom window and leap in one quick motion to the roof by bouncing from the tree at the side of the house to the roof—like a ninja.

“This is a good plan,” I thought.

“I doubt all of them will come here at once,” Tommy thought back.

“Good, we can still hear each other. I see a wolf by himself about three houses down, he must have pulled back to be some kind of look out. I’m going to go down to him.”

“Be careful,” Tommy said in his head. “I’m going to see how I measure up to one of the assholes at full werewolf.”

I spread my wings and felt the wind underneath me. Damn, it felt awesome to be an eagle. I sped down in a quick motion beak first and I aimed my mouth directly into the giant dog’s back. I nailed him like a linebacker blitzing a quarterback. The beast flew forward. The wolf was black and white in appearance and I was having trouble seeing him in the dark. I needed to remain an eagle because my eagle eyesight was off the charts. So, this fight was going to be ‘eagle vs. wolf.’

The wolf turned around and I flew up about 20 feet over his head. I once again sliced down and pierced him hard, this time in his left front leg tearing into his flesh down to bone. He fell over in pain, crying and howling like a puppy that got spanked for peeing on the carpet. The wolf hobbled into the middle of the street when a giant truck came flying down the street. My heart sank as the truck slammed into the black and white wolf. As this happened, I flew up again and watched the wolf lie in the street. I didn’t like killing anything, but now I had no choice. It was kill or be killed.

Nonetheless, I flew down to try to help it. I was too late. The wolf had vanished. Dammit, I killed him. The truck driver stopped his semi and stepped out to see what he had hit. He seemed bewildered when he saw there was nothing there. The werewolf disappeared just as Atticai had months earlier.

I flew up and I saw Tommy on the roof. There was a white wolf crawling up the side of the house, ready to leap from the drainage pipe. As far as I could tell it was just one. Tommy was highly aware of the beast as the white wolf slipped up the side of the house and made its way to the top of the roof. Tommy didn’t let him get situated, he slammed into the wolf with a fierce throttle and the white wolf did a backwards somersault, falling off the roof. The wolf landed on its back on the grass below. I flew down and grabbed the injured wolf with my talons. I flew away as fast as I could. I thought about dropping him in Arrowhead Lake, but watching the last one die made me nauseous. I dropped the wolf into some brush. Maybe the brush broke his fall, maybe it didn’t. At least this way I was giving him a fighting chance.

Back to the house. The wolves now were down to four. I glided up to the roof where Tommy was. I landed next to him, “Good job, Tommy!” I thought.

Tommy panted proudly, “Where’s Goliath?” he said in his head.

“I don’t know.” Suddenly, I saw two more wolves going up the side of the house.

“Tommy! Watch out!” I yelled out loud.

Tommy saw that there were two of them. “I might need your help.”

“I’m already on it.” They were both brown, so I could see them reasonably well. I transitioned back to my Mani form to be more agile. Both wolves jumped on the roof at the same time. I flew up in the air as a Mani to have elevation on them. Tommy held his ground in the center of the roof.

The first brown wolf leaped on top of him, with the other not too far behind. Not on my watch. I flew down and kicked the second wolf right in the face before he could land on Tommy. I fell backwards on contact and slipped on the roof.

The wolf, dazed, turned and leaped on me. It was trying to bite me. This creature was ferociously strong, but I was stronger. I reversed the wolf MMA style and was on top of him—riding him like fucking bull. I slammed my elbow into the back of the wolf’s neck. It reached back to claw me from behind. I grabbed the wolf by its neck and had an amazing hold—choking him out. I knew I could have killed the wolf with my bare hands, but didn’t want to see him die. I threw him off the roof and didn’t bother to look down. The creature sealed his fate coming here. The Triat would allow me to defend myself when I was clearly outnumbered.

I looked over and saw the fourth wolf make his way to the roof. Still no Goliath; that big ape probably couldn’t climb up the side of the roof. The fourth werewolf was the smallest of the bunch and was completely white. Child’s play. Still, Tommy was outnumbered 2-1. I transitioned back to the eagle in midair. I darted down again with more force and speed than I ever had before. I was really feeling it. Tommy was doing a great job of fighting the other brown wolf one-on-one. So my only goal was to spear this white wolf in his back. My beak was more powerful than a sword at this speed. As I flew down, the wolf leaped out of the way, I hit the roof like a pile of bricks and slid as I hit the shingles falling off the roof landing right in front of Goliath. Holy shit! He was huge!

I quickly transitioned back to a Mani and Goliath seemed to like that. His eyes sparkled like I was a steak. I wasn’t as hurt as I thought I’d be falling twenty-five feet. Eagles were pretty tough I guess, but I needn’t have worried about that at the moment because I was now a Mani. This was definitely your classic David vs. Goliath matchup. I was tiny compared to the mammoth werewolf. I looked over and saw a motorcycle parked next door. I needed to use everything I had and this was as good of time as any to do try to do that moving shit with my mind business. I looked at the motorcycle, connected with it, and with a quick glance I shot the motorcycle across the grass and rammed right into Goliath’s back. Woo Hoo! I controlled it! Goliath yelped. The motorcycle did some major damage. Goliath wasn’t moving at all but he was definitely still alive. I left him there yelping and made my way back up to the roof to help Tommy. Thank God Tommy was holding his own, battling the two werewolves.

“It’s about time you showed up,” Tommy said, shooting a look in my direction.

I yelled out loud, “Sorry, I was just throwing an 800-pound motorcycle at Goliath with my mind.”

“Impressive,” Tommy then smacked the white wolf with his left claw. “Take the one on the right, I got this little shit.”

“Always leave me with the hard work,” I said charging the wolf on the right. As I ran forward, the wolf also charged into me. It was going to be ‘Mani versus werewolf’ in an old school football collision. We collided into each other like a car crash. I bit down with my razor-sharp incisors and chomped him in the neck on contact. He never saw it coming. And with my left arm, I uppercut the wolf in the chin. The first brown wolf stumbled backwards, nearly falling off the roof, but stopping just short of doing so. He turned around and I greeted him with a roundhouse kick. The wolf fell to the ground below. I turned my head to not watch him die. I turned my head back to Tommy where he was fighting his wolf that was like something reminiscent of the Lion King.

Tommy was able to bite the wolf in the front of its neck. The wolf yelped as they did when they felt pain. Tommy didn’t let up. He bit down and with his right claw he punched the wolf as hard as he could with his claws extended. Tommy’s claws went deep into the wolf’s stomach. Blood poured from his mouth and abdomen. Within seconds—the wolf disappeared.

There was just Goliath left. I looked up at the sky and I saw the sun was coming up. Goliath and Tommy will turn back, shortly. Sure enough, Tommy was lying on the roof in his boxers, soaked.

“Let’s get out of here, Tommy.” I transitioned into the great white eagle and grabbed Tommy with my talons and headed down the mountain with Tommy in claw. I didn’t see Goliath as we exited. It was probably better that way.

Chapter Sixteen

As I flew down to my house, I gently dropped Tommy on my front lawn and landed beside him—transitioning back into a Mani. The morning air had dried Tommy off, but he still stunk of sweat.

“Well, Tommy. How do you feel?”

Tommy looked at me and didn’t say anything. “Are you answering me in your mind?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Tommy laughed.

“I can’t hear you anymore,” I said. “Can you hear my thoughts?”

Tommy focused on me. “No,” Tommy said.

“The sun is out and my skin is beginning to sting.” I opened the door and Tommy and I entered the house. Wyatt and Hector were asleep on the living room floor.

We walked to the back of the house. Yari was sleeping in Tommy’s room, and Lena was asleep in mine. “What a couple of Goldilocks!” Tommy said, laughing.

I smiled. “Let’s go talk in the kitchen.” We walked to the kitchen and sat at the table.

“You hungry,” I asked

“I’m starving.”

“I’ll make us a couple of omelets.” I opened the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of eggs, milk, cheese, and some lunch meat. I opened the bottom cabinets below the stove and took out a skillet. “You want three or four eggs?”

“I’m starving. Give me five.”

“You want lunch meat?”

“What kind?”

“Turkey.”

“Sure.”

I proceeded to crack the eggs open and make us both a couple of omelets. Tommy put out a couple of plates and poured us some orange juice; it felt like old times.

“I miss this,” I said as I put the hot plates on the table.

“We sure had our times, didn’t we?” Tommy dug into his omelet. “Damn, Josiah, this tastes great.” I took a bite of mine. It was pretty damn good. One thing I could do was make a mean omelet. Mastering my Mani abilities was another story.

“So,” I said, “it’s obvious we connected on a far greater level than either of us expected.”

“It appears to be that way.” Tommy continued to eat his omelet.

“What I need to figure out is why the Triat felt it was important for me to train you further as a Carni, while I remain stagnant in my abilities.”

“Maybe by helping me, somehow you grew yourself. Maybe the Triat wanted to see you do an unselfish act.”

“Maybe, I hadn’t thought about that.” I continued to eat my omelet. I took a drink of my orange juice. “I do, however believe the Triat wants me to go away and be trained also.”

“Trained? Where? By whom?”

“You’re going to laugh.”

“I doubt that, Josiah, we have experienced too much crazy shit for any of this to be too damn funny.”

“Okay,” I said. “The Triat wants me to go to Dracula’s Castle and get trained by a blue gnome.”

Tommy stared at me blankly, then cracked a smile and laughed out loud. “Were you sure it was a vision, or did you smoke some herb before going to bed?

“No, it was definitely a vision.”

“What makes you so certain?”

“I had a couple visions where Dracula’s castle and the little blue gnome were in both of them.”

“Gnome?” Tommy asked. “Liked the Travelocity guy?”

“Sort of. He looks as if the Travelocity guy and Smurfette had a kid.”

“And this guy is supposed to train you like some Yoda?”

“I don’t know exactly. I don’t know if he is going to do the training or I’m supposed to just meet him there to be trained by someone else. I know it’s what I’m supposed to do.”

“Why?”

“It is why I trained you. I was told by the blue gnome to do so, and looked what happened. You now have cognitive thought as a werewolf.”

Tommy nodded his head. “So, when do you plan to go?”

“Very soon.”

“Wow, now Dracula is mixed up in this mess,” Tommy laughed. “This just gets better and better.”

Yari came into the kitchen. “Why are you guys here? I thought we were coming to you at the cabin.” She looked pretty hot wearing red plaid pajamas.

“We had a little bit of trouble,” Tommy said.

Yari sat down at the table. “So, which of you is cooking?”

“Josiah made his famous lunchmeat omelet. It’s pretty ghetto, but it’s damn good.”

Yari smiled. “I like ghetto.”

“You can’t eat an omelet, can you?” I asked.

“Maybe, if I dipped it in blood.” Yari laughed.

“Sounds delicious,” I said.

“So, what kind of trouble did you get into?”

“Tommy and I made a ton of progress in our training exercises. We were able to do things neither of us anticipated.”

“Like....?” Yari asked.

“When I’m the gray wolf, Josiah and I are able to communicate through our thoughts.”

“Bullshit!” Yari scowled.

“We’re not kidding.” Tommy looked to me for confirmation.

Yari looked over to me. “He’s telling the truth.”

“How did you figure that out?”

“Well, that’s where the trouble comes in. We were attacked by a pack of werewolves,” I said.

Yari looked at both of us. “Seriously? That was the trouble you were talking about?”

“It wasn’t just any pack of wolves,” I said “It was Tommy’s old gang: Goliath and his minions.”

“You were able to kill Goliath?” Yari asked.

“Actually, no. I did cripple him pretty good with a motorcycle. The sun started coming out, and Tommy and I fled down the mountain.”

“Did you kill any of them?” Yari said worried.

“We both did,” I said. “We had to while defending ourselves.”

“How many did you kill?” Yari asked with her voice rising.

“Two,” I said.

“Two each?”

“No, one apiece,” I said. “Why, is it a big deal?”

“You killed two Carni and you don’t think it’s a big deal? This isn’t the Middle Ages. You can’t just kill whoever you want.”

“Look, neither one of us killed for sport,” I said. “We were defending ourselves. They came after us.”

Tommy had remained quiet as I defended our brawl to Yari. Yari looked over to Tommy. “If you had any chance of returning to your people, it’s completely over now.”

“Who said I wanted to? They left me for dead.”

“But you’re not a Mani, Tommy. I am not even sure if Mani and Carni can coexist inside the will of the Triat.”

“Look, Yari,” Tommy said. “I know you have been around since George Washington. But none of us knows what any of this means. Josiah had a vision that told him to work with me. That’s all we know. This might not be about Carni vs. Mani. It might be as simple as good versus evil.”

Yari looked at both of us and it was obvious that she cared deeply for both us. “Nonetheless, we all need to get the hell out of here. It’s bad enough we have Krull after us, now we have the Carni Nation after us, too.”

“We did what we had to do,” Tommy said indignantly.

“I know, boys, you’re the good guys. I know that much for sure. Regardless, we all need to get the hell out of Dodge.”

“Great” I said. “More running. For being the supposed chosen few, we sure do a lot of running and hiding.”

“Get everybody up, Josiah,” Yari said. “We all need to transition and head to Los Angeles.”

“Why Los Angeles?” I asked.

“I’ve had a place there since the 1940s.”

“Of course you do,” I said sarcastically.

Chapter Seventeen

I got Hector and Wyatt up and then walked down the hallway to my room. Lena was still asleep in my bed. I walked into my bedroom and sat in my computer chair next to my desk. I closed my eyes and just took a moment for myself. I haven’t had too many of these moments in the last few days.

Lena laid in my bed peacefully and had no idea what Tommy and I had just been through last night. As far as I was concerned, I wanted to keep her as far away as possible from that world. I knew I couldn’t. In the end, she was in this as deep as I was. She was willing to do whatever it took to help the cause. Would I be able to protect her? Or was it both our fates to become martyrs? I didn’t know. All I knew was that I was staring at the most beautiful woman I had ever seen sleeping in my bed like a princess from a fairytale. I just wasn’t sure if this fairytale had a happy ending. All I knew was that I would die trying. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to fight for the Mani people as a whole, but I was certain I was ready to lay my life down for her.

I calmly walked over to her. “Lena, sweetie,” I whispered. “We need to leave.”

Lena opened her eyes. “I’m nobody’s sweetie,” she said with a smile.

“You know what I mean.”

She sat up and stretched. “Are you okay, Josiah?”

“Yeah, I’m okay, but some crap went down at the cabin.”

“What happened?”

“Some of Tommy’s old werewolf buddies from the other night came looking for me. Or maybe, they came looking for him? Maybe they were following a smell? We weren’t quite sure. We ended up killing or injuring all of them.”

“Are the two of you okay?”

“We’re both fine. We were able to isolate them. They didn’t have a chance.”

Lena brushed back my hair. “You’re a tough son-of-a-bitch, aren’t you?” She looked at me in a way she never had before. She had looked at me lovingly before, but this was different. She seemed to be looking at me with a different kind of energy. I could feel her sexual attraction toward me. It was the first time I had ever felt that coming from her. I just had my first erection as a Mani.

This wasn’t the time or place, so I decided to talk about what I came to her room to talk to her about. “Yari thinks we just started an all-out Carni/Mani war. She thinks all of us need to leave.”

“Where are we going to go?”

“Some place in Los Angeles. Yari apparently has a place.”

“In Los Angeles?” Lena asked, surprised.

“She’s a woman with many secrets.”

“Do you trust her?”

That was a weird question for Lena to ask. Especially, since she had been living with her the last 72 hours.

“Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I?”

Lena looked at me for a moment and didn’t say anything.

“Is there something I need to know? Why wouldn’t I trust her? She saved my life and Tommy’s, too.”

Lena nodded. “You’re right,” she said.

“Do you know something?” I asked.

Lena shook her head.

“We can’t afford to second guess each other right now. The six of us is all we have.”

“You’re right, Josiah.” Lena smiled.

I took her hand. “When all of this is over, you and I are going to be all right. I know it in my heart.” I leaned in and hugged her. I closed my eyes and just took her in.

After a moment, Lena asked, “Are we leaving right now?”

“It looks that way.”

“It’s daytime. We are going to have transition if we are going to Los Angeles.”

“I know. Tommy is going to drive separately. Put your things in my truck and Tommy will take them down.”

“All right, I’m going to take a shower.”

“Okay.” I got up and headed back to the kitchen. Tommy, Yari, Hector and Wyatt were all in the kitchen talking.

“Lena is taking a shower,” I said to the group.

“And you didn’t join her?” Yari said with a smirk.

“No, I didn’t.” I replied with as little sense of humor as I had ever displayed in my life. “When she’s finished, we can all leave.”

“I’ll bring the truck up later today,” Tommy said as he got up and went into the living room.

“Why later?” I asked.

“Cause I want to sleep.” Tommy said laying on the couch and closing his eyes.

“You can sleep at Yari’s place.”

“Are you really going to make a big deal about this, Josiah?”

“I just want everyone to be safe.”

“I am a big boy, Josiah. I am going to be all right.”

“Fine, Tom. Do it your way.” It must had been bugging Tommy to death that I was calling the shots. I’d let him have this one.

I packed a suitcase and put it in my truck. Tommy got the directions from Yari. Soon after, the five Mani all transitioned into our bird forms and headed to Los Angeles. We flew as a group. I flew higher than the rest to be less visible. I didn’t feel like making the morning news. A white eagle sighting might cause traffic accidents. We made our way over Orange County and I could see Angel Stadium and Disneyland.

I looked down below me and Yari and Lena were flying next to one another. Yari’s feathers were a dark red with streaks of orange—the color of fire, while Lena’s feathers looked like the rocks from Sedona, Arizona—a pretty reddish-orange color that had streaks of black in it.

As we passed over Orange County, we made our way to Los Angeles. Yari flew ahead of us and squawked loudly—her famous squawk. I looked down and saw the Los Angeles skyline. It wasn’t like New York City’s skyline, but it wasn’t too shabby.

I was extremely cautious now that we were in the big city to not to be seen from the ground. Yari circled over us and motioned with her wings for us to fly down and land by the giant Hollywood sign. The five of us glided past Griffith Park and landed right in front of the giant letters. None of us transitioned because the sun would fry us like bacon. She apparently needed to rest. She squawked and aimed her beak north.

After we rested, Yari flew up again and we followed her, making our way toward West Hollywood. Yari squawked a final time and flew down for us to follow her into a nice gated townhouse community. Yari scanned the ground to make sure no Tandra were outside. When the coast was clear, we all headed down with her and landed. Yari quickly transitioned to her Mani form and turned over the doormat in front of a white and brown home. She grabbed a key that was under the mat and opened the door quickly so she wouldn’t get burned by the sunlight. We all went in the front door and transitioned alongside her.

“It’s just three rooms,” Yari said. “So we will have to double up.”

“Hector and I don’t need a room. We barely sleep,” Wyatt said. “The living room will be fine for us.”

“I can barely keep my eyes open,” I commented. “I’m going to crash in the room with the biggest bed.”

“That would be mine,” Yari said. “It’s a California king.”

“Then I’ll take the one with the second biggest bed.”

“It’s okay, Josiah. You can sleep in my room.”

Lena’s eyes shot across the room. She was apparently not okay with me sleeping in Yari’s bed.

“No, I’ll be okay. Just give me any room that has a bed.”

“The guest room in the back has a queen,” Yari answered.

“That will be fine.” I headed to the back of the townhouse. I called out, “Wake me up when Tommy gets here.”

I entered the guest room. It was a very interesting room. Apparently, Broadway musicals from the 1980s were the theme to this room. Giant posters of Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables and Miss Saigon wallpapered the room. I wasn’t a show tunes kind of guy but, interestingly enough, Tommy was.

There was a lock on the door, so I decided to lock myself in. I hadn’t rested or slept in more than 36 hours, I really could use some sleep.

I looked at the clock. It was 11:00 am. Tommy should get here in a few hours. I closed my eyes and laid there for about 45 minutes and then heard a knock at my door.

“Is Tommy here?” I yelled out.

No one responded. Instead I heard another light knock.

“Sheesh,” I got up and went to the door and opened it. “Is Tommy—” It was Lena.

“Hey there,” I said. “Are you okay?”

“You want company? I’m not exactly Miss Popularity with these people.”

“Sure, come in.”

Lena entered the door and locked it behind her.

“Wow, you really don’t want to socialize with them,” I said laughing at the fact she locked the door.

“I’ve spent the last three days with those people. I need a break. Wyatt is weird and Hector is just plain creepy. And if I didn’t know any better, I’d think Yari is watching me when I sleep and imagines putting a silver stake through my heart.”

“Was it that bad?” I sat on my bed. Lena stayed standing. “Have a seat.” Lena sat at the end of my bed. I propped myself up so my back was leaning up against the head board.

“So, what happened with Tommy?” Did your little experiment go the way you wanted?” Lena laid her entire body across the end of the bed. She was so tiny that she almost didn’t have her feet hanging off the width of the queen size bed.

“It actually went really well, we really connected. To what extent I don’t know yet.”

“That’s great.” Lena seemed uncomfortable.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“This whole thing is nuts. I don’t even know what we’re running from. It’s becoming overwhelming.”

I looked straight ahead and nodded. “If I wanted to,” I said, “I could spend all day tripping out about all of this shit. But I can’t do that anymore. At some point, you have to accept that your life as you knew it is completely over. And now you need to make the most out of your new one.”

Lena reached her hand out to me.

I took her hand and held it. “You’re going to have to just let everything go, otherwise you will make yourself crazy. Everything that we have ever been taught is wrong. Our reality is what and how we are living today. We’re both 20 years old and have been given the keys to this world.”

“Have we?” Lena asked. “Have we been given the keys? Or did someone throw us in a cage and throw the keys away?”

“We have been given the truth, or at least what the truth is for us. People run around all their lives clinging on faith and hope. They never truly know if what they believe in is their true calling. They won’t know till they die. Not us. We get to live in our faith. We get to defend it.”

“I can’t believe you’re the same guy who questioned everything two months ago.”

“Well, turning into a vampire and needing those skills to save your life three times would make anyone a believer. I have to embrace all of this. It’s all I can do now. Otherwise, I’m fighting who I really am.”

Lena crawled over and laid down next to me. I put my arm around her back and she put her arm around my waist. We both let out a sigh at the exact same moment.

“I feel safe with you.” Lena tightened her grip around my waist. “I feel safer with you than anyone in my entire life.”

“Even Atticai?”

“Especially him.”

“Really?”

“I was always unsure of what he was doing. I thought I loved him, but in the end I think that was why I cared about him. The mystery.”

“I get it. You spend all your time trying to figure a person out. Before you know it, you find yourself having intense feelings and you’re never quite sure when it started happening.” In a way, I was referring to Lena. My uncertainty had led me to a place in my heart I never knew existed.

Lena adjusted her head so her face was at the same level as mine. My heart was beating very fast. This was the most intimacy we had ever shared. I looked deep into her eyes. My feelings for her were so intense. I didn’t know for sure what she truly felt about me and that was killing me inside.

“Josiah,” Lena paused.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Are you going to leave me?”

I took a deep breath. “Why would you ask that?”

“I need to know. When this is all over, do you plan on going away?”

“Lena, I will always be here for you.”

“Always?”

“Always,” I said.

“I believe you.”

“What are you afraid of?” I asked.

“You’re all I have, Josiah. I have no true friends, no more family.”

I nodded my head at her. “Lena,” I said, “we are forever bonded.”

“Is that all it is? A bond?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Are we only bonded by this experience?”

I calmly looked at her. “No, Lena. We’re not. I feel bonded with you by something way more powerful.”

“You do?”

“Yeah.”

“So do I,” she said.

We were quiet. We had an amazing way of opening up to one another and then shutting down when it reached a certain point. Fuck it! I wasn’t letting it shut down this time. “You are becoming my world.”

“What about Yari?”

“I needed Yari and she needed me.”

Lena paused. “Why did you need her?”

“I needed her because she led me to you.”

We just stared at one another with a new kind of energy. It built up slowly and just held in the air like a bubble waiting to pop.

Lena leaned in and put her head on my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight.

“I might be falling for you, Josiah.” Lena looked up at me with tears in her eyes. I took my hand and gently wiped her eyes. I already knew I had fallen for her.

Chapter Eighteen

We had both fallen asleep and Lena’s head was still on my chest. As I slept, I could feel Lena gently touching me. She was touching my chest, my stomach, and my legs. It was like being brushed by an angel. This lasted for hours. I was going in and out of sleep each time feeling Lena’s touch. I’m not sure if she ever slept.

I looked at the clock on the dresser, it read 5:00 p.m. Tommy must have shown up by now. I didn’t want to leave the room. Lena was still gently rubbing my abdomen. I leaned up.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“I’m great,” I said.

“Josiah,” Lena said

“Yes.”

“Why haven’t you kissed me?”

I paused. I really didn’t have an answer.

“Do you want to kiss me?” Lena asked

“Very much so,” I whispered.

“Okay, then.” Lena smiled.

This was it. My heart was pounding. I turned my head, and leaned into her face. In the dark she looked like a pixie with her short black hair. I very gently slipped my head closer to her mouth and softly kissed her lips. As our lips touched, I was overwhelmed by my senses. Every touch, every smell, seemed magnified. I took my right hand and placed it on the back of her head. She aggressively leaned forward, pinning me to my back. She was taking control and I was letting her do it.

She lay on top of me, kissing my face, my neck, and my lips. I could feel the fire burning from inside her. It was as if a tiger had been let out of her cage.

“Can I bite you?” she asked.

“Do whatever you want,” I whispered back.

Lena kissed the top of my forehead softly and made her way down kissing me inch by inch until reaching my neck. I was in complete ecstasy. She kissed my neck passionately. With each kiss, she tightened her lips more and more. Her kisses turned into nibbles and her nibbles turned into bites. She bit down and I let her. It was me giving myself back to her. She had trusted me and now I trusted her. The pain felt delightful. I wasn’t even sure what flowed through my veins now that I was a vampire. Whatever it was ignited her with passion. My entire body began to quiver. I was in complete submission to this woman. She had me; she had every inch of me. And I loved every second of it.

I had secretly longed for this moment for months. I never imagined that she’d be this daring, this adventurous. She stopped biting me and her mouth made its way back to my lips. My fluid was dripping from her mouth. I could feel whatever it was dripping on my chin. She then went back to kissing my mouth. I could taste my Mani blood inside her mouth. This was the hottest thing I’d ever experienced.

We continued kissing. I was very mindful to allow her to control the pace. Every now and then I would take a little bit of control and then release it back to her. Each time I had control, I held her tighter. I loved her deeper. Finally, I pulled her tightly to me. I gently flipped her over so now I was on top of her.

I kissed her chin, her cheek, her forehead. As she laid on her back, I kissed her neck and the top of her collarbone.

Lena once again took control. She took my shirt from the bottom position. She tore off her own tank top. She wasn’t wearing a bra. Our upper bodies were bare pressing up against one another; our skin sticking to each other. She kissed my neck, my face, my chest, she licked my stomach. As she did I tightened up my six pack, and that seemed to excite her. She began kissing every inch of my upper body. I just laid back and allowed her to discover me—to discover every bit of me—on her terms.

Her hand dropped and she cupped my groin. I was at full attention, and just the slightest touch put my entire body into an exhilarating euphoria that I had never experienced before.

I whispered, “Only do what you want to do.”

“Oh, Josiah. I’ve wanted to do this since high school.”

Lena slowly unbuttoned my 501 jeans and slid them off. She buried her face up against my boxers. Her hand slowly reached inside the peep hole, and she got a hold of me. She proceeded to pleasure me with her hand. She was gentle and attentive. I didn’t know if this was her first time experiencing a man, so I let her find her way. It was as if my body was her very own private amusement park. I was thrilled to be the main attraction.

She stopped before I could climax, and I didn’t care. I reached down and lifted her up so she was lying completely on top of my body. We kissed and kissed—we held each other tight. We were here, we were in the moment—and we were alive.

* * *

We laid there in each other’s arms. Seconds became minutes, and minutes became hours. I didn’t want to leave and nobody was going to force me. I wanted to lie there forever, and so did she. If there was a way to do it, we would have.

I had so much to say to her, but I had no idea how to tell her. All I could do is show her how much I cared for her until I was ready to share it out loud. She would know by my actions how I felt about her.

“You think we should get up?” Lena whispered. It was weird hearing her voice. Neither one of us had spoken in hours.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“Almost six in the morning.”

“Wow, we have been lying here for a long time.”

“I know.” Lena got up and put on her black tank top. I put on my white t-shirt. She turned on the light and it felt like someone flashed a spotlight on our faces.

“Come here,” I said softly to Lena. Lena walked over to me and I stood up and hugged her. She pulled back and looked at my neck.

“Sorry about your neck, you have some hickey.”

I felt my neck and it was a tad tender. I smiled at Lena and said, “Next time I’ll have another taste.”

“Oh, you will?”

I grinned. “I’m going to see what Tommy is doing.”

“Okay.”

“Josiah?” Lena murmured.

“Yeah.”

“Can we keep this between us?”

“Sure. No problem. But the hickey is a big giveaway.”

Lena nodded and a part of me felt like maybe she was marking her territory as far as Yari was concerned. I opened the door and headed to the living room. Yari was duct taping the curtains and the doorways.

“Where’s Tommy?” I asked

“Your guess is as good as mine. He’s not answering his phone, and he should have been here a long time ago.”

“He never came over?”

“Nope.”

“Why didn’t you get me up?”

“The two of you seemed like you needed your rest.” Yari raised her eyebrows at my neck. “Apparently, there wasn’t much resting.”

I ignored her and continued about Tommy. “This isn’t good,” I said.

“Do you think he did something stupid?” Yari now appeared to be worried.

Hell, I was worried. “I wouldn’t put it past him. This sucks! It’s almost daylight and someone needs to go find him.”

“You can’t go,” Yari said. “You need to limit how many times you transition up here. This is a highly populated area. It isn’t like the Inland Empire. There are people everywhere up here. You’re not exactly discreet when you transition.”

“What should we do then?”

“I should go,” Yari was adamant about it. But Tommy was my best friend and if something had happened, I wanted to be the one to be there.

“He might have just gotten lost.”

“Or, he decided to take matters in his own hands with his old Carni counterparts.” Which was very much like Tommy.

“Lena should go with me,” Yari said.

“Why?”

“Because another pair of eyes would be good.”

I thought about it. “Okay,” I answered. “You guys should go quickly. Take Wyatt and Hector, ravens are little more common.”

“Hey, Wyatt!” I yelled. Wyatt was asleep on the couch.

“Where’s Hector?”

“Stop yelling. Hector’s asleep in the bathtub!”

“Wake him up. You all need to go look for Tommy.”

Lena came out of the bedroom and we told her about Tommy and she volunteered to go look for him. I told her to be safe and the four of them left to find Tommy.

I was still very tired. My body was telling me it needed to sleep. I went back into the guest room and laid down. I did not feel good about the situation

My eyes grew heavy. I closed them.

Suddenly, I heard, “why haven’t you left?”

I opened my eyes and once again I was outside the great white castle.

“Why haven’t you left?” It was the little blue gnome. He was standing over me as I was on my back.

“Should I have left?” I asked.

“You know the location. It’s now a matter of coming to see me.”

“Am I done with the wolf?”

“Have you tamed him?”

“I’m not sure. We connected, but...”

“But what?”

“I’m not sure if that was all there was.”

“What else could there be?” The gnome said looking down at me.

“I thought if we were able to tame him, he might be able to control when he actually turns into a werewolf.”

“You don’t believe that anymore?” The gnome asked.

“Should I believe that?”

“Always trust your intuition.”

“I have been.”

“Then don’t stop now,” the gnome said. And with that, I woke up instantly.

I had been asleep a long time and it was dark outside. These vampire sleeps are eerie. Time goes by a little too fast for my taste.

It was 8:30 p.m. and there was no sign of anyone. What the hell? They had been gone almost 15 hours. This was not good. What the hell was going on? I checked my phone and it was dead. Fuck, I forgot to charge it.

I got up and went outside Yari’s front door. I stepped onto the front porch and looked up to the sky. I knew shit was about to go down. I could feel it in my… well, veins. This was the calm before the storm. Tommy had done something stupid, now I knew it for sure. He had gone back to visit his old clan. I felt it deep in my soul. I closed my eyes and for the first time, I began to see picture frames.

They looked like little short three-second films. I could see Tommy. He was at the ranch where I had fought Goliath. He was surrounded by many Carni men. Dammit, I lost the vision. Shit!

I concentrated harder. I could now see a row of trucks. They were filled with Carni; they were riding out to the ranch.

My visions seemed to be skipping time. I wasn’t sure if my second vision happened before or after the previous one. I closed my eyes again. I could now see Yari and Lena. They were trying to talk to Tommy and he wasn’t listening. Shit! Tommy! Listen to them! You fucker! I lost the vision again. Once again, I closed my eyes and concentrated with all I had. I could now see Lena. The Carni’s had Lena!

Chapter Nineteen

I immediately transitioned into the white eagle and flew up into the sky. My large wings flapped rapidly and headed south to Orange County. I wasn’t sure how fast I was flying, but looking down at the cars below on the freeway I could tell I was going about five times faster.

I got to Anaheim Hills in mere minutes and wasn’t sure what time frame my visions were in. As I got closer to the ranch, I feared my last vision was the present. I looked down and could see an all-out war going on down at the ranch. What had Tommy done? He had put everyone in danger. Where was Lena? I circled the ranch. All my friends were isolated, the same way we did the werewolves the other night. I couldn’t see Lena!

Wyatt and Hector were fighting about six Carni each at the north end of the ranch. Yari had her hands full with a number of Carni women and from the looks of it, she seemed to be doing okay.

Where was Tommy? Where the fuck was Lena? I circled and scoped the ground.

I could see Tommy by the large trees fighting three of the bastards. Where the hell was Lena? I could see everyone except for Lena.

Then I spotted Goliath; he was between two trucks. He appeared to be wrestling someone much smaller than him—extremely smaller than him. IT HAD TO BE LENA!

She was fighting off the ogre. I didn’t think and just reacted. I lunged forward with a force so ferocious I felt like a heat-seeking missile crashing into a military target. As I bolted to the earth, I extended my wings for more acceleration. I was going to kill that overgrown piece of shit! I was about a hundred feet from piling into Goliath’s back with my sharpened beak when I heard Lena yelled out, “No, Josiah, it’s a set up!”

It was too late. Goliath turned around and was holding a ten-foot lead pipe in his hand. I tried to stop, but couldn’t. My momentum carried me forward like an out-of-control freight train. I was going too fast and was too out of control. There was no way to stop!

I tried to veer out of the way of Goliath, but there was no chance. As I came up on him, Goliath swung the lead pipe like Albert Pujols during batting practice and whacked me directly in my stomach. I ricocheted backwards off the pipe.

I fell to the ground about fifteen feet away. I couldn’t move. He had hit my stomach with the full force of the pipe. My stomach felt like it exploded. The pipe had torn up my insides and I could feel my bones breaking inside of my body. I was on my back and automatically transitioned from eagle to Mani. I laid on the ground, spitting out blood.

I couldn’t see anything. I could hear bodies surrounding me. I took my hand and felt my rib cage. All my ribs were broken. My Mani blood poured out of my mouth. There was nothing I could do and I was fucking helpless. What the hell! This wasn’t the way this was supposed to end.

I didn’t know what to do; I was dying and knew it. The pain was excruciating. I couldn’t just lay there and have Goliath kill me. I did the only thing I could do—broken ribs and split innards and all—I stood up.

I opened my eyes and could now see. All my friends were being held by mobs of Carni. Ten to one was the only way they could handle any of us. Well, except for me. All it took was Goliath and a lead pipe.

Lena broke free from her mob and ran toward me and another Carni grabbed her before she was able to reach me. “Josiah!” Lena cried out to bring me down and use my friends for bait, my lover.

What the fuck, Tommy. You led all of us to a fucking slaughter. I couldn’t stand any longer, I was too weak. I was in too much pain and I fell to my knees.

I looked to my right and saw Goliath slowly walking toward me, savoring each moment with each step he took closer to me. His back apparently was still hurting as he winced when he walked. I looked to my left and saw Tommy doing all he could to try to break free from his own Carni mob holding him back. There were too many of them. There must have been over a hundred Carni out here. They loaded up and we were all going to pay for it. Goliath walked up to me. “What happened, Eagle man? You don’t have any more magic?”

I was too weak to even concentrate. I couldn’t do anything. I was in too much pain. I looked up to the sky and called out into the night. I yelled out to whatever force—whatever had been giving me these visions to spare me. “Please,” I yelled out. “Not like this!”

Then I heard Tommy’s voice. “Josiah! I’m sorry!”

He can’t give up, I thought. Was Tommy giving up?

Goliath reached down with his giant hands and picked me up. He raised me over his head like a prized kill. With a giant warrior yell, he chucked my mangled body thirty yards in the air. I landed on the ground in a heap of misery. Every bit of me hurt. Every inch of me ached.

Wyatt and Hector had transitioned into ravens, but they weren’t able to get away. They were being held down like wild animals. They were put in steel birdcages that seemed specially designed to catch Mani birds. There was nothing any of us could do and the Carni knew it. So they let Lena go and she ran over to where Goliath had tossed me. They let her go for sick sport. To watch her see me die…

Lena dove on the ground next to me and held my head as I laid on my back. “Josiah, try and do something, anything. There has got to be something you can do.”

I looked up and saw my angel. I shook my head. “Lena, please leave. They have let you go; you can transition and get out of here.”

“I won’t leave you,” she said holding my head in her lap. “Just like the needlepoint picture in the cabin…”

Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. I tried to remember where that saying came from. It seemed like it came from another life of Josiah Reign, one that happened so long ago that I began to forget who I was, as who I am took point.

The entire Carni mob had now made a wall around us. They all seemed amused that Lena seemed to care for me so tenderly. They were all calling out for Goliath to kill me.

Lena covered me with her body. “No one touch him!” she yelled. But Goliath once again made his way to me.

“Lena, if you love me, please leave!” I yelled.

“I won’t.” she said. “I’ll die here with you tonight.”

“Oh, you will die, sweet Mani ass. All of you will.” Goliath laughed.

I tried to sit up one last time, but I couldn’t. Goliath grabbed Lena and tossed her to the side.

I looked up and for the first time, I saw Yari. Our eyes met. She was saying something to me. Her lips were moving but I couldn’t hear her.

Then Goliath’s giant body was all I could see. Four other Carni came over and pinned down my arms and legs. Goliath had a silver stake in his right hand. He was going to kill me. He raised the stake up in the air and I could see it sparkle in the moonlight.

“Get him to his knees. I want to see him beg. I want to see his eyes as he dies.” Goliath got right in my face. “See these eyes; I want them to be the last thing you see before you go ‘poof’ in the night.”

Then he spoke to his Carni cohorts. “Hold his head tight.” And then looked back at me again, his eyes filled with hatred and menace, bloodlust and rage. “I’m going to pound this deep through your pretty little neck.”

Goliath snapped his fingers and someone had tossed him a sledge hammer.

This was it. He was going to kill me and there was nothing I could do. I had already cried out to the Triat. There was no way I was going to beg for my life. I was too weak. I inhaled air and with my last breath I yelled, “TOMMY! SAVE ME!” I turned my head to the crowd and could see Tommy’s eyes. He was still being held back, but I could see his eyes—his bright yellow eyes! TOMMY WAS TURNING!

Suddenly, Tommy howled at the top of his lungs!! Everyone stopped and looked at him! Then it happened! The freaking miracle happened! Everything came together in one moment; my visions, training Tommy, the bonding, everything.

“I’m coming, Josiah!” I heard Tommy’s voice inside my head!

In an instant, Tommy transitioned from Carni to a giant gray werewolf. Goliath stopped in his tracks and turned to face Tommy. Tommy had lunged forward in his werewolf form and began biting and throwing Carni around with his enormous canine mouth.

The four Carni’s had let me go to save themselves from this crazed werewolf. I just fell to the ground because I had no more strength. Tommy bit, clawed, and tore into every Carni in his path.

All the Carni who were still alive ran. And all the ones who died, disappeared. All except Goliath; he stayed.

“What kind of bullshit is this?” It’s not even a fucking full moon. What the fuck, Tommy? Did they make a Mani out of you?”

I watched as Tommy dove on top of Goliath. Goliath kicked Tommy off of him.

Tommy flew ten feet forward. Goliath charged into Tommy still holding his silver stake. Holy shit! If anyone can kill a werewolf with just a stake in his hand, it was Goliath. Tommy bit Goliath’s hand and he cried out in pain as the bones in his hand was crushed and then…he dropped the stake.

I was losing consciousness. Lena and Yari both ran to me. I looked up and saw both women. Yari looked down at me and told me what she was trying to mouth to me earlier.

“What is it, Yari?” I asked, barely being heard.

“Heal yourself, Josiah.”

“Heal myself?”

“It’s been done before. It might work.”

I looked up at Lena.

“Please Josiah, try.” Lena whispered. “It’s your only chance.”

I closed my eyes and placed my hands over my stomach where most of the pain was coming from.

I felt my own body. I put my hands over my injuries. I imagined my body healing itself.

Nothing was happening. I could heal myself as much as I could walk on water. Walk on water? Was that it? Did I need to submit?

Then I yelled out loud, “Please heal me.” It was less of a command and more of a prayer. I was saying it to whoever was in control. I may have been ‘The Chosen,’ but I wasn’t the one in control.

Then I felt an amazing peace come over my body. A power far greater than anything I had ever known. I could feel my ribs tightening. I could feel my legs and arms getting stronger. I must have had twenty broken bones in my body. Each one hardened, each one was being rebuilt.

I was still on my back, but not for long. Something supernatural was lifting me off the ground. I saw bright light going through me. I was floating in midair about ten feet off the ground. Something had taken over my body—something far greater than myself—far greater than anything of this world.

Yari and Lena had stepped aside. I looked up in the sky and I knew I was being blessed not by only the Triat, but by a higher power. My entire body had been healed. Then as fast as it happened, the light went away and I landed on the ground.

I stood up and felt taller, stronger, and more muscular than ever before. I felt like I could eat steel. I looked over at Goliath and Tommy. Goliath was manhandling Tommy and had gotten a hold of the silver stake again. He didn’t waste any time. He tried to stab Tommy in his chest, luckily he missed. He stabbed Tommy in his right shoulder. Tommy fell backwards and Goliath removed the stake from Tommy’s shoulder and raised the stake over his head to pierce Tommy’s heart.

That was not going to happen. In a blink of an eye, I flew over and kicked Goliath’s hand and the stake went flying. I looked over at Tommy and he was really hurt.

“Get Tommy out of here!” I yelled to Yari and Lena. Wyatt and Hector were still trapped inside the birdcages.

I jumped on top of Goliath and grabbed him with all my might. I held him with my hands and flew him up into the air. He was a giant beast, but I felt stronger than ever. Goliath punched me in the face in midair. I drop-kicked him and he fell to the ground from twenty feet up. The bastard was so fucking huge; he landed on his two feet.

I flew down to the ground and once again ate shit when I hit the earth. Damn, I needed to learn how to land. Goliath ran up to me and kicked me in the chest. I flew back five feet.

“All right, Goliath. Just you and me, no flying, no lead pipes. It’ll just be an old-fashioned street fight.”

“Are you serious? You will have no chance.” Goliath came at me with a haymaker and clocked me in my chin. I once again fell back, but didn’t fall to the ground and that seemed to really surprise the overgrown shithead.

I came back and kicked him in his chest. That was as high as my high kick would reach. He fell back a couple of steps.

“Screw it! Let’s box, motherfucker,” I said to Goliath and I stepped up and gave Goliath multiple five-punch combinations and landed nearly all of them. Goliath took each punch and seemed to love to get hit, he fed off it.

We then began trading punches. I would punch Goliath, and then his gigantic ass would punch me back. It was almost a test to see who could handle the better punch, who could withstand more pain. I was known for being able to take a punch, but this was ridiculous. His fists felt like lead pipes themselves.

We continued to battle. I hit his nose, he hit my right eye, I hit his mouth, he hit my chin. This went on for twenty minutes. Neither one of us would quit. This wasn’t going anywhere. This guy tried to kill me. He tried to kill Tommy. He hurt Lena. He deserved to die. I dug deep as I sensed Goliath finally tiring.

“Fuck the street fight!” Goliath said, tackling me with his enormous frame and I landed on my back, right next to the damn silver stake. Goliath jumped on top of me. I could see Wyatt and Hector charging him from about two hundred feet away. Goliath and I both grabbed for the silver stake at the same time. I got it first and rammed it directly into his heart. I struck him with all the remaining strength I had. His entire body landed on top of me. I pushed him off of me and he fell beside me. I rolled over and looked him right in the eyes and said, “Surprise, motherfucker!” It was he who would see my eyes with his last breath. As he took his last breath, he vanished as the others had before him. Hector and Wyatt came up on me. Hector leaned over and helped me up.

I walked over to Tommy. He was still a werewolf and bleeding badly. I placed my hand on my injured friend’s shoulder and simply said, “Please heal him, too.” Suddenly I felt a burst of heat leave my body and enter his. Tommy’s wound had been healed. Tommy instantly transitioned back to his Carni form.

“I should be pissed at you, Tommy,” I said. “But I think everything that happened tonight was according to plan.”

“You’re not the only one with visions, Josiah,” Tommy said.

“That’s what I figured.” I hugged my best friend.

Chapter Twenty

I was about to board my plane. I was at LAX Airport in Los Angeles.

“You sure this is what you’re supposed to do?” Tommy asked.

“I’m certain,” I said.

“Good luck, brother,” Tommy shook my hand. “You sure you don’t want me to go with you? What if the blue gnome turns out to be a weirdo?”

“I have to do this alone.”

Wyatt and Hector both came over to me and shook my hand.

“Hey,” I said to Wyatt and Hector, “you two look after my three favorite people in this world.” Wyatt and Hector both looked at me, sadly. “You two are definitely fourth and fifth,” I assured them and they both smiled. “Even though you both tried to kill me,” I laughed. “Kidding, I am just kidding.”

I grabbed my bag and Yari came over to me. “Hurry back, Josiah.”

“I will. I promise.” I gave Yari a giant hug. I looked behind her and saw Lena. She was looking at me with tears in her eyes. I dropped my bag and walked over to her. I smiled gently and said, “I’ll be back.” Lena looked up at me. I took my hand and wiped the tears from her eyes.

“Be safe, Josiah.”

I leaned over and kissed her on the lips. I held her tight in my arms. I didn’t want to let her go, but I knew I had to. At the same time we both let go. I turned around and picked up my bag and began to board the plane.

“Josiah,” Lena called out. I turned around.

“I love you.”

I stopped in my tracks and turned around to face her.

“You’re my heart, Lena. Forever and always.”

I turned and boarded the plane for Transylvania.

To be continued in:

Forever and Always

Return to the Table of Contents

FOREVER AND ALWAYS

Vampire Love Story #3

Published by H.T. Night at Smashwords.com

Copyright © 2011 by H.T. Night

All rights reserved.

(Author’s note: All characters depicted in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older.)

Dedication

I dedicate this to Pablo Lopez, a best friend for life.

Acknowledgment

Special thanks to J.R. Rain, Margaret Cervenkas, April M. Reign, Liz Jones and Sandy Johnston for all their help.

Forever and Always

Chapter One

I walked onto the airplane without a single bag in my hand. It was going to be an eleven-hour, nonstop flight to London. I would then need to catch a connecting flight to Romania from London’s Heathrow Airport. I had never been out of the country before, and a part of me was nervous about spending a lot of hours on an airplane. I had to use a fast passport service on the internet to make this trip happen.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to deal with the whole sunlight predicament, as that my skin isn’t exactly sunlight-friendly. I might have to spend a lot of time in the bathroom, pretending to be sick.

As I walked down the aisle of the plane, I couldn’t help but notice that the plane was unusually empty—especially toward the back. The first eight rows were jam-packed with passengers but there wasn’t a single person in the last ten rows.

That is weird, really weird.

My seat was 13-F and it was near the back of the plane. So that would mean I was going to be sitting all alone in an enormous airplane for eleven hours. I wasn’t a huge social butterfly, but I still craved some kind of human interaction. It made me feel connected to my origins.

As I walked past the crammed passengers at the front of the plane, it was apparent that all eyes were on me. Each face I looked at seemed to be asking, ‘who is the guy going solo to the back’?

The expression on my face must have read that I was equally as surprised they were to be the lone passenger in the back. As I got further down the aisle, I realized I wasn’t the only person with a seat in the back forty. In fact, there was a woman in her mid-twenties in my row.

Was I early? I could have sworn I was late boarding the plane.

I stepped inside the narrow seating area, and luckily, there was an empty seat separating us. I pulled in my legs so the young lady and I wouldn’t bump knees. I looked down at her face as I stepped in front of her to get to my seat. She never once looked up at me. Apparently, she wasn’t too happy that I was in her row.

I guess that was just too bad for her.

I sat in my seat and tried to get comfortable. It didn’t matter that I was only one of two people in the back of the plane; I was still having a horrible time trying to get comfy in the ridiculously narrow rows. I adjusted my seat and centered myself in a way that would give me the most leg room. Finally, I was in the perfect position for maximum comfort.

“Excuse me, sir?” said a dark-haired flight attendant. “Would you like anything?”

“Like what?” I asked, surprised.

“Something to drink,” she said, giving me a pleasant frozen smile that had about as much sincere warmth as a prom queen accepting congratulations at a homecoming night crowning. Because it was expected to smile, not that she wanted to.

“A drink, already?” I asked. “Don’t you wait an hour or so after we leave?”

The stewardess stared blankly at me. Apparently, she didn’t like random questions.

“Come back in an hour and I’ll let you know if I get thirsty.” I winked at the flight attendant, and she didn’t seem too interested in my banter. I looked over at the woman sitting next to me and I expected some kind of reaction out of her, but there was nothing. She seemed incredibly uninterested, almost ‘put off’ in her demeanor.

The stewardess left. I looked around and noticed there was a movie screen on the back of the seat directly in front of me. It had headphones connected to it.

Thank God. I could at least watch some movies and play possibly play a game of ‘In-Flight Trivia.’

A male flight attendant stood in front of us and mumbled his spiel on ‘safety’ into a small microphone which he shoved up into the overhead ceiling when he was done.

I decided to lay back and enjoy the night. I was covered up with a great deal of clothing, considering that I had no idea when the sun would be coming up and peeking through the jet’s windows. I was wearing jeans with Doc Marten boots. I had a black t-shirt on underneath a black leather jacket. It was a lot of clothes for a summer evening, but there was really nothing I could do about it. I licked the inside of my teeth and could feel my incisors pointed out with my tongue. I hadn’t yet had a need to feed on blood, but I knew that would only be a matter of time.

Or was it?

It has been incredibly unusual that I hadn’t had the same desires and need for a bloodlust survival as my Mani counterparts. I guess I should have been happy that it hadn’t happened yet, but there was a part of me that felt uneasy about what had happened.

The flight attendant came by again and I stopped her with a polite index finger in the air. When she leaned in close and said “A drink, now, sir?” I said, “Actually, I would like a small blanket if you have one,” trying my best to be polite.

“A small one? We have large ones big enough for a boy as big as you,” she said, now trying to be cute.

“Actually, I’ll take a child-size blanket, if you have it?”

She gave me a strange look and said, “I’ll see what I can find.”

I wanted a small blanket so that I could put it over my head when the sun came out. The flight attendant didn’t know why I needed it.

“It’s crazy, huh?”

Did the woman next to me just speak to me or was she talking to herself?

I looked at the woman beside me and our eyes met. She had blonde hair and amazing blue eyes, just the color of the sea at Marina del Rey on a sunny day. She was wearing a light blue blouse with white leggings. Her hair was shoulder length and very sleek and pampered. She definitely had the kind of face you see on the cover of women’s fashion magazines.

“I’m sorry, did you say something?” I asked.

She smiled pleasantly at me. “I said that it’s crazy we’re the only two back here.”

“I know. What’s the deal with that?”

“Apparently, some hot-shot billionaire bought the seats for his entourage and he never showed up.”

“Wow, that is crazy.”

Thank God she was talking to me.

I couldn’t imagine eleven hours next to some silent princess with an attitude.

“My name is Josiah.” I made a handshake gesture toward her. She shook my hand the way petite girls do, as more of a ‘limp hand wiggle’ than an actual handshake. I found it endearing, with her.

“My name is Helen.”

“I wouldn’t peg you for a Helen,” I said.

“Really? Why not?”

I looked at her closely and said, “You look more like a Heather or a Nicole.”

“No, I’m a Helen. I was named after my grandma and she was named after Helen of Troy.”

“Ah, Helen of Troy, the legendary face that launched a thousand ships.”

She smiled at me again, and this time she had the spark in her eyes that girls get when they’re now interested in you. “Josiah? That’s an unusual name.”

“I had unusual parents,” I said, laughing.

“Had?”

“Yeah, they passed away a couple years back.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

I smiled. I didn’t need her to feel sorry for me. “I loved them but life goes on, you know?”

She gave me an awkward smile and nodded her head.

I paused and looked at her. She seemed very genuine. For a brief moment, I forgot about Lena. Lena was the young woman who had turned my life upside down. Before her, I didn’t believe in vampires, werewolves, or anything supernatural. Now, not only did I believe in it, I was thrown in the middle of all of it. In fact, I was apparently the main event in the forces of un-nature.

“Are you going to London?” I asked.

“That’s what the ticket says,” she said, winking at me.

“Are you connecting to another flight from London?” I clarified.

“No, I’m doing some business in London.”

“What business are you in?”

“What are you? A cop?”

I laughed. “No, I was just asking.”

“I’m kidding, Jo-Jo. Lighten up. I’m in the music business. I’m a producer for a little label in L.A.”

“Jo-Jo? I’m not sure you know me well enough to call me Jo-Jo,” I said, jokingly.

“Do you prefer Josie?”

“How about Josiah?”

“So, we’re not at the cute nickname phase in our relationship yet?” she asked.

“Is that what this is – a relationship?”

“There is definitely potential.” She was now putting her flirting gear in overdrive.

“Oh, is there?” I said laughing. “For potential crimes and misdemeanors?”

Who the hell was this woman? She was hilarious!

She turned her body and got comfortable. Her head was looking in my direction. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to take a nap. But feel free to lift the arm between us and spoon with me if you like. I mean, we’re all alone back here, just the two of us. Fate right?”

I just looked at her with a big, goofy grin. She was something else. She leaned her chair back and put her ear plugs in her ears and was suddenly out like a light.

I, on the other hand, had just been smacked over the head by Flirt-Girl 2000. I decided to take her lead and close my eyes ,too. It was nice to finally relax. But no spooning. Lena was a fleeting thought and then there was the business at hand.

I thought about what I was about to embark on. I was heading to Dracula’s Castle in Transylvania to meet some mysterious blue gnome from some visions I’ve had. You know, your typical vacation getaway…

I had been having a lot of visions of late. Visions were new to me and I wasn’t sure if I had been interpreting them correctly. For the most part, the visions had been pretty literal.

The images and ideas in my first visions encouraged me train my best friend, Tommy, to become a cognitive-thinking werewolf, rather than an instinctual reactionary to his current environment. He and I tapped into his human cognitive thinking, even when he was in his wolf form. I was exuberant that it had only taken one full-moon period. I was able to accomplish that feat rather quickly. As far as we know, he was the first werewolf to do so. I literally had the werewolf eating out of my and licking me, not tasting me, but giving me the respect and affection of a submissive to his master. When covered by fur anyway. Other than the werewolf transformation and my taming and training of him, in human-ish form, okay, in his Carni form, Tommy was still and always my best friend and we were equals. It was new to me, to tame the beast in someone I cared about. Maybe being a werewolf whisperer could be a commercial calling. I laughed to myself. That was the old All-American human way of thinking. I was a vampire now, with powers yet unknown. And headed to Transylvania to see what my visions would manifest in my destiny.

But visions weren’t the only things that were new to me. The last few months, I had been through the wringer. My life had been one of legends and nightmares. I know that sounds melodramatic, but I’ was actually playing it down. I had been given the keys to the Mani kingdom and I was still not sure exactly what to do with them. Mani are a vampire race that has been roaming the world for the last 10,000 years. From what I gathered, there were a lot of them, but they are very unorganized. They seem to be running wild and without a leader or any kind of vision. That’s where I come in. There has been ‘a prophecy’ since the beginning of the race, that a chosen vampire would come forward and unite the Mani and bring peace to all. As far as I knew, and with everything I had seen, I am that chosen vampire.

I know, lucky me.

I had the ability to transition into a great white eagle whenever my heart desires. As an eagle, I was able to fly all over, okay, not all the way to Transylvania, hence the airplane, but my powers didn’t stop there. I was also one of the rare Mani who could fly in my vampire form. My vampire form was what I called my human form. These days it was hard to remember which I actually am. I had lot of vampire characteristics, but I still have a lot of humanity, too. I often feel confused about my purpose. There wasn’t a Mani user’s manual or even a quick-start guide to this, and to be honest, I wish there were because I had to figure out situations on the fly.

I was also able to move things with my mind. I hadn’t quite mastered that one. And to be honest, it was something I wasn’t exactly comfortable doing.

I also had visions and premonitions in which I could see things: past, present and future. So, all in all, my life had undergone a few changes in the last couple months. I knew in my heart, that I needed to figure everything out inside myself before I could implement it outside of my head. Once I could control all that I am, I would be able lead whoever would follow me into whatever I needed to do. I was just hoping it became clearer. Anyway, so to say that I needed some rest on an eleven-hour plane ride was an understatement. Vampire or not, I was bushed.

I had left my friends back in Los Angeles for this trip because I knew that I needed to do this adventure alone. I was on a quest for truth, destiny, and I think I needed to regroup about her. Among those friends was the love of my life, Lena. I wasn’t quite sure exactly when I fell in love with her, all I knew is that I had. Because I stayed indoors during the day, my body clock was messed up now, well, make that my body calendar. Sometimes I had to look at my cell phone to even see what day it was, rather than the time.

When I was around Lena, I felt ten feet tall. Saving a girl’s life a couple of times had the ability to make a guy feel that way. And in my case, I have a giant hero complex that seems to surface almost weekly.

I thought about my Lena and rested. I pictured her short black hair, and brown eyes. I remembered our last intimate moment together in Yari’s guest room and soon I drifted off in my airline seat, trying not to spoon my flirty row-mate.

Suddenly, I heard a slam! I opened my eyes and I was no longer on the airplane.

I was having another vision.

This time I was no longer at Dracula’s Castle. I was in some secluded dark alley, one that seemed to go on forever in both directions.

Where the hell was I?

There was the stench of cigarettes and trash looming in the air with a touch of that tarry aroma of fresh-lain and pressure-rolled asphalt. I looked around, completely confused. The alley appeared to go on for miles on both sides. It was neither hot nor cold, almost as if I was indoors. But I wasn’t, I was clearly outside. I could see the dark sky above me. The stars were bright and something was very odd about this vision, like, where was the North Star? The setting appeared to be a fantastical place, unlike my other dreams where the locations were indeed real.

As I looked in the air, I saw a beautiful white hawk fly over me. It circled me, almost taunting me to chase it. Then I realized that this magnificent creature wasn’t trying to anger me, but was asking me to play with it. It appeared the hawk wanted me to transition.

Could I transition in my dreams?

I decided to give it a go, and sure enough, my eye level dropped and I instantly transformed into the great white eagle. The white hawk took off in the air above the long, endless alley. I hurried after it like a school boy chasing a girl at recess. There was a grace and beauty about this bird that I was after, a trait you only find in the most elegant of women.

The hawk darted north and I continued to follow. At times, she glided across the sky. I was assuming by now that this was a female bird. I was careful not to get too close, I was gliding behind her, just observing, not sure what this vision meant or who the hawk was. I was just in the moment, enjoying my surroundings.

This giant beautiful creature was almost as big as I was. Her wingspan spread out in spectacular fashion. I was mesmerized and taken aback by her beauty and grace. She seemed to be flying with a purpose. I felt a tad apprehensive, but after all, this was a vision and no one can get hurt in a vision, right?

As I looked to the air from about 500 feet high, I noticed that I didn’t recognize anything. I wasn’t sure if I was in an actual place or if this was a figment of my imagination. We continued to what I perceived was north and I could see the sun coming up, off in the distance.

We were headed toward a beautiful rocky mountain that seemed to be something Rocky Balboa would have run up in one of his ‘training montages’. At the peak of the mountain was a plateau and it seemed like a safe enough spot to land on level ground.

The hawk glided down and landed in poetic fashion. I watched from above and was unsure what I should do. The hawk squawked as if to say, ‘Join me.’

I wisped down and landed about ten feet away from her. Was this hawk a Mani woman? I waited for her to transition, but she didn’t. She waddled her way over to me and gently pressed her head against my breast. It was a gentle move, almost tender. I nuzzled back, and we just stood there on top of this beautiful rocky mountain, cuddling in a way only two birds of our magnitude could do. I felt safe and peaceful.

This was a very strange vision.

Suddenly, the hawk rose up, squawked, and flew away at the speed of light. Her speed indicated that she did not want me to follow.

Instantly, I awoke on the plane to find myself in the middle of the worst turbulence I had ever experienced in my life. Helen reached out her hand to me and I held it. “What the hell is going on?” I said.

“Your guess is as good as mine. This is pretty bad turbulence.” Helen didn’t seem as concerned as I was.

I didn’t fly that much, especially across the world. Hopefully it would settle down, and sure enough, it did. When all was calm, Helen let go of my hand. “My hero,” she said.

I knew she was teasing or even mocking me. I smiled at her with a sense of relief.

You have no idea what kind of hero I actually am.

Chapter Two

I looked around the plane and noticed all of the window panels were closed. That was odd, considering that before I napped, they were all open.

“Excuse me!” I called to the flight attendant.

She got up from her molded employee’s seat near the bathroom and walked over to me. “Yes, would you like that drink now?” she asked.

“Actually, yes. Could I have a vodka and Coke?”

“No, problem, sir.”

“One more thing,” I asked. “Is it still dark outside?”

“No, it’s not. We are about six hours in and the morning sun is out now. We apologize, there seems to be a problem with the windows. They have all locked down, so if you were planning on looking outside, you’re not going to be able to.”

“No sunlight can get in here?” I asked, almost giddy.

“I guess you can say that.”

“And the windows are definitely stuck?” I pressed.

“That’s what I said,” she said, almost condescending.

What a break!

I wondered if the Triat had something to do with it. I sat back in my seat and smiled.

“This has been a very odd flight,” Helen said, leaning over to me.

“Oh, you have no idea!” I said, laughing. I looked over at Helen and noticed she was wearing a completely different outfit than she had on earlier. She was now wearing a colorful blue and orange sundress with her legs nicely on display. She had very nice stems, very shapely and a little bit of golden tan that showed she was careful to use sunscreen. Either that, or she loved her a salon spray-on tan. She must have changed in the bathroom while I was sleeping. Speaking of which, it is about that time for me also.

“Excuse me,” I said to Helen and unbuckled my seatbelt and got up out of my seat. I made my way around Helen and noticed a strange scratch on the back of her neck. I thought it was odd. “Wow, that’s some scratch!” I said.

Helen felt the back of her neck and smiled, “I have a pretty frisky kitty.”

“I bet you do,” I said, not sure if she meant anything sexual by her statement.

I went to the bathroom area of the plane.

Damn, it was cramped.

I took care of business and then checked my hair in the mirror. It was pretty messy. My hair was in serious need of a good haircut.

I decided to turn on the water faucet and put my entire head in the tiny sink by rotating it back and forth. It’s a quick trick I do to get my hair in order fast. I took off my leather jacket and dumped my head into the tiny sink. I used paper towels to dry off my hair. I slicked back my hair using my fingers.

Why was I doing this? Was I trying to impress Helen?

She definitely seemed interested in me, but that was the last thing I needed to worry about. I had enough on my plate, just trying to get to Romania in one piece. Not to mention the whole I’m-in-love-with-Lena part.

Lena wasn’t officially my girlfriend or anything, but she did tell me she loved me. I was pretty damn sure I loved her. But, there was something very intriguing and sexy about Helen. But that was as far as I was going to take it.

So, there I was, primping in the mirror trying to look good for a woman for whom I knew nothing was going to come of our brief acquaintance, just two random people, in random seats on a plane to Heathrow. It could have been anyone next to me, but I was glad it was her.

My blonde hair curled over with a little Superman twist that would have make Christopher Reeve jealous. My eyes were looking especially blue. It must have been the lighting. My face was remarkably mark-free, which was a miracle, considering how many life-altering fights I’d been in, over the last few months. My black shirt was wrinkled from sleeping in the seat. I did my best to straighten it over my blue jeans.

I am a sexy beast, I thought.

I stepped out of the restroom holding my leather jacket and walked back to my seat. The flight attendant caught my attention and asked, “Would you like your meal now? You were asleep when I passed them out.”

“Sure, what is it?”

“You have a choice between meatloaf and chicken.”

“And what if I’m a vegan?”

“Then we can double up your sides.”

“Lucky for me, I’m not a vegan. I’ll take the chicken.” The waitress shook her head and was not amused with my antics.

I stepped inside my row and in front of Helen. She was listening to her MP3 player and just scooted aside as I walked in front of her.

I sat back in my seat and flipped down the movie thingamajig in front of me. Bridget Jones’s Diary 1 and 2? Are you kidding me? I am not a chick-flick dude; Tommy was into movies like Fried Green Tomatoes and Prince of Tides. I swore I saw him crying during both films.

I flipped through the movie list. I ticked them off in my head as I searched in vain for Never back Down, Rocky, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, even a Jackie Chan. Nada.

Weren’t there any action flicks? Hell, I was an action movie all by myself. Someone should write my story and put it on the big screen. Maybe someday, I would.

I flipped through each movie. All they had were Adam Sandler flicks and British titles that I didn’t even recognize. I sat back and sighed. All I wanted was a good gangster movie or at least Daniel Craig film. No 007? I was going to England for crying out loud. Not even the Welshman, Sean Connery.

“Nothing good?” Helen said to me.

“Nope! You have the right idea by listening to music.”

Helen took her earplugs out of her ears and looked over at me. “We should be in London in a couple of hours.”

“It appears to be that way.” I smiled at her.

“So, Josiah, what is a young man like yourself going to a country like Romania for?”

I looked at Helen and I give her credit; she did seem real interested in me. I have always liked that trait in a woman. “You could say I’m going there on business.”

“What business is that?”

I grinned. “I’m in the business of kicking ass.”

Helen expected me to laugh or say I was kidding. She sat and waited for me to make another statement. “Oh, you’re being serious. What the hell do you do?”

So, this is the part where I now needed to lie to people. I haven’t had to do this yet, so I wasn’t even sure if it was going to sound good. “I’m a fighter,” I said. “I’m going there for training. I’m meeting up with a world-class trainer.”

Okay, so far that is the total truth.

“A fighter? Like a boxer?” she asked.

“Yes, I box. I also do other things.”

“What kind of other things.”

“I kick.”

“You’re a kick boxer?”

“No, I’m a mixed martial arts fighter.” I still wasn’t lying. I was technically still in the Commission. I wasn’t sure what they think happened to me since I hadn’t shown up for training for a while, let alone a fight.

“Oh, okay,” she said, nodding her head. “That is very interesting.”

“That’s me,” I said. “I’m Mr. Interesting.”

Mr. Interesting? Are you kidding me? Why was I being such a tool?

Then I smiled like a total dork does after he knows he said something completely moronic. To her credit, she held in a giggle. I could see it.

“Do you have a girlfriend, Josiah?”

I looked at Helen and wasn’t sure how to answer the question. So, I said, “That’s the billion-dollar question!”

“A billion dollars?” Helen asked. “Not a million? Damn, it must be complicated.”

“Not so much… complicated,” I said. “There has just been a lot of drama really fast.”

“Do you like the drama?”

“Not exactly. No one could be prepared for the kind of drama I’ve seen.” That was about as honest of a statement as I had ever delivered.

“Why don’t you get out of the relationship?” Helen asked.

Helen had it completely wrong.

“The drama isn’t about her. She’s not the one creating it.”

“Then who is creating it?”

Here is where I wanted to say, the Triat, werewolves, vampires, something like that. But, I didn’t want her to think I should be in a mental institution, so I thought I would better say, “An ex-boyfriend.”

“Does she still love him?”

I paused. “That I don’t know for sure. I suppose she does. But he isn’t exactly with us any longer.”

“He died?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, I get it.” Helen had the look people do when finally something makes sense. “And she still cares about him?”

“I don’t think that kind of thing just goes away. The whole thing smacks of hero worship, something he didn’t deserve.”

“Well, that isn’t good.” Helen seemed to be really pouncing on the fact Lena might still have feelings for Atticai. She didn’t know that Atticai was psychopathic vampire who tried to drain her blood for some weird purpose that only he seemed to understand.

“There’s a lot about the entire situation that I can’t really explain.”

“Try me.” Helen turned her entire body toward me and looked me in the eye.

I was hesitant to tell Helen exactly how I felt about Lena. I guess this was the test of my loyalty to her. “Something is constantly drawing me to her. Sometimes, I feel like it’s beyond this world.”

“Something supernatural?” she asked.

“Actually, that’s exactly what I think it is.”

“Wow! You’re a romantic!”

I couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing with her. “I’m not a romantic,” I said. “Trust me! I’m the farthest thing from that, but when something keeps staring you in the face, you eventually give in to it and consider it might be a higher power that has brought you together.”

“Look, Josiah. You might not want to think you’re a romantic, but I have a good read on people and that is exactly what you are. Unless, the reason you feel that way is because you’re a religious fanatic.”

“I’m not a religious fanatic in the slightest. I will say this though, anyone who is a humanist and thinks this world is the beginning, middle, and end is greatly mistaken.”

“And how does Josiah know that it’s not?” she asked.

I looked at Helen and smirked. I liked it that she talked about me, to me, in the third person. It was sort of classy.

She looked at me expectantly.

I really wasn’t planning on getting into such a deep conversation with her. I was actually surprised that we were having such philosophical dialogue so quickly. I don’t know why, but I think I trusted her. Maybe, it was because when we talked, she constantly made eye contact with me. Or maybe it was the fact that she was even interested at all, a woman who didn’t think that the earth revolved around her. What I do know is that I can’t reveal too much to a random record producer who I just met on an airplane. So, I decided to change the subject. I gave a little shrug, by way of apology for my nondisclosure.

“So, Helen,” I said. “What’s your story? A rock star boyfriend?”

“My story isn’t quite that interesting. I have no boyfriend and I haven’t quite figured out the meaning of our existence, like some people.” Helen winked at me.

Damn, she was cute. Stop it, Josiah! Think of Lena. Remember her? You know, the girl who laid her body on top of you, while a seven-foot werewolf was trying to kill you.

I decided to reel in the conversation and back it up and keep it light. She was getting much too close to asking pointed questions. Still, I found it very easy to talk to her, almost as if we were talking over the phone. We talked for the next couple of hours about movies, politics, and current events. It was shocking how we had practically the same opinion on most subjects. She was a news and pop culture hound, like me. We both seemed to like the same things. It was effortless talking to her; almost like we had known each other forever. She was cute as hell, but my heart was with Lena.

Then the pilot’s voice came over the speaker: “We’re on the approach to Heathrow. We’ll be landing shortly. I hope you had a pleasant flight. You’ll be going through Customs before you get your next connection, and to those of you who are staying in London, don’t miss the Tower of London tour. It’s 900 years old and was built by William the Conqueror.”

My eyebrows went up. Did I have time for that tour? Nah. Focus, Josiah.

“Wow!” Helen said. “That was the fastest eleven-hour flight that I have ever been on.”

“It did go by fairly quick, didn’t it?”

“Good conversation tends to do that.”

“Yes, it does,” I agreed.

“You know what we did, don’t you?” Helen looked at me intently.

“What did we do?” I said, concerned.

“We had the all-night-talk,” she said, plainly.

“What’s that?”

“You know when you first meet someone and hit it off, you spend all night talking to them on the phone. That’s what we had. We talked about everything.”

“It was fun talking to you,” I said.

Helen started to say something and then stopped.

“What?” I asked.

“I have this stupid dinner tonight, and it’s a couples’ thing, and I don’t have anyone to go with.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure you won’t have a hard time finding a date.” I knew she was insinuating that we should go together, but I didn’t feel right about it. I knew I was very attracted to her and that was not a good situation to put myself in. Lena. Her name was like a little heartbeat inside of me.

Helen was quiet.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I don’t want to find a date. I want to go with you,” she said, with an amazing, giant beautiful smile.

Even though I knew that was where she was leading, but I was afraid to hear the answer. The weird part was that I didn’t know why I was scared. Was it because I thought she didn’t want to go with me, or was it that it would put me in a weird predicament with Lena?

“My flight to Romania is in five hours,” I told her.

“Do you have a set time you are to meet your trainer?”

I thought about it for a moment. I really didn’t have a set time for anything. The gnome was waiting for me, regardless. Helen could tell by my expression that I was considering it.

“Listen,” she said. “I know the guy who runs the Claridge’s Hotel. He’ll put you up in his best suite. It’s like $5,000 a night.”

“I don’t have that kind of money,” I said, shocked.

“Don’t worry. He owes me a favor.”

Damn, just to stay in a suite that’s $5,000 a night would be worth it.

“It’s the Davies Penthouse,” she continued. “It is immaculate.”

“You have that kind of influence?” I asked.

Helen laughed, “Oh Josie, you have no idea.”

I sat back and thought for a moment. I really wanted to do this. After all the crap I’ve been through, this sounded like a blast.

“Ok, two things,” I said. “One, you need to know that I am very serious about how I feel toward Lena and I would be escorting you only as a friend.”

“No problem. I just want to spend a little bit more time with you. You’re a pretty cool guy, Josiah. What’s the second thing?”

“Never call me Josie ever again.”

“You got it Jo-Jo.”

I shot her a dirty look and we both buckled our seatbelts before the flight landed.

Chapter Three

I knew the second I got off the plane that I was going to need a specific plan in regards to the sun. As I had nothing to show Customs except for my leather jacket, they gave me a funny look and waved me through. I was about to embark on a lot of pain if I wasn’t quick and precise in how I left the airport.

Helen told me she has a limo picking us up out front. I could avoid the sun until I knew the limousine was there.

Helen and I walked through Heathrow terminal and, luckily, it was a windowless airport. As we approached the front entrance, I knew I was bound to see glass doors and windows. Sure enough, as we rounded the corner there they were, like blades of gamma rays attacking my skin.

Holy shit! It felt like I was on the sun.

I looked over at Helen and she was walking exceptionally fast and that was good thing. She was wearing a rather large hat and a very long fur coat. That was her third outfit! She must spend hours a day picking outfits and changing them, like a human Barbie doll.

Helen rushed through the sliding glass doors and went straight to her limousine that was right at the entrance. I followed close behind and was very pleased how this was working out. I noticed that the limousine had extremely dark windows. They were darkest windows I had ever seen. The chauffeur already had the door open for us and we both rushed into the limousine. As we did so, something unusual started happening. Paparazzi were flashing light bulbs at us! There was pack of them! They were taking pictures and yelling all sorts of things. At one point I swore one of them yelled the name Ginger.

We eventually settled into the limousine and the chauffeur slammed the door behind us..

“Was that for you?” I asked.

Helen grinned.

Who was this famous record producer that has paparazzi following her?

“Helen, who are you?”

“I’m Helen,” she said, obviously being coy.

“Helen who?”

“Helen Martin.”

“Are you famous in England?”

“What do you think? Do the paparazzi follow regular people around in America?”

“Aren’t you American?”

“No.”

“But you had no hint of a British accent,” I said.

Helen decided to change her voice into a thick Cockney accent and she said, “Really, Guv’nor, do all Brits need to sound like Harry Potter or Oliver?”

“Very funny, but any Brit I know has an accent. Look at Simon Cowell or Pierce Morgan. Both those guys couldn’t hide their accent if they tried.”

“I spend a lot of time in the States and had a lot of voice training. I can do whatever accent fits the situation.”

“Okay, that’s cool. But again... who are you? We established you’re British, but tell me why the paparazzi treated you as if you are the love child of Lindsay Lohan and Justin Bieber.”

“Oh, Josiah,” she laughed. “I’m the Duchess of Windsor.”

“You’re royalty?” I asked.

“Most Duchesses are.”

Holy crap! I was really taken aback. “Does the paparazzi treat all royalty like that?”

“No, unfortunately, I have made headlines as of late.”

“How?”

“Well, I dated Mario Moses.”

“The sports billionaire, Mario Moses? The guy who owns the Knicks and the Bears? Are you kidding me?” I had no idea I was sitting next to the Paris Hilton of England.

“No, I wish I was. He was old enough to be my dad.”

“Why did you date him?”

“Cause he’s richer than God.” She settled in and said, “He moved down here for a while and we had a few ugly fights in public. The photos and gossip were splayed all over the tabloids in both England and the United States. I’m actually shocked that you have no idea who I am.”

“Don’t be. I have never watched TMZ and I just don’t keep up on the gossip on your side of the pond.” I kept up with pop culture about as much as I did with women’s fashion. It just didn’t happen. Some of my Nikes sneaker were from the last century. Collector items.

Helen smiled at me. “It’s actually refreshing to not have someone recognize me. It is nice to know that there is someone out in the world that has no idea who I am.”

“Well, dear, I’ve been a little busy the last couple of months, saving the world.”

She smiled and poured me in a drink. “I bet you have.” Helen had no idea how true of a statement that actually was.

“That explains why there was no one sitting in the last eight rows. That was for your benefit. How was I able to get a seat in your row?”

Helen grinned. “Some things are left to fate. I asked them to allow any 18- to 24-year-old male who was by himself to buy a window ticket in my row. Little did I know he was going to be one of the hottest guys I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in quite some time.”

Her comment made me blush, or whatever vampires do when they get embarrassed. I doubt blood rushed to my face, but then, who knew?

“So, now that you know this bit of info, do you still want to accompany me tonight at the dinner?”

I grinned. “I actually liked the fact that you were a record producer. I thought I was going to meet Sir Paul McCartney tonight.”

“Well, I burn songs on my computer and label all my CD’s ‘Helen’s Mixes.’ I can give you one if you like. And, I think Paul just might be showing up.”

“Paul? You just called one of the greatest musicians by his first name only. Are you kidding me? He might be showing up?”

“He usually comes to all the soirees put on by the British elite.”

“Wow, I’m the hugest Beatles fan! Holy crap!”

“Don’t get all star-struck, Josiah.”

“Are you kidding? We’re talking about the greatest band of all time!”

“So, I take it you still want to come. Even knowing that I’m a Duchess and we’ll probably be hounded by more paparazzi?”

“Oh, I’m coming,” I said catching my breath. “You can count on that. Romania can wait.”

The limo pulled into a special entrance at the biggest and nicest hotel I had ever seen. It looked like a palace.

“Oh, by the way,” Helen said, “If you’d like to stay longer, I’ll set you up on a private plane to Romania whenever you’re ready to go. So, you’re welcome to stay as long as you like. Go check out Stonehenge, you Yanks seem to get off on looking at those big monoliths!”

I was trying to wrap my mind around everything Helen was telling me. This kind of thing didn’t happen to me every day. As a matter of fact, this kind of thing didn’t happen to anyone. “I just might do that,” I said.

“Who knows? Maybe I’ll accompany you, if you choose to do some sight-seeing.”

“Maybe,” I said, still thinking about the concept of seeing a Beatle in mere hours. It eclipsed my thoughts of a possible Tower of London tour. Our eyes met and I looked away, fast, seeing something in her eyes past friendliness. More intimate.

Uh oh! Don’t get smitten at her power here, Josiah. Don’t forget your goal. You have a lot of people depending on you.

It was just nice to take a break. Life had been going a hundred miles an hour. It was nice to talk to someone who wasn’t a vampire or a werewolf and was just normal. I looked over at Helen, her sleek, silky legs crossed on the cushy velvety limousine seats. Well, maybe not too normal. For example, I didn’t see a seatbelt in sight. It felt weird to worry about that when I was the savior of the Mani world, but I liked seatbelts. I’d take human at this point. She saw me looking at the seats.

“You don’t have a suitcase?” Helen asked. “You took a trip halfway across the world and you didn’t bring anything?”

“When I travel, I take half the clothes and twice the money,” I joked. “I’m a man with simple needs,” I said with a cool wink.

“That you are,” she said, knowing I was kidding. Helen pulled a card out of her wallet. “Call this number, and tell him your jacket and trouser measurements and I’ll take care of the bill.”

“Oh, you really don’t have to do anything like that. I’m pretty low maintenance,” I said.

“It’s one thing to be low maintenance and it’s another to be no-maintenance. You will need some new threads for tonight, as my escort. I know this James Dean, leather jacket, tight jeans style works for you–I mean you definitely got me hot, all you needed was the sideburns–but even James Dean couldn’t go to Cinderella’s ball dressed like that.”

“Great, what did I get myself into?” I said, smiling. I stepped out of the limo, and a bellhop was there to greet me. “Your bags, sir?”

“No bags,” I said.

The bellhop looked at me with a bit of disdain. Apparently, we were going to do the whole Pretty Woman bit.

“Are we really going to play this game Belvedere?” I said. “I don’t have a bag, the Duchess is putting me up and I don’t tip. So, if we’re straight on the details, please let me know where my room is, so I can actually shower before the royal shindig.”

Helen peeked her head out of the limo, “Well, Josiah, the shindig is in two hours. So, you’ll need to be dressed to the nines in one.” She gave me a wink and the chauffer shut the limo door.

Then Belvedere showed me up to my room. We took the freight elevator. My room was on the top floor. I asked him to show me how to make international calls from my bedside phone. How positively archaic. A land line. I hadn’t used one for years. He obliged me and then waited by the door, like a freaking butler.

“I wasn’t kidding about the tip. I only have American cash, and from what I can tell, my money is cents on the dollar to your British currency.”

The bell hop calmly looked straight ahead, as if he was a royal guard himself. “American money is just as good to me, sir. I’m not a snob.”

I got up and pulled my wallet out. I had five one-hundred dollar bills in my wallet. Hector had given me his credit card that had a $100,000 limit on it. Money wasn’t going to be a problem as long as places took credit cards and didn’t sneer at my California driver’s license.

“It’s not your lucky day, Belvedere. I only have hundred dollar bills. But, I do have a $25 Hard Rock Cafe gift card that my roommate gave me for Christmas that I never used. I saw one of those restaurants on the way in. So here you go.” I handed him the Hard Rock gift card. “Twenty-five American dollars gift card to a novelty restaurant.”

“Great,” he said, smugly, “I’ll get the nachos.”

“I’d go with the steak fajitas myself, but I’ve been told that you Brits are not one for taste. I mean please, you eat kidneys for breakfast! So, if you don’t mind, Belvedere, I need to shower up.”

I shook his hand, and something out of the ordinary happened. I had flashes of light in my brain and images were forming. I saw three men talking to Belvedere and giving him money. I let go of his hand quickly, because the vision had shocked my system. That had never happened before. I didn’t know how to use my gifts correctly, and apparently that was another one I now had at my disposal.

The bellhop left the room and I stood by the door. That image freaked me out. I hadn’t expected anything like that to happen. It was as if the Triat was trying to speak to me. I got an unintentional vision and I didn’t know what to make of it.

I flung open the door and Belvedere was at the freight elevator, waiting for it to come back up.

“Hey,” I yelled down the hall. “Hold up.” I ran up to him knowing that I somehow needed to touch him again. It is unusual to a touch a man that you hardly knew, so I need to be crafty. “Hey, I would like to apologize for being rude,” I said, in my good-guy voice.

“No problem, sir.” He was clearly suspicious of me.

“What is your real name?” I asked. “I noticed you don’t have your employee badge.”

“It’s Maxwell, sir.”

“Okay, Maxwell, here is a better tip for taking my abuse earlier.”

“You really don’t need to, sir.”

“I insist.” I reached back into my pocket and pulled my wallet back out. I took out a hundred and handed it to him. I made a point to hold his hand while we exchanged the money. When our hands touched, I saw the same flash of light. I saw the three men again. They were with Pudgy. I focused and saw they were in a coffee shop. Someone was handing them a large sum of money.

Maxwell let go of my hand, forcefully. He probably thought I was making a pass at him. “Thank you, sir, you are too kind,” he said, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, thanks.”

Crap! I needed to know who was paying them. Maxwell turned around and faced the elevator. I reached out my hands and said, “Is this made of suede, Maxwell?” I placed both my palms on his back tightly.

I, again, saw the three men and Maxwell. And now, there was a woman in the picture. The woman said, “Don’t kill him, but put him to the test.” Then the woman stood up and all I could see was her back.

Maxwell pulled away and I grabbed his shoulders. “Man, you’re toned, Maxwell!” I began massaging his shoulders. The image appeared again and I saw who the woman was. It was Helen.

Chapter Four

Crap! What did I get myself into tonight? Duchess Schmuchess, I should have known this couldn’t be random. Nothing random ever happens to me anymore.

I called the number on the card that Helen had given me and gave them my measurements. Fighters always know their measurements. The suit guy asked me if I preferred brown or black.

“Oh, I can never have enough black in my wardrobe, dear chap,” I said. And we hung up. No woman had bought me clothes since my mother was alive. What was Helen up to in that touchy-feely vision I had when I touched good old Belvedere in the hallway?

Helen seemed normal and very sincere. Don’t kill him? But put him to the test? Were they talking about me? I remembered seeing the scrape on the back of her neck as we were exiting the plane. Could she be a Mani, or a Carni? Was this all a ruse, a set up? Was an ass kicking waiting for me at the end of the evening with the whole royal fam damily. Maybe they were vampires or werewolves? Or even ghosts…

I had survived two of the toughest vampires of all time, and probably the toughest werewolf, Tommy. I could handle a high-class dinner party and crook my pinky whilst I sipped tea with lemon and sugar and said “cheerio,” once in a while. Hopefully, the toughest thing at the dinner party would be trying to follow the men’s conversations about cricket matches and the ladies’ conversations about those big stupid hats they had to wear to the horse races. Yeah, it was a law, I had read somewhere.

I went over to the phone to make an international call. I got connected to Lena’s cell. Technology is freaking amazing!

“Hello,” Lena said.

“Lena, it’s Josiah! Pip, pip, cheerio!”

She laughed at my corny joke. “I know who it is, no one else calls me.”

“Well, I am in Britain.”

“So, you should be boarding the plane to Romania anytime soon, right?”

“Well, there has been a little change in plans.”

“What kind of change?” She seemed concerned.

“Before I get into all of that, I want to tell you how wonderful it is to hear your voice.”

“It’s nice to hear yours, too. I miss you terribly, Josiah. It’s only been a few hours, but it feels like an eternity.”

“I know what you mean.”

Lena paused. “Okay, now tell me about the change of plans.”

I hesitated and said, “The connecting flight came into London and I decided to stay over for a night.”

“Why?”

“Well, I got invited to some kind of royal party.”

“What are you talking about? By who?”

“Some duchess or something. She seems down to earth though.” She wanted to spoon me.

“Hold up!” I could tell Lena was extremely confused. “A royal princess invited you to some ball. Where? Westminster Abbey?”

“I actually don’t know where it’s taking place.”

“Who invited you?”

“Her name is Helen.”

“Helen?” Lena asked. “Helen, the Duchess of Windsor?”

“Yeah, that’s her.”

“The duchess that is dating Mario Moses?”

“Well, they aren’t dating anymore,” I said. I couldn’t believe what I was even saying. “So, you have heard of her?”

“She was only on the cover of every tabloid magazine last year.”

“Really?”

“Do you live under a rock, Josiah?”

I laughed. “I’ve been a tad busy. And mostly, human, Carni, or Mani, I just mind my own business because if I don’t it usually means I will get my ass beating of the week before I have to change into a big white bird and make my nose into a freaking spear of death.”

Lena laughed wryly and somehow, I knew she had rolled her eyes. “Even still. There are some things you can’t avoid.”

“Look, we met on the airplane and she invited me to this party where I have a chance to meet Paul McCartney.”

“You’re kidding?”

“No. So bear with me. Shall I say his name again for you?”

“So, let me get this straight, Josiah. I saw you not even fifteen hours ago, and in that time, you’ve met Helen, the Duchess of Windsor and she invited you to a party that will have ‘Paul ‘freaking’ McCartney’ at it?”

“Yes,” I said.

“So, you just charmed her so well that she invited you to some royal bash?”

“I guess you can say that, though we both slept a lot on the flight. It was actually like she charmed me, not the other way around. I was all set to run to the Tower of London tour, just to see it once, and then hop back on the itinerary for Romania but she invited me tonight. Very prim and proper.”

“What are you even going to wear?” Lena said. Oh yeah, she went there.

“She had me call the equivalent of Suits-to-Go and a guy is going to bring me some clothes. I guess that’s the way they do things here. You have to dress for dinner. It’s like a law or something.”

“I’ve never even seen you in a necktie,” Lena said thoughtfully.

There was a long pause on the other end and I heard a crackle that was either the transatlantic phone line or Lena was crinkling a potato chip bag.

“Is she interested in you?” Lena sounded a little bit worried.

“No, it’s nothing like that. She just needed someone to escort her. Look, I’m not even sure how much I can trust her. One thing you know for sure is that you can trust me. After all we have been through, I promise you that.”

“I know, I trust you. It’s just the weirdest thing you could have possibly told me, that’s all. Just be sure to bring me an autograph by Paul McCartney.”

“Done,” I said. “Plus, I told her about you.”

“You did? You told her about me?” Lena voice sounded giddy. I wasn’t sure if she liked the fact I told another woman about her, or that someone famous knew who she was. “What did you say?”

“I told her that I cared about you. That you were my...” I hesitated.

“I was what?” Lena asked.

“My girlfriend,” I said.

“Really?”

“Yeah, so you have nothing to worry about.”

Lena was quiet. I could almost hear her smiling. “I miss you so much, Josiah.”

“I miss you, too.”

“How long do you think you’ll be gone?”

“I really don’t know, maybe a week or so. Well, I’d better get ready. I’ll call you in the morning.”

“That will be nighttime here. It’s morning right now.”

“I totally forgot. Bye, Lena.”

“Bye, Josiah.”

I hung up and headed straight for the shower. Talking to Lena rejuvenated me. I stripped down and got in the shower. I don’t know why but showering always seemed to be better than sex ever since becoming a Mani. I stood there for a good twenty minutes! About how long it takes me to, well… nuff said. It was a pretty good shower.

I got out of the shower and stepped into the main room of the suite. There was a tuxedo on my bed. I guess they had brought it in while I was in the shower, lathering up.

I hoped it fit. I put the bad-boy on, and I had to admit, I looked freaking good. I’ve never worn one of these penguin suits before, and damn! I was sexy as hell! Total red-carpet ready!

I finished getting ready with a razor and some shaving cream the hotel had provided and the phone rang. I answered it.

“Your limousine is here, sir,” the voice on the line said.

“Where is it?” I asked.

“It’s in the parking garage, sir. The Duchess is waiting.”

“Then I better mosey on down there,” I said, in a bad Southern accent. American, that is.

I hung up the phone and put on my dress shoes. Darn they hurt! A size too small! I was 13 and these were obviously 12’s, maybe even 11’s. This wouldn’t do! I took them off and put on my Doc Marten boots that I wore on the trip over. These boots were made for ass-kicking and I just might have to do some of that tonight.

Chapter Five

The elevator door opened and I was in the parking garage. The black stretch limo awaited me. The chauffeur got out of the front seat and opened the side door. Helen jumped out to greet me. She gave me a freaking air kiss just inches from each just-shaved cheek. What was that about? So she didn’t mess up her lipstick? Her perfume swirled around me like a tender trap and I have to say that… Holy shit! She looked incredible!

Helen was wearing a light blue gown that fit her like a second skin and I couldn’t detect that she was wearing a bra or underwear. She just looked like she was sewn into the dress. And the dress itself seemed to have diamonds sewn into it. No, not rhinestones, and not Swarovski crystals like they used on freaking Project Runway – Lena adored this silly TV show. Helen wore a spectacular bracelet that probably cost more than my house and it bore the family crest, I assumed, lions and a wicked cool unicorn. Her earrings were long and very diamondy. She looked like a million bucks! From the looks of it, her outfit was worth at least that much. Geez, what if she got a dab of ketchup on herself? What then?

“You clean up nice,” she said.

I was still blown away at how fantastic she looked. “And you, well, you clean up like royalty.”

“Oh, this old thing,” she said mockingly. She smiled and her eyes sparkled along with her jewelry and sparkly, sparkly dress, as if we could just shoot her into the sky and have her light it up.

“You look fantastic, you’re mesmerizing.”

“Mesmerizing! Wow! I’m glad I took the extra time to do my hair.”

“Your hair looks great. It’s whole… package.” Damn. I was having a hard time talking.

“You’re sweet, Josiah, even when the cat has got your tongue.” She paused, then leaned in and kissed my cheek for real. When we touched, I thought I might see a vision like I had with the bellhop. I got nothing, just the lovely smell of a thousand-dollar perfume.

“Let’s make our way to the party,” she said, smiling as she saw me smelling her. “We’d better hurry or I might turn into a pumpkin.”

Helen stepped back into the limo and I followed. She sat with her back to the chauffeur, while I sat across from her. I got a flash of Princess Diana in her last moments of life and wished again for a seat belt. I choked down the thought.

“You ready for this night of your life?” Helen asked.

“I’m as ready as a guy like me can get. I suppose you’ll keep me by your side all night as your escort.”

She smiled and patted my hand. “Within inches.”

We headed out of the parking garage and Helen opened the sun roof. The stars looked amazing.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“To the West End,” Helen answered.

“I looked at the digital clock on the TV set in the limousine, it read 9:04.

“May I?” I asked, implying I wanted to stick my head out of the sun roof.

“By all means, help yourself.”

I stuck my head out of the sun roof and looked at downtown London. I had never done anything like this before and it felt exhilarating. It’s hard to impress a guy who can turn into an eagle and fly, but she managed to impress me.

Then, without warning, I heard a squawk from above. I looked up and saw three black ravens coming for my head. My instinct was to duck back inside, but instead I climbed onto the roof of the limo.

“What are you doing?” Helen yelled. I didn’t have time to respond. The three birds torpedoed into me and pushed me off of the moving limo. I transitioned into the great white eagle on contact and flew upward before my body hit the pavement.

I darted across the sky. I could see Piccadilly Street below me and the Thames River to the left of me. I circled around and I could see Big Ben in the distance. I decided to make my way to the gigantic clock. It was a good point of focus and not too shabby of a landmark to fly toward. I flew as hard as I could to the giant watch in the sky. I flew toward Bridge Street and was making my way to the clock tower. I looked behind me and the three ravens were chasing me.

Why was I running away from them? What was I running away from? They were obviously Mani, but who were they? I decided to fly past Big Ben and continue south of Wandsworth. I could see a lit park below me on Kensington and decided to fly down toward the grass. As I got closer to the park, I realized it wasn’t a park, but a series of tennis courts. And not just any tennis courts. It dawned on me, I was at Wimbledon.

I crashed into one of the nets as I tried to land. I rolled and transitioned back to my Mani form.

The three ravens were close behind me. All three landed on the other side of the net and transitioned. I stood up, facing the three Mani men.

“Why are you chasing me?” I asked.

The three men stepped closer and I could see them. I recognized all of them from the vision. There was a tall blonde guy who was skinny as hell. He stood in the middle. There was one on the left who had long brown hair with squirmy eyes that looked like he could use a couple months’ of eating Jenny Craig pre-packaged cuisine. The one on the right was the one I was worried about. He had jet-black hair and appeared to be in very good shape.

I repeated myself, “Why are you chasing me?”

Again, none of them spoke. So, I just stood my ground. My experience has taught me that when one is outnumbered, wait to be attacked and then react.

I’m not sure why exactly, but whenever I was in a physical confrontation, even when I was a human, everything around me slowed down and almost came to a halt. I was able to dissect a situation in milliseconds, because it seemed to be in slow motion. I called it my Good Will Hunting mode.

I was staring at all three of these guys and waiting for them to attack. Why would Helen pay these guys to fight me? It didn’t make any sense. I stared each of these idiots in the face. Did they really think I couldn’t take them? I could kill all three of them in my sleep! Did they have any idea what I’ve been through? Obviously not, because there would be no way in hell they’d be facing off against me if they did.

The three men simultaneously, almost as if they had choreographed it ahead of time, came toward me in a rush, then backed off and made a triangle around me. Cool, I thought, A special formation just for yours truly.

Suddenly, the guy with the jet-black hair charged me. I was always good in geometry so I enjoyed this little pattern they set up. He foolishly lunged toward me and I karate-kid kicked him right in the face with hands in the air and all—my little homage to 80s martial arts cinema. He fell flat on his back and popped back up like a spring. He nodded his head at me as if to say, ‘well played.’

The guy on the left came in at me and I swept his right leg. I jumped and floated up and I controlled my body in midair as well as I could. All three of their jaws dropped as they witnessed a Mani who could fly in his Mani form. Without transitioning. Yeah, take that suckers.

“Oh,” I said, to the three of them. “You thought you could just roll over on me. You didn’t realize I’m the baddest motherfucker you’re ever going to get into a street fight with.”

I dropped down in a 45-degree angle with my left leg extended and drilled the fat guy on the right’s chin. He somersaulted backwards.

“15-love,” I said, referring to how a tennis match is scored.

The black-haired man didn’t like my smug attitude. He shook his head and came toward me. I jumped over him like he was a hurdle in the Olympics. I landed about ten feet away from him with my back to three men. Not the smartest move. The heavy-set one had gotten back up and tackled me to the ground. I had to give the obese asshole props, he was pretty damn strong. But he was no Goliath. But who is?

His fat ass was lying on top of me. I flipped his 250-pound frame over my head, and then popped up from my back.

Then the tall blonde guy finally got into the picture and round-house kicked me and caught my right cheek and I stumbled back.

“Nice Blondie, good to see us blonde boys can still hold our own.”

He smirked at me and said, “15-15,” responding to my reference to a tennis match.

I grinned and charged Blondie and kicked him in the chest with enough force to send his body one hundred feet in the air. “Damn!” He hit the back wall of center court and didn’t move. He didn’t disappear so I knew he was still alive.

I turned to face the other two, “30-15,” advantage badass motherfucker.

I flung my body into the dark-haired Mani’s space and grabbed him by his shirt and flew up in the air, still holding him. He dangled from my clutches and was in absolute horror. It reminded me of what a scared kitten looks like when you pick it up. I was about three hundred feet in the sky, still clutching onto him by his shirt.

“You better transition before you land,” I said. “Because this is going to hurt.” I back-handed him and hit him square between the eyes before he fell to the earth and transitioned into a raven before he hit the ground, like I suggested.

Good Mani thug, you listened.

He collapsed as he landed on the grass court.

One left, Chubbo. I stared him down and said, “40-15,” advantage skinnier guy. He shook his head, already knowing his fate.

“I tell you what; I’ll spare your ass. Just get the hell out of here.”

He shook his head and then ran toward me like a Trojan warrior, but without the sword. Too bad, my swords were my hands and feet.

He came at me and I ducked, grabbed his arm and threw him forward like I was a matador screwing with a bull during a bullfight. He rolled on the ground into the net. He got up and shook himself off.

“All right, Roly-Poly,” I said. “I gave you a chance.”

He ran at me again and, frankly, I was tired of dealing with these three. I floated up and landed on his broad shoulders. I wrapped my ankles around his neck and twisted my feet putting him in a leg headlock. He fell to the ground and I cranked up that puppy by tightening my legs until he passed out.

Game, set, match.

Suddenly, I saw something shoot across the sky like a meteor. I looked closely to see what it was, but it was gone. Someone held back and observed. I wonder who. Helen, of course.

I looked at the three men lying center court. I wiped myself off and thought, Roger Federer would be proud. I transitioned into the eagle and flew off, making my way back to the West End.

I flew back and there was no sign of the black stretch limousine. West End was really crowded and I decided to take the subway back and try to appear as normal as possible.

When I got back to my hotel, part of me was expecting Helen to already be there, but no luck.

I went through the entrance and made my way up the elevator to my room.

The room was on the top floor and I realized once I got to the door that I was never issued a room key.

I took the elevator back down and walked up to the hotel concierge. He was a short, feminine black man.

“Hello,” I said.

He looked me over and was not impressed. My tuxedo was ripped and torn and I had grass stains everywhere, “Yes, may I help you?”

“I was never issued a room key,” I said.

“That is impossible, sir. Have you been to your room?”

“Yes, but the bell boy let me in.”

“What was his name?”

“Maxwell.”

The concierge smiled. “We don’t have anyone named Maxwell that works here.”

“Sure you do. He’s about yay high.” I put my hand a little above my head. “He’s 220-230. Has a big fat head!”

“Well, you just fit the description of half our staff, but I can assure you that no Maxwell works in this establishment.”

The concierge went to his computer. “Okay, sir. Let’s take a different approach. What is your name?”

“My name is Josiah, but I wasn’t the one who got the room.”

“Then what is the name of the person who got your room.”

“Helen, the Duchess of Windsor.”

The concierge smiled. “Sir, if you’re going to play games with me, please don’t. I’m a busy man.”

“I’m serious. The Duchess and I met on a plane and she got me the room.”

“Helen? The Duchess of Windsor?” The concierge stepped away from his computer. “Sir, you can leave on your own accord, or I can have security help you out.”

“I’m being completely real with you. She got me the room about four hours ago!”

“That would be some feat if she did,” the concierge said. “Considering she’s in Australia!”

“Huh?”

He then showed me a British tabloid paper that had today’s date on it. It read, “Duchess in Sydney!” And right there on the front cover was the Duchess. I was expecting to see a medium-height, attractive blonde. Nope, Helen, the Duchess of Windsor was a tall brunette.

I was played from the word ‘go.’

I walked slowly backwards out of the hotel and played back in my head everything that had happened in my head. I never got a key card. I didn’t come through the front door and I left from the car garage. The whole thing was a set up. I was completely duped. There was no dinner, no Paul McCartney, no nothing.

Chapter Six

Now I was stuck in London for the night. Who the heck was that woman? How could she have known that I wouldn’t know who she was? How did she reserve all those seats on the plane? I wish to God I could control my visions. My mind was a complete blank.

I still had four hundred dollars in cash, and hopefully that could get me to Romania. If not, I’d have to use Hector’s credit card. I didn’t want to do that unless I exhausted all other options.

I transitioned into the eagle and flew to Heathrow Airport. I transitioned back when I landed and headed through the double door entrance. I went to the front counter and told them I missed my connecting flight because I had diarrhea. Not sick. Diarrhea. I found out early in life, you can get just about anything you want if you play the ‘I had diarrhea card’ as an excuse. So that’s exactly what I did, I blamed my missing the flight on something that no person could control, diarrhea. No one wants to talk about it, and just saying the word out loud makes the person uncomfortable and they would rather just move you along.

Once again, the diarrhea excuse worked. I had a flight to Romania at 8:30 in the morning. That was in about seven hours. So, I decided to find a corner in Heathrow airport that was window-free and crash on the floor. I bought a blanket and pillow at one of the airport stores and then I laid my blanket and pillow out on the cold, hard airport floor and I slept on it like a homeless person. If my friends could see me now; I was at one of the most famous airports in the world…sleeping on the ground.

I was awakened by a little girl picking my nose. I looked up and a little girl had her finger in my nostril.

“Excuse me,” I said.

“Marybeth!” a man yelled, from across the terminal. “Leave that hobo alone!”

Yeah, that’s right I’ve been reduced to a hobo. No better than a drifter or gypsy. I, Josiah Reign, was an American hobo in London.

I got up off the floor with my pillow and blanket and sat on one of the chairs in the terminal. I was starving. I decided to go for a little walk and find a continental breakfast in one of the airport diners before my flight. As I walked through the airport, I thought about what had happened the night before. How did Helen know me? How did she know I was on that flight? Why did she care? What was she gaining?

I found a café and sat down. I had a croissant with a glass of orange juice. It was nice after spending the night on a hard floor. I glanced up and noticed a clock, it read 8:02. It was time for me to board the plane. I strolled over and went to the boarding area for my flight. I was, once again, the last to get on the airplane, but this time the plane was full. No rows of empty seats, and definitely no Helen, or whatever her name was. It was a three-hour flight to Romania and I needed to not worry about that right now.

I sat on the plane and I immediately asked for a blanket. I put the blanket over my head. Everyone around me probably thought I was up to something. But I didn’t physically fit a profile for them to worry about and hopefully they just remembered that I was the weird guy sleeping on the floor.

I continued to replay the entire evening and meeting from the day and night before in my head. None of it made sense to me. I needed to chill. I was about to embark on one of the most unusual journeys of my life, or anyone else’s, for that matter. I was traveling to Dracula’s castle, to find a blue gnome, from a vision I had in a dream. It was just a typical, normal day for an American vampire in London.

I landed at Henri Coandă International Airport in Bucharest, Romania. Bucharest was about 100 miles south of Transylvania. It was the nearest airport to the city.

In the airport terminal, there was a little store that had a map of tourist attractions in Romania. As you would think, Dracula’s Castle was high on the list of hot spots. They were also famous for their beautiful women, wooden shoes, and wineries. It must have been a real haven for Dracula, with lovely, inebriated women who couldn’t run away too fast in their wooden clogs. Most people didn’t realize that Dracula was a real man who died hundreds of years ago. And it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he really was a vampire. How did I know this? I didn’t. But if a kid from the Inland Empire could become a vampire, then probably the most notorious vampire in history was probably a real one, even if the books written on him were accepted as fiction. I had seen too many unbelievable things these past couple of months to not consider that most myths might have truth in them, even if it’s just a little bit of truth.

I had struggled with the sunlight on the plane even with the blanket over my head. I had spent most of my time in the bathroom as the great white eagle. I just sat on the toilet in my eagle form and would wait for someone to knock. Then I would transition back and leave so they could take their turn and then jump back into the bathroom when they left and do it all over again. Everyone on that flight must have thought I had the worst case of diarrhea they had ever seen. I guess it validated my story that I gave the airline.

Once I got outside, I needed to fly north for about 100 miles. I wasn’t going to take a bus and, frankly, I could use some fresh air after being cooped up in a stinky bathroom for three hours. That blue water in the airplane toilet did nothing to disguise what nature expelled. Even vampires had to go. What a world.

As I exited through the airport I was having a hard time with the sun. I needed to get outside fast and transition quickly. I decided to sprint through the terminal once I hit the area where sunlight was blasting in through the windows. The problem with running through an airport is that it draws attention to the runner. There would be no way to quickly transition, once I hit outside. I needed to duck behind a large object, Superman style.

I hustled through the doors and the sun blazed down on my skin like a spitball of fire. My skin stung as if I was under a magnifying glass, burning all of the flesh on my body that was exposed. I’d said it before. Vampires are to the sun like donuts are to deep fryers. Once again, I was a daylight donut, sizzling away in agony.

My face, hands and arms felt extreme amounts of excruciating, horrible pain. I tried to find a place to hide as I ran through the wide open parking lot. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of Is this what Hell feels like? Hell? I hope I never had to get used to this kind of pain!

I saw a giant camper to my left and I dropped behind it and rolled on the ground. Damn, even the ground was blazing hot. I looked backwards and forwards. No sign of anyone! I transitioned as quickly as I could. It had never felt so amazing to be the great white eagle. Becoming the eagle felt like I was being baptized into a clean sheet of ice.

I extended my wings and flew up into the sky. I flew high enough to be out of sight. I try to never take my gift of flight for granted, but as I flew across the Bucharest sky, I was highly aware of the magnificent gift I had been given. I have been cursed and blessed, and, sometimes I need to remind myself of my blessings. Giant white wings were a blessing.

I flew across the Romanian sky. I passed cities and mountains and, from the sky, Romania didn’t look much different than the U.S. It appeared to be more brown, was all.

I eventually made my way to Transylvania and as I flew into the city you would have thought Dracula himself would have been horrified to see what a sideshow his name and image had become. Everywhere you went there was attention to Dracula in a way that reminded me of a traveling carnival. What did I really expect? Everybody needed to make a buck, or in this case, the Romanian leu, worth about 30 cents to our dollar, when I checked before I left California.

As I expected, the low value of the leu to the dollar had caused a big influx of American tourism. Hell, even America celebrates its dead celebrities more than their live ones. But this, getting to see THE Dracula’s Castle, the residence of the legendary creature of terror who started it all—it was now reduced to a cheap Travelocity destination by the recession, which had cut a wide swatch across Eastern Europe and left in its wake, a ridiculously cheap way to go on vacation. Apparently, a bottle of wine could be had for about $1.50 US, and gasoline—petrol—was about 45 cents a liter. I was floored. I might not have to use the credit cards at all if I was careful.

As I approached Dracula’s Castle, with its whitewashed walls and turrets, I could see two tour buses parked in front of the amazing structure.

How was I going to find this gnome? There were tourists everywhere, I needed to come back at night when they weren’t all crowding the gift shop, looking for Dracula swag to buy and take home to Kansas. God, I hope Dracula was real and I wasn’t just having a bad recurring dream. To see the legend reduced to a fake plastic fangs on key chains and humorous bumper stickers must have had him rolling over in his grave, if that’s where he hid out when he wasn’t getting fried like a donut, too.

I flew around until it got dark—yay, eagle wings! If not for eagle wings, I would never see daylight. I made my way to one the nicest hotels in town, the Casa Luxemburg, a hotel with a medieval look to it and the Expedia price of $98 for two nights, including tax. Sweet.

I transitioned back to my Mani form and landed. I was still wearing my ripped tuxedo from the night before. My wallet was still in my front pocket. How the hell did my clothes return to my body? I decided to buy some simple clothes at the gift shop in the lobby. I grabbed a couple pair of shorts and a couple of t-shirts. I got one that read ‘I survived Dracula’s castle, and all I got was a bite on my neck and this lousy T-shirt’.

I got a room on the top floor, so I could just fly in and out of the window. I know this flying thing has made me lazy in some respects.

I went into my room and laid down on my bed in the spacious clean room that faced the square full of pretty Romanian girls selling little wooden shoes bottle openers. I was exhausted from flying all day and decided I could use a nap before going back to Dracula’s castle.

I turned on the cooling fan and just stared at it, willing it to feel like air conditioning. It paid no attention to my superpowers. Within moments, I had fallen asleep. I had fully expected to have a vision, but I didn’t. Instead I slept pretty soundly. I opened my eyes and looked outside. I had been asleep for about two hours.

I opened the window and felt the cold breeze on my face. I raised the window to its fullest level and then transitioned into the eagle. I flew out of the window and made my way to Dracula’s Castle.

I transitioned to my Mani form midflight. Maybe I did it for dramatics; but how many times does one come to a notorious castle such as this one? I wanted to fly in and witness it as a man, not as a bird. I circled the castle and from the night sky it was a sight to behold in person. The accuracy from my vision astounded me. I lowered my flight and I could see the beautiful courtyard that was dead center of the castle. There was a large open space in which some light has made its way through.

I looked closely, and there he was, the blue gnome! I saw a man no larger than four feet tall sitting in some kind of cross-legged, yoga, relaxed position. He had a bald blue head to go along with his blue body. He was a shirtless, wearing black denim shorts and brown hiking boots. He looked like he was a painted up to audition for a mini-me Blue Man Group tribute band.

Trying to sneak up on him, I eased into the courtyard, but I didn’t time it well enough, and I hit the ground with a force that really should have broken both my legs. I fell to the ground about two feet in front of the creature. Not to mention, I said “Oooff!” when I fell.

He looked down on me with his squinty yellow eyes. “You made it, Josiah. Not exactly the most graceful of entrances, but you’re here.” He seemed genuinely happy to see me.

“Hey ,there,” I stood up and was tad embarrassed, but I was eager to see what this meeting entailed. “You obviously know who I am,” I said. “What is your name?”

He smiled and stood on his feet. “I am Goshi,” and he bowed with his hands clasped together like a Kung Fu Master.

“Goshi,” I repeated his name back at him. “Nice. I like.”

“Have you come a long way?” he asked.

“I came halfway across the world to meet you and hear what you have to say. You didn’t exactly give me your email address in the visions. That might have been helpful.”

“You are from the States?” he asked. I was surprised he didn’t know where I came from. I assumed whomever or whatever told him to meet me here would have given him more of a heads’ up.

“Yes, California,” I answered.

He looked like he was trying to think of something to say nice about California. After a moment he said, “I hear you have good fish tacos. We don’t have those here.”

I chuckled. I was enjoying our little meet and greet, but I had some questions that needed to be answered ASAP.

“Who are you?” I asked simply to the little blue man. “And who has sent you to speak to me?”

“Who has sent me?” he looked at me puzzled.

“How come our paths have crossed?” I clarified.

“The world is a unpredictable place and what was belief has become skepticism. What was once fantasy is now reality.”

“I appreciate the Yoda double talk, but seriously, who are you?”

“I told you, I am Goshi,” he said calmly.

“Okay, Goshi, you mentioned in one of my dreams that I needed to come see you to be trained like some kind of vampire Jedi. So, let’s start with that. Why would a Mani man need to be trained by a tro—” I caught myself because I didn’t want to insult him.

“A troll?” he asked. “Is that what you meant to say?”

“Is that what you are?” I asked, honestly.

“This is the form that was given to me so I could remain discreet,” he said, plainly.

“Why the blue?”

“Why not? It is the color of sky, sapphires, and most of all, blood in the veins.”

“Okay. You just said the magic word. Blood. Has the Triat sent you to me?”

“You ask too many questions. It’s time for your first lesson. Let’s discuss fighting.”

“Fighting? You are going to teach me how to fight?”

“Why does that perplex you?”

I shook my head and decided I’d better start showing some humility, or this was not going to be the greatest of experiences.

“Okay, what do I need to learn?” I asked.

“Let’s see.” The troll got into a fighter position.

“You want to fight me?” I asked, surprised.

“I need to know your weaknesses.”

Was this guy for real? I had killed one of the most notorious vampires of all time, not to mention a mammoth werewolf to. Fighting was the last thing I needed help with.

“Attack me,” he said.

I stood still.

“Attack me!” he repeated.

“It’s not right. You don’t have my reach, my weight, my MMA training.”

“Do it, Josiah!” he demanded.

Everything in my core did not want to attack this tiny man, but dammit! I needed to get this show on the road.

I lunged forward and threw a nonchalant right cross at about half strength, handicapping myself in a foolish sense of fairness. He ducked and then kicked me right in the balls. As I began to go down in slo-mo, I recognized the maneuver from a tiny opponent as one of the dastardly moves in one of the Austin Powers movies. Yes, the balls. I’m not sugar coating it. This little blue shit kicked me as hard as he could in my testicles. Not cool! I fell backwards, holding my manhood, my package. I was hurt and angry.

“Why the hell did you do that?” I screamed at him.

“Because you attacked me,” he said.

“You told me to!”

“Do you do everything people tell you to? Even when you know it is not the right thing to do?”

“I do when I travel across the world to see them! You kicked me in the worst spot possible!” I felt my groin and I don’t think I had ever been kicked that hard in that particular area in my entire life. It hurt on a whole different level. My feelings were pretty damn hurt, too. I came halfway around the world to see him and he kicked me in the jewels, almost first thing! What the hell?

Goshi stood over me while I laid in pain, trying to get my breath. “It was the worst for you, but it was the best place for me to strike you. If I know that you have a kryptonite on your body, why wouldn’t I attack that area? Especially if you were the one who attacked me first? You were the one who broke all kinds of ethical ground by attacking me. I don’t owe you any courtesy after that. Everything is fair game. Even the privates.”

“So, what’s the lesson here?” I asked, painfully getting to my feet and trying not to hurl. “I should start going around kicking my enemies in the nuts and just forget about martial arts etiquette?”

“No, Josiah. You missed the point. The lesson is ‘to never attack first.’ You leave yourself not only vulnerable physically, but vulnerable politically! Why should any man fight by any kind of code of ethics after being disrespected by being attacked?”

I shook out my junk from where the parts were shrunk up into my belly in horror and misery. That little fucker took way too much pleasure kicking me in my holiest of holies. “So, never throw the first punch?” I squeaked out.

“No, you can always throw the first punch if both of you are squared up.”

“What are you saying then?” I asked.

“Never provoke an altercation. Remember when you and Tommy fought off the werewolves back at Tommy’s cabin? You went out and attacked the lone werewolf who was only on the lookout. As you recall, you remained the eagle and you took him by surprise. You made yourself completely vulnerable. You are not meant to fight as the eagle. You are only meant to save and defend when you are in that form.”

I remembered that night, and he was right. I did attack first. I actually felt bad when I killed him. It was the only killing that has bothered me. I knew on some level I was wrong for attacking him first, unprovoked.

Well, what a great first lesson. I smiled at Goshi.

“You agree?” Goshi asked.

“I agree,” I said. “How did you know about that night?”

“Goshi has his ways.” Great, if I didn’t have enough to worry about, apparently I have had a blue gnome stalking me spiritually.

Goshi then said, “You also have a problem with your technique.”

“My fighting technique?” Now this was getting personal. One thing I had was great technique! “How so?” I asked.

“You mix it up too much. You like to balance kicking and punching. If you could win a battle with only one army, why would risk a second army to go into battle if you didn’t have to?”

I had an answer for that. I said, “Because sometimes you would need to give the other army a break, so it can rest.”

“So, the armies are my arms and legs?”

“Now you’re getting it. Are you resting them? Or are you showing off? If you can kill a man with a shotgun, why bring a machete with you? It’s better to get the job done fast, than to look pretty doing it. Save the drama for…what’s that place? Hollywood.”

I saw his point. Again, I nodded my head.

“Let us train, Josiah,” Goshi circled me and we began sparring with one another. My blue friend proceeded to show me a variety of ways to punch an opponent when they are off balance by using my ability to float up in the air. Floating added a whole new element to positioning in a fight. I noticed that in my last two altercations, it really threw off my opponents. I just didn’t know how to control it. We continued to work on striking and kicking. We eventually stopped at around four in the morning.

“You need to go back to your hotel,” he said. “You need rest. Also, you need to call whoever is waiting for you back at home and tell them you will not contact them until our training is over.”

“Really? She’s my girlfriend. She’s gonna pout if I put her on the back burner.”

“Really, Josiah. I need your undivided attention.”

That sucked.

Then Goshi added, “Tomorrow, we will work on your awful landings. There is nothing graceful about you, Mani.”

Oh, that hurt almost as much as the groin kick. Almost.

Chapter Seven

I flew back into the open window of my hotel room. I went over to the phone by the bed and read the printed card about how to make an international call in English. I knew this was going to be the last time I could talk to Lena for a while, and I needed to make sure it was a good one. I swiped my credit card through the funky phone interface.

“Hello,” Lena answered.

“Hey, it’s me,” I said.

“It is you,” she said. “Are you the Duke of Earl yet?”

“Not exactly.”

“Date didn’t go well?”

“It wasn’t a date. I told you I didn’t trust her. Also, she wasn’t The Duchess of Windsor.”

“Really? She wasn’t Helen?” Lena laughed out loud. “Don’t tell me you had never seen her picture before?”

“Nope, never.”

“Oh, my gosh, that is so funny!”

“Well, now I have.”

“I hope she didn’t rob you. Should I tell Hector an English gypsy stole his diamond-plated credit card?”

“You don’t have to say anything to Hector. I still have the card. I just used it to get the room, so I can keep my cash in case I need it for a place that doesn’t take plastic. Aren’t you going to ask me where I am?”

“Aren’t you still in London?”

“No, I’m not. I’m calling you from Transylvania, Romania.”

“Oh, wow!” Lena said. “You’re already there?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Did you find the little blue guy you were looking for?”

“Yeah, I did, and our training has already started.”

“Holy shit!”

“Still want to make jokes?” I said, laughing.

“You know I was kidding.”

“Were you jealous?” I asked.

“Who wouldn’t be, the guy you’re crazy about calls you up from Europe, and tells you that he has a date with one of the most notorious bachelorettes in the world!”

“More like one of the most notorious con artists in the world.”

“What did she want from you?”

“I don’t know. That’s what I’m trying to wrap my mind around. All I know is it was an apparent set-up where she paid three Mani to fight me.”

“She paid three vampires to fight you?” Lena asked.

“I know the whole thing sounds crazy, but that’s what happened.”

“But you’re the Chosen One.”

“Yeah, some welcome wagon that was.”

“Did you beat up the vampires?”

“Seriously? You need to ask that? When don’t I?”

“That’s true. You are my little blonde warrior,” Lena got distracted. “Hold on, Josiah. Tommy wants to talk to you.”

“Hey, Josiah!” Tommy yelled into the phone.

“What’s up, Broham?” I said to Tommy.

“You were already in a fight?”

“You know me, Tommy. Confrontation tends to find me, no matter where I am.”

“You and I both, brother, you and I both!”

“It’s all we know,” I laughed.

“But still, Josiah, I know you. You need to pace yourself. You can’t waste ass-kickings on every Tom, Dick and Harry vampire and werewolf you meet. One of these days, you’re going to get caught off guard.”

“I’m always caught off guard. That’s when I’m the most dangerous!”

Tommy paused, “That’s true.” Now Tommy seemed distracted.

“What’s wrong, Tommy?”

“Be safe. It’s driving me crazy that I’m not there with you.”

“You know I had to do this by myself, but that means a lot to me.”

“It better. Well, I don’t want to take all your time. This poor little lady has been waiting around for your call for the last twenty-four hours like a puppy dog.”

I heard a smack!

“Ouch!” Tommy said, in response to the smack I heard. “What Lena, you’re trying to tell me you weren’t gazing lovingly at your cell waiting all day for your knight in shining armor’s call?”

I heard a bigger smack!

“Hey, Josiah, you better put your woman on lockdown. She is out of control right now! Later, buddy!”

“Bye, Tommy.”

“Hello, Josiah,” Lena had apparently grabbed the phone from Tommy. It sounded like they were having a lot of fun. I missed that. I was in Europe flying around castles and into open windows. For what? To save the world? Who was I kidding? I wanted to go home real bad. I had never felt more homesick than I did at this moment.

“Josiah, don’t listen to him,” Lena said.

“So, you weren’t hoping I’d call?” I said, pretending to be hurt.

“No, Sweetie. Of course I was. I just wasn’t so Air Supply about it.”

I laughed. “I miss American pop culture and McDonald’s burgers. And I miss you, Lena.”

“I miss you, too.”

I was quiet. “Lena,” I said.

“Yeah?”

“I won’t be able to talk to you for a while. The little blue guy wants me to be focused.”

“Really? How long will that be?”

“However long it takes to be trained, I guess.”

“That sucks. What is this guy? Some kind of communist?”

“I don’t think he’s too political,” I said, laughing. “Lena, I love you.”

She was quiet, and then after a few seconds I heard a loving exhale, “Forever and always, Josiah.”

I smiled. My lungs filled up with her love, with her promise. God, she was something. No fear to tell me. Just like that. Forever and always.

“Josiah, do you have any idea when you’ll be done?”

“I don’t know. Hopefully, it will only be a week or two. He’s doing this Yoda meets Mr. Myagi thing with me. Everything he says is some grand life lesson.”

“That’s cute.”

“Oh, if you could only see this creature, Lena, he’s anything but cute. It’s like Yoda and a Smurf got thrown in a blender together.”

She chuckled. “Be safe, baby.”

“I will.”

“And no more fighting! Tommy is about to take a plane down there to be with you.”

“Tell him I’ll be okay. How’s everyone else?”

“They’re good. We aren’t exactly the Brady Bunch here. You’re kind of the nucleus, and when you’re not around, everyone seems like they are just trying to play nice.”

“Are you talking about Yari?”

“Her, me, everyone.”

“How is Yari?” I asked.

“I told you already, she’s good.” Lena didn’t sound too happy about answering that question. Yari was still a touchy subject. She didn’t have anything to worry about when it came to her. Don’t get me wrong, Yari was hot as hell, but Lena was my world. I decided not to press the issue and say goodbye. “I’m going to go,” I said. “I’m going to rest.”

“Goodbye, Josiah.”

I put the phone down in the cradle and laid on my back on the lumpy, uncomfortable bed. Whenever I stay at a hotel, I never get under the covers. It grosses me out. I knew it was the nicest and cleanest place in the city but it was just…well, travelers had been in and out of that bed for years. It gave me the heebie jeebies. I can kick a seven-foot-tall werewolf’s ass. but dirty sheets are my Kryptonite.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know… another superhero reference.

Chapter Eight

I used the bedspread in my hotel room as an extra covering over the drapes of the room. No sun was getting in and that was the way I liked it. I laid down and tried to get some sleep. My mind was racing as I tried to drift off. A lot had happened to me and I think most people would have cracked by now. But, I’m not most people. As a matter of fact, there is no one in this world like me. That thought alone is what gave me peace even when my mind was going a hundred miles an hour. I know that under any circumstance, I can come out ahead. I meditated on that concept for a while. All these different things that have been thrown at me, I’m still here. I haven’t faltered; as a matter of fact, it’s only made me stronger. I took some solace in that fact, and I finally I fell asleep. And it was the best damn sleep I ever had. I slept like a dead man for at least fourteen hours.

When I got up, it was nighttime. In a way that sounds depressing, but these days, it is all I know. I flipped on the TV and watched some CNN. I was having a hard time figuring out how the remote control and TV worked together. I was really itching to watch a good reality show. Survivor and Hell’s Kitchen weren’t exactly in the Romanian TV guide. I would just have to wait till I get back to the States to watch my favorite programs.

I watched the news till about midnight. Then I decided it was a good time to head over to the courtyard. I transitioned into the eagle and made my way over to the castle. It took only a couple of minutes to get to the castle from my hotel room. When I approached the compound, I circled around the castle and looked down into the courtyard. I saw Goshi, and it appeared that he was doing Pilates. This creature definitely perplexed me.

I flew down to the courtyard beside where Goshi was warming up and this time I did a better job on my landing.

“Josiah, I almost didn’t recognize you without the crash landing.”

“Funny, blue man. Funny.”

“Have you stretched?”

I looked at Goshi and he was going all out in his stretch. I sure as hell never stretched like that, even when I was in MMA.

“No,” I said.

“Well you might want to transition to your Mani form and stretch.”

Huh? I forgot to switch?

I quickly transitioned into my vampire form. “How was I able to speak to you as the eagle?” I asked.

“Josiah, powerful Mani will be able to understand you even when you are the eagle. It isn’t the audible sound that we hear come out of your mouth. It is the voice inside you that gets translated.”

“Was I speaking eagle?”

“If that is what you would like to call it. It will benefit you to speak eagle at certain times so that you can only be understood by the most powerful Mani.”

I shook my head and looked at Goshi. “I have no idea what I am actually capable of doing.”

“That’s why I’m here. I’m your guide to yourself, Josiah.” Goshi’s eyes shifted in a way I didn’t quite trust. It was the first time he had rubbed me the wrong way. He noticed me studying him. “You’re curious about me, aren’t you?”

“Well, yeah. I sort of had to wonder, when you had me put my girlfriend on the back burner if you…if there are others like you, of your, um, species.”

He didn’t answer and then I was quiet. I tried to imagine how it would be if there were none of my kind. No Lena. No Yari. What a terrible thing it would be. To be alone. To become a teacher and a philosopher in that aloneness took great inner strength.

“Ask me a question from your inner self,” he asked, as if he could read my mind. “Not from the surface. From deep inside of you.”

I was quiet. I didn’t know how to answer. For the first time, this situation gave me an adrenaline rush of fear. I hated fear. But there was something not right about the way Goshi shifted his eyes. There really wasn’t much I could do about it if something was off. I knew one thing for sure, I was gonna guard my balls from that guy. He had no mercy.

“Well?” he said.

I should have died at least five separate times by now, and somehow I was still going strong. I needed to trust my surroundings.

“No,” I said. “I’m not curious. What’s there to be curious about? You’re a little blue man that appeared to me in a dream. You had me travel halfway across the world to learn from you. That’s what I’m here to do, learn.”

Goshi seemed disappointed that I didn’t seem to care who he was or where he might have come from, only that I wanted to know if there were others like him. One of the reasons I asked is because I sort of feared a whole ball-kicking drill team of little blue men descending on me, as well as feeling sorry for him about him possibly being the only one of his kind, or maybe the last of his kind, like Highlander. What he didn’t realize was that I did care; that was not a hand I was prepared to show at this moment in time.

“Let’s review some of the punches from yesterday,” Goshi said, and then proceeded to run through all the hand and arm drills we had done the previous night. We reviewed for about an hour then switched over to kicks. Goshi showed me how to kick from all angles. He gave me an insane workout. I think I pissed him off. My hands, arms, legs, and feet were extremely tired. It was about three in the morning when we finally stopped.

“Let’s take a break, Josiah.”

“What’s the matter, Papa Smurf? You tired?” I said, gasping for air. “I’m the one doing all the work.”

“Papa who?” Goshi asked.

“You never heard of The Smurfs? It used to be a Saturday morning cartoon back in the day.”

Goshi sat on a rock near the courtyard. His legs were small and pointy; his body and demeanor appeared to be beaten down from life. I wondered how old a creature like him could possibly be.

I sat on the grass and stretched my back in a sitting lotus position. “Why are you doing this, Goshi? What are you getting out of it?”

“I thought you didn’t want to know about me,” he said, in a way that told me my assumptions that I had hurt his feelings were correct.

“It’s not like that at all,” I said, honestly. “I’m very curious about you. I just don’t need to know all the behind-the-scenes crap. I don’t think that would benefit my attitude.”

“Behind-the-scenes crap? Are you really that selfish?” Goshi was really turned off by what I said.

I needed to save this. “Okay,” I asked. “What’s there to know?”

“Josiah, I have seen things and experienced heartache that you will never understand. You could walk the earth for a thousand years and never see the things I have seen with my own two eyes. You think the world revolves around you, because you were given this gift. A gift you didn’t even deserve. But the Triat shined their good will on you. All I can tell you is you need to show some appreciation for those who came before you.”

“It’s hard to appreciate a culture that every time I turn around one of them is trying to kill me.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that a trail was blazed before you and now you have a task ahead of you. You can’t protect a future of a people if you don’t know anything about their past. You need to hear their stories. You need to feel the pain of their persecution. Someone like you doesn’t understand heartache, and until you do you won’t be a good leader.”

“I don’t understand heartache?” I yelled at Goshi. “Are you fucking kidding me? My entire family was taken away from me two years ago. I have had the life I once knew stripped away from me! Do you think for one second that if I didn’t know about heartache, I would even be here? Don’t you know that it’s my pain that drives me?”

Goshi stared at me for the longest time without saying a word. Then he mumbled, “You shouldn’t have called my life crap.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

Goshi got up and walked out of the courtyard. I watched him as he went inside the actual castle from a side entrance.

Great, I hurt this guy’s feelings. I wasn’t trying to do that. I liked the little guy. He was a kick-ass teacher. I knew there was a depth to him beyond his blue surface. I sat on the ground and waited for him to return. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. Was I supposed to go after him? That castle was huge, I could get lost in there.

I waited for him to return for about twenty minutes. I finally came to the conclusion that he wasn’t returning to the courtyard tonight. I suppose the little guy needed a proper apology from me. But the nerve of him to tell me that I don’t know about heartache. I am heartache.

So, I got up off the ground and headed toward the side entrance of the castle where I’d seen Goshi go through. I walked into the castle and it felt like I had just gone into a time machine. The place must have looked exactly the same as it did hundreds of years ago. It was sensational how my dream was spot on with the details of the castle. The walls were gray with a very coarse finish. The floors were made of brick. Even the odor in my dream was accurate.

I couldn’t help but get a sense of history that was in this place. I walked around taking in the ambience. It was quite intoxicating. Eventually, as I made my way to the back of the dimly lit castle, I heard the sound of classical music playing on a piano. I walked through the final part of the hallway and made toward the music. I stood in front of the room where the music was coming from. The door was slightly ajar and I poked my head in and saw Goshi sitting at the piano, playing. I walked into the room and sat on a wooden chair in the corner of the room and observed this creature play some of the most beautiful music I had ever heard. None of the tunes were ones that I even recognized. They could have been Romanian, or maybe of his own little blue guy culture.

The room was empty except for the piano and a couple of chairs. There was a bookshelf filled with music books. “Wow,” I said, from the chair in the corner of the room.

Goshi stopped playing and looked over in my direction. “Josiah, are you ready for your next lesson?”

“Are you going to teach me how to play the piano?” I said, amused.

“I don’t need to teach you,” he said.

He didn’t need to teach me? “Is one of my gifts that I can play like Mozart?” I asked.

“Maybe not Mozart, but you could give John Tesh a run for his money!”

“You know who John Tesh is?” I laughed.

“Yes, Josiah, even a creature of the night knows icons of such.”

“An icon?” I guess he was to someone. To each their own, I suppose. “So,” I said. “You’re telling me I can play the piano. How so?”

“Everything in nature has a melodic scale. Every note, every experience, every memory is played out on the grand piano of life. This piano is only an instrument. It is up to you to find your own song, your own voice.”

“How will this make me a better fighter?”

“It doesn’t. It will make you a better leader. Being able to express yourself in other ways besides your fists is a very good thing.”

I walked over to the piano and Goshi got up. “Goshi, before I do this, you need to know I do care about what has led you to me. It is just as important to me as why I have been led to you.”

Goshi smiled.

“Goshi, I do have a question for you.”

“Oh, this should be good. Go ahead, ask.”

Are you a Mani?”

It was the first time I had seen him smile. “Yes,” he said, “I am.”

“Wow, I thought you were a–”

“—a little blue troll that happened to get the Josiah Reign assignment?”

“It’s a good assignment,” I said.

“I know it is. You and I are making history and you don’t even know it.”

“Trust me, I know it.” I stared at Goshi and realized that in many ways, we were in this together. I was glad to not be alone. I was happy that I had a mentor.

I looked down at the piano. “So, what do I do with this thing?” I asked. I placed my hands on the keys and pounded like a three year old. It sounded like a freight train screeching to a halt.

“Please don’t do that, Josiah!” Goshi said, as he stuck his entire arm over the piano keys to stop me. “That piano has been played by some of the most amazing pianists in history.”

“Sorry.”

“Just close your eyes and feel. Feel every moment, every trial you have ever had. Feel the pain and feel the celebration. Then allow the music to come out of your fingertips.”

I closed my eyes and opened my heart. I thought about the details of my life in which I had the most to gain and the most to lose. I felt the keys with my fingertips. As I looked deep into my soul, I pressed down on each key. Soon, the music was coming out of me. It was my own music, my very own song. The music moved me to tears as I played. I pressed the keys harder and harder as each memory passed. Eventually, my heart had made its way up to the loss of my family. I looked over at Goshi and he seemed extremely moved by my outpouring. I had seen that look he had in his eyes before.

I kept playing and as I did, I thought about Lena and the last few months. The music poured out of me. The music became a part of me. I was one with the notes. And the notes were one with me. For the first time since I had become a Mani… I felt reborn.

Chapter Nine

For the next three weeks, Goshi and I trained every single night. We went over every detail and idiosyncrasy of my gifts and abilities. He helped me master fighting, flying, mind control, and we spent days on telekinesis. Not to mention that we found time to get on the grand piano and just allow our souls to play music that would make Beethoven and Bach jealous. One thing we hadn’t done was go over any of my prophetic gifts. I was eager to do so but whenever I brought it up, Goshi would teach me something else.

It was my 24th day of training and when I arrived in the courtyard, Goshi was dressed in some weird white ceremonial robe. It was unusual to see a creature of the night wearing what appeared to be a graduation outfit in the year 1900. I wondered if this was the day I had finally reached the end of my training.

I flew down into the courtyard. These days I could land on my pinky if I had to. I had more control with my flying than I did with my walking.

“Hey there, blue man,” I said.

Goshi looked over in my direction with an unusual smirk on his face. He appeared to be up to something.

“Last day of training,” he said.

“Really, you think I’m ready?”

“Not even close, Josiah. But you do need to go home after this, and take some time with your training and let it become a part of you.”

“Then I’ll be ready?” I asked eagerly.

Damn, I wanted to be ready so I could move on with my life.

“I will come to you once you have preserved your gifts for a period of time.”

“You will come to me? You mean back in the United States?”

“Yes.”

“You’re just going to pop up in all your blue glory? Not to be mean, but you’ll stick out a tad in the real world.”

Goshi looked at me and was not amused. “I will find you Josiah, and we will have one final lesson, or should I say, session.”

I had more questions, but decided to keep them to myself. I really wanted to go home. “Okay, Goshi, it sounds like a plan. So, what’s on the agenda for today?”

“Absolutely nothing.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Really.”

“Then I can go home?”

“You could have gone home whenever you wanted to, Josiah. You have chosen to stay here. It was always your choice to leave at any moment you felt fit. You never had to come here and see me. You would have been just fine discovering your abilities on your own. It would have taken you much longer, but eventually you would have mastered all the things I have taught you.”

“So, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that you are the one choosing your path. I know it doesn’t feel that way, but you are the one who is completely in charge. I know it feels like a lot of things are happening that are beyond your control. But, you are the one who is choosing how to deal with them. You didn’t have to kill Atticai, train Tommy, or even fight Goliath, but you chose to do all those things.”

“How do you know all of these things about me?”

“You don’t lock it away inside you. It’s not a secret. You’re an open book, Josiah. And that is not a good thing. That is your last lesson I want to talk with you about before you leave. Only you control the information that you’re sending out. I am a powerful Mani, but Josiah, you have become more powerful than I. There is no reason why I should be able to look into you and know your soul. There is no reason why someone like Atticai, Krull, or even myself should be able to see into your heart. You are unguarded. It is your Achilles heel. It could bring you own.”

“How do I stop it? It isn’t like I’m running around inviting you guys to know the depths of who I am.”

“Josiah, deep inside you there is still a man. Not a Mani, not a mixed-martial arts fighter, but a man. There is a core of who you really are that you need to protect. The man that you once were before you became a Mani will always live inside you. You need to protect that piece of you by surrounding it with strength and wisdom.”

“Wow, I like that.”

“That also means you need to stop believing your destiny is to walk hand to hand with a woman you barely know.”

“Who? Lena?”

“Yes.”

“Barely know? I know her very well. What does that have to do with my inner strength, or lack thereof?” I asked.

Goshi stared directly at me and said, “You need to stop this fairytale belief that part of your calling is to stand next to a woman who isn’t part of your eternal plan.”

“Not part of my eternal plan? What are you talking about? How could she not be? Saving her has made me who I am.”

“And that is where it ended, Josiah. On that night! She was a piece on the chessboard and nothing more. You protected that piece but it’s not going to get you the checkmate. If you choose to chase this fairytale, it could be the end of you.”

“The end of me?” I was confused. I had always thought that loving her was part of the calling. “I love her,” I said.

“Do you?”

I thought about it. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because of all that we have been through together. Do you have any idea the magnitude of what we shared?”

“Shared?”

“Yes, shared,” I stated.

“What you have shared is a myth. A myth that there is some mystical connection that has brought you together. That some life force had decided that she is your destiny. All she has become is a crutch that you’re holding on to because you’re afraid of doing this alone.”

“That could be partly true, but it’s more than that. I know it. What I have with Lena is real.”

“Real? What does that quite mean? Real?”

“There is substance to us. Something I don’t think a creature like you is capable of feeling or even grasping.”

“Is that so? Is it so hard to believe that a creature like me might know what he’s talking about in regards to women?”

I looked at Goshi. He was tiny and creepy looking. I couldn’t imagine any female creature of any sort being attracted to this thing.

“Yes, Josiah! Look at me with disgust! Tell yourself that I couldn’t possibly know what love is. Tell yourself that I have never been in love and that is why I’m being so difficult. Maybe, just maybe the reason I am so indignant about this subject is because I know better than most. I know what it’s like to allow a woman’s love to destroy your true calling, your true destiny.”

I paused and looked at Goshi. Was he this adamant because love ruined his true calling?

“So, what should I do?” I asked. “Not love her? Turn my back on what we have built?”

“No, but put it in the right perspective. She can never become bigger than your calling, and if she ever does, I’m afraid that will be the beginning of the end for you.”

“Okay, point taken.” I was done talking about this. “Now what?”

“It’s time for you to go home. It’s time to apply all that you have learned to your daily life. You need to become more than a fighter. You need to become a leader.”

I nodded my head at my little blue friend. “Okay,” I said.

“It’s time to go back, Josiah.”

“Tonight?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Wow. So this is it? You and I are done?”

“We are done for now.”

“Thanks, Goshi.” I was never good at this kind of thing. “You are a great warrior, and an amazing teacher.”

Goshi nodded and looked at me proudly. “Go Josiah, I will see you soon.”

I walked over and shook his little blue hand. When I did, electricity shot through me. It was powerful and it nearly knocked us over.

“Damn!” What the hell was that?” I asked.

Goshi smiled, “Don’t forget, I am also one badass motherfucker. I could have wiped up the floor with you anytime I wanted.”

I laughed and looked up at the stars. I nodded at Goshi and flew up and shot across the sky heading toward my hotel. It was finally time to go home. Thank God.

Chapter Ten

It took some slick planning but I managed to get into LAX airport after a day and a half of flying during the night.

I got into LAX at 5:00 in the morning. It was still dark and I purposely didn’t call Lena or anyone else to let them know I would be coming in. I wanted it to be a surprise.

I got off the plane without an item on me except my wallet. I thought there was a slim chance Helen would pop up again on the flight home, but apparently she was a one-hit wonder. I had no idea what that whole situation was all about and I just chalked it up to another bizarre experience in the life of Josiah Reign.

I made my way out of the LAX terminal and walked up the street that led into the airport. I wanted to make sure no Tandra would see me as I transitioned. When the coast was clear, I became the eagle and headed toward Yari’s townhouse in West Hollywood. As I flew over the Los Angeles skyline, I felt a sense of pride, a sense of accomplishment. I went halfway across the world and came back in one piece. I had been taught by one of the greatest teachers in Mani history. Goshi said I needed to test my abilities in the real world, so here I was in the real world. That probably meant I’d be having more trouble coming my way. I was pretty used to that by now. I didn’t need to worry about that right now. All I wanted was to see my friends, especially Lena.

I looked down and glided my wings toward Yari’s townhouse. From the sky, her community looked incredibly tiny, but as I got closer it became more apparent how beautiful and enormous the property actually was.

This would be the first time I was to land on the ground in America, and I thought I’d do it in grand style. I glided down and transitioned into my Mani form seconds before landing, I decided to shift my body in a way that when I landed, I did so with a handstand. As I hit the earth, I back flipped a couple of times off a handspring, and made a perfect dismount into the parking structure of the community. After gaining control of my body I brushed myself off and walked over to Yari’s house.

I stopped just short of the door and took a giant deep breath. I could hear commotion on the inside and I could tell that everyone was up having a good time.

Here goes another chapter in my life.

I opened the door and the TV was on in the living room, however there was no one in there watching it.

Damn, that was anticlimactic!

I could hear voices in Yari’s master bedroom. They were laughing and it sounded like they were drinking and listening to Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall.’

I walked over and stood at the doorway. I looked in and Yari, Lena, Tommy, and Wyatt were all sitting around Yari’s room talking and, yes, drinking. Yari saw me first and screamed, “Josiah!” she jumped up and hugged me. Her body was warm and it was nice to have positive human contact.

Tommy got up from a chair and rushed over to me “Buddy! What’s up?” He gave me a giant bear hug and lifted me off the ground. He smelled like Drakkar Noir, the punk had been sneaking my cologne. I didn’t care; I was thrilled to see him. He eventually put me down and said, “Holy crap, Josiah! You look even better than the last time I saw you. Did they feed you steroids in Romania?”

“Not quite. I just worked my ass off.” I looked at Tommy and his stomach had a little more meat on it than I remembered. I pinched his stomach, “Looks like someone won’t be able to go 175 pounds for a few months.”

Tommy patted his stomach and said, “I know, I’ve been eating real well since you left. None of these guys can eat, so I make sure I eat enough for the whole clan.”

“Clan? Is that what we’re calling this?” I asked, laughing.

“We could call it, ‘Josiah and his Merry Band of Misfits’ if you like?” Tommy joked.

“No, clan is good.” I hugged him again and looked across the room at Lena. Her eyes were glued on me, and were as wide and beautiful as I remembered. I stopped, and took her in. She walked over to me, and I grabbed her and held her tight. She smelled amazing, and I knew I was finally home. I exhaled and said, “I missed you.”

She leaned back, “I missed you, too.” She had tears in her eyes.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Of course I am, you shit. I’m just really glad to see you.”

I leaned over and kissed her gently on the lips.

“All right, you two,” Yari said, “remember you have an audience. You are more than welcome to hit the back room and do whatever it is you kids do.”

I smiled at Yari and said, “We’ll have plenty of time for that. Right now, I want to hear about everything that’s happened since I’ve been gone.”

I looked over at Wyatt. He got up and shook my hand. “It’s good to see you, Josiah.”

“You too, you big lug!” I hugged Wyatt and he returned my sentiments by giving me the most awkward hug I have ever received in return. I think it’s probably been years since this guy had hugged someone. He needed practice.

We all made our way to the living room and found places to sit. I sat on the couch with Lena.

“All right,” I said. “So what’s been happening?”

Yari looked at me with a look only she could give. It was a strange glance and I had no idea what it meant. I locked in on her thoughts and tried to read what she was thinking, but she was way too powerful. There was no getting into her head, not even a super power like myself could get in there uninvited. As a matter of fact, everyone in this room was probably too powerful for me to read their thoughts—everyone, except for Lena. I knew there were some lines I couldn’t cross and reading her thoughts was probably one of them.

Finally, Tommy said, “Not much has been happening here. We’ve all been waiting around for you to return. It’s like all of our lives went on hold.”

Yari shot Tommy a look that implied, ‘No they hadn’t’. Something was up between the two of them. They weren’t even looking at each other.

I decided to ask specific questions. “How is a werewolf getting along with a house full of Mani? Speaking of which, where is Hector?”

“Who knows?” Yari said. “He’s been going off by himself lately and if we ask him where he’s going, he just shrugs us off.”

I looked at Wyatt. “You two are usually joined at the hip, do you know what his deal is?”

“Don’t ask me,” Wyatt said. “That guy has some serious secrets. I think it’s better if we don’t know.”

“Secrets? Like what?” I asked.

“If we knew, they wouldn’t be secrets,” Wyatt said.

“All right, fair enough.” I took a deep breath and enjoyed the room. “It’s good to be back,” I said.

“So, what about you, Josiah?” Tommy asked. “Did the blue gnome do unthinkable things to you?”

“Actually,” I said. “The blue gnome is pretty awesome. I actually don’t think he is a gnome. I’m not exactly sure what he is. He just isn’t human. His name is Goshi and he is a Mani.”

“A Mani? Really?” Yari asked. “Are you sure?”

“That’s what he told me. Why? Have you never heard of other creatures being Mani?”

“Seriously, other than humans, I didn’t know other life forms existed. I thought he was only a figment of your imagination and when you actually got there it was going to be a typical Mani.”

“Well, he definitely wasn’t a typical Mani. That little fucker trained my ass off.”

“He was the one who trained you?” Tommy asked.

“Yup. He might be tiny but he is one of the toughest guys I ever sparred with.”

“I could take him,” Tommy said.

I looked at Tommy. “Maybe, after you drop ten pounds.”

“Okay, that does it,” Tommy said. “I’m starting the Atkins diet in the morning! Josiah keeps implying I’m fat.”

“Who’s implying?” I said, jokingly.

“Oh, that does it.” Tommy got up and grabbed me playfully.”

“Sit down, Tommy!” Yari said. Then she rolled her eyes at him and he gave her a weird look back. I might not be able to read their minds. But I damn well knew there was tension between those two.

The five of us continued to catch up for the next couple of hours. I was getting real sleepy and decided to excuse myself. “Is that back room occupied?” I asked.

“Nope,” Yari answered. “We left it the way you like it, with the Phantom of the Opera poster still hanging on the ceiling. We know you like it when the Phantom watches over you while you’re sleeping.”

“Ha ha, very funny. I’m not the traditional kind of musical guy. That’s Tommy’s department.”

“I think Phantom has a great score,” Tommy said. “But it lacks in overall story. So if you want someone to look over you it should probably be Jean Valjean from Les Miserables.”

“You really are a drama queen, Tom,” I said, laughing and walking to the room.

Lena had gotten up and followed me into the bedroom. We closed the door and got in the bed and cuddled until I fell asleep. Oddly enough, she never said one word to me.

Chapter Eleven

I woke up from a deep sleep and nearly fell out of the bed. The bed that Lena was sleeping on really wasn’t big enough for two people, especially because she was a major bed hog. I scooted out from underneath the covers and made sure not to wake her. I tiptoed to the door and quietly open it. I closed the door behind me and walked out toward the living room. Yari was awake and sitting alone on the couch. She looked up at me and smiled, “Good evening, sleepy head.”

“Good evening, to you,” I said. “Is everyone else asleep?”

“Yeah, Tommy is asleep in my bed, and Wyatt is asleep in the bathtub. He is so weird.”

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I was thinking about going out and maybe doing a feeding.”

“A feeding? Seriously?”

“Yeah. Why not? Want to come?”

“That’s not really my thing.” Just the thought of relying on other people’s blood for survival made me nauseous. To actually do it was a whole different story.

“Oh yeah, I forgot. You’re able to still eat things like tuna casserole.”

“Don’t be hater. Where are you planning on going?” I asked.

“There’s a strip club I like to go to where guys are up for pretty much anything.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, they come out of the club horny as hell. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.”

“What do you say to them?”

“I tell them if we go to their car that I’ll make their night.”

“Yeah?” I had to admit Yari’s little story was kind of turning me on. “So, do you have sex with them and then drink their blood?”

“Who said anything about having sex? I don’t even let them kiss me. I tell them to put their seat back and close their eyes. Then I kiss their neck a little, and then I go in for a feeding.”

“What do they do?”

“They usually freak out at first, but I tell them it’s a huge turn on for me, and I’ll make it worth their pain.”

“Wow.”

“I can usually get two to three good feedings in on a good night.”

I couldn’t tell if I was grossed out or turned on, but I looked at Yari’s hot little body and said, “Well, it’s doing wonders for you.”

“A girl has to keep up her figure.”

“Apparently so,” I said laughing.

“So, do you want to tag along?”

“No, Yari. I’ll pass. I can still eat steak.”

“That is unfair. I can only suck the juice off, if it’s extremely rare. The Triat hates me.”

“I’m pretty sure the Triat is very fond of you.”

“You think?”

“Think about it. You played a pivotal role in all of this.”

“I would like to think I did. But these days, no one pays much attention to me.”

“What about Tommy?” I asked.

Yari started to say something, but stopped herself.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Okay, we don’t have to go feed, but let’s go for a fly.”

“As birds?”

“You can be whatever the hell you want. I can only fly as a bird. Like I said, the Triat hates me.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“Monterrey.”

“Ha ha, very funny.” Yari was referring to the hot time we had in the city by the ocean.

“I’m serious, let’s go up north. How about San Francisco?”

San Francisco? That did sound interesting. “How fast can we get there?”

“In about an hour.”

It sounded like fun to just get up and go. “Let’s do it,” I said.

“Really?” Yari was very excited.

“Sure, why not? You want to invite everyone else?”

“Let’s just you and I go, plus Tommy is grounded.”

“Grounded?” I asked. “He’s in trouble?” I asked, laughing.

“No, silly. I meant he is not able to fly.”

“That’s funny; I thought you were saying—”

“I know what you thought I was saying. Anyway, I think you and I need to have a heart to heart.”

Uh-oh. “Okay, hold on.” I went back to the bedroom to tell Lena that Yari and were going for a fly, but she was sound asleep. I decided to not wake her up.

So, Yari and I both went outside and transitioned into our bird forms. Yari became Daphne, my red hawk friend, and once again, I became the great white eagle. We flew across the sky toward northern California. It was incredible! We hit remarkable speeds as we missiled our way toward the Bay area.

I decided to show off a few times for Yari. I transitioned from vampire to eagle in midflight, and each time I became a vampire, I struck a different pose. I could tell I was amusing the gorgeous hawk. In not much time at all, we landed on Golden Gate Bridge, the heart of San Francisco. The bridge was breathtaking. In the dark we couldn’t appreciate the reddish-orange tone but in the lights, it felt like we were on a postcard. Yari and I immediately transitioned into our Mani forms. The Pacific Ocean was on one side and the bay was on the other. We decided to sit on the west side of Route 101 with our legs hanging off the side of the bridge. Cars were blazing by behind us as we stared out into the Pacific blue. The big blue. God how I missed it when I was in Romania.

“That was fun,” I said.

“You’re such a ham, Josiah. Was that the Heisman pose you did when we flew over the Grapevine?”

“You liked that, didn’t you?” I said, smirking.

“I have missed you a lot. It’s not the same when you’re not around.”

I looked over at Yari and smiled at my dear friend. “I have missed you, too.”

Yari rested her head on my shoulder and snuggled up to me. “So, how was your first night back in the sack?”

“You mean with Lena?” I asked.

“No, I meant with Tommy,” Yari said, sarcastically. “Of course, I meant Lena.”

“Nothing happened other than some heavy cuddling.”

“Nothing?” Yari gasped. “Not even a little tug for good luck?”

“Nope. No tug boat action.”

“Wow, if you were my boyfriend, we wouldn’t have come out of that room for two weeks.”

“I wouldn’t doubt that, Yari. You definitely know your way around a tug boat.”

“No, Josiah, I know my way around you. Remember, I watched you for two years.”

“Yeah, so.”

Uh oh. I was afraid of what she was about to say.

“I’ll just put it this way. I learned to please you by watching the master work on his masterpiece every night.”

“You really watched me?”

“Sometimes, I transitioned to my Mani form and play with myself right outside your window.”

Wow, she’s a handful! She knew how to push my buttons.

Yari looked down at my crotch. “I see you still desire me, too.” Yari reached down and felt my penis over my jeans. I was hard as a rock.

“Yari! Don’t!” I said.

“I know, Josiah. Even though she’s not taking care of you, you’re Lena’s man.”

“That’s right, I am,” I said, taking her hand off of me.

“You’re right. You are her man,” Yari winked at me. “I mean, now that you’re back.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Yari was quiet.

“Look Yari, I’m not sure what you’re trying to do. This is really an unusual spot to try to seduce me. Really, on the side of the Golden Gate Bridge? There are a lot of reasons why this needs to stop.”

“Oh really, Josiah? A lot of reasons? Why don’t you tell me one?”

I was confused why Yari seemed so indignant. “Well, the obvious one is Lena and I are together. But also, what about Tommy? Aren’t you two having a thing or something?”

“Why don’t you ask him? He’s your best friend! Why don’t you ask him what he’s been doing the last month since you been gone! Better yet, why don’t you ask your precious Lena what she’s been up to?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re the fucking Houdini, Josiah. Why don’t you tell me what your girlfriend and best friend have been doing while you were running around Dracula’s Castle getting trained by some blue Ewok!”

My head began to spin.

Could Yari be telling the truth? When I called, they did seem real friendly to each other on the phone. What could they possibly have done in one month’s time?

I grabbed Yari’s face. “You’d better not fucking lie to me. What are you talking about?”

“Oh, now you’re interested. We put Lena on the table and now Josiah is all ears.”

“Yari! What the fuck are you talking about?” I was now screaming.

“I saw Tommy kiss Lena.”

I nearly fell off the bridge. “What?”

“I saw Tommy not only kiss Lena, but Lena allowed it.”

“Where?”

“At the beach.”

“What the hell were they doing at the beach?”

“Josiah, they have been doing everything together since you’ve been gone. They are like BFF’s. I nearly barfed when I saw how they ignored each other last night. They went out of their way to not let on how close they have gotten.”

“And you’re sure they kissed?”

“I’m positive! I was twenty feet away from them when it happened. I was behind some rocks watching the whole thing.”

“And they were both into it?”

“Josiah, I know you don’t want to hear this, but Tommy has it bad for Lena.”

“There’s no way.”

“Why couldn’t there be a way?”

“Because Tommy my best friend and he wouldn’t do that. There are lines he wouldn’t cross.”

“Oh, he crossed them, Josiah. He’s been crossing them ever since you left.”

I looked at Yari and I knew she at least believed what she was saying. She might have been wrong about Tommy’s intentions, but she definitely believed it. “How did this happen, Yari?”

“You have been gone for a month. A lot can happen in four weeks.”

“You’re telling me that they have gotten real close? Tommy and Lena?”

“They have gotten more than close. I know that this is hard for you to hear. But you need to know the truth. I thought about not saying anything to you and just letting you figure it out, but that wasn’t fair to you, especially because the reason why you left is to improve as a Mani, to keep us all safe. For the greater good, you sacrificed a part of your life to bring strength and understanding to who we are as a group. And she…they…”

I felt sick to my stomach. I didn’t know what to do. If this was true, then this is the maximum betrayal by Tommy could commit. “So, did you confront them?”

“Josiah, I’m over 300 years old. I’ve given the president of the United States a blow job, I’m not about to get all hung up on some werewolf. It’s his loss.”

I shook my head. “And you think they have gotten so close that Tommy might be in love with her?”

“When you have been around as long as I have, you know what the signs are when a person has fallen for someone. Last night it was eating Tommy up inside that you and Lena were so close. That you went back into the bedroom together and shut the door.”

“I can’t believe it! Tommy is like my brother. He would never do this to me.”

“Josiah, I followed you for two years. I switched my allegiance from Atticai to you. I’ve stood by your side through all of this. I have seen too much bullshit to make up something like this.”

I got up and stood on the bridge. A part of me just wanted to jump off into the water. Not to kill myself, but to just feel the sensation of falling. To have some release from this knot in my stomach.

“What about Lena? How does she feel about Tommy?”

“That’s what I’m not sure about. Lena looks at him the way she looks at you. Something is going on, I’m just not sure exactly what.”

I looked back at Yari. “So, what was your plan tonight? To get me up here and try to seduce me to get back at Tommy?”

“I knew I couldn’t seduce you. Again, I have no desire to get back at Tommy. He was fun while it lasted, just like you were. Tonight, I thought we would have some fun before I told you what I really came here to tell you.”

“There’s more?” I felt sick to my stomach. This was the last thing I thought would happen. I believed Yari. She had no reason to lie to me. Even if she was still in love with me, there is no reason for her to go to this level of deceit. She was telling the truth. I didn’t need any special Mani abilities to know that. Now the question was: What was I going to do about it?

“Thanks, Yari,” I said.

“You know I care about you, Josiah.”

“I know… I care about you, too.” I put my arms around Yari and she playfully reached down to grab my package again and I smacked her hand away.

“I just miss little Josiah,” she said, mischievously.

“You and I hooking up won’t fix anything. It will only make things worse.”

“Only for you. I could go down on you and not think twice about it.”

I shook my head at Yari and looked out into the Pacific. “So,” I asked. “Which president?”

“Oh, it’s been more than one,” she said.

“Are you being serious?”

“All I’m going to say is there’s a lot a man can do even if he’s in a wheelchair.”

Chapter Twelve

Yari and I sat on the bridge and took in the night for another hour. I didn’t know what I was going to do or how to handle this. We eventually got up, and transitioned and made our way back to So-Cal.

We both soared through the air at double speed. I was pissed and hurt. How could Tommy do this to me? He was engaged to my sister and he betrayed me like this? I was only gone for a month. How could the two people I care most about in this world have done this to me?

As we flew in over Hollywood, I circled Yari and midair, transitioned into my Mani form. We were at least a mile above the earth. I looked at the red hawk and said, “I need to be alone.” With that, I transitioned back to the eagle and flew toward the San Bernardino Mountains.

My head was spinning and my heart was aching. How was I going to deal with this? I needed to clear my head. I needed a change of pace. I flew up into the mountains and made my way over to Flatlands. It had been a while since I’d been there. I saw the rocky parking lot from the sky and flew toward it. I knew this was Atticai’s old stomping grounds and I might not be welcomed with open arms. Aside from my little group of friends, I had no idea what the average Mani thought of me, or if they were even aware that I existed.

I decided to land up the street and walk down so I wouldn’t go on blast as a white eagle. I looked down at my cell and it read 3:11 a.m. I figured if there was a party going on, it must be winding down by now. But then again, these were freaking vampires and they lived by a whole separate set of rules.

I stepped onto the Flatlands rock area and saw three separate bonfires. There was speed metal playing in the distance and there were large groups of people sitting around each fire drinking and partying. I saw Rubidoux right away standing by the bonfire toward the back. How could I miss him with his bleached-blonde hair? It practically glowed in the dark.

No one seemed to notice, or care, that I was walking up to their group. I casually strolled over to the bonfire where Rubidoux was standing. I walked up to him and made eye contact. When he saw me, he nearly peed his pants.

“Fucking eh, it’s Josiah!” He came over to me. He then turned and faced the entire Flatlands and yelled, “Everyone! It’s Josiah Reign!”

Everybody at all three bonfires stopped what they were doing and made their way over to me. I wasn’t sure if they were happy to see me or they were getting ready to lynch me. I was surrounded by at least forty people. I wasn’t sure if all of them were Mani. I scanned the crowd and tried to find any bad seeds by reading their minds quickly. I used all the tools in my arsenal taught to me by Goshi. There were a lot of Tandra and weak Mani because I could hear a smattering of voices.

I heard things like:

“It’s him!”

“Can you freaking believe it?”

“I thought he’d be taller!”

“Damn, he’s fucking hot!”

I shut the voices down in my head, so I could hear clearly.

“What brings you up here, Josiah?” Rubidoux asked.

“There aren’t too many places you can go where you can be yourself,” I said.

“That’s why we all come here,” he laughed.

I looked around the crowd. “How many Tandra are here?”

Rubidoux scanned the crowd also and said, “Five or six. Why? Do you want them to leave?” He was really giving me respect. Sure was different from the last time I saw him.

“No, as long as they are trusted, they can stay,” I said.

“Damn, Josiah!” Rubidoux said. “You have been MIA since you killed Atticai!”

“You heard about that?” I asked.

“We’re a small community, brother. Word travels fast around these parts. So is it true?”

“Is what true?” I looked at Rubidoux and then at everybody else.

“Are you the one?” Rubidoux pressed.

“The one?” I asked.

“Are you the one that has been prophesied?”

I looked at everyone, and they all were eagerly awaiting my answer. “Everyone here can be trusted?” I asked again.

“Of course,” Rubidoux answered.

I nodded my head. “Yes, I am him.”

“Holy shit!” Everyone cheered like I had just hit a grand slam in the World Series. All of them were looking at me with admiration, almost as if I was a religious figure. I saw hope and optimism in their eyes. It was like they had been waiting for me for a very long time. I don’t know why it took me this long to make my presence known to these people.

“Show us the white eagle!” one of them shouted.

Then others yelled out in agreement.

“Show us!”

“Let us see it!”

I calmly looked at the group and said, “No.”

“Why not?” One yelled out.

“It doesn’t work that way,” I stated to the crowd. “I’m not a puppet or some spectacle. I have a purpose given to me by the Triat. My desire isn’t to show off in front of you people.”

A girl then stepped forward. She was young looking. She looked like she was fifteen years old.

“Why won’t you show us?” She asked.

“What is your name?” I said to her.

“My name is Caroline.”

“Caroline, I came here for support, not to stick out my chest and say, ‘look at me’.”

The young girl reached out her hand and touched my face. “I have been a Mani woman for 500 years, young Josiah. I have waited a very long time for you, and if you are who you say you are, I would like for you to show me. I believe after surviving this world for 500 years, I have earned that right.”

I stared at the petite, young-looking woman. To think she was 500 years old was mind-blowing to me. “You have been waiting for a long time?” I asked

“Yes, sir, I have.”

“Why? Why have you needed me to be revealed? What did you think I could do for you?”

“Sir, you need to know I love our people. When I was young, I was their daughter and now after all these years, I have become most of their mothers. I have given my life to preserve us as a people. I have waited for you, because it validated my love for all Mani. It was the hope that I held on to all these years. It gave me a reason to continue. So when you ask, ‘What can I do for you?’ The answer is ultimately, ‘nothing’. But what you can do is validate my faith. Show me that I am not crazy for believing for all of these years.”

I looked at this fragile woman and I said, “You understand that I am not a god. I am just like you. Except, I have been given a gift. I am no better than anyone here. My desire is to serve you, not the other way around.”

All eyes were on me. They needed to know that I wasn’t bullet-proof, that I felt pain just like them.

The lady took my hand and said, “We all understand that you aren’t invincible. What we’re hoping for, correction; what I am hoping for, is that you can save us from becoming extinct. We are dying off faster than we are evolving. We kill our own for sport. As a people, we are in disarray. I am hoping you can bring all Mani together. I’m hoping that the mere idea of you gives each one of us hope.”

This woman spoke so pure and eloquent; for the first time I realized I was a ‘symbol of hope’ as well as someone who can help them.

“I am here to help,” I said to her. “I’m not exactly sure what I can do, but I know for damn sure those who follow us, who choose our side, will be rewarded.”

“So, sweet Josiah, will you show me?”

I smiled at the dear woman. For her and all of those who have waited for this prophesy to come to pass, I ran as hard as I could toward the middle of the Flatlands, and jumped through the air and transitioned into the great white eagle and flew up into the sky. I heard thunderous applause below me as I circled this tiny strip of land. I looked down and I knew I was among my people. They were looking to me for guidance. I understood for the first time what Goshi meant by saying that my love for Lena would only tear me away from my true calling. What happened between Lena and Tommy didn’t matter. What did matter were the people right here, right now, the ones who have fought the good fight and have been persecuted for hundreds of years. I was here for them. I will do whatever it is the Triat asks of me.

I spent the next two hours visiting all three bonfires and telling my tales from the last few months. Everyone was real interested in my trials and tribulations. I kept the details of Tommy having cognitive thought and my feelings for Lena private. Other than that, I let loose telling them all my stories. I felt like an old grandfather telling his grandkids of days gone by.

It was close to five in the morning and I decided it was time to leave. Tonight, I had seen all types of Mani. I saw them as they were and their most basic needs. I too, had fallen for the stereotype that most Mani were savages and hungered for the kill. But on this night, I saw mothers, daughters, sons, and fathers. I saw people who were once flesh and blood just like myself, but now had become immortal and were trying to live with that on a daily basis. I saw people who needed to connect with each other. To know they weren’t in this alone.

I said goodbye to my new friends and transitioned into the eagle and flew off. I have never felt such a positive feeling of acceptance. I flew back to Hollywood, knowing in my heart, I was going to let whatever happened between Tommy and Lena go for now. I had a much bigger destiny than to worry about such petty things.

Or so... I thought.

When I came into the house, Tommy was lying back in the easy chair and Lena was on the floor cross legged next to him. I was hoping to feel a great abundance of forgiveness, but that didn’t happen. I saw Tommy and Lena and I felt instant betrayal. Lena popped up off the ground and came toward me the second I got into the house. “Where have you been?” she asked.

“I went out to clear my head. I’ve had a pretty stressful couple of weeks.”

“Where did you go?” Tommy asked.

I looked at Tommy and Lena and felt an extreme amount of hurt. I wanted to yell at both of them and say, ‘HOW COULD YOU!’ But instead, I just calmly said, “I went out. It was no big deal.”

“You okay, man?” Tommy asked, suspiciously.

“Yeah, I’m great, Tommy.” I stared Tommy down with a no-nonsense stare, and then gently smiled. “I have never been better.” I turned and walked toward the bathroom. “I’m going to take a shower.”

I went into the bathroom and closed the door. I turned on the shower and made sure the water was scorching hot. I took off all my clothes and stepped into the shower. I stood there for at least thirty minutes, and just allowed the hot water to do its thing. I needed a massage, and the water head was doing the trick. I turned the water off and stepped out of the shower. I dried myself off and put my jeans back on and left my shirt off.

There was a knock at the door. “Yeah, who is it?” I yelled

“Hey, Jo, it’s Tommy! When you get out, I want to talk to you.”

Really? I thought. I wonder what he wants to talk about. He probably thinks Yari said something to me and wants to pick my brain to see what I know. At times, Tommy had the worst OCD of anyone I ever knew. No wonder he’d put on a little weight. He was probably feeling guiltier than shit.

“Sure,” I said. “Give me a minute.”

I sat down on the toilet seat and sighed out loud. I eventually walked over to the door and opened it. “Where do you want to talk?”

“We can talk in the living room.”

“What about Lena?” I asked.

“She went to the guest room.”

I nodded my head and walked out of the bathroom and sat on the couch. Tommy came into the living room and sat on the easy chair.

“What’s on your mind, Tommy?”

Tommy was quiet and rubbing his knuckles. He stared blankly ahead and had very little facial expression. Then he said something that nearly made me fall off the couch. “I think I’m in love with your girlfriend.”

Huh? No set up? No beating around the bush? Just a flat out, ‘I think I’m in love with your girlfriend’?

I didn’t know how to respond. I thought at best, he would come clear and admit he kissed her . But, in love with her? What was this? Days of Our Lives?

“Did I hear you right?” I said.

“You heard me, Josiah.”

“How?”

“Over the past month I have fallen for Lena. I feel horrible about it. I can’t figure out why I even allow it to happen, but it did, and it’s fucking me up inside.”

If my head was spinning before now it was in manic hyper-speed.

Holy shit! My best friend in the entire world just manned up and told me he was in love with my girlfriend!

I looked at Tommy and I could tell it was eating him up inside. I needed to know why he felt that way toward Lena and what she felt for him. “How did it happen?” I asked.

“Josiah, when you left, none of us really knew how to act around each other. Yari and I messed around for a while, but she’s not the type of girl you keep that up with. God knows what she does when she leaves here. I don’t ask her because I don’t want to know.”

“Did you tell Yari how you felt? She’s not just a fuck toy that you can bang and then toss to the side.”

“I know that.”

“Do you know that? Yari has more depth than either of us will ever know. She’s saved both of our lives and never asked for a damn thing from us.”

“I know that Josiah and I care about her. But she has dark fucking secrets that scare the shit out of me. There’s a little too much going on with her.”

“So, let me get this straight. You realized you didn’t care about Yari, so you decided to fall in love with my girlfriend instead?”

“Nothing is that simple, Josiah. Do you think I went after Lena and pounced on her the second I knew she was vulnerable and missing you?”

I stood up off the couch and walked to the window. I peeked behind the wall panels that covered the windows so no sunlight could come in. I saw that the sun had not come up yet, but it was about to. I closed the panel.

“I don’t know Tommy. I don’t know how you think. You do things that I would never do. You cross over the lines that are beyond my imagination. You’re a different breed than me in more ways than one.” I walked over to the hallway and pointed down the hall at Lena in her room. “That right there, Tommy! That’s a line you never cross.”

“Why, Josiah? Because you’re the fucking Chosen One, and God forbid that anyone crosses you?”

“No, you dumbass! It’s a line you don’t cross because we’re best friends! Because we’re brothers. We’re more than brothers! We have a connection that is beyond this world. At least I thought we did. But you fucked everything up! You don’t allow yourself to develop feelings for your best friend’s girl.”

“I didn’t plan on it happening. It just did.”

“Have you acted on it, Tom?” Tommy was extremely quiet. “Have you?” I shouted. Lena had to have heard me in the other room.

“Yes, I have.”

I knew he had, but I wanted to hear it from his own mouth.

“What happened?”

“I kissed her. We were at the beach, just hanging out and I told her I was having feelings for her and I didn’t want to act on them because you mean too much to me.”

“You told her that?”

“Yeah.”

“You manipulative motherfucker!”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you played the ‘I’m in love with you but I want to do the noble thing card’. You’re a fucking douchebag. You forgot you taught me everything you know, Tommy. That was ‘lesson one’ in the ‘Tommy getting laid handbook’!”

“It’s not like that, Josiah. That’s not it at all.”

“But yet, you still waited for an opening, didn’t you? You waited for the right moment to stick your tongue down her throat!”

Tommy was again quiet.

“Am I right? You played her good, didn’t you? Did she bite, Tom? Did she nibble on the line? Did she kiss you back?”

“Yes and no.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“It means in the moment she went with it, but only in the moment; within seconds she regretted it and felt awful.”

“What about you? What the fuck did you feel?”

“I felt bad, but...”

“But what? There’s is no but. You are lucky we have a history, Tommy.”

“Why, because you would kick my ass otherwise?”

“No, Tommy, I’m not going to threaten you. You’re not worth it. To threaten you would mean I give a shit about you!”

Tommy looked at me shocked as hell. “What are you saying, Josiah?”

“I’m saying that you stepped over a line that can’t be fixed.”

“Okay,” Tommy said quietly. “So, that’s it? You and I are done?”

“I’m sorry that it even started.”

Tommy nodded his head at me. I could tell he felt awful. Then his face turned malicious and he transitioned into the werewolf. I thought he was going to attack me, but instead he crashed through the window and wall panel, spraying glass and wood bits everywhere. Tommy ran up the pathway and leaped over the main fence at the front of the community.

Then I heard a voice in my head and it was Tommy’s. It was short and to the point. “I’m sorry, Josiah.”

Lena rushed into the living room once she heard Tommy crash through the window and wall panel. “What happened?” she yelled.

I looked at her and felt disgust in my heart. The morning sun had now come up over the horizon and Tommy blasting through the window allowed a ton of sunlight to get into the townhouse.

That sure was considerate of Tommy to make a giant hole in a house filled with vampires.

“Go back to the room, you’re going to burn!” I said to Lena.

“What happened, Josiah?”

I calmly looked at Lena and said slowly, “Go back to the room or you’re going to burn!”

Lena knew I wasn’t messing around, and it was really the first time I ever threw my weight around when it came to her. Lena turned around and walked slowly back to her room.

I needed to get out of the living room where most of the sunlight was making its way through. I went into Yari’s room and shut the door. I took my phone out of my pocket and walked over to Yari’s computer and looked up a twenty-four hour maintenance company in the Google search engine.

I called up the service and told them to come out and fix the window. Also, to put up another panel so no sunlight could make its way into the living room. I added my wife had a very sensitive skin disease. The guys came and were gone in a matter of hours. I gave them Hector’s credit card number and they were on their way.

I decided not to head to the back of the house, because I was not ready to confront Lena. I remembered what Goshi had said to me. He told me how my feelings for Lena would get in the way of my true destiny. Today, it was extremely apparent that he was right. But, nonetheless, it’s what I had to do. I needed to know how she felt about Tommy. But more importantly, I needed to know how she felt about me. Even though I wasn’t ready, I needed to know some answers. I reluctantly walked to the back of the house.

I opened the door to the guest room and walked in. Lena was lying on the bed with her back to the door.

“Hey!” I said out loud.

“Yes.” Lena still had her back to me.

“What’s wrong with you?” I asked

“I don’t know. What’s wrong with you? Why did you talk to me like that?”

“Why do you think?”

“I didn’t do anything, Josiah.”

“I didn’t say you did.”

“He kissed me and that was it.”

“Is it?” I asked.

“Is what?”

“Is that all there is? Are there feelings between the two of you?”

Lena was quiet.

“Are you quiet because you have feelings for him, or are you quiet because I had the gall to ask that question?”

Lena whispered, “The first one.”

“What was that?”

Lena turned over and looked at me. “It’s the first one, Josiah.”

“You have developed feelings for Tommy?”

Lena nodded.

“How?”

“I don’t know how. We just started hanging out and getting along.”

“Getting along? I didn’t realize that getting along with someone constitute romantic feelings.”

“You make it sound like I was being malicious.”

“What happened to ‘forever and always’? What happened to ‘I love you’?”

“I haven’t stopped loving you. In many ways, I love you more.”

“You love me more? You developed feelings for my best friend and that caused you to love me more? How is that possible?”

“Because now I know what I need to do.”

“Which is?”

Lena sat up on the bed. She seemed really uncomfortable.

“What do you need to do, Lena?”

“I think I… or we, need time apart.”

“Oh, we do? Just like that. I don’t see you for a month and the second I come back we need time apart?”

“I need to figure things out.”

“Do you love him?”

“Not in the same way I love you.”

“So, you do love him?”

“I don’t know what it is. Tommy took care of me. He comforted me when you weren’t there.”

“I think I’m going to throw up.”

“Josiah, the love I have for you sometimes doesn’t even feel real, it’s like a fairytale where the weird Goth girl gets the cute popular boy in school.”

“Wow, I can’t believe how you just reduced us to some cheesy teen movie. I think what has gone on between us is a lot more than that.”

“Is it?”

“What are you talking about? You don’t think so? Has everyone gone crazy?”

“Josiah, when I think about you, I don’t really see you for you. I see you as this guy who is super human.”

“That is so unfair to me!”

“How can I not see you for that? You do things and behave in a way that is beyond my comprehension.”

“I didn’t ask for this! I didn’t ask for any of it. But I can’t change it now that it’s here. You were the one thing that kept me grounded. You are the one thing that has made all of this worth it. This isn’t fair.”

“Why do you keep saying that?”

“Because I see you for who you are. I see you for all that I believe you’ll become. I love that about you, and I can’t believe all you have felt for me these past few months is superficial bullshit.”

Lena stood up and walked over to me. “It’s more than that, Josiah, because I do see you, too. I see this thing that you have become. You’re not mine to have. The reason why you are the ‘Chosen One’ is not so you can love me. The reason why you have been handpicked to do great things is because of what’s inside of you. And I don’t want to interfere with that.”

What the hell? Did Goshi talk to her?

Then it dawned on me what was happening. She was breaking up with me. I felt all the air come out of me. I sat on the bed. “So what are you saying, Lena?”

“I’m saying that I love you. I love you so much, that I know I can’t keep you for myself.”

I felt like I was going to hyperventilate. I pleaded with her. “Please, don’t do it, Lena. I don’t care. I don’t want any of this if I can’t have you!”

“Josiah, we need to slow this down. This thing that’s between us needs to come to a halt. We need to re-evaluate what we’re doing.”

And that is where my brain stopped. That is where my fight of fight went into overdrive. There was no fucking way I was going to hear any more of this.

I choose flight.

I got up off the bed and went to the living room. I paced around the house and I felt as if my heart was going to come out of my chest. FUCKING TOMMY! You took the one thing in this world that meant the most to me!

I opened the door and it was sunnier than hell. I didn’t care, I was going to find myself a werewolf, and he was going to have to pay for his transgressions. I transitioned into the great white eagle and flew into the Southern California sky.

Chapter Fourteen

I flew as high as I could. I don’t care anymore; this entire thing is so fucked up. How did this happen? The only reason I left was to be able to help all of us. Not to be betrayed and deceived by people I loved the most. I flew high in the sky, almost to the point where I was having a hard time breathing in the atmosphere, but I didn’t care. I kept going higher and higher. I just didn’t care anymore. I wanted to go far away from here and forget about all of this. I was so angry at Tommy, and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted him to pay. I didn’t like feeling this way. I didn’t like wanting vengeance, but that was what I was left with. He crossed the line!

But trying to find a werewolf roaming the earth in a place as populated as Southern California would be like finding a needle in a haystack. One thing I did know for sure; he wasn’t this high up in the sky. I decided I was done flying to the moon and I’d better return to earth.

I was going to find Tommy. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with him. I wanted to shake and smack him around and ask him why he would do this to me. I would have never crossed that line, no matter what I had felt. That was all there was to it.

If Tommy was currently transitioned into the werewolf, he could hear my voice if I spoke to him. So, that was exactly what I tried to do. “Tommy, where are you?” I said in my mind.

I listened in my head and heard nothing back. I began flying to the earth and gliding across the Pacific Ocean. “Tommy,” I thought again, “Are you there? Can you hear me?”

“I can hear you.”

I heard a voice! “Tommy, where are you?”

“I’m over here. Keep going straight.”

“Where are you?”

“Over here, Josiah.” Now the voice didn’t sound like Tommy. A matter of fact it, didn’t sound like a man’s voice at all.

“Lead me to you?” I replied.

“Come and find me.”

That time, the voice was clear as day, and it wasn’t Tommy’s voice. It was definitely a woman’s voice. Now, I was completely confused. “Where are you?” I asked.

“Keep coming up the coast toward the land,” the voice said.

“Can you see me?” I asked.

“Yes, and you’re beautiful.”

“Who are you?”

“Come and find me.”

“How can I? All I see is ocean.”

“Keep going north! You’re going to run into the Long Beach pier. I’ll meet you on the pier at Seventh Street.”

Who was this?

I recognized the voice. I couldn’t think who it could be. I looked ahead and now I could see land ahead of me. I was approaching the Long Beach pier. “Where are you?” I asked again.

“I’m over here on the pier. Can’t you see me?”

I was looking for a woman and there wasn’t one anywhere. “No, I can’t see you.”

“Look to the north of the pier, Josiah.”

Whoever it was, knew my name. I looked to the north end of the pier and there she was. I was looking for the wrong species. There at the end of the pier was the most gorgeous white hawk I had ever laid my eyes on. She was the one from my vision and was absolutely spectacular.

“There you are!” I said flying toward her.

“Yes, and there you are, Jo-Jo.”

Jo-Jo? Only one person had ever called me Jo-Jo and that was Helen from the plane.

“Helen?” I asked.

“Who else would it be?” she laughed.

“I should have known.”

“Follow me.” Helen flew up in the air.

“Follow you? How can I trust you? The last time I trusted you I had to fight for my life.”

“I promise to play nice this time. Follow me, Josiah, unless you’re scared of little old me.” She darted across the sky and flew along the coast.

I guess I better follow her. If it was a trap I know I can handle myself. I flew close behind and we passed Parkers’ Lighthouse and other Long Beach hot spots and made our way to the Long Beach Aquarium. The Long Beach Aquarium was a giant blue building that was Long beach’s sad attempt at a nautical Disneyland. I had gone there when I was a kid and all I remembered was looking at a ton of fish.

She circled the aquarium as I caught up to her.

“I know of a back entrance where we can enter safely,” she said. “Once inside, we can transition. There are hallways inside the aquariums where no outside light can get in.”

Helen led me to the back of the Aquarium. There was an open window right above the south exit. It was quite large and Helen flew through it. She seemed to be okay, so I followed.

As I entered the window, I immediately transition into my vampire form so I wouldn’t crash into the wall and crack a wing. Helen had the same idea. She had transitioned into her beautiful, blonde Mani form.

“Hurry,” she said. “Let’s get out of the light!” She took my hand and led me to an inside area where all four walls were covered in aquariums filled with the most amazing, beautiful fish.

She let go of my hand and we stood in front of an aquarium that was filled with Pearlscale goldfish. They looked like mini 50/50 bars with their white and orange scales. Helen stood in front of the fish tank and smiled at me. She looked incredible. She was wearing a white summer dress and her legs looked phenomenal. But, I didn’t need to not worry about her appearance. That wasn’t important at the present moment. I needed to know who she was. Our last meeting wasn’t exactly copasetic.

“What’s this all about?” I asked.

“Hello to you, too,” she said.

“I’m sorry if I’m not on my best behavior. The last time I saw you, you weren’t exactly forthcoming. In fact, you lied through your teeth.”

“I know. I am very sorry about that,” she said, with as much sincerity as a mercenary.

“Yeah, it sounds like it’s been keeping you up at night.”

“You have it all wrong, Josiah. I’m one of the good guys.”

I laughed out loud. “That’s why you went completely out of your way to set me up?”

“I didn’t set you up in the way you think. I never intended to hurt you.”

“You never intended to hurt me? You weren’t exactly there during the fight. Oh, wait… yes, you were. You held back and watched from a distance and took off once I kicked the crap out of your friends.”

“You did a wonderful job, Josiah. You are exactly as advertised. As a matter of fact, you’re a lot cuter than I thought you’d be.”

“Sorry that I’m not flattered that you paid me a compliment.”

She reached her hand out and took mine. “I’ve missed you, Josiah. You came in and out of my life like a feather in the wind.”

“I wonder why. You didn’t exactly stick around.”

“That wasn’t my fault; I did have a party to get to.”

“There really was a party?” I asked.

“What? Did you think I lied about everything?”

“Yes I did. That’s exactly what I thought. I thought that you lied about everything! You’re lucky that I don’t know anything about current events and I couldn’t pick the Duchess of Windsor out of a lineup to save my life.”

“You’re so cute, Jo-Jo,” she then pinched my cheeks. “We did our homework on you.”

“We? Who is ‘we’?” I asked.

“I didn’t lie about Mario Moses.”

“Gross, really? That guy is more than 30 years older than you.”

“Well, it’s not that gross because I didn’t exactly date him. He is my father.”

“Seriously? You’re his daughter? Why didn’t you tell me who you really were?”

“Because what if my guys had killed you? It would have been messy.”

“And you didn’t care about throwing the Duchess of Windsor under the bus?”

“Remember, she did date my dad. And she is, to put it mildly… a bitch.”

“What’s your real name?”

“Sonia.”

“Sonia? That’s why a couple of those paparazzi guy’s yelled Sonia at the airport?”

“I know, those idiots almost blew my cover.”

“Why did you do all of this? Why did you sic Mani on me like a pack of dogs?”

“They weren’t going to hurt you too bad.”

“You were okay if they killed me. You said so yourself.”

“But they didn’t even leave a scratch on you. You’re a pretty tough customer. They were my best guys and you disposed of them like they were infants.”

“No offense, but I’m not in the business of impressing billionaire’s daughters.” I turned around and made sure no one was listening. “Who the hell are you, and why have you come for me?”

“Wow, you’re not the sweet Josiah I met on the airplane.”

“Spare me, Sonia. I’ve had a real bad day.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Please, just get to the point. Who are you? What are you? Are you Mani?

“Of course I am,” Sonia smiled at me. “Josiah, I am you.”

“Huh?”

“I am the female equivalent of you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Josiah, my path has been very similar to yours. Except that I have been in this form for ten years waiting for you. I heard through the grapevine that the supposed prophetic vampire had evolved. So with the help of my connections, I’ve been tracking you for the past few months.”

“If you had been scouting me then you would know that I had taken care of anyone and anything in my path. There would be no reason to waste your best guys on me.”

“Up until that night, it had only been reports. I needed to see it for myself. I wanted to see if you were the real deal.”

“Okay, you saw it and then you left. You didn’t even stick around to explain yourself. You just did a lie and run on me.”

“What was I supposed to say to you? I knew you needed time, so you wouldn’t hate me. I was told it was a good time to come and find you.”

“How would you know that?”

“Again, money talks.”

Someone I know must be reporting to her. I didn’t bother asking her who it was because I knew she wouldn’t tell me. “So, you came to rescue me from myself? How very noble of you.”

“I’m here to stop you from doing something stupid. I’m here to get you back on track. Love is a funny thing and none of us can fight it. But vengeance is ugly and has no place in a person’s life that has your kind of calling. Your friend was only following his heart. He might have gone about it the wrong way, but he didn’t intend to hurt you.”

“You really know everything, don’t you?”

“Someday, you will, too. You and I are very powerful.”

“So, what does all this mean? In the big picture?”

“That’s the fun part, none of us know. We’re given visions and we act on them. That’s how I was led to you. Because I’m richer than the pope, I have more resources in the human realm. But in the Mani realm, you and I are equals.”

“Equals?”

“Well, you might be a tad stronger.”

“But you can do everything I can do?”

“Yep. Probably better because I’ve been doing it longer.”

I grinned and we found a bench and sat down and continued talking. She gave me insight on what to expect from my gifts. She explained to me I needed to take time and let things evolve and not rush into things. To not let my impulses take control. She was very wise and I took everything she said to heart.

We eventually parted ways and I wasn’t quite sure why she showed up on this day, but I knew someone or something was watching over me. Maybe it was to stop me from doing something stupid. Maybe, it was just to slow me down so I could rethink my next steps. One thing that was for sure; my Mani life just got a lot more interesting.

Chapter Fifteen

Sonia. It fit her. After meeting with Sonia I was able to put things in perspective. I decided to fly back up the San Bernardino Mountains and this time I went to Tommy’s cabin. I flew into Running Springs and spotted his cabin from the sky. I flew down and landed in his front yard. When the coast was clear, I transitioned from eagle to man.

Tommy’s entire property still looked thrashed from the night Tommy and I defended ourselves against the sea of werewolves. That was some night. We sure worked well together. Tommy and I were a well-oiled machine. Taking on seven werewolves was not an easy task, but we sure made it look that way.

I didn’t bother knocking because I was certain no one was home. I didn’t think Tommy would come back here so soon and even if he did I wouldn’t mind running into him. The door was unlocked, so I opened it and went in. I walked around the cabin and made sure I was alone and didn’t have any unexpected visitors. I wasn’t sure what I’d find scouring the place. For all I knew, a family of raccoons could have taken up residency since that night.

When all was clear, I decided to go downstairs and walk inside the cage room where I trained Tommy. I walked into the room and stared at the cage. I thought about every detail of the weekend. That was a remarkable three days. We had no idea what we were doing, but somehow, we managed to change the Carni game forever.

I thought about my friend and all we had been through together. Ever since that first day I’d first met him in that alley there had never been a dull moment with that guy. I loved him like family and I knew deep in my heart that I needed to forgive him. All this heartache, over Lena. I couldn’t see my life without my best friend. As much as I loved Lena, I know one true thing: I loved Tommy more.

I care for him and that is why this hurt so deeply. I stepped inside Tommy’s werewolf cage and closed the door. If there was ever a physical symbol to how a man felt, I was a living example of it at this very moment.

My heart ached as I sat in the cage. I laid completely on my back and closed my eyes. And then it happened, for the first time since I had become a Mani.

I cried.

Even when Goliath kicked the crap out of me, I didn’t cry. But on this evening, in the middle of summer, in the year 2011, I cried my eyes out.

* * *

I had forgotten how good it felt to cry. It’s been years since I’d given myself permission to let my anguish out.

I cried the night my parents and sister died. I cried all night, and I remember thinking that morning that I was done crying, and I would cry no more. Little did I know at the time that I would fall in love with a woman, and the same person who was there for me on that night, would be the same person to cause me so much pain years later.

I walked outside to get some fresh air. It was now dark so I stayed in my Mani form. I looked up at the stars and took a giant, deep breath. I felt at peace for the first time since I’d been back. It didn’t last for long.

“Josiah! It’s Tommy! Can you hear me?” Tommy was speaking to me through my mind. “Josiah, help! I’m surrounded by Mani.” He must have been in his werewolf form because I could hear him.

“Where are you?” I asked.

“Griffith Park!”

Shit, that is in downtown Los Angeles. That’s at least fifteen minutes away even if I get there at super-speed.

“I’m coming!” I said. “Try to hold them off as long as you can.”

I transitioned and jetted across the sky. I accelerated at a speed I didn’t even realize I was capable of. I truly felt I was faster than a speeding bullet. I got to Griffith Park in a matter of minutes.

I flew down and right into the middle of the park, just east of the Observatory.

Shit! Tommy was surrounded by Krull and his minions.

“Tommy, I’m here!” I said, in my mind so Tommy could hear me.

“I’m exhausted.” Tommy answered. “They are taking me to town. I’m fighting them off, but I’m injured pretty badly.”

There weren’t nearly as many as there were a month back when I fought Krull. In fact, it was just a fraction of the mass herd that was there that night. There were twelve of them, counting Krull. They had surrounded Tommy and seemed to just be messing with him. Almost as if they were counting on him to contact me. Krull was in full Samurai garb. He looked scary as hell; I swear to God this guy used to be Genghis Kahn.

Krull saw me and laughed out loud. He nodded his head, and then transitioned into a giant black raven and flew away.

Huh? What was that about?

I didn’t have time to worry about it. Tommy needed my help. I flew into the mob and transitioned as I landed. I stood next to Tommy as we were surrounded by the remaining eleven Mani.

I guess now is when I’m going to see what kind of badass I’d become.

“Tommy, leave!” I said, out loud.

“Fuck no, I’m helping you.” Tommy remained the werewolf and was still speaking to me through his mind.

“Leave, now! I don’t need your help!” I yelled even louder.

“I’m staying, Josiah!”

“I thought you said you were hurt?”

“So what! These fuckers are going to pay for hurting me.”

“Well, remain the werewolf. You’re a lot stronger as the werewolf.”

Tommy leaped forward tackling one of them. Leaving the remaining ten for yours truly. There were so many of them that I knew I had to wait for them to attack me. This wasn’t about ethics, it was about intelligence. There was only so much of my body they could get a hold of.

I stood my ground and the remaining ten surrounded me.

“Come and get me, fellas, I’ll make a great trophy.”

I could tell all of them wanted to attack me. Each one was waiting for their precise moment to lunge.

Suddenly, three of them charged me from all sides.

I ascended up and all three of them ran into each other like something out of a Three Stooges movie.

I looked over and Tommy had bitten into the neck of the Mani he was fighting.

“Don’t kill him!” I yelled.

“Why? These guys were trying to kill me before you got here,” he thought, as he stood over the injured Mani.

“They weren’t trying to kill you,” I said. “They used you to get to me,” I said, in my mind, to Tommy.

“So, what do I do, just cripple him? That’s worse.”

“I don’t care what you do just don’t kill him.” I was adamant about Tommy not killing the guy.

I looked down and the three guys that had run into each other had gotten up. They were swiping at me as if I was a piñata.

I floated above the men and decided the best plan was to actually speak. “Why are you here?” I yelled down to the men. No answer. They looked at each other with puzzled expressions. “Why have you come here to fight us?” I yelled again.

“We don’t answer to you!” One of them yelled back.

“Well, you’d better because you’re going to have one of two options.” I looked down at their faces and said, “Stop this madness and leave and go back to Krull and tell him that Mani on Mani attacks need to stop. Or if you continue to fight us, I will take it as a threat on my life and my friends...” I stopped myself from saying ‘friend’s life’. “I will take it as a threat on mine and the werewolf’s life. I will have no choice but to see that you don’t leave here alive.”

The Mani men now looked at one another. There were weak ones among them and I could hear their thoughts. Most were afraid and wanted to leave. But there were a couple that were too powerful for me to read what they were thinking.

So, I said, from 20 feet in the air, “Those of you who don’t want to be here, you need to leave. This skirmish isn’t worth dying for. Krull has made you believe in a lie. He knows his days are numbered and he is trying to take as many Mani down with him before it’s over. This army of Mani men he has assembled are never going to reign over this world. It’s a lie! So, leave now and spare your life!”

Seven of them looked at each other and they didn’t want any part of this. One by one, they transitioned into ravens and flew off. I had no idea where they went, but I couldn’t imagine they returned to Krull. Maybe I saved them from being damned by the Triat.

But unfortunately, four of them remained, and oddly enough, the one that was below Tommy had stayed.

“Tommy, ask him if he wants to leave.”

“Fuck you!” the guy on the ground yelled at me.

Tommy in his werewolf form look at me and thought, “Can I kill him now?”

“All right, you chose your destiny. Tommy, do what you like!” I yelled out loud.

Tommy bit down into the Mani’s neck and within seconds, he disappeared.

Three were left.

This will be too easy.

I lowered myself to the ground and said, “I’ve given you plenty of warning. I have to do what I have to do.”

I get into my warrior stance. It wasn’t an MMA or boxing stance. Goshi taught me how I need to have my momentum going up, because at any given moment I might need to fly. Oddly enough, the stance keeps you more grounded. I almost wished I had known about it when I was fighting MMA.

The three guys left were all different shapes and sizes. They had surrounded me while Tommy approached them from the back. They didn’t quite know what direction to go in. I was on the inside and they had a giant werewolf to deal with on the outside.

I gave Tommy instructions to attack the first person that lunged toward me. The werewolf nodded and we both waited. “Tommy,” I thought, in my mind. “Let’s treat this like a game of Nation Ball.”

“All right, my face will be the ball,” Tommy answered.

“That’s what I’m counting on.” The guy to the left of me charged in toward me and Tommy leaped on him in a blink of an eye. He tackled the Mani and shoved his face into the mud. I saw Tommy open his giant jaw and I knew it would be a matter of seconds until Tommy would end his pathetic Mani existence.

Two for me, I loved being outnumbered. Poor guys had no clue that they were the ones that were outnumbered by my epic ass. The guy from behind me swept his legs in and caught my feet, and I fell forward. I rolled with amazing control like I was a machine. I sprung up into the air off the ground and elevated over the two Mani men. I looked down and one of the guys had bitten into my calf before I was able to get completely above both of them. His face was locked into my legs. It hurt, but it was a sad attempt. I flew up fifty more feet and now the guy was dangling from my leg. He let go of his vice bite and was hanging onto my leg for dear life.

I reached down and grabbed him by his long brown hair. I flipped him up and kicked him in the face from fifty feet off the ground. He flew into the side of the observatory crushing his skull. He laid there injured, I don’t know why exactly, but I didn’t want him to suffer. I flew down beside him and picked up a long jagged rock and lodged it into his neck killing him instantly. I looked back and the remaining Mani was now in a one on one fight with Tommy. A part of me wanted to watch Tommy get his ass kicked a little bit, but I wasn’t sure how tough this guy was.

“Hey, Sheep!” I yelled at the guy.

“Isn’t it time you quit dying for a guy who could give a rat’s ass about you? The man stopped and turned to me. Tommy was about to leap on him because his back was turned. I put my hand up, and made a motion for Tommy not to do it. Tommy held back.

“Follow me,” I said. “You are a strong Mani man and we need you on our side. Fight alongside us and help me preserve our race.”

He looked afraid. Who could blame him?

“You don’t want to fight for a guy who left you here to die alone,” I said. “Where is he?”

“Look, Josiah.” The Mani man knew my name. “I can’t follow a man who fights alongside Carni.”

“What is your name?”

The Mani man kept looking at Tommy. He didn’t trust him and I needed to appeal to the guy’s sensibilities.

“Tommy, stand down and walk over to me.”

Tommy looked at me as if to say, ‘you’re really going to save this guy?’

“Tommy, transition,” I said. Tommy sighed and eventually turned into his Carni form.

“What is your name?” I repeated.

“I am Cyrus.” Cyrus had dark brown hair and looked a lot like Tommy.

“Look at Tommy,” I said, to Cyrus.

“No.”

“Look at him!” I yelled.

Cyrus reluctantly looked at Tommy.

“What do you see?” I asked.

Cyrus paused. Then he said, “I see a man.”

“And?”

“I see a man, much like myself,” he said.

“You two could be brothers. Your ethnicity is Scottish, correct?” I asked.

“Scottish and Welsh,” he answered.

“Well, so is Tommy. Before you became a Mani and Tommy became a Carni, you were both Scotsmen. You guys were connected by heritage and tradition. You both bleed Scottish blood. You have allowed this thing, who all of us have become, to dictate sides. Why does it have to? Who says we need to be on one side or the other?”

“Carni killed my brothers!” Cyrus yelled loudly.

“Tommy didn’t kill your brothers. As a matter of fact, if Tommy was there he would have fought for what was right, even if it meant turning on his own. Don’t you see that this isn’t about Carni and Mani. This is about right and wrong.”

“What makes you the ones that are right?” he asked.

I looked at Cyrus and then at Tommy. “I hope we are. Cyrus, I think we’re right because we only react in “love.” We don’t seek revenge and we don’t randomly kill. We protect our own as well as other innocent people around us. If that isn’t right, then I guess I missed the point to all of this.”

“It’s hard to just let that go.”

“You’re going to have to. Vengeance has its time and place. It is not wasted on those who don’t deserve it. Tommy has never wronged you. He is just a representation of what you hate. You need to free yourself from that, and seek hope.”

Cyrus nodded his head.

“Will you join me?” I asked again.

“I can’t really go back now, can I?” Cyrus said.

“Sure you can. You can tell Krull you escaped my evil clutches. I want you to join us, but only if it’s in your heart.”

“You’re not what I expected,” Cyrus said to me.

“Honestly, Cyrus, I am not even what I expected.”

Cyrus looked at me and smiled. He walked over and shook my hand. He then walked over to Tommy. He stuck out his hand and Tommy shook it. Cyrus turned to me and said, “I’ll follow you, Josiah.”

Chapter Sixteen

The three of us walked to the highway and I told Tommy to take a taxi back to Yari’s townhouse. I asked Cyrus to come home with me. I knew he would be hunted down by Krull and his army because he switched sides. He was my responsibility now. I knew Yari’s place didn’t have any more room, but I had no other option. Cyrus and I transitioned and flew to Yari’s.

When we got in, it was nearly 2:00 in the morning. Yari, Hector, and Wyatt were all up in the living room doing God knows what. Honestly, the less I know about those three, the better.

We walked in and Yari instantly took a liking to Cyrus. I guess he was fresh meat. She was no better than a dude. “Hey, Josiah I see you were out making friends,” Yari said.

“I guess you could say that,” I answered. “Unfortunately, it came at a high price for some. Everyone, this is Cyrus.” Cyrus gave an awkward wave to the group. “He has joined our little cause.”

“Are we going to start taking in every stray Mani from here to San Jose?” Wyatt asked.

“He risked a lot joining us, and I will see to it that he is safe. This house is sunlight proof, so that’s a good place to start.”

“Well, it looks like we have two less visitors now anyway.” Yari stated. “So welcome Cyrus. I have a nice big bed if you’re interested.”

Cyrus had a nervous smile and I winked at him. “It’s okay, Cyrus, she bites,” I said, jokingly. I turned to Yari. “So, let me guess. Lena left?”

“Lena said she needed some time,” Yari said. “We gave her some money and she said she’d keep in touch. That’s all I knew to do.”

“You are a saint, Yari.” I said, sarcastically. I was extremely disappointed to hear that bit of information on many levels. But the main one was I really wanted to set things straight with her. “Who is the other person that left?” I asked, knowing full well she was referring to Tommy.

“Lena said you sent Tommy packing.”

“That’s not exactly what happened. He kind of spazzed out and went flying through the window.”

“Without any help from you?” Yari asked.

“Do you really think I’d throw my best friend through a window?”

Yari smiled because she heard what I said. I still called Tommy my best friend.

“Well, don’t worry about him,” I said to the group. “He’s coming back and he should be here any minute.”

“Where is he?” Wyatt asked.

“Trust me, he’ll be here. There’s only two rooms, so we need to all be courteous to each other,” I said. “If you guys don’t mind, I’m going to take a moment.” I excused myself and walked down the hallway and went into the guest room and shut the door.

I started to feel really emotional. Now that Lena had officially left, I was going to really have to see this thing for what it was. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to. How can I lead those people if I feel the way I do? My heart ached.

Forever and Always? What had happened with that?

I laid on the bed and closed my eyes. I needed to lay down and recharge my batteries. This sure has been some kind of roller coaster since I’ve been back. I have a feeling it’s only going to get worse.

I laid there for about twenty minutes and then I heard a knock at the door. “Who is it?” I yelled out.

“It’s Tommy.”

Great! What the hell does he want? I knew we had just fought by each other’s side, but we really didn’t have much choice. We were pretty outnumbered. I wasn’t sure if I was up to talking with him, but he was at the door and I couldn’t tell him to leave.

“Come in,” I said.

The door slowly opened and Tommy poked his head through the door. “Can I come in? I feel a little out of place with all those vampires in the other room.”

“It’s not going to get any better in here,” I joked. “Vampire, party of one.”

Tommy laughed and came in and sat on the edge of the bed.

“Are we good?” Tommy asked.

“Good?” I asked. “There is nothing good about this situation. I think we’re stuck together for better or for worse.”

“That’s it, we’re just stuck together?”

“What do you want me to say? That I think it’s cool what you did?”

“There are things we need to talk about,” Tommy said.

“I know we need to talk. I’m just not sure if I’m ready to, that’s all. Tommy, you’re five years older than me. I have always looked up to you. This is a hard thing for me to get my head around. My dearest friend played the girl I love to the point that she left me. That’s a hard pill to swallow.”

“I didn’t play her.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot. You fell in love with her.”

Tommy looked at me and shook his head. “I’m sorry. It was never supposed to be like this. In the end, Josiah, she’s just a girl.”

“Exactly, in the end, Tommy, to me…she wasn’t just a girl. She was my validation in all of this. She lifted me up and made me want to become this God-forbidden thing that I am. She’s not just a girl, and to think that’s all you see, just shows how awful it is that you got her to fall for you.”

“She fell for me?”

“Yeah, Tommy. That’s why she left. She had feelings for you, too, and she felt it wasn’t fair for anyone.”

Tommy seemed pleased to hear that Lena had feelings for him. To be honest, his cocky glow started to piss me off. I needed to call him on it; I couldn’t just let it slide.

I stood up off the bed. “Tommy, you saw an opportunity and you took it, without any consideration for me. You know me. I don’t fall for girls every day. You didn’t care. You were only thinking about yourself.”

“I thought about you the whole time.”

“But yet you took her to the beach and told her that you were having feelings for her? And you didn’t stop there. You kissed her.”

Tommy shook his head at me. “Lena’s not in love with me, she told me so herself. She might feel something toward me, but it’s not the same as what she feels for you.”

“I don’t even care anymore. This whole thing is tainted. You put your stink all over the situation. Even if Lena and I were to work things out. I’ll always know that you…” I stopped myself and then continued. “You will always know that my girlfriend has feelings for you. I don’t want to live in that world.”

“That is so selfish, Josiah!”

“You? Tommy? Are telling me? That I’m being selfish? Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Just hear me out, Josiah. You and I are cast from the same mold. The reason why we’re so close is because we’re so similar. Why wouldn’t the same girl see things in both of us that she’s attracted to?”

“Okay, Tommy. That is all fine and dandy. But, you’re in love with her.”

“I don’t know anymore.”

“Bullshit, Tommy. You sat there yesterday and spouted your undying love for my girlfriend. You can’t sit here and say it didn’t happen. Whatever you feel toward Lena is so strong that she feels it, too. Don’t tell me this isn’t important to you. I know it is. All I know is she broke up with me over it. So, please don’t underplay it because that insults my intelligence.”

“She broke up with you?” Tommy asked.

“Yeah, she did.”

“I’m so sorry, Josiah. Man, I fucked everything up.”

“What did you think would happen?”

“I don’t know. I just wanted to come clean. I didn’t want it to go down like this.”

“Well, it did.” I turned on the TV with the remote and flipped through the channels. “She’s gone and I’m done talking about it.”

Tommy got up and stood in front of the TV. “Josiah, I need to know if you forgive me.”

I flipped off the TV and looked at Tommy. “Did you sleep with her?”

“Of course not.”

“Did you kiss her more than the one time at the beach?”

“No, it never happened again. We just talked, mainly about you.”

I looked at Tommy and felt the history that he and I had shared over the years, and in the end, Lena was a woman that never owed me anything.

“I forgive you, Tom,” I said.

“You do?”

“Yeah, I can forgive, but I can’t forget. Maybe over time I’ll be able to, but for now, I’m going to have a hard time fully trusting you.

“That’s fair and I hope someday that changes.”

“Was there anything else?” I asked, wanting this conversation to just end.

“For now, I just wanted to make sure we were straight.”

“We’re good,” I confirmed.

Tommy nodded. “Hey, can I sleep in here with you?”

“Really dude?” Now he was pushing it.

“You don’t expect me to sleep out there with a vampire who was trying to kill me an hour ago?”

I looked at Tommy and couldn’t help but laugh. “Ok, but we sleep opposite of each other and absolutely no talk about ‘morning hard-ons’.”

“You know, there’s nothing I like more than my wood pressed up against your back, Josiah.”

“That’s what I’m talking about. Zip it.” I made a zip motion with my hand over my lips.

Tommy laughed, and said, “Hey, put on America’s Got Talent. I heard there’s a guy and his dog that can do every kind of dance imaginable. I heard they do a mean salsa.”

“It’s no American Idol,” I said.

“I haven’t like that show since Taylor Hicks.”

“I’m a Clay Aiken fan myself.”

“I knew you were a Claymate!”

“Shut up.”

Chapter Seventeen

Tommy and I bunked like a couple of sixth graders having a sleepover. It was hard for me to stay mad at him. He and I had been through so much in the last five years. I still didn’t understand what he was thinking or what his intentions were with Lena, but I felt like I needed to turn the page.

Did he seriously fall in love with Lena or was he just being competitive?

It was the middle of the day and I woke up hearing a knock at the door. “Hey boys!” Yari was knocking at the door.

“Yeah?” I called out, groggily.

“Open the door,” she said.

Tommy was out like a light so I got myself up and went to the door. I made sure I wasn’t slipping out of my shorts and then I opened the door.

“What are you two doing?” Yari said, walking into the room.

“We’re sleeping.”

“Well, get up! It’s the middle of the day!” She laughed.

“Very funny. What do you want, Yari?”

“Well, if you two are done having your makeup sex, I have a proposition for you guys.”

“Okay,” I said, ignoring the gay joke.

“Remember that gorgeous white house I took you to, a couple months back, when we went to that crazy house party?”

“The one in Victorville?”

“Yeah, that one.”

“What about it?” I asked.

“Well, as you remember, the place is freaking huge. The guy who owned it isn’t exactly with us, if you know what I’m mean. And the guy who is now looking after it said all of us could stay there as long as we like. It has nine rooms, a Jacuzzi and a pool.”

“I remember it well,” I said. “I had a pretty memorable night. How soon can we move in?”

“We can leave right now if you like. The place is completely furnished and just waiting for us to move in.”

“Did you tell everyone else?”

“Yeah, they have already transitioned and left. Everyone decide that they were going to go live there regardless of what you decided to do.”

“That’s good, “I laughed. “I’m not running a cult here. I’m glad people are making their own decisions.”

“Why don’t you and Tommy gather your stuff and drive out.”

“Drive?”

“Oh, I forgot you only fly now, Josiah. Forgive me, oh great one.” Yari smirked at me and left the room.

I shut the door and turned around and faced Tommy. “Hey, Wolfboy, wake up!”

Tommy looked up at me half dead. “What the hell are you yelling about?”

“Get up and gather your things, we’re moving.”

“We’re moving? What the hell?”

“That’s what I said. Get up, sleepyhead, rise and shine.”

“Where are we moving to?”

“Trust me, you’ll love it. It’s a freaking palace.”

“Wow, a palace!” Tommy stretched his arms. “That’s cool. This place was getting a little cramped. Where is it? Beverly Hills?”

“Not quite,” I laughed. “Try a location that is a lot dryer and hotter.”

“Where?”

“Victorville.”

“Victorville? You mean that desert town on the way to Las Vegas?”

“That would be the one.”

“That place is a 100 degrees, 365 days a year.”

“Well, thank God our house will have air conditioning and a pool, so you won’t have to worry about it getting too hot.”

“You know that for sure?”

“Yes, I’ve been there. Get up and quit complaining. You’re going to have your own room, and that will be a very good thing because I don’t want to look at your junk.”

“Hey, Josiah. My eyes are up here,” Tommy said, jokingly pointing at his eyes.

“It’s kind of hard to miss when you wear basketball shorts three sizes too small.”

“I thought we weren’t going to call attention to our junk.”

“Sorry, it’s hard to miss.”

“That’s what I’ve been told.”

I shook my head and walked out of the room. The house was empty except for Yari, everyone had gone up to Victorville. I went over and sat on the easy chair. Yari came out of her bedroom with a bag full of stuff. “Hey, will you and Tommy take this bag with you?”

“Sure, no problem. It will probably be just Tommy. I’m thinking about flying over. Otherwise I have to transition and sit in the back seat as the eagle. I don’t think I want to deal with how slow Tommy drives.”

“It’s nice having one of us grounded. It makes it easier to figure who will drive our shit places. No need to draw straws.”

I smiled in agreement and leaned back in the chair and closed my eyes.

“What’s on your mind, Josiah?”

“You were right about everything, Yari. I didn’t want to believe you, but you called it. I won’t ever doubt you again.”

“I know it’s hard, but you need to turn the page.”

“How have you done it all these years? Aren’t you emotionally exhausted?” I looked over at Yari and she came over and sat on my lap.

“Josiah, you are too nice. It’s not exhausting if you don’t allow people to control how you feel.”

“I thought Lena and I had something special. I thought it was more. Obviously I’m an idiot.”

“Josiah, you’re not an idiot. For God’s sake, look at you! Your freaking gorgeous and you have a heart of gold. If Lena can’t see that you’re head and shoulders above any man, then it’s her loss.”

“You really think that?”

“Honestly, what is sexy as hell about you is your confidence. You need to stop feeling sorry for yourself and go out there and do you.”

Yari was right. I needed to let it go. “I’ll put your bag in the car.” I got up and picked up Yari’s bag.

“Josiah, I talked with Lena for about two hours right before she left. She loves you. She loves you more than you know. Give her time.”

“I don’t know why she had to leave the group.”

“She really didn’t want to leave, Josiah. But she didn’t want to come in between you and Tommy. She’s confused about a lot of things. She feels guilty about the whole thing. The last thing she said to me was that she loved you with all her heart. She just needed to leave and figure some things out.”

“She didn’t have to leave the group. I would have given her space.”

“Josiah, she needed her own space. She needs to listen to her heart. She wants to love Josiah the man—not Josiah the Chosen Mani. She needs to figure out how she can separate the two.”

“Did she say where she was going?”

“No, but she promised she’d be safe. I texted her and told her that we were all moving to Victorville. Don’t be surprised if one day she shows up.”

* * *

The house was even more spectacular in the daylight. I showed up around 6:00 pm. I didn’t realize how windowless the house was the last time I was here. There were literally no windows in the entire house. But there were several trap doors that opened to the outside where Mani could easily fly in and out. It was as if the house was designed by a Mani.

Tommy showed up shortly after I did. He and I took rooms upstairs. We all had our own rooms, and there would be no more awkward sleeping arrangements. A part of me was saddened by the idea that Lena wasn’t going to be a part of this. So Yari, Hector, Wyatt, Cyrus, Tommy and I were now housemates in a beautiful white mansion in the deep of Victorville. There wasn’t a house or business within five miles of the property. I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing.

The next three weeks were an adjustment period for everyone. It was like a bad episode of the Real World, where the houseguests argued about hygiene and dishes in the sink.

Cyrus and Yari seemed to have a connection. They had been spending a lot of time together. I guess it was a rite of passage to be in the group. All male members must go through Yari. Yari was like a mongoose, she devoured her prey. Tommy and I both gave Cyrus a head’s up about her, but he seemed like a smart fellow. I don’t see him falling for our red-headed vixen.

My birthday was coming up and it was going to be on Saturday. Yari was planning the biggest Mani party of all time. She claimed she threw one for Thomas Jefferson back in the day. Thomas Jefferson a vampire? Who knew?

Yari mentioned there were going to be over a hundred Mani and future Mani invited to the party. Future Mani, or FM, is a term that is used for teens that weren’t fully developed yet, but have committed themselves to being a Mani when they reached 20 years of age. Most FM’s really didn’t have a choice, if they didn’t choose to become a Mani, they would be killed because they knew too much. It’s the Mani way; even I couldn’t change the decree. I just know I won’t kill or order for someone to be killed unless they intend to harm a Mani that is loyal to our cause.

Yari was going ballistic putting together the party. I had one strong rule. No Tandra allowed at the party unless they were FM’s. I made the rule not because I hate humans. It was actually the opposite. I didn’t want any of them to be in danger. A house full of feeding Mani was not a good place for any human being. To be honest, I wasn’t fully comfortable with a FM’s being there, but I could only throw my weight around so much.

Tommy and I have gotten really close again. Lena was becoming a distant memory; ok, not really, but as far as Tommy and I were concerned there was no mention of her or what had happened.

It was the day before my party and Tommy and I were having another epic Scrabble match on the dining room table. Tommy and I were extremely competitive. It didn’t matter what we we’re doing, we battled hard. He had my number, as of late, when it came to Scrabble. Today was no exception. Tommy laid down the tiles ‘xi’ on the board to close out the win.

“That’s it Josiah. I win 342 to 321. You were once again owned by yours truly.”

“You’re a stud at Scrabble, Tommy. What can I say?” I was bothered by the loss but was trying my best to be a good sport about it.

Tommy never makes that easy.

“You can say you are officially my ‘Scrabble bitch’. What does that make now, five straight times I beat you?”

Like I said, Tommy never makes it easy.

I tried to compose myself —but Dammit —he was making this hard. “Easy, Wolfie,” I said. “Don’t make me go all white eagle on your canine ass.”

“Is that a threat?” Tommy said, laughing —almost daring me to do something.

“No threat here,” I said. “As a matter of fact, I say we take it to the carpet.”

“Oh, Jo, you want none of me. Remember you’re a striker, and if we wrestle on the carpet, it’s over. I will take you to task.”

We both went into the main living room area. There were three couches and a coffee table that were worth more than most people’s cars in the center of the room. They were definitely in the way. We both turned over the sofas and pushed them aside. Tommy picked up the coffee table and put it on top of the couches.

“What the hell is going on down here?” Yari yelled from the stairway.

“I’m about to show Josiah that a grappler always beats a striker.”

“Are you two fighting for real?” Yari yelled.

“Not for real, we’re just having some fun,” I yelled back to her.”

Tommy made his way to the middle of the room and began stretching and hopping up and down as if he was about to have a real MMA fight. He was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt. Tommy took off his shirt and threw it Yari.

We’re not doing this nude, are we?” I asked, knowing full well we weren’t.

“Not this time,” Tommy answered. “The last time there was too much scrotum flying around.”

I was wearing black basketball shorts with Kobe Bryant, Lakers jersey. “If you don’t mind, I prefer to keep number 24 on.”

“Whatever floats your boat, Vampy.”

“Vampy? Oh it’s on, my little Chihuahua.”

“This little Chihuahua is going to show you how it’s done!”

“What’s going on down there?” Hector yelled from one of the rooms. Hector never says anything so we must have awakened him.

“I think we disturbed the Prince,” I said, laughing.

“I forgot he knew how to talk,” Tommy grinned.

“Tommy and Josiah are just flexing their muscles at each other,” Yari said. “It’s nothing to be worried about. They’re just seeing whose dick is bigger. I actually know the answer, but we’ll let them work it out. For the right price, I’ll tell anyone who wants to know.”

“It’s okay, Yari,” I said. “No one here wants to pay to know that kind of information.”

“Spoken by the man who obviously has the smaller wang!” Tommy laughed.

“Oh, it’s on, Chachi!” I circled Tommy. I looked up at the stairwell and now the whole house was watching. Hector, Wyatt and Cyrus had joined Yari on the stairwell. “I guess we have an audience.”

“I don’t need an audience,” Tommy said. “As I recall, the last time we did this, you saw stars.”

“Damn, those are fighting words,” I said back to Tommy. “Don’t forget I was still a Tandra when we fought that night. And remember, you were most definitely a Carni, so you had a slight advantage.”

“Doesn’t erase the fact that I beat you in front of the world on Pay-Per-View, does it?”

“It needs an asterisk.”

“The only asterisk is going to happen is me kicking your asterisk-ass.”

“All talk and no bite. Oh wait you do bite… and howl… and bark.”

“Cute Josiah, I see you can still talk some shit. Any rules, Golden Boy?”

“Rules, hell when did we ever have rules?”

“We don’t want to kill each other. Let’s say no punching above the neck, we both look too pretty.”

I felt my chiseled jaw. “Agreed,” I said.

“And you can’t use any of your wizard shit,” Tommy added, staring me down.

“Wizard shit? Damn! Is that is what you think of me?”

“God knows what you can do now. You could probably say Hocus pocus and turn my penis into Chapstick.”

“I don’t have to say Hocus Pocus to do that!” I said, with an exclamation point.

“That was too easy.”

“You’re the one lobbing me up softballs. Don’t get mad when I hit them out of the park.”

Tommy nodded and we continued to circle each other. “Anyway, no Mani bullshit,” Tommy stated, “Just straight MMA, with no punching in the face.”

“I guess there’s only one thing to say, Tommy boy. ‘Let’s get it on’!”

Tommy and I circled each other for about another minute, sizing each other up, both of us waiting for just the right opening.

“Please don’t break anything!” Yari yelled.

As I circled, I looked Tommy in the eyes. I began thinking about how bad he messed things up with Lena and I. I felt a slow rage grow inside of me. I tried to shake it off, but I couldn’t. It was building to the point that it was boiling over. Eventually, I quit looking at Tommy as a friend I was having fun wrestling with in the living room. I was looking at him as the guy who gave me pain. He consciously put the moves on Lena, knowing full well how I felt about her. It was time for him to pay.

I lowered my body level, and shot my body in between Tommy’s legs and caught his right hamstring with both my hands and picked him up. I did this at a speed that I had never experienced while wrestling before. Within milliseconds, Tommy was being lifted off the ground and I was carrying him in my arms around the living room like a sack of potatoes. He was punching my shoulders and chest trying to break free. But I wasn’t letting go for anything. I jumped up and slammed Tommy to the carpet. I knocked the wind out of him. I could hear him gasping for air.

I was holding Tommy down with my body, and controlling him with my legs. Something had become quite apparent since the last time Tommy and I had fought, I had now become a lot stronger than him. A hell of a lot stronger and he knew it. He could feel my grip around his body. I could sense the uncertainty in the way he was breathing. I should have had empathy. I shouldn’t have felt the way I did. I was thriving off his misery.

While I was on top of him, I whispered in his ear, “This isn’t a fair fight, Tom. You need to be a werewolf to even have a chance. I’m controlling you like an infant. Come on, Tommy, Mr. Superstar Wrestler, get out of my hold.”

“Fuck you, Josiah.” Tommy tried to spin forward to get out of my grip but had no chance.

“Aw, don’t be that way, my little Chihuahua!” Now I was being relentless. “It’s hard to handle, isn’t it?” I said as I tightened up my grip on the body. I was controlling his every movement. I was riding him like a steed. “The young boy you trained can now kick your ass!”

With that, I let him go and he got to his feet. I came up at him and delivered an eight-punch combination hitting his shoulders, ribs and stomach. I pulled back and Tommy was completely hunched over. He was badly hurt. I normally would have stopped, because he was through. But not today, not after what he had done.

I stepped toward him and something snapped in my head. I don’t even quite remember doing it, but I was highly aware it happened. I cocked my right fist back and I threw a ferocious uppercut and landed it directly underneath his chin and completely flattened him out. I broke the rule and I knew it. I didn’t care that I had punched him above the neck.

“What the fuck was that,” Josiah?” Yari yelled, as she came running down the stairs to Tommy’s aide.

I walked over to Tommy and his eyes were rolled back. I slapped him on the cheek to bring him around. “Tommy, you okay?” Tommy eyes focused and he looked at me and said, “You hit my face.”

“I know. Now we’re even.” I turned around and walked outside the house and sat on the porch. It was dark now and I took a giant breath. I wasn’t proud of myself, but I felt it needed to be done. I looked up into the starlit sky and I transitioned into the eagle and flew upwards. I flew into the sky at a wicked speed and I nearly rammed into another bird. As I swished past it, I realized it was a red hawk. She was one of our own.

I turned my head around, to make sure the hawk was okay. I kept going once I realized that the bird was fine. I continued to blaze across the sky. Then I heard a squawk behind me. I turned around to see what it was. The bird that I nearly hit was now following me. One might even say chasing me.

I glided up higher in the air and the bird continued to follow behind. She was not letting up. The bird was definitely trying to get my attention. I allowed the red hawk to catch up with me, and as she did I saw the hawk’s eyes and knew who it was. It was Lena!

Chapter Eighteen

My stomach was in knots and I didn’t quite know what to do. I looked at the gorgeous bird and decided to fly downward and land on the ground to see what she wanted. I landed on the side of a dirt road near the 15 freeway. Lena landed next to me and transitioned immediately. She was gorgeous. She was wearing a white tank top with white Capri pants. She looked really good in white. I looked across the street and noticed that there was a park with a playground at the front of it. I sighed and then transitioned to my Mani form.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yes, I’m okay.” Lena answered, quietly. I could tell she was really emotional. I looked in her eyes, and they were fiery red. She had obviously been crying all day.

“You don’t look okay,” I said.

Lena stared at me. There was so much pain behind her stare.

“What’s wrong Lena?” I asked again.

“I miss you, Josiah. I miss you a lot.”

That was exactly what I needed to hear. It was as if a giant weight had just been lifted off of me. “Really?” I asked.

“I wanted to come back so many times, but I was afraid of what you thought of me.”

“Why did you leave, Lena?”

“What was I to do?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t know what to think anymore.” I was choked up. “I hadn’t seen you in weeks.”

“I couldn’t look you in the eye. You were so hurt, and I thought I was doing the right thing by giving you your space. I didn’t want to come between you and Tommy.”

“Lena, the last thing I expected when I came back from Romania was to be shoved into the middle of a love triangle.”

“I know. It was so unfair to you. This whole thing got complicated fast.”

“Is it really that complicated?”

“You don’t think so?”

“It doesn’t have to be. It only is if you truly love Tommy.”

Lena was quiet.

“Do you love Tommy?” I asked.

“I don’t know, Josiah.”

This was really hard to hear and I wasn’t sure why she came for me if she still thought she was in love with Tommy.

“Then why are you here?”

Lena looked at me and tears rolled down her face. “Because I know that I love you.”

“You do?”

“Yes. I love you so much, Josiah.”

I looked across the street and began walking over to the playground.

“Where are you going?”

“I want to swing.” I said, as I continued to walk over to the sandy playground. There was a swing set next to some monkey bars. The swing set had three separate swings attached to it. I sat on the one in the middle and began swinging.

Lena came over and sat on the swing to the right of me and started swinging herself. We sat there and swung for a couple of minutes and then I stopped. “So what do you want?” I asked.

“Josiah, do you love me?”

I didn’t want to answer that question. It was too painful to say out loud. I looked over at Lena and she waited me to answer.

“You can’t answer that question, Josiah? It’s that hard of a question?”

“No, it’s not a hard question to answer. It’s a hard question to live inside.”

Lena got up off the swing set and stood right in front of me. “Do you love me?”

“Yes, I do,” I said. “I love you, and only you.”

“Why do you love me?”

“Why?”

“Yes, why?”

“What is there not to love? Sometimes in life you are moving along and love sneaks up on you. You never expected it to happen, so you fall deeper. It’s more intense because you weren’t looking for it. It was as if you were given a gift out of nowhere. One day, Lena, you just magically appeared in front of me. And I fell for you hard.”

“What do you want to do? You asked me what I want. I’m asking you what you want.”

“I don’t know. You say you love me, yet in the same breath you say you’re not sure how you feel about Tommy. How is that supposed to make me feel?”

“That’s the thing, Josiah. What I feel for Tommy has nothing to do with you. It’s a whole separate feeling and an entirely different situation. So, I can’t control how that makes you feel, I can only be honest about what I’m feeling.”

I stared at Lena and just felt lost about the whole situation. “Why did you come back?”

“I came back for you.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, I flew over the house and I heard you and Tommy fighting. I peeked through one of the trap doors and I saw you punch him in the face and leave the house. I went after you and then you nearly flew me over.”

“No, you nearly flew me over.”

“Either way, we almost had a collision.”

I looked at Lena and said, “Well, I’m here, right now.”

“I know you are.” Lena reached out her hand to me. I took her hand and sat her on my lap while I was still on the swing. I wrapped my arms around her and held her as close as I ever had before. As she sat on my lap, I felt a release come over my body. I can’t explain why I feel the way I feel toward her. But having her here with me, at this moment, was the only thing I cared about. It was the only thing I truly wanted. In Lena, I was home. In her, I was safe.

“I don’t want this to go away,” I whispered in her ear.

“It doesn’t have to.”

She turned her head and faced me. I leaned in and kissed her tenderly. It was a soft gentle kiss that seemed to last forever.

“All I want is this,” I said. “This right here. Everything else is trivial. Everything else doesn’t matter.”

“You have this, Josiah. But you also have a higher calling.”

“Tonight, all I want is you.”

“Well, you have me.” Lena sat on my lap on the swing and we kissed and held each other for about an hour.

“So, what now?” I asked.

“Follow me.” Lena got off my lap and stood up.

“Follow you?”

“Yes.” Lena transitioned into the red hawk and flew up into the sky. I transitioned and flew after her. She was heading toward San Bernardino. It appeared she was going to my house that was by the college. She circled above my home and landed in my front yard.

I flew down and joined her and we both transitioned. I turned over the plant and grabbed the key and we entered my front door. “I don’t know if we will be safe here,” I said. “I’m pretty sure everyone knows I live here by now.”

“For once, Josiah, shut your mouth.” Lena pushed me up against my hallway wall and we knocked down a bunch of picture frames. She kissed me hard and passionately. She kissed me in a way she never had done before. I kissed her back with all I had. I had waited for this moment for two months. I was going to give her all my passion. She began taking my shirt off and my testosterone was in overdrive. I decided not to think and to just experience whatever she was giving me.

She shoved me into my room and pushed me on my bed. Our hands were caressing each other’s bodies as we kissed each other, all over my bed. I was on top of her, kissing her neck.

Lena stopped and looked at me. “I want you, Josiah.”

I looked down at Lena and I wasn’t exactly sure what she was saying. “Are you sure?” I asked.

“I want to experience all that you are. I want you to be my first.”

“Are you certain?”

“I’ve never been more certain about anything in my entire life.”

I kissed Lena and now took control of the situation. I laid her down and kissed her entire body I started with her neck, and made my way down to her breasts, I slipped her dress off and she laid on my bed in just her bra and panties. I kissed her stomach, her ribs, and her belly button. I made my way down lower to her inner thighs. I was experiencing every inch of her. I wanted every part of her body to feel loved.

Lena caressed me back and loved me thoroughly. This was a moment unlike any other. This was an experience for the ages. We kissed and held each other for hours and then at the perfect time ‘we made love.’ It was passionate and tender! It was everything I imagined it to be. When we were done, we rested on the bed naked. I had never shown a woman more love in my life. I was now completely in love with her. And I was scared to death.

We both slept through the night which wasn’t ideal for a couple of vampires. I woke up around six in the morning and rolled over. “Good morning.”

Lena opened her eyes looked at me and then rolled back over.

“Excuse me, young lady?”

“Yes?”

“Today is a wonderful day.”

“I guess it is.”

“I mean today is the kind of day that most men remember forever.”

“Wow, having sex with me was that good?” Lena giggled.

I smiled at Lena and said, “No.”

“Sex wasn’t good?”

“No, sex was great. Experiencing you last night was amazing.”

Lena smiled and said, “Good, but first things first. I need you to go to the kitchen.”

“Huh?”

“Just shut up and go to the kitchen.”

I got up, stretched, put on a pair of basketball shorts, and went to the kitchen. My mouth dropped when I saw what Lena had done. She had made me a cake in the middle of the night.

“When did you get up?”

“How did you know I got up and made it?”

I looked at all the pots and pans in the sink. The kitchen was a complete mess. “It’s a hunch.” I said, laughing. I looked down at the cake. It was a chocolate cake done in a circle that read. ‘My Josiah’s 21st birthday.’

“Your Josiah, huh? Am I back to being yours?”

“You were always mine.”

“That’s good, because you’re coming to my party at the mansion tonight.”

Lena did not look like she was into that idea.

“You have to go, Lena. Every Mani from here to Seattle will be there.”

“I know all about your party. Yari texted me about it days ago, but I don’t know if I should go.”

“Why? Because Tommy is going to be there?”

“It might be weird.”

“It shouldn’t. I think Tommy liking you was more about me than it was about you.”

Whoops!

Lena did not like that comment. She didn’t like the thought of being used. “I don’t want to argue about it with you because it would only hurt your feelings, but I know Tommy was in it for more than to just best you.”

“Well, Tommy is going to be there. Tommy is always going to be there. That can’t be the reason why you do or don’t do things.”

“I guess you’re right. Is Tommy okay that he’ll be the only Carni?”

“Tommy is practically a Mani himself,” I said. “The Carni would crucify him if he tried to go back.”

“I tell you what,” Lena said. “You go back and help Yari get the party started and I’ll see you tonight.”

“You promise you’re coming?”

“Of course I am!”

“All right.” I kissed Lena on the lips. “So we’re good, right? You’re not going to give me a pen or anything?”

“A pen?”

“You know, so that later I have come back here and blast ‘In Your Eyes’ by Peter Gabriel, at the window with a ghetto blaster.”

“You’re a dork, Josiah.”

“You know, that movie is a classic.”

“I’ll see you tonight.”

I began quoting John Cusack. “I gave her my heart, and she gave me a pen.”

“Okay, Say Anything. Leave, and I’ll see you tonight.”

Chapter Nineteen

It was now daytime, so I had transitioned to the eagle on my way back to the mansion.

It was my 21st birthday and I was finally street legal, I thought, jokingly, as I flew through the Inland Empire sky. I arrived in Victorville in minutes and headed toward the house. I flew into a trap door that led to my room and landed on my bed.

Damn, I had become a stud at this landing thing.

I was feeling bad about the day before and I decided to speak to Tommy and make sure he was cool after being sucker-punched by me. It really wasn’t a sucker-punch because I stood right in front of him, but we had established rules, and I had broken them.

I knocked on Tommy’s door.

“Yari, go away!” he yelled. “Seriously, I’m tired of you fucking with me!”

“It’s not Yari,” I yelled, through the door. “It’s Josiah.”

Tommy didn’t answer right away. After about two minutes, he finally opened the door.

“You’re not going to punch me again, are you?”

“Of course not.”

Tommy opened the door completely and let me into his room. I noticed his chin was split open and he had a half-ass bandage on it. It almost appeared that he was trying to show off his battle wound, even one that was the result of a Scrabble game.

“Sorry about the chin,” I said, as sincerely as I could.

“No worries, Josiah. I deserved it.”

“You didn’t deserve it. I had already forgiven you.”

“Obviously you didn’t,” Tommy said. “Your eyes went red and you wanted to kill me.”

“My eyes didn’t go red.”

“I saw it in your eyes, Jo. You forget I’ve trained you since you were fifteen. I know when you get that look in your eye. That’s when all bets are off and you’re just going pound someone’s ass. Instead of it being someone’s ass, it was my face.”

“I always said you had the face of a horse’s ass,” I said, jokingly, and Tommy smiled. “How was Yari screwing with you?”

“Oh, she is pissed off because I didn’t want to go to the store and pick up some items for the party. I told her I’d go in an hour but that wasn’t good enough for her. So she has been blowing into a dog whistle all morning.”

“A dog whistle? That’s a crack up.”

“Oh, no, it’s not, Josiah. Those things should be illegal.”

“I know what I’m buying the next time I’m at the pet store.”

“You would.” Tommy looked at me and seemed happy that he and I were being cool. “Hey, I got something for you.”

“You didn’t have to do that, Tommy.”

“Shut up. It’s your birthday. Of course I got you something. I’m not going to be the douchebag that doesn’t give you a present.”

“Well, it’s good to know your heart was in the right place. Not wanting to be the douchebag and all.”

Tommy walked over to the closet, “I know this isn’t going to compare to the island that Hector plans on getting you, but it was in my budget.”

“Seriously, an island?” I asked, laughing.

“Maybe not that extravagant, but he did mention something about seventy virgins.”

“It pays to know royalty, what can I say?”

“Come here.” Tommy opened his closet door and pulled out one of his nicest leather jackets I had ever seen. It had a military collar and was gorgeous.

“Is this for me?” I asked.

“Of course it is.”

I picked up the jacket and put it on. I looked in Tommy’s long mirror and damn, I looked fucking good. “Wow, Tom. Thanks.”

“No problem. Hey, check this out.” Tommy went back to his closet and pulled out the same identical jacket.

“You got us matching jackets?” I asked slowly.

“Sure did.”

“I’m not sure what to make of that,” I said, laughing.

“You don’t like it? I think we look good.”

“Well, I think BFF bracelets would be less gay.”

“Oh, shut up, Josiah. The jackets are badass.” Tommy put on his jacket and looked in the mirror with me.

“All we need now is a big T-birds emblem on the back of them and then we can go out and meet up with the pink ladies.”

“Very funny.”

“Seriously we should go down and drag race later,” I said, laughing.

“All right, Josiah, if you don’t like it, I can take it back.”

“Listen, Kenickie, it’s awesome. I love it.” Tommy was a good guy and I was just giving him a hard time.

“Hey, you’re Kenickie, Blondie. I’m Zuko,” Tommy stated.

“I am so more Zuko than you are.” I said, pointing out the obvious.

“What are you talking about? Kenickie has blonde hair and Zuko has black hair.”

“All right, you can be Zuko.” I said. I looked at both of us in the mirror and we did look good even if we looked like we were about to break out into the “Greased Lightning” song

“Thanks, Tommy,” I said. “The jacket is awesome. Again, I’m sorry about hitting you in the face.”

“It’s cool. It didn’t hurt.” Tommy snickered at me.

“I’m sure it didn’t,” I said, as I turned around and left the room.

I went back to my room and relaxed until it was time for my party. Yari told me to stay away and not do anything.

People started showing up around 9:00 p.m. And by 11 o’clock our new home had become a full-blown, raging, crazy-ass-vampire bash. The funny part about it was I didn’t know hardly anyone at the party. I counted seven people out of about 120 that I had met or at least seen before, one thing was for sure, they all knew who I was and wanted some alone time with me. I felt like Don Corleone in The Godfather.

It was like everyone wanted to say the right thing to please me. To be honest, it was making me feel uncomfortable. I wasn’t good with unprovoked adoration. I wasn’t even good with provoked adoration. I was happy that everyone had accepted me and seemed to be on board with whatever was to come. It was clear that there were two sides growing. Krull had his crew and now, I was slowly getting mine together. All my instincts were pointing to a shit storm of epic proportions coming very soon and I knew we all needed to be ready.

I purposely didn’t consume any alcohol because I didn’t want to be drunk when Lena showed up. Tommy, on the other hand, was throwing back shots and beers like they were Tic-Tacs.

I was nervous in the anticipation of Lena showing up. I really wanted her to be here with me. I wanted to share this party with her. All the adoration from everyone else didn’t mean a thing to me without having her by my side.

I wanted to make a statement that we were together. That this was the person I chose to be with. I knew I could have any woman at this party. Shit, I could probably have most of the men if I swung that way. I didn’t want anyone else. I only wanted Lena. And unfortunately, it was now past midnight and there was still no sign of her.

I went out to the front yard and looked in all directions for a red hawk. There was nothing. ‘It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to’ seemed to be appropriate right about now.

I was now leaning toward drinking, and if I was planning on doing any kind of alcohol intake tonight, there was only one guy to party with, and that was Tommy.

I went inside the house and looked for him and I couldn’t find him in the house. Eventually, I found him in the backyard sitting by the pool at a table surrounded by Wyatt, Hector and Cyrus. I walked out to the backyard and made my way over to them.

“Look guys!” Tommy yelled out. “He honors us with his presence!” Tommy was very drunk and saluted me like I was a five-star general.

“At ease, soldier,” I said. “Have you been behaving around all these vampires?”

Tommy stood up and said, “Why is it that whenever any of you Mani dick-holes talk to me, you find it necessary to always point out that I’m a werewolf?”

“Sorry, brother,” I said taking a sip of his beer. “I wasn’t aware that you didn’t want me to recognize.”

“Oh, you best recognize, homey!” Tommy said taking the beer from me and sat back down.

“Trust me, I always do,” I said, laughing. I pulled up a chair at the table. “Are you guys having a good time?” I asked the others.

“There’s a lot of hot Mani ass here,” Cyrus said.

“You better not let Yari hear you talk like that,” Wyatt said to Cyrus. “She pissed her circle around you.”

“Is that why none of these hotties are even looking at me?” Cyrus asked.

“I wouldn’t doubt it,” I said “Yari can be possessive.”

Tommy then stood up again. “How come you guys always have to say I’m a werewolf?”

“Didn’t we already have this talk?” I said.

“Listen, Choseniah, I wasn’t finished talking.” Tommy walked over to me.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought you were done,” I said, as condescendingly as possible to a drunk without him realizing you were indeed being condescending.

“I’m not your gay friend,” Tommy said to me.

“No one said you were,” I said, surprised at the absurdity of his statement. “But, I could bust out our matching T-bird jackets and people might think differently.”

“You know what I’m saying. Don’t act like you don’t.” Tommy looked down at me and took another swig of his beer.

“Actually, I have no idea what you are saying,” I said to him.

“You know, whenever a group of friends have a gay friend, they always have to bring up that he’s gay all the time. Well, I’m not gay. I’m a werewolf. Not that there is anything wrong with that. You know, being gay and all.” Then Tommy busted up laughing. “Get it, Josiah? Seinfeld.”

“I got it, Tommy,” I said rolling my eyes.

“Believe it or not,” Cyrus said. “I understand what he’s trying to say.”

“Actually, so do I,” I said, laughing.

Tommy collapsed back in his chair and said, “Hey, Josiah!”

“What buddy?” I said to Tommy.

“Where’s Lena?”

“That’s a good question.” Tommy must have been drunk to bring her up to me.

“I think she didn’t show up because she’s doesn’t want to face the truth,” Tommy said.

“What truth would that be, Tom?”

“Hey, Tommy! Shut up!” Wyatt said. Wyatt knew Tommy was about to say something very stupid. What Wyatt didn’t know was that I was intimate with Lena the night before and there was really little Tommy could say to me that would set me off.

“Tommy, why don’t you slow it down?” Cyrus said to Tommy.

“I’m not that drunk. I’m just having some fun.”

“Okay, then answer my question. What truth would that be?” I asked.

Tommy looked at me and his wheels were spinning. I knew he wanted to say something, but even as drunk as he was, he filtered it out and didn’t answer me. “Nothing, Josiah. I was just talking nonsense.”

I looked over to the back door and Rubidoux walk out and I called him over to us.

“Hey, buddy,” I said. “What’s going on? When did you show up?”

Rubidoux shook my hand and gave me a bro hug. “I got here about a half hour ago. I heard you’re living here now.”

“Yup, it’s a pretty nice set-up.”

“I bet,” Rubidoux said. “Hey, there was some weird guy outside looking for you.”

“Where?”

“Right outside.”

“What did he look…?” I looked up at the backdoor way and Yari came walking out with the smallest cake I had ever seen. It had one lone sparkler on top. The cake was the size of a Hersey bar. “I’m sorry, hold on,” I said.

Yari walked over to where I was sitting, “All right everyone! It’s time for the cake!”

No one was paying attention. So she walked on top of the diving board and screamed, “MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION!”

Now everyone stopped talking and listened. There was probably half the party in the backyard.

“This is Josiah’s 21st birthday,” Yari continued to yell. “And I got him a cake.”

“Way to go all out on the cake, Yari!” Tommy yelled out laughing.

“Well, considering you and Josiah are the only two that can eat it, why splurge?”

“True dat, home-girl,” Tommy sat back down.

“All right everyone! Let’s give Josiah our Mani birthday chant!”

Then the entire party that was in the backyard did a weird birthday chant that sounded like some kind of Mani war cry. It sure wasn’t the Happy Birthday song, but it definitely was heartfelt. I closed my eyes and wished for happiness and blew out the candle.

“Anyway, Rubidoux, what were you saying?”

“There is some weird guy out front that wanted to speak to you.”

“Weird, how?”

“Well, he’s in a costume,” Rubidoux said, laughing.

“A costume?”

“Yeah, and he’s a little person.”

“A little person?”

“You know, like a dwarf.”

“Oh shit! It’s Goshi!” I yelled. “Where’s he at?”

“He’s in the front yard.”

I ran through the house and everyone followed me to the front yard. There he was! Goshi was standing in the middle of the grass He was wearing a white robe, and if this dude ever looked like Papa Smurf, it was now.

“Goshi!” I yelled out to him.

“Josiah,” Goshi said, with his arms extended out to me. I ran up to him and hugged him.

“You showed up!”

“Yes, I did.”

“Wow, how did you get here?” I asked.

“You’d be surprised how many people don’t ask questions when you look the way I do. They tend to go out of their way to make me feel accepted.”

I turned to the party and said, “Everyone, listen up, this little blue guy here is the toughest Mani I have ever trained with.”

I heard some giggling.

“You think I’m kidding! I am not. This is my...” I looked at Goshi and said, “We never established what you are to me.”

Goshi said, “Guidance counselor?”

“Huh?” I said.

“I don’t know, how about mentor?”

“This is my mentor!” I yelled to the crowd.

Everyone cheered in a drunken fury.

“You want a drink?” I asked.

“I’m sorry, Josiah, this meeting isn’t of the hospitality nature.”

“Oh, it’s not?”

“It’s time,” he said.

“Right now?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“You want to do my final training at this moment?”

“Yes.”

“Right here in the front yard?” I asked.

“No, there’s a place near here that I have been told about. We should go there,” Goshi said.

“Where do you want to go?” I asked.

“You all refer to it as Flatlands.”

“You want to go to the Flatlands? You’ve heard of that place?”

“Yes. I think that would be an appropriate place for our final training.”

I turned and faced the party. “Listen up, everyone! I’m going to need to leave the party!”

“Josiah, wait!” Goshi interrupted me.

“Yeah?”

“Let everyone come! Let’s have everyone see your final training session. Let’s have everyone witness you becoming all that is in you. You should share this last part of your journey with all your friends.”

“Okay,” I said. “Hey everyone!” I yelled. “We’re moving the party to Flatlands.”

Everyone cheered, mainly because most of them were very drunk and would have cheered anything I would have yelled out.

I said, “Every one of us has been drinking. Nobody here wants a DUI. Instead of driving, we better just fly.”

Chapter Twenty

A sea of drunken ravens and hawks made their way to the Flatlands. Hector, Wyatt, Cyrus and myself all transitioned and dug our claws into Tommy’s clothes and air lifted him to Flatlands like air cargo. Under any other circumstance, I wouldn’t have allowed such a bold visual to take place over the San Bernardino Mountains, but I needed to make an exception on this one.

Everyone had made their way up to the Flatland parking lot. We let Tommy go from a few feet up and he landed safely. Tommy looked over at me as I transitioned and said, “Talk about sobering your ass up!”

“Did you lose your buzz?”

“Yeah,” Tommy said. “I think I lost it for the rest of my life. I have officially been scared sober.”

Soon all the Mani that were at the party had arrived. Everyone had transitioned and we all stood on one side of the Flatlands facing Goshi. Goshi made his way out to the middle of the group and said, “Meet me out here, Josiah.”

I walked out to where he was standing. I turned and faced the Mani crowd. There was now over 150 Mani watching this take place. These were my people. This was my crew. I felt like it was graduation, but this wasn’t a graduation, it was my final test and I needed to be on my game. I looked at Goshi and asked, “So, what exactly are we going to be doing?”

“You and I are going to...” I stopped Goshi from speaking as a red hawk made her way down and landed near the back of the group. I watched as the hawk transitioned. It was Lena.

“Hold on, Goshi!” I made my way over to Lena. She seemed nervous and apprehensive.

“Where were you?” I asked.

“Please don’t embarrass me, Josiah,” she said.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, please don’t let me interfere with what you guys are doing,” Lena said.

I reached out my hand and took hers. She took my hand and warmly smiled at me. “Please Josiah, do what you need to do. You need to focus. Please go back out there.”

I nodded my head and looked back at Goshi. He seemed particularly interested in Lena, but then turned his focus back to me.

“Come back to me, Josiah,” Goshi announced. I turned around and walked back over to him. “Like I was saying,” Goshi said to me. “You and I are going to battle.”

“Battle?” I asked.

“Yes,” Goshi answered.

“That’s it? We’re just going to spar?”

“Not spar. Fight.”

“Fight?” I asked. “To what degree?”

“We are going to fight to the death.”

“What?” I asked, flabbergasted.

“You and I, Josiah, will battle one another till one of us kills the other one.”

“You can’t be serious?”

“I have never been more serious in my entire life.”

“I don’t want to kill you,” I said. I looked at the group of Mani and they all seemed just as shocked as I was.

“You need to attack me and try to kill me!” Goshi said, loudly to me. “You need to separate who I am and what I mean to you. For the next few minutes, I will be your enemy and you will need to try to finish me. And whatever happens to either of us will be in the Triat’s will.”

“To either of us? Are you going to try to kill me?” I asked.

“Yes. I will be trying to kill you, too.” With that, Goshi flew into me and kicked me in the face. I somersaulted backwards onto the hard rocks, tucking my jewels away from that sadistic blue guy with all of the painful surprises.

Damn that fucking hurt!

From my back, I threw my body forward and stood up. I shook off Goshi’s kick.

Like it or not, this shit was on!

I got into my warrior stance where I could fly, fall, go left or right in a blink of an eye. Goshi came at me again striking me in the face with a haymaker punch.

What the hell happened about not attacking an opponent first without warning?

He threw a rapid-fire, five-punch combination, and as he did so, I leaned back and focused on my task. I looked at Goshi and I knew what I had to do. This was where my brain goes into Good Will Hunting mode, where everything happens in slow motion. Each punch came at me and I easily deflected his little hands off me with my arms. The last deflection I was able to catch his momentum and threw him to the ground by pulling his arm forward.

He got up and I came at him returning an eight-punch combination of my own, with the last punch hitting him so hard that he flew ten feet in the air.

Damn, I had gotten strong!

Goshi hurtled through the air and got control of his body before he hit the ground and was able to land on his feet.

Okay, that was a sweet recovery.

He made a motion for me to strike him. I shook my head remembering the first rule he had taught me. If I was to attack him, I had to play by his ethics. I didn’t think his ethics would be that bad, but I was considering this whole match as a test and I wanted to show that I had taken everything he said to heart.

We circled each other and got closer and closer to each other’s space. There was a difference between striking your opponent first when you’re squared up the way we were. Your opponent has an equal chance to strike you, and I knew I was well inside the honor code for attacking him first. “Okay, Goshi,” I said. “This is where I earn my stripes.”

I swept his legs with a sweep of the leg. I tripped him up and he lost his balance. I flew up over his 3 foot body and grabbed him from behind and tackled him to the ground.

I had my hands wrapped around his neck. His body felt strong even though he was tiny. I pressed my fingers deep into his neck and he gasped for air and dropped to his knees. I had him where I wanted him, but I didn’t want to kill him. I could feel him weaken and it was breaking my heart. I wasn’t sure what it would take to kill someone so small. I really didn’t want to kill him. He was my friend. I couldn’t do it and I let him go and pushed him to the ground. He slid backwards into the rocks.

“Get up!” I said.

“You need to kill me, Josiah,” he said, trying his best to breathe.

“I can’t do it, Goshi. Please don’t make me,” I said, pleading with him. “It’s wrong. It can’t be the will of the Triat for a student to kill his beloved teacher.”

“You need to kill me, Josiah. If you don’t, I promise you, I will kill you first.” Then once again he flew at me and kicked me in the stomach.

Damn, that hurt! He knocked the wind out of me. I hunched over trying to catch my breath and the little fucker grabbed me by my neck.

Holy shit, he was strong!

He was digging his hands deep into my Adam’s apple. I couldn’t allow this to happen. I flew up into the air while he was still choking me. We were now 30 feet up in the air and he still had his little hands around my neck trying to choke me out. I began to feel dizzy, and I needed to do something fast. I started throwing punches at him and landing them all over his face. I must have thrown 30 punches in a row, and finally, he let go of my neck. We both fell to the earth and I landed on top of him and landed on his back.

“Kill me, Josiah,” he said, coughing up blood.

“No! I don’t like this. It smacks of suicide. Even of a dark side. As the Chosen One, I will not take a life like this. It is utterly wrong that you want me to take it. It goes against everything we are as Mani. To preserve ourselves and our culture, our heritage, our future. Stop this madness,” I said, holding him tight but not killing him.

“Kill me! Now!” he insisted. And then he mustered up enough strength to kick me in the balls. Again!

I looked down at this persistent little shit who was the specialist in ball torture. I just snapped. Yes, that’s right. The Chosen One…fell from grace. And a ball kick is all it took.

Dammit Goshi! Why does it have to be this way? A rage surged up from my poor maligned tender parts. I wrapped my hands around his neck. I pressed my fingers as hard as I could. I felt his life leaving his body as I continued to tighten up my grip. “Throw me like a silver stake,” I yelled to the group.

“Here!” Rubidoux tossed me a stake. Goshi had barely any life left in him. I turned his body over because I didn’t want to see his face as I took his life from him.

I picked up the stake and started pressing it into his tiny neck. As the stake hit his skin, something started happening, something far beyond my wildest dreams.

Goshi began changing form. First his coloration left his entire body and he was as pale as a ghost. Then his body began to expand and elongate.

“What are you?” I shouted. “What. Are. You?”

He was getting bigger and larger. Dark black hair protruded out of his scalp. As Goshi grew, I could feel the power grow from inside his body. What the hell was happening! I jumped off of him and took a step back. He was now seven feet in length and he was still lying on the ground facing the rocks.

Then I heard laughter. Cruel, maniacal laughter that rippled the force of who I was, inside and out. “Oh, Josiah, this was too easy.” He looked up at me and I saw who it was.

It was Atticai! Goshi had been Atticai all along!

Atticai was wearing the exact same outfit he was wearing the night I killed him. He was wearing a long, black trench coat with black pants and boots. He stood up and scanned the crowd. Everyone, including myself looked on in disbelief. “What’s the matter, my Mani friends? Are you not happy to see me?” Atticai yelled, at the top of his lungs.

“I don’t understand. I killed you,” I said.

“I didn’t fully understand myself, Josiah. But after you killed me, I woke up in a little blue body form. It took a couple of weeks for me to figure out what my destiny was. Through visions and dreams I figured out what I was supposed to do. I was to find you and train you. I was to give you all of the knowledge I had obtained over the last few hundred years. I knew if I did that for you, the Triat would give me a second chance. Yet another life of some sort.”

I looked at Atticai and I wasn’t sure what his intentions were now. Did he train me just to come back and kill me? I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to say. All I could say was, “Thank you.”

“I didn’t do this for you, you pompous child!” Atticai said to me. “I did this to gain my life back. To be the Mani I once was.”

I couldn’t believe this was happening. I was so confused. I loved Goshi, but he had never truly existed. It was all a lie. It was always Atticai. Atticai wrapped in a blue skin was still Atticai.

I looked out into the crowd and saw Lena and she looked absolutely horrified at the sight of Atticai. If anything was about to go down, my only concern was to protect her.

“Fuck this bullshit!” Tommy yelled out from the crowd and made his way over to where Atticai and I were standing. He walked right up and got into Atticai’s face.

“Tommy! Go sit down!” I yelled. “This doesn’t concern you.”

Tommy turned to me and said, “This doesn’t concern me? Are you kidding? This guy fought me at full strength and nearly killed me! He didn’t have the balls to wait for me to be a werewolf.”

Tommy turned and faced Atticai again. Atticai wouldn’t even give Tommy the respect of looking at him in the face. “Josiah, please control your dog.”

“Tommy, you needed to go back with the others. This situation is bigger than that.”

“Bigger than my life?” Tommy yelled. “He left me for dead!”

“Actually I just made my point and your savage friends were the ones who left you for dead.” Atticai said, smugly.

“Fuck you, you piece of shit.”

“Must we associate with this uncivilized animal,” Atticai said to me.

Then, I saw something that chilled me to my very bones. Tommy’s eyes went yellow.

Shit! He was transitioning to the werewolf! This was all I need right now!

Tommy transitioned into his mighty grey werewolf form and leaped to Atticai. He looked bigger and more ferocious than I remembered. Tommy tackled Atticai onto the rocks. Atticai threw Tommy’s werewolf body off of him, with a swipe of his arm. Tommy turned and leaped back on top of him pinning Atticai to the ground. Atticai kicked Tommy off his body by drilling him in the stomach.

Then I heard Tommy’s voice in my head. “Josiah, it is my right to kill him.”

“Tommy, you can’t!” I yelled out

“It is my right! And my honor,” he repeated back to me. “You are the Chosen One and he has come back to try to reclaim what is not even rightfully his. Not your crown as Chosen One. But your life! You want to talk about loyalty? Let’s talk about a lifetime friendship.”

“Tommy, not now. Not tonight!” I yelled out again.

“Fuck you, Josiah. This is my fight. The fight for my best friend’s life! Not for the Mani, not for the Triat, not even for myself. I fight tonight for my friend, my friend, Josiah, forever and always!”

A tingle of fear went down my spine as I heard the phrase. Had Lena said it to him, too? I was nearly reeling from the conflicting emotions. I knew that Tommy would fight to the death, to protect me. Josiah. Not the creature. Not the Mani. The Man.

This was what love was. This was what honor was. And this was what truth was. “Forever and Always” was the secret of all life. It was all about whether we let our mere form define who we were, even in our very hearts. It wasn’t about who was our enemy, at all. Or even who we loved. It was about who we were inside! Forever and always. It began to make perfect sense, that if there was any order in the universe, it was because we made it so.

Suddenly, Tommy jumped on top of Atticai and clawed him in the chest, making a huge rip in Atticai’s long black shirt. Atticai backed up and didn’t seemed worried at all, he was mainly annoyed.

“Josiah, you can’t allow a Carni to kill one of our own,” Rubidoux yelled out.

“You better do something, Josiah!” another Mani yelled in agreement.

Tommy had come after Atticai and now Atticai was having a hard time fighting off Tommy. Tommy caught Atticai a couple of times in the face and he was bleeding from the right side of his cheek.

“Do something, or we will!” others were yelling out.

Dammit!

Tommy now had Atticai pinned to his back. I had to do something. I couldn’t allow Tommy to kill Atticai in front of the whole Mani nation. I ran over and tackled Tommy’s werewolf body off of Atticai.

“Fuck you, Josiah!” Tommy said, in my head and swiped at me also. “I’m not going to just stand back and let Atticai take your life. Let me do this. For you!”

“Stand down, Tommy!” I yelled.

“Fuck that,” Tommy then ran over and tried to leap on Atticai, but I was able to get to him before he made contact. I once again tackled Tommy. We both rolled and I ended up on my back with Tommy on top of me. Suddenly, I was face to face with the werewolf.

“You need to choose, Josiah,” Tommy said, looking down at me. In my head.

“I already did, Tommy!” I yelled out as I reversed him to his back. I was now on top of him. I wrapped my right arm around his neck and began choking him out in a reverse head lock.

“Tommy! I don’t want to hurt you, but you’re going to have to stop!” I yelled.

“You’re going to have to kill me!” he answered.

“Transition!” I yelled, as I tightened up my grip. I had my choke hold in deep and I knew the werewolf couldn’t last much longer. Finally, Tommy gave up and turned back to his Carni form. I let him go and he rolled to the side gasping for air.

Lena broke through the crowd and ran over to him.

“What are you doing, Lena?” I yelled out to her.

“You nearly killed him,” she yelled back at me.

Tommy shrugged Lena off of him and stood up in his Carni form.

I looked up and Attica, Tommy and I were in a perfect triangle with about forty feet separating us. Lena was outside the triangle looking on.

I looked over at Atticai, “I cared for you, Goshi,” I said.

“You cared for that thing I became. That wasn’t who I am,” Atticai answered.

“That might be so,” I said. “But there was goodness and mercy in you as Goshi. That sprang from deep inside of you.”

“Goodness?” Atticai laughed bitterly. “Listen Josiah, there is no good and evil! “Look around! We are all evil to each other! But to ourselves, it is only destiny that has a voice. This is our cruel fate, to live in violence and to die in it. It was all pre-destined who shall have their day in the sun, and who shall be banished to the darkness. Guess which ones we are? Guess!”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” I said. “I believe that we’re all inherently good, and we only choose to do evil things. As Goshi, you taught me that.”

Atticai laughed. “Goshi, that pathetic creature. You had too much faith in him. And your faith made you weak.”

“This is all well and good, Josiah,” Tommy said. “You and string bean here can have a pow-wow about the good times in Eastern Europe later, but you and I now have a problem. You should have never put your hands on me.”

I looked at Tommy and he looked like he now wanted to kill me. I looked at Atticai and he was very smug and looked like he just got away with murder, in which he did.

“Relax, Tommy. If I didn’t pull you off of him. This entire mob and their mob mentality would have torn you to shreds.”

“Of course they would. They would stand by this guy even though he tried to kill their Chosen Savior. They would rather deal with this kind of evil, the evil that you know, rather than face what they are, survivors with an almost racist mentality. They would rather kill a good Carni than an evil Mani of their own kind. They do not choose good over evil, but instead, they choose what genetic makeup shall prevail in a fight. It is the evil song of the ages, that in a battle, you strive to preserve your own kind, no matter how evil it is at the core. You aren’t fighting for a cause, you are fighting for your future as a species.”

It was shocking what Tommy was saying, and not only was it shocking, it was correct.

I turned toward Atticai, now knowing that my werewolf friend and brother of my heart had stumbled on a key that brought entire civilizations to their knees, as Atticai and his ilk tried to perpetuate it and give it power and acknowledge it with more of the fucking same.

“From the mouth of a wolf comes the truth about Mani, and Carni,” I said. “He is right. This is evil!” I said to Atticai. “We are evil. In battle, we do not look at hearts, or even good versus evil. We look at whose team someone is on. The evil of this is within us all and we must choose not to give it power. Stop this madness now, Atticai! You can turn from this evil and work with me to save our races, Mani and Carni, from utter destruction. We will work together from the inside out.”

“Evil, Shmevil. Seriously, you to need to step away from the hero manual. Nobody needs or wants your Narnia-esque mentality.” Atticai was very amused with the conversation between Tommy and me. In it, he did not see the key to the ages that Tommy had exposed. What we are, what we choose, how we choose, and for what reasons we killed and perpetuated the violence of like kills different.

I looked over at Atticai and said, “The Carni, the werewolf. It is part of the prophecy coming to fruition. Now what? What will we do, Atticai? How will we choose our path that will affect the Mani and the Carni and even the Tandra—until some asteroid comes to destroy the earth and end it in disgust, for what we are, and for what we could have been had we simply made a thoughtful choice for the long run, instead of the short run.”

“Are you trying to save Tommy? What are you asking me for? He’s your pet,” Atticai said.

“I’m not referring to Tommy. I’m talking about you and me. I am talking about all of this, the big picture.” Tears sprang to my eyes. He didn’t see! Not at all!

“There isn’t a you and me,” Atticai said, plainly.

“That’s too bad, Atticai. Because if you’re not with me, you’re against me!”

“Trust me, Josiah. I will always be against you. I am my own Mani. I call my own shots.”

“Then you will be doing it from the sidelines,” I said.

“Oh, I will. I am going to sit back and watch you and Krull kill each other and when all is said and done, I will take my rightful place at the top. You think I don’t see the big picture about the rule of three foes? Let two of the foes destroy each other and the third easily gets the keys to the kingdom.” He paused. “All I have to really do is duck and watch you two duke it out over Lena, but it isn’t really even about her anymore, is it?”

That stung. I shook my head and was sadly disappointed with Atticai’s answer. A part of me had thought there was a chance we could team up. “Goshi would have understood this.”

“I am not Goshi. I am free of that blue body and of that mentorship. I am Atticai, and I will have a stake in your neck and take your place, the law of survival of the fittest, my only agenda.”

“No!” I shouted. “It’s wrong, Atticai! Turn from it! Goshi would have!”

“I am not Goshi. I was humbled in that small blue body, with my utter contempt for it, and for your unconditional trust. You are the one who is weaker.”

Atticai then looked at Tommy. “And for you, you mangy dog, you are lucky I’m feeling generous tonight, I should end your pathetic existence right now, but I’m going to let your ignorance slide and just chalk it up to your low Carni IQ.”

“I’m lucky?” Tommy laughed. “You’re lucky Josiah stopped me.”

“Oh, that is where you’re wrong,” Atticai stated. “The only life that was saved tonight was yours.”

I looked at Atticai and Tommy and if they wanted to kill each other, that was on them. I was done with this whole fucked-up night, and this whole mindset that we perpetuated the concept of like kills different. It was a mind-fuck of the highest order. And, I swear, it was the Triat who was trying to mind fuck me. All of us.

I said, “You two can do whatever the hell you want. You want to kill each other, go right ahead. I’m leaving. I’m not going to be part of a three person stand-down.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a glimmer of a tear, Lena’s tear. I looked over at Lena and said, “Let’s go.”

Lena walked halfway toward me and stopped. She was now directly in the middle of the three of us in the center of the triangle. She looked over at me, and didn’t move.

Atticai was once again amused, this time it was over Lena’s hesitancy. “Oh, look! Josiah no longer has the loyalty of his precious Lena! She, too, sees the weakness in his new no-kill mentality. Maybe we should just put you in charge of an animal shelter, Chosen One. We’ll round up all of the unwanted werewolves and put you in charge of re-homing their pathetic existences.”

“Lena,” I said. “Let’s go. We don’t need to be a part of this.”

Lena just stared at me with zero expression on her face.

“Seriously,” I continued. “After last night, please don’t do this. Let’s get out of here. We don’t need to be a part of this.”

Lena’s eyes softened as she looked at me. I didn’t know why she wasn’t moving. What could she possibly be considering?

Atticai saw an opening and decided to take it. “Lena,” he said. “You know deep down who your soul mate will always be. You and I have something that is eternal. He might have been inside of your body, but all this time, I was in your head.”

What the fuck? Atticai was seriously making a play for Lena?

I looked at Lena with a look that said, ‘There is no way you’re considering leaving with that animal!’

Then the situation got even more weird.

“Lena,” Tommy now said. “You don’t want to be part of any of this. Neither do I. I know you care for me. In my heart, I know that you love me. Let’s leave all of this behind us. You and I can go somewhere far from here and share a life together.”

Lena looked over at Tommy, and I could see she was having hard time with this decision. She was surrounded by three guys, each of whom had an emotional investment in her. But I didn’t have an evil agenda and neither did Tommy. Atticai did. Oh yes, he did!

Like the showdown shootout with Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, in the scene in the Mexican cemetery where he either had to kill Angel Eyes or Tuco, this was Lena’s three-way stand-off. She looked at us three males, from one to the other, then swiveled her head back and forth between Tommy and I and then between Atticai and me. Lena’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. She was utterly stumped.

What the hell was going on? How could she even consider either one of these two other guys?

Again, Atticai made his case, “Lena, you know deep in your heart…I am your first and only true love.”

I looked at Lena and she looked at me. She was clearly confused. You have got to be kidding me. “Lena,” I said. “After last night…”

Lena looked at me and then completely turned around and looked at each of us.

What the hell was she doing?

She stopped and looked at Tommy, and then she turned and looked at Atticai.

What in the world could she be considering?

She looked at me and I could see the love in her eyes.

“Lena, there is no decision here,” I said. “Let’s go.”

Lena closed her eyes and then she opened them. She exhaled and walked in the direction of…”

To be continued in:

Vampires vs. Werewolves

Return to the Table of Contents

VAMPIRES VS. WEREWOLVES

Vampire Love Story #4

Published by H.T. Night at Smashwords.com

Copyright © 2011 by H.T. Night

All rights reserved.

(Author’s note: All characters depicted in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older.)

Vampires vs. Werewolves

Chapter One

“Lena,” I said. “Let’s go. We don’t need to be a part of this.”

Lena just stared at me with zero expression on her face.

“Seriously,” I continued. “After last night, please don’t do this. Let’s get out of here. We don’t need to be a part of this.”

Lena’s eyes softened as she looked at me. I didn’t know why she wasn’t moving. What could she possibly be considering?

Atticai saw an opening and decided to take it. “Lena,” he said. “You know, deep down, who your soul mate will always be. You and I have something that is eternal. He might have been inside of your body, but all this time, I was in your head.”

What the fuck? Atticai was seriously making a play for Lena?

I looked at Lena with a look that said, ‘There is no way you’re considering leaving with that animal!’

Then the situation got even more weird.

“Lena,” Tommy said. “You don’t want to be part of any of this. Neither do I. I know you care for me. In my heart, I know that you love me. Let’s leave all of this behind us. You and I can go somewhere far from here and share a life together.”

Lena looked over at Tommy, and I could see she was having a hard time with this decision. She was surrounded by three guys, each of whom had an emotional investment in her. But I didn’t have an evil agenda and really, neither did Tommy. Atticai did. Oh yes, he did!

Like the showdown shootout with Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. This was Lena’s three-way stand-off. She looked at us three males, from one to the other, then swiveled her head back and forth between Tommy and I and then between Atticai and me. Lena’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. She was utterly stumped.

What the hell was going on? How could she possibly even consider either one of these two other guys?

Again, Atticai made his case, “Lena, you know deep in your heart that I am your first and only true love.”

I looked at Lena and she looked at me. She was clearly confused. You have got to be kidding me. “Lena,” I said. “After last night…”

Lena looked at me and then completely turned around and looked at each of us.

What the hell was she doing?

She stopped and looked at Tommy, and then she turned and looked at Atticai.

What in the world could she be considering?

She looked at me and I could see the love in her eyes.

“Lena, there is no decision here,” I said. “Let’s go.”

Lena closed her eyes and then she opened them. She exhaled and walked in the direction of Tommy.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Lena walked in the direction of my best friend and not me. Tommy seemed as shocked as I was. Atticai could have cared less. All of this was just a game to him. He was very amused that she didn’t choose me. He was almost giddy with malicious glee. Tommy looked down at Lena, smiled and asked, “Are you sure?”

Lena was quiet. So, Tommy repeated his question. Finally Lena said, “I don’t know if I’m sure, Tommy. What I do know is, I’m standing in front of you.”

Tommy nodded. “We don’t need any of this,” he said, trying to soothe her.

“I know,” she said. “But I need to need know something, Tommy. Do you love me? Or is this something you’re clinging to because you’ve run out of options?”

Tommy was quiet. His face showed a large amount of empathy and compassion for Lena. I knew Tommy. I knew Tommy better than he knew himself. At this very moment in time, he wasn’t sure what he was doing. He was impulsive and competitive and this was the kind of thing that was right up his alley. It spilled over with drama and intrigue and Tommy lived for that shit.

One thing I did know for sure…Tommy was as confused about Lena’s behavior as the rest of us. He looked into Lena’s eyes and then looked over her shoulder at me. I looked on as if I was witnessing a car accident where I was the victim of a hit and run. Unable to hide my devastation, my face must have showed my bewilderment and despair and I couldn’t stomach much more of this. I felt numb, yet tears burned my eyes and I couldn’t have held them back for pride, ego, or anything. I gave Tommy a look as if to say, ‘Why? Why would you do this to me?’

He looked me in the eye and said something under his breath. It was hard to hear him but I read his lips. He said, “I have nothing. You have everything.” Then he turned to Lena and did something that surprised even me. It was a selfless act from a person who, over the past month, had only demonstrated large displays of selfishness.

“You should stay,” he said, to Lena. “These are your people and this is where you should be.”

Lena looked confused, but most of all, she seemed very overwhelmed by everything around her. She put it all out on the line for him. Her reputation and her friendships, but most of all, she risked me. She sighed with a small amount of relief. She knew this was a decision she might never be able to live down. And, perhaps, she wouldn’t be able to.

Tommy stared deep into her eyes and said, “Make no mistake about the fact that I love you. I might not be your destiny, but I love you.” Tommy kissed Lena’s forehead and then turned to me and the crowd behind me. With indignation and froth in his voice he said in a large, grand manner, “I could never be one of you. But I was willing to fight for you. I would have laid down my life for any of you. Tonight, you all rejected me, not because of my character, but because of what I am. That is unforgivable to me.”

Tommy paused and then looked over at Atticai who seemed to be enjoying the three-ring circus that he had started. “Most of you would defend this piece of crap over me in two seconds just because he drinks blood for the same reason you do. But, the reality is, he would never lift a hand to help you even if you were dying in the street. I was a fool to think that any of you, especially my dearest friend, would have my back. I was a damn fool! In the end, your loyalty is with your own, even when he’s a piece of shit like this man.”

Tommy, in an act of pure defiance, walked toward the mob. A mob that was ready to kill him without remorse. Tommy approached them anyway because he could care less. Tommy then spit in Atticai’s direction. “Atticai lied and deceived everyone…” Tommy turned and faced me, “especially you, Josiah. Yet you defend him. Why? Because he’s a vampire? A fucking vampire? Something that you didn’t even know existed a year ago.” Tommy spit again at the ground, and this time it was in my direction. I was stung.

“Tommy!—” I shouted.

“No, Josiah! Loyalty means nothing to you, so why should it mean anything to me?” Tommy stared through me with disgust and intolerance. “Good bye, brother.” Then he spit a third time for good measure. I think that one was for anyone who wanted it. He then transitioned into the great gray werewolf and ran off of Flatlands in a blaze of glory.

A couple of vampires transitioned quickly into ravens and started to go after him. I yelled, “LET HIM BE! OUR FIGHT IS NOT WITH HIM!” The transitioned Mani turned back and stood down. It was good to know they still listened to me. After all, I was their Chosen One.

Lena stepped out and watched as Tommy ran off the grounds in one last display of absolute disloyalty to me. I was embarrassed and humiliated by the entire night, but most of all, my heart had been broken to the point of numbness.

I looked at Atticai and he began to clap in my direction. First a slow clap, and then he clapped with ferocious applause. “Excellent job, Josiah! You managed to lose your best friend and your girl in the same moment.”

I have had enough of this cruel piece of crap. “Why shouldn’t I kill you, right here and now?” I said, as viciously as I have ever spoken to a person in my life. But this wasn’t a person. This was a very bitter and evil man who was delighting in my pain.

“You’re welcome to try to kill me, Josiah. But I don’t see what good that will do. You have a 50 percent chance of succeeding and it still won’t erase the fact that the love of your life would rather lie with a dog than with you.”

“Atticai,” I said. “At the end of the day, nothing you say or think matters. You don’t matter to anyone. You never mattered to the Triat and, especially, you don’t matter to the cause I’m fighting for. Twice the Triat used you to just get me further in my training as The Chosen One. So, if that is something you want to hang your hat on, by all means, go right ahead. You did a damn good job as Goshi, but that task is complete. Now, if you choose to take your place in our society, you will serve the good of the cause, not your own interests. You’re a fine fighter. You could always be the Robin to my Batman.”

That definitely got under Atticai’s skin. Atticai wanted to attack me, but he also knew it wasn’t a smart decision. His body language was resigned, acquiescing, which showed me that he was standing down.

“I see that inside of you is a man who is not willing to serve the Mani for the greater good. We can be changed from man to Mani, but we cannot change our core sense of who we are. You believe you were born to be a leader and you do not follow well, even when you know it is the right thing to do.”

I saw a glimmer of acknowledgment in Atticai’s eyes. He agreed, though he would not admit it aloud. To do so, he would have had to collapse his entire value system and crush his own monstrous ego. I knew that he never would.

I smiled at the man who used to be my friend, Goshi, and I knew that deep inside that incredibly twisted head was a good person trying to find his way back.

So I said, “I’m going to let you live, Atticai. But, mark my words, there is no you and I after tonight. This was once your cause, but it is not any longer.”

I then turned to the crowd. “If any of you want to change your allegiance and stand with Atticai, who will try to overthrow the destiny and prophecy of me, The Chosen One, this is the time to do so, but know this...if you follow Atticai against me, it begins a civil war which will divide us and weaken us as a species, as a race, and as a supernatural community. If you choose to follow me, then you will have no part with this man. He is no longer a friend to the cause.” I looked out onto the crowd, and to be completely honest, I fully expected everyone to walk over and join Atticai. Loyalty didn’t mean much of anything at this very moment in time.

“Don’t be shy,” I said. “This cause is bigger than our own lives. And know this; I will not come after you if you decide to leave with Atticai, the traitor and now, the pariah. All who join him will be outcasts, following the cause of a man who pretended to be The Chosen One, even though he knew all along that he was not.” I waited and watched as twenty vampires left the mob and stood with Atticai, one of them being Rubidoux, and I wasn’t too surprised.

“You’re a good man, Josiah,” Rubidoux said, as he walked by me. “But I can’t stand behind a man who associates with Carni. I just can’t do it.”

“No hard feelings, Ruby. You’ve got to do what you feel.” Over a hundred Mani stayed on my side. We outnumbered Atticai’s group at least six to one.

I turned to my group and said, “Be ready, because our fight is near. Not today, but soon.”

I desperately needed to get the hell out of here. I felt as if I would break down at any moment. I transitioned into the great white eagle and flew up in the air. I circled the group and looked down at my precious Lena. Once again, she broke my heart. I loved her and I was a fool for doing so.

Never again.

I squawked as loud as I could and flew high up into the air.

Chapter Two

I flew off into the night sky, not having a clue about what had just transpired. The whole night was extremely overwhelming and exhausting. I really didn’t know where to go or what to do.

After I was out of sight of the group, in midair, I transformed to my Mani form, my Superman-ish form of a man flying with arms in front of him. It was effortless, not like my eagle wings, which sometimes tired after long flights.

I knew that in every situation, choices weren’t black and white. At the end of the day, Lena had made her choice. She had chosen Tommy. And then, Tommy, even though he loved Lena, said he rejected her because he felt that he was not her destiny.

I was reeling from the double-whammy of emotional shocks. I needed a fresh outlook, a new venue, in order to prepare for the weeks ahead as the leader of the Mani. I decided not to go home to Victorville. As a matter of fact, I wanted to escape in a way that I had never done before. So, I kept flying. I flew north and just kept going. I flew for hours; below me I saw Northern California, then Oregon, then Washington State. I made my way through Canada. I kept going and didn’t stop. I wanted to fly until I felt something in my core. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t feel a damn thing.

I eventually reached Alaska. An odd thing started happening ahead of me. I could see the sun peeking up on the horizon. Almost as if I was flying into a sunrise. It made no sense because it was three in the morning. Then it occurred to me that it was summer time and the more north one traveled, the longer the sun was out. One could actually hit parts of Alaska where it’s sunlit, twenty-four hours a day. That was not an ideal situation for a vampire. As a matter of fact, that would be a vampire’s nightmare.

I decided to make a literal U-turn in midair. I could have transitioned back to the eagle at that point, but I wasn’t ready to do that yet. There was something incredibly liberating when I flew in my human form. I felt less restricted. Right now, if I felt trapped in any way, I might lose my mind.

It was getting closer to 5 a.m. and I knew it wouldn’t matter what state I was flying in, the sun was coming up no matter what. I decided to transition into my eagle form just to be safe and I dropped my elevation to just above the clouds; the morning scenery was majestic with the sun peeking through. It was absolutely amazing how clouds look when flying directly above them. It almost appeared that someone might just be able to walk on top of them. It made me smile to imagine myself cloud surfing.

As I flew, I could see a snowy mountain in the distance. It was Mount Rainer. It was about the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. The snow-capped mountain looked like something one would see in a J.R.R. Tolkien film.

I decided to fly down so I could stand at the peak of the mountain and just take in my entire surroundings. I needed to rest and what better place to do so? I had been flying for about four hours straight. Yes, faster than a speeding bullet.

So, I descended down to the peak of the mountain. The closer I got to the mighty landscape, the colder I felt underneath my feathers. Eagles were pretty resilient, but cold is cold.

I landed and stood on top of the beautiful, magnificent mountain and took in everything that the view had to offer me. It was absolutely spectacular. I had a moment of self-reflection. I had never felt more alone than I did at that very moment. I wondered what Helen, the fake duchess, was doing. I didn’t know why, but I felt like she might be the only person in the world who could possibly understand what I was feeling.

This was starting to be a very painful existence and the numbness I had been feeling was transferring into large amounts of pain and loss. I was tired of feeling sorry for myself. I was tired of trusting and loving the wrong people. I looked up into the sky and decided it was time to go back to Victorville and face everything head on. It was time to follow my true destiny and leave all of this nonsense behind.

I flew up and headed south and made my way back to southern California. I got back to the house and I knew I didn’t want to see Lena. I was sick and tired of allowing her to affect me the way she did. This situation was ridiculous. I felt like I was trapped in an episode of 90210, but with vampires and werewolves. I was tired of wasting my time on this.

I was beginning to wonder exactly what my calling was. Up to this point, I’d been waiting for some type of divine intervention to fall into my lap, even though I was supposedly the divine intervention. Who did a Chosen One even pray to? In many ways, it had on a consistent basis, waiting for a divine sign of the right things to do for an entire species and their society. The one thing I had been waiting for was really the only question I had up to this point.

How the hell was I supposed to save the Mani race and what did that mean, exactly?

I knew the best person to speak to on this subject was Helen or Atticai. I had no clue how to reach Helen and, after last night, Atticai was the last person I ever wanted to speak to—he had his own interests and agenda and I no longer trusted him in any way. I needed to know answers. Truth be told, up until now I had been afraid to know the truth of my calling, because of its magnitude and impact on so many people. If I knew the truth, then I had to do something about it. I hadn’t been sure I was ready until…right now.

I had one more loose end to tie up, to get to the bottom of. Then I knew I’d be ready to take on whatever was expected of me. I flew through the trap door that led to my room. I transitioned as I landed on the bed.

I left my room and went to Yari’s bedroom. I opened the door without knocking, which was a mistake; she was lying naked on her bed above the covers. All I could say is… ‘Wow’! I grabbed a blanket and put it over her. “Sorry,” I said softly.

“Thank you, Josiah,” Yari said.

“You’re awake?”

“Yes, and I’m glad I was. Did you enjoy the peep show?”

I grinned. “Your body is pretty perfect, but that wasn’t the reason why I came in here.”

“I wouldn’t think it was.” Yari pinched my thigh and I gave her a look that put her quickly in her place.

“Sorry, if I’m not in a playful mood,” I said. “Everything is spiraling down when it should be spiraling up.”

“These days Josiah, I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen you happy, let alone playful.”

“Things have been pretty weird, Yari. What can I say?”

“I know, sweetie. It’s not every day that someone with your status gets rejected publicly like that.”

I sat on Yari’s bed and laid on my back at the foot of her mattress. Yari sat up and was still naked. She tried to keep herself covered, but one thing, Yari wasn’t was modest. “Can I ask you a question, Josiah?”

“Sure,” I said, in a tone that was more like a groan.

“Why Lena?” Yari asked.

“Why not?”

“I’m being very serious. Why her? I mean, she’s cute in a kitten kind of way, but look at you. You’re a Greek God. These days, you might as well be a subject of Greek mythology, but yet, you’re chasing a woman who obviously has no clue what she has. She’s so clueless that her beauty is a handicap to her existence. She relies on that and that only, and she couldn’t decide her way out of a wet paper bag.”

“Do you really think all those mean things?” I asked.

She snorted. “I’m a woman. Of course I do! Female society is based on our judgment of other women. Weren’t you even aware that every woman at the party last night thought you were the sexiest man they had ever seen?”

“Really?” I said, surprised.

“Holy shit, Josiah. Are you kidding me? Don’t you see what looks back at you in the mirror?”

I was quiet. I wasn’t really in the mood to hear how hot I was when the one person I cared about rejected me. “Love is something you can’t really put your finger on. I fell in love with Lena in the midst of this crazy journey I’ve been on. I never planned on caring about her the way I do. Now that I feel this way, I need closure. I need to know what she has been thinking this whole time. I need to know why she did what she did when I was away getting trained by Goshi. When she knew that…I loved her.”

“Josiah. Your grotesque fondness for this woman is really nauseating. At the end of the day, you need to be true to yourself.”

I wanted Yari to understand how truly screwed up the situation actually was. How Lena and I had actually slept together the night before. “There’s more to the story, Yari.”

“More? How?” Yari asked.

“Yari, Lena lost her virginity to me the night before my birthday.”

Yari was quiet. I couldn’t tell if she was jealous or in deep thought about what I had just said.

“You two had sex?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Oh my! That does change things, doesn’t it? And you know she was a virgin?”

“Does it matter?” I asked.

“I guess not.”

“But, as far as I can tell, she was. She seemed pretty new to everything.”

“Well, I’ll be damned. Lena got herself a vampire’s love on one night, and then wanted a werewolf’s love a day later. I have to say, I’m impressed. Apparently you unleashed the passion in that cold ice princess. There is hope for that little prude.”

“She’s no prude, trust me on that.”

Yari smiled at me. “Was it good?”

“I don’t want to talk about the details, but it was extremely spiritual.”

“Oh, please! Give it a rest. Spiritual? It was sex! That’s all. Trust me when I tell you this, Josiah. The more sex you have, the less you will see it for the romanticism. Sex is about two people being very selfish. They are both trying to gain physical and emotional pleasure by using the other person. There is nothing special or supernatural about it. It’s just individuals getting their rocks off.”

I shook my head at Yari. “Well, I don’t believe that.”

“You’re cute, Josiah.”

“I’m not trying to be cute.” I sighed and said, “Can you tell me where Lena might be?”

“She’s here.”

“In the house?”

“She was, as of three hours ago. I let her stay in one of the rooms downstairs…”

“She came back here? Why?”

“What did you think she was going to do? She knew that she had hurt you and made a huge mistake in the eyes of her friends. She knew that in some people’s eyes, what she did was unforgivable. She chose the werewolf. Unthinkable. And then the werewolf ran away with his tail literally tucked between his legs. Where the hell would Lena go but here? By choosing Tommy, the werewolf, she made herself into a laughingstock of the Mani women, and amongst the Mani men, well, let’s just put it this way, no one is going to want her because she is now marked that she has a thing for Carni packages. Even though she didn’t sleep with Carni, she took a public stand and now is considered…tainted.”

I did a face-palm. “She doesn’t have to stay for me. I’ll see to it that no Mani ever gives her grief for what she did tonight. She went with her heart and her heart isn’t with me.”

“But it is, Josiah. She loves you; she loves you the same as you do her. She’s scared. She chose Tommy tonight because she’s the kind of person who’s there for the underdog. Tommy had everyone against him. It is in her core to do what she did. She went to Tommy because he needed her more than you did.”

An inkling of realization spread through me about Lena’s motivation for publicly choosing Tommy.

“Ah, I see you begin to understand,” Yari said. “You have Mani women falling at your feet to be the squeeze of The Chosen One. Tommy stood alone and he was brave and pathetic. Lena went with her gut instinct, which I believe was based on compassion, even pity, but not love. Not romantic love, anyway.”

What Yari was saying made a lot of sense, but I still needed to hear it from Lena. “Wow. Thanks for the talk, Yari. I think you make a good case for what happened last night. I couldn’t figure it out to save my life.”

“You’re welcome. Anytime. That’s what friends are for, and I am your friend. You should talk to me more.”

“I know,” I said. “I’m grateful.”

“Josiah?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s time for you to get tough.”

“You don’t think I’m tough?”

“When it comes to fighting, you’re a beast. When it comes to love, you’re a ‘grade A’ pussy.”

“A pussy? Wow, tell me what you really think, Yari. Damn.”

“Am I wrong? You’ve been wandering around aimlessly lovesick these past couple of months. It’s time to grow a pair of Mani Chosen One balls and start preparing to face off against Krull.”

“Is Krull on our radar now?”

“I’m afraid so. It might not happen today, but it’s coming. Krull is gathering his troops, getting ready to strike at a moment’s notice. You can’t afford to remain stagnant any longer, or to get distracted by this love stuff. With some of your best Mani fighters siding with Atticai, we’re currently screwed. If we had to fight Krull right now, it would be a massacre of the Mani.”

I shook my head and looked at Yari.

“Why are you shaking your head, Josiah?”

“When it comes to this face-off, or battle, that everyone speaks about, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

“You’ll know when it’s time. All I can tell you is to keep seeking answers. Keep gathering your allies. Keep training, not just you, but everyone. Get your head out of your ass, Josiah. This isn’t about love. It’s about war.”

Chapter Three

I walked downstairs and peeked inside the bedroom that was closest to the kitchen. I figured that was where Lena was because no one had been sleeping in that room up until today. I looked in and saw her lying on the bed. She was on her back completely covered with just her head sticking out. It was in complete contrast to what I had just experienced with Yari.

I wasn’t sure if I should wake her up, considering how peaceful she looked. But I also didn’t think it was a good idea to stand at the door, looking in at her like a scorned, heartbroken ex-lover. I decided to whisper her name loudly.

“Lena,” I said, into the room. Lena didn’t respond so I spoke louder. “Lena!” I repeated. No response, I figured I’d give it one more shot, “Lena!” The last one was a cross between a yell and a moan.

She opened her eyes, “Josiah.” She seemed a bit confused as if she forgot where she was. She sat up and looked around the room. She was still wearing the black blouse she had on from the night before.

“I think we should talk,” I said, and entered the room.

Lena nodded and patted the bed in an invitation for me to sit. I walked over a little further down the bed than where she wanted me to sit. I couldn’t give in to her right out of the gate.

“Last night was pretty intense,” I said.

“Yeah, to say the least.” Lena didn’t say anything else; she just left it at that. I wasn’t sure what I wanted her to say, but I needed for her to give me something back.

“What do you think about Atticai being back?” I asked.

“It’s pretty weird,” she said and again didn’t elaborate on anything else.

“Just weird? You have nothing else to say?”

“Well, there was a piece of me that knew he was still alive. It was almost as if I could feel his presence at times.”

“Well, I wish you would’ve given me a head’s up, because I was pretty thrown back by the whole situation.”

“I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry.” Lena finally started to open up.

“What did you do?” I asked.

“I did neither. I was in awe like everyone else.”

“I was a little more than ‘in awe.’ That asshole duped me something awful. He duped everyone.”

Lena looked over at me and with a very serious tone in her voice she said, “You don’t think for one second that I ever considered going with him?”

I smiled as if to say, ‘I hadn’t had much of a clue.’

“You know that, right, Josiah? I didn’t consider him for one second.”

“I don’t think it really matters. Last night wasn’t about you choosing Atticai. You made your feelings known.”

“Known? How would that be possible? I didn’t even know what my feelings were myself.”

“Exactly. They definitely weren’t for me.”

“Is that what you think?” Lena looked at me in a way that made my heart feel like it was going to come out of my chest.

“Look, it must have been a big turn on to be the object of three different men’s affection. But after what we had experienced together the night before, I thought I had the slight edge.”

“If you recall, I didn’t leave with Tommy.”

“Only because he told you to stay. And then he ran off without you!” I was shocked. Was she really going to say it was her choice?

“Josiah, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was doing, but I wasn’t going to leave with Tommy.”

“That’s easy to say, now that he has rejected your sentiment.”

“Rejected my sentiment? What are you trying to say?”

I was beside myself. “Tommy asked you to go with him. You did everything but audibly say the words ‘yes.’ Then in typical Tommy fashion, he rejected it because he got what he wanted.”

“Which was what?”

“A victory,” I said, almost yelling.

“A victory? Is that what it was to all of you? A competition?”

“Don’t turn this around, Lena. I left my heart out there at Flatlands. You not only rejected it, you never once went in my direction. Even after Tommy told you to stay.”

“How could I? I was so confused. Tommy was being completely outcast by everyone, including you.”

“I didn’t outcast him. I knew it was a bad idea for him to fight a vampire in front of a sea of vampires. It was a suicide wish for Tommy. He could not have won that fight that almost happened and he knew it. He was going for broke, Lena!”

Lena stared at me, tears dripping from her eyes. “You need to know, Josiah. I didn’t walk over to him because I was planning on leaving with him. I went to him because he stood all alone.”

“But you chose him and that is all everyone saw. Tommy left with something far more valuable than you actually leaving with him.”

“Which was what?” Lena asked.

“Tommy left with your heart. He left knowing that you wanted to choose him. You can’t deny that, Lena.”

Lena was quiet.

“And you know what, Lena?”

“What?” She completely expected me to continue to piss and moan about the situation, but I wasn’t going to. I was done with the whole thing. Yari had given me a reality check, tough love, and I knew it was true. I had to stop thinking of myself, my love life, and serve the Mani people. We had a war about to erupt and that was bigger than what my heart needed. My head was now in charge.

“You can have him,” I said. “You can go to wherever Tommy is and be with him. I’m okay with it. I seriously need to turn this page. The Josiah and Lena love story has reached its end. This is a broken record that’s playing some pretty awful music. I’m not about to waste any more nights flying around aimlessly trying to figure us out.”

“There is nothing to figure out, Josiah. I love you.”

“Maybe you do, but I’m not the only one who has your heart.”

Again, Lena was quiet. Too quiet.

“I only have one question to ask you. If you love Tommy too, why did you sleep with me?”

“Because I only love you. Josiah, I don’t love Tommy the way I love you.”

“But you love him, nonetheless. That’s way too much for me to handle.”

“It’s not the same. You need to understand that. Tommy fascinates me, and in the end, I care for him deeply, but he’s not the one.”

I had to ask this question, it was eating me up inside. “Why did you ask him if he loved you?”

“Because if he didn’t love me like he said he did, I needed to know why he was still willing to lose everything for it. I wanted to know the answer to that question.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore, because I’m over it. I need to move on.”

Lena stared straight ahead at the wall, closing me off.

“You can turn away from me, Lena, which is immature, by the way, pouting like a high school girl who doesn’t know how else to get her way. If you want a fight from me, you are going to have to wait for another day. I am all fought out about this you-and-me and other guys thing. Are you really that insecure that you need love and approval from not just one man, not just two men, but three men? Really? It killed me that you took longer than a split second to choose. And then you chose Tommy? Do you even know what it took away from me that you didn’t even claim me last night?”

“About last night—” she began.

I interrupted her. “Lena, last night was a catalyst for me. When you walked to Tommy and stood with him, your whole future with me ground to a halt.”

“Josiah!”

“No! It is time for me to evolve past this high school love story crap. It is time for me to grow up, and be the man I’m supposed to be. I’m responsible for the fate of the Mani. This wavering of your loyalty is a distraction from what I must do, not for me, but for many. You want Tommy? Go get him. But be prepared to be loyal to him, or face even more severe consequences than you face here from your betrayal of me. Because if you betray Tommy, God help you. He does not take disrespect and disloyalty lightly.”

“Do you really mean it, Josiah?” Lena stared deep into my eyes with a piercing stare. “We are done?”

“I have never been more certain about anything in my life. I see how you look at him and it’s not the same as you look at me. There’s a fire in you when it comes to him. He does something in your head that I don’t think I can ever compete with. Tommy won you, fair and square.”

“Quit looking at it like a competition. I’m not a prize to be won. And that fire for Tommy you’re talking about has no substance. I don’t love him like that!”

“The thing is, Lena, you probably always looked at him that way and I was too blind to notice. And not only that, you were too blind to notice that you love him. Tommy has something about him that women seem to love. I have never been able to compete with it, and honestly, I don’t want to. I like who I am and I don’t need to put myself in a lone wolf situation where a woman will feel sorry for me and choose me over my best friend. That is not how I am wired. If a woman wants to be with me, it’s full-on, unconditional loyalty and no looking back or looking at other men.”

“You’re wrong about everything, Josiah. I care and love you more than you’ll ever know.”

“Well, you didn’t show it last night.”

“But I’m fighting for you now.”

“It’s too late.”

“So that’s it? I walked over to Tommy and that’s all she wrote? One gesture to help Tommy and now Lena is history in your book of love?”

I looked at Lena and I was done playing this back and forth game. I loved her more than she’d ever know, but at this moment in time I needed to move on with my life. “Some things need time. This is one of them.” I got up and walked toward the door.

“Are you and Tommy ever going to make up?” Lena asked.

I stopped in the hallway and said, “I don’t see that happening, Lena. Tommy made last night all about him; he’s a loose cannon. If I hadn’t been there, all those Mani would have ripped him to shreds and you, too, would have gotten caught in the crossfire, or crossfangs. And he would have saved himself before he saved you, if you two had even survived.”

“No, Tommy’s got a hero’s heart.”

“More like an anti-hero. Saves his own ass before anyone else’s. There’s a big difference between Tommy and me. Tommy doesn’t think before he acts. Not only is he impulsive, but Tommy has a dark side that scares even me. It’s a side to him I have never fully trusted. Ever since I’ve known the man, I have always known he was hiding something. I guess that’s what makes him mysterious to you ladies. It’s what makes him the bad boy, and women love the bad boy. God, I know that to be true.”

“That’s not what draws me to him,” Lena said, defiantly.

“I really don’t care what it is about Tommy that made you feel something for him. The truth is, I could break down what he did in a matter of seconds and expose him for the fraud he is, but I don’t want to. You’re free, Lena. Go to him.”

She recoiled. “I’m not going to do that.”

“If you’re afraid that there will be a backlash toward you, don’t be. I’ll see to it that you and Tommy do not become targets of aggression from the Mani who follow me. Go, live your life, Lena! With Tommy!”

“Josiah, I’m not going to go out and be with him. I don’t want him. I want you.”

I couldn’t believe that she chose now to fight for me. Maybe I was selfish and needed for her to fight for me in front of everyone else last night. But she didn’t. As a matter of fact, it felt like she went out of her way not to. I wanted to change the subject so I said, “This fight that we’re all in as a Mani people doesn’t even concern you. You should just go and live your insular little life with Tommy, like a fairy tale ending waiting to happen.”

“How dare you say that to me? I may not have been ‘The Chosen,’ but this fight concerns me as much as it concerns you. Don’t forget I was a part of this world, and long before you were.”

I walked back into Lena’s room and said, “Shit is going to go down real soon. You don’t need to be a part of it. You better get out of Dodge. Find Tommy. He’ll protect you, as much as he can.”

“Well, I am staying and there is nothing you can do about it.”

That was where she was damn wrong. I had everything to do with it. This was my fight, one that I had been chosen to lead. All it would take is for me to tell her to stay back, but I didn’t.

I looked at her and she seemed very adamant that this was something she wanted. “Okay,” I said. “Then you have made your decision.” I once again started to make my way out of her room. “One more thing,” I said. “It doesn’t have to be weird between us. Let’s just do the Ross and Rachel thing and move forward.”

“The Ross and Rachel thing?”

“You know on Friends, how Ross and Rachel broke up and remained friends for the betterment of the group. After a few episodes, you forgot they were ever even together as a couple.”

“But everyone always knew they loved each other.” She had fresh tears in her eyes now. I was not moved to compassion nor mercy. I steeled myself against her feminine assault. The tears. I was disgusted.

“Well, Lena. That’s Hollywood writers for you, always ready with that happily-ever-after ending. Go have one!”

I left her room and slammed the door behind me. Lena had made her bed. She could freaking well lie in it, too.

Chapter Four

So, there it was. It was time to turn the page, right? It’s what I had to do, but it was damn hard. I had such strong feelings for this woman and I never understood why exactly. She was so vulnerable when we met. I was her knight in shining armor. It seemed like we were being forced together by something bigger than ourselves. I liked being a caretaker, a hero, a lover. But loyalty had to be earned for that privilege of my heart. In the end, I knew she was the love of my life, but that no longer mattered. I needed to refocus and keep my eye on the prize. The goal was to save my people. I needed to keep that a priority.

I wished I still had Goshi in my life. Goshi was a mentor and an amazing person to have connected with. It was odd; through all of this, the only person I had felt ever “got me” was Goshi, not Tommy. I felt a bond with Goshi, the little blue man who kicked my ass and trained me kind of like a Jedi knight, that was from a different world, one where I began to heavily develop my discernment skills--my sense of right and wrong was honed sharper than ever. It was heart-wrenching to think all of it with Goshi was a lie. I didn’t want to believe it. I refused to believe it. At a core level, I think I was even more heartbroken at losing Goshi than I was at losing Lena, truth to tell.

I don’t think I had ever felt lonelier than I did at this very moment. I wanted to run, but where would I go? And besides, saviors of a vampire people did not run. I needed to hold firm and stand strong. It was time for me to start figuring out this ridiculous riddle of what my purpose is as ‘The Chosen One.’ It was time to accomplish what I had been called to do, protect and serve, meditate, mediate and evolve us as a people, for the greater good and well-being of us as a collective species.

There was only one place to go and only one thing to do. If I couldn’t speak to Goshi, I needed to do the next best thing. I needed to speak with Atticai. Even though the mere thought of being in his presence turned my stomach. I knew in my heart of hearts that he would be the one Mani who could give me the answers I sought.

I took a deep breath. I had a problem; my last words to him were pretty harsh, in fact, I pretty much banished him from our society and those who stood with him. Not that he would have ever fought alongside me. I was pretty adamant that he and I would never work together. But, had I known Krull was coming, I might not have spoken so hastily or thrown around my weight like some entitled…king.

Shame flooded me at the way I had used my position to oust Atticai. Even the Chosen One could fall from grace. And I realized that I had, for making Atticai into an outlaw, when I probably could have negotiated some sort of truce if I hadn’t been such a hothead about Lena. For the good of the Mani people, I needed to eat some humble pie with Atticai and see if there was any chance he’d speak with me.

I had no idea where to find him though. He had left with a fifth of my crew, including Rubidoux, one of my top guys, after Tommy. I cringed at the loss of Tommy. That was going to hurt more than anyone would ever know.

I was pretty sure I knew where to find that guy on any given night. Rubidoux was a regular at Flatlands, so, I guess that was the best place to start.

Before I went out and did something as outrageous as trying to look for Atticai for advice, I should at least speak with people in my own crew, some of whom might have an idea what I was supposed to do as the Chosen One, things that maybe Goshi had not told me because inside of Goshi had been Atticai, who had had his own personal agenda.

Wyatt and Hector had been around awhile. I wasn’t sure for how many years Cyrus had walked the earth, but I figured, for now, it was time to have a closed-door meeting with the three of them, my generals by default. I needed some generals in my army. While I began to consider Yari as my primary advisor, I needed other close confidants, Mani who would fight alongside me. Wyatt, Hector, and Cyrus had proven to me that the most important thing in battle, next to courage, was loyalty. They had proven their loyalty to me and it was priceless. As Tommy and Lena had both proven, loyalty was never guaranteed. It had to be earned in both love and war. I was learning these things, the hard way. I had screwed up love which messed me up, but only personally. If I screwed up war, it would take down all Mani.

Time to round up my team. I knocked on Wyatt’s door and asked him to get Hector and Cyrus together and meet me in the library downstairs.

The home’s library was filled with books, of course, but this one had a conference table right smack in the middle of the room that looked like something out of “The Apprentice” TV show.

Cyrus, Hector, and Wyatt came into the library and shut the door behind them. They stood around expectantly.

“Have a seat, guys,” I said.

The three Mani men all sat down around me at the conference table. I looked the three of them over, and they could seriously pass as brothers. Cyrus was built a lot like Tommy. He was about six feet tall and built like a pit bull, but Hector and Wyatt were about two inches taller and skinnier. Hector had a Middle Eastern look to him with a hint of Spanish. He had full eyebrows with a very distinct look that had royal overtones. I would have thought that maybe he was Greek if I didn’t already know he was from some obscure Third World country.

Wyatt looked like a typical good old boy from the Midwest. He had a Southern presence to him, and was very unassuming. I know that he and Hector had amazing fighting skills that I had experienced first-hand, the fact being that they were two of the three reasons I had been turned into a vampire.

I figured Cyrus was probably a great fighter even though I had never seen him in action. He was previously one of Krull’s boys, and all of Krull’s people are trained fighters. I needed Cyrus very much, to help with strategies to fight Krull. He would know their weaknesses.

What all three of these guys had in common was, at one time or another, they looked at me as the enemy. That was a very good thing because that showed how loyal they actually were, that we now faced each other across the conference table as common allies in the fights from other forces. Last night, all three of them could easily have left with Atticai, but they chose to stand by me. That said a lot. That proved more to me than they could ever know. That they stood firm in their conviction.

Wyatt cleared his throat, waiting to find out what this was about.

But, first, I needed to hear it from them. I needed to know their stories. I assumed they knew mine, but I knew nothing about any of them. I heard bits and pieces, but nothing to form a strong opinion on character, experience, and intelligence. Their actions had spoken louder than words, but it was time to get to know them as men, not fighters.

“Wyatt,” I said, “Let’s start with you. Why are you here?”

Wyatt looked at me and seemed a bit uncomfortable. I knew I needed to reword the statement. These guys needed to know I was here to learn about them, not question them.

“Let me rephrase that, Wyatt. I know you have walked the earth since the mid-1800s. Can you give me the Reader’s Digest version on how and why you’re sitting here today? I would feel if I understand you guys better. It would help me to lead better.”

Wyatt smiled. “No problem, Josiah. You’re right about me being alive since Abraham Lincoln days. My mom named me after Wyatt Earp. I never knew my dad, and in my mind, I chose Wyatt Earp as a father figure. I never met the man, but through the years, I had come to terms that I might never know exactly who my father was, but I have felt solace that it could have been Wyatt Earp.”

“Did you know for sure?” I asked.

“My mom was vague about anything to do with my real father. When I was growing up, I didn’t really care. I was glad she named me after the baddest lawman of all time. It gave me great comfort knowing that on some weird level, we were connected, even if it was only by name.”

“How did that affect you growing up?” I asked.

“It affected me greatly. I was a pretty big gambler in the 1890s. Gambling was my vice and eventually, my downfall.”

“How?” I asked.

“It was the night of December 21st, 1891, when I first crossed paths with a Mani.”

“What happened?” This was exactly what I wanted to know. I was all ears.

“I was gambling in a small town in North Dakota. We were having an all-night, blaze-out session. A bald fellow and I had equally cleaned up the table. We were both sitting on at least five large. That would be about $100,000 today, if not more. We were playing Texas Hold’em and I was dealt ‘Big Slick.’”

“Big Slick?”

“Ace-king. It’s a great starting hand, but if you miss the flop, the hand can get you in trouble. I raised it about $500 pre-flop. Meaning, I bet before we saw any of the community cards.”

“Community cards?’ I asked.

“Not a big poker player I take it?”

“No, not really. My gamble, or vice as you put it, is with life.”

“Texas Hold-em goes like this. You’re dealt two pocket cards at the beginning of the hand. You can bet or fold. Then the players left in the hand are given community cards that anyone can play with the two cards in their hand. There are bets and folds and then a fourth card comes out. That is called the turn. Again, there are bets and folds. The last card is the river.”

“Bets and folds?” I asked.

“Yep,” Wyatt said.

“Then what?”

“Whoever is still left in the hand turns over their cards.”

“Got it. Go back to your story.” I leaned back in my chair and listened to Wyatt tell his little poker tale.

“I learned that the bald man’s name was Cecil Combs. He and I had almost all the money at the table in front of us, and it was about to all go into the pot. When you gamble as much as I had, there are moments where you just knew it’s all going in. So, Cecil calls my bet and we see a flop. The dealer lays down three cards on the table. It was an Ace, a King and a seven of spades. It was a gorgeous flop for my hand. I had aces over kings. That’s two pair and that’s as pretty as it comes. I decided to bet ‘a grand’ thinking he’d fold, but he didn’t. He smooth-called.”

“Smooth-called?” I asked.

“That means he just called my bet without raising,” Wyatt answered.

I nodded my head.

“Next card was the turn and it was the two of clubs, a weak card that didn’t help either one of us. So, I decide to check, and try to get a read on this guy. Cecil pauses and spends about five minutes staring at the four cards on the table. Then he did something that surprised the hell out of me, he pushed all his chips into the middle and said, ‘all in.’

“I feel like I’m watching Poker After Dark with all these details,” I joked. I nodded for him to continue.

Wyatt was really into the story and I’d no idea how much this guy loved and knew the game of poker. He continued, “There were four hands that could beat me at that point: pocket aces, pocket kings, pocket sevens and even pocket twos. There were no signs of a straight or flush draw out there. I knew the odds of him having pocket two’s was out the window. There is no way he calls my flop bet. So, I’m thinking sevens are the likely culprit. I sit there and go in the tank.”

“Go in the tank?” I asked.

“That means I took a long time to call. I figure even if he has me beat with sevens I had a couple of outs. So, I decide to call and get all my chips in the pot, too. He turned over his hand and sure enough he had pocket sevens. He had trip sevens or a ‘three of a kind.’ We still had one more card to go, the river. I needed an ace or a king, and that would have given me a higher full house.”

“The ace hit?” I asked.

“Sure did. The ace of spades landed right on the river. It flew out in slow motion or at least that’s how I remember it. The ace of spades is the most beautiful card in the deck. I scooped up the pot, and said goodnight. I walked out of there with ten large.”

“Wow, that’s a great poker story.” I laughed, “But what does that have to do with anything?”

Wyatt looked at me and said, “What do you think happened, Josiah?”

“The guy you beat was a Mani,” I answered.

“Not only was he a Mani, but he had a couple of his buddies holed up in a room down the street. I had no idea what was in store for me. I jumped on my horse and made my way out of town. It was four in the morning. I was twenty-four years old, so, I could ride all night if I had to.”

“Didn’t happen, I take it?” I asked.

“Nope, Cecil had other plans for me. He and his two buddies flew over me in their black raven forms and attacked me from behind. At first, I had no clue what was happening as you could well imagine. This was way before Hitchcock’s The Birds. So I wasn’t exactly intimidated by three black ravens.”

“Yeah, just scavenger birds. Harmless.”

“Right. So, I had my money in a satchel, and one of the ravens flew down and bit me on the right cheek. It knocked me off my horse. I lay on the ground and watched as the three birds in front of me transitioned into grown Mani men, one of them being Cecil Combs. I had a few whiskey shots before I even got on my horse, to keep me warm as I rode through the night, so I was about to write off this vision before me as fatigue and intoxication. But, these three men quickly launched me into some serious reality. They attacked me over and over again and I tried my best to fight them off. I’m not sure why they let me live; they did, but not before I was bitten by all three of them. They took the ten grand out of my satchel and left me without a clue as to what had just happened to me.”

“Oh no!” I said, sympathetic to the attack, since I had been attacked myself.

Wyatt continued, “Within a few hours, I quickly realized the sun and me were no longer friends. I nearly died out there in the desert and was fortunate enough to find a dark barn in the next town.”

“Wow,” I said. “And you obviously got through that.”

“It took a while, but eventually I began to understand what I was, I was a freaking vampire. What happened to me was a Greek tragedy and a horror film rolled up in one.”

“Not to mention a good old-fashioned Clint Eastwood movie. How did you get through it?” I asked.

“Back in those days, it was a lot easier to figure out who were Mani. There were a lot fewer weirdos then there are today. You would see the signs that someone was dealing with vampire problems a mile away. There was a lot more reaching out back then. Where I was from, all Mani stuck together; it wasn’t like the East Coast where they had already formed street gangs.”

“Okay, now that I know how it began for you, Wyatt,” I said, “how did you get here? How did you land in the Inland Empire? That was almost 150 years ago.”

“The truth is, Josiah, in the beginning, I lived a pretty reckless life. I was all about money and women. The Great Depression changed me though; I saw some pretty awful things. The vampire bounty industry was pretty brutal.”

“The vampire bounty industry?” I asked. “I have never heard of that.”

“Since the beginning of the Mani race, humans have known about us. It’s a catch 22 for them. If they let it be known to us that they know who we are, they are risking their lives. By our own creed, we are able to kill them without remorse. So, about the turn of the century, a vampire bounty industry, was formed. It made the Ku Klux Klan look mild. The Tandra who were in the know would go on Mani-killing sprees that would last for weeks. Sometimes they even got Mani to turn on each other.” Wyatt paused. “I did some things I’m not proud of. In those days, there wasn’t much of a choice. By the time World War II got here, I was done.”

“Done how?”

“With the money I earned from the bounties, I invested in the market once it started to improve. I made a lot of money investing. And for about 50 years I just decided to live in the biggest cities in the world. When I was in New Delhi, I met Hector. He was a new Mani and needed guidance. We hooked up as old-timer mentor and newbie Manis and we connected for, well, forever, I think.”

Hector smiled and gave a slight nod.

“What year was that?” I asked Wyatt.

“1988. I remember because George Bush Sr. had won the presidential election, and I saw the economic collapse a mile away. In my case, half the world away.”

“That was about the time I started getting the vision about you.”

“About me?” I asked.

“Well, about ‘The Chosen.’ In each of my visions, ‘The Chosen’ had always been faceless.”

“So, that’s why you had no idea if it was Atticai or not.”

“Yep. Not a clue. I was just trusting things that he was telling us. He seemed to have his shit together. He had seen it all, and had lived through things that would have made most people lose their minds.”

“When he was Goshi, he told me he had lost his family.”

“Josiah, Atticai used to be a good man. He used to have high ethics and values and lived in a manner that most Mani men could never emulate. In poker terms, he was dealt an awful hand by the Triat. The Triat either tricked him, or he was too arrogant to realize that he was only a pawn in their giant chess game. Maybe on some level, he knew he was always going to be used and he tried to beat it by working the angles as much as he could. When we all met up in the late 90s and formed the Children of the Night, Atticai was about the most amazing entity I had ever come across.”

“You don’t think that anymore?” I asked. “He beat death.”

“He didn’t beat death. He’s alive because of the good in you. He didn’t beat death, whatsoever, you allowed him, unknowingly, to scurry around it.”

“Is that what you think, Wyatt? You think it’s all on me?”

“Before I met you, I thought Atticai was a god. Compared to you, he is a child.”

“I’m not a god, Wyatt. You understand that, right?” That comment made me really uncomfortable, almost nauseous.

“You might as well be,” Hector chimed in.

“I don’t want that responsibility, to be a god to the people,” I said, to the three men in front of me. “A leader, yes. Like a president or something, but not elevated to god status.”

“You might not want it,” Wyatt responded with vigor. “But you need to accept the fact that the only way people are going to follow you is because they believe that you are greater than they are. Why else would they follow or believe in you? You don’t have to be divine, but you do need to lead by example, like you have been.”

“Whatever happens from this day forward, you need to know I am not a god,” I said, plainly.

Wyatt smiled and said, “You need to understand that most Mani have been through a lot of shit in their lives. They have been persecuted and ostracized by the people they loved. You give them hope, Josiah. You give them a reason to stand together as one. Because of you, we all know that there is a place for all of us to live in peace away from the entire creed and away from all the fighting. We do understand however, the only way we will get to that place is through bloodshed. We don’t like it, but in our hearts we know that it’s what needs to be done. It is our nature to want to follow a great Mani into battle, but only if we believe that we are connected to a greater purpose. The greater purpose is harmony. It’s not looking over your back every two seconds to see if your own kind is trying to kill you.”

I looked at all three of the men. “Do all three of you believe that?”

“I do,” Hector said. “Damn, you have my credit card, Josiah. I must think you’re somebody. I don’t give my credit card to just anyone.”

I smiled at Hector. “Do you believe we’re fighting to have a time of peace?”

“I do, Josiah,” Hector answered.

“And do you think that I’m some kind of god?”

“Shit, Josiah. I think on some level we’re all gods. We’re freaking immortal. Maybe we don’t have a world where people pray to us, but we definitely have some serious game.”

“Game?” I asked.

“You know Jo, swagger!” Hector laughed.

“Jo? What the hell has gotten into you, Hector? You’re actually being funny.”

“Getting laid does that to people,” Cyrus said.

“Wait, have I missed something?” I asked.

“Hector has this hot new girlfriend, that’s why he’s never around,” Cyrus continued.

“When did that happen?” I said, shocked.

“About two weeks after you left.” Hector grinned, proudly.

“I thought you were gay,” I said, laughing.

“Why does everyone think that?” Hector groaned.

“What’s her name?” I asked.

Hector smiled and said, “Harriet.”

“Hector and Harriet,” I said. “Damn, you couldn’t have written it any better.” I was really surprised. I composed myself and said to Hector, “What is your story?”

“What do you want to know?” he asked.

“When and where were you royalty?”

“In 1933, I was born in Yemen.”

“Wow, Yemen?” I had heard of that country, but I had no idea people lived there. Was Hector the name you were born with?”

“No, my birth name is Abdul Mhum Azeera.”

“That’s a mouthful.”

“That’s why the name Hector is easier. When I become a Mani in 1955, I decided to take the name Hector from the Odyssey.”

“In a weird way, it fits you perfectly,” I said. “So how do you still have access to so much money?”

“Swiss bank accounts.”

“I thought Swiss bank accounts were an urban legend,” I said.

“No, they are very real.”

“So, tell me how you became a Mani?” I asked Hector.

“It’s a pretty gruesome story.”

“I have a strong stomach. Go for it.”

So, Hector told me a pretty awful story of how he was attacked by Mani men who were after his father’s throne. He was right, his story was pretty brutal and I guess any Mani who had become one not by choice would have a pretty horrific tale to tell. He finished his story by saying, “I was considered dead the night I was attacked. I had been bitten several times from several different Mani. Somehow, I survived. I had wanted a way out of Yemen for years. I figured this was my best chance. Everyone thought I was dead and I had access to a lot of the money since I had made deposits in Switzerland, prior the attack. I wasn’t sure when I was going to split out of Yemen, but I had planned on bailing on that god-forsaken country for quite some time. Even though they never found my body, I was declared dead. After I made sure my accounts were still active, I took on an alias.”

“This is all pretty surreal, Hector,” I said. “I have never heard you speak so much at one given time. Is there a reason for that?”

“I made it a habit a long time ago that I would only speak when spoken to. Right now, you’re asking questions. So it’s only fair that I answer them.”

I grinned at Hector’s honesty. “So,” I said, “is your girl cute?”

Hector smiled. “Yes, she is. She’s gorgeous.”

“Good man.” I turned and looked at Cyrus. “You, my friend, I could have sworn you would have left with Atticai.”

“Why? I didn’t even know him!” Cyrus protested.

“That’s true,” I said. “I just know how you feel about werewolves.”

“That’s the part about all of this that is hard, Josiah. I liked Tommy. We all did. He put all of us in a weird position last night. You did the right thing.”

“Did I?” I asked.

“You question it?” Cyrus seemed surprised to hear me ask that.

“What you all need to understand is that Tommy and I have a history like no other. He means more to me than probably a brother would at this point. He’s a part of me and I’m a part of him. I’ll never understand the choices he makes, but I can’t worry about that right now. I need to remain focused. Can I ask you a question, Cyrus?”

“Go for it.”

“Why are you here?” I asked, as plainly as I could. “Why do you feel the need to fight for this cause?”

“Why wouldn’t I, Josiah? Krull is damaging the Mani name and if he has his way he’ll destroy any positive outcome there is for our race. When I was following Krull, I never felt right about what he was trying to do. He’s an incredible motivator, but so was Adolph Hitler. The more I listened to him, the more I realized he was clueless and was possibly leading all of us into a pit of destruction.”

“Do you trust me?” I asked Cyrus.

“I do.” Cyrus looked me right in the eyes. “I have ever since the first moment I saw you. You’re a good man, Josiah. You can’t fake that.”

“How old are you?” I asked. “In real years?”

“I was born in 1989.”

“So was I,” I said, a little too excited for the kind of conversation we were all having. “You look around my age, so you must have turned around the same time I did.”

“It was 8 months ago. It happened Christmas Eve.”

“How did it happen?”

“I had a few drinks at a buddy’s house and I drove my car off the road. I was badly injured and there was no one for miles. I was shitfaced drunk and had passed out. I woke up in the hospital. I was told the paramedics had gotten there four hours after I had the accident.”

I looked at Cyrus, confused.

“I know, until this day I still don’t have a clue what happened. When I was in the hospital, the sunlight started to burn my skin in a way that was unspeakable. I complained so much that they eventually moved me to a windowless room.”

I looked at Cyrus and realized that this poor bastard must have had to figure out everything on his own. “How did you eventually figure out what happened to you?”

“I have never figured out what happened to me. It could have been a number of things, like some Mani saw my body on the side of the road and they all fed and then took off, thinking I was dead. Another one of my theories is some Mani came to my rescue and saved me right before I was about to die.”

“I think I like that one better,” I said. “How did you get involved with Krull?”

“Well, I started thinking I had died in the car accident that night and was living in some alternative reality with how bizarre I was feeling. It took me about four months to figure out everything I needed to know. Eventually, I found others like me. Unfortunately, I ran with some bad guys in the beginning and they led me to Krull. At first, I liked what Krull had to say. Things he said made a lot of sense, and since I was new to everything I took to him like a sponge. It wasn’t until it was time to fight that I realized what a fucked-up individual Krull was. He was merciless in his killings. I knew there was something terribly wrong about his particular cause. It wasn’t until the night I met you that I felt I had seen truth.”

“What is it that I did or said?” I asked.

“It was your aura. You had a confidence and easiness that attracted me. Then my visions started and I knew I had made the right decision.”

“You have visions?” I asked.

“Yes, Josiah. Almost every night.”

“Holy shit, really? When were you planning on telling me?”

“I was waiting for you to ask.”

“Well, what are they?”

“They are always the same thing. I’m being led by you into what appears to be heaven.”

“Are you screwing with me?” I asked, surprised as hell to hear this for the first time.

“Why would I be messing with you? Josiah, this vision is very common.”

I looked at the others and they both nodded. “You have had the same visions?” I asked Wyatt and Hector.

They both nodded.

“Why do you think we stayed with you?” Wyatt asked.

“You said ‘The Chosen’ was faceless,” I said to Wyatt.

“It was faceless until you became a Mani. Since then, I have the same recurring vision.”

“So do I,” Hector agreed.

“Were you guys ever planning on telling me this?” I asked the group.

“Like Cyrus said, Josiah. You never asked,” Wyatt said.

“Wow.” I was pretty taken back. It validated things on a whole new level with me. I decided to continue to ask Cyrus questions, but I was really happy about this news. “You mentioned, Cyrus, when I first met you that werewolves had killed your family. How did that happen?”

“They were my Mani brothers. They were two of the most amazing vampires I had ever met. They were both in agreement with me that Krull was leading us astray. And if they were still alive, I’m positive they would be here with you, too.” Cyrus paused. I could tell this was hard for him to speak about but he continued talking. “One night, we were at the wrong place at the wrong time during a full moon and we were incredibly outnumbered by enough werewolves to kill a thousand Mani.” Again Cyrus stopped talking. Tears burned his eyes.

“It’s okay, man. I get the point. You don’t have to keep telling me the story,” I said.

“No, I want to. You see, Josiah, werewolves aren’t even an ounce human. They’re wild animals that kill without even blinking an eye for no good reason. Not out of revenge or even hate. They do it because they don’t know any better.”

“I know, Cyrus,” I said. “That is what made Tommy different. He had cognitive thought.”

Cyrus nodded and continued his story, “I had gotten away from them; it was hard but I managed to fly away. My friends weren’t so lucky. The Mani senselessly ripped my friends to shreds, piercing their necks, and killing them both.”

I took a moment and allowed Cyrus to compose himself and I asked, “Have you dealt with that?”

“You mean therapy?” Cyrus laughed.

“I mean spiritually. You can’t let that shit eat you up. It has no part in our lives. The one thing I have discovered in all this madness is that there is a balance of good and evil. That was an evil thing that happened to you. You’re due for some good shit to start happening to you.”

I looked at the three guys and asked them, “Would you die for this cause?”

They all looked at each other, and then they looked at me and nodded.

“What about you, Josiah? Are you ready to die for this?” Wyatt asked.

“I’ve put myself on the line already a few times, but I have never faced anyone like Krull. If one person can beat me, it’s him. So, I guess the answer to that is yes.”

I looked at the guys and said, “I’m going to need the three of you by my side. I’m going to need you to lead, are you ready to do that?”

Again, all three nodded.

“Okay, now I need to figure out how this is going to go down. Cyrus, I’m going to see Atticai. I want you to come with me. You have fought beside Krull and know him intimately. And if I can get any kind of answers out of Atticai, I think it will be valuable for you to be there.”

Cyrus nodded. I looked over at Hector and Wyatt. “So that lets the two of you off the hook. I have a feeling Atticai isn’t too happy with either of you two for not going with him.”

“We appreciate that, “Wyatt said, “So, what now, Josiah?”

“I need more answers. I’ll keep you posted.” I got up and left the room.

Chapter Five

I decided that I needed to clear my head. I needed to put everything in the right perspective. This thing that I am sometimes gets a life of its own, and I can’t even breathe or think clearly.

Unfortunately, the person I needed to talk to the most was Atticai, but he hates me. I took the one thing in this world that he wanted the most. The sad part about it is I never asked for it or even knew what it was. I didn’t even want it. But now that it’s here, I have no choice but to accept it.

It was a little past midnight and I knew I needed to go for a fly. Not some reckless fly where I’m tearing through the sky at a rapid pace, but one that was on more of the calmer side, the equivalent to a nice Sunday drive.

I opened the trap door in my room that led to the outside, I dropped down and then took flight in my Mani form. The stars were out and they seemed to be lighting up the sky more than usual on this night. I now live where there’s little smog and stars are definitely clearer than in Orange County and most parts of the Inland Empire. I took in my surroundings as I made my way across the sky at a much slower rate than I was accustomed to. I’ve noticed that there are times when I soar across the sky, and it really doesn’t matter what speed I’m going, my senses are ignited and I see and feel things on a whole different level.

I was exhausted emotionally and worn out physically. I needed a spiritual tune-up and, truth be told, I missed my best friend and my family. This life that I was living in seemed to run on its own energy. I seemed to have very little say about what was happening to me. It was time to stop resisting it. I need to complete whatever task the Triat had for me. I needed to follow through on my calling. This ‘Chosen One’ title was getting old.

Atticai had followed this dream for years. He knew better than anyone the truth of its purpose. It was as simple as the night was dark; I needed to speak with him.

I decided to turn around and head back to the house after a few minutes of just enjoying the silence; the amazing sounds of nothing that the night air provides. I eventually made my way back to the house and picked up Cyrus and then we headed to Flatlands.

The last couple of times I had been to Flatlands, I had been greeted with open arms, but I wasn’t sure about tonight. This was Atticai’s old hangout and the likelihood of him being there was high. Even if he wasn’t, these were the vampires that believed so little in me that they would rather follow a guy I had already killed. So, I had reason to be nervous about my being welcome.

Cyrus and I circled the Flatlands parking lot, and there were a lot of people down in the rocky area. Was Atticai’s army getting bigger or were some of my people just hanging out with these guys? Were all of these people Mani?

I could see Rubidoux from the sky with his platinum blonde hair.

I couldn’t see Atticai. It’s kind of hard to miss a seven-foot vampire who looked like Russell Brand. I decided to transition into my Mani form and head down, with Cyrus following suit.

Rubidoux look up at me as I landed. “Josiah,” he said. “Have you come here to do some recruiting?”

“Why? You want back in?” I said, knowing perfectly well he didn’t.

“I’m a lover, not a fighter.”

“You know, it can be both,” I said, winking at him.

“Maybe, but I’m not into suicide missions.” Rubidoux was drunk so I knew he would be speaking freely and I wouldn’t hold it against him.

“Is that what you’re thinking? It’s a suicide mission?”

“It sure isn’t a fight that you’re favored to win.”

“Why is that?” I asked, sincerely wanting to know.

Rubidoux looked at me and was making sure I was cool about what he was saying. Once he trusted that I wasn’t here to kick his ass, he began to once again speak freely. “Josiah, Krull lives for this shit. I wouldn’t be surprised if right at this moment he has his crew running drills, like in those Middle Eastern terrorist camp videos they show on the news. You’re up against a disillusioned madman who doesn’t care about prophecies, or the Triat, and especially the good of his people.”

“I already fought him once,” I said.

“I heard you sucker-punched him real good and ran like a coward.”

“A coward!” I said, in a manner that Rubidoux could tell I was not too pleased with his statement.

“Did you run? Yes or no?” Rubidoux asked.

“We were outnumbered about 500 to 1.”

Rubidoux smiled at me. “And do you think that’s going to change?”

“I don’t know. I think we can get some good Mani to join our side.”

“He already has them all, Josiah, or at least the ones that want to lay their life down for a cause. His cause.” Rubidoux seemed to know a lot about this subject.

I looked at Cyrus, “Is this true?”

Cyrus nodded and said, “I’ve seen both of you fight at your peak forms. I think you can fight straight up, Josiah. He’s very seasoned, but there has never been anyone like you.”

“Look, if this was just a fight between Josiah and Krull, I’d say Josiah would have fifty-fifty odds, but it’s not. The fight isn’t going to come down with the two of them fighting in some Armageddon Christ-versus-Satan battle. This fight is going to have thousands of Mani laying down their lives. You want to talk about recruitment, Josiah? Krull has been recruiting the toughest Mani for hundreds of years. Do you really think that rag-tag group that stayed behind with you has any chance in hell of living through a battle with his evil minions?”

Rubidoux was definitely not making me feel comfortable, but I wasn’t discouraged. I looked Rubidoux and Cyrus both in the eyes and said, “One thing I know is a fighter’s heart. Every battle is won by soldiers. And if I could convince Mani to fight with the kind of heart that drives me then I think it’s possible for us to succeed.” Then I just looked at Cyrus and asked, “Does he have the toughest Mani on his side?”

“In some ways, yeah. It’s only because he’s recruited bitter motherfuckers who live and stew in their own hate.”

“Well, I guess that’s why I’m here then,” I said. “I am recruiting. Are all of these guys like you?” I asked Rubidoux.

“Like me, how?” he asked.

“With Atticai?”

“I’m not with Atticai,” Rubidoux scoffed.

“Then what do you call it?”

“I’m like France, neutral. I don’t want you to kill me and I don’t want Krull to kill me. Most of these people feel the same way. We aren’t with Atticai, we just agree with his philosophy. Atticai isn’t trying to build an army to take over the world.”

“Is that what you think I’m doing? Trying to build an army to take over the world before Krull does?” I asked.

“You’re building an army, aren’t you?”

“Not to take over the world.”

“Well, then, good luck convincing any Mani to join you. Mani are fed up with Tandra and Carni! It’s very easy for Krull to recruit because most Mani are sick and tired of being second-class citizens.”

“Where’s Atticai?” Cyrus blurted out. Apparently, he was done listening to Rubidoux’s opinion. I actually liked that he did it. It was a side of Cyrus I hadn’t seen yet. Ballsy.

Rubidoux looked at Cyrus and smirked as if to say ‘whose this guy?’

“Where’s Atticai?” I calmly asked Rubidoux.

“He doesn’t come around here often.”

“What has he been doing?”

“Probably wreaking havoc around town. He needs to make up for lost time.”

“I don’t believe that,” I said, indignantly. “Atticai isn’t a savage. He’s refined. The guy plays the piano like Mozart.”

“True, but he does need to feed and no one feeds like Atticai.”

“He kills when he feeds?” I asked.

“Of course he does,” Rubidoux answered. “Not everyone has your moral compass, Josiah. Sometimes, some of us like to get down and get our grub on.”

I tried to ignore Rubidoux’s statement. For his sake, I hoped he was kidding. “So, is that where he is tonight? Getting his grub on?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t doubt it.”

I looked at Rubidoux and I needed to ask him one more thing. “I want to speak to him. Can you arrange that?”

“You want to meet with Atticai?” Rubidoux seemed amused.

“Why does that amuse you?”

“You should bring someone along and record it for YouTube.”

“I doubt it would get too many hits,” I said.

“You’d be surprised. Two egomaniacs trying to have a civil conversation would be entertaining, if you ask me.”

“I’m not an egomaniac,” I protested. I looked at Cyrus for assurance and didn’t get any. “What? You think I’m an egomaniac, too, Cyrus?”

“You’re pretty impressed with yourself,” Cyrus answered.

“Look, Josiah, I could probably arrange a meeting with you and Atticai. I need to know if I do this, what will you do for me?”

“What do you want?”

Rubidoux smiled. “A favor.”

“What kind of favor?”

“I’ll let you know when I need it. I just need to know it’s there.”

“All right,” I said. “Take down my number. Get hold of Atticai and let him know that I want to meet with him tomorrow at midnight.”

“Where?” Rubidoux asked.

“Wherever he wants. I just need to talk to him. Not fight. Talk.”

“Remember, this is Atticai we’re talking about. I can’t make any promises.” Rubidoux now seemed unsure if Atticai would see me.

“If you can get a meeting, Rubidoux, you can have your favor.”

I decided not to stick around. Cyrus and I transitioned and took off and made our way back home. Now, I just needed to wait. The ball was in Atticai’s court.

Chapter Six

The next day, I got a text from Rubidoux around 6 pm. All it said was ‘Mills Ranch, midnight.’ Mills Ranch? Where is Mills Ranch? Ten minutes later, I got another text from Rubidoux that read. ‘Be alone, he’ll be alone.’

Great, was he baiting me into an ambush? At this point, all I can say is ‘It is what it is.’ This was one of those times that I really needed Tommy to have my back. That was a pipe dream at this point.

I was glad I had spoken to Rubidoux the night before. Picking his brain turned out to be pretty helpful. Trying to get a grasp on what I’m supposed to do was becoming a pretty complicated thing. This thing that I’m part of had to be more than a good-versus-evil power play.

In life, nothing was broken down to be that simple. I didn’t subscribe to any theory that one side was always right and the other was always wrong, or that one side was necessarily good and another was evil. Life was about individuals and the choices they made.

Was I saying there is good in Krull? Yeah, I was. Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t going to be your Luke Skywalker trying to find the good in Darth Vader crap. What it was, though, was me trying to get a grasp on what it all meant. For Krull and I to have an all-out war isn’t going to change the minds of all Mani. No matter what, one side would lose. There needed to be a way to bring everyone together. How? At this point I had no freaking idea.

Up to this point, my gut feeling had served me well and brought me this far and I still need to trust it. I believe that Atticai had some answers that I was looking for.

I showered up and put on a pair of black jeans with a black t-shirt. I looked very vampirey with my black attire. I liked wearing the color black even before I had become a Mani. Now that I had become one, it was a good enough excuse to drape my entire wardrobe in the color. Seriously, what other color could I possibly wear? Could you imagine ‘The Chosen One’ showing up at a meeting wearing a bright yellow tank top and purple surfer shorts?

I asked Wyatt before I left where Mills Ranch was and he showed me on the GPS on my phone where I was supposed to go. I left through the front door of the house to go see Atticai. I decided to not be so dramatic by flying out the trap door of my room. Sometimes, it was nice to do things normally, like when I was a Tandra. When I reached outside, the cold air felt good on my face. I didn’t walk outside too often. Flying had made me pretty lazy in that department.

I was really nervous about meeting with Atticai. It felt like I had a meeting with an underboss, in one of the five mob families. In many ways, this was exactly what it was. But Atticai didn’t pet a cat and speak like a guy with marbles in his mouth. But Atticai had the respect of the people. And respect went a long way with these folks. He was already legendary, and now, because of me, he had beat death. He beat a Mani’s death. I had no idea how rare that was. All I did know was that I respected him. Maybe, I did a little more because he was Goshi.

Mills Ranch was in Hesperia, the town right next to Victorville. I decided to take flight and head over there. Mills Ranch was very much like the house I lived in over in Victorville. It was the only house or place within ten miles of anything else. It wasn’t hard to miss. But unlike my house, this place looked like something out of the Addams Family. It was really creepy looking. I was expecting a severed hand to walk out at any moment.

I flew down and landed on the front lawn. I was in my Mani form and I could see someone on the front porch. There was a person sitting in a white rocking chair just slowly rocking back and forth. That person was Atticai. He was sipping from a coffee cup, which I assumed had blood in it. From fifty feet away, I could see the dark-red thick liquid coloring on his lips. I calmly walked up to him. He looked straight ahead, never once looking in my direction. I knew he was aware that I was there, but he was refusing to look up at me.

I stood about five feet in front of him. He continued to sip. He definitely had the presence of a mafia boss. He was on a power trip and I guess I had to deal with it if I wanted to speak with him.

“Are you going to speak?” he came out and asked. “Or are you just going to waste my time?”

I looked at his piercing brown eyes behind the white cup and said, “I have some questions.”

“Questions? You’ve come to the wrong place if you’re seeking words of wisdom.”

“Maybe I did. But I need some answers. I think you’re the only one that could really help me.”

“Help you? Why would I ever want to do that?”

“Because you once believed in the cause, though you may have looked at it differently than I do. But, you understood that Krull couldn’t succeed in his need to tear down the Mani. You knew he couldn’t follow through on his plan.”

“His plan? What plan would that be?”

“I don’t know. You tell me,” I said, as delicately as I could, considering how difficult he was trying to be.

Atticai paused, and then did an unusual thing. He smiled and looked in my direction. “What is it you need to know?”

“I need to understand what Krull is trying to do. I need to come to terms with what exactly it is that I’m supposed to do to stop him.”

“And why would I tell you that information?” Atticai was resisting this conversation like a three year old at the dentist.

“Because we may not be on the same side, but we’re not on opposite teams. How does the saying go? ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend.’”

“What if the enemy of your enemy is also your enemy?” Atticai scoffed.

“Is that what you consider me? An enemy?”

“You’re damn close. You did kill me.”

“You were killing Lena…”

“Semantics.”

“Saying that we’re all three enemies puts us in some bizarre triangle like the way we were the other night.”

Atticai grinned. “That was a bit sad, wasn’t it? You managed to screw that one up pretty badly.”

If I gave this guy any opening, he threw a verbal jab every time. He was relentless and passive aggressive.

“It was probably a good thing,” I said, adamantly. “To lose her.”

“When is it ever a good thing to lose at anything or anyone?”

“Maybe when you have a calling that is bigger than yourself?”

“That’s when you can’t afford to lose. You have too many people depending on you.”

“We are still talking about Lena, right? As I remember, you didn’t come out the victor that night either.”

“I never thought I had a chance. I figured I’d throw my hat into the ring once you and your boyfriend decided to go all Romeo and Juliet about it.

“That isn’t how I remember it. You spoke up for Lena before Tommy did.”

“Again, with the semantics. All I know is, it was good theater.” Atticai was pretty pleased with himself. His smug look turned serious. “Josiah, you were given the one thing I dedicated my entire life to seeking, and you didn’t even want it.”

“That’s probably why it fell in my lap. Maybe the Triat thought you’d be too emotional.”

“Emotional? DON’T YOU EVER TALK TO ME ABOUT THE TRIAT. YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ANYTHING!!” Atticai was beside himself. He stood up. “I should kill you right now. Just to end all of the nonsense.”

“I don’t see that happening, big guy.” Then I stood up and got right up in his face, or as close as I could get to it. It would be pretty anti-climactic for Atticai and me to go to blows out here in the middle of nowhere. With no one watching.

Atticai stared me down and then slowly sat back down “You’re probably right. It wouldn’t do me any good at this point.”

I was surprised at how quickly Atticai changed his temperament. He was just about to rip my head off and now he was rocking back and forth like an eighty-year-old man. I think he knew, he had no chance in a fight with me. I had become something entirely separate from the average Mani. I felt pretty indestructible these days. Atticai sighed and then said, “What kind of answer did you think I might have?”

I looked at Atticai, and it appeared that he was ready to have a civil conversation. “Well, first off, my question is simple; how does the ‘Chosen One’ save the Mani people?”

Atticai seemed amused by my question. He pondered it and then said, “First of all Josiah, you can only help Mani who want it. You’re not going to be able to change the hearts of all the people. You can only help or save those who want to stop the senseless killing of one another. There will always be a portion of Mani who will never change their thought process because they crave pain and destruction. It’s in their blood and you won’t be able to get through to those vampires. Trying to turn them would become your Achilles heel.” Atticai paused, and then said, “It was mine.”

Holy Crap! Atticai was acting freaking normal. He was actually having a thoughtful conversation with me.

“How so?” I asked, extremely intrigued by Atticai’s candor.

“For years, I was the voice of reason. When everything you believe in falls on deaf ears, it’s pretty disheartening. Eventually, you become… like this.” He was referring to himself.

“Atticai, there is still hope for you. You were given a second chance for a reason. You have to know that. You’ve been through too much not to see that.”

“Of course I understand that, Josiah. I just don’t think my heart would ever be into it again. I really don’t care, anymore. Death is an awful reality. I was given a second chance, yes. But I don’t think I want to waste it fighting for this.”

“Why not?”

“I’ve sort of lost my passion for the fight because I feel like fighting for this cause will be a lost one.”

“I don’t think it is, or I wouldn’t have been plucked out of obscurity to lead it if it was just going to be a suicide mission,” I said, with certainty.

“Then they chose the right man for the job. Josiah, the way you’re speaking to me right now is the message you need to give to the people. Mani are tired of living in the shadows. They want to have their own society where they don’t have to lie about who they are. They dream of a Utopian world where everything isn’t decided by bloodshed. The only way that can happen is unity. You need to figure out a way to have all Mani work and live together and stop with the reckless killings. If we stop killing one another then we can start achieving amazing results. But, saying it in theory is one thing and convincing Mani is a whole different story.”

“Why is it so hard to have people unite?”

Atticai was quiet now. He had made a 180degree turn and was opening up in a way I didn’t even realize he was capable of doing. “I’ve said enough, Josiah.”

“Please, don’t stop now. Why, Atticai?”

For whatever reason, Atticai was having a hard time revealing this last bit of information. I could tell this part exhausted him. This was the one thing that bothered him the most about his people. Finally he said, “Because Mani don’t see the benefit of stepping outside themselves. And if they do, they are only led by money, sex, or power. That’s why Krull has a legion of vampires willing to die for his cause. Vampires and violence go hand in hand.”

“So which is it?” I asked. “Do I fight Krull or do I try to work with him?”

“I really don’t know. I think you might need to seek out the Deity on this one.”

“The Deity? What or who is that?” I asked. This was the very first time I had ever heard this name.

“You are green, aren’t you, Josiah? The Deity is a young woman who has been given amazing insight from the Triat. She’s like our pope.”

“She’s real young?” I asked.

“Not in years, but in Mani form. She was turned when she was thirteen years old. She has seen it all.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Apparently she saw Jesus carry the cross up Calgary and fasted alongside Gandhi. She has had a pretty amazing life.”

“And you think she could help me?”

“I know she can.” Atticai stood up and walked along the porch rail, looking out at the stars. For the first time ever, he seemed like a regular person with dreams and aspirations. He was being human. Not mortal, but for the first time, he seemed to display a level of insight that was inspiring. It was as if he was locked inside his own hate and somehow he snapped out of it.

“Atticai,” I said. “It’s not too late for you. You can stand right next to me in this cause. I’d be honored if you would.”

Atticai just shook his head and calmly said, “I’ll pass.” This would be a very hard sell at this juncture and I decided not to pursue this angle any longer. Atticai was the kind of person who needed to come to a cause like this on his own terms. Maybe someday he’d come around, but for now I needed to find this Deity.

“Where is the Deity?” I asked.

“Tijuana,” Atticai smiled.

“Huh? Donkey shows Tijuana?” I asked, completely not expecting that to be the answer.

“There’s a lot more to that city than donkey shows. You know that city is where the Caesar Salad was invented.”

“Good to know if I decide to go on a diet. Where in Tijuana is she?”

“I don’t know exactly. I have just heard she’s been there for years. My advice is to go there and if the Triat wants you two to connect, she will find you.”

“I hope you’re right. I don’t want to be hanging out in Tijuana for months on end.”

“You know everything is legal down there. There’s more to do than just go watch donkey shows. Camp out and make a trip of it. Just don’t drink the water!”

I nodded my head and Atticai stood up and went inside the house. He didn’t say goodbye, but I assumed we were done. He was very cordial once he got past his bitterness. I did have to admit, I was pretty impressed with what he had to say.

Chapter Seven

So, here I was. I needed to go to Tijuana, of all places. I had only been to the city once. It was on my 18th birthday. Tommy took me down there and we partook in all the indulgences the country had to offer: alcohol, girls and even a little icky wicky.

Being that it was my only experience in that country, I didn’t have much to go on. I was pretty inebriated at the time and have very little memory of anything that happened south of the border. To think, I’d be roaming the streets of a foreign country looking for a thirteen-year-old girl who was in reality over 2,000 years old--it was disconcerting.

I assume the Deity spoke many languages by this point. But I was going to need a guide to help me. The only person I knew that was fluent in Spanish was Wyatt. He had spent a lot of time in Mexico, and liked to show off every now and then and speak Spanish to people who speak it fluently. So, he was definitely the guy to take.

I approached him the following day at breakfast. “Hey, Wyatt,” I said. “Would you like to take a trip with me?”

“What kind of trip?” He said, as he sipped his blood cocktail that Yari had blended up for him. Yari was real creative in mixing blood with tomato juice and other fine beverages to give the taste more of a kick.

“It’ll be a business one. I need to speak to the Deity,” I said.

“The Deity? She is still around?”

“You knew about her?”

“Everyone knows about her. No one knows where she is.”

“Atticai did. He’s says she’s in Mexico.”

“Mexico? I better pack my poncho. When do you want to leave?”

“Tonight.”

“No problem.” Wyatt went back to sipping his drink and I headed back upstairs and decided to relax until the evening.

Wyatt and I didn’t pack anything. We figured if it took a while to find her, we would just buy whatever we needed real cheap in Mexico.

We transitioned into our bird state and headed south. From where we live, the only way to Mexico was a flight over San Diego. San Diego is a beautiful city during the day; not so pretty at night.

We made our way into Mexico and Tijuana was the first city at the border. It was good that we didn’t have to go deep into the country. As a matter of fact, we hit our destination so quickly it felt like we were still in U.S., except for the smell. Wow, the sewer system stunk down here. Holy crap, it smelled awful.

I had checked online that the best hotel in the city was a place called Ticuan. We flew over the city until I spotted the hotel from the sky. We headed down and landed down the street in an empty area so we could transition without anyone seeing us. One thing was for sure, Mexico wasn’t short on taxis and pharmacies. Everywhere I looked, I saw a taxi in the street and a pharmacy on the corner.

We went inside the hotel and I was pretty impressed. The hotel didn’t look like much from the outside, but the inside was very high class. It made me forget that I was in Tijuana.

We decided to share a room with two beds. It would be easier to get up and go if we were in the same room. After we got situated in the room, we decided to head on out because we really wanted to get this over with.

Wyatt and I headed down to the parking structure. There were about five taxis parked outside the hotel.

“Taxi?” one of the cab drivers asked.

“Sí,” Wyatt said, winking at me like he was a native countryman.

“Hell, I could have figured that one out,” I laughed.

“Trust me, when we’re in the heart of this city, you’ll be glad I can interpret what’s being said immediately.”

The cab driver opened the back door and Wyatt and I got into the back seat.

“Why are we taking a cab?” I asked.

“I’m a little uncomfortable flying around the city. God knows what goes on down here. All I need is a bullet to the wing.”

I guess he was right; if I transitioned to the eagle, it might cause pandemonium. “Where should we go first?” I asked.

“We need to go to the place where we can find out anything for the right price.”

“Where’s that?”

“The red light district.”

“Where the drug dealers and hookers dwell?” I asked.

“If you want to know anything, the hustlers down there will find out for twenty bucks.”

“Adelitas!” Wyatt said, to the cab driver.

“Bien.” The driver took off and there we were, two vampires in a cab in Tijuana about to hit the red light district.

After about ten minutes of some of the worst driving I had ever experienced, the cab driver delivered us to a bar called Adelitas.

“¿Cuánto cuesta?” Wyatt asked, inquiring about the cab cost.

“Cinco,” he said.

“Five bucks?” I asked.

Wyatt looked at me and said, “Remember, we are in Mexico; everything is cheaper.”

There were a lot of businesses and bars along the street. We stepped out on the street and the night was alive. There was energy unlike anything you would ever see in the Inland Empire. The streets were thumping and packed with tourists and hustlers everywhere.

“So, what now?” I asked. “Do we go into a bar and try to find out information?”

“We can go to a bar if you’re ready to be ambushed by about twenty girls begging for some time alone with you,” Wyatt laughed.

“Seriously?” I asked. In a way, it didn’t seem like that bad of a concept.

“You’ve been here before, you know how it is.”

“It was a couple of years back and I was drunk on my ass. I have very little memory of anything other than a porcelain toilet at the end of the night.”

“The city does that to you, too. Damn, it’s a great town,” Wyatt laughed.

“So, what now?” I asked.

“The guys that have the answers will come up to us. They’ll speak perfect English to let us know how American they are. Let’s just start walking and they will make their way to us.”

Sure enough, all we had to do was walk about twenty feet down the street and a man about six feet tall and real skinny approached us.

“Hey man,” he said, without an accent.

“What’s up?” I said.

“What do you guys want? Girls, blow, condoms, Viagra, what?”

Wow, he didn’t mess around. He apparently had a pharmacy on his person.

“We need information,” Wyatt said.

“Okay, what kind of information are you looking for?”

Wyatt and the man spoke to each other in Spanish, but the man responded in English. I think he did it for my sake.

“I can get in a lot of trouble taking you there,” he said.

“Would $500 make it easier for you?” Wyatt asked.

“For $500, I’ll have sex with both of you before we go,” the man joked.

I wasn’t one for that kind of humor. At least, I hoped he was kidding. He must have been because he didn’t pursue it.

“Meet me here at nine in the morning. Believe it or not, it’s more discreet doing stuff during the day around here, there’s a lot less police.”

“We can’t exactly do that,” Wyatt said, looking at the man.

The man looked us both over and grinned. “I guess you can’t.” He was street smart enough to know we were vampires. “Meet me here in twenty-four hours and I’ll have an answer for you.”

“Are you certain that you can arrange a meeting or are you just wasting our time?” I asked. He obviously knew we were Mani and now it was time to throw some weight around to get what we wanted.

The man paused and then looked me in the eye and said, “I guarantee it.”

“All right, we’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t fuck with us. You got that?” I said, as stern as I could, without coming across as paranoid.

“When people need things in this city, I’m who they come to,” he said, in a slick, con-man type of way.

“You better be.” There was something about this guy I didn’t trust.

“Hey, can you guys front me some of the money?” the man asked.

There it was.

Wyatt looked at him and said, “You’ll get the $500 when we’re sitting down with her and nothing more and nothing sooner. Taxi,” Wyatt yelled.

No faster than he said it; a taxi whipped around and was in front of us. “That’s it?” I said to Wyatt, getting into the taxi.

“That’s it. If the guy is legit, we should have a meet and greet tomorrow.”

“What did you say to him in Spanish?”

“I asked him where the witches were.”

“Witches?”

“Yes, witches. They believe down here that everything supernatural is either ghosts or witches.”

“He mentioned there is a great witch that sees the future and she is well protected.”

“You think the great witch is the Deity?” I asked.

“I have a hunch.”

“Why?”

“He mentioned she’s spoken of two men in black that will seek her out. He obviously is close enough to her that he recalled her saying this.”

We were wearing black, but then again so were half the people walking around the street we were on. “So, we sit back and wait?”

“Unless you want to party with the locals?” Wyatt grinned.

“Not quite.”

“Then let’s head back. We need to sunlight-proof the room anyway.” Wyatt was right. We probably should have done that before we left. There was only one window, so it should be real easy to block any sun from getting in.

It was three in the morning when we got back. I stepped out of the cab and was stopped dead in my tracks. I saw the most beautiful Latina woman I had ever seen being escorted, gripped by the arm, by a short Mexican gentleman.

She made eye contact with me and I gave her an honest, warm smile. Then she gave me an odd, concerned look in return. It was a desperate look, I knew that look. She was in some kind of trouble. I decided to do something I wasn’t accustomed to doing because it was invasive, but I needed to know more about this woman. I focused my thoughts and I tried to read her mind.

I hadn’t done this a lot, so it took some concentration. I locked into her mind and I kept hearing her repeat the same phrase, ‘Ayuda mi, por favor.’ She said it over and over again. It was as if she knew I was reading her mind. The problem was I had no idea what ‘Ayuda mi, por favor,’ meant.

I knew ‘por favor’ meant ‘please’ but I didn’t know what “Ayuda” meant. Her eyes were piercing through me. I decided to follow the couple into the elevator with Wyatt right behind me. He wasn’t aware of what I was doing and it was probably a good thing. The man who had a hold of the woman’s arm never once looked up at us in the elevator. He held her arm tightly as if she was a child. This woman was anything but a child. She was at least 5’9” in height and had a body built like a thoroughbred. Her hair was dyed red and her face was one of the prettiest I had ever seen.

I had seen far too much in a short amount of time to not know this situation wasn’t right. Every once in a while, I’m drawn into something that feels bigger than myself--this was one of those times. I didn’t know if it had anything to do with my overwhelming attraction for this young woman, but, I needed to know more. Our room was on the fifth floor and they were going to the sixth floor.

The second we got out of the elevator and it closed, I turned to Wyatt, and asked, “What does ayuda mean?”

“It means help,” Wyatt answered.

“She was saying, ‘help me, please!’ I said.

“Who was?”

“The girl in the elevator.”

“You read her mind?” Wyatt asked, perplexed.

“Yes.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Didn’t you see how she looked at us?”

“Yeah, she’s a hooker, they all look at you like that,” Wyatt said, laughing.

“She might be a hooker, but she’s in trouble.”

“Most prostitutes have trouble on a twenty-four hour basis.”

“I’m telling you, it was more than that. She needs our help.”

“I’m pretty sure every woman in this city needs our help. But we can’t go around saving everyone. We need to leave this place as soon as we can and going on Boy Scout missions isn’t going to help.”

“Maybe so, but I can’t turn my back on her now,” I said.

“Are you thinking with the right brain, Josiah?” Wyatt asked, insinuating I just wanted to get laid.

“She was crying out for help in the elevator, that’s all I know. Was she hot? Yeah. But that’s not why I want to help her.”

Wyatt stared at me with disbelief. He was so jaded by life that something like this meant nothing to him. I couldn’t be that way. I wasn’t wired like that. I knew I needed to help her. “Wyatt, I’m going to do something about it. You don’t have to help, but I’m going figure out what’s going on.”

“What are you going to do? Bust down doors in Tijuana? You want to put us on blast while we’re down here? We need to find the Deity and get the hell out of here.”

“Look, like I said, you don’t have to help me. I’m not even asking you to. I just know I have to do something. We’re dealing with Tandra, so I don’t anticipate much of a problem. Go get some sleep.”

Wyatt looked at me with a look that was a cross between reluctance and exhaustion.

“I know you’re tired, Wyatt. Go get some sleep. If I need your help, I’ll let you know.”

“Josiah, the Boy Scout.” Wyatt smiled and went inside the room. “Look, Jo. I’ll help you if you want me to.”

“Don’t need it. I’ll take care of this on my own. I got that feeling. And when I get that feeling I need to honor it. For all I know, it’s the Triat speaking to me.”

“I think it’s the blood in your penis speaking to you.”

“I thought we no longer have blood,” I said.

“Something gets us hard,” Wyatt smirked.

Chapter Eight

I went down the elevator of the hotel and made my way outside. I decided to transition into my eagle form and fly up to the sixth floor. I made my way around the hotel, peeking through windows. I know it’s a Peeping Tom kind of thing to do, but at this point it was my only option.

There were only a couple of lights on in the rooms. At the east end of the building, there was a light on and I could see two images. I could hear a man yelling at a woman and I tried to listen at the outside of the window.

They were both speaking Spanglish. Spanglish is when someone mixes Spanish and English together. It is very common in southern California. It actually helps someone like me have an understanding of what is being talked about. And for some reason both these people knew enough English to speak Spanglish pretty darn well and thank God they were.

I slowly flew up to the window, trying not to be heard. About every fourth word they slipped in an English word and I could gather what was going on. Then I heard the man walk over to the window and open the curtain. I shot up the side of the building so he couldn’t see me. I found a spot where I could see him, but he couldn’t see me. It was the man that was with the red-headed woman in the elevator. This was definitely their room and she was the one he was yelling at. As I listened, I could tell he was taking her somewhere she didn’t want to go. She seemed very upset at the idea of going.

Then the lights turned out and they left the room.

I went to the front of the hotel and was careful not to be seen. In a few moments, I looked down and saw the red-headed-woman slip into a taxi with the short Hispanic man.

I decided to follow the taxi from the sky. The taxi went about six blocks and made a left turn in front of a tiny, lit-up establishment. From the sky, I couldn’t make out what kind of business it was. It appeared to be some kind of bar. It had neon pink lights that read Roosters and Hens.

As I glided down, it became apparent what the business was. It was a massage parlor. I’d heard about these places in the Inland Empire. I could just imagine what kind of happy endings that these sorts of massages had in Mexico. I gathered this wasn’t a massage establishment but more of a whorehouse, with their blatant advertisement of half-naked girls in the window.

The man and woman got of the taxi and he led her into the parlor. I noticed there were about six men outside hanging around the door, talking. Some looked big, but I knew if it had to come to it, I would have no problem taking them out.

Why was he taking her there? The only thing that made any sense is that he was forcing her to work there against her will, or he was trying to get in some kind of weird threesome with one of the girls.

I decided the only thing to do was to transition and go in myself. I flew a little ways down the street where nobody could see me. I transitioned as I landed and then hurried over to the Rooster and Hens Massage Parlor.

“Hey buddy, we got some sexy girls for you!” One of the guys out front yelled to me as I came up to the door. “Just thirty dollars for a massage and the girls are beautiful!”

I nodded my head and he opened the sliding glass door for me and I went into the establishment. An older, pretty woman greeted me at the door. I assumed she was the madam.

“Hi there,” she said. “Do you want a massage?”

“Maybe,” I answered her.

“Why maybe? Aren’t you horny?” Yeah, she was definitely a madam and they were doing a little more here than just giving massages. There was no small talk with this woman. She was direct and to the point.

“Maybe,” I said. “I like girls with different color hair.”

“Huh?” she seemed confused.

I had a feeling I was sounding like a weirdo, so I decided to take a different approach. “Do you have any redheads?” I asked.

She smiled at me and said, “Actually, yes. We have a brand new girl. Her name is Diane.”

“Diane?” I asked.

“Yes, she is tall and beautiful and she has bright red hair.”

I heard a car out front and I looked out the window and I saw a limousine pull up. It was a stretched, white Cadillac and it was beautiful. It reminded me of something a Texas oil tycoon would be riding in. It really looked out of place on this street. The woman noticed the limo also and seemed concerned. Her eyes lit up. She yelled something in Spanish to the others. I knew if I was going to lock down Diane, I’d better do it quick.

Everyone in the place seemed really interested in whoever was in this limousine. I looked out the window and saw a gray-haired, older Hispanic gentleman who was dressed really slick make his way out of the limousine. He was a handsome fellow and looked like he could have been a celebrity. I really didn’t want this guy to see me, so, I said, “I’ll see Diane?”

The madam looked at me and nodded. She seemed preoccupied, but nonetheless, she continued, “Yes, I’ll take you to the back.” She led me down a long hallway. I followed her to a room where about seven girls were sitting. There was the red-headed girl I had seen earlier in the night, she recognized me instantly.

I stared at her and smiled. “I choose her.” I walked over to her. She seemed scared and that was the last thing I wanted her to feel, so, I whispered to her, “Don’t worry Diane. I’ll protect you. Just go along with it.” I wasn’t sure if she spoke English well, but I needed to say it. She smiled at me with uncertainty.

“Do you want the Jacuzzi room?” the madam asked.

“Sure. How much is one hour?”

“Sixty dollars,” she said. “It’s sixty dollars for the room and once you’re inside you can negotiate with the girl for whatever you like.” Oh, there will be negotiating, but not for sex. I plan on negotiating for her life.

“Okay,” I said.

Diane took my hand and the madam led us to a room in the back. I passed an open room by the hall that looked like there was a bar inside. I saw the man who had taken Diane to this place sitting on a stool at the bar. He was smoking a cigarette and drinking a bottle of tequila. There was a small bowl of lime wedges in front of him. I had no idea what his role in this place was. All I knew was, I wanted to get Diane to the room and talk to her.

The madam opened the door and let us in. “If you want to use the Jacuzzi, let me know.” She then said something to Diane in Spanish and left. Diane walked over to the door and locked it.

The room was bigger than I thought it would be. There was a Jacuzzi at one end of the room and a big giant bed at the other. I sat on the bed and smiled. I patted the bed. Diane shyly walked over and sat down.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Que?” she asked. I knew ‘que’ meant ‘what?’

“If you speak any English, this is the time to do so,” I said sternly, with a hint of compassion.

“Who are you?” she said, in reasonably understandable English.

“You do speak English?” I said, relieved.

“Yes.”

“Great!” I said, louder than I intended to.

“Shh! Keep your voice down.”

“Sorry.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m a guy who is trying to find someone in the city and I ran into you. I knew you needed my help.”

“How did you know that?” Diane seemed excited and scared at the same time. “Are you an angel?”

“Not quite,” I said. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“I can’t. It could cost me my life.”

“Look, Diane. You can trust me. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

“I don’t even know you,” she said, pretty worried.

She was right. She didn’t know me from Adam. “All I can tell you is I’m one of the good guys.”

“I’ve heard that line before.”

“Maybe so. But this time it’s the truth. I want nothing from you. Not sex, not money, nothing. I only want to help you, but only if you want it.” I leaned over and took her hand and held it. “All I can say is trust your heart.”

“Trust my heart? What does that mean?” Diane seemed pretty overwhelmed by how serious I had come on, but I knew I couldn’t waste any time if I was going to help her.

Diane looked me in the eyes. “Your eyes are bonita.”

“You think my eyes are pretty?” I asked.

“They are kind. They are friendly. I want to trust you. What is your name?”

“Josiah,” I said.

“That is a very pretty name.”

“It does roll off the tongue. Do you want my help?”

“Yes, I do, Josiah. Very much.” Tears began to drip from her eyes.

“Okay, you need to let me know how to help you.”

“The last person I trusted led me to this dreadful place.”

“You can trust me.” I put my arm around her and hugged her. The second I did so, she collapsed in my arms. I held her there and I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on with her. “Tell me what’s going on.”

She leaned back and breathed in deeply. “I’m a sex slave,” she said. “There’s no other way to put it.”

“Really?” I asked. “You’re not here by choice?”

“No.”

“How long has this been going on?”

“Not long at all. Just the last couple of days.”

“I’m a bit confused. Please start from the beginning.”

“The man that you saw me with in the elevator is forcing me to be here.”

“How can he do that?”

“I don’t have anyone. I once trusted him and now he makes me do this.”

“How do you know him?” I asked.

“He used to be my boyfriend. He lied to me about everything.”

“How did he lie to you?”

“It’s a long story.”

“I bought an hour. Go for it.”

“You need to understand, Josiah. Anything I tell you can get me killed.”

I looked into her eyes. “Nothing is going to happen to you. I will make sure of that.”

She paused. “How? Who are you?”

“I’m Superman,” I said. “Or I might as well be. Tell me your story.”

She was a bit reluctant, but started to tell me about herself. “I moved across the border when I was thirteen years old. I was able to get through Border Patrol on a fake I.D. I am the spitting image of my cousin who is a U.S. citizen.”

“It’s that easy to get across?” I asked.

“Sometimes. Other times people do everything right and they still can’t get over.”

“Okay, go on.”

“Eventually my whole family got across; my mom, dad, and brothers and sisters. Living in the United States was an amazing time and everyone was so happy.”

“So, what happened?”

“When I turned eighteen, I had a huge party at our house in Anaheim. I was dumb enough to go out driving when I was completely wasted and I got a DUI. While at the police station, they discovered that I wasn’t a U.S. citizen and they sent me back to Mexico.”

“That sucks.”

“You have no idea. I was all alone. Being that my entire family was across I wasn’t going to say anything to the authorities. I wasn’t going to get any of them in trouble. When I was asked about family, I lied and said they were all still in Mexico. They released me, right at the border in Tijuana. All I had on me was $100. That was when I ran into Miguel.”

“That’s the guy you came here with?” I asked.

“Yes. I met him about a year ago. He lives in Ensenada. He took me back to his home and treated me really good for the better part of a year. Everything was great up until two weeks ago.”

“What happened?”

“He was always shady, a hustler for the ages. But he turned his hustle on me. He started saying I needed to start providing, too. I told him I could make jewelry, but he didn’t want any part of that. He said that if I sold myself for sex it would be the best way to make good money. He knew the management here, and apparently he had just been waiting for the right time when he was finally sick of me to bring me down here. In a way, I was lucky he didn’t bring me down here earlier.”

I was stunned. There was no luck about this story. It was heartbreaking. This girl had her eighteenth birthday in the U.S. and not even a year later, she’d been forced into prostitution and her family had no idea where she is.

“Wow,” I said. “What do you want to do?”

Tears began rolling down her face.

“Diane,” I said.

“Don’t call me that.”

“Why not?”

“That’s not my name, my name is Sarahi.”

“Sarah-ee?” I asked, slowly.

“Yes, it’s Sarah with an ‘i’ at the end. It’s my middle name.”

“What’s your first name?”

“I don’t want to tell you. I hate it.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s Yomaida.”

“Yomaida? I love that name.”

“I hate it.”

“It’s a beautiful name and that’s what I’m calling you. Yomaida,” I said. “I am getting you the hell out of here.”

“How?”

“Don’t worry about that,” I said. “I want you to go into the bathroom and shut the door. I’ll be back here in about five minutes and we’re going to walk out of here.”

“How is that possible?”

“Just trust me.”

Yomaida looked terrified but she went into the bathroom anyway and closed the door. I guess she figured she had nothing to lose.

Game on.

I composed myself and stepped out of the room.

“That was quick. You still have 30 minutes,” the madam said. She was hanging around the door.

I smiled, “I’m thirsty.”

“There’s a bar down the hallway and to the left.”

“Thanks.” I walked down the hallway I went into the bar. Miguel, the guy who had made Yomaida’s life a living hell was still sitting at the bar drinking. There wasn’t anyone else in the bar, not even a bartender. I walked right up to that little fucker and looked that piece of shit in the face. He didn’t even bother to look up at me. I took a seat and sat right beside him.

“Hey there,” I said.

He finally looked up at me. “Can I help you?” he asked, in a thick accent.

“Sure can. You can leave.”

“Excuse me?”

“You speak English well, but your accent sucks.”

“It’s not an accent on this side of the border, gringo. I’d shut up if I were you.”

“But you’re not me and I like to talk. You want to know what I like to do more?”

He looked up at me.

“I like to kick motherfucker’s asses who take advantage of the less fortunate.”

“Who the fuck are you?”

I grabbed him by his head and threw it onto the table. I pressed down on his skull.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he yelled out.

“I’m treating you like a little bitch. I want you to see how it feels to have someone make you do something you don’t want to do.”

“How do you even know me?”

“I know Yomaida, and guess what? She’s done working here and she’s done knowing you.” I pressed down on his skull, crushing it into the bar. He was very weak and he knew he was in some serious trouble with me. I looked around and there still wasn’t anyone in the bar.

“Easy man, I’m just making a living like everyone else.”

“Is that what you call what you do? Making a living?” I laughed out loud. “You make money on the backs of young girls you conned into thinking you were going to take care of them. Instead, you take what you want, and then you toss them to the curb and all they become is one of your providers.”

“I’m warning you, this isn’t the place for you to be a hero,” the man said and snapped his fingers while his head was still pinned to the bar. He was trying to get the attention of anyone outside.

“It’s always the place for a hero.” I let his head up off the bar and slapped him in the face.

“What are you doing?”

I slapped him again.

“You have any idea who I am?” he screamed at me.

He then yelled something in Spanish. I cocked my hand back and slapped him one more time as hard as I could, sending him flying into the wall.

The guy got up and brushed himself off. He was pissed and confused, but most of all he was the thing I wanted the most to see him; he was scared. “Fuck you, gringo!” He charged me and I let him get hold of me. I wanted to see how strong he was. He was weak, very weak. I grabbed him by his scrawny neck and threw him over the bar. He hit the back wall and crashed into all the bottles.

Then, as I expected, about ten guys made their way into the bar. Some had knives in their hands, but none had guns. I took my time as they came at me. Sometimes they came at me individually and sometimes in pairs. They were no match for someone of my skill level, and throw in the fact I had supernatural powers, this was a walk in the park even though there were ten of them. These weren’t vampires or werewolves; these were fat, overweight, humans. All it took was one or two punches and they were laid out unconscious. I spent about three minutes kicking the crap out of everyone in the bar until there was no one left to fight me. When all was said and done, the madam ran into the bar and looked at me. She was terrified.

“You better get out of here. The police are coming!” she yelled at me.

“Well,” I said. “If your police are anything like the ones in the U.S., I could still get a massage before they get here.” I went into the room and opened the bathroom door.

“Let’s go, Yomaida.”

“Are you kidding?”

“Nope.”

I walked Yomaida out the front door. She peeked into the bar as we passed the room and did a double take at all the bodies lying on the ground. Before we reached the door, I passed the rich, gray-haired man. He didn’t seem at all shocked at what had just happened. He must have stayed back and just observed. He nodded his head at me, almost as if he approved of what I was doing.

Once we hit outside, I could hear sirens. “Okay, Yomaida,” I said. “This is the part you are really going to need to trust me.” I grabbed her around her petite waist.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Like I said, you’re going to have to trust me.”

Then I flew up in the air holding Yomaida tightly. She only screamed a little bit at first, and then she was just taking it all in, a big smile on her face and stars in her eyes for me. It was your classic Superman and Lois Lane moment. She was scared and vulnerable and I had just saved the day.

Chapter Nine

“What is going on, Josiah?” she asked, holding me tightly as we flew across the sky.

“It’s exactly what I told you from the beginning. I told you I’d protect you.”

As I flew higher I could see terror spilled over Yomaida’s face. “Who are you? Are you sure you’re not an angel?”

“I’m something,” I laughed. “Just hold on tight, I’ll make sure your life is very safe.”

I flew above the clouds and headed north. I knew what I was doing was against the law, but so is human trafficking. Sometimes what is right is not necessarily the law of the land.

I flew across the sky, holding Yomaida close. After a while, she trusted what was happening and she seemed to be enjoying her flight. I decided to land us in Temecula, California. There is an isolated area over by Pechanga Casino and I knew we’d be okay. We landed off of Highway 79, near a wine vineyard.

After I safely landed, I led Yomaida to a bench in front of the Vineyard and we sat down.

“Are you okay?” I asked. She was pretty awestruck.

“I’m dreaming,” she said, closing her eyes.

“No, this is very real.”

“Josiah, who are you?”

“I can’t tell you that. Just know I’m going to bring you back to your family.”

“Really?” Yomaida still seemed shocked that I didn’t want anything from her.

“You’re going to see your parents real soon,” I said.

“I can’t believe you’re doing this for me.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“I have trusted the wrong people for so long.”

“You’re safe now.” She reached her hand over to mine and held it. She squeezed my hand hard and leaned her head into my chest.

“Why did you help me?” she asked.

“It’s a funny thing, I wasn’t planning on helping you tonight, but once I saw you and then heard your story, I knew it was what I had to do. I needed to protect you from that place and especially that awful man you were with. I wanted to return you to your father. You deserve to be reunited with your family after all you’ve been through.”

Tears dripped from Yomaida’s eyes. “I just can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe I’m going to see my father.”

“You can see him right now if you like. I could get you to Anaheim in about 10 minutes.”

“Would you?” she asked.

“There’s nothing more I want to do.”

“You are a good man.” Yomaida leaned in and kissed me gently on my lips. I touched her cheek and tenderly kissed her back on her forehead.

“Let’s go.”

“Right now?” she asked.

“Right now,” I confirmed.

I stood up and grabbed her by the waist once again and hoisted myself back into the air.

“How can you fly?” she asked as we ascended higher into the sky.

“Oh, you’d be amazed at all the things I can do.” I blazed through the sky and the cold morning air felt a bit chilled, but I was determined to quickly get her to Anaheim.

Within minutes, I could see Disneyland and Yomaida guided me to a house near Ball and Euclid Street.

She pointed to a bright yellow house at the west end of a cul-de-sac. “That is the one.” She began crying. “That is my home! That’s my dad’s black work truck out front and my mom’s white car! They still have the same cars!” she yelled out, with a celebratory glee.

We landed in the front yard.

We composed ourselves and Yomaida hugged me tightly “I’m nervous. I haven’t seen them in over a year.”

“Why didn’t you ever contact them from Mexico?” I asked.

“Miguel wouldn’t let me. He never left me alone or had any kind of telephone access.”

“Do they know you’re alive?”

“I don’t know. They must know something.”

Yomaida leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Sweet Josiah, you might not say you’re an angel, but you are my guardian angel.”

“I’m just a guy,” I said.

“You’re an amazing one at that.” She turned around and held her breath, then walked over to the door and knocked.

I watched from the driveway; I didn’t want her dad to think I had anything to do with her disappearance.

“Papa!” Yomaida yelled, as a burly, old Hispanic man wearing a white, wife beater tank top and boxers answered the door.

“Yomaida!” he flung the door opened and hugged his daughter. They were both crying and sobbing joyfully. Soon the whole house was up and made their way to the door. They were all speaking Spanish, so I had a hard time understanding.

Yomaida was talking to her father and then he stepped over and looked to where I was standing. He made his way over to me.

“Josiah,” he said.

“Yes, sir.”

“My daughter says you are kind and you helped her return. She said you never asked for anything in return. She says that you are a wonderful man. I want to thank you with all my heart for bringing her back to me.”

“It was my pleasure, sir. You have a very special daughter. Always protect her.”

“I will never let her leave the house alone again,” he laughed.

“For the meantime, that’s probably a good idea.”

“You are always welcome in my home. Please come back soon so we can celebrate.”

“I’d like that, sir.”

“Where is your car!” he asked looking down the street.

“I don’t have one.”

“You two walked?”

“You can say that.” Cloud walking.

Yomaida walked over to us and hugged me tightly. She was a beautiful woman and now she was home.

“Come back to me, Josiah. I know you need to do whatever you do. But, come back and see me.”

I kissed her cheek and said, “Goodbye, Yomaida. It was a pleasure meeting you.” I turned around and walked down the street.

“Son!” Yomaida’s father yelled to me.

I turned around and Yomaida’s father kissed his fist and raised it up in celebratory fashion and I returned the gesture.

Son? It’s been a long time since I’d been called son. Yeah, I would definitely be coming back.

Chapter Ten

I went around the corner and when the coast was clear, I flew up into the sky and made my way back to Tijuana. I felt good about how everything went down tonight.

I needed to get back to the hotel room before the sun came up. I arrived at Hotel Ticuan and made my way up to see Wyatt and get some rest.

I knocked on the door.

“What’s the password?” Wyatt joked, from inside the room.

“Carni are worthless dogs,” I said, as exhausted as I had felt in some time.

“That works for me,” Wyatt laughed. He opened the door and I saw that he had sun-proofed the room pretty well with some duct tape and cardboard.”

“Where did you get the cardboard?”

“Where else? There is a Dumpster outside.”

“What have you been doing all night?” I asked.

“Watching soccer. It seems to be what they like to watch around here.”

“I think I read somewhere,” I said, sarcastically, “that the Mexican people are pretty fond of the sport.”

“What about you?” Wyatt asked.

“What about me?” I asked.

“Did you save the girl?”

“Don’t I always?” I winked and laid on the bed.

“Yes, you do. You definitely have the biggest hero complex of anyone I ever met.”

“I just do what’s right.”

“You and Spiderman.”

“Spiderman has nothing on me. What’s his super power? Spinning a web?”

“As I recall, he’s a pretty good fighter,” Wyatt said.

“I can kick Spiderman’s ass any day of the week.” I said, with certainty.

“I wouldn’t doubt you could, Josiah. Hey, that guy from last night said he’d meet us around midnight. Hopefully, he found her.”

“He did seem to have an idea of who we were talking about.”

I leaned back on the bed and, I had to admit, the bed was pretty damn comfortable. Within minutes, I was out.

I slept a good nine hours, as did Wyatt. The room was pitch-black all day and we turned on the air conditioner. I was awakened by a knock on the door. I popped up and looked through the peephole.

Dammit, it was the gray-haired fellow from the limo. How the hell did he know where I was staying?

I looked through the peephole to see if I could see police with him, but as far as I could tell, he was alone. “May I help you?” I asked, from behind the door. I spoke with a weird accent that was a cross between Irish and Arabic.

“Pardon me, sir,” the man said. “May I speak with the young blond gentleman?”

Shit, he knows I’m in the room.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“A friend.”

“A friend? I don’t know you.”

“I promise you, all I want to do is talk. I have a proposition for you.”

“A proposition? I don’t need any propositions!” I yelled from behind the door.

“I have the answers you are looking for.”

How the hell did he know what I was looking for?

“Like?” I asked.

“I know how to find the Deity,” he said, in a calm manner.

Now I was listening. I opened the door. I looked at the man and he was alone. I looked behind him and saw that there was no one in the hall.

“There’s my man,” he said, excited to see me.

“Who are you?” I asked. “For the record, I’m not comfortable being anybody’s man. How can I help you?”

“Actually, it’s how we can help each other. I would like to speak to you, but not here.”

“Where then?”

“There’s a conference room downstairs we can go to. We’ll have more privacy.”

I looked back in the room and Wyatt was still out like a light. “Okay, let’s go.”

I followed the man downstairs and he seemed very familiar with the hotel. We took the elevator down and as far as I could tell, he was Tandra. I tried to read his mind, but it sounded like he was only thinking in Spanish, so I had no idea what he was thinking.

“What is your name?” I asked, as the man led me into the conference room. The conference room had a couple of top-of-the-line desks in each corner and a long gorgeous conference table in the middle of the room.

“My name is Romero.” He pulled out a seat for me to sit down. I decided to trust his hospitality and I sat down. Unless he had a silver nail in his pocket there was no way this fifty-ish man could take me, even if I wasn’t a vampire.

He sat down next to me. “Do you like money, Josiah?”

“How do you know my name?” I asked, surprised. I didn’t like surprises and I had a feeling this guy was going to be full of them.

“I know lots of things, but if you could oblige me, would you answer the question?”

“Who doesn’t? But I’m not into the crime business.”

“Crime business?” Romero laughed. “You have this all wrong. Let me ask you another question. Do you miss competition?”

“You mean fighting?”

“Yes.”

“Not really; believe it or not, I’ve been okay in that department.” It seemed like all I’d been doing was fighting ever since I left mixed martial arts. “Okay, you know my name and you know I used to be a fighter.”

“And I know you’re a vampire.”

I stood up. I was right. This guy was full of surprises.

“Please sit down. I’m not here to blackmail you or challenge you. I want to tell you who I am.”

Like I said, I didn’t like surprises, and this guy seemed to be getting off telling me all he knows about me. I’ve seen enough to know when someone wants something from me. This guy was ready to sell me on something. “What do you want, Romero?”

“I think you and I can be very successful together.”

“How so?”

“Josiah, I run the most lucrative, underground, paranormal, supreme fighting league ever organized.”

What was the guy talking about? A paranormal, underground fighting league? I had never heard of such a thing. “Let me get this straight,” I said. “You are aware of vampires and you have an organization that exploits them?”

“No one is exploited. Everyone wants to be a part of it. It’s not some circus freak show where people come and watch lions eat Christians. This is top of the line badass, motherf-ing fighting on a level that no one has ever seen before. Guess what? Billionaires and millionaires love it. They want to see the toughest people in the world fight, regardless of the mortality or immortality. We have fights where the winner wins sometimes up to a million dollars.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“So, now I have your attention.”

“A million dollars can usually do that. It’s sort of my favorite number.”

“I saw you last night. I own that massage business. I watched what you did on my surveillance camera and when the police came in I hid the camera, so they couldn’t see who it was. I also convinced all the others it was a red-headed man who destroyed my place.”

“So, you are blackmailing me?”

“Do you think for one second that I think you’re scared of authorities? There’s not a jailhouse that can hold you. You need to see that all I want is to work with you. I have seen some of the greatest Mani fight and there is no one like you.”

“You got that right.”

“You’re cocky. I like that. My rich and powerful friends would put up big money to see someone of your caliber fight.”

“What are you saying? You will lead me to the Deity in exchange for a fight? There was a guy last night that was willing to lead us to her for just $500.”

“Good luck with any street hustler following through on finding the Deity. That guy hasn’t put two thoughts into finding her today. He doesn’t know if he’ll see you again.”

Great. We would have just wasted our time trying to find that guy again.

“Why me?” I asked, trying to see if he’d give any ‘tell’ about his true intentions.

“Look, we can help each other and make a lot of money. You would be very marketable in my league.”

“I’m not into getting my face on cereal boxes.”

“It wouldn’t be like that. We are a secret society. We have everyone paid off that would even remotely try to stop us, from police officers to law officials. Its win-win for everyone involved. I think you’d be very successful.”

“So, I have to have one of these fights before I can meet her?” I asked.

“No, not at all. I’ll bring you to see her right now if you want to. The way I see it, you’re an investment. I’ll bring you to the Deity and then later on, I’ll take you to see one of our fights tonight.”

I looked Romero over and my gut didn’t quite trust him. But I was a gambler when it came to stuff like this. “Okay,” I said, “Take me to the Deity.”

“I have my car parked out front.”

“You have your limousine out front?” I asked.

“No, I brought my red Ferrari. I like to be less presumptuous when I’m meeting someone for the first time,” Romero smiled. He was making a joke. It was actually pretty funny. “You know, Josiah, you and I could just go,” Romero continued. “We don’t even need to bother with your friend.”

“No, I’d better tell him what’s up and give him the option of going with us. Let me shower up, and I’ll meet you back down here in twenty minutes, with or without my friend.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Chapter Eleven

I took a hot shower and dried myself off, then went into our room and woke Wyatt up. I told him about Romero’s offer and he insisted on coming with me for my protection. I assured him that I was fairly confident that Romero was exactly who he said he was. But, nonetheless, Wyatt got ready and the two of us met Romero downstairs.

I introduced Romero to Wyatt in the lobby and then we went to the parking garage and found Romero’s red 2+2 Ferrari and took off. It was a little weird riding around in Tijuana in a red sports car. It was like eating a bowl of Cheerios with a golden spoon.

I looked up into the sky from the passenger side of the car. And I noticed the moon was out in full effect. It was the first night of the full moon, so Romero’s little paranormal fight club would be at full throttle on this night. As we pulled onto Avenida Revolucion, I asked Romero where he was taking us.

“Where else would a 4,000-year-old vampire woman want to spend her time?” he asked, as if we already knew the answer.

“If I knew the answer to that question, we wouldn’t have needed you to take us,” I said.

Romero looked over at me and smiled. “The Deity is a Mother Teresa in her own right. She runs an orphanage for abused and neglected children on the outskirts of town.”

That actually made a lot of sense. “Is it a cover?” I asked.

“A cover?” Romero laughed. “Why would she need a cover?

“I don’t know. She has been around a long time, she must have made some enemies along the way.”

“Trust me, the Deity is the most loved Mani on the planet, she has no enemies.”

“I figured she was pretty important,” I said. “I had no idea that it was like that.”

“You’ll see what I mean. Just being in her presence will renew your faith in humanity.”

“Is that what you’re about? Humanity?” I asked. “You run an underground death match league where you make a buck off the backs of others.”

Romero looked at me and was surprised I had come at him so hard for no reason. He obviously wasn’t used to anyone challenging his ethics. I shoot people between the eyes. I know he’s all about the cash. Every decision a man like this makes is only a means to an end, and that ‘means’ is a bundle of cash at the end of every rainbow. I knew that was all he was looking at this situation as. I really didn’t need to hear his bullshit about humanity.

“My fighters almost never die in the ring. Does it happen? Sometimes, but we don’t encourage it.”

“You don’t encourage it because you’re losing your product?” I said.

Romero smiled. “You think you have me all figured out. You think I’m the Don King fight promoter of the underworld.”

“I think you’re very good at what you do. What I can’t figure out is why you’re still a Tandra?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because a man like you must crave immortality.”

“Who says I don’t already have it?”

“You’re not a Mani or a Carni. So, unless you’re the devil, I’m pretty sure you’re waiting for the right time to change.”

Romero grinned. “I like you, Josiah.” He then made his way onto a dirt road. We had already passed the heart of the city and were in some pretty rough country. Up the road a ways, I could see a giant church that looked like a cathedral that was connected to what looked like an auditorium or gym.

As we got closer to the church, I leaned over to Romero and said, “I want to like you, but I don’t see that happening too soon.”

“Oh, you’re going to love me, Josiah. Like a father.”

I looked over at Wyatt who was extremely quiet. He gave me a look as if to say, ‘Watch yourself, this is a powerful guy.’

The way I see it power, money, and sex are the only things that this world values. I don’t want or need any of it—so a guy like Romero barely fazes me.

Romero got out of the car, as did Wyatt and I. Again, I looked up at the giant majestic moon. It seemed larger than normal. I felt drawn to it in a way I hadn’t quite felt before. Maybe I was just missing Tommy. God knows where he was on this evening. I hope he’s safe. Yes, I said it. I hope my best friend’s safe.

Romero led us to the back of the cathedral. In the dark, the church reminded me of a castle you would see in Romania or Turkey.

Romero walked up to a man who seemed to be protecting the property. He was part of some kind of security detail. He wore military fatigues, but I didn’t think he was a Federale. When the man saw that it was Romero, he immediately stood up straight as if Romero was some kind of general. They spoke in Spanish and I looked to Wyatt for a translation.

Wyatt leaned in and whispered to me. “He’s telling Romero that the Deity is in a bunker out back.”

“A bunker?” Like underground?” I whispered back.

“It makes sense. It’s a perfect place for a vampire.”

“I actually like the idea of a bunker,” I said. “We really need to look into getting one when we get back.”

Romero came back to us and told us to follow him. He led us to an open field that was about 500 yards away from the church.

“Why is the bunker so far away from the church?” I asked.

“You never know when a ‘crazy’ would want to bomb the church. My people built the bunker for the Deity a few years back. The church was getting death threats and we needed to make sure the Deity would be safe.”

“You really care for her, don’t you?”

Romero smiled. “Yes, she has been a mother and mentor to me over the years.” Romero turned around and faced the church. “She took me in about forty years ago. She’s a pretty remarkable woman.

“You were an orphan?” I asked.

“Sort of,” Romero answered.

“How so?”

“Both my parents were serving life sentences in prison. I was wandering the streets, doing some pretty awful things to a lot of good people.”

“Explain awful…” I wanted to know what kind of guy I was dealing with, even if it was forty years ago.

“To put it simply, I was a thief. I stole from everyone. And one day I stole from the wrong guy. He didn’t care how young I was. I tried to take his wallet and he caught me doing it. He dragged me into an alley and beat me up senseless. He left me there bleeding to death behind a Dumpster. I had no family, no one to help me or come to my aid. Then the most beautiful woman, or should I say girl, came to me. She washed me up and took care of me. She brought me back here and taught me how to read and write. After that day, I always knew I had a purpose, an angel had come for me and saved me right there on the streets of Tijuana.” Romero continued to reflect and then shook his head. “That angel was ‘Her Holiness.’”

“Her Holiness?” I asked. “Is that how I should address her?”

“Ma’am would be just fine. She’s not into titles and ceremonial crap. She just gets straight to the point and fixes problems and answers peoples’ questions.” Romero unlocked a door that was flat on the ground. He opened it and, sure enough, it was a bunker.

As we walked down a staircase, I was shocked at how gigantic the inside of the bunker was. It was lit real bright and it almost felt like it was day inside this thing. The bunker was so large that it had separate rooms. Romero led us down a hallway into a back room. He stopped in front of the door. Romero put his hand on Wyatt’s chest.

“This is where you and I need to stop. She’s only expecting Josiah,” Romero said to Wyatt. “Your friend will be safe. You’ll need to wait outside with me.”

I nodded at Wyatt to assure him I was going to be okay. I exhaled with a little bit of nervous energy. I didn’t think I was going to feel this nervous, but the build-up to seeing her was pretty intense. I opened the door and went in.

The room was cool and was lit only by lanterns. Okay, this was a tad extreme, but I was going with it. In the middle of the floor, wearing a long red dress, was a beautiful, young-looking woman. She had a radiant beauty that was almost mesmerizing. It was what I would imagine meeting Mary, the mother of Jesus, would be like. Her ethnicity was Middle Eastern, maybe Egyptian or possibly even Iranian.

“Sit next to me, Josiah,” she said. Her voice was fluid and expressive.

Wow, I was nervous.

Her beautiful red dress spread across the floor in a perfect circle around her. I gathered she was around five feet tall and had a very tiny body frame. She appeared to be sitting cross- legged like a child, but I couldn’t tell being that her dress flowed over her body like the ocean.

I was overwhelmed by the moment, and I don’t know why, I had no reasoning for it, and I began tearing up. Tears dripped from my eyes. I felt like I was in the presence of God. I never liked to give anyone this kind of reverence. It was completely against my nature, but I was having a religious experience. I was caught up in the moment to say the least.

I made my way over to her and sat cross-legged next to her. She reached out her hand and took my left palm and brought it to her chest near her heart.

“Your heart is tender,” she said to me. “You are very kind and life has been very hard for you,” she said, in perfectly spoken English.

“Is it?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if she was asking me a question or making an observation.

“You don’t believe that you are a good man?”

“A good man? I’m not sure what is good or bad anymore,” I was being as humble and real as I could be.

“Sweet, Josiah. The Triat looks on you with so much favor.”

“They do?” I asked. I felt very emotional about the matter she was speaking to me about. Up to this point in my journey, I wasn’t sure if I had done anything right. It was like hearing your dad tell you he was proud of you.

“Yes, your humanity and kindness has led you to this moment, Josiah. You need to embrace it. Sit closer to me, my child.” She then scooted closer to me on the floor. As she did so, I noticed something I hadn’t before. I was now certain she was blind. Her eyes were huge and I couldn’t see her pupils.

“If you don’t mind me asking, ma’am, are you blind?”

She smiled at my boldness. “I have very little earthly vision. I don’t need to see with my eyes the things I can already see in my heart.” She then touched my face. She felt the tears on my cheeks, “You’ve been crying?” she asked.

“A little,” I said, embarrassed.

“There is no need for that; I am only a Mani woman.”

“You are more than that.”

“I am no better than anyone else. The least of us is greatest. If you follow that rule, Josiah, you will be able to move mountains.”

“Your Holiness, I have come for answers.” I knew Romero said I didn’t need to call her that, but I didn’t feel comfortable calling her anything else.

“What are some of these questions that you seek answers for, young Josiah?”

“Your Holiness, I’ve been told so many things by so many different entities. Up to now, I have trusted my gut and intuition, and I truly believe it has gotten me this far. But now, I feel lost.”

“How so?”

“I’m not certain of my specific task. I don’t know how exactly to save the Mani people.”

“You do understand, Josiah, that in many ways, you already have.”

“How so?”

“Faith.”

“That’s it? Just having hope?”

“To some, it is that simple. All they ever needed to know is that you weren’t merely fiction. To others, you will need to do much more. Josiah, you are a beacon of hope, but your true calling is something not even I can tell you.”

“Not even you can tell me?” I asked, completely perplexed and disappointed. “How is that possible that no one knows what my calling is? I can’t stand living with these cryptic codes.”

“Is that what you think, Josiah? That you have been running around trying to solve a riddle?”

“I just don’t know what to do. Who am I fighting? Krull? Carni? Other Mani? Atticai? Who?”

“There is no riddle, the answer is closer than you think.”

“Please, answer me this, who am I fighting?”

“Of the ones you mentioned, the answer is none of the above.”

“None?” Huh?” Now, I was extremely lost.

“When you come to terms of what is living inside you, all the answers that you’re seeking will be as transparent and vivid as the red dress that I am wearing.”

“Inside me?” I asked. “The answer is inside me?”

“You know what I’m referring to, Josiah.”

“My parents? Tommy? Lena? What?”

“All of it. Your visions are being blocked because you have vengeance and resentment in your heart toward the wrong people. Once the things that are holding you back get resolved in your heart, you will know exactly what to do. It will be as clear as anything you have ever known.”

“It’s that simple? The answer is inside me?”

“All the answers are out there. You will need to lead a revolution unlike any other in the history of our race. But exactly what needs to be done will only be revealed in your heart, once there is complete forgiveness.”

My heart was tight and wound up. “With all due respect, that isn’t good enough!” I blurted out.

“What isn’t good enough?”

“I can’t just come to terms with everything that has been going on. Inside me, there is a war going on and I don’t know how to turn it off. If I knew how to, I would have done it by now. I have killed Mani, Carni and Tandra, all in the name of this thing I have become. How will I ever be able find the kind of peace you are explaining?”

“You can, Josiah. And you will.” Her Holiness then smiled at me with a giant, beautiful smile. “In you, Josiah… is a man. Not a Mani, not a chosen entity. But a beautiful man, who wants joy and love. Go find it. Go get it. It’s yours for the taking.”

I sat back and replayed everything she had just said to me in my head. I allowed it to become a melody to my soul, my very own private love song. I allowed her words to make their way inside me and cultivate. After a few minutes of sitting next to the Deity in silence, I stood up and felt a peace come over me that I hadn’t felt since I was a little boy, sleeping between my parents when I used to be scared of the dark. She was incredible…

“Thank you,” I said.

“No... thank you, Josiah. You are more of a blessing to me than you could possibly imagine.”

I didn’t know how to dismiss myself from such a phenomenal woman. So, I leaned in and awkwardly hugged her.

“Oh, my,” she said. “You are a muscular boy.” She smiled at me and just simply nodded her head to give me assurance.

I nodded back, knowing she didn’t see it, but she must have felt it. I turned around and left the room. I stepped outside the door and Romero gave me a look as if to say, ‘I told you, she’s pretty incredible.’

I nodded at Wyatt and Romero. “Hey guys,” I said. “Could you give me a minute? Is there a bathroom I could go to?”

“Sure,” Romero said. “It’s right up the hall to the left.”

“I’ll just need a moment.” Meeting the Deity had done something to me I hadn’t expected. It had touched my essence in a way I couldn’t imagine ever being possible. It made me extremely thoughtful about my world. I wasn’t ready to deal with such intense self-reflection. I went into the bathroom and shut the door and locked it. I just sat on top of the toilet seat. I sat there and just closed my eyes. The Deity had stirred up emotions in me that I would have rather not felt nor remembered. I can’t deny who I am. I have to accept that maybe the reason I was chosen for this task wasn’t because I was merely a tough human being, but I was also someone who recognizes and appreciates the finer things in people. I couldn’t deny the love I had for Lena. She told me she loved me before I left and I rejected it. I just didn’t know what to do about her. She was the most indecisive woman I had ever known. Flawed. When she finally did make a decision, it was usually the wrong one. She hadn’t betrayed me with any malicious intent. It was just that she thought that Tommy needed support at that moment, so she stood with him instead of me. He needed her more than I did, I remembered she had told me that. What Yari said was harsh and I acknowledged that Lena did not seem to have a big-picture thought in her head. It was all about her in the moment. But I couldn’t stop loving her. Then there was Tommy, he was my best friend in the entire world. I need him to be in my life again, but I couldn’t just forget about the poor decisions he has made toward me. Again, it became about friends who made decisions that upset me to the point where I pushed them out of my life. This was something I was going to have to work through in myself as well as with others. Apparently, I wouldn’t find the answers I needed to know about my future until I did. I had a flash of a fourth-grade report card and my teacher’s comment on it: ‘Sometimes, Josiah does not play well with others unless things go exactly the way he wants.’ I cringed, remembering.

Dammit, just when I thought I was supposed to ignore this crap, now I have to deal with it straight on.

I washed my face and headed back to Romero and Wyatt.

“You okay?” Wyatt asked.

“I’m good,” I said. “I actually have never been better.”

“That’s what I want to hear.” Romero said. Then he blatantly changed the subject and tone and said, “You two ready to see some of the greatest fights you have ever seen?”

“It’ll be nice to see someone else fight for a change,” I said. With that, the three of us left the bunker.

Chapter Twelve

Romero stayed on a dirt road, and continued south of Tijuana. We went about fifteen miles along a bumpy dirt road. To the left of us, I could see a well-lit area. It reminded me of an Indian casino you could see back in California that would just be out in the middle of nowhere. But this was no Indian casino. It was an arena that had enough security out front to protect Fort Knox. I noticed that all the security were dressed like the man who was looking after the church. Their attire was military fatigues and they openly carried automatic weapons. There was no mistaking that these guys would shoot you on sight if you were going to make trouble.

We pulled into the compound that reminded me of a military base. It was fenced in by barbed wire along a chain link fence. I wasn’t sure exactly what they were trying to keep out or who they were trying to keep in. All I knew was that it was excessive, and that didn’t sit right with me.

It was quickly apparent that Romero was the man in charge. Everyone saluted him as if he was a four-star general. I was beginning to think there was a lot more to this guy besides “businessman.”

As we made our way into the compound, there was a giant arena in the middle of the small city. It was built like the old Roman Coliseum I had seen in pictures. The only difference was that this coliseum had a roof.

We parked in front of the coliseum, or arena, as it was, and got out of the Ferrari. I was pretty blown away by Romero’s facility and the obvious pull he had in this place.

“Welcome to the new era of sports entertainment, gentlemen. My fights make MMA look like a freaking tea party. Let’s go inside and I’ll show you around.”

This was definitely exciting. This was the kind of place that was right up my alley. If my life hadn’t gone in the direction that it did, I could have easily seen myself ending up in a place like this. A place where the toughest men in the world slug it out to see who’s on top always got me excited.

As we entered the coliseum, the first thing that stood out was that it was very modern on the inside. It looked like the inside of the Staples Center in Los Angeles. There were escalators and elevators to get to each level of the arena. Romero had spent a lot of money on the décor of the place. It was fancy and at the same time rustic and had a definite personality that was all its own.

As we walked deeper into the arena, I heard an awful howling sound coming from one section of the arena. They were obviously the sounds of werewolves. Where they were coming from exactly, I didn’t have much of an idea. I was about to find out soon. Romero was leading us to the howling. He was definitely not keeping it a secret. He obviously had no problem showing us what the reason was for such horrid cries in the night.

We entered a giant room. It reminded me of a boxing gym. It wasn’t in the main arena. It was a holding area where the fighters would get ready for their matches. I had seen holding areas such as these at arenas in the States. There was a giant difference in this holding area, however. This one had werewolves in cages. The moon was full outside so all the Carni had transitioned hours before. I felt sick to my stomach seeing them cooped up in cages, roaming back and forth like wild animals. It was because of Tommy that I knew werewolves were real people with real feelings. I didn’t hate Carni the way most Mani did. I knew they had souls and were just as real as we were.

I looked at Romero with disgust and said, “If the fighters want to be here and are fighting on their own accord, why do you keep them in cages?”

“It’s by their own request that we keep Carni in cages once they turn all wolfie. They only want to fight when they are in the ring. That’s the only time they are getting paid. It’s for everyone’s safety, and no one is more adamant about Carni being in cages once the full moon hits, than the Carni themselves.”

I guess it made sense. Tommy himself had insisted on being in a cage until he was able to control it.

We walked through the room and all the fighters stared me down. They would nod at Romero, but they all knew I was a new guy who Romero was trying to bring in. I had seen these kinds of looks before when I would go to a new workout gym to train. It’s just in men’s nature to size another up. It’s was as primal as men’s innate need to want to provide for their families.

We made our way to the other side of the room and there were two black double doors. Apparently, the fighters had to walk through the holding area to get inside the main arena area. Romero opened the two black double doors and the three of us walked into the arena. The inside of the arena was smoky and dark. There were a lot of very well-dressed people in the crowd. They were all seated at tables looking toward the center of the ring.

I looked in the ring and saw a cage. Inside the cage there appeared to be a Mani fighting a Carni. As far as I could tell, the Mani was winning. The Carni seemed badly injured and confused in the ring. It made me a bit nauseous watching it, knowing that Carni are no better than dogs when they turn. That werewolf in the ring was disoriented and no matter what Romero said, he was definitely exploiting them.

We exited through a side door of the arena and Romero led us up a small stairway that was only a few steps. I could tell we were still on the first floor, but we were just elevated a tad. We walked up to a set of doors in a small hallway that I assumed led to a couple of luxury suites. Then Romero turned to Wyatt and said, “With all due respect, do you mind if I watch the fights with Josiah privately? I’ll have you in the suite next to us, and I’ll make sure women keep you company and make your stay one you’ll always remember.”

Wyatt looked at me. I nodded at him and assured him I’d be all right. He was then led into the suite next to ours by a bodacious blonde that looked like she was ‘a party ready to happen’ all by herself.

Wyatt walked over and then stopped at the doorway. “There is no need for any female companionship.” He made a gesture to the woman that basically told her to hit the road.

“What would you like, Wyatt?” Romero asked. “We don’t judge here.”

“It’s nothing like that. I just might want to get a power nap in before all is said and done.”

“Oh, trust me; you won’t sleep watching what’s out there,” Romero said, confidently.

Wyatt looked at Romero and said, “I’ve seen Josiah kick a lot of ass over the past six months. I doubt I’ll be too impressed.”

Romero nodded his head, seemingly pleased by Wyatt’s statement. Wyatt went into the suite and shut the door. Romero led me to his own private suite.

Romero’s suite was much larger than the one Wyatt was in. Inside the suite was a feast laid out that was fit for a king. There were also three of the most gorgeous women serving us. Something told me that serving food wasn’t the only duty they had on their job description.

“I know you can’t eat,” Romero said. “But there might be something you can gnaw on.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, I said. “I can still eat whatever I want.”

“A vampire that can eat regular food? This I’ve got to see.”

I made myself a plate; I packed on ribs, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, and corn. I took five or six helpings of cornbread. I was pretty hungry, it had been hours since I had eaten last.

Romero, shocked, looked at me and said, “This is a first, even for me, and I have seen everything.”

I grinned at Romero. “Why are you so certain I’m a vampire?” I asked.

“Because I saw you fly across the sky holding the girl. I’m pretty sure you’re not Superman. I had only seen one other Mani ever do that, so I knew you were something special.”

I looked around the room and I wasn’t sure how we were going to watch the fights. The room was covered by walls on all four sides of the room. Romero snapped his fingers, and that question was quickly answered for me. The wall directly in front of us lifted up and there was a large piece of what I assumed was bulletproof glass separating us. I could see right into the ring. This was an amazing spot to watch the fight. I was almost eye level with the ring. Why was I surprised? This guy owned the damn place.

“So, are the fights pretty gruesome?” I asked.

“Oh, you’re in for a show, Josiah. Trust me on that one.”

The women in the suite were so hot they could have all been swimsuit models, and their hostess outfits might as well have been bathing suits. That might have been less revealing. They did plenty of bending over and were very flirtatious when offering me napkins and condiments. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a man’s man through and through, but there is something about a woman who is on the clock that’s a big turn off to me.

Romero said something in Spanish to the ladies and all three smiled at me and then left the room. I’m not sure what he said, but the girls left in a hurry.

“You sure know how to clear a room,” I said.

“They know the drill.”

“Do you entertain potential clients here a lot?”

“Only the best ones,” Romero winked at me. Romero walked over and sat in the seat right next to me. He had a giant bottle of tequila with him and two double shot glasses that he had grabbed from the counter.

“Are you planning on getting me drunk, so I sign on?” I asked, with a mixture of sarcasm and truth in my voice.

“We don’t do contracts here. If I tell you that you get paid a certain amount, that’s what you get paid. My word is better than ink.”

“Doing business that way must save you a fortune in lawyer fees.”

Romero poured his top shelf tequila into the two giant shot glasses and handed me one. “To good health,” Romero said.

“To health,” I agreed, clicking his glass. I downed the shot like it was water.

Damn!

It might have gone down like water, but the after taste was lethal.

“Put a little hair on that chest did it?” Romero chuckled.

“I’m kind of a lightweight,” I said.

“Seriously? That surprises me.”

“I’m just not a big drinker,” I said. “Don’t get me wrong, I like to party with the best of them, I just don’t prefer to have my judgment altered by outside forces.”

“One thing I learned a long time ago, Josiah. I’m at my best with a little alcohol in me.” Romero then poured himself a second shot.

“It doesn’t make for impaired judgment?” I asked.

“All a person’s best decisions are made with his judgment impaired. It’s called liquid courage. Some people need it to be able to fight, hit on girls, or to just get the balls to do something you never thought you could do sober. I use it to make business decisions. So far, it’s been a pretty good method.”

I looked around at Romero’s gigantic arena. One thing Romero had was material things, so if that’s what makes a guy like this feel and be successful, he was definitely doing okay. As I looked out into the arena I could see a giant spotlight that shined right smack into the middle of the ring. The fight I had seen earlier was obviously over and I could only imagine that the vampire won.

“A cage over the ring,” I said. “Is that for effect?”

“Have you been around a werewolf, Josiah? They are savages. Werewolves have no idea they’re even fighting in a ring or in front of a crowd, for that matter. The Carni that fight for me make the decision to go in there and fight. No one twists their arms to be here. As a matter of fact, I have a waiting list a mile long for Carni to get in here.”

“You don’t need to explain it to me,” I said.

“I have heard that you are one of the rare Mani who has a soft spot for the werewolf.”

“I have a good friend who’s a Carni.”

“I have heard that,” Romero said.

“I guess there’s not much you don’t already know.”

“It’s how you get to be as rich as me, you need to do your research. To be honest, Carni are a lot easier to deal with than Mani, no offense.”

“No offense taken.”

“When these werewolves are in their human forms, they are the ones who ask for the cages. They understand that once they switch into their werewolf form, they have zero cognitive thought of deciding between right and wrong. They just know to kill.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. Some can.”

Romero laughed. “I’d like to see that. A werewolf with cognitive thought would be the most lethal entity on this planet.”

What Romero didn’t know was I knew of such a werewolf. I decided not to say anything to him about my knowledge of Tommy’s abilities.

“Have another shot with me, Josiah?” Romero said, as he poured me another.

“Okay, but like I said, I’m a light weight.”

“I promise I won’t take advantage of you,” Romero winked at me. “Unless you’re into that kind of thing?”

“Sorry, I’m all about the ladies,” I said, with certainty.

“So am I. But to close a deal, I might be up for anything,” Romero laughed.

“You really want me to fight for you, don’t you?”

“Josiah, you’re a blonde, blue-eyed vampire that is as tough as nails and when you transition you become a freaking white eagle. What’s there not to love about you? You’re a promoter’s dream. Trust me, together you and I would become very rich.”

Very rich had a nice ring to it. I was no different than anybody else. Money is attractive. In another world, and under other circumstances, I might have jumped at this opportunity. But, I knew I had a bigger calling. I had just had everything explained to me by the Deity. The last thing I needed to be doing was getting caught up in some underground, insane fighting league that exploits Carni and Mani to billionaires. I had to admit, I was very fascinated by it all. Perhaps it was the alpha male in me that liked to always know who the toughest person or thing on the planet was, but this scene wasn’t going to be for me as a fighter.

“When’s the next fight?” I asked, opening a bottle of beer that Romero brought over from the refrigerator.

“Right now. They will be bringing the ‘Wolf’ in any second.”

This should be very interesting. I enjoyed my beer and looked out into the crowd. It was the classiest-looking fight club I had ever seen. All the men were sitting at tables instead of stands. It looked like the Golden Globes does on television. All the men were dressed in top of the line Armani suits, smoking cigars and with gorgeous women on their arms.

“How many people are here tonight?” I asked.

“Maybe five hundred,” Romero answered. “At fifty grand a head, it’s a nice bit of change.”

I did the math in my drunken state of mind. “That’s $25 million,” I said, nearly spitting out my beer. I had already downed my second double shot and was now enjoying a Coors Light chaser.

“That’s just tonight. On the third night of the full moon is when we have our super-bouts. We charge $200,000 a head on those nights. We usually pack this place at about a thousand people.”

My head was spinning doing the math. This guy was making $250 million every month. Now I knew where this guy got off. He was freaking loaded. Money is so intoxicating when you think about those kinds of numbers.

“What do you pay your fighters?” I asked.

“It doesn’t matter what I pay the fighters,” Romero answered. “All that would matter is what I would be paying you.”

“And that would be?”

“Anywhere between five hundred thousand to a million a fight,” Romero answered, plainly.

“What if I wanted five million?” I said, pushing the envelope.

“There’s always room for negotiation.” Again, Romero winked at me. This guy sure liked to wink. There’s something a tad untrustworthy about a winker.

I nodded my head and looked out into the arena. I tried to play it off like I wasn’t just offered a million dollars to do something I usually do for free on any given night. Fighting was in my blood and with the buzz I was sporting, a million dollars sounded pretty damn good.

Suddenly, music started to play over the loudspeakers and the lights inside the arena began spinning like it was the beginning to an NBA basketball game.

“The fighters have theme music and a light show?” I asked, laughing.

“I’m all about entertainment, baby,” Romero said, proud of his product.

Then a ring announcer came into the ring. He had one of those great ring voices for this kind of an event. “Welcome, ladies and gentlemen,” he said in a very deep, roaring voice. “The third fight on tonight’s card is a fight between two fan favorites. First in this corner, we have Vengeance.” The crowd went nuts with both cheers and boos. Then the two black double doors opened and a dark-haired fellow came running out like he was on speed. I assumed he was a Mani, because he sure wasn’t a wolf. This guy was as hyperactive as a four-year-old on a trip to Disneyland. He sprinted and dove into the ring.

“Who’s Vengeance?” I asked Romero.

“He’s a Brazilian vampire that is rumored to have killed a hundred Carni in one night in some Brazilian night club, just for the hell of it.”

“Just for the hell of it, that sounds like a nice little marketing tool.”

“You’re catching on, Josiah.”

“He does have a lot of energy, I will give you that,” I said.

“That’s an understatement,” Romero laughed, in agreement.

The ring announcer continued. “And, for all you werewolf lovers out there, do we have a treat for you!” The crowd erupted in a flurry of applause.

What the hell was going on?

Everyone stood on their feet and began chanting, ‘Wolf! Wolf! Wolf!”

“Holy shit!” I said. “This is a Carni-friendly crowd!”

“You bet it is,” Romero answered.

“Why?”

“Vampires are considered demonic and inherently evil to most of these people. A wolf represents everything that is pure about man and beast.”

“That’s bullshit!” I said.

“Is it?” Romero looked at me in a way I didn’t like. He was trying to egg me on. I had a feeling this was part of his ploy; to get me upset to the point I might want to fight for him. But that tactic was definitely not going to work on me.

“Do you believe that?” I asked. I poured myself another double shot and downed it. Now I was really feeling it. Oh boy, was I feeling it. I was drunk.

Romero smiled from the corner of his mouth. “Just continue watching.”

The black double doors opened once again and four men entered the arena holding long ropes. They were pulling a giant cage on wheels with the ropes. Inside the cage, was one of the most beautiful white werewolves I had ever seen.

“What’s the white wolf’s name?” I asked.

“Wolf,” Romero answered.

“That’s it?” I said. “The other guy has a cool American Gladiator name like Vengeance, and the werewolf’s name is just Wolf?”

“When we asked her what her name was that was all she told us.”

“The wolf is a girl?” I asked, surprised.

“Not just any girl. She’s gorgeous. She is one tough motherfucker, though. She makes ‘Xena’ look like a ballerina.”

I sat up. Now this was getting very interesting. The four men wheeled the cage up to the main cage in the middle of the arena. They connected the two cages together with locks and bolts. The cages were specially designed to exchange animals from one side to another, but, in this case, it was a vicious female werewolf. The cages were now linked together with the two still separated by a cage door. Then the lights in the arena went out. All you could hear was the howling of the white wolf. I had to admit, this was pretty badass!

The lights turned on and the front cage door to the wolf’s cage lifted up. And the white wolf charged the vampire Vengeance and leaped on top of him. Vengeance didn’t know what had hit him. The wolf was tearing him apart. Vengeance transitioned into a raven and began flying above the wolf inside the cage. In mid-flight, he transitioned back into his human form and power-kicked the wolf in the face.

“That isn’t fair,” I said.

“What’s fair, Josiah? Anything goes except for weapons. The only weapon that can be used is the cage itself.” Romero watched on like a weird Little League father who was pleased with his son’s bullish behavior.

The wolf somersaulted backward and Vengeance continued to kick and punch the wolf as it rolled.

“Get up!” I yelled, rooting on the wolf.

“Are you cheering on the werewolf?” Romero laughed.

“I’m definitely not rooting for Vengeance!” I said.

“Wow, you really are a Carni apologist.”

“Is that what you heard?” I asked, as I poured myself another double shot and downed it. I was royally drunk.

“I know all about you and your friend Tommy.”

“Oh, you must not know all about Tommy, or he’d be here.” I was drunk and not even aware of what I was saying.

“Why is that?” Romero asked.

“He can change into a werewolf whenever he wants.”

“What?” Romero asked, completely surprised.

“I trained him to do so.”

“Are you kidding?”

“Not to you, I’m not.”

I didn’t realize the information I was offering up, and I was too drunk to care. Then I looked out into the arena; by now the wolf and the vampire were trading blows to the pleasure of the crowd.

“WOLF! WOLF! WOLF!” the crowd shouted then the great, white wolf got a hold of Vengeance and bit into his neck and shoulder. Vengeances’ body went completely limp.

Suddenly, the four original men who led the wolf into the cage began lassoing the wolf’s legs like it was a rodeo. Once they had a hold of her, they yanked and pulled her back into her original cage. She resisted and broke the rope. One of the guys had a gun and shot the wolf and she fell over instantly. I looked at Romero, shocked.

“Don’t worry, Josiah. It’s just a tranquilizer dart that hit her. She’ll be okay after her little nap. Sometimes, we have to do that or the wolves would kill all of our Mani and, like I said, we don’t encourage that.”

They wheeled ‘Wolf’ out of the arena and the crowd chanted her name in unison. I had mixed feelings. I was rooting for her to win, but the fact the crowd was so anti-Mani really bothered me. They have Mani all wrong. I looked out to the middle of the ring and Vengeance was still lying out there.

“Is someone going to help him,” I asked.

“Our paramedic guy likes to wait for the wolves to be completely out of the arena before he enters.”

Meanwhile, Vengeance laid in the middle of the ring. The crowd screamed at him to get up. They were calling him every name in the book. This crowd hated vampires. That was obvious. And that was making me very pissed. “Fuck the crowd,” I said.

Romero laughed. “Make up your mind, Josiah. Are you for the Wolf or not?”

“I’m definitely not a fan of Vengeance. He just looked like a hyperactive asshole, but he doesn’t deserve to be ridiculed by a bunch of idiots either.”

“Well, those idiots paid for the right to act any way they want. As long as they don’t interfere with the fight, they can say and do whatever they like.”

“It’s your club,” I said. One thing I had to give to Romero was that the fight was highly entertaining. He knew how to put on a show.

Chapter Thirteen

I told Romero that I was ready to get going and he took Wyatt and I back to the hotel in the Ferrari.

“There you go,” Romero said to me, while we were driving back. “You just got a taste of the entertainment I provide. What do you think?”

“The money and the thrill of the crowd are very tempting. But, for right now, I’m going to have to pass on the whole fighting-for-cash offer.”

Romero pulled into the parking structure at the hotel we were staying at and parked. Wyatt was in the back completely passed out sleeping. “Just promise me, Josiah, that you will listen to an offer at a future date?”

“I’ll always listen to offers,” I said.

“Sounds good.” Romero dropped us off and he left. With that, my night with the most interesting man I had ever met ended. I told him we’d stay in touch and Wyatt and I went into the hotel and checked out.

We decided to take off back to Victorville before morning. We figured we could get in around 5:00 a.m. So that’s what we did. We both transitioned and got the hell out of Dodge, or TJ, as it were.

Wyatt and I arrived in Victorville rather quickly. As we flew over the house I noticed a few people were in the backyard, swimming. The early morning, before the sun comes up, is like late afternoon for vampires. Lena, Yari, Hector, and some girl I’d never seen before were all sitting in the Jacuzzi.

We both landed in the backyard and transitioned to our Mani forms. Wyatt said goodnight and went upstairs and went to bed. I had come to the conclusion that having Wyatt around in Mexico was good for moral support, but he really wasn’t much help.

I walked to the others over by the Jacuzzi. Yari was wearing a red, two-piece bikini that showed off her well-endowed bosom. Lena wasn’t as big as Yari in that department but hers had some nice perks to them. It’d been awhile since I’d had any sexual release and, to be completely honest, both girls looked sexy as hell and I was feeling a bit randy. Wouldn’t that be something? A ménage à trois with Yari and Lena? Not in this lifetime, but I’d definitely put that idea in my mental ‘go to’ vault for the next time I had some alone time.

Now, who was this girl sitting right close to my boy Hector? She looked to be about twenty in her human body. I was pretty sure she was a Mani if for no other reason than guilt by association.

I walked over to them and, to my surprise, none of them seemed too interested in me. “Hello,” I said, a bit insulted by the lack of friendliness.

Yari smiled at me. “Nice of you to visit us.”

“You’re not going to be catty, are you?” I asked.

“Who’s being catty? You’re the one that had to go see the ‘Deity,’ as if she knows more than the rest of us.”

Now I understood. Yari was jealous.

“She is called the ‘Deity,’” I said, pointing out the obvious.

“She is just like anyone else,” Yari continued. “Most of her mystique is just legend. She thinks she’s flipping Mother Teresa and Nostradamus all rolled up in one.”

“She kind of is,” I said, defending her.

“Oh my, she’s got you fooled, too.” Yari had been drinking and when she drinks she can be a bit sassy, to say the least.

“I take it you have run into her in the past,” I said.

“I met her once or twice,” Yari said. “She’s a judgmental little twit.”

“Now I see how it is.”

“What do you see, Josiah? Please enlighten me.”

“She probably gave you some advice on how to better your life.” I knew someone like Yari who lived life to the fullest would resent someone like the “Deity’ who is as selfless as they come. Yari didn’t have to be jealous of her or resent her. Yari was a real good person who looked out for those she cared about.

“So, Josiah. What great bit of insight did she give you?” Yari continued with her badgering.

“Are you drunk?” I asked.

“A little drunk, a little high. There’s not much to do around here.” Yari giggled.

I looked over at Lena and she was just pleasantly smiling at me. “What about you?” I said.

“I’m not high,” Lena said, laughing.

“Great, is everyone drunk?”

Hector raised his hand. “Guilty as charged, and as far as I know, so is Samantha.”

“Samantha?” I said, looking at the new girl. “I take it that is your name. How are you? My name is Josiah.”

“I know who you are,” she said, shyly. “It’s very nice to finally meet you.”

“That’s kind of you to say,” I said. “Are you the reason why Hector sneaks off at night?”

She smiled even more shyly at me. She seemed a bit star-struck. I gave her an unassuming smile to let her know I was a pretty decent person and she could be herself. “Had a few tonight?” I asked, teasing her, too.

“I had a couple,” she giggled.

“What about you, Josiah? What have you been doing the last couple of nights?” Yari asked.

“I had a pretty interesting experience south of the border, to say the least. The Deity was pretty insightful, regardless of what you think, Yari.”

“I’m glad she was,” Yari replied. “Someone needed to light a fire up your ass. You sure as hell aren’t advancing us forward,” she said.

“Who’s us?” I asked.

“Mani,” Yari answered.

“I guess it’s all on me?” I said, annoyed.

“Josiah, we need a leader. You need to lead. It’s that simple.” Yari got out of the water and sat on the edge of the Jacuzzi with her feet dangling in the water.

I wanted to argue, but in a way she was right. I hadn’t a clue how to lead other than by example, and the example I was giving was kicking as much ass as I could whenever I had to. The truth was I still wasn’t sure what I needed to do. I needed to fix my relationships, that part was clear after my visit with the ‘Deity.’ I had decided I’d start with Lena, but Yari had a bug up her ass about something tonight, so she was going to go first. I walked over and leaned in and said to Yari, “Can we talk?”

She looked up at me and smiled and said, “Sure, when and where?”

“How about right now and we can talk inside the house,” I answered.

“No worries, Josiah. We’ll leave you two alone,” Hector said, highly aware of our conversation.

Lena looked up at me. “I was going to bed anyway.” Lena seemed a bit jealous and she didn’t have to be. She was the person I needed to talk to the most.

“I want to talk to you too, okay?” I said, to Lena.

“Yes, captain, my captain,” she said, laughing.

“It’s not like that. I just need to talk to you about a couple of things.”

Lena nodded and got out of the Jacuzzi. She was wearing a white bathing suit. Her skin was milky white and her body was perfection. She didn’t have an ounce of fat on her except in the one place it mattered. She had a little junk in the trunk. I was a bit excited, watching her dry off.

Yari caught me lusting after my ex-girlfriend and nodded her head knowingly looking at my groin.

“Stop it,” I whispered to Yari.

“You’re the one perving on Snow White, not me,” she whispered back.

“Good night, guys,” Lena said. She then left and went inside the house. Hector and Samantha also got out and dried off. After a moment, the two of them said goodnight and went inside, too. That left Yari and I alone in the Jacuzzi area.

“You really know how to ruin a party,” Yari said, sarcastically.

“I wanted to talk to you alone,” I said.

“Well at least come in the Jacuzzi.”

“I’m fully clothed.”

“You can come in your boxers, I won’t perv on you the way you did Lena a minute ago.”

“Hey, I was checking you out earlier, too, but you didn’t see me.”

“I saw you and, trust me, you should. I look hot in this bathing suit.”

I had no comment. “I’m wearing tighty-whities,” I said, going back to my bathing suit situation.

“Even better,” she said, winking at me.

“Come on, just get in.” Yari was always persuasive. I was also horny as hell. Not that I was intending to engage in some hot tub fun with the red-headed vixen, especially when her and Cyrus had been hooking up as of late, but I think I just wanted to take off my pants off for exhibitionist reasons. I peeled off my shirt and kicked off my shoes. I slipped off my pants and I stood there in just my underwear.

“You are hot, Josiah. Damn!”

“Stop it,” I said, as I slowly went into the hot water. Once I got my whole body in except for my head, I decided to go to the other side of the Jacuzzi.

“So, what’s up?” Yari said.

“What’s up with you? You seemed a bit bitter at me for whatever reason.”

“I’m just giving you a hard time.”

“Is that all?” I asked.

“Let’s be honest with ourselves, Josiah. What are all of us doing here at this big gigantic house? This sure isn’t some fucked-up version of the real world where cameras are following us around. We’re all waiting around to do something. And you’re the only one who can call us to arms.”

“Call who, though, Yari? I know we have followers, but can they fight?”

“We have some studs on our side, Josiah. There’s a lot of Mani ready to lay their lives down for the cause. If you’re afraid of Krull’s army with the men and women you have, then you need to get on the ball and train them to fit your standards.”

I nodded my head and sighed.

“You’re a fucking warrior,” Yari continued. “What you have endured and learned in six months has taken Krull a lifetime to learn. Plus, you have an advantage over a guy like Krull and his thugs.”

“What’s that?”

“You are always the one getting attacked. There’s one thing I’ve learned in all the years I’ve been alive; fighters become more lethal when they are fighting for their lives.”

“How so?” I asked.

“Think about it, Josiah. When you’re attacking someone, it doesn’t necessarily make you a better fighter in the long run. There is very little room for improvement. You’re relying on your previous knowledge. But, when you’re the one getting attacked, you are forced to learn on the fly. You have to dig deep inside yourself and discover things about your abilities you may have never known even existed.”

“That’s a good point,” I said, surprised as hell that Yari had put so much thought into this. I smiled at Yari.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing, I just think it’s cool that you put so much thought into it. It makes me feel good that I have someone like you on my side.”

“Trust me, these days, it’s all I think about.”

“What else have you thought about?”

“In regards to you, a lot.”

“Like…”

“Like this. Not only have you learned from being attacked so many damn times. You destroy your opponent in every way possible. You need to take all that knowledge that you have learned in all the fights that you have had and teach it to your followers. You have men and women willing to lay their lives down for you.”

Again, I was very impressed with Yari. “Damn, Yari. That was the exact thing I needed to hear.”

“See, you just needed to talk to me. You didn’t have to travel across the border to talk to the paranormal version of the Psychic Friends Network.”

“You really don’t like her,” I said.

“Is it that obvious?” Yari snickered.

“Just a tad.”

“She’s 75 percent hype.”

“What’s the other 25 percent?” I asked.

“She’s a lucky guesser.”

I laughed. Yari made her way over to me. She was about a foot away from me in the Jacuzzi. Her hand made its way to my thighs. I should have stopped her but I just let her tease.

“Where’s Cyrus?” I asked.

“He went to bed.”

“How are things going with that?”

“I don’t know. He’s serviceable. He’s got a big one. So that’s a definite plus.”

“Anyway,” I said, cutting her off.

“He’s a good guy, too good for someone like me. I need a bad boy.” Her hand slipped up my thigh to my mid-region. I gave her a look that pretty much said, ‘Go for it.’ And go for it she did. She placed both her hands about an inch from my package.

“It’s like a drug,” I said, referring to her hands that were close enough to do some pretty serious damage.

“It’s too bad you’re still in love with Lena,” Yari said, as she took her hands off of my lap. I stared at Yari and smiled at the power a woman had over me when her hands are touching my midsection. She could have gotten me to do just about anything in that previous moment. Now, her hands were off of my thighs and stomach, I could think a bit more clearly.

“Is that what you think?” I asked. “That I’m still in love with Lena?”

“It’s what I know, Josiah. You’re a guy, and I know you’re feeling a little feisty at the moment, and I would love to have amazing balls-to-the-wall sex with you. But, in the end, you’d hate yourself because you’re not over Lena and she’s not over you. So then, I’d have two of my closest friends mad at me.”

“Wow, you just called Lena a close friend.”

Yari smiled. “She is, and so are you. Plus, it would break Cyrus’s puppy dog heart.”

“So, what makes you so certain she’s still in love with me?” I asked.

“You don’t see the kind of things I’ve seen and not know something as basic as that.”

“Give me one thing you see that I don’t,” I said, hoping she’d give me a really good reason.

“Well, Tommy contacts her all the time and gives her an open invitation to come see him at his cabin and she doesn’t take it.”

“Really, Tommy keeps asking her to his cabin? What a dick.”

“He asks her daily. Apparently, it’s just to talk. He’s real lonely, but Lena doesn’t take him up on it because she doesn’t want to hurt you any more than she already has.”

I didn’t know what to think about this bit of information. Was I supposed to feel bad for a guy who was blatantly pursuing a woman he knew I had fallen in love with? He had some nerve. “Is that where he’s at?” I asked.

“He moves around. He has a lot of enemies.”

“I know he does. Almost as many as I do.”

“But you have all of us. Tommy doesn’t have anyone.”

“Whose fault is that?”

“It’s his. But if Lena truly loved him more than you—why hasn’t she gone to him? What you need to understand is there’s very little difference between yourself and Tommy. You’re practically the same guy. You look completely different. But once you strip down all the superficial bullshit, you couldn’t be more alike. When all is said and done, both you boys are good to the core. Lena can’t go wrong with either one of you.”

“That’s exactly my point, we’re so similar and that’s why she chose him at Flatlands.”

“She only went to him because Tommy had no one on his side. You had a whole Mani army behind you. Tommy was all by himself. Tommy reached out to her, but then retreated. He told her to stay because he knew it was for her own good.” Yari paused, and then continued, “But I believe there is another reason why he told her stay.”

“What was that?” I asked.

“He knew she truly loves you and not him.”

I took everything Yari said to heart. Yari didn’t have to say anything, but she felt the need to talk to me about all of it, and that meant a lot to me. “You gave me some things to think about.”

“Josiah, I’m going to ask you a question and I want you to look deep into your heart and give me the most honest answer you can give.”

“Okay.”

“Do you love Lena?”

I paused and took the question in. I let the question consume me and then I closed my eyes. After a moment, I opened my eyes and stared at Yari and said, “I love Lena with every bit of me.”

“Really?” A voice from behind me said. I turned around and Lena was standing by the pool wearing a long black gown. I wasn’t sure how long she had been listening.

“Is that how it is with you two?” I asked, embarrassed. “One asks me a personal question while the other listens.”

“I walked out when Yari was talking. I had no idea she was going to ask you that,” Lena said.

I looked at Yari. “I knew she was there,” Yari said, “and I also knew what your answer was going to be.”

“Is it true, Josiah?” Lena asked. “Do you really still feel that way?”

I didn’t know what to say. Of course it was true. But I didn’t go around loving people who didn’t love me back. I got out of the Jacuzzi. I forgot I was wearing my tighty-whities.

“Oh my,” Lena smiled.

I looked around for a towel and there wasn’t one. “Is there a towel?” I asked.

“Behind you,” Lena said. I turned around and across the pool was a white towel. I walked over to it and dried myself off. Lena walked over to me, “Can we go inside and talk?”

“Okay,” I said.

I finished drying off and then walked over and threw the towel over by Yari. “Thanks, princess,” I said to Yari. “Once again you’re a wild ride.”

“I do my best, Josiah,” Yari answered.

“I know you do. In all seriousness, thanks for everything you said.”

“No problem. I believe in you,” Yari said.

“That means a lot to me.” I walked inside the house through the back sliding door with Lena behind me. My heart was full and my head was spinning. I knew Lena and I were about to connect in a huge way. I felt a bit giddy, like a school boy. I made my way up the stairs with Lena close behind. I opened the door to my room. Lena entered and didn’t say a word. She looked up at me and her eyes were filled with so much love.

“I messed up, Josiah. I am so sorry. I love you more than you could ever know.”

“You didn’t mess up, Lena. You just got caught up in the moment. This whole experience is bigger than all of us.”

“Still, I should have never let Tommy get so close.”

“I don’t want to talk about him.”

Lena walked up to me. “Would you just hold me?”

I looked down at this beautiful creature that had my heart in such a giant way. I couldn’t explain it and I didn’t want to understand it. In her presence, I was home. She was the love of my life and there was no denying that. I stared into her eyes and slowly wrapped my arms around her. I held her close. I held her in a way I had never held or touched anyone. She was my destiny. She was the person I knew I was supposed to do all of this with. She was the one who was going to stand by my side through thick and thin. There was a time for everything, and at this moment, this was a time of forgiveness and looking back.

“Do you really love me, Josiah?”

I swallowed and just slowly nodded my head and said, “I love you more at this moment than I have ever loved anyone or anything in my entire life.”

She sighed and I held her tighter.

“This life,” Lena said. “This chance that we have been given is more than I can bear. I need to do this with you. I want to fight alongside you.”

“I want you to stand with me,” I said. “But I don’t want you to fight.”

“I just want to quit wasting time. It’s time for us to celebrate what this is between us.”

“I completely agree.” I walked Lena over to my bed. I sat on the edge of it and Lena sat on my lap. All the sexual desires I’d had earlier were replaced by an overwhelming love.

Lena sat on my lap and looked me in the eye and asked, “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m okay.”

“Did you find the answers you needed?”

“Yes…”

“And...”

“And it led me back to you,” I said, lovingly. “It led me back here. I realized I couldn’t move forward without you.” I leaned in and gently kissed Lena on the lips. She cupped my chin with both of her hands. Tears were dripping from both of our eyes.

“I am so sorry,” she said. “I am so sorry for hurting you in any way.”

“I know you are,” I said comforting her. “From this moment forward... no more ‘I’m sorry’s.’”

“Okay.”

I scooted back on my bed and placed Lena’s delicate frame next to me and we laid down. I slowly brushed my hand across her face. Her eyes were as beautiful as I ever remembered. Whenever she laid next to me, she seemed fairy-like. She was so tiny and delicate, and one thing I knew in the core of my heart: I would always take care of her.

We laid there holding each other until we both fell asleep.

Chapter Fourteen

I woke up with Lena pressed tightly against my body. We were fully clothed because last night was about reconnecting emotionally, not necessarily sexually. The night was one of the most outrageous nights I had ever experienced. It started in a hotel in Tijuana, then in a bunker, then an underground fight club and then ended back here in Victorville with Lena and I falling asleep in each other arms.

Yeah, it was some night.

I looked at the clock in my room and it read 5:00 p.m. The best sleep I seemed to get is when Lena is lying beside me. I leaned over and kissed her cheek. She smiled out of the corner of her mouth.

“You awake?” I asked.

“Unfortunately, yes.” She rolled to her back and exhaled.

“Why the sigh?” I asked.

“Well, where do we go from here?”

“You and I?”

“You and I. Me and you. Yes, Josiah, us.”

“I think it’s fair to say we need to just try to exist.”

“Exist?” Lena laughed. “I think we got that part down pat.”

“We need to try to exist together—to be by each other’s side.”

Lena looked at me and smiled. “I’d like that.” She then reached her arm out and placed it on my lap.

“I’d like that, too.”

“So, what’s on your agenda for tonight?” Lena asked.

“Wow, already keeping tabs on me,” I said, joking.

“It’s nothing like that. I was just wondering if we could go on a real date.”

“A real date?”

“Yes, a real date. We have never gone on a date, Josiah. Think about it.”

“You mean like dinner and a movie?”

“I mean like anything; bowling, miniature golf, pizza, a picnic, nothing. We have never been on a real date.”

A Tandra date. I thought about it for a second and Lena was absolutely right. “Well, if we’re going to go on a date then we need to do it right.”

“How do you suppose we do that?” Lena grinned.

“Go get your cell phone,” I said.

“My cell phone?” She was now confused.

“Just do it.”

Lena left my room and I immediately reached in my pocket and pulled out my cell phone and dialed Lena’s number. It rang a couple of times and then she answered it.

“Hello,” I said.

“Yes, may I help you?” Lena asked.

“Hey there. This is Josiah,” I said, as cute as I could. “How are you?”

“I’m good and you?”

“I’m great. Well... any who.”

“Any who?” Lena laughed.

“Yes, any who,” I said adamantly. “I was wondering if you would like to go out with me tonight?”

“Go out where?” Lena yawned, teasingly.

“I was hoping that you could accompany me to dinner and a show.”

“A show? Who talks like that?” Lena teased.

“Cut me some slack,” I said. “I have never done this before.”

“Okay, sweetie, what kind of show would you like us to attend?”

“The theater,” I pronounced, proudly.

“Wow, the theater. You mean like the Shakespeare Globe Theater—kind of theater?”

“More like Andrew Lloyd Webber Evita kind of theater.”

“Wow, that does sound divine,” Lena said, still teasing me. What did I expect? I pulled the biggest cheese-ball move of all time by calling her for an official date, from the same room.

“Okay. Let me grab some tickets and I’ll pick you up at 8:00 p.m.

“Where do you suppose you’ll pick me up?”

“At your house.”

“Can’t wait.”

“Me, too,” I said.

I pressed ‘end call’ after saying goodbye and decided I better plan this night right. I went online and saw that West Side Story was playing at Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles. I didn’t want to fly. I actually wanted to drive like a normal person on this date, so I needed to push the date up to picking Lena up at 6:30 p.m. I called her back and she pretended to be annoyed, but still couldn’t hide her excitement.

I went to my closet and pulled out some slacks, a white button-down shirt and a slick black tie. I had a casual dinner jacket that went well with the outfit. It kind of gave me a Reservoir Dogs look, with a bit of hip-hop.

I took a shower and avoided seeing Lena, so we wouldn’t see each other getting ready. It was now late September and sunset was around 6:00 p.m. in Southern California, which was perfect for the time we planned on leaving.

After a day of relaxing, it was getting toward evening. I decided it was time to put on my clothes and cologne up. I could hear Lena getting ready downstairs. I combed my hair and did some final touches to my appearance. Once I felt I looked as good as I was going to be, I went over to the trap door in my bedroom. I opened it up and jumped out and landed on the ground. I made my way to my white truck that had been parked in the driveway for months. I had hardly driven my truck since being able to fly.

I started my truck and it put-putted a bit, and then started up nice. I decided to drive off the property to give it the whole pulling-into-the-huge-house-to-pick-up-my-date-bit.

I hadn’t been on too many dates in my life. But I still knew the drill. I parked my truck near the house and walked up. There was a rosebush out front so I decided to reach down and pick one off at the stem. It was a bit sad; the petals were brown, but what’s a guy to do on such short notice?

I walked up to the door and knocked. Cyrus answered the door. “Damn Josiah, you clean up quite nice.”

“Is Lena here?”

“She said you two were going out, but I didn’t realize you were going to go to this extreme,” Cyrus laughed.

“Lena, your date is here!” Cyrus yelled, like an obnoxious younger brother.

I stepped into the doorway. I looked up the stairwell and Lena was walking down. She was wearing a long black dress that was tight in the legs and waist. It was very sexy and very elegant. She looked incredible. She was actually wearing lipstick. I don’t think I had ever seen her wear lipstick. She looked more beautiful than I had ever seen her. My breath was pretty taken away.

She approached me at the bottom of the stairs and all I could say was, “Wow!”

“Wow, yourself,” she said, smiling. She had done her hair up real cute and she just looked incredible.

“You ready to go?” I asked.

“Yes, I am.”

I was still holding the pathetic rose in my hand. “Oh yeah, I got you this.” I handed the rose to her.

“It’s… beautiful?” she said, trying not to hurt my feelings.

“You can say it. It’s the saddest looking flower you have ever seen.”

“It’s the thought that counts.”

I grinned and put my arm out for Lena to hold. She laid the rose on the counter. She took my arm and we walked outside the front door to my truck. I opened the passenger side door for Lena and she got in. She smelled wonderful. I walked around the back and made my way to the door. I opened it and got in. I looked to my right and Lena had put her seatbelt on. All I could do was shake my head at how amazing she looked. She had so much natural beauty. She was definitely not your typical California girl.

“You look like a million bucks,” I said.

“Josiah Reign,” Lena said, with a hint of playfulness in her voice. “Are you flirting with me?”

“I might have a little crush. I’ll let you know how it develops throughout the night.” I started up the truck and we were off.

We made our way to the freeway and I took the 15 freeway to the 10. The 10 freeway is a direct shot right into Los Angeles. I had made reservations at a restaurant near the theater, which keeps their kitchen open till one in the morning.

“So what are we seeing?” Lena asked.

“The Sharks vs. the Jets,” I said.

“We’re watching a football game?” Lena asked, disappointed.

“No dear,” I said. “Have you ever seen West Side Story?”

“The movie?”

“No, the cooking show on Bravo,” I said, jokingly. “Of course I’m talking about the movie, or musical for that matter.”

“Yes, I’ve seen the movie. I saw it in the ninth grade.”

“So did I,” I said excitedly. “Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how old the movie was when I watched it. It was in color and I thought it came out in the 80s.”

“No, it’s much older than that.”

“I know that now. I saw it in my ninth-grade English class and absolutely fell in love with Natalie Wood, you know, the actress that plays Maria in the movie. For some reason, it didn’t dawn on me that I might have a problem professing my newfound love to her. I went home and thought out exactly how I was going to tell her how I fell head over heels for her. I get on my computer and try to find a Natalie Wood website fan page. I was pretty saddened to find out she had died nearly 30 years earlier by drowning in a boating accident. I was heartbroken.”

“You poor baby,” Lena said, as honest and sincere as anyone could, considering how pathetic the true tale was. “That makes me so sad.”

“Why does it make you sad?” I asked.

“Your first love died thirty years before you even knew she existed.”

“She was definitely not my first love.”

“Oh, she wasn’t?”

“Nope, Christina Martinez was my first love,” I said.

“How old were you?”

“Five,” I said, proudly.

“Five?”

“She lived across the street. She used to play with her Barbies in the front yard while I pretended to play with my monster trucks across the street.”

“I can’t even remember one thing about being five years old, let alone liking a boy.”

“I had a crush on at least one girl every year from kindergarten till my senior year.”

“Josiah, you are the definition of girl crazy.”

“What can I say, I have always been very fond of the opposite sex. How about you? When and who was your first boyfriend?”

“Junior high. His name was Garret Kennedy!”

“Garret Kennedy? Seriously? That guy was your first boyfriend?”

“You knew him?”

“Of course I knew him, you and I went to the same junior high and high school. That guy was totally weird.”

“He was my kind of weird.”

“That guy used to draw pentagrams on his school folders.”

“He was just being creative.”

“Wow, even then you were into the dark weirdos.”

“Now, I just like the blonde weirdos,” Lena joked. “How old were you, Josiah, when you had your first grown-up kiss.”

“You mean tongue?”

“That does qualify as a grown-up kiss.”

“Tilly Ramirez, eighth grade.”

“Wow, you sure like the Latinas.”

“It was the demographic of where we lived. It was on the eighth-grade graduation trip to Disneyland. We were riding on ‘It’s a Small World.’”

Lena laughed out loud.

“You’ve seen the goods, lady,” I said, referring to my package. “Obviously, the ride had no symbolic reference to what I’m packing.”

“Easy, tiger,” Lena continued laughing. “Knowing that your first kiss was on a kids’ ride is pretty hysterical.”

“All we did was make out on the ride and nothing more.”

“Didn’t the song repeating over and over on the ride kill the mood?”

“It happened at the end of the ride. She was nudging me and I turned my head, and there she was, sticking her tongue down my throat.”

“She stuck her tongue down your throat? You’re not sure it wasn’t the other way around?”

“No, it was definitely her. She actually screwed me up in the kissing department for a couple of years.”

“How so?”

“For the longest time, I thought that was the way people were supposed to kiss. You shove your tongue deep in someone’s mouth and just slosh it around.”

“How did you figure it out?” Lena asked.

“I had a friend of mine ask an old girlfriend if I was a good kisser.”

“She said ‘no’?”

“Not only did she say I wasn’t a good kisser, she proceeded to give a detailed account of how horrible it was to be kissed by me. She compared it to a mouth assault.”

“Really? That is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying my traumatic high school youth.”

“Well, you obviously fixed the problem. I think you’re a fantastic kisser.”

“Really? Fantastic?”

“Yes. At least in my top three,” Lena winked at me.

“Top three even. I don’t even want to know who the other two are.”

“It’s not who you think. To be fair, Tommy didn’t really have a chance to prove himself, and Atticai never kissed me like that.”

“Word is.... Tommy is a good kisser,” I said. “My sister was pretty impressed.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Lena assured me. “So, how did you turn your kissing woes around?” Lena asked, purposely changing the subject away from Tommy and I knew it.

“Promise not to laugh?”

“Oh, this is going to be good.”

“It’s more than good.”

“Okay, I promise not to laugh,” Lena swore.

“My sister was a huge Archie comics fan. So, I would read them as a kid and I began to really like reading the comics myself.”

“You liked reading Archie comic books?”

“What’s so weird about that?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Everything about it is,” Lena stated, teasingly.

“Anyway, one Christmas my sister got me this life-size Archie head. It was like a puppet. She got it for me as a joke because she knew I would sneak around, reading her comic books. The life-size head was made out of rubber and if you put your fingers in the back of the head, you could control his mouth.”

“You didn’t?” Lena laughed.

“I did. I made out with Archie until I damn well got great at kissing.”

Lena began laughing hysterically.

“You said you wouldn’t laugh.”

“That’s not fair. That is the funniest thing I ever heard. How long did that go on?”

“I kept that puppet around all through high school. Whenever I felt my game needed a little pick me up, Archie would be there.”

“I’m surprised it didn’t make you gay.”

“Not gay. Just tolerant. I figured if I could practice kissing on a checkered, red-headed guy, then I needed to be cool about other people’s life choices.”

“You’re so funny! Well, be sure to thank Archie for me the next time you two have a session.”

“When my family died, I set fire to a lot of things that stirred up too many memories and unfortunately Archie was one of them.”

Lena smiled uncomfortably and looked outside. I sure knew how to kill a fun conversation by bringing up death. I probably shouldn’t have brought that part of the story up ‘cause Lena didn’t know how to respond. We were having fun and the reality of life always seemed to remind us of how painful things had been for both of us.

Lena reached out her left palm and I held it with my right hand. I gave her a loving wink and we made our way to the Ahmanson Theater.

The musical was great and I saw why Tommy liked them so much. It’s just a whole lot of fun.

When it was over, I took Lena to a restaurant called Shapiro’s. It was a real classy joint down the street from the theater. It had dim lighting and I’d heard the food was fantastic. Lena didn’t have the ability to eat like me, but she was able to eat meat that was rare with virtually no problem.

Our table was near the back and there weren’t that many people in the restaurant. The table was candlelit and there was a three-piece band playing easy listening jazz at the front of the restaurant.

I ordered the Chicken Alfredo, and Lena had a 12-ounce steak served very rare. One thing that all vampires had the ability to do, and thank god we did, was drink like sailors. Lena and I were throwing back our wine pretty good throughout our meal.

“I think we should do this kind of thing more often,” I said. I had a nice wine buzz going and for my money, a wine buzz was the best alcohol buzz to have.

“You look incredibly handsome, Josiah.”

“You think?”

“The lighting makes you look like an angel in here,” Lena said, in a very seductive and flirtatious manner.

“A demon maybe, but not an angel.”

“Is that your opinion of us, that we are inherently evil?” she asked.

“I don’t like to think about it, but there are times I think I am evil. I have hurt and even killed so many people in such a short period of time that it’s hard not to feel that way. It’s hard to think there is much good left in me.”

“Josiah, you’re as good as they come.”

“I’m not sure if I believe that. Killing does something to a person. Killing takes a piece of you with it when it happens.”

“You have never killed anyone who wasn’t attacking you first, right?” Lena asked.

I thought about the werewolf that was on the lookout at Tommy’s cabin a few months back. That killing had never sat well with me.

Lena could tell I was in deep thought. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”

“There was once I attacked and killed a werewolf before he had a chance to attack me.”

“You must have thought you needed to do it for your own safety.”

“I did,” I said. “I didn’t try to kill him either. It just happened. It has always bothered me because I saw his face right before he died.”

“There you go, Josiah, in our world there are going to be casualties. It should only bother you if innocent people get killed.”

“It just all sounds so callous. Life and death should have a higher significance.”

“And it does with the Tandra. Most humans are innocent bystanders in this war that has been raged in the underworld. Carni and Mani know the stakes. Most of us chose this life; it’s all we ever wanted.”

“I didn’t choose it. I never wanted it. Even when I knew it existed, the last thing I wanted was to be a part of it.”

“I know.” Lena reached her hand across the table and placed it on top of my hand. “But now that it’s here, you have embraced it. And you know what, Josiah? There is no one better at it than you. You are the most perfect person to lead this charge. The Triat knew what they were doing. They chose a great man.”

Every once in a while, words that are spoken minister to my heart and that comment by Lena was such a thing. What she said touched me in a way she’d never know.

“I love you, Lena.”

“I love you, Josiah.”

The waitress walked over and placed our food in front of us. We continued to talk and eat till we helped close down the joint at 2:00 in the morning

On the way home, Lena fell asleep on my shoulder. For the first time in my entire life, I felt the feeling of union. This was my girl. I was her man. Together, I was pretty certain we could do anything.

Chapter Fifteen

A few weeks went by and Lena and I were really building something very special and the closer I got to her, the more complete I felt. It was during our most intimate moments that I felt the kind of connection I had always longed for. Making love to Lena was a life-changing experience regardless of what anyone thought. When you truly love someone and you share that kind of intimate detail, it’s the most powerful bond two people can have. I was becoming a better person just by loving her each day.

I was in the bathroom finishing my shower when I heard my cell phone go off. It was giving me the signal that I had a text message. I stepped out of the shower to see who it was because I hardly ever had anyone text me. I went over to my phone that I left near the sink.

The text read, ‘It’s Tommy. We need to talk. You owe me that.’

I owed him that? Was he for real? The balls on that guy.

I texted him back, ‘Where?’

He responded, ‘My cabin.’

I texted, ‘When?’

Then he texted in big, bold letters, ‘ASAP.’

‘Fine, I’m coming now.’ I sent the text and went into my bedroom.

What the hell did he need to see me about?

I sat on my bed completely nude and just sighed. Who was I kidding? I wanted to see him. I missed him. I just didn’t know what I was going to say to him.

I stood up and went to my closet and put on a pair of jeans, a black-t-shirt and my black boots. I left my room and went downstairs to Lena’s room. We had been sleeping every night together and taking turns in each other’s beds. I opened Lena’s door and there she was on her bed listening to her MP3 player.

“What’s up, girlie?” I said.

“Hey sexy, whatcha doing?” she answered.

“I just got a call from a mutual acquaintance.”

“Tommy?” Lena asked, trying her hardest not to sound interested, but I knew better.

“That would be him.”

“He’s more than a mutual acquaintance,” she said, shutting off her music.

“I’d say… for the both of us.”

“So, what did he want?” Again, Lena was trying her hardest to ask questions and sound uninterested.

“It’s okay that you’re curious about him, Lena. How could you not be? It’s been weeks since we’ve heard from him.”

Lena nodded her head. “I know. It’s just a tough subject for the both of us,”

“I know,” I agreed. “It doesn’t have to be.”

“I know, Lena said. “Anyway, what did he have to say?”

“He actually texted me.”

“He texted you?”

“Yes, and he wants me to meet up with him at his cabin. He made it sound pretty urgent.”

“Do you think he’s in trouble?”

“Who knows? Trouble seems to find that guy.”

“I think I know another person trouble seems to find,” Lena said, implying that I didn’t have much room to talk. “You can fight it all you want, but you and Tommy are cut from the same cloth. You’re so alike it’s scary.”

I nodded knowingly, but I also knew Tommy and I needed to have a long, serious talk before anything would ever be mended.

I kissed Lena goodbye. I knew she cared for Tommy. It was hard not to, the guy is pretty infectious. I left through the front door. I didn’t transition; I flew up into the sky in my Mani form. Victorville is such a dead community, that I knew I could get away with it.

I made my way up the back part of the San Bernardino Mountains and found myself once again at Tommy’s cabin in Running Springs. I decided to land in his yard and look ahead at his giant cabin. I had a lot of memories of this place. This was going to be harder than I thought.

I knocked on the door and there was no answer. I eventually just opened the door and went in. Tommy wasn’t in his front room, but I could hear something in the room where he kept his cage. I walked up to the doorway and looked in. Tommy was in the middle of his cage, sitting cross-legged, drinking what looked to be an entire bottle of vodka.

I stood outside the doorway and just looked in. A part of me wanted to leave and never let him know I was there. I thought better of it, but it bothered me that he was just lying on his back, wasted. I should have known he was drunk. Why else would he contact me? Tommy was a very sad drunk sometimes, especially when he drank alone. At a party, he was a madman when he drank, but alone, nothing good usually came of it. He had drunk himself into a suicidal dark place more than once and this was one of his darkest secrets of the ones I knew. This looked like one of those times. His head and face were sweaty and I could tell he had been crying.

Poor guy.

“You okay?” I asked, from the door.

Tommy sat up a little surprised. “I’m divine, Josiah, nice of you to ask.”

“You look it,” I said, with an obvious condescending tone.

“Come in, so I can see you, brother.”

“I’m okay, right here,” I said. The room was barely lit and it seemed Tommy was really going for serious dramatics.

“What are you afraid of?” Tommy asked.

“You know me better than that by now, Tommy. I’m not afraid of anything.”

“I know one thing you’re afraid of…”

Okay, apparently Tommy wanted to verbally insult me, so I let him play his game. “Please tell me, what would that be?”

“Yourself.”

“Myself?”

“Did I stutter?” Tommy rolled over and knocked over his bottle. He grabbed it before too much had spilled out.

“Actually, you did,” I said, laughing. “It was more of a slur than a stutter.”

“Cute, Josiah,” Tommy composed himself and poured himself a drink. “Just admit it, Josiah, you’re afraid of you.”

“Me? I don’t think that I am.”

“You’re afraid of what’s inside you. You’re afraid of what you’ve become.”

Great, he wanted to get all philosophical. “Tommy, look! Is there something specifically you needed to talk about, or were you hoping for some bro time?”

“Don’t flatter yourself!” Tommy spouted.

“Okay, then what is it you want to talk about?” I asked.

Tommy took another sip of his vodka. “I got a business offer from a friend of yours.”

“Huh?” I was now confused.

“You know, your billionaire Mexican amigo that you decided to tell all of our pinky promise secrets to.”

Shit! Romero found Tommy!

“You talked to Romero?” I asked.

“Yes, we had quite the conversation. It seems I ran into some trouble and, low and behold, your boy was there bailing me out. Well, he wasn’t actually bailing me out; he was mainly giving me mercy.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“Well, after you cast me out of your Mani Kingdom, I took refuge in the city of sin.”

“Vegas?”

“No, Salt Lake City,” Tommy laughed. “Of course, Vegas. You know me, Josiah. When in Rome, I like to do what the Romans do.”

“Please don’t tell me you started gambling again. The last time you got into it cost you all of your winnings.”

“Oh, it cost me a lot more than my winnings this time. I began doing some serious gambling. It made what I got into before child’s play. I actually got up pretty good, but you know how that goes. My luck only lasted so long. Eventually, I was in pretty deep with more than one guy.”

“How deep?”

Tommy was referring to how much money he owed bookies, cashiers, whomever.

“Seven figures.”

“What the hell? You owed a million dollars! How does that happen?”

“It was 3.3 million to be exact.”

“Holy shit! Are you kidding me?”

“Like I said, I was up pretty big and about a month ago. I had a sure bet, it was a freaking lock, and I decided to put all my winnings, which was around 500 large, with six different bookies.”

“And you lost?”

“I sure as hell didn’t win.”

“You’re a werewolf. Screw them, split town. Who gives a shit about bookies?”

“You don’t think I thought about that. These guys aren’t dummies. They employ guys like us. If I tried to stiff any of them, I would have the whole immortal Mafia after me.”

“Is there such a thing?”

“You don’t even want to know the crazy shit that’s going on in Vegas. I met Doc Holliday!”

“Yeah?”

“He’s one of us.”

“Bullshit!”

“Or at least he’s one of you. The whole coughing-up blood routine is because he has a large appetite for blood. He’s no ‘lunger.’ That’s other people’s blood he was coughing up. He’s a notorious Mani who still resides in Vegas.”

“You’re trying to tell me that Doc Holliday, best friend to freaking Wyatt Earp, is after you?”

“Well, they’re not best friends any longer. Wyatt Earp has been dead for around a hundred years.”

“I could give a rat’s ass about Wyatt Freaking Earp! You’re telling me Doc Holliday, leader of the Immortal Mafia, is after you?”

“Him and others. Those guys don’t mess around.”

Was Tommy telling me the truth? I needed to know more. So, I asked, “How does Romero play into all of this?”

“He’s the head honcho. Doc Holliday reports to his ass! They were going to kill me until I brought you up.”

“Why did you bring me up?”

“I told them if they were going to kill me to let you know. You’re the only family I have since my Grandma passed a couple of months back.”

“So, you said my name? What happened after that?”

“Before I knew it, I was brought to Tijuana to some ranch to meet Romero. He made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse, so to speak.”

“Did you take it?” I asked.

“I had no choice.”

“How long will it take you to pay him off?”

“A-long-ass-time. He only gives me $25,000 a fight.”

I did the math in my head. Tommy was going to fight 130 times just to cover his debt.

“I’m a huge commodity,” Tommy continued, “because I can fight as a werewolf whenever he wants. Thanks to you, Romero is highly aware I have that ability.”

I noticed earlier that Tommy had some nicks and bruises on his face and arms and now I knew why. Apparently this poor guy was fighting every chance he got. I felt like shit. This was all my fault.

“Couldn’t you have negotiated a higher per-fight fee?” I asked.

“I actually did. He originally wanted to only give me $20,000. I got him to go to $25,000, as long as I fight at least five times a week.”

“What happens if you get really hurt?” I asked.

“I don’t know. We haven’t discussed that. I haven’t lost yet. I usually dispose of my opponent in minutes. It pisses off Romero, but I’m not about to put on a show and risk getting hurt.”

“So, why did you contact me?”

“I need your help.”

“In what regard?”

“I need for you to talk to Romero. He seems pretty fond of you. I’m worn out. I have fought the last ten days in a row. He’s talking about having me fight multiple times in a night. So I can pay off the money faster.”

Romero was completely exploiting Tommy and it was my fault. Well, it was both of our faults. After all, he was the one down three and a half million dollars to bookies. “Can you handle fighting as much as he wants you to?” I asked, feeling guilty as hell to even ask the question.

“I don’t know, probably,” Tommy answered. “But I don’t want to.”

“What do you think I can do?” I asked. I hadn’t a clue how to fix this problem.

“I don’t know; help negotiate a higher per-fight take for me. Maybe ask him to cut what I owe him down. I just need for you to talk to him. Like I said, I’m worn out. I only have a quarter of a million of what I owe paid off. It’s taking a toll on me.”

“Maybe I’ll have a drink, too,” I said. I walked over to Tommy and he poured me a shot into the glass he was drinking from and I downed it. Tommy had the cheap stuff. It tasted like ass.

We sat and didn’t say anything to each other for a couple of minutes. Finally, Tommy broke the silence and said, “What have you been up to?”

“Getting my head straight,” I said.

“That could be dangerous,” he grinned.

“You’re telling me.”

“How are Lena and Yari?”

I smiled at Tommy. “They’re doing well.”

“That’s good.”

“How are things with you two? You and Lena?”

“Look, Tom. I’ll help you in regards with Romero, but let’s leave Lena out of it.”

“Still bitter, I take it.”

“Just drop it.”

“Fair enough.”

“When are you going back to TJ?” I asked.

“Tomorrow; I needed a night off. Romero didn’t even want to give me that.”

The more I was finding out how bad Romero was treating Tommy, the more it was pissing me off. “I’ll come down and talk with him this weekend. Just be sure not to lose or get hurt until then. And it probably won’t hurt you to put on a little show for the crowd every once in a while. It could only help your case when I talk to him. It’ll make you a higher commodity.”

Tommy nodded.

“Are you going to be okay?” I asked. This time I was asking him a question as his friend, not someone who had been guilted into helping him.

“Sure, I’ll be dandy,” Tommy said, as he laid on his wooden floor.

“All right, then. I’m taking off.”

I turned around to leave the room and Tommy yelled out, “Josiah!”

I stopped and looked at Tommy. “What is it?”

“How did everything get so jacked up?”

“I don’t know, Tommy. It just did.”

Chapter Sixteen

I left Tommy’s place, hoping and praying that he would be okay. I felt bad that he had put himself in such a bad predicament. I felt a bit responsible for my part in his little dilemma. So many things were happening so fast. It was hard to know which decisions were the correct ones. My gut was telling me to be there for him. I just didn’t know how.

I can’t fight his battles for him. Or can I?

Romero had offered me a lot more to fight. Maybe if I fought a couple of fights it could clear his name. The problem with Tommy is that even if I did this for him and paid off his debt, it doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be in more economic trouble down the road. Maybe the best way to teach him a lesson was by making him do it himself. I just didn’t want him to get killed. I’m pretty sure Romero wouldn’t let that happen. I’d go up and see him this weekend. I’d check out Tommy, too. I’d see what he’s up against.

When I got back to the house, Lena was swimming in the pool, alone. I went into the backyard and watched her as she swam. She looked cute in her white, two-piece bathing suit. “Hey, baby-girl,” I said, walking up to the pool. Lena had stopped swimming and moved her way to the shallow end.

“I was getting a workout in,” she said, sliding to the side of the pool.

“I never knew you were one to work out.”

“I don’t work out all manic like you, but I do some things here and there.”

“Well, you look great,” I said, giving her a sincere smile.

“Why don’t you come in the water with me?”

“I don’t have swimming shorts.”

“You must have a pair of shorts somewhere.”

“Just basketball shorts.”

“Go put those on. You don’t need swimming trunks.”

I looked at Lena in the pool and she seemed to be relaxing and enjoying herself. So I figured, why not? “Okay, I’ll get in. Hold on.” I ran upstairs and changed out of my clothes and put on a pair of red basketball shorts and grabbed a towel. I came down the stairs and everyone was watching a movie in the living room.

“Josiah is going swimming,” Yari laughed. “That boy must be whipped.”

“Yeah, don’t you wish,” I said, back to her.

“A whipped Josiah is a happy Josiah,” she grinned.

“Yeah, bro,” Cyrus said. “You were pretty depressed there for a while.” Cyrus was sitting in a recliner and Yari was on his lap. The others were all sitting on the other two couches watching the movie.

“I wasn’t depressed,” I said, to Cyrus. “I was just being introspective.”

“No, you were a lost puppy, Josiah,” Hector chimed in. He was on the couch closest to the kitchen with his arm around his girlfriend.

“I liked you better, Hector, when you didn’t talk. So, is everyone going to bust my balls?”

“If we didn’t bust your balls,” Yari said. “You wouldn’t know how much we all love you.”

I smiled. I never thought about the word ‘love’ when it came to all of us. I thought about words like trust, honor, and loyalty. Never ‘love.’ But, in the end, we all did love each other.

“I love all you guys, too,” I said, then walked into the backyard. It felt good saying it to a room full of people who have proven to have my back. In my entire life, I’ve only had one person that was always by my side, and that was Tommy. These guys have proven a lot to me in such a short amount of time.

I walked out and Lena was wading in the shallow end. “Is the water cold?” I asked.

“No, it’s heated.”

“It is?”

“You’ve never been in the pool before?”

“Nope, first time.”

“Oh, Josiah. You really need to start having a little bit more fun.”

“I guess I can start right now.” I dove into the deep end. Wow, the water was warm. I swam underneath the water all the way up to Lena and grabbed her and she squealed.

I pressed her up against the side wall of the pool. I turned her body around and held her tight as if I was going to do a wrestling move on her.

“Don’t be rough,” she said.

“Rough? This is me being romantic,” I said, as I softly leaned into her.

“Aren’t I the lucky girl?” she said, teasingly.

I turned Lena around and loosened my grip around her waist. “Well, aren’t you?”

Lena looked me in the eyes. “I’m very lucky, Josiah.”

“I’m glad you feel that way.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know, sometimes it’s hard for me to trust what’s going on here.”

“Why is that?”

“It just is. You can’t blame me for having doubts.”

Lena looked up at me and I could tell she was hurt. “Haven’t I proven myself?” she asked.

“Proven yourself?” I didn’t like that choice of words at all. “What does that mean?” I asked. “To say you’ve proven yourself? Are you trying to earn a promotion at a job or are you someone who wants to be my girlfriend?”

“I didn’t mean it like that. Josiah, I have given you 150 percent of my heart, time and love. I would hope at some point that you realize that I can’t change the past. I can only be here in the present and hopefully that will prove our future.”

I looked at Lena and felt bad that I made her defend her words, but I couldn’t help but be a tad insecure when it came to us. I hated feeling that way, but I have never cared for anyone as deeply as I did her. It made me a little crazy. “I know you love me,” I said. “Sometimes I just get a little scared.”

“Scared?” Lena asked. “What are you scared of?”

I looked away from the pool to gather my thoughts. I knew if I opened up in this way, it would lead to a kind of vulnerability that I wasn’t sure I was ready to show.

Lena repeated her question, “What are you afraid of, Josiah?”

I sighed deeply and I knew if I exposed what’s truly in my heart, it could be catastrophic in the long run if it backfired. I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to put myself out there, even to her. I figured she needed to know what was stirring up inside me. So I said, “Sometimes I think that the reason you’re here with me is because I’m ‘The Chosen.’ I feel like you’re afraid of being ostracized by others if you reject me or, worse yet, cursed by the Triat.”

Lena smiled at me and just shook her head and said, “Let me ask you a question. When have you ever seen me do anything that I didn’t want to do?”

I thought about it and she was right. She always did what she wants. “Never,” I said.

“Think about it, Josiah. I stubbornly was going to allow Atticai to drain all my human blood because I was sure I’d live forever with him. Do you think for one second if I wanted Tommy or anyone else over you I’d be here right now? Do you think I would give a shit about being ostracized or cursed? Josiah, you are the most beautiful person inside and out that I have ever known. I choose you, Josiah. I choose this moment. I choose to be in the pool and to love you till the end of my days. The Tommy’s, Yari’s, Atticai’s, were all stumbling blocks for us to get to where we are tonight, for us to have this moment we’re having right now.”

That was exactly what I needed to hear. I was afraid of exposing my heart, but Lena flipped it and exposed her innermost feelings. I stared across the pool at Lena and wanted her in a manner that I hadn’t quite ever felt. I wanted to consume her with every inch of me. “Why don’t we go upstairs?” I said, taking her hand.

“Good idea,” she said. Then the two of us dried off and went to my room and shared a closeness that was pretty out of this world, to say the least.

Chapter Seventeen

That weekend, I headed down to Tijuana. I wasn’t planning on staying long. I wanted to see Tommy fight a match and I also needed to have a serious talk with Romero.

I made an excuse to Lena about where I was going. I didn’t like lying to her, but in this case, it didn’t serve her any good to know what I was up to.

I told her I was going out for some air. I wasn’t necessarily lying. I made my way down to Romero’s fight ranch. I transitioned into the great white eagle mid-flight. When I reached Romero’s compound, I decided to land past the security and transitioned back to my Mani form. I was pretty discreet as I landed and I wanted to see if I could sneak in past his security and I did pretty easily. I guess a million-dollar security detail doesn’t account for a freaking eagle. The problem with sneaking past the first set of guards was no one knew I had shown up. I decided to go to the front and request a sit down with Romero.

I walked out to a couple of his security detail. “Excuse me,” I said. “I’m here to see Romero.”

“Who the hell are you?” the security guard asked, in a very thick accent. He looked at me, frowning and very perplexed at how I had obviously gotten past their checkpoint without being stopped. I looked at the little shit in his full army gear. He looked like he had just gotten dropped into the jungle of Vietnam by a freaking helicopter.

“Tell him that Josiah Reign is here to see him,” I said, calmly.

Another security guy walked over to us and scolded the man in Spanish who had originally addressed me. He obviously knew who I was and was making sure this guy would show me a little more respect. Whatever he said to him put the little shit in his place, because he changed his tune real fast.

“Hold on,” the original guard said, to me. He radioed in to the front and spoke Spanish into his walkie-talkie. After a moment the guard said, “Follow me.” He led me through the back entrance Romero had brought me through weeks earlier. I looked up into the sky and the moon was as full as it was ever was going to be. I wondered if Tommy had the night off because the other wolves would be available.

I was led back up into Romero’s private suite. As I entered the room, Romero was sitting at a table in a very slick gray suit. He looked like a hit man. His hair was slicked back and he was smoking a cigar. Damn, he could look intimidating when he wanted to. “Josiah! Have you come to see your friend?”

“Actually … yeah,” I answered.

“I hope you’re not upset that I had him work for me.” Romero tried to sound like he cared about what I thought, but I knew better.

“He’s a big boy and he has big boy problems. Sometimes we all need to be reminded that there are consequences to all of our actions.”

“Well said.” Romero gave me a long stare to see if I truly meant what I told him. After a moment, he smiled and said, “I’m glad we’re on the same page.” It almost appeared that Romero was disappointed that I wasn’t pissed off. “So, what can I do you for, Josiah?”

“Well,” I said. “I want to talk to you about the deal you gave Tommy.”

“Oh, you came here to talk business? I do wish you would have called ahead. The only business I like to do in this room is signing new talent.”

“Who knows?” I said, “Maybe that might be on the table.”

Romero’s eyes brightened. “Now you have my attention.” Romero cleared the room with a shrieking whistle from his lips. “Wanna drink?” he asked.

“Not tonight. I’m driving.”

“Seriously?”

“Not unless you call my twelve-foot wing span gliding across the sky driving. Plus the last time you got me intoxicated, I offered up some pretty private info.”

“It was lucky that you did. Once I realized who your friend was, it was the only thing that saved his life. And luckily, for him and me, you did let me know. He’s my biggest attraction. He’s the new fan favorite around this place. He has changed the face of the crowd. A lot more women have been showing up.”

“That’s Tommy for you,” I said. “The kid has more sex appeal in his pinky that most men have in a lifetime.”

Romero looked at me and smiled. “You’re telling me! Also, this used to be a three days out of the month operation. Now we do this every Thursday through Sunday.”

“And that’s why I’m here. I need to talk to you about your new product which happens to be a dear friend of mine.”

“You want to renegotiate on behalf of your friend?”

“Yes.”

“What exactly are we negotiating here?”

“Money, what else?”

“Money?” Romero’s eyes were glaring through me. “I’m sorry, Josiah. I think we’re done here!”

“Done? We haven’t even started talking.”

“Let me guess where this is going,” Romero said to me. “You want me to raise his per-fight fee to at least double of what it is. Then you want him to have some kind of ‘super fight’ where he can make at least $100,000 a fight.”

Romero did know business because that was the exact direction I was going in. “I was thinking more like a quarter of a million for the ‘super fight,’” I said, correcting Romero.

I could see that such a bold statement didn’t sit well with Romero. He wasn’t used to dealing with someone like me who wasn’t the least bit intimidated by him. “Do you know who you’re talking to, young man?” Romero stood up.

I was surprised at his tone. I came here to have a mellow conversation, not be bullied by a billionaire. So, I stood up, too. “No, the question is, do you have any fucking idea who you are talking to?” I stated, as clearly as I could. “I’m sorry, I think you have mistaken me for someone who gives a shit about what you’re worth.” Now I was pissed.

Suddenly, the door flew open. Romero raised his hand at his bodyguards to stop them before getting to me. I backed up and cleared a table out of the way. If they wanted to come for me, by all means they could write their own death sentences.

“Calm down, Josiah. I’m not going to let them get to you,” Romero said to me.

“I’m supposed to be impressed that you stopped your thugs from coming at me?” I said. “The only lives you saved were theirs.”

“You’re pretty damn confident aren’t you, Josiah?”

“It’s not confidence; It’s fact. The fact of the matter is, I’m being cordial with you and I don’t have to be. If I wanted to, I could take Tommy out of here at any point and there is very little you could do to stop me.”

Romero smiled at me. “You truly believe, even if I called on all my soldiers, you would still walk out of here alive?”

“I do,” I said, as sure as I ever said anything in my life.

Romero seemed shocked. Then he switched gears abruptly and mellowed out. “That is great.” Romero sat down. “Please sit, Josiah. Let’s continue this discussion in a more civil manner.”

“It would be more civil if we were alone,” I said, referring to his room full of guards who had their hands on their automatic weapons, just itching to pull them out and use them on me.

Romero snapped his fingers and his body guards all once again left the suite.

“Okay, let’s talk numbers,” Romero said.

“It’s pretty basic math, Romero. Tommy doesn’t get paid enough per fight. “

“I can bump it to $33,000.”

“That’s not good enough. I want $60,000.”

“You and I both know that’s a ridiculous number, Josiah.”

“Why? You offered me a million,” I said, reminding Romero the number he spouted to me weeks ago.

“Tommy is about volume,” Romero said, plainly. “Although he’s a fan favorite, he fights all the time and he’s a tad overdone. People are rooting for him because he has never lost. The second that happens, it will decrease his value in half.”

Romero was bringing up pretty good business counters, but I had one more trick left up my sleeve. “Okay, let’s say as long as he never loses, you go up two grand a fight until it’s paid off.”

“Two grand? That’s it?” Romero asked.

“Yeah.”

I did the math in my head. That was about 40 more fights. I at least cut his fights in half.

Romero thought about my proposal and then said, “Okay, as long as he stays undefeated, I’ll do it on one other condition.”

“What condition is that?” I asked.

“You owe me one ‘super fight,’” Romero stated.

“Just one?”

“Just one.” Romero smiled. “That’s it.”

“When?”

“Well, it’s got to be really good, so I’ll keep you posted.”

“If we make this super fight in the next couple of months,” I said, “I’ll do it.”

“It’s a deal, Josiah.” Romero and I stood up and shook hands.

“Where’s Tommy at?” I asked.

“He fights first and last tonight.”

“Two fights?”

“We started giving him a Twinkie in the opening fight of the night and the crowd has really responded to it. Tommy’s a great opening act. He really gets the crowd going.”

“When does this thing start?”

“Any second now. You might want to sit down. Tommy’s entrance puts Pro Wrestling entrances to shame. It’s pretty fucking cool.” Romero almost sounded like a ten-year-old kid with his enthusiasm.

Suddenly, all the lights went out in the arena. Then a bright spotlight hit the middle ring in a giant blaze of light. The two black double doors opened and a black raven flew into the arena over the crowd and circled it. The crowd booed and screamed as the raven passed each section of the crowd.

Damn, these crowds hate vampires!

The raven landed in the middle of the ring and transitioned into a bulky six foot two, semi-overweight, doughy-looking young vampire. Romero was right. That kid out there was the definition of a Twinkie fighter. Tommy was going to rip this poor kid’s head off. He looked not a day older than sixteen years old.

“How old is he?” I asked.

“Like 200 years old,” Romero answered.

I chuckled. “Oh yeah, he must have turned into a vampire young. He looks like a tween.”

“He’s young in body, but not in heart.”

“Still,” I said. “Tommy is going to mop the floor with that kid.”

“That’s the whole point, Josiah.”

I looked back out into the arena and once again all the lights went out. Then I saw something that gave me chills. It was one of coolest things I had ever witnessed. The entire crowd stood on their feet and exploded in applause when they heard the sound of speed metal beginning to play over the loudspeaker.

The crowd chanted, ‘Tommy! Tommy! Tommy!’

I looked over at Romero and he had a giant grin on his face. “I told you, your boy is loved.”

“Where’s the cage?” I asked.

“Tommy doesn’t need one. He can control himself, so there is no need for a cage. It’s actually quite nice.”

Then lights and lasers shot across the arena in every direction. Oh, this was a show for the ages. A huge spot of light from the spotlight appeared in front of the double doors. I hadn’t seen that before in one of Romero’s entrances. They were really giving the crowd their money’s worth. Tommy was about to enter at any moment. This was insane. I had to admit, my adrenaline was going.

This was pretty damn cool.

Suddenly both doors flew open. And a shirtless Tommy appeared, walking in barefooted, wearing just a pair of tiny white shorts. The crowd went berserk shouting and chanting his name. Tommy looked up into the crowd and just pointed straight ahead toward the ring. As he walked, the entire arena was thumping.

Oh, he was eating this up! Tommy was completely in his element!

Suddenly Tommy began to jog toward the stage, then his jog became a full sprint and as he jumped into the ring he transitioned from man to werewolf. The Mani boy jumped out of the ring. The crowd absolutely went berserk. Tommy circled the ring as the great gray werewolf. He howled at the top of his lungs. He owned the crowd and this was his moment of absolute glory.

Then I remembered that I could communicate with him telepathically when he is in his werewolf form. So that was exactly what I did. “Tommy!” I yelled, in my mind.

“Josiah?” he answered and looked around the crowd.

“I’m in your head!” I said.

“Where are you?”

“I’m with Romero in his suite. Hey, you never told Romero we can communicate like this have you?” I asked. I definitely did not want Romero to have any idea Tommy and I had this ability.

“No, you?”

“Nope, I did some good negotiating up here tonight for you. I’ll tell you later. Kick this kid’s ass and we’ll talk when you’re done.”

“Sounds good to me.” Tommy motioned with his paw for the Mani to enter the ring. Tommy let the kid get in and they circled each other.

“Don’t hurt him too bad,” I said.

“I never do,” Tommy answered.

The Mani leaped on Tommy and they rolled around the ring. Tommy was playing with him. It was like watching someone trying to wrestle a washing machine. That kid was not moving Tommy in any direction.

Tommy grabbed the kid and threw him out of the ring onto the concrete floor. He crashed onto the floor into a table and just crumpled. Tommy jumped on top of him from the inside of the ring and bit down onto his neck to grip him but didn’t hurt him. Tommy was dragging him around the outside of the ring like a play toy.

The crowd laughed and cheered. Tommy could do no wrong. Tommy held the kid up with one paw and back-handed him with his other. The kid flew face first back inside the ring. He tried to get up. But he was in a lot of pain. He really was a cream puff. He gave Tommy no challenge at all.

Tommy climbed up on top of the ropes on the corner turnbuckle. He then turned and faced the audience. He raised both his paws.

“This is his big moment,” Romero said, to me. “He calls it the ‘Tommy Twizzler.’ He spins in the air and smashes his opponent on the mat.”

And that was exactly what Tommy did. With his back to the kid, he dove backward, spinning, like a propeller and landed on the kid, completely knocking the wind out of him. Tommy quickly transitioned back into his human form. Well, so much for it being a secret that he could transition whenever he felt like it. He just did it in front of the world, twice.

Tommy motioned for the paramedics to attend to his knocked-out opponent. Tommy stepped out of the ring to the enjoyment of the crowd.

I looked at Romero. “That was pretty awesome.”

“You’re telling me. Tommy is gold,” Romero said, shaking his head at the spectacle Tommy just delivered.

“Remember that,” I said, reminding Romero of the hot commodity he had in Tommy. “I’ll keep in touch with you. I’m going to let Tommy know about the new deal. I’m going to tell him everything, except that I’m going to have to fight. So I’d appreciate it if you don’t tell him.”

“Whatever floats your boat, Josiah.” Romero turned and looked into the crowd. I could almost see dollar signs in his eyeballs like you can in a cartoon. Tommy was making him rich and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

I left Romero’s suite and headed out to where the fights adjourn. I spotted Tommy and went over to him. “Nice fight, Tom!”

Tommy wasn’t too impressed with himself. “He was a fish,” Tommy said, playing it down.

“He was definitely a flounder, but hell, at least they don’t make you bust your ass twice in a night.”

“True.” Tommy barely looked like he even broke a sweat.

“Just to let you know, Tom. I reduced your fights from a hundred to a little more than forty.”

“Seriously? How the hell did you pull that off?”

“There’s a catch,” I said.

“What’s the catch?” Tommy asked.

“You can’t lose.”

“Not ever?”

“Not even once. Think about it, you have never lost in the ring. You could even beat me back in the day.”

“Could even beat you? That’s cute, Josiah.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re just a little full of yourself as of late,” Tommy said, looking at me the way an older brother does.

“Look dude, if you don’t appreciate what I worked out for you, I’m pretty sure Romero would be more than happy to go back to your old deal.”

Tommy grinned at me with his classic cocky smile and said, “Nah, I appreciate it, Josiah. You’re a good man.”

I nodded. “Nice entrance out there. All it was missing was fireworks!”

“We’re working on mixing some in for future matches,” Tommy grinned, “You liked that?”

“It’s a little over the top, but I wouldn’t have expected anything less from you. You have some following with the crowd. They seem to really love you.”

“At least someone does. I know I’m just the flavor of the month,” Tommy snickered. He couldn’t fool me. I knew he loved the adoration.

“I do have a question for you,” I said.

“Yeah?”

“Do you think it’s safe that you exposed your ability to transition from man to werewolf?”

“Does it matter? How could anyone ever use it against me? Plus, it shows the crowd that I’m for real.”

Tommy did have a point. If anyone knew anything about Carni, they would know he couldn’t possibly transition without a full moon. They probably think it was just some great make-up job. Doing the transition in front of the crowd gave credibility to it. I guess there wasn’t any way to use the move against him. It just made him more lethal.

“Well, Tom, you did great tonight, amazing. You put on a hell of a show.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it, coming from you.”

I nodded my head and said, “I’m going to take off.”

“You’re not going to see my next fight?” Tommy seemed real disappointed.

“I need to take care of some other things.” I really had nothing else to do. I just didn’t want to be in this place longer than I had to. There was something about the arena that didn’t sit right with me. “I figure you should be released from your debt in two months,” I said, changing the subject. “Just don’t lose.”

“I don’t know how that’s even possible when you’re as gifted as I am,” Tommy said, with his Hollywood smile.

“Keep thinking that way. It’s what is going to save your ass.” I looked at Tommy. I wanted to give him a hug or at least a handshake, but I couldn’t. We just nodded at each other. I turned around and left the arena.

Chapter Eighteen

A few weeks went by and I hadn’t had any word from Tommy, so I figured he must have kept winning. He had a couple weeks left and he should have a clean slate with Romero. For that to happen in its entirety, I was going to have to have my ‘super fight.’

During the last few weeks, I had been piecing together my Mani army. I read the Art of War by Sun Tzu. I downloaded the book onto my Kindle. I also read a book written by General Patton on leadership during a crisis. Both books got my mind right.

I knew a Mani war wouldn’t be anything like a military one. But there is a psychological mindset about leading a group of people into a battle that could potentially kill them that weighs on your soul. We had over 250 Mani committed to our cause. Cyrus told me that Krull’s army was over a thousand. We had a long way to go in the recruitment process. All we had from this point was word of mouth. I heard that there was close to five thousand Mani who were believed to be roaming the earth. Finding Mani willing to fight for a cause bigger than themselves was a tough task. Once a week, we would throw a giant party that always turned into a weird vampire pep rally and every week, our numbers grew. I was becoming quite the motivational speaker for the cause. I wasn’t sure when Krull was going to strike and I just needed to make sure these guys were ready. I was having a lot of misgivings about the caliber of fighter that was showing up. I had my work cut out for me in the training department, to say the very least.

It was a Saturday night, a night after one of our huge Mani parties. I had felt pretty overwhelmed by this whole process and it was obviously weighing on my mind. Lena and I tried cuddling up and watching a romantic comedy on the couch in the living room, but I was too restless. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan just weren’t going to cut it on this evening.

“What’s wrong, Josiah? Lena asked.

“I have a lot on my mind.”

“About what?”

“I have a feeling something is about to go down.”

“You mean with Krull?”

“Yeah, sometimes I feel like he’s watching me and he’s laughing at how puny my army is. He’s amused that all I could recruit are out-of-shape Mani misfits who had a better chance of winning a dance contest than a street fight.”

“You’re doing all you can,” Lena said, trying to give me the encouragement I so desperately needed. “There isn’t a manual for all of this.”

“Trust me, I know.” I stood up from the couch. “I think I just need to go for a fly and clear my head.”

Lena smiled and said, “Go for it, babe. Just promise me we’ll finish the movie when you get back?”

“I promise, spoiler alert,” I said. “I’m pretty sure Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan get together by the end of the movie.” I kissed Lena goodbye and went back to my room.

I took a quick shower and then jumped out of the trap door in my bedroom and transitioned into the eagle and darted across the sky. It felt good to just glide and not have to fly with any purpose. I headed north and made my way toward Orange County.

As I peacefully flew across the night, a sudden terror came over my body. I looked to my left and about twenty black ravens were coming at me. I looked to my right and there was another twenty or so black ravens coming at me. It was Krull and his minion army.

CRAP! Seriously? Right here? Right now? This isn’t how this is supposed to go down.

I dropped my elevation and flew toward the ground. I looked behind me and all forty birds were hot on my trail.

“Help!” I said, in my head as loud as I could. “Anyone there!” I repeated.

I knew I could telepathically talk to both Helen and Tommy if need be, as long as they were being perceptive to it. In Tommy’s case, he needed to be in his werewolf form.

I could see the beach up ahead and the Huntington Beach Pier. I bolted toward it.

“Help!” I repeated, again in my head.

Then I heard, “Josiah.”

It was Helen!

“Helen! Where are you? I’m being attacked!”

“Near Los Angeles,” she answered.

“I’m near the Huntington Beach Pier and Krull and his guys are after me.”

“Hold them off! I’ll get there as fast as I can,” Helen said.

“I’ll try.” I flew up the coast and circled back. “Tommy!” I yelled, in my head. “Help!”

“Josiah?” It was Tommy.

Thank God.

“I’m being attacked by Krull,” I screamed.

“I’m about to fight at the arena.” Tommy said “Where are you?”

“I’m in Huntington Beach,” I answered.

“How am I supposed to get there? I can’t fly.”

Dammit! Tommy was right. I forgot he was grounded. I always seem to forget that.

“Helen.” I yelled, again in my head.

“Yes.”

“Change of plans. I’m heading for Tijuana. There’s a gang of vampires down there that might help me.”

“Why not fly back to your house?” Helen asked.

“There’s not enough help,” I answered. “All my friends will get slaughtered by these guys.”

“Okay, Josiah,” Helen said. “I’ll get there as fast as I can.”

“Tommy,” I said. “Gather up anyone you can! Tell them it’s an old-school street fight and meet me up the way in the open field.”

“I have to fight first,” Tommy said. “I’m actually fighting the guy as we speak.”

“Well, kick his ass and meet me about half a mile up in the fields by the main city.”

“All right, brother.” Tommy was gone. He must have transitioned to his human form.

I switched my flight direction and was now bolting south toward Mexico. I was flying at a velocity that I had yet to endure. The wind was slamming into my face. I was really having a hard time outrunning the ravens who were hot on my tail. I wondered if transitioning to my human form would give me a boost. I looked behind me and I had a good 500 yards on the nearest black raven that was gunning for me.

I decided to transition to my Mani form. Boy was that a mistake, it was as if I hit the brakes! My flight speed nearly cut in half. Within seconds all the ravens were on my tail. Some even rammed their beaks into my legs and arms.

This was not good.

I quickly transitioned back to the eagle and this time I hauled ass as if my wings were on fire.

“I’m gaining on you,” Helen’s voice said, in my head.

“Huh?” Where are you?” I asked.

“I’m five minutes from San Diego.”

“Well, I just passed San Diego. At the speed you’re going, Helen, in a few minutes you’re going to come up on Krull and his crew. Be careful.”

“This isn’t my first rodeo, sexy.”

“I’m sure it isn’t.” In a few minutes, I flew over the border. “Tommy, you done?” I asked, in my head.

“Just about. I’m trying to knock him out without hurting him too bad.”

“Just choke him out,” I said.

“It’s hard to do a safe choke hold when you have claws like daggers.”

“I’m going to be just east of the arena. Get there and again bring anyone who wants some to get into it.”

“I know a few guys that this is just their ‘kind of party.’ Are wolves okay?”

“If they’re down to fight… I don’t care if you bring fucking fairies.”

“Oh, these boys will be down, Josiah. No worries about that.

“Just knock the guy out and please get there quick,” I pleaded.

“I’m done, Josiah. I just knocked him out with the ‘Twizzler.’ I’ll be there in five.”

Once I hit the area that I figured was as good as place as any to fight in, I decided I needed to buy more time. So, with all the ravens still coming at me, I ascended up as high as I could. I needed a few more minutes for Helen and Tommy and whomever he was able to grab to get there.

I flew as high as I could. I kept ascending higher and higher. I looked below me and I only had a handful of ravens still following me. One of them was Krull. He was bigger than the rest, and he was leading the charge.

After about five minutes, I decided to change my flight direction and completely do a 180-degree reversal of flight and go south in the direction that the birds were chasing me in. I torpedoed downward and spiked into the ravens like a bowling ball. As I came up on the ravens, they didn’t know what to make of me. Instead of me drilling them like a bunch of bowling pins, they scattered out of the way like a bunch of cockroaches.

They actually made it real easy to fly past them. As I continued my way toward the ground, I could see Tommy coming up in the distance with about twenty-five men who appeared to be both Mani and Carni.

This should be interesting.

I landed on the dirt area that was flat for a good 1000 yards. This would be as good a spot as any to ‘throw down.’ I looked up and a beautiful white hawk came toward me. It was Helen. She landed next to me. She transitioned and stood there in her beautiful Mani form. She looked incredible, like something from the cover of a romance novel. Her blond hair flowed in the wind.

“Thanks, Helen,” I said.

“It looks like you have a good crew behind you, Josiah.”

I looked at Helen and I knew I didn’t want her to fight in this battle. I might have been sexist, but I was also being protective. She was, in her own right, Mani royalty as far as I was concerned, and this was something I didn’t want her to get hurt doing.

“Helen, I think Tommy brought enough guys and we’ll be okay. Why don’t you pull back and be safe.”

“You sure?” Helen asked. “Like I said, I’m here to fight.”

“Why don’t you watch from a distance,” I said. “And if need be, join in. If not, you can pull back.”

Tommy’s guys had now surrounded me. I looked out to the ‘beat-up’ and ‘broken-down’ fighters and said, “I’m not sure what Tommy promised you to get you to come out, but I’m sure glad you’re here.”

“He said you’re not a bad guy to have in our corner if we ever need it,” a Carni man yelled out.

I nodded my head. “Do me right, and I’ll do you right. That’s the motto I live by.”

“Then let’s kick some ass,” said a muscular Mani man.

There were about fifteen Carni and ten Mani. I nodded at my Mani brothers and said, “If anyone has ever had a beef with Krull, this is the time you can pay him back.”

“Krull?” One yelled out, terrified, “No one said this was going to be Krull’s crew.”

“Is there a problem?” I yelled out.

A couple of Mani looked at each other, transitioned and got the hell out of there, like, well, bats outta hell.

“Anyone want to leave now that you know what you’re in for?” I yelled out to the others.

“I have nothing to lose,” one Mani said to me.

Another one said, “I don’t even own my own life.” That was an odd comment, but I didn’t have time to dissect it.

Suddenly, a rush of ravens came upon us from above. I guess they had regrouped up in the air. I was glad they did because it gave me time to settle in with these guys.

Krull and his followers all landed about 200 yards to the left of us. In unison, they all transitioned and stood like a fierce group of warriors ready for battle. These were top-of-the-line fighters, but thank God I had fighters who were tried and battle tested, too. In front of the pack was Krull. Damn! He was scary to look at! He looked like Genghis Khan on steroids!

Why the hell were they here?

I decided to get this thing going the best way I knew how…with my mouth. I walked out to the front of my group and eyeballed Krull. “I didn’t take you for a punk, Krull!” I yelled out.

“Which one of you is Josiah?” he asked.

“You know who I am, you Samurai turd,” I said. “At last, you know my size thirteen feet that tattooed your face.”

“Oh yes, Mr. Blindside. Very nice,” he said.

“So what’s the deal, Jackie Chan,” I continued to yell out. “Why are you chasing me when I’m all alone? I thought you fought with more honor than that.”

“Honor, there’s no honor in a quarrel, you petulant child.” Krull turned to his fighters and they all laughed.

“Good to know the moral code you live by.”

“The only moral code I live by is one of death and destruction,” Krull yelled out.

“I have one question for you,” I said. “And I need you to wrap your little brain around it to try to answer it to the best of your pathetic ability: Why tonight?”

“Why not?” Krull yelled. “I know you think we are going to have an Armageddon showdown of epic proportions. The way I figure it, why go through all that unnecessary bloodshed when I can just destroy you by myself?”

“By yourself? You did bring forty of your best fighters.”

“They’re just here to look pretty. This fight is between you and me. I figured I’d just kill you and be done with it. For all I know, it might take the Triat another 10,000 years to produce another one like you.”

“Is that what you want?” I yelled. “A one-on-one fight?”

“The only thing I want is to kill you. So, however that happens, it doesn’t really matter to me.”

Then something happened that moved me, and reminded me, in the end when all the cards were on the table, who always had my back, when it really mattered. Tommy walked over to me and yelled out, “No one is going to touch Josiah. If you came here tonight to try to kill him, I’m afraid that was your first mistake.”

Krull looked at Tommy with disgust, “Please tell me, wolf-boy, what is our second mistake?”

“Not knowing who his friends are.” Tommy raised his hands, transitioned into the great gray wolf and charged Krull. He leaped on top of him and tackled him to the ground. Krull had no idea what to make of it. Tommy was laying a pretty good beat down on him, but even I knew that wasn’t going to last long with someone as tough as Krull.

Within seconds, an all-out war was on.

All of the Carni men, except for Tommy, had to fight in their human forms. But that didn’t seem to matter because these were some tough-as-nails fighters. Fights were breaking out all over the place. There was bloodshed of epic proportions. Everywhere I looked, there was a fight going on. This was some serious stuff. Mani and Carni were dying out here. These guys that Tommy brought were fighting like they had nothing to lose. I loved that, because ever since I was seven years old, that is how I approached every fight I had ever been in.

More than once, I got my hands dirty. Most of these guys were avoiding me. They knew they didn’t want to get into it with me. Every chance I got, I put a pretty serious beat down on a guy. There was only one guy I wanted and Tommy was doing a pretty good job fighting him.

But in the end, Krull was too seasoned and too tough. He was able to get a hold of Tommy and he nearly broke his leg in half. He chucked Tommy’s body forty feet in the air and Tommy landed on the ground dismantled and Krull went flying after him. Krull unloaded a sea of punches onto Tommy’s face.

That was not going to continue. I launched myself into Krull and just leveled him with a kick to the side of his head. Krull went stumbling to the ground.

He got up and it was a face-off between him and me. This was what he wanted and this was what I knew had to be done. We exchanged punches and kicks and we were damn even on every level. We both got a couple of shots in, but nothing serious. We were two highly trained fighters that seemed to be perfectly matched. We fought for what felt like to be an hour. We completely exhausted ourselves. Finally, Krull gave up. He whistled to his men and they all took off. Before he left, he said, “I see you have been trained by Atticai. Tell him, well done.” Then Krull and his Mani all transitioned and got out of there. It was over…just like that.

Chapter Nineteen

When the dust cleared, I could see Helen in the distance. “You okay, my friend?” she asked, in my mind.

“I’m doing all right,” I answered.

“I will see you soon,” she said, with a look of pride in her eyes. Then Helen took off in the opposite direction that Krull and his men had gone.

I ran over to Tommy, he was holding his leg.

“Is it broken?” I asked.

“I don’t know. It really hurts. I screwed it up pretty bad.” His leg was a bloody mess. We needed to clean it off and see what kind of injury we were dealing with.

“Let’s head back to the arena so I can see one of the doctors,” Tommy said.

I looked down at my dear friend who went to battle for me and said, “Sounds like a plan.”

I put Tommy on my shoulder and walked back to the sixteen guys still standing that had fought alongside me. Seven of them laid down their life here today. I’m not sure why, but they did.

Why? Why would any of them fight this kind of fight if they didn’t have to?

I looked at all the men. They were bloodied and exhausted and I really didn’t know what to say. “Let’s take a moment for the guys who lost their lives tonight,” I said. I thought I would at least recognize the men who took their last breath out here on this night.

We all put our heads down and I said a little prayer. After a moment, I looked up to the men and said, “You all fought bravely. I’m not exactly sure why any of you would get mixed up in this, but I’m sure glad you did.”

“Why are you surprised, Josiah? We know who you are,” one of the Mani men yelled out.

“All I can say is thank you. You all risked the money you’re making with Romero to be here.”

“The money we’re making?” A Carni laughed out loud. Then everyone else laughed. “I’m not sure what you’ve been told, Josiah,” he continued. “None of us got paid. We’re all paying off debts!”

“Wait a second,” I asked. “None of you actually gets paid?”

“Technically, you can call it that. God knows Romero does. That guy pretty much owns our soul until our debts are paid off. And when it gets paid off, he could give two shits about you. There’s always another newbie that is going to be indebted to him. I heard he forces humans against their will to become Mani and Carni so they can fight here to pay off their debts.”

“That’s what happened to me,” the muscular Mani man said. “I was an up-and-coming mixed martial arts fighter just like you and refused to throw a fight that cost Romero a lot of money. He caught up to me and gave me an ultimatum. He was either going to kill me or I had to become a Mani and fight for him.”

That was one of the worst things I ever heard. “What’s your name?” I asked.

“Militia,” he said.

“Your parents were creative in naming you,” I joked, knowing full well that was only his fighter name. I was utterly shocked. I could not believe the rosy picture Romero had painted to me about his little underground, mixed martial arts world. He was only making a huge profit off of all these guys. He wasn’t paying anyone. He was using them in a way that was Third World, to say the least.

We all got ourselves together and headed back to the arena. I still had Tommy on my shoulder. I thanked the guys one more time and took Tommy and headed to the back. The guards recognized us and let us through, but not without radioing something in. Obviously Romero was being told Tommy was hurt.

“Let’s go see Gary,” Tommy said. “He’ll keep my injury on the down low; he hates Romero as much as the fighters.”

I had no idea Romero was so hated by the fighters. I’m not sure if he was clueless about the fact, or doesn’t even care. My bet is a guy as rich and powerful as he is could give a rat’s ass what his employees thought about him.

We entered Gary’s training room and his eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head the second he saw how bashed up Tommy’s leg was.

“What the hell happened, Tommy?” Gary asked.

“You don’t want to know, Gary,” Tommy said.

He helped me get Tommy over to the table so he could lie down. Gary was really short and really bald. He was pushing seventy and clearly was an old-school trainer. God knows how long a guy like this had been doing this kind of thing.

Gary cleaned Tommy’s leg off with soap and water. Other than the large gash directly above his knee, Tommy seemed to be able to move it freely. I was pretty sure he hadn’t broken anything.

After about twenty minutes of Gary doing tests and taking x-rays, he came into the room and said, “There’s good and bad news. The good news is there is no permanent damage. The bad news, you won’t be able to fight again for another three months.”

“You sure, doc?” I asked. “This isn’t one of these cases where you say he won’t walk again and it gets better overnight?”

“No, it’s the best case scenario. He could try to do some training in eight weeks, and then probably be able fight four weeks after that.”

Crap, Romero is going to kill both of us!

“How many fights do you have left?” I asked Tommy.

“Maybe seven,” he said gritting his teeth. He was obviously still in pain. “Hey, Gary, can you give me something for the pain?”

“No problem, Tommy. I’ll give you a month’s worth of pain killers.” Gary left the room to go get Tommy some medication.

“Dammit, this is all my fault, Tom. I shouldn’t have asked you to come help.”

“Josiah, I don’t give a shit. I would help you anyplace, anywhere. Romero can kiss my ass. I have made that asshole so much money.”

“Why would I want to kiss your ass, Tommy, especially after you broke my ‘no fighting unless it’s in the ring rule’?” Romero shouted behind us. He entered Gary’s training room, followed by at least eight body guards.

“Don’t worry, Romero. I can still fight. It’s just going to take a couple months,” Tommy said.

“That might be so, Wolfie, but the deal we had is off.”

“Fuck you! Richie Rich!” Tommy yelled, from the table. “I have busted my ass for you.”

“A deal is a deal, and if you can’t fight, there’s no deal. It’s that simple.” Romero then looked over to me with a look that said, ‘look what you did.’

“Relax, Tommy,” I said, trying my best to keep the situation under control. “Let me talk to Romero alone in the hallway.”

Romero looked at me like I was crazy. “I know you think you’re an important person in your little vampire world, Josiah. But after tonight, I have nothing to say to you. You nearly got one of my fighters killed tonight because of your little issues you have. As of right now, there’s seven fighters unaccounted for. That is seven debts you owe me.”

“I owe you?” I said, laughing. “I don’t owe you, or anyone else, shit.”

“Oh, I think you do,” Romero said. Now his bodyguards surrounded him and appeared to be ready to fight at a moment’s notice.

“We have bent over backwards for your little human trafficking operation here,” I said.

“Technically, there are no human trafficking laws being broken. The last time I checked none of my fighters were human.” Romero smiled at me with a devilish look.

I needed to hold my ground. I didn’t need this shit. I was sick and tired of Romero and he was going to hear it from my lips. “Say what you will, but we’re going to work something out tonight, or there’s going to be a lot of bloodshed starting with you, little man.”

“Little man?” Romero looked as if he was going to come out of his skin. “Are you threatening me? You think I’m going to let some Mani thug come into my house and threaten me?”

“Call it what you want, you either work out a deal with me, or I’m taking Tommy and if you try to stop us, the first one to die will be you.”

As of that moment, every gun in the place was now pointed at Tommy and me.

Guns don’t scare me. That can’t even kill me.

“You might as well have all guns in this arena pointed at me. Guns don’t intimidate me. So what’s it going to be? Are we going to work out an honest deal? Or am I mopping up this joint, starting with your face?”

Romero couldn’t believe what I had just said. He stared at me for what felt like an entire minute. Then Romero began laughing. “You are one crazy motherfucker! Holy shit, the balls on this kid!” He stared at me and I didn’t flinch. Then he calmly said, “We’ll work out a deal. Meet me upstairs in five minutes.”

“It’s just going to be you and me up there,” I said. “You can have your ‘entourage of camouflage’ stay outside.”

“Isn’t it always just you and I, Josiah?”

Chapter Twenty

I entered Romero’s suite and once again he was planted in his chair. “You’re fearless, aren’t you, Josiah?”

“I have to be. I’ve never had a choice.”

“Have you always been that way?” Romero was looking me over and I couldn’t tell if he was turned on or impressed. It didn’t matter to me, both concepts I could give two shits about at the present moment.

“I’ve been kicking ass for quite a long time. It’s all I know, it’s the one thing I’m sure I can do.” I was still standing by the door. I wasn’t sure if I trusted him. I was a little skittish. Having ten automatic weapons pointed at you minutes earlier kind of does that to you.

“It’s refreshing having someone talk the way you did to me in there. I have had ‘yes’ men around for almost twenty years.”

“I bet you have,” I said.

“It’s annoying.”

“I could only imagine.” Even though I had followers, the last thing I had was ‘yes’ men.

“Okay, Josiah, because of your little war tonight, I lost ten fighters.”

“Seven,” I said, correcting him.

“So you do know the number?”

“I’m only repeating the number you said earlier.”

“You and I both know some of my men died for your little cause. That costs me money. That is what we need to work out first. And not to mention Tommy is going to be on injury reserve for the next six months.”

“It’s going to be three months.”

“Three, six, doesn’t matter to me. All I see is lost dollar signs.”

“I bet you do. So, let me get this straight, you need for me to pay off all seven debts. Let me guess. You want me to fight in their place?”

“That assumption is pretty accurate,” Romero said.

“Look, I fully understand the kind of operation you’re running here. You prey off of other people’s greed and misfortune. This isn’t the ‘day spa’ that you made this place out to be. These are a bunch of guys basically fighting for their lives on a nightly basis. You insinuated they were all getting paid. The part that I can’t figure out is how I was different?”

Then it hit me. Romero just wanted me close. He was never intending to ever pay me a dime. He was waiting for me to make a mistake so I would owe him, too. In this case, he lucked out that I offered up Tommy when I was drunk and didn’t even realize it at the time.

“That’s neither here nor there, Josiah, someone needs to pay up.” Romero was now in full Donald Trump, businessman mode. He was going to get what he wanted or I wasn’t going to leave the room. I knew I didn’t have a lot of leverage, but I had some, because he needed me. I sure as hell didn’t need him.

“You do understand,” I said. “I could say, ‘Screw Tommy! Kill him!’ And I could easily fight my way out of here.”

“Really? You would say that about your dearest friend in the world? Even after he saved your ass with Krull? I don’t see someone with your integrity doing that kind of thing.”

Romero sure knew a lot. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought he had one of his guys out there fighting alongside me just so we would be having this conversation right now.

“If you think I’m afraid of looking over my shoulder,” I said, “then you’re wrong. Looking over my shoulder is all I know. I sleep with one eye open, and don’t trust a damn person.

“All right, then we’ll kill Tommy and you fight your way out of here.” Romero stared at me, and I stared back at him. It was a good old fashioned stare down of who was going to blink first.

“Let me know if that’s the plan, because it’s just you and I in a small room,” I said, as threatening as I could.

“What makes you think I haven’t killed him already and I’m just waiting to kill you?” Romeo asked.

I knew he was bluffing just like he knew I was bluffing about killing Tommy. “I know you’re bluffing because you’re a businessman,” I answered. “And you’re not stupid.”

“That’s one thing I know I’m not… stupid.”

“I have a proposal.”

Romero’s serious stare turned to a warm smile. “All right, let’s hear the proposal.”

“Okay, it seems to me that the number ‘seven’ is the lucky, or unlucky, number here. Tommy has seven fights left and you lost seven fighters tonight.”

“Okay, I’m listening.”

“The way I see it, it’s all about promoting the best possible fight on both our ends. The money is obviously out there. We just need ‘a fight’ that will bring in giant revenue.”

“I like what I’m hearing so far. Go on.”

“Tommy is already built up, so he needs very little promotion. The problem is actually with me.”

“With you? What problem would that be?” Romero asked.

“No one knows who the hell I am. So…you give me seven fights over the next three months while Tommy heals. You have me fight whomever and whatever you want. I can fight vampires, werewolves, zombies…you name it. I’ll fight Smokey the Bear if it draws a crowd. I don’t care! Just make sure it’s the best you can get so this crowd will start seeing my abilities and will keep paying more to see me.”

Romero had a big goofy grin on his face. He obviously loved my idea. “Go on,” he said.

“I will build momentum, and you tell all your millionaire and billionaire patrons that Tommy’s taking a small break. But he’s going to come back for a super match.”

“A super match? What kind of super match?” Romero asked.

That was a good question, so I took a moment to think it out. I thought about the fact I owed seven debts and then it hit me. I came up with an amazing idea.

“In one night, Tommy will fight seven times. We’ll call it ‘A Night of the Seven Deadly Sins.’ Each of his opponents will represent one of the seven deadly sins. Have a fat piece of shit to stand in for Gluttony and a greedy person for Greed, and so on. The final fight will be Envy.”

“And who will he fight for Envy?” Romero asked.

I smiled and said, “Me.”

“You? Oh, I do love this idea. “

“Trust me. Tommy is pretty envious of me. And to be honest, in many ways I am also envious of him. So it’s a perfect concept.”

“I do have one question for you, Josiah?”

“Go for it,” I said.

“Don’t you think you’re setting up your best friend to fail or even get killed?”

I thought about it and I knew in my heart that Tommy could pull it off. Tommy was the greatest fighter I had ever known, and when it got to me, we would work something out, but Romero didn’t have to know that. This was the fastest way for us to be rid of Romero so both of us could go on with our lives and no longer be indebted to him.

“Tommy can handle himself. He’s the toughest man on the planet as far as I’m concerned,” I said. “He’ll be fine.”

Romero had a smile from ear to ear. He loved the idea. Then he decided to go all ‘businessman’ one more time for good measure. “That’s only fourteen fights,” he said.

“Each one of my ‘super fights’ will pay off the debt of one of the fighters that died tonight. You could build the fights up and bring in more cash from one of my fights than if each of those guys fought a hundred times for you.”

Romero nodded. He knew I was giving him an amazing offer. “I like that deal as far as you and I are concerned, Josiah. But the deal Tommy and I had previously is off. He owes me more than seven fights.”

“Why? He never lost. He got injured. Our deal said nothing about an injury. Come on, Romero, you’re a smart, savvy businessman. This plan is brilliant. Plus you can fight me seven of the next twelve weeks.”

Romero smiled. He paused and then put out his hand. “It’s a deal.” I shook his hand and I couldn’t believe what I just agreed to do. Not only was I going to fight seven times for this madman, I had agreed to fight an eighth one against my best friend. I can’t even think about what I was going to put Tommy through, but this had to be done.

This should be very interesting.

Chapter Twenty-one

Still questioning my own sanity, I went back to the Gary’s training room. What the hell did I just get myself into?

Tommy’s leg had been wrapped up by Gary, and he was on crutches. “We’re good?” Tommy asked.

“We’re good, Tommy,” I said.

“What did you offer?”

“Pretty much both of our souls.”

“Seriously?” Tommy looked concerned.

“Not quite, but I did agree to do a couple of free fights for him and he agreed to give you three months to train and get healthy for a ‘super fight.’

“A super fight?” Tommy did not like the sound of that.

“I’m not going to lie to you, Tommy. It’s going to be the toughest thing you have ever done.”

“Am I going to fight more than twice in a night?” Tommy asked.

“That’s an understatement.”

“What did you agree to, Josiah?”

“You’re going to fight seven guys back to back.”

“Back to back? Seven? Are you kidding me?”

“Nope.”

“They are going to be chumps at least, right?”

“Not quite. It will be seven of the best fighters he has. He’s calling it, ‘A Night of the Seven Deadly Sins.’”

“I have to admit, that’s a pretty good title,” Tommy grinned.

“I actually came up with it.”

“Nice.”

“Look Tommy, just worry about getting better. I’m going to take you to Yari’s townhouse in Hollywood. Take the next two months and get healthy. Do free weights but stay off your leg.”

“What about you?” Tommy asked.

“I’m going to have to fight some beasts. Carni, Mani, King Kong, whatever he wants to throw at me.”

“I can’t have you do that.” Tommy shook his head at me and I could tell he was disgusted how deep he had me into this.

“Tommy, you came through for me tonight in a big way. I’m going to come through for you. When all this is said and done we’ll have something to talk about in our old age. In our case, our very, very old age.”

“Honestly, Josiah, most of this shit I wouldn’t mind forgetting.”

“Me, too. Let’s get out of here.” With that, Tommy and I took off out of the complex.

I transitioned into the eagle and flew high enough so we couldn’t be seen. I carried Tommy in my talons. We had a good system down where he was pretty comfortable. He would lie flat and I would dig into his clothing and fly with him across the sky.

I dropped Tommy off at Yari’s and left him with about $3,000 in cash. “Get better,” I said.

“I will.”

I shook my friend’s hand and there was no talk of Lena. It was better that way. I made my way back to Victorville before morning. I was beat. I crawled into bed next to Lena and held her as hard as I could without waking her.

“I love you,” I whispered. That was one thing I knew for sure. I held Lena all night and day as the morning came. My mind was pretty stimulated considering the outrageous night I’d had.

Lena rolled over and said, “Good morning, night flyer.”

“Good morning,” I answered.

“Should I even ask what happened last night?”

“You can ask,” I answered her.

“Okay, how did a ‘30 minute I need to get some air fly’ result into you stumbling in here at five o’clock in the morning?”

“You want the Reader’s Digest version, or the detailed story?”

“Just tell me what took you so long.”

“To make a long story short, I was attacked by Krull and his crew.”

“Are you okay?” Lena was now very concerned.

“I got through it.”

Lena waited for me to elaborate but I didn’t want to talk about the fight and especially about Tommy. I had no idea how she’d react to us seeing each other. I didn’t want to keep the fact I was going to be prize fighting in Tijuana from her, but I couldn’t quite figure out a good way of bringing it up. There are some things that even the ‘love of your life’ is better off not knowing.

Lena rubbed my stomach softly. “What’s it like to constantly fight for your life? I can’t imagine the stress you’re under.”

“We’re all under the same stress,” I said. “I just take the brunt of the physical part for the entire group. I didn’t sign up for it, but there is little I can do about it now.”

Lena nodded and I could tell something was weighing heavily on her mind. “Is something wrong?”

“Josiah, we need to talk.” Lena sounded extremely serious. Great, she knows something’s up.

“Okay, what is it?” I asked.

“I don’t know how to tell you this,” she continued.

Okay, this was serious. Lena never talks like this. “What is it?” I asked, really not wanting to know.

“Josiah...”

“Yes...”

“This is so bizarre. I never thought I would ever get to say this out loud.”

“Lena, what is it?”

“Josiah, I’m pregnant.”

Chapter Twenty-two

I stared at Lena blankly. My mind was going a hundred miles an hour. I had a million questions. The main was ‘how’?

Everything I knew and had seen said that once a woman became a Mani, she was infertile. There was no possible way a Mani woman could get pregnant. Finally I said, “How is that possible, that you are pregnant?”

“I don’t know. I mean, I know how I got pregnant. I’m not sure how my body is able to be pregnant.”

“How do you know for sure?” I asked.

“I’ve taken seven pregnancy tests and they all say I’m pregnant.”

“Are you sure you’re pregnant, maybe you make the pregnancy test go haywire because you’re a vampire?”

“Josiah, I just know that I am.”

“How do you know?”

“I can feel it. I can feel my body changing. Trust me; I have as many questions as you do. But one thing I know for sure. At this very moment, I’m carrying our child.”

“Our child?” I asked.

“Who else’s child would it be?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you’re like Mary and you had a miraculous conception!”

“No, Josiah. There is nothing miraculous about this, other that I’m carrying your baby.”

“My baby…” I said, calmly.

“Yes. That’s whose baby this is.”

I looked at Lena’s stomach. I reached out and touched it. Could this really be true? Could she be carrying my baby?” How is it even possible that two vampires could conceive a child?

I looked up at Lena and gave her a comforting smile and said, “Lena, we will figure all this out.”

Lena looked back at me and I could tell she needed me. She needed for me to tell her everything was going to be okay. I exhaled and said, “If you are truly pregnant, then this is a divine situation. You and I are going to be parents.”

“Aren’t you scared?” she asked.

“I don’t know what that feeling is anymore. What I do know is that I love you and I ‘m going to love our child with every bit of me.” I once again smiled at Lena. Lena nestled her head into my chest. I leaned back and held her calmly. This was an amazing twenty-four hour period. “Lena,” I said. “There is someone we’ll need to speak to. I think there was someone who knew this was going to happen.”

“The Deity?” Lena asked.

“Yes. She did everything but tell me straight out that this would come to pass. Now her cryptic speech makes perfect sense. I thought she was only talking about the Mani people. I see now that she was also talking about our child.”

“When should we go see her?” Lena asked.

“Are you okay to transition?”

“I think so.”

“I don’t know if transitioning will be a good thing,” I said, “especially as the baby grows.”

“Then we better see her quickly,” Lena said.

I agreed that this was something we needed to do ASAP. “We’ll go tonight when it gets dark.”

We both closed our eyes and just held each other for a couple of hours. I eventually got up and went back to my room to lie on my bed and think. For the rest of the day, I was in a fog. I kept it quiet that Lena was pregnant and I told Lena not to tell anyone. Unfortunately, we couldn’t trust anyone with this kind of information. At least, until we understood it better ourselves.

So that night, Lena and I both transitioned and flew down to Mexico. We were off to go see the ‘the Deity.’ I had a feeling she would be expecting us.

When we arrived at the orphanage, Lena and I were led down into the underground bunker by a security guard. We were led to the room where I had met the Deity the previous time. Lena seemed to be holding up well. It was extremely muggy once we were underground. It was a lot hotter than I remembered. We were both sweating as if we had just gone for a jog in 100-degree weather.

We walked into the Deity’s room and she was sitting with two very small Mexican children on the floor. It appeared they were dressing dolls and playing house. The Deity looked even more stunning than I remembered. This time she was wearing a long purple dress. She looked like an angel. There was a glow about her that seemed to be more prevalent than the last time we met.

“Hello,” I said.

“Josiah, you have brought a friend,” she said.

“Yes, this is Lena,” I said.

“So she is.”

“Hello, Your Holiness,” Lena said. I had asked Lena on the way up to address her that way.

“Sit with us. This is Michael and Felicia. They are two of the best help I have.” The Deity looked at the children and said, “Go children, I need to speak to the nice man and his love.”

Both kids kissed the Deity on her cheek and ran off.

“Cute kids,” I said.

“Their poor mother was murdered in broad daylight.”

“That is harsh,” I said.

“Most of my kids have horrible realities, but it’s my job to love them and take care of them so we can change whatever unnecessary evils have been assigned to them.”

“How do you explain to them who you are?” I asked.

“I don’t,” she said. “They will hear things and eventually they will know on their own without any explanation by me.” She paused. “So, Josiah, you now need guidance? Some new counsel?”

“Yes,” I said, “to say the very least.”

“I can imagine. You must have lots of questions.”

“I do,” I said. “We both do.”

Lena spoke up. “We need to understand what’s happening to my body.”

The Deity smiled at Lena. “You are with child.”

“Am I?” Lena asked.

“Oh, yes, sweet angel. In you is the key that will save us all.”

“Save us all?” I asked.

“Yes, Josiah,” the Deity smiled, and then turned to Lena. “In you, sweet child, is the seed of all men. Josiah, your calling is one for the ages. But your child’s calling is even bigger than what you will be asked to do.”

My heart sank. “How so?”

“Josiah, you will have a long, full existence. Your child’s existence will not be so lucky. It will almost be Christ-like.”

“Christ-like?” I asked.

“Yes, he will be martyred.”

“Martyred? What? You mean sacrificed?” I asked.

“Not sacrificed. His death will be the final act that will allow the Mani to live in peace for hundreds of years. He will live an extraordinary life, but a very short one. What you need to realize is, there isn’t just one infant in Lena; there is also another.”

Now I was completely confused. I looked over at Lena and she was glowing. “Josiah,” Lena said to me. “I’m carrying twins.”

“Twins?” I looked to the Deity for an answer.

“Yes,” she answered me. “And they will be on opposite sides of the spectrum. One will be as pure as the driven snow. The other will have a dark side, a very dark side.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I felt as if my heart was going to come out of my chest. “How is any of this possible?” I asked.

“The heart of every man will be represented in both boys. It will be up to you to maximize each of their greatness.”

I was floored. How could this be? Now there were twins? Are you kidding me? I don’t know what came over me, but I just laid my head back on the floor and looked up at the ceiling, completely dumbfounded.

“I knew this is a lot to hear, Josiah.”

The Deity took my hand and I sat up. I looked at the Deity and asked, “Will both boys die?”

“No, just one. It will be the most amazing act of unselfish love.”

Lena was also overwhelmed by the moment. Tears were falling off her face like a faucet. I scooted over to her and held her in my arms. “Are you okay?” I asked.

Lena stared straight ahead and calmly said, “I’ve never felt more love in my heart as I do at this very moment.”

“Josiah,” the Deity said, to me. “You will need to keep Lena safe. Others will soon know that she is with child. There is a lot of evil out in the world that does not want to see this come to pass. Take her and go back to your home, and love her. Love her with all of your being.”

“I will,” I said. “But I have one more question.”

“Yes, my child?”

“How is it possible that she is even pregnant? Regardless of prophecy and the supernatural overtones? Tell me scientifically, how could she possibly be pregnant?”

The Deity looked at me and said, “It’s very simple, Josiah; you both are not 100 percent Mani.”

I took a step back and was extremely confused. “What does that mean?” I asked.

“Because you were Lena’s final bite that turned her, she is forever a part of you.”

“Okay, still…” I persisted. “What does that mean?”

“You are both still human,” the Deity answered.

“What?” Lena and I both belted out.

The Deity smiled and said, “Both of you are equally human as well as Mani.”

“We are half breeds?” I asked.

“Not half,” the Deity said. “You have all the characteristics of both races. You are full breeds, as you would say, of both races. That is why you are immortal as well as fertile. You are the first strand of Mani that will be able to reproduce. You’re our Adam and Eve as it were.”

Holy crap! This was a lot to take in.

I looked at Lena and she seemed to have a peace come over her. She looked up at me and said, “I always knew, Josiah. In my heart, I always knew this to be true. Everything that has been said tonight, I have always known deep down in my soul. I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it, but now that it’s been revealed I now know what it was.”

“Those are your maternal instincts, child,” the Deity said to Lena.

“Your holiness,” I said. “Thank you. Thank you for giving us the wisdom of ourselves that we most desperately needed to find.”

“You have many things you need to settle, Josiah. Go and be the leader we all know you can be.”

I took Lena’s hand and as I stepped to the door, I stopped and turned around. “Will it be okay for her to transition?”

“She must not change after the second month. Josiah, the life that’s inside Lena will be human. It will grow and have a human’s life.”

With that, we left and I took the mother of my two future children home.

Chapter Twenty-three

I took Lena into my room and held her. We had received a lot of very intense information tonight and we would need time to process the new knowledge. I laid there on our bed and closed my eyes. I was dozing off when I heard Lena say, “Jo?”

“Yes,” I said, waking up.

“Are you concerned?”

“Of course I am. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around everything. What I do know, sweetheart, is that everything in my life has been turned upside down since the very first day I protected you at that frat party. And I’ve been able to handle anything that has come my way and this will be no different. It does make me nervous to think about the kind of world we’re bringing them into.” I looked at Lena and smiled. “But in my eyes, these two lives that are inside you are a celebration. All the things I once worried about don’t seem to be important at all anymore.”

“I thought you didn’t worry,” Lena said, smiling at me.

“No... I worry. I just don’t allow it to manifest itself into full-blown fear.”

“I love you, Josiah Reign,”

“I love you, too. Forever and always.”

With that, I closed my eyes, and was out like a light. Suddenly, I was awakened by a rushing wind. I opened my eyes and I was lying in front of a beautiful creek. There were trees all around and even a water snake at the rim of the creek eating a fish.

Yes, I was having another vision.

There was a rock at the back of the creek and the hot sun was out and it didn’t appear to bother me. I sat on the rock and stared out into the water.

This was my kind of vision. It was a little bit of Utopia right here in my mind.

Then I heard a voice that knocked me off the rock. “Son,” a man’s voice said.

I turned around and nearly passed out on the spot. I was face to face with my father. I didn’t know how to react. I knew this was a vision, but here he was… right in front of me. It had been years since I’d seen his face.

I got up from off the ground and went to him. “Dad!” I said, as choked up as I had ever said his name in my life.

“Hello, Josiah,” he said, as he reached his arms out to me and I ran into them. I hugged him tightly. He even smelled like himself, a combination of Old Spice and soap.

“Are you real?” I asked.

“I’m real to you. That’s all that matters.”

“I missed you so much,” I said.

“I have missed you too, son. Your mother says hi..”

“Mom? Is she here?”

“No, son. I was the only one allowed to come.”

“Do you know about me?” I asked. “Do you know what I’ve become?”

“Son, you haven’t become anything you weren’t already. Some of us gain weight, some of us go bald. But deep in you, you are the same incredible man I raised you to be.”

“But Dad, I’m a vampire.”

“That may be so, son. But at the end of the day, you’re everything I raised you to be and more. You can’t be summed up by one term. You’re loyal and forgiving. You have an amazing sensibility to fight for what is right and what is good in the world.” He paused, and then looked at me with a giant smile and said, “And now, you will be a father.”

Tears dripped from my eyes. “I don’t know, Dad. I don’t know if I can do it.”

“None of us think we can do it, but the great thing about fatherhood is that it’s forgiving. And as long as you’re honest with yourself, to your partner, and to your children, you will always be able to do what is right. It may take you a couple of times to get it done. But you will.”

“Dad…”

“Yes, son?”

“This has been so hard. Doing all of this alone has taken a toll on me.” I sat back on the rock and stared at the creek.

As I sat staring at the water my father walked over to me and put his arm around me. “I know, son. You have been asked to take on a tremendous burden. The thing is that you don’t have to do it alone. Others have been given a similar calling and so will your two boys.”

“I just feel like…” I continued to say. Then, suddenly, I no longer felt my father’s hand on my shoulder. I turned around and he was gone. Then, in an instant, I woke up.

I sat up and looked around the room. My heart was heavy, but in many ways, I felt some of the burden had been lifted off me. I looked over and watched Lena while she slept. I had a new fire in my belly to get things done. I could thank my father for that.

Chapter Twenty-four

It was time for me to have my first fight to help erase mine and Tommy’s debt. Although, fighting in this underground fighting club was something not in the initial plan, I felt in my heart that I needed to do this. I wasn’t sure exactly how this played into the bigger picture, all I knew was, I was being very drawn to finish the task. I had been relying on my gut feeling up to this point, so this was no different.

Romero had been in contact with me through text messaging. I was going to be having my first fight this upcoming Saturday night. My fight was going to be the main event and I was fighting an undefeated werewolf named Cooper. He let me know Cooper had a following similar to Tommy’s and to expect the crowd to despise me. I was going to be the ‘heel’ apparently. I’d make sure the crowd was on my side before the night was over.

I didn’t think much about the fight. I was pretty sure I’d be able to work over any opponent. I knew I wouldn’t be able to tell Lena what I was doing. The way I looked at it, it served no good purpose to let her in on how I got mixed up in trying to free Tommy from the economic clutches of Romero.

I arrived at the arena thirty minutes before my fight. Romero told me I was going to be entering the arena to some speed metal music similar to Tommy’s. I let Romero know I would never reveal the eagle to the crowd. He agreed that it wasn’t necessary, being that I could fly in my human form.

He told me to not knock Cooper out in the first three minutes, but make it look like it was a battle. I told him I couldn’t promise anything. If this werewolf was as tough as Romero said he was, I was going to want to knock him out the first chance I had.

I got a glimpse of Cooper before the fight. He was an all-black werewolf and he was quite large.

I went into the holding area. I kept to myself while all the other fighters eyeballed me. I was a sight to behold on this particular evening. I decided to vampire up my wardrobe for affect. I decided to go with the ‘Atticai’ look. My hair was a little longer these days so I oiled it down to make it look wet. I also decided to put some black mascara on my eyelashes to give the whole rock and roll image going. I wore a long black trench coat that didn’t restrict my movement. I had to admit the coat made me look pretty badass. My outfit was topped off with a black T-shirt and black slacks; I definitely had the dark Gothic color scheme going. And no Gothic wardrobe would be complete without a nice pair of black Doc Marten boots, which alone, were pretty kick-ass all by themselves.

I was told I’d be introduced first because I was the challenger. I was surprised that Romero didn’t come into the holding area and see me off in my first fight, but then again, he was a pretty unpredictable cat.

A bearded man came to the door and said, “Josiah, it’s time.”

I walked out into the hallway from the holding area. All that was separating me from the crowd were the two black double doors I had seen many times from the flip side. I could hear some ‘Suicidal Tendencies’ blaring in the arena. I had to admit my adrenaline was going a hundred miles an hour. This was going to be fun. In the end, I love to fight and that was exactly what I was getting myself into tonight.

I stood behind the black double doors and waited to be introduced.

Suddenly, I heard the announcer scream, “Josiah Reign!” So much for keeping my name discreet; the world now knew I was a vampire. Well, the very rich part of the world.

The doors opened and I heard a ton of boos. I’d never been booed before, and to be honest, it kind of sucked. I walked out and even had a drink hit me in the face. So much for classy billionaires. Why did these people hate vampires so much?

“Show us the black raven!” One guy yelled.

I smiled. It would blow their freaking mind if I was to transition to the great white eagle. But this jacked-up group of people didn’t deserve to see that kind of show.

They continued to shout, “Show us the black raven!” I ignored everyone and made my way to the caged ring. The cage door to the ring was opened for me to walk inside and I entered the cage. I looked around the crowd and the boos were deafening. I began to feed off of it. At first, it kind of hurt hearing so many people hate you when they knew nothing about you. On this night, I was playing the role of the villain, and I was going to embrace it. In this underground, immortal fight club, vampires were the bad guys. If this crowd wanted a bad guy, then a bad guy they were going to get. I turned to the audience and double-birded them. That’s right, I straight flipped off the richest people in the world, and you know what? I fucking loved it.

The boos grew louder and louder. Oh, this crowd hated me and they hadn’t even seen me fight. I circled the ring and just let the noise consume me. Then the lights turned off and some lame techno music started blaring over the loudspeaker. It sounded like really bad house music that you would hear at a wedding reception.

The black double doors opened and Cooper was being wheeled in to me. He was introduced by the speaker.

Damn! He was big! He was at least twice my size in weight. I was going to have my hands full. All right, Triat. Give me one more favor.

Cooper’s cage was connected and locked into the center ring’s cage. All that was separating us was his cage door that could easily be lifted up by the goons outside that wheeled him in.

Here goes nothing. They lifted Cooper’s cage door up. And this outrageous beast came at me like I was a steak dinner. I floated up off the ground in my Mani form so I could look at the beast below.

I heard someone yell from the crowd, “Did you see that? That vampire can fly.”

I flew over Cooper and landed behind him. The confused beast had no idea where I had gone. Too bad for him; I high-kicked the wolf in the back of its head, sending him into the side of the cage. I jumped on his back and rode him like a bull. The crowd went nuts. They loved it. Wow, they were a fickle group.

“Ride him, Josiah!” one guy yelled. So ride him, I did. I rode his back and just stayed with him like he was a mechanical bull in a country bar and was trying to stay on to win a basket of barbecue chicken wings. He tried knocking me off, but I was too strong. I covered his eyes, much to the delight of the crowd. In a matter of seconds, I had won this crowd over, at least some of them.

Another group began chanting “Cooper! Cooper! Cooper!”

But another was chanting, “Reign! Reign! Reign!” I had to admit, I loved that second chant a lot better.

Damn, it felt good!

From Cooper’s back, I grabbed him around the waist and rolled him over in a Greco-Roman spin move. I tilted him over, making sure his snapping, ferocious mouth wouldn’t bite me. The crowd went nuts. They probably had never seen a vampire willing to get this close to one of these beasts. Well, they had never seen me, and I was going to give them a show for the ages.

I let Cooper go and taunted him by flying around the ring. He tried chasing me, biting at me, clawing at me. I was having a good time. I figure at least five minutes had gone by and it was time to punish this wolf.

I elevated ten feet over the beast. I dove down feet first and drop-kicked him in the face with a force that was as brutal a kick as I had ever delivered.

I heard the poor wolf yelp. He was disoriented and I took advantage of it. I did an eight-punch combination, with my last one being a cross between an uppercut and a hay maker.

The wolf fell backwards. The crowd went berserk chanting my name. Cooper was done. He tried to get back up. But fell down. The medics dove into the ring and cuffed the beast and carried him off in his cage.

I watched and felt the noise of the crowd. “Reign, Reign, Reign.” I had easily given that werewolf its first loss in a manner of minutes. I had arrived in a big way.

I walked out of the ring and gave a high-five to some of the richest people in the world. As I reached the door, one of Romero’s body guards said, “Romero wants to see you.”

I figured he would. I had just given a show for the ages.

When I got to Romero’s suite, he was alone. I guess he knew the score by now. If I hadn’t tried to kill him by now, I wasn’t going to do it anytime soon.

“Impressive,” Romero said.

“I thought so,” I said. “I have six more of these fights and then Tommy’s match?”

“Yes,” then, if you’re willing… we can renegotiate.”

“For more fights?”

“Why not, you seemed to be in your element out there.”

I smiled, “Maybe.”

“You loved it, didn’t you?” Romero grinned.

“It was a good time. I’ll just leave it at that. When is the next one?”

“In two weeks. I’ll work on getting you a better opponent.”

“I’ll see you in two weeks.” I left his suite and signed a couple of autographs on the way out.

Yeah, this was fun.

Chapter Twenty-five

Over the next three months, life was interesting, to say the least. Lena had reached the point where she couldn’t transition. It would put her and the lives inside her at risk and under no circumstances would I allow her to do any type of risky behavior.

I had finished my seven fights and each one was even more epic than the next. I was a huge fan favorite, and yes, I loved it.

I had checked in with Tommy and his injuries had healed and he was training like a mutha. That was good. I wasn’t sure how I was going to fight Tommy. I knew if it looked choreographed, it could negate the whole deal we had with Romero. I was a man of many secrets these days. Tommy had no idea I was going to be his final fight on his epic night. I figured it was best not to tell him. I had done a lot for him and he was just going to have trust me once we got in the ring.

The other secret I was keeping was that Lena had no idea I had been sneaking off being king of some underground, billionaire, immortal fight club. I knew I needed to tell her. I just couldn’t figure out the best way to do it.

Her pregnancy wasn’t going very well, she was sick all the time. It was hard on a Mani woman to be carrying two human babies. It was doing a number on her body’s chemistry.

I had defeated four werewolves and three vampires in the ring over the past twelve weeks. My vampire matches were really one-sided. None of them had a chance against me. In my third Mani fight, my opponent looked so terrified I put him out of his misery real fast and knocked him out in fifteen seconds. Romero didn’t like it, but all my fights couldn’t be world class. One thing was for sure, the weekend belonged to me.

Weekdays, on the other hand, were the time I was putting together my army, or lack thereof. Unfortunately, I had a weak batch of Mani men who were willing to fight the good fight. They had heart, and in the end, heart wins battles. But warriors also win battles, and I didn’t have many of those.

I put together a training regimen that would make an MMA fighter exhausted. If they didn’t have natural instincts as fighters, they would at least be the best-conditioned ones. My crew was slowly coming around, but I knew it was going to be awhile until they could take on the likes of Krull’s men.

It was a week until Tommy’s “Night of the Seven Deadly Sins’” fight. In each fight, Tommy’s opponent would represent one of the deadly sins, just like Romero and I had discussed. I knew it was very ‘Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman’ but it was a damn good marketing strategy. I heard he was selling tickets at $500,000 a head for that night. Why anyone would pay that kind of money was beyond me, but then again I wasn’t a billionaire who had money to burn.

Romero and I had actually taken our communication into the 21st century. We had been emailing each other for the last six weeks. And I wasn’t the most computer-savvy person.

This is why I had no idea what I was walking into when I came into my bedroom. Lena was sitting in front of the computer, going through my emails from Romero.

“What are you doing?” I asked Lena. She just stared at me and didn’t say a word. She just looked at me with confusion. Finally, she said, “Are these emails a joke? Who is Romero?”

I walked over to the computer and turned off the monitor.

“Josiah, what is going on? Have you been seeing Tommy and arranging some kind of MMA fight in Mexico?”

“It’s complicated,” I said.

“I don’t care what it is. Why haven’t you told me anything?” Lena was really upset.

“You never asked.”

“What kind of answer is that?” Lena yelled, at me.

“Look! You never even asked what Tommy wanted that night I saw him at his cabin. So, I just figured you didn’t want to know.”

“I didn’t ask,” Lena said. “Because I thought if it was important enough you would have told me about it, especially after all that we have been going through these last few months.”

“I didn’t want to worry you.”

“Bullshit. You wanted to keep Tommy and I separated.”

“Huh?” I said. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“You have been seeing Tommy for months. You still think after all we have been through that something might happen between him and I. So much so, that you had been living a double life. You still don’t trust me. Even after visiting the Deity. You still don’t trust me.”

“It’s not like that, Lena. I swear.”

Lena sat up on the bed and was beside herself. She looked exhausted. I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her. “I trust you, Lena. I really do.”

She shrugged me off and said, “You have been fighting, too? Why?”

“I had to.”

“Bullshit. You’re Josiah Reign, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do!”

“In this case, I did. Tommy was in some serious trouble. We’re talking million-dollar trouble.”

Lena got up and went to her room. I followed her in there. “Get out, Josiah. I am so disappointed in you. I’m so hurt that even though I’m carrying your children, you still don’t trust me, like I’m some kind of out-of-control school girl.”

“I’m sorry, Lena. There was just so much going on. I didn’t want to worry you. You have to believe that.”

“Just get out of my room. I need to be alone.”

“Really. It’s going to be like that?”

“Josiah, I need some space. Just give me that.”

I walked out of the room and went up to mine. I laid on my bed and just felt awful. I probably should have told Lena at some point. That had to be the worst way for her to find out, through a freaking email.

A couple hours had gone by and I decided to check in on Lena. I knocked on her door and there was no answer.

Finally, I yelled out to her, “Lena! You in there?”

Still, no answer.

“She left, Josiah,” Yari yelled, from the living room.

I walked into the living room and Yari was lying on the couch. “Where did she go?”

“She got in one of the cars and went for a ride.”

“How long ago?”

“Probably two hours ago. She was pretty discreet about it. I noticed because she sounded pretty determined to leave in a hurry.”

“I’ve got to go find her,” I said.

“Did the two love birds have a spat?” Yari snickered.

“Not now, Yari. This is more serious than you think.” I left through the front door. I decided to transition into the eagle and go scope the area and look for her.

I looked everywhere and Lena was nowhere to be found. I checked Tommy’s cabin, Yari’s townhouse, even Flatlands. Tommy wasn’t anywhere either. A part of me started to feel extremely jealous, thinking there was a chance they were together.

I looked for Lena for the next 24 hours straight and she wasn’t anywhere inside a 100-mile radius of Victorville. And I couldn’t find Tommy either. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all.

Chapter Twenty-six

It was the day of my fight and it had been 48 hours since I’d last seen Lena. I was going to be fighting that night. I needed rest. Yari, Cyrus, Hector, and Wyatt had been looking for Lena as vigorously as I had. She was nowhere, not even a hint of her. Nothing. I was absolutely sick to my stomach thinking about it.

It was going to be hard for me to focus and I was just praying she was okay and had found a safe place no one knew about to clear her head. I didn’t want to fight tonight, but I had no choice. I just needed to trust that she was safe.

Lena was weighing heavy on my mind, but I needed to get this done. I needed to clear mine and Tommy’s debt.

I got to the arena and to say my head wasn’t in the game was an understatement. I decided to go into the holding area and see if he was even there. There was a part of me that thought he and Lena had split town. There was no sign of Tommy in the holding area.

“Hey, Josiah,” Militia, the vampire that fought with us a couple months back said, “Looking for Tommy?”

“Actually, I am,” I said.

“He’s in Gary’s trainer’s room.”

Of course he is. I should have checked there first.

“Thanks, Militia. Are you watching the fight tonight?” I asked.

He smiled and said, “In a manner of speaking, yeah.”

Didn’t quite understand what that meant, but I needed to go see Tommy before his first fight. I entered the trainer’s room and Tommy was sitting on the trainer’s table. Gary was looking him over. Tommy looked up at me and grinned.

“How do you feel, Tom?” I asked.

“Like a million bucks,” he said, winking at me.

“You better, you’re going to be pretty exhausted before this night is over.”

“Have you seen the card?” Tommy asked.

“Nope,” I answered.

“Romero is leaving some of the matches as a mystery. He won’t even tell me who I’m fighting in a couple of the fights. He is a total douchebag.”

I nodded my head, knowing Tommy was going to have one of the biggest shocks of his life when I entered the ring in that final match. I wonder who else Romero was keeping a mystery.

“Josiah,” a deep voice said, from behind me. I turned around and it was one of Romero’s goons.

“What is it?” I said.

“Romero wants you to watch the fights from his suite.”

“Tell him I’ll be there in a minute.”

“He told me to make sure you come with me.”

Seriously, was he really going to power-trip me after the millions and millions of dollars I’d just made for him?

“Tell him,” I said, firmly, “that I’ll come up there when I’m good and ready.”

The goon stared at me and I gave him a look that pretty much demonstrated my defiance. I looked at Tommy and said, “Before I go watch this circus, I need to ask you a question.”

“What is it?” Tommy asked.

“Has Lena come to see you?”

Tommy looked at me, surprised.

“Has she?” I insisted.

“Josiah, the last time I saw Lena was that night at the Flatlands.”

I looked him in the eye and I knew he was telling the truth. Tommy wasn’t a liar. He likes to omit things, but he wasn’t a liar, if asked straight out.

I nodded my head. “Good luck, Tom!”

“Who needs luck when you got these?” Tommy flexed his muscles and kissed each bicep individually.

That’s my boy! Nobody loves themselves some Tommy more than Tommy himself.

A part of me was relieved that they hadn’t seen each other. It still didn’t erase the fact that Lena was missing.

I made my way up to Romero’s suite. I went in and this night we would not be watching the match alone. He had some serious ‘suits’ in the room. I swear I wouldn’t have been surprised to see the richest man in the world, Carlos Slim, on this night. Everyone was wearing tuxedos and had a gorgeous classy woman on their arm.

“Josiah,” Romero said, “Come in and sit next to me.” I am an incredible judge of character and there was something extra sleazy about Romero on this night. The man was swimming in millions, and that might have had something to do with it.

“It’s about to start, Josiah,” Romero said. “I would offer you a drink, but then again you are the main event…”

All eyes in the room were on me. These men who could buy and sell me twenty times over were looking at me like I was Mickey Mantle. The adoration in their eyes was poignant. I humbly smiled at them and took my seat next to Romero. On this night, I was his prize pony and if he wanted to parade me around, I had to go along with it.

Romero’s ‘automatic wall’ opened up so now everyone in the suite could see into the ring. Everyone in the room found a place to sit. At least, the more important ones did. The others remained standing.

“Tonight is going to be an amazing night, gentlemen,” Romero announced to the room. “Grab a hold of your seats because this is going to be a wild ride!” Romero was sure full of himself. I imagined he had other tricks up his sleeve to make the night memorable.

I leaned over and whispered in Romero’s ear, “How did you pull off charging half a million a ticket?”

Romero winked at me, and whispered in my ear. “I promised them they were going to see something they hadn’t seen before, and they will.”

“What is that?” I asked, with a bit of dread in my gut.

“You’ll see,” Romero said, with a confidence that only a psychopath would have demonstrated.

The entire crowd was wearing tuxedos, and the women were similarly dressed, as if it was a night at the Oscars and they were red-carpet ready. The ring announcer slowly made his way to the middle of the ring and addressed the crowd.

“Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, you are all going to witness a one-of-a-kind event. The ‘immortal beast,’ Tommy, will take on seven opponents one right after another with almost zero time between each fight. Tonight, we present to you, ‘A Night of the Seven Deadly Sins.’

The crowd erupted in a frenzy of applause.

The ring announcer continued, “Now, it’s time to introduce you to your werewolf. No fighter has taken this arena by storm as much as he. He has an undefeated record of 68-0. He has beaten wolves, vampires, and anyone else who has faced off against him. Every one of his opponents has left the ring defeated! Let’s give a round of applause to the ‘immortal of all immortals’… Tommy!!!”

The double doors opened and Tommy walked out as serious as I had ever seen him. The crowd all rose to their feet, cheering. Tommy had a game face like no other. There wasn’t a hint of joy on his face; he didn’t even acknowledge the crowd. This was about his freedom. He had an intensity that even I hadn’t seen before from him. He looked like he was ready to tear off someone’s head. There was something else that was different about Tommy’s entrance. He seemed to be carrying a black bag with him into the ring. As he got up to the ring, he tossed the bag to the side of it.

“What’s in the bag?” I asked.

“Oh, you’ll soon find out soon enough,” Romero grinned.

I didn’t like the sound of that at all. Romero was up to something and it looked like Tommy was in on it.

“Which sin is first?” I asked.

“We thought we give him an easy one. Gluttony is first. We found ourselves the biggest, fattest, out-of-shape vampire that needed to make a buck.”

“Tommy will kill him,” I said.

“Possibly,” Romero smiled.

“What’s the order of the sins?”

Romero pulled out a list from his pocket that he had penciled on. “Okay,” he said. “We have Gluttony…then Greed.”

“Who’s playing the part of Greed?” I asked.

“Not playing. He is Greed. We offered the guy five million dollars if he wins.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“He has no chance of winning, Josiah. Remember, I’m a businessman. This guy can barely move, let alone fight. His greed was stronger than his sense of self-preservation. He knows he can’t win, but he is a slave to his own desire for money, no matter what the consequences.”

“Okay, then who?”

“Then we have Sloth. That will be a semi-tough one for our boy. He’s an ex-priest that has pretty much been living in apathy for the last 300 years.”

“A man of the cloth?” I asked. I didn’t really like the sound of that.

“He’s a bit backslidden,” Romero laughed. “After that, we have Lust.”

“Who did you grab for that?” I asked.

“One of the toughest Mani broads you have ever seen. Not to mention, she’s a whore. Hence, the whole lust part.”

I didn’t like the idea of Tommy fighting a woman and I knew he wouldn’t either. “Does Tommy know that his fourth opponent’s a woman?”

“We might have failed to mention that to him. Anyway, on the back nine there are three mega super fights. We have a returning fighter who promises he will not only beat Tommy but kill him inside five minutes. So he’s our Pride. Then there’s Wrath followed by Envy.”

“Who’s Wrath?” I asked.

“It’s another big surprise; at least it will be for Tommy.”

“Who is it?” I pressed. “It better be a fair match.”

“If by ‘fair’ you mean is he fighting a ‘one-on-one fight,’ then it’s very fair,” Romero laughed. “But, he will have his work cut out for him. You do remember Goliath, don’t you?”

“Yes,” I said. Goliath was the hugest creature I had ever fought. It took Tommy and I both to kill him.

“Well, he had a son. His son is bigger than his father. The thing is his son didn’t choose to go into the family Carni business. He chose to become a Mani. Biggest motherfucking vampire I have ever seen.”

Romero was enjoying this far too much. It felt like he didn’t care if Tommy died or got seriously hurt. He just wanted a good show.

Romero continued, “So, this kid wants to kill Tommy pretty bad after what the two of you did to his father. I’d be careful, Josiah. Because if he beats Tommy, no matter what, we will still have a seventh fight because he wants you next.”

“You have it all figured out, haven’t you?”

“Put it this way, Josiah. If at any point Tommy goes down, you’re my ace in the hole.”

“That wasn’t the deal,” I said. “If he gets hurt or, worse yet, dies, then he’s paid the ultimate price toward his debt. You’ll still have your money.”

“He might have, but you still will owe me at least one more fight. We’ll cross that road when we get there,” Romero smiled. “Shhh… the announcer is about to introduce Gluttony.”

I looked out as the announcer waited for Tommy to transition into the werewolf, to the delight of his adoring billionaire fans.

Tommy stood in the ring inside the steel cage. I decided to try to speak to him. “Tommy!” I said, in my mind. “Can you hear me above the noise?”

Tommy gave me no response. I wasn’t sure if he could hear me or if it was just too loud. Suddenly, the two black double doors opened.

The announcer took the microphone and just simply said, “Gluttony!”

And gluttony it was. Holy crap! The fattest vampire I had ever seen walked through the doors. He didn’t even really walk. He waddled. He weighed over 700 pounds and only stood barely six feet tall.

Why would this guy enter the ring with Tommy? Surely he knew he had no chance. This was the fattest person I had ever seen, vampire or otherwise. This was a very, very big boy. He huffed and puffed as he slowly made his way to the ring. I wasn’t even sure he could make it to the ring without giving himself a heart attack. He eventually got there. It seemed like it took the guy ten minutes to move 50 yards.

Tommy in his gray werewolf form just stood on one side, staring at the obese steak that was before him.

“Tommy,” I repeated. “Can you hear me?” Tommy twitched in the ring, as if to be shaking my voice out of his head. Now, I was beginning to wonder if Tommy was ignoring me on purpose for some reason. Maybe he knew he had his work cut out for him tonight, and just needed to focus and not have me talking into his ear. I decided to shut up and let him fight.

The bell went off. Tommy circled his opponent. And the guy was having a hard time even turning in circles.

Suddenly, Tommy leaped on the guy, knocking him straight to his back. The great wolf wasted no time. He bit the guy’s neck and he went completely limp. Then something happened that was as unexpected as anything I had ever seen in a ring. I couldn’t have imagined this happening, even in my wildest dreams.

Tommy transitioned back into his Carni form and stepped out of the ring.

What was he doing?

To the left of the ring was the black bag Tommy had brought with him. He reached in and grabbed a metal spike out of the bag and held it in his hand.

Oh no! What the hell was he doing?

The overweight man was flopping in the middle of the ring. Tommy had already seriously injured him by just chomping on his neck. Tommy walked back into the ring. The crowd had no idea what they were about to witness. Or did they?

Maybe that is why they all paid $500,000 for a ticket.

This was very out of character for a Tommy fight. He usually showboated and played up to the crowd. He fed off of it. Not right now. He was all business and I was afraid of what he was planning to do. Tommy, with metal stake in hand, jumped on top of his obese opponent while he was lying on his back in the ring. It looked like he had jumped on top of a bouncy house that kids play in at birthday parties. Tommy sat on top of his stomach. The man looked terrified.

Tommy then did the unspeakable. With a mighty thrust, he rammed the metal rod all the way through the giant vampire’s neck. Then poof. The giant vampire disappeared.

Tommy had killed him.

I was absolutely sick to my stomach.

The crowd cheered and groaned. They weren’t sure whether to celebrate or be horrified. Most were horrified, but there was a part of the crowd that loved every minute of it; it was exactly what they paid for. They were the ones who were getting louder and louder with their cheers.

Tommy looked up to Romero’s suite and stared at where Romero was sitting. He raised one finger up to show that he was one down and had six to go.

He sat on his hind end in the middle of the ring to catch his breath. Then he stood up to his feet as the crowd began chanting, ‘Tommy! Tommy! Tommy!’

“Tommy!” I yelled, in my head. “What the hell are you doing? You don’t have to kill them!”

Again, Tommy didn’t answer. He just shook his head in the ring, obviously shaking my voice out of his head. Something was going on. I looked at Romero and he seemed very pleased. He had specifically told me in a previous conversation that killing was not part of the spectacle he liked to put on. But then again, it appeared that he had lied about everything when it comes to this place.

Romero motioned to one of his bodyguards to come over to him. The man walked over and Romero whispered something in his ear and the man left. I tried to read Romero’s lips and his mind but he was a trained Tandra. He thought and spoke only in Spanish. He knew I had the ability to read minds, and he was aware, one slip up, and he would show whatever ‘hand’ he was trying to hide from me. He and Tommy were up to something and as far as I could tell Tommy was on board for whatever reason.

“How soon will the next fight be?” I asked Romero. I purposely did not mention the fact Tommy had just killed his opponent.

“His fight will start as soon as the ring announcer gets to the microphone,” Romero said.

Chapter Twenty-seven

The ring announcer made his way back to the middle of the ring and simply said, “Sloth,” into the microphone.

The black double doors opened and a man who was in pretty good shape entered the arena. He was wearing some kind of Friar Tuck outfit, I guess to demonstrate that he was an ex-priest. As he walked in, he ripped off his outfit and threw it to the ground.

Tommy was sweating in the middle of the ring, but he had a lot left in his tank. I was waiting for Tommy to transition back to the werewolf, but he didn’t. It appeared he was planning on starting the fight in his Carni form. The unpredictability of his actions just kept on coming. Tommy reached down and picked up the stake with which he had killed Gluttony.

Was he just planning on killing this guy right out of the gate?

The second bell rang.

Tommy charged the priest, and the priest transitioned into a black raven, slipping through Tommy’s fingers. The raven got to the other side of the ring and transitioned back to the priest.

Tommy again charged him and again the priest transitioned into the black raven and made his way to the opposite side.

I could tell this was annoying Tommy. Tommy hated when someone ran from him. The priest once again transitioned back to his Mani form.

I could see the wheels turning in Tommy’s head. Tommy had amazing instincts. He had a special rule that he lived by: Meaning, if someone made a move or action more than twice, the likelihood of them trying it a third time was very high.

Tommy grinned at the Mani and charged him. The priest transitioned to the raven, but this time Tommy held back, and with lightning-fast reflexes, he caught the bird in mid-flight as he tried to fly past him.

In a panic, the priest transitioned back into his Mani form as Tommy had a hold of him. It didn’t matter that Tommy had reached down with his right hand and grabbed the metal stake and jammed it through the priest’s neck. He disappeared instantly.

Inside of five minutes, Tommy had now killed two Mani.

Tommy wasn’t a guy who craved the kill. In fact, killing was against his nature as much as it was mine. This was not like him. He was killing for a reason.

I turned to Romero. “What the hell is he doing? Why is he fighting till the death?”

Romero smiled, “What can I say? Our boy puts on a great show,” Romero laughed.

Now I was pissed off. Something was up. “Did you offer him money to kill?”

“Not even Tommy would be influenced by that, you know that, Josiah.”

“Why is he killing his opponents?”

“Shhh, Josiah. Quiet, here comes some eye candy for both of us to enjoy.”

I looked out into the crowd and the announcer was already in the middle of the ring. Tommy had a crazed look in his eye.

“Tommy! Talk to me! Why are you doing this?” I pleaded to him in my mind.

This time he answered. “I have to, Josiah. That’s all I can say!”

I turned my head, and Romero’s greedy ass was standing up watching the ring announcer. The announcer took the microphone and said in a solemn voice, “Lust.” It seemed the deaths were also affecting the announcer in a bad way.

What was going on? I needed to piece this together.

The black double doors burst open. And the sexiest woman I had ever seen stepped out. She was an Amazon. She was six foot two with legs that stretched on for days. She was dressed in white lingerie, if you could even call that skimpy outfit that. She was carrying a white whip that matched her very revealing outfit. Her get up made WWE divas look like nuns.

“How does she represent Lust as a fighter?” I said, to Romero. “The only Lust that is going on is from the men in the crowd.”

“Oh, trust me,” Romero said. “She’s a nympho.” He turned to his body guards and they all smiled and laughed. Apparently, she had provided a group rate before the fight.

This wasn’t good. I hoped Tommy wasn’t planning on killing the woman. Tommy transitioned into the gray wolf. The woman immediately transitioned into a beautiful red hawk. The crowd booed. They apparently wanted to gawk at her body a little longer.

I looked at the audience; no one had left. This was what they had paid for. They paid a half a million a seat to watch death. And that was exactly what Tommy and Romero were giving them. What was making Tommy go along with it? I had no idea.

The third bell rang. For about two minutes, the fight looked like a bizarre episode of Wild Kingdom. It was a red hawk fighting a giant gray wolf.

Apparently, she had a game plan and she was sticking to it. She was not going to let Tommy get a hold of her.

The crowd began to boo at a deafening level. Romero didn’t like that. It was as if Tommy was unsure about what he wanted to do. He really wasn’t fighting back. The hawk would bolt into him like a spear and pull back. Tommy really wasn’t doing much of anything except standing there.

Her pattern was blatantly obvious. Every 11.5 seconds she bolted in. I could time it in my sleep. Tommy knew it, too. It was as if he was letting her get to him.

She finally gave up her strategy of strictly fighting as the red hawk. She transitioned into her womanly form to the absolute delight of the crowd. You would have thought they were watching a mud-wrestling match in Buenos Aires, not that they had just witnessed two individuals being killed before their eyes.

Tommy remained as the wolf. They circled one another for about another minute. I knew Tommy could easily leap on her and take her out, he was reluctant. It was obvious that the killings were affecting him.

Even though Lust was only wearing a G-string, complete with a revealing bra and sexy nylons, the audience was craving more bloodshed. They began to boo once again.

Then Tommy said to me in my head, “I’m sorry, Josiah.”

He then leaped on top of her and mauled her like a cat tearing into a bird. But she wasn’t a bird. She was in her womanly form and it was very hard to watch.

She tried fighting back, but she was no match for Tommy. She laid there, almost motionless. Tommy transitioned back to his Carni form and grabbed the steak that was still in the middle of the ring.

Then he did something that both surprised and disgusted me even more. He dragged the mangled Mani woman all the way up to the window in front of Romero’s suite. There was only a giant plate of glass separating Tommy and Romero. Tommy still had a hold of the woman, who was barely breathing.

“This is what you want to see?!” Tommy screamed at Romero. Tommy then whispered something in the woman’s ear and closed his eyes as if he said a prayer. Then he shoved the metal stake into her neck and she disappeared.

Tommy stood there staring through the window at Romero. I wasn’t sure what Romero was going to do. Then, he slowly stood up and began to clap, as did the crowd. It was the sickest display of affection I had ever seen a crowd give. Romero wanted a night to remember and Tommy was sure giving it to them.

Chapter Twenty-eight

I sat back in my chair, totally overwhelmed at what I was witnessing, the downspiral of Tommy into the darkest emotional place I’d ever known him to inhabit. This was supposed to be a night of seven deadly sins, and the deadly part was as apparent as the sins themselves.

Tommy had three huge matches before I was supposed to step into the ring with him. He just took down Gluttony, Sloth, and Lust.

Next was “Greed.’ It should be an easier match. Romero made it sound like he offered an average fighter an insane amount of money to just get into the ring with Tommy. I guess the guy now knew what his life is worth because he would not leave this ring alive.

Tommy stood alone in the ring in his Carni form. I couldn’t communicate with him even if I wanted to. He needed to be the werewolf for us to be able to hear each other’s thoughts. I think he purposely was in his Carni form, so he wouldn’t have to hear an earful from me.

The fourth fight was taking longer to start, compared to the others. I looked at Romero and he was leaning back in his chair in a sea of his own blissful arrogance. I knew he and I weren’t going to have any kind of truthful conversation about what was happening in front of our eyes.

A feeling of uneasiness had now manifested inside of me. Something was going on and that was as obvious as Romero’s ego. Whatever Romero had worked out with Tommy had to be gigantic to have him kill his opponents. Romero had either offered something huge in return or was blackmailing Tommy.

“What’s taking this fight so long to start?” I asked Romero.

“That’s a good question.” Romero snapped his fingers and then whispered something into one of his bodyguard’s ears. His bodyguard then whispered something back to him.

Romero smiled and said something very stern in Spanish in his bodyguard’s ear and he promptly left the room. Romero looked at me and gave me a business smile that men do when a situation isn’t good.

“What’s the problem?” I asked.

“Apparently, ‘Greed’ isn’t as greedy as we were hoping.”

“He backed out?”

“He’s trying to.”

“Well, think about it. Why wouldn’t he? He just witnessed Tommy kill three of his opponents. He’d be a fool to go out there.”

“A deal’s a deal,” Romero said, plainly, to me. “We already gave him part of the money just to show up. From what I hear he already sent it back to his family in Guatemala.”

“How are you going to get him to fight?”

“Easily, we’ll kill his family if he doesn’t.”

“You have got to be kidding me!”

“It’s practical,” Romero, said with no emotion.

“You would even kill the women?” I asked.

“It didn’t seem to stop your friend,” Romero smiled. “Why should it stop me?”

He was ruthless. This night was not going to end well, that was one thing I knew for sure. The feeling of death, and yes, even a little bit of fear had now taken over my body. Something was going on and I needed to find out.

I decided I better get out of the suite and take a look around. “I need to get ready for my fight.” I stood up. “I don’t need to watch anymore.”

“It would probably be good if you sit and watch one more fight,” Romero said to me, like he was my father.

“I need to prepare,” I said.

“When does the great Josiah Reign ever prepare before a fight? I’ve been told that you have shown up seconds before your previous fights and won easily.”

“None of them could hold Tommy’s jock. Tommy is a world-class fighter and it’s going to be the fight of my life. He’s already beaten me in the ring once and I don’t plan on him doing it again.”

“He might have beaten you when you were mortals, there is no way he’s beating you now. Oh, you’ll be fine. You forget, Josiah, I’ve seen you fight. Tommy is a great fighter, as he has demonstrated tonight. But you are the greatest fighter I have ever seen. You’re the Muhammad Ali of the underworld,” Romero laughed.

He was trying to build me up, but I saw through it. I saw through his game, more than he knew. He was trying to keep me away from the ring area for whatever reason.

“I will need to get my head right, Romero, at some point. I’ll watch one more, but then I need a place to get settled before it’s my turn to get in the ring.”

I sat back down in my seat and looked out into the arena. Tommy stood in the middle of the ring. He was only wearing some ripped jeans and had no shirt on. His back was to us. It was as if he refused to look in Romero’s direction. The crowd loved him as they chanted his name repeatedly. I knew that was the only solace he was feeling at this moment. The killings were weighing heavily on him.

Then the announcer once again made his way to the middle of the ring. He grabbed the microphone. The announcer appeared to have seen enough. He looked pretty shaken up. He said in a deep voice, “Greed,” and stepped out of the ring.

The black double doors opened and a Mani man entered who looked to be about fifty years old. I recognized him, he used to own a Mexican food chain in the states called El Burrito. It went bankrupt a year back. No wonder he needed the money. He wasn’t a fighter. He was a failed businessman.

“This isn’t even close to being a fair fight!” I said to Romero. “Age alone, that guy can’t compete with an athlete such as Tommy.”

“You’d be surprised. That’s Manuel Vega. You recognize him from his humorous El Burrito commercials, but he was a golden gloves champion such as yourself in his youth.”

“That was at least 40 years ago. Tommy is in the prime of his life.”

“What can I say? You offer a man five million dollars and he grows a pair of balls.”

“Or if you threaten his family by gunpoint,” I said back to Romero. Romero just looked at me. He knew I was getting riled up. He was a smart guy and knew when to shut up, even though he was a billionaire.

This wasn’t going to be good. Tommy watched as the guy tentatively approached the stage. Then something else hit me, this guy wasn’t a Mani or a Carni. He was a human, a Tandra.

“You can’t do this, Romero!” I yelled.

“Why is that?”

“He’s not immortal, he’s only a man.”

“Wow, you’re good, Josiah. What are you, some kind of Las Vegas psychic?”

“This is inhuman,” I said.

“Well, then it’s good that Tommy is no longer human.”

“This is wrong. It’s against the Triat code. We can’t fight unwilling humans. You’re damning Tommy!”

“Don’t talk to me about your vampire voodoo, son. Tommy agreed to fight seven people tonight, regardless who they are underneath their skin. There was never talk about each one having to be immortal.”

This was not going to be good.

Tommy was smart. He was going to know very quickly that this guy wasn’t a Carni or a Mani. The only chance he had was if he never transitioned to the werewolf. If he fought the guy only in his Carni form, he might be able to skate pass the Triat by-laws.

Tommy turned toward the Romero suite and shook his head at Romero. He knew this guy was mortal.

Thank God.

“Come on, Tommy,” I whispered, underneath my breath. “Whatever you do, don’t transition.”

Tommy reluctantly took a fighter’s stance, as did Manuel Vega. Here were two people fighting to the death and neither one of them wanted to fight each other, but for two completely different reasons. One didn’t want to kill, and the other didn’t want to be killed.

The fourth bell rang.

Manuel came at Tommy and with his right hand. jabbed Tommy’s chin. Tommy didn’t even try to get out of the way. Tommy purposely took the jab. The jab is used to set up a much harder punch. This man was a southpaw, meaning his power hand was his left.

Manuel continued to move around Tommy and soften him up by jabbing him in the face. Tommy stood in his way and just took each punch. Manuel was giving him the best he had. Then he unloaded a left hook that hit the side of Tommy’s face. Again, Tommy didn’t get out of the way. The left hook shook him up a bit, but didn’t knock him down. Manuel was giving the best he had and Tommy not only took each punch, he didn’t even try to get out of the way of them.

This was about to be a blood bath. When a Carni or Mani dies, they disappear, end of story. If a human being dies, his remains will be left in the ring.

If a gory, bloody, punch fest that led to a fatality was what this crowd paid to see, then they were about to get their money’s worth. I, on the other hand, didn’t need to see any more. I closed my eyes, knowing this poor businessman’s destiny.

I leaned my head back and just listened to the cheers, moans and groans of the crowd. The sounds that were coming from inside the ring were brutal. The sounds of horror filled the arena. I refused to look into the ring. Instead, I opened my eyes and looked at the faces in the crowd. There were very few cheers. People stood on their feet with blank, horrific looks on their faces. Still, no one would leave. I could only imagine what Tommy had to do. I didn’t want to know.

Soon, paramedics rushed to the stage, give the illusion that this place gave a crap about that poor man’s life. It was apparently over. That guy wasn’t going to need CPR; he was going to need a body bag.

I turned to Romero. “I need to get ready. I’m going to leave your suite with or without your permission.” As I said this, the entire room stood to their feet. Romero motioned with his right hand to let me leave, but instructed three men to go with me.

Why did Romero insist on keeping me in his suite? I needed to figure out that part, and I wasn’t going to understand what was actually happening until I investigated this entire situation on my own.

Chapter Twenty-nine

I made my way to the fighter holding area with Romero’s thugs close behind me. It was like having my very own camouflage entourage. I opened the door and for some reason, there were more fighters in the holding area than normal. There must have been 300 Carni and Mani in the room.

It was more apparent than ever how segregated the two sides were. On the left side of the holding area, the Carni all stood their ground. I recognized a few from a few months back as those who had fought beside me. I nodded my head at them to say hello, regardless if they were Carni or not. Some recognized the gesture, most were afraid to respond to it. They all seemed unsure of why I was there. I didn’t think anyone other than Romero knew that I was going to be the main event.

On the right side of the holding area was the Mani, they were as intimidating and beaten down of a group as I had ever seen. These were true warriors. They were battle tested, night in and night out. The Mani seemed equally as unhappy to see me. Something was eating at these guys. They were divided. One thing I had respected about these guys was that they seemed to be united regardless of immortal race, having being warriors in common. Not tonight, they were as divided as the Red Sea.

I found a spot that was somewhere in the middle of the two sides and began to stretch and prepare for the fight that was to come.

“Why are you here?” a Carni man yelled out to me.

I didn’t respond.

“I thought Tommy was your boy?” a different Carni said.

“His boy?” a Mani man yelled out. “Why is his boy in there killing Mani?”

Now it was clear to me why there was so much division tonight among the fighters. They were looking at it in its simplest form: vampires versus werewolves.

Romero had done a good job at making both sides feel uneasy. They had turned on each other and that was the way he liked it. A house divided cannot stand, and Romero didn’t want any unionizing going on with these guys.

As I stretched, I felt both sides moving closer and closer to me. They remained on their separate sides, but I was now surrounded by everyone in the room. I didn’t even have room to stretch.

“Why is Tommy breaking the code tonight?” a Carni man came up to me and asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Romero has something on him.”

“You think it’s coming from Romero?” the same man asked.

“I know it is,” I said. “That isn’t Tommy out there. Whatever Romero has on him, it must be huge because…”

“You don’t think he’s doing it for money?” a Mani man interrupted me. “We were told this was his last night, Romero is probably giving him a real nice severance package on the way out if he kills for higher ticket prices.”

I thought about what these men were saying and I looked at both sides. “This isn’t about money. This is about a different kind of debt that Tommy has that Romero is exploiting, or its blatant blackmail.”

“You don’t know that for sure,” a different Mani man yelled out and walked forward. I recognized him. He also fought alongside me against Krull.

Again I said to the group of fighters. “Tommy fights with honor. Especially in the ring.” I looked back at Romero’s bodyguards. They were ready to radio Romero the second I started riling up these guys. I knew I needed to be careful.

I turned to the crowd of immortals and said, “In the ring tonight, Tommy is fighting another fight in there. I’m not sure what it is. Every man in here is paying off a debt. All I can say is that Tommy is fighting for something bigger than himself. That’s all I can tell you.”

The spectators in the room just stared at me. There were no more comments, which was probably a good thing. I understood their frustration and even their fear. If Romero turned this place into a death match central, it would change everything. Still, I needed to figure out some stuff and I wasn’t going to be able to do it while trying to ease these men’s fears.

“If you guys don’t mind,” I said, “I need to prepare and get ready.”

“Prepare for what?” one asked.

I didn’t respond to the comment. As matter of fact, I had said enough. I walked out of the holding area and found a side entrance that led to outside the arena.

I stepped outside and I put my back against the door, so Romero’s men couldn’t get to me. I needed a break from everyone. I looked up to the sky and said a prayer. I asked for forgiveness and I asked for strength. Most of all, I asked for wisdom.

I opened the door and made my way back to the holding area. I walked all the way across; again, everyone stopped and just watched me. I saw Militia hanging out behind the black double doors. Then I realized what was happening. Militia was going to represent Pride. I walked by him and slipped through the double doors before he was announced. I stood in the very back, out of sight to the crowd, but I could see the ring.

The announcer walked to the center of the ring and said, “Pride.”

I watched as Militia made his way to the ring. Militia was a powerhouse, a one-man army. I recalled him single-handedly killing four of Krull’s men. I didn’t know what to make of it. I was becoming numb to the savagery. I knew I couldn’t do that. I had to stay above the horror.

Militia had one of the most shredded bodies I had ever seen as he entered the ring.

Then something really bizarre started happening to me, a powerful overwhelming feeling came over all my senses. I had an amazing sensation burn through me.

I felt Lena. I felt her overwhelming presence. I closed my eyes and I could feel her, as if she was right on top of me.

What the hell was going on? Why here? Why now?

The fifth bell rang.

I was drawn to the middle of the ring from where I stood in the back. In the ring, two warriors were about to fight to the death, but yet, I could feel my one true love in this very arena.

I began slowly walking toward the ring. Some of the crowd recognized me and even called out my name, but most were far more interested in the fight at hand. Tommy had already transitioned into the gray wolf and the two were squared off, they took turns attacking and retreating.

“Tommy,” I said, in my head. “Don’t look in my direction but I am to the left of you at ringside. Militia is a beast. You’re going to have to fight a very thorough fight. I know you’re exhausted, but that is the only way you’re going to beat him.”

“I’m not sure if I have anything left, Josiah,” Tommy responded, without looking at me.

“I’m going to be the eyes behind your head. Just listen to my voice. Fight your fight and I’ll do my best to point out his weaknesses.”

“Josiah, be careful,” Tommy said. “Whatever you do, don’t let on that we are communicating. It’s a matter of life and death.”

“Whose life, Tommy?” I asked. “Whose death?”

Tommy didn’t answer. As I stood watching the fight, I could once again feel Lena’s presence. It was very odd. In my heart, I knew she was in danger, but as long as I was close to the ring, I felt she was safe.

“Tommy, Militia is very crafty. He has never lost a fight in this arena.”

“Well, neither have I,” Tommy responded.

Then Militia flew into Tommy’s werewolf body and tackled him to the ground. He slipped his left forearm underneath Tommy’s neck. Tommy got to his feet and spun around the ring, swinging Militia like a rag doll. It looked like something out of the Lion King. The guy was locked in good, choking Tommy out.

“Roll! Tommy! Roll forward!” I yelled in my head.

Tommy rolled the guy all over the ring. Militia was still locked into Tommy’s neck with his left forearm.

“Take your left claw and scratch the hell out of his left arm. He will have to eventually let go.” If Tommy could get him to let go of his pressure, then Tommy could chuck him off his body. Tommy was losing consciousness. “Do it, Tommy! Do it now!”

Tommy began raking his claws into Militia’s forearm. He was ripping into it like a cheese grater. That motherfucker was still not letting go, but I could see his face wincing.

“Don’t stop, Tommy. He’s giving up his hold.”

Tommy continued to scratch and claw and then finally, it was too much for Militia to bear. He let go.

Tommy rolled forward and quickly transitioned into his Carni form. He stood there faced off with Militia, gasping for air. He was finally free.

I knew Tommy wanted to fight him, man to man. Although he had insane strength as the wolf, Tommy had far more control of his hands and feet when he was in his Carni or human form.

“Tommy!” I yelled, from the side of the ring. I didn’t care who could hear me. “He’s too powerful as a Mani, you need to transition!”

Tommy looked at me and said, “Screw it, Josiah. I was a human fighter before all of this madness. I’m fighting this motherfucker straight up.”

‘Militia’ looked at Tommy and said, “No shenanigans?”

“No shenanigans!” Tommy said, back to ‘Militia.’

“Then I’ll also fight you straight up,” Militia yelled out.

There it was. Two old-school MMA fighters going toe to toe and agreeing to not use any of the immortal powers. This should be interesting.

Tommy looked exhausted, but I knew he was in great shape. If anybody could come out the victor after all he’d been through tonight, it was him.

The two traded punches and take downs for about twenty minutes. It was technically perfectly executed by both sides. Even if Tommy won, he would have nothing left in the tank when this was over. Both fighters were giving their all. The crowd had no idea what a masterpiece of fighting they were witnessing.

Militia kicked Tommy, but Tommy caught his leg and wrapped his arm around his calf and he pushed Militia off balance with his other hand. He stepped forward, shoving Militia to his back. Tommy then jumped on top of him. Nobody was better at dealing with an opponent from the top position than Tommy.

This was the classic ground and pound. Tommy had Militia pinned to his back and he began raining forearms and elbows down on top of Militia’s head, neck, and body. Every one of Tommy’s shots landed. Militia tried to defend himself, but Tommy was far too strong and far too talented. Militia tried to protect his head, but the sea of blows eventually knocked him out.

In a normal fight, this is where a referee would step in and stop the fight. Not on this night. I knew Tommy had to do what he had to do. I didn’t want to see it. Tommy had won his fifth straight fight. I got up and walked to the back of the arena and didn’t look in the ring. The response of the crowd told me all I needed to know. Five Mani were now dead.

It was now apparent what was to happen in the last fight between Tommy and I. Romero wanted only one of us alive after the fight. That wasn’t going to happen as far as I was concerned. This entire deal was off. Tommy had paid back his debt tenfold. He had done the honorable thing. He gave Romero five amazing fights. Tommy had nothing left. I eventually turned around to look inside of the ring. There was no sign of Militia. He had obviously been supernaturally disposed of. Tommy was lying on his back. I knew my best friend had zero left. He had given every inch of himself in that fight.

He was done and I was done. Lena was in danger and I knew she was close. I needed to know who had her and why she was even near this place.

I went back up to Romero’s suite.

Chapter Thirty

I stepped inside Romero’s suite. “Excellent job, Josiah!” Romero said. “I love how you went down to the ring and gave the crowd a little taste of what is to come later in the night.”

“It’s over, Romero!” I said, plainly. “Tommy paid his debt to you. We had no written contracts and, as far as I’m concerned, he’s paid off. And if you don’t like it, that’s just too bad.”

“As far as you’re concerned?” Romero asked, with anger building in the inflection of his voice.

“Yeah, I say he’s done. We’re done. He gave you a show for the ages. No one else has to die!”

Romero stared at me and didn’t say a word for what felt like minutes. I stared back at him. I wasn’t backing down. Guns didn’t scare me. Nothing about this place scared me. There was absolutely nothing this man could do that would make me do anything I didn’t want to do.

Oh, so I thought.

Romero calmly looked me in the eye and said, “You are free to leave and so is Tommy. But I will say this; at least one or more persons will die tonight. It is up to you who it is, or who they are.”

I stared at Romero and I knew then just who he meant. “You son of a bitch!” I yelled. It took everything I had not to kill him where he stood.

“Come here, Josiah. I want to show you something.” Romero pulled out his 4G phone. “I get great reception in this place.” Romero grinned at me, cockily.

I refused to step over to him, so he just put his phone up, so I could see the screen. He pushed a couple of buttons and then a video played on his phone. It was Lena. Just what I had expected, Romero had Lena.

I flew into Romero’s body and I grabbed him with both my hands and threw him across the room. He had about twelve bodyguards in the room and every one of them had their guns pointed at me.

“Shoot me!” I yelled. “You think a bullet could stop me?”

“No one shoot him!” Romero yelled out.

“She better be okay, Romero. If I hear that anyone has touched her or hurt her in any way, I will take this whole place down. I will kill everyone in this room and every motherfucking billionaire in that crowd! You will be fresh out of paying customers for your sick and twisted vampire-werewolf horror show!”

“Okay, just relax, Josiah. Take a deep breath.” Romero said, both scared and smug. “Now that I have your attention, you are going to need to hear me out. You will stay in this suite until it is time for you to fight. You will go down there and either kill Tommy or be killed. I really don’t care which happens at this point. If you don’t follow my directions, I will make sure the mother of your children doesn’t leave here alive.”

Holy shit, he knew Lena was pregnant!

My head and my emotions were spinning. As I stared at Romero, it took every bit of control I had in me to not kill him. I couldn’t do anything at the moment because I didn’t know where she was. She could be anywhere in this place. I couldn’t just start tearing into rooms. He would surely kill her and our unborn children. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to jump out of my skin. I wanted to crucify Romero with a staple gun.

“Tonight will not end well for you, Romero,” I said. “That is a promise.

“Your threats are very cute when I’m the one holding all the cards, Josiah. Have a seat and enjoy the show. I hear the ending is really good. Well, that all depends on if you’re a werewolf fan or a vampire fan. So far tonight, the vampires haven’t been so lucky.”

I refused to sit down. He might be able to keep me in his suite till it was time to fight, but there was no way I was going to relax. I stood back with all guns still aimed at me from the bodyguards in the room.

So, Tommy knew that Romero had Lena. Tommy must have been told right before the fight that if he didn’t kill each of his opponents, they would kill her. He was fighting to save her life. I didn’t have time to be sentimental about my friend. Tommy had a nightmare of a fight next.

Tommy needed to transition. I needed to talk to him. I looked out into the ring. He was still lying on his back, completely exhausted. Now, I knew why he just didn’t say screw it and bail out of here. He was fighting for Lena’s life.

Romero left the room and I was surrounded by his men. They all looked like a Mexican version of G.I. Joe with their camouflage and goofy military garb.

I knew for me to get Lena, Tommy and me out of here safely, I needed to keep my head straight. This situation was putting my sanity to the test. The love of my life, who was carrying our two children inside her, was being held hostage somewhere near this compound by a psychopathic billionaire.

Tommy eventually stood up. He was holding himself up by using the ropes. The guy was exhausted. He had given everything he had emotionally, physically, and psychologically. He had two more fights. Unfortunately, one was still with me.

The announcer made his way to the ring. There was blood all over it. It looked like the slippery, gory floor at a slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant. Tommy was bloodied, but not injured in a way that he couldn’t continue. The announcer took the microphone. His face looked like how Tommy felt. He said simply, “Wrath,” and walked out of the ring.

The black double doors opened. The crowd began chanting Tommy’s name. They knew they were watching a person give every inch of himself. Tommy was giving them the show of their lives and they showed their appreciation.

The largest man I had ever seen came through the double doors. He was eight feet tall and looked like he weighed 500 pounds, and all of it was solid muscle.

This was Goliath’s son, who for some reason, chose to be a vampire and not a werewolf like his father. I couldn’t imagine how Tommy was going to beat this guy. Tommy looked as if he had just finished a triathlon.

This kid wanted Tommy dead. Hell, he wanted me dead, too; we had killed Goliath, his dad. A child’s vengeance was stronger than anything that was out there. Tommy had his work cut out for him.

Tommy transitioned into the great gray wolf on sight after seeing the beast that was making his way to the ring.

“Tommy,” I said. “I know everything! I know they have Lena and I know why you’ve been killing your opponents.”

“I’m sorry, Josiah,” Tommy answered. “I knew if I told you, you would possibly risk getting her killed. Is she okay?”

“As far as I know she is. She’s okay and so are the babies.”

“The babies?”

“Yeah, Tommy. Lena is pregnant.”

“Holy shit.”

“Tommy, you can’t worry about that. You need to get through these two fights.”

“Do you know who I am fighting last?” Tommy asked.

“Tommy you need to worry about Goliath’s kin. He wants your head on a platter.”

“It’s you, isn’t it, Josiah? You’re my last fight?”

Tommy knew he was going to have to fight me last. He had probably suspected it the whole time.

“Don’t think about that right now,” I said. “We’re going to get through this fight. I’m going to help you the entire way.”

“Okay,” Tommy said.

“Does Goliath’s kid have a name?” I asked Tommy.

“Yeah, it’s Tiny!” Tommy answered.

“Of course it is.”

Tiny jumped into the ring. The whole ring shook like a 10.0 earthquake.

“He can’t be as good a fighter as his dad,” I said. “But I’ll bet he’s stronger.”

“You think?” I could hear the sarcasm in Tommy’s voice, even in my head.

The sixth bell rang.

Tommy stood his ground on his side of the ring. Tiny was on the other side, smacking himself all over his body to get pumped up for the fight.

“Tommy, I said. “The only way to beat this guy is you need to be relentless. You need to attack first and never let up.”

“I have very little left, Josiah.”

“Dig deep, Tom. Give me the best ten minutes of your life.”

“Ten minutes?”

“Well, kick his ass sooner then,” I said. “You just can’t stop attacking him. Coming at him will only confuse him. A guy like this only does the attacking.”

So, Tommy did exactly what I said. For the next five minutes he bit, clawed, scratched, slapped, punched and kicked Tiny with everything he had. Tommy was getting the best of him. He was until Tiny got a hold of him. Tiny grabbed Tommy’s exhausted werewolf body and threw him into the crowd. Tommy crashed into a table and took out four patrons. Tommy transitioned and got to his feet. He stood out in the crowd, completely worn out, looking at Tiny in the ring. He was panting for air, but knew he couldn’t stop. He jogged up to the ring and slid into it and was squared off with tiny man vs. man. He looked like a child compared to this behemoth. It was a classic Rocky vs. Drago.

I knew Tommy hated fighting as the werewolf. In his mind, he felt he was limited. As long as he was in his Carni or human form, we couldn’t communicate.

Tommy and Tiny circled the ring, faced off as man vs. man, not man vs. beast. Tommy still had amazing quickness, even though he had been fighting for the last two hours straight.

Tiny was far too heavy. Any striking Tommy would do would only do minor damage to a guy that size. His only shot at beating a man of this size was to fight him as the werewolf even if he didn’t like it.

They traded punches and Tiny was getting the best of him. Each blow knocked Tommy back at least three feet. Tommy’s punches were mild, compared to the massive creature’s powerful swings.

Tiny got a hold of Tommy and for the next three minutes, beat the crap out of him. It was the hardest 180 seconds I had ever witnessed in a fight. I felt sick, watching Tiny hurt him. Tiny punished Tommy in a way that wasn’t humane. There was little I could do.

Or was there?

I couldn’t let this happen any longer. I turned to Romero’s bodyguards and said, “Get out of my fucking way, I’m going out there.”

They all stood their ground and there was a sea of bodies separating me from the door. I didn’t care. I transitioned into the great white eagle inside Romero’s suite and began spearing them with my beak. I knew they couldn’t shoot at me, because it would be too loud and if they missed, the bullets would go through the glass and into the crowd.

I flew around clawing and swiping at the men. I was shredding faces and poking eyes out. Eventually, one of them opened the door to get away. That was all I needed. I darted through the door and flew myself through down the hallway and into the holding area. I bolted through the black double doors that were still opened from Tiny’s entrance.

I flew into the middle of the ring where Tommy was a bloody, beaten mess. He had fought his heart out. There was no way this vampire was going to end his life right here. Not if I had anything to do with it.

I flew into Tiny’s back, knocking him off Tommy. I quickly transitioned to my Mani form and dragged Tommy out of the ring.

The crowd went nuts once they realized the eagle was me. They began chanting my name. They had never seen me as the eagle and the crowd was beside themselves.

I stood in front of Tiny.

“This wasn’t part of the deal,” Tiny said.

“What deal? You’re ‘Wrath,’ right? Well, I was the one who killed your father. Tommy merely helped. I was the one who took his life.”

Tiny’s eyes stared at me with a glare that could burn through steel.

“That’s right, Tiny,” I said. “Your fight is with me and as far as I see it, it’s a little fairer because I haven’t fought for the last two hours straight.”

“All right, Josiah. Let’s do this.” Tiny charged me and I kicked him in the face, knocking him back into the ropes. I flew into him and unloaded a barrage of punches.

Even though this kid was a beast, he was no match for someone with my skill set. I gave him a beat down of epic proportions. I would like to say Tiny gave me a better fight, but it doesn’t really matter at this point. I quickly dismantled him. In less than a couple of minutes of harsh strikes and kicks, I bloodied up Tiny as badly as he had done to Tommy.

I knew Tommy needed to be the one to finish him off. It was a weird loophole, but I wasn’t going to risk Lena’s safety.

Again, as I stood over a passed-out Tiny in the middle of the ring, I felt Lena all around me. It was the most bizarre feeling I had ever felt. I just got done beating a man senseless, but yet, I could feel Lena in the pit of my soul as if she was an angel watching over me. Then a fear went through my body and I wondered if she was already dead and I was feeling her spirit.

I jumped out of the ring, trying to shake off the feeling. I needed to trust the Triat wouldn’t allow that to happen, at least without me having a chance to save her.

So, there it was. It was lights out in Tiny Town. I went outside to Tommy and dragged him back into the ring. Tommy had pulled himself up into a sitting position and made his way over to Tiny’s motionless body in the middle of the ring.

“Finish him off, Tommy,” I said. “You have one more fight to go!”

I walked out of the ring looking at Romero’s guards that now had surrounded all the exits. They didn’t know what to do. I had maimed their fellow soldiers, but I was still honoring Romero’s agreement. “Bring Romero to me,” I said to one of the guards at the black double-door entrance.

The guard radioed Romero. Tommy and I were about to fight to our deaths and I needed a clear agreement when this was over. By the sound of the crowd, Tommy had finished Tiny off just like the others. Six were now dead.

Chapter Thirty-one

Romero came down to the black double doors where I was still standing. This time he had brought 35 to 40 armed security guards with him. This guy was definitely afraid. He looked like Muammar Gaddafi being protected by his military.

“Don’t be stupid, Josiah,” Romero said. “If you want your family to live there is only one way to do that. You need to kill Tommy, or vice versa.”

“I understand that. All I want to know is: the second this fight is over, Lena better be delivered to me in seconds or I will come after you and I will kill you myself. And know this: if one hair on her head is hurt, this whole place is done for.”

“Talk is cheap. Are you going to fight or not?” Romero lifted his radio. “Cause all I have to do is say is ‘Nata la.’ And the mother of your children is dead.

“Okay, I have one request. If Tommy beats me, you release her to him. His debt will be paid and you are done exploiting him for your financial gain.”

“Fine,” Romero said. “But know this, Josiah. One of you will die in that ring. That is the only chance you have at saving Lena’s life.”

I nodded my head and could not believe what the man Romero had ended up being.

I stood in front of the black double door waiting for the announcer to make his way into middle of the ring to introduce me.

After a moment, the announcer said, “Envy.”

Now the crowd was realizing that the two they just saw tag team the last opponent were now about to square off against each other. They realized that we were both Envy.

I looked at the ring as I walked up to it. Tommy’s face was barely recognizable. He was covered in blood. By this point, most of it was his.

“Transition, Tommy!” I yelled out.

“Why?” he yelled down to me from the ring.

“Transition, Tom,” I yelled. Some of the crowd was chanting Tommy’s name and some were chanting my name. By this point neither one of us gave a shit. The crowd was a prop in this very tragic Greek play. This theatrical production was about to get even more insane.

Tommy transitioned into the werewolf as I entered the ring. We stared at each other like a good old fashioned street fight about to commence, a real West Side Story.

“Tommy,” I said, in my mind. “We need to sell this for a while. The only chance the two of us have to both get out of here alive with Lena is we’re going to have to give them a show until we figure out what to do.”

“You know me, Josiah,” Tommy said, in his werewolf mind. “I love a good performance.” He could barely keep himself up.

“That you do, my friend.” We circled each other. “Do you have any idea where Lena could be?” I asked.

“No. All I know is she is in the arena complex. That’s Romero’s style. He would want the situation to be very close.”

“This is weird, Tom, whenever I’m in or near the ring, I have the most overwhelming feeling that Lena is close.” We continued to circle one another.

The seventh bell rang.

I jumped on top of Tommy. Even as the werewolf, he was still bloodied. I picked him up over my head and chucked him across the ring, much to the delight of the crowd. The werewolf slid in between the ropes.

“You okay?” I asked, in my head.

“I’m far from okay. I think every bone in my body is broken.”

I let Tommy compose himself. We once again circled one another.

“Romero said the word ‘down’ when he referred to where Lena was,” I said in my head to Tommy. I thought if we kept talking that he wouldn’t lose consciousness. “Do you know of any secret places in this place that are underground…like a bunker?”

“There are no bunkers in this arena,” Tommy answered. “The only thing that’s underground is actually right below where we are standing. There is a storage room right underneath the ring. It’s big enough for people to walk and store things in.”

“Store things like a body! Tommy, do you think there’s a chance they’re keeping her right below where we are fighting?”

“It fits Romero’s sick profile,” Tommy said, now he was coughing up blood. “It’s the kind of sick, twisted shit he gets off on.”

“We need to tear through the floor!” I said.

“How do you propose we do that?” Tommy couldn’t even stand up straight, let alone rip into the ring floor.

I looked around the arena and saw multiple fire extinguishers at each exit of the arena. Next to each fire extinguisher was an axe in a plastic case.

“Tommy, there are at least four axes in the arena.”

“How do you suggest I pick up an ax with my claws, Josiah?”

“Trust me, you and I need to sell this fight. We will take turns beating each other up so it looks like we have the leverage. We need to tear through the ring floor and get to Lena. In my heart, I know she is underneath us. What is the floor made of?”

“This whole place is made of wood. Romero is too cheap to make it out of anything else.”

“We need to trade off taking the advantage. I’m going to knock you down, go with it and just take my lead.” I backed up and came at Tommy. I flew up in the air in my Mani form. The crowd cheered, they loved it when I did that. I was about twenty feet up and I shot my body into Tommy’s werewolf body, feet first, absolutely laying him out. My contact was pretty ferocious. Maybe too ferocious, I was trying to sell it, but I think I injured a ‘battered’ Tommy even worse.

“Holy shit, Josiah that freaking hurt!” Tommy said, as he laid in the middle of the ring.

“Just stay down,” I said.

I flew back up and circled the arena in the air. At all four exits were a fire extinguisher and an ax. Only Romero would leave a weapon like an ax out in the open in this primitive, Third World arena. The more I thought about it, this place was a piece of shit. It only gave the illusion of being an upper world-class arena. I flew down and punched a hole in one of the plastic cases that was holding an ax. I grabbed the ax from the inside. I held the ax in my right hand. I flew to the other side of the ring and did the same thing to grab a second ax.

Tommy wasn’t doing much of anything in the middle of the ring. He was just lying there in absolute misery. That poor guy was in a hell of a lot of pain. Hopefully, this would soon be over. I flew back into ring with an ax in both hands. The crowd roared and stood up. They were bloodthirsty. You would think they had seen enough. But the nature of man is an animalistic one. It is kill or be killed. And, unfortunately, there is something spectacular about watching two men fight it out to the death.

I dropped one ax on one side of the ring. “Okay, Tommy, move to the middle of the ring.” Tommy then rolled to the center. “When I count to three, move out of the way! I’m going to strike the ring floor with everything I have.”

“One, two, three…” I counted in my head and Tommy rolled out of the way. I struck the ax as hard as I could into the ring floor. The ax made a three-foot gash right smack-dab down the center of the ring. I looked down at the damage and I could only imagine that we would have to do this about thirty to forty times between the two of us to make our way to Lena.

“You ready, Tom? You’re going to have to transition to your Carni form and grab an ax. It’s time for us to shred through this motherfucker floor and get to Lena!”

Tommy transitioned, to the delight of the crowd. He went to the other side of the ring and grabbed his ax. This must have looked like the most barbaric thing anyone had ever seen. Two grown men having a good old-fashioned ax fight. Not switchblades, but axes.

“Let’s take turns dominating,” I said. “Let’s do the one, two, three, count.”

So, Tommy and I proceeded to take turns dominating one another. We tore through that floor with everything we had, each of us taking turns. We started in the center and worked our way out. The crowd was going absolutely berserk with excitement as we wrecked the place. It was a spectacle to behold. We took turns beating each other up. We would pretend to be so hurt we couldn’t get up, and then the other one would annihilate the stage with the force of the ax. This went on for about twenty minutes. I was exhausted. I could only imagine how insanely tired Tommy must have been. He was reaching deep into a place that I never knew he had. It was fight or flight, and my boy was fighting to the bitter end.

Then, it finally happened. I whaled down so hard with my ax that I cracked right through the ceiling of the storage space and we both fell into the storage space, a couple of feet from where Lena was being held.

There was one of Romero’s goons with a knife to Lena’s neck. In a split second, I broke the goon’s neck. Tommy and looked around and apparently, he was the only guard in the storage space.

I then turned to Lena. She was tied down and gagged. Tommy quickly transitioned to the werewolf and ripped through her knots with his claws and got her free. She seemed real weak, almost as if she didn’t understand what was happening to her.

“Tommy, jump up,” I said, “Make it look like you have the advantage over me, as far as the audience is concerned.”

Tommy nodded and as the werewolf, he climbed out slowly. He was absolutely exhausted.

I took the gag out of Lena’s mouth. She was sweating and very dirty. She had bruises all over her arms and legs. These guys are going to pay for what they have done to her.

“Are you okay?” I asked. I held her in my arms. I looked up at the ceiling and I could see Tommy in his werewolf body parading around as if he had killed me.

“It’s been a rough couple of days, Josiah,” Lena said, weakly. “I’m not going to lie.”

“Is everything okay? Regarding the pregnancy?” I asked, holding my breath.

“I’m pretty sure everything is still okay,” Lena answered. “I just need to get out of here.”

“I know you do, sweetheart. Listen, Tommy knows this place better than I do. Stay here. Tommy will be back down and he’s going to get you out safely.” I kissed her forehead.

To everyone’s surprise, even Tommy’s, I flew back up into the ring. Once they saw I was still alive, the audience stopped chanting Tommy’s name.

“You couldn’t let me have my little moment, could you? Josiah?” Tommy joked. Even in his painful state, he had his sense of humor.

“You’re going to need to transition back to your Carni form. I’m going to throw you back down to Lena and you’re going to get Lena out of here. You’ve been through more than enough tonight. This fight isn’t over. Romero and his men are going to pay for what they have done. There’s a safe place near here. Get Lena outside and she’ll take you there. Just tell Lena to take you to the Deity.

Tommy nodded. “How do you want to kill me? Let’s make this good!” Tommy said, always the showman, even in his exhaustion.

“All right, just go with it,” I said.

Tommy transitioned back into his Carni form. We were once again and for the last time, squared off. He and I traded punches, allowing each other to land blow after blow at our faces. I definitely took something off my punches, but Tommy was letting me have it, full on.

“Now,” I said. I uppercut Tommy and he flew back onto his back and played it like he was completely passed out.

I went over to him and threw him through the hole in the floor. I grabbed the ax and Tommy and Lena moved to the side as I jumped in with the ax over my head and came down with a furious chop. I slammed the ax in to the left of Tommy and Lena. It made a frightening sound that could be heard all throughout the arena. It appeared to the crowd that I had just obliterated Tommy. I rose out of the hole in my Mani looking down, as if I had just killed my friend and couldn’t stand the thought of it. The crowd chanted my name as I pasted a sick and remorseful expression on my face. As far as they were concerned, I was the victor.

Now, it was time for phase two of my plan.

Chapter Thirty-two

I motioned to the announcer to bring the microphone up to me. My name was being echoed throughout the arena. I motioned for the audience to be quiet.

I looked around the arena and stared at all four corners of the audience and said, “I want every person or immortal to be out here to hear what I’m about to say. I need every fighter in the holding area to come out here!” I yelled into the microphone.

I looked around.

Where’s that piece of shit Romero?

Within a minute, the entire arena was filled with members of the crowd, soldiers and fighters. I looked out to everyone and I knew what I needed to say: “Tonight, some of you spent a lot of money to watch people eliminate one another from this earth. And others of you came down here out of curiosity. And there are still others of you who had no choice. You had to be here. The blood bath that you all witnessed was a primitive one. It was no worse than purchasing a ticket to watch Christians get eaten by lions.”

I paused and looked out to the crowd. I looked at Romero’s soldiers and they seemed real jumpy. I knew I had better say and do what I wanted to, and quickly!

I continued my speech: “I stand before all of you tonight. Not victor of anything worth a damn. I defeated a man who fought until he was bloodied to the point of his own insanity. He was destroyed both physically and emotionally.”

I made my voice even more serious. “If any of you are under the illusion that any fighter in this room got paid tonight or any other night, you are sadly mistaken. No matter what you have been told, no fighter has ever been paid in this arena at any given time. Each one of us is paying off a debt. And some of us have been told that our families would be killed if we didn’t fight! I was one of them!”

Now, Romero’s men were scrambling around. Guns were drawn, I knew they wouldn’t shoot. There would be no way that Romero would give them the green light. I was more valuable to him alive than dead. There were far too many important people in the crowd. The soldiers began to spread out. They were anticipating something would go haywire and they were damn right.

“Immortals! I am now speaking to you! You may have owed a debt to Romero, to this underground society. I’m telling you tonight, if you fought just one fight, you have paid him back in full. He is making you pay him back pennies on the dollar!”

Now I had the attention of all the fighters. if I hadn’t already had their ears and eyes.

I continued, “Tonight it ends! Tonight, this underground dungeon that he calls a prize arena is finished! Join me, fighters! Join me! It doesn’t matter if you’re Carni or Mani! Tonight, we fight together! They might have fire power! But we have something far greater! WE HAVE IMMORTALITY!”

I dropped the microphone and all hell broke loose. The fighters turned on the soldiers and all-out war erupted inside the arena.

It was the beginning of a battle for the ages. I wish I could tell the tale that it was a massacre in favor of the fighters that were being exploited. But it wasn’t. It was a massacre, nonetheless, but for both sides.

Yes, the fighters did prevail, but not without a serious number of casualties. In less than a half hour, hundreds died in that arena. Most of millionaires and billionaires got out alive. No one had any beef with them. They were just bloodthirsty fans. Some didn’t make it out, and that was unfortunate.

Mani and Carni fought aggressively alongside one another on this night. It was a beautiful sight to behold. Within minutes, we turned the arena upside down. Fires broke out and nearly every soldier died. The ones who didn’t fled like cowards. When all was said and done, only one hundred and twenty Mani and Carni survived. We lost more than half our men.

In the end, the only casualty that mattered to me was Romero’s life. He was going to pay for all seven of his deadly sins and whatever other ones he had committed in his lifetime.

He had made it out to his helicopter. He was about five miles just outside the compound, flying the helicopter by himself.

I got word that he had taken off out of there. I had never appreciated being able to fly more than I did at this moment. I took off in the direction of the helicopter and I caught up to him shortly.

He was zigzagging the chopper across the sky, trying to avoid me, but he knew his fate. I flew above the helicopter and looked him in the eye from outside the window. I wanted him to see my face. I got to the open doorway of the copter and grabbed him and ripped him from his seat. I held him in my arms, 5,000 feet in the air.

“Please, Josiah. Spare me! At least let me become one of you. Please don’t let me die,” he screamed, as he dangled in the sky.

“Romero, you’re the worst human being, or immortal for that matter, that I have known. You don’t deserve to live your life as either.” With that, I dropped him and watched as he fell to the ground below. It was finished.

I flew back to his compound. By this point, the entire compound was set on fire, Waco style.

To the left of the compound, the remaining fighters stood in an open field, watching the place blaze up. I flew over and landed in front of them.

The one hundred and twenty Carni and Mani who stood in front of me no longer had any direction or purpose. I was about to give it to them.

As Romero’s compound went up in flames behind me, I stood in front of these amazing warriors who had fought for something tonight that was as great as any human or immortal could ever fight for. Tonight, they fought for their freedom.

“Warriors!” I yelled to the men, “Tonight, you have proven that you could stand and fight alongside enemies. Tonight, I ask you to join me in one more battle, a battle greater than even your freedom, a battle that will free all of us from the bondage of hate. Will you join me against an enemy even worse than the man we defeated tonight?”

“We’ll follow you anywhere, Josiah,” a Carni man yelled out.

“So will we!” a Mani man yelled, too.

I looked around the group. These were the toughest men in the world and they were now on my side.

I finally had my army.

Chapter Thirty-three

Before we went home, I went to the Deity to see if Lena and Tommy had made it there okay.

When I arrived there, I went down into the bunker myself. I made my way to the back room where I had previously met the Deity. Both Tommy and Lena were lying on the floor being cared for by the Deity and some children.

Tommy looked up at me and smiled. The children had done a pretty good job cleaning him up.

“You did good tonight, Tommy,” I said.

He nodded his head and smiled. “We good?”

“We’re good,” I said. “Romero won’t be exploiting any more immortals. Romero won’t be doing much of anything.”

I looked at Lena and she seemed to being doing okay. The children were giving her food and water.

“Are you okay?” I asked Lena.

“Yes, I am,” she reached her arms out to me.

I knelt down and hugged her. “I am so sorry that this happened to you,” I said.

“Josiah, it had to happen,” Lena said. “Everything had to happen for all things to come to pass.”

I looked over at the Deity and said, “She is starting to sound like you.”

The Deity smiled and said, “You have an amazing woman, Josiah.”

“I know I do.” I looked over at Tommy and said, “I have an amazing best friend, too.”

“Josiah,” the Deity said. “You’re going to need to take Lena back and get ready. You will have more challenges to come not to mention a couple of bundles of joy.”

I smiled. “I can’t wait.” I sat down in between Tommy and Lena and just collapsed.

“Are you okay?” Lena asked.

“Yeah, Josiah,” Tommy said. “What about you?”

“I’m great guys.” I paused and then said, “Oh, by the way. We are going to have a few more houseguests, one hundred and twenty to be exact.”

They both looked at me, surprised.

I leaned back on the ground of the bunker and knew from this moment on, my destiny and my family were one. I was forever going to live by one strict code to defeat Krull: That strict code was ‘One Love.’

To be continued in:

One Love

Vampire Love Story Book #5

Available in ebookstores everywhere

Return to the Table of Contents

WEREWOLF LOVE STORY

Part One

Published by H.T. Night at Smashwords.com

Copyright © 2010 by H.T. Night

All rights reserved.

(Author’s note: All characters depicted in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older.)

Dedication

I dedicate this novel to my family.

Acknowledgment

Special thanks to Eve Paludan J.R. Rain, April M. Reign and Sandy Johnston for all their help.

Werewolf Love Story:

Part One

Chapter One

Practice was a bitch. Mo, my trainer, kicked my ass. These five-hour practices would have to stop once I was champion. That was a long way off, considering that I only had one professional fight behind me. I knocked out the poor guy in less than a minute; I had a long road ahead of me until I got to the top.

I’m a mixed martial arts fighter in the state of California. I was a collegiate wrestling champion for Arizona State, and after college, there wasn’t much I could do when my only skill was wrestling other guys on a cold, hard mat. So, I went into mixed martial arts training and got quickly addicted to the sport. So much so that I decided to make it my career.

Practice was rough tonight because I was still nursing a pretty serious hangover from the New Year’s Eve party, the night before. I hardly ever drink, but there are certain events in the year that qualify as drinking nights, and New Year’s Eve is one of them.

The year was 2006, and I had just turned 22 years old. College was a breeze for me; I zipped through my four years and got a degree in Theater Arts. Yes, that’s right, I said it; I’m a mixed martial arts fighter who also has a Theater Arts degree. I took every kind of class when I was at Arizona State and I found that my acting classes were the most fun. And, I’m all about fun.

But tonight wasn’t about mixed martial arts or theater. Tonight was about unwinding at my favorite dive bar. I wasn’t sure if I was going to drink, considering I drank half the tequila in Mexico last night, but I still had some party left in me and I needed to feed the beast.

My muscles hardly got sore anymore unless I took a pounding in the gym. Tonight, I took such a pounding. I had recently installed a huge Jacuzzi-style bathtub in my apartment. So, I figured I’d check out the ambiance of the bar and maybe have a tiny, little drink. Then I go home and soak my overworked muscles and joints against the bubbling jets of my Jacuzzi.

I was so hung over and exhausted that I wanted to go to a bar where I knew I would have zero chance of getting into a fight. I have to admit, I love to fight and my specialty is putting douchebags in their place: on the ground, face down. I’m not talking about the clueless guy who is socially inept and tends to stick his foot in his mouth repeatedly at a bar when it comes to talking to women. I’m talking about the meathead, the abrupt bully who is always trying to physically cut you down to build himself up. I didn’t pummel douchebags for talking crap, I pummeled them in physical self-defense. I’m a walking target for douchebags, because I look like a challenge, I’m about six feet, two inches tall, and have a thick physique. I have an exceptionally small waist in comparison to my shoulders, which gives me a nice ‘V shape’ as the ladies often mentioned. My looks have been compared to a younger Hugh Jackman with more of a rugged edge. I have to admit, I love the ladies, and they seem to love themselves some Tommy. Guys, on the other hand, especially guys in packs, seem not to be so Tommy-friendly. I usually kept to myself because frankly, I could fight every night of the week, if necessary. It was as natural to me as breathing.

So, my dive bar of choice is a place called Shiners, because everyone knows my name and respects my contribution to society. I did see the irony in the name of the dive bar and it was like an “in” joke, every time I walked in past the sign and patted it, for luck. My goal for my contribution to society, in Shiners and elsewhere, was to make sure that all of my women knew that they were delicate, beautiful creatures—I did all I could to make sure each one was satisfied. Line them up! I liked all women, big and small, black or white. They are all God’s creatures and if the night is right, the lucky chosen one would make a run to my hot tub with me, and walk out with her knees quivering and a smile on her face. But don’t misunderstand my intentions, I’m not sexist or a pig. I love and adore women and I’m a gentleman to the utmost degree. But, I am usually on the prowl, and the cuter, my prey, the more I raise my game. My game is simple. I’m the bad boy. Sometimes quiet, sometimes outgoing, but never the braggart. I usually just give tidbits about myself and allow their imaginations to infer the rest. My technique seemed to be working for me. I rarely lacked for female company, but had no steady girlfriend. I had never felt like I needed or wanted one.

I pulled my black Mustang into the Shiners parking lot. The bar is about two miles from my gym. I worked out in Anaheim Hills at a gym that specializes in mixed martial arts training. The parking lot was unusually empty for a Thursday night, but then again, it was New Year’s Day; most people were already in bed after a long day of watching football and pigging out on Christmas leftovers and beer. I didn’t have the luxury of eating like a pig since I had to keep my weight around 175 pounds. And beer was pretty much forbidden for fighters. It was said that beer put on weight faster than any food.

I got out of my car and stepped on the crushed gravel parking lot. It was a reasonably cool evening, so I decided to grab my leather jacket from the back seat of my Mustang. It went well with my immaculate white t-shirt and Levis 501 button-front blue jeans that molded to my hips like they were custom made. I had showered and cologned up at the gym and I looked and smelled like a warm, summer day. But, because I had a hangover, I knew my breath was probably yucky. It was Altoid time! I reached in my left pocket and pulled out a container of wintergreen Altoids. I tossed a couple in my mouth. Considering Altoids were the most I had splurged on my diet all day, I thought it would be okay to knock back a couple more.

I put on my coat, straightened my clothes and then looked at myself in my driver’s-side mirror. My eyes were a tad bloodshot from my workout but I didn’t have any eye drops, so I decided not to worry about it. Besides, it was kind of dark in Shiners. My dark brown hair seemed a tad messed up, but then again, I couldn’t walk into a bar looking too immaculate. I had learned that a slightly scruffy look could be appealing to women.

I walked across the parking lot and counted a total of five cars. Was there anyone inside? Worst-case scenario, I could chat it up with Megan, the bartender. She was cute and was well-endowed and I could at least get my flirt on. Practice makes perfect.

I opened the door to the bar. The door had peeled-off paint on the outside, and they covered the inside with big beer advertisements.

I peeked in and Jonesy, the doorman, was there sitting on a stool looking bored to death. He was a rather large man with a giant head. He looked like he could be an extra in a motorcycle movie.

“Tommy, what’s up, brother?” He stuck out his fist and bumped it with mine.

“Not much, Jonesy.” I knew I wouldn’t have to show my ID, and I was actually glad not to. I had been going to the bar since I was eighteen. If they’d ever wanted to see my real I.D., they would know I had pulled the wool over their eyes for four years with a fake one.

Just like I expected, there was no one in the bar except a couple of the regulars, old guys who would talk your ear off about politics and the state of the American economy, if you let them. Not tonight, I thought. I walked to the bar area and Megan was behind the bar, looking as hot as ever. She was wearing a hot, black skin-tight top with a pair of cut-off jeans shorts. The girl sure knew how to get a tip.

“Hey, Tommy, have a seat, cutie.” She seemed genuinely glad to see me; she was probably bored to tears listening to the old men talk about elections. I caught some of their conversation in dribs and drabs. It was tedious.

“Trust me, Megan, there is only one cutie in this bar and it sure as hell isn’t me,” I said, as I planted my butt on the high barstool.

Megan smiled at me flirtatiously and said, “Jonesy is looking hot tonight.”

“Yes, he is. No one but Jonesy is quite able to pull off the old-school MacGyver mullet hairdo and mix and match it with a Vincent Price goatee and Elvis sideburns. What’s not to love?”

She laughed. “That’s for sure. What can I get you, Fighter Boy?”

I hesitated and then said, “I’ll have a Patron. Make it a double shot. Neat.” Sometimes, I like to order a drink to impress, but it’s hard to impress a bartender with anything but a tip.

“Sure thing.” Megan grabbed a Patron bottle from the back of the bar. She had to tilt up her body to get the bottle and thank God she did. I caught a glimpse of an ass cheek. Wow, that did the trick! I would put that image in my mental vault and whip out that baby as needed in times of solitude.

I’m not a pig, so I definitely didn’t let on to Megan that I was pretty turned on by her little reach-up-to-grab-a-bottle performance. A woman like Megan knows she’s hot and works it for all she’s got. I’m sure the ass cheek slid out on purpose from her tiny cutoffs. If I was to comment, it would just put me in a category of every hard-up creep who comes in here looking to hit on a defenseless lady bartender. If Megan didn’t work here and I had met her out in the real world, I might have hit on her. But there was no way I would do anything other than harmless flirting. I make it a point not to shit where I eat. Shiners was my home away from home and I took it seriously that I should not get involved with the employees. No matter how cute.

Megan turned around and poured me a double shot and set it in front of me along with a couple of limes and a salt shaker.

“You know me so well, Megan.”

“I aim to please.”

“I know you do.” I put a little salt on my wrist and cut a lime in half. “Here’s to the new year!” I licked the salt, downed the double shot and sucked the lime. It went down smooth, Patron always does. “Slow night?” I asked.

Megan smirked at the idiocy of my obvious question. “I expected it,” she said. “I have no idea why the owner even has this place open. He gives us two vacation days, Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

“Well, I’ll tip you good.”

“I know you will, you always do,” Megan looked over my shoulder and then paused. “Don’t look now, Tommy, but a ‘Ten’ just walked in and she’s all alone.”

“Wow, a ‘Ten’ even.” I didn’t look around.

“She’s hot. I’d do her.” Megan said.

“She’s either really hot, or really nasty,” I said, under my breath. Hot girls tend to make out with odd-looking chicks at parties. There’s something about a bad, genuine hard-ass chick that turns on straight girls. But that sort of girl does nothing for me.

“She definitely hot! Turn around, you chicken-shit.”

“I’m not chicken-shit, I’m savoring the moment. I like to pace myself.”

“Well, Mr. Pacer, you blew it. She just left.”

“You’re fucking kidding me.” I turned around and saw the door close. I looked at Megan and gave her a look that said ‘this girl better be worth going to the parking lot to check out.’

“Go see for yourself,” she said, and began wiping down the counter.

I got up and hurried past Jonesy and went outside. I opened the door and right beside the door on the right was a beautiful brunette. She was sexy in a hot Playboy centerfold way, but still had enough girl next door in her to tell she was grounded. At least, I hoped so, you never know with girls from Southern California. She was looking at her phone and typing a text message. I decided I’d better do something, too, so it didn’t appear like I had only come outside to see her. Which I had. I took a couple of steps to the left and pretended to text on my phone.

I mouthed out loud what I was supposedly texting to give the illusion I was really interested in my make-believe text. I had to play it like I was completely unaware of the hot brunette that I was standing next to me in the parking lot. This kind of move hardly ever works, but it was worth a shot.

I took my time and eventually looked over at her to see that the brown-haired beauty and me were about fifteen feet apart. She caught me looking in her direction and I gave my sincerest, warmest smile. Her eyes locked in on me. Bingo! She was interested.

“Do I know you?” she asked.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “Why?”

“I don’t know, maybe it was just the way you were looking at me.”

“How was I looking at you?” I said, laughing.

“I don’t know. You looked at me like you recognized me.”

“Sorry, I was just texting a friend and you caught my eye.”

She nodded her head like a woman who hears that kind of thing all the time. She stopped texting and looked up at me and said, “Why is the bar so dead?”

“It’s usually pretty active. It is New Year’s Day.”

“Oh yeah, it is. That’s funny, I was up until noon last night, I took and nap and then came here. So, it feels like the next day. Even though it’s the same day.”

“That would do it to you. Sleeping during the day always messes up my internal body clock.”

Then something odd happened. She looked at me with a concerned, puzzled look. I looked at her and then she motioned toward her nose. You know, that motion people do when you have a booger. Are you kidding me? Really? I have a big booger hanging out of my nose? Apparently, not just a small one, she looked at it like there was an asteroid hanging out of my nostril. I was horrified.

She continued to stare right at my nostril and now her face went from moderate concern to absolute horror. How big was this booger? I finally reached toward my face and as I did I felt a drip fall from my nose to the ground below. Holy shit, my nose was bleeding.

“Are you okay?” she asked, rushing over to me.

I tilted back my head and the young lady pulled some tissue out of her purse.

“Don’t put your head back you’ll choke on your own blood,” she said. “You need to lean forward and pinch your nose.” She grabbed my hand and led me back inside the bar. She walked me across the bar to the restroom area.

“It only took you five minutes for her to punch you in the face, Tommy.” Megan yelled out, laughing, as I was being swept off by my new brown-haired friend.

She took me into the ladies’ room. She was still holding my hand while she opened the door to the bathroom. The first thing I noticed was that there were no urinals and all of the stalls had doors. There was even a little table with a plant on top. Are you kidding me? The men’s bathroom was disgusting, and this bathroom looked like a room at the Hilton.

“Lean over the sink,” she said. “Why is your nose bleeding? Did you get into a fight?”

I pinched my nose and leaned over the sink. I looked at myself in the mirror. Damn! Even their mirror was bigger! The blood flow seemed to be slowing.

“You have a name, bleeder?” the woman asked wiping my nose for me. She leaned in and wow, she smelled incredible. She smelled like vanilla and I liked vanilla a lot.

“My name is Tommy.”

“Tommy? Is it short for Thomas?”

“No, and that wouldn’t be short. The two names are almost just as long.” I counted the letters in my head.

“Okay, smartass. You never answered me. Is there a reason why you’re bleeding all over me?”

I owed her an explanation; I mean after all, she had brought me into the women’s bathroom. “I’m a professional mixed martial arts fighter and sometimes my nose just unexpectedly bleeds. It has to do with the fact I’m constantly losing weight.”

“A professional fighter?” her eyes lit up. “Nice. That is about the most interesting thing I’ve heard all day.”

“Is it more interesting than a guy bleeding in front of you, seconds after meeting him?”

“No, that definitely was more interesting. You’re two for two in the intrigue department.”

“What about you, Florence Nightingale? Do you have a name?

“Yes, I do.” She continued to wipe my face.

“Well...”

“My name is Sasha.”

“Sasha?” I asked.

“Yeah, I know it sounds like a stripper name, but it was the name I was born with. I’m Argentinean and my parents were trying to be more American.”

“Bambi or Bubbles wasn’t on your parent’s radar?”

She laughed. “I guess there are worse stripper names. I should be thankful.”

“I don’t think it sounds like a stripper, more like a villain in Batman.”

“There you go. I could be Catwoman’s twin sister.”

I finally took over and wiped my nose. “Not too many American girls would do the whole hot-nurse bit routine. So, I do have to give it up to Argentina.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m all American, I was born here. My parents are from Argentina.”

“Well, be sure to thank them for me. They raised an outstanding young lady.”

“Wow, you lay it on thick, don’t you?”

“In any other case, that would be an accurate statement, but in this case, I couldn’t be any more serious.”

“You’re sweet.” And then she finally did it. She gave me the ‘I think you’re hot too’ look.

“Can I buy you a drink?” I asked. It was the least I could do.

Sasha looked at me in a way a girl does right before she makes the ‘I’ll hang with you for the next couple hours’ look. “Sure,” she said. “And you’re in luck. The bleeding has stopped.”

“That’s good. It would give a whole new meaning to a Bloody Mary.”

“Now, that’s just gross.”

“Hey, you’re the one who got intimate with my nose, minutes after meeting me.”

Sasha shook her and laughed and swung open the door. I looked at my nose in the mirror and it was bright red. Nice, I look like Rudolph.

Sasha stepped outside the bathroom and took a seat at one of the many empty tables in the bar. I followed her and yelled out, “Megan, two more shots of Patron.” I decided to look at Sasha to see if tequila was okay.

“Patron sounds good,” Sasha said, “and a beer chaser would be great. I only like imported beer; I’m girlie like that.”

“Okay, green bottle it is,” I shouted one more time to Megan. “Make those two shots and 2 green bottles.”

“Wow! Fancy, Tommy. She must have cleaned you up real good!” Megan winked at me.

I ignored the comment.

Megan made the drinks and brought them over and Sasha and I talked and laughed for the next couple of hours until Megan yelled out ‘last call.’

Sasha told me she was a waitress at a coffee shop in Brea. She had gone to nursing school, but had to quit, due to lack of funds. We joked and laughed and made fun of just about everything we could think of. She was my kind of chick; she could dish it out and seemed to be up for anything.

The bar closed down and I walked Sasha out to her car. I hadn’t drunk any alcohol since the first shot when we first sat down. I knew I had plenty of time for the alcohol to make its way through me. I could pass a breathalyzer test any day of the week. Sasha, on the other hand, was a buck fifteen at the most, and she followed her shot and beer with about three more beers and two more shots.

“You okay to drive?” I asked

“Oh, is this your big ‘don’t drink and drive’ move, where you convince little old me to sleep over and you’ll give me the bed and you’ll sleep on the couch?”

“Who said I would be the one sleeping on the couch?”

“Oh, confident, are we?”

“Not confident. I just have my dates take the couch. I find it’s the right thing to do once I’m completely done with the seduction aspect of the evening.”

“Seduction? A girl should be so lucky!”

“Honestly, I thought I’d take you to Denny’s to get some coffee. I don’t make it a habit to take girls to my place right after I first meet them.”

“Oh, you live with your parents!” Sasha began laughing hysterically. “I knew your charm came with a price.”

“No. I live alone in a two-bedroom apartment by myself. And, I don’t remember my parents. I was raised by my grandparents. My grandma mostly.”

“Aww.” Sasha was really buzzed. She began touching my face in a way that wasn’t the least bit sexy. “That explains your Southern charm.”

“Southern charm?” Maybe Southern California charm. There is nothing Southern about me.”

“Trust me; I’ve spent a lot of time in the South. You would fit right in. They’re all corn-fed like you.” Sasha then began feeling my muscles. “Damn, you’re really muscular. How many hours a day do you work out?” She felt my entire upper body. I eventually stopped her hands before she got to my legs and put them by her side.

“Look, let’s go to Denny’s. You’re drunker than I thought. We’ll hang out there until you can think clearly.”

Sasha had taken out her keys when we first left the bar, but now she was putting them back in her purse. “I guess I could use some coffee. Coffee would sober me up.”

“That’s my Mustang over there.” I pointed across the parking lot at my bad boy.

“Nice, like I said, very Southern. All it’s missing is a Dale Earnhardt for President sticker on the bumper.”

I walked her over to my vehicle. I opened the door and helped her in the passenger side. I shut the door and walked behind the car and watched as Sasha looked at my door and noticed it was locked, she leaned her drunk body over and unlocked my door. One more for Argentina! I loved it when a girl did that. It shows she’s thinking outside herself. Sasha was drunk and she still pulled it off. Bravo!

Chapter Two

We went to the Denny’s off of Harbor Boulevard in Fullerton. During the entire ride, Sasha touched my arms, well, maybe more like petted them, like they were kittens. The angel on my shoulder was telling me to go to Denny’s and the damn devil was saying, ‘Screw Denny’s, it’s time for some loving.’ The angel eventually won the battle.

We got to Denny’s and ordered enough food to feed six people. I was happy to see that Sasha was throwing down her coffee like her shots and I knew she’d be sober in no time.

We continued to talk for a good hour until our conversation led me to ask, “So, Shiners isn’t exactly a hopping, happening place. What brought you to that hole-in-the-wall bar on a holiday?”

“I was bored and hoping to play some darts. That place must be the only bar in the United States that doesn’t have a dart board.”

“Oh, that’s why you left so fast. I actually took it personally.”

“You never even turned around. You didn’t even know I was in the bar!”

“I knew you were in the bar.” I smirked and took a sip of my soda.

“You’re just the babe-hound aren’t you?”

“Not really. The bartender knows what I like.”

“You were given the heads’ up? I see how it is. You let that poor bartender do all your dirty work.”

“She did say you were her type.”

“Well, it’s nice to be adored.”

“You don’t strike me as a woman who is hurting for adoration.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised. So, when you came outside to make a text, that was all for show?”

“I did mention earlier on I had a Theater Arts degree.”

“Nice performance.”

“It’s only fun if there’s an audience.”

“Even if it’s an audience of one?”

“If that audience is you, I’d perform all night,” I said, winking at her.

“All night? That’s impressive coming from a bleeder.”

“Did I mention that my erections are like a locomotive charging through the Midwest, carrying steel as cargo?”

“You might have glossed over that little nugget of info.”

“Well, now you know.”

“I’ll be sure to put that in my penis journal.”

“Are there are lot of entries?” I asked, smiling.

“These days, not enough.”

“You can also add in your little journal that I have a beautiful penis.”

“It will be duly noted. Can we get off your penis?”

“I wasn’t aware that you had gotten on,” I joked.

“Neither had I!” Sasha slammed the table at her burn. “Ouch! Game, set, match.”

I laughed out loud. “Now that was fun.”

“You have no idea how much fun I can be.”

“All right, tell me. What do you do for fun?”

Sasha liked this question. She sat up and everything. “I’m an actress.”

“Really?”

“Well, I’m trying to be.”

“What kind?” I asked.

“One who talks.”

“Very nice,” I said, sarcastically. “What I meant was what kind of actress: TV, movie, stage?”

“Stage and some television.”

“Some television, really?” I was sincerely impressed.

“Yep, so you’re not the only actor here.”

“Oh, I’m not an actor. I got a general Theater Arts degree. It was better than doing math.”

“Well, I’m trying to be an actress.”

“You do look like Audrey Hepburn if she grew her hair long.”

“I’ve been told that before. And I think it’s going to be hard for Audrey Hepburn to grow any kind of hair anymore.”

“Don’t be a downer. I like remembering my Hollywood divas alive.” I took another drink of my soda and decided to ask, “What else do you like to do?”

“I like surfing!”

“Surfing?” Are you kidding?”

“No.”

“Where do you surf?”

“Everywhere. Malibu, Newport Beach, you name it.”

“Okay, let me get this straight. You’re a beautiful Argentinean woman, who wants to be an actress and loves to surf?”

“That would be me.”

“Damn, it’s like every man’s dream.”

“All those things are superficial, though.”

“I know. That’s why it’s every guy’s dream on paper. The reality is something quite different.”

“The reality of what?”

“The reality of you,” I explained, plainly.

“You think you know me after a couple of drinks, and a Moons Over My Hammy. You think you got me all figured out at a Denny’s at 3 a.m.?”

“I think I do.”

“You’re not being serious, are you?” Sasha really didn’t like the fact I would have the gall to say something like that to her.

I looked at Sasha and grinned. “Okay, let me give it my best shot and if I’m completely wrong, I’ll pay for the meal.”

“Oh, you’re paying for the meal, nonetheless, but please enlighten me.”

I took the last sip of my drink and sat up straighter for my opening statement. “You’re very pretty. So, you probably don’t get asked out much. When you do, it’s either by a rich guy who’s old enough to be your father or a guy who thinks he is the most beautiful person in every room, not you. Both turn you off, so that’s why you settle for the bad boy. I fit the bad-boy image so that’s why you have spent the last 3 hours and 17 minutes with me. You like the bad boy because you like to think you can tame him. But you also secretly love the fact that he’s unpredictable and might not call you for a couple of days at any given time. But, that gets old and eventually you move on and that is why you have had hundreds of one-month relationships over the years. With bad boys.”

Sasha smiled and I knew I had hit some truth about her, so I continued, “You’re an actress because you like to escape. You could never be a prostitute or a nun in real life, but you like the idea of becoming whatever you won’t, with any given script. You like the idea of escaping in little intervals but you’re far too interested in your own life to do it for any long period of time.”

Sasha nearly came out of her skin on that one. I continued, “You surf because it’s the one thing you know for damn sure you can’t control, so you don’t even try. You ride each wave and get turned on by its power and unpredictability. The more you fall off a board and get back on, the more it gives you a sense of accomplishment and survival. Both are things that you desire daily. You thrive on these two things: power and unpredictability. How am I doing?”

“Go on,” she said.

Now Sasha was looking at me like she had seen a ghost, so I knew I was reading her better than any psychic friends network employee ever could. “You’re alone at the moment, but you have ten guys you can call that would leave a girlfriend, a wife, or any other person they were involved with to have one more night with you. That’s because not only are you gorgeous, you are very passionate in the bedroom, and like to take on all kinds of roles. You’re afraid to truly let go, out of your fear of real intimacy, emotional intimacy, I mean But secretly, you’re waiting for that one guy who completely ‘gets’ you and that’s the moment you have longed for. That’s the moment that you know in your heart that when you finally find him, you’re ready to completely let go.”

Sasha continued to stare at me and slowly shake her head in disbelief, so I decide to finish her off. “At this very moment, you are intrigued by my insight and candor, but yet you’re still afraid that this is ‘my game’ and I’m trying to back-door you to get you into bed. Part of you doesn’t give a shit, but the real true part of you, the one that cries at weddings and Kleenex commercials, is praying that I’m being sincere. All I can tell you is that I am, being sincere that is, and I think you’re about the sexiest woman I have ever seen. I say this not as a line, just as a statement of fact. I couldn’t care less if you believe me or not, because I know what I’ve said has ministered to your soul. So, Sasha, girl I met for the first time tonight, how did I do?”

Sasha stood up from her chair, “Check, please!”

Chapter Three

Sasha grabbed my hand and dragged me outside the double doors of Denny’s. She marched me out to the back parking lot that was parallel to Harbor Boulevard. Sasha, still leading me by my hand, threw me up against my black Mustang and shoved her tongue down my throat. She pushed me up against the driver’s-side door of my Mustang and grabbed my neck so I would be at eye level with her. I spread my legs wide which I usually have to do to kiss a woman without having to lower my neck. In this case, my head was eye level to hers, but nonetheless, she hung on my neck like it was a monkey bar. She continued to jam her face into mine and kissed me with an intensity I hadn’t ever quite experienced. She kissed me passionately with a lot of tongue and even a moan or two. I had to admit it was hotter than shit and my body definitely let her know how much this was turning, me on. I wasn’t one to wear underwear. So, I was at full attention in my 501’s. Sasha pressed harder against me kissing my lips, my neck, and my face.

“Take me home,” she said.

“What about your car?”

“I’ll get it in the morning. I don’t really want to peel myself off of you right now.”

I opened my door and Sasha ran around my car and jumped in. I drove to my apartment in record time. The angel on my shoulder had gone to bed early and the devil was out in force. The entire way to my house, Sasha licked my fingers and kissed my right arm. Can you say, ‘slam dunk?’

We got to my apartment off of Gypsum Canyon. I parked in my assigned spot, and the two of us nearly sprinted to my door. I took out my keys and opened my door. I didn’t have much furniture in my two-bedroom apartment, but at this point, all I needed was a sofa and TV in the living room and a California King in the bedroom.

We made our way through my bare hallway and nearly busted through my bedroom door. I threw it open and we both fell on my bed simultaneously.

She continued to kiss me, and I was really taken aback by her aggressiveness. Usually, I let a woman just have her way if she came at me like this, but Sasha was different. I kind of liked her. I never had a woman match wits with me like she had tonight. I couldn’t deny the fact I was craving her body more than anything else in my entire life

I kissed her back with the same intensity and hers was off the charts. But I liked to be in control, so I pinned her down and rolled on top of her. I kissed her neck, then her aggression let up a tad and I decided to stop. That’s right! I stopped and just stared at her.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m taking you in.”

“Why?”

“Because I like you.”

“I like you, too. Don’t stop.”

“I see that, we both know where this is going.”

“Yeah, so?” Sasha grabbed me and turned me to my back and began kissing my chest. I stopped her and said, “Are you sure?”

“Are you the same guy who talked about his beautiful penis an hour ago?”

“I am definitely the same guy. And I do have an epic penis, as far as beauty is concerned.”

“All talk. Put your money where your mouth is.” Man, she was driving harder than a guy would.

“Let me ask you a question. Are you okay if this is all it is? Sex?”

“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.” She was now kissing my stomach.

I looked at this beautiful woman loving on my body and thought, Screw it!

I looked at her kissing my body and I thanked God the devil had come back. With that, I grabbed her and turned her over and ripped off both of our clothes. Sasha then experienced beauty… and the beast.

Chapter Four

I woke up from a deep slumber and stared at the digital clock to the left of my bed. It read 11:30. That meant I had a solid seven-hour snooze. I turned over and my little brunette friend was still sound asleep. She looked peaceful as she laid in my bed. I leaned over and kissed her cheek. Her eyes opened as my lips made contact.

“You are for real,” she said, hoarsely.

“You thought I was make-believe?” I laughed

“Not make-believe. Just maybe a Greek god like Thor.”

“Nope. I’m all flesh and bone.”

“Yes, you are. I can attest to that.” She sat up and grinned. “I can’t believe you almost went soft on me last night.”

“Soft, I was never—”

“I don’t mean soft like that. I mean you almost didn’t want to go through with it.”

“Yeah, I did have a Boy Scout moment.”

“Why? Do you make a habit of bringing girls you meet at a bar home and not scoring with them? Do you have a whole separate belt for notches that could have been?”

“Honestly, I just knew I wanted to see you again. I figured the best insurance I had was to still stay unfamiliar in certain areas.”

“Well, you got pretty familiar.”

“I sure did.”

“You are an interesting man, bleeder.”

“It’s the life of a fighter,” I said, proudly.

“When is your next fight?”

“In three weeks.” I reached down and felt my gut. “I need to lose about twelve more pounds.”

“Well, you have three more weeks.”

“You want to go get some breakfast? I’m starving.”

“I thought you didn’t eat.”

“I’ll have some cottage cheese and egg whites. It’s my breakfast of champions.”

“That would be fine, but let’s stop by that bar and get my car.” Sasha stood up and stretched. Damn, she had a hot little body.

“Want to take a shower?”

“Considering we did have sex, I’d better.”

“Yeah, you might have my cooties.”

“I hope that’s all it is—is cooties.”

“I’m good, little girl. We did use protection.”

“I know we did.” Sasha reflected a bit on the night before. She looked at me and smiled, “You know, you are a pretty damn good kisser.”

“How could you tell?” I said, laughing.

“What do you mean?” Sasha seemed confused.

“You seemed to have your agenda in the kissing department.”

“I do like to kiss.”

“As do I, my lady.”

“That’s good to know because you haven’t seen anything yet.”

Sasha walked out of my room into the bathroom completely naked and jumped in the shower. I shook my head at the sight of a gorgeous woman walking naked in my lonely bedroom. Wow, some nights it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. I got up and put on a pair of basketball shorts and waited for her to get out of the shower. I got in after she was done and took a very long, hot shower.

When I was finished, we threw on some clothes and Sasha and I headed out. My apartment was about 15 minutes from Shiners. It didn’t take long to get there. I whipped a left on Tustin Street and looked to over my left at the bar’s parking lot where Sasha’s Jeep was parked. There was a fairly large muscular man standing next to Sasha’s Jeep. He had a giant, black 4Runner parked adjacent to Sasha’s car. I slowed down my Mustang and looked over at Sasha; she looked on in horror. Oh, this wasn’t going to be good.

“Tommy, remember last night when I asked if you had me figured out and you spouted off all those details?”

“Yes,” I said, hesitantly.

“You were right on just about everything.” She took a deep breath. “Everything, except the part about me being single!”

“Seriously, Sasha, that overgrown heap of muscle is your boyfriend?”

“Yes.”

“How long?”

“About a year.”

“Fucking great. Now this meathead is going to want to try to kick my ass.” I pulled my car in the driveway expecting this guy to charge my car and pull me out of the window. I slowly inched my way through the parking lot. I stopped and put my car in park almost a hundred feet from where he was parked. I wasn’t taking any chances.

Sasha got out of the car with her hair still wet from her shower. “I’m sorry, Tommy. I left my number by your television at your apartment. This situation is complicated.”

Complicated? Was she kidding me?

Sasha slammed the passenger door and walked over to her boyfriend who stood by her car. I knew I shouldn’t whip out of the parking lot because that would look bad and was definitely the cowardly dick move. And I was anything but a coward.

I watched as Sasha talked to the fellow with the dark brown hair. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem upset. He just leaned back and listened. He was at least 6’5 and weighed 250 pounds. He looked like he should have been playing linebacker for the Green Bay Packers.

Sasha turned around and walked toward my car. Then she stopped and motioned for me to come out of my vehicle.

Was she serious? This was the last thing I wanted to do.

But I had no choice. I slowly got out of the driver’s side. I rolled my eyes as I turned around and gave my best Hollywood, good-guy smile that I had in my arsenal in times of turmoil. I confidently walked over to Sasha’s Jeep.

“Hey, brother,” the large man said.

“What’s up?” He eyed me in a way to see what I was about trying to read me before we even began to engage in a conversation. I gave him a sincere, warm stare not knowing what Sasha could have possibly told him.

“Thanks for taking care of her last night.”

“No problem,” I said, just going along with it.

“Not every guy would help a drunk girl and not try anything.”

Try anything? There wasn’t much we didn’t try last night! But that was definitely not something to blurt out.

Meathead continued, “Thanks for making sure that creep that was hitting on her didn’t take advantage of her.”

Wow. Sasha laid it out and gave him a detailed story. A lie. Oh, she was good.

Sasha jumped in, “I told Gary about that jerk that was grabbing my arm and not letting me get in my car.”

“Yeah, what a douche,” I said, with zero expression in my voice. “He was a real asshole.” I emphasized asshole, so Sasha could tell I was referring to her.

“Well, maybe you and your wife would like to come over and barbecue sometime,” said Gary the meathead.

Huh? My wife? Okay, I’m cool with helping someone get out of trouble, but don’t get me hitched, not even in fantasy land.

“Yeah, I told Gary that you and your lovely wife let me sleep it off in your guest room. You two were great.” Sasha smiled at me innocently. Wow, she was a piece of work.

“That’s what we do, my wife and me, we love thy neighbor,” I said. Hell, if she was going to lie, I was going to go all in, too. “And don’t worry about the bed,” I continued. “We knew you were drunk and everyone wets the bed, once in a while.”

“You wet the man’s bed!” her boyfriend said, disgusted. He stared at Sasha with an embarrassed, horrified look.

“We don’t have to go into that,” I said, reassuringly. “She got real crazy and free and ran outside naked. My poor wife chased her down the block.”

Sasha looked at me as if to say, ‘Are you kidding me?’

“Why the hell would you allow yourself to get that drunk?” Now her boyfriend was irate.

“Yeah, she gave those junior high boys an eye full.” I said, piling on.

“Junior high boys?” Now, he was about to explode.

“Yeah, they were more like our local street gang,” I said, pressing the point.

“Where the hell do you live?” Meathead apparently didn’t like my pretend address.

And like I said, I went all in. “Unfortunately, I live in a not-so-safe neighborhood in Anaheim, but we only had one drive-by shooting last week, so it’s improving.”

“Let me get this straight, Sasha. You got so drunk that some jerk tried to take you home forcefully. And then this poor guy helps you out and lets you sleep it off at his house…in what appears to be downtown Compton. If that wasn’t bad enough, you stripped naked and ran down the street and this guy’s poor wife had to run you down at four in the morning. Are you serious?”

Sasha looked stunned and just had to nod. She was in no position to dispute anything, so I couldn’t resist, “Don’t forget she peed our guest bed, and maybe even pooped in it a tad bit.”

That was it! Gary was done! “New rule, you are to never go out anywhere again unless I’m with you.” Gary then turned to me. “Thanks, bro. You are good man. Please apologize to your wife for me.”

“Oh, I will. She’s at the Laundromat washing the sheets.”

Then Gary reached into his wallet and pulled out forty bucks and handed it to me. “I hope this covers it.”

It didn’t exactly. All the drinks and food she ate last night came closer to about sixty, but it was a good gesture, even though he thought it was for the sheets.

“Let’s get the hell out of here, Sasha. I’ll deal with you when we get home.” Then Meathead walked past me and jumped into his giant truck and slammed the door.

“Thanks,” Sasha said to me. “Thanks a lot,” she said sarcastically.

“No problem!” I said, stoically, then turned around and walked back to my car. That was the story of my life—bad decision after bad decision. I meet someone great, and she turns out to be a cheater, a liar, and most importantly, a bed wetter.

Chapter Five

For the next three weeks, I trained my butt off and lost the weight I needed to by eating a 1400-calorie-a-day diet and kicking my ass in the gym. My opponent was a fighter named Jorge Vasquez; he was an established pro and had a 16-6 record with twelve knockouts. He was the opposite kind of fighter than me, he was a striker and I loved the ground game. I worked on some standing techniques with my trainer, Mo. For the most part, my job was to take him down and pile on the elbows and maneuver him in a way to do one of my infamous submission moves.

The night before my fight, I had a light workout. I was going to be on the under card at the Staples Center and was the first fight out of the gate. I knew I needed to get some rest, so I got home and went to straight to bed. I wanted eight solid hours, no more, no less. I quickly fell asleep, as I usually did after a glass of warm milk.

I had started out in a very deep sleep and then I began to hear a constant beeping in my dreams. It didn’t matter what I was dreaming, from unicorns to bikini babes, there was this damn beeping sound in the distance.

Finally, I woke up and right beside my hand was my cell phone. I stared at my cell phone screen—23 missed calls. Are you kidding me? They were all from a 714 area code number that I didn’t even recognize.

I got up and went to my bathroom to wash my face. I was apprehensive about calling back. Whoever it was didn’t mind blowing up my phone in the middle of the night before my big fight. Maybe it had something to do with my grandma. I knew I needed to call the number back, but I was groggy and tired and needed at least four more hours of rest.

I went into my kitchen and sat at my table. I knew I needed to call the number back because it could be an emergency. It wasn’t every day I got 23 missed calls in the middle of the night. I sighed and I pressed ‘call back’ on my cell phone. The phone rang once and a woman answered the phone.

“Tommy,” the woman yelled.

“Who is this?” I asked. My voice was louder than I wanted it to be in trying to match her volume.

“It’s Sasha!”

“Who?”

“Sasha! From a couple weeks ago.”

“Sasha! Are you okay?” I asked. I was pretty shocked that, of all people, she was the one blowing up my phone.

“No, I’m not. I’m stuck in Balboa Beach. I have no money and my boyfriend left me.”

“Why are you in Balboa Beach?”

“I was having drinks with a friend, and he turned out to be a freak. He fell asleep and I slipped out of his house and I’ve been walking around in circles and have no idea where I am.”

“What do you want me do?”

“Could you come get me?”

“Don’t you have someone else you can call?”

“No, or I wouldn’t have called you so many times.”

“How did you get this number anyhow?”

“I got it from your phone when you fell asleep the other night.”

I really didn’t want to help her, and I wasn’t quite sure if she truly was broken up from her behemoth boyfriend, but for whatever reason, she did call me. She probably didn’t have too many options available if she was calling me.

“Listen, I have my fight tomorrow and I need my rest.”

“Tommy, please! I’m almost to the point where I am going to hitchhike.”

“Don’t do that,” I said. Shit, I was never one to leave a damsel in distress hanging out on the streets in the middle of the night—even one who lied to me. “Where are you exactly?”

“I’m on PCH near Harbor.”

“I know where that is.” I had gone down there plenty of times.

“I’m at an all-night donut shop called Cakes. It’s on the corner.”

“Okay, I’ll be there in a half an hour.” I ended the call and just stared at the clock on my microwave. It was three in the morning. You have got to be kidding me. I was running out in the middle of the night before a big fight. Part of me wanted to turn off my phone and let her rot at the donut shop. I should make her whore herself out for a ride home, but I wasn’t that kind of guy. I’m a man of my word, and in the end, that’s really all you’re left with—your honor. She might not have had any honor, but I did. I went to my bedroom and put on a pair of basketball shorts and a Lakers T-shirt and shoes, then headed out the door, keys in hand.

It didn’t take long to get there and I pulled into the donut shop’s parking lot. There she was, sitting in the front, looking miserable and bereft. I motioned for her to come to my Mustang from my car. She got up and walked over to my car. I unlocked the passenger door and she got in the passenger seat.

“Thank you, Tommy. I was running out of options.”

“You must have if you’re reaching so far back in your rolodex that you’re calling one-night stands from two weeks ago.”

“You know you were more than that,” she said, in a flirtatious way that I was definitely not in a mood to hear.

“No,” I said. “I was definitely just a one-night stand. That’s all it was and nothing more.”

I slowly backed out of the parking lot, turned my lights back on and pulled onto Harbor Boulevard. I stopped at the red light and sighed. I didn’t feel like talking to her but I needed to know where I was taking her. “Where to?” I asked.

Then the most bizarre thing happened. Someone jumped on the hood of my Mustang. “What the fuck?” I yelled out.

Then that same guy punched my front window with his fist. I jumped out of the car and saw that there were three of these assholes.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I yelled at them.

The person who had just punched a hole in my windshield with his bare fist said, “Why don’t you ask your friend?” He had long brown hair and looked really dirty.

I looked at Sasha, “You know these fuckers?”

“Oh, she knows us. We heard from a little bird that she was stranded out here. But it looks like she got herself a Cub Scout to come help her.”

“Did you call these guys to come pick you up?” I yelled to Sasha, who was still sitting in my car.

“No, I called Gina and she must have told them!” Sasha yelled back.

I could give a rat’s ass about who Gina was. This piece of shit had just busted my windshield, not mention put a big dent on my hood. This guy wasn’t that big and I definitely could take him in my sleep. His two friends weren’t much bigger. They were all in their mid-twenties, and all of them could have used a shave and a shower.

Now, the guy who slammed my window was to the right of me and the other two were on the left.

“Look, dick,” I said. “You’re going to pay for my window.”

“What are you? A lawyer?”

“No, I’m a guy who is about to kick your teeth in for fucking up his Mustang.”

The long-haired guy looked at Sasha and said, “I guess a guy who runs a surf shop wasn’t good enough for you.” Great, this douchebag was a scorned lover, too. How many exes did she have?

“Eddie, we dated over a year ago. Get over it,” Sasha yelled, from inside my vehicle.

She was still sitting in the passenger seat, expecting me to just get in and drive off. That isn’t how I handled my business. No one screwed with me, and especially, no one touched my Mustang.

“OK, Eddie. You’re going to find out real quick I’m not a lawyer and you just made the worst choice in judgment anyone ever has by thinking you can smash my car.”

I was a professional mixed martial arts fighter and I needed to be discreet about that specific detail because this guy could sue me once he realized he just got slam-dunked by a professional. But I didn’t care; this guy was going to pay for his indiscretion. I charged to my left and grabbed Eddie and threw him on the trunk lid of my car. He was a lot stronger than I expected. He was like a little ball of iron.

He bounced off my trunk and then did a back flip in the middle of the street. Cool, I thought. I got an athlete on my hands. This will be fun kicking his ass. Luckily, there was no traffic at 3 o’clock in the morning.

Eddie made a hand motion to his friend, basically telling them to back off and that he would take care of me. Little did he know what a bad-ass he’d just run into. Eddie charged me, and tried to kick me in the nuts. It’s the most predictable technique move in the street-fighting handbook. It’s a bitch move—you kick your opponent as hard as you can in his package, and just unload punches on him. But I was far too savvy to let a twerp like this get over on me. I easily blocked his kick, using the karate kid wax-off technique. It actually does really work. I smacked his leg down and that relentless little turd tried to kick me again. I caught his leg and lifted it straight up, forcing him to fall on the ground. I knew grappling and wrestling this guy was a risky move because his friends could jump on me in seconds. I figure I would choke him out fast until he saw stars.

On his back, Eddie came up at me. I took my left arm and wrapped around his head in a reverse head lock. I just cranked that baby down against his windpipe and it was lights out for Eddie. I let go of him and he slumped against the asphalt.

Suddenly, I felt an elbow crack into the back of my head. It was one of Eddie’s friends. Then I felt a sensation I had never felt in my life. The motherfucker bit my right shoulder but not a minor bite; he bit it like he was biting into a rack of lamb. I never felt that sensation before. What the hell just happened? This crazy asshole just bit a giant gash in my shoulder. I literally heard him spit out my flesh.

Motherfucker! That fucking hurt! I did the only thing I could; I threw my head back so hard that the back of my skull cracked the guy’s nose. I heard his nose break as I connected with it like a bowling ball hitting a walnut.

I turned around and the guy who bit me fell straight back onto the asphalt. The third guy came at me and I grabbed his head and knee-kicked him in his scrawny little chin, then I slammed his head on the back of my car.

All three guys were semi-conscious and crawling their way to the sidewalk. I could have stuck around and finished them off, old-school, but I was better than these street thugs. I got back into my car where Sasha was still sitting in the passenger seat, looking on with exhilaration in her eyes. I obviously just made her wetter than a Slip ’n Slide. I was the ultra-bad boy in her eyes and had just proved it by kicking some serious ass and wiping up the street with three guys. A girl like this was probably more turned on than she had ever been in her entire life.

I sat in my driver seat and looked straight ahead at the spider crack in my windshield. Luckily, the putz wasn’t that strong so he didn’t break through the glass. I still had to drive back Ace Ventura-style, with my head sticking out of my window.

I decided to just go down PCH toward Huntington Beach. I looked over at Sasha, whose eyes were still locked onto me like she had just discovered a million-dollar diamond.

“Really?” I said. “Really? Are you kidding me? That’s the kind of people you associate with? Grown men jumping on cars?”

Sasha leaned over and touched my bloody shoulder. My shoulder hurt in a way that it never had felt before. I knew I had just jeopardized my fight tonight and that made me more pissed than she’d ever know. “We are going to the E.R. I need stitches. What the hell did you get me into?”

“I’m so sorry, Tommy. Those guys had no reason to be there. He is just a jealous boyfriend and he was really drunk.”

“Oh, really? That’s supposed to make it better? I have a professional fight in nearly 12 hours. That’s my livelihood. That’s how I make my living! I can’t even raise my arm. Do you know how hard it is to get a shot in my sport? I’m fighting at the Staples Center! Do you understand how huge that is? The Lakers played there.”

“I’ll pay for your windshield.”

“You’re damn right you’re paying for my windshield. But at the moment, I could give a rat’s ass about my windshield. What I give a shit about is the two-inch gash in my right shoulder. I’m right-handed Sasha. Seventy-five percent of my coordination and strength comes from the right side of my body! How can I fight like this tonight?”

“Can I go with you to the E.R.?” she asked.

I looked at her and she seemed as concerned as anyone could be in a situation like this but my Spidey senses were out and this girl was a world-class con-artist. That was the only explanation, and why she was running around with guys who jumped on cars and fought strangers in the middle of a busy street. “Yeah,” I said. “You’re coming with me because I don’t have time to drop you off.” From a distance, I saw a hospital near Beach Boulevard.

I turned right and made my way around the block to the emergency room. I hobbled into the back and filled out the necessary paperwork and waited almost five hours for them to fix me up. I didn’t say a thing about my fight later on. There was no way I’d be cleared by this guy to participate in my match tonight. I was not going to let anyone else know about my injury.

I had already been checked out by California Commission Doctors and cleared to fight yesterday. They would have no idea that some idiot would bite off a chunk of my shoulder the night before my fight and there was no way I was going to say anything. I would fight one-handed if I had to. Southpaw, even.

It was 10 a.m. by the time I got out of the E.R. I was scheduled to fight at 6:00 p.m. that night. I could have gone home to get four to five hours of sleep and still have been reasonably refreshed. I purposely didn’t take any of the pain medication that the E.R. doctor had prescribed for me because I didn’t want to be loopy. But damn, my shoulder was killing me. I figured I could use the pain as motivation for my fight.

I started driving down Beach Boulevard. “Okay, where do you live?”

Sasha was quiet.

“Where do you live?” I demanded.

Sasha sighed loudly.

“I’m waiting,” I continued.

“I don’t really have a place to stay.”

“Huh? When did your boyfriend break up with you?”

“He didn’t exactly break up with me.”

“Did you break up with him?”

She paused, “No.”

“Well, where is he?”

“I don’t know, he’s kind of missing.”

“You mean he just up and left!”

“That’s what I’m hoping. My boyfriend was married himself and was putting me up at an apartment in Brea. About a week after I met you, he just quit contacting me. I called him several times and even drove by his house. I can’t exactly call his wife or go to the door and ask her where he is.”

“I hate to tell you, Sasha. He wised up and went back to his wife.”

“They usually do.”

“Then maybe it’s time to quit living a hundred miles an hour and get a real job and quit all this shit of living on the edge 24-7.”

“I know. You’re right. He never paid the January rent at my apartment. About a week ago, I was evicted. Then, I was staying with a friend in Balboa, and he got real needy and possessive. He got physical with me tonight, and I didn’t want our friendship to go there, so, I waited for him to fall asleep and I took off.”

“Where is your car?”

“A couple of days ago, it got impounded.”

“For what?”

“Unpaid parking tickets.”

I just drove, staring straight ahead. It was a cloudy day, and this was far too much drama for my taste. “Let me get this straight. You have no car and no place to stay. Do you have a job?”

“Well, I’m an actress.”

“That’s not a job unless you get royalties for a commercial. Let me put this another way, do you have any money for a motel?”

“No.”

“You’re broke?”

“I have about $17.00.”

“And that is why you called me, you knew I was a good guy and you thought you could weasel yourself in my life for a couple weeks until your next move.”

“You have it all wrong, Tommy.”

“Do I?”

“You do!” she said, emphatically.

“How so?”

“I’m running.”

“From who?”

“I’m running because I’m afraid I might have done something really bad.”

I pulled over into Carl’s Jr. parking lot. “What did you do?”

“I’m not sure.”

“That’s not good enough. How do you not know if you’ve done something bad or not?”

“There is more to me than meets the eye.”

The nerve of this girl! She was talking to me all cryptically after what I just went through for her. “What?” I said. “Are you a special agent or a bounty hunter?”

“Not exactly.”

“What are you?” I was now getting pissed off.

“You’re not going to believe me, so I just shouldn’t tell you.”

“Look, you turned my entire night upside down and you probably fucked up my fight. So guess what? You are telling me exactly what your deal is!”

Sasha paused and then looked me in the eye, “I’m a werewolf.”

Chapter Six

I hit the brakes, pulled over, threw it in park, and stepped out of my Mustang. I walked to the sidewalk that was parallel to Beach Boulevard, breathing hard. What kind of nut job did I get myself involved with?

Sasha stepped out of my vehicle and walked over to me. Cars were whizzing by and it was pretty chilly. I was still dressed for a pickup basketball game at a local park, but I didn’t care. I had heard enough. I needed to take this woman to a halfway house where they treated mentally-ill patients.

Sasha sat next to me on the curb. I didn’t even feel like arguing with a crazy person. I didn’t feel like talking at all and needed to get home so I could rest.

“Do you believe me?” Sasha stared deep into my eyes. What a con job. She was good. Her eyes were as sincere as I had ever seen in my life.

“Do I believe you?” I repeated.

“Yes, do you believe me?”

I looked at her and gave her a look that said, ‘You can’t be serious.’ I just laughed out loud.

“So, you don’t believe me.”

“Sasha,” I said. “A werewolf? Really? It gets more ridiculous by the minute with you. You’re not well. You’re either crazy or a pathological liar. Either of those choices isn’t someone I need to be associated with. Listen, I’m going to take you to the Radisson Inn and I’m going to pay for three nights. Stay there and figure out your next move.”

“How secure are their rooms?”

That was a strange response. “They’re secure. It’s a fancy hotel.”

“Can you padlock yourself in from the inside?”

“I don’t know. I would imagine so. Why?”

“Because tomorrow night is the first full moon.”

“Oh, you’re right.” I said, condescending. “We better make sure we lock down the furniture so you don’t break anything, being that you’re a werewolf and all.”

“We should!” Sasha said, as serious as a heart attack. Wow, she was Looney Tunes.

We went back to my car I drove down a couple of streets and pulled into the Radisson Inn. I got out and went to the front office and paid the guy cash. I had to show a credit card and that made me nervous. I didn’t know if one of Sasha’s many wonderful traits were that she was also a kleptomaniac. I walked Sasha up to her room and stopped in front of her door.

“You want to come in?” she asked.

I gave her a look that must have answered the question before I said it, “No, I’ll pass. I’m exhausted. I need to go home and sleep. I’m done, Sasha. Have a good life.”

Sasha looked at me and with a wishful tone in her voice said, “I wish you believed me.”

“So do I,” I said. “It would at least explain your erratic behavior.” I turned around and walked down to my car and didn’t look back. I got into my Mustang and headed onto the freeway and got to my apartment in about 20 minutes. I went straight to my bed and crashed. I looked over at my clock, it read 10:15. Maybe I can get four hours in.

I closed my eyes and I had a bizarre itch come over my body. I scratched all over and each scratch felt a bit euphoric. I was sure satisfying the itch in a way that was almost therapeutic.

I rolled over and protected my shoulder and fell asleep almost instantly. I woke up about one hour later. Someone’s car alarm was going off outside. What an asshole! Turn it off!

I got up and went outside to yell at the jerk. I could hear the alarm and it was loud as ever. I began walking down the street, trying to find the car alarm. The closer I got to where the sound was coming from the more my ears felt like they were bleeding.

I must have walked a half mile down the street. How fucking loud was the asshole’s alarm? Finally, I got into mini mall parking lot and there was a little yellow Volkswagen bug alarm just screeching away.

There were people outside and I was shocked they weren’t floored by the noise like I was. This was the loudest alarm I had ever heard. It sounded like ten sirens going off at the same time. There was a guy walking toward me and he seemed pretty unaffected by the noisy alarm.

“WHY ISN’T ANYONE TELLING THAT GUY TO TURN OFF HIS ALARM!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

The guy mouthed “Why are you screaming? It’s just a car alarm. It’s no big deal.”

“JUST A CAR ALARM?!!” I screamed even louder. “IT COULD WAKE THE DEAD!”

“No, asshole, your voice can wake the dead. Get a grip, will you?” The guy walked past me and got into his car.

Huh? I looked over at another man calmly walking out of a bagel shop, pressing his keys that stopped the blaring obnoxious alarm. His alarm stopped and I could finally hear again. My ears were literally stinging. Damn, that was loud!

The guy got into his little yellow bug and left. I looked around; there must have been a dozen people outside and not one of them cared. That alarm was so loud it woke me from a mile away. A mile?

I turned around and went home. Well, so much for sleep. I had a fight tonight, and Mo wanted me there by 4:00 p.m. Los Angeles was about an hour away on a Saturday, so I thought that I better just get ready. I could sleep when I was dead. Which, at this rate, wouldn’t be much longer.

I put my fight bag together and then took a long shower. I thought about my opponent and how Mo trained and prepared me for my fight. I needed to quit worrying about one-night stands and car alarms.

I wrapped my shoulder good and tight, so that no one would know that I was butchered the night before. I would need to let them know I was wearing the bandage as a precautionary measure. A lie. I hated lies.

I got to the arena and I met with Mo in the training room. We were the first one up, so, I needed to get my head on straight. I told Mo I slept on my shoulder wrong and that’s why I bandaged it up. He wanted to look at it, but I told him it wasn’t a big deal. Little did he know how bad my shoulder ached and that I had 45 stitches in it.

My opponent was exactly my size, but I was younger and quicker. My ground game was one of the best in the business. Mo and I went over a few key points and soon it was time for my second professional fight.

Chapter Seven

I stepped out into the ring for a professional fight with a veteran fighter and could only use the left side of my upper body. The only strategy I had, considering the condition I was in, was to break him down and get him to the mat so that I could do a submission move. I was in for a painful night.

After the opening announcements, I went back to my corner and Mo was outside the cage yelling instructions. “Just like we ran it in practice Tommy, you got this.” Little did Mo know what I was truly dealing with.

Round one. I rushed out and Vasquez circled me. He knew he didn’t want me to shoot into his legs and have our fight on the ground.

I threw a left. He blocked it easily. I telegraphed it too much. Vasquez came into me and we began to pummel our arms, trying to gain control. I locked my arms around his head and shot underneath his legs with my left arm and got him in a fireman’s carry. There was a problem with that move; I was forced to use my right shoulder. Crap, the pain was intense! The pain only made me angrier. I slammed Vasquez to the floor of the ring and took control. I shifted my weight, trying to get my legs inside his legs. Vasquez was face down on the mat and I was riding him like a cowboy on a bull. Except, I had this bull under control! I dropped a series of elbows with my left arm.

“Use your right arm!” Mo yelled at me.

I was waiting for just the right moment where his neck would be left open so I could sink my arm in for a choke submission.

He was guarding it beautifully, and it was impossible for me to get my arm through. So, I continued to hammer down my left arm on the back of his head and neck.

I went into complete spastic mode. I unloaded 10-12 consecutive punches and elbows and I could see Vasquez weakening.

Just give me an opening, I thought. I’ll choke you out and then we can all go home. Then it happened—he used his arm to try to get position by placing them on the mat. And for a brief second, his neck was exposed and that’s all I needed. I got my left arm underneath his Adam’s apple in a blink of an eye. I yanked up and tightened it with my right arm which gave me an immense amount of pain.

He shifted his body, trying to get out. He was a veteran and he wouldn’t tap out lightly. He fought me off for a good 20 seconds, and then I saw the most beautiful thing in sports: my opponent tapped out. That only meant one thing. He gave up and threw in the white flag. I had my second first-round knockout.

I jumped up and I looked at my shoulder and I was bleeding through my shoulder wrap. I had torn out a number of my stitches. But it was worth it, I was still undefeated. Granted, I was only 2 and 0, but I’d take it.

Mo came into the ring and he hugged me and looked at my face. “I didn’t notice you were sporting a beard before.”

Huh? I never grew facial hair in my life. I had an easy routine where I shaved in the shower each day. That was an odd thing to say. I felt my face and felt stubble and hair. What the hell? I shaved before I came down here. That was odd.

The announcer said I was the winner by knockout and the referee raised my right arm and I nearly passed out from the pain.

I showered up after the fight and the arena doctor re-stitched my arm and warned me to never fight again without coming clean about an injury. He told me that would be my ticket out of MMA because I put the company in jeopardy with the state by fighting while injured. He told me that luckily, I was still ‘a nobody’ so it wouldn’t make ESPN. It was nice to be considered ‘a nobody’ by his own organization after my two consecutive first-round knockouts.

I headed out to the parking lot by myself. I looked up in the sky and saw the full moon as huge as I had ever seen it. I stopped in my tracks and just stared at it. It was weird. I had never gazed at a full moon or any kind of moon for that matter. But for some reason, this particular moon on this particular night was almost giving me a religious experience. I felt this intense feeling and it was all directed at this moon that I was staring at in the middle of the Staples arena parking lot.

I got into my vehicle and drove home alone which seemed a bit sad, considering the night I’d just had. I didn’t have many friends and that was just the way it was. I didn’t party or celebrate that much. I was exhausted and I wanted to go home for a long winter’s nap. If I properly set the mood in my bedroom, I had a good 14 hours of sleep ahead of me.

When I got to my apartment, I checked on my stitches that were redone by the fight doctor. I knew I was going to be out of commission for a while. This sucked, but that’s what I got for getting involved with a girl who was trouble.

I got in my room, put on my favorite musical soundtrack, Les Miserables, London, on my CD player and went right to bed.

I laid still, listening to the greatest musical score of all time and tried to nod off. But I couldn’t fall asleep. I felt hot and itchy and it seemed like I could hear every single car on the freeway passing by, every car door shutting and every dog barking. It was starting to drive me nuts. One hour became two hours, and two hours became three hours. I had to face it, I couldn’t sleep.

I needed to do something that would tire me out. You would think after fighting an MMA match with one of the toughest motherfuckers in the world at my weight and with a bum shoulder, that would be enough to send me to sleepyland. But that wasn’t the case tonight. I needed a sleeping pill or some NyQuil. I decided to find a 24-hour drugstore. I also felt weary and I couldn’t quite make out what was wrong with me.

I began sweating profusely as I went out to my car. I got into my car and just sat there, staring at the full moon. What was it about this damn moon that seemed to be the only thing to make me feel right?

I looked at the spider-web crack in front of my windshield and it made me even more nauseous. I decided to head out. As I drove my body felt as hot as it has ever been. It was like I was having a fever and breaking one in the same moment. Then the weirdest thing happened: I didn’t feel like driving to the convenience store. I passed it and got on the freeway. Why? I had no idea. I felt sick and gross and the more I drove toward the moon it seemed to settle me down and made me feel better. I followed the moon all the way down to San Bernardino. Why? I had no idea. I took the 91 freeway east and went on the 15 to Bakersfield. Where was I going? I passed a couple more freeways and could tell I was heading in the direction of the San Bernardino Mountains. I didn’t know what possessed me to pull over to the side of the road, but I did.

The moon lit up the sky like a chandelier. I stepped out of my Mustang and made my way to the right, where there was nothing but desert for miles.

I could hear growling and snarling in the distance. What the hell was that? What could be out here in the middle of nowhere? I had a pair of binoculars in my glove compartment. I got them, got out and stood on my hood in about the same place where that asshole had put a dent into it the other night. I looked through the binoculars in the direction of the snarls and moans. I looked on and what I saw nearly made me pee my pants. I saw about a half a dozen bonfires, and surrounding the bonfires were the biggest wolves I had ever seen. I kept watching, trying to figure out what the hell I was looking at. There were black ones, white ones, brown ones and others that seemed to be calico-colored. They were all 6 to 7 feet in length. Some were howling and others were wrestling and growling.

How did they find the bonfires? Did these beasts kill the humans who left the fires?

From above I heard a horrid sound—the sound of a thousand birds screeching across the sky. I looked up and I could barely make out what appeared to be a huge flock of black ravens circling the wolves below.

I looked on as if I was watching the most bizarre episode of Animal Planet ever aired. All the birds landed about 500 feet away from the wolves. Only sand and tumbleweeds separated the birds from the beasts.

Then I saw something that made me feel I had fallen asleep and was now dreaming. The birds seemed to be transforming into human beings. The hundreds of black birds became an army of humans. They were all dressed in black clothing and made up of all races. There was an exceptionally tall one that seemed to be the leader. I zoomed in and this guy looked eight feet tall and from this distance, he looked like the guy in that Crow movie.

What the hell was I watching? I pinched my arm, and my shoulder moved, so I knew I was wide awake. Then I saw something that looked like a scene out of Braveheart. The hundreds of men charged the wolves.

The wolves caught a glimpse of these crazed people and charged at them also. It looked like a battlefield scene from every gladiator movie ever shown on the silver screen. The only difference was that it was humans versus wolves. I noticed that all the humans seemed to be holding silver spears in their hands. They were shorter than spears; they were the size of daggers or stakes.

What I saw next nearly made me get in my car and pray to God. As the humans and wolves battled, the wolves were biting into the necks of these guys and the humans were piercing the wolves in their hearts with their silver weapons. Then what I saw made me clearly think I had lost my mind. As each wolf and each human apparently died—they just disappeared into thin air. As I looked on, I noticed that they weren’t all men fighting the wolves. In fact, there was a red-headed woman doing a lot of damage. She literally walked to injured wolf after wolf, stabbing them in their hearts to finish them off. She was merciless about it, too. No expression on her face, at all.

There was an exceptionally large wolf that was fighting the eight foot, bean-pole giant. They were having an epic battle. It reminded me of a MMA match. The tall motherfucker wouldn’t allow the beast to get a hold of him. The beast would claw and grab at him. The tall man did a series of kicks and punches to keep the wolf at bay. He still had the silver stake in his hand. I could tell he was waiting for an opening.

The wolf leaped on top of the statuesque man and then he found his opening and pierced the animal right in the chest. Then, the wolf was gone. Poof. Vanished.

In a matter of minutes, half of the wolves had disappeared and the humans seemed to have only lost a couple of soldiers. The remaining wolves all took off running. The black-clothed humans all jumped up and cheered.

Who the hell were these people and why did they feel the need to attack these animals minding their own business in the desert?

I got back into my Mustang. I couldn’t get over the fact that I could have sworn the humans were birds before they fought. My mind was playing tricks on me. I was tired and had lost a lot of blood in the last 24 hours. That had to be it. None of this was real this was a hallucination. That had to be it. I started my car and flicked on my lights. Right in front of me stood two black birds. I honked at them to get out of the way. The birds flew on top of my hood. I tried to shake them off by reversing and getting right on the freeway. I headed down the 215 and went from lane to lane, trying to shake the birds off my Mustang. Those little fuckers wouldn’t fly off, even though my speed got up to 90 miles per hour.

I pulled off the freeway and went into a Union 76 station. I opened my door and jumped out.

“Where are you going?” said a voice on top of my hood. The birds were gone and two men were sitting on the hood of my car. I was obviously losing my mind. I needed to get home and get to bed. I ignored the illusion and began to walk into the service station to buy a bottle of water.

Within seconds, both men stood before me. I decided to just continue to walk, after all they here just a figment of my imagination. Or so I thought. I walked right into one of them.

“Hey, watch where you’re going,” the man said.

Great, these fuckers were real. “Sorry, I didn’t see you.”

“You most certainly did. You made direct eye contact with me and you gave me and my friend a nice little ride on the hood of your car for the last 10 miles.”

I have surely lost my mind. I was now communicating with an imaginary person. A man walking out of the station looked over at me. “Sir!” I yelled. The man looked up at me. “How many people are over here?” He shook his head and continued walking. “No, I’m being really serious, please tell me.”

The man said, “There’s three, counting your crazy ass.”

I nodded and knew I was fucked.

The man across from me then said, “Oh, we’re most definitely real.”

I looked at him perplexed. How did he know that was what I was thinking? I decided to treat this like any kind of street fight. I needed to forget what I’d seen and get to the bottom of what these assholes want.

“So, what do you need?” I asked

“Need?” the man laughed. He was a light-skinned, black man that had bleached-white hair and two hooped earrings. The other guy was about an inch or two shorter and seemed to be this guy’s sidekick. He had black hair and very pale skin. Both seemed in pretty good shape. “I don’t need anything,” he continued. “I just want to know if you enjoyed our party?”

“You mean the battle of humans versus wild animals out in the desert?”

“Humans?” the man laughed again.

“Hey, Patrick. You hear that? We’re Tandra.”

“He obviously has no clue, Nero,” Patrick answered.

“Huh?” I asked, surprised. “What are you then, aliens?”

“He’s cute,” Nero said, “It’s a shame he knows too much and we have to kill him.”

My heart sank. I had never heard that phrase come out anyone’s mouth before in my life. Kill him.

“Look, man. I saw nothing and I know nothing so if you have a piece, just put it away.”

“A piece? This guy is a crack-up. We don’t need guns to kill you, silly rabbit.” He then leaped on top of me, opening his mouth. That was when I saw two little fangs protruding from his mouth. HOLY SHIT! I threw a left cross and caught him in his right temple and he went flying to the left. The other guy leaped on me and tried to bite me also with his fanged teeth. I smacked him in the head and he slid across the pavement. As I did so, Nero jumped on me and bit into my arm. What the fuck? What the hell is going on with all this biting?

I got a hold on Nero and clamped down on his neck and began choking him out. I clamped down harder than I had ever done in my life. This would have killed anyone else. At least I made him pass out. He gasped for air. But I cranked harder on his neck.

Patrick then jumped on my back and tried to bite into the back of my neck. Holy Shit! I got up still holding Nero in my vice-grip choke hold and swung him around; his legs belted Patrick in the face. I dropped Nero on contact and watched as he slid across the pavement and a silver stake flew out of his pocket. I grabbed the stake off the ground before he could get to it. As I did so, the white-haired devil jumped on top of me, grabbing the stake from my hand. This guy was trying to kill me with the fucking stake! I did the only thing I could. With all I had, I turned the stake around as we both had our hands around it and crammed that motherfucking piece of metal into the guy’s neck. He instantly let go of me and rolled over with his face in the pavement.

I jumped up and looked down. He gasped for air and rolled to his back, trying to breathe. But the stake was all the way through his neck. His eyes locked into mine.

“You’re not a Tandra,” he said. “I should have known.” Then poof! He was gone. He just disappeared into thin air and I had no clue what had just transpired. The second guy was waking up and gasping for air.

I jumped on top of him. “Who are you guys?” I screamed in his face.

“Please don’t kill me,” he said. “I’ve only been a Mani for a week. I don’t know what I’m doing. I didn’t ask for this.”

“Mani? What is a Mani?”

“I’m a Mani! It’s what I’ve become.”

“Are you okay?”

“No,” he said. “I think I ruptured my larynx.”

“Sorry about that,” I said, helping the guy up. “Patrick? Is it?”

“Yes.”

“Well, Patrick, you shouldn’t attack people if you don’t want to get hurt yourself!”

He put both his hands around his neck. How he was still alive, I didn’t know.

“What’s your name?” he coughed out.

I looked over at the empty ground where his friend once laid. All that was left was the stake that was once lodged in his neck. “I guess my name is Killer,” I mumbled.

“Kyro?” he asked.

“Yeah, I said. “My name is Kyro.”

Chapter Eight

I don’t know why but I trusted Patrick, considering he had just tried to kill me. I knew in my gut he was being real and not conning me. This poor guy had obviously gotten caught up in something he couldn’t handle. I was still questioning if any of this was real, but at this point, my safety was more important than my sanity.

I helped Patrick into my car. He was pretty jacked up, but then again, this asshole had tried to kill me. What was I supposed to do? I shut the passenger door and went behind my vehicle, staring at the silver stake that still laid in the middle of the 76 station’s parking lot. I decided to pick it up. After all, it did have my fingerprints all over it. I jumped into my Mustang and felt as much pain as I could ever remember experiencing. My shoulder was killing me, I’m pretty sure I had busted out a few more stitches. And now, compliments of Nero, my arm was killing me. I backed my Mustang out at the driveway and headed back to the freeway.

“Where am I taking you, Patrick?” I said. Patrick was pretty fucked up, to say the least. He was spitting up blood all over my interior. I felt bad, but I had to keep reminding myself, he and his friend had attacked me first. I had been minding my own business.

That was two attacks in three nights. Not to mention that I had a MMA fight, too. I had to admit, I was an American Bad Ass who had clearly lost his mind.

I looked over at Patrick and this poor guy was coughing and wheezing. He might have been choking to death. I didn’t know what to do. If I took him to a hospital, I’d get arrested because I was the one who kicked his ass and my fingerprints were all over him. I needed to take him back to my apartment. I looked at my clock. It was almost 5:00 a.m.

I had so many questions for this guy. I had seen him become a bird, and then a man. I didn’t know if I was hallucinating on the pain pills, but this motherfucker had, most definitely, been a bird. If I had lost my mind, I needed to continue to believe my hallucinations. Just like anything else, when your mind spirals out of control, if you quit fighting it and ride it out, you can usually figure out how to steer it in the right direction.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” I asked.

“Don’t let me out in the sunlight. It’s almost morning. I need to get indoors.” I think I heard him right. Sure, why not?

Patrick grabbed my right arm with his left hand. “Kyro,” he said. “Help me, I’m hurting real bad.”

“I know you are, dude. I’m taking you to my place.”

“You do understand what I am right?”

I was afraid to answer.

“I’m a vampire.”

After a moment, I said, “Of course you are.” That was when my brain went numb. I put my foot on the accelerator and I was suddenly going 110 miles per hour on the freeway. He said vampire, I said to myself. Of course he’s a vampire, I mumbled. He’s also a fucking bird and some other kind of thing called a Mani.

Patrick squeezed my arm with his left arm and then passed out. Was he dead? I didn’t think he was, I could see him breathing ever so slightly. Plus, the other guy had disappeared when I killed him. Then, it dawned on me: I fucking killed someone! A horrible dread spread through me.

I got to my apartment and helped Patrick into my room. I laid him on my bed. I could see the sun peeking over the horizon. How was I going to keep the sun out? Could he really be a freaking vampire? And if he was… what the hell was I doing nursing him back to health?

I had some cardboard boxes in my backyard and I grabbed some nails and a hammer. I covered my bedroom window with the cardboard and I nailed the sides in the drywall surrounding the window. I must have put a hundred nails in that cardboard. There does my deposit on the apartment, I thought. No outside light was coming in, I made sure of it.

I rolled Patrick on his side and got him some water and some ice. I wasn’t sure if I could fall asleep or even rest. I definitely couldn’t stay here, I needed answers. I looked in the mirror and my beard was gone. Did I shave before I left? I had no clue about anything. I decided to go to the only place I knew to go. After all, she did say she was a werewolf.

I jumped into my car and headed back to the Radisson Inn over on Beach Boulevard. I parked my car and went up the stairs and to room 202 where I had left Sasha. I knocked on the door and there was no answer. I yelled out, “Sasha!” Nothing. I knocked as hard as I could, and then I heard some rustling from inside the room. In a few seconds, I heard the door unlatch. It opened a little and I saw Sasha. Her hair was soaked. She must have just taken a shower.

“Hey there,” I said. “Can I come in?”

Sasha stared blankly at me. “The room isn’t exactly the same as you remember it.”

“Just let me in,” I persisted.

Sasha opened the door, and I could tell right away something wasn’t right in the room. It looked like a tornado of wild animals had come through it. There were claw marks everywhere. The door looked like a million cats had gotten to it. Cats with huge paws and claws.

“What the hell happened in here?” I asked, surprised beyond words. Sasha didn’t say anything. I continued to look around the room; the bed was turned over and shredded, the TV was on the floor, both lamps were busted in the middle of the floor. It even looked like something had gnawed on all of the cords.

I repeated my question and this time I wasn’t playing around. “What the fuck happened, Sasha? I used my fucking credit card! They are going to make me pay for all this. There’s at least ten thousand dollars’ worth of damage in here.”

Finally Sasha whispered softly, “I told you, Tommy. You didn’t believe me.”

I shook my head in disbelief. I sat on the shredded mattress and just stared at the room in absolute horror. I think this was the straw that broke the camel’s back, I was now finally about to have a nervous breakdown.

I just closed my eyes and calmly said, “So, you’re really a werewolf.”

“I told you, look at this place. Do you think in my wildest dreams I could had done this? Look at the door. It would take me years to do that to a door as a woman.”

“But you did do it,” I said, even more calm. “You did it as a werewolf.”

“What else would explain it?”

I truly had no clue what could explain this sight. When I came over here to talk about the vampire asleep in my bed, the last thing I could’ve imagined was that I’d be sitting in the middle of downtown Nightmare Alley. I continued to look around the room and I thought about all the crazy shit that had been happening. Now everything was coming together. In a bizarre, crazy-ass way, this was all starting to make sense.

“We need to get you out of here. We need to tell management that we left, and when we got back, the room looked like this. There is no way in hell they have ever seen anything like this. They will have to believe some kind of coyote got in here—a whole gang of them.”

“Let’s get out of here.” Sasha grabbed her purse that, ironically, that had nothing wrong with it.

We left the room; I peeked my head in the room one more time and just sighed.

We began to walk down the stairs to get to the front desk.

“Oh, yeah,” I said.

“I’m taking you to my place, and I have a visitor.”

“A visitor? Who?” Sasha asked

“A vampire,” I said. “And he thinks my name is Kyro.”

Chapter Nine

The Radisson staff didn’t quite know what to make of the room. They were more worried that we’d be the ones suing them because a wild animal had gotten into the room so they just made sure we were okay and left it at that. Thank God.

We arrived back at my apartment. I checked up on Patrick. He was in the exact same position I had left him. Sasha had some nurse training. I thought when he woke up that she could check on him. I felt like a turd for not taking him to the hospital. I still considered it, but first I needed to process this and as far as I could tell, he was breathing fine. If he was suffering some internal life-threatening injuries, that remained to be seen.

I walked out into my living room and Sasha was sitting on my couch.

“Thanks, Tommy.”

I just stared at her, perplexed.

I didn’t even know how to respond to that statement. Thanks? I wanted to say, You’re not welcome. Since meeting you my entire life has spun out of control. But I held my tongue.

“We need to get you a cage,” I said.

“A cage?”

“Yeah, I’m putting this werewolf thing to the test, and sticking your rabid ass in a cage tonight is the only thing I can come up with.”

“I don’t have rabies. Where will you find a cage to hold a werewolf?”

“Where you find everything you need, Craigslist.” I went on my computer that was on a desk in my living room.

I got onto the site and went on Orange County and its surrounding areas.

I typed in. “Large animal cage.”

“Wow,” I said out loud. “There’s a page full of cages here. What kind of cage do you want?”

“You’re really going to put me in a cage?”

“I saw what you did to that room. I just recently got new furniture.”

“Look here,” I read out loud. “It says, ‘large cage—used to hold a gorilla—strong bars—nothing gets in or out.’ Damn! $2,500!”

“$2,500?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s way too much.”

“It is,” I said. “But I’m looking at these other cages and I do not trust how small they are. The expensive cage is gigantic!”

“Do you have $2,500?” she asked.

“Don’t worry about that,” I said. I knew she was a con artist. So she didn’t have to know anything about my income. I just recently had $80,000 given to me when my grandfather died and there was no way in hell she was going to find out that information.

I called the number and the guy said I could have it for two thousand if I picked it up in San Diego. How in the world was I going to get to San Diego and haul a two-ton cage 100 miles before tonight? I had to do it but I needed to go down there and rent a U-Haul.

“We’re taking a trip to San Diego, girly girl,” I announced.

“Can we stop by the store?” Sasha asked. “I need some girl items.”

I looked at her with zero expression and said, “All right, I don’t need to know any more.”

We stopped in at Walgreen’s and then we headed down to San Diego and got ourselves a cage big enough to hold a mountain lion. I drove the U-Haul back to O.C. while Sasha drove my Mustang. I called ahead and got some movers to meet me at the apartment to get the thing inside my apartment.

After the movers helped me get the gigantic cage into my living room, they gave me a look like ‘why do you have a ten-foot cage in your apartment?’ I told them Sasha was kinky and I tipped them well. I also told them to keep it on the down-low that I had a cage.

So, now it was just time to wait for the full moon to come out.

I checked on Patrick. He was still sleeping and looked awful. I asked Sasha to check him out. She actually didn’t want to look at him because he was a vampire. I pointed out to her that she didn’t have a choice. She saw it my way.

My bites from the night before were killing me. My shoulder ached. I was pretty jacked up. I was sitting in my living room, staring at the cage, wondering how strong Sasha was when she turned. Could she knock over that cage? I couldn’t even believe that I was having these kinds of thoughts. I kept reminding myself, ‘go with it, gain control of it, and then all of this might make sense.’

Sasha came back out of the room after looking at Patrick. “He’s pretty messed up.”

“Did he wake up?” I asked.

“Not really. He definitely didn’t know a werewolf was checking on him. He needs a doctor and if he is a vampire, a lot of red flags will go off.”

“Like what?”

“There is a reason why the Triat has our bodies disappear when we die.”

“The Triat?” I asked. “What the hell is a Triat?”

“The Triat is everything.”

“You mean God?”

“No. More like the heart of God.”

“Look, spare me this tale. If you truly turn into a werewolf, you can give me all the paranormal history you want. But as of right now, let’s take care of tonight. I’m thinking I also need to chain you.”

“Chain me?” Sasha did not like that.

“Yeah, you might be really strong. Also, where will you go to the bathroom? I’m going to put some cardboard in there.”

So, we left again and went to Home Depot and I bought the strongest chains they had. When we got back, I locked the chains from inside the cage, I had no idea what I was doing and the more I was taking this seriously, the more I was convinced that I was in some alternate universe where truth and love have been replaced by werewolves and vampires.

I stepped out of the cage and realized this damn thing took up my entire living room. It took almost the entire open floor that separated the TV from the couch.

I looked outside and said to Sasha, “Well, how does it usually happen? The whole turning from human to werewolf thing.”

“I really don’t know. I have almost no recollection when I become a werewolf.”

“Of course you don’t,” I said, sarcastically. “Seriously, that would be too easy. What I don’t understand is, if there are werewolves running around, why aren’t there more instances of attacks?”

“There’s a strict code the Carni live by. We drive off to remote areas that are far away from the Tandra.”

“And Tandra is what you call humans?”

“Yes.”

“Then, why are you here and not in some remote area?”

“I don’t really have anywhere to go. I’m pretty much an ostracized werewolf. A lone wolf, you might say.”

I looked at her and just thought, of course she is.

“And what about my little vampire friend in the bedroom? He referred to himself as a Mani.”

“Mani are vampires,” Sasha said plainly, as if she was saying something you hear every day.

“Okay.” I shook my head trying to wrap my mind around all of this crazy information. “He didn’t become a bat either,” I said. “He actually became a black bird.”

“A raven.” Sasha corrected me. “Mani transition into black ravens and red hawks.”

“Red hawks?” I asked.

“Yeah, men become black ravens and women become red hawks.”

“What do Carni become?”

She laughed. “We become werewolves.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot that part. But you can’t control it, but vampires can?”

“Yeah, it’s not fair, but that’s the hand we were dealt.”

“How does someone become a werewolf?”

“They get bitten by a Carni when it’s a werewolf and survive the bite.”

I thought about the other night. “Hey, those three guys I fought on the street. Were they Carni?”

Sasha was quiet. “Um.”

“Were they?” I persisted.

“Yes.”

“Were you ever going to tell me that?”

“How could I? You didn’t even know I was one until today.”

“So the one that bit my shoulder was a full-blown werewolf?” I asked.

“He wasn’t when he bit you.”

“So, what happens when one of these freaks bite you and he or she isn’t a werewolf?”

“I don’t really know. I never heard of that happening before, especially the kind of bite you got.”

“Great, I’m a trailblazer,” I said, sarcastically. I sat down on my couch and had to put my feet up so they wouldn’t smack the cage. “Sasha, some weird crap has been happening to me the last couple of days.”

“Like what?”

“Like at times, my hearing is off the charts.”

“Really.”

“Yeah. I could hear car alarms that are—”

“—blocks away.” Sasha finished what I said.

“Holy shit!” I continued. “I also had an extreme amount of facial hair last night and then it went away in the morning.”

“What about your eyes? Did you notice they were yellow?”

“I didn’t even look at my eyes.” I sat there dumbfounded. “What do you make of it?”

Sasha shook her head and said, “It’s like you’re in some weird werewolf purgatory. It’s like you’re not fully a werewolf, but you have the potential to become one.”

“You’re fucking kidding me. I don’t want to be a freaking werewolf. How do you reverse it?”

“You can’t reverse it, Tommy.”

“What does that mean?” I shouted.

“It means that you are becoming immortal and there is no secret antidote!”

I began sweating. I could feel my heart rate go up. The room began spinning. Holy shit! I’m was having a heart attack! My chest felt tight. I fell to the floor and blacked out.

The next thing I remember was that Sasha was sitting me up on the couch and giving me some water.

“Tommy? Tommy?” she asked. “You all right?”

I put my hand on my chest. “I don’t know. I think I had a heart attack.”

“I doubt that. You wouldn’t be able to breathe. You had a panic attack.”

“A panic attack?” Who was I? Tony Soprano? I don’t have panic attacks.

“It’s to be expected. I just told you that there’s a good chance that you’re in some kind of werewolf limbo phase.”

I looked at Sasha and just wanted to scream at her at the top of my lungs. Why did I go to Shiners that night? And why did I go outside to talk to her? This was crazy. Maybe she was crazy. Maybe none of this is true.

I sighed and got up. “I better get you in the cage,” I said. “I’m not going to put chains on you, but if you get out of hand, I might.”

“You think you can put chains on me once I become a werewolf? Good luck!”

“What are you? A buck-ten?”

“When I become a werewolf, I’m bigger, my clothes become a part of me and I become heavier and larger.”

“Oh, that makes sense.”

“It might not make sense, but that’s what happens.”

“Get in the cage,” I said, with as much authority I could muster. This woman walked into my life and screwed it up in so many ways. Look at me. I was completely fucked up. I had insane bites all over my body. I had a vampire sleeping in my bedroom and now an almost-werewolf in my living room, in fact, she was moments away from transition to a werewolf. All I could do was continue to play this out. “How you doing in there?” I asked.

“I’m all right. You better lock the door.”

“Oh yeah, what was I thinking?” I got up and locked the door and I sat on the couch facing the cage. The sun was setting and I looked on, staring at Sasha. And even though I was pissed, she was damn sexy. She looked good in her little white shorts. It’s been awhile since I fired one off, so to say I was horny was an understatement.

Sasha caught me looking at her with my big bad intentions.

“What?” she said, in a sexy way only a woman as hot as her could pull off.

“I’m hoping you don’t turn! And you’re full of shit.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m going to go in there and rip your clothes off and make passionate, animal cage love to you.”

Sasha stepped up to the cage bars. I stood up and reached in. I grabbed her from her waist and pressed her body up against mine with the cage bars separating us.

We both tilted our heads just right and were able to kiss through the bars. Her breath smelled amazing. She was oozing with estrogen. I wanted her so badly that I nearly stripped off my clothes. I had no idea why I was turned on at this moment but I was.

I kissed her passionately and cupped her buttocks with my left hand. I pressed her hard against me. I looked her in the eyes. “You know,” I said. “This whole thing is foolish. You and I both know there is no way you’re a—”

Suddenly, Sasha’s blue eyes turned bright yellow. She looked like a damn demon. I jumped back onto the couch and let go of her. I hopped onto the floor and scurried away from the cage. There was at least ten feet separating me from the cage.

Sasha dropped to the ground and began to roll. She looked like she was having a seizure. Hair began protruding out of her body everywhere. It was like watching a fast-motion film where you watch a flower grow in at hyper speed. But this was actually happening. Within seconds, she had enlarged a foot in height, had black hair, and her head went from a gorgeous brunette to a sleek wolf.

She stared at the window where she could see the full moon and howled.

“Shhh,” I yelled. I couldn’t believe what I was doing. I was shushing a damn wolf.

She must not have known I was in the room. Because her head turned to me and she growled and barked at me as if I was a hundred miles away. She began scratching the carpet and ramming her body into the cage. Thank God, the cage was holding up. But damn, she was louder than hell. The neighbors weren’t too far away. How the hell was I going to calm her down?

I thought about grabbing some meat from the fridge but I didn’t know if it would help. Plus, all I had were twenty-dollar steaks.

She looked in the direction of my room and went absolutely berserk. She didn’t like something in my bedroom. She must have smelled Patrick. What was I going to do? I couldn’t calm her down. She wasn’t having any part of me. As matter of fact, my presence in the room seemed to be making matters worse. It wasn’t like she and I had developed any kind of rapport, so she could even consider listening to me.

I looked in the cage at this beautiful, black wolf. She was a sight to behold. Absolutely spectacular in her perfect wolf form. I had to admit, she was scary looking, but I wasn’t intimidated. She still had a level of femininity that made her seem more delicate than I imagined.

I put my hand to my chin and scratched and when I did I scratched a hand full of beard. Crap. I ran to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror, fully expecting to have a Michael J. Fox Teen Wolf moment, but to my surprise, it just looked like I hadn’t shaved in a couple of weeks. There were scattered patches of hair that looked more like a teenager’s sad attempt to grow his first beard than the makings of a werewolf. I looked at my eyes and there was a hint of yellow. Something was wrong. I was caught in between what I used to be and what Sasha had become.

I didn’t know what to think. Part of me felt like I had just died and gone to hell, but another more competitive part of me wondered what kind of bad ass I could become. And not just in the ring.

“Hey, is anyone here!” A voice yelled from my bedroom. It was Patrick and he must have wondered where he was and why a werewolf would be hooting and hollering in the living room.

I went into my bedroom and Patrick had sat up. He was taking several deep breaths and caressing his throat.

“How does it feel?” I asked, referring to his cracked larynx.

“It hurts to swallow and inhaling is a bitch. So about every 2.2 seconds I’m in excruciating pain.”

“Look, you attacked me. I was fine to just leave.”

“I know. It wasn’t my idea, it was Nero’s.” Patrick paused. “You know, the guy you killed.”

Damn, that didn’t sound right. This wasn’t a video game where I eliminated an opponent in Halo. I fucking killed a man or Mani or whatever the fuck he is...was.

“I’m still wrapping my head around all of this,” I said.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to do for a week.” Patrick added.

“You said you were new to all of this.”

Patrick leaned back against my bed post and rested. “Yeah, this was the last thing I wanted.”

“You and me both.”

Patrick stared at my face with a puzzled look. “I don’t remember you having a beard before.”

“I’m having my own issues,” I said.

Patrick didn’t seem like he was up for an inquiry. He closed his eyes and took a big swallow. I had just noticed Sasha quit barking and snarling. “Hold on,” I said, and I dashed to the living room. Sasha was sound asleep. I sighed. At least she’d be quiet for the time being.

I went back in the room and it appeared that Patrick had gone to sleep also. It was night! Why weren’t my vampire and werewolf awake?

I left and went into my kitchen. I sat at my oak table and looked across my living room where I had a werewolf sound asleep. I was exhausted, too. I had barely slept, and I only had one bed. Even though I barely knew Patrick, he was going to have a bunk partner tonight.

I went into my room. I put a large pillow between us. There would be no vampire spooning in my bed. I laid down and turned my head and faced my cardboard-covered windows. Within seconds, I was out like a light.

Chapter Ten

I was awakened a few hours later by my new alarm clock, known as a pissed-off werewolf, Sasha. She was yelping up a storm and I looked over at Patrick. He was no longer next to me in bed. I instinctively felt my neck, I don’t know why I thought he might have sucked my neck while I was asleep, but what the hell did I know? I was sleeping next to a freaking vampire.

I walked out of my room cautiously and made my way out to the living room. Sasha saw me and began acting like a junkyard dog on crack.

Right next to the cage was a black raven, just chilling and staring at the crazed, overgrown dog. When did my apartment become an episode of Wild Kingdom?

“Patrick?” I called out to the bird.

The bird flew and landed in the hallway where I was standing. Then, as if right out of a Tolkien novel, the black raven transitioned and became Patrick. He collapsed to the floor and I grabbed his arm.

“I’m still not great with the whole transition thing, Kyro,” he said, as if I could ignore the fact he just went from bird to man. Err, to vampire. Mani. Whatever he called himself.

I just stared at Patrick and mumbled, “How did I get mixed up in this?” I grabbed Patrick’s arm and we went outside my apartment to the porch. I closed the door behind me. “Maybe a time out will shut her up.”

Patrick walked over and sat on a bench that is adjacent to my apartment. “You need to start getting used to your world being completely turned upside down. Everything you ever knew is wrong and everything that is actually true, you couldn’t come up with even in the darkest parts of your imagination.”

I stared blankly at my new friend and walked over to where he was sitting and sat next to him. “Why were you the bird just now?”

“It seemed to make your female werewolf friend less upset.”

“How do you know she is female?”

“I checked.”

“You weren’t perving in there, were you?” I said, disgusted.

“Sick. No! She’s got four legs. I wouldn’t hit that,” Patrick assured me. “If she is hot in her Carni human form, well, then I might make an exception.”

“You’re funny,” I said.

“Who knew?” he laughed, and then coughed like a fifty-year smoker.

“You all right?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. It’s hard to be funny while fighting for your life. Also, it’s easier to breathe when I’m the raven.”

“You’re really going to milk this breathing thing aren’t you?”

“I’m sorry, you did crush my windpipe. A little. And you mashed my face.”

He was right. I not only choked him out but used his body as a weapon to knock out his friend. “So. What’s the deal? Where do you live?”

Patrick was quiet. Uh-uh, I had to kick a homeless vampire’s ass.

“You don’t have a place to stay?” I asked.

“My parents kicked me out a month ago.”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty.”

“Well, that’s about the time parents start kicking out their kids.” I looked at Patrick. My instincts were that I liked him. He seemed genuine. He appeared to be a legitimate guy like myself who got dealt a crappy hand as of late. “You work?”

“I can make money.”

“Can you make money legally?” I asked, direct.

“Yeah, I have a storage unit filled with sports memorabilia. When I’m strapped for cash, I sell stuff on eBay.”

“Cool,” I said. I was a huge fan of the Raiders and Lakers, so this guy was right up my alley. “Look, you can stay here for the meantime; just pull in enough money to get your own food.”

“I really don’t eat. My stomach is pretty unpredictable.”

I looked Patrick in the eyes. “You don’t kill people do you?”

“Of course not.”

“How do you feed your … you know… desire?”

“I haven’t been a vampire for very long, but my sister works at a hospital.”

“And she gave you blood?”

“Why wouldn’t she?”

“Cause it’s fucking weird, that’s why,” I laughed. “She didn’t ask what it was for?”

“I told her.”

“You told her?” I asked, shocked.

“I had to.”

“And she believed you?”

“The whole turning-into-a-raven thing pretty much seals the deal in the belief department.”

“Yeah, that pretty much convinced me,” I stated.

“There you go, Kyro, there you go.”

The sun began peeking out of the sky.

“I think your friend probably turned back,” Patrick said, making a motion to the inside of the apartment with his head.

“It happens that fast?” I asked

“Put it this way, Tommy. Your beard is gone. And my skin is burning.” I felt my face and sure-enough, I was clean shaven. “So what’s the deal with that? Are you some partial werewolf?”

“Your guess is as good as mine, Patrick.” I got up and opened the front door to my apartment. Sasha was in a fetal position in the middle of the cage, soaking wet.

“Why is she soaked?”

“It’s what happens to werewolves. It’s like sweat or a secretion.”

“That’s disgusting. The word secretion makes me shudder.”

“I actually think it’s kind of hot.” He laughed.

“It’s not funny,” I said. “I might be halfway there.” I turned and faced Sasha. “Sasha,” I called into the cage. She opened her eyes. She seemed disorientated.

“Tommy?” She asked.

“Yeah.”

“Let me out. I need to pee.”

I took the key out of my pocket and unlocked the cage. Sasha rushed past me and made her way to the bathroom. I looked into the cage and the carpet was scratched up and mangled. Oh well, I thought. There goes my deposit.

“She’s pretty hot.” Patrick said.

“Oh, she’s a hot mess of trouble.”

“Female werewolves usually are. They are a rare breed.”

“Why is that?” I asked.

“Because if a woman gets bit by a werewolf, she usually dies. Only really strong and tough women survive. You have to survive the bite to become one.”

“Doesn’t say much for the women’s movement,” I said. “My experience is that women can take a lot more pain than men.”

“We are wimps, aren’t we?” Patrick grinned, then coughed. We could now hear that Sasha had started a shower and Patrick rolled his eyes at me.

“Throat any better?”

“A little.”

“I want you to know I’ve been bitten twice in the last few nights and you don’t hear me complaining.”

“You like pain?” Patrick asked.

“I was a street fighter growing up. Now I’m a professional one, so pain doesn’t play a big part in my life, except that I can use it as an edge in a fight.”

Patrick cracked a smile and said, “Says the guy with a bandage covering his entire shoulder.”

“Again,” I said. “You’re funny.”

“So, did you hit that?” Patrick looked toward the bathroom and was referring to Sasha.

“For real, dude?” I asked.

“I would. She’s hot.”

I don’t kiss and tell, and I wasn’t going to start now. “She’s a lovely, young lady, Patrick. You need to learn to respect women.”

“Oh, I respect them, Kyro. Especially when they are down on all fours.”

I shot him another look.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” he laughed.

“I think I liked you better when you couldn’t talk.” I motioned again to the bathroom at Sasha. “I’m telling you, she’s trouble.”

“Trouble, or not. Damn, she can drip sweat on me anytime.”

“Enough, dude!”

Sasha eventually got out of the shower and I gave her some workout shorts that were kind of small on me, but looked like a trash bag on her. I actually had a woman’s pink Raider jersey I had received as a gag gift from a friend of mine for being a Raider fan. So, I let her wear it.

Patrick went back in my room and laid down. He had barely introduced himself to Sasha. He apparently was all talk; he was really shy around Sasha. It was almost humorous. Sasha didn’t seem too interested in my pale vampire friend.

It was weird; I had been alone for such a long time. The life of a fighter is a lonely one. It was nice having people around. Be how it may, they weren’t exactly people, but it was nice having friends. Damn, I’m pathetic.

Chapter Eleven

The following night was more of the same with Sasha. We had to blast the radio and act like we were having a party a couple of times when Sasha decided to lose her mind and make enough racket to wake the whole block. But, we did get through the night without any problems, and in the morning, Sasha seemed very grateful that Patrick and I were there for her.

For the next two weeks, the three of us became inseparable. It was odd to have close friends again. I hadn’t realized how much I missed joking around and being stupid with people. Patrick continued to get better and my injuries were healing pretty quickly. I told Patrick my real name was Tommy, but he said he liked calling me Kyro better. I told him I’d make an exception for him and let him call me that.

Sasha and I continued having some sexual tension. We would kiss here and there, but I would never take it to the next level. I truly was having too much fun and didn’t want to blow it by turning us into ‘friends with benefits.’ I knew I didn’t have a desire to be her boyfriend, but I did want to be her friend. I went out and got a queen-size bed at a yard sale. I stuck it in the spare bedroom, so Sasha had a place to sleep. Patrick always slept in my bed because of the whole sunlight thing—being that my room was the safest place in the house. I, however, would sleep anywhere in the house: sometime next to Patrick, sometimes with Sasha, but mainly I would sleep on my couch. It was damn comfortable and in the end, that’s all that matters when it comes to a good night’s rest.

I also got my windshield fixed at a local shop and the damn thing cost me $400. I let Sasha know she would pay for it by doing the dishes and keeping the apartment clean. She looked relieved at my offer. With that being out of the way between us, for the first time in my life I had real friends and I was having the time of my life. The three of us seemed to be as close as three oddballs could get.

I woke up late on a Saturday afternoon, as that seemed to be the norm these days, considering I was keeping Patrick’s vampire hours. I was having the sleep pattern of a vampire and that wasn’t the healthiest way to live my life. I know the value of a good night’s sleep, as I am a fighter, but I was having too much fun to worry about that right now.

I had fallen asleep on the couch, watching some morning show. I had to look through the bars of the cage to watch TV, but if I tilted my head just right I could see the television without seeing any bars. Oh, the little things.

I got up and grabbed some orange juice from the fridge and took out some eggs and made myself an omelet. I wasn’t the greatest cook, but I knew how to make eggs. It was two in the afternoon and both Patrick and Sasha were still asleep. I didn’t want to wake either of them and I was enjoying my omelet a little too much to share it.

I went into my room and changed and decided to go for a ride and pick some things up at the farmer’s market. There was a giant one that I especially liked in San Bernardino. I needed to start eating healthy again because I was healing up. My shoulder was still jacked up and my arm still looked like a dog had gotten to it. It would be a few months before I could really train the way I was accustomed to. So, for now, I was going to have to let my undefeated record stay idle for a few more months.

I had checked in with the Commission last week to let them know how I was doing. We were aiming for me to fight again in six months. That should be plenty of time for me to get right again.

I went out to my car and could hear every siren, call door, and car alarm in a three-mile radius. I was learning to ignore it, but I couldn’t believe I was actually sympathizing with canines. I drove up the 91 freeway toward San Bernardino. I hadn’t paid much attention to the gas gauge as I pulled off the freeway onto “D” street. I looked down and I noticed it was on empty. I needed to find a gas station fast. I looked around and there wasn’t one to be found in any direction. So, I kept driving, hoping to run into something, but it was too late. My car did that regurgitate noise that cars do right before they run out of gas. You know that dry heave that comes out of your engine.

I knew my car was done and it desperately needed some gas. I coasted to the right and parked on the street. I had no idea where the next gas station was and, unfortunately, I forgot my cell phone at my apartment. I knew I had to get out and walk but, luckily, I had a gas container in my trunk. I grabbed it and started hiking up the street.

I walked about three miles until I finally saw a gas station on the left. I decided to take a short cut by cutting through a back alley.

I walked around a corner building and heard some commotion. I ducked behind a trash dumpster and looked out to what appeared to be some type of altercation. There were a group of high school kids in a circle, all confronting a tall, gangly kid wearing a black hood. I could tell he was young by the way he talked. He appeared to have been at the wrong place at the wrong time. I could relate to that.

The kid in the black hood was outnumbered four to one. “You really should just let me go,” the young man said. “I really don’t want any trouble.” Unfortunately, by the look of these guys, they were all about trouble. I watched on and then heard something that shocked the hell out of me. The boy in the black hood made a specific demand to the group of thugs that had surrounded him. He said, “You have ten seconds to let me go through or I’m going to kick everyone one of your asses and not feel bad about it.”

Holy crap! Are you kidding me? The balls on this kid!

The group of thugs looked at each other and just busted up laughing. Every single of the other guys were taller and wider than the young man. But that didn’t stop the kid from doing a count down, “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, oh fuck it,” the black-hooded kid said, “Now, I will kick your asses!”

Are you kidding me!

I was about to jump out and make sure it was a fair fight, but this kid didn’t need my help. He attacked them all like a superhero defending his city from super villains. I felt like I was watching an action movie where you root for the underdog; this young man quickly proved that he was no underdog! He beat them up individually, in pairs, and at one point, the kid had one in a headlock while high-kicking another, and with his free hand, he right crossed another guy, knocking him to the pavement. He wiped the floor with these guys in a matter of seconds. I wanted to walk out and give him a standing ovation; it was by far the coolest thing I had ever seen on the street. This fourteen-year-old kid either knocked them out or they ran off in fear of another beating.

He finished off the last guy and wiped his hands. He looked at his masterpiece: three guys laying on the ground and a fourth one a mile down the street. He smiled as if he had just finished planting a garden. He sighed and the turned toward where I was standing behind the Dumpster. He smiled at me and nodded his head in triumph.

“Hey,” I yelled to him, “What are you? Some kind of black-headed Superhero?”

“Who’s asking?”

“I am, you little shit,” I said.

“You have a name?” he asked.

“Yeah, sure do. My name is Tommy.” I looked at this kid and he hadn’t even broken a sweat. “You’re about the baddest motherfucker I have ever seen fight. What’s your name?”

The kid pulled off his black hood and he had long, flowing blond hair. He grinned at me with his piercing blue eyes. “Well, Tommy. I’m glad you enjoyed the show. My name is Josiah.”

Chapter Twelve

I stared at this blonde-haired, blue-eyed kid and was astounded that he had just taken out four guys like they were kindergartners.

“Josiah, huh? Sounds biblical. Do you have God on your side?”

He smirked. “I might have an angel or two watching my back.” Josiah wiped his brow and stretched his neck and then said to me, “You’re not some creep hanging out in alleys, are you?”

For the first time, I noticed his stance. Even though we were having a peaceful exchange in dialogue, his footwork would say otherwise. The kid was a trained fighter. Only someone who has Jujitsu training or some kind of boxing training would stand with his momentum potentially ready to spring forward. He wasn’t sure if he could trust me. How could I blame him? I was a twenty-two year old man in a bad part of town hanging around Dumpsters. I was probably sweaty and dirty from my three-mile hike.

“Well, you’re in luck,” I said. “I’m not a creep. Even if I was, I don’t think I would want to mess with you after that display.” I once again noticed his body language and this punk still wasn’t sure if he could trust me. “Hey, Josiah,” I said calmly. “Stand down. I’m one of the good guys.”

He looked at me with a curious stare. “How did you know I was on my guard?”

“I’m a professional fighter and your body language displays that in a blink of an eye, you’re ready to protect yourself.”

“You can tell that by just looking at me?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I could also tell you were in protective stance and didn’t want to attack me. It’s subtle, but a guy like me can see it a mile away.”

“Wow, you really know what you’re talking about.” Josiah eyes widened and then he finally relaxed. “A professional fighter? So, you get paid for it?”

“That would make it professional,” I answered, with a little snark in my voice.

“Where do you fight?”

“I’m in the California Commissioned MMA.”

“Bullshit!” Josiah was impressed.

I grinned. “I’m 2 and 0.” Why I felt I needed to validate myself to a young teenager was beyond me, but I guess after what I just witnessed, he deserved it.

Josiah looked at me with his piercing blue eyes and then his eyes brightened, “Wait! Did you say your name is Tommy? Did you fight a couple of weeks ago at the Staples Center?”

“Yeah, I sure did.”

“That is so awesome. I was there. I had horrible seats, but I remember your match. You kicked the crap out of the guy while only using your left arm.”

“You saw that?”

“Yeah.”

“You could tell I was only using the left side of my body?”

“Yeah, I was thinking this guy is so good he’s fighting his opponent with one arm tied behind his back.”

“Trust me, it felt that way. I had an injury to my right shoulder.”

“I figured as much, unless you’re such a badass that you only fight guys one-handed.”

“I’m impressed you noticed that. Not even in the write-up on Yahoo was that mentioned.”

“How could I not? My right hand is my bread and butter. The first thing I watch in every fight is how explosive an opponent’s right arsenal is.”

“Are you training?”

“I’m a boxer.”

“That’s a good place to start. Are you any good?”

“What do you think?”

I looked at the spot where he easily took care of four guys and laughed. “I guess so.”

“I’ve been Golden Gloves champ three years in a row.”

“That is impressive. You plan on doing the Olympics?”

“Hell, no! My dad would love that. But, I want to do what you do. Olympics are a waste of time. There is no real money there. I want to get into the ring the second I’m 18 and kick ass as much as I can.”

“Well, you’re off to a good start!” I said, with obvious intentions.

Josiah looked down the street and noticed the guys he kicked the crap out of had gotten up and left. “Hey, Tommy Boy, we better split, I have a feeling those guys will be back with a few more friends, if you know what I’m saying. Unless you’re prepared to fight about twenty guys with me, we should take off.” I nodded and followed Josiah in the opposite direction I had come from. “By the way, what is a MMA fighter doing in an alley? You buying crack?”

“Not quite, my car ran out of gas.”

“Oh, that sucks. Where’s it at?”

“A couple miles back near the freeway.”

Josiah pulled out his cell phone. “Let’s go to this Starbucks that’s down the street and I’ll have my sister come pick us up. Then we’ll drive you to a gas station.”

“Ah shit!”

“What’s wrong?”

“I just remembered. I left my gas can back there by the Dumpster.”

“Don’t worry,” Josiah said. “Well get one at the station.”

“They are like twenty dollars.”

“Who said anything about paying for it?” Josiah winked at me and I shook my head at the young punk. I had to admit, I really liked him. He reminded me of myself, a little more out of control, but he was definitely a cool kid.

We made our way to the Starbucks and sat down. Josiah called his sister and she told him she would pick him up in about ten minutes.

I looked at Josiah and he seemed to have an insane amount of poise for a kid his age. He sat there with the confidence of three grown men. “Are you thirsty?” I asked.

“I don’t drink this stuff,” Josiah laughed. “They are just caffeinated shakes.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more. You’re better off getting a real milkshake; you would have less of a chance at heart attack.”

Josiah’s eyes lit up, “But I love their cake lollypops. They are only like 150 calories. It’s like God himself baked them.”

“God himself? He would make some cook!” I laughed.

“Dude, you have got to try one. I had a mouth orgasm the first time I had one. My sister likes rocky road, but I’m in lust with the birthday cake one.”

“Let’s do it,” I said. “I need to splurge now and then.” I got up and walked over to the counter where a there was a cute blonde putting out items behind the display area. She stopped what she was doing and looked up at me.

“I would like two cake lollipops, one rocky road and one birthday cake.”

“Oh, I love the rocky road,” the young blonde girl said. “They are to die for.”

“Apparently so, my friend claims they were made by Jesus himself.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” she said, smiling. “Maybe an angel or wise man.”

“There you go, I guess everyone agrees that there is some divine intervention taking place when these things get made.”

“You just might be right.” She rang me up and I paid for the lollipops and put a two-dollar tip in the jar. The cute ones get me every time. I took the rocky road and gave the birthday cake to my new friend.

“Thanks, man,” he said. “I’ll get you next time.” Josiah took a bite out of his birthday cake lollipop and closed his eyes and had what I swore to be a spiritual experience. He ate each bite slowly, savoring each nibble as if it was his last meal. When he finished, he looked up at me and said, “Better than sex.”

“What do you know about sex? You’re like fourteen years old.”

“I’m sixteen,” Josiah said, proudly, “or I will be, in a week.”

“And you know about sex?”

“I know about orgasms!” he proclaimed out loud.

“I believe that. You probably spend more time alone than a monk.”

Josiah was quiet and grinned. “I do have a wild imagination. Trust me, if I wanted to, I would have plenty of options.”

“Why don’t you want to?”

“Don’t get me wrong. I want to real bad. I’m just not quite sure what my hang-up is.”

“Maybe cause you’re twelve years old.”

“I’m almost sixteen!”

I looked at this strange, honest kid and had to just smile. “Does Josiah want to wait until he’s in love?”

“What’s wrong with that?” he answered, indignantly.

He did! I had to admit I was impressed. I wasn’t about to give a teenager a hard time about being abstinent. I just smiled at him and said, “There’s nothing wrong with it. When you’re ready, you’ll know.”

“Everyone says that.”

I thought about that statement for a second. “Actually, you won’t entirely know. It will just sort of happen one night and the whole time you will be having an out-of-of body experience.”

“Is that the way it happened with you?”

“It was definitely an out-of-body experience. I was just a kid fumbling around in back of a truck, up in the mountains.” I thought about that moment and said, “She didn’t know it was my first time.”

“She didn’t?”

“Nope.”

“Why didn’t you tell her?”

“I didn’t want to her to think I was inexperienced.”

“Would that have been such a big deal?”

“It seemed big at the time, but I have always regretted not telling her.”

“Why is that?” Josiah’s eyes were now locked in on me and we were definitely having a ‘bro moment.’

“I don’t know. I guess I wanted her to know I was going to remember her for the rest of my life. I thought she should know she experienced something I will never forget. She didn’t know any of that. Instead, she walked away, assuming I was just a player and used her to get my rocks off.”

“Well, you did get your rocks off!”

“Yeah...but—”

“But what?”

“It was a defining moment. I should have told her.”

Josiah’s eyes never stopped looking at me the whole time I spoke. He was like an apprentice, soaking up all the wisdom of his master. Then Josiah looked through the window. “Hey, my sister is here!”

I looked out the window and saw a small, white Toyota Corolla pull up. She parked the car and stepped out of the driver’s side. I had just taken my first bite of my rocky road lollipop, and it literally fell out of my mouth the second I saw Josiah’s sister. Josiah’s sister was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She had beautiful, long blonde hair and amazing blue eyes like her brother. She was about five feet, five inches tall and was wearing a light blue tank top with white shorts. Her legs were long and curvy. She had an amazing body, but what was more amazing was her smile. I was absolutely swept off my feet. It was the first time in my life I had fallen for someone and had not yet spoken a word to her.

Josiah and I got up and walked to the door and she met us at the entrance. She walked up to Josiah and said, “Let me see your hands.” Josiah put his hands in his sweatshirt pocket. “Take them out, you little turd.” Josiah reluctantly took out his hands and showed them to his sister. They were swollen and he had a couple of knuckles that were cut up. “You can’t even go for a jog without fighting?”

“They started it,” he said, like a petulant six year-old.

“They always start it,” she said, disappointed.

I decided I needed to defend my young friend. “They really did start it,” I said. “I was there. He was only defending himself.”

Josiah’s sister looked at me and her eyes lit up. “Who are you?”

“Just an innocent bystander who would have helped your brother out, but he took care of business on his own.”

“I bet he did.” She looked at me and seemed a little embarrassed. I couldn’t tell if she liked me or if she was just shy. “So, did you bring him here from wherever the fight took place?”

“Actually, no. My car ran out of gas by the freeway and he and I walked here.”

“What kind of car do you have?”

“It’s a black Mustang parked on D street.”

“Oh, I saw that beauty,” she said. “I noticed it off the freeway and was so jealous.”

“It’s a nice car.” I couldn’t keep my eyes off this woman and she seemed to not be able to quit looking at me either. “So, Josiah’s sister? Do you have a name?”

“Yeah, I do. It’s Maya.”

“Maya? That’s a pretty name.”

She smiled. “Well, thank you, Mr. uh....”

“Mister? How old do you think I am?”

“I’m actually not sure. You could be anywhere from 21 and 30 years old.”

“Thirty?” I was horrified.

She quickly stated, “A very handsome, dignified thirty.”

“Well, I’m a very handsome and sexy 22 years old.”

She looked me over and said, “Oh, are we?”

“Just fishing for a compliment,” I said, smiling at her. I looked over at Josiah and he seemed to be very put off that I was flirting with his sister, seconds after I met her.

Maya again looked me over and said, “Well, the fact that I said handsome and dignified is all I can give you at the present moment. If you’re sexy, that remains to be seen.”

“Are you two done?” Josiah finally asked. “I told Tommy we would take him to get some gas and give him a lift back to his car.”

“Well, Tommy,” Maya said, “Aren’t you just the damsel in distress. I’ll just have to jump on my white horse and bring you to get some gas.” She then smiled at me in a way that completely melted my heart. I had never been more attracted to a woman in my life. She then turned around and slowly walked back to her car. Josiah and I followed behind her. Something told me I just made two very good friends. At least, I hoped so.

To be continued in:

Werewolf Love Story

Part Two

Return to the Table of Contents

WEREWOLF LOVE STORY

Part Two

Published by H.T. Night at Smashwords.com

Copyright © 2011 by H.T. Night

All rights reserved.

(Author’s note: All characters depicted in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older.)

Dedication

I dedicate this novel to my family.

Acknowledgment

Special thanks to Eve Paludan J.R. Rain, April M. Reign and Sandy Johnston for all their help.

Werewolf Love Story:

Part Two

Chapter One

They took me to a gas station and I bought another gas can. I wasn’t about to let Josiah try to steal one. That wasn’t the kind of impression I wanted to give to Maya, plus shoplifting was never my style. After we got gas, they took me back to my Mustang and I poured about a gallon into the gas tank.

I thanked them both and asked if I could have either of their numbers. They practically fought over who gave me their digits first. I took both their pieces of paper and placed them on the passenger seat of my Mustang. I said goodbye and it was weird, I wanted to hug them both. I felt like I had known both of them my entire life. I decided against hugging them and waved and got into my car. I drove back to the gas station to put more gas in my car so that I could make it back to my apartment. I’d decided that I no longer wanted to go to the farmer’s markets, so I just headed back to the apartment.

As I drove home, I couldn’t quit thinking about my experience with Maya and Josiah. I had a strong desire to want to mentor Josiah and help guide him in the right direction. And with Maya, well…I had lots of desires when it came to her. She was without a doubt the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. It seemed like she liked me, but what did I know? Whenever I’m generally attracted to a girl for all the right reasons, I tend to blow it. With girls I’m not that interested in, I can be charming and sexy, but when I actually do like a girl I usually act and say all the wrong things. It’s like I try too hard.

I don’t think I ever felt as initially infatuated with a woman in my life as I did with Maya. I looked down on my passenger seat at Maya’s cell number on the white scrap of paper. I had such genuine feelings for her. I knew I needed to play this right. Once again, I looked down at the number on the seat. Dammit, Tommy! Play this right! Don’t be that guy! Don’t be the guy that calls a girl seconds after meeting her. Come on, Tommy! Get it together! Do not call her the second you get back home! Don’t do it!

I got home and apparently both Patrick and Sasha were still sleeping. I had left my phone on the floor near the couch. I walked over to it and picked it up.

Don’t do it! It’s too soon!

I sat there with the cell phone in one hand and her number on a piece of paper in the other. I weighed the pros and cons but in the end, I knew what I was going to do, regardless.

I began dialing her number. I paused before I pressed the last number.

Who called a girl minutes after meeting her?

I walked over to the kitchen table and sat down.

I did.

I pressed the last number it rang once.

“Hello,” a woman’s voice said.

I coughed, and then I said, “Hey, it’s Tommy.”

“Five minutes ago, Tommy?” Maya said, as adorable as I had ever heard a woman speak.

“It’s been more like twenty-five if anyone is counting, but that would be me. I just wanted to call back and say...thank you again for taking me to get gas.”

“It wasn’t a problem; I was going to pick up my brother anyway. He likes to run far from home and then have me pick him up.”

“Josiah’s a good kid.”

“Yeah, he is,” she said. “He’s the best little brother a girl could ask for.”

I smiled. I liked the fact they had family. That’s something I had never had. I heard Josiah yelling in the background. “Tell him how hot you think he is!”

What? Did he say what I thought he said?

I could hear panic in Maya’s voice, “Hold on, Tommy.” I could hear her hand over the phone. “Josiah, shut up!” And then I heard a smacking sound.

“Ouch! That hurt!” Josiah laughed.

“Then shut your mouth,” Maya whispered, but I could hear every word. “Hey, I’m back,” she said. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” I asked, acting like I hadn’t just heard the greatest thing in my life.

“Oh good,” she said. “My brother was just being a pain in the butt. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“No, I’m an only child. I was raised by my grandparents.”

“Really?”

“Well, mainly my grandmother.”

“Oh, okay,” Maya hesitated.

“It’s okay. My grandmother is an amazing woman.”

“She must be.”

“Why is that?”

“Cause you seem like a really great person. She raised you well.”

I had the biggest, goofiest grin on my face. “Maya, I was thinking…would you like to go to the movies tonight?”

“Tonight?” she seemed confused.

“Or we can go tomorrow night?”

“No, tonight is good.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah!” she confirmed.

“Great! Text me your address and I’ll pick you up around 8:00.”

“Okay, I will do that.”

“Awesome. I’ll see you in a couple of hours then.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” she said.

“And Maya?”

“Yeah?”

“One more thing.”

“What is that?” she asked.

“Tell Josiah I think his sister is pretty hot herself.”

Maya laughed, embarrassed. “Okay, I’ll tell him.” she said, and I heard her smack him again.

“I’ll see you tonight at 8:00.” We hung up.

I walked into my bedroom and Patrick and Sasha were sleeping on my bed. Sasha had apparently got up at some point and decided to lay next to Patrick. They were kind of close. Their heads faced each other, about two inches apart. They were either kissing or talking before they both fell asleep. Considering Patrick was about as smooth as a drunken sailor on leave, I didn’t think he got any action. A part of me almost wished they would hook up. Now that I had met Maya, there was no way I’d be doing any random makeout sessions with Sasha, ever again.

It was 6:00 p.m. I had about an hour before I needed to leave for my date with Maya. I decided to go into the cage and do a workout. I banged out 500 pushups and 500 sit-ups. After my sit-ups, my abs felt like they were about to explode. I got up, out of the cage and peeled off my shirt.

I tightened up my six packs. I hadn’t been eating much of late, so my abs were out and about. It doesn’t matter how big my chest and arms got, I knew the ladies liked stomach muscles and that is why I always worked them double-time. My abs were ripped.

Chapter Two

The sleeping beauties were still slumbering when I left. I left them both a note that said I had gone out for the night, and I could be back real late. I liked the fact that I was accountable to someone. I hadn’t felt that since I’d left home.

It took a half hour to get to Josiah and Maya’s house. They lived near Cal State San Bernardino College in the better part of town. I pulled up to their house and I felt as nervous as I’ve been in a very long time. I parked my Mustang next to a giant tree in their front yard and got out. I was in semi-casual date mode—a fitted black, short-sleeve button-down shirt with a pair of black jeans. I had on my best pair of loafers; they looked good and were comfortable for walking.

I checked myself in my driver’s-side mirror, making sure that my fly wasn’t open and I had no boogers in my nose. Then, casually, I walked up the driveway and knocked on the door.

A silver-haired man with a spectacular handlebar mustache answered the door. He was fit for his age, and I was guessing that he was about fifty years old.

“Hello, there,” the older gentleman said to me.

“How are you doing, sir?” I said, completely thrown off by the fact that a dad answered the door. It was a mom, a brother, but never a dad. The dad usually was usually sitting in an easy chair, eyeballing me like a king on his throne.

“I’m good,” he said. “Tommy? Is it?”

“Yeah, that’s right.” I said, a bit awkward. I didn’t want to sound too confident out of respect for the fact I was taking his daughter out and didn’t want to appear to be a smooth customer.

He stuck out his hand and I gave him a firm handshake. “Nice grip. I’m Daniel, Daniel Reign. Come in. Maya is almost ready.”

I entered their house and looked around. It was like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. The house fit every description of a good, old-fashioned country home. There were paintings of cowboys on the wall, a throw rug in the middle of the floor, and all the furniture looked to be handpicked from an antique shop. There was even an apple pie aroma in the house.

And sure enough, a short, buxom woman came out of the kitchen wearing an apron dusted with flour. She had blonde hair and blue eyes and was probably the most beautiful 50-year old woman I had ever seen. I was a little thrown off by how pretty a mom could be. I definitely saw where Josiah and Maya got their good looks.

“Hi, Tommy,” the curvy woman said.

“Hello, Mrs. Reign,” I said, blushing. I was never very good at this, but this was highly awkward, considering how normal everything was. For crying out loud, I had a werewolf and a vampire spooning in my bed at my apartment.

“Have a seat, Tommy,” Mrs. Reign said. I walked over and sat on their brown couch. As I sat, my entire body sank into it like a hammock.

“Wow, this is probably the single most comfortable couch I’ve ever sat on.”

“Exactly! Tommy!” Daniel stated, with an exclamation point. “Margaret wants me to get rid of it.” Margaret was apparently Mrs. Reign’s first name.

“It’s ugly, Dan. And it’s filthy,” This was obviously a daily argument. I couldn’t help but smile at how cute they were.

“So, Tommy what do you do? Are you in college?” Daniel asked as he packed himself a pipe.

“Actually no. I’m a professional athlete.”

Daniel eyes grew large. “An athlete? What kind?”

“I’m a fighter.”

“You mean like a Sugar Ray Leonard kind of fighter?”

“Well, not exactly,” I said. “There’s a new professional fighting sport called mixed martial arts.”

“Oh, MMA,” Daniel said. “Josiah and I watch that all the time. I just took him to a match a couple weeks ago at the Staples Center.”

“He mentioned that to me.”

“Wow, do you know any of those guys?” Daniel looked at me and his pipe seemed to be ready.

I smiled and said, “I was one of those guys.”

“You were? Which fight were you?” Daniel was as excited as I wish my own dad would have been to find out this information.

One of the hallway doors opened and Josiah came walking out. “He was the first fight, dad. You didn’t see it. You were too busy getting nachos.”

Daniel looked at me and grinned, “I do love my nachos. Especially the ones at the arena! It’s like the cheese is more heavenly.”

I smiled because I could see where Josiah got his love for food. “I wouldn’t know. I haven’t had nachos since the third grade.” I looked over at Josiah and said, “What’s up, man?”

Josiah came over to me and I stood up to shake his hand, but instead he gave me a bro hug like we been pals for years. Damn, I liked this kid.

“Dad, Tommy is only 22 and he is already making a living in the sport,” Josiah was trying to convince his dad of something.

“And that’s fine, Josiah. You can do whatever you want after you at least try-out for the 2008 Olympic team. Son, you haven’t lost in 25 fights and the only reason why you lost your first one was because we didn’t know how to tighten your gloves right.” Daniel looked at me and laughed. “They kept slipping during the fight. It threw off the poor kid’s rhythm. He was only 12.”

“Wow, you haven’t lost in 25 fights! That’s amazing.” I looked over at Josiah and he seemed to care less that his dad was gushing over him. He had no idea how lucky he was, how I would have given anything to hear my biological father talk about me that way.

Suddenly, a hallway door opened and Maya walked out. She came walking down the hallway looking spectacular. She was wearing a white blouse with light blue jeans. She had done her hair in an up-do and it took everything I had to keep my jaw from hitting the floor.

“Wow, you look great,” I said.

“So do you,” Maya said back to me.

Maya and I were locked into each other and as far as I was concerned, there was no one else in the room.

“So, where are you two kids planning on going tonight?” Maya’s dad asked.

“I was thinking about taking her over to Irvine. There’s a spot called Irvine Spectrum. There are a lot of shops and a giant movie theater.”

“Oh, that sounds like so much fun,” Maya’s mom said.

Daniel looked at me and nodded his head. For the first time he gave me that ‘you better look out for my daughter look.’ I smiled and told them how wonderful it was to meet them. Josiah seemed a bit jealous that he wasn’t invited but I knew he and I would hang out eventually.

I walked over to the door and was still mesmerized by how great Maya looked. I had a quick moment of clarity when I remembered that I had something for Josiah

“Hey Josiah, come here.” He walked over to me and I reached in my pocket and pulled out a card to the gym where I work out.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“Well. When your dad thinks you’re ready I’ll put in a good word at my gym and get you a membership.”

“Really?” Josiah looked at his dad for approval.

“As long as you continue to focus on boxing, I think it would be great if Tommy showed you a thing or two about MMA.”

Josiah stared at the card like a kid looking at a video game cover. “Thanks, man.”

“No problem. Until then, I’ll come back and we could work out together. We can do something more interesting than you running across San Bernardino.”

“That sounds great, Tommy.” Mrs. Reign said. I smiled, and opened the door. I said goodbye to everyone and Daniel told me to have Maya back by one in the morning. I said, “No problem.”

When we left the house, the first thing Maya said to me was, “I don’t have a curfew. I am twenty-one years old. My dad likes to think he can still make rules for me.”

“It’s okay,” I said, “I plan on having you back by then.”

We walked down the driveway, and I ran around my car to open her door. I let her in and closed the door behind her. I walked around the car and waved to her parents who were looking out the window. I sat into the driver seat and looked over at Maya. She smiled “I am so sorry that my parents and brother are such dorks.”

“You have no idea how awesome they really are,” I said, as serious as I had ever been.

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. They’re amazing. I really mean that.”

Maya smiled and leaned back in her seat. I started my engine and made my way to the 91 freeway.

“Have you lived here all your life?” I asked

“Born and raised in San Bernardino,” Maya replied. “What about you?”

“I lived in Southern California all my life, but I’ve been all over. I lived in Buena Park, Fullerton, Corona, I even had a stint in Garden Grove.”

“So, you said your grandmother raised you?”

“Sure did. Mother Teresa had nothing on my nana.”

“That’s cute.”

“I’m serious. She is one of those really religious people who actually lived the way she was supposed to, according to her faith.”

“How so?”

“She doesn’t judge. She just loves people. Even to this day, she finds the strength to go to the more needy areas of town and just gives herself to those communities.”

“She sounds wonderful.”

I looked outside my window and felt guilty singing my grandmother’s praises. I hadn’t seen my grandma in months and I had been feeling bad about that as of late. “Yeah,” I said, “She is wonderful.”

It took about a half hour to get to Irvine Spectrum. The Irvine Spectrum is a giant block that had been turned into something that resembled a street fair. It had a variety of shops ranging from chocolates to novelty stores. There were street performers, tarot card readers, and a lot of places to eat, dance, and have a great time.

I pulled into the back parking lot and found a spot. It took about ten minutes but my grandmother had always taught me ‘patience is a virtue.’

We got out of my car and I looked up into the sky. I was really hoping for a normal night: no werewolves, no bloodsucking vampires, no drama.

All I knew was, I had planned on Maya and I having an old-school, all-American date. There are four necessities that make up a great first date. One, go to a cafe for an appetizer or a drink and have conversation. Two, head over to a plush restaurant for a nice romantic dinner. You’re laying the groundwork to really get comfortable with the person you’re with. The second half of the date is about having a great time. Third thing was engaging in a fun activity like batting cages or even a nightclub with great music and maybe some dancing. That’s where you let loose and showed your real colors. After all that, you have the grand finale. It actually isn’t that grand, but more of a mellow and introspective activity. Number four: Right before you drop off your date, you stop by a nice coffee shop and end the night the way you started, with great conversation. And how does a player like me know all of this? Hey, a player needs love, too.

After I parked, I got out and walked around my car to open the door for Maya. As I helped out Maya, she stumbled in the parking lot and fell into my arms. It was nothing major, but I got a glimpse of the kind of intimacy to expect.

“I’m sorry,” she said. She was clearly embarrassed. “That was klutzy.”

I tried to make light of the situation by saying, “It’s okay, I’ll let it slide this time because you smell nice.”

“Oh, you did?” She said, flirting back at me. “That’s very nice of you.”

“What can I say; I’m a sucker for things that smell pretty.”

Maya laughed at my little joke and pulled herself together. Once she was situated, we headed up to the front of The Spectrum.

“Wow, this is pretty,” Maya said, looking at the lights.

“It’s no Las Vegas, but it’s about the best you’re going to get in Orange County.”

We decided to walk around a bit and scope out the various shops. We stopped in at an arts and crafts shop and Maya was like a kid in a candy store.

“I love this store!” she said. “If I could, I would buy the whole shop.” She went from item to item with eyes as big as gumballs. I couldn’t help but be amused at this beautiful woman who so interested in miniatures, doll houses, and scrapbook items. “Tommy,” Maya said “When I die, I want my ashes spread out in this store.”

“Well,” I said, “that might be hard for the cleaning crew to clean up and I’m pretty certain it’s a health hazard.”

“Oh, you’re no fun,” she joked.

“I hope you’re not planning on dying anytime soon.”

“For you, Tommy… I’ll live to be a hundred.”

I smiled and said, “I hope so. If you do, I’ll make sure your ashes make their way over here.”

Maya smiled and we left the store. We walked further down the street until we saw a palm reader. I tried to look away, but the damn gypsy-looking woman made direct eye contact with me and it was too late. Maya caught her looking at me and something told me that a palm reader was right up Maya’s alley. “Hey Tommy, the palm reader is making goo-goo eyes at you.”

“I can see that. I must have ‘sucker’ written on my forehead.”

“Sucker? Never! I have always had good readings when I’ve had them done.”

“Let me guess, they were generic things like you’ll find love, have some success the following month, and you will encounter something that you hadn’t anticipated.”

“More or less, yes.” Maya laughed.

“That’s because love is a big word and it could mean a variety of different relationships. And unless you’re the unluckiest person in the world, everyone is going to have some kind of success, month to month.”

“Okay, smarty pants, how did the last lady know ‘Fitem’ would accept me into their designer college?”

“She didn’t know unless she said, ‘Maya, Fitem, the designer college you are trying to get into, will accept you.’ It was just a generic shot in the dark. It could easily have been something as unexpected as finding a beautiful puppy. These psychic people need to give you specifics and they don’t.”

“Okay, Mr. Skeptic, just give it one shot, because something tells me you have never done anything like this before. Am I right?

I looked Maya and grinned, “No, I haven’t done anything like this before.”

“Wow, and you’re such an expert!” she mocked. “Come here!” Maya grabbed my hand and led me to the psychic. I had to admit, it was worth giving it a shot to be able to hold Maya’s hand for the first time.

“Hello,” the lady wearing the gypsy outfit said. She, apparently, had gone to a costume shop and found the most authentic layers of clothes she could find because she did look good. I’d give her an A+ for first impression.

“Hello, to you, madam,” I said, smirking from ear to ear.

“May I take your right palm, sir?” she asked.

“Sure,” I sat down in the empty chair opposite her.

“May I have your first name?”

“It’s Kyro,” I joked.

“Kyro?” she asked.

“No, I’m just kidding. It’s Tommy.” I put out my right hand and she flipped it over and looked at my palm. Then something unexpected happened. When she touched the palm of my hand, I saw a flash of light. At first, I thought one of the outdoor cover lights had burned out, but I looked up and realized I wasn’t even under anything. As a matter of fact, there wasn’t much light around us.

“Oh, wow!” she said. “I can feel a lot of energy coming through you!” She paused and stared at my palm like it was a treasure map. “This line here,” she said, pointing to the longest line on my palm, “shows that you are going to live a very full life.”

“That’s good. I should, with all the exercise and nutritious food I eat.”

“No, Tommy.” And this is where it began to get very weird. This bizarre woman looked deep into my eyes as if she was trying to speak to my innermost self. “Tommy, you’re going to live a very long life.”

“A very long life? That’s good, right? Isn’t that the whole point to all of this, to try to live as long as possible?” I looked up and winked at Maya. Maya looked on, with as serious of an expression I had ever seen from her.

The psychic then grabbed my arm. “An exceptionally long life!” she said, loudly.

“I get it,” I said. “I’ll probably see a hundred candles on a birthday cake when all is said and done.”

She continued to look at me with a freakish glare and continued, “Your life span is not the part that is overwhelming me.”

Overwhelming her? That’s a bold statement!

“You will have an extraordinary life, Tommy! I almost want to tell you that it will be the stuff of legends.”

I once again looked up at Maya. “Legends, even!” I laughed.

The lady then let go of my hand and stood up. She turned around and didn’t say a word.

“Are you all right?” I asked.
“Yes, I’m sorry,” she said. “I have never had a reading like this. I’m not even sure how to act.”

“It’s okay…really it is. You can tell me anything.” This woman was obviously pushing for the biggest tip she’d ever gotten.

She sat back down and said, “It will be a life full of adventure and also one full of heartbreak.” She then looked up at Maya and smiled. Okay, that was creepy.

Still, I had to admit, she now had my attention. “What kind of adventure?” I asked.

“You will be the first do certain things and also be the last to do others. You will have whatever you want, whenever you want it. But all of that will come with a price.” She again let go of my hand and looked at me, perplexed.

“You okay?” Now she was freaking me out.

The lady got up and just walked away from the table. She didn’t even ask to be paid. She just continued to walk as if she was trapped in a daze. I looked up at Maya and grinned, “What a kook!” But it wasn’t over. The lady turned around and walked back to us. I thought she must have realized she didn’t get paid. I reached into my wallet to pull out a twenty. She walked right up to me and I handed her the money. She rejected the money and said, “Make the right decision, Tommy. Everything rides on it. Everything!”

“Right decision…regarding what?” I asked.

“You will know when it happens. It will be a coin flip and you need to follow your heart!” She then sat down and shooed us away and that was it.

I got up and grabbed Maya’s hand and we went down the street and we were both pretty weirded out.

“That didn’t go anything like I thought it was going to,” I said. “Don’t they usually want to get paid for the reading?”

“Always,” Maya said. “Except this time.” Maya stopped in the middle of the city walk and looked at me. “I have gone to these ladies over a hundred times in the last five years. I have never heard anyone get a reading like that. And I always paid.”

“A hundred times? Look, Maya, I respect that you really believe these women have the ability to see into the future, but I’m still pretty skeptical. Was that off-the-charts weird what she did? Yes! Does it validate that anything she said would come to pass? I hardly doubt it. Let’s go get something to eat.”

Maya smiled and said, “That sounds like a good idea. When in doubt, eat something.”

I decided to go straight to the plush restaurant part of the date, considering we needed a change of scenery fast. There was a nice seafood restaurant at the end of the strip and I was craving some mahi mahi.

“You like seafood?” I asked.

“Love it.”

I escorted Maya into the restaurant and they immediately seated us. We ordered quickly and ate even faster. I had the mahi mahi, and she had the shrimp platter. We were both incredibly quiet during dinner. She was thoughtful and I wondered that wheels were turning in her head.

After I finished eating, I looked across the table at my Maya. She has the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen. I decided to put aside what that palm reader said and just enjoy Maya’s company. She looked adorable and hot; that wasn’t easy to pull off. She caught me looking at her. I gently nodded my head and winked at her.

“What are you up to?” she asked.

“Me? I’m not up to anything.”

“Okay, I’ll believe that for now but I do want to ask you a question.”

“I like questions,” I said, sitting up. “Go for it.”

“What’s your story?”

“My story?”

“Yeah, I can see that waters run deep with you,” she said.

Water’s run deep? I’ve never been told that before. And to be honest, I wasn’t even sure what that meant. “Do you want to know my life story, or my belief system?” I asked.

“I want to know what makes you tick.”

I looked at her and didn’t want to ruin this moment by saying something stupid. I had a hundred stupid responses to her question. I decided to filter them and said, “I’m just a regular guy, wanting to be happy.”

“That’s the generic answer, Tommy. If you read a book on how to answer that question that would be what the author would say is the right thing to say.”

I defended myself by saying, “No one has ever said my waters run deep before, especially after a couple of meetings.”

“Tommy, living in Southern California has taught me a few things. The main one is that people our age don’t show their soul to people right out of the gate.”

“And you think I have. I haven’t really broken down and said too much have I? You think I’m already exposed?”

“Not exposed, Tommy. You’re real. It’s how you act. It’s the way you talk. It isn’t really what you say but how you say it.”

This was starting to freak me out; first, crazy palm reading lady and now Maya. I was starting to feel like I was a guest on the Dr. Phil Show and I was about to be told some horrible news.

Maya pulled back, “I’ve made you uncomfortable, haven’t I?”

“No,” I said. “I’m just not very good at this.”

“At talking?” she laughed.

“No.” I was quiet for a moment, and then I said, “I think the same thing about you.”

“What is that, exactly?” Maya asked.

I looked at her and knew what I wanted to say, but I was afraid to say too much. This was our first date, for heaven’s sake. “When I look at you, I can tell there is a lot going on. You seemed to be connected.”

“Connected?”

“A lot of times people say things and their words aren’t connected to how they feel, or they feel things and aren’t quite sure how to say them. With you, it seems effortless. I barely know you, but at the same time. I feel I know exactly who you are.”

“I feel the same way about you, Tommy.” Maya gazed at me in a way that no woman ever had done. It made me nervous and excited all in the same breath. I felt like my heart was going to come out of my chest and loved every minute of it.

I stared across the table and I looked into her eyes. I was once again quiet and, for the first time in my twenty-two years of life, I took a woman in. I saw beyond her looks, I saw past the beauty, the hair, the makeup. I saw her for who she was on the inside; I heard and felt her without a word or a touch.

She looked back at me and was also very quiet and very still. If two people ever knew the exact moment they fell in love, this was that moment. At least it was mine. This little fire cracker, a woman I had met just hours earlier, defined me, and stood her ground. She wasn’t running for the hills; instead, she was right here in the moment with me.

I stood up and walked over to her side of the table. I grabbed an empty chair at an empty table beside us and sat next to her. She didn’t seem surprised at the grand gesture I had just made. Instead, she never quit looking at me. I reached out my right hand and she grabbed it with both of hers. I leaned in and gently kissed her on the lips. I took my left hand and placed it on the back of her head. Her lips were soft and tender. The kiss lasted about ten seconds. It was the single greatest kiss of my life. We both opened our eyes, and continued to stare at one another. I had never felt anything so intense in my life.

“You’re very handsome,” Maya said rubbing the back of her hand across my face. “But, you know that, don’t you?”

I smiled because it didn’t matter what I thought. The only thing that truly mattered to me at that moment is what she saw in me and what thought of me.

“I think you’re the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”

She smiled shyly and said, “Wow, number one?”

I nodded my head and then kissed her again. This time, the kiss was a tad more passionate. By now, we must have been making a little bit of a scene in the restaurant. But I didn’t care.

Maya leaned into me and placed her forehead on my chest. “You’re like a brick wall!” She let go of my hands and put them over my chest and abs.

“Watch it, young lady. This is a family restaurant.” I looked around and there wasn’t anyone watching.

She continued to feel my chest and my stomach. “You’re built like a gymnast.”

I grinned, “If a gymnast could be so lucky.”

“And here is where Tommy’s cocky side comes out,” she laughed.

“Well, I hate to say it, but I’m a pretty confident person.”

Maya looked up at me and said, “I like that, that’s a good thing.”

“Hey, let’s get out of here,” I said. “There’s a place I want to take you.” I looked down at my watch and it was 10:30 p.m. “We still have enough time to go there and get you back by 1:00 a.m.”

“You know you don’t really have to take me home at 1:00 a.m.”

“Oh, I’m taking you home at 1:00. Your dad was very clear to me. And as long as you live under his roof,” I joked, “you’re going to abide by his rules.”

“Oh, great, you’re going to be on his side,” she laughed.

“I will until he likes me.”

“He likes you, Tommy. Trust me on that one.”

“Really?”

“Yes, he likes you a lot. He figures you’re two for the price of one.”

“Huh?”

“You can be in both his son’s and daughter’s lives. He sees how much Josiah looks up to you.”

I really liked the idea of her dad liking me. “I think your little brother is pretty cool,” I said.

“He’s not so little.”

“I know, he could probably kick my ass, even at fifteen.”

Maya looked me over and then surprisingly said to me, “No, I think you could keep up with him.” And she was as serious as a heart attack.

Chapter Three

We left Irvine Spectrum and headed toward Balboa Beach. There was a great spot near some rocks where I had always wanted to bring someone special. And Maya was as special as they get.

I parked my Mustang on a side street. I opened Maya’s door and held her hand as we walked up to the beach area.

“Uh-oh,” Maya said. “You’re not taking me to your prime makeout spot are you?”

“Actually,” I said, as I continued to walk.” I have never been up here with another person.”

We approached the sand and we both took off our shoes. We walked out toward the water and stopped just short of the high tide line. We both looked out into the spectacular ocean. I dropped my shoes on the sand and I put my arms around Maya.

“You really have never been at this spot with anyone before?” she asked.

“This is the first time. I promise.” I was telling the truth.

“How did you come across such a beautiful spot?”

“One night when I was sixteen, I decided to drive down to PCH and park and do some jogging by the water. I ran for what seemed like days, and I ended up here. I sat right here and stared off into the deep ocean. The moon was directly over the water, much like tonight. I just sat here and had a moment of solitude, a moment of tranquility. And I’ve been coming back two to three times a year ever since.”

“Your special spot. I am honored you shared this with me on our first date.”

“Don’t feel honored,” I said. “Someone that sees the world the way you do deserves to know about places like this that are just around the corner.”

I held Maya close. I could feel her heart beat up against me. She felt so natural in my arms. I was so the unromantic, but on this night you would have thought I was Casanova himself.

“I love how the moon sends a strip of light across the ocean,” Maya said. “It’s amazing that just a half moon could give off so much glow.”

A half moon? Oh shit! In two weeks it will be a full moon again and all that weird shit will start happening. “Maya, there’s something I need to tell you.”

Maya looked up at me and winced, “Oh great, here it comes.”

“Here what comes?”

“The… you have a girlfriend speech, or ‘this is a little too much-too fast’ speech.”

“I love how quickly things are going. But that isn’t what I wanted to tell you. And, no, I don’t have a girlfriend, either.” I paused and began to rethink what I was about to say. I had no idea how to say what I wanted to tell her without sounding like a complete idiot. Or worse yet, someone who is disillusioned.

“Okay, what is it, Tommy?”

I took a moment. I let go of her and sat on the sand. Maya wiped herself off and sat next to me. This was going to be hard to share with her and I sighed heavily, “Maya, there’s something about who I am that cannot really be defined. And I can’t tell you exactly what it is because I am not even sure what it is myself.”

“Are you sick?” Maya asked, extremely concerned.

“No, it’s nothing like that. I have never been healthier.”

“Okay, then what is it?”

“Look, just know that…” I stopped myself from speaking and stared at the moon.

“Look, Tommy. I don’t need to know everything right now. I like you and I want to learn more about you.”

“I like you, too, Maya. That’s why I think you should know.”

“Well, you’re obviously not ready to tell me and I’m okay with that. Let’s just allow things to continue to happen according to the fate of the Triat.”

“Huh?” I nearly fell to the floor.

“What?” she asked, clueless.

“You said ‘fate of the Triat!’”

“It’s just a saying my grandfather used to say to me when I was younger.”

“The fate of the Triat? He used those exact words?”

“Yeah, I asked him what it meant when I was younger and he told me it was the force that allows love to exist in each of us.” Maya smiled at me not knowing how enormous her words were to me.

Holy shit! Her grandfather knew about this world. I needed to know more about her grandfather. “Is he still alive?”

“No, he actually had something awful happen to him.”

“What happened?”

“Well, they never really found his body, all they found were his things. He was one of those older guys that were seventy but looked forty. He was athletic and loved the outdoors and one weekend he went camping by himself and never returned. They found his things torn up and shredded by a campfire. We could only imagine what kind of wild animal got to him.”

“Wow, that’s insane. I’m sorry to hear that. How old were you when this happened?”

“It was about eight years ago.” Maya’s eyes began to water, so I pulled her close to me.

“It’s okay,” I said, wiping the tears from her eyes. “I shouldn’t have asked for more.”

“No, it’s okay. I’m glad I told you about my grandfather.”

We continue to stare at the ocean together until the tide reached our feet. We decided to head back to the car. I walked with my arm around Maya to keep her warm and I just took in the whole night. There were a couple of amazing things I found out tonight. One, I had definitely fallen for this girl. And two, her grandfather definitely was—or is—a vampire or a werewolf.

Chapter Four

I got Maya home at fifteen minutes before one. I was pretty pleased with myself getting her home by the time her father asked. I walked her up to the door and then we stopped in front of it.

“I had an amazing time tonight, Tommy,” Maya said, grabbing my hands.

“So did I, Maya.”

“You’re going to call me, right!”

I looked down at this confident, young lady and she was showing me a bit of vulnerability that I’m sure most girls feel after a first date. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close. “We don’t need to ever talk like that. Games are out the door, when it comes to us.”

Maya pulled back, “Are they?”

“They never started.”

Maya looked deep into my eyes. “I believe you.”

I leaned in and kissed her softly on her lips and again on her cheek.

“You’re a great guy, Tommy.”

“And you’re an amazing girl, Maya.” I winked at her and trotted off to my car. She waved me off and went inside. I looked up at the moon and said out loud, “I’m in deep.”

When I got back to my apartment, Patrick and Sasha were up playing a game of Clue at the kitchen table.

“Seriously,” I said, as I entered my apartment. “A vampire and a werewolf are trying to figure out if Colonel Mustard killed someone in the conservatory with the candlestick?”

“Hey, don’t give it away, Tommy. I’m crushing Patrick. This is the first time he has ever played.” Sasha rolled her dice and moved her red game piece into the kitchen. It figured the vixen would choose Miss Scarlet.

“So, how did your date go, player?” Patrick asked.

“Date? I didn’t write on the note I was going on a date.”

“You didn’t have to,” Sasha responded. “It was the fact that you even wrote a note. You were lining up your ducks in a row, my friend. Leaving a note definitely meant you had the night under control. Therefore, I could only conclude you were on a date.”

“Wow, Sherlock, you’re off the charts. You better watch out Patrick, you’re playing Clue with Matlock.”

“So, it was a date!” Sasha said.

“Yeah, it was a date,” I said. “Probably the best date I ever had.”

“Ever had?” Sasha laughed out loud. “Wow, you are a putz!” Now, her claws were out.

“A putz? What is that supposed to mean?” I walked over and poured myself a glass of milk from the refrigerator.

“It means you’re a sap, and you are probably getting played,” Sasha stated, as if she had the entire world figured out.

“Look, Sasha, not every girl has a boyfriend when they have a date with me.” I was obviously referring to the night we first met.

“To be fair, Tommy, we weren’t exactly on an official date. It was more of a hook-up.”

“Exactly, and you played me like a fiddle. Just because that is something you’re capable of doing, doesn’t mean everyone else is like that.”

“Ouch!” Patrick chimed in, loudly.

“Wow,” Sasha continued. “You must have gone on a date with Mother Teresa.”

“Don’t act like this, Sasha. When I came home earlier, you and Patrick were all cuddled up on my bed.”

They both looked at each other, shocked.

“No, we weren’t,” Patrick said.

“Trust me! Your lips were inches apart. You were inhaling each other’s exhales.”

They looked at each other and laughed.

“Look, Sasha, I like this girl and I don’t want you to mess it up.”

“Why would I mess it up?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Ever since I met you, my life has sort have been in disarray.” I looked at the cage in my living room and pointed at it. “Case in point.”

“Tommy, you have been real good to me, and if you need to have a girl or two break your heart along the way, that’s your business. I’m just here to warn you about them because we’re friends.”

“Thanks for looking out for me,” I said, rolling my eyes to Patrick.

“What are friends for?” Sasha replied.

“You two go and figure out who killed Mr. Body, and I’m going to go to bed,” I said, and began to walk down the hall. I stopped and turned around. “Unless you two need my bed for later, and finish up where you left off?”

“Please, just go to bed, lover boy,” Sasha mocked.

Patrick seemed to like the fact I was implied he had a shot with Sasha. He had a silly grin on his face. I saluted my friends and went to my room and fell asleep in matter of minutes.

The next couple of weeks were pretty amazing. I spent every day with Maya, and we did everything from going to the mall to having picnics in the park. Josiah and I started training three times a week. I took him down to my gym, and all the trainers were floored at his ability, for being as young as he is. I was having the time of my life; I was a part of two different families. I had my vampire and werewolf dysfunctional threesome family, but even better, I was being accepted by the Reign household. They had invited me over for family night, and I had been spending a lot of quality time with Daniel. He was very wise and I had never had a father figure in my life. He was always throwing out little nuggets of wisdom, and he had no idea how much it meant to me.

The interesting part about everything was that Maya and I had very little time alone. Meaning, we hadn’t slept together yet. We actually hadn’t even gotten close to doing the horizontal Rumba, and I totally didn’t care. She had become an extension of me, and I had never felt this way about anyone in my life.

It had rained during the week, and I invited Maya to spend the night at my grandmother’s cabin in Running Springs. She didn’t hesitate to say ‘yes.’ We knew we would have the whole weekend to be close. Because it had rained, that meant there will be a lot of good snow. Also, this was the weekend that the full moon would invoke its full effect on my supernatural chemistry. I thought this might be as good of time as any to let her in on my little secret.

Josiah wanted to come with us to the cabin, but I really wanted to be alone with Maya. I didn’t let him know that my family actually owned the cabin. I told him I had to be respectful to the people who owned it and could only have one guest. Poor guy didn’t take the news well.

But, nonetheless, Maya and I packed our things and headed up to the San Bernardino Mountains.

Patrick agreed to look after Sasha, and make sure she wouldn’t be let out of her cage during the full moon. The two of them were really getting tight, and I couldn’t tell if it was platonic or something more.

Chapter Five

Maya and I headed to the mountains on Friday afternoon. There was almost no traffic, and I knew this was going to be a very special weekend. The higher we got, the more snow we could see on the side of the road. I knew Running Springs would have lots of good snow even though the sun was out. It takes a few days before the snow melts and as far as I was concerned, it was better when there was sun.

When we got to the cabin, I gave Maya the tour of the place. I showed her the downstairs, which consisted of two bedrooms a living room and a kitchen. Then I gave her the upstairs tour, which consisted of just one gigantic bedroom with a bathroom.

“So, this is my room when I stay here,” I said.

“Where’s my room?” she asked, innocently.

“You can sleep on the floor if you’re good,” I said, teasingly.

“And if I’m bad?”

“Then you can sleep on the bed with me.” I crossed my fingers and closed my eyes. “Please be bad! Please be bad!” Maya smacked my arm and I winked at her.

“Does this place have cable?” she asked.

“Yeah, sort of. It has the Dish Network so when it snows, it runs into problems.”

“Well it’s not snowing any more this weekend, so it should be fine.”

I looked at Maya and asked, “So, you came up to a cabin that is covered in snow and you’re hoping to watch TV?”

“What do you want to do?” Maya asked.

I sat on my bed and took off my shoes. They were wet from the snow outside. “Well, first I’m going to put on a couple pairs of socks and then I thought we could cook dinner together, and who knows…maybe have some wine. We really haven’t had a night like this since our first date.”

Maya nodded. “Remember, you’re the one who likes to come over to my house and hang out with my family.”

“So, what are you saying?” I asked, pretending to be hurt.

“I’m saying that,” Maya hesitated before speaking. “I’m saying that… I have wanted some alone time with you, too, for quite some time.”

I looked up at her standing over me. “Come here,” I said, wrapping my arms around her waist. I hugged her and rested my head on her stomach. She put her hands around my head and massaged my scalp. “Well, we’re here now.”

“I know,” she said. “What are we to do?”

“First,” I said, “we should go downstairs.”

I got up and led her to the living room and we sat on the couch. She looked exquisite; she seemed to be more beautiful each day that I’d known her. I got up and put on some music on the stereo. I found a station that played slow songs.

I walked over to the lights and turned them off. I then walked around the living room and began lighting every candle. This was a major Don Juan move, and normally, this was my ace in the hole to get laid. But tonight, this maneuver was different. I was going to take whatever came my way, do whatever felt natural. I have had plenty of sex in my time, and tonight was not going to be about that. If it came to that... then hot damn, but my first intention was to show her I’m all about her tonight.

When the entire living room was lit with candles, I walked over and took Maya by the hand. I brought her to the middle of the living room floor. It was nice not having a 2,000-pound cage in the middle of this living room.

I knew that tomorrow’s first full moon was going to cause all types of new conversations between Maya and me. I wanted tonight to be as normal as it could be. I had never been a romantic, and this kind of thing was only in my arsenal as a means to an end. But tonight, it was coming from my heart.

The stereo played Dan Hill’s crooning, “I want to hold you till I die.”

“I love this song,” she said. I pulled her close to me and we began slow dancing. We swayed our bodies and pressed up against each other. Maya looked up at me and said, “I feel so safe with you.”

“You should,” I smiled. “I’m one badass motherfucker.”

“No, I’m serious.”

I looked down at this phenomenal woman and smiled, “I know you are. I know this isn’t going to make much sense, but I feel safe with you, too.

“It makes perfect sense,” she said, holding me tighter. “We have something beyond this room, beyond this mountain. We have found each other, Tommy.” Maya paused and then smiled, shyly. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For assuming.”

“For assuming what?” I said, indignantly.

Maya’s eyes began to water as the music played behind her. “I’m sorry for assuming that you might think about me as much as I think about you.”

Tears began rolling down her face and I wiped them off. I looked deep into her eyes. “Maya, in such a short time, you have become my ‘everything.’ I think about you, and yearn to be with you every waking moment. What you need to understand is that this isn’t what I’m usually about. I have never had a serious girlfriend, or thought for one second that anyone, let alone a female, could understand my very being as you do. You see things in me that I haven’t even discovered about myself. Each moment I’m with you surpasses the previous one. When it comes to you, all bets are off. I throw out every inhibition I have ever had, and I just let you see me.” Maya looked up at me in a way no person ever has. She looked at me in a way I wouldn’t even dare to dream. “Maya,” I said.

“Yes, Tommy.”

For the first time in my life, I was about to utter these words out loud: “Maya, I love you.”

Maya exhaled deeply and said, “I love you, too, Tommy.”

Maya hugged me tightly, and we slow danced a little longer, holding, loving and kissing each other. Song after song, we just held our bodies close. This was an intimacy I had not yet experienced before tonight. This was a closeness that I didn’t know could exist. Time was waning and I asked Maya if she like to go up to my bedroom. She nodded her head, and I led her up the stairs into my room.

My bedroom was simple considering that I only spent a few days out of the year here. We reclined on the bed next to one another and continued kissing. I had never felt this way before. For the first time in my life, I was sharing passion with a woman, and sex was the last thing on my mind. I wanted to consume her. I wanted to inhale her essence and exhale her being.

“Tommy?” Maya said.

“Yes,” I answered.

“I’m not ready,” she said softly, an apologetic tone in her voice.

I knew what she meant and it was okay with me. “It’s okay, Maya. All I want is to be with you.” I meant every word. We continued to kiss and cuddle and eventually we fell asleep in each other’s arms. It was the most perfect night I had ever shared with a woman.

Chapter Six

The next day, we got up early and went to breakfast in a quaint little cafe along the highway. It catered to locals, and had an atmosphere that was about as enchanting as a place could be.

Maya and I talked and shared every detail about our lives. I told her every bit about me, except the whole paranormal thing. Tonight, there would be a full moon; I was anticipating some weird shit happening again. My hearing was already off the charts when there wasn’t a full moon, but I’d been ignoring it. Tonight, however, she’d be there to witness for herself whatever happened to me. Hopefully, I could properly explain what I knew, and that wasn’t a whole lot. It would be a very short “just the facts, ma’am” explanation.

We left after breakfast and went back to the cabin around ten in the morning. We decided to bundle up and go outside and make a snowman and do some sledding. We rolled snowballs as big as we could, but they weren’t even close to the humungous ones you see on TV, when they make a snowman on some Christmas special. Who knew that making a snowman was a science.

When we were done, we did a little bit of sledding on the driveway. That ended up being a sad display, just as well. We eventually went inside to get cleaned up and put on a change of clothes. I had gone into the shower first, and I put on a warm set of clothes and went downstairs and layered a couple of blankets on the couch.

Maya took her shower and came down about a half hour later. “So, what’s on the agenda, mountain man?”

I was all cuddled up on the couch and was feeling really, comfy, cozy. “Well,” I said, “I thought we could go ice skating later on. There’s a rink in Arrowhead.”

“Ice skating? How fun! I’ve never ice skated before!”

“Well, you’re in for a treat. It takes a few times to get the hang of it, but if you can roller-skate…you can ice skate.”

“That sounds like so much fun!” Maya was really excited.

“Until then, I thought we could hang out at the cabin. I have every board game known to man and I’m itching to beat your butt.”

“As long as we don’t play Scrabble, we’ll be okay.”

“Noooo… you don’t like Scrabble!” I literally, stood up.

“Don’t tell me you like it.”

“Like it? I love it! It’s chess with words, but even better.”

“Oh no, you fit in so much with my family. I’m surprised Josiah and my dad haven’t brought out the big board yet and played with you. They have marathon matches that last for weeks on end.”

“Josiah plays?”

“Josiah is sick at the game.”

“Oh, it’s on, I will take little brother down. When I’m done with him, I’m going after Pops.”

“Don’t get too cocky, Tommy. They’re both pretty good.”

“So, let me get this straight, you think your fifteen-year-old brother can kick my ass in a fight, and beat me at Scrabble?”

Maya was quiet, and smiled sweetly at me.

“You do understand I’m an undefeated professional fighter? And, I’m practically undefeated at Scrabble.”

“I believe you’re really tough at fighting and can win against a lot of people at Scrabble. You need to understand, sweetie. My brother has beaten the best boxers in the world, and he’s almost as good at Scrabble as good as he is at fighting.”

“Everyone he fought was his age!”

“My brother will fight anyone at any time. He beats up grown men all the time.”

“So do I! And I get paid for it!”

Maya seemed amused that this bothered me. But I was getting a little annoyed by all of it. I mean the kid just turned sixteen for God’s sake. And now she wanted to throw Scrabble into the mix. Those were fighting words.

One thing for sure, Maya was loyal as hell to her brother. Even though it perturbed me that my girlfriend thought her little brother, who was six years younger than me, could beat me up and hand me my ass in a game of Scrabble, I had to live with that.

Josiah and I would never truly know about the fighting aspect, and I’ve seen him in the gym. He was a beast; his hands were quicker than anyone I had ever seen. It was just damn humbling to hear it from the girl I cared about. One thing was for damn sure; I was going to whip his ass at Scrabble. I must have shown my irritation in my face, because Maya said to me, “Tommy, you know I think you’re amazing.”

“Just not as amazing as your brother,” I said, like a spoiled child.

“So competitive! Does it really bother you that much?”

It didn’t bother me the way she thought. I looked at Maya and said, “I just want you to know that you’re safe with me. That no one will ever harm you.”

Maya sat me back down on the couch, “Honey, look at you. You’re built like a pit bull. You’re muscular, and strong, and I wouldn’t doubt for one second you could protect me against anyone in the world. You don’t need to feel like you’re any less, just because my brother is a freak of nature and can anyone down in boxing or in Scrabble.”

I nodded, “I guess you’re right. About the Scrabble part.”

Maya stared at me and took my hand. “There’s something you need to know about my brother. When Josiah was seven years old, he kicked the neighborhood bully’s ass. The guy was fourteen years old and terrorized everyone, big or small, in the neighborhood. He used to pick on us on the way home from school every day, and one day, Josiah just had enough, and he fought back. That guy never knew what hit him. Josiah threw five punches and every single one of them landed cleanly. The bully was bleeding all over the sidewalk. He tried to grab Josiah, but my little brother was like a ball of energy, and the guy couldn’t even keep him down. If the older boys hadn’t stop Josiah, I’m pretty sure he would have killed that kid. He did this in front of the whole block. At age seven. After that, we all knew one thing was for sure. Little brother could fight. My dad has done everything he can so that Josiah doesn’t use his abilities the wrong way and become a bully himself.”

I took in Maya’s story and truth be told, after learning those details about Josiah, it made me respect the little shit even more. “You’re lucky, Maya.”

“Why is that?”

“You have the most awesome family ever.”

“I do, don’t I?”

“Not to mention your mom is pretty hot, too,” I said, for good measure.

“I know! Right!” Maya laughed.

I know I couldn’t piggy-back on my previous comment about her mom without sounding like a big pervert, so I reeled it in.

“I’ll let my mom know that twenty-two-year-old guys are checking her out. Maybe it would make my dad pay more attention to her.”

“Please don’t tell her I said anything.”

“You’re right. My dad would kick your ass!” Maya laughed.

“I know he would. Your dad is in great shape.”

“Okay, Tommy. Are we going to spend all day talking about how hot my parents are, or are we going play some Connect Four?”

“Connect Four? Oh! That is my specialty. You’re going down!” I said, and went over to my game closet. I pulled out a boatload of board games with Connect Four on the top of the pile.

“Wow, you do know there is a thing called video games?” Maya joked at the sight of all the board games I dropped in front of her.

“I am highly aware of video games, but that isn’t the biggest turn-on to a girl when you first start dating her. Board games are interactive and sexy. They are hands-on and engaging in a way that video games cannot compare to, for a game for two.”

“Oh, you plan on waiting till were married to whip out that little detail of your life?”

“Married?” I nearly swallowed my tongue.

Maya realized what she said and put her hand over her mouth. “Easy there, Tommy. It was just a joke.”

I looked at Maya and couldn’t believe what I was thinking. I was thinking if I could be so lucky. “Didn’t someone challenge me in a game of Connect Four?”

“I sure did, lover boy.”

Maya and I played six games of Connect Four and we split them 3-3. We went through nearly every game in my stack and had a blast playing each one. She even taught me how to play Texas Hold’em poker toward the end. I had seen it on TV, but had never fully understood the rules.

It being winter and, knowing that it gets dark around 6:00 at night, I decided we should hit the ice skating rink around 5:00, figuring it might be less weird for her if some of my issues happened in public.

We drove down the mountain to Arrowhead. Arrowhead was the next city below Running Springs. We passed a high school named Rim of the World before we got to the rink. That had to be the all-time, most unusual name ever for a high school. It sounded more like an amusement park or a landmark.

We got to the ice skating rink and it was pretty packed. What did I expect; it was winter and a Saturday night. There wasn’t a whole lot to do out here and the locals must love this joint. We got our skates and went over to the chairs to lace them up.

“So, you’ve done this before, right?” Maya asked me. She was having trouble lacing up her skates. So, I leaned over and helped her get her skates tightened.

“They need to be on tighter than anything you have ever put on your feet before; you don’t want to twist your ankle, which is really easy to do,” I said. I got on my skates and then we were off to the rink.

I hit the ice and showed off a little by speed skating around the rink a couple of times. The second time around, I whipped in and went over to Maya.

“Done impressing all the girls in this place?” Maya asked; she obviously wasn’t too pleased at my display of my testosterone.

“I wasn’t trying to impress girls, plural,” I assured her, “I was just hoping to impress you.”

She winked at me. “You sure did, Apolo Ohno! Could you be a dear and help a newbie get started?”

I took her hand and she hobbled onto the ice. We went slowly around the ice. I told her to just glide her feet like roller skating.

Eventually, she got the hang of it and was doing pretty damn good. We skated around for about an hour and I knew the full moon was going to be out any moment. Then, it happened right on cue. The music DJ guy put on a slow song.

“Couples’ skate!” He announced, over the speaker.

“Wanna skate?” I asked.

“Of course,” she said, “Unless you were hoping to ask one of these teenagers to skate with you?”

“I just want to skate with you,” I assured her. “Teenage girls have nothing on you.” They really didn’t. Maya was the prettiest girl in here.

I decided to turn my body around and so I could face my girlfriend while we skated. I skated backwards slowly while holding both of Maya’s hands. Maya skated in front of me tentatively. She started out rough, but after a lap around, she was getting the hang of it.

“This is nice, Tommy.”

“It is, isn’t it?”

I smiled at her warmly, she smiled back. But then her mouth just dropped wide open. “Are you okay, Tommy?”

“Why?”

“Your eyes are bright yellow.”

Holy shit! Here it is! It must be dark outside. “I feel fine,” I said, trying not to freak her out.

“Let’s go sit down,” she said. “You don’t look good.”

“We don’t need to do that. I feel great.”

Maya continued to stare at me and her face said it all. She was completely freaked out. “No, we’re going to go sit down.”

“All right.” We skated off the ice and sat in a couple chairs by the snack bar. The snack bar was more lit than ice rink, and that didn’t make things any better.

I sat across from Maya and she just stared at me with a puzzled look.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I don’t know, you look different. You were scruffy this morning, but your beard looks like it has already filled out.”

I just nodded my head and allowed her to try to come to grips with what she was seeing.

“Your ears,” she said. “They appear to be pointier.”

That’s new, I thought.

“And your nose seems to be longer than it was just minutes ago. It’s like someone replaced you with a bad body double.”

“A bad body double? Thanks.” I tried to make light of it, but I could tell Maya was about to lose it.

“No, I didn’t mean it like that.” Maya continued to stare at me. I could tell she was thinking she was losing her mind and I decided this was the moment to let her in on the truth.

“Let’s leave,” I said. “I have something to tell you.”

“Okay,” Maya said, slowly.

We turned in our skates and headed back to my car. I began to drive back and decided to pull over at the Rim of the World High School parking lot so we could talk. I parked my car in the large empty lot and took the keys out of the ignition and stared straight ahead.

“What’s happening, Tommy? Are you having an allergic reaction or something?”

“It’s not an allergic reaction,” I answered.

“Then, please tell me what the hell is going on.”

I didn’t say anything at first. I knew I had to tell her and I was just praying this wouldn’t be a deal breaker. “It’s something a little more bizarre than that,” I said.

“Okay, tell me. What’s happening to you?”

I turned and faced Maya. She looked at me, petrified, and it broke my heart. She was no longer seeing me as I am. She was seeing this half-thing I had become. “Maya, there are things in this world that are unexplainable, and up to a month ago, I didn’t believe any of it myself.”

“Okay,” she said. She had apprehension in her voice that scared me to tell her any more, but I had to.

“Maya,” I said plainly. “I’m in the process of becoming a werewolf.”

“What? Are you fucking with me?”

“No, I’m not,” I assured her. “I’m not fully understanding what’s happening to me myself. All I can tell you is that I know werewolves are real.”

“You’re being totally serious, Tommy?”

“Yes.”

“And you can just say that out loud and that doesn’t sound weird coming out of your mouth?”

“Of course it sounds weird. You need to understand this is something I didn’t believe in either. But, I have seen it with my own eyes. I have seen a human turn into a full-blown werewolf.”

Maya’s eyes started darting back and forth in a panic and she opened the car door; she started running across the parking lot. I opened my door and yelled, “Where are you going?”

“Anywhere, but here,” she yelled, back to me.

“Maya! Please stop! If you care about me at all, please let me talk to you!”

Maya stopped at the end of the parking lot and refused to turn around. At least she stopped running. I walked over to her and brought her back slowly to my car.

“I tell you what, let me tell you the entire story and maybe it might make more sense. Maya, you know me. You know I’m not crazy. You know if I think it’s true, then there’s at least the possibility it could be because I’m not crazy.”

Maya sat in my passenger seat and she seemed horrified. I reached over and held her hand. And right there, I told her the whole story regarding Sasha and how I was bit and how now I was in some sort of limbo phase. She was having a hard time keeping it together. It didn’t help either that I mentioned dating my roommate for a short period. She had a lot to take in. But she did allow me to speak. I decided to hold off on telling her about vampires.

Maya got out of the car again but this time she didn’t run. She just sat on the hard asphalt parking lot, crossed her legs and closed her eyes as if she was doing yoga.

I got out of my car and walked over to her. “What are you doing?” I asked.

“This is how I calm down,” She said.

I nodded. “Go ahead, knock yourself out.”

Maya sat there for a brief time and then looked up at me. “What I don’t understand is…what’s happening to you?”

“Like I said, Maya, I was bitten horribly in the shoulder by a werewolf that was in his human form. I think nature or the Triat has put me in some kind of werewolf purgatory, where I’m neither a man nor a werewolf.”

“This is the same Triat my grandfather used to talk about?”

“It could be a coincidence, but I doubt it.”

“So, you’re saying you might be partially immortal?”

“I don’t think that’s how it works. You’re either immortal or you’re not.”

“But as far as you know, you could be completely immortal?”

“Possibly. I don’t plan on testing it out,” I laughed.

We sat out there and talked until the wee hours of the morning. Maya seemed to believe me and how could she not, I just sported a new beard and my face changed into a partial werewolf. We eventually made our way back to the cabin, and to my surprise, Maya didn’t pull away once after obtaining this new bit of information about me. If anything, it drew her closer to me. The rest of the weekend we just talked and shared—we took care of each other.

Chapter Seven

During the next couple of weeks, Maya and I continued to get even closer. I had decided to pay for Sasha to get her Jeep out of the police impound lot. She agreed to do my laundry and wash my car until I felt that she had paid me back.

Sasha had been pushing for herself and Patrick to meet Maya for a couple weeks now. I hadn’t brought the three of them together out of fear that Sasha would say something inappropriate to Maya. Maya was cool that Sasha lived with me, even though we had had a fling. I assured Maya that I had zero sexual feeling toward Sasha, that we were just friends, and that Patrick might be interested in Sasha. All of that explanation was good enough for her.

I just felt it was better to just keep them isolated. Plus, Sasha had made snide remarks that insinuated Maya was going to lower the boom on me, at any moment, and show her true colors. She couldn’t believe anyone can be as perfect as I claim Maya to be. Well, she’s wrong.

I knew I couldn’t put off, forever, the three of them meeting. Patrick and Sasha had become two of my very best friends and Maya was my girlfriend. So, after being pressured relentlessly by both Sasha and Maya, I put together a dinner for the four of us in Hollywood. I knew I wanted zero problems, so I had decided we all should go to someplace out of town. That way it would be a new experience for everyone and at least we all would have that in common. Or at least they would. I had picked a nice, little restaurant called the French Market that I had gone to a year ago on a blind date, set up by my trainer, Mo.

We took two separate cars down to Hollywood. I had picked up Maya by myself and then we took the 10 freeway and did a straight shot to Hollywood. I thought it would be silly for Patrick and Sasha to follow us because it would be extremely out of their way. So, we all agreed to meet at the restaurant around 8:00 p.m. It would be dark, so Patrick wouldn’t have any sun issues to deal with.

We got to Hollywood in about an hour. We parked in a small, rundown parking lot down the street from the restaurant and walked to get to the French Market. I had let Maya know that Patrick called me Kyro as a nickname and I made up a story to explain why. It was an awful lie that made no sense, which is one of the reasons why I don’t lie to people because I’m horrible at it.

When we arrived, Patrick and Sasha were already seated, having a drink. Sasha was dressed to the nines, her hair done up real nice and had enough makeup on to last a girl like Maya a whole month. Patrick and Sasha definitely looked like they were on a date.

I led Maya to the table where my two friends were sitting. They were laughing, drinking wine and engaged in a conversation. I stopped at the front of the table, and Patrick stopped whatever he was saying when he saw me, “Kyro! You guys made it.”

I watched Maya’s face as Sasha looked up at us.

“Hi guys!” Sasha’s eyes were beaming, her face flushed with happiness.

“Hello,” Maya said. She seemed a bit surprised that Sasha was a complete knockout. But as far as I could tell, it wasn’t bothering her too much.

“Maya,” I said. “These are my two roommates, Patrick and Sasha.”

“Hello,” Maya said again.

“Wow, she’s gorgeous, Tommy,” Sasha proclaimed, as if I just showed up to the dinner with a show horse.

Maya seemed embarrassed by Sasha’s overly complimentary statement but smiled politely. I pulled out a seat for Maya to sit down and then I sat next to her.

“So, what’s good, Tommy?” Sasha asked.

“I actually don’t remember,” I said. “I would assume all the food is pretty good.”

“Tommy, didn’t you say you went here before on a date?” Sasha smirked.

“Yes,” I said, staring at Sasha with a look that said, ‘Did you really have to say that right off the bat.’

Sasha caught my look, and it didn’t seem to matter to her because she had something to say, and it couldn’t wait. “What kind of date was it, Tommy?”

“It was just a regular date, Sasha. It wasn’t a big deal, so can you drop it?”

“And you had it here?” she continued to badger me with questions.

“Yes,” I answered. “What’s the big deal?” I was getting upset now. She didn’t need to push the issue.

“Look around and tell me what you see,” Sasha said. She stopped herself from laughing out loud.

What was she talking about? I looked around the restaurant and quickly saw what she was referring to. Every table had couples having romantic dinners. There was something I had apparently overlooked the last time I was here. They were all same-sex couples. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Were you going through an experimental phase?” Sasha joked

Maya looked around and figured it out, too, that this restaurant obviously catered to a gay clientele. Maya looked over me to join and joined in the joke. “Wow, she’s right, Tommy. You have some explaining to do.”

Patrick jumped in for my defense, sort of. “Dude, it’s cool, Kyro. We all are a little gay.”

“Very funny,” I said, to Patrick.

“Well, it’s good to know that you’re not homophobic,” Sasha laughed.

“I guess not,” I said. “Okay, ha-ha. Live and let live. Love and let love. Could we change the subject?”

“Yes, we can, sweetie,” Maya said. “We don’t need to make you remember a time you’d like to forget.”

“Really? Maya? You, too?”

“Oh, sweetie, the only thing gay about you is your body.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Gay guys are really in shape,” Sasha said. “At my gym, all the hottest guys are gay.”

“Yeah, you’re a real gym rat, Sasha,” Patrick laughed.

“Hey, I used to be. If I sit around eating cookies all day and playing Monopoly, that is entirely your fault for making it so much fun.”

I looked over at Maya and she seemed to be enjoying our friendly banter with one another, and from that point on, the four of us had a wonderful dinner with great conversation. Sasha and Maya seemed to really hit it off. I couldn’t tell if Sasha was just going along with it because that was the right way to act, or if she generally liked Maya. I knew Maya liked both Sasha and Patrick because she was far too real of a person to fake the good time she was having. The dinner felt like a double date.

We finished dinner and all agreed to meet up at a coffee shop off of Silver Lake Street. The four of us walked back to the little parking lot where Maya and I had originally parked. Apparently, Sasha had also parked her Jeep in the same lot.

I held Maya’s hand and we walked behind Sasha and Patrick. They weren’t holding hands but they walked closely together. We approached the parking lot and three dark-haired guys, all dressed completely in black, walked toward us. I had a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach; I knew something wasn’t right. Surprisingly, they walked past us and didn’t say a word. Then after a brief moment, the reason for my bad feeling became apparent.

“Hey, Gutterball!” one of them yelled at us.

I turned around at the oddity of being called Gutterball. As I turned around, Patrick said, “Let’s get out of here.”

“Do you know these guys, Patrick?” I asked.

“Let’s just go,” Patrick repeated, earnestly.

“Why are they calling you Gutterball?”

“Because I first met them at a bowling alley and I wasn’t too good at bowling.” Patrick hurried to Sasha’s Jeep.

“Gutterball! That’s you, right?” one of the guys continued to yell.

Patrick continued to ignore them and that didn’t make matters better. In a blink of an eye, the guy yelling at us had shot his way across the parking lot and stood right in front of us. The guy had shoulder-length, long black hair.

“Fucking Gutterball,” the guy said. “Where the hell you been?”

Patrick looked up and nervously said, “I’ve been around.”

“Well, you’ve been nowhere near us. As a matter of fact, one might say you have gone completely out of your way to avoid the Brotherhood.”

Great, as if I didn’t already know these assholes were Mani— they were fucking vampires. I didn’t know what to do. I mean these guys obviously came here looking for Patrick. Someone must have given them a heads’ up that he was down here.

“Girls, get in the car!” I said.

“Fuck no,” Sasha said. “These guys don’t scare me.”

“Maya get in the car,” I repeated. Maya looked at me, scared, and it broke my heart. I never wanted to see her ever give me a look like that. Maya jumped in my car and locked the door. Her eyes were riveted on us and she was suddenly pale.

“Cute girl, Gutterball,” the guy continued. “Which of these skanks is your date?”

“Excuse me?” I said.

“Excuse you!” the black-haired punk repeated back to me. “You probably will want to get into the car with your girlfriend. You really don’t want to see this.”

“See what?” I asked.

“Well, Gutterball went AWOL, and there is only one way we deal with AWOL cowards.”

“No one’s touching Patrick,” I warned them.

The three Mani men all laughed at me.

“Cute,” the Mani guy said. “Patrick got a boyfriend while he was gone. No wonder we found him in West Hollywood.”

“You need to shut your punk-ass Mani mouth,” I said, without a hint a fear in my voice.

“Mani? Patrick, you told this guy about us, and you let him live? We weren’t going to kill you, too,” the guy said directly to me. “But now, you leave us with no choice. Unfortunately, now that Patrick let the cat out of the bag, there’s only one thing we can do.”

Screw that, I was tired of this asshole talking and prolonging the inevitable. I knew Sasha was pretty tough, and I had no idea what Patrick was about when it came to fighting. At worst, it was three on three, even if my three were questionable. Plus, no one calls my girlfriend a skank and gets away with it.

I charged the guy that was directly in front of us making the most noise. I grabbed him by his shirt and threw him on top of an SUV. I threw an elbow across his face that absolutely obliterated his mouth. I began dropping elbows like sledgehammers down on his skull. His eyes rolled back and then he just disappeared and a fraction of a second later, a black, injured bird shot across the sky and flew off. Yep, a vampire.

I looked over at Maya in the car and her mouth was completely dropped open. She seemed really worried, and I knew I’d better take care of business quickly, and get the hell out of here.

I turned around and Patrick was clearly getting his ass beat by one of the bastards, while the other guy was on top of Sasha. First things first. I ran over to Sasha and wrapped my arms around the neck of the vampire that was on top of her. I dug the front of my forearm deep into his skinny, little Mani neck, so I felt nothing but Adam’s apple. I cranked up my forearm and swung the asshole in a circle while choking him out.

“Transition!” the other vampire yelled while he was dismantling Patrick. And sure enough, the Mani I had swinging by his neck disappeared and flew off into the dark sky.

There was one remaining and he was surely getting the best of Patrick. Sasha tried to go over there but this guy was definitely the biggest and the baddest of the three, and unfortunately, he attacked our weakest member.

“Who the hell are you?” I asked. “Why do you even care about Patrick?”

“Because he’s one of us. If we let him live, then there is no order.” Then the Mani guy roundhouse-kicked Patrick and dropped him to the gravel.

Patrick yelled, “I never wanted to be part of this, Monty. You guys made me into something I never wanted to be.”

“Oh, cry me a river,” Monty said, with about as much empathy as a drill sergeant.

Okay, this needed to stop. Monty had obviously drunk the Kool-Aid, and as far as I knew, he was the one serving it.

Monty leaped on top of Patrick while he was on the ground and had a silver stake in his hand. The same stakes those Mani had had that night in the desert.

I hurried over to him and stomped on top of his neck. It was the most ferocious stomp-like kick I had ever delivered. His neck made a cracking sound that almost made me throw up when I heard it. Patrick slid from under him and Monty faced-planted on the pavement and didn’t move.

“Transition, asshole and get the fuck out of here,” I yelled at him, trying to spare his scrawny little life.

Monty turned over and said, “This isn’t over.”

“Oh, I think it is.” I turned my head for a brief moment to look at Patrick, and that was all it took for Monty to plunge onto my neck. He bit down into the side of my neck and began to suck like a…well, a vampire.

I did the only thing I could do. I pulled his fucking hair like a little girl. I yanked his head back to where I could get my right hand into his mouth. And with my fingers, I ripped his vice grip that he had on my neck. He continued to bite down, but I shoved my fingers down his throat. I did this repeatedly until he began choking. He finally let up, and then he fell to the left of me, gasping for air. Sasha jumped on top of him and just unloaded a blur of fists on his face. He didn’t know what hit him, and I was glad one of my friends had finally stepped up. The guy eventually composed himself, and was able to defend himself against Sasha. He caught her with a backhand and she flew back into the back of my Mustang.

I was now extremely pissed off. I was tired of these assholes biting me—first a werewolf and now a vampire—and something in my brain just temporarily snapped. I jumped on top of Monty while he was still on the ground and pounded his face in further. He managed to get to his feet and we squared in a fight for the ages, or at least it was for me. I spent the next few minutes beating the shit out of this guy. I didn’t want to kill him. I wanted him to live and feel my wrath. The guy finally gave up and never once got a decent shot on me.

“You’re not human,” he said.

“Well, I’m not a werewolf either.”

Then something unusual happened, this Mani man’s eyes lit up. “Really? What are you?”

“I’m in between jobs right now. I’ll let you know when I settle in.”

The guy wiped his brow, and nodded his head. He was apparently tired of taking an ass beating by a half breed. He transitioned and flew off across the sky like a black shooting star.

I looked at my two injured friends. “There’s never a dull moment with you two, is there?”

I got into my car. And Maya immediately put her jacket over my neck and hugged me.

“We need to get to the freeway quick, babe. Who knows who’s coming back?” I said.

Maya looked at me and didn’t seem too worried. As a matter of fact, she seemed a bit proud. “I take it back,” she told me. “You just might be able to beat up my brother.”

I looked over at her and shook my head, and then peeled my Mustang out of the parking lot, with Sasha and Patrick right behind me in Sasha’s Jeep.

Chapter Eight

Maya put pressure on my neck bite the whole way home with her jacket. “You really should go to the Emergency Room.”

“I’m all right. I’m actually becoming a pro with the whole being bitten on the body thing. I just need some Bactine.” I exited the freeway and headed toward my apartment. I looked up in my rearview mirror and saw that Sasha was still following me.

I looked up in the sky and it appeared that we weren’t being followed by any black birds, red hawks or any other supernatural creature of the night.

I pulled into my apartment complex, parked, and hurried to my apartment. I knew couldn’t be too careful, considering, I didn’t want any of these assholes knowing where I lived. It was apparent that whoever was after Patrick had no idea he was staying with me. Sasha and Patrick parked then followed behind us into the apartment.

When we all got inside my apartment and I knew we were safe, that was when I decided to explode. “What the fuck was that about, Patrick? Are you fucking kidding me? You’re part of some secret Brotherhood that you never let any of us know you were running away from? You failed to mention that these guys might want to hunt you down and try to kill you if they were to find you? Worse yet, you put my girlfriend and Sasha in danger. What the fuck were you thinking?”

“It’s not like that, Kyro, I swear!” Patrick said.

“Look, dude. These guys were so pissed off at you to that they were willing to kill you and not think twice about it.”

“They would kill anyone and not think twice about it!” Patrick now shouted. “They’re vampires!”

“You’re a vampire, too!” I said.

“I’m not like them! You know that!” he spewed at me. “They have this gang mentality and I am not going along with it.”

It was nice to see him have some emotion, but it was a little too late. We could have used it back there when we were fighting his Mani buddies. Patrick began to pace around the apartment. He finally got control and said, “Tommy, I would never intentionally put you in a situation like what happened tonight. I especially wouldn’t want Maya and Sasha to have to deal with any of that.”

“Guess what, Patrick? We all had to deal with it! Wait a second! No, I had to deal with it. And Sasha had to deal with it. As I recall, we were the ones fighting for all of our lives!” I looked at Maya and she seemed overwhelmed. She hadn’t a clue what she had just experienced. “This is so unfair, you two,” I said, to both Sasha and Patrick. I was finally going to stand up for myself and it was about time. “You two came into my life and completely fucked everything up.”

Sasha looked at me, shocked.

“Don’t look at me like that, Sasha. It’s because of your werewolf pals that I’m some tweaked-out, half-werewolf. You screwed up my life and now you’re trying to screw up Maya’s? This isn’t fair to her.” I looked over at Maya. “I am so sorry to bring this horrible world to you.” Tears began to roll down my eyes. “I wanted us to be normal, I was hoping…” I stopped myself from continuing to speak because I was afraid to show any more emotion.

Maya didn’t respond. She seemed to be in utter shock.

“Maya, I’ll take you home,” I said. “I know you don’t want any part of this.” I walked over to the door and opened it.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Maya said, softly.

My back was to the three of them, facing the door. “How can I be wrong?” I said. “No one would want this.”

“I don’t necessarily want this specific situation, but what I do want is you.” Maya walked over and put her arms around my waist. My back was still to her and all I could do was sigh and lower my head.

“Come back inside, Tommy,” Maya said, softly to me. “We all need to talk this out and figure out what are next steps are going to be.”

I turned around and all three of them were looking at me with a desperate need. Like it or not, this was my reality, and it looked like Maya was on board. I closed the door and walked over and sat at my table. I put my head on top of the table and groaned. “What the fuck are we going to do?” I said.

Sasha walked over and sat at the table with me. “Tommy, you kicked a lot of ass tonight. You don’t have any idea how impossible it is for a human to defeat a Mani or a Carni. Tonight, you defeated three Mani men, pretty much by yourself.”

“No,” I said. “You helped me a lot, Sasha. You can kick ass in your own right.”

“I held my own but I couldn’t have for much longer. There is no one out there who is like you, Tommy. You make your own rules. You don’t need to be part of any kind of clan or brotherhood if you don’t want to be. You can do whatever you want.”

I got up and walked into the living room where the cage occupied most of the room. Maya looked at the cage and said, “I still can’t get over the fact that there is a huge cage in your living room.”

“That’s my crib when the moon is full,” Sasha said. “It keeps the world safe from me.” She stroked one of the bars affectionately. “And keeps me safe from the world.”

Maya digested that for a moment.

“And what about you?” she asked Patrick. “What stops you from putting the vampire bite on someone?”

“I get my blood from a hospital employee. I’ve never bitten anyone and don’t intend to.”

Maya walked over to me and the two of us sat on the carpet to the side of the cage, facing the others in the kitchen. Maya then asked, “So, basically vampires and werewolves are among us, and no one knows it?”

“Oh, people find out. That’s when the Mani kills them,” Patrick answered.

“Why doesn’t Carni feel the need to kill?” Maya asked.

“Carni are closer to human DNA than Mani,” Sasha said. “Carni are basically humans 27 days out of the month. They only have paranormal abilities on three nights out of the month. They live among the humans, and the Tandra—humans—never find out who’s among them. Other than the fact that they don’t age, they are basically humans. Because Carni and humans work so close together, the Carni have a soft spot for the Tandra. Unfortunately, Mani could give a shit because they look at humans as a way to survive.”

“Because of their blood?” Maya asked. “But Patrick seems pretty normal. He hasn’t wanted to jump on top of me and suck my blood.”

Sasha nodded her head and continued, “Patrick is different because he’s still a baby when it comes to being a Mani. The more he feeds, the more he will crave human blood. Once that happens, he will be a bigger risk at becoming like the violent guys we met tonight.”

“So, Mani are basically psychopathic killers that wait around to kill?” I said. “Great, this is what we have to look forward to with Patrick?”

“I hope not,” Patrick said. “But the truth is I’m constantly fighting the urge not to bite you.”

“For real?” I asked.

“You have no idea? You’re fucking ripped, Tommy! Your veins bulge out constantly. It’s like waving a steak in front of a starving dog.”

“I’ll be sure to quit flexing in front of you,” I said. I wasn’t in the mood to joke, but I couldn’t resist. “Just keep sipping on your water bottle full of human blood and stay away from my veins.” I looked at Patrick, and then asked, “You’re constantly sipping on your blood. Doesn’t that help?”

“The blood bottle helps, but I imagine that nothing goes down and tastes as good as live human blood, sucked and warm, dripping from someone’s body.” Patrick’s eyes looked like they were about to come out of his head.

“All right, calm down,” I said to Patrick. “You’re freaking Maya out. And me, too.”

“I would never harm you, Tommy,” Patrick said, sincerely.

I laughed out load. “I’m pretty sure I could handle you, Big Boy. Remember you didn’t exactly hold your own in our little tussle earlier.”

“I wasn’t a fighter before I became a Mani,” Patrick said, defending himself. “Plus, I’m still hurt.”

“Yeah, you didn’t fight well tonight because of your larynx,” I said, sarcastically.

“I didn’t even want to be a Mani. It was the last thing in this world I wanted to be.”

“What happened to you, Patrick?” Maya asked.

Patrick paused and then looked at Maya and said, “I had no choice. I had been bitten twice in the last two years by Mani, and just like you, Tommy, I was in this weird limbo place where I would crave blood, but couldn’t actually consume it.”

“So what? You just gave up and let them bite you a third time?” I asked.

“Not exactly. I put myself in a bad situation one night at a bowling alley and just allowed fate to run its course.”

“I guess you didn’t bowl too well that night either, Gutterball,” I couldn’t help myself. I looked at everyone and said, “I’ve now been bitten twice by Mani. Great, I’m now going to have vampire tendencies as well as werewolf ones.”

“You’re going to need to make a decision, Tommy,” Sasha came out and said to me.

I knew what she was leading to. “I’m not ready to do that,” I said.

“Tommy, you’re on the Mani radar now,” Sasha continued. “They know you’re a complete stud who just kicked the shit out of three of their own. The way that Mani function as a group is they don’t look for revenge against Tandra or humans. It’s pointless to them. The way they see it, if you can hold your own against them, then you’re a great candidate to become a Mani. They are always seeking new members. They are going to want you to be one of them. They know if they had you, they would have one of toughest motherfuckers ever on their side.”

I looked at Patrick and he nodded his head. I then looked at Maya and she was heavily engaged in the conversation but definitely had apprehension in her eyes.

“Patrick, why were you hiding from them?” I asked.

“Because I regret allowing myself to be bitten for the third time,” he answered. “I put myself in a bad situation and I regretted my decision instantly.”

“You can’t run from them forever,” I said.

“I know, Kyro. They are worse than a street gang. If you denounce them, once you have become one of them, you might as well be dead. You become a cog in their machine to gain power over the Tandra and either kill it, or recruit it. There is no middle road with them. There is no mercy, no quarter given, and no hope,” Patrick said.

I looked at Maya and she was doing her best to take all of this in. How she was holding up was beyond me. “So what do you think?” I asked Maya.

“It doesn’t matter what I think. The way I see it, there’s no turning back for you. If you get bit one more time by a vampire, you will be one of them, like it or not. I think you should at least have a choice.” Maya stopped, and then looked at Sasha. “Are the Carni like the Mani where they desire to harm people?”

“No, not at all,” Sasha said. “Carni regulate themselves and they live by a strict code of honor with a respect for life. Carni try to live as normal of a life as they can and assimilate into the human condition. Mani don’t have a social consciousness, just a thirst for blood and damn the consequences.”

“So, what you’re telling me is,” I jumped in, “I have to decide between being a blood-sucking vampire that has psychopathic and sociopathic tendencies, and being a werewolf where I have no recollection when I turn, but I do have an innate respect for life?”

“Basically, yeah,” Maya answered. “That’s it.”

“Given the two choices, I’d much rather be a werewolf. but Mani are fucking crazy—no offense, Patrick,” I said.

“None taken,” Patrick responded.

Sasha continued, “What you need to understand, Tommy, is you’re right; when you become a werewolf, you have virtually no memory. You have no idea what you’re doing, you’re no better than a stray dog wandering around looking for something to eat.”

“Well, we seem to have you under control with the cage.”

“Sometimes, it’s not that easy. That’s why Carni go off to the desert or the mountains. They can at least run free and be with their own. We control our lust for blood by putting physical distance between ourselves and the Tandra. The Mani, once they are matured, not like baby vampire Patrick here, don’t even try not to do what comes naturally. There is no way they would go into the mountains or desert to avoid biting a Tandra. The thirst is too powerful and the mindset is without regret.”

I shuddered and looked at Patrick. “That night where I ran into you, why did the Mani attack the Carni in the desert?”

“We knew they were going to be there, and the leaders of the Brotherhood were craving blood, not Tandra life blood, but the blood of a werewolf. There is no better blood than that of your enemies.”

“So, you look at Carni as an enemy?” I asked.

“I don’t,” Patrick assured me. “But I’m the exception.”

“Carni and Mani have been killing each other for hundreds of years,” Sasha said. “They are like rival street gangs that hate each other out of historic reasons, but they are ten times worse and they don’t use guns. It is fang against fang and relentless, usually to the death.”

All of this supernatural knowledge was making my head hurt. “If I do this, agree that I should choose a side, and become a werewolf,” I said, “I would want Sasha to be the one to bite me. We could control that situation.”

“I think that the only way it can be done,” Maya agreed.

“How are you so at peace with all this?” I asked Maya.

“Don’t mistake my calmness with peace, Tommy. This is the worst thing I have ever heard. But you have no choice. I saw everything tonight with my own eyes. I saw men turn into birds. I saw how they wanted to kill you. I am adamantly against you becoming a Mani. Again, no offense, Patrick.”

“And again, none taken,” Patrick mumbled.

I looked at the three of them. “So, I guess we wait. In ten more days, there will be another full moon.”

Chapter Nine

After a few more rounds of going in circles about Mani versus Carni, we decided to call it a night.

“I’ll take you home, Maya,” I said, grabbing my keys from the counter.

“No, you’re not,” Maya said plainly. “I’m going to take care of you tonight. I need to clean that wound on your neck.” Maya walked over and looked at my bite. “Great, my dad is going to think I gave you the world’s biggest hickey.”

“Trust me, I’d rather that was the case. Then at least I could wrap my mind around it.”

“I don’t think you’d want a girlfriend who made a habit out of making your neck a snack,” Maya said, smiling at me. Wow, she was so amazing. I couldn’t believe how supportive she was.

“Hey, Tommy,” Patrick said. “If Maya is going to spend the night you guys can have…” Patrick stopped what he was saying and thought for a moment. “I forgot, that’s the only room you can sleep in.”

“I know, Patrick. We’ll figure something out.”

“I’m kind of stuck. I can’t sleep out here, there are too many windows and we don’t have enough cardboard.”

“I guess that means you and Sasha are going to bunk together, I said. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

Sasha gave me a look that pretty much said, ‘Don’t mess with me tonight, I’m exhausted.’

“Is it okay with you, Sasha? Want to bunk with me?” Patrick asked, as if he was asking her to the prom.

“I really don’t have much of a choice, do I?” she said.

I stuck up for my boy even if he was the worst fighter I had ever seen. “You can always sleep in your cage, princess. The last time I checked, I hadn’t received a rent check from you.” Apparently, this was not the time to point out the obvious to Sasha.

Sasha glared at me and said, “You know what, you never once asked me to pay rent! You asked me to clean your house and I do that. And now, you want to bring it up in front of your girlfriend, so you can look superior.”

Seriously, where was this coming from? I just stared at Sasha with a bewildered look on my face.

“I’m out of here.” Sasha got up and barged out of the front door. The three of us remaining in the room just looked at each other, surprised.

“Should I go after her?” Patrick asked.

“Let her go. She’s ungrateful, and the truth of the matter is she’s needed a splash of reality. She can’t stay here forever.”

Patrick nodded his head in a way that he assumed I was referring to him, too.

“You’re different, Patrick,” I said. “I almost killed you and I feel responsible for your welfare. I owe you a debt and I am paying it. You also sell stuff on eBay to take care of your small needs. Sasha makes trouble. Constantly.”

Patrick said, “I’m going to fix the window up in Sasha’s room, so no sunlight can get in. I hope she comes back.”

Maya looked at me and said, “I’m going to run you a bath, mister. You need to soak your body. It’s been through the wringer tonight.”

Just the idea that Maya would draw me a bath aroused me. We hadn’t done the main event yet and it didn’t take much to get me going when it came to her. She hadn’t given me the ‘it’s all clear for landing’ signal, and I cared too much for her to press it.

“I hope Sasha is going to be safe,” Maya said, walking past me to get to the bathroom. She went in and began drawing the bath for me. Something tells me the woman in Maya didn’t mind at all that Sasha left, but she wouldn’t let on that she was pleased.

“She’s a big girl,” I said. “Don’t forget, she’s the whole reason why I’m in this mess.” I turned to Patrick. “Listen, dude, seriously…I like having you here and I’m responsible that you’re still kind of jacked up.”

“Well, I’m responsible that you’ve been bitten twice by vampires. Not to mention that you had to single-handedly fight three of them tonight. We’re not even close to being square, I owe you everything.”

“You don’t owe me shit. Get some rest.” I took off my shoes and threw them by the door.

“You think Sasha is going to be okay?” Patrick asked.

“Who knows?” I said. “At this point, if she wants to act that way, I don’t really care.”

“She’s not mad about the room, you know that, right?”

“I know, I said. “I know she’s jealous, but the difference between her and Maya is night and day. Frankly, I prefer day a whole lot better because I can see what I’m doing. Sasha is like a box of chocolates and you never know what you’re going to get.”

I walked to the bathroom and Maya was sitting on the side of the tub, testing the warmth of the water. My grandmother used to do that for me when I was a kid. This was one very special woman. Why the hell did I get her involved in this?

“You know,” I said, “It’s a pretty big tub.”

Maya looked at me surprised and said, “I don’t think so.”

“Would it really be that awful?”

“No, it wouldn’t be awful, it would actually be quite nice, but under the circumstances of tonight, I don’t think that would be too appropriate.”

All right and now was the hard sell. I was only asking to share a bath with her, not pour hot wax on top of her.

“I think there really isn’t any protocol for appropriateness when one gets attacked by vampires. As a matter of fact, I think all rationale is thrown out the window.”

Maya smiled and I could see that she was thinking about it. “Okay, she said. “If we were to do this, we need bubbles.”

“Really?” I said, like a kid just was told he’s going to Disneyland.

“Don’t get weird about it or I’ll rethink it.”

“Definitely, don’t rethink it,” I said. “Hold on!” I went into my bedroom and went into my closet. I had a box full of scented candles that were given to me at Christmas as a gag gift from one of my buddies. I figured they would be perfect for a bubble bath party. I brought the box of candles into the bathroom. “I got the candles.”

Maya looked up and said, “I see that.” She had poured in some shampoo and there were lots of bubbles. I put five candles around the bathroom at different spots and lit them. “If you like to go to my room and get it, I have a robe you can use.”

“All right,” Maya turned off the water and left the bathroom. I took off all my clothes; she was right about my muscles hurting, everything hurt—especially my neck. I stepped into the tub and I scooted over to the right. The hot, soapy water felt so good. I leaned back and closed my eyes. I hadn’t really caught my breath since the fight and I was really enjoying this little moment.

I sat back and thought about everything. I never fathomed that anything like this would ever happen to me in my life. This life wasn’t about vampires and werewolves. It was about getting an education and getting a good job. It was about having a family and living in a house with a white picket fence. Poor Maya! I couldn’t believe that she was still here. She must really love me. I sighed and open my eyes and looked around the candlelit room. It looked pretty cool, it definitely set a mood. What kind of mood? I guess only the night knows.

I heard footsteps and then the bathroom door opened slowly. Maya walked in wearing one of my white robes. The robe was huge on her tiny frame. I smiled at Maya, and gave her a look that assured her I wasn’t going to “perv” on her as she disrobed. I leaned my head back and Maya dropped the robe off her body. She stood there completely naked. She looked absolutely gorgeous. Her body was perfect. Every curve was perfectly proportioned. Her skin was milky white and she didn’t have a drop of fat on her body. She looked like an angel in the candlelit room. A really freaking hot angel who was about to share a bubble bath with me.

She walked over and stepped into the tub, and sat down.

“What’s your sensitive area?” I asked, trying to make the situation more comfortable.

“Huh?” She looked at me, confused.

“When a guy goes into a hot tub, he has to put his hands around his package because the hot water fries his manhood.”

“Oh, poor baby,” she said, as she completely dropped her entire body in the tub. “Women don’t really have a sensitive area like that. We don’t really have a particular spot on our body that can rock our world in an instant like men do with their penises.”

“Very familiar with a men’s penis are we?” I asked, jokingly.

“Actually, no. I’m a good girl. I know the present condition says the contrary but other than the boyfriend I told you about, I haven’t done much.”

“Does your dad need to know you’re staying here tonight?” I asked.

“I texted my mom and Josiah and told them I was staying over cause you weren’t feeling good and you needed some TLC.”

“TLC?” I laughed. “It’s more like I need a M.A.S.H. unit.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to the emergency room?”

“I really don’t want to deal with the questions. Plus, that guy only dug his teeth deep into my neck; he didn’t tear off any flesh. I won’t need stitches.”

After I made the last statement, we were both quiet. Our legs were touching, but I hadn’t got the nerve to cozy up to her. I was completely at full arousal, so I didn’t want to scare her with my ‘life-stick’ drilling her in the ribs.

I closed my eyes, and then it happened. She made her way over to me. She laid on top of my body and there really wasn’t much I could do about hiding how excited certain regions of my body were. I adjusted my body so we were comfortable. Maya took a washcloth and began wiping my neck and then wiped my shoulder.

“You must taste good,” Maya laughed.

“Why is that?”

“You have more bites on you than a box of donuts.”

“It’s amazing! I had gone my whole life with the only time I was bitten was by the weird kid in preschool. But somehow, I manage to get chomped on three times in two months.”

“You’re running out of body parts.” Maya then put her hand in between my thighs and massaged my inner leg.

“Oh, wow,” I said.

“You know this is the closest I have been to your package.”

“I’m highly aware of that,” I said, enjoying her teasing.

“You know, Tommy, you have been so amazing about waiting for me to be ready. No guy has ever done that.”

“I have to say, I had an advantage on other guys.”

“Oh, you did? Why is that?”

“I know we will always be together and I don’t have to rush it.”

Maya looked at me and smiled. “Do you really think that?” she asked.

“I know it,” I said, as certain as I’d ever been about anything in my life.

“You are so wonderful, Tommy.”

“I know.”

“Oh, you know?” Maya laughed.

“I’m pretty awesome, I know that. I just can’t believe I was able to find the one person who is actually more awesome than I am.”

“Wow, there’s a line for the ages!” she snickered.

“Maya,” I said calmly. “It’s not a line. If I was to write down the perfect person, and give details to the utmost degree, it would be you. You’re the most beautiful woman inside and out that I have ever known.” I paused and reached out my hand and held hers under the water. “What you need to know, Maya, is that I don’t do this. I don’t sit around candlelit bathrooms and whisper sweet nothings in someone’s ear. Everything is different with you, my guard is completely down. I don’t care how foolish I sound. All I know, is I want to spend every waking moment with you.”

Maya looked at me and grabbed my face and began to kiss me passionately. I kissed her back. Each time our lips touched, I felt a level of intensity I had never experienced. I felt like a volcano ready to explode.

We both stood up out of the water and were still kissing.

“Don’t slip,” I said.

“You either.”

We stepped out of the tub and our naked, wet bodies stumbled around my clothes on the floor. I pressed her up against the inside of the bathroom door and kissed her behind her neck—I kissed her shoulder and the top of her back.

“Let’s go to your bedroom,” she said.

She didn’t have to ask me twice. I cracked open the door and peeked to make sure no one was outside, and once I saw the coast was clear, I took Maya’s hand and we scurried over to my bedroom.

We collapsed on my bed after I shut the door and we were still wet from the tub, but we didn’t care. From that moment, it was all her and I had never felt so natural with a woman in my life. It wasn’t about sex. Don’t get me wrong, we made love for hours. But, it was about connecting. Our souls intertwined, our hearts meshed together. I never understood how two people could become one until this moment. Every bit of me felt completed. Everything I am from this moment on was only about her.

We eventually fell asleep in each other’s arms. I woke up and put the covers over us and wrapped my arms around her.

I whispered in her ear, “I will always take care of you. Always.”

Chapter Ten

The next two weeks were all about Maya and me. We spent every moment of every day together. She practically moved into my apartment. She was over every night and I loved it. I knew it was still very important for me to connect with her family, so we made it over there just about every other day.

And yes, Josiah, Daniel and I had a Scrabble match for the ages. In the end, I came out the victor like I knew I would. I felt at one point that the father and son were setting each other up to try to beat me. Maya told me they weren’t and I was being paranoid because I am far too competitive.

Maya’s family was everything I imagined a family would be like growing up. It meant the world to me that they took me in and made me one of their own.

It was the end of the month and the first full moon was going to be tonight. Maya and I anticipated some weird crap happening to me again and decided it would be best to spend the next three days at my apartment, especially the evenings.

We got to my apartment around three from her parents’ house, and Patrick was asleep in what was now his bedroom since Sasha had gone AWOL a couple of weeks ago. I had left the cage in the living room, because I wasn’t sure when I would need it. And when or if Sasha would ever come back.

Not only did I miss my friend, Sasha, but the apartment began to get a little messy without her diligent housekeeping. Deep down, I worried that Sasha wouldn’t come back to put the bite on me, that a Mani would get to me first, and seal me to a terrible fate. All I could do, was wait.

Maya and I decided to make spaghetti together in the kitchen. We put together a huge meal, spaghetti, cheese toast, garlic toast and an antipasto salad. I loved me some Italy.

I was setting the table for three people, even though I knew Patrick wouldn’t be able to have much, but sometimes he was able to eat regular food. He never knew how his vampire belly would react. That was definitely a huge minus at the prospect of being a Mani. I was finishing up the silverware when I heard a knock at my door.

“Are you expecting someone?” Maya asked.

“No.” I walked over and peeked through the peephole. It was Sasha.

“It’s Sasha!” I said, elated.

“Well, open the door and see what she wants.”

My stomach turned. It had been nice the last two weeks and I knew Sasha was drama. There was no way I wanted to go back to that. But I truly needed her help. I had never needed anyone before this. More even than I needed Maya, Sasha was the key to my future well-being. Well, the lesser of two evils, anyway.

I opened the door. Sasha looked at me, “Hi, Tommy.”

“What’s up?” I said, slowly, my tongue almost frozen in stupid mode.

“How you been?” she asked.

“Great. You?” I felt weird exchanging trivial chat with her when my future rested in her hands. Err, her bite.

“I’ve been okay. I’ve missed my friends,” she said pointedly.

“Good to hear. So have I.”

“Invite her in,” Maya yelled, from the kitchen.

“Would you like to come in?” I asked.

“Yeah, sure. Thanks.” Sasha came in nonchalantly, as if my entire supernatural future didn’t rest in the palms of her hands and walked toward the kitchen. She said hi to Maya and they hugged. My heart went up into my throat as I saw them embrace, a truce between them. No jealousy or games. Just friendship.

“Are you hungry? We made enough for a platoon,” Maya said to Sasha.

“I’m actually starving.” She sounded exhausted.

“Well, have a seat. We set a place for Patrick, but he’s not up yet.” Maya was really being hospitable. That’s why I loved her, she had such a good heart.

“Patrick is still here?” Sasha asked.

“Why wouldn’t he be?” I said.

“I don’t know. I wasn’t sure how domestic you two have gotten.”

I shook my head. I knew it was just a matter of time before she would say something inappropriate. And she had.

“Can I ask you two a favor,” Sasha asked, her voice hesitant.

Here it is. Here’s the reason she came over. She is going to ask for money.

“Sasha,” I said. “Ask away.”

“Can I stay here the next three nights, you know, in the cage?”

“Really? That’s what you want?” I asked, surprised.

“Yeah, what did you think I was going to ask?”

“I wasn’t sure,” I said.

“Of course you can.” I looked up at Maya. She nodded to me and smiled. “Let us know how we can help you.”

Sasha eyes brightened. “Thanks so much, guys. I was going to wander around in my werewolf state and I want to control myself from what I will do after I transition.”

“Well, you’re in luck,” I said, jokingly. “We just happen to have a cage right smack in the middle of our living room.”

“We?” Sasha said.

“Yeah. We,” I said.

“Aww. The state of ‘We’ is good,” Sasha said, smiling. “I am truly happy for you guys.”

“Well, Sasha, in a weird way I would never have met Maya if I hadn’t met you,” I said.

Maya sat down and the three of us ate like starving orphans. I had thirds and both girls had seconds. It was nearing nighttime and Patrick hadn’t awakened yet. His door was shut and I figured he must have been wiped out from the night before.

Sasha used the bathroom and then came back into the living room and nodded at the cage. She said, “I’ll see you on the other side, my friends.”

I nodded as Sasha walked into the cage and I locked her into it with the chains.

Eventually the full moon came out, and she turned into a werewolf and hooted and hollered and screamed bloody murder at us to let her out. Her tormented howls were chilling. How none of my apartment neighbors called the police was beyond me.

Maya and I decided to go in my bedroom, so maybe Sasha would shut up. We put a movie in the Blue Ray player and eventually, we both fell asleep.

A couple of hours later, Maya woke me up. “Tommy, Tommy,” she said.

“Yeah, what is it?”

“Feel my face. I think I’m getting a fever.”

I sat up and felt her face, and she was very hot. “You’re hot,” I said.

“Do you have any Tylenol?”

“I have aspirin.”

“I need something stronger.”

“Down the street, there’s a Walgreen’s that’s open 24 hours. I can go down and pick up some for you.”

“Could you?”

“Sure,” I said. I would have gone to downtown London for her.

“Could you also get something for a sore throat, my throat is scratchy!”

“No problem.” I got up and put my shoes on and grabbed my keys. It was 5:00 a.m., so Sasha had about an hour left to be a werewolf. She was amazingly quiet. I don’t think she saw me. Just before I left the apartment, I put my hands through the bars and stroked her soft fur. Her ears pricked up, but she didn’t turn around or try to bite me. She was wrapped up in her werewolf world. If she was going to put the bite on me, it wouldn’t be tonight. She was almost tame.

I got into my car and headed to the store. I decided to pick up a few items while I was there. It had been awhile since I’d been to a convenience store so I needed some things. I took about a half an hour going over the aisles, shopping. I brought my stuff to the register. It was two hand baskets filled to the rim. I guess I did go a little crazy.

It came out to $140.37. That was officially the most money I had ever spent at a Walgreen’s or any other convenience store.

I got back to my apartment right as the sun came up. I entered my apartment, holding two big plastic bags filled with everything from cough syrup to toothpaste.

I put the bags on the kitchen table and watched as the werewolf turned back into Sasha in beautiful girl form. She was drenched and she laid in the middle of the floor, shivering. I opened the gate and unlocked all of her chains. She looked up at me like she had just got done running a marathon.

I went and got a couple of towels from the bathroom and came back and wiped her down and dried her off.

“Thanks, Tommy,” she said, in a hoarse voice.

“No problem, what are friends for.”

“You really are a good friend. You have a great heart.”

I smiled at Sasha. “You do, too, when you allow yourself to be honest with yourself.”

“I was being honest with myself. That’s why I had to leave. I saw how happy Maya made you. I saw how perfect she was and how she is everything I’m not. I knew I couldn’t handle being around you two.”

“How do you feel now?”

“I’ll be okay. She’s a lucky girl, and I’ll make sure she knows it.”

“It’s okay; you don’t have to do that. Let me grab a couple of Maya’s things so you can change your clothes.” They were about the same size and I knew Maya wouldn’t mind.

I walked into my bedroom to grab the clothes and I thought my eyes had deceived me. Maya was gone! Not only was she gone, my bedroom window was wide open!

“Maya!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. I stuck my head out of the window and could see footprints below in the dirt. My heart fell out of my chest. “No! No! Patrick!” I screamed.

I ran to Patrick’s room, it was locked. I yelled for him to open it.

“What’s wrong?” Sasha ran over to me.

“Patrick! Open the fucking door!” There was no response. I took a step back and kicked the door open. Patrick wasn’t there and his window was wide open too, with cardboard and masking tape ripped off the wall, with pieces hanging out the window.

“What the hell is going on?” I screamed. “What the fuck!”

“Tommy, calm down. There’s got to be a clear reason why this happened.”

I looked at Sasha with disdain, “Yeah, there’s a clear reason! You and Patrick have cursed me! What the fuck did you do, Sasha?” I pinned Sasha up against the wall.” “Did you lead some Carni…or Mani to my apartment? Huh? Answer me!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Sasha looked horrified.

I couldn’t tell if she knew anything or not. “You must know something, Sasha! This is your fucking world! You must have led someone here and they took Maya!” I looked at the two empty rooms from the hallway, “And they probably killed Patrick!”

“Patrick!” Sasha screamed. And her face said it all, how much she cared for him.

I was horrified. What had just happened? Why did I leave Maya by herself? Why? I was only gone for an hour to the drugstore. How long had Patrick been gone? I only assumed he had been sleeping. He could have been gone since yesterday.

I fell to my knees. “What am I going to do? I don’t know what to do. Help me, Sasha. If you know anything…”

Sasha dropped to the floor next to me. “Tommy, you need to believe me when I say I had nothing to do with this! I was locked away in my cage, keeping the world safe from me and keeping myself safe from the world.”

“I don’t care. That’s not going to make anything better. I need to find Maya.”

“Just try to relax. Let’s piece this together.”

“What’s there to piece together? They came in and killed Patrick, and then took Maya.”

“But they came into two different windows. That means they had to come at different times.”

“No, they could have come in through one and left through the other.”

“Then why was Patrick’s door locked? Why isn’t there any kind of mess by either door? They only came in and out of the same windows.”

“Okay, but what difference does that make?”

“I bet they got Patrick the night before, not last night. They must have been waiting for you to leave Maya’s side so they could get her.”

Just the thought of someone touching Maya against her will made me want to throw up. “Why? Why would they want Maya?”

“Because they want you, Tommy. It is obvious that Mani have done this. It must be that brotherhood crew from the other night. I think they kidnapped Maya as bait to draw you to their lair, their hideout. On their turf, they probably have a way to beat you, but not here on your turf. They are probably setting you up with a lot of people and all kinds of traps and weapons that go beyond fists and feet.”

I looked at Sasha and she seemed real certain about what she was saying. “Why do they want me?” I asked.

“Because they know how tough you are. You beat the crap out of three of them and you’re a human. They can only imagine how insanely powerful you’d be as a vampire.”

“They kidnapped Maya, so I will come after them?” I asked stupidly.

“That’s what I’m saying. They probably won’t hurt Maya because they know that if she is transformed to Mani, that you won’t want her.”

My mouth dropped open at how clever Sasha was, how she extrapolated all of this from the few clues that we had. I had seriously underestimated my slender werewolf friend. She was as clever as she was pretty.

“But why?”

“Tommy, they can have any human they want. They hand-picked her to get to you. They don’t want to kill you. They want you on their team. If you were turned Mani, their creepy cult gang would be invincible. They could take over Southern California. And that’s just for starters.”

“Well, if they intentionally wanted me to come to them, why aren’t there any clues about where they went?”

Sasha thought for a minute. “Well, there’s one huge clue.”

“What is it?”

“They left me alive. They didn’t find the need to kill me.”

“Would they just have killed you for sport?”

“Oh, they would had killed me and not batted an eye. They left me alive for a reason. They knew I could lead you to them.”

“Can you?”

Sasha was quiet.

“Can you?” I shouted.

“I’m thinking.”

Sasha and I picked ourselves off the floor and went into the kitchen. “Okay, let’s start here,” I said. “Where have you been the last two weeks?”

“I was staying with a friend in Arrowhead.”

“Arrowhead? In the mountains?”

“Is there another?”

“Do you know of any Mani hot spots up there?”

“Yeah, there’s the biggest one in Southern California. It’s called the Flatlands. All Mani and future Mani go there. It’s like their traditional hang out.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a gravel parking lot; Sometimes they set up bonfires and hang out all night.”

“What about during the day?”

“Mani can’t function during the day unless they transition into birds.”

“Then, who’s watching Maya?” I yelled.

“Probably future Mani, like Patrick. If he’s not dead, maybe even him.”

“What does that mean? What the fuck is a future Mani?”

“They usually are teenagers who are waiting to be fully developed until they turn. They want to have maximum height and muscle mass before they become vampires because after they transition, their bodies can’t further mature.”

“It makes sense,” I said. “So, some of these teenagers might be keeping Maya hostage?”

“I would bet on it,” Sasha said, confidently. “They are going to stay hidden until tonight and more than likely meet up with whoever originally took Maya at the flatlands.”

“So, I have to sit around all day and not know what to do?” I knew I was going to lose my mind waiting around all day.

“I know it’s going to be hard, but from everything I know, there is no way they would harm her. They want you on board with them happy, not looking for revenge. I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t treating her like a queen. Well, a captive queen. She’s a hostage for negotiation, not their dinner. Not their new girlfriend either. I hope.”

A surge of anger blasted through me. “I swear to God, if anyone of those guys lays a hand on her in any way, I’ll kill the whole lot of them.”

“Trust me, Tommy. They know that. They are just using her as bait.” She paused. “Are we going?”

“Hell, yes!”

Chapter Eleven

This was the longest day of my life. I felt so guilty not calling Maya’s parents and telling them that Maya might be in some kind of danger. I even debated getting Josiah involved. I knew he could kick as much ass as I could. And that was what I needed…another ass-kicking machine. But there was no way I could put a sixteen-year-old boy in that kind of jeopardy. I knew he would jump at the chance, especially for his sister, but I couldn’t do it.

Sasha wanted to come with me. She said she would take off into the woods once she became a werewolf and distract some of their attention to her. I told her to stay at my house, but she insisted on coming because she knew exactly where to go.

“You need me on this trip, Tommy. Not only do I know just where to go. I can kick some ass, too, if the going gets tough. Unless you are going to go get Josiah, you need me to have your back.”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Why didn’t you want to bite me last night, and turn me to Carni?”

“I was just about to come out of my werewolf state and I had this awareness that you were stroking me, comforting me. Were you?”

“Yeah. I was hoping you would bite me and I would turn. Why didn’t you?”

“I don’t know. Usually, I don’t have human awareness when I am a werewolf. It’s all instinct, and less introspection. Last night, in my werewolf state, as I was approaching what was probably the last hour of my transition, I had this awareness of comfort and friendship as you stroked me. For the first time in my werewolf skin, I wasn’t alone in my world. You were there with me, caring about me.”

“Wow,” I said, and we hugged.

“Should we stay here and wait for dark so you can bite me and turn me?”

“Tommy, get real. Someone has to drive your car to Arrowhead.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Hurry up. Or you will have a full-size werewolf in your car when it gets dark.”

“Oh shit,” I said, and ramped up my getting-ready speed.

We got in my Mustang and headed to the Arrowhead Mountains. It was nearing dark, and as we got closer to the Flatlands my adrenalin was off the map. I had no idea how I was going to control myself. All I knew was I needed to make sure Maya was okay and get to the mountains before Sasha turned into a werewolf in my moving car.

I pulled into a rocky parking lot. “This piece of shit area is Flatlands?” I asked.

“It’s not exactly Griffith Park, but it’s a pretty popular area up here.”

There was no one in the parking lot. Not one body, not one car. “Do you think you made a mistake?”

“I’m sure I haven’t,” Sasha said. “There is still a little bit of daylight and the Mani can’t transition yet.” Sasha looked at herself in the passenger-side vanity mirror on the visor. “My pupils are turning yellow. Tommy, I’m going to turn at any moment. I need to get away from you. I don’t want to bite you and turn you yet. You need all of your human faculties to rescue Sasha, and Patrick, too.” She shoved open the door, and left my Mustang.

“Sasha!” I yelled out.

She turned around, “Yeah?”

“Thank you. Be safe.”

“You, too. And Tommy, this is very important: Don’t let a Mani bite you or it’s all over. Everything. Not just your life as you know it, but if a Mani bites you, they will kill Patrick, if he is still alive, and Maya will be lost to you forever.”

I shivered at her words of warning and watched as she ran toward the woods, first on two legs and then on all fours. The sun had set and the moon was in full view. I had to admit, whenever the full moon came out I got an extra boost of energy like I had just downed six Red Bull energy drinks.

I looked on as I saw Sasha turn into a werewolf. She took off running into the woods, bounding, leaping, howling. She was beautiful, truly poetry in motion, a full-grown female wolf. I felt my face; my beard was as long as ever and I knew that when I was a transitioned Carni, that this would be my wolf’s mane. I decided to get back in my car and wait.

About ten minutes went by and then all hell broke loose. Four vehicles whizzed into the parking lot. A couple of black ravens and red hawks landed in the middle of the ground. I looked on and watched as the two ravens transitioned into two Mani men.

Sasha’s words rang in my ears. Don’t let a Mani bite you!

One of them was seven feet tall and looked like the guy from the desert that killed that enormous werewolf. The other was about my size. The red hawk transitioned into a beautiful red-headed woman. She was the same person who was finishing off Carni after they were injured from the other night.

She walked over and got into one of the cars and sat next to a blonde woman dressed in a black-hooded robe that semi-shielded her face. That had to be Maya! I jumped out of my car at the sight of her. I stood in front of my Mustang all by myself. On the other side of this gravel yard they called Flatlands were four cars filled with God knows what creatures and Maya. I was worried about Patrick, too, but he wasn’t my priority. I hoped he wouldn’t be my enemy in this fight, because I loved him. But Maya was my reason for existing. I was driven to ridiculous courage by my love for her.

One by one, the car doors opened and people got out. I wasn’t sure if they were all Mani, but that question was soon answered for me.

Monty, the main vampire from the other night, made his way to the middle of the group. I wasn’t sure who was in charge. I scanned the group and then I saw Patrick. Two Mani men had him pinned by his arms. Thank God, Patrick was alive! And obviously not on their team. Yet!

I noticed that Maya was still in the car with a red-headed woman. Our eyes made contact. She appeared shaken up and worried. She pushed the hood back, so that I could see it was her and not some creature.

“Let her go,” I yelled. Someone laughed from the back. He made his way to the front and the asshole had green hair. He had obviously dyed it to look menacing, but he looked more like Kermit the Frog than an intimidating vampire.

“Who are you?” I yelled out

“Me?” the green-haired man said, “Monty, I thought you said this strapping young man would make a great addition to our brotherhood?”

Monty made room for the green-haired man to have center stage. “Trust me, he will,” Monty said.

“How can I ask anyone to join my Brotherhood when he doesn’t even know who I am?”

“Get over it, Kermie,” I said. “I’m not exactly keen to your world! It’s nothing personal. Why don’t you let Maya go; she has nothing to do with this.”

“We plan on letting her go in due time, but first, you and I need to have a little chat.” This guy was really feminine. It was really throwing me off.

“Just let her go. It’s not personal!” I insisted.

“When you say that this isn’t personal, that’s where you’re wrong. This whole meeting is personal. We have your girl and your friend. If we didn’t make this personal, then we didn’t do our job.” He grinned evilly, his fangs exposed. I had the creeps. Big time. Fear prickled up and down my spine.

If I wanted Maya back safely, I knew I needed to play ball with this guy. “What do want to chat about?” I asked.

“You’re our number one draft pick. We’re here to make sure you sign with us.”

“I don’t even know who you are!”

“We’re the Notre Dame of the paranormal world. Everyone wants to sign with us. We’re the best.”

“You have an interesting way of trying to persuade me, by kidnapping my girlfriend and taking my friend,” I said. “And you can’t convince me you aren’t evil by using football metaphors!” I yelled. “There’s a place in hell for guys like you, but you’re so evil, you can’t even get in there because the devil would be jealous!”

“We do have a case of the dramatics, don’t we? But I guess it’s par for the course for a Theater Arts grad.” He turned around and laughed at his own joke with his Mani henchmen. The others saw him laughing and joined in. Yep, henchmen. Followers. I knew that if I brought Green Hair down, the others would be easier.

“So, tell me exactly, what do you want from me?” I asked, looking over at Maya as I asked my question. In my mind, this wasn’t about him or me. This was only about keeping Maya safe.

“We want you to join our Brotherhood!” the green-haired man said.

I looked at everyone. “Is everyone here part of the Brotherhood?”

“I’m not,” the super tall guy said. “I heard that you were some kind of stud and I came to see for myself.”

“Nice,” I said. “Now, that you see me, what do you think?”

“I’m not impressed.”

“Sorry, I don’t meet your approval, but then again, you’re built like a beanstalk, so what do you know?”

This obviously pissed off the walking bean pole. He said, “Everyone that is not a Mani, you need to leave now!” They all looked at each other and didn’t move.

Then the green-haired one said, “You heard him! All Tandra leave. Now!”

“It’s good to know your group respects their elders,” the tall guy said. He was clearly disgusted that no one listened to him.

“You know kids these days, Atticai. They have no respect.”

“Well, they better learn some, or I’m going to start making my presence known with your people, Timo. You better get your crew together and get them on the right page.”

Timo, the green-haired guy, looked worried. He obviously feared Atticai something fierce. He yelled, “You heard him! All humans leave! Except the girl, she stays.”

“She better be staying or we have nothing to talk about,” I said.

About three carloads of people took off out of the parking lot. There were only six Mani left standing, seven if you counted Patrick: Atticai, Timo, Monty, the two Mani holding Patrick, and the red-headed girl who was in the car with Maya.

“Okay,” I said. “Let Maya out of the car. I want to make sure she’s unharmed. If you’ve turned her into a Mani, I don’t want her back.”

Timo snapped his fingers and the car door opened. The red-headed woman walked out with Maya. She looked frightened to death.

“So, do we have a deal?” Timo said. “Her life for yours?”

“Not so fast, Timo. Let her go, and then we’ll talk,” I said.

Timo continued to speak, this was obviously his deal and Atticai was just observing. He was apparently above Timo in whatever vampire hierarchy they had going on.

Timo smiled with a devious smile of evil glee, one that looked through me, rather than at me. “We will let you two love birds get reunited when you agree to join us in the Brotherhood.”

“So, if I do this, you will let her and Patrick go?”

“Patrick?” Timo laughed. “No, Patrick is going to die. We thought that he could be your first task in the Brotherhood. You know, help kill our dead weight. He’s weak. It’ll be an easy initiation kill for you. Every member of the Brotherhood has an initiation kill.”

“That isn’t going to happen, Greenie. There is no way I’m laying a finger on Patrick.”

“Don’t tell me that this weakling Mani is going to be the deal breaker for releasing your squeeze?” Timo said, all giddy and clearly mocking me.

“Say what you want, but that’s the only way I’ll do it,” I said.

“You’re not going to let this half pint dictate the terms,” Atticai said to Timo, insulted.

“Half pint?” I yelled at Atticai. “Everyone is a half pint to your freakish ass, you giant blight on dark creature society.”

“You better watch your mouth.” Then Atticai walked toward me. I was ready to fight his stringy ass at a moment’s notice. Timo yelled at Atticai, “Please calm down. This isn’t about you.”

“You’re damn right this isn’t about me, because if it was, this bearded idiot would be dead.” Atticai pointed his finger directly at me.

I had obviously pissed him off. I glanced over at Maya and she looked absolutely petrified. “Maya are you okay?” I yelled over to her.

“I’m okay,” she answered back.

“Have they hurt you? In any way?” My heart was jumping. If they had touched her…

“No, not at all.” She knew what I meant.

“Hurt her?” Timo said shocked. “She got the spa treatment today.”

“She better have. If I ever find out that any of you pigs laid a finger on her, there will be hell to pay!”

“I know, I know,” Timo said, bored and antsy. “You’ll kick all our asses. Send us to Hades in a hand basket. Blah, blah, blah. Do we really need to play this melodramatic macho Tandra bullshit? Look, you in, or are you out?”

“No one is going to hurt Patrick,” I repeated myself. “I mean it!”

“Damn, you really fell for Patrick, didn’t you? Are you sure he isn’t the one you’re in love with?” Atticai laughed.

“He’s my friend,” I said.

“Hell, we all have friends,” Atticai said.

“Maybe. I choose mine more carefully.”

“Okay, that is really sweet,” Timo said, returning to the conversation. “But the deal that’s on the table isn’t Patrick. The only reason we kept him alive was for you to show loyalty to us by killing him.”

“Well, then you underestimated my loyalty to my friends,” I said.

“Are you for real, dude?” Timo looked like he was about to lose his mind with all of this negotiation..

Suddenly I heard some commotion coming from down the street. I turned around and saw a giant white dually truck come flying up the gravel trek. The guy in the truck was dragging an animal behind his truck by a chain. What the fuck is going on? I looked closely and that’s when I saw it wasn’t just any animal, it was a black werewolf. It was Sasha. She was all beaten down and mangled from being dragged on the road.

“What the fuck?” I yelled. “What the hell are you guys doing? She had no quarrel with you!”

“Don’t tell me you love werewolves, too?” Timo pleaded sarcastically, then looked at the remaining vampires and said, “This guy really isn’t cut out to be a Mani.”

“Let the werewolf go!” I said. My heart was going full ramming speed now, and I tasted the blood of revenge in my own mouth as I bit my own lip.

Timo had had enough. “You know what? I’m tired of this. You’re going to need to show some loyalty here.” He looked at the driver who was also a Mani and said, “Moses, let the wolf go. I want to see what kind of fighter this guy is.”

“You want me to fight an injured werewolf?” I said, flabbergasted.

“It’s not ideal, but I’m in the mood to kill a werewolf and this seems like the most fun. To make you do it while we watch.”

I looked at everyone and all the Mani seemed highly entertained by the prospect of a human and werewolf tussle.

“You’re crazy,” I said. “It’s not even a fair fight. You dragged her with a pickup truck.”

“Just leveling the playing field by providing a handicap to your outmatched human frailty. Then you will win easily over the werewolf,” Timo said. “You will show some loyalty to us, or I’m going kill you right now.” Timo controlled himself and then said, “You need to despise the very sight of these primitive creatures. Kill the werewolf! Kill the werewolf!”

All of the Mani began to take up his chant.

I looked over at poor Sasha and then I looked at Maya. She was shaking her head for me not to do it. Then I looked at Patrick, and he mouthed to me, “Don’t let her die, Tommy.”

“All right,” I said over the chanting. “Let her go. I’ll kill her.”

The chanting stopped.

“Please don’t!” Maya yelled.

“I have to! I’m sorry!” I took off my shirt. “Everyone back up,” I said. Moses took off the chain that was wrapped around Sasha’s neck. When the second the chain came off, Sasha tried to run to the woods. Whatever survival mechanism that was in a werewolf’s DNA was on overload right now because she knew she was in danger and did not want to stick around and fight me. For sport and for the Mani’s pleasure. She was in luck. Neither did I. Sasha turned tail, put it between her legs and ran.

I ran after Sasha and jumped on top of her back before she got to the woods. We rolled on the rocks and I landed on top of her, pinning her wolf head back so she wouldn’t take a chomp out of my face. I held her neck back tightly with both of my hands so she couldn’t lunge forward and bite my neck either.

“Kill the beast!” Timo yelled out, laughing.

Sasha took a swipe at my neck with her claws. That was definitely not the place I wanted her to get me, so I flipped her over and kicked her off me and she flew five feet in the air.

“Yes, that’s what I’m talking about,” Timo yelled. “Hey, Beard boy, you’re going to need this!” He threw me a silver stake from where he was standing. I caught the cold metal spike and dropped it on the ground. It was heavy like silver. It would kill her if I used it.

Sasha and I were now squared off. I figured the best spot for her to bite me was my lower back. I had a lot of muscle back there and I would still be able to be flexible after she injured me by taking some of my flesh in her mouth. I jumped into her and turned my back, practically giving her my backside as an offering. She bit down into my lower back and from that moment, I blacked out.

Later, I was told that this is what happened…

Sasha bit down into my back and I dove off of her. She saw she had injured me and took off into the woods. She was able to get away. I was laying on the rocky ground and within seconds, hair protruded out of my body from every part of me. My body grew bigger in mass to the point that I ripped into my pants like some kind of Hulk.

I turned to the Mani and howled at them at the top of my lungs. The red-headed girl and Atticai transitioned into their bird form and flew away, wanting no part of my rage. It was apparently not what they had signed up for.

There were five Mani men left with Patrick and Maya. Maya ran to my car with Patrick. They locked the doors, so I couldn’t get in. I hope I wouldn’t have harmed them, but I was a crazed werewolf in search of revenge against everything with two legs. At that point, I don’t think I could have figured out the good guys from the bad guys.

The five Mani men surrounded me and began to transition, periodically spearing me with their raven beaks that they used like swords.

I swiped Monty out of midair when he became a raven and he fell to the ground. I dove on top of him and bit through his neck, killing him instantly. He vanished into thin air.

Two other Mani saw what I had done and transitioned and flew off, afraid. Apparently Patrick wasn’t the only Mani who didn’t have the stomach for fighting.

All that was left was Timo and Moses. Both deserved to die on this night.

They decided that transitioning into ravens wasn’t the way to go. Timo ran over and grabbed the silver stake that he had thrown to me earlier. I flung my body at Moses. He apparently round-housed me and caught me in the head. I rolled across the gravel and then he jumped on my back.

I rolled and reversed him, so apparently my MMA instincts were in effect, even when I was a transitioned werewolf. I bit down into his collarbone. I bit down strongly, crushing his bone.

I was told that Timo came barreling from behind me and tried to stab the silver stake into my back. At the exact moment that he slammed the stake forward, I jumped off of Moses, who was below me and Timo accidentally speared Moses right into his neck with the silver stake. It went completely through his neck and Moses also disappeared.

All that was left of the terrible Mani was Timo. Timo against a werewolf named Kyro. It was a mismatch, even if I was in my human form. But it had been a hell of an unfair fight, now that I was a werewolf.

Timo still had the stake in his hand and we circled each other—periodically, he would lunge at me with the stake.

One of those times, he lunged too far, and his arm was too vulnerable. I bit into it and snapped it like a twig. He cried out in pain, and then I jumped on top of him, and well… I wasn’t told exactly how I killed him. But I was told it was pretty gruesome.

When I had finished off all of them, I ran into the woods, following Sasha’s tracks.

Chapter Twelve

I woke up the next morning and I was in the middle of the bushes somewhere on the mountain. I looked down and I was in my human form. I was drenched from head to toe, and I badly needed to pee. I did my business and then walked out from the bushes. I was on the main highway on the mountain and across the street, I could see my Mustang. Inside it, Maya and Patrick were sleeping. Maya was asleep on Patrick’s shoulder. Patrick rested with his head leaned back in the driver’s seat.

I walked across the highway and went to the driver’s side and tapped the window. Startled, Patrick woke up and gently placed Maya’s head to the other side of the car and then he opened the door and got out. The sun had just come out and I could tell he was in immense pain from the heat and light of day.

“Transition, Patrick, you’re frying your skin.”

“I will. Just give me a second,” he said.

“All right.”

“Kyro, thank you.”

“Don’t worry…”

“No dammit! Let me thank you. I’m going to go away, and I want to thank you for everything. You saved my life. A few times.”

“Why are you leaving?”

“I need to get away from here. I need to start over. I stayed with Maya all night and made sure she was safe. I owed both of you that.”

“Don’t go, Patrick.”

“I have to. This is no place for a vampire who wishes he wasn’t one. If it’s not the Brotherhood, it will be some other Mani wanting me dead. The Mani are strong in these parts and I need to go to a place where I can just live and not be who I am. Or what I am.”

I looked at Patrick and I knew he was right. He wasn’t a fighter. You can’t make someone stand up and fight for himself. He was better off finding a new life. I reached out my arms and hugged him. “I want to thank you, Patrick.”

“What did I have possibly done for you?”

“You helped me get my life back. You showed me what’s important.”

“And what’s that?”

“Friendship.”

Patrick nodded and then smiled at me. “Goodbye, Kyro.”

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t know. That’s the great part. I don’t know where I’m going. It could be anywhere. All I know is, it will be far away from here.” With that, Patrick transitioned into a beautiful black raven and flew high above the clouds until I couldn’t see him anymore.

The sun had started drying me off, but I was cold. I opened the driver’s side door and woke up Maya.

“Maya!”

She opened her eyes, “Tommy!” You’re all right! We followed you until you went into the brush.” She looked around for Patrick. “Where did Patrick go?”

“He went away, and I don’t think he’s coming back.”

Maya nodded as if she had already been told about Patrick’s plan before she had fallen asleep. “How do you feel?” she asked.

I sat down next to Maya in the driver’s seat. “I’m exhausted. I’m just glad you’re okay. What happened?”

“You don’t know?”

“The last thing I remember was Sasha biting me. Did I get the bad guys?”

“You sure did, babe.”

“Really?”

Maya smiled at me. “Yes, and guess what? You’re a beautiful gray wolf, too.”

“Gray? Really? I was hoping to be white.”

“White? I thought black would be sexier.”

“Black is so last year,” I said, jokingly. I stopped messing around and reached over and hugged Maya. I sat there and just held her. It was the first time in a long time when I knew we were both safe.

“Are you okay? Were you hurt?” I asked.

“Tommy, I have never been better,” she said, kissing my mouth. I kissed her back and took the keys out of my pocket and put the key into the ignition.

“Guess what, Maya?” I said.

“What, babe?”

“We need to go find Sasha.”

To be continued in:

The Rise of Kyro

Return to the Table of Contents

THE RISE OF KYRO

Werewolf Love Story #3

Published by J.R. Rain and Scott Nicholson at Smashwords.com

Copyright © 2011 by J.R. Rain and Scott Nicholson

All rights reserved.

(Author’s note: All characters depicted in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older.)

Dedication

I dedicate this to Sylvia. A good friend and great writer.

Acknowledgment

Special thanks to J.R. Rain, Margaret Cervenkas, April M. Reign, Liz Jones and Sandy Johnston for all their help.

The Rise of Kyro

Chapter One

Finding Sasha was going to be a monumental task. She had been injured pretty badly and she could be anywhere on this mountain. I had an awful feeling that she was trapped in some brush, out in the middle of nowhere, bleeding to death.

Sasha and I have had our differences, but one thing was for sure, last night, when push came to shove, I had her back and she had mine.

I drove around in my black Mustang with my girlfriend, Maya, looking for Sasha from the road. I knew she was deeper in the brush. Just in case, I scoped out the outside area, but we had no luck. As I looked for my friend, I couldn’t help but feel a little eerie, knowing now that I had been completely ‘Werewolf-ified.’ I was, now and forever, a freaking werewolf. What did that mean? What was I supposed to do now? How many others were like me? And would they accept me? I thought so hard on these questions that they made my brain numb. I continued to drive around the area in about a five-mile radius but I knew this was like finding a needle in a haystack. I looked at Maya and said, “We need more manpower.”

“You want to tell the authorities?” Maya asked.

I sighed and as the sun grew hotter, I felt worse and worse for Sasha, out there somewhere, seriously injured. “I’m not ruling that out, but first, let’s go get Josiah. He is in good shape and will be able to move around quickly. He’ll be another set of eyes and feet that we desperately need.”

“I don’t want my brother to know about any of this,” Maya said, horrified.

“He won’t know about any of it. We will tell him that Sasha wandered off drunk last night after a party that we had at a friend’s house up here, and now we’re looking for her.”

“He’ll ask us why we’re not getting the cops involved. He’s a pretty inquisitive boy.”

“Seriously, you think he’ll ask that? He isn’t exactly a Boy Scout. If he asks questions, then we will come up with something. Otherwise, let’s just tell him we need his help, and we’ll take him out to eat to wherever he wants to go if he comes with us. I’m pretty sure that’s all he’ll care about.” I stared at Maya and seriously needed her okay. Finally, she nodded her head and took out her cell phone.

“You had your cell phone this entire time?” I asked.

“I was never alone. I did turn it off at some point to save the battery if I was going to use it. I had to do it while the phone was still in my pocket.”

I couldn’t imagine these savages keeping her hostage. It made me nuts thinking about it. I did all I could last night, but still, I was afraid to ask if they had hurt her in any way. However, I needed to know. I needed to know if they had ever touched her inappropriately.

“Maya, at any point, did any of them touch you sexually?”

Maya looked me dead in the eye and said, “Never. The higher-ups threatened the peons who were looking after me that if they did anything questionable to me that they would kill them personally.”

I stared at Maya and knew she was telling me the truth. I felt good about her answer. I reached out my hand and held hers and said, “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too, Tommy. You came for me.”

“That I did.”

Maya turned on her phone and she tried calling Josiah, but he was asleep. So, we decided to drive down and get him. Maya and Josiah’s house was only thirty minutes away down the mountain. I pressed on the gas, and we hauled down the mountain to go grab her rock star brother. I say he is a rock star because he is a legend in his own mind.

We got to the house and Daniel was sitting in his big chair in the living room. Daniel, Maya and Josiah’s dad, is about as nice of a guy you could ask for in a dad of a girl you’re dating. “Hey guys, how are you?” he said, as friendly and genuine as a person could be. It was nice to be in Maya’s house after what I had encountered the night before.

“Hi, Dad,” Maya said.

“Hi, Daniel,” I said.

“What brings you two lovebirds by?” Maya’s mom said, coming in from the kitchen to bring Daniel a cup of coffee.

“Actually,” I interjected. “We came by to see if Josiah wants to go to breakfast.”

“Good luck getting that lug up,” Daniel scoffed. “He was up all night making mix CD’s. He kept asking me for my old records. He’s trying to put together some new workout music.”

“Josiah likes old records?” I asked.

“He loves Tony and Frank.”

“Tony Bennett? And Frank Sinatra? Josiah? That little grease monkey who doesn’t take a shower unless told to likes the classics?” I asked.

“Funny, huh?” Daniel laughed.

“That kid surprises me more and more. He was definitely one of a kind,” I said.

“You guys can wake him up,” Maya’s mom said. “Just to warn you, he’s a big grump in the morning. Especially, be aware that today’s one of his non-workout mornings. He loves to sleep till noon on these days.”

I grinned at Maya’s parents. “I have my ways of getting him up. I know what I’ll do.”

I walked quietly down the hall and slowly opened Josiah’s bedroom door. Josiah was lying face down on the left side of the bed. He was in perfect bottoms-up position. Maya and her mom and dad followed me into his room. The four of us were completely quiet.

I took off my shirt. I did do because Josiah was shirtless. I gently laid behind him on the right side of the bed. I very delicately placed my left arm and wrapped it around his warm shirtless body. The little weirdo didn’t wake up. I began cuddling him tighter and tighter. He had a smile on his face. The little creep was enjoying my tender loving. Maya and her parents were trying their best not to laugh. I started blowing in his ear, and massaging his shoulders.

Suddenly, his eyes opened. “Get off me, bitch!” he said. Josiah’s parents and Maya busted out laughing.

“What the hell? What are you guys doing?” Josiah sat up and tried to gather his thoughts.

“Oh, stop it,” I said. “That’s the most action you have ever gotten.”

Josiah looked at me and winked. “Unfortunately, I can’t respond with mom and pops in the room.”

“It better be, son,” Dan said. “I don’t want any grandchildren unless they come from Maya and Tommy.”

Maya and I both shot a look at her dad.

“What?” he said. “Like the two of you aren’t ready to get married and have kids!”

I looked at Maya and laughed. I didn’t laugh too hard and neither did she. I think deep down we both knew he was right. Or at least, I did.

“We thought we’d take you to breakfast,” I said to Josiah. “So, get up and get dressed.” I tried to break the uncomfortable silence that was floating in the room after Daniel’s ‘married with children’ statement.

Josiah had his blanket on his lower body and said, “Breakfast? That sounds good to me. You guys need to leave so I can change.”

“You’re not naked, are you?” I asked.

“No!” Josiah protested.

“Yeah, you are, you little weirdo!” I said laughing.

“I swear, I’m not,” he said indignantly.

There was only one way to find out. I ripped the covers from off his body. He was right, he wasn’t naked. He was wearing a bright yellow Speedo that had lettering on it. “What the hell are you wearing?”

“It’s my chonies, Tommy. No one asked you to peel the covers off of me!” Josiah said, standing with his physique admirably out.

“What does it say on your underwear, son?” Daniel asked Josiah.

Josiah grinned. “Man at work.”

“Oh my,” his mom said. “Where did you get those?”

“I bought them at the swap meet.”

“Well, you better put some shorts on, kid,” I said. “Because there are laws in this state about indecency, and that’s as indecent as you get.”

“I think I’m going to throw up,” Maya said, laughing, and she left the room, horrified. “That image is forever burned into my brain.”

We all followed Maya out of the room. It was a good thing because we all had an eyeful of Josiah. He got dressed and came out of his room. A few minutes later, Maya, Josiah and I all piled into my black Mustang to get ready to leave. Once we got into the car. I turned around and faced Josiah, who was folded up in the back seat. “There’s a change in plans,” I said plainly.

“Huh?” Josiah asked, confused.

“We need your help.”

“My help? Doing what?” Josiah asked.

“We need to find someone.”

“Who?”

“My roommate, Sasha.”

“Where is she at?”

“That’s the problem, we don’t know. Look, Josiah…”

Maya cut me off. “Jo, we need your help, but under no circumstances can you repeat this to anyone what we’re doing today.”

“What the hell are we doing? I’m not doing anything illegal,” Josiah protested.

Now he chooses to be a Boy Scout? I thought. “We aren’t doing anything illegal, you little shit,” I said. “It’s just real complicated. We think my roommate Sasha is injured and might be in the brush somewhere in the mountains.”

“Like in the trees or bushes?” Josiah asked.

“Something like that,” I said.

“Why don’t you call the police or the fire department? Or search and rescue with the sheriff’s office?”

“Like I said. It’s a lot more complicated than that.”

“Try me,” he said.

I looked at Josiah. “All you need to know is that we’re doing nothing against the law, and a good friend of mine needs our help.”

“Is she hot?” Josiah asked.

“She’s really hot!” I laughed.

“Oh, really?” Maya said. “She’s really hot?”

“Hey, I’m just trying to convince your brother to help us.”

“I didn’t realize that the woman who lived across the hall turned you on so drastically.”

“I’ll help,” Josiah said.

“Really?” Maya asked Josiah.

“You had me at ‘She’s really hot,’” he said.

“Of course we did.” I started the car and the three of us made our way back up the mountain.

“Really hot, huh?” Maya mumbled under her voice.

I looked at her and said, “Trust me, you are way hotter.”

“Now that’s just gross,” Josiah said. “You’re talking about my sister.”

* * *

It was now around 10:00 a.m., so I was crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. I pulled into the Flatlands. This was where I last had seen Sasha last night. Sasha had left this place after being dragged by a truck and beaten to a pulp. She was injured badly and as far as I could see it, she couldn’t have gone too much further without collapsing somewhere. The likelihood was that she was within a one- to two-mile radius from this spot.

I didn’t know if she ran off to the right or to the left. The right was east of the spot. My instincts were telling me that east was where she went. Just by determining the positioning of everyone from the night before, the odds were that she went east. I decided to have Josiah go south and Maya go north. I didn’t like leaving Maya alone, but she insisted on looking by herself so we could quickly cover more ground. We agreed to look for sixty minutes and then return back to the Flatlands.

I closely scoured my area for about an hour. I looked behind every piece of brush and up and behind every tree, calling out Sasha’s name until my throat was hoarse. I didn’t mind yelling her name loudly because anyone would think I had lost my dog and was trying to find it. It was getting hot, and for an April day, I was really itching and sweating something awful. It felt almost natural to stick out my tongue and have saliva drip off of it. I resisted doing so, but it was tempting. My inner werewolf was alive and well.

One thing I did notice was that my sense of smell was now off the charts. It was as if I could smell every flower, piece of grass and dead carcass round me. I was hoping the dead carcasses were only road kill and not poor Sasha. Then I got a bizarre idea. If I had werewolf tendencies, then maybe if I grabbed something of Sasha’s and smelled it, it might lead me in her direction. At this point, I was hot and thirsty and needed to pee pretty badly. I decided to head back to see Maya and Josiah and regroup.

I got back to the car and called Josiah and Maya on their cell phones and had them meet me back at the car. I looked in my car for anything that Sasha might have touched. I opened up my trunk and hit the jackpot. There was a sweater of hers right on top of an old cooler. She had snagged it on another car a couple months ago which caused her to bleed a little in the sleeve. There were drops of her blood stained to the fabric.

I figured, here goes nothing. I nearly shoved the sleeve part of the sweater entirely up my nose trying to get a scent. There was a very strong scent on it. It was covered in pheromones and human bacteria. It was very sexual and unfortunately, it did arouse me.

I couldn’t believe what a horn dog I was. I was getting turned on by Sasha’s sweater. Here I was, trying to grab a scent so I could find a good friend and my animalistic nature was taking over. Maybe I could use my werewolf’s high sex drive to my advantage. So, I continued to allow myself to be turned on by the pheromones. I didn’t care how it appeared because it was giving me a strong scent and the more I sniffed her sweater, the hornier I got. Suddenly, Maya and Josiah walked up. I turned my body slightly, so they couldn’t see my half-arousal.

“What on earth are you doing?” Josiah asked. “What are you, a dog trying get her scent?” he joked. He had no idea how accurate he was.

“Ha!” I said to Josiah, which I sometimes said to put him off when I didn’t want to answer something that he asked me.

I pulled Maya aside and told her what I was doing while Josiah decided to relieve himself behind a tree. Ah, nature, it’s a bathroom to every species. “I got her scent from her sweater,” I said to Maya.

“Is that what you were seriously doing? I thought my brother was kidding.”

“Nope, he was right on.”

“Did you get a scent?” Maya couldn’t believe those words came out of her mouth, but she also knew the severity of what I had become.

“Yes, a big one. You and Josiah need to walk in front of me because I’m probably going to be acting weird, sniffing and stuff.”

“I was afraid you were going to start acting weird, but this is even beyond my wildest imagination.”

“Very funny.” I hope she was kidding. I hadn’t given her any reason not to trust me, and after last night, she must know I’d do anything for her. I had a strong scent and the truth was I had never done anything like this before. I decided to walk about 50 feet in all four directions from the car. First, I went south. I didn’t catch a whiff of anything that triggered the scent. “Let’s go in the opposite direction for a look-see,” I said.

“Seriously, Tommy, you called us back for this?” Josiah asked. I could tell he was tired and cranky. My acute hearing could hear Josiah’s stomach growling. We had promised him a breakfast out and not delivered. Maya knew this was a matter of life or death, to find Sasha, but even she seemed out of sync.

“I tell you what,” I said to them. “Why don’t the two of you go get something to drink and meet me back here in a half an hour?” I knew I could probably do a better job if I wasn’t trying to openly mask the fact from Josiah that I was sniffing around, trying to catch a direct scent of Sasha. They both seemed exhausted and after what Maya had been through last night, it made me feel better if she was at least with Josiah, because that kid can take care of himself.

“Are you sure, Tommy?” Maya asked. “Aren’t you thirsty, too?”

“I’m positive. I’m fine. There is a coffee shop right up the way. Why don’t the two of you go up there and grab some coffee or some juice and get yourselves rehydrated?”

* * *

I got a strong scent from the west. That surprised me because that was the opposite direction from which she’d run last night. I needed to respect my new ability and go with it. I couldn’t allow my common sense or supposed human instincts to override my werewolf instincts. They were my most valuable asset for the task at hand.

As I went west, it led me to the main highway. That wasn’t making me feel any better because there were so many opportunities for her to be hit by a car. And if she had been hit by a car and died last night, then I was obviously wasting my time looking for her. The way I saw it, trying to save a friend was never a waste a time.

I went across the highway and her scent was strong right over the canyon. My werewolf nose allowed me to discern the craziest things about Maya and I separated them out in my head as I identified each of them: her sweat, her blood, her pheromones released from fear and pain, a quick squat and hurried urine splash behind a bush, and even the fragrance she was wearing, right down to the low notes of something intoxicating in her perfume. I tried to think of what it might be, visualizing the bottles on my roommate’s dresser at home: ambergris oil in a roll-on was her favorite. No wonder Sasha drove me nuts. The stuff was joy juice for my nose with its aroma like sweet, smoky embers, mixed with the allure of her skin’s own individual pheromones. It was hard not to drool at how the scent that she rolled on almost every day was the major trail that I followed. Her scents, here and there on the ground and even on the wind, gave me great hope that she was still alive. I did not smell her death, and I believed that I would have.

On the other side of the street was a steep canyon. I stuck my nose over it and got a strong whiff of Sasha’s scent. I decided to go down in the canyon. The canyon was covered in rocks, bushes, trees and brush. I tried to be careful, but the angle was just far too steep. I stumbled down some rocks and dirt and slid into an area that didn’t exactly look like the safest place to stumble into. God knew what kind of animals were in here. As a werewolf, a Carni, I feared less, actually, than as my former human self, but I had a sense of smell that was very distinct of rattlesnakes in the canyon, and I avoided their trails and sidestepped around them, smelling them long before I saw them almost camouflaged against their natural terrain.

But, the scent was now overwhelming and I needed to continue into the thick brush if I was going to find Sasha in time and get her to medical help. I grabbed a large branch and began using it as a walking stick to help my balance as my body kept going downward into the canyon at a pretty steep rate.

At the bottom of the canyon was the thickest brush I had ever seen. My ankle gave out once again, and I stumbled into it. As the ground became level, I scurried into it from my 45-degree angle.

“Sasha,” I yelled out. I resisted the urge to howl for her, but wondered if a Carni howl would travel further than a human shout. The scent was now as powerful a smell as I had ever sniffed. I would have known her anywhere, or my nose would have. I knew in my heart of hearts that she was here inside this thick brush, dead or alive. But probably alive. I was confident I had found her. I said a little prayer to myself that she was still alive. I tried to hold my breath and see if I could hear her heartbeat. I could not, but I heard the sound of many cicadas clicking their abdomens, the fast, tiny heartbeats of kangaroo rats as they dove into holes as my huge feet crossed their tunnels, the high-pitched thrip-thrip of hummingbirds as they dived me when I pulled back bushes, looking, looking for Sasha. All of the other animals and insects were like a cacophony of noise that covered up a human heartbeat, if there was one nearby, other than my own.

I called out her name repeatedly. “Sasha! Sasha, are you here?”

Then from a distance I heard a faint, “Tommy.”

My heart leaped. “Sasha!” I called out, more joyful at that moment that I had imagined that I was capable of.

“Tommy,” her voice was now a little louder. It was coming from the middle of the thick brush that stood before me.

“Are you able to move?” I yelled out.

“No. I think both of my legs are broken.”

Fuck! How the hell am I going to move a woman with two broken legs up a canyon?

“Hold on,” I said. “I’m coming to get you.”

I used my stick to make a path in front of me as I get deeper and deeper into the thick branches and leaves. I was now completely inside and I was sweating profusely, trying to find my friend. My arms and face continued to get scratched and raked by the branches, but I pushed forward and ignored the pain. Finally, in the middle of the thick, humid brush, I found Sasha.

She was lying in a fetal position, completely naked. I’m not sure what happened to her clothes, but her body was scratched, bruised, and as swollen I had ever seen a woman’s body in my life. Sasha usually had a very sexy body when she was naked, but that was the last thing on my mind. I let my hormones lead me to the scent, and that was it. I took off my large T-shirt and wrapped it around her body.

I took off my shoes and socks, too. I figured I could at least wrap her feet in my socks. I put my shoes back on without my socks, as I was going to be doing the walking and needed the protection for myself. At least my socks could protect her feet a little bit, if needed.

“Why are you getting naked?” Sasha asked as I quickly began removing my clothes.

“I’m trying to clothe you with my clothes. I’d give you my underwear but as you know, I don’t wear any.”

“I feel so weak,” Sasha said. Her face was covered in dried blood and this poor girl looked like a horrid mess.

“Sweetie, listen. Are you sure your legs are broken? If they aren’t, I can move you.”

“They might not be broken but I can’t put any weight on my legs.”

“That’s okay. That’s good enough for me. I’m getting you out of here.”

I began clothing Sasha with my shirt and socks, although she would be panty-less. My shirt was long enough that it covered her body right below the important parts.

“What happened to me, Tommy?”

“Listen, I’ll tell you everything later, but first, let’s get you out of here.” I leaned over and picked up Sasha and put her over my shoulder as gently as I could. I was just wearing blue jeans and tennis shoes. The brush continued to cut my arms, hands, shoulders, and now my bare back as I exited out of the treacherous wilderness that was a tangle of plants with thorns, spines and spikes.

Once I hit the open canyon and was completely out of the brush, I stopped to get my breath. My adrenaline was going, but I couldn’t deny the pain and fatigue I felt. I gave it all I had hiking up the 45-degree canyon, lugging a 115-pound woman over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry. At times, I felt as if I was going to pass out myself, but I battled through it.

Finally, I made it to the highway.

“Sasha, we’ve made it out,” I said.

She didn’t respond. I laid her on the side of the road and I laid next to her, trying to catch my breath. The dry, thin air didn’t help my breathing any. The sun blistered down on both of us and I knew I’d better get up before people thought we were both hit by a car and called for an ambulance.

I got back to my feet and threw Sasha back over my shoulder. I headed back to where I had parted ways with Maya and Josiah. Eventually, I made it back to the area and Maya and Josiah were standing next to my black Mustang, both of them looking worried. They saw me stumble up and they both hurried over to me.

I maneuvered Sasha’s body so she wouldn’t give Josiah a nice peep show. I wanted to spare her that embarrassment.

“Is she okay?” Josiah asked.

“No, but let’s get her to my apartment,” I said.

“You don’t think we should take her to the hospital?” Maya asked.

It wouldn’t be the first time Sasha and I had to go to the hospital. This time it would be for her, not me. “I doubt she has any kind of insurance,” I said.

“They will still treat her,” Maya said. “She’s severely injured. By federal law, I don’t think they are allowed to turn her away until she is at least stabilized.”

“All right,” I said. “Josiah, Google the nearest hospital.”

Josiah took out his phone and fiddled around a bit to get connected to the internet. “The closest hospital is Arrowhead Community Hospital. It is about 15 minutes down the mountain.”

“Thanks, Josiah, that was fast.”

“Hey, man, when it comes to the ladies… I do everything fast.”

I gave Josiah a look as if to say that wasn’t the smartest thing a man could say, but this was too important of a moment to get too silly and start ribbing him. “Good job, Josiah. It’s nice to know you’re good for something.”

The four of us got into my Mustang and we headed for the hospital.

* * *

We took Sasha into the emergency room at the local hospital in Arrowhead. She regained consciousness after they put an I.V. in her arm and she got some fluids in her.

We needed to get her to my apartment quickly, before dark. There were two more nights of the full moon—technically, there is only one full moon a month, but the day before and the day after it were also werewolf time. I wasn’t sure how we were going to deal with the cage-in-the-apartment situation, now that there were two werewolves in the apartment. I figured tonight it was going to have to be a cage for two. I wasn’t sure if that was the safest idea. I had no idea what my temperament was when I changed. How primal were werewolves when they turned? I didn’t want to kill her in the cage, or possibly do something even more disturbing. I had no recollection of what had happened when I had turned the night before. I’m not sure if we would attack each other in such close quarters.

First, they needed to release her to our care. I was right about her not having any type of insurance. Unfortunately, we lived in a day and age that it was a primary consideration for profit-run hospitals to make profit their priority. They were only required, as Maya had said, to keep uninsured patients until they were stabilized. And then, kicked to the curb, to whatever motley, ragtag, bloody, scratched and shirtless hooligan who wanted to claim the injured patient and whisk her out of their sterile-draped ER cubicles. So, when she had a blood pressure that was deemed stable, the hospital released her to our care. The X-rays had showed that she had no broken bones. She only had sprains in her legs and ankles. There was no structural damage in either leg. That was very good news. I felt sorry for Sasha. She really didn’t have anyone else but me. I had become her only family. I felt she had become my responsibility. At least, in the meantime, I wasn’t sure how cool Maya would be about me nursing a female friend back to health.

The next order of business was to feed the teenage garbage disposal that we had brought along for the trip. Josiah ate an excessive amount of food, but to the kid’s credit, he worked out all the time and burned calories at an enormous rate. As far as I could tell, the kid didn’t have an ounce of fat on his body.

We stopped at a Norm’s in Riverside and let Josiah devour about 4,000 calories worth of flapjacks, hash browns and bacon. He put away food more food than a family of four. The rest of us ate pretty light. My stomach wasn’t feeling right and the last thing I wanted to do was fill up.

I dropped off Josiah at his parents’ house and reassured him of the secrecy that we all had shared up in the mountains. He didn’t perceive anything in the paranormal sense, but he had every right to question what the hell a grown woman was doing out in the middle of brush in the heart of San Bernardino Mountains. To my surprise, he didn’t ask too many questions. We just told him that Sasha got real drunk and walked off. Sasha was okay with a teenager thinking she was a lush, because he couldn’t exactly know the truth, that his friend and his friend’s friend were members of an elite club that I jokingly thought of in my head as “The Real Wolfpack.” The last thing any of us wanted to do was to get Josiah involved in all of this…paranormal activity.

I had a feeling that compromising the truth about being a werewolf was something I was going to have to do quite often. When needed, I was going to have to stretch the truth for my own safety, security, and well-being. I sure didn’t want to end up as the feature story on that crazy news network that leads with what bleeds or restrained to a bed in a county psych ward.

When we got back to the house, we all went over the details of the night that was in front of us. We agreed that if she had to, Maya would let Sasha out of the cage for her own safety if Sasha and I decided to fight inside the cage. I hoped there were similar instincts that werewolves had that were similar to humans and if I was comfortable with Sasha in my human form, then I should be okay when I turned into a werewolf.

“I’m not worried, Tommy,” Sasha said. “This isn’t the first time I had to share a space with a fellow Carni.”

“Yeah, but this is the first time you will ever share a space with a Carni who is a professional fighter. My animalistic instincts are to fight. I’m hoping my paternal instincts will take over and I will protect you, rather than hurt you, or—”

“—We’ll be fine,” she interrupted me.

“How are you feeling?” I asked Sasha.

“Well, aside for some cuts and bruises, I feel all right. My legs are still pretty weak. And I am sure thirsty, despite the I.V.s they stuck in both arms.” She winced and pulled off the surgical tape and cotton from inside her elbows, looking with a grimace at the swelling and bruising. “Ow,” she said.

I nodded my head at Sasha. “We’ll get you taken care of. I have a stash of Gatorade and other electrolyte sports drinks. Do you like that kind of stuff?”

“Yes, please. Like four of them right now, any kind, would be good,” Sasha joked.

I looked at Maya and asked. “Are you okay with all this?”

“We don’t really have much of a choice. We didn’t have time to go anywhere else.” Maya’s face didn’t assure me that she was okay with this at all. But she was such a good sport that she just rolled with bizarre shit like this. Even if it internally rubbed her the wrong way.

“You’re an amazing person, Maya,” I said, as I prepared the cage. I tried to make sure that Maya knew that she was still my woman. I had spent a lot of time on Sasha and my wolfie senses indicated an annoyed scent coming from Maya. We had 30 minutes before the full moon would be out and we needed to make sure everything was okay.

Soon, the full moon was upon us and Sasha and I were already securely locked in the cage.

The night was a blur, but I had flashes of recollection. Unlike the night before, in which I remembered nothing, I could remember seeing the bars from inside of the cage and howling. I didn’t say that I remembered key events about the night, but at least I remembered something.

I woke up and I was on top of Sasha’s sweaty body, possessive and protective. Uh-oh! We were both dripping wet but still had on our shorts and T-shirts. Whew!

The clock read 6:30 a.m. I looked to the left side of the room. Maya was asleep in the recliner.

“Maya,” I called out in a cross between a whisper and a bellow. “We’ve changed back to bipeds. I need to pee real bad. Can you open up the cage?”

Maya opened her eyes, and slowly moved her body over to the cage, grabbed the keys that were on the counter and let me out. I ran to the bathroom and relieved myself.

I came back out and covered Sasha with a blanket. She was still asleep and I didn’t want to bother her.

Maya and I left the living room and made our way to the bedroom. As we entered my room, Maya said, “You and Sasha can no longer stay in your apartment when you turn, Tommy. How the police didn’t show up last night is beyond me.”

“We were loud, huh?”

“No, you were loud. Poor Sasha’s whining and whimpering was drowned out by your howl.”

“My howl was loud?”

“Off the charts loud. Suicidal Tendencies speed metal loud. But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst of it was your constant barking and yelping.”

“But, was it sexy? That is the real question.”

“Yeah, you were all about the sexy last night,” Maya said. “But that had nothing to do with the noises you were making.”

“Please tell me we didn’t do anything physical? Me and Sasha?” My stomach sank.

“By physical, do you mean did you sniff Sasha’s butt all night? Your nose was a very bad boy last night.”

“My nose?” I took off my clothes and wrapped a towel around me to take a shower.

“Your nose was one kinky exploring machine. I kept poking you with the broom, trying to make you stop. One thing was for sure. Whatever odor that was coming out of Sasha’s butt seemed to delight your senses. You couldn’t get enough of smelling her. It was like you tried to suck her butt up your nostrils.”

I felt myself blush. “But nothing sexual happened?”

“Not when I was awake.”

That relieved me. “Well, let’s just assume it didn’t.”

“Tommy, the truth is, that didn’t bother me nearly as much as you yelping all night.”

“I thought you said it was sexy?”

“Your howl is sexy. Your yelp reminds me of an oversized Chihuahua’s bark that annoys you to no end with its constant noise.”

“So, there is a difference between my howl and bark?”

“Yes, your howl comes from a deep place inside your soul. It’s a melodic sound and it stirs up emotions when heard. Your yelp or bark sounds like a bitter old junkyard dog that has nothing better to do than to snarl and growl. You’re going to have animal control out here if you spend another night here as a werewolf. You’re far too loud for an apartment.”

“Where should we go?”

“The only place I can think is your grandmother’s cabin. It’s in the middle of nowhere.”

“What about Sasha?”

“What about her? Do you plan on taking care of her forever?”

Oh shit! Maya was claiming her turf, which was me. And not subtly either. I looked at Maya, and thought about Sasha, who was still passed out asleep in the middle of the cage. “So, you’re sure nothing weird occurred last night, other than some butt sniffing?”

“It was constant butt sniffing. At one point, you rested with your nose about a half inch from her tush. Really Tommy, you were so gross!”

“If nothing sexual happened, then why should we be separated?”

“You don’t leave the poor girl alone. You’re loud and predatory. In her werewolf form, she is very submissive to you. I feel bad for her. She spent most of the time showing you her belly and tucking her tail between her legs, whimpering and whining. I’m sure she was miserable.”

“That’s awful.”

“Yes, it was. You were. We need to figure out a way to have you not be in the same spot as her.”

I looked at Maya and a part me felt as if the real place that all of this concern was coming from was jealousy. She was obviously irritated with my werewolf behavior. It was one thing to be in charge of my actions when I was a human, but now I had to apologize for things I did when I couldn’t even remember my actions. “Look Maya, I’ll do whatever you think we should do. This whole thing is weird for both of us. But we are going to have worry about next month. We aren’t going to have enough time to figure something out today. Let’s rent a U-Haul truck and haul the cage up the mountain to the cabin. That is going to be a task in itself.”

Maya smiled at me. “You’re right, nothing about this conversation is normal. Not by a long shot.”

* * *

Sasha eventually got up and got ready. She moved around really slow and who could blame the poor girl after the abuse she received a couple of nights ago. The fact that she was moving around as well as she was surprised the hell out of me.

I showered up and the three of us rented a U-Haul and brought the cage up to my grandmother’s cabin. I dragged it up into the house with very little help from the two girls. But I put it in the room to the left of the door. It was an empty room, so now it was designated as ‘the cage room.’

We spent all day moving and getting the cage into the space. I bought weights and locks to keep it locked down. Time got away from us and even though Maya didn’t like it, Sasha and I were going to have to share a cage on the third night. Maya and Sasha weren’t BFF’s but they got along. It was interesting to have two beautiful girls at my disposal. I cared for both deeply, but in two completely different ways. Soon, Sasha and I made our way into the cage and we dealt with the third night of the full moon.

Once again, we woke in the morning drenched, on top of each other. I called out for Maya. This time she wasn’t in the room with us when we woke up. Again, I had faint memories of the night before. They were less visual memories and more instinctive once I remembered how I felt, as opposed to what I saw.

I called out Maya’s name again. Finally, she came in and I had to piss like a race horse. She unlocked and opened the cage door. Before I could step out, Sasha dashed past me and ran to the restroom. I had another bathroom upstairs. So I ran up to the stairwell and took the largest piss I had ever taken.

While I was in the bathroom upstairs, I decided to take a shower. Thank God, the full moon was over for that cycle. I needed to have a heart-to-heart talk with Sasha. I needed the low-down on how to live as a werewolf while I was in my human form. What advantages and disadvantages did I have during the non-werewolf moonlight time? Which was made up of 90 percent of the month. There must be an advantage or why would anyone choose to be a Carni? I needed to figure out how I was going to apply my new characteristics to my life... good or bad.

I came downstairs after I put on a clean set of clothes that I had in my upstairs bedroom. I put on black jeans and a white button-down shirt. The three of us were starving and we decided to have some breakfast at a local diner in town.

My appetite was off the charts. I ate a lumberjack special that consisted of three buttermilk pancakes, hash browns, bacon, sausage, eggs, and toast. I threw in an order of strawberry-drenched waffles for a breakfast-y dessert. Josiah had nothing on me when I was starving.

“If you keep eating like that, you’ll have to be a heavyweight in your fighting league!” Sasha said, as I wolfed down the last of my food. She ate delicately, like a lady. Not much, and very slowly.

As I finished up my last bite, I looked over at my girlfriend, who seemed floored by all the food I just put away. And then Maya chimed in about my huge meal, as if she had to have her two cents in there, too: “You better watch eating like that because you don’t want it to affect you in your little fighting league.”

“Little fighting league?” I smiled at my Maya. She had no idea what I do. You would think having a brother like Josiah would give her a brother perspective on fighting, but she had a typical woman’s outlook on it. Women usually thought of fighting as barbaric and that it was only a matter of time until we all killed each other in the ring. How could I blame them? Especially a woman who cared about her man. The last thing they really wanted to wrap their minds around is how dangerous the sport truly is. But I did say, “It’s a little more than a ‘little fighting league.’”

“Isn’t that what you’re part of?” she asked.

“It’s MMA. Mixed martial arts. It’s the fastest growing sport in the world. The greatest athletes in the world are MMA fighters.”

“Greatest athletes?” Sasha smiled. “I think Kobe Bryant and Lebron James might disagree with you.”

“Yeah, but any man that knows anything about the MMA sport wouldn’t disagree with that statement.”

“Well, I wouldn’t know,” Sasha said. “I never seen you fight in an actual match.”

“Really, you’ve never seen Tommy fight?” Maya asked.

“No, I’ve seen him street fight plenty of times. I’ve just never seen him fight in the ring. When it comes to street fighting, I’ve never seen anyone tougher.”

“I think so, too,” Maya agreed.

“Really?” I said to both ladies. There was nothing more than I loved than when someone praised my good looks and my fighting. Considering both parties in the room had slept with me, the latter was assumed on how good looking they felt I was. My studly ego was ratcheted up a notch by their competitive stroking for my attention.

But of course, Maya very quickly busted my bubble, “I mean... besides my brother.”

“There it is,” I said, smacking the table. “The 16-year-old fight prodigy, Josiah Reign, who couldn’t hike a canyon yesterday, and waited at the car, is somehow tougher than I am.”

“Sweetie, he’s not a tougher man than you. He’s just a better fighter. I’m sure you can take a punch really well and that makes you extremely tough. The thing about my brother is that he never gets hit. He is only the one who is doing the clobbering. Dart like a hummingbird. Sting like a bee. That’s Josiah.”

I looked at Maya and you would have thought her little brother was Muhammad Ali. “Well, it’s good that he has a fan in his sister, because I sure as hell don’t have a fan in my girlfriend.”

“Sweetheart, I have to see you compete to be a fan of yours in the ring. I see how you live your life and I’m a huge fan of yours.”

“Yippee,” I said sarcastically. “I guess I’m going to have to start my training.”

“Haven’t you already been doing that?” Sasha asked.

“No,” I said. “I just have been jerking around in the gym. Ever since my last fight, I hadn’t had the killer instinct. However, I can feel it creeping back. Real training is a 24/7 job.”

“I have a question for you,” Maya said.

“What now?” I asked.

“Do you think that it is okay to fight in a league now?”

“Why not?”

“You’re not really human anymore. It is a human league.”

“Well, because no one knows I’m a werewolf, I don’t think I’ll have an issue. It’s not like they are doing DNA testing, looking for werewolves.”

“But, do you think it’s the right thing to do?” Sasha asked, chiming in her two cents and now I felt the girls ganging up on me, for different reasons.

“What’s wrong with it? I can’t become a werewolf in the ring. I’m as human as anyone else.”

“But, you’re not, Tommy. Your body is now a lot stronger. You’ll heal faster and when you work out, you’ll get twice as strong as you normally would.”

I was surprised that both of them seem to think I should quit MMA, now I had become a Carni. “Look, MMA is my life,” I said. “What the hell else would I do with myself?”

Maya sighed. “Isn’t it obvious? You could be a trainer.”

“No. Werewolf or not, I’m always going to compete.” I was really taken aback and was growing really irritated with the conversation. “There is no way in hell I would ever stop fighting for a living,” I said firmly.

“It’s your decision and I’ll back you no matter what you decide,” Maya said.

“Decide?” I said. “There’s nothing to consider. I’m fighting MMA and that is all there is to it.”

Sasha rolled her eyes and I didn’t care what either of them thought. It seemed like Sasha was just trying to get my goat, while Maya wanted me to stop for girlfriend reasons. She hated to see me banged up. Sasha didn’t have any long-term investment in me, beyond friendship, while Maya was all about my personal safety and well-being because it affected her well-being.

Under her breath, Maya said, “Don’t you think it’s sort of cheating?”

At that moment, the waitress dropped off the check or maybe I would have blown up. I paid the bill and the three of us made our way back home to Anaheim Hills.

When we got to the apartment, Maya went to sleep in our bedroom. She was in desperate need of a nap. And I was in desperate need of Maya having a time out. Her crack in the restaurant about cheating in MMA as a werewolf dug into my gut like I’d eaten twenty waffles with butter and syrup. I figured this absence of Maya from the conversation was a good time to have a talk to Sasha about my new werewolf life.

Sasha was in the kitchen washing dishes. I stepped in there and sat at my little kitchen table. “Hey there,” I said.

At the same time we both said, “We need to talk!” We laughed.

“You go first,” I said.

“You sure?” she asked.

“I’m sure. What’s on your mind?” I asked.

“Tommy, I need to get out of here. I can’t do this third-wheel thing much longer.”

My immediate response was to tell her to stay. But I filtered it out because I know that it would be what Maya would want—For Sasha to leave. The tension between them was getting a bit sticky. So, I said, “Where would you go, Sasha?”

“I have people I can go to in New York.”

“New York? Are you kidding? What’s there?”

“Tommy, everything is there. Mainly, there is a chance at a new beginning.”

I paused and then said, “Okay.”

Sasha smiled at me. And in just a few moments, her eyes got misty.

I thought she was glad I was okay with her decision but her smile changed into something more menacing. “Okay...” she repeated, “There is ‘No, Sasha! Don’t leave.’ There’s no ‘Sasha, I need your help through this!’ There’s nothing from you asking me to stay?”

“Huh?” I was confused. I obviously had fallen into a female trap. Damn I hate those things. This is why I’ll never understand women. Especially hot women. “I guess I said something wrong.”

Sasha stared blankly at me, as if I should know what the hell I said that was wrong.

“I’m confused,” I said, shaking my head. “You told me why you wanted to make a new life in New York and I was supporting your decision. That is what friends do, Sasha.”

“Tommy, you make it so hard for a girl not to fall in love with you. You’re belligerently perfect.”

“Belligerently perfect? What does that mean?”

“You’re incredibly rough around the edges. You stick both feet in your mouth constantly. You’re crass, rude and immature.”

“And somehow that makes me perfect?” I asked.

“No, that’s the belligerent part. There is a whole sweet other part of you. That part is what is so amazingly wonderful about you. You’re honest, loyal, and you stand up for what’s right. Your good heart is engraved in you. You hide it behind this frat boy persona, this fight club mentality that is your bravado to cover up that you are a sentimental and sweet man. At the end of the day, all I know is I’m in love with you. But I know you’re in love with that equally amazingly wonderful woman in that bedroom, who is asleep under your bed covers. A place I dream of being. Is that clear enough for you, Tommy?”

Oh shit. I let her talk it out. It was her heart talking. So, I listened. I tried to keep a neutral expression on my face. I nodded for her to continue.

“I understand that you’re not mine to have. You and Maya are perfect together. She challenges your shit, but also loves you without judgment. That’s what is so fucking heart-breaking about this. I know that...” She struggled to catch her breath and not cry, I could tell. After a brief pause, she continued, “…I know that deep down in my heart, you’re perfect together. You and Maya.”

I looked at my friend Sasha. We had once had an intimate relationship, but now were close friends. “You mean a lot to me, Sasha.” I said. “I just—”

“—love someone else, I know,” Sasha said, finishing my sentence.

“I do love Maya. But that doesn’t mean I don’t care about you. I just sniffed you out in the wilderness and carried you, unconscious, up a mountain on my back. I shared a werewolf cage with you and didn’t harm you. That’s love, too, Sasha. At its most core level.”

“I know.” Sasha walked over to me and kissed me on my mouth. It wasn’t a romantic kiss. It was something far different. It was a deep final kiss between friends. “I’m going to leave tonight.”

My heart sank and my knees almost buckled. “Are you sure that this is something you’re ready to do so quickly? You can take a few days and get ready. I don’t want you to feel like you have to run out of here like a bat outta hell. Nobody is kicking you out of here. Or rushing you.”

“I’m sure. I’ve been thinking about this for a while. It is something I need to do. Go away from watching you and Maya, and stop interfering in whatever life you two are meant to have. I’m walking away from any shred of hope that you would choose me over Maya. I’m not going to fight for you to love me or try to seduce you away from her. I’m walking away from the man I love, from the werewolf I love, to avoid making conflict in his life. Even though we are both werewolves. And Maya, is not. I’m sacrificing what I want so that you can be happy with what you think you want. Her. That’s love at its core level.”

Damn! I hated it when a woman threw my words back at me to prove her own point.

“Come here.” I stood up from my chair and hugged Sasha, a big deep hug and a heartfelt embrace that came from a place down inside of me that I rarely showed to anyone. Not even Maya knew I was capable of the kind of philos love that was once defined by the Greek philosophers as pure platonic love between friends. I was choked up that Sasha wanted to leave our circle of friendship because she wanted eros, romantic physical love, not philos, friendship love. I suppose that although I am a horny dog at times, Maya had turned me into a monogamist, from my earlier days of being a player. I gave Sasha a long, long hug, to last her awhile after she left. I had no idea that this was going to be the last hug we would ever share.

While I was holding her, I said, “Are you fleeing because it hurts too much to see me and Maya together?”

“Oh yeah. Big time,” she choked out into my chest, trying to hold back a sob, and hide her face from me. “And shut up, Tommy. Stop talking but don’t stop hugging. Whatever you do, don’t stop hugging me.” When she said that, I nearly lost it myself.

“Don’t be a stranger,” I said softly, as softly as I had ever spoken to her. I kissed her on the top of her silky brown hair. Sasha was a good woman. Not a perfect woman, but she had a heart of gold.

* * *

Sasha left that night and just as I suspected, Maya didn’t argue against it. It had been two months since the whole Sasha and Patrick ordeal. Having Maya in my life had made things normal, except when I turn. I have zero memory when I turn and as a matter of fact, when I do turn, it’s as if time skips. There’s no dreaming, no time lapse, nothing. I go from being aware that the moon is out to immediately waking up hours later in a soaked, sweaty mess. We didn’t have problems at my grandmother’s cabin. I started to feel bad for Maya. This was a lot for her to handle, having a boyfriend become a werewolf and be expected to take care of him when he turned. She had said that I had become really calm when she was in the room with me. She had claimed that I only barked and howled when she left. So now, the poor girl had to sleep in the cage room with me on the floor when I turned into a werewolf.

Maya said my howls and yelps have gotten better. The only thing that feels different is my voice. Howling does a job on the howler’s vocal cords. Maya said that she could now confirm that I had a sexy howl. I guess my howl is a lot sexier when I’m not trapped in a cage with a female werewolf. I guess that’s just another ‘sexy’ to throw on top of everything else I possess.

One thing started happening to me, however. I had gone into a funk from not being able to compete in the ring. I am a fighter, and it was time for me to get back on the horse and start training.

But Maya had never seemed too supportive when it came to my fighting for a living. She understood that I love it, and that is why she supported me. But I know she wished I would just go to school and become a coach or something regular. There was a problem with that. There is nothing about me that was regular. I lived to be outside the box. I know she struggled with allowing me to be who I am versus who the person she hoped I would be. I think all women struggle with that sentiment. They love their man, but they also think they know what’s best for him.

I set my alarm for 5:30 a.m. When my alarm sounded in the morning, I nearly cried out in sleepy misery. The last thing I wanted to do is get up ‘Rocky style’ and run around the city of Anaheim Hills.

That’s a good thing about having a live-in girlfriend. Even if she entirely didn’t support me, she would at least support me being fit. She loved my body more than I did.

“Tommy, get up!” Maya yelled from her side of the bed.

“For the love of God, why is the alarm going off?” I slammed the alarm with my hand and nearly broke it. I ripped the cord out of the wall, and laid back down on my side of the bed.

“Did we forget that we were planning on running this morning?” Maya asked.

“We?” I asked. “I didn’t realize this was a couple’s weekend regimen.”

“We, as in you. You, as in get your ass up and start jogging because I don’t want to hear you complain all day that you should have run.”

“Will you at least make a man his breakfast?” I said in my cocky, but you-know-I’m-kidding voice.

“At 5:30 in the morning? Don’t think so, Lance Armstrong Wake me up at 9:00, and you can make me breakfast.”

“Really?” I asked. “I don’t get anything extra for all that sweet love I gave last night?”

“Didn’t realize that you were working so hard, so you would get a steak and eggs breakfast in the morning?”

“I was working hard for you,” I said. “All a man can ask for is for his girlfriend to return the favor.”

“Wow, you are really working it.”

I smiled at Maya so she knew I was okay with her going back to sleep. I stood up and put on my plastics. Plastics are what MMA fighters, boxers, wrestlers, or anyone else who needs to cut weight wears underneath their sweats when you work out. It makes it so your sweat glands becomes water works. I have cut as much as 12 pounds in one run. I wasn’t planning and cutting any weight today, however, although, I need to lose ten pounds at some point before my next match.

I continued to put on my clothes and Maya said, “You want to know who is already jogging at this moment?” Maya said.

“Your little brother,” I answered, half disgusted.

“That’s right. He runs twenty miles a week. So, if that is what your competition is doing, then you had better be working just as hard.”

“Competition? Look, don’t get me wrong, your brother is a tough son of a bitch. But he isn’t, or ever will be my competition.”

“I’ll let him know that,” Maya said, smiling at me.

“Is that supposed to make me scared? I know you think Josiah can kick my ass. But, let’s get this straight. One, we’ll never fight each other because that kid will be a heavyweight by the time he goes pro with the way he eats. Secondly, we spar a lot. He’s a great boxer, but once I get him on the mat, I can toy with him.”

“Look at you.” Maya looked at me with a spark in her eye. “All it took was bringing up my 16-year-old brother and now I got your motor roaring.”

“Very funny. You’re going to make me hate the kid if you keep saying things like that.”

“How can anyone hate Josiah? He is so cute.”

“Just remember how cute he looked in his little yellow ‘Man at Work’ Speedos.”

“I was doing so good at getting that image out of my head.”

“Hey, if you’re not going to play fair, neither am I,” I laughed. I put on the rest of my gear, kissed Maya on her lips, and took off out of my front door.

* * *

When I got back from running, my fantastic girlfriend had made me an egg-white omelet. She was wonderful. She had gotten up and went to the all-night market to buy egg whites, vegetables, and fruit while I ran the streets of Anaheim Hills. She put together a real nice, healthy spread for me as I walked into my apartment. She was wearing a cute little apron, and went all out in serving me. I wasn’t one to ever assume a woman should do this for me, but when it happened, it is quite wonderful.

I thanked her with a shoulder massage and some TLC. Maya and I were really romantic when it came to the affection we gave one another. It was one of things that kept us grounded and in love. Just her touch told me how much she loved me. I tried to make her feel the same way in how I took my time in caressing her.

“You’re an amazing woman,” I said.

“You’re not so bad yourself.”

“I wouldn’t class me as an amazing woman,” I said. “I do have long eyelashes that look really good when I go as a girl for Halloween.”

“I’m going to have to put your eyelashes to the test later. I need to see how pretty my man can get.”

We kissed and hugged and rested next to one another on our bed. Maya and I made love all the time, but today was something more. Today, I think we both just wanted to experience each other as people. Sex has a time and place. I knew I had found what I always been seeking in a woman when just the thought of spending time with her excited me.

We spent the whole day together lying around watching TV. That night, Maya and I went to the movie and saw a gangster movie. The movie got me thinking about my own life and the kind of person I’d become. In the movie, the main character was brought into the gangster life unwillingly. He needed to either embrace it, or fight it off. The character never quite embraced it, and it didn’t turn out well for him.

When the movie ended, I just sat in my seat staring at the credits. This flick was a metaphor for my own survival. I needed to embrace my new world. And the only way that was going to happen was going to need to meet others like me and befriend them. Otherwise, I’d be a lone wolf. And lone wolves get devoured by lions. It was simple. I needed to find my pack.

“What are you thinking about?” Maya asked.

I smiled and stood up. “I was just thinking about how sexy you are,” I said.

“Seriously?”

“Your sexiness is on my mind 24 hours a day. I just might need to wean myself off of it a tad.”

“I hope not,” Maya laughed. “Because I’m addicted to you.”

I leaned down and gave my girlfriend a giant kiss and we headed out of theater.

After the movie, Maya and I came home and cuddled watched a brand new show called Chelsea Lately. At some point in the thirty-minute show, Maya dozed off.

I decided to get up and get something to drink. I went out of the room so I wouldn’t disturb her. I had a laptop on the kitchen table. I grabbed a light beer from the fridge and decided to have a seat at the kitchen table and get on the internet. I had never done any type of werewolf research before and wasn’t quite sure where to begin. But, I thought it was time for me to learn a little more about my own kind. I knew the folklore that was on Wikipedia was mostly myth, but I was sure that some of it was true. I scoped out the Wikipedia page and I learned that is believed that some humans can drink the water that is in the footprints of a wolf and turn into a werewolf. Reality and fiction are usually never far off, but even that seemed preposterous.

I decided to type information about werewolves into Google to seek them out in the real world. I saw a lot of listings for wolf bars. I was pretty sure that is a subculture in the gay community. But, there was a bar that had a weird statement at the end of their advertisement listing. It read ‘Carni-vores welcome!’

I stared at the way they spelled Carnivores. They separated it at the word Carni and vores. I think that is a clue for someone like me. It was worth a shot to go check it out. If it turned out to be a gay bar, I’d just get my groove on to some “Dancing Queen” and “YMCA.” Who knew, I might even throw off my shirt and put on a show for the boys.

I continued to look for any other bars that might have clues in the listing. I saw a couple more bars and restaurants in Los Angeles that ended their advertisement with the same quote: ‘Carni-vores welcomed. It must have been some kind of hidden language. It appeared as if they were promoting a steakhouse or some kind of meat extravaganza with the statement. I had a strong feeling that it was letting werewolves know that those establishments were werewolf-friendly. There was only one way to find out. I had to go check out one of these listings. The way I figured, what better time than the present to seek out my own kind?

I was worried about leaving Maya alone. I had bought extra locks for the windows and doors, but I still didn’t feel comfortable sneaking off. Against my better judgment, I grabbed my keys in a way that ensured they wouldn’t clink against each other. I already wore a pair of jeans with a white T-shirt. I grabbed my shoes that I had left by the door and decided to sneak out, putting them on outside the door. I made sure Maya was safely locked in. I checked every window around the apartment and they were all secured. No one was getting in. Plus, I didn’t have many enemies these days. I had kept my nose clean for a while.

I got in my Mustang and took off toward Los Angeles. It was time to see if my hunch was right. The “Carni-vore-friendly” bar was at the edge of West Hollywood and Los Angeles on Santa Monica Boulevard. It took me about 30 minutes to get there at 12:30 in the morning.

The bar’s name was ‘The Bottom!’ I guess it could have been a gay bar, but there was no hint of that from the parking lot. The bar didn’t have a rainbow flag draped over the outside to let gay guys know the establishment was gay friendly. This place was either a really underground gay bar, or it was an underground werewolf bar. I was obviously hoping for the latter. My hunch was slightly more validated with the sea of Harleys parked out front.

The bar was in a rundown shopping center that had typical little businesses in this part of town. There was a tanning place, a Thai massage joint, and a liquor store where I’m sure they’d sell just about anything to its customers at the right price.

I had to park on a side street because the parking lot was full. I locked my car and grabbed my leather jacket from my back seat, and I walked to the sidewalk that led to the parking lot. I made my way to the front entrance that had a very large, burly man at the front sitting on a stool. His teeth were yellow and he smelled of scotch. It was obvious that this guy had been throwing them back something reckless since earlier in the day.

I walked up to the man and flashed him my I.D. He looked down at me and gave me the full head-to-toe once-over. “You cool?” he asked.

Cool? That could mean a thousand different things. But I knew the best answer was, “Yes, I’m cool.”

He stared at me as if he was trying to read my soul. I was pretty sure a dope like him didn’t have any supernatural powers, but these days, you never know. Finally, he said, “All right, come in.”

“Thanks,” I said, not sure what to say to a guy who didn’t seem too confident about letting me into his establishment.

As I passed him, he threw one out one more golden nugget, “Don’t hit on the bartender. That’s my girl.”

“I don’t shit where I eat,” I said. “So, you have nothing to worry about, Tiny.” I made my way past the doorman. I looked at the bartender and she was a big girl. Not tall, but a really big woman. Pretty face, but she had me in pounds. She had most men in this joint in pounds. Even if I didn’t have a girlfriend, the doorman didn’t have anything to worry about. My beer goggles usually stopped at a red light if a woman could fight in a higher weight class than me.

There seemed to be a lot of men in the bar. Again, I wondered if it was a gay bar. It did have a few scantily dressed woman throughout the place—they seemed to be the focus of most men in the bar.

I just think that this bar happened to be a sausage fest. Sausage-fest bars are great. Men can be men. That’s why sports bars work. This wasn’t a sports bar, however. There were no sports on the tube. As a matter of fact, there were three TV’s. Only one of them was turned on and an animal channel broadcasted a documentary show about wolves. ‘Second clue,’ I wondered.

I found an empty bar stool at the main bar and sat in it. The bartender came over to me. She was a burly woman whose physique matched Mr. Burly Doorman’s. She struck me as no-nonsense type of gal. “What are you drinking?” She asked in a very tough, but oddly feminine way.

“I’ll have a shot of tequila with a Coors Light chaser.”

The bartender stared at me as if I was fucking with her. When she realized I was dead serious, she smiled and slowly turned her head and said, “You got it. Tequila with a Coors Light chaser. What kind of tequila?”

“Patrón,” I said.

“Okay, now you’re getting there,” she said teasing me.

“What? A Coors Light chaser isn’t manly?” I asked.

“No light beer is manly,” she said, as a matter of fact.

“Oh, this is one of those kind of places,” I said, joking back.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, far too loudly for my taste.

Now others were listening in. I knew that I needed to be cool or trouble might start. “I just meant that this is a man’s man bar.”

“No twinkle-toes, this isn’t a man’s man bar. That bar is down the street, and I’m sure they have a real fruity drink you could chase your tequila with.”

I couldn’t tell if she was busting my chops because I was obviously new to the bar, or if I completely pissed her off. I couldn’t tell if she had a dark sense of humor.

I decided there was only one way to find out. “I’m not into that scene, but I’m sure if you whipped out your dick, they’ll let you in for free,” I said, giving it right back to her.

“My dick?” She stared at me straight-faced and held it for two seconds and then just busted up laughing. “I like this kid,” she said.

I let out a comfortable sigh and sat into the stool. The bartender gave me a double shot of tequila and sure enough, brought over my Coors Light chaser. I went to pay her. And she said, “It’s on the house.”

“You don’t have to do that,” I said.

“Wasn’t my call,” the bartender said.

“Whose call was it?” I asked.

“My boss.”

“Whose your boss?”

“The gentleman in the back by the pool table.”

I turned around and saw a man in his early 40’s who looked as fit as a guy his age could look. He had dark hair and pale skin. He had a scruffy face, and reminded me a little like myself twenty years from now. He looked like a guy who could take care of himself if he had to. The man raised his shot glass to me. I raised mine to him, and downed my double tequila shot without the salt-lime ritual. I just swallowed it straight, and then with a sip of my Coors Light chaser.

I sat back in my swivel chair that was pretty uncomfortable. I swear, it makes no sense for bars to have bar stools. They cut off circulation and make it so your lower half falls asleep.

“Tommy,” a female voice said from behind me. I turned around, expecting to see a girl I’d probably had a one-night stand with and never called back to throw a drink in my face, but I didn’t recognize her. She smiled at me suggestively and red flags went up in my head.

“Look, doll. I don’t have a ring, but I’m taken,” I said, as I looked over my shoulder. I got a glimpse of this gorgeous creature and my tongue really fell out of my mouth. She was a Latin beauty for sure. She was built like a black show horse in top shape. She was built to last. She was Ford tough. ‘Maya, Maya, Maya,’ I kept chanting in my head like a protective mantra against sleek Latina chicks who gave me the bedroom eyes, smelled delicious, and tossed their glossy heads of blue-black hair, as thick as horses’ manes.

“Mr. Fausto would like to talk with you, he is a fan.”

“A fan? A fan of what?” I asked.

“You are a fighter, correct?”

“I am. Has he seen me fight?” I was shocked. No one at this point knew who I was. I had only had a couple professional fights.

“Not only has he seen you fight, he thinks you have a lot of talent and would like to meet you, if you’re not too busy.”

Busy? I was the farthest thing from being busy. “Sure, I’ll join him!” I got up and made my way to the back where two pool tables were set up. There was a long conference-type table against the wall. There was six men and three ladies seated at the table. It was a scruffy, but good-looking bunch. Not the ladies… the men were scruffy. The ladies were, well, they were showy arm candy, for the most part.

I’m not normally shy, but in this situation, I couldn’t help but feel a tad on the spot. I walked up to the alpha male, Mr. Fausto, and said, “Thanks for the drink or should I say, drinks plural?”

“No problem. It’s not every day we get a pro athlete walk through our doors. Do you have a picture that you can autograph and we could hang it behind the bar?”

“I don’t exactly carry eight by tens around…You would really do that? Hang my face behind the bar?” I laughed.

“You’re Tommy Jensen, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am. But you can call me Kyro.”

“Kyro?”

Mr. Fausto smiled and said, “Sure enough. Okay Kyro, you were 14-0 as an amateur and now you’re 2-0 as a pro.”

“Wow, you know my stats. Not even my grandma knows my stats.”

“I know you have knocked out everyone you faced. I love mixed martial arts. It’s man vs. man! Nothing more Roman Gladiator than that.” Mr. Fausto smiled at me. “I better calm down. People might get the wrong idea, and question if I am still into the ladies.” He had a woman on both arms, so I didn’t see that happening. “I love the sport. It’s almost an obsession of mine. When is your next fight?”

“I actually had a setback, but I’m aiming for eight weeks from now. Mainly, because I need the cash.”

“Cash is nice. It’s the best motivator I have found. People say it’s about the love of the game. I say it is about the love. The love of the game of cold, hard, cash.” Those at the table all laughed at Mr. Fausto’s statement. “Have a seat and join us. My name is Marcos. Marcos Fausto.”

“I don’t want to impose, Mr. Fausto,” I said.

“Please call me Marcos, and I promise you that you are not imposing.”

“Okay, then. Thank you.”

Marcos pulled out a chair that was right next to him. I walked around the table and sat down. Marcos looked up at a waitress who had hurried herself over for service. “Get him another double shot of tequila, but give him some of the imported beer as a chaser, none of that light stuff.”

He tilted his chin at me. “What kind of imported beer do you like, when you aren’t training?”

“Do you have Carlsberg Elephant beer?” I said readily.

“Interesting pairing with the Patrón. That Danish beer’ll pack quite a wallop, chasing tequila.”

“That it will,” I agreed. “But I know what I like. And you did ask.”

Without looking at the waitress, Marcos tilted his chin toward the bar and said, “We have it.”

The waitress nodded and made her way behind the bar.

“So, tell me, Kyro. What kind of setback did you have?”

“A physical one,” I answered.

Marcos leaned in and whispered to me so that no one else at the table could hear. “Are you referring to the chunk of flesh that was bitten out of your shoulder?”

I looked at Marcos, surprised. There should be no way for him to know that. So, I whispered back to him, “How did you know that?”

Marcos got real close to my ear and whispered. “Let’s just say that once you become one of us, you can spot others a mile away. And in your case, I spotted you even before you knew yourself.”

He knew I was a werewolf. He also implied that he was one, too. He chose to be vague with his statement so I respected that. Perhaps when we knew each other better, we would trade details. Tonight, my wolf senses were kicking in to guard me. I would reveal only minimal details until I saw what Marcos was up to.

“A man bit me in a street fight, the night before my fight,” I said quietly. That’s about as much as I wanted to preface my story. I wanted to hear what else he knew about me. And figure out why he wanted to know more.

“You were bit by a Carni who was in his human form, correct?” This time, Marcos’ voice was a tad louder and something told me he was just giving the illusion that we were having a secret conversation and that everybody at the table knew exactly what we were talking about.

“You knew all of that about my shoulder?” I said in my regular voice.

Now Marcos got real tight on me and whispered in my ear, “Yes, because it was a full moon that night. Only a dog would take a chunk out of a man’s arm in a street fight.”

Now I was sure what was happening. I knew of the hustle. I felt it when someone wanted something from me and the hairs rose slightly on the back of my neck, a cautionary response. “So, what’s all this about?” I asked.

“I’m just getting to know one of my customers and nothing more,” Marcos replied. “Regardless of how famous and wolf-like they happen to be.”

I looked Marcos in the face and calmly said, “What do you want, Fausto?” I called him by his last name, a subtle hint that I was onto his game of trying to draw me out by getting personal details. Maybe I didn’t want to spill them now. No, for sure, I didn’t.

Marcos smiled. “I’ll let you know in time. We are going to be great business partners. Tonight, let’s enjoy ourselves. We have alcohol, sport, and women. Please indulge in all of it.”

“Business partners? That was kind of a leap from just getting to know one of your customers and nothing more.” He’d slipped that in subtly but I wasn’t that drunk yet. “I’ll take you up on your alcohol. But I have a good woman at home.”

“I’ll bet you do. Bottoms up, then.” The waitress poured the Carlsberg Elephant beer in a pilsner glass and placed my double shot in front of me, too—Marcos and I clicked glasses. He made a toast in another language and everyone laughed, but me, since I did not understand what he said. This time, I downed the Patrón with no chaser.

* * *

So, as the alcohol flowed more freely, the next couple of hours were filled with jokes, stories, and questions about being a MMA fighter. Everyone was calling me Kyro, and it was not the obscurity I had hoped for, considering they all knew I was also a MMA fighter. I wanted to keep Tommy and Kyro separate when I come into this world.

There was one guy who seemed especially interested in me. He asked me a lot of questions and seemed to be as genuine as a guy you could ask for. His name was Dave. He gave off a strong positive vibe. Some people have a presence that just puts a smile on your face when you talk to them. Dave was that guy. He had red hair and was mildly fit. He was a pretty good-looking guy, considering he was a male ginger. That usually doesn’t go well for the guys, but in Dave’s case, he was handsome enough.

As the night went on, Dave and I separated ourselves from the group and decided to shoot a game of pool. Most of the bar had gone home and Dave and I were pretty much by ourselves in the back room, shooting pool. I wasn’t ready to go home yet. I was waiting for my buzz to go away. Marcos had made his way to a backroom that his office was in. He was probably counting the daily receipts to see what he brought in for the day. Marcos seemed like a real unpredictable guy. My gut feeling was that a guy like him, eventually, was up to no good. He smiled and led you by the collar to do things his way and at any given moment, he’d cut you off. There are a lot of characters like him in the MMA world and I did my best not to associate with them. Now that I was in the Carni world, I might not have much of a choice. He knew things about me, that, when known together, packed quite a wallop. He knew that I fought MMA and he knew that I was now a werewolf and even knew when and how it happened. I was so glad for Dave’s company. He seemed like a decent guy. Genuine.

So, while Marcos was counting up his money, and no doubt spying on me through a closed-circuit TV system, Dave and I began playing a game of pool. I racked the balls and Dave broke. He hit the white cue ball as hard as he could, and they whacked into the other balls and he made a striped ball in the side pocket.

“I guess I’m stripes,” Dave said without ego.

“You guess? I think the rules of pool are pretty clear—when you make a ball in on the break without scratching, you are either solid or stripes,” I said, laughing.

“I was trying to show some humility, Kyro,” Dave smiled.

“You’ll need to show it when you beat me,” I said, continuing to give him the business. When I like someone, I give them a hard time. So, it was apparent that I had already grown fond of Dave.

“I plan on beating you. Just promise me you won’t kick my ass when I do?”

“The only ass kicking I plan on doing is during the game. I leave my intimidation tactics for the ring.”

“You seemed to be doing a pretty good job right now with the whole talking part,” Dave said, giving it right back to me.

“Would ‘Big Red’ like to make it interesting?”

“Big Red? I haven’t been called that for years.” He patted his hair. “You shoulda seen it when I was a kid. Flaming red. Not so much anymore.”

“Okay, Medium Red. Would Medium Red like to make it interesting? Neither one of us know anything about the other’s game. If one of us is a pool hustler, neither one of us is aware of it at the moment.”

“You think I’m Paul Newman or something?”

“By the looks of your all Archie comic book hairdo, I hardly doubt it. But then again, that could be your move. But something tells me that I doubt you ever hustled a dime in your life. And your first name isn’t the name of a city, otherwise, I would just kiss my money goodbye.”

Dave laughed at my Teen Wolf quote. “Well, what about you?” Dave asked me directly.

“Oh, I’m a big-time hustler,” I said.

“Seriously?”

“I am, but not in pool.”

“So, what’s the point of all of this banter? Are you one of these guys that just likes to hear himself talk?” Dave asked.

“Do you want to put 50 bucks on the game?”

“Just 50?” Dave said, winking at me.

“Okay, you might be a hustler,” I laughed.

“I’ll tell you what. Let’s just play and the loser pays for the next round.”

“Sounds good to me, Dave.”

“Don’t talk. Shoot!” Dave said, sort of cribbing a line from The Good the Bad and the Ugly. I laughed because the game was on, how we were clicking with each other’s sense of pop culture humor.

The next 30 minutes were brutal. Neither Dave nor I was any good at pool. It felt like it was one of the longest that two grown men had ever played a game of pool. We were horrible. If our pool scores were golf scores, we would have been dozens of strokes over par.

Finally I shot the ‘8’ ball into the side corner pocket, but too soon to put the game out of its misery. I wish I could say I had shot in the ‘8’ ball on purpose, but I couldn’t even do that right.

When the game was thankfully over, I felt like I had sobered up enough to drive home. It wasn’t medical or scientific, but what’s a guy going to do when he lived 45 miles away? And perhaps, my inner werewolf was the designated driver.

It had been an interesting night. I knew I had just experienced the company of a number of werewolves like myself. Which ones were Carni? I didn’t know. Something told me that most of them were. I said bye to Dave and headed home.

I drove with the windows open to the brisk night, and howled a few times, just for fun. It felt amazing. I had been with my own kind, they seemed to like me and I know that we fit. I had felt their sameness to me, their werewolf counterparts just under the surface of us all. I got home at 4:00 in the morning. It seemed that I had howled myself sober on the drive, the stars in the black velvet night my welcome company on that drive of 45 miles. I tried to sneak back into bed before I could accidentally wake Maya, but I wasn’t so lucky.

“Where did you go?” Maya asked, as if she had been awake the whole time. She was even still wearing her mascara. I sensed that she’d been waiting up.

“To a bar,” I answered, removing my clothes. Drinking made my temperature go up, and it was time to get naked.

Maya sat up and stared at me with a puzzled look on her face. “So, in the middle of you wanting to get back in shape, you thought it was a good move to go to a bar?”

“The bar part wasn’t a good move?”

“Please tell me what your good move was,” Maya was now being loud. Maya was never loud. Maya was never disgruntled, so this was highly unlike her. I had hit a nerve and needed to fix it pronto.

“Wow, you’re pretty pissed off,” I said. It was a horrible time and place to start calling attention to her anger, but seeing her upset was new to me.

“Why wouldn’t I be pissed off?” Maya started to talk and then stopped herself. Finally, she said, “You want to know how hard it is to not ask the obvious question here. But I love what we’ve become too much to assume something that awful. But I’m telling you, it’s taking all I have to not bring it up.”

“Maya, I didn’t go out to meet or see a girl. I swear to God. As a matter of fact, I had girls offered to me and I turned them down.”

“Girls offered to you? Where were you? In Saigon?”

“That did sound bad, didn’t it?”

“Try again, Tommy.”

“Look, I went to a werewolf bar tonight.”

“A werewolf bar? Are there such places?”

“Yes, and they’re not as discreet as you think. I went to one in Los Angeles.”

“You drove all the way to Los Angeles?”

“Yes.”

“Did you find what you are looking for?”

“It was an interesting bar. I met the owner. He seemed like a big shot. He had women at his disposal and at one point, in his admiration of me, he offered me some of his harem.”

She rolled her eyes when I said the word ‘harem.”

“Admiration for what?” Maya asked.

“Oh, didn’t I mention it? He is a fan of my MMA career. He knew my record and everything. He’d actually seen me fight. He knew my stats, Maya!”

Maya’s facial expression was one of confusion. “All right.”

“He mentioned that I could have some company if I wanted to, and I said ‘no’ because I had the love of my life at home.”

“Did you really say that?”

“I might have replaced ‘Love of my life’ with ‘a good woman at home.’ But I did bring you up,” I said, reassuring her.

Maya sighed and leaned her head back on her pillow. She was calming down. Thank God. She was now ready to listen and not assume the worst.

“Maya, the owner knew that during my last fight I had a werewolf gash on my shoulder.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that he knew I was a werewolf or was shortly going to become one.”

“Did he say that?”

“More or less.”

“So, what does that mean? That he knows? What is he gonna do about it?”

“I don’t know. A guy like him could use that information in many different ways.”

“Give me one way he might use it.”

“He could blackmail me.”

“Blackmail you? For what?”

“For being in the MMA, and also being a werewolf.”

“But you have never fought in the ring since you became a full-fledged werewolf.”

“But, I’m going to.”

“Don’t,” Maya said plainly.

“Don’t what?” I asked.

“Don’t continue fighting if someone is going to use it to blackmail you.”

I stared at Maya and couldn’t believe how nonchalantly she said that. She knew that MMA is my life. “Look, babe, there’s no discussion there. I will never stop being a fighter.”

“Even if your life and well-being is in jeopardy because of it?”

“I can take care of myself,” I assured her.

“What about me? What about when someone kidnaps me again and uses me against you? What about that, Tommy?”

Any other time, this would be a desperate plea from a girlfriend. In Maya’s case, she had an effective argument. I had already put her in jeopardy once. She didn’t say poop about it. It was like she could forgive that once, but no way in hell would she put herself in that type of situation again.

“Look, Maya, this is becoming complicated. Just trust me. It will never come to that. And I promise that I will always protect you. No matter what happens, I’ll make sure that nothing ever happens to you again.”

“Tommy, it’s not always about you. You brought me into this life. I had to compromise myself because I love you. Don’t you think for one second that if I could have my boyfriend not be a werewolf that I would jump at that chance? I can’t change that because it is you’ve become. I compromised a lot of my own understanding to wrap my brain around this. All I’m asking you is for you to do some compromising. You need to do it for us.”

I kissed Maya on her forehead and I held her hand over my chest. I leaned my head back and let out a good sigh of my own. Maya was my life, and it was about time that I put things into perspective. I took in a deep breath through my nose. I got a strong scent of my Maya’s being. I had noticed it before, but the more in love I fell for this woman, the stronger her scent was. It was a combination of pheromones and perfume and it permeated more than my nose. It was a specific smell that was all her own and it went into a memory catalog of scents that werewolves collect. I loved the smell of her skin and her hair. I even loved the taste of her saliva. I was learning that smell was also connected to taste. Her smell gave me comfort and if I could have bathed in her scent, to keep her with me 24/7, I would have.

* * *

The next morning, I woke up feeling odd. I decided I needed to talk straight with her. I wanted to fight in MMA, but I wanted her love even more. I had screwed up so many times before in other relationships. I knew I couldn’t put her in jeopardy ever again, even though this was a promise that I wasn’t sure how long I could honor it. I knew in my heart, I could at least honor it for the time being. Maybe she’d come back around in a few months, and relent about the MMA. It seemed like Maya was more accepting of me being a werewolf than being an MMA fighter. That realization just about floored me.

Maya came out of the shower just wearing a pink towel. I always thought pink and Maya was always really hot combination. Blonde, tan and pink is enough to make me melt from my loins on out. This was my girlfriend. Life was good.

“Babe,” I said. “Come sit next to me.” Maya knew I had something important to tell her being that I never say, Babe, come sit next to me.” Maya waddled over to me like a cute pink penguin, and sat herself next to me. Damn, she smelled incredible. I don’t think I had ever been more attracted to this woman than I was at this moment.

Maya looked at me and asked, “What is it?”

“I’ll quit fighting for you,” I said plainly.

Maya looked at me and there wasn’t any joy in her expression. She knew that, although, I said this out loud to her, it was paining me inside to make such a statement. So she gave me as honest of a look a woman could give her man and asked, “Are you sure?”

I nodded my head but then I said, “I don’t know.”

“So, you’re not sure?” she asked. “You’re nodding but saying something else.”

“Maya, all I’m sure of is what I feel now. It is in my core. You’re the one. You’re the woman I have longed for all of my life.” I was getting extremely emotional, so I decided to stand up and express myself. “Maya, I love you more than I love to fight. If you don’t feel safe, then I need to respect that. I can’t ask you to live in fear. It’s not fair to you. I will put off my MMA career until things are less unpredictable.”

“You’re okay with it?”

“I wouldn’t say I’m happy about it. Just…hopefully, it won’t be forever. I just want to able to revisit it at some point.”

“Of course you can, Tommy.” Maya stood up and then wrapped her arms around me. “We need to get a hold on this werewolf thing. That should be your priority. You need to assimilate into their world. If you’re also worrying about fighting, then I think you might lose yourself. Be torn between too many things: MMA, werewolf life…me.”

“You!” I said. I grabbed Maya from her waist and spun her around. When I did this, her towel flew off. I loved it when a plan came together. I tossed her on the bed and she screeched and then laughed in pleasure. I was only wearing a pair of basketball shorts. I kicked them off.

Maya and I rolled around naked on our bed. I was wrestling her lightly and I said, “If I can’t fight, I’m going to have to get out my aggression in other ways.”

“Just don’t be rough with me.”

“Am I ever?”

“That’s why I love you. Strong as an ox, gentle as an teddy bear.”

I looked at my beautiful angel. “You are my life,” I said.

She beamed. Her whole face just lit up when I said that. “You’re mine, Tommy.”

And then, Maya and I enjoyed ourselves mind, body and soul. There might have been more body than the other two things, but all three entities made an appearance before the night of loving was over.

* * *

Maya and I had had an amazing night together. In the morning, I decided to make her breakfast in bed. I just had one problem with that sentiment. I wasn’t that great of a cook. I decided I would hit the local IHOP and grab her some of her favorite chocolate chip pancakes, to go. She would know that I didn’t make them, but at least I would give the woman I love her favorite breakfast.

I grabbed my keys, cell phone and... dammit! There was no wallet. Every time a man leaves the house he needs his trifecto: keys, wallet, and cell phone. Each one was equally as important as the other. I knew those pancakes wouldn’t buy themselves, so I looked everywhere for my wallet.

I checked in every room, every piece of clothing, underneath every loose paper. I checked in places where there could be no possible way in hell that my wallet could have been. Something very strange happened. It was as if somehow my wallet had hopped out of my pants and had a mind of its own and found a place to dwell. Like it was hidden in an alternate universe. I wracked my brain. The last place I had had it was—where?

This completely dumbfounded me. I thought I was about to lose my mind when I heard a knock on the door. I went over to the front door of my apartment because it was pretty early for anyone to be knocking on my door. I quietly peeked into the peephole. To my surprise, it was Dave from the bar. I was shocked, and then a tad freaked out. I opened the door slowly and said, “Dave, what’s up?”

“You left your wallet at the bar.” Dave reached into his pocket and pulled out my worn black leather wallet.

“And here it is...” I said laughing. “I was getting desperate to find it!”

“Before I left last night, I saw the wallet on the floor where we were all having drinks. I picked it up and checked to see whose it was. At first, I didn’t recognize the name. Then I remembered Marcos calling you Tommy earlier in the evening. I cracked up when I realized it was yours from your smug picture. I looked at your address on your license, and I noticed I lived ten minutes away from you in Corona.

“Corona? That’s further south than me. Is that the only bar of its type in the area?” I asked.

“And what type would that be?” Dave asked.

“I wasn’t saying it was a gay bar. I mean it wasn’t.... was it?”

“No, definitely not a gay bar.” Dave shook his head as if he had been asked that question before.

Dave seemed like a legit fellow and I thought he would be a great guy for me to ask some insider questions. “Hey, do you have a minute?”

“I’m free for a bit,” Dave replied.

“Would you like to get some coffee?”

“Sounds good. Is the little missus asleep?”

“The ‘girlfriend’ is sound asleep, and the kinds of questions I have are not exactly in the need to know category for her. There’s a coffee shop around the corner.”

So, I left my apartment and locked it up really well. I hopped into Dave’s Mazda and he drove us a total of .2 miles to Che’s coffee shop.

We parked and headed into the fancy coffee shop. Che’s coffee shop was a typical establishment out here. The owners tried so hard to be cool and hip that they usually miss the mark completely. We both ordered a cappuccino and sat down in the very back far away from the other patrons so no one could hear our conversation.

“So what’s up, Kyro? You do want to be called Kyro correct?”

“Yes. For now, that is the name I want to go by when I’m among Carni company.”

When I said the name Carni, Dave eyes lit up and he smiled.

“Was that your first reach out?” Dave asked.

“Reach out? Hey man, I didn’t do anything with anyone,” I said jokingly. “I would especially know if I going around giving reach outs.”

Dave looked at me as if he wasn’t sure if I was kidding or if I was really that stupid. The funny part is I had no idea what he meant by reach out. So I said, “What exactly is a reach-out?”

“It’s when a newly made werewolf looks to meet up with his or her own kind for the first time. We gave it a name awhile back because everyone does it as some point in their Carni journey. It’s like your coming-out party.”

“Again, with the gay references. I’m beginning to think Carni and gay are equally exclusive.”

“We have our gay werewolves as does any subculture, but Carnis tend to attract all types, races, and classes. We’re just as gay as any other group.”

“Good to know. You never know when your wanting to take up a bat for the other team.”

Again, Dave how no idea of what to make of my humor. I was keeping him rattled and that was the way I liked it. Why I liked it that way? I had no clue. I decided to cut Dave some slack and just answer his damn question. “It was a reach out in the classical sense.”

“Okay, good. Then I’m glad we talked. It’s kind of my thing to help newbies along.”

“Can I ask you a question Dave? Did I have a neon sign on my back that read ‘American Werewolf’?”

“American werewolf?” Dave laughed. “No, there was no neon sign.”

Note to self, ‘American Werewolf” is a badass name. I looked across the table at Dave in this suburban coffee shop and asked the obvious question that was on my mind. “How did you know I was a Carni?”

“It’s not that hard, Kyro. When you have been one as long as I have been, it’s not that hard to do.”

“As long as you? How old are you?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Dave said.

“Try me?” I answered eagerly waiting his response.

“505 years old.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“I wish I was. But sadly it is true. I’ve seen it all. I was one of the first back in the day.”

“One of the first? How did it start?”

“No one knows for sure, but the consensus is a lot of things went wrong or right at the same moment to create such a species.”

“So no one knows for sure. That’s our history? A blank fucking page?”

“Tommy, our species is young. There aren’t even a thousand of us worldwide. We’re still making our own history. Who know? You might even become the George Washington of the Carni race?”

“No thanks, he was a slave owner. I’d much rather be Abraham Lincoln.”

“Fine, you can be our honest Abe. Right there on the Carni Mount Rushmore will be your grill years from now.”

I laughed. It actually wasn’t that bad of an idea. I kept studying Dave’s face closely.

“Why are you looking at me so funny?” Dave asked.

“I’m just pretty blown away right now. It’s not every day you meet someone who is over 500 years old.

“I’m the same as everyone else.”

“It’s just when you put your my pants on, you’re sticking 500-year-old legs through the pants, one leg at a time.”

“You never stop, do you?”

“The problem is when I stop that is when the world grows cold.”

“So you’re ornery for the good of mankind?”

“I do what I can?” I kept staring at Dave’s face and laughing. “I’m telling you that you look fresh. It’s as if someone just opened you up out of a 21-year-old man package.”

“I was 21 when I turned. Very good, Kyro. Do you have any other hidden skills?”

“That’s why I’m here talking to you. I want to know if I do or not...have, as you say, hidden skills. I have a lot of questions about what I have become.”

Dave switched gears and got a little more serious. “I bet you do. Imagine how I felt, discovering everything for the first time all by myself.”

“Tell me everything you’ve learned in 500 years.”

“I can’t exactly tell you everything off the top of my head. Why don’t you ask me questions and we can go from there?”

I stared at Dave and my first burning question was the following: “What do I give off that makes it obvious that I am a werewolf?” I asked.

“It’s not a smell or even an attitude you possess. It’s purely sociological. The bar last night is designed to be pretty uninteresting. So unless you’re a drunk, and the verdict is still out on that with all the double shots of tequila that you had last night. But the only reason like a guy like you would stick around last night with all those dull and uninteresting people were that you were seeking to find some answers.

“Well, I guess I gave that off because I didn’t know where to begin and last night was my first reach out.”

“I know it was. Your cherry was visible a hundred feet across the bar.”

“My cherry.”

“Your reach out werewolf cherry, Kyro. Is that too visual for the guy who has made it a point to try to shock me at every turn in this conversation?”

“Touché, Dave. No one at the table talked about being a werewolf.”

“What’s there to talk about? Eventually, you run out of things to talk about. It’s like everything else. We don’t need to put you or ourselves on blast volume about it. God only knows who is in the bar at any given moment.”

“You say ‘we’ as if you’re in on the inside with those guys?”

“I am. But it isn’t guys. It’s one guy. Marcos is the only person you needed to meet last night.”

“You’re turning out to be a pretty valuable commodity.”

“You’re not aware of it, Kyro,” Dave continued. “You came into Daniel’s Den of Lions last night. Everyone who is anyone in the werewolf community was at that big table last night.”

“But you just said that Marcos was the only important person?”

“That is exactly my point. The most important person was gushing over you all night. What happened last night was priceless. You couldn’t earn that much Carni equity if you kicked a different Mani’s ass every day of the week for a year.”

I laughed. “Sounds intriguing. A lone werewolf versus 365 vampires in a year. I’d need a bigger ego for that kind of challenge. And a lot more health insurance.” And boyfriend equity with Maya, to pull that one off, without her freaking out on me.

Dave smiled, as if he had heard my thought. “The boss labeled you a bad ass. Of course you will have some haters, but most of us are impressed.”

“Impressed. There’s nothing to be impressed about.”

“You’re an MMA fighter. That’s as good as it gets for a Tandra. Now, throw in that you are one of us. A Carni? Well, that is the cat’s meow.”

“Cat’s meow? You are old school, aren’t you?”

“I’m telling you, it’s rough. Sayings and slogans come and go, and I remember them all. The other day, I said ‘Where’s the beef?’ in a fast food restaurant and everyone looked at me like I was crazy.”

“Where’s the what?” I asked.

“Oh, my God. That was just 1984!” Dave laughed out loud.

I looked at Dave and I had 101 questions for him. I decided to give him the biggest one first. “Dave, what are the advantage, other than immortality, to being a werewolf?”

“You’re about 15 percent stronger in your human form.”

“Fifteen percent,” I asked. “That’s a weird number. Who came up with that?”

“No one did. It’s more than 10 percent and not quite 20 percent. So we came up with 15 percent. We didn’t put NASA’s mathematicians to work on the equation. It’s just information we have gathered through our lifetimes.”

“Are there other things we can do?”

“What do you want to do?” Dave asked, curious.

“It’s just seems that vampires have it really good. They turn into birds and can fly. I’d seen some fly even when they aren’t birds. They seem a lot quicker and stronger than we are.”

“I guess it’s the law of the Triat. Vampires have no part of the day. They can’t function on any level during sunlight. Could you imagine how bad that would suck?”

“I know firsthand how bad that sucks. I had a good friend who was one.”

“Was one?”

“Well, he still is. He went away. He was pretty ostracized by his own kind.”

“That’s the way they are. They are savages. They call us dogs and beasts, but we are still human except for three nights in a month. Even then, we have no clue what happens to us.”

“That never changes?” I asked. “I was hoping the more I turn that eventually I’ll start remembering things that I did on four legs.”

“You’ll start to remember more things as time goes by. You see things in your human form that remind you of something you experienced as a Carni. That is always evolving. It actually gives me hope that someday we will have cognitive thought.

I had more questions for Dave so I threw him another one. “This is my biggest question,” I said. “How come no one knows about us?”

“Regular folks know about us. Why do you think their folklore is so accurate? They have some facts wrong, but they sure as hell can draw us and even act like us if necessary. Look at Hollywood. They got some of it right, anyway.”

“Carni are commonly seen?”

“I wouldn’t say commonly. We only turn at night, so more often than not people think their eyes are just playing games with them. But, they have seen us. Have you noticed that all Bigfoot sightings are in the wilderness?”

I looked at Dave and had no idea what he meant by that. “What are you saying?”

“We are Bigfoot,” Dave said plainly.

“Holy shit. We’re Bigfoot? Werewolves are? Are you kidding me?”

“Nope. All of the Bigfoot sightings have been werewolves.”

“How come the pictures look more ape-like?”

“Because only the sightings are at night. We often contradict the actual eyewitness original story. After one of us is done telling about what we fictitiously saw, we have the guy 8 feet tall and a friend of Tarzan.”

“Wow. I’ve seen some folks be pretty adamant on those discovery channel shows,” I said.

“Luckily, most of the sightings are by people who aren’t the brightest or the most sober when they have seen us. When that happens, we let the crazies have at it. They see a blur and for some reason, they think something that large creature has more human qualities and the closest thing to human is an ape. So they say they saw an ape creature. And werewolf becomes Bigfoot in their minds.”

“You said there are almost a thousand of us. Where does everyone stay?”

“Marcos’s other business is a luxury Carni kennel. It’s really high priced, but he has some really rich folks who make their monthly pilgrimage to Anaheim and camp in his junkyard.”

“His high-class luxury kennel is a junkyard?”

“It’s the best cover. On the outside it looks like a dirty garbage dump. On the inside, it’s a Carni paradise.”

“Is that where you stay?”

“I can’t afford that place. I’m not working, just living on savings right now.”

“He doesn’t give you a deal?”

“You obviously don’t know Marcos. That man and the word ‘deal’ have no business in the same sentence.”

“He seemed pretty generous last night.”

“That’s his thing. It appears he is, but he was serving us the cheapest alcohol he had.”

“Very classy, and I say that with dripping sarcasm. It tasted like Patrón. Oh well. So what do you do?”

“In what regard?”

“When you turn? Where do you go? I need a better set up than the one I have.”

“I have place up north where I go. In a couple of weeks, I’ll take you up there on the next full moon. There’s a Carni-friendly rancher who allows a few of us to roam his property. It’s actually quite nice being able to run free all night. He has no livestock to kill so we just roam the forest and run under the moon, free as, well, wolves.”

Wow. No cage. The thought gave me a thrill. “I have one last question.”

“Go for it, Kyro.”

“Do you have a girl at home?”

“Oh, you’re wondering if I dig women? The answer is yes, but at the present moment I do not have a woman at home. I’m flying single.”

“Up until a year ago, that was the only way I knew how to fly, too, but I met an amazing woman. I have just made the mistake of not getting that kind of thing out in the open in the beginning of a friendship.”

“What happened?” Dave asked.

“He was very confused when I came out to him,” I said with a smirk on my face.

“You should do stand-up comedy.”

“I once did an open mic night and completely froze.”

“I would have paid big money to have seen that.”

* * *

The truth of the matter was that I had no idea how to live without either thinking about or preparing to be a mixed martial arts fighter. Putting MMA out of my life was hard. Josiah seemed heartbroken that I was giving it up for now. He even called his sister a dream wrecker and they had words. I told the kid to back off because it was my decision at the end of the day. He wasn’t buying it. He and I were cut from the same cloth. It was what I had to do to allow my girlfriend to be safe. And keep her happy with me. In my mind, I was confident that this is the right decision. For now.

I quickly learned that you can take the fighter out of the fight, but you can’t take the fight out of the fighter. During the next few months, I tried to play the role as the good and obedient boyfriend. Honestly, I was bored as hell and trying to figure out what to do with all of my testosterone without wearing out Maya in the bedroom. I was used to expending adrenaline and now, without fighting, I felt a loss in my physical being that could not be replaced by working out with no goal of fighting. Yes, even working out became sort of lackluster. Not to mention, I missed the money that I usually made in MMA.

I started taking some classes online so I could get my Master’s degree in Education. California has a lot of red tape if someone wants to be a teacher. Now with the economy so bad, the extra crap they make you do is ridiculous. I was working toward a teacher credential because I’d like to go into coaching. It was my compromise to Maya, the queen of my life.

I did everything Maya asked me to do. I had become the ideal boyfriend. I wasn’t complaining because I was spending most of my time with most fantastic woman in the world. But I had an itch. The longer I went without scratching it, the antsier I got. I dreamed of MMA fights every night, and sometimes woke up lathered in a sweat, as if I had fought in my sleep.

Maya was taking classes, too. She took some nursing classes at Cypress College. I silently wondered if she was doing that to ensure that she would always be able to patch me up if necessary. She got a job doing odd jobs as a hospital tech at Anaheim Hills Hospital. Maya and taking care of people seem to go hand in hand. Our love grew daily, and just when I thought I couldn’t possibly love this woman more, she would do something really thoughtful like organize my DVD collection by genre or make me an awesome mix tape.

When my time of month came around—and coincidentally, it was Maya’s time of the month—Dave had been taking me to that property in Northern California. The brush was so thick and there are just trees for miles and miles. It was a Carni paradise, just like he said. It was a nice piece of private land that had been designated for our kind as a nature conservancy of sorts. The billionaire who owned the property fell in love with a female werewolf and had been helping other Carni for years. It was nice not to be caged in and to be able to run with my own kind, under the full moon, noses to the sky and the wind in our fur. Or at least I imagined that it was fun. It was certainly better than waking up in a cage. I began to love my uncaged werewolf freedom to be myself. With my werewolf brothers. It was almost like MMA, the brotherly camaraderie of it.

Dave and I settled into a routine. Each month, he and I would pack up and head north a day before the full moon. Every time we got on the road and headed north, it always reminded me of the movie Sideways. We enjoyed our road trips, talking about movies, women, fighting, world issues, politics, everything.

Something else started happening while making those monthly trips. I began to develop a lot of friendships with other Carni. This was something that gave security and a sense of belonging. I felt that the tighter a group of friends we had, the better it would be for all of us in the long run. We could support each other and we bonded as a pack. Because there were six of us in all, we called ourselves ‘The Six Pack.’ We roamed the earth by each other’s side when we turned into our werewolf forms. We must have gotten along really well when we turned, because in fleshly forms we had a bond like no other. That old expression, “they had my back,” came to mind.

‘The Six Pack’ consisted of Dave and I and four others. There was a tall, skinny Hispanic kid named Albert who was about as tough as a non-fighter could be. The fourth member of our group was an older man named Steve. Steve was in his forties, and had been a world traveler before he was bitten in the 80’s. He had amazing endurance for a man his age, and was almost as funny as I am. The last two members of our little clan were twin brothers. Yes, we had twin brothers in the group as well. Their names were Evan and Eli. Those two guys were built like roided-up WWE fighters. They were the prettiest men I had ever seen, and I don’t say that lightly. They both worked harder than most women on making sure every bit and piece of them was well groomed and fit. Evan and Eli were bulky, Greek men with 36-inch waists and both had a good 250 pounds on them. That inverted triangle look we all sought in MMA? They had it. I was envious. They swore it was their diet of Greek food that contributed to their physique. How they turned their baklava breaks into muscle, I never knew.

We were a bad-ass group and it was fun hanging out with them. We’d spend the night wandering the property and none of us had any idea where we go or actually did. We could be killing squirrels all night for all we knew. But we weren’t—we were werewolves and I am sure we were formidable as a pack.

We spent the daylight hours in one of the houses owned by the landowner. He had about five enormous houses on the entire property. At the south end was an old, two-story, rustic house that suited the six of us well. We pretty much had a house to ourselves.

We would sleep, hang out and just shoot the shit. It reminded me of what actual guys in the Army Reserve must feel…once a month having a strong bond, and then going back to their lives each time. Speaking of Army Reserve, that was where Maya’s family thought I went each month. Josiah asked a lot of questions about the specifics of my assignments. He such a little shit that way. Never let anything fly under his radar. I think he was just fascinated with fighting and war and was trying to build some knowledge of the art of war in his mind. That boy definitely has a superhero complex. Everything out of his mouth was about saving people and doing the right thing. He was a good kid, but if he wanted to be a great MMA fighter, he was going to have to get more blood thirsty. Josiah loved fighting, but he always did it out of principle, in self-defense or to save someone vulnerable. With me, sometimes I just needed to get into it with another guy just to see who was tougher. I had a hard time convincing Josiah how his superhero aspirations needed to connect with the same kind of bad-ass mofo aspirations that I possessed. I took him under my wing, trying to direct his energies toward the MMA mindset, instead of saving the world. It was going to be a long haul, making him bloodthirsty.

That is where I was tonight. Albert and I had crossed that road. I was sure that I was the Alpha Male in the group. Even though the rest of the guys in the Six Pack could take care of themselves, I had the experience. Truth be known, I loved going toe to toe with anyone. I fed off of it, as a human, and now as a werewolf.

Even since I got this Carni-werewolf blood in me, I have had a stronger desire to fight. Which sucked, being that I had told Maya I would quit fighting for her. I tried to be patient while she did her education as a human, wanting to be a nurse, and I supported that. I diligently worked on my own education credential toward coaching, but every night, like a bedtime prayer, I visualized myself back in the MMA ring, competing and winning. Every sleeping dream I had seemed to be about MMA.

Every time I kissed her good night, it seemed like a metaphor for kissing the MMA goodbye. I loved her so much, but I was tormented by everything I wanted, and that I could not have without some serious fallout with my girlfriend.

Hopefully, she’d come around and let me get back into the ring in the near future. I was going crazy with my promise to give up fighting. I was the owner of my own crushed dream, my hasty promise that I had made, in order to keep her happy. I wanted MMA back, but I wanted Maya, too. Damn. Somehow, I would have to find a way to have my cake and eat it, too.

On this day, out at the Six-Pack hangout, Albert decided to do a little bit of talking. It always starts with ‘the talking.’ We were all playing poker, and we were about an hour away from the full moon. I had recently started playing the game, and didn’t realize that there was etiquette to a game of cards. Apparently, you’re not supposed to discuss people’s hands when you have folded and are out of a hand.

The six of us were sitting around the table. I had folded pre-flop which meant that I didn’t bet because my cards were awful.

Albert and Steve were the last two in the hand. The twins, Dave and all others had folded. I could tell that Albert was bluffing—he put all of his money in once the river card hit the board. He was trying to muscle Steve out of the hand. Steve looked as if he was going to fold. I said, “Don’t fold, Steve. He has nothing.”

Albert shot me a stern look, and I gave him a response as if to say, “What is your problem?” He cleared his throat in an “a-hem” way and said, “Kyro, you’re not supposed to talk if you’re no longer in a hand.” Albert voice demonstrated a high level of frustration with me.

“Hey, are you talkin’ to me?” I joked, throwing out a movie line. “I’m not supposed to talk? Who came up with that rule?” I laughed. “I think the guy who came up with that rule was bluffing. Are you afraid to have me talk because I know you’re bluffing?”

“It doesn’t matter what you think. You folded. You’re breaking every poker rule in the book right now by talking. Once you are out, you stay quiet until the end of the hand.”

I laughed out loud. “Every poker rule in the book? That must be a pretty small book. I looked at Steve and said, “Call his bet. I guarantee you, you will win.”

“Dude, you can’t fucking talk!” Albert yelled at me.

“Settle down, young gun. Don’t go all Billy the Kid on me here,” I said, laughing even more. I was my own favorite joke and was having a ball being hilarious.

“Young gun? I’d kick your ass,” Albert stated.

“Albert, shut up!” Dave yelled at Albert. “You have no idea who you’re messing with.” I had told Dave not to tell anyone in our Carni group or entire community, for that matter, that I was to be a pro fighter. I just didn’t want people to know anything about me—keeping things a mystery allowed moments like this one to happen.

“I’m not afraid of a guy who calls himself Kyro,” Albert said back to Dave.

“Well, you better be,” Dave said.

Then to everyone’s surprise. Steve shocked the room and said, “I call.”

Guess what! Albert was bluffing. He threw his cards on the floor and began yelling at me, “Are you fucking demented? Do you even have a brain in your fucking head?”

I knew Albert had a hot temper, but he was now walking a very thin line with me. I am a very proud man, Carni werewolf. I was just not about to let a young kid that Josiah could beat up with one hand behind his back speak to me that way.

“Listen, Chachi,” I said.

“What is a Chachi?” he asked. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“You never heard of Chachi?” I asked. “You know, Fonzie’s cousin.”

“I don’t give a shit who Chachi is!”

“You have never seen Happy Days?” I was more upset by that than by the stupid poker game. “You know, Joanie loves Chachi… Scott fucking Baio. Scott Baio Turns 50 and Unmarried.”

“Oh, that Chachi. That show on the oldies channel?”

“You have got to be kidding me. Oldies channel? Those are classic TV episodes!”

“When the fuck did this conversation become a talk about Nick at Nite?” Albert shouted back at me. “Listen to me, Kyro. You’re a fucking moron. There are ethics and etiquette in the game of poker. You don’t freaking talk if you’re if you’re not in the freaking hand! It disrupts the entire integrity of the game!” I could see the veins bulging in his neck. This guy had lost his lid. I fought the urge to laugh again.

“Settle down, brother,” I said. “You need to listen to my man, Dave, and know when it’s time to let it go. You lost 20 bucks and you’re acting like I made you lose $500?”

“It’s not about the money.”

“Then what is it about?”

Then ‘Albert the Kid’ stood up and said, “It’s about how fucking stupid you are. And that you have no manners when men are playing serious card games. Poker is sacred, you moron, you asshole, you c—”

That did it. Before he got the word out, I stood up, grabbed him by the shirt and threw him up against the wall. Albert took a swing at me and hit my chin.

Oof! Lucky punch. I felt like we should have Batman thought bubbles with fight words in them: Biff! bamm! Ka-pow!

I took a step back and shook off the hit. I ducked and shot my upper body in between his legs and grabbed his shirt from the back and picked him up and body-slammed him on top of the hard, carpeted floor.

When we both hit the ground, he tried wrestling me and it was more than cute. I was two-time, all-state wrestling champion in the state of California. He knew quickly that I was an ox, and that he had no chance. He couldn’t even budge me in any direction.

“Give up?” I grunted.

“Fuck you,” he said and tried to wiggle away.

I pinned him back and I rammed my elbow into the side of his head, and he was out cold. “Fuck,” I whispered to myself. I had knocked out one of the Six-Pack brothers, my own kind, over a stupid card game. I was definitely feeling some chagrin.

“Fucking Kyro, you shouldn’t have fought him,” Dave said over my shoulder as one of the pack ran for ice and a washcloth for Albert. “He didn’t know that you’re a professional fighter. Do you think for one second he would have even mouthed off to you if he knew he was doing it to Mike Tyson?”

“I’m more Hulk Hogan than Mike Tyson, but I get your point,” I said. I looked down at Albert and I could see him coming to. His eyes were rolled back in his head and he was now gaining some focus back. “Hey, Albert,” I said. “You awake?”

“Huh, what the hell happened?” Albert seemed lost.

“You and I were fighting.”

“I take it that I lost?” he asked.

The entire room laughed.

“You got a good punch in,” I said trying to be a good guy.

“Dude, you’re a gorilla. You’re the strongest person I have ever fought. It was like trying to move a tractor.”

I looked at Albert and said, “It’s not your fault. You didn’t know that I used to be a professional MMA fighter.”

“What?” Eli said.

“Are you fucking with us?” Steve asked.

“Nope, I’m actually undefeated as a mixed martial arts fighter. Both amateur and pro.”

“So, I can sue you?” Albert asked.

“I hope not, but if you do you can have my grandma, because that’s all I got,” I said jokingly.

“You can have your grandma. Just promise me you’ll teach me how to fight.”

“Deal. You want help getting up?”

“No, I’m good. I’m going to stay down here until the room quits spinning.”

Dave brought some ice in a towel and handed it to Albert, who pressed it to the side of his head where I had rammed my elbow. He winced.

“That might be all night that you need to stay down there. But we don’t have all night because the full moon will be here any minute.” I looked outside and it was about 30 minutes till the full moon. “I guess it’s going to be show time. It is our last one for the month.”

The group nodded, and we got ready to go outside and do some midnight exploring in our wolf forms. Albert eventually got up and I got him a fresh ice pack for his head. He had a nice bump, compliments of my elbow.

Damn, I loved fighting.

* * *

When I got back from my three-day excursion, it was a Thursday afternoon. One of the tricky details to our lie that we gave Maya’s parents is that Army Reserve only met on the weekends. But then I had to convince them I was part of an Elite reserve group that was a cross between Army Rangers and Navy Seals that met once a month on any day of the week. On call, I had said.

Daniel, Maya’s dad, is a smart man. Luckily, he didn’t ask too many questions. He just accepted it as something new that our military was doing. That’s the problem I found with lying. Trying to cover all the make-believe facts of a given lie usually ended up with me spewing about twenty more lies to cover all the bases of the first one. The other side of the coin was that I wasn’t exactly going to tell them that their daughter was dating a werewolf. Any lie was better than that truth.

I picked up Maya in the early morning and then we headed back to my apartment. I think our three days apart each month added more romance to our relationship. In the car, Maya and I held hands like a couple of junior high students. At stoplights, I would sneak in a kiss. I really loved this woman. It must have showed on my face because Maya asked, “What’s with the goofy grin?”

“Any grin that is displayed on this handsome face can never be classed as goofy,” I said in my usual cocky tone. “But if you’re referring to the irreverence of my smile, it’s because I am very in love with the woman sitting to my right.”

Maya immediately smothered my face with kisses. It almost made me send my car into the lane next to ours. That could have been bad because there was a school bus occupying that lane.

“You better watch it, Hon, you don’t want to give this bus full of kids too much of a show.”

“What can I say? I love my man.” Maya looked so beautiful. She was wearing a lime green top with white jeans. The more ‘girlie’ she dressed, the cuter she looked. She really pulled off the ‘girlie’ look. Every day, she looked like she was going to a fashion shoot. Even her nails were perfect. Even her toenails. I think Maya groomed herself more than any cat I ever knew.

With that, I let out a loving sigh. “This is pretty good, isn’t it?” I asked.

“‘This’ being you and I?”

“That is the ‘this’ in question. Yes. You and I. I just think it’s odd how we get each other.”

“Do you get me?” Maya asked.

“Of course I get you.”

“So you think you know everything about me?”

“Don’t I?”

“Okay…what’s my favorite color?”

“Red, because pink is nice, but red screams ‘I’m a color!’ That is an actual quote by the way.”

“Wow, quotes and everything. I guess you do listen to me when it clearly appears to me that you’re not.”

“That’s my gift. I perfected it in high school. You give the illusion that you don’t give a shit, but secretly you’re taking notes on everything the girl has to say. So, if you’re going to quiz me, I plan on bringing it,” I said jokingly.

“Okay, I gave you an easy one with the color question. I think even Josiah would know that answer. Here is a harder one. What am I most afraid of?’

She was right, that was a hard one. Maya had been through a lot just in the time she knew me. But I was sure I knew the answer. “Clowns,” I said.

“Wrong!”

“I’m wrong?”

“The answer is white-faced, happy clowns that you see in random places,” Maya said, smiling.

I laughed. “You’re right. I was pretty specific about your color. I took the lazy way out by just saying ‘clowns.’ You did say that quote to me, didn’t you?”

“I told you that clowns in the appropriate places are okay. I can totally deal with a clown at a circus, or a little kid’s birthday party.”

“It’s when they are in random places,” I said, jumping in, and then together we said, “Clowns have no business shopping in a supermarket.”

“It makes no sense. They are trying to creep people out,” Maya said finishing the idea with yet another quote.

We both busted up laughing.

“I guess you do know me,” Maya said. “But knowing facts about someone doesn’t necessarily say that you know a person. The question is ‘Do you know my heart?’”

We were almost back to my apartment. I pulled off the freeway and turned right on to Gypsum Canyon Street.

“I know your heart,” I said.

“Do you?”

“Of course I do. Your heart is why I breathe.”

“Where did you hear that?” Maya said.

“Hear what?”

“That line.”

“It wasn’t a line,” I said. “I promise you I came up with it…right now.”

Maya looked at me and said, “Do you really feel that way about me?”

“Oh my God, Maya, I love you with every inch of my soul. It’s all that I am. I can’t believe you would question it.”

“I don’t question it, Tommy. You dope. I ask because you have no idea how many jerks I’ve dated. Hearing such words from a man I feel exactly the same way for scares me. It doesn’t scare me off. It scares me closer to you. I become a big messy blob of emotion. That is what scares me.”

“You have nothing to be afraid of.” I pulled into the driveway of my apartment complex and parked. I looked at Maya and said, “When I was in high school and even as early as a year before I met you. I used to hear certain songs on the radio that would be classified as love songs. I used to secretly mock them in my head because I would think real life is never like that. But, ever since I met you, those songs make sense. When we aren’t together, I often hear a love song and every word reminds me of how much in love I am with you.

Maya leaned over and gave me a passionate kiss and said, “Those types of songs made sense to me then, and what I feel for you now validates my goofy view on love that I always had.”

“Hold on,” I said. I ran around my black Mustang and opened her door. Right there in my apartment parking lot, I picked her up and made my way to the door. I loved the way Maya’s body felt when I held her. And there’s no other kind of hold than picking up the woman of your dreams and holding her tight while she is completely in your arms in midair.

I took out my keys with my right hand and held Maya in my arms with my left. I opened the door. Maya held on tight. She was going with the moment as much as I was.

I carried her through the hallway and through my bedroom door. I gently laid her on the bed, and I began by placing my left hand up her thigh on the outside of her white jeans. We kissed and pawed at one another as if it was the only physical act we understood. I don’t think I ever kissed her more passionately.

“I love you, Tommy,” she called out as our bodies and hands began undressing one another. Soon we were both completely naked. We grabbed the top cover and placed it on top of our hot, bare bodies. Then Maya was on her back, and I loved this position and not just for the sexual reason. I love how it makes me feel that I’m on top of her, knowing I could crush her with my weight, but chose how much pressure I laid upon her, claiming her. It was a balance between strength and love. I wanted her to know I was there, but she also needed to feel that she was safe. I kissed her mouth, neck, and her shoulders. I was caressing her heart, body and soul, pouring everything I felt from my lips to her skin. She was my lover. She was my life. Our heat began to rise, and as our bare skin touched, a fire raged from inside of me and came out, igniting our skin together, sealing us with sweat and joy. Flesh to flesh, we devoured each other in kisses, inhaled the intoxicating scent of each other. We took turns on our backs, each of us determining the pace and ferocity of love while on the top position, the bottom one, the recipient of the intensity of desire. My held-back passion for MMA rose up as an increased passion for Maya, almost an electric rage that roared deep inside my loins and energized me with fierceness for being a werewolf, for being a fighter who must now only love and not fight, and for being a Carni in love in a Tandra, the most beautiful woman I had ever been inside of, or seen, for that matter. Her body, her mind, her kiss – all were perfection. We were in synch, in rhythm, in harmony, like a piece of music unfolding a song in delicate touches and urgent missions that rose up to delight and astound us with the notes that we played on each other. We were fire, we were water, we were love, we were desire; we unleashed raw sex that spilled in each other toward some goal of claiming each other’s hearts in the range of what could only be an infinity of destiny. I felt her deep in my soul. A part of me. Forever.

We made love on that night; a deep, tender love, but a fierce one whose memories would last a lifetime in my head as “that night.” In her, her scent was now overwhelming to me. The more I smelled her, the more I loved her. Or perhaps the more I loved her, the more I smelled her. Either way, her scent was intoxicating. I was not only obsessed with her scent, I realized that I must be insanely in love with this woman. She was much more than my lover, she was my reason for living, for being, for evolving. She wasn’t just a woman. She was my oxygen.

Just before I knew she was close to a climax, I rolled her over on her tummy and told her that I loved her. I kissed the back of her neck and spine, up and down it, until she was panting and whimpering at the care that I took to caress her back and neck while I moved my hands to the front of her to caress her there. Careful to rein in my werewolf urge to bite her, because, after all, I did not want to make her into a werewolf, I pressed my lips tenderly to that sweet spot on the back of her neck that she loved and entered her from behind. I moved very slowly inside of her womanhood, feeling the pulse and clutch of her around me as she climaxed over and over and cried out my name like a prayer, with reverence and surrender.

Dear God, I loved her so much. Only then, when she said my name and was near weeping, did I release myself into her warmth, her wet, sweet folds. I said her name into her ear, with gentleness, but with a fierce possessiveness.

After several minutes, we slid onto our sides and I held her for a long, long time, listening to her breath shudder in and out as she came back to earth and murmured her contentment to me and completely passed out, her back against my chest. I could feel her heart thudding against me, and when it slowed and her breathing was even, I knew that she was asleep. There were no other thoughts in my head except this one: Maya ministered to me…

* * *

The next couple of weeks went by, and I decided to make a deal with Maya: I didn’t have to fight; But I would surely train Josiah to the best fighter he could be. He was a junior in high school, and had a lot of free time after and before school. What I heard from Maya was that the guy hated school and only showed up part time as it was anyway. His entire mind was focused on becoming the world’s youngest and most successful MMA fighter.

I knew he wanted to be a professional mixed martial arts fighter and it would be cool to mentor him and help his big dream come true. In a way, since I wasn’t fighting now, I would have a chance to see my own MMA dreams come true by living them vicariously through Josiah. I wanted to do it not just for Josiah, but for Maya. She adored her brother, and I knew it would mean a lot to her to see me take him under my wing, like a brother of my heart. I wanted to give him every bit and piece of my knowledge, hold nothing back. I wanted to see him win every fight and succeed in becoming all that he wished and dreamed. I also thought that a part of me felt if Maya could see how much fun I was having training her brother, she might let me give MMA a shot again when things had calmed down.

Nevertheless, I liked Josiah a lot. He was a real interesting kid. It was time for me to be the Obi-Wan-Kenobi to his Anakin Skywalker. I wasn’t training the kid to be a Jedi, but it was going to be just as dangerous, aside from being shot with the laser guns by storm troopers’ deal.

Josiah and I started training four times a week. Two of the times were early morning before he was supposedly going to go to school. I wasn’t the kid’s truant officer, so if he went to school or not, it wasn’t my business. His parents never seemed to give him a hard time about school. The other two training sessions were gym workouts at my gym in Anaheim Hills.

Josiah had sick instincts when it came to fighting. The problem with the kid was that his instincts were lethal. I had to tone him down or he was going to kill every guy in the gym, just in the workouts. MMA is an interesting sport because it is virtually impossible to fight at a 100% unless you’re in a real match against a human opponent. I had to teach Josiah to spar, not terminate life.

Every guy in my gym agreed that no one wanted to go toe to toe with him, mainly because it was highly unsafe. Josiah didn’t know how to tone it down during sparring. He would try to rip every guy’s head off. The problem with Josiah wasn’t in making him aggressive. The issues we were dealing with were how did we keep his aggression under wraps and have him only let it out at the right time? In the ring only? In competition?

We had a great workout in my gym. I decided to take Josiah to a juice bar and get some vitamins in us. We ordered our drinks and sat at a table. We both had showered at the gym and were a little tired and worn out from the workout.

“How good are those guys back at the gym?” Josiah asked.

“They are the best southern California has to offer,” I said. “Why?”

Josiah smiled at me. “Just curious.”

“Why do you ask?”

“I just know I can beat any of them.”

“You do, huh?” Josiah cracked me up. He was six feet tall, and weighed 170 pounds with almost zero muscularity. The guys at my gym would eat him for breakfast in a real match.

“You know no one fights you in the gym at 100 percent, right?” I said.

“Well, neither do I,” Josiah said. “I was holding back.”

“They aren’t even fighting you at 50 percent,” I pressed. He needed to know the reality of the situation.

“So, what are you saying, Tommy? You think I’d lose to those guys back at the gym?”

“There might be one or two you could beat right now. It’s not personal. Most of those guys are extremely seasoned fighters. They humored us by fighting you at a 50% spar level, out of respect for me. And because of your age and lack of experience.”

“Wait, wait. Humored me?” Josiah sounded pissed. “No one humors me. They keep on their toes because they know if they let their guard down for one second, I will lay them out like cordwood.”

“That’s the whole point, Jo. You’re not supposed to lay anyone out unless you’re in the ring. They are on their toes against you because you’re not used to sparring and they are afraid they might take one on the chin. Nobody wants to take one on the chin when they’re just working out.”

“You really think I’m a pansy, don’t you?”

“A pansy? Hell no. You’re the toughest 16-year-old kid in the world. Those guys are in their mid-twenties at the top of their game. You need to keep things in perspective. You aren’t even done growing yet, bro. You probably have a couple inches in height and another 30 pounds to pack on before you win a title.”

Josiah nodded. I could tell he wasn’t buying it, but all I could was give it to him straight. “I have a question for you,” Josiah said.

“Go for it.”

What do you think about me trying out for football next year?”

“Football? You mean at your high school?”

“No, for the Oakland Raiders. Of course, my high school. I’m going to be a senior and I know I’m tougher than all those guys.”

“Football isn’t about hand-to-hand combat. It’s about colliding into your opponent at full speed. And it’s a team sport. MMA is about the individual.”

“I’ll figure out, and when I do, I’ll be the best at it.”

“Well, if you’re excited about it, I say go for it. You’re going to have to get your grades up and start going to school every day. They are really strict about that.”

“I’ll do what I have to do.”

“What position do you want to play?”

“Linebacker or running back.”

I looked at Josiah’s tall, lanky body and said, “You’ll need to pack on like forty pounds, but I think you’d be great.”

“I’d be more than great.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” I paused and took a long gulp of my wheat grass and lime drink. It tasted like ass. “How’s your drink?”

“It tastes like what you imagine Flintstone vitamins would taste like if you blended them up in a blender with some juice and bits of pieces of human ass.”

“Yeah. I’m with you there. All I know is, it’s good for you.”

“So they say. Wouldn’t it be something if 20 years from now they figured out that vitamin drinks like this were the leading cause to cancer and diabetes?”

“That’s pretty morbid!” I looked at Josiah and he was a really handsome kid. Girls and women often checked him out and he was oblivious to it. “Hey, Jo, do you have a girlfriend?”

“I was asked by a couple of different girls to my school’s Sadie Hawkins dance but I said no.”

“You said no to a three-way?” I joked.

“Not a three-way, two different girls asked me to go to the dance at different times.”

“Just playing around, kid. Don’t get your panties in a bundle.”

“Do you love my sister?” Josiah asked.

His question threw me because I wasn’t ready for it. I laughed out loud when he asked that.

“Why are you laughing?” he asked. “It’s not that funny of a question, she really cares about you Tommy, and if you don’t feel the same way, you better not hurt her. Cause if you hurt her, I’ll kick your—”

“Hold your horses, Teen Spirit. I’m very much in love with your sister.”

“You are?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? She’s hot. ”

“Is she? I can’t tell. She’s my sister. She hogs the bathroom because she’s always in the shower. She bakes stuff. She teases me. She smells funny.”

“No she doesn’t. Trust me. Your sister is a ten.”

“A ten, even!”

“Her personality makes her off the chart. She’s the best human being I have ever known. And she smells like heaven to me.”

“That’s good to know you feel that way. I’ll be sure to pass it along to my parents.”

“Okay, hold back the smell part from your parents. But why pass it on to them? Don’t your parents think I love her?”

“They worry about her. She’s ‘all in’ with you. They both think you’re an awesome guy. But, you kind of are a wild card at times.”

“What makes me a wild card?” I was always on my best behavior around Maya’s parents.

“Your personality,” Josiah said.

“What do you know about my personality?”

“You’re a little aloof and unpredictable. You have got to admit, you’re a pretty mysterious guy.”

I chuckled at Josiah’s statements. “I guess I am, kid.”

“Well, I wonder where you really go off to, once a month, to God knows where, to do God knows what.”

“Hey, I told you, I’m in the military, an elite force. Anytime, anywhere, they can call me and I have to go.”

“I know. So you said. Hey, can I ask a favor from you?” Josiah asked.

“Go for it.”

“Quit calling me kid. It makes me want to kick your ass every time you say it.”

“Kick my ass, huh?” I asked, amused. “You really think you can?”

Josiah just smiled.

Damn the kid was cockier than I was. No wondered I thought the world of him.

* * *

I got a strange call from Dave. “Kyro, what’s up?” Dave said.

“What’s up, my man? You know, you don’t have to call me Kyro. I just like for the others to do it.”

“Trust me. Today, you’re all about being Kyro. I need to meet with you and I need to come clean on some stuff.”

“Come clean? What the fuck does that mean?”

“Let’s meet up. I don’t want to do this over the phone.”

This was extremely bizarre, but I knew Dave needed to talk face to face. “Where do you want to meet?”

“It’s got to be somewhere really private. I’ll meet you at the beach.”

“The beach?” Damn, he really did want to do this privately. “Which one?”

“The pier in Huntington. Right off Pacific Coast Highway. There’s a fishing store on the pier. I’ll meet you right in front of it.”

“Seriously, I have to go all the way out there? That’s not exactly the next city over.”

“Just do it, Kyro. Trust me. You’ll understand when we talk.”

“All right, brother. I’ll be there in an hour.” I hung up the phone and just stared at the living room wall. I really needed to clean this front room. It was a mess. I had a cage in here for months and I never quite made it look nice since I moved it. I think I was expecting Maya to do it. Isn’t that what women do when they move in. Nest? The only nesting Maya did was in my medicine cabinet and closet space, as she shoved in her makeup, fragrances, leg-waxing stuff, jeans, tops, a few dresses, and dozens of pairs of shoes, boots, and sandals. She must have had a hundred pairs of footwear.

“Who was that?” Maya asked walking into the living room from our bedroom. She was running a brush through her long blonde hair. What a turn-on that was to me, to watch her draw the bristles through the yard of blonde silk shimmering from her head.

“It was Dave.”

“What did he want?” She saw me looking at her hair and brushed her hair more seductively, giving me the eye for a moment.

I grinned a bit at her flirting, trying to keep on track. “It’s important. He needs to talk.”

“Talk to you further than he did with you on the phone?”

“Yeah, he didn’t say what it was about. He wants me to meet him at the beach.”

“It’s nighttime. Does he want to go on a moonlight walk along the coast?”

“I think it’s the furthest thing from that. I’m not sure if I want to leave you alone here. I don’t have a good feeling about this. I’m going to drive you over to your parents. I’ll tell Dave I’ll be a little longer.”

“Is it that serious?” Maya asked. She threw her hairbrush on the coffee table, annoyed. No more flirting from her in the next few minutes, I knew.

“We are dealing with werewolves. God only knows what it could be about.”

“Are you going to be okay?” she asked, her big blue eyes filled with true concern.

“I’ll be fine. The pier where we are meeting is out in the open, so I’m pretty sure he’s not setting me up.”

“Do you think he’s capable of that?” Maya asked.

“My gut says ‘no.’ But we’re dealing with immortal dogs. I don’t know what stirs inside some of these guys. I trust Dave, and that’s all I know.”

So, Maya got ready and I took her home to her parents. I gave her a giant hug and kiss goodbye, and then made my way to Huntington Beach. I took the 91 freeway to the 55 freeway. Then I jumped on the 22 Freeway, and turned left on Beach Boulevard to Pacific Coast Highway. It took a while to find parking. But I managed to get a spot near the pier.

As I walked to the pier, I passed restaurants and shops that draped the beachside area. I loved the way the air smelled when I got this close to the beach at night – the salt air was fresh and invigorating and I inhaled, sucking in the scent of the ocean and everything and everyone on the pier—women’s perfume, men’s sweat, fish bait smells, sexual arousal of couples, and the occasional brown pelican with dead-fishy breath dozing on the railing. The pier overlooked the Pacific Ocean. It was around 9:00 p.m. and the ebony velvet night sky was painted liberally with stars. It was so romantic, so magnificent, that I almost wished I had brought Maya with me. Almost. It could be dangerous and my senses were sharp and aware of everything around me. But yeah, this was a happening date night place.

I spotted Dave right in front of a fishing shop, right at the end of the pier. Dave saw me and waved me over. He had blue jeans on with a large brown coat. I wasn’t as smart as Dave with my wardrobe. I only wore a long sleeved black T-shirt with blue jeans. It was getting chilly, but the curiosity was killing the cat, and I desperately needed to know what Dave wanted to talk to me about. My cold body would have to wait.

I walked up to Dave, and he and I shook hands and nodded at each other. There was a bench to the right of the pier that faced the water. We both walked over to it and sat down.

I sat there and stared straight ahead at the black ocean. “What’s up, Dave? You got me out here. So speak.”

“Tommy…”

“So, you’re calling me Tommy now?”

“Yes. This is serious. You know I’m legit, right?”

“Define legit?” I asked.

“You know I’m a real dude. I’m not full of shit.”

“I’m pretty good at reading bullshit, but every once in a while a great bull-shitter gets one by me. Are you a great bull-shitter, Dave?” I still had no clue what he was talking about.

“I became your friend,” Dave continued, “because I generally liked you. I have seen a lot of people come in and out of my life since I’ve been on this earth, and you are definitely a unique and fascinating individual.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere. Go on.”

“I’m saying this to you because you have to know I didn’t have anything to gain being friends with you.”

“At first?” I said leading.

“Huh?”

“You’re saying at first you had nothing to gain. You basically want me to know that your original friendship was legit. But, somewhere along the way, someone or something changed that.”

“Someone tried to,” Dave said.

“Okay. Now we’re on to something,” I said. “Who is the someone?”

“The someone is Marcos.”

“Marcos, the bar owner? I should have guessed.”

“Tommy, he is more than a bar owner.”

“How so?”

“He’s a shot caller.”

“Shot caller?”

“We have shot callers. Us, as in Carni. We have guys that for whatever reason, makes important decision that affect the rest of us.”

“That’s pretty ballsy. Who decides on who gets to be a shot caller?” I asked.

“It’s either through strength or money, or sometimes both. They become shot callers.”

“What shots, exactly, are they calling?”

“In regard to our Carni underground society, we have to police our own. We need to figure out which fight suits us best when it comes to the Mani. We are incredibly outnumbered in that regard. So we need to choose our own battles intelligently.”

“Why aren’t you a shot caller?”

“I’m neither strong nor rich. I am just old, experienced.”

“But you said a key word in that last bit of information you said to me. You said the word ‘intelligently.’ It seems to me that neither strength nor wealth make someone smart.”

“What are you saying?” Dave asked.

“I think you’re underplaying your role. I’m not sure why… but you’re not letting on how important you are. I see how others at the ranch up north revere you. Something tells me you have a bigger role. You might not be a shot caller, but you definitely have the ear of the shot caller.”

“Listen, Tommy. Do people listen to me? Of course they do. They have no choice, but to listen for their own survival. Otherwise, most of them would be dead by now.”

“Shit. I don’t like where this conversation is going, but do go on,” I said. “I respect the hell out of you, old man, but if you aren’t top gun, then who is?”

“Marcos is arguably the most important Carni. His power is a whole ‘nother level of our hierarchy.”

“Marcos? Seriously?”

“Why is that so hard to believe?”

“You’re saying that I happened to walk into the one bar – the one that is owned by the most important Carni? On the first night I did a ‘reach out’ I hit that kind of pay dirt? How did that happen?”

“The Triat drives some of us differently. The Triat wanted you to be there. That is why you were there, and that is why you met him. Don’t take that lightly.”

“We still haven’t got to the heart of the matter,” I said, “What exactly is Marcos trying to do?”

“He’s given me an ultimatum.”

“What kind of ultimatum?”

“He wants me to convince you to get back into fighting.”

“Well, that isn’t going to happen. It’s a decision I alone made.” I wasn’t sure what side Dave was on. There was no way I was offering up Maya’s name here. As far as he knew, it was 100 percent my decision. I’m glad I never told him the truth, that I had quit for Maya. “What did he say he would if you couldn’t convince me?”

“He said he would kill me.”

“Kill you? What the fuck?” I was angry now, not angry at Dave, but at the way Marcos was trying to use Dave to manipulate me. “He can’t just kill you.”

“Yes, he can. And he doesn’t mess around.”

“Why does he give a shit about if I fight or not? And how is it your life-or-death duty to convince me?”

“Because he wants to bet on you. He wants to be able to bet for you and against you. So he made me his pawn. And if I fail, that’s it. I’m history.”

“Against me, huh?” I said. “So, our friendship somewhere along the way turned into a courtship? A courtship where you try to get me to fight?”

“There hasn’t been any courtship. Have I ever brought it up?”

“Not yet. You’re doing a good job bringing it up now out here on a pier at the fucking beach.”

“Kyro, he has wanted me to do this for the last three months. I have completely avoided it. Not one time have I brought it up to you! I didn’t want to turn our friendship into making deals with you. You gotta know this, at some level, that I am forthright with you. You’re my packmate.”

I looked at Dave and I knew he was telling the truth. “So why now?” I asked.

“Because…” Dave stopped talking and tears burned his eyes. It was hard for him to talk to me freely because a part of him felt like he was betraying Marcos. But he was telling me the truth.

“So why here? Why now?” I repeated, trying to get him to cough it up.

“Tonight’s the ultimatum.”

“Huh?” I asked.

“Tonight’s the final night. He plans on killing me tonight if I don’t deliver you to him. Tonight.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? He plans on killing you? Tonight? And you are here and not speeding out of California in your car?”

“He’d find me. There is no hiding from him. And Marcos has a lot of human debt. He owes a lot of rich people money. He needs a guaranteed horse in this race. He thinks you’ll be it.”

I shook my head at the absurdity of what was being asked of me. “I’d rather you figured out who these guys are that Marcos owes money to and we work for them. Fuck Marcos!”

“I knew you would feel that way.”

“So, what are you asking me to do? Why am I out here?”

“Marcos plans on killing me, possibly whether I get you on board or not. I have this feeling that he wants to eliminate me, possibly the last of the old guard, the old original werewolves from 500 years ago, so that he can get the wise men out of the way, so to speak, and rewrite werewolf history his way, like some fucking...mafia don I can’t ask you to fight pro again, but what I can ask you to do is help me. I need for you to protect me.”

Poor Dave. To ask another man for protection was a pretty humble thing to do. I respected it because I respected him. “Of course, I will protect you, Dave.”

“Okay, that’s it, then. I’ll move in with you tonight.”

“Move in?”

“Yeah, the only way you can protect me if we are sleeping underneath the same roof.”

“Are you being serious?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? If I’m alone, he’ll kill me.”

“Okay, look, he’s not going to kill you. Why don’t you and I go down to his bar and try to work something out with him?”

“What could we possibly work out?”

“Look, he’s already in trouble with these human thugs. What if I offer to help him? Help protect him.”

“Protect him? I don’t think it’ll work. They want money and he owes it to them. If you kill their thugs, they will just send more of them.”

“Hmmm. Maybe there is a combination of a couple of things we can do that will help both of us. Let’s get out of here. I’m freezing my ass off on this pier. Next time, can you pick a heated pool at a hotel or something?”

He nodded. Dave and I walked back to my Mustang in the parking structure.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Dave asked as I started up the car and unlocked his door, then motioned for him to get in.

“If it was up to me, I wouldn’t do anything, Dave. You are the one who is so freaked out that this guy is going to kill you, that you had me meet you on a pier. Like some scene out of The Sopranos.”

“I just don’t know if you know what you’re getting yourself into by agreeing to protect me. When Marcos is in debt to someone, he becomes a whole new person. He’s not going to be that same fun-loving owner of a bar that you met a few months ago. He has gone seriously under since that night. And when I say under, I mean that he’s been dealing in dangerous liaisons to further his own agenda of power and control.”

“Fuck him. I’ll take my chances. I’m not afraid of anyone.”

“There is something else you need to know.”

“What?” I asked.

“Remember, when I told you that some Carni rise to the top of the werewolf food chain because of either money or strength?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, Marcos is both. He is probably the fiercest Carni fighter out there.”

I laughed. “I doubt that. I’ve had a look at him. Take away his wallet and he doesn’t look like much.”

“Trust me when I tell you that he is.”

“If he was both those things, he wouldn’t be so chicken shit about owing some guy some money. Does he have money? Yes, he does. Can he fight pretty well? Probably. He definitely was built like a fire plug. But, you described a fear of being pushed around by the guys he owes money to. If a guy is tough enough, not even that will scare him. He doesn’t know fear.”

“Do you know fear?”

“Barely, I know adrenaline. I know what it feels like to fight for my life. There’s nothing on this Earth that’s as big of a rush than when you’re standing toe to toe with a guy and you’re not sure if he has you. Or if you have him.”

Dave looked at me and shook his head. “Well, at least I brought the right guy with me. Now the question will be, will we walk out of there alive?”

* * *

In about 45 minutes, we arrived in front of the ‘Bottoms Up!’ bar.

“Let’s go through the front so Marcos can see us coming,” Dave said.

“Don’t know any other way,” I said.

This time, we both just walked past the large bouncer at the front door. “Bro!” I said by way of greeting and we bumped knuckles. If things came down to a fight, it would be nice not to have Tiny coming up behind me with a baseball bat or something.

“Marcos was asking about you, Dave,” Tiny said as we walked by him.

“I bet he did,” Dave said. Dave gave me a look as if to say ‘Here goes some drama.’

Inside the bar, it didn’t look much different than it did a couple of months ago. It was another big Sausage Fest. But this time, there weren’t any scantily clad woman hanging around. It must be terribly financially rough around here, being that there were no women around. Those kind of woman are attracted to loose money. They usually are the beneficiaries of such cash. When men have money to burn, one of the things they like to satisfy is the urge between their legs. And all of the arm candy girls seemed to have evaporated.

“He’s in the back. He’s expecting you,” a different bartender said to Dave. The bartender tonight was a tall, lanky, white guy with a goatee.

“Thanks, Ryan,” Dave said. I nodded politely at Ryan. He looked like a decent guy.

Dave led me to a room in the back. He knocked and a bigger gentlemen answered the door. He peeked his hairy head out and looked at us and said, “Get in here.”

We stepped in and now I was on ‘high alert.’ ‘High alert’ is what I called it when I knew something could go down at any moment.

Marcos was playing poker with a group of men that made the Godfather crew look tame. Marcos saw me and smiled. “Nice to see you, Tommy. You play poker?”

“A little bit,” I said. “Apparently, I need to work on my etiquette.”

“Don’t we all? Why don’t you have a seat and get in on a hand?” Marcos said.

“Actually, if I could speak to you for a minute, I can get out of here and let you fellas finish your game. I won’t take ten minutes of your time.”

“Well, which is it? One minute or ten?” Marcos said.

I looked at Marcos and grinned with a smile that I knew did not reach my eyes. It was my deadly smile, the one I sometimes used just before I snapped and hit someone. This was where he would start breaking me down, trying to make me fight for him, and he would use Dave as a bargaining chip. “It will be closer to ten minutes,” I said in my deadly soft voice.

“Why don’t you have a seat in my office? I’ll be there when this hand is over.”

“Sounds good.” There was a little room to the side of the card table that appeared to be his office. Dave and I walked into his office, and Dave closed the door behind us.

Dave looked at me. “I know Marcos. This isn’t good. He never cares that much about a poker hand. He’s making us sweat.”

“He’s making you sweat. I’m perfectly fine.”

“Why wouldn’t you be? Your life isn’t being threatened.”

“Not yet,” I said. “I plan on that happening very shortly. If Marcos is the kind of guy I think he is, he won’t lead with that. Although, by the end of our conversation, I’m sure that the threat of your death will be on the table. He isn’t going to kill me. I’m his dog in the fight. And you’re with me, so trust me. We’ll get this all straightened out with Marcos.”

Dave raised his eyebrows and sighed, worried. I could smell his fear and it hurt me that he was that scared of Marcos, that fucker.

In about ten minutes of sitting in silence, the door opened and Marcos came in with two of his goons. Classic intimidation. Where did he learn his business methods? From a James Cagney movie? He had two guys about 6 feet 5 each, and packing the power of 250 pounds on either side of him. Both had bald heads and thick beards. Like I said, goons.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s get started.”

“Hold on, Tommy. I mean Kyro… I’ll say when we start.”

“You can say whatever you like, but as far as I’m concerned, we’re going to start,” I said, not allowing him to intimidate me.

Marcos stared at me with bewilderment. I think it had been a long time since someone had spoken to him like that; especially in his own bar, in his very own office. I didn’t take shit from anyone and I wasn’t about to start now.

Marcos sat behind his desk in his big office chair and leaned back, staring at me. “I can’t determine if you’re smart or stupid,” Marcos said to me.

“Try both. At least that’s what my grandmother says,” I said, not flinching.

“I bet she does,” Marcos said. “I take it that the reason why you’re here is that you want to discuss our arrangement.”

“What arrangement is that? Never been clued in on any arrangement.”

“I’m sure Dave has talked to you about what I like to do,” Marcos said, glaring at Dave. Dave cowered when Marcos looked in his direction. I gave Dave a look as if to say, ‘Man up.’ I knew things were going down shortly, very shortly.

“Dave let me in on a little bit, but I can’t wait to hear it from you,” I said. “The specifics. Let’s get the ball rolling. What is your offer?”

“I want to sponsor you to fight. Pay for training and make sure you’re set up nicely.”

“That’s very generous of you. What’s in it for you?” I asked.

“You win when I tell you to win and…”

“Lose when you tell me to lose,” I said finishing his sentence. “There’s a problem with that plan. I don’t lose.”

“That’s why, when it happens, it will be such a huge payday for everyone involved. Even yourself.”

I looked at Marcos and his two bald thugs to either side of him and thought to myself, Is this guy for real?

“Look Marcos, there are a lot of problems with your plan, the main problem being that I’m retired from MMA.”

“But I thought you said you don’t lose! How can you not lose if you don’t fight?” Marcos said, baiting me.

“For the time being, I’m retired.” I didn’t want to tell him why I was retired, because this sick fuck might go after Maya. “Marcos,” I said. “I don’t plan on fighting in the near future, but when I do. I’ll be sure to let you know. Because it’s a sure bet to always bet on me ... Winning, that is.”

“Why did you even come here?” Marcos asked. “You knew what I wanted. So why get up in my face to just tell me no?”

“I wanted to make sure that my man here is okay. I’m not saying I won’t ever fight again, but I’m not going to do it anytime soon. I want you to lower the heat on Dave. He’s a good guy. Loyal.”

“There’s no heat on Dave,” Marcos said unconvincingly.

“From what I hear, his underwear is on fire and you are the one with the gasoline can.”

“If you think you’re going to fight again, then everything is going to be fine,” Marcos said. “If not…” He gave me a genuine smile and delivered an even brighter one to Dave.

I stared at Marcos, trying to get a read on him. I wasn’t sure how much he was telling the truth, but what did I know?

I stood up and shook his hand. “I’ll let you know when I’m ready to fight. I’ve got to clear my schedule and take care of some things first.”

Marcos smiled and nodded his head. Dave and I exited the office and out the room and eventually, left the bar completely.

“Do you trust him?” I asked Dave.

“Not at all,” Dave said.

“Tommy?” Dave asked.

“What?”

“Can I...”

“Yes, you can come home with me. I don’t want Maya to be worried, so I’m not going to tell her about this.”

“Just make sure you don’t leave me alone, and I’ll be fine. Also, we need to stop by the pier and pick up my car. You can follow me.”

I shook my head and couldn’t believe that I was taking in another stray werewolf.

* * *

To say that Maya wasn’t too happy with my good Samaritan move with Dave was an understatement. But to her credit, she hadn’t complained much. Dave was real respectful, but he did follow me around like a puppy dog like he said he would. He was afraid to be out of my sight. He even waited outside the bathroom door for me. And he slept on a blanket on the floor outside my bedroom. I put up with it because he was possibly the last original werewolf remaining from 500 years ago. He was a cultural treasure, a jewel. There was no way I would let anything happen to him.

But it made it hard on dates with Maya because we always brought him along as the third wheel. It put a crimp in my love life with Maya, even to the point of having really quiet sex, but I reminded myself that he was probably the last standing werewolf from the Renaissance era – it pretty much blew me away what Dave must have experienced. I hoped this bodyguard duty wouldn’t last much longer but I wanted to know more of what he knew. Dave had to be a fount of info on werewolf society. Little by little, I was drawing things out from Dave as we grew to trust each other. I was hoping that Marcos would eventually look to other options on how he needed to get out of the gambling hole he had dug for himself.

It was the day before the first full moon. Dave and I were packing up my Mustang for the monthly road trip up North. I had already dropped off Maya earlier in the day at her parents’ house. It would take about six hours to drive north at about 8:30 p.m.

So, we decided we would head out around noon. Dave and I had a rare separation, in which he needed to go home and grab some things for the weekend. He wanted me to come with him, but I thought it would be a good idea for him to start doing some things alone and maybe he could wean off his need for me to be around him 24/7. It seemed fairly safe to let him just go do some errands on his own.

At about 11:00 a.m., Dave drove his car to his house, which was just up the street a ways. He needed to grab his clothes and wanted to get his video game system. He told me he had been jonesing for his Xbox ever since he moved in. I had a PS3 and don’t get me started on the two game systems. Xbox owners seemed to think they have the perfect machine. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great system. I just think PlayStation 3 has a higher caliber of game that’s only exclusive to their product.

So Dave took off, and I waited for him to get back. Soon noon rolled around and no sign of Dave. Then one o’clock rolled around and now I was worried. A prickle of fear ran down my spine and the hairs raised on the back of my neck. I was about to call him when I got a text from him. It read, ‘Hey Tommy, I got caught up going through some mail. I’m sorry. Why don’t we just take separate cars this time? I need to pay a couple of bills. I’ll see you up at the ranch later this evening.’

Considering Dave mentioned paying bills before he left, I thought nothing about the text. Dave was a quirky guy and his text didn’t surprise me.

So I got in my car and headed up the 5 north. I called Maya and we took most of the way up. We had the ability to talk for hours all the time. I think that is when you know you have found the right person. In the movie, Pulp Fiction, there is a line where Uma Thurman says to John Travolta, ‘You know you found the right person when you can just shut the fuck up and have comfortable silences.’ I think the opposite. I think you have found the right person when you never want to shut the fuck up. You always want to share and learn about the person you’re with.

I stopped once for gas and I arrived at the ranch around 7:00 p.m. I saw the gang and they all asked me about Dave. I assured them he was coming, but we only had about 90 minutes until the full moon. Eventually, that time ran out and there was still no sign of Dave. I decided to text him. “Where the hell are you? Text me back. Now!”

I got no response. We were running out of time and me and my other four buddies needed to get outside before the full moon hit.

“Do you think he’s okay?” Evan asked. Evan was one of the twins who seemed to be very close to Dave.

“I hope so,” I said, my dread growing. “Let’s cross our fingers, and hope for the best.” I didn’t tell them about Marcos. I didn’t want to worry everyone just moments before we were all about to turn. The others seemed concerned, though.

Steve said, “Dave has shown up at the ranch every month for three years straight. He never misses a full moon.”

In my gut, I knew this wasn’t good. I had a sick feeling something really bad had happened to Dave.

But the moon was out and I had turned. I had no memory. I woke up in the morning underneath a tree, surrounded by my four friends.

We all relieved ourselves in the woods, and met back at the house.

“This wasn’t like Dave,” Eli said.

“Should we go look for him?” Albert asked.

“What do you guys think?” I asked. “You guys have known him for an awfully long time.”

“I haven’t a clue,” Steve said.

I decided to come clean myself. I told the guys exactly what happened with Marcos and everyone was certain that Marcos had something to do with Dave not showing up for the full moon. The Six Pack was minus a wolf and we were all upset about it.

I decided that I had enough time to get back. If I had to, I would go to my cage in Running Springs at my grandmother’s cabin. I told the guys I was going to take off and look for him. They all insisted on coming with me. I told them that my cage wasn’t big enough for all of us. But we agreed that the most important thing was to find Dave and make sure he was okay. So, five of the ‘Six Pack’ went to go find one of their own.

* * *

I had a sinking feeling that something horrific might have happened to Dave. My hunches were usually 50/50, so this one could go either way, too. I felt a sense of urgency that began to pump my adrenaline through my body, getting me ready for whatever I might find out.

I knew Marcos and the crew were at the junkyard. He was certainly resting nicely on the outskirts of town in the industrial district in his luxury kennel.

Although, I had the pack with me, and time was of the essence, I felt I needed to give Maya the heads up. Oh, who was I kidding? I wanted to see if Maya was safe. Dave was missing and my heart immediately got a stab of fear for her, too. I needed to see her and reassure myself that she was okay, too. I knew she wouldn’t like it, but I had no choice. I had to find out what happened to my friend. And I had to see if my girlfriend was okay, too.

We took two cars down to southern California. I drove my black Mustang and Albert drove his red low-rider truck. I stopped in at Maya’s parents’ house, and I had the guys wait in the cars.

I knocked on the door and Margaret, Maya’s mom, answered the door. “Tommy, oh my, you’re back early.”

“Just for a little while. I need to get back on duty, but can I speak to Maya for a few?”

“Sure, come in. She’s in her bedroom.”

Even though Maya lived with me, she still had a room at her parents’ house. I think that was a common occurrence with girls Maya’s age who had moved out with their boyfriends without a ring on their fingers to keep a backup plan: their old rooms.

I stepped into the house and no one was in the kitchen or living room. I headed down the hall and knocked lightly on Maya’s door.

“Come in,” she said from inside.

That was pretty trusting. I guess she had nothing to be afraid of in her own house, with her dad there. I slowly peeked my head and said, “Hey there, beautiful!”

“Tommy!” Maya jumped up from her bed, ran over to me and gave me a hug. She acted like she hadn’t seen me in years. I guess that’s why I love her so much.

“What are you doing here?”

“We have a little problem.”

“We do? As in you and I?” Maya asked.

“No, I have a problem, as in, Dave and I.”

“What happened to Dave?”

“That’s the thing. I don’t know. He went to his apartment to grab some items and he texted me that he was running behind and would just drive up himself.”

“He never showed up?”

“Nope.”

“Did you think anything was weird when he texted you that he’d drive himself up?”

“I did, Maya. But it made more sense that there wasn’t a problem.”

“Have you talked to him?”

“No, he isn’t answering his phone or text messages.”

“What do you think happened?”

I was quiet because I had kept the reason that Dave had been staying with us the last couple of weeks a secret. “Dave had been hanging around me for the last couple of weeks for a specific reason.”

“Why?”

“He needed me to protect him, if needed.”

“Protect him, from what?”

“From that guy I told you about a few months ago. Marcos Fausto. The owner of that bar I visited. He wanted Dave to talk me into fighting again.”

“What? Why would the owner of that werewolf bar care if you fought professionally or not?” Maya asked. “What business is it of his what you do?”

“It was exactly what you were afraid of. He wanted to control my win-loss record and bet on me accordingly.”

“He wanted you to throw fights?”

I nodded. “Dave refused to give me up to the scheme. When Marcos found out that I had no intentions to fight again, he threatened Dave.”

“Threatened him? How?”

“He threatened to kill him if I wouldn’t agree to fight.”

“Oh great! So you brought Dave here to babysit him from Marcos? You had me sleep underneath the same roof as him?”

“It made sense, Maya. I knew if I had you both close to me that I could protect both of you. I lost Patrick and Sasha recently, and I didn’t want to lose another good friend.”

“I can’t believe you did this, Tommy. And further, you kept it a secret from me what the hell was going on behind the scenes for the new stray werewolf you dragged home. Again. Is it always going to be like this? That the werewolf clan comes first, before me?”

“It’s a pack. Not a clan.”

“Whatever!” she said. “This is not okay with me, Tommy. You don’t get it. I want an ‘us’ and you want to drag home every werewolf home is in trouble and protect them. First Sasha, now Dave. We are not an animal shelter!”

I winced and she noticed but said, “When is this going to end, Tommy? When?!”

“Look, Maya, you need to understand. I don’t see any danger if I’m in the vicinity of a given problem. I am always certain I can protect myself and anyone else I choose to protect. Including you.”

“It must be nice to have that kind of confidence. I don’t have that kind of bravado.”

“That’s why I didn’t tell you. I knew you would be safe, and that was all there was to it.” I paused. “You should be safe here as long as Josiah’s here. Where is he now?”

“Trying out for some football thing,” she said. “He’ll be home for dinner soon. It’s Mom’s special spaghetti night. He never misses it. He’s planning on ingesting about five thousand calories of pasta, sauce and garlic bread. A carb-loading he called it. Mom has been cooking for two days.”

My mouth watered as I caught a whiff of the feast from the kitchen. “Whew, I feel better knowing that he’ll be home soon.” I paused. “Your dad have a gun in the house, just in case?”

Maya shook her head at me. “Josiah is my gun. Better than a gun, in fact. And for the sake of your friend, Dave, I’m going to move on from this part of the conversation. This is definitely a conversation we are going to revisit in the near future. When I am not so pissed off. And when you have more time.”

“I’m sure we will.”

“Have you talked to Marcos about anything?” Maya asked.

“We both talked with him a couple of weeks ago and he seemed okay, but now I wonder if it was all a ruse.”

“Where’s Marcos now?”

“At a junkyard in south Anaheim.”

“A junkyard?”

“You know where all those industrial building are on the other side of Disneyland by the 5 freeway. There’s a junkyard across the way from a sticker factory.”

“Why is he there?”

“He owns these luxury werewolf kennels. He has werewolves go there and he protects them with high-end cages when they turn. He provides them with some luxuries and safety beyond a cage. It’s more like a resort. Actually, not a bad business if you think about it.”

“And you think Dave is there?”

“I don’t know. We’re first going to check his apartment, but if something doesn’t look or feel right, we are going to see Marcos at the junkyard. And I’ll beat it out of him if I have to, to find out what he has done with Dave.”

“I don’t want you to do anything,” Maya said directly to me. Maya cared about me, and I knew I wasn’t going to get her permission to go. The thing is, I never ask anyone’s permission to do anything. I had given in to her not letting me fight, but this time, a friend’s safety was on the line. Not even Maya could stop me from doing this.

“I’m sorry, Maya. I’m going,” I said. “He’s my friend and I have to know what happened. Especially, after I gave him my word that I’d protect him.”

“What did he give you?” Maya asked.

“Huh?”

“If you are willing to put your life on the line for someone, they better have offered you something great in return. Even an imperative scrap of wisdom. Come on, throw me a bone, Tommy! What did Dave offer you in return for your protection?”

I stood there quietly and simply said, “I don’t ask for anything. My loyalty is for free. You know that.”

Maya stared at me, and she was not happy. “Why did you even come here like this? To torment me?”

“No! Because, I wanted you to know where I went.”

“Why?”

“Because, it’s going to be dangerous. If something happens, I wanted you to know…what happened and where. These guys are Carni and they know how to eliminate other Carni from this earth easily.”

“That’s reassuring.” Tears began to drip from her eyes. Dammit! This was the last thing I wanted.

“Am I ever going to see you again?” she whispered. “Tommy!” she wailed as quietly as a girl could in her parents’ house.

“Believe in me, Maya,” I said. “I promise that I’ll come out on top. Sweetie, I got to go. I could sit here and talk to you all day, but I have people in the car. We need to see if our friend is okay.”

“You brought back the whole six-pack over here?”

“Everyone, except Dave. That’s why we’re here.” I leaned over and kissed Maya on the top of her head. I took in a deep breath through my nose and her scent was as fluid and aromatic as ever.

“Did you just sniff me?” Maya asked.

“Sure did.” Then, I kissed her lips and headed out of her room and out of the house.

* * *

Everything was taking a lot longer than I had hoped. We were losing daylight again. We stopped in Dave’s apartment and it was a mess. Things did not look good. There was an obvious struggle. I wasn’t sure when the guys got there. His phone was still on his dresser. I could see the text. I wasn’t sure if he or someone else I had sent me that text yesterday.

The five of us knew what we had to do. We needed to get to the junkyard.

We got back into our cars and made our way to find Marcos. Hopefully, when we found Marcos, we would also find Dave.

We pulled our two vehicles into the Industrial District of Anaheim. I was in my Mustang with the twins. Albert drove Steve in his lowered, red Nissan truck. Very hip-hop.

We took a couple of lefts and ended up right in front of the junkyard. The junkyard was completely fenced in with barb wire and metal fences. Across the street was Orion Commercial Stickers. There was an open parking lot in front of the sticker factory with a few cars parked in the driveway.

We parked our two cars on the street, and all of us got out of the two vehicles. We stood on the sidewalk that led toward the junkyard.

“Does everyone here know Marcos Fausto?”

“I’ve heard of him, I never met him,” Albert said.

“I met him once awhile back,” Steve said. “He was a big prick.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” I said. “Well, this is his Hotel for Dogs. And by dogs, I mean Carni. Behind those fences, he has some of the nicest and fanciest cages anyone can imagine.”

“I heard he charges $1,000 for a three-day stay,” Eli said.

“Apparently, his bar and this place aren’t covering his gambling debts. That’s why he was putting a lot of pressure on Dave.”

“Why Dave?” Evan asked.

“Dave knows me and Marcos knows that we became friends. Marcos wanted to control me with my fighting. Typical Don King bullshit.”

“But you said, ‘no,’” Steve asked.

“No one controls me. Especially, a backward asshole like Marcos Fausto,” I said plainly.

“Well, how do we get in there?” Eli asked.

I looked at the property and it was fairly secure.

“How do we get his attention?” Ethan asked.

“Why don’t you and brother rip off your shirts and start flexing,” I said. I knew it wasn’t the time for a joke, but we needed to break some tension. Just then, I saw a couple of his henchmen walk outside. “It looks like they know we’re here.”

The two men walked over to us. We were only separated by the caged fence. “May we help you?” the man said from behind the fence.

“I’m here to see Marcos. He’s probably expecting me.” I stared the man in his ugly bald face.

“Are you Kyro?”

“Yes.”

“Tommy-Kyro?” the guy confirmed.

“Just let him know, that Kyro and a few of his friends are here to meet with him.”

The men left for a couple of minutes. Then they returned and opened up the gate, I noticed they didn’t lock it once we entered through. They were obviously planning on us leaving quickly. The five of us went through the gate. The junkyard was exactly that, a junkyard. There was crap everywhere out front. I suspected that we would be taken to the back of the property. Where they kept the cages and living conditions, but to my surprise, Marcos, and about ten of his men, came from out back and met us in the front.

“What can I do you for, Kyro?” Marcos asked as he walked up, staring me down like a teenager ready to throw down at a moment’s notice.

“I’m going to keep this short, Marcos. Where’s Dave?”

“Where’s Dave?” he asked, mocking my question. “Did you lose your little friend?”

“He’s my friend,” I said firmly. “He was your acquaintance first,” I said. “He never showed up last night, and I thought I’d come by and see what you know.”

“I am not your ‘Dave’s keeper.’ Did you check his apartment?”

“Yep, it looks like you went in there and thrashed the joint.”

Marcos was quiet, and then broke his silence with a smile then followed by an awkward laugh.

“Let me get this straight. You think I know the whereabouts of your friend and I went to his apartment and turned it upside down?”

“Look, dude. Man up. Quit this going around in circles bullshit. Dave was under the impression that unless I fought on your behalf, you would kill him. Now he’s gone. So, in my book, you’re prime suspect number one. Don’t make me call out the Tandra police.”

He laughed at that. “And who are you, fucking Columbo? Even if I knew where your friend was, why would I tell you? And just who the fuck do you think you are to dictate these terms with your lame threats?”

“I’m ‘nobody,’” I said. “A ‘nobody’ who will rain a whole lot of hell on you. If you thought owing some thugs a few bucks, made you nervous, you haven’t tried being on my bad side. You wanna see MMA fighting? I can and will go MMA on your person if you don’t cough up Dave, safe and sound.”

I looked up and I knew we were up against the elements. It was going to be dark real soon. That would mean there would be the second full moon in which all the Carni in the junkyard would surely turn.

Marcos caught me looking at the sky, and he grinned. “Worried?” he asked.

“About?”

“About ‘turning,’ and not being in a safe place when the moon rises?”

“Do you see my friends next to me? As long as I’m with them, any place is a safe place,” I said, with about as much confidence as a man could possess.

“What do you expect to get from this meeting? Tommy Jensen?” Now he was calling me by my real name, my Tandra name. He knew I didn’t like that, from other werewolves.

“You tell me where Dave is and I might let you live,” I said.

“Let me live?” Marcos laughed. “No one knows where Dave is!” Marcos yelled out. “Unless you believe in the afterlife and maybe he’ll come back as a slug or a daffodil.”

I kept quiet, holding in a howl of grief as I saw the murder in his eyes. I looked at my guys and then looked at the sky. The sun was going down, and it would only be a matter of time until we would all start to change. I wasn’t leaving. Marcos smug face was enough to make me feel like I needed to throw up. Or kill Marcos.

“Did you kill him?” I asked softly. Dave was the keeper of werewolf history, for five hundred years. And he was a hell of a nice guy, too. I was attached to him. Very attached.

“I didn’t kill him.”

“So, he’s alive?” Again, I was talking extremely quietly.

“I wouldn’t waste my time on a second-rate werewolf like Dave. I had a couple of my boys camp out at his place, and wait for him to come home.”

Anger and disdain began to rise in my core. I was about to pounce on Marcos with reckless abandonment, but a strong smell came from behind me. It was a distinct smell that was filed into my memory bank. It was Maya’s unique smell that I only I knew. She was here, still smelling of sex with me. I was almost freaked out of my mind with fear of something happening to her. I backed up and turned my body around to not make it obvious that I was looking for someone else. I was looking in the opposite direction. There, across the street was Maya, sitting there in her parents’ car, all by herself, like she was waiting for a burger at a drive thru, yes, that nonchalant. Shit! What was she doing here? I turned around and looked at Marcos and made sure I didn’t tip my hand that my girl was across the street, watching in plain sight. “We are seconds away from the full moon,” I said to Marcos.

“Looks like we are,” Marcos said to me. Then everyone spread out, getting ready to battle. Marcos and I were having a good, old-fashioned standoff. Both of us knew that if we didn’t move, we would turn into werewolves right out here in the open. I glanced over at the gate, and saw that it was still unlocked and that was the last conscious thought I had.

The full moon had arrived.

* * *

I woke up and I was in a cage, a really nice cage, to be exact. It had a great tree in the middle with blankets, and pillows. There were slabs of raw meat in the corner on a plate—T-bone steaks—and my mouth was watering. “How in the hell did I get in here?”

I called out, “Hello?”

Then, from around the corner, Maya walked in, sipping on a cup of coffee that smelled like a Starbucks roast. Wherever, I was, she was here, too. She had a few scratches on her arm, claw marks. But she was looking well.

“Where are we?” I asked. I turned and peed behind a tree that had been planted inside the cage. By now, she knew my drill, too. Wake up and pee like a racehorse. Get let out of the cage.

“We’re in Marcos’s luxury cages,” Maya said.

“Who is we?” I asked.

“You and each one of your friends. You five survived,” Maya said with a big smile. My heart stabbed. Dave was not here. She would have told me if he was.

“Where are Marcos and his men?” I asked.

“None of them survived.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means your five-pack killed all of them pretty easily.”

Whoa! Wow! I digested this news without remembering what had gone down.

Soon, I began hearing each of my friends call out from other cages that were apparently in other rooms.

“Come on,” she said. “Everybody wants to re-bond in their Carni forms.”

Maya let me out of my cage and one by one, we let out my friends from their cages. Each one of them were safe. My head was spinning because I had no idea what happened since moon rise last night.

“Where can we de-brief?” I asked Maya, who had had plenty of time to make herself familiar with the werewolf luxury kennel layout.

“I’ll show you,” she said, and we followed her like puppies, her perfume and fresh coffee like an allure that we all scented. She sashayed down a florescent lit hallway like the girly Tandra chick that she was.

There was a conference room at the front of the facility and my five friends and Maya all made our way over there to that room. She seated herself at the head of the conference table and motioned for us to sit. I had to hand it to her, she had her moments where I admired the hell out of her. She was running the show this morning.

We all looked at each other confused because none of us knew what happened.

“Introductions, please,” Maya said to me, like she was running some kind of corporate meeting. I played nice. After all, she did let us all out of the cages. And was likely the person who led us in them.

“Maya, this is Eli, Evan, Steve, and Albert. My…pack.” Minus Dave. “Everyone, this is the love of my life, Maya, my beautiful Tandra. Apparently she is the only one that knows what happened.”

Evan and Eli had scratches and bruises all over their toned bodies. They looked as confused as I was.

“What happened, Maya?” I asked. All of us looked to Maya, very eager to learn what had happened.

Maya stood up in front of the five us men and began to speak: “First of all, as soon as you all turned, I noticed that T—Kyro, you were the alpha wolf, and I mean it was obvious to me that you were the leader of the pack. I got the idea that werewolves follow the alpha wolf because they trust him and I was right. I sort of herded the others behind you and you led them in a full-on pack assault.”

“You could have been killed in the fray, Maya. One of us could have turned on you instinctively, and hurt you. Bitten you.”

She paused. “They trusted the pack leader and I trusted you. None of you tried to hurt me because you led the pack away from me and straight toward the bad guys. You guys, the five of you, were like a well-oiled machine. When the full moon hit, it was like poetry. Marcos and his wolves were unorganized under his crappy leadership. Not you guys. You teamed up and isolated them from each other. You dismantled them, tore them apart in sprays of blood that arced twenty feet in the air. They had no chance against you guys. You were more vicious and lethal than a platoon with automatic weapons. You were a blur of teeth, claws, fur, mud and blood. You were the terminators. The victors. The assassins…”

“Let me get this straight,” Steve said. “We killed all of those guys?”

Maya was quiet and then said, “Yep.”

“Holy shit,” Albert said. “Where did they go?”

“They all disappeared when they died,” Maya said. “Vanished.”

We all had so many questions.

“After the battle, how the hell did you get five werewolves in the cages?”

“Well,” Maya said, with a grin, “I opened five cages and put special steaks in them, from the kennel fridge and then I found a control panel in the security booth that could play the sounds of…” her voice trailed off.

“Could play what sounds?” I asked Maya.

“A female werewolf’s seductive call, something between a howl and a whimper. I read their procedure manual and they had a protocol for recapturing any escaped male werewolves with this sound effect and special steaks in the cages. Steaks with a little bit of tranquilizer in them. And so I got them out of the freezer and microwaved them a bit. They were labeled just for this purpose, and I used them. First I lured you all into the kennel with the recorded sexy female wolf sound played through loudspeakers, and you ate the steaks that I left in each cage. Then, you all went nighty-night on your blankets from the Valium in the steaks, and I sneaked back in the kennel and locked you all up until dawn. It was a cinch.”

“Geez, Maya. Do you have that procedure manual?” I asked.

Maya patted her bulging shoulder purse. “Oh, that and more, boys. That and more.”

Albert said, “Thank you, Maya, for what you did. You risked your life last night to help us destroy Marcos’s pack.”

She smiled but only had eyes for me. And I for her. And then the moment broke when we heard a bunch of guys yelling to be let out on the other side of the kennel.

We went around and let others out of their cages, all of the werewolves who had paid money to Marcos to stay here. We looked and looked but there was no trace of Dave and no one had seen him. We asked everyone.

We told them that Marcos would no longer be running this place, but if they came back the following night, it should be fine because no one was watching the place. It looked like it was going to be a free for all. No credit cards required from now until someone caught wind of an unpaid electric bill or something and shut down the place. This bit of news, that everything was now free, eclipsed any perceived sentiment or loyalty that Marcos and his henchmen were killed. The place was now operating on…greed.

All of the other Carni guys in our five-pack went back with Albert in his truck. I decided to stay with Maya. I had more questions about what happened. There was something that she wasn’t telling us…I felt it deep in my werewolf instincts, that she was hiding something so important that it was imperative that I find out what it was.

To be continued in:

Loving Maya

Werewolf Love Story #4

Available now!

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BAD BLOOD

by J.R. Rain, Scott Nicholson
and H.T. Night

Published by J.R. Rain at Smashwords.com

Copyright © 2011 by J.R. Rain

All rights reserved.

Bad Blood

Chapter One

Class was over.

I was making my way to my car in the dark, my backpack slung over my shoulder, when the girl came running up behind me. We had exited class together, junior year United States history, when I heard her fall into step behind me. I didn’t have to turn and look to know I was being followed. I didn’t even have to turn and look to know who it was, because I could smell her.

It was the new girl. Well, new as of two weeks ago. And she smelled of flowers and shampoo and clean clothing. She also smelled of curry, which is why I knew who she was, since most girls smelled of only flowers and shampoo.

I’ve always liked unique girls, as much as I can like anything.

I had just clicked my car door open, using the keyless remote, when I heard her footsteps pick up their pace. She was moving faster, coming up behind me. I heard breathing now—her breathing, and I might have heard something else, too. I might have heard, mixed with the sounds of cars starting and our classmates talking and laughing, I might have heard her heart beating.

And it seemed to be beating rapidly.

It should beat rapidly, I thought. Here be monsters.

My back was still to her as she stopped behind me. Her scent rushed before her, swirling around me like a dust devil, and I inhaled her deeply and spun around.

Her face was a little orange under the cheap streetlights. She had opened her mouth to speak, but instead she gasped. She hadn’t expected me to turn on her. Heck, maybe she even thought she had approached quietly.

Maybe she wasn’t sure she had wanted to talk to me. Maybe, just prior to my spinning around, she had decided to do the smart thing, turn herself around, and leave.

Maybe she had heard stories of me. Maybe she had heard that I was different from other students. That there was something odd about me.

I heard the stories, too. Mostly, of course, I overheard the whisperings behind my back. They didn’t know I could hear them. They thought they were being discreet. But I heard their harsh words. I heard their hateful stories. I heard them speak ill of me. I heard their laughter, but mostly I heard their fear.

I heard everything.

Her gasp hung in the air, much like her mouth hung open. She was a pretty girl. Long, blonde hair. Brown eyes impossibly round. She was small but curvy. She looked like a doll all grown up into its teen years.

“You are following me,” I said.

She closed her mouth. Some of the students spilling out into the parking lot watched us. In fact, most of the students were watching us. I ignored all of them. All of them, that is, except this new girl.

“Yes, sorry,” she said.

“Why are you sorry?” I asked. I turned and opened my car door. I tossed my backpack into the backseat.

“I don’t know,” she said.

“You look like you saw a ghost,” I said.

I heard her heartbeat clearly now. It thumped rapidly. It even seemed to labor a bit, which might mean she had some sort of heart condition, surprising for one so young. She looked once over her shoulder, and I could almost hear her thinking, although my hearing isn’t quite that good. She was thinking, and I would have bet good money on this, I can still leave now. Make up a good story, or even a bad one. Anything. Just leave. They call him a freak for a reason.

But she didn’t leave, and I knew why. Because they don’t just call me a freak.

They also call me Spider.

“You need help,” I said, draping an arm over my open car door, letting it support some of my weight.

She quit looking around and now she held my gaze, and as she did, her heartbeat steadied. She was no longer afraid. Then her eyes pooled with tears, but she did not look away even as the tears spilled out.

“Yes,” she said.

“Do you have a ride home?” I asked. I’d learned to never trust tears.

“I walk.”

I motioned toward the passenger seat. “Get in,” I said, “And let’s talk.”

Chapter Two

Seattle at night is beautiful. Seattle at night with a beautiful girl is even better.

We drove in silence. My car is an old Mustang, not a classic, but old enough to give me problems. That night I had no problems with it. The windows were down as the cool air whipped through the interior. I glanced to my right once and saw the new girl was huddled in the center of the seat, hands in her lap, looking straight ahead. I sensed her fear, or at least trepidation. Serious trepidation. I’m good at sensing things. I’m good at sensing emotions in others. It’s a survival mechanism, one of many.

I think, probably, anyone could have read her emotions. She would have looked nervous to any observer. I don’t know how it works for other people, I only know how it goes for me.

And sometimes I’m not even sure of that.

And I probably should have said something to help her relax. Perhaps something funny or sweet. But I didn’t feel funny or sweet. I felt angry and bitter, and it was all I could do to not pull over somewhere and tell her to get lost so I could be alone with my miserable thoughts.

I reminded myself that there were far worse things in the world than sitting next to a beautiful girl.

Far worse, and I’d experienced most of them.

She sensed me looking at her and huddled deeper into herself, wrapping her arms tighter around her body. I looked away, focused on driving. Lately, it seemed I had forgotten normal social etiquette. Or, more likely, it was that I didn’t give a damn about social etiquette. It was hard to care much about anything anymore.

Then why did you offer to help her?

Good question. I thought about the answer as I drove through the streets of downtown Seattle, past piercing skyscrapers and glitzy restaurants, past the many homeless and the many more tourists. It was late, sure, but it was also Friday night. Seattle was hopping.

I knew that mostly I didn’t want to help. Mostly, I wanted to be left alone. And for the most part I was alone. Perhaps too alone. To say that I was in a strange place in my life would be perhaps the understatement of the decade.

Mostly, I sensed a darkness filling my heart, filling my insides, and it scared the hell out of me. Helping others, even when I didn’t want to, seemed to keep the darkness at bay, or at least slow it down. And it helped fight off that creeping loneliness that was the eternal plight of my kind.

“Where are we going?” Her voice was small and whispery.

“Get you some food,” I said.

“I’m not hungry.”

“I disagree. I know you’re hungry.”

She looked over at me and I felt her eyes studying me closely. “Why do you think I’m hungry?”

“We were just in class for three hours. And, besides,” I said, looking at her, “it’s either that or you have a small alien inside you trying to get out. I can hear your stomach growling from here.”

She actually looked down at her stomach. Her brows knitted in a brief display of confusion. Finally she shrugged. “I didn’t hear it growl.”

“It’s growling now.”

She put her palms over her stomach. “How do you know that?”

“Not only are you hungry,” I said, whipping past a slow-moving scooter. “You haven’t eaten all day.”

“How do you—”

“Your stomach is completely empty.”

“But how—”

“How do I know your stomach is empty?”

“Yeah, how? Like you can read my mind?”

Actually, I knew her stomach was empty by the sounds it wasn’t making. Sure, it would growl every once in a while, but mostly there was no indication of any digestion going on at all. I decided to keep some secrets to myself. “Call it a hunch,” I said. “So do you want something to eat?”

I knew what her answer would be. “I’ll pay you back.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “It’s only money. There’s plenty of it out there for everyone.”

She looked at me and she might have smiled. “Thank you.”

“No worries,” I said, and was pleased to feel the darkness within me subside a little, loosen its hold on my heart. Just a little. “What’s your name?”

“Parker,” she said.

I almost laughed. “Is that your first or last name?”

“First, and don’t laugh.”

“I didn’t, did I?”

“No, but you almost did.”

“What’s your last name, Parker? Wait, let me guess...Cindy?”

“Ha, ha. It’s Cole.”

“Parker Cole, huh?” I said. “You sound like a child TV star or something. Ever had your own show? ‘Parker With a P,’ maybe?”

“I can’t tell if you’re being funny or mean,” she said after a moment. She had gone back to sitting in the middle of her seat, shrinking in on herself a little.

She wasn’t in my car for me to make fun of, or even hurt her feelings. A part of me didn’t care about her feelings. A part of me didn’t care about anyone’s feelings. But I was forcing that part of me to take a back seat. With some effort, I said, “I was just being stupid. Actually, you have a very nice name.”

“Thank you,” she said, but I had scared her off a little and she still sat closed on the seat. “Why do they call you Spider?”

“It’s a new nickname,” I said. “I’m not sure why.”

Actually, I knew damn well why they called me Spider. I heard the whisperings behind my back. I was creepy. Spiders were creepy.

I turned right up Denny Street and headed toward Capital Hill, which is an unofficial “district” of Seattle. Capital Hill is also known as the “Freak District,” and there, as we passed the homeless and junkies and fellow creatures of the night, I made a right onto State Street and soon turned into Dick’s, Seattle’s infamous burger chain.

Dick’s only served burgers and fries and Cokes and so I didn’t need to take her order. I told her to wait in the car and a few moments later, I returned with a single order of food. I gave it to her as I sat back down in the front seat.

She looked at the meal, then looked at me. We were sitting under a parking lot light and her face was glowing palely. The oddballs and freaks were consuming their hamburgers nearby, since Dick’s didn’t have any indoor seating, and were laughing and talking and sometimes arguing. I caught one or two of them looking our way, sort of like a wolf might that had observed some sheep that were almost within range.

“Nothing for you?” she asked.

“I’m not hungry,” I said. Which was a lie. I was very, very hungry, and I was watching some of the lost souls sitting on curbs just outside the glow of the parking lot light. They should have been in shadows, but to my eyes, they weren’t. They were clear as day, and the darkness in me wanted to do something very bold and very stupid. The darkness in me wanted to hurt and kill and suck and drink. I closed my eyes, and did my best to ignore the darkness.

“I can hear your stomach growling,” said Parker, and I knew she was teasing me.

“Ha, yeah. I’ll eat later,” I said, and decided to change the subject. “So tell me why you need my help, and why I’m the guy you picked.”

She took another bite, chewed slowly, and washed it down with some Coke. She set the Coke carefully in the cup holder, then turned and faced me, tucking one leg under her as she did so. Girls can do things like that. I couldn’t tuck my leg under me like that to save my life.

If I had a life to save, that is.

“They say you like to help people,” said Parker. “But most are afraid to ask you for help.”

“Afraid of me? That’s hilarious. I’m a buck forty, dripping wet. Who are these people you speak of?”

“Well, maybe not people, just the guy I asked about you.”

“Well, don’t believe everything you hear.”

“I heard what you did to those bullies. It didn’t make the papers, but word on the street says you’re either a hero or a lunatic.”

“Maybe a little of both,” I said, not even bothering to lie about what really happened. Word on the street trumps the truth, anyway.

“If people are afraid of you...why do you still like to help?”

“Helping makes me feel good.” And it kept the darkness from consuming me, which of course would have caused me to consume others. I looked at it as a little preventive health care for the universe.

“What kind of problems do you help with?”

“Any problems.”

“How do you fix them?”

“Any way I can. Whatever it takes.”

“But you’re my age...I don’t understand.”

“You don’t need to understand,” I said.

“But these are adults.”

“I fix adults, too,” I said. “What’s wrong?”

She had completely forgotten her food. She wondered if some punk teenager could help her with her problems, and I was beginning to suspect her problems were very, very big.

“Look,” I said. “None of us wind up in night school without a seriously screwed-up life. All the normal kids are getting trained for day jobs in regular society. We’re the sort they don’t want peeing in the pool. So whatever it is, it’s okay.”

She chewed without tasting, staring blankly out the window at her past.

I reached out and gently touched her forearm with my finger. I knew what the reaction was going to be, and so I was ready for her to shiver.

“I can help you, Parker. But you need to tell me what’s wrong,” I said, and something interesting happened as my fingers rested on her arm, as I spoke sincerely and honestly with her. The darkness in my heart, the dark whisperings that sometimes filled my mind, subsided. Subsided significantly. I almost, almost, felt human again.

“There is a man who likes killing girls.”

For most people, something like that would be a shock. But I’m not most people. I’m not even people.

“That’s terrible.” I didn’t ask if she was making up a story. She wasn’t.

“You believe me?”

“Who is this man?”

She turned and looked at me, and I saw the tears in her impossibly round eyes.

“My dad,” she said.

Chapter Three

I hoped this wasn’t a pervert case. I hate pervert cases.

“And you know this how?” I asked.

“That part I need to fill you in on later.” Her once-sweet, shy exterior had now turned a tad darker. Which was okay with me. Darker was right up my alley.

“So what can you tell me?” I now grabbed a pencil from my pocket and began writing on a piece of paper.

“What are you writing?” she asked abruptly.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “My notes will be cryptic.”

She didn’t get the wry humor. “Alright, my dad is one of the most intelligent men in the world. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. He’s a world-renowned physicist. He does a lot of research for Berkeley and Ivy League schools. Over the past eight years he’s been delving into a different, ah, kind of scientific method.”

“Different how?”

“It’s not even really scientific. It’s more...metaphysical. To put it simply, my dad runs a cult. He has this big compound called ‘Cloudland’ on a property near Mount Shasta.”

“A Moonie-type thing? Branch Davidians? Suicidal comet-hoppers?”

I wondered if she would catch the references, but she didn’t miss a beat. I guess when your dad runs a cult, you’re up on all things cultish. She said, “One man’s cult is another man’s paradise. But this is way bigger than just one power-tripping dabbler in the dark arts. He’s converting some of the greatest minds in the world into believing his theories.”

“And how does killing girls play into it?”

“Just like with every cult, people eventually wise up and want to leave.”

“And he kills them before they leave?”

“Well, he also wants the blood sacrifice, I guess. Killing two birds with one stone.”

“Why only girls?”

“Because he believes women are the conduit to the mystical power he wants to channel. The ‘feminine divine,’ I’ve heard him call it.”

“So mostly women are in his cult.”

“Right. Men are just not that attracted to a religion where they are second fiddle. Plus, he kind of likes to be the center of attention. He’s a total alpha male.”

“So what do you want me to do?” This was becoming a lot larger than anything I had previously taken on. There were a lot of layers to this.

“I want you to stop him.”

This was a pretty tall order for someone who, as far as she knew, was just another loser in night school. “Stop him how?”

“Any way you can.”

I would have thought she was a little out of her gourd if I didn’t suspect she was telling me the truth. I get a feeling from people, and more often than not it’s the right feeling. From her, I was experiencing honesty and fear and confusion. Still, even a crazy person could project honesty and fear. And pretty much everyone on the planet had a heavy case of confusion.

As I said, night school isn’t exactly a haven for the best and brightest. I’d have to learn a little more about Parker Cole, and even though I trusted her, I’d need to know things about her she wasn’t even aware of.

And I also needed to know what she knew about me. This was a little extreme for our first conversation. One minute I’m sitting across the aisle in history class, the next I’m hearing the kind of dark confession that don’t usually come up until at least the third date.

I said, “Do you want me to expose him for the fraud he is?”

“If that will stop him, sure. Especially if it will put him in jail.”

“Wouldn’t that ruin your life?” I asked. “Sounds like he makes good money, and all that will be gone. And you’ll wind up on Fox News as ‘The Daughter of the Monster.’”

“I can handle all that,” she said. “That’s a lot easier to live with than knowing it’s still going on.”

“Is your dad on to you?” I asked, knowing I sounded a bit like Dick Tracy, but sometimes there just wasn’t any better way of saying something. Besides, Dick Tracy was cat’s-pajamas cool back when I was alive.

Her eyebrows knitted themselves together. “On to me?”

“You know, does he know if you know what he’s doing?”

“You talk funny. How old are you?”

“Too old to rock and roll, too young to die.”

She wanted to say something else but didn’t. Parker was pretty and was probably used to getting her way. Pretty girls mostly didn’t get a reaction from me. Mostly.

“Fine,” she said petulantly, and I idly wondered if she even knew who Dick Tracy was, or Jethro Tull. Probably not. She said, “No. I don’t think he suspects anything.”

One of the guys I’d been watching at the edge of the scraggly shrubs came sauntering over. He wobbled a little, probably high on something. I could smell the cheap wine and stale tobacco and the urine, and his heart was beating faster than a little stroll would trigger.

“Trouble,” I said.

“It’s just some homeless guy.”

“Here’s a lesson they don’t teach you in night school, Parker. The most dangerous people are those with nothing to lose. You take a guy who is willing to strap dynamite around his waist and blow himself up in a crowd. What can you possibly threaten him with? He’s already decided his most precious asset, his life, is worthless.”

“You sure do talk funny.”

The guy wore a ragged Seahawks T-shirt and baggy jeans. He’d lived hard, so under the lights I couldn’t tell if he was teen or middle-aged. My window was down because of the mild weather, and I wasn’t going to roll it up, because that would have shown fear.

“Yo, yo, my friends,” he said when he was three feet from the car. “What you people looking for tonight?”

“We already found it,” I said. “Burger and fries.”

He laughed, showing dark gaps in his teeth. Meth addict, I figured. “You funny, man. But I bet you want something more.”

“We’re good,” I said. “We were just leaving.”

He leaned awkwardly into the car, his face a foot from mine, sharing the scents of all the poisons inside him. “I got what you want, and you got what I want.”

Parker instinctively clutched my arm. I wondered if she could tell my pulse was as steady as ever—six beats a minute.

“Later,” I said to the man, but as I reached for the ignition, he thrust one clawing hand toward my throat.

I knocked it away, and it cracked on the steering wheel. Maybe breaking a bone, maybe not. Not my problem.

With my other hand, I grabbed a fistful of his greasy hair and banged his forehead off the edge of the roof. When his mouth opened in pain, I plucked the remainder of Parker’s burger and shoved it in his mouth.

As he fell backward, grunting and choking, I said, “Don’t forget to tip the waitress.”

I started up the Mustang and headed back toward the school.

“That was...” Parker said, having trouble forming a sentence. “That was....”

“That’s one way I solve problems,” I said. “Are you down with that?”

I wanted her to know that some messes couldn’t be cleaned up with a whisk broom and dustpan. Sometimes you needed a hammer. Sometimes you had to bring out the big guns.

“Are you...going to do that to my dad?”

“Whatever it takes,” I said. “If that’s what you want.”

She sighed. “Whatever it takes.”

As I drove, I reached with my left hand to the edge of the roof, feeling the wet splotches there. “Do you live with him?”

“When he’s up from Berkeley, yes. But he spends most of his time at Cloudland. He comes home and visits his family once in a while.”

“Who else is in the family?”

“My younger sister Lilith and my mom.”

“Do they...know?”

“Mom’s like the robo-wife, on the library board and bridge club and whatever club it is where you drink a quart of vodka a day. Lilith is just a sweet, innocent kid. But I’m worried that Dad has designs on her.”

“Designs?”

“Looking at her funny. Thinking. Like maybe she’s about old enough to get in on the action.”

I pulled my fingers inside the window and pretended I was wiping my mouth. The blood was bitter and tainted, but intoxicating nonetheless. “Have you ever visited Cloudland?”

“A couple of times. I really don’t like it because all the girls go out of their way to kiss my ass so that they get on his good side. Plus they’re all spaced out on peace and love and that type of crap. Plus whatever he’s putting in the punch bowl. It’s just wrong.”

“Would he be opposed to you bringing your boyfriend down to meet him?”

“At Cloudland?”

“Yeah.”

“It would probably throw him off, but I’m pretty sure he’d be okay with it. Especially if we just popped in.”

“All right.” I said. “Are you up for it?”

“You’re serious?”

“As a corpse.” I pulled into the school parking lot, feeling a slight rush from more than just the blood. When I feed, I take on some of the victim. It’s one of the unfortunate side effects of my lifestyle, and in this case, the victim had definitely been on speed.

“But I didn’t do this to date you,” she said, running her eyes over me as if maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

“I’m not saying we’ll be dating for real. But we will need to pull it off around your family a couple of times before we go out and meet Dad. Your dad will be less suspicious of me if he thinks I’m just a goofy eighteen-year-old trying to get into his daughter’s pants.”

“You’re not a goofy eighteen-year-old? And you don’t want in my pants?”

“Oh, I’m goofy. Let’s just leave it at that.”

She was looking at me curiously as I took out a piece of paper from my glove compartment and wrote my number down for her. I was used to people looking at me curiously, but it always made me nervous—like I was an insect they wanted to swat with a newspaper, or maybe a snake to trap behind glass. I gave her my cell number and she looked at it, and then promptly snorted with laughter.

“Why does it say ‘Wal-Mart’ above it?”

“Because it’s better—and safer—than writing ‘Spider for Hire.’”

She snorted again. “But Wal-Mart? That’s so lame.”

“Not any lamer than being named Parker.”

“Jerk,” she said and slapped my arm.

“Well, if we’re dating, I’d better drive you home, so your dad can look out the window and see us.”

It had started raining. Big surprise for Seattle. The light patter on the roof of the car was always pleasant. Even after all these years of living, I loved the sound of rain. A few minutes later, following her directions, I pulled up in front of her two-story house.

It was upper middle class, and a Volvo wagon was parked outside. So Mr. Cole was the practical, safety-minded sort of psychotic religious fanatic. But it made me wonder why he forced his daughter to ride public transit.

When I stopped the car, she paused with her hand on the door handle. “So, you said ‘for hire.’ What will this cost me?”

She wore a little smirk as if she suspected it had something to do with the remark about getting in her pants.

The rain drummed rhythmically, hypnotically. Light from her front porch reached us weakly, illuminating her pretty face. “We’ll work something out.”

“That sounds creepy.”

“Not like that,” I said, although she had no room to call anyone else “creepy.” After all, she was the daughter of a serial-killing cult leader. “Sometimes I ask for favors. Depends on how much I trust you. We’ll see.”

“What kind of favors?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

She suddenly leaned over and kissed me lightly on the cheek. “Wow. Your skin is cool.”

“I’m a cool dude.”

She rolled her pretty brown eyes. “See you tomorrow...boyfriend.”

She winked and dashed off to her house.

Chapter Four

I looked at my test again and couldn’t fathom that there was actually a question that this second-rate high school could find in U.S. History that I would not know.

“In 1906, who was the Speaker of the House?”

First of all, who cares? Seriously? How was this question going to help any U.S. citizen get further in life? It was almost as if Mr. Harris, my history teacher, threw this question out there because he was tired of me acing every test.

I looked at the clock; it was five minutes before 10 p.m. I had to come to terms with the notion that, for the first time in my life—or at least my new unlife—I didn’t know the answer to a question on a test.

Well, if you’re going to go out, you might as well go out with a bang. In the available spot, I put “Robert Pattinson.”

I walked to the front of the class and handed Mr. Harris the test, staring the old fogey down.

“May I help you, Mr. Walsh?”

“Well played, sir,” I said. “Well played.”

Mr. Harris smiled at me through the corner of his mouth, knowing that he’d gotten the best of me. He and I both knew what he’d done. I turned around and made zero eye contact with anyone on my way back to my desk.

“Hey, diphead,” a voice from behind me echoed. It was Frank Manciti. The class bully who thought he could intimidate the undeveloped smart kid. Yes, even night school has bullies.

It was now my turn to play the fool for this idiot and appear weak. People thought I was weird and creepy already and this guy was leader of the lot. To be honest, I was tired of him throwing things at me and calling me names like Butthead and Scum Bubble. Unfortunately, I couldn’t waste my secret on this imbecile so I let him be the gooch.

“Quit it,” I mumbled.

“What was that, Taylor Swift?” he quipped.

Taylor Swift? What did that even mean?

“Hey, Mini Albert Einstein, turn around so I can talk to you.”

Frank wanted me to turn around so he could see my expression as he insulted me. Little did he know I could see his every movement and didn’t need to alter my positioning. Staring ahead, but in my mind’s eye watching his every move, sensing his presence. I looked towards the chalkboard like a poker player not giving away what’s in his hand. I could see his smug face on his dirty blonde head. He was looking at his buddies for approval. He was holding a pencil in his right hand. It was a matter of seconds before the pencil would be routed in my direction.

I was tired of allowing him to hurl things and just taking it. It was time I took a stand. I could see Parker looking at me and, to be honest, I didn’t want to appear wimpy after my big show on the drug addict the night before.

I was going to do something, and it would be subtle but would make my point. It was just a matter of waiting for Franky Spanky to throw the darn pencil, and just like in a bad script for a John Hughes film, he flung the pencil at my head. Without looking, I caught the pencil somewhere near my neck, spun it once in my hand, and flipped it back at him. The graphite tip whistled one inch past his fat head and stuck into the wall.

“Holy crap, did you see that?” shouted someone from the back. “He flippin’ caught the pencil and threw it back without turning around.”

“No way, dude. That’s impossible,” a long-haired stoner sitting next to Frank responded.

Now it was time to turn around. I’d had enough fun using the eyes-behind-my-back trick, which I had recently mastered to obvious perfection.

Frank, I think, was having a hard time processing what had just happened. He looked from the pencil, which was still wobbling in the wall like an arrow in a bullseye, to me. Finally, he said, “Did you throw that at me, putz?”

“Throw what?” I asked, as clueless as a class nerd could sound.

Frank looked at his buddies seated around him. “Did one of you douche bags throw that?”

They all shook their heads. Frank pulled the pencil out of the back wall and scoped it to see if it was the same bit of lumber he had just tossed in my direction. I think his worst fears were confirmed. Some of the color drained from his face. He slumped back in his chair and waved me off. “Just turn around, Nancy Pants,” he said. “Nobody’s talking to you.”

I did just that and grinned my ass off. I looked over to my left and there was Parker looking at me, shocked. She mouthed silently How? I just shrugged my shoulders as if to say, I got lucky!

The bell rang. I grabbed my backpack and went straight to my car. I’d DVR’d “Real World Road Rules Challenge” on MTV, which was my weekly treat. I wanted to hurry home and for once in my life just veg out.

I made my way to the school parking lot. The parking lot was pretty small, which made sense since it only housed 20 students at night. I reached into my left pocket and took out my keys.

“How did you do that?” Parker asked me from fifteen feet away. I had sensed her following me at a distance, too nervous to get too close.

“I got lucky.” I liked the sound of that. Maybe it would be my little catch phrase. Every hero needed one.

“No one is that lucky. Are you some kind of circus performer?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” I said sarcastically. “I’m a circus performer by day and a high schooler at night, because I promised my parents I would get a proper education. And clown school was full.”

“Okay, maybe not a circus performer, but there’s definitely something more to you than you’re letting on. Not every high school student goes by the name of Spider, either,” she smiled. “Let’s get some coffee.”

“We might have a problem. I think there might be a shortage of coffee shops around here.”

“Very funny.”

It was funny because Seattle is the coffeehouse capital of the world. But she understood. Jokes are better when you don’t have to explain them, and she’d finally caught on that I’m a witty guy. At least when I’m not ripping somebody’s neck open and sucking out their life.

“C’mon,” she said. “I know a place called ‘Bo Knows Coffee!’”

“Who’s Bo?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I guess he was some kinda sport’s star from the 80’s.”

“Alright, I’ll go. But let’s make it quick.”

“Oh, does the Spider have a web to weave?” she joked.

“Not exactly, I just want to watch a TV show.”

“Are you kidding? You would rather watch a stupid show than spend time with a beautiful woman?”

I snorted. “Beautiful woman?”

“Well, what would you call me?”

I smiled. She wasn’t a woman yet, but she was half right. I never had a girl care if I thought she was pretty.

“You’re cute,” I said, patting her head, “like a tarantula.”

“Man, you’re weird.”

“They don’t call me Spider for nothing,” I said. “Get in and let’s go.”

Chapter Five

I wish we’d made it to the coffee shop, because I suspected we would have had one of those long, revealing conversations where we both learned more about each other’s deep dark secrets.

Except no one ever knew my secrets. So I guess it would have been a superficial chat at best, throwing away ten bucks on mocha lattes.

Instead, her cell rang before we were barely out of the parking lot. She hadn’t carried it the night before, as if she didn’t want to be reached. A conveniently timed woman of mystery.

“Oh, crap, it’s my dad,” she said, checking the incoming number.

“Aren’t you going to answer it?”

“He’ll ask me what I am doing. After you dropped me off last night, he was all in my face. I guess he saw your car. Or saw that you were a boy.”

Boy. I had to grin. I guess I looked that way, especially to an older human.

“He probably saw that little kiss you gave me,” I said. “I hope you told him my intentions were purely honorable.”

“Well, I don’t know your intentions.” The phone quit purring after the fifth ring.

“Sure, you do. You want me to kill your dad.”

She swatted me. “No, I want you to make him stop killing girls.”

I’d slowed a little to look at her, but before I could punch the accelerator, a Volvo wagon swerved in front of us, tires squealing. It blocked my lane, sliding sideways, and I recognized it from Parker’s driveway.

So much for the “safety-minded” thing.

I could have sped up and driven around, but that would have been dangerous. Even though the night school was on a side street, it was still pretty urban. And despite my preternatural powers of the night, when I was behind the wheel I was just another dude driving a car.

I braked as the Volvo door opened and under the sodium-vapor lights, I got my first look at the alleged cult leader named Erasmus Cole.

He had a commanding presence, a few inches over six feet, with dark, curly hair and a swarthy complexion. As he stormed toward my Mustang, he moved with athletic power and grace, a man with purpose. As I sized him up, I realized he wouldn’t be as simple to handle as a meth-head wanting free money.

I assumed he’d come to my side, so I opened my door to meet him halfway. I’d gone toe-to-toe with a few girls’ dads in my past—after all, I’d been a teen boy an awfully long time—and usually they just wanted to show their daughters they were standing up for them and watching their backs. In other words, all sizzle and no steak.

A couple of them had been psychos, though, and saw family members as property, and from such sick thinking sprang abuse, incest, and emotional distress.

I wasn’t ready to fill out my scorecard on Erasmus Cole just yet, though I’d researched his cult a little in the wee hours of the previous morning. And, of course, his smiling visage had been featured on the cult’s website, the gentle man who offered a peaceful and blissful alternative to the hectic, soul-destroying ways of modern life.

He wasn’t smiling now, though, and I was out of the car when I realized he was heading toward the passenger side.

He yanked open the door and pulled Parker out with a gruff and non-negotiable “Come on!”

He wasn’t overly violent, but I could see the potential simmering there. The man clearly had a volcano buried inside that beatific mountain of a head.

Parker let out a moan of “Daaaad” that was more embarrassment than fear.

I wasn’t quite sure how to react. I didn’t want to tip my hand early, before I knew more about the situation. While I trusted Parker, I also knew people tended to be too close to their own drama to be able to examine it with anything approaching rationality.

Erasmus glared at me and I saw something in his eyes that wasn’t present in his Internet avatar—a strange glint of the pupil, a spark of reddish orange.

Parker was also glaring at me, with an imploring look, clearly expecting me to spring to the rescue.

A car horn blared behind me and I turned to see Frank the night-school bully hanging his head out the window. “Hey, Nancy, get that pile of junk out of the road before I bulldoze it.”

So there was no way I could launch into butt-kicking Vampire Poster Boy without the whole world catching on.

“You stay away from my daughter,” Erasmus said, his voice deep and gruff, like a bag of broken glass dropped down a well.

Well, Plan A of me pretending to be her boyfriend and getting an invite to the cult compound was shot. Time for Plan B.

“Sir, you misunderstand,” I said. “I was merely sharing with Parker about the path of personal growth through metaphysical self-empowerment.”

It was some phony-baloney New Age gobbledygook I’d lifted straight from his website. One way to get people on your side is to let them think they are geniuses.

Or gurus, in this case.

Some of the tension dropped from his shoulders. “Acceptance through surrender,” he said, another of his catchphrases.

Frank locked down on the horn again, and traffic was piling up.

“I didn’t mean to offend you, Mr. Cole,” I said. “Or should I say, ‘The Answer’?”

He hadn’t released Parker’s wrist yet, but he didn’t seem to be hurting her any. “You should move your vehicle,” he said.

Turning to Parker, he added, “Get in the car. We’re going home.”

So Plan B wasn’t working, either.

Plan C was to fly through the air and knock Erasmus Cole silly, rip him into a thousand red bits as the whole night school watched, and then howl at the moon in triumph.

But then I’d have to drop out, and I was determined to pull up my history grade.

“It’s okay, Parker,” I said to reassure her that I’d be watching. “I’ll call you later.”

Erasmus glared at me one more time and got behind the wheel of his Volvo, Parker climbing into the passenger seat with a disappointed expression.

As the Volvo backed up and pulled away, more car horns blared. There were at least a dozen behind Frank’s car, and Frank was now slapping sheet metal with his open palm.

“Move it, Pencil Neck,” he bellowed. There were a couple of his goonies riding with him, and I heard them laugh. Apparently my little display of flinging the pencil with enough force to kill had failed to make the proper impression.

Again, I couldn’t launch into a wild display of carnage, as hungry as I was, but it was mighty tempting. Instead, I flipped him the bird and got into the Mustang and drove home without stopping for coffee, which I couldn’t drink anyway.

Chapter Six

I lived in a subterranean apartment in Bell Town. It was sort of a bohemian district, lots of artists and neo-hippies and musicians, and I liked it because of the night life.

Nobody thought my schedule was weird, and I never bumped into anyone who said, “How come you only come out at night?”

People think vampires live in musty cellars without windows, with rats crawling all over the place. I prefer dark décor, but I do have an aesthetic sense. I’d collected a few sculptures over the years, and a couple of Magrittes and a Dali. I can’t say where I got them, and of course my infrequent visitors assume they are reproductions.

And, like any self-respecting modern vampire, I had wireless access and an awesome computer. Unlike sunlight, the glare of a computer screen was not painful at all. I could even look at virtual pictures of the sun without turning into a smoking ball of ash.

After turning on some Thirty Seconds To Mars, keeping the volume low so as not to disturb the neighbors, I finished my homework. While history was easy for me, geometry was always a pain in the butt. No matter how many classes I took, I could never tell a hypotenuse from an isosceles.

Once I packed everything, I went back to the Internet to learn more about Erasmus Cole, aka The Answer. Apparently he was still underground enough that his cult-leader thing hadn’t affected his demand in the square world of physicists. His official bio didn’t say anything about blood sacrifice, his career, or his family. It was all suntans and smiles.

Heck, before I turned him into my enemy, maybe I could get him to help me with my homework.

According to his site, The Answer operated a resort called Cloudland in Mount Shasta, just over the Oregon line in California. The 300-acre property was billed as a retreat center, but if you read between the lines, you could see the customer base wasn’t your typical family with 2.3 kids.

Cloudland catered to those “seeking spiritual enlightenment through therapeutic treatment and holistic integration of the feminine divine.”

Now, the first question I’d ask if I were a woman is, “What’s a dude doing heading up a center marketed toward women?”

The first answer would be “money” and the second answer would be “sex,” but if you put them together, you probably got the real answer: “power.”

The fact that Erasmus billed himself as The Answer suggested he was on a power trip that would rival those of any modern-day politician, evangelist, military leader, or celebrity.

No wonder, as Parker had stated, men weren’t drawn to his little self-improvement center in the woods, although one had to consider that the odds were probably good if you were looking to hook up.

Unless, of course, access was one of those little avenues The Answer used to pile up the cash. Plenty of rich guys would pay a lot of money to get a chance at a vulnerable population of nubile young women.

The website didn’t show much, just a couple of pages of The Answer’s gibberish, a contrived concoction of all the best add-water-and-stir New Age religions. The articles were accompanied by a few photographs that showed flowering trees, a pond in a meadow, and a few women in muted cotton shifts frolicking in a flower garden with the snow-covered Mount Shasta towering majestically in the background.

All in all, it was presented as a pleasant way to spend a week and meditate in between lunches of little sandwiches made of cucumbers and watercress.

The prices weren’t listed, but when I went through the registration process, I found that a week’s stay cost $3,995, plus additional menus where one could sign up for day spas, intensive training sessions, and group therapy, all for “only hundreds more.”

If The Answer hadn’t started killing people, he probably could have done like all the other cult leaders of our times and make a mountain of money and retire in luxury on some deserted isle where followers never bothered him.

No, he was one of those weird ones—a sincere guy who apparently believed in his own brand of Armageddon.

In Plan A, I would have walked through the front gate holding Parker’s hand, blinking all wide-eyed and innocent, saying “Aw, shucks” a lot while I asked her dad what his favorite sports teams were.

Plan B and C were already out, and now I was at Plan D. I was a little concerned that I’d been working this case for less than 24 hours and I’d already used up a good chunk of the plan alphabet.

I registered for the following week, since night school was about to have its fall break.

I signed up as “Summer Rain,” which had actually been the real name of a real person at one point. I know, because I had the credit card to prove it. I suspected Summer was long dead, though, and probably wouldn’t mind a big hit to her credit rating in a few months.

Now all I had to do was make sure Parker stayed well out of the way while I took care of business.

Well, that and not flunk geometry.

Chapter Seven

Friday night. A week later.

Parker had cooled it a little with me, whispering that her dad had laid down the law and that I looked like “bad news.” Score points for Pops, because I was.

The following night, I would leave for the retreat in Shasta and see for myself what was going on. That I had registered under a female name didn’t stop me. Summer Rain, in this case, was going to turn out to be a dude.

Daddy and his creepy cult of women were just going to have to deal with it. But first I needed to recharge the old batteries.

I keep chilled blood in my refrigerator, behind some empty cartons of milk and an old watermelon that I really ought to toss.

Not the world’s greatest hiding place, granted, but I wasn’t too worried about that, and it’s not like I could hide it in the back of the toilet like a drunk hiding whiskey. I lived alone, as I had for many, many years. I had few guests, and fewer still randomly opened my refrigerator for anything. Still, on the off-chance that someone did, I would prefer not to explain the packets of blood that I kept in the fridge.

I had just fetched such a packet, which was provided to me at great cost from a contact who worked in a hospital. Do you ever wonder why phlebotomists take three and sometimes four vials of your blood? Don’t you think all that blood might be overkill? Well, it is. Some of the blood gets sold to folk like me.

The undead like me.

Many phlebotomists are the true drug kingpins of this world. Peddling the drug of blood.

The packets are handy, designed for impulse consumers. With a quick swipe, one end was open and I was guzzling it hard when there came a knock on my door.

One thing you don’t do is cross between a grizzly cub and its mother. The other thing you don’t do is disturb a vampire when he’s feeding. The image I had was tossing the cold, crappy blood and replacing it with some fresh, warm blood. The same blood currently pumping through the veins of whoever was standing outside my door.

In fact, it took all my inner strength, honed from years of self control, to not throw open the door, pin down whoever was standing there, and sink my teeth deep into their soft neck.

Oh, sweet Jesus.

Just drink. Drink.

I did, guzzling, feeling the warmth spread through my body, despite initially going down cold. Warmth and strength.

The knocking came again.

And I nearly tore myself away from the bag, thinking of that hotter, fuller bag standing mere feet away.

Nearly.

But I kept guzzling, and soon I was squeezing out the last few drops like a miser squeezing out the last of his cheap toothpaste. The bags of blood are perfectly measured out to give me all the fuel I need. Or crave, as I thought of it. I never drank too much, but Lord help you if I didn’t drink enough. If I didn’t drink enough, and I was still hungry, anything was fair game, including kittens and puppies and kindergarteners.

I never said I was a saint.

Just a guy with an unhealthy appetite.

With the last of the bag consumed, I tossed it in my trash compactor with the other empty bags of blood and headed to the door.

And when I peeked through the peephole, I could not have been more surprised to see Parker standing there.

Looking cute and impatient.

Chapter Eight

I unlocked the door and opened it. Parker stood there with a big smile on her face. I couldn’t tell if it was because she was embarrassed that she came to my apartment, or if it was because she was generally glad to see me.

“Hi,” I said. “What are you doing here?”

“Standing. Do you never answer your door?”

“No. I mean, how did you find me?

“You’re not the only one with secrets. Are your parents here?”

“Uh. Mom’s out visiting her sister.” I wasn’t sure I had a mom, or whether she was alive or dead. If you’re not a saint, you get to lie once in a while. “Come on in.”

Parker entered my house carrying a bright yellow purse. She walked over to my Victorian couch that cost more than all the furniture in the place combined and dropped her purse beside it.

“Please have a seat,” I said, sitting at my kitchen table that was virtually in the living room itself being that my apartment was as small as a New York loft.

“Did you sneak out?” I asked, not sure if she would tell me the truth. I trusted her, but I was beginning to catch on that she was no saint, either.

“Yeah, I did. My dad actually left on a big all-night road trip.”

“Road trip?”

“It’s one of his little habits. For all I know, he’s dropping off dead bodies.”

Parker was staring at my mouth. She had a puzzled look with a hint of dread behind her eyes. She put a finger against her lips and did a wiping motion.

Crud, some blood had dropped on my cheek.

“What were you eating, strawberries?”

Strawberries aren’t dark enough. I had to think quick. “Actually,” I answered, “I was eating beets. Lots of iron.”

“That’s disgusting. You were eating beets. Beets have got to be the grossest vegetable. They look like they are dipped in blood.”

I smirked. She had no idea how appetizing that sounded. Blood was my catsup. Blood on just about anything sounded divine. “I’m a vegan at heart. And iron is good for the blood system. Everyone should eat more beets. Life would be better.”

“Still, beets are gross! They taste like ass.”

Usually, when someone said that, my first reaction was to ask how they knew what ass tasted like. But I kind of liked her, so I let it pass. “If you don’t mind me asking, how did you find out where I lived?”

Parker began to stammer. “Well,” she said, “You’d be amazed how a short skirt and a pair of black nylons can persuade a horny nineteen-year-old administrative assistant in our school office.”

“He just gave it to you?”

“Yeah. I hope you’re not angry.”

“No, I’m not angry.” After all, how could I be angry at the poor nineteen-year-old that Parker just threw under the bus when I knew for a fact he was completely innocent. How did I know this? The administrative office doesn’t have my real address. Parker was up to something. Fair is fair, if she was going to stalk me and come over then she was going to answer some hardball questions. “I have another question for you.”

“Go ahead.” Parker appeared confident.

“How do you know for sure your father has killed anyone?”

Parker took my question in and nodded. She took her time to answer the question. I couldn’t tell if she was trying to make something up or if she was just preparing to tell me something insanely intense. “Well,” she said. “I don’t know for sure. I just know he’s the one in charge and about once every two months a girl very close to him disappears without a trace.”

“Without a trace? Don’t these girls have families?”

“That’s why it’s without a trace. Their families think they are still wrapped up in his cult. They think they are still with them at his compound, and because they are over the age of eighteen, there is nothing they can do about it.”

“So, these women go missing and no one questions it?”

“That’s my point, Spider. If they truly do leave and want out of life like the elders and my father lead everyone to believe, wouldn’t they go back home to their loved ones? None of them do. I have gone back to their homes and asked about them, and all the parents say that their daughter is wrapped up in a cult and they have no access to her. They usually say they haven’t seen them in months or even years.”

“And when these girls become missing from the compound? Your father claims they have left the movement?”

“Yes, he tells everyone that they have lost their way and have returned to their sinful nature. But they don’t return home. He leads us to believe that that’s where they were headed, or sometimes to Hollywood to become an actress, or Las Vegas to become a legal prostitute. Which amounts to the same thing, really. But none of them make it home. Ever.”

“Why do you think they are dead? Maybe they’re embarrassed to go home.”

“It doesn’t fit the profile of people who leave a cult. It is human nature to want to go back to where you were safest and to the ones you know love you unconditionally, regardless of your beliefs. Assuming you’re lucky enough to ever break your brainwashing.”

“Still, to claim that they’re dead. It’s a pretty big assumption.” I was trusting my gut on this, but my gut gurgles sometimes, especially after a recent feeding.

“They’re all dead. I know it.”

“Why do you know for sure?”

“One of them was my best friend...and I found her body.”

Chapter Nine

“So,” I said. “You have a body but you didn’t go to the police?”

She gave me a furtive glance from the couch. “This isn’t a police thing. It’s way too weird.”

“I take it your friend was murdered?”

“Worse than that.”

“What’s worse than that?” I hoped it wasn’t rape or some kind of kinky mutilation. That always sickened me.

“She was in the storage compartment of my dad’s Volvo. Like, where the spare tire is. I was...uh...trying to hide something from him, and then I found the thing he was hiding from me.”

“A body in the car. Even the cops could nail a case on something like that.”

“Cindy was naked, and all curled up like a fetus in the womb. I didn’t recognize her at first, but she had this single purple streak in her blonde hair. I’d gone with her to the stylist’s to have it done, because she said it would piss off her parents.”

“Did you ID her face?”

“I was afraid to touch her. I was freaking out. And it was almost like she wasn’t real, like she’d been bleached or something. Her skin was pasty white and she looked a little shriveled up like an old mummy. But she was only eighteen.”

The operative word here was “was.” Her aging had stopped. Once you’re dead, you pretty much stay at “dead” forever. Unless you’re like me.

“What’s your best friend doing joining a cult?”

“Why does anybody join a cult? She wanted to piss off her parents and get some good drugs, and maybe some group sex.”

“None of that stuff is on your dad’s website.”

“Yeah, right. Like you’d advertise a cult like that?”

“Yeah, it would get way too many applications. So she gave you some inside info. That’s how you figured out what was going on.”

“Yeah. She was only at Cloudland for two weeks before she texted me. You’re not supposed to have any form of outside communication there—”

“Rule of thumb for cult leaders everywhere. Isolate and re-educate.”

“The text was like, ‘This place is soooooo boring.’ Just like that, with six O’s and everything. Then she followed up with ‘All we do is meditate and tend the flower garden. If I have to pick one more weed, I’m going to turn into a goat.’”

“Doesn’t exactly sound like party time.”

“I texted her back, and I didn’t get another message for three days. Then one came that simply said, ‘I’m going home, Parker.’ And that was that. Until I found her body two weeks later.”

I got up from the kitchen table and strolled over to the couch, thinking. I was probably stroking the little stubble on my chin. I’ve heard I do that a lot. When I sat down, I was done thinking. Parker’s proximity pretty much brainwashed me.

“Well, that sounds reasonable enough,” I said. “She was bored and she went home. Maybe that wasn’t even her body you saw in your dad’s car.”

“Does it really matter if it was Cindy or not? I mean, that still makes him a killer.”

“But if you’re tying in this cult angle, and you have a reason to hold back from the cops, there’s a whole lot more than you’re telling me. To be honest, it feels like you’re setting me up for something.”

Her brown eyes flashed anger, like amber rotated in the fire. It’s one of my weaknesses. I like girls when they’re mad. And I tend to make them that way a lot. “Well, you’re the one playing ‘Good Cop, Bad Cop’ with me. Maybe you’re the one who has something to hide. The guy without a past, no hobbies, perfect tests in history, you only see him at night. I mean, tell me that doesn’t sound suspicious.”

I avoided her mesmerizing eyes, annoyed that she’d turned the whole thing around and put it on me. I wasn’t the one with a cult murderer for a dad. I almost made a crack like “What is this, ‘An interview with a vampire’?” but I caught myself. If she was already asking questions, she might make the next leap of logic. Every time that happened, it ended up in one of two ways—either I made a fast exodus from town or somebody ended up dead.

“I say a corpse in a car trumps a weird loner in night school,” I said. “I thought you wanted my help, not to piss me off.”

She cooled down a little. Good. I hadn’t liked the way she was gripping the arm of the couch. The fabric was kind of delicate.

“That last text wasn’t hers,” she said. “I mean, it came from her cell, but she would never say ‘Parker’ like that in a text. I am always ‘P,’ just the letter, not the stuff you do in the toilet.”

“Thanks for clearing that up, Parker with a P.”

“My dad must have found the cell, did away with her, and then sent that little text to throw me off the trail. Probably sent the same message to her parents, too, so they’d be expecting her and then weeks go by before they call in the police. But since she’s eighteen, they’re not going to do anything, right? She’s a legal adult.”

“But why haul her around in the Volvo? Waiting for a good chance to dump her body? Sounds like he had plenty of chances, as much as he traveled.”

Parker shook her pretty head. “No. I don’t think he was finished with her.”

“Finished? You said she was dead.”

“I think she was his fast-food happy meal. Her blood had been drained, Spider.”

I thought about that. The guy didn’t sound like any vampire I’d ever heard of. Most creatures of the night that I’d crossed paths with tended to stay just that: creatures of the night. As in, they kept to themselves under the veil of darkness. I’d never heard of one who craved attention. Craved power. And could keep a suntan. One thing I was certain of, as Parker was watching me expectantly, was that he wasn’t a vampire.

What he was was anyone’s guess.

“Where’s your father now?” I asked.

“He left last night for Mount Shasta.” And then she looked at me with huge, rounds eyes that were quickly filling with tears. “And he took my little sister with him.”

I frowned, letting this sink in. I had planned to leave tomorrow night, without Parker, but I could see I wasn’t going to be able to shake her. Not with her sister in potential danger. Shasta was about nine hours from Seattle. If we left right away, we could get there by morning, and I could crash during the day.

I grabbed my keys. “Let’s go.”

“Let’s go where?”

“Road trip.”

Chapter Ten

Parker didn’t protest.

As I threw together my travel bag, she told me a little about her mother. And people call me a monster.

Apparently, Pops had a heavy influence on his wife, and she was the true tyrant in the house. Parker had suffered many beatings growing up and had rarely, if ever, been given any kind of freedom. Her mother had not always been like this. The change had only come within the past seven or eight years, which, coincidentally, was about when her father launched his cult.

Now with her mother passed out—apparently, she always passed out after taking her nightly dose of medication on top of the booze—Parker had taken the city buses to find her way.

She didn’t admit it, at least not yet, but I was certain she had followed me during the week. I knew she didn’t drive, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t followed me with a friend. Which meant that a friend now knew where I lived, too. I would have to find out who this friend was. I have my ways, but hopefully she’d just come clean. And if her friend was trustworthy or just minded her own business, then we wouldn’t have a problem. If the friend came snooping around, we’d have a problem.

Or, rather, they’d have a problem. A very big problem.

For now, though, I let it go. We had a more pressing matter. With my bag in hand, we hit the road. It was coming on 11 p.m. and I was going to have to eat some road to get there before dawn...and to check into a nice hotel with even nicer curtains. Thick curtains that kept the sun out.

Parker didn’t complain about not having enough clothes. She didn’t even ask to use the restroom. Instead, with her jaw set in grim determination, she sat by my side in my Mustang as I headed south through the bright lights of downtown Seattle.

* * *

Parker slept most of the trip.

Me, I was wide awake and feeling more alive than ever. I wondered what awaited us in Mount Shasta. That her father was dealing with something unknown and nefarious was a given. The evidence was there. The body, in particular. It had been drained dry, according to Parker.

I looked over at her now as we wound through the deep-cut canyons that would eventually lead to Mount Shasta. She was still sleeping, her head propped against the seatbelt mechanism. Not comfortable, but she didn’t seem to care. It was pitch black out and I shouldn’t be able to see her, but I could. The night was alive to my eyes, filled with light and color unseen to mortal eyes. I saw her every feature clearly. She was a pretty young girl. Too young for me, but someday she’d make a geeky teen boy the happiest geek on earth.

Had she known who—or what—was sitting next to her, I wondered if she would sleep so contently. Then again, when you’re raised by monsters, and her father was very much looking like something out of a Dean Koontz novel, perhaps an everyday, run-of-the mill vampire wasn’t a problem.

There had been a time in my past when Parker should have feared for her life. I have gained some semblance of control over the creature inside me. I didn’t have to kill to feed, and this epiphany had been a long time coming.

Many had died by my hand. By my mouth.

But never again.

Or so I hoped.

With the sky beginning to brighten in the east, and as my energy began to wane, the stunning Mount Shasta appeared on the far horizon. The mountain with presence, as I thought of it, and I was not the only one. Down through the ages, many had ascribed power and legend to the mountain, and for good reason. The mountain loomed above the smattering of foothills and lesser mountains like a white god. Its barren white slopes, striking in their purity, resonated on a soul level that needed to be witnessed to be felt.

Even in the darkness, with dawn on the eastern horizon, the upper slopes glowed with a radiance that seemed supernatural, and as the mountain loomed before us, we pulled into Mount Shasta City and to the first inn I could find.

Chapter Eleven

We got lucky.

Despite there being a New Age festival going on in celebration of the mountain, the inn had received a cancellation just hours before, and we were able to procure a room with two beds. And not just two beds, two bedrooms.

I did not return to high school to sleep with students. In fact, I had no interest in such activities. Such physical desires had died in me long ago. No, I enrolled in night school for the experience only. The same reason I do anything. For the experience.

I had been turned long ago at a young age, and it’s amazing what staying out of the sun does for your skin. That, and being immortal, of course. Had I looked any older, I would have enrolled in college, but I looked like an eighteen-year-old, which just so happened to be my age on the night my world had forever changed.

And I don’t mean that figuratively.

But that’s another story for another time. Although physical activity never exhausted me, I used the excuse of having driven all night and a need for sleep. This was partially true, of course. I had a need to sleep. A strong one, although it wasn’t so much sleeping as...biding my time, as I thought of it. Whether or not I actually slept was open to debate, but I saw myself as lying in a sort of catatonia. Somewhere between living and dead, surely, as my body waited for the sun to go down.

Yeah, I’m weird.

And Parker didn’t need to know any of this, either. Which is why once we got to the inn, she crawled immediately under the covers of the bed in the front room, not even flirting, while I slipped into the back room, pulled the drapes tight, and waited for dawn.

I didn’t have to wait long. Soon, I was out to the world. Or perhaps dead to this world in which I barely belong.

* * *

It takes a lot to stir me from the dark places I go during the day, and Parker, mercifully, had respected my wishes to sleep during the day. It wasn’t until evening, just before the sun had officially set, that she had finally roused me awake.

I drifted up from the dark depths to see her smiling face hovering over me.

“Boy,” she said. “You are almost impossible to wake up.”

I sat up. The returning of consciousness was always a bit disconcerting. I distinctly had the feeling of being away from my body. Where I was, I hadn’t a clue, but I was somewhere...and most certainly not in this room.

“Yeah, well, I sleep deeply.” Understatement of the year.

“You don’t snore or anything. I mean, you were just lying there...like a corpse or something. I couldn’t even hear you breathe.”

Which is why I suspected most vampires of the world avoided sleeping in hotel rooms with curious teenage girls. Myself, I’ve never tried a coffin, although I could see the value in it. Peace and quiet, although you could be mistaken for a corpse...and find yourself buried six feet under.

“It’s not nice to watch people sleep.”

“I’m bored. And hungry.” She got up and was about to throw open the curtain in my bedroom.

“Stop!”

She whirled, gasping. “What? What happened?” One of her hands had still snagged one corner of the curtain, and the light that suddenly filled the room, although faint, was enough to make me recoil. She dropped the curtain, frowning.

I said, “Sorry, but I have a...condition.”

“Condition?”

“Sensitive skin. I can’t be out in the sun for long.”

“But there’s no sun. In fact, the sun is almost set.”

“It hasn’t set.”

“How do you know.”

I knew. Trust me, I knew, but I said, “You can still hear the birds. C’mon, let’s eat. Now, get out so I can change.”

She left, but on the way out, she looked back at me once, frowning. “Need any help?”

I couldn’t tell if she was concerned or being coy. “Got it covered. See you in a few.”

I smiled, got dressed, and removed a very special packet from the cooler inside my suitcase. The packet wasn’t as cute as Parker, but it was nourishing all the same.

* * *

The town of Mount Shasta City is quaint.

It sits at the base of the south face of the mountain. Mount Shasta is famous for its weird cloud formations that surround the peak, and that night was no different. Streaks of velvety contrails spread from the peak in three or four directions, as if the mountain were wearing a crown of thorns. Additionally, a weird, stacked plume rose directly above the mountain, sort of capping it.

I caught Parker staring at the mountain, her mouth slightly open. The mountain was stare-worthy; indeed, as we cruised the streets looking for a place to eat, I often saw people standing in doorways, smoking and staring...or walking and staring. Or just standing and staring.

The mountain was their deity. And if it wasn’t, it was damn close.

We found a Mexican restaurant called Lalo’s that had a full bar. The full bar part was important. We were seated next to a display of crystals that were for sale. I knew that Mount Shasta was a mecca for New Agers and their crystals. You can’t have a mountain that resplendent, with mystical stories that reach down through the ages, without somebody selling crystals. Apparently, the restaurant was cashing in on the hype, along with eight-dollar mixed drinks.

The crystals caught Parker’s eyes and she studied them intently. One in particular. A beautiful, violet-colored geode within a darker shell.

We ordered drinks and I promptly ordered a Bloody Mary. The waitress asked to see my ID and I showed her mine. It was a fake ID, and when the waitress was gone, I said as much to Parker. She snickered. Fake IDs were cool to teens...and absolutely mandatory for immortals.

When the waitress returned with our drinks—orange juice for Parker—I pretended to sip on the Bloody Mary. Pretended, because I couldn’t drink it. We next ordered food—or, rather, Parker did. I made an excuse that I was never hungry upon awakening and Parker bought it. She ordered a cheese enchilada and the waitress scooted off.

I next asked Parker if she wouldn’t mind getting a map of Mount Shasta from the car, a map I had printed out at home prior to leaving. She shrugged and I gave her the keys, and as soon as she left, I went to work. I slipped out of the booth and to the nearby bathroom, bringing my drink with me. Once in the bathroom, I dumped the contents and refilled it with a packet of blood I had stashed inside my jacket.

By the time Parker came back with the map and my keys, I was sitting again at my table, happily drinking from my freshly-topped-off glass of hemoglobin.

“Breakfast of champions,” Parker said, noting how I downed the drink.

“Better than bacon.”

“Nothing’s better than bacon. Except a kiss in the rain.”

“You’re too young to be romantic,” I said.

“And you act like you’re a million years old.”

“No. Just a few hundred.”

I grinned and she glared at me a moment, and then decided it was a joke.

“Now,” I said, spreading the map in front of us on the table. “Show me where Cloudland is.”

Chapter Twelve

Combining the map with the information I’d received when registering for Cloudland, I figured out it was a little south of town, in the hilly area called McCloud. And there were clouds around the mountain. And it was even a cloudy night.

So The Answer wasn’t very original. I guess he put all his creative energy into concocting ways to kill people.

That draining of Cindy’s blood still bothered me, and caused me to be even more uneasy about this whole set-up. The fact that I’d just polished off a glass of the stuff reminded me how weird it was. Sure, it was “natural” to me after all this time, but I still understood that I was a freak of nature.

For the first time, I wondered if maybe I was getting into a situation that was a lot more weird than it appeared. Which was saying something.

“So we just drive up to the gates?” she asked. “I flash my cleavage and get us in that way?”

“One, you don’t have much cleavage, and two, I am an officially registered guest of Cloudland. So I go in alone.”

Her eyes widened. “You dragged me all the way down here to sit on the sidelines? It’s my dad, remember? I owe it to Cindy to get to the bottom of this, plus I need to save my sister.”

I held up the palm of one hand. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Get off the martyr train.”

Her brown eyes were flashing fire now. “I need revenge.”

“That’s not a very healthy attitude, and if you loose your cool, you will make mistakes.”

“Jesus, Spider, I don’t understand you. Nothing works on you. I flirt, I show some skin, I try to rile you up, I’ve done everything but hit on that hunky guy at the end of the bar.”

I didn’t even bother to look, and that made her madder than ever. “What is it with you?”

I shrugged. “You asked for my help.”

“But what do you get out of it?”

I tapped my empty glass with one gray fingernail. “Cheap thrills and a bar tab.”

The waitress came over and asked if I wanted another. I thought about ordering just to give the appearance of being one of the crowd, but the bar was already filling up and getting noisy. Apparently the New Agers weren’t so different after all.

After I sent her away with a big tip, I leaned toward Parker. “So, why do you think your sister’s here?”

“I called her four times while you were asleep. No answer. She always returns my calls.”

“Do you have a photo of her?”

Parker shook her head. “No way. I show you, you cut me out of the action.”

“Actually, I want you to come, but you have to do it my way. Do you trust me?”

She pouted a moment, and then nodded. “I guess I have to.”

She fished in her purse and brought out a small school picture and laid it on the table. I studied it. “Looks like you from two years ago?”

“Exactly. Not hard to find her, huh?”

“So we find her. Have you ever ridden in the trunk of a Mustang?”

* * *

My hunch was right that Cloudland would have a pretty sophisticated check-in system. The gatehouse featured two guards, and the one who came to my car window wasn’t carrying a gun, but I figured they had some heavy artillery inside. I showed him my “Summer Rain” identification, as well as my receipt.

“Summer,” he said. “That’s a weird name for a boy.”

“I’m not a boy, I’m a man,” I said.

His bulldog face went a little hard and mean so I let him win by saying, “My parents were raised in Big Sur. You know, hippies.”

“I hate hippies. We get a lot of them around the mountain.”

“You’re lucky you have a nice, high fence topped with barbed wire all around. Nobody gets in or out without your permission, right?”

His sunglasses were as blank as his face as he shined the flashlight into the car’s interior. These guys were even more paranoid than I thought.

“Open the trunk,” he said.

“Excuse me?”

“It’s in the rules where you registered. Says ‘All guests are subject to search at any time.’ Can’t have no drugs or alcohol on the premises. No laptops, magazines, cell phones, pagers, Kindles, iPods, none of that junk.”

I guess I should have read the rules, but you know how those things are. Pages and pages of legalese. Who has time for that?

“I’m pretty sure that’s a violation of my Fourth Amendment rights,” I said.

“We don’t got no amendments at Cloudland,” he said. “And my job is to search every vehicle that enters the grounds, or it doesn’t enter the grounds. And I like my job, you know what I mean?”

“I imagine there’s not much other work around here except selling crystals to hippies,” I said, stalling for time.

“Open it.”

I shrugged and hit the release. As the guard with the bulldog face went to the rear, the other guard stepped to the doorway of the gatehouse. He was definitely packing.

Bulldog rummaged around a little, but the only thing I had back there was a spare tire and a tool kit. We’d left the luggage in the hotel, along with our tech toys. Since all guests of Cloudland were required to exchange their clothes for the obligatory tunics and baggy knickers, as well as ceremonial robes, there was no sense bringing anything but a toothbrush, and I was surprised they even allowed that.

“Looks clean,” he said.

I smiled, but not too much. I didn’t want my pointy teeth to show. “Where do I park?”

“Hold on a second,” said the second guard. He was chubby and had probably been a real cop in a former life, because he waddled toward me with an air of practiced authority. If the other guard was Bulldog, this one was Pit Bull Mix.

“We don’t get many boys here,” he said.

“So I’ve heard,” I said. Thanks to my “bloody Mary,” I was pretty sated at the moment, but his big fat neck looked inviting, and I could see his purple carotid artery pulsing out a Morse code of juiciness.

“You’re not one of them funny boys, are you?”

“I like to tell a joke now and then,” I said.

“You know what I mean. A guy named ‘Summer,’ that sounds sissy to me. Are you a sissy boy? There ain’t a whole lot of sissy boys here for you to play dolls with.”

Jesus. And I thought the jackasses in night school were bad enough. Engaging in a morality battle with a guy whose IQ was the same as his waist measurement wasn’t how I wanted to spend my time.

I tried to let my face go a little vacant and spacey-eyed as I slipped into a monotone. “I’m here to devote my full attention to the teachings of Erasmus Cole. I’m just another lost soul seeking The Answer.”

He looked like he wanted to torment me a little more but some headlights were approaching from behind. He waved me through. “Park down by the main building and turn in your clothes and keys. They’ll assign you to a bungalow.”

The parking lot didn’t have any security lights, and the entire place seemed to be dark. I knew the Cloudland sales pitch was based on removing all the distracting luxuries of modern life, but I didn’t think they’d send us back to the Stone Age.

Not that I was complaining, because the concealment allowed me to open the trunk and remove the false panel along the back. Parker rolled out from a fetal position, shaking her hands as if they’d fallen asleep.

“Took you long enough,” she said.

“Just making conversation,” I said. “It’s important not to draw undue attention.”

“One thing for sure about you, Spider, people can’t ignore you.”

If I’d been a little closer to my old human self, I might have taken that as a compliment. But now I was just a guy with a job to do. I could feel good about myself later, when the bodies stopped piling up.

“I’m going to check in. You wait over there in the trees until I give you the all-clear.”

“By the way, why do you have a false panel?”

I couldn’t tell her that I stored my blood supply there when I picked up a shipment, so I told her the only other story that would make sense. “I’m a drug smuggler when I’m not in night school.”

“You’re funny, Spider.”

“So I’ve been told.”

Chapter Thirteen

I guess once they let you drive through, their security gets less and less invasive. After checking in, with all the impersonally efficient process of a hotel or hospital or funeral parlor, I made my way to the assigned bungalow and decided to have Parker wait again in the car. I scanned the hallways and building and saw no trace of a security camera system. I guess they didn’t have security cameras on the inside because they didn’t want possible witnesses to Erasmus Cole’s games.

When the coast was clear, I led her up to our room. It was nice and clean, but relatively unadorned, with a potted plant and a desk but no television or radio. A couple of robes and towels were folded up on the bed.

“One bed?” Parker asked.

“What did you expect? I enrolled by myself. It might have thrown up a red flag if I asked for a second bed, and I hadn’t planned on company, anyway. I told you, I like to work alone.”

“Well, I’m not sleeping next to you for an entire week,” she protested.

“Then you better like hard carpet floors because there’s no way I’m giving up this bed.” I was actually careful about saying the word “sleeping.”

“You just better not turn out to be a little pervert.”

I looked at Parker and nearly threw a fit. “Are you kidding me?”

“Look, I think I can trust you, but...”

Then it dawned on me what was happening. She had alternative reasons for not sharing a bed with me. For some reason, she didn’t want us to be alone together at night. “Where do you propose I sleep?”

“I can make the floor in the bathroom comfortable.”

I looked at Parker and nearly laughed out loud. “If you want to make the bathroom floor comfortable enough for someone to sleep on, go right ahead. Knock yourself out. There’s no way on God’s green earth that I’m going to drop the kind of money I did to get into this place and not have a comfortable bed.”

“Fine, I’ll sleep in the tub.”

“What happens when I have to pee?”

“Don’t drink liquids after six p.m. and go to the bathroom before you go to bed.”

Wow, she really was up to something. I looked inside the bathroom, and sure enough, it had a large window. Parker had clearly noticed at some point in the conversation and she took the only choice available once she realized I wasn’t budging. Or maybe that had been her choice from the start.

“Shh,” I said to Parker.

She raised her eyebrows, but obeyed me for a change. Of course, my hearing was much more acute than hers. She wouldn’t have heard the footsteps.

I looked over at the door and a paper slid under it. I walked over and looked at the piece of paper. It was the official itinerary, complete with a groovy Mount Shasta-at-sunrise logo.

At the top, it read: Opening Sanctification- Mellow Meadows, 8:00 p.m.

Shit, that’s in 15 minutes!

“Looks like I won’t be able to sit around and chat, Parker. I have a cult meeting to get to.”

Parker nodded at me. “I’m sure those are words you never thought you’d say.”

“Never say never. Well, maybe sometimes. So, what are you going to be doing while I’m in session?” I asked.

She held up some of the pamphlets lying on the desk. “I’ll read up on The Answer to all of life’s little problems. Maybe I’ll learn a little more.”

“Absolutely, under no circumstances, leave the room!” I ordered as sternly as I could.

“Yes, sir.”

“And don’t answer the door for anyone,” I pressed.

“This ain’t my first rodeo.”

She’d said she’d been to Cloudland a couple of times, and maybe she knew her way around. Especially if this was her dad’s place. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had gotten full access and a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the family empire. After all, most dads are pretty proud of both their achievements and their daughters. Of course, her dad might also have sacrificial intentions on Parker as well.

I quickly changed into my robe in the bathroom, and it had a little hood so I flipped it up and pulled it low over my eyes. When I stepped out into the main room, I was relieved to find Parker had stayed put.

“Nice look,” she said.

“No time to shave my legs,” I said. “Where’s Mellow Meadows?”

“Down the sidewalk and between the three big buildings. You can’t miss it. It’s the big grassy area with all the people in robes.”

“Simple enough.”

Parker was right. Once I made it out the rear entrance, the surrounding buildings all opened onto the grassy commons. A crowd milled about in twos and threes, all wearing the same hooded robes. Judging by the lithe and shapely legs, most of them seemed to be young women. Some weird New Age music was playing, flutes and triangles and the occasional random harp. I looked around the compound and saw probably sixty people.

At the upper end of the commons was a slight rise of stacked stone, like an outdoor stage. A few tall trees hovered over, but the dominant feature was a hulking stone statue that was chiseled from volcanic stone. It looked simultaneously primitive and hideous, with a blunt and vaguely feminine face, rounded stone boobs, and a grass skirt.

If that’s the “feminine divine” old Erasmus keeps raving about, give me an eighteen-year-old any day.

But the statue appeared to be pretty important, because laid out before it was a huge slab of stone that looked like a table...or altar. A rock wall marked the back of the stage, with a couple of openings made with stacked pillars that had a Stonehenge vibe.

Mount Shasta was prominent in the background, catching the thick slice of moon and sparkling with a soft glow. I had to hand it to Erasmus, if he was trying to wow some kids into drinking his special brand of Kool-Aid, he couldn’t have picked better scenery. The night was clear and cool, and the backdrop was mystical.

The crowd was sedate, whether from special substances or just mellowing out because of the meadow, but there was a faint buzz of expectation. I walked around with my hood pulled low, eavesdropping for clues, but most of the conversation was of bands, movies, boyfriends, and the same kind of stuff you’d overhear at a university student union.

After about ten minutes, Erasmus emerged from somewhere off to the left, probably from a luxury bungalow. He wore the same robe we did, except his was long and flowing, sweeping the ground behind him. He looked a little different than when I’d encountered him in his Volvo a week before. He looked calm and paternal, as if he’d been rehearsing.

Or maybe he really believed in his own brand of Nirvana.

I clung to the back edge of the crowd, keeping a broad view of the events. Everyone fell silent as Erasmus sat cross-legged on a boulder. He spread his arms, palms open. “Hello, my children,” he said, his voice carrying all across the commons.

What kind of guru-godly-goop was this? Was he being serious? I swear this was like a bad episode of Punk’d.

“During this week you will constantly be facing your demons. Through a series of exercises we are going to peel back your inner core and find out why you all have chosen the paths you follow. I know some of you are runaways. I know some of you are prostitutes. I know some of you are recovering drug addicts. I know some of you have done heinous things that you can’t even bear the thought of re-remembering. This week is about forgiveness. This week is about finding yourself and making sure you’re whole.”

Wait a second! Who does he market this to? Runaways? Prostitutes? The worst of the worst, as long as they had barrels of cash to offer?

The security guy out front had really thought I was gay, perhaps even a gay prostitute. This place was delving in the bottom of our society. But not the very, very bottom. The Answer made sure that only the attractive could be salvaged and redeemed.

I looked around the crowd, and many had their hoods down, revealing comely, rapt faces and shining eyes. Everyone was gorgeous. Why had they let me in, aside from the fact that I’d laid out a stack of money? There would be only one reason to let me in. They’d assumed I was a minor and there was a huge perv here who liked teenage boys.

Maybe even Erasmus Cole himself.

Well, if he wanted a kiss, he might get a little more than he bargained for.

Chapter Fourteen

I had a bad feeling, and when I have a bad feeling, that’s saying something.

No surprise there. It didn’t take a psychic to get a bad feeling about this place. Sure, it was cheery enough. The commons were brightly lit, with old-fashioned carriage lamps set on posts to augment the moonlight. There was a snack table off to the side, which hadn’t appealed to me because my hunger was of a different kind. There was even a big crystal bowl of punch. Blood red.

Focus, Spider.

Everyone seemed in a state of bliss as Erasmus droned on about how together they were all brothers and sisters, all part of the same world, all children of the clouds. But something was clearly off. I glanced around the perimeter, and now there were big, stocky guys in uniforms circling around like wolves herding sheep. While I didn’t see any of the young disciples making a break for it, or even appearing uneasy, the atmosphere changed slightly, as if Erasmus was about to deliver the real sales pitch.

I realized how vulnerable the group was, softened with promises, removed from their loved ones, isolated from the past they had known. How he had lured these folks up here, I haven’t a clue. Maybe this was a legitimate retreat...for some. Maybe a handful of folks really did leave this place feeling enlightened and alive.

Maybe.

Others, I suspected, were not so lucky. Others, like Parker’s friend, Cindy, in his trunk drained of all blood, never left here again. Alive, that is.

And then I saw something that would have caused my breath to catch in my throat, if I had breath. A prominent politician, a Democratic senator, in fact, had just entered the stage from behind the stone statue. He nodded to a burly security guard, who nodded back. The senator was followed by a celebrity. A very wealthy celebrity famous for his action movies. He, too, stepped in, nodding to the security guard. And it continued like this for the next few minutes. Politicians, prominent business leaders, heads of state, more celebrities, all issuing from behind the little stone wall.

And all of them were looking upon the participants, me included, with only one thing:

Hunger in their eyes.

Yeah, I had a very bad feeling about this place, indeed.

* * *

Erasmus droned on with his message of hope and deliverance, expounding on “The Answer,” which involved surrendering to the larger mysteries of life while following a path of simplicity. It sounded a little contradictory to me, but in a way, it was sort of like what I’d done when I finally accepted I was a vampire. After all, I didn’t ask to be the way I was, but didn’t I have a right to survive just like everything else on the planet?

The big wigs gathered around Erasmus, but they didn’t kneel or anything. I suspected they were the kind of folks who didn’t kowtow to anyone, and probably saw Erasmus as just another service worker or deliveryman—he set up the butcher shop and the wolves swooped in for pork chops.

Erasmus raised his arms, and the wide sleeves of his robe slid down to his elbows. Stage lights, probably strung along the back of the stage, lit up brilliantly behind him, revealing the giant statue in better detail. It was twenty-five feet in height, grainy, and grotesque-looking. Her crude nose and lips were broad, and deep crevices of eyes were set in a face that was like a hammer. Her limbs were thick and sinewy, and I had the distinct feeling that I had just entered the first circle of hell.

Now that she was illuminated, there was no denying that the statue represented a demon of some sort.

Those in the crowd oohed and aahed, but they should have gasped. Something freaky was going on, and I had a feeling things were only going to get worse.

I was right.

After more introductions and more proclamations of purifying, a drink was passed around. The same red punch I had seen earlier—and it most certainly wasn’t Kool-Aid; at least, not the kind sold at Wal-Mart. Others in attendance downed it willingly. I don’t down anything other than blood and so I pretended to take a drink but let a little dribble down my chin so it looked like I’d had some.

A few minutes later, while those in attendance around me seemed to be feeling the effects of a drug...and by my estimate, ecstasy— the inner circle made their moves.

They gathered closer to Erasmus, who was loving the attention and the power, and he proceeded to lead the assembly in a strange chant.

I thought I made out the words “oysters in your laundry hamper,” but I believe the chants were Latin, a subject I’d studied a few times in school but rarely had the chance to speak. If you don’t practice a new language—even very old languages—you tend to lose it.

And old Erasmus started to lose it, ranting and gibbering, waving toward the giant stone figure. I looked around at the crowd of mostly young and nubile women, who were swaying and joining in like it was Beatlemania on heavy sedatives.

It didn’t look any more harmful than your average Catholic mass or high-school dance, so I figured maybe tonight was nothing special after all. I relaxed a little, feeling I wouldn’t have to blow my cover yet and swing into action.

I had a little more time to get the lay of the land and learn about the place.

But first I had to find Parker’s sister.

Chapter Fifteen

From the photograph Parker had shown me, her sister Lilith was sort of like a miniature Parker, fresh-faced, girlish figure, cute as a ladybug on a daisy.

The problem was that so many of these girls were cute, and a surprisingly large proportion of them were also blonde. In the chaos, I couldn’t tell which ones were gleefully going all cult-zombie and which ones were just going along with the crowd because it was trendy.

The inner circle gathered closer around Erasmus, and somebody somewhere started beating a tom-tom drum. Its deep bass thudded across the night like a pulse. I pulled my robe over my face a little, making it like a hood, and swayed into the crowd as if I were dancing. The moans grew louder, and I realized they’d risen to a rhythmic chant.

It still seemed kind of mild for a supposedly killer cult. Maybe this was Brainwash 101 for initiates like me, and we were expected to just keep our mouths shut and learn. It looked like Erasmus was after numbers here, trying to impress his acolytes with the sea of swaying beauties.

So I kept my mouth shut, especially since I didn’t want to show my fangs. Yet.

Erasmus Cole stood on the platform, his hands raised as if he were a conductor about to launch a symphony. He gazed up into the night, where a sallow wedge of moon slid toward Mount Shasta. I understand a little about the heavens and physics, since I’ve been around so long, and I knew the Earth was spinning and thereby creating the illusion of the moon’s slow movement.

But still it looked as if the moon was sinking into the glistening, icy top of Mount Shasta, an impending collision of glowing forces only moments away.

“Excuse me,” I said to one young blonde girl who looked about sixteen. From behind, I’d taken her for Parker’s sister. I wasn’t sure I’d have time to check the robes of every adolescent-looking female, and a couple of males were androgynous enough that I wasn’t quite sure of the gender until I was close enough to see their necks.

I’m a big observer of necks, and I can spot an Adam’s apple at twenty paces. But I try to keep my distance, because necks start looking yummy if I stare at them too long.

The chant started to sound like real words, English words, and at first I thought it was “Ray” something, like an ode to a sun goddess. The great stone beastess towering over Erasmus didn’t look very sunny, though, and I was pretty sure all of this was in tribute to her.

As the acolytes broke away from mashing with the masses and headed for the platform, the three-syllable chant grew louder. And I made out the words, “Raise her up. Raise her up. Raise her up....”

My God, they’re trying to summon the demon.

If that stone monster so much as moved a muscle, I was grabbing Parker and we were out of there, immortal hero or not. Rational minds tell you that demons didn’t exist, but in the rational world, vampires didn’t exist, either. Yet here I was. We don’t live in a rational world.

Then the acolytes were gathering around Erasmus, and the moon was sliding closer to the peak of Mount Shasta. There came a mild commotion from behind the stone wall and a couple of big goons in robes half-carried a slumping, lithe figure through the pillars.

She lifted her drowsy head and I saw immediately that it was Parker’s sister.

I began moving to the front of the crowd, working slowly so as not to draw attention, mumbling and moaning in unison with the others. The cult’s acolytes had their eyes on the young girl, and their depraved lust pushed my generally sluggish heart rate to nine or ten beats per minute. I figured it was just another initiation, and that Erasmus just wanted to present her to the cult as a new member.

Every cult needed fresh blood, even ones where the members didn’t seem to live long enough to age out.

Most disturbing was the face of Erasmus Cole. He beamed with pride as her limp form was brought to the platform before him. When the goons released her, she swayed and almost collapsed, but Erasmus caught her in a gesture that might have passed for paternal tenderness elsewhere.

Instead, he laid her on her back, her pert breasts straining against the thin robe as she panted and gasped. By now, I was about two or three rows of brainwashed, drugged-out zombies away from the main event. The statue still hadn’t moved, so I figured if there was a demon on the premises, it probably didn’t reside in the stone monolith.

And as the crowd chanted “Raise her up,” Erasmus pulled a gleaming object from the folds of his robe. The moon was nearly touching the tip of Mount Shasta now, white melding with white.

Erasmus flipped open the object in his hand.

The wicked, silver blade gleamed in the night.

And then I realized the chant was actually “Razor up.” as he lifted it high into the air.

And I had a bad feeling the chant was about to shift to “Razor down.”

Chapter Sixteen

Just as the moon settled into the notch of Mount Shasta like an egg settling in a nest, Erasmus reached gently down and stroked his daughter’s hair. I tensed and pushed through the last of the crowd, reaching the front row, drawing attention to myself because the whole place had fallen still and silent.

Erasmus played out one long blonde strand of the girl’s hair and snipped it neatly with an easy stroke of the blade.

The crowd drew in a collective breath, and the circle of big wigs gathered a little closer around the altar. The moon was now fat and settling on top of the mountain, and Erasmus folded the razor and put it away.

My muscles relaxed, but my fangs were long and full against the inside of my lips. When I get aroused—be it from anger, intense curiosity, or that occasional and troublesome other kind of bloodthirsty arousal—my teeth just go crazy and have a mind of their own.

Luckily, I’ve learned to control my urges over the years, though I can’t control my physiological response. It’s like training a dog not to bark when the mailman drives up, or a worm not to wiggle when you stick it on a fishhook. Some things just are.

Still, I couldn’t hide my relief after getting all worked up. Apparently this was just part of the show, and the inner circle stood around Erasmus with placid expressions on their faces, hardly the look of maniacs.

Now, I could see a senator being a sociopathic madman, but I was glad the actor wasn’t a lunatic. And I thought I saw a major-league baseball player behind Erasmus, obviously skipping out on the second game of a late-night doubleheader.

But now they just looked like harmless, gullible idiots, standing around in robes while Erasmus held the single strand of hair aloft.

“Goddess of the moon, the mountain, and the stone, accept this symbol of change, that part of the body which grows but also falls away, that which shines yet is dull, that which is made from me but is also a gift to me. Accept my daughter as your own.”

The person next to me coughed a little, and the person directly behind her gave her a kick to the leg. This was apparently an important moment.

“I promised you all would be welcome here, and all can be cleansed,” Erasmus said.

He gave the hair a symbolic wiping along the sleeve of his robe. “My daughter has made mistakes, like so many of you young people have.” Here he slowly waved his hand to indicate the inner circle. “Even the people we admire have had their share of missteps. But we can all change for the better.”

Then he indicated the moon, which gave the illusion of being fully embedded in the mountaintop. “Just as the moon is always in motion, so must we continue on our individual paths. Tonight, my daughter has pledged to join us, and to follow us as we walk the road of the divine.”

He took his daughter’s hands and raised her from her kneeling position. It was almost like they were about to embark on the bride-daddy dance at a wedding. Erasmus’s reputation as a vicious, demon-worshipping murderer was taking a serious hit, and I wondered yet again if Parker was pulling a con job on me.

“Welcome, Lilith,” Erasmus said.

The crowd clapped, which was an odd reaction considering everyone’s previous behavior, and Lilith herself even smiled. Erasmus, who’d been so solemn and grim-faced before, now grinned like somebody’s kindly uncle. The inner circle shook hands and high-fived and knuckle-bumped, and a few of the people around me began muttering a general “So, what are you doing after the cult meeting?” kind of lines.

People in the crowd peeled back their hoods, and I saw that although many different nationalities were represented, Erasmus Cole clearly had a preference for young blondes.

In a way, I was glad I didn’t have to spring into action, but on the other hand, it meant I’d have to spend a little more time digging.

There was also the very real possibility that Parker had set me up somehow, hoping I’d cause trouble. I’ve known a lot of women with daddy issues, and some weren’t above manipulating a guy into getting back at their dad for them. Some did it through promiscuity, others through drugs, still others by wrecking expensive cars or making bad grades or maxing out the credit card.

Some of the inner circle members were removing their robes, and it looked like the formal part of the ceremony was over. I cautiously went up on the platform, hoping to blend in with a couple of robed acolytes who attended to clean-up duties. Up close, the stone statue seemed even more ominous, with chiseled features and deep, hollowed-out eyes.

I kept my hood pulled low just to be safe, although my fangs had retracted quite a bit. I even got close enough to Erasmus to smell an odd blend of patchouli, wax, and sulfur, as if someone had committed arson at a shop for eclectic hippies.

Parker’s sister, Lilith, was all smiles, and I wondered if her drugging had been faked. I even considered the possibility that Parker and her sister were in on the whole Cloudland enterprise, raking in the dough and laughing all the way to the Cayman Islands.

But Parker wanted me here for a reason, and now that mystery seemed way more pressing than rescuing her sister, who seemed as safe as a kitten and about as cute.

Parker, on the other hand....

Cute wouldn’t do her any good if she was trying to double-cross me.

Chapter Seventeen

Back in the suite, I discovered that Parker was gone.

I frowned at that. So how the hell was I supposed to keep her and her sister alive, if she wasn’t going to listen to me?

Good question.

I stretched out on the bed and mulled over what I had seen that night. It wasn’t pretty. My best guess was that this “cult” had a few layers to it. One being the recruiting of young girls and even some young men. Who these girls were was no mystery. I’ve seen my share of degenerates, drug addicts, and drop-outs. The deadly D’s. Add runaways to that group, and I would say that that about summed up the night’s attendees.

Outside the bungalow, I heard laughing. A door slammed. Muffled giggling from behind closed doors. Yeah, my hearing is particularly good. It’s a curse and a blessing.

Of course, the event hadn’t only been attended by vulnerable girls and a handful of young men, had it? Nope. There had been some very powerful people there, and many of them had gazed from the shadows upon the nubile masses, with the leering eyes of predators.

So there was that, too. Catering to the rich and powerful and famous. This was more than a cult, perhaps. A filthy retreat for those with enough money to satisfy their hungers, whatever they might be. And young flesh was looking more and more like the top billing.

My skin crawled. I had seen my share of filth and horror. Hell, I’d even contributed to it, to some extent. But nothing like this. I did not prey on the vulnerable. I did not abuse. If anything, I had simply fed, fueling my immortal body with the blood of my victims. An unfortunate necessity.

Until I had seen the error of my ways.

Now, I feed on donors mostly. Not a perfect system, for rarely is the blood fresh, but at least it saves lives, and at least I can look at myself in the mirror.

That is, if I could ever see myself in the mirror.

So we had a cult that provided young flesh to horny old bastards. And what did Erasmus get out of it? What the hell was the deal with the stone demon in the background? And what about the simulation of slaying his own daughter? And where the hell was Parker?

I didn’t know, but I knew I needed answers. And I knew where I wanted to get them.

Lilith.

* * *

It was coming on midnight when I slipped out of the bungalow, back in my regular clothes.

The air was chilled, but I hardly noticed. After all, I lived with an eternal chill. It’s one of the reasons why I avoid contact with people. Most folk tend to recoil when shaking the hands of a living corpse.

The compound was massive, but ultimately it seemed to be roughly square-shaped, with three or four floors in each building. I passed milling groups of women who watched me with interest. I ignored them. I also passed guards who watched me with interest, too. I kept my eye on them, however. Where the big players were, I hadn’t a clue. They probably had their own wing somewhere. Plush as hell, and filled with many—and perhaps even unwilling—participants.

My stomach turned.

I may not be a saint, but I know when something was wrong. Giving outcasts false hope and tempting them with faith, only to take advantage of them, was wrong on a whole other level.

Don’t forget the girl in the trunk, I thought.

And just as the thought occurred to me, another thought followed just behind it: what if the “body” was made up? What if there had been no body? What if Parker just said that to get me out here?

And why would she do that?

I didn’t know, but the chill that swept over me was real, and I had learned long ago not to ignore such chills. They were premonitions that something was about to go very, very bad.

I soon found myself in a common room. There was a fire going in the rock fireplace, which was surrounded with couches and oversized chairs, all filled with excited young people.

Go home, I thought at them. Or to Hollywood. Hell, go anywhere but here.

I paused briefly and closed my eyes, getting a feel for the place. I sensed Cloudland’s main facility was bigger than I realized. I sensed it went down many floors as well. Hidden rooms. Filthy rooms. Rooms full of unspeakable horror. Obviously, some of the powerful guests were into far more than just raunchy sex. They were into pain. I sensed that the cult—and Mr. Cole—provided them the means to satisfy their sick urges.

I knew that the indulgence was perhaps days away. For the moment, the energy was generally upbeat and positive. I suspected it wouldn’t stay that way. A lot of these young people were going to seriously regret ever taking their first drug, or skipping school or telling their parents to F-off.

As I projected my conscious out, over the grounds—something I’d mastered decades ago—I found who I was looking for. She was upstairs and locked away. And she wasn’t very far.

Aware that I had attracted the attention of two more goons, I smiled at them and slipped through the common room and out a side door and into the courtyard.

Quickly, I located the window behind which I knew they were keeping Lilith.

Chapter Eighteen

Her room was four floors up.

I had only seconds before the guards would be following me out into the courtyard. And for the time being, the big grassy commons was empty. When you’ve been alive for as long as I have been, you learn some things. One of the things I’ve learned is how far I can push this immortal body. Jumping up to the fourth floor was well within my limits. So I gathered myself and pushed off the concrete sidewalk. I shot up far higher than anyone had a right to jump. But I wasn’t just anyone, was I?

I landed lightly on a narrow ledge, just as the courtyard door into the common room opened and light spilled out. I pushed the glass window open and stepped into a spacious suite.

I don’t need much light. Or any light for that matter. I knew instantly I was alone with the girl in the room. She was sitting up in bed, hugging her legs, and staring at me.

Could she see me? I didn’t know, but if she screamed, I was going to be in trouble.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” I said.

She said nothing, which was a good sign, and I headed over to the bedside lamp and turned it on. She blinked hard but never took her eyes off me.

“How did you get up here?” she asked.

“I’ve got friends in high places,” I said.

Her cute face scrunched in confusion. “You were on stage with me. I think. It’s hard to know for sure since my dad keeps me drugged.”

“Are you drugged now?”

“It’s wearing off, but I suspect he’ll be up here soon. He’ll kill you if he sees you up here. If not him, then one of his men. They kill people here, you know.”

I heard voices outside the room. Was someone coming or going? Or was it just more guards talking among themselves?

“You’re taking it pretty well for someone who just found out that people are getting killed.”

She giggled. “Oh, I’m totally freaked. Trust me. I’m just bombed out of my skull right now. Too high up to care.”

“Where’s your sister?” I asked.

Her head, which had begun to loll to one side, snapped erect. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at me. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, where’s your sister? Parker.”

She giggled again. “I don’t have a sister, silly.”

That stopped me. “Parker isn’t your sister?”

Her head was lolling to the side again. She closed her eyes. “Of course not, silly. Just me and my pops. My demented fucking pops who I think is going to kill me.”

I sat on the corner of the bed and took her face in my hands. She shivered violently. “You’re cold.”

“Never mind that,” I said. “Lilith, what’s going on here?”

“It’s no la-la, walk-into-the-light halleluiah chorus,” she said, and started to close her eyes again.

I shook her lightly. “I know that. But what are they doing to you? Why are they drugging you? Who’s Parker?”

She stared at me long and hard, her pupils as big as dimes. “Daddy wants me to be part of the cult. Tonight was just for show. I think he really wants to cut me.”

“Kill you?”

“Of course. I’ve sensed it all my life, but I didn’t understand it until I got older.”

“I don’t understand now.”

She reached out and took my hand. Her own wasn’t much warmer, and it trembled a little. “The cult was his life. Controlling others was his life. But there was always something else.”

“What?”

“He always wanted more power. He wanted total control. And he believed The Answer was here at Mount Shasta, an ancient power that he could summon.”

Now I understood. “The statue of the demoness,” I said.

She looked at me, and now her head dropped back against the headboard. “Yes, the demoness. I believe you’ve met her. He calls her Parker.”

Chapter Nineteen

Great.

I wouldn’t say it was the first time I’d ever been played for a fool by a woman. Like I said, I’ve been around a while.

But Parker had preyed on my hero trip, almost like she knew more about me than she’d let on. All her little hints made me wonder if she knew I was a vampire, and if she somehow expected me to use those powers here at Cloudland. She didn’t want me merely as a cold-blooded killer who would take Erasmus Cole out of the picture; she had some sort of sinister connection with Cole.

And if Lilith was to be believed—not an automatic, given her drugged stupor—then that connection could very well be supernatural evil.

Of course, in the real world, vampires and demons are the kinds of things you don’t talk about in polite company. They are creatures in movies and comic books. But I know vampires exist, and I accept there are probably a lot of other types of mythical entities that exist that I don’t even know about.

So the whole vibe of the place, the set-up for a blood sacrifice, made the notion of a demoness believable.

But Lilith could also be lying. She didn’t seem to have enough wits about her to spin a major fabrication, and I no longer trusted my inner sense that had, not that long ago, told me that Parker was telling the truth.

What’s happening to me? My gut instinct has never been wrong before.

And the possibility was right there before me: Parker really was a demoness and had brought me under her dark influence. That disturbed me. I always wanted to be the dark, brooding one in my relationships.

I ran a hand over my face. “Do you know where she is?” I asked Lilith.

“Yes, but you don’t want to go there.”

“It’s the only place I want to go,” I said.

“You’ll never return. Nobody ever returns.”

No matter how this turned out, the kid was going to have major psychological baggage for the rest of her life. But dying here would be even worse. At least away from Cloudland, she’d have a chance. “I’m going to get you out of here,” I said.

“A knight in shining armor, huh? Well, Daddy is a dragon. A big, fire-breathing dragon who’ll cook your ass and eat you for dinner.”

I hoped she meant that figuratively instead of literally. “So, how well do you know Parker?”

She rolled her stoned eyes. “How well does any girl know her father’s mistress?”

I didn’t want to go there, and I had no way of knowing whether Erasmus was truly engaged in sexual relations with Parker, or whether she was merely a sidekick to help build up the cult. One thing was for sure, though: Parker was flesh and blood, not a demon. Because I’d smelled her blood, and it had been very, very tempting.

“Do you trust me?” I said, realizing I’d asked Parker a similar question not that long ago.

“I don’t trust anybody,” she said.

I opened my mouth to explain why I was different, that I was one of the good guys, but I didn’t really have any hard evidence of that. Instead, I just said, “Good answer.”

I slipped out the door, leaving the lights off and hopefully allowing Lilith to catch up on her beauty sleep. I locked the latch before I pulled the door closed behind me. Maybe if she was too stoned to wander, she’d be safe for a little while, but I knew creepy old Erasmus probably had a master key to the place.

Now that my senses weren’t clouded by Lilith, I expanded my perceptions outward. Then downward.

I could feel the anxiety, pain, and misery rising up from below. I wasn’t much for religion, but there was a lot of symbolism in the idea that hell was a hot place and it was always below. I came to the end of the hall, where apparently a maid was inside cleaning a room. There was a laundry hamper there, and I fished out a robe that wasn’t too rumpled, slipped it on, and hurried away. My boots and the legs of my blue jeans were visible, but I didn’t waste the time to stop and undress.

I found the stairs and clattered down four stories, but the stairs kept going. I hadn’t encountered anyone, so I guess the cultists were all in their rooms reading Cloudland pamphlets. The lucky ones, anyway.

The others...

I heard a couple of moans and groans, and I half-floated, half scrambled down the remaining two flights, living up to my name. At the concrete landing was a metal door, which I tried. Locked.

I pressed my ear to it, because even my acute hearing has its limits. At the same time, I penetrated the room with my senses, discerning the veiled outlines of a few of the older gentlemen, the big wigs. I also picked up the plaintive whining of several teen girls. From what I could tell, the real debauchery hadn’t begun, but things were getting hot and heavy...and sickening.

Rage fueled me as I grabbed the door handle and twisted hard, snapping the hasp.

Chapter Twenty

The door swung open with a rusty creak, and dim light from the stairwell joined with the few candles to reveal that the teens were nude, huddled in the center of the room on a large mat. Behind them was a miniature, Styrofoam-looking version of the big, bitching demon statue outside.

The big wigs were gathered around them in various states of undress, and I couldn’t help but notice that the Democratic senator who looked sharp in a suit should never, ever allow himself to be photographed in a Speedo if he ever wanted to carry another election. The movie star, too, was half-naked, and he held a mean-looking leather whip.

“No boys allowed,” the actor said, apparently spying my boots.

I flipped my hood back and grinned, showing my fangs. “I ain’t no boy,” I said.

His eyes grew wide as one of the girls shrieked, and the actor’s whip undulated, then snapped toward me. I ducked back and let it wrap around my arm, surprising him when I tugged it toward me. He fell forward before he had enough sense to let go, and I grabbed him and raked my fangs across his throat. Not enough to pierce and turn him, but enough to put the fear of God in him.

“Play with people your own age,” I whispered in his ear.

I pushed him away and swept the whip around the senator’s ankles as he tried to run, yanking so that he sprawled face first, his fat belly making a slapping sound as it hit the concrete.

“Look out!” one of the girls yelled, but she could have saved herself the trouble. Because I sensed the third person, a tall black guy sporting kinky sports attire emerging from the shadows, a baseball bat raised over his head. Hell of a prop.

I dodged his swing, but he was fast and clipped my knee with the wooden tip. “I hate vampires,” he said, swinging and smashing the bat on the floor so hard that it shattered.

He held up the splintered end, dancing around in just his jock strap and those funny leggings ballplayers wear. He poked it at me a couple of times, but I skipped away, saving my best moves and letting him gain confidence.

The girls were whispering and squealing a little, but they were not seriously freaking out yet. They were probably drugged like Lilith, flying on Erasmus Cole’s Cloudland Kool-Aid.

“Run,” I yelled at them, waving toward the door.

“But....” one of them said, and I glanced at her. She was cute and blonde, the Cloudland prototype, barely sixteen if that.

“But what?” I said, turning my full attention back to the menacing wooden stake.

“You’re a vampire,” she finished, and I realized my fangs were still protruding, aroused by the scant taste of blood.

And I realized what I was really afraid of: that I wasn’t that much different from these perverse human predators, and if the girls were around when my hunger kicked in, I’d have no problem ripping open their pretty, tender throats and draining them dry.

When you got right down to it, I was no better than Erasmus Cole. And that realization pissed me off even more.

“Yeah, that’s right,” I said, turning an awkward backflip as the ballplayer jabbed at me. I landed on my feet, curled my fingers as if they were claws, and gave the girls my best Bela Lugosi. “And if you don’t get out right this second, I’m draining you all right after this joker strikes out.”

That got them moving, and I heard their bare feet slapping up the stairs as the sicko Babe Ruth and I got down to business.

“So, you’re familiar with vampires,” I said to the freaky ballplayer, getting into fighting stance.

“Sure,” he said, “this is Cloudland.”

Parker’s words came back to me: This ain’t my first rodeo.

Behind me, the senator had recovered and was crawling toward the stairs. I let him go. The actor, however, must have confused his action scripts with reality, because he reached down and picked up the fat end of the broken bat and thwacked it against his open palm. Both actor and ballplayer faced me.

“I haven’t killed one of you in a long time,” said the actor. He might have been more menacing if he wasn’t wearing assless chaps. “Months, at least.”

“The demoness is going to love this,” the ballplayer said.

They closed in, apparently used to stalking my kind, and they stayed with me as I leapt away. The ceiling was too low for serious acrobatics, but I clung above them long enough for them to stab only air.

Then I dropped back down and grabbed their heads, knocking their skulls together with a sound like castanets clacking.

“Double play,” I said, as they dropped unconscious at my feet. If I was going to hang around actors, I might as well deliver a few lame one-liners.

Besides, “I got lucky” wasn’t appropriate to the situation.

The temptation to stick a couple of holes in their necks was too great. Besides, I reasoned, hadn’t they just tried to kill me? Indeed they had, and in my world of already shaky ethics, that made them fair game.

A moment later, after dropping to my knees and pushing aside the actor’s mop of hair, I was drinking deeply from his jugular vein.

God, was it good!

Blood rushed into my mouth and it was all I could do to keep up with the furious flow.

Sated, I eased him back down to the floor. I watched as the two puncture wounds in his neck closed supernaturally. No, vampire wounds do not leave a mark; instead, we leave our victims groggy and weak for days. It is one of the reasons we have remained hidden for so long.

That is, of course, if we let them live at all.

The pervert would live. For now, I had bigger fish to fry.

Parker and Erasmus.

Chapter Twenty-one

Feeling stronger than I had in days—after all, there’s nothing so revitalizing as fresh human blood—I made my way back up the stairs and to the common room.

As I surveyed the quiet room—which was much quieter than it had been just fifteen minutes earlier—I was all too aware of the growing alarm sounding within me. Such alarms are common for me. They help keep me alive. They help me recognize when real danger is around. Danger that could possibly even kill me again. Over the decades, I’ve come to pay attention to such alarms.

But for the moment I was mostly alone in the common room. So where had everyone gone? And why were my spider-senses jangling off the hook?

Leave, I thought. Get the hell out of here.

Sage advice. After all, I didn’t have a dog in this fight. If I had any sense, I would listen to the warning bells that sounded just inside my head. Parker, it seemed, wasn’t who she claimed she was. And who was Lilith to me? Just another lost soul in this screwed-up place, and with her genetics, she was bad news anyway.

Maybe. But something wasn’t making sense. The cult members down below hadn’t been surprised to see me. The girls had been. But not the elite members.

The demoness would be pleased, he had said. Pleased about what? Killing me?

Come to think of it, the bungling buffoons hadn’t tried very hard to kill me. It was almost as if they had been waiting for me. Waiting for me to do what? Kill them? Drink from them? Perhaps it had all been designed to distract me.

Sure. Maybe. But that still didn’t account for the fact that seeing a vampire in their midst was commonplace.

There were, as far as I could tell, no other vampires present. Vampires know other vampires. We sense them, feel them. I hadn’t felt anything.

Only my own warning senses ringing loud and clear, and they were practically begging me to get the hell out of Dodge. Or the hell out of Cloudland.

But I didn’t leave. I continued standing there like an immortal idiot, cudgeling my sluggish brain to make sense of it all. My brain wasn’t normally sluggish. In fact, my brain, especially after a feeding, was generally razor sharp.

What was happening to me? And where was everyone?

I listened and soon picked up the sound of a vacuum somewhere. I also heard talking from somewhere, too. I turned. And at the far end of the hallway, I saw a small group of young women exit through a side door.

If my sense of direction was right, they were heading back to the open field and to the stone demon.

I sensed there would be a sacrifice in the immediate future and, dog or no dog, I wasn’t going to let that creepy bastard hurt his daughter.

And with that thought, I dashed back up the four flights of stairs to her bedroom. Or cell. Or whatever it really was. The door was open. I looked inside. Empty. The far window was still open, and the curtains billowed in on a breeze. I went to it and looked out.

Sure enough, the cultists were gathering around the stone demon and there was Erasmus on the platform with his daughter, Lilith.

I leaped from the window.

* * *

I landed hard. Too hard.

In fact, something popped painfully in my knee. What the hell? I couldn’t remember the last time I had hurt myself.

I frowned as I stood. I waited briefly for my body to repair itself and it did...although not as fast as I would have liked. And not as fast as I was accustomed to.

Something’s wrong with me.

With my knee mostly repaired, I set out, moving quickly through the grassy slopes that led up to the compound. I picked up speed, virtually flying over the grass. Sometimes I can run so fast that it appears my feet don’t touch the ground.

But not this time. This time I felt every thudding footfall.

And, amazingly, I was running out of breath, too—or at least what passed for breath in my undead condition.

At the edge of the clearing, hidden within a copse of evergreens, I watched as young women filled the open space. Most sat on their knees and stared ahead. Most were, I assumed, drugged out of their freakin’ minds.

And there was Erasmus with Lilith, who sat in a chair. Her arms hung limply at her sides. Her head lolled forward, chin resting on her sternum.

I debated. The girl didn’t have much time. Not to mention I didn’t have much time, either. I’ve seen some weird shit in my time, but I’ve never seen an actual, honest-to-God demon summoned.

I could leave. I could turn and run and get the hell out of there. Whether or not a demon would really make an appearance, I didn’t know. What the demon’s agenda was, I really didn’t care. Whatever happened in Cloudland was none of my business.

Run, and don’t look back.

Except I didn’t run. I continued standing behind a tree, watching, debating, wondering what I should do. Indecisive. Almost nervous.

And all the while I felt weaker and weaker.

What the hell was going on?

I took in some air, kick-starting lungs that I rarely used. Years ago, I had learned that I really didn’t need to breathe. I did it for show, sometimes. To keep folks from asking questions.

But I need to breathe now.

Yeah, something was very, very wrong.

It was now or never.

I took in some more air and dashed forward, speeding through the tall grass and between sitting bodies. Although I was not going anywhere near as fast as I could, I was still pretty damn fast. Just a blur to those sitting there, watching the scene before them.

Erasmus seemed to spy me. He had stepped behind his daughter, holding something in his hand. His gaze, I was certain, was locked onto me.

Interestingly, no security guards leaped to his defense, and the closer I got, the more I realized I had stepped into an elaborate trap.

No. Not stepped. Flew headlong.

Screw it. Weakened or not, I was taking Lilith with me. At the very least, I would save her.

And as I bounded onto the raised dirt platform, with the massive stone demon rising high into the shadows behind Erasmus, Lilith looked up.

Only she wasn’t Lilith.

At least, not anymore.

It was Parker. And she was smiling demonically.

Chapter Twenty-two

I haven’t been human in a very long time.

But I can almost remember what it was like to be slow, limited, and vulnerable. That’s how I felt now, and the surge of energy that would have passed for adrenalin in a human was fading fast.

And the shock of seeing that Parker had been disguised as Lilith all along really made me feel like a sucker.

Of course, I was a sucker, and despite having just fed, I was a weak sucker.

“Where’s Lilith?” I said to them both.

The cultists gathered around made no move to attack me. That also fueled my suspicions.

“I’m right here, Spider,” she said. “Didn’t you wonder why you never saw both of us at the same time?”

My first question was “Why?” but there was no reason to even ask. I couldn’t trust anything this woman—if indeed she was even a female and a human—would say. She’d obviously been lying to me ever since the night she’d followed me to my car.

“The drained body...” I wobbled a little, feeling woozy. The moon was bright against Mount Shasta, and the whole scene had a foggy, magical feel to it.

Had they drugged me somehow? I’d avoided their purple Kool-Aid, and I hadn’t taken anything that I—

Shit. The cult guy in the basement.

My expression must have shown that the truth had dawned on me.

Parker smiled, with none of her earlier seductive sweetness. Now it was a vile thing, a raw gash of jagged teeth, lips bright and full. Erasmus smirked beneath his hood, apparently pleased to see his plan was working out perfectly.

“You set me up,” I said to her.

She shrugged. “We need your immortal power. Nothing personal.”

“So all your games were just to test me, to see if I was really a vampire.”

I could barely stand now, and the air seemed thick and heavy, filling my lungs as if I were trapped in a buried coffin. Something was very wrong. I knew I was in danger, yet I couldn’t muster the strength to take a flying leap away from the stage.

Parker rose from her chair and stepped beside Erasmus. “I had to be sure,” she said. “But, really, who did you think you were fooling? Only comes out at night, doesn’t eat or drink anything, super strong, likes to play hero. That trick with the Bloody Mary? Lame. And that name ‘Spider’? Yeah, real subtle.”

I hadn’t noticed the crowd moving, but it seemed they were closer to the stage, as if the ground had simply slid forward about thirty feet. They were making a low sound, a rhythmic chant that was almost a hum.

“But you want to know what really gave away that you’re a vampire?”

She must have broken into my apartment and found the blood hidden in my refrigerator, or maybe she’d figured out what the secret compartment in my trunk was for. And if I had my usual powers, it wouldn’t have mattered, because I would have punched, ripped, and bitten my way through the crowd. Now that there was no Lilith to save, I had lost my direction.

“Next time,” Parker said, “don’t get perfect scores on your history tests. Not that there’s going to be a next time.”

Then Erasmus raised the thing he’d been holding, and I could see it was a beautifully crafted, silver-tipped wooden stake, the gilded handle beset with jewels. Somebody had put a lot of craft into making the stake, and the wood was darkened with age and—

Something that might have been the blood of all the victims who had gone before me.

They were going to kill me, and I couldn’t do a thing about it. “I threw in that bit about the drained body just to make sure,” Parker said, her words coming to me as if through a wall of gauze. “A normal person would have said, ‘What do you think did it, a vampire?’ But you didn’t even joke about it.”

“A dead girl’s no laughing matter,” I said.

“Neither is a dead cult member in the basement,” Erasmus said. To Parker, he said, “Sometimes I suspect you have clairvoyant powers in addition to possession and shapeshifting.”

“The hero thing,” she said. “All we had to do was have ‘Lilith’ send Hero Boy to the rescue, and somebody was going to get hurt. Since we didn’t know which guy he’d hit, we had them all contaminated with garlic and a bellyful of holy water. No problem to them, except for their bad breath, but you couldn’t resist the impulse to feed. Funny that your undead hunger is going to lead to your second death.”

Garlic and holy water. And I’d drunk from the neck of one of them. That’s what had hit me—vampire kryptonite. A couple of the cult members grabbed me on each side, and I tried to fight them off, but I was as weak as an anemic kitten. I looked at them to discover they were teen girls, pretty frail themselves. My self-esteem took a big nosedive.

They guided me to the chair and sat me down, and my head was so heavy I could barely hold it up. Then it flopped backward and I found myself staring way up at the ugly stone face of the demoness.

I was starting to figure it all out. It wasn’t Lilith they’d wanted for the sacrifice.

It was me.

“This is a big honor, Spider,” Parker said. “You could have gone on forever, hiding away, moving from place to place, surviving on stolen blood. And it would have been a meaningless existence. This way, you get to be part of something bigger.”

Erasmus moved in from the left, holding the wooden stake in a ceremonial position, while Parker moved in from the other side, with a crystal chalice in her hand.

“This way,” Parker said, “you get to serve.”

I wasn’t Catholic by any means, but I guessed the intent. Erasmus would jab his fancy stick in me, Parker would collect my blood, and as I died for the second time, the crowd would pass around the chalice and share a sip. I didn’t know what would happen then. Maybe they expected it would make them live forever.

Or maybe it would give their chants enough power to bring that big stone bitch to life.

I imagined it stomping down the main street in the town where I’d had my last Virgin Mary, probably with Parker inhabiting the stone and serving as the creature’s heart and soul and mind. Parker’s evils and sociopathic soul in an immortal, invincible body.

Holy shit, the trouble she could cause.

And all I could do was sit on my ass while the world ended.

Chapter Twenty-three

At least, that’s what I wanted them to think.

Truth was, I had very few options. In the past, most of their vampire victims had no doubt been rendered nearly catatonic thanks to the holy water/garlic cocktail of blood.

Trust me, I was almost there, too, but I doubted they had faced a vampire as old as me—and as versed in, well, being a vampire. You see, being a vampire doesn’t come with a handbook, and for the most part, no one shows you the way.

You just get by, feeling your way through your new undead life night after night, year after year, decade after decade, figuring it out as you go.

Well, I’ve figured out a few things in my time. And time is just what you need to figure some of this stuff out, too. Bram Stoker’s Dracula is great entertainment, and I had read it with interest back in the day. Although I was amused at all the inaccuracies, the man did get a few things right, and one of them would prove helpful now if I could just summon enough strength.

That was a big if.

As the two girls held my arms down, it was all I could do to keep my head from lolling forward. Through my blurred vision, I could see Parker grinning. For that matter, I could see Erasmus grinning, too. No doubt everyone was grinning at the idiot vampire on stage.

Did all these girls know what was truly about to go down? I doubted it. More than likely they thought this was part of the show. A ritualistic interpretation of a sacrifice, like what had happened with “Lilith” earlier when Erasmus snipped a lock of her hair. Little did they know that a real vampire was meant to die tonight. And if they did know, they were too bombed out of their brains to do much about it—or even remember.

Plus, all those teenybopper Twilight fans aside, most people prefer their vampires with a stake in the chest.

Erasmus stepped before me. Apparently, he was going to do the honors. Parker stepped to the other side. Her eyes, I saw, were unnaturally big. Too big to be human.

I’d really stepped in it this time.

Did I really think the stone statue would come alive behind me? I didn’t know. I suppose when you’re dealing with demons anything could happen.

Did I think that Parker had a crazy bloodlust that made my own seem tame? Yeah, I did. I’ve seen a few demons in my time, and their agenda is always the same: create havoc, destroy lives, gorge on humanity. Not necessarily in that order. Their power is also misleading. They promise the world, when, in fact, all they can do is create trouble.

I thought I heard a slow drum beating somewhere, until I realized it was my own heartbeat thumping steadily in my ears. It was my sluggish warning system reminding me that something bad was about to happen.

Ya think?

It was then that Erasmus raised the bejeweled stake high overhead. Parker lowered her head, her lips brushing my ears. “Bye-bye, Spidey. It was fun knowing you.”

Erasmus spun the stake in his hand, reversing his grip, and plunged it down into my chest—and he couldn’t have been more surprised when his hand went through my chest. All the way through and out the back. He stumbled when he was met with no resistance...and would have stumbled into me, except he stepped right through me.

The crowd gasped. Parker drew back, furious.

You see, Bram Stoker’s Dracula had gotten a few things right, and one of them was this: vampires—or at least some vampires—can turn into something other than monstrous bats.

We can turn into mist.

Or a semblance of mist. Indeed, I still looked like me, unless you looked closely enough. If you looked closely enough, you might rub your eyes and wonder if you were seeing things. No doubt you would see through me.

I wasn’t sure I would be able to make the change; luckily, turning into mist is a nearly effortless transformation, requiring little energy.

And, after all, my very “life” depended on it.

As Parker raged on the stage, grabbing the stake from Erasmus and swinging at me wildly, her arms passing through me harmlessly, I used the last of my energy and rose up from the stage, up into the wind, which I rode into the highest trees.

In this state, crazy as it might seem to mortals, I can’t truly see or hear. I can only feel and sense. It’s a very base existence, very elemental, like wind without the earth and fire.

And it was from this state of being, as I hovered near the tallest trees, that I gathered my strength. Vampires are supernatural creatures, and the holy water and garlic has a supernatural effect on us. Even in this elemental state, I could still feel it in me, still feel its tainted effects.

And so I hovered and waited.

Waited for my strength to return.

Chapter Twenty-four

It was a stalemate at that point.

Erasmus and his band of drugged-up merry pranksters couldn’t reach me, and one of his security goons even fired a couple of bullets at me before realizing I was immune. All I felt was a cool breeze as the bullets whistled through me.

On the other hand, I wasn’t doing so hot at keeping my mist together, being contaminated with the garlic and holy water as I was. I was starting to seep out a little, and part of me felt like just letting go, letting my undead spirit scatter across the atmosphere and go back to nothingness. It might be the final peace that had eluded me for decades.

But, even though I wasn’t alive, I had a deep, intense urge to survive. It was a thirst of a different kind, but connected with the very act of drinking blood. Draining the fluid of the living was in some ways a mockery of existence, but wasn’t my existence just as valid as that of my victims?

Yes, I wanted to survive.

But even deeper than that, I wanted vengeance.

Up in the tree, I was nearly at head level with the stone demon statue, and I could see where unknown sculptors had hewed out that brutish face and chipped, shadowy eyes.

Okay, you ugly hunk of cold bitch. I don’t have a body and you don’t have a soul. Maybe we can make some beautiful music together.

Below, some of the disciples in robes were emerging from their stupors enough to figure out something really freaky was going on. A few headed for the safety of the surrounding buildings, and even one of those muscle-headed security guards took off running like a kid who’d heard a graveyard owl.

Erasmus and Parker weren’t running, though. They were standing near the base of the tree, Parker waving the stake while her “father” screamed at her, obviously blaming her for bringing him a vampire that didn’t just lie down and die like the others.

I wondered how many vampires had fallen prey before my turn. Maybe I was the unlucky seventh or something, the one that would bring the statue to lurching, lumbering life and open the way for Parker to possess it.

I was looking down at Parker, who seemed to be shapeshifting a little, because her fingers grew long talons and her teeth stretched an inch or two longer, which made her wicked grin all the more sickening.

She stuffed the stake in her mouth, like a pirate about to climb a mizzenmast, and drove her claws into the trunk of the tree. She skittered up a few feet and hugged the trunk with her lithe legs, bracing herself so she could once again reach up and sink her spiky fingers into wood.

She apparently planned to climb up to me and wait for me to incorporate, at which time she would finish her sacrificial slaughter.

Which meant I had to get my act together and fast.

I glanced over at the statue once more, and I could have sworn I saw the bitch twitch.

Has to be the moon, bouncing off Mount Shasta and playing tricks with the shadows.

Hell, I believed in vampires and I believed in demons, so an animated statue wasn’t much of a leap. A few shrieks, screams and whimpers arose from below, as more of the robed females came to their senses enough to understand the Cloudland scene had taken a bad turn.

And it was then that my head, which was already feeling foggy, seemed to get even lighter. The statue turned toward me with a rumbling and grinding, but I also realized I was turning to look at it at the same time.

Holy shit.

As an experiment, I slowly lifted my head and looked up at the moon, and the statue did the same, a few bits of gravel tumbling twenty feet down to the ground during the motion.

I raised one hand, which was made more of vapor than flesh. The statue trembled and then the arm moved away from the body, and the tree shook with the vibration that rippled across the compound like an earthquake.

By then, almost all the Cloudland disciples had been scared straight, and they fled along with the security guards. But Erasmus still held his ground, making me wonder if he’d seen the stone beast move before.

Probably. After all, he’d set up this sacrifice for a reason.

Parker was glaring as she scuttled up the tree trunk, and now she was only fifteen feet below me, meaning I had to make a decision soon. I was still groggy and weak, and I couldn’t hold myself together as a mist much longer. And that meant I’d become solid again while I was at my most vulnerable, probably about the same time Parker reached me with her evil little stake.

I figured you only got to play Barbie Doll with a twenty-five-foot statue once every blue moon, so I stretched my arm up and watched the statue lift its crude, stubby arm. I reached straight out away from me and clutched at the air as if I were trying to snag a mosquito and steal its stolen blood.

The statue repeated my motion with its blunt stone hand.

I focused and visualized Parker scrambling up the tree below me, and I edged my hand forward to snatch her up in my imagination.

I felt the tree shake and looked down, expecting a piece of the stone to have broken free and plummeted to the ground. Instead, the big gray hand held Parker pinned against the rough bark. She hissed and cursed, stabbing at the stone with her stake.

I felt tiny little pinpricks against the back of my hand.

“I hate you, Spider,” she grunted.

“Bet you say that to all the vampires,” I said, but my voice was kind of weak. My snappy comeback was a little lame, too.

I blamed it on being spiked with garlic and holy water. And I blamed it on Parker.

But mostly I blamed it on myself, and my desire to play hero.

Who is the sucker now, Spider?

I was balanced in the crook of the tree between three fat branches, and I was now solid enough that I could feel my skin reforming and growing whole again. I tried to push harder with my hand, to make the statue smash Parker like a bug, but apparently my brief power of transference was gone. The effort had drained what last little bit of reserves I had.

Now I was helpless again, intoxicated with garlic, and feeling limp and heavy. And the statue sagged a little and returned to its former position, once again stiff and cold and dumb.

Sort of like me.

Below me came the scruffing sound as Parker resumed her climb, and I didn’t even have enough strength to tell her to go to hell.

I had a feeling I might get there first.

Chapter Twenty-five

Who knew demons could climb so well?

As she sped swiftly up the pine tree, using branches like ladder rungs, I weighed my options. At full strength, I liked my chances against her, even if she was wielding a stake. I’ve fought worse, truth be known, and I’ve had decades to perfect my fighting technique.

As it stood, I realized I had one option. And only one option.

When she was about ten feet below me, I positioned myself directly over her. My plan was simple: I was going to drop down on her like a vampiric A-bomb. We would crash through the trees together, and if I was lucky—very, very lucky—I might seriously hurt her. If my guess was right, Parker—or whatever the demon’s real name was—was using a young woman’s body as its host. Whether or not this young woman had permitted the demon in, I didn’t know. But if her host was indeed human, well, human bodies can break.

And a broken human body didn’t do a demon much good.

If I happened to kill an innocent person in the process, well, it wouldn’t be the first time.

I was just preparing myself for what I expected to be one hell of a shitty fall when Parker looked up. Her eyes were completely black and filled with hate. She must have suspected what I was up to, because she held up her hand.

“Wait, you fool,” she said, speaking around the stake in her mouth.

I couldn’t do much in my present poisoned state, but one thing I could do was let go of a tree and let gravity take over. Also, I didn’t take orders from demon-possessed girls wielding stakes.

I shook my head and very nearly eased from my precarious perch on a branch that was already sagging mightily.

Holding on to a tree limb with one hand, she removed the stake from her mouth. “Wait, dammit. All I really need is your blood. The ceremony was just for show, just for that idiot Erasmus.”

I wanted to say something clever and snappy, to show that I was ready for action. Except I was too weak to even talk. Hell, I was almost too weak to keep myself from falling on top of her anyway.

She anxiously looked up at the moon shining in sections through the tangled tree branches. “Time is literally running out. And vampires take much too long to die. All that screaming and writhing and hissing. All I need is your blood. A drop. And I’ll be on my way.”

I stared at her in disbelief. As if to prove her point, she opened her hand and the stake dropped, crashing lightly through the pine needles below. She cocked an eyebrow as it to say, “See,” and then moved the last couple of feet up toward me.

I was now sitting on the far edge of the branch. If I shifted my weight just a little, I would drop. Directly onto her. I was dense enough to do real damage, and the two of us would drop like a rock. I would survive, but I doubted her human host would.

She took another step, and another.

I wondered if she had another stake concealed somewhere. What she would do with my blood was anybody’s guess, but I suspected it had something to do with the stone giant nearby. After all, I had just felt its power, although limited. And one thing I knew about demons was this: they were always looking for a host. A way to escape the confines of hell, where they damn well belonged.

And a massive stone body, full of unlimited power, would no doubt fit the bill nicely.

It was now or never, I thought. If I was going to do this, I needed to do it right away...and then what? Although a fall through the trees wouldn’t kill me, I wasn’t immune to broken bones. Yes, I healed quickly, but not in my current poisoned state, where everything was sluggish, where I felt less than human.

I waited, debating. Parker took another step up and positioned herself under me.

She reached up...

Her fingers, I saw, were clawed. Although her host was human, the demon inside would eventually take over the body and reveal its true nature.

With one hand holding onto a sagging branch, she used the other to reach under the hem of my jeans. It could have been a cold snake working its way up through my pants. Despite myself, I shivered.

Do it now. Do it.

Except I didn’t do it. I was suddenly unsure if dropping down was the best answer. Maybe it was the holy water and garlic in my system that made me doubt myself. And so I watched and waited, virtually helpless.

“Is this some kinky sex thing?” I asked, trying to be glib, using the last of my strength to utter those silly words.

With her hand groping me under the bottom hem of my pants, she suddenly slashed hard across my ankle, using her sharp nail to open my skin. A furious burning raged through me and I winced.

“Now, that wasn’t so bad was it?” she asked, drawing her hand out. I saw that her index finger dripped blood—my blood.

She brought her glistening finger to her mouth, grinned wildly, and then popped it in like a bloody lollipop.

I waited. She waited.

She gasped and her body contorted wildly. She kept contorting until she was left sagging on the branch.

The demon, I knew, was gone.

And now the blonde girl, whoever she was, began a slow slide off the branch. I should have let her drop. No doubt she had asked the demon to posses her, because demons need an opening, a weakness, an invitation. Somehow she’d summoned it. No doubt she deserved whatever was coming next.

But, dammit, if I was going to play hero, I had to do it all the way. I didn’t let her drop alone.

Too weak to do much else, I slid off the branch I had been perched on, took hold of the young girl, and together we crashed down through the tree. I did my best to protect her, taking the brunt of the breaking limbs, some of which tore through me.

Luckily, none of the shattered branches pierced my chest, or I’d have been hanging there like a vampire shis kabob.

Near the base of the tree, the branches thinned out and we dropped freely. I turned slightly in mid-air and made sure she landed on top of me.

Which she did.

Mercifully, the branches, although tearing through my skin, had slowed the fall. And even more mercifully, we had landed on a thick pile of moss and ferns. No real harm, perhaps the first good news I’d had in a few days.

The girl also seemed mostly unharmed.

She was also fully human, and I knew there was only one way to purge the poison from my system.

I needed a fresh feeding.

And as I lay with the girl in my arms, I drew just enough blood from her neck to return my strength, but not enough to cause any real harm to her.

As I stood, leaving her curled within the moss and ferns, the wound on her neck already healing, I felt stronger than I had felt in quite some time. The girl would awaken soon, no doubt confused and weak as hell. But at least she was alive. Whoever she was.

Now, where had the demoness gone with my blood?

I had no sooner thought the question when the earth beneath me shook and a great roar filled the sky. I think I had my answer.

I dashed through the woods and, at the edge of the clearing, I pulled up short. On the raised dirt platform, the stone statue was moving. As it rose from its crouched position, it threw back its head and let loose with another terrifying roar.

I really shouldn’t have been surprised to see the statue moving. After all, I myself had recently inhabited it. But what did surprise me was that as the statue stepped away, it revealed what appeared to be a hole. A very deep hole.

So deep that I suspected it went straight to hell.

After all, pouring free from it were shadowy, winged figures. Demons.

Dozens of them.

Chapter Twenty-six

In my limited experience, demons tend to inhabit hosts, usually flawed people who leave themselves vulnerable to invasion and possession.

And although I had encountered a few lesser demons in my day, I’d never seen such a horde all at once. And never had I seen them in their true forms—if indeed that’s what these badassed winged creatures were.

They swarmed around the statue like hummingbirds around a sugar jar. They were the size of monkeys, although they had leathery, bat-like wings and hooked claws.

After a moment, they began swooping from the air toward the slowest of the fleeing security guards. Screams ripped the night as several of them were seized and dragged into the air. The demons were small and had trouble gaining altitude with the extra weight.

I was still looking around for the demoness, but I was getting a bad, bad feeling. A feeling that she had tricked me yet again, and now it was Parker in the statue, getting ready to party.

Sure enough, the winged demons carried their human Kibbles n’ Bits straight back to the statue, which hadn’t moved much. The first demon flung its limp cargo into the statue’s stone jaws, and the mouth opened with a rumble. Then the jaws clamped closed, and I heard the distinct crunching of bone amid the shriek of pain. Blood squirted out like black rain.

The statue grew a little more flexible with the feeding, and the next few demons circled in a holding pattern around the statue’s head, no doubt waiting for the next special delivery.

I didn’t care about Erasmus, who was on his knees in awe before the giant statue, not realizing he’d been tricked just like I had.

The security guards were probably in on the sacrifice, so maybe this one had it coming. But it was probably just another asshole wanting a paycheck. To watch an innocent person die was too much to take. Despite all the atrocities I’d committed in my past, I still knew good from evil. And that stone, cold-hearted bitch was definitely evil.

She spat out the sodden uniform and a couple of bones, and the waste spun to the ground around Erasmus. By now the compound was empty, and a couple of gunshots rang out as other security guards tried to save themselves from the flying critters.

I was fully recovered by then, the young woman’s blood coursing through my system and energizing me. A vampire buzz is unlike anything I’d ever experienced in my human life. My senses were heightened and my skin seemed electrified, and the fluttering of the demon’s wings was like a mighty wind against me. The trembling of the ground rolled up through my feet and the moist aroma of the mountain air was rich in my nostrils, as was the tempting smell of the blood dripping down the demoness’s chin.

In a weird way, I felt fully alive—or at least in the full mockery of life that only the undead can feel.

But all I could think about was rescuing the people that had been snatched by demons. Not all of them were security guards, as I saw fluttering robes and blonde hair dangling beneath some of the flying creatures. Apparently the demons had invaded the grounds and found fresh prey.

Parker had gotten what she wanted from me—a feeding.

And I’d gotten what I wanted from her—a feeding in return, from the abandoned host she’d granted me.

I could have called it even and left Cloudland forever, granting Parker all the power she’d ever craved and letting her have dominion over her flock of demons and Erasmus Cole, the man she’d pretended was her father.

But my blood—such as it was—still boiled from her previous trickery, and the way she’d played the innocent victim and deceived me into helping her.

And despite not having been human for so many, many years, and despite the cold spot in my chest where a heart once raged with passion, I had a burning desire for revenge.

With no weapons at hand to take down a twenty-five-foot statue, I figured that instead of bringing the battle to Parker, I’d have the battle carry me to her.

I burst out of my concealment and ran toward one of the buildings, flailing my arms like I was one of Erasmus Cole’s Cloudland disciples. Even though I was no longer wearing a robe, I figured a winged demon fresh from the bowels of hell pretty much perceived that one fleeing person was as good as another.

I ducked my head as if I was scared, but in truth, I didn’t want any of those claws to puncture my neck. I hadn’t seen any of the demons feed, and they seemed intent on serving their newfound goddess, but the sight and smell of blood makes monsters of so many of us.

The only difference was, instead of heading for the safety of the buildings, I bolted straight toward the dirt platform.

It took only moments before I heard the flapping of wings and one swooped down behind me. I braced and then felt the claws dig into my shoulders, hard enough to get a solid grip but not tearing through my shirt and piercing the skin.

Just before I was borne aloft, I reached down and grabbed the item I’d been seeking: the ceremonial stake that Parker had dropped.

As I was lifted into the air, someone screamed, and I thought it was one of the teen blonde runaways, it was so high and girlish. Instead, it was The Answer, Erasmus Cole, wriggling beneath one of the demons. So much for personal growth through self-empowerment...

The stake in hand, I relaxed and let the demon carry me into the chilly night. Up high, without the branches of the tree to shield the view, I caught the full glory of the glistening Mount Shasta and could understand why humans fell under its mystical spell.

But at the moment, I had a different type of spell to worry about, and I thought I’d be next on Parker’s menu.

Instead, the demon that had snatched Erasmus Cole made a beeline for the stone bitch’s mouth, obviously an overachiever that hoped to get a right-hand seat at the throne.

I recognized the irony of Erasmus finally learning the true meaning of sacrifice, but I doubt he appreciated the lesson. Because the demon laid him squarely between the statue’s creaking basalt lips, and they came together with a loud clatter.

I was close enough to see Erasmus’s eyes widen in shock and pain. In his last moment, he stared at me, and I could have sworn he smirked a little bit, as if secretly pleased that at least he wasn’t the only one to serve as Parker’s late-night snack.

But the smirk died away with a final scream, and Parker slurped and sucked, draining his vital sauces into whatever passed for the belly of the beast. The statue was invigorated by the fresh feeding, and she threw open her mouth to roar, letting Erasmus’s crushed corpse fall to the ground while dark, glistening blood streamed down Parker’s chin.

She raised her arms into the night, as if acknowledging the mist-shrouded mountain, and she took a couple of lurching steps toward it. I wondered if the statue had some innate connection with the mountain, born from its stone and harboring its power. She was moving much better now, more strong and fluidly, and I knew the feeling, because I was also rejuvenated from my recent feeding.

As the demon clutching me soared through the chilly air toward Parker’s head, I tightened my grip on the stake.

I couldn’t help gazing at her hard, smooth neck and wondering if my fangs were strong enough to pierce it.

Chapter Twenty-seven

Just as that thought occurred to me, I saw that something was happening to the stone itself. It seemed to be changing color or shape. Or both.

No, it was changing composition.

Indeed, it seemed that the more blood the entity consumed, the more the stone transformed into something living. It wasn’t quite there yet. It was still somewhere between flesh and stone, parts of it pliable and horrific, like a collaboration of Stephen King’s and H.P Lovecraft’s worst nightmare.

Blood dribbled from its rapidly transmigrating lips. Lips that had once been stone, but were now stretching back to reveal a deep, black maw, with rows of curved, ivory-colored teeth. I could have easily been looking into the opening of a cave with so many stalagmites and stalactites.

But I wasn’t. I suspected I had been duped once again. I suspected for this creature’s transformation to be complete, it needed one last meal.

One last blood sacrifice.

It needed me.

And all my precious vampire blood.

Jesus, I’d stepped into it again.

Above me, the demon beat its black wings. The wind of its downdraft thundered over me. I sensed the hate and evil coming off the creature, the repellant emotions spreading down to me like a living, foul thing. Its black talons hooked under each shoulder, gripping my upper arms. A painful deathgrip, for certain, but a pain I ignored.

One thing I knew how to do was kill an immortal. Demons were no different. Especially demons who inhabited living bodies, be it flesh or stone. Kill the body, destroy the creature. Or at least, send the creature back from whence it came.

I glanced up at my dangling right hand which still held the stake tightly. How strong was I? Very strong, fully rejuvenated from my recent feeding. Strong enough to take on a flying demon? I didn’t know, but I was about to find out.

As the stone creature that was rapidly turning into something more than stone opened its mouth wide, waiting for its special-delivery meal, I reversed my grip on the stake—and had a moment of panic when I nearly dropped the damned thing. I had just enough leverage to drive the point hard into what would pass as a calf on the demon that held me.

Another thing I know about immortals...nothing is impervious to silver.

I stabbed down hard—and although bullets might have bounced off its black hide—the silver stake plunged deep inside. The creature shrieked and jerked violently, and released its grip on me.

I dropped like a rock.

But there was a method to my madness. I was falling short of the hungry mouth...and directly toward the beast’s heart. Did I really believe that a stone statue had a heart? No. No more than I had a heart, as my own human organ had quit beating ages ago and been replaced by an ancient rhythm of misery.

There was dark magick at work here. Otherworldly magick. It was, after all, such magick that kept me alive—and fueled the beast before me. In a strange way, we were of the same flesh, birthed from the same dark hole in the universe.

Who created such magicks, I didn’t know. Toward what purpose, I knew not either.

But one thing I did know was this...dark magick can be undone, and one such way was a silver stake. Be it through undead flesh or living stone, the silver would drive the demon out.

I wondered how much of Parker—the human Parker—was still in the thing, and if she would die along with the creature.

Great. Another innocent victim on my scorecard.

But I couldn’t let that stop me.

And as I tumbled through the night air, falling toward the beast, I righted myself.

I held the silver stake out before me with both hands.

And drove it deep into its stone chest.

The statue bellowed. Except it really wasn’t a statue anymore. It was something else now. Something living. Something from mythology. It could have been a Titan. It could have come from the pages of The Odyssey. Or stepped out of the Arabian Nights, but whatever it was, whatever it had become, it was dying.

And it would not go quietly into this good night.

It thrashed wildly on the dirt stage while I hung from the protruding stake handle with all my strength. The monstrous creature began stomping and shaking, and I could have sworn even Mount Shasta cowered with fright.

Finally it swatted at me and I went flying, landing head over ass in the nearby grass. When I sat up, I saw that the stone statue had completed its transformation even while it writhed in its death throes.

Standing on the stage was something straight from the bowels of hell. A blackish creature with wet-looking skin. It towered over me, and as it threw back its head and roared with rage, I realized with some certainty that I might have been looking at the devil himself.

And if not the devil, surely one of the most vile, wickedest, bitching-assed entities I had ever seen.

It clawed at its chest and found the silver stake. The creature pulled it free and heaved it aside, but it was already much too late. Having witnessed the deaths of vampires and other creatures of the night, I knew the damage was already done. The center could not hold. Steam hissed from the wound.

Overhead, the flying demons circled their dying dark goddess.

Then, one after another, they dove down into the exposed pit on stage, tucking in their wings and disappearing from view.

The demoness—or perhaps even the devil—dropped to a knee. It held its chest, where steam continued to hiss through the small puncture wound. It raised its head and its red eyes fastened onto me. I think I might have swallowed. I know I scooted back in the grass.

It seemed like the creature might fall over. It was certainly leaning heavily in one direction.

Instead, the red light disappeared from its staring eyes, and the black flesh was replaced by stone again. The lifeless statue had returned—a statue that was even now teetering on stage.

I watched as it slowly fell over, crashing with such force that the ground shook and a dust cloud erupted.

When the dust settled, I couldn’t help but notice that the statue had fallen directly over the pit into hell.

Sealing it completely.

Chapter Twenty-eight

I wasn’t in the mood to hang around and answer police questions about the death of Erasmus Cole and several others. Let them try to come up with a logical explanation from the testimony of the drugged-out Cloudland groupies, or some dimwitted security guard.

Cloudland was a cult, so the square press would deliver the typical horror stories and veiled moral lessons about the dark mastermind behind what would likely be called “group suicide.” Erasmus Cole would get a zillion hits on his website, and probably a few losers and loners would be inspired to join the cult. Maybe even some charismatic idiot would try to take charge.

Mount Shasta would get in the news and the hotels and bars would be filled and crystal sales would boom, and all the Lemuria legends would get some play. The History Channel might show up for a feature documentary one day.

But none of that mattered. I’d seen such stories play out over the years—pretty much everywhere I’d ever been, come to think of it.

It made me feel as lonely as ever. It seemed I was always walking away from the wreckage.

I heard crying and wailing from inside the buildings, which I took as a good sign. At least some of them were together enough to experience shock and horror, instead of believing the apocalypse had come and that it was time to join The Answer in whatever sicko afterlife he’d promised them.

I was nearly to my car when I heard a rustle in the nearby stand of trees.

I spun, wishing I had kept the silver stake. What if one of the winged things had been late to dinner and was still on the prowl?

Then Parker stepped from the shadows. Or, at least, the young woman Parker had possessed and upon whom I’d fed.

“Hello, Spider,” she said, shyly.

Crap. Why did this always happen to me?

I studied her face in the moonlight. She looked like just another teen, a girl and a woman all thrown together in the same confused mass of flesh that all her kind learned to deal with. Her eyes were downcast, and her hands were by her side.

She didn’t look like a spiteful demon intent on ripping my heart out and feeding it to the devil.

“Is it you?” I said.

She nodded, biting her lip as if she were about to cry.

But she didn’t cry, and I took that as a good sign. Tears would have meant she was trying to trick me, playing on my hero impulse until I let down my guard again.

I nearly said, “Prove it,” but how do you prove you are human except by doing stupid human stuff like falling in love?

Instead, I said, “I’m glad you didn’t die.”

Her face lifted and her eyes widened in shock. I noticed for the first time that she was intensely beautiful. “You mean...you didn’t know? You would have killed me to get rid of that beast?”

I shrugged. “So, are you really Erasmus Cole’s daughter?”

“No. He...” She looked away, ashamed, and I realized I didn’t want to know the degradation and manipulation she’d endured. “He used me.”

“Well, that’s good in a way,” I said, as her eyes welled with tears that didn’t fall. “I imagine the taxes on this place are a real pain in the ass. Who’d ever want to inherit it?”

I heard a distant siren echoing through the valley. Maybe one of the security guards had slipped out, or one of the disciples with a contraband cell phone had put in a 911 call.

“You want a ride?” I asked.

She headed toward the car, and, like a true gentleman, I opened the door. I guess I was right to trust my instinct. She wasn’t bad, she was just weak.

Just like me. God help us all.

When I got behind the wheel, she touched her neck and said, “Did you really bite me?”

“Nah. I just made a pit stop to fuel up for the finish line.”

“How did you kill it?”

“I got lucky.” I turned the key.

We got out of there and rode in silence, passing a fire truck, three cop cruisers, and an ambulance coming from the other direction. I kept it under the speed limit until I could no longer see Mount Shasta glistening in the rearview, and then I punched it to the floor.

I felt her hand crawl to mine. She drew away a little at the chill, but then tightened her grip. I let her. I don’t know why.

“Erasmus was right about one thing,” she said. “You’re a vampire.”

“Yeah,” I said.

We’d made ten more miles before she spoke again. “That debt I owe you? The thing you said I’d need to do for you if you killed Erasmus Cole?”

Her finger teased the pad of my thumb. I almost wished she was a demon trying to manipulate me instead of a fool falling in love with the wrong guy.

“Yeah,” I said.

“I meant what I said. I will do anything.”

She scooted over in her seat until I could feel the warmth of her body. At that moment, I would have traded my soul for a little warmth to give back.

But I no longer had a soul.

“Anything,” she whispered in my ear, and her breath was like the fresh spring breezes of my nearly forgotten youth. It had been so very, very long ago.

“Okay,” I said.

I was Spider. That’s the way I rolled these days.

“You can help me study for the history test,” I said. “We’re in night school, remember?”

She moved away a little.

Not too much, but just enough.

The night stretched out before us, and all the miles, the endless, endless miles.

The End

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Also available:

ROMEO AND JULIET:

A Vampire and Werewolf Love Story
by H.T. Night

(read on for a sample)

Chapter One

I looked over the Lady’s sleeve and drank in my beautiful city. The stunning fireworks had finished, and once again, I was left overwhelmed at the majestic magnitude of the city. The party boats had left the harbor with their floodlights, raucous cheers, and commotion that commemorated the first anniversary of the renaming of the city. What was once named Manhattan had been replaced by the name Verona.

I stood by the silent, virtuous Lady, just on her left shoulder. Balancing my feet on such a great statue was always tricky. I could taste her overwhelming wet, coppery scent in my nose and mouth. The aroma was reminiscent of fresh blood, not altogether unpleasant.

I looked up into the dark cold night. It was unusual to see stars over our city, but the night was crisp with them, twinkling sparks on a black velvet nightscape, such a clear night that diamond rays from starlight illuminated the night sky like Jacob’s ladders extending from deep sky to tall buildings. It was a radiant night.

We were fortunate to have most of our land bought out for re-gentrification by a billion-dollar Prince. Prince Escalus. His very surname as a visionary developer was a legend in his own time. Not only was he rich, he was powerful, and masterful at rejuvenating entire cities. His approach into developing cities and remaking them was that his philosophy was simple: Keep the peace.

There was no place that needed peace more in this time than New York City. More specifically…Manhattan.

As I looked out from my 300-foot-high perch in the night shadow of the bosom of the lady, I marveled at the beauty of my Verona. My city was like a beautiful woman to me and my city had two competing lovers and a divided heart. I was reminded of which immortal species ruled these parts. Vampires and werewolves were as legendary and infamous in these parts as celebrities. In fact, we even had our own media network.

Verona was run, in part, by the two immortal families: the Capulets and the Montagues. They couldn’t have been more different in their culture and in their immortal forms. Montagues were from the wrong side of the tracks: a ruthless, cutthroat band of scorned misfits who succeeded anyway, with all the odds against them. They were crass and abrupt, and they always needed a shave, a bath, and a good haircut. But that came with the territory. The Montagues were cursed by a comedy of errors but brazenly got to their feet, every time.

Now the Capulets, they were cultured and liked the finer things in life: big houses, expensive cars, and especially, flaunting it to the Montagues.

As different as the two sides were in culture, they stood even further apart in their unlike immortality. The Capulets had chosen to live their remaining years here in Verona—it could be a million years, as they were long-lived as vampires. It fit their smug elitist attitudes to be so long in the tooth and aggravated the Montagues that there was no way to get rid of them.

The Montagues lived their days as werewolves: meat-eating, ass-kicking, moon-howling werewolves who lived day by day, close to the earth, as close to raw passion as creatures could ever get. Montagues were warm-blooded and therefore, had passion soaring through their veins. The Capulets had to take their blood from others, like the leeches on society that they were, by virtue of their curse. Most of them, save her, were passionless, elitist, and cold. Only she was different. I swore inside of me that I had never laid eyes on a wonder of the world more captivating than she.

The problem was twofold. Immortality, dominance, and bloodlines separated Verona into two sides, nearly split right down the middle at Times Square. There were two immortal families in my city, bloodthirsty rivals who gave each other no quarter, and none was asked. They mostly kept to their own turf, and to their own kind. The two families were split along Times Square.

To the north of Times Square in the Upper East Side, the Capulets had bought out mansions that were turned into apartment buildings…that were now turned back into mansions. The family owned just about every building and had turned the section of the city into a place that turned up their noses at the Hamptons.

To the south of Times Square, and all the way down to the Financial District, was where the werewolves roamed. They were definitely not as rich as the Capulets, but they lived better than most folks. If werewolves were roaming, then one would likely see a Montague in their midst. Nearly all Montague men had chosen to live their days as werewolves. Montague families were spread out pretty evenly among Chelsea, and the East and West Villages. One could even find families in SoHo and Chinatown.

Until now, there had only been small skirmishes between the two dissonant factions, but my extraordinary senses of premonition and danger detected that all hell was about to break loose in a populous that was deep in celebration about the rebirth of art, culture, education, and creativity. A resurgence of passion for the city swept like a fiery new religion into the corners of every borough. It was as if people were crying out for a deeper purpose. I knew I was.

Things in this part of the world had been quite different for some time. In reality, the entire world was different. A hundred years ago, there had been a technology revolution that spurred the inevitable. We’d touched the moon and the planets with our humanity and our machines shot into outer space, and could go no further without bankrupting every country. A realization set in that we now needed to get in touch with our mortality, our inner space.

It was time for the world to turn on its fulcrum. I felt it. Time for the immortals to take their rightful place as the world’s muscle and minds. Religion and politics tried to prevent it from happening, but eventually, immortality reigned over mortality. Now, just two immortal factions stood at the helm of society, glaring at each other from opposite corners of the city.

In the madness, I had been given a gift from the gods. I had been given visions of a wondrous place. A place of peace, of hope and love. I had only seen it in my dreams, but on this night, I felt that my special place was near, as if I could almost touch it with my hands. Of late, something had come over me and it was only intensifying. I looked up at the stars and the full moon that pierced my mind’s eye with a pull that I knew well. I howled into the night sky. I howled from my deep place, where I had only seemed to been able to howl from as of late. I had been told that my howl was unique in that it had both the sounds of music playing and the reverence of a man crying out in prayer. It was a howl that had reduced some to tears when they heard it, such was its unique vibration, timbre, tone, and range. It was a yodel from across the Alps, a chorus of angels with one harmonized chord. My howl is my prayer and my song of all that I was, all that I am, and all that I shall be. Inside of me roiled a yearning for something more, hungering for something more. I howled in agony and ecstasy until tears dripped from my face and wet my body like scorching rain.

When I was finished, I looked over my city of Verona and cried out so loud that my throat roared, “My name is Romeo Montague and I am a Werewolf!”

ROMEO AND JULIET:

A Vampire and Werewolf Love Story
is found in:

What the Night Knows: Three Novels

Also available:

WINNING SARAH’S HEART

A Young Adult Series
by H.T. Night

(read on for a sample)

Chapter One

It was the last day of summer and I was going into the sixth grade. I woke up feeling pretty impatient, as I always did on the day the school posted the classroom lists. Each year, the day before Wenchester Elementary School began, the school posted a list for each classroom so that the students could see which class they would be in during the year.

For some reason this had always been a huge event in my life. I anticipated it the way little children anticipate Christmas morning.

This year would be a tad different. I had finally made it. I was at the top. I was a sixth grader!

At Wenchester, there were two sixth-grade classrooms. The teachers were Mr. O’Neil and Mrs. Phyllis. Mr. O’Neil was tall, slender, and non-threatening in his appearance. He had a reputation of being real strict. Mrs. Phyllis, on the other hand, was simply young and beautiful. She had blonde hair and blue eyes that hid behind red glasses that made her look like a secretary. So, given the two choices for having a teacher, I thought it was fair to say I would rather be in Mrs. Phyllis’s class.

“Wake up!” screeched a female voice outside my room.

“You actually thought I might be asleep?” I yelled back.

“Mom wants us to walk to the store and get lunch.” With that, she threw open the door. It was my sister, Carrie. Everyone said we looked alike. We would both argue to our deathbeds that we didn’t. She was a year younger than I was. The sad part about it was we were in the same grade. I was held back a year by my mother. She said it was for emotional reasons. If you ask me, I thought my mother wished she had given birth to twins. She figured that even though we didn’t come out at the same time, she would make us go to school at the same time.

I used to live in Arizona with my mother and father. My parents divorced when I was three years old. My dad moved to Texas with his girlfriend a year later. I would only speak to him about four times a year. I saw him once at Christmas time when I was seven years old. We didn’t have much of a father-son relationship. I was supposed to love him because he was my dad. It was hard to love someone you never saw, especially when that someone chose not to see you.

My mother, sister and I live in Southern California. The three of us moved here after my mom and dad divorced. I figure I’ll probably leave California someday when I’m older, but, for now, it’s an okay place to live, I guess.

“Blayne called, he said he’ll meet you at the basketball courts at two o’clock,” Carrie said with a smile. My sister has a crush on Blayne since we were little kids.

“Did he mention if Timmy would be there?” I asked.

“What am I, your personal answering service?”

“You are when Blayne calls.”

“I don’t like Blayne,” she protested. “You always say I like Blayne. I might have thought he was cute when I was little, but I don’t like him anymore.”

“Whatever,” I said, pushing her out of my room.

It was hard not to be overly excited knowing that the classroom lists were going to be posted. I wanted to have five people in my classroom. I wanted Blayne Ward and Timmy Lawson because they were my two best friends. I also hoped to have Tanya Taylor and Ali Moore because they were the two prettiest girls in the sixth grade.

Then, there was the new girl. She moved here at the end of the year. She wasn’t in my class.

Her name was Sarah Davis. She was the type of girl who seemed very mysterious. She didn’t say much. She would just keep to herself at recess. I always paid attention to her though. We walked home in the same direction from school.

On the last day of school, I decided to do something that was very unlike me. That day I decided to pass my house and go to the market and get a candy bar. I was curious to see where Sarah lived. I walked behind her for about a mile. She happened to walk into Pete’s market. It was the only place to go, aside from the Laundromat.

I walked in after her and grabbed a bag of chips and a soda. I noticed Tommy Madkins was in there with a couple of his friends playing video games. Tommy was by far the biggest bully to ever go to Wenchester Elementary School. He started to get a reputation when he was in fourth grade. It was fair to say we had a lot of jerks in the sixth grade.

I walked up to the counter and Sarah was in front of me. All she had in her hand was a loaf of bread. She was much shorter than me and had sandy brown hair. Her eyes stood out the most. She had these big green eyes.

I stood behind her, admiring her, when I heard, “Greer!” I hated when someone called me by my last name. I turned around to see Tommy and his clan of jerks laughing. “Is that your girlfriend?” Tommy asked, laughing even harder. This made Sarah turn around and look at us.

“No,” I said, “I don’t even know her.” I felt stupid. It was the truth though. I had never even spoken a word to her.

She looked at me and gave me the most innocent smile.

I smiled back. However, whenever someone caught me off guard with a smile, I would try to smile back but it usually looked odd, like I was posing for a toothpaste commercial or something. She paid and went out the door.

Then I heard, “Let’s go!” It came from Tommy’s direction. He and his buddies ran out the door. They ran behind the market and picked up a plastic bag full of water balloons.

I knew this wasn’t going to be good. And what happened next was something I could have never imagined.

I ran outside. Tommy and his friends were chasing Sarah. It was crazy. They had the water balloons and were hurling them at her.

Sarah started to run down the street with Tommy’s clan close behind. I dropped my bag of chips and soda, and ran as hard as I ever had in my life. I was always a fast runner. I caught up to them pretty quick. I grabbed the bag of water balloons out of Tommy’s friend’s hand and threw it in the street. A semi truck driving by, hit the bag and all the water balloons exploded.

Tommy was still ahead of me with the last water balloon. He was gaining on Sarah. I was amazed how fast she could run.

I caught up to Tommy. At first I didn’t know what to do. This was the toughest guy in the school, but I didn’t care. I jumped on top of him and tackled him hard to the ground. We were both wearing shorts. I knew the cement hurt him as much as it hurt me. Before I knew it, I found myself in the middle of a fight. We were both throwing punches. It lasted for about a minute. Then all of sudden, a man grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me off Tommy. That man was Tommy’s father. He yelled at Tommy and told me to go home.

I had never been in a fight before. From the looks of it, I didn’t think Tommy had either. We both got in some good hits, but neither one of us were bleeding.

I looked over and Sarah was still standing there. She saw the whole fight. She smiled and took a couple steps towards me. My heart dropped. She looked right into my eyes. It was like she said thank you without saying a word. She then turned around and ran down the street. I just stared at her until I couldn’t see her anymore. At that moment I didn’t even realize the significance of what had happened. All I knew was I had done something I had never done before and that I was in love with a girl I never said a single word to.

I didn’t tell anyone what happened. There would have been too much explaining to do. Nonetheless, it was quite an experience.

I heard that Tommy moved over the summer, but I never heard anything about Sarah. I couldn’t help wondering about her.

“Are you ready to go?” Carrie yelled from the living room.

“I’m coming,” I answered.

Carrie and I walked to the store. My mom left us two dollars each. It was enough to get a soda, candy bar, and a bag of chips.

We then headed off toward Wenchester Elementary School. Carrie never got as excited as I did when it came to the classroom lists. It was partly that she didn’t like school as much as I did.

From a distance, I could see Blayne and Timmy at the basketball courts.

“I’m going to go wait over by the bulletin boards,” Carrie said. Then she took off running.

I looked at my watch. It was ten minutes to two. I jogged up to the courts where Timmy and Blayne were standing.

“What’s going on guys?” I asked.

“Just standing around waiting,” Timmy answered.

“You know what guys? I think it’s about that time,” Blayne said.

I really hoped I would get Blayne and Timmy in my class. Every year since kindergarten I had had one or the other in my class. I never had them both at the same time.

With all this wishing I had been doing, one thing I knew for sure was that I wouldn’t want my sister in my class. We had never been in the same class. I guess the school didn’t want brothers and sisters to be in the same room together. They were probably afraid we would cheat on our homework or something.

“You guys ready to go?” Blayne asked as he made the ball into the basket.

“Let’s do it,” I said. As we walked toward the office, we were all silent. Although we were silent, we all knew what each other were thinking.

We reached the buildings and made a right at the cafeteria, which put us right in front of the office. There were a group of kids including my sister all huddled around the bulletin boards.

“They’re up,” I said.

“Yep,” Timmy replied.

Tanya and Ali were riding up on their bikes. They parked their bikes and walked over to the bulletin boards. They were two of the prettiest girls in school, and they knew it. They were best friends and were inseparable.

The three of us approached the bulletin boards and were silent.

Timmy uncharacteristically said, “I really hope all of us are in the same class.” Blayne and I smiled.

The three of us had this unwritten agreement that one would look and not say anything until all three had seen it.

Timmy was first. He looked at the board for about thirty seconds, and then grinned and backed away so Blayne could look. He also looked for about thirty seconds and had a real surprised look on his face.

I could tell it wasn’t good. I knew Blayne’s expressions. That wasn’t a good one. He backed away so I could see. I walked up to the bulletin board and just closed my eyes.

Before I could open them, I heard my sister yell. “We can’t be in the same class!”

I quickly opened my eyes. When I did, I saw Mrs. Phyllis’ class first. I went to the boy side of the list and spotted my name, but there was no Blayne or Timmy. I quickly looked at the girl side. I saw Sarah Davis, but then I thought I saw something that had to be a misprint. I saw the name Carrie Greer, my sister. There was no Ali or Tanya. I looked over at Mr. O’Neil’s class and sure enough all four of them were in the same class.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was alone. I was alone with my sister. The person I saw every day. This was horrible. But wait, Sarah Davis was in my class. I couldn’t talk about it though because my friends didn’t know I liked her. Or did I like her? All I knew was that she was the only reason that I had to smile.

“Sorry,” Timmy said.

“I really wanted us to be together,” Blayne followed.

“You know, Blayne and I have never been in the same class,” Timmy continued.

“I’m happy for the both of you,” I gave them both an obvious fake smile. “Hey, let’s get out of here. Let’s go to the ice cream shop and get a shake and kick back in the tree.” The tree was our secret hangout. It was in the back of the school. We discovered it when we were in third grade. It was always a good place to go and think or to just get away and talk.

So there it was. The big event in my life was over. All that was left now was the first day of school. As we walked to the ice cream shop, I felt empty inside. I felt sort of isolated and alone. I felt almost as if I was the outcast of the group. These were my best friends. I had known them since we were little. They would treat me the same no matter what, for sure.

“Hey, Cody?” Blayne said.

“Yeah?” I replied.

“There is always recess.”

Also by H.T. Night:

GETTING YOURS

A Romantic Comedy Screenplay

Chad and Eric, both twenty years and best friends in college, are putting on a school play. Eric’s the director and Chad’s the lead. The part of Chad’s mother, however, goes to a gorgeous and mysterious woman named Kira, a woman who’s fresh out of a nasty break up and back in college to “find herself.” She quickly finds herself the object of attention of two college friends. As rehearsals progress and hearts are captured, Chad and Eric unwittingly find themselves in the middle of a love triangle. And if that wasn’t painful enough, it appears that Kira is playing them both. Or is she? With hysterical twists and turns, friendships will be challenged and hearts broken. In the end, two college friends will discover the meaning of love and friendship...if they don’t kill each other first.

Also available:

THE FOURTH SUNRISE

A Love Story
by H.T. Night

Found in: What the Night Knows: Three Novels

About the Author:

H.T. Night is the #1 bestselling author of Vampire Love Story, Werewolf Whisperer, Forever and Always, Vampires vs. Werewolves, Werewolf Love Story, Getting Yours, The Rise of Kyro, Romeo & Juliet: A Vampire and Werewolf Love Story and H.T. Night’s Everlasting Love (a collection of poems). Please visit him at www.htnight.com.

Return to the Table of Contents

Table of Contents

- Vampire Love Story
- The Werewolf Whisperer
- Forever and Always
- Vampires vs. Werewolves
- Werewolf Love Story: Part One
- Werewolf Love Story: Part Two
- The Rise of Kyro
- Bad Blood
- Reading Samples
- About the Author