H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (104 page)

“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.”