H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (112 page)

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.