H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (83 page)

A part of me was relieved that they hadn’t
seen each other. It still didn’t erase the fact that Lena was
missing.

I made my way up to Romero’s suite. I went
in and this night we would not be watching the match alone. He had
some serious ‘suits’ in the room. I swear I wouldn’t have been
surprised to see the richest man in the world, Carlos Slim, on this
night. Everyone was wearing tuxedos and had a gorgeous classy woman
on their arm.

“Josiah,” Romero said, “Come in and sit next
to me.” I am an incredible judge of character and there was
something extra sleazy about Romero on this night. The man was
swimming in millions, and that might have had something to do with
it.

“It’s about to start, Josiah,” Romero said.
“I would offer you a drink, but then again you are the main
event…”

All eyes in the room were on me. These men
who could buy and sell me twenty times over were looking at me like
I was Mickey Mantle. The adoration in their eyes was poignant. I
humbly smiled at them and took my seat next to Romero. On this
night, I was his prize pony and if he wanted to parade me around, I
had to go along with it.

Romero’s ‘automatic wall’ opened up so now
everyone in the suite could see into the ring. Everyone in the room
found a place to sit. At least, the more important ones did. The
others remained standing.

“Tonight is going to be an amazing night,
gentlemen,” Romero announced to the room. “Grab a hold of your
seats because this is going to be a wild ride!” Romero was sure
full of himself. I imagined he had other tricks up his sleeve to
make the night memorable.

I leaned over and whispered in Romero’s ear,
“How did you pull off charging half a million a ticket?”

Romero winked at me, and whispered in my
ear. “I promised them they were going to see something they hadn’t
seen before, and they will.”

“What is that?” I asked, with a bit of dread
in my gut.

“You’ll see,” Romero said, with a confidence
that only a psychopath would have demonstrated.

The entire crowd was wearing tuxedos, and
the women were similarly dressed, as if it was a night at the
Oscars and they were red-carpet ready. The ring announcer slowly
made his way to the middle of the ring and addressed the crowd.

“Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, you are all
going to witness a one-of-a-kind event. The ‘immortal beast,’
Tommy, will take on seven opponents one right after another with
almost zero time between each fight. Tonight, we present to you, ‘A
Night of the Seven Deadly Sins.’

The crowd erupted in a frenzy of
applause.

The ring announcer continued, “Now, it’s
time to introduce you to your werewolf. No fighter has taken this
arena by storm as much as he. He has an undefeated record of 68-0.
He has beaten wolves, vampires, and anyone else who has faced off
against him. Every one of his opponents has left the ring defeated!
Let’s give a round of applause to the ‘immortal of all immortals’…
Tommy!!!”

The double doors opened and Tommy walked out
as serious as I had ever seen him. The crowd all rose to their
feet, cheering. Tommy had a game face like no other. There wasn’t a
hint of joy on his face; he didn’t even acknowledge the crowd. This
was about his freedom. He had an intensity that even I hadn’t seen
before from him. He looked like he was ready to tear off someone’s
head. There was something else that was different about Tommy’s
entrance. He seemed to be carrying a black bag with him into the
ring. As he got up to the ring, he tossed the bag to the side of
it.

“What’s in the bag?” I asked.

“Oh, you’ll soon find out soon enough,”
Romero grinned.

I didn’t like the sound of that at all.
Romero was up to something and it looked like Tommy was in on
it.

“Which sin is first?” I asked.

“We thought we give him an easy one.
Gluttony is first. We found ourselves the biggest, fattest,
out-of-shape vampire that needed to make a buck.”

“Tommy will kill him,” I said.

“Possibly,” Romero smiled.

“What’s the order of the sins?”

Romero pulled out a list from his pocket
that he had penciled on. “Okay,” he said. “We have Gluttony…then
Greed.”

“Who’s playing the part of Greed?” I
asked.

“Not playing. He is Greed. We offered the
guy five million dollars if he wins.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“He has no chance of winning, Josiah.
Remember, I’m a businessman. This guy can barely move, let alone
fight. His greed was stronger than his sense of self-preservation.
He knows he can’t win, but he is a slave to his own desire for
money, no matter what the consequences.”

“Okay, then who?”

“Then we have Sloth. That will be a
semi-tough one for our boy. He’s an ex-priest that has pretty much
been living in apathy for the last 300 years.”

“A man of the cloth?” I asked. I didn’t
really like the sound of that.

“He’s a bit backslidden,” Romero laughed.
“After that, we have Lust.”

“Who did you grab for that?” I asked.

“One of the toughest Mani broads you have
ever seen. Not to mention, she’s a whore. Hence, the whole lust
part.”

I didn’t like the idea of Tommy fighting a
woman and I knew he wouldn’t either. “Does Tommy know that his
fourth opponent’s a woman?”

“We might have failed to mention that to
him. Anyway, on the back nine there are three mega super fights. We
have a returning fighter who promises he will not only beat Tommy
but kill him inside five minutes. So he’s our Pride. Then there’s
Wrath followed by Envy.”

“Who’s Wrath?” I asked.

“It’s another big surprise; at least it will
be for Tommy.”

“Who is it?” I pressed. “It better be a fair
match.”

“If by ‘fair’ you mean is he fighting a
‘one-on-one fight,’ then it’s very fair,” Romero laughed. “But, he
will have his work cut out for him. You do remember Goliath, don’t
you?”

“Yes,” I said. Goliath was the hugest
creature I had ever fought. It took Tommy and I both to kill
him.

“Well, he had a son. His son is bigger than
his father. The thing is his son didn’t choose to go into the
family Carni business. He chose to become a Mani. Biggest
motherfucking vampire I have ever seen.”

Romero was enjoying this far too much. It
felt like he didn’t care if Tommy died or got seriously hurt. He
just wanted a good show.

Romero continued, “So, this kid wants to
kill Tommy pretty bad after what the two of you did to his father.
I’d be careful, Josiah. Because if he beats Tommy, no matter what,
we will still have a seventh fight because he wants you next.”

“You have it all figured out, haven’t
you?”

“Put it this way, Josiah. If at any point
Tommy goes down, you’re my ace in the hole.”

“That wasn’t the deal,” I said. “If he gets
hurt or, worse yet, dies, then he’s paid the ultimate price toward
his debt. You’ll still have your money.”

“He might have, but you still will owe me at
least one more fight. We’ll cross that road when we get there,”
Romero smiled. “Shhh… the announcer is about to introduce
Gluttony.”

I looked out as the announcer waited for
Tommy to transition into the werewolf, to the delight of his
adoring billionaire fans.

Tommy stood in the ring inside the steel
cage. I decided to try to speak to him. “Tommy!” I said, in my
mind. “Can you hear me above the noise?”

Tommy gave me no response. I wasn’t sure if
he could hear me or if it was just too loud. Suddenly, the two
black double doors opened.

The announcer took the microphone and just
simply said, “Gluttony!”

And gluttony it was. Holy crap! The fattest
vampire I had ever seen walked through the doors. He didn’t even
really walk. He waddled. He weighed over 700 pounds and only stood
barely six feet tall.

Why would this guy enter the ring with
Tommy? Surely he knew he had no chance. This was the fattest person
I had ever seen, vampire or otherwise. This was a very, very big
boy. He huffed and puffed as he slowly made his way to the ring. I
wasn’t even sure he could make it to the ring without giving
himself a heart attack. He eventually got there. It seemed like it
took the guy ten minutes to move 50 yards.

Tommy in his gray werewolf form just stood
on one side, staring at the obese steak that was before him.

“Tommy,” I repeated. “Can you hear me?”
Tommy twitched in the ring, as if to be shaking my voice out of his
head. Now, I was beginning to wonder if Tommy was ignoring me on
purpose for some reason. Maybe he knew he had his work cut out for
him tonight, and just needed to focus and not have me talking into
his ear. I decided to shut up and let him fight.

The bell went off. Tommy circled his
opponent. And the guy was having a hard time even turning in
circles.

Suddenly, Tommy leaped on the guy, knocking
him straight to his back. The great wolf wasted no time. He bit the
guy’s neck and he went completely limp. Then something happened
that was as unexpected as anything I had ever seen in a ring. I
couldn’t have imagined this happening, even in my wildest
dreams.

Tommy transitioned back into his Carni form
and stepped out of the ring.

What was he doing?

To the left of the ring was the black bag
Tommy had brought with him. He reached in and grabbed a metal spike
out of the bag and held it in his hand.

Oh no! What the hell was he doing?

The overweight man was flopping in the
middle of the ring. Tommy had already seriously injured him by just
chomping on his neck. Tommy walked back into the ring. The crowd
had no idea what they were about to witness. Or did they?

Maybe that is why they all paid $500,000 for
a ticket.

This was very out of character for a Tommy
fight. He usually showboated and played up to the crowd. He fed off
of it. Not right now. He was all business and I was afraid of what
he was planning to do. Tommy, with metal stake in hand, jumped on
top of his obese opponent while he was lying on his back in the
ring. It looked like he had jumped on top of a bouncy house that
kids play in at birthday parties. Tommy sat on top of his stomach.
The man looked terrified.

Tommy then did the unspeakable. With a
mighty thrust, he rammed the metal rod all the way through the
giant vampire’s neck. Then poof. The giant vampire disappeared.

Tommy had killed him.

I was absolutely sick to my stomach.

The crowd cheered and groaned. They weren’t
sure whether to celebrate or be horrified. Most were horrified, but
there was a part of the crowd that loved every minute of it; it was
exactly what they paid for. They were the ones who were getting
louder and louder with their cheers.

Tommy looked up to Romero’s suite and stared
at where Romero was sitting. He raised one finger up to show that
he was one down and had six to go.

He sat on his hind end in the middle of the
ring to catch his breath. Then he stood up to his feet as the crowd
began chanting, ‘Tommy! Tommy! Tommy!’

“Tommy!” I yelled, in my head. “What the
hell are you doing? You don’t have to kill them!”

Again, Tommy didn’t answer. He just shook
his head in the ring, obviously shaking my voice out of his head.
Something was going on. I looked at Romero and he seemed very
pleased. He had specifically told me in a previous conversation
that killing was not part of the spectacle he liked to put on. But
then again, it appeared that he had lied about everything when it
comes to this place.

Romero motioned to one of his bodyguards to
come over to him. The man walked over and Romero whispered
something in his ear and the man left. I tried to read Romero’s
lips and his mind but he was a trained Tandra. He thought and spoke
only in Spanish. He knew I had the ability to read minds, and he
was aware, one slip up, and he would show whatever ‘hand’ he was
trying to hide from me. He and Tommy were up to something and as
far as I could tell Tommy was on board for whatever reason.

“How soon will the next fight be?” I asked
Romero. I purposely did not mention the fact Tommy had just killed
his opponent.

“His fight will start as soon as the ring
announcer gets to the microphone,” Romero said.

Chapter Twenty-seven

The ring announcer made his way back to the
middle of the ring and simply said, “Sloth,” into the
microphone.

The black double doors opened and a man who
was in pretty good shape entered the arena. He was wearing some
kind of Friar Tuck outfit, I guess to demonstrate that he was an
ex-priest. As he walked in, he ripped off his outfit and threw it
to the ground.

Tommy was sweating in the middle of the
ring, but he had a lot left in his tank. I was waiting for Tommy to
transition back to the werewolf, but he didn’t. It appeared he was
planning on starting the fight in his Carni form. The
unpredictability of his actions just kept on coming. Tommy reached
down and picked up the stake with which he had killed Gluttony.

Was he just planning on killing this guy
right out of the gate?

The second bell rang.

Tommy charged the priest, and the priest
transitioned into a black raven, slipping through Tommy’s fingers.
The raven got to the other side of the ring and transitioned back
to the priest.

Tommy again charged him and again the priest
transitioned into the black raven and made his way to the opposite
side.

I could tell this was annoying Tommy. Tommy
hated when someone ran from him. The priest once again transitioned
back to his Mani form.

I could see the wheels turning in Tommy’s
head. Tommy had amazing instincts. He had a special rule that he
lived by: Meaning, if someone made a move or action more than
twice, the likelihood of them trying it a third time was very
high.