by H. T. Night
“So you don’t think it’s him?”
“It does not matter what I think, Josiah. I am an extremely small fish in a much bigger pond. Anyway, most people think it’s going to be Atticai. Already he is prepping to harvest a virgin on her twentieth birthday. When he does so, he will, according to legend, transform into the white eagle.”
“White eagle?”
“As you know by now, all male Mani transition into ravens and the Mani women into hawks. The Chosen One, however, will transition into a white eagle.”
“Err, what exactly do you mean by harvest?”
“A Mani will drain all the life-blood of a Tandra—or Carni, for that matter.”
“Yeah, Atticai’s a real saint,” I said sarcastically, shaking my head. “So who’s this virgin that Atticai’s supposedly going to harvest?”
Yari was quiet.
I pressed. “There’s not too many virginal twenty-year-olds out there. Is he going to pluck a nun from a nunnery?”
“No. Our dreams were acutely specific on who the virgin is supposed to be.”
Confused, I looked at Yari and then it hit me. Everything now made perfect, twisted sense.
The virgin was Lena.
Chapter Twenty-five
“You’re talking about Lena, aren’t you?” I said. “Shit! Wasn’t it going to be her birthday any day now?”
“We all had the same dream and the same vision, Josiah. In each of them, Lena fits the image of the twenty-year-old virgin exactly. And as her twentieth birthday has come closer, the dreams have been out of control for us. Now we dream about what is to happen nearly every night. And just recently, there has been something else added to the dream. A new twist, so to speak.”
“And what is that?” I asked.
“There is this strong presence of evil. In the dream, Atticai is freeing us all by receiving the necessary blood. But there is an evil presence interfering that we can’t quite make out. We’re not sure if it is a fallen Mani or Carni. But there is something there, and it is exceedingly evil, and we are all on guard because of it.”
“Does Lena know any of this?”
“She knows only that, on that special night, she and Atticai will be joined together throughout all eternity.”
“But in reality, she’s not. In reality, Atticai is going to kill her.”
“Atticai is going to fulfill the prophecy, Josiah. He will then save the Mani. He will fly in as a white eagle. It has been prophesied for thousands of years. Do you understand how lucky each of us is to be asked to be a part of it?”
“About as lucky as a heart attack. And what if the virgin sacrifice doesn’t go according to plan? What then?”
“It has to come to plan, Josiah. Everything needs to come to pass. Every detail all the way down to whatever evil that needs to be taken care of.”
“Are you still planning on killing me?”
Yari stood up and came over to me. I slipped my hand in my bag and grabbed the knife. Woman or not, she was a Mani, and I knew these things were tough as hell.
She said, “If I was, I wouldn’t have told you everything.”
“Maybe you told me everything, so it would make it easier to kill me.”
Yari’s eyes burned through me. I knew then she was in absolute love with me. Her love for me, I knew, was the only thing keeping her from attacking me, from fulfilling her obligations to the Triat. Still, I kept the knife in my palm.
“There’s nothing in this world that could make me harm you, Josiah.” She touched my cheek, and I sensed genuine emotion from her.
I knew I needed to save Lena. But I needed more information. Everything I knew about how to defeat a vampire was from novels and movies. And, from what I was gathering, they had gotten things wrong. Dead wrong.
There was no doubt I cared for Lena. I wanted to save her from this crazy shit. I could give a damn if the Mani and Carni lived in peace or not. It was not my fight. But what could I do? The only thing I knew to do was to make sure that there was no way that Atticai became the Chosen One. Because if he did, Lena would have to die to make that happen. What was I thinking? These people were crazy, all of them. There was no way I was going to let Lena become a victim of their agenda, real or not.
I slipped the knife in my back pocket, leaned in, and put my hands around Yari’s waist. I pulled her in close and looked her in the eye. “But what if I wanted to harm you though?”
“You want to harm me?” she asked, with a soft and sexy surprise in her voice.
“How would a Tandra have a chance against a Mani like yourself?”
She studied me a moment, obviously debating how much to tell me. Finally, she said, “There are a number of ways a mortal could defeat a Mani.” Yari kissed me gently on the lips. “Why would you want to harm me?”
“Not you,” I said, but that’s all I would say.
She looked at me for a long time, keeping me at arm’s length. I could sense her inner conflict. After all, why should she tell me their deepest secrets, especially the one that could bring down the entire prophecy? Did she trust me? And why should she trust me? Hell, just a few minutes earlier, I was preparing to fight her. Eventually, she shrugged and pulled me in close. When she spoke, she did so in my ear: “You defeated Atticai last night. He was forced to transition to escape. I’ve never seen that happen before. Not from a Tandra.”
“How would I protect myself against your kind?” I asked.
“There is no protection, but there are two ways to defeat us.”
“A stake?” I offered.
“A silver stake,” she corrected. “And you need to pierce a Mani so deadly that it goes in through the front and out through the back. Complete impalement.”
I shuddered. “So, it doesn’t have to be through the heart?”
“If you want maximum chance at a permanent kill, then yes, through the heart.” Yari reached down and began unzipping my pants with her left hand while we still bantered face-to-face. Within seconds, she had me free, and in a tight grip, and after three hundred years, well, let’s just say she was exceptionally skilled at what she was doing. Blood started to rush away from my head as my thoughts went in other directions. Downward.
“And what’s the other way?” I struggled to say.
“Excuse me?” Yari had clearly shifted her focus to something else entirely.
I gasped and panted. She was good and mid-stroke, I asked her: “What...what is the other way a Tandra can defeat a Mani in battle?”
Yari turned me around and sat me on the bed. She lifted a leg and was soon straddling me. Within moments, I was completely inside her. She leaned in and our bodies began moving in a slow, sensual motion.
I moaned but, trying to maintain my focus, I repeated my question, in an abbreviated fashion: “Tandra vs. Mani. How can Tandra win the battle?”
“Well, Josiah,” she said, her voice husky in my ear, “the other way is to pierce a Mani’s neck from one side to the other with just about anything. Such a wound prevents us from transitioning. A Mani, you see, needs maximum air capacity to transition. After just a couple gasps, a Mani will be done.”
“Done?” I asked, wondering if she meant dead.
Apparently so, because she said, “So, there you go, Josiah. How to Kill a Mani for Dummies. Just don’t let our secret out, or I will have to kill you.”
She grinned and kissed me deeply, and I wondered how much of what she was saying was true. Had she seriously given me the recipe for defeating her kind? Just because I was in her? I didn’t know, and I didn’t have much time to ponder these questions, because soon Yari was doing delicious and dirty things to me that I swore I would never repeat to anyone.
And, I’m a man of my word.
Chapter Twenty-six
In the afterglow, I laid on the bed and was finally able to turn my head to look at the bedside clock. It was 10:00 p.m.
“Isn’t tomorrow night the big night?” I asked, when my head finally cleared. “Isn’t it Lena’s b
irthday in twenty-six hours?”
Yari was curled up next to me. Her body was warm, which went against everything I had heard about vampires. Hey, trust me, I was glad she was warm. The last thing I wanted was something cold and undead lying next to me. She was staring at me intently, while I looked up at the ceiling with my hands behind my head, trying to make the question casual, so that she would not suspect that I was planning anything. Which I kind of was.
She nodded. “Yes, it’s almost time for the prophecy to come to fruition. I can’t miss it. I’m going to fly back soon.”
“As the crow flies?”
“As the hawk flies,” she said, pinching me. “Crows are vile.”
“What’s the difference between a crow and a raven?”
“Do we really want to talk about it?”
I shrugged. “Probably not. So, does it have to be this way?”
“What way?”
“The sacrifice and all the bloodletting, or whatever it is, that Atticai plans on doing to Lena.”
“Yes, Josiah.”
“And where is it going to take place?”
“It’s only going to be the four of us and Lena. We’re going to do it at the old Savoy Ranch. That’s where it is in the dream.”
“Savoy Ranch is popular with hikers and campers. Aren’t you afraid someone will see you?”
“Josiah, we are not afraid of anything. And don’t get any ideas. I’ve spared you tonight. But if you want to live, you will stay here and wait for me. Once Atticai becomes the Chosen One, he might show you clemency. That’s what I’m hoping for, at least. Otherwise, you’re going to have to spend the rest of your life on the run.”
“Great. I’m once again at Atticai’s mercy. I saw what his mercy did to me the last time.”
I rolled over and pretended to go to sleep, like most Tandra do after having sex. Except, I was not like other Tandra. Yari was my 4-1-1 to the Mani and their diabolical plans to slay Lena. Like hell, I was going to stay here. I’ve never run from a fight in my life, and no seven-foot goon, especially a goon I had already choked out, was going to stop me from helping a girl I cared about: Lena.
Once Yari left, I had about 24 hours to convince Lena not to trust those bastards.
Minutes later, Yari kissed me gently on the head. I didn’t stir. She opened the window after first peeling off the tape. I cracked an eye open and watched as she transitioned back into Daphne, the hawk, and took off out of the screenless window. In a flash of wings, she was gone, and, as I stared at the window, all I could think of was that I just watched a woman I had just slept with—well not a woman but a something—turn into a bird of prey. A chill went down my spine.
I decided to wait about an hour just in case Yari decided to come back for any reason, even to see if I was following her. As I waited, I gathered my things and left $200 on the bed with a note to the bed and breakfast hosts, saying that we were sorry for leaving early. That we had an emergency.
An hour later, I was stowing my things in Tommy’s Mustang. I had a brief moment when the pain of his passing hit me hard, and I covered my face and sobbed deeply into my hands. Through all this madness, I hadn’t even had time to mourn Tommy. He had died only three days ago. Unfortunately, I was now caught up in a world that I needed to fix. Before another innocent person died. Her name hammered my heart like a mantra. Lena: A sweet, trusting, innocent virgin, who ate burgers and fries with me and was my friend and the gentlest girl who I ever knew.
Even more unfortunate was that I didn’t have anything close to a plan; that is unless you counted the general goal: find Lena. Fast.
I fired up the car and headed out. I intended to do just that.
Chapter Twenty-seven
I drove all night and got to Lena’s house at about 7:00 a.m.
There were no cars parked out front, and the lights were out. The trailer park looked deserted, and I suddenly felt hopeless. The only other place I could think to look was the creepy mansion in Victorville. I knocked on the door and waited. I kept looking in the sky for Daphne. Sadly, I knew that I needed to avoid her, too. Especially her. With a start, I realized that it was probably over for me and Yari. Me and Daphne. I was light. She was dark. And she was in a creepy cult clan with a terrifying agenda. And I…didn’t want to be.
Finally, I heard the door unlatch. It opened and Lena was standing there wearing white shorts and a red tank top. Her hair was messy, and I had obviously awakened her.
“Holy shit, Josiah, you’re alive!” Lena jumped in my arms and hugged me. “Come in, I don’t want anyone to see you.”
“Where’s your family?”’
“They took off to Vegas last night.”
Lena grabbed a blanket from the floor and laid it on the couch. I looked around the living room area. It was extremely conservative. There were crosses on the wall, pictures of Jesus, and posters with Bible verses on them.
“Wow, I guess you rebelled, didn’t you?” I said, referring to all the Christian stuff in the room.
“Don’t even get me started on the hypocrisy in this house. I am so happy you’re here.”
“You are?” I said, surprised.
“Josiah, I was so upset when I heard what they had done to you. You have to understand that Atticai had no choice. I know that on some level, he was hoping you would make it through the trial of the snakes. He just has to abide by the rules of the Triat. If Atticai wanted you dead, you would be dead. He gave you an out, and you made it.”
“Some out,” I said, thinking about all the snakes. I was going to have nightmares for the rest of my life. But the thought that Atticai wasn’t such an awful person or whatever creature he is, intrigued me. Indeed, if he wanted me dead, he could have just ordered for me to be dropped me from high above. I would have fallen a hundred or so feet, at least ten stories roughly. I would have been dead for sure. Instead, he sent snakes after me. How biblically symbolic of him. Still, the big goon had nefarious plans for Lena, and that’s where I drew the line. Atticai, in the end, was no friend of mine. Or hers.
And since when did I start using words like nefarious, since I started talking about vampires? Vampires and nefarious go hand in hand.
I shook my head, focusing my thoughts and pushing them out at Lena. “Well, before he decided to turn into his little black bird, I almost choked him out.”
“Be glad you didn’t. The other guys would have ripped you to shreds.”
“Why, Lena?”
“Why, what?”
“Why do you love him? Why do you want that world? Why do you have to be a part of them? You’re better than that.”
“Am I, now? Look around, Josiah. I live in a two-bedroom trailer house where my stepdad finds a way to put his grimy hands on me every day. And if he’s not doing that, he’s spying on me showering or changing.”
“Then move out. Go somewhere else.”
“Where? Where can I go?” She paused, perhaps sensing the silliness of her own question. A nineteen-year-old girl could go anywhere. At least, she could move in with friends, like Tommy and I had done. She steeled her resolve and said, “I love Atticai and he loves me. And that’s enough for me.”
“But he doesn’t love you, Lena. He’s using you.”
“What do you know? You didn’t know any of them until a month ago, and now you’re an expert? I know you lost your best friend, and I can’t imagine how bad that is screwing with your head, but I’m not you. This is the life I want.”
“Lena, listen to me: if you leave tonight with Atticai, he will kill you.”
“Kill me?! You don’t know what you’re talking about—”
“Lena, I know more than you know. I know about their prophecies. Atticai is to be their Chosen One. He is going to become some white eagle or something and save all the good Mani from the bad Mani. I know everything.”
“Then what’s the problem, Josiah? Atticai and I will always be connected. Don’t you see? It’s beautiful.”
“Wait, you know?”
“I know what I care to know. I know Atticai needs me to fulfill his destiny, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes and to do whatever he needs me to do to make that happen.”
“Even if it means killing you?!” I yelled. “He’s going to suck all the blood out of your body. You are basically going to bleed to death. You do understand that you are not one of them, right? You can romanticize it all you want. In the end, he’s going to kill you.”
“I see,” she said, but I don’t think she saw at all. “What do you suggest I should do then, Josiah, since you seem to have all the answers?”
“Run away with me. I have over a hundred thousand in the bank from my MMA winnings and inheritance. Run away with me, Lena, and we’ll start a whole new life together.”
“Are you in love with me or something?”
I looked at her and didn’t know how to answer that. “All I know is, I don’t want you to die. I want you to live. I’m willing to do whatever it takes. To save you.”
“Josiah, come sit next to me.” She patted the couch next to her, and I did as she asked. “I know a lot has happened since you stuck up for me. To be honest, I cried for hours when they told me that you were dead.”
I sighed. “We need to get going. Now,” I said firmly.
“Josiah, I believe that once in every lifetime, each of us is given a golden opportunity. We’re given a chance to be a part of something greater than ourselves. Some people never get this chance. I’m going to take it.”
“But you’re going to die. And for what? So some hidden underground societies have peace?”
Lena put her arms around me, and I found my head resting on her chest. I could hear the strong beat of her heart. She was so amazing. She was so comforting, too. I came here to try to save her, but instead she was comforting me. I was exhausted, and soon we both fell asleep in one another’s arms. There was nothing sexual about it. It was just two friends who discovered they loved each other.
Chapter Twenty-eight