H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (36 page)

Tommy was able to bite the wolf in the front
of its neck. The wolf yelped as they did when they felt pain. Tommy
didn’t let up. He bit down and with his right claw he punched the
wolf as hard as he could with his claws extended. Tommy’s claws
went deep into the wolf’s stomach. Blood poured from his mouth and
abdomen. Within seconds—the wolf disappeared.

There was just Goliath left. I looked up at
the sky and I saw the sun was coming up. Goliath and Tommy will
turn back, shortly. Sure enough, Tommy was lying on the roof in his
boxers, soaked.

“Let’s get out of here, Tommy.” I
transitioned into the great white eagle and grabbed Tommy with my
talons and headed down the mountain with Tommy in claw. I didn’t
see Goliath as we exited. It was probably better that way.

Chapter Sixteen

As I flew down to my house, I gently dropped
Tommy on my front lawn and landed beside him—transitioning back
into a Mani. The morning air had dried Tommy off, but he still
stunk of sweat.

“Well, Tommy. How do you feel?”

Tommy looked at me and didn’t say anything.
“Are you answering me in your mind?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Tommy laughed.

“I can’t hear you anymore,” I said. “Can you
hear my thoughts?”

Tommy focused on me. “No,” Tommy said.

“The sun is out and my skin is beginning to
sting.” I opened the door and Tommy and I entered the house. Wyatt
and Hector were asleep on the living room floor.

We walked to the back of the house. Yari was
sleeping in Tommy’s room, and Lena was asleep in mine. “What a
couple of Goldilocks!” Tommy said, laughing.

I smiled. “Let’s go talk in the kitchen.” We
walked to the kitchen and sat at the table.

“You hungry,” I asked

“I’m starving.”

“I’ll make us a couple of omelets.” I opened
the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of eggs, milk, cheese, and
some lunch meat. I opened the bottom cabinets below the stove and
took out a skillet. “You want three or four eggs?”

“I’m starving. Give me five.”

“You want lunch meat?”

“What kind?”

“Turkey.”

“Sure.”

I proceeded to crack the eggs open and make
us both a couple of omelets. Tommy put out a couple of plates and
poured us some orange juice; it felt like old times.

“I miss this,” I said as I put the hot
plates on the table.

“We sure had our times, didn’t we?” Tommy
dug into his omelet. “Damn, Josiah, this tastes great.” I took a
bite of mine. It was pretty damn good. One thing I could do was
make a mean omelet. Mastering my Mani abilities was another
story.

“So,” I said, “it’s obvious we connected on
a far greater level than either of us expected.”

“It appears to be that way.” Tommy continued
to eat his omelet.

“What I need to figure out is why the Triat
felt it was important for me to train you further as a Carni, while
I remain stagnant in my abilities.”

“Maybe by helping me, somehow you grew
yourself. Maybe the Triat wanted to see you do an unselfish
act.”

“Maybe, I hadn’t thought about that.” I
continued to eat my omelet. I took a drink of my orange juice. “I
do, however believe the Triat wants me to go away and be trained
also.”

“Trained? Where? By whom?”

“You’re going to laugh.”

“I doubt that, Josiah, we have experienced
too much crazy shit for any of this to be too damn funny.”

“Okay,” I said. “The Triat wants me to go to
Dracula’s Castle and get trained by a blue gnome.”

Tommy stared at me blankly, then cracked a
smile and laughed out loud. “Were you sure it was a vision, or did
you smoke some herb before going to bed?

“No, it was definitely a vision.”

“What makes you so certain?”

“I had a couple visions where Dracula’s
castle and the little blue gnome were in both of them.”

“Gnome?” Tommy asked. “Liked the Travelocity
guy?”

“Sort of. He looks as if the Travelocity guy
and Smurfette had a kid.”

“And this guy is supposed to train you like
some Yoda?”

“I don’t know exactly. I don’t know if he is
going to do the training or I’m supposed to just meet him there to
be trained by someone else. I know it’s what I’m supposed to
do.”

“Why?”

“It is why I trained you. I was told by the
blue gnome to do so, and looked what happened. You now have
cognitive thought as a werewolf.”

Tommy nodded his head. “So, when do you plan
to go?”

“Very soon.”

“Wow, now Dracula is mixed up in this mess,”
Tommy laughed. “This just gets better and better.”

Yari came into the kitchen. “Why are you
guys here? I thought we were coming to you at the cabin.” She
looked pretty hot wearing red plaid pajamas.

“We had a little bit of trouble,” Tommy
said.

Yari sat down at the table. “So, which of
you is cooking?”

“Josiah made his famous lunchmeat omelet.
It’s pretty ghetto, but it’s damn good.”

Yari smiled. “I like ghetto.”

“You can’t eat an omelet, can you?” I
asked.

“Maybe, if I dipped it in blood.” Yari
laughed.

“Sounds delicious,” I said.

“So, what kind of trouble did you get
into?”

“Tommy and I made a ton of progress in our
training exercises. We were able to do things neither of us
anticipated.”

“Like....?” Yari asked.

“When I’m the gray wolf, Josiah and I are
able to communicate through our thoughts.”

“Bullshit!” Yari scowled.

“We’re not kidding.” Tommy looked to me for
confirmation.

Yari looked over to me. “He’s telling the
truth.”

“How did you figure that out?”

“Well, that’s where the trouble comes in. We
were attacked by a pack of werewolves,” I said.

Yari looked at both of us. “Seriously? That
was the trouble you were talking about?”

“It wasn’t just any pack of wolves,” I said
“It was Tommy’s old gang: Goliath and his minions.”

“You were able to kill Goliath?” Yari
asked.

“Actually, no. I did cripple him pretty good
with a motorcycle. The sun started coming out, and Tommy and I fled
down the mountain.”

“Did you kill any of them?” Yari said
worried.

“We both did,” I said. “We had to while
defending ourselves.”

“How many did you kill?” Yari asked with her
voice rising.

“Two,” I said.

“Two each?”

“No, one apiece,” I said. “Why, is it a big
deal?”

“You killed two Carni and you don’t think
it’s a big deal? This isn’t the Middle Ages. You can’t just kill
whoever you want.”

“Look, neither one of us killed for sport,”
I said. “We were defending ourselves. They came after us.”

Tommy had remained quiet as I defended our
brawl to Yari. Yari looked over to Tommy. “If you had any chance of
returning to your people, it’s completely over now.”

“Who said I wanted to? They left me for
dead.”

“But you’re not a Mani, Tommy. I am not even
sure if Mani and Carni can coexist inside the will of the
Triat.”

“Look, Yari,” Tommy said. “I know you have
been around since George Washington. But none of us knows what any
of this means. Josiah had a vision that told him to work with me.
That’s all we know. This might not be about Carni vs. Mani. It
might be as simple as good versus evil.”

Yari looked at both of us and it was obvious
that she cared deeply for both us. “Nonetheless, we all need to get
the hell out of here. It’s bad enough we have Krull after us, now
we have the Carni Nation after us, too.”

“We did what we had to do,” Tommy said
indignantly.

“I know, boys, you’re the good guys. I know
that much for sure. Regardless, we all need to get the hell out of
Dodge.”

“Great” I said. “More running. For being the
supposed chosen few, we sure do a lot of running and hiding.”

“Get everybody up, Josiah,” Yari said. “We
all need to transition and head to Los Angeles.”

“Why Los Angeles?” I asked.

“I’ve had a place there since the
1940s.”

“Of course you do,” I said
sarcastically.

Chapter Seventeen

I got Hector and Wyatt up and then walked
down the hallway to my room. Lena was still asleep in my bed. I
walked into my bedroom and sat in my computer chair next to my
desk. I closed my eyes and just took a moment for myself. I haven’t
had too many of these moments in the last few days.

Lena laid in my bed peacefully and had no
idea what Tommy and I had just been through last night. As far as I
was concerned, I wanted to keep her as far away as possible from
that world. I knew I couldn’t. In the end, she was in this as deep
as I was. She was willing to do whatever it took to help the cause.
Would I be able to protect her? Or was it both our fates to become
martyrs? I didn’t know. All I knew was that I was staring at the
most beautiful woman I had ever seen sleeping in my bed like a
princess from a fairytale. I just wasn’t sure if this fairytale had
a happy ending. All I knew was that I would die trying. I wasn’t
sure if I was ready to fight for the Mani people as a whole, but I
was certain I was ready to lay my life down for her.

I calmly walked over to her. “Lena,
sweetie,” I whispered. “We need to leave.”

Lena opened her eyes. “I’m nobody’s
sweetie,” she said with a smile.

“You know what I mean.”

She sat up and stretched. “Are you okay,
Josiah?”

“Yeah, I’m okay, but some crap went down at
the cabin.”

“What happened?”

“Some of Tommy’s old werewolf buddies from
the other night came looking for me. Or maybe, they came looking
for him? Maybe they were following a smell? We weren’t quite sure.
We ended up killing or injuring all of them.”

“Are the two of you okay?”

“We’re both fine. We were able to isolate
them. They didn’t have a chance.”

Lena brushed back my hair. “You’re a tough
son-of-a-bitch, aren’t you?” She looked at me in a way she never
had before. She had looked at me lovingly before, but this was
different. She seemed to be looking at me with a different kind of
energy. I could feel her sexual attraction toward me. It was the
first time I had ever felt that coming from her. I just had my
first erection as a Mani.

This wasn’t the time or place, so I decided
to talk about what I came to her room to talk to her about. “Yari
thinks we just started an all-out Carni/Mani war. She thinks all of
us need to leave.”

“Where are we going to go?”

“Some place in Los Angeles. Yari apparently
has a place.”

“In Los Angeles?” Lena asked, surprised.

“She’s a woman with many secrets.”

“Do you trust her?”

That was a weird question for Lena to ask.
Especially, since she had been living with her the last 72
hours.

“Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I?”

Lena looked at me for a moment and didn’t
say anything.

“Is there something I need to know? Why
wouldn’t I trust her? She saved my life and Tommy’s, too.”

Lena nodded. “You’re right,” she said.

“Do you know something?” I asked.

Lena shook her head.

“We can’t afford to second guess each other
right now. The six of us is all we have.”

“You’re right, Josiah.” Lena smiled.

I took her hand. “When all of this is over,
you and I are going to be all right. I know it in my heart.” I
leaned in and hugged her. I closed my eyes and just took her
in.

After a moment, Lena asked, “Are we leaving
right now?”

“It looks that way.”

“It’s daytime. We are going to have
transition if we are going to Los Angeles.”

“I know. Tommy is going to drive separately.
Put your things in my truck and Tommy will take them down.”

“All right, I’m going to take a shower.”

“Okay.” I got up and headed back to the
kitchen. Tommy, Yari, Hector and Wyatt were all in the kitchen
talking.

“Lena is taking a shower,” I said to the
group.

“And you didn’t join her?” Yari said with a
smirk.

“No, I didn’t.” I replied with as little
sense of humor as I had ever displayed in my life. “When she’s
finished, we can all leave.”

“I’ll bring the truck up later today,” Tommy
said as he got up and went into the living room.

“Why later?” I asked.

“Cause I want to sleep.” Tommy said laying
on the couch and closing his eyes.

“You can sleep at Yari’s place.”

“Are you really going to make a big deal
about this, Josiah?”

“I just want everyone to be safe.”

“I am a big boy, Josiah. I am going to be
all right.”

“Fine, Tom. Do it your way.” It must had
been bugging Tommy to death that I was calling the shots. I’d let
him have this one.

I packed a suitcase and put it in my truck.
Tommy got the directions from Yari. Soon after, the five Mani all
transitioned into our bird forms and headed to Los Angeles. We flew
as a group. I flew higher than the rest to be less visible. I
didn’t feel like making the morning news. A white eagle sighting
might cause traffic accidents. We made our way over Orange County
and I could see Angel Stadium and Disneyland.

I looked down below me and Yari and Lena
were flying next to one another. Yari’s feathers were a dark red
with streaks of orange—the color of fire, while Lena’s feathers
looked like the rocks from Sedona, Arizona—a pretty reddish-orange
color that had streaks of black in it.

As we passed over Orange County, we made our
way to Los Angeles. Yari flew ahead of us and squawked loudly—her
famous squawk. I looked down and saw the Los Angeles skyline. It
wasn’t like New York City’s skyline, but it wasn’t too shabby.

I was extremely cautious now that we were in
the big city to not to be seen from the ground. Yari circled over
us and motioned with her wings for us to fly down and land by the
giant Hollywood sign. The five of us glided past Griffith Park and
landed right in front of the giant letters. None of us transitioned
because the sun would fry us like bacon. She apparently needed to
rest. She squawked and aimed her beak north.