The Immortal Warriors Boxed Set: Books 1-11

by H. T. Night

  The bird’s head turned and stared at me. The look in the bird’s eyes took me by surprise. Her eyes were filled with love. I know that was an odd thing to say after seeing a bird’s expression, but when someone had love in their eyes, I guess it didn’t matter what the species was. It was a recognizable glance. This bird had it, and it was all for Josiah. She put her head down, flew off the tree limb, and landed across the street. She was standing on the sidewalk in front of the neighbors’ house who live diagonally to my house to the left.

  I slowly made my way across the street toward the bird. As I did so, the bird transitioned into a beautiful redheaded woman with pale skin, wearing blue jeans and a white sweater. Her hair was the color of blood and her eyes were a beautiful, mysterious duo.

  Yes, I was taken aback. I wasn’t prepared to see a woman so beautiful. “Hello,” I said. I wasn’t sure who or what I was dealing with. She may have been beautiful, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t up to any good.

  “Hi,” she answered back. She stared at me and I walked up closer and closer to her, until we were about a couple feet apart facing one another.

  “Who are you?” I asked. “What do you want with Josiah?”

  “Tommy,” the redheaded woman said to me.

  I cut her off. “Tommy? You know my name?”

  “I don’t mean either of you any harm.”

  “Why are you stalking my friend?” I asked. “He is mortal. I know he fights like he has supernatural powers, but he doesn’t. He is very mortal.”

  “I know that Josiah is mortal. I’m not stalking him. I’m watching over him. He has a calling in his life.”

  “A calling? For who? Surely not with you on your Mani friends.”

  “Look, I’m not exactly sure what is going to happen,” the redheaded woman said. “All I know is, from the moment I saw Josiah, I felt it was my duty to help watch over him. I was right. Shortly after I began watching Josiah, his family died.”

  “You been watching him that long?” I asked, horribly surprised and still weirded out.

  “Yes.”

  “Well, you know our names. May I ask yours?”

  The beautiful redheaded woman looked at me with confidence and said, “My name is Yari.”

  “Yari?” I asked, trying to pronounce it the way she had, as if it rhymed with Atari.

  “Yes.”

  I nodded my head at the woman. “You have been watching Josiah for the last year? His parents died a year ago.”

  “Yes,” she said. “I’m usually pretty sneaky. You only saw me the last few times because I wanted you to.”

  “You wanted me to? Why?” I asked.

  “Because I needed to get to know you before some real shit went down. We are on the same side, even though I’m a Mani and you’re a, well, a Carni.”

  “What side would that be?” I asked.

  “We are both on Team Josiah,” Yari said.

  “Look, as far as I know, Josiah has no idea about the world that you and I are a part of. I would like to keep it that way. That kid has enough on his plate without being exposed to the paranormal world.”

  “It’s not your decision,” Yari said to me.

  “Are you kidding me? Is that why you’re here? Are you trying to recruit him because he’s such a badass fighter? I know that is how your world does it. I was recruited by a couple of your guys, but I decided to go another route.”

  “How is that turning out for you? You have no control of it. You might as well, be... well, you know.”

  “Be what?” I said, pissed.

  “An actual wolf.”

  “Ouch.” She did have some bite in that tongue.

  “Look, Tommy. I have no idea what is in store for Josiah. All I know is that the Triat wants me to watch over him. I mean him no harm. I promise you, I will make sure he is safe.”

  “Like a guardian angel?”

  “Huh?” Yari asked.

  “You’re like a vampire guardian angel.”

  “I’m no angel.” Yari smiled.

  “Then you’re his vampire guardian.”

  “Okay, if that makes you comfortable with the situation, that is what you can call me. I’m Josiah’s vampire guardian.”

  It did make me feel better because I believed her. Yari hadn’t demonstrated any odd behavior other than being overprotective of Josiah. Maybe, in a way, it took a little bit of pressure off of me knowing this woman was watching over Josiah the way Maya watches over me.

  “Look,” I said plainly. “Why Josiah?”

  “I’m not sure,” Yari said. “I just feel like, in my heart, it’s the right thing to do.”

  “Has your heart steered you wrong before?” I asked.

  “Never when it felt like this. I’m confident that there is a reason why. I’m just not sure what.”

  I did not like the sound of Yari’s tone. She was acting like Josiah was some kind of chosen vampire. I laughed out loud to myself.

  Josiah? A chosen vampire? Now that was funny!

  Yari looked me over and decided to completely change the topic of our conversation. She said, “Carni or not, that’s some fine cooking.”

  Fine cooking? No one had ever referred to my looks as cooking before. I just might like this woman. I smiled at her and she knew I was still in mourning. She only winked at me. It told me that we were cool, and that she and I had an unspoken language.

  Already?

  Maybe this Yari character is destined to be part of my life more than I thought.

  “You must make a mean steak,” Yari said to me. “You guys ate five between you.”

  “Damn, you were watching.” I was a little freaked out that this person knew such a meaningless bit of information about me. It made me wonder what else she knew. I might need to keep my enemies closer. Was she an enemy? At the moment, my hormones weren’t allowing me to see clearly. “Next time, let me you know you’re watching,” I said. “I can put a steak out on the back porch for you.”

  “That is so gross,” Yari said, laughing. “I’m not a dog.”

  I looked at her and said, “Well, I am. And that was me trying to be hospitable.”

  “Sorry,” she said, laughing again. “I seriously didn’t mean anything personal about what I said. I just think, if you want to take me to dinner, you can ask me and we can go out in the real world.”

  I smiled. Josiah’s stalking vampire friend was asking me out on a date. I looked Yari in the eyes and said, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “You do that,” she said.

  “I will.”

  “I’m going to leave. It was nice meeting you, Tommy.”

  “It was nice to meet you too.”

  “Just remember,” Yari said. “At the end of the day, we are both on Team Josiah.” She then transitioned back into her red hawk form and took off into the night. I watched until she was completely out of sight. I should have felt more uneasy about this new revelation of Yari, the red hawk vampire. But I didn’t. I thought it was because my instinct was that Yari was good people.

  I went back inside. I sat on my couch, staring at a blank TV, and just thought. Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep on the couch.

  Chapter Ten

  Josiah was starting to get the respect and attention of the world. He won his next fight, and the one after that. He was 3-0 and had never been hit. Not even a grab or a tug. Nothing. No one had ever touched him in a fight.

  Most guys would think that type of victory alone would feed your hunger to be the greatest, and make you want to fight harder and harder. Not Josiah. He went out every night. He was constantly riding our bike at home because he ate everything in sight. He didn’t give a shit about the cholesterol count, calorie count, or fat intake. He acted like he didn’t have a care in the world.

  I guess he didn’t. Josiah’s behavior wasn’t going well with the experienced fighters in the league. Nobody’s bigger than the sport. Nobody.

  Over the past three months, I saw Maya twice. The first time
, she visited me in the bedroom again. We just talked about our hearts and how much we loved each other. It was becoming harder and harder, and I wasn’t sure what was being accomplished, other than two lonely hearts being able to tell the other how much it loved and needed the other. But at some point, we had to move on. Didn’t we? We couldn’t just continue to see each other for twenty minutes every six weeks.

  It was nearing one of our six-week ventures and I took a gamble and didn’t do a night workout. I stayed home and lay in my bed. I was hot-blooded, and so was Josiah, so we kept a cool house. Not only did I need it to be under seventy degrees all the time, but I also lay in bed with a fan in my face.

  I was going to stay home and be as romantic as I possibly could until Maya couldn’t resist seeing me. At this point, I needed to have my fun with this, but at the same time, I was going to treat Maya like the queen she was.

  Josiah mentioned he was skipping night practice and hitting up a movie with some girl he met at a coffee shop. I told him that at the end of the day, the only man he was accountable to was himself. Hell, go out and be merry. You only live once. If it didn’t become a habit, then everyone, including myself, needed a breather.

  On this night, I was concerned about my young prodigy’s lack of focus. His last fight was just silly. The guy ran around the ring until Josiah caught him, and then Josiah knocked the guy out. Josiah was making experienced dudes look ridiculous.

  “Hey, man, you’re 3-0. Go out and celebrate with the opposite sex. Nothing wrong with that.”

  Josiah was happy to have my approval. Maybe I was being selfish because I wanted the house to myself tonight. I was going to pull out all of the romantic stops to see if I could draw Maya to my side.

  Josiah left the house around six, and it was becoming dark early these days. I headed to Dollar Tree and bought every candle I saw. I’m telling you, I bought a lot of candles. I arrived home with fifteen bags of candles.

  I decided to scatter them around the house, and I went up to each one and I lit its wick. It felt like I lit one hundred candles by the time I was done. I turned off all the lights and, damn, it was romantic, even for my meathead sensibilities. I had created an ambiance with some smooth lighting.

  I decided no room was more romantic than my bedroom. Plus, my stereo was in there. I hooked up my MP3 player and selected a playlist that Maya and I had once put together. We picked songs that we felt applied to our love. It was corny as hell. It felt too corny even at the time. Now, with her gone, it was the smartest thing I had ever done with her.

  When I listened to our playlist, nothing made me feel closer to Maya.

  I got the MP3 started, and the stereo was powering out my first song. “If Ever You’re In My Arms Again” was the first to come out. I added the song after Maya’s death because the lyrics spoke my heart.

  I closed my eyes and listened to song after song: “In Your Eyes,” by Peter Gabriel; “I Wanna Grow Old With You,” by Westlife. That song got to me. Wow, did it. Those lyrics were haunting. I didn’t usually do this and especially not lately, but I allowed tears to drip from my face.

  Maya was supposed to be my life. I couldn’t imagine living without her. My eyes were closed and I was listening to the words to Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.”

  Over the music, I could hear a woman’s voice.

  “Tommy,” the woman said. I opened my eyes and that woman was my dearest Maya. She was wearing a white dress with a pink belt and white tennis shoes. Very sporty. She was standing by my bedroom door. She looked exactly what she was—angelic.

  I sat up from my bed and stood up facing her in my bedroom. She walked over to me and stood about a foot away from me. We were both standing in the middle of my bedroom.

  “I’m sorry, Tommy. I only have a few minutes today.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s complicated.” Maya smiled at me, and her smile was radiant. Her eyes looked as if she longed for me to see her for days. “Tommy, what is happening between us is highly unusual. My world doesn’t reveal ourselves unless there are extreme circumstances. I am able to see you because...”

  Maya suddenly stopped talking.

  “Why are you able to see me, Maya? Please tell me. I need to make sense of all this.”

  “Tommy, just over the horizon, there will be great changes. I am here with you because you play a big role. A bigger role than you or any of us could imagine.”

  “I don’t want to play a role in some kind of cosmic, paranormal war.”

  “It’s not a cosmic one, but it is a paranormal one. And your role is selfless. I don’t even have to tell you that it is a good idea to be a part of it. Because of life circumstances, you will choose to be there.”

  “I’m confused.”

  “Don’t be, Tommy. Just continue to be who you are and everything will fall into place.”

  I looked at Maya and said, “I don’t do anything other than work out, practice MMA, watch TV, and sleep.”

  “And look where it has gotten you. You are just a couple fights away from being champion.”

  “You know that?” I asked.

  “Of course I know that. I am very proud of you. You are becoming a better and better fighter every day. You are disciplined. Tommy, when you do anything, you do it full bore. Good or bad. This time, it is a very good thing.”

  “I thought that you didn’t like that I fought for a living.”

  Maya smiled at me. “The discipline that you put yourself under to be the very best is what I love. Your training, your work ethic, all those things are admirable to watch. Not to mention it is very, very sexy to watch you train.” Maya laughed.

  I think that was the first time I’d seen her laugh like that in her new angelic body. It reminded me of old Maya, my girlfriend. The gorgeous blond who stole my heart and was absolutely adorable at everything she did.

  My heart yearned for Maya. My bedroom was lit with candles. I was wearing a black T-shirt with black sweats.

  “You look extremely handsome tonight, Tommy.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “You look as beautiful as always. Today, I am especially impressed with your white tennis shoes.”

  “You looked at my feet?” Maya laughed.

  “I look at all of you. Whenever you reveal yourself to me, I take all of you in. You don’t want me to take a picture, so I make as many mental pictures of you as I can. I stick them in my mental vault.”

  “That is very romantic,” Maya said to me.

  “Does that surprise you?” I asked.

  “Tommy, ever since I met you, everything you say and do surprises me. Everything you do—no matter how bad it may seem to the world—you do it as a self-discovery. You don’t do anything malicious to anyone. You take care of people. That is your heart and that is why I am so in love with you. Even now.”

  “I want to touch you so bad,” I said.

  “I know, Tommy. I know.”

  “Why can’t we?”

  “Because it isn’t possible.”

  “How were you able to knock me off my bike and save my life?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. Under extreme circumstances, I think they make an exception.”

  “Do you know that for sure?” I asked.

  “No, I guess it isn’t something I’m certain about. What are you suggesting, Tommy?”

  “What if it’s more about emotion?” I said. “And how centered you feel?”

  “What do you mean?” Maya asked.

  “What if the reason why you were able to touch me with the force to knock a hundred-and-eighty-five-pound man off his bike was because you were centered and focused? You were especially full of emotion.”

  “I was all three of those things at that moment,” Maya agreed. “But that kind of emotion can’t be duplicated. I thought you were going to kill yourself, so I was centered because all of my focus was on you. I was physically centered because I had to knock you off your bike.”

  “How did you do it?” I asked. />
  “I just timed it. I was already there because I was with you all that night. You were hurting, and I knew you were going to need some type of miracle. I just wasn’t sure how intense the miracle was going to be.”

  “I’m just thinking, that is all. I would love to touch you. I would love to hold you in my arms. Feel that safety that only your touch would give me.”

  “Safety? How did I ever give you safety?”

  I looked at Maya and smiled. “Your touch. You see, when we were together, I never broke it down. I didn’t have to. I allowed my natural feelings to exist without any skepticism. It was only when you were gone that I realized what I was actually feeling when we were together.”

  “What were you feeling?”

  I paused and looked across my room, and Maya’s face was lit just perfect enough by the candles in the room that she appeared to as beautiful as I had ever seen this woman. “I felt safety,” I said. “I was home when I was in your presence.”

  Maya’s eyes began to drip tears, and so did mine. I took a couple of steps closer to her.

  “Tommy, I have to go. My time is up.”

  “Already?” I said.

  “I told you it was going to be short tonight.”

  There was a foot separating us. In previous spiritual meetings, Maya was weirded out if our bodies overlapped. Mainly it was because they dissolved into each other because she was a spirit.

  Tonight I didn’t care. My heart was overwhelmed. I didn’t think I needed to be held by Maya more in my life. My mind, body, and soul were aching for her. I reached out and wrapped my arms around her spirit body.

  “I love you, Maya,” I said, and as I said those four words out loud, I was nearly knocked over by something that was beyond this world. I felt Maya’s body. It didn’t last long. Just long enough for our eyes to meet as it was happening. I saw Maya’s face, and she seemed shocked. She suddenly disappeared. No ‘goodbye.’ No ‘I love you.’ She was just gone.

  Chapter Eleven

  That night when I went to sleep, I wasn’t sure if my mind was playing tricks on me. I was almost certain I felt Maya. It was at a point where my heart was yearning for her in a way I hadn’t felt until that moment. But I felt her. I felt the pressure. She was soon gone, but I was certain for a split second before she departed. I was sure I felt our bodies touching.