H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (115 page)

“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.”