H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (107 page)

“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.