Vampire Love Story (12 page)

“Three hundred years, my ass.”

“I’m glad you’re not a believer, Josiah, because that just might be what saves your life.”

“Because the supposed Triat will spare me?”

“Ah. So you know about the Triat. Your dog faced friend, Tommy, either let you in on his secret or you’ve been talking to someone else. And since Yari knows better than to do that, well, that means you must have had been talking to Lena. Alone, no doubt.”

Atticai ran at me in a millisecond. He open-hand punched me with more force than I had ever felt in life. I flew back about ten feet.

“Did you put your grimy Tandra hands on her?” Atticai yelled at me as I rolled on the rocks. Man, that was painful.

I got to my feet. “I haven’t touch Lena.” Atticai stared at me like a crazed animal. I didn’t know what to do. Atticai was the strongest human being I had ever felt strike me. I stared at his position. I needed for him to run at me again. If he did, I could drop my body to the left and use his momentum against him. It was a classic move, one that would allow me to get a good choke hold in.

Atticai came at me again. Fast—hell, perhaps even faster than last time. But I was ready for him this time. Or, at least, as ready as I could be. He was reckless, cocky, confident, and I used that against him.

As he raised his fist, no doubt to deliver a hell of a killer blow, I dropped, caught his arm and flipped him. In a practiced motion, I rolled with him, getting my other arm around his neck in a perfect choke hold.

Fuck this piece of shit.

I locked in tight and hard. He kicked, struggling, fighting, gasping. I felt something warm spill over my forearm. Blood. Good. I squeezed even harder.

“Transition!” Wyatt yelled frantically.

Atticai was weakening. Did vampires need air? I didn’t know, and I didn’t care. Atticai should have been out by now. Hell, he should have been dead by now, but he was still fighting me, still struggling.

And that’s when something mind boggling happened.

Suddenly, I was holding nothing. Suddenly, where Atticai had just been struggling for air, a battered bird flew away. It was a black raven.

I didn’t have time to react. Everything was happening so fast. Dreams happen fast, too, or slow.

Before I could fully comprehend that Atticai seemed to have turned into a giant raven, Wyatt slammed into me hard from the side, tackling me to the ground. The collision rocked me, rattling my brain and teeth. It was all I could do to focus my eyes before Wyatt unleashed a ferocious pummeling, his fists moving faster than I could react. I must have taken ten or fifteen full shots to the face before he finally let up. I’ve been hit before, and I’ve been hit hard. No way was this fucker going to take me down. The moment he let up, I buckled hard. He lost his balance and now I was scrambling to my feet.

The world spun. Blood gushed from multiple cuts around my eyes and forehead. I needed just a minute to get my bearings, to clear my head, and then that fucker Wyatt was next.

He continued backing off. Good, I caught my breath. My eyes and head cleared slowly. Wyatt was strong as hell, too, and his punches had done some damage. And that’s when the battered raven flew back, alighting on the ground next to Wyatt.

A moment later, the raven began to sort of stretch out, to elongate. I was certain my head was still spinning. Perhaps my eyes hadn’t fully adjusted. I watched as each wing and spindly leg continued to stretch and reform and fill-out. Perhaps ten seconds later, the wounded Raven was Atticai.

My mouth dropped open. Blood spilled from my mouth, and there was a good chance Wyatt had knocked loose a tooth. Still, none of that concerned me. All that concerned me was that I was certain I was losing my mind.

Atticai straightened out his neck and spit out some blood of his own. “You can close your mouth, Josiah. It’s all true. Everything you might have heard. And you nearly killed me, too, which was a bad move for you, bro. Too bad, too, I liked you. ”

Now I was certain I was dreaming. I mean,
c’mon
. Yes, that made a lot of sense. Perfect sense. It made the
only
sense. I was dreaming and Tommy was still alive and Atticai most certainly didn’t just turn into a raven—and then back again.

I stood before the four of them, too stunned to speak, waiting to wake up, willing myself to wake up. So far, my tortured brain felt it necessary to continue this bizarre dream.

Atticai and his four friends circled me. Dream or not, for the first time in my life I felt fear. I powered through it.

“Face me one at a time, you vampire fucks. Or not, I don’t give a shit. Just do something. You’re certainly not getting any prettier.”

Famous last words. All five ran at me. Worse, all five turned into fucking black birds at the same time. One minute they were on their feet running, and the next they were black missiles were hurling at me. Missiles with claws and beaks and little beady eyes.

Okay, Josiah, you can wake up now!

No such luck. The first bird dived bombed at my face. I threw myself at the ground, ducking. Now they were all on me, squawking and clawing and pecking. At first I thought they were trying to eat me alive. They weren’t. They were gripping me, hooking their talons into anything they could: my jeans, my shirt, my flesh. Amazingly, I found myself lifting up off the ground.

Oh, sweet Jesus.

I looked down and I was flying. Cold wind rushed over me, whipping my hair crazily. They flew me higher and higher. I assumed they were just going to drop me and this was it for me. I said some prayers and just waited.

But they didn’t drop me, and as best as I could tell—since it’s kind of hard to get your bearings when you’re flying over treetops at night—we seemed to fly in a massive circle. The Flatlands appeared below, a massive clearing in the high forest. The ravens somehow worked as one and soon we were dropping together. Moments later, I felt the ground beneath me and I had never felt so relieved in all my life. The massive ravens released their hold on me, and I tentatively found my feet.

I wasn’t out of the woods yet, no pun intended. The ravens weren’t normal sized. These suckers were big, and now I knew why. Want to know surreal? How about being stared at by five shiny black ravens.

Suddenly Atticai and the others transitioned back into their human selves. Or vampire selves. Or whatever the hell they were. One moment the five ravens were regarding me, and the next five men were standing there.

Atticai said, “You a believer now, Josiah?”

I was pretty shaken up. “I believe in something.” Actually, I believed in two things above all else: either I had gone insane with grief over losing my friend, or I was still dreaming.

“Now that you’re a believer, Josiah, we’re left with only a couple of choices. You see, you now know way too much. You’re a risk to all of us. We would normally just kill you at this point.”

He said this matter-of-factly, as if he had done this very thing before, perhaps dozens of times before. “Then why don’t you?” I said.

“Because even though you tried to kill me, I like you. I see your potential. You’re the toughest Tandra I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something. Imagine if you became a Mani. Imagine how powerful you’d be as a vampire.”

I wanted to laugh this off, but it was hard to laugh off five dudes who could turn into ravens and take you on a nighttime flight high above the treetops.

“A vampire? And what kind of life would I have?”

Atticai grinned. “A longer one than what you’ll have now. I’m giving you an offer of a lifetime. A chance to live forever.”

I hadn’t realized he was actually giving me an offer. I knew what I wanted, and what I didn’t want, was to be one of them. “Atticai, I don’t want to be a Mani. Or a vampire. Or a damn bird. I just want to be a regular person. You must remember what that was like...being a regular person?”

I wasn’t sure what I was doing, but I think I was trying to buy some time. If by some chance this shit was real, there was a very real chance that I might not make it out of this clearing alive tonight. And I sure as hell didn’t want to go around sucking people’s blood for the rest of my life.

Listen to you. This is nuts.

Nuts or not, I had five guys surrounding me, five guys who had just taken me on a flight from hell.

Atticai was smiling again. For someone who had nearly been choked out, the tall fucker was sure pleased with himself. “A regular person? Hell, that was back in the 1700s. Life was a little more boring back then, Josiah. We didn’t have the internet or Xbox or Starbucks. The whole vampire gig was actually a pretty good deal.”

Wyatt grinned. So did some of the others. Somewhere in the near distance, I could hear a strange
rattling
sound. I didn’t think it was my own teeth, or my knocking knees. I felt fear, but I wasn’t afraid of Atticai, or anyone. I just didn’t want to die. Not out here. And not by
them
.

I said, “So if I say no, you guys just kill me right here and now?”

“No, we won’t. The rattlesnakes will. You do hear them, don’t you? Coming for you? I’ve summoned them. It’s a trick of mine. Actually, it’s a trick all vampires can do, to summon the things that slither over this earth. Some of us can just do it better than others.”

I could hear a rattling. I could hear lots of rattling. Hundreds of rattling. Okay, now my knees
were
knocking. Snakes? Hundreds of them?

Oh, sweet, sweet Jesus.

“I just want you to know one thing, Josiah. I did not kill Tommy. His disgusting Carni brothers did.”

“And why would they do that?”

“How would I know, Josiah? Maybe they mistook him for Kibble N’ Bits or Puppy chow. They’re filthy animals, that’s all I know.”

The rattling seemed to grow louder. Were there really rattlesnakes coming for me now? I looked around, scanning the darkness around me. I couldn’t see anything, but I seemed to hear a sort of whispering, the sound a slithering body makes moving over the earth. Hundreds of slithering bodies.

“Last chance, Josiah. Join me.” Atticai reached out his hand to me. “Join me and live.”

I looked at his proffered hand. The rattling was indeed getting closer. Good God, this wasn’t happening. Atticai might have liked me, but I hated him. He could say what he wanted, but he was responsible, one way or another, for Tommy’s death.

I shook my head. “I’d rather die out here.”

“So be it.”

Suddenly the five vampires transitioned into ravens. They circled me in what could have been a sort of ceremonial farewell, and then flew off into the night.

So there I was completely left alone to die. Not to just die, but die a horrific death. I spotted a long branch on the ground nearby and grabbed it. I looked up at the sky and looked for the north star. I knew the way down was to go south. So I needed to go opposite of the star. I tucked my pant leg into my my Doc martin shoes. I was still wearing my leather jacket, which gave me some comfort. Could snakes bite through jeans?

Next, I said a prayer and took off running south. There was some moonlight, and I was able to use it to find a game trail. I followed it and kept running, praying like hell I didn’t brake an ankle.

Or come across like a million snakes.

That thought alone sent me scurrying through the forest, running as fast as I could. My adrenaline was on high. I had never ran so hard in my life. I was hopping over bushes and, yes, over snakes. I could feel them underneath me but I refused to stop. I ran as hard and as fast as I could. I had no idea how long I was going to have to do this.

It was nearly thirty minutes later when I looked up at the sky. Shit. I had totally lost track of my direction. I was now facing the north star. Which meant I had been running in circles. I was exhausted and my side hurt. Nearby was a giant rock. So I jumped on top of it. The rattling of the snakes echoed everywhere. I looked around me and the ground seemed to be moving. Snakes, everywhere. Slithering, approaching me inevitably. My skin crawled. How Atticai had done this, I don’t know, but the man—or vampire—was surely dealing with some dark magic.

There was no way I was going to make it around them. I was going to have to attack them.

I jumped down and started swinging the branch. I swung it like a crazed, steroid-induced baseball player. I tried to make room so I could get around, but there were just too many of them. Snakes flew in every direction. I severed some in half; I bashed others. But there was just too many. I was tiring and losing hope and certain I was going to be smothered by thousands of rattle snakes, when suddenly I heard a squawk. A familiar squawk. It sounded like Daphne.

This night was getting weirder and weirder.

She flew in like a missile. It was dark and I couldn’t see exactly what the hawk was doing, but it was something. She flew in low circles and the snakes began to scatter. I jumped back onto the boulder, and just stood there and watched Daphne in action. The undulating forest floor, once alive with snakes, now calmed. The rattling disappeared into the distance. In a matter of minutes the snakes were gone, beaten back by the angry hawk. Incredible.

All the snakes had gone away. Or so I thought. As I jumped down from the rock and moved through the high grass, I heard a sharp rattle, and then a biting pain. Turns out the little shits can bite through jeans.

I kicked my leg hard and the little fucker went flying. The pain in my ankle was intense and immediate. The poison quickly took effect, perhaps because I was depleted emotionally and physically. I fell to my knees. My eyes blurred. I was losing consciousness. I could hear a lot of noise nearby. More snakes? More birds? More vampires? I didn’t know or care.

Still, someone was nearby. Someone or something. As strange colors flitted just behind my eyelids, perhaps an effect of the poison, I felt something bite deeply into my ankle, the same spot where the snake had just sunk its own fangs. Another snake? No. I could feel hands gripping my leg.

I closed my eyes. The pain in my ankle was excruciating. The person sucking the venom did so with ferocity. I forced open my eyes, and through the swirling colors and light, I saw Yari.