H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (58 page)

Then I heard Tommy’s voice in my head.
“Josiah, it is my right to kill him.”

“Tommy, you can’t!” I yelled out

“It is my right! And my honor,” he repeated
back to me. “You are the Chosen One and he has come back to try to
reclaim what is not even rightfully his. Not your crown as Chosen
One. But your life! You want to talk about loyalty? Let’s talk
about a lifetime friendship.”

“Tommy, not now. Not tonight!” I yelled out
again.

“Fuck you, Josiah. This is my fight. The
fight for my best friend’s life! Not for the Mani, not for the
Triat, not even for myself. I fight tonight for my friend, my
friend, Josiah, forever and always!”

A tingle of fear went down my spine as I
heard the phrase. Had Lena said it to him, too? I was nearly
reeling from the conflicting emotions. I knew that Tommy would
fight to the death, to protect me. Josiah. Not the creature. Not
the Mani. The Man.

This was what love was. This was what honor
was. And this was what truth was. “Forever and Always” was the
secret of all life. It was all about whether we let our mere form
define who we were, even in our very hearts. It wasn’t about who
was our enemy, at all. Or even who we loved. It was about who we
were inside! Forever and always. It began to make perfect sense,
that if there was any order in the universe, it was because we made
it so.

Suddenly, Tommy jumped on top of Atticai and
clawed him in the chest, making a huge rip in Atticai’s long black
shirt. Atticai backed up and didn’t seemed worried at all, he was
mainly annoyed.

“Josiah, you can’t allow a Carni to kill one
of our own,” Rubidoux yelled out.

“You better do something, Josiah!” another
Mani yelled in agreement.

Tommy had come after Atticai and now Atticai
was having a hard time fighting off Tommy. Tommy caught Atticai a
couple of times in the face and he was bleeding from the right side
of his cheek.

“Do something, or we will!” others were
yelling out.

Dammit!

Tommy now had Atticai pinned to his back. I
had to do something. I couldn’t allow Tommy to kill Atticai in
front of the whole Mani nation. I ran over and tackled Tommy’s
werewolf body off of Atticai.

“Fuck you, Josiah!” Tommy said, in my head
and swiped at me also. “I’m not going to just stand back and let
Atticai take your life. Let me do this. For you!”

“Stand down, Tommy!” I yelled.

“Fuck that,” Tommy then ran over and tried
to leap on Atticai, but I was able to get to him before he made
contact. I once again tackled Tommy. We both rolled and I ended up
on my back with Tommy on top of me. Suddenly, I was face to face
with the werewolf.

“You need to choose, Josiah,” Tommy said,
looking down at me. In my head.

“I already did, Tommy!” I yelled out as I
reversed him to his back. I was now on top of him. I wrapped my
right arm around his neck and began choking him out in a reverse
head lock.

“Tommy! I don’t want to hurt you, but you’re
going to have to stop!” I yelled.

“You’re going to have to kill me!” he
answered.

“Transition!” I yelled, as I tightened up my
grip. I had my choke hold in deep and I knew the werewolf couldn’t
last much longer. Finally, Tommy gave up and turned back to his
Carni form. I let him go and he rolled to the side gasping for
air.

Lena broke through the crowd and ran over to
him.

“What are you doing, Lena?” I yelled out to
her.

“You nearly killed him,” she yelled back at
me.

Tommy shrugged Lena off of him and stood up
in his Carni form.

I looked up and Attica, Tommy and I were in
a perfect triangle with about forty feet separating us. Lena was
outside the triangle looking on.

I looked over at Atticai, “I cared for you,
Goshi,” I said.

“You cared for that thing I became. That
wasn’t who I am,” Atticai answered.

“That might be so,” I said. “But there was
goodness and mercy in you as Goshi. That sprang from deep inside of
you.”

“Goodness?” Atticai laughed bitterly.
“Listen Josiah, there is no good and evil! “Look around! We are all
evil to each other! But to ourselves, it is only destiny that has a
voice. This is our cruel fate, to live in violence and to die in
it. It was all pre-destined who shall have their day in the sun,
and who shall be banished to the darkness. Guess which ones we are?
Guess!”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” I said. “I
believe that we’re all inherently good, and we only choose to do
evil things. As Goshi, you taught me that.”

Atticai laughed. “Goshi, that pathetic
creature. You had too much faith in him. And your faith made you
weak.”

“This is all well and good, Josiah,” Tommy
said. “You and string bean here can have a pow-wow about the good
times in Eastern Europe later, but you and I now have a problem.
You should have never put your hands on me.”

I looked at Tommy and he looked like he now
wanted to kill me. I looked at Atticai and he was very smug and
looked like he just got away with murder, in which he did.

“Relax, Tommy. If I didn’t pull you off of
him. This entire mob and their mob mentality would have torn you to
shreds.”

“Of course they would. They would stand by
this guy even though he tried to kill their Chosen Savior. They
would rather deal with this kind of evil, the evil that you know,
rather than face what they are, survivors with an almost racist
mentality. They would rather kill a good Carni than an evil Mani of
their own kind. They do not choose good over evil, but instead,
they choose what genetic makeup shall prevail in a fight. It is the
evil song of the ages, that in a battle, you strive to preserve
your own kind, no matter how evil it is at the core. You aren’t
fighting for a cause, you are fighting for your future as a
species.”

It was shocking what Tommy was saying, and
not only was it shocking, it was correct.

I turned toward Atticai, now knowing that my
werewolf friend and brother of my heart had stumbled on a key that
brought entire civilizations to their knees, as Atticai and his ilk
tried to perpetuate it and give it power and acknowledge it with
more of the fucking same.

“From the mouth of a wolf comes the truth
about Mani, and Carni,” I said. “He is right. This is evil!” I said
to Atticai. “We are evil. In battle, we do not look at hearts, or
even good versus evil. We look at whose team someone is on. The
evil of this is within us all and we must choose not to give it
power. Stop this madness now, Atticai! You can turn from this evil
and work with me to save our races, Mani and Carni, from utter
destruction. We will work together from the inside out.”

“Evil, Shmevil. Seriously, you to need to
step away from the hero manual. Nobody needs or wants your
Narnia-esque mentality.” Atticai was very amused with the
conversation between Tommy and me. In it, he did not see the key to
the ages that Tommy had exposed. What we are, what we choose, how
we choose, and for what reasons we killed and perpetuated the
violence of like kills different.

I looked over at Atticai and said, “The
Carni, the werewolf. It is part of the prophecy coming to fruition.
Now what? What will we do, Atticai? How will we choose our path
that will affect the Mani and the Carni and even the Tandra—until
some asteroid comes to destroy the earth and end it in disgust, for
what we are, and for what we could have been had we simply made a
thoughtful choice for the long run, instead of the short run.”

“Are you trying to save Tommy? What are you
asking me for? He’s your pet,” Atticai said.

“I’m not referring to Tommy. I’m talking
about you and me. I am talking about all of this, the big picture.”
Tears sprang to my eyes. He didn’t see! Not at all!

“There isn’t a you and me,” Atticai said,
plainly.

“That’s too bad, Atticai. Because if you’re
not with me, you’re against me!”

“Trust me, Josiah. I will always be against
you. I am my own Mani. I call my own shots.”

“Then you will be doing it from the
sidelines,” I said.

“Oh, I will. I am going to sit back and
watch you and Krull kill each other and when all is said and done,
I will take my rightful place at the top. You think I don’t see the
big picture about the rule of three foes? Let two of the foes
destroy each other and the third easily gets the keys to the
kingdom.” He paused. “All I have to really do is duck and watch you
two duke it out over Lena, but it isn’t really even about her
anymore, is it?”

That stung. I shook my head and was sadly
disappointed with Atticai’s answer. A part of me had thought there
was a chance we could team up. “Goshi would have understood
this.”

“I am not Goshi. I am free of that blue body
and of that mentorship. I am Atticai, and I will have a stake in
your neck and take your place, the law of survival of the fittest,
my only agenda.”

“No!” I shouted. “It’s wrong, Atticai! Turn
from it! Goshi would have!”

“I am not Goshi. I was humbled in that small
blue body, with my utter contempt for it, and for your
unconditional trust. You are the one who is weaker.”

Atticai then looked at Tommy. “And for you,
you mangy dog, you are lucky I’m feeling generous tonight, I should
end your pathetic existence right now, but I’m going to let your
ignorance slide and just chalk it up to your low Carni IQ.”

“I’m lucky?” Tommy laughed. “You’re lucky
Josiah stopped me.”

“Oh, that is where you’re wrong,” Atticai
stated. “The only life that was saved tonight was yours.”

I looked at Atticai and Tommy and if they
wanted to kill each other, that was on them. I was done with this
whole fucked-up night, and this whole mindset that we perpetuated
the concept of like kills different. It was a mind-fuck of the
highest order. And, I swear, it was the Triat who was trying to
mind fuck me. All of us.

I said, “You two can do whatever the hell
you want. You want to kill each other, go right ahead. I’m leaving.
I’m not going to be part of a three person stand-down.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a glimmer
of a tear, Lena’s tear. I looked over at Lena and said, “Let’s
go.”

Lena walked halfway toward me and stopped.
She was now directly in the middle of the three of us in the center
of the triangle. She looked over at me, and didn’t move.

Atticai was once again amused, this time it
was over Lena’s hesitancy. “Oh, look! Josiah no longer has the
loyalty of his precious Lena! She, too, sees the weakness in his
new no-kill mentality. Maybe we should just put you in charge of an
animal shelter, Chosen One. We’ll round up all of the unwanted
werewolves and put you in charge of re-homing their pathetic
existences.”

“Lena,” I said. “Let’s go. We don’t need to
be a part of this.”

Lena just stared at me with zero expression
on her face.

“Seriously,” I continued. “After last night,
please don’t do this. Let’s get out of here. We don’t need to be a
part of this.”

Lena’s eyes softened as she looked at me. I
didn’t know why she wasn’t moving. What could she possibly be
considering?

Atticai saw an opening and decided to take
it. “Lena,” he said. “You know deep down who your soul mate will
always be. You and I have something that is eternal. He might have
been inside of your body, but all this time, I was in your
head.”

What the fuck? Atticai was seriously making
a play for Lena?

I looked at Lena with a look that said,
‘There is no way you’re considering leaving with that animal!’

Then the situation got even more weird.

“Lena,” Tommy now said. “You don’t want to
be part of any of this. Neither do I. I know you care for me. In my
heart, I know that you love me. Let’s leave all of this behind us.
You and I can go somewhere far from here and share a life
together.”

Lena looked over at Tommy, and I could see
she was having hard time with this decision. She was surrounded by
three guys, each of whom had an emotional investment in her. But I
didn’t have an evil agenda and neither did Tommy. Atticai did. Oh
yes, he did!

Like the showdown shootout with Clint
Eastwood in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, in the scene in the
Mexican cemetery where he either had to kill Angel Eyes or Tuco,
this was Lena’s three-way stand-off. She looked at us three males,
from one to the other, then swiveled her head back and forth
between Tommy and I and then between Atticai and me. Lena’s mouth
opened, but no sound came out. She was utterly stumped.

What the hell was going on? How could she
even consider either one of these two other guys?

Again, Atticai made his case, “Lena, you
know deep in your heart…I am your first and only true love.”

I looked at Lena and she looked at me. She
was clearly confused. You have got to be kidding me. “Lena,” I
said. “After last night…”

Lena looked at me and then completely turned
around and looked at each of us.

What the hell was she doing?

She stopped and looked at Tommy, and then
she turned and looked at Atticai.

What in the world could she be
considering?

She looked at me and I could see the love in
her eyes.

“Lena, there is no decision here,” I said.
“Let’s go.”

Lena closed her eyes and then she opened
them. She exhaled and walked in the direction of…”

To be continued in:

Return to the Table of Contents

Vampire Love Story #4

Published by H.T. Night at Smashwords.com

Copyright © 2011 by H.T. Night

All rights reserved.

(Author’s note: All characters depicted in
this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older.)