Hero Rising (9 page)

Chapter Eighteen

As soon as the sun went down, I left Tommy in the hotel room and began to do my rounds at the banks listed by the kidnappers. Before I even reached the first bank, I realized that I would die before handing over the kind of money they wanted from Hector’s account.

Instead of going to the banks, I decided to go back to the hotel and fill the suitcases and duffle bag with the toilet paper and the newspaper.

It was nearing eleven o’clock at night. This would be about the time I would be done. So, it was time to rock and roll. I stepped into the room and Tommy was pacing around the room. “Did you get it?” he asked.

“Why?” I replied.

“Because they will kill Hector if we don’t give it to them, that’s why,” Tommy stated. “This is the reason why we are both out here in New York.”

“Think about it, Tom. It doesn’t matter if we have the money or not. We aren’t going to leave without it.”

“All right, my man. I hope your plan works. I’m just thinking about Hector. These guys are serious. They know who you are and they don’t give a shit.”

“But they don’t know who you are,” I said.

“They don’t realize I have the toughest person in the world with me.”

Tommy smiled. “Aw, shucks. I love you, too.”

“I said you were the toughest. The most skilled fighter. That’s another story,” I smiled.

“Not everybody gets every single gift from the Triat.”

“You know I was a tough, smart fighter, long before any of this.”

“I know, Josiah.” Tommy paused. “What’s the next move?”

“There is nothing else to do but call the kidnappers,” I said. I took out my cell and dialed their number. “I’ve got the money,” I said into the phone.

“All right,” said the voice. I was pretty sure I was dealing with Nevil on the phone. “Bring it here,” he said. “I’ll give you an hour.”

“I’ll be there in fifteen,” I answered. “You
will
have Hector ready to release to me. And you better not have harmed him. ”

“He will be delivered to you when we know we have our money,” the guy said.

“No deal,” I declared. “I want you to hand over Hector when I deliver the money.” I didn’t think this was an unreasonable request on my part.

“We will give you Hector when we’re satisfied you’ve given us all of his money,” came the reply.

I was out of patience. “Do you know who I am?” I demanded once again. “Because if you do, you would think twice about fucking with me.” I didn’t want to play it too hard, but I wanted these guys to know who they were dealing with.

“I understand completely who you are, Josiah,” he said. It was the first time he said my name and, although I knew what I was capable of, I also realized he knew that, too. “You have my word,” he said, “that as soon as we know you delivered the cash, you will get your friend back. After all, this is a business deal. Nothing more, right?”

He said it so matter of factly that I realized I would have to take him at his word. It didn’t mean I wasn’t going to get my revenge, though. I just wanted Hector back, safe and sound.

“Done,” I said, and I meant it. Unseen at first, Tommy would be waiting at the back door of The Main Stay hostel. While Tommy hunkered down in the shadows, I would bring the money to the guy I assumed would be Nevil. Even if these dicks knew who I was, they didn’t know that when Tommy was in his werewolf form, that we could communicate telepathically. And they didn’t know that we had a plan. A smokin’ plan!

Chapter Nineteen

The time had come, and we were finally going to get Hector back. I took the two suitcases and duffle bag with me. In my Mani form, and accompanied by my best friend, I set out for The Main Stay. It was only a couple of blocks. I walked down the street with an air of confidence. I wasn’t afraid of anything. Not even this band of vampires. Plus, I had Tommy by my side. He was always game to fight and he always had my back. Plus, I didn’t think they knew about him, or at least, weren’t accounting for him.

We reached the back door. I didn’t want to walk around the front because that would put Tommy and I on blast to whomever was watching the door. I knew stuff was about to go down and very quickly, too. I could feel it in my bones. I looked at Tommy and asked, “You ready, bro?”

“Do you have to even ask?”

The sign on the door read “Closed.”
That’s good,
I thought to myself. They had probably kicked out everyone who was staying there. I smiled, and still in my vampire form, I kicked the door open.

At first, we couldn’t see anything. I had a hunch that he had at least ten guys with him that were vampires. Along with his crew, we were going to deal with about 15 of these jerks.

I stepped through the door and Tommy followed. Straight ahead and with the door slightly ajar, there was a room with a light on We could hear voices coming from inside the door.

They were waiting for me. They had to have heard me kicking the door in. I had Tommy stay out in the dark room while I stepped into the room holding the suitcases and duffle bag. I stood there staring at the four individuals in the room. There was a reasonably attractive vampire that was to the left. She must have been the one they called Ice. She was wearing a glove on her right hand, which meant she had some sort of silver weapon in her possession. Then there was Frenchie; he was on the right. Right smack in the middle was their leader, Nevil. He looked as if he was in really good shape. Things could get interesting in a tussle.

In the far corner of the room, an Asian gentleman had a big, heavy crossbow pointed at me.

“Why does the kid have a weapon pointed at me?”

“That kid is two hundred years old,” Nevil said.

“No, he’s not. He’s not one of us,” I said, looking in his direction. “If he was two hundred, he wouldn’t need that goofy crossbow.”

Nevil knew I was right. “Is that the money?” Nevil asked.

“No, it’s my luggage. What do you think?” I said sarcastically. “I
brought
the money. Now release Hector.” I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy, but a superhero had to try, right?

The Asian guy looked at me and I decided to blow a kiss in his direction. It’s rather unsettling having someone point a crossbow at your head for five minutes.

“If you’re going to point it at me, you might as well fire it.”

“Why would he do that?” Nevil asked. “You do have the money in those bags?”

I walked over and placed the suitcase and duffle bag right outside the door. I saw Tommy waiting. I gave him a wink and whispered, “Transition. Now.”

I stepped back in with Tommy behind me in his gray werewolf form. I knew we needed to act superfast. Hector’s life depended on it. The jig was up. Hector was in another room and we needed to stampede through these guys to get to Hector.

The man holding the crossbow was preparing to shoot an arrow in my direction, but I was quick enough to hurl one of the suitcases at him

When the suitcase hit him, he lost his aim and the crossbow released the arrow. Instead of me, he hit the girl, Ice, who was to my right. She got drilled right through the neck by her own man. She wasn’t pierced fully through the neck, but it brought her down in a rage I had seen from few women. She cried out in pain and fury. Before she collapsed, she attacked the man who’d accidentally shot her by running across the room and stabbing him in the stomach with a silver spike before she hit the floor—a silver spike that had likely been intended for me.

The two of them were lying in a bloody mess.

Tommy and I didn’t even have to do anything and we had two men down. Or in this case, one man, one woman down. I was glad to see these frenemies do each other in. I hated hitting a woman. Most of the time, I just couldn’t even go there. I’d have to be very ticked off or caught by surprise to throw my fists out there for a woman. And definitely, she had to hit me first in a life-or-death battle.

Now the insanity was in high effect. People were bleeding, and others were knocked out. This would get messy very fast if we didn’t start moving quickly along. We needed to push forward and find Hector, who was obviously in another room being held captive.

Jacques foolishly pounced on Tommy. They were on the ground, wrestling. I could tell Tommy was just toying with him. He was play-snarling, the way he did with me, not that they knew that.

“Tommy, we don’t have time to mess around,” I said out loud.

Jacques looked at me with fear in his eyes. Then he looked back at Tommy. Suddenly, Jacques flipped up in the air and flew straight toward Tommy, with the intent of killing him.

When Tommy suddenly sank his extra-long, silver-sheathed fangs into Jacques’ puny neck, he screamed in surprise and extreme pain. I could see the life drain out of him. I wanted the same fate for Nevil and I called to Tommy silently.\

I faced off with Nevil. “So, are you the ass-bite I have had the pleasure of talking to these past couple days?” I said, staring down Nevil.

He snapped at me with sharp fangs, but I held my own.

Nevil had yet to strike me. He had been hanging back. He knew who he was dealing with—Tommy and I were a dynamic duo of death incarnate. And now, Nevil knew about Tommy’s deadly silver fangs.

The two of us were too much for him. He tried to get away, by transitioning into a black raven, but I had a hold on him and Tommy bared his teeth into Nevil’s tiny little, black raven neck. I looked at him slowly disappear, as did the others that were killed on this day.

All of them disappeared, except for the young Asian kid. On the floor, he gasped for her last bits of air to fill his lungs. He looked up and then died. His body remained in the room. Confirming that he was indeed mortal.

Ice was now gasping in pain. “Help me,” she said. “Please help me. I don’t want to die like this.”

“Where is Hector?” I demanded.

“In the room directly above this one. He is being held by many men. You can’t get past their security.”

I looked at her and in my heart, I knew what the Triat was leading me to do. But not yet. I can’t get burned.

“You’re going to have to trust me, Ice. I’ll be back for you. First, we need to save our friend.”

I looked at Tommy. “Ready?” I asked him.

Tommy grinned and answered silently, “I was born ready, bro.”

Boy, did I know it.

Tommy shot up the stairs howling and growling and he knocked the door right off its hinges.

There were about eight vampires in the room and they were holding Hector up against a wall with a long, silver sword at his neck.

I yelled out, “I wouldn’t do anything stupid. All the leaders of this outfit all have been terminated by us in a matter of minutes. If you think you can handle us, then fight on. If not, let my friend go and we will have no more bloodshed. We will leave peacefully and we all can go back to our lives.”

“Kill him,” said one of the vampires.

“No!” I shouted.

They shoved Hector up against the wall, completely flattening out his body. They had the sword up against his neck. I could see blood from Hector’s neck start to trickle down. But they didn’t shove the blade home. They were working me and I knew it. Otherwise, Hector would already be dead.

“Stop! I really don’t want to kill all of you,” I said. Dammit! These guys aren’t going to go easy. Why not? Maybe some diplomacy was in order.

I yelled out to them, “If you kill him, none of you will live. None of you will ever fly again. Anyone who loves you—your kids, your lovers and spouses, they will lose you forever. Do you understand that? Your only chance of getting out here alive is letting him go.”

“No!” the leader shouted.

I was holding back my own fury. “The more blood I see from my friend’s neck, the more I’m going to make each of you pay. So, let him go. You’re not fighting for anything now. There is no money. You have no one in charge. Go back to your vampire thug lives and live to fight another day. Or go home to the people who care about you, if such a thing is possible.”

We were now in a standoff for about three minutes. It was a long three minutes when no one is talking and there was just staring. I analyzed how they had Hector up against the wall. There was something I could do even from the across the room. I figured I could use my telekinetic ability and try to sweep the sword forward away from his neck. My only concern was myself. How much control did I actually have. What if I tried to move it and it ended up cutting off Hector’s neck?

Once again, I tried diplomacy. “What are you fighting for?” I negotiated. “I already said I would let you go if you let him go. There is no money to fight over. You don’t know this man. He has done nothing to you or your family. Yet you keep him captive like a dog because you were told he had money and somehow, you were promised that all of you could get rich. That dream is over, guys. Over! There is no money, no leadership and no motive to kill this innocent man. It’s time to stop this madness. Let’s all just go home without blood on our hands and live with a much higher purpose.”

I looked at all of them. From the pit of the goodness of my heart, I pleaded as I never had in a battle situation, “Let him go. No more of us need to die. There are much bigger and more meaningful causes for which to lay your life down. This isn’t one of them. A bunch of man killing one man is a cowardly act and it will haunt you always, if you do this terrible thing. In fact, you will be deeply ashamed. There will be many repercussions if you go through with this.”

I sighed as I watched all of the men relax and give up. The man holding the sword seemed the most eager to continue, but even he finally let down the sword.

“Now what?” asked the man with the sword.

“We take our man home. You keep your lives. Fair trade.”

They let Hector go and he walked across the room and stood with us. He looked at me and said, “Thank you, Josiah.”

I nodded and the three of us exited down the stairs. I had a new friend that I needed to help.