by H. T. Night
“Neither can I. I’m flying out to you from San Francisco.”
“What are you doing up there?”
“It doesn’t matter. Be at O’Hara’s Parking Structure by 5 o’clock and dress warmly.”
“All right, Tommy. I trust you.”
“Good. I won’t let you down,” I said.
I looked at the clock and it read 3:00 p.m. There was no way I could get to Vegas before dark by riding my bike. I was going to have to fly out there. Luckily, I had some cash because I was going to have to take an immediate flight to Las Vegas from San Francisco. It would be expensive because I didn’t have an advance reservation. I had money. Weird!
I didn’t say a word to anybody. I just left on my bike.
I rode my bike to San Francisco International Airport. I was able to get on a 4:30 flight. I would arrive in Las Vegas at 5:30. I would take a cab to the O’Hara’s Parking Structure. I needed to move quickly.
Annie’s life depended on it.
Chapter Thirteen
The cab dropped me off in front of the parking structure. I was excited and nervous. I didn’t know if this would completely work. I didn’t want to kill her when I turned, and I needed to probably just graze her with my teeth and maybe a little bite, not something that would mortally wound her as a human. It was a delicate thing to turn someone. In fact, I had never done it before. I had only had it done to me.
First things first. I needed to find her. I walked around the structure and I found her on the other side. She looked like she had been crying.
“Annie!” I called out to get her attention.
“Tommy! You came!” She looked at me and smiled. I walked over to her and I hugged her tight.
“Do you seriously think this will work?”
“Annie, I am a werewolf. I’m going to turn into one when the full moon hits in two hours. It doesn’t matter if you believe me or not. If you want to live, you just need to come with me and trust me.”
“Okay,” she said. “I want to live.”
“I want you to live, too.”
Annie and I found my car. We jumped in and took off for the front. I showed the cashier my claim ticket. He charged me $340 for parking. What a rip-off.
I wanted to get to an isolated spot as soon as I could. I decided to go north. There was a lot of desert in Nevada. I turned off the paved road with my Mustang and made my way across the desert plain. I drove and drove, but carefully, trying not to hurt my car on the washboard dirt roads. When we were finally a good twenty miles from the paved road, I stopped the car.
“If this is where you kill me,” Annie said, “just do it quickly.”
“What?” I wasn’t sure if she was kidding or not. So, in case she wasn’t, I said, “I’m not going to kill you. But you need to listen up. I’m going to give you the keys to my Mustang. When I turn, I’m going to need to bite you. Try to get me to bite your shoulder where it is meaty and that should never be a mortal wound in any case.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Okay.”
“Once I bite you, get the hell away from me. If all goes smoothly, you should turn into a werewolf rather quickly because of the full moon. In fact, you won’t be able to stop it. Ever.”
“You won’t hurt me?”
“I don’t have a human consciousness in that state of being. I will do my best not to act like the big bad wolf with Red Riding Hood.”
“So, you seriously won’t recognize me? Or be able to do anything that is… not a wild animal reaction?”
“I see you understand.”
“Yikes. Well, this is for my life, and I am going for it, and if this works, well—”
“We’re running out of time, so just let me get this said. Sorry to interrupt you. If, for any reason, I’m more dangerous than expected, like I try to kill you, just jump in the car and get the hell out of here.”
“I’m scared,” Annie said.
“So am I. We both need to trust my werewolf self.”
“Should we tie you to a tree or something?”
I laughed. “That would not work, unless you chained me, and I will never let anyone do that to me. I would chew through a rope in a matter of seconds.”
We sat in my car for the next hour and a half with the motor running and the A/C on. It was hot in the Mojave Desert.
I stared into space through the windshield.
“What are you doing, Tommy?”
“Visualization of what I need to do.”
She nodded.
“Shhh,” I said patiently. During this time, I imagined myself as the gray werewolf. I pictured myself biting Annie’s shoulder and then turning my head away from her and running away from her after one bite on the shoulder. I pictured this thought and had it play out in my mind more than ten times over the past hour.
I looked at the clock on the dash. It was about 30 minutes until the full moon.
I turned my head and looked at Annie and said, “We should go outside. Leave the key in the ignition, but turn it off. If you do turn, you won’t be able to drive either.”
Annie and I stepped out of the car with the keys still in the ignition.
“So, how does it happen?” Annie asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t have any memory when I turn.”
“So, you’re saying there’s a chance you can rip me to shreds?”
“That’s why we have the key in the ignition. I’ll tell you what. Let’s even leave the car door open. The second you don’t trust me or you think I’m going to hurt you further than biting you once on the shoulder, you flee.”
“Flee? I’m not going to flee. This is my last chance to live and I will die trying!”
“You’re too funny to die, Annie.”
She nodded. “What do I do?”
“You’re going to need to maneuver your body so that when I bite, I get you on your shoulder. It’s the safest place to bite. Everywhere else, we’re risking internal bleeding. I don’t want to hit an artery, especially not your neck. I know all of this sounds bad, but I’m trying to save you. The alternative is death by cancer. By God, I don’t want that to happen. I won’t let it happen. For some reason, I was meant to meet you in Vegas.”
“I think so, too.” She paused. “Why didn’t you save Maya?”
“Because I was in my human form when the accident happened. I can’t turn at will. If I could, I would have turned and immediately turned her into a werewolf at the scene of the accident. And her parents, too, if I could have.”
“I’m sorry. Sorry. You explained that. I just…”
“It’s good to ask questions. This will change your destiny.”
“I hope so. Because right now, I am living on borrowed time.” Annie stared at me. Then tears dripped from her eyes. “Please don’t kill me, Tommy.”
It was weird how she said it.
It was like what she said had a double meaning. She didn’t want me to kill her as the werewolf. But she also didn’t want me to kill her by giving her false hope that she could live.
“What made you call me?” I asked.
“I had a dream last night. Everything was pitch-black, but I heard a woman’s voice. The voice said, ‘Trust Tommy. He will help you if you let him.’”
“Wow. Dreams can be powerful.”
“Yes. They can. Then I woke up. I can still hear her voice.”
I wasn’t sure what kind of dream she had, but thank goodness she had it just in time. “We should probably sit about 15 to 20 feet away from each other. I apparently get pretty big. You’re going to need some space, just in case I act inappropriately. Sit right next to the car and I will sit over there, a good distance from you.” I walked over and sat down.
“Don’t try to pet me. I won’t be anything like a domestic dog.”
“Tommy,” Annie called out to me.
“Yeah?”
“How will I know? If you’re a killer or not when you turn and try to bite me?”
“Look me in the eyes, and if you tr
ust them, let me bite you. Otherwise, run for the car. Just know that if you run for the car and I don’t bite you, cancer will get you.”
Annie didn’t say anything more. She just nodded. I lay back and looked up into the sky. I knew I was minutes away from turning.
I decided to visualize biting Annie once more. I ran the scene over and over in my head. That was the last thing I remembered.
I had turned.
Time passed, and I wasn’t sure where I was.
I opened my eyes and I was facing another gray werewolf that hadn’t turned back. As I stared at the wolf, I saw the werewolf turn back into a human. It was Annie. I had done it. We did it. Holy shit. I saved her fucking life.
She rolled over and looked at me. “It happened,” she said. “You were kind when you turned. You looked at me with loving eyes when you were this magnificent wolf. I trusted you. I pulled up my sleeve and gave you my shoulder. You were so tender. You licked my shoulder affectionately before you bit me. Then you bit me. It hurt.” She looked at her shoulder. There was a nice-size bite mark on her shoulder. “But that’s all you did. You ran off and…”
Holy shit, I remembered this. I began talking where she left off. “…and I went about twenty feet away from you and watched you turn from a woman into a wolf. That’s it. That’s all I remember.”
“So, what does this mean now?”
“It means nothing of this world can kill you now. Only a silver dagger through your heart.”
“Holy shit. Am I dreaming? Did this seriously happen? Am I honestly a werewolf?”
“Yes, and if you play your cards right, you can live forever.” As I said that out loud, I thought of Maya and how I could have turned her on any full-moon point in our relationship once I was a werewolf. But I never did it because I had no idea she was going to die in a car accident.
“I do have a question for you, Tommy. Where’s your car?”
Her question brought me out of my reverie. I looked around and I could tell we were in a different spot. Annie and must have left the area together.
“I think we made our way back to the road. And the road is over there. I can tell by the mountains in the distance that the road is in that direction.”
So, Annie and I walked back to my car.
“Wolves can go far!” she said.
“Yes, we can.”
During this hot walk to my car, I gave her the history of what I knew about mortality. I gave her all the Carni history. I also told her that there were vampires among us. I also told her all about Mani lore.
It took three hours, but we found my Mustang right where I’d left it. I drove Annie back to Las Vegas. I got a ticket when I turned out onto the highway. A cop saw me and gave me a trespassing ticket for being in the sand. No off-road travel was allowed in this area to preserve a certain type of endangered rattlesnake.
I was an endangered species, too. But I didn’t tell that to the ass of a cop. He wouldn’t have cared.
Annie wanted me to drop her off at the airport. I told her to link up with the Carni when she arrived home. I told her all about the hangouts and where she’d be likely to meet other werewolves, either online or in person.
I stayed with her until her flight boarded for Connecticut.
“Thank you, Tommy,” she said to me right before she boarded the plane. She grabbed my face and kissed me gently on the lips. It was loving, not sexual, so I let it happen. I cared for her very much and I wished her every happiness and now, good health. And werewolf adventures. Oh, she would have them, all right.
We gave each other one last hug and then she was off.
I sat down on a bench in the airport. I sighed and felt a sense of pride I hadn’t felt in a while. I sat there for about ten minutes and for a moment, life gave me Easter egg. I was in need of some Easter eggs.
After I drove the Mustang home, a couple of days went by and I hadn’t gone back to San Francisco airport to get my bike. I missed my baby and I was a bit worried about her.
The second I woke up, I took a one-way flight to San Francisco International Airport. I flew in before noon. I went and found my bike in the airport’s parking structure and then I rode my baby back home to San Bernardino.
At a ridiculous speed, but this time, there was no drinking and driving.
At least I was trying.
Chapter Fourteen
I was actually eager to see Josiah. I’d called him twice during the day just to check up on him while I was at the ranch, but because of my car and bike retrievals from two different cities, we had hardly seen each other since I had come back.
I’d parked the bike and grabbed his Costco list and told him I would be back soon.
“Okay. Can we get those salmon burgers, too? I’m feeling the need for more protein.”
“Absolutely, bro.” It was nice to be able to afford to buy the best groceries and do a real training diet with him.
Just briefly, he told me he wasn’t going to school. I told him to not worry about school for a while. That he could always get his GED or do independent study. He was eighteen, so he could make these decisions on his own. I also realized that he was still so upset after losing his family that even if he did return to school, his grades were going to be a washout for a while. He was only human.
As soon as I could, I told him I was going to make time for him, so we could have our long talks that we used to do.
When I returned to our house with the Costco groceries, Josiah was outside sitting on a curb, as if waiting for me. He looked lonely, forlorn. I pulled my Mustang next to Josiah’s white truck and slowly got out of my car and walked over to him.
Josiah stared at me and gave me a small smile.
“We’ve been apart a lot and have hardly talked. How was reserves?” he asked. “You never talk about it, you know?”
“Same old, same old,” I said as he and I carried in the boxes of groceries and put stuff away. “Walk in the desert, drink lots of water, scratch myself, pee on trees. Save lives.”
He grinned. “Save lives?”
“Yeah. One life.”
“Can you talk about it?”
“Nope.” I paused. “What were you doing, Jo? Sitting on the curb.”
“Thinking,” he said.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“The weirdest thing happened when I was outside. This red bird stood on the branch of the tree and was watching me. It stood there staring at me for about twenty minutes. It had amazing eyes that pierced through me. The second you pulled up, the bird flew away. I’m pretty sure the bird was female, maybe a hawk, even. I had a strong sense it was. What the hell am I even saying?”
“It’s all right. You can tell me you saw a bird.”
Josiah paused and shook his head. “I’m doing all right, Tommy. I may be slowly losing my mind, but I got through this day so far. I’m taking it hour by hour.”
“You, too?”
“You said we shouldn’t talk about it. About my family. It will only leave us vulnerable, and when you’re vulnerable, you’re weak.”
“You’re right.” I wanted so badly to tell Josiah what had happened with Annie, but I knew I couldn’t. I needed the perfect time to tell Josiah that I was a werewolf and this wasn’t it. I decided to ask Josiah an odd question. “Do you know birds?”
“Know birds? Why would you ask that?”
“Why do you think the bird was a hawk?”
“Fuck if I know if it was a hawk.”
“And, are you sure the bird was red?” I pressed.
“It was definitely red. Why do I think it’s a hawk? It’s what I imagine what a hawk would look like.”
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t a red hawk.
“I named her,” Josiah said.
“You named her?”
“Yeah, I named her Daphne.”
Josiah may have been right. He just may have been losing his mind. This made me uneasy. Red hawks were the form female vampires took during the day or whenever they wante
d to transition. The last thing I needed was a female hawk, who was actually a vampire, checking out Josiah for whatever reason. I decided to change the subject. “I think we need to rent a moving truck and move the rest of my stuff in.”
“I’d like that, bro,” Josiah said. “Very much. It’s too quiet here and your other place is a waste of money.”
“Yeah, I haven’t slept there in I don’t know how long.”
So, that is what Josiah and I did. We spent the day moving the rest of my stuff into the master bedroom. Josiah still insisted on me sleeping in there. We left Maya’s room alone. But we removed all the old furniture out of the master bedroom and put my California king bed in there with a couple of dressers. We put the rest of my stuff in the garage.
Then, just like that, Josiah and I were permanent roommates. He was the toughest eighteen-year-old on the planet, and I was a werewolf. So, we were quite the mismatched pair. Talk about a TV sitcom just begging to be made. They could call it The Wolf and the Fighter.
What I wasn’t prepared for was that Josiah would be the grownup in this situation. I had too much pain and too much anger inside to deal with my immediate surroundings. It was Josiah who talked me down and encouraged me to work out instead of getting drunk each night at a bar.
I decided I could do both. I worked out all day, then drank myself into a stupor until two in the morning each night. I probably should have seen a psychiatrist so I could be put on antidepressants, but I figured alcohol would do the trick. Why take Xanax when a shot of tequila puts you in a happier place? I didn’t care what it took, as long as I could feel numb to life. I just did it night after night and I could feel myself spiraling downward, out of control.
I needed to prepare for my next fight. I had a 6-0 record. I knew the Commission was going to give me an even tougher fighter for the next fight.
My first fight back was going to be an important one. It would show the California committee if I was ready for the big-time fights.
Basically, if they gave me someone who they thought was better than I was, they expected me to lose, and that’s how they saw me. If they give me a putz, they were saying to me, ‘Welcome back, flip this fish to his back, and let’s throw back a few beers.’ But if they gave me someone just as good as me to fight, they were telling me they wanted to see what I was made of. Up to this point, I thought they had expected me to lose all six of my matches. Hopefully, after so many first-round knockouts, they would give me a better fight next time. I welcomed the challenge.