The Immortal Warriors Boxed Set: Books 1-11

by H. T. Night

  I conked out for what felt like five hours.

  “Tom,” Josiah called from outside my door, waking me up.

  “Yeah,” I bellowed from inside my room.

  “You up?” Josiah asked. He seemed eager to speak to me.

  “I am now!” I groaned for good measure.

  “Can I come in?”

  “Sure, if you want to see me in all of my glory,” I teased.

  “Put some boxers on, you weirdo!”

  “Come in, Josiah. I’m kidding.”

  He opened the door slowly to make sure I was actually kidding.

  “How are you feeling?” Josiah asked in a tone only my physician had ever used.

  “I’m a little amped up—and a little exhausted. You know a little bit country—a little bit rock and roll.” I gave my friend a wink.

  Josiah grinned and sat on the foot of my bed. “So, tell me, do you remember anything?”

  The truth was, I had more memory of last night than any other time I had transitioned into my werewolf form and Josiah needed to know that. “I do remember some of it,” I answered. “I remember seeing you. I remember hearing your voice. But I can’t remember details.”

  “Really?” Josiah sounded disappointed.

  Josiah needed to know what a big deal this was. “I usually never remember anything.”

  Josiah shrugged. “I was hoping you would remember our questions.”

  “You asked me questions?” I asked. I didn’t recall that.

  “Yes, and you answered them with feeling. You were connected.”

  “Was I connected from the get-go?” I asked. “I mean, did it take me a while for me to become engaged?”

  Josiah looked at me and grinned. “You howled and screamed at me for ninety minutes. You finally wore out. That was when I started to train you. You were no longer this ferocious wild animal. You were almost kind.”

  “You’re fucking with me, right? I was kind?” Now Josiah was messing me with me. The wolf is never kind.

  “Tommy, I’m telling you the truth. For a good two hours, you submitted to me.”

  “Really?” I was shocked. That was why I had so many memories. I remembered seeing Josiah’s face in the darkness. I remembered hearing a voice. I remembered his voice. “I remember things, Josiah. It’s just discombobulated.”

  “Close your eyes and try to remember,” Josiah said softly. “It’s in your memory bank. You and the wolf are one and the same.”

  I smiled at Josiah and decided I didn’t have anything to lose. I closed my eyes. “Okay, tell me something we did.”

  “I was asking you questions,” Josiah answered. “I asked you to raise your right paw for ‘no,’ and your left paw for ‘yes.’”

  I thought hard, but that wasn’t helping me to remember.

  “I asked you if I had beaten you in our mixed martial arts match.”

  I squeezed my eyes tightly. I was trying to remember and in the darkness, Josiah’s grinning face rose up. He was speaking to me, and what he said sounded like a Charlie Brown grownup, but somehow, I understood what he was saying.

  “I answered no?” I said, feeling a bit uncertain.

  “Yes, you did. Do you remember that?” Josiah asked eagerly.

  I smiled. “Maybe.” I closed my eyes again and concentrated. Then I remembered Josiah’s voice asking me separate questions. I couldn’t make out what the questions were, but I knew he needed an answer. “You asked me about five or six questions?”

  “Yes,” Josiah nodded eagerly. “Tommy, that’s good. Do you remember what I asked you?”

  I closed my eyes and focused on my memory of the night before. I tried to make out the specific moment Josiah was referring to. “I was calm,” I said.

  “Yes, you were.”

  “I felt secure with you.” My memory was becoming clearer.

  “Okay. Keep going, Tom. Concentrate.”

  I suddenly opened my eyes. “You asked me if I... if we... if you and I were best friends.”

  “Yes, Tommy!” Josiah was overjoyed.

  “I answered yes!”

  Josiah looked like he was going to become unglued. “Now, what was the question that bothered you the most?”

  I thought as hard as I could. Then I remembered the question as clear as day. “You asked me if I had been rejected by the Carni and that angered me!”

  “Yes, it did!”

  “I remember, Josiah. I remember all of it!” Josiah had broken through. How was it possible? The guy had been a vampire for just over a month. There must be some truth to this Chosen One hullabaloo. Josiah and I jumped up and down on my bed like a couple of sorority girls, laughing and hooting.

  “It’s working, Tommy!” Josiah cried out.

  I hopped off of my bed and landed on the wood floor, shaking the entire house. “This is amazing, Josiah. I actually have specific memories about last night. That has never happened before.” I looked at myself in the mirror over my dresser and began flexing. I was really feeling it. Must be the full-moon juice. “What’s next?” I asked.

  “We’re not having a pose-off, if that’s what you’re insinuating.” Josiah laughed.

  “Be thankful, Josiah. You want none of this.” I looked down at my chiseled body. I had a lot more muscle mass than Josiah. That just meant there was more of me to love.

  “You’re exactly right, Tommy. I don’t want any of that,” he laughed, referring to my body. Josiah switched gears again and became serious. “Tonight, I am going in the cage with you. I’m going to try touching.”

  “Touching?” I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. “Just keep your hands above the waist.”

  “Very funny,” Josiah smirked. “We will go through the details about an hour before you turn into a werewolf again. That seemed to work last night. We need to go with what’s working. There isn’t exactly a Taming a Werewolf for Dummies book out there.”

  Josiah was right. This was unbelievable. “What we’re doing, Josiah, is pretty fucking groundbreaking.”

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. You should get more rest.” With that, Josiah left my room.

  Night two was going to be interesting.

  Chapter Nine

  After Josiah left my room, I just stared at the ceiling until it was time for me to go downstairs and cage my ass back in my safe room. Josiah came in after about ten minutes of me organizing the chains.

  “Okay, Tommy, I’m going to enter the cage at some point tonight.”

  I nearly fainted backward into the wall. “You’re what?”

  “I’m going to touch your face. I told you I was going to touch your wolf body. You will need to submit to me first verbally, then physically.

  I rolled my eyes at my friend. “Just keep it G-rated.”

  Josiah smiled. “All right, no more jokes. Time to get serious.”

  “Yes, sir!” I gave Josiah a military salute. “Let’s do this, Josiah. I’m ready.”

  Josiah started to once again give me verbal commands like he had the day before. I had to admit, I was more eager to listen and do more of what Josiah asked of me than the day before.

  When Josiah finished going through the verbal commands, he said, “Let’s move on to the tactile. I am coming into the cage. Do not attack! Keep your head down!” Josiah knew I wasn’t going to attack him while I was in my human form, but I knew he was paving my sense memory for tonight.

  I nodded at Josiah to enter the cage. Josiah did just so. He took his right hand and put it on top of my head. “Keep your head down!” He barked at me. Josiah then gently touched the top of my head. When I obeyed, he gave me some beef jerky. “Head up!” he said.

  I lifted my head and Josiah fed me a treat as if I was a dog. I was so not digging this part.

  “Eat!” he said.

  I took my time and thought about the bigger picture. The goal was that at the end of this experiment, I was going to be able to control my inner wolf and bring him out as needed. I bit into the bee
f jerky reluctantly. Teriyaki, yum.

  “Good boy,” Josiah said. “Eyes down.” I obeyed and Josiah petted me. He did this for about ten minutes and then he left the cage, telling me I had done a good job.

  We both grinned and I was sure hoping Josiah knew what he was doing.

  “You have a few more minutes,” Josiah said.

  I made sure my chains were on extra tight. If Josiah was going to take this up a notch, then he needed to be as safe as possible from me. Soon, I began to itch and that was the first sign of my turning. I paced back and forth until I had no more memory.

  I had turned into the wolf.

  I shockingly remembered my actions. I wasn’t in control of them, but I was keenly aware of what my werewolf body was doing. I once again remembered howling into the night over my heartache over Maya. But for the first time, I remembered lying down and going to sleep in my werewolf form.

  I could feel Josiah’s eyes on me and I felt comforted.

  ***

  It was almost as if I were having an out-of-body experience. Every choice I’d made was instinctual. There wasn’t much thought behind wanting to be released from the chains encircling me. I was growling and yanking at the chains. Then I heard a man yell out my name. He called out, “Tommy!”

  And I knew then to stop. This voice was familiar and I knew it was coming from a kind person.

  Then that person yelled, “Sit, boy!” I wanted to trust the man, but I could not see him. My instincts told me to trust him. “Sit!” the man commanded. And I sat down on my werewolf ass.

  I looked at the door and a young man entered the room. I knew I recognized him. I had seen him many times before. But this time, in this circumstance, it was different somehow. The man walked over to me and gave me a treat. I knew I could trust him. I knew he was my friend. I ate the beef jerky after sniffing it. It was delicious.

  Then the familiar-faced, kind man began to ask me questions.

  “Tommy, if you trust me, speak!” the man called out.

  I barked, signifying yes.

  “Tommy,” the man said. “Will you attack me if I come in the cage? Raise your right paw for ‘no,’ and your left paw for ‘yes.’”

  I thought the man was asking me if I would attack him. I looked at the man and concentrated on his words. He wanted me to raise my right paw if I promised not to attack him. Which paw was my right paw? I slowly raised them both until I figured out which paw he was looking for by his excited reaction.

  “Do you promise, Tommy? Do you promise on the love you have for my sister that you will not harm me in any way if I enter the cage?”

  His sister? Who was this man? I looked at him and stared intently until I could see a woman in his eyes. His sister was my one true love, Maya Reign.

  I raised what was apparently my left paw. This man was her brother. This was Josiah. I knew him. I jumped up excitedly and started panting.

  “Tommy, would you like for me to come and see you inside the cage?” Josiah asked.

  I raised my left paw for ‘yes.’

  Josiah looked at me through the cage. His blue eyes were piercing. He opened the cage door and stood on the other side of the cage from me. I could feel both love and fear coming from him. I didn’t want him to be afraid of me so I lay on my back, exposing my stomach.

  “Sit! Tommy!” On his command, I popped up and was in the sitting position. “Tommy,” he said. “May I approach you?”

  Now this made me incredibly excited. I had an overwhelming desire to have this man pet me.

  “Tommy, I am going to walk up to you and I’m going to pet your head.” I guess we were both on the same page with the petting.

  Josiah slowly walked over to me and petted my head. The more he trusted I wasn’t going to bite his head off, the lower he knelt to the ground. I enjoyed the feeling of being petted. Josiah decided to take this time to examine my face. I allowed him to do it without even a snarl.

  Then some of that instinctual wolf stuff kicked in. I had an overwhelming desire to lick Josiah’s face. I tried to resist, but the urge was too much. I licked Josiah face clean.

  “Tommy,” he said. “Are you aware that I’m Josiah?”

  I looked at him and smiled as much a wolf could do.

  “I’m Josiah,” he repeated. “Do you know me?”

  I guessed I was going to have to lick him again. I licked his face while Josiah laughed and laughed.

  “Are you hungry, boy?” Josiah left the cage and returned with two huge steaks.

  Josiah and I roughhoused in the cage until I wore myself out and took a snooze.

  I opened my eyes and realized that I had already turned back into my human form. Josiah was staring at me and the eager look on his face told me that he was dying to know what I remembered of the night before.

  I was soaked from head to toe in my own sweat, but I managed to say, “Josiah, I remember everything.”

  Chapter Ten

  Josiah seemed extra beat this morning, so I told him to go get some sleep up in his room.

  I went upstairs and showered. As the hot water poured down over my head, face and chest, I found myself deep in thought about the night before. I had done something no werewolf I knew of had ever done before. Recalled things I had done while in my werewolf form. I took an extra-long shower and made sure I was completely cleansed from the night before. I often did that in between the days of my turning. It gave me a sense of renewal.

  Last night, I had achieved something amazing. I was aware of who I was while in my werewolf form. That was the first level. The second level would be being able to control myself completely in my werewolf form. The final level would be the ability to transition at will between man and beast. My excitement was overwhelming. I needed to talk to Josiah. I walked downstairs and went through the kitchen to reach Josiah’s room.

  I leaned my head slowly in the doorway. You never wanted to surprise a male friend when sleeping is involved.

  “Josiah,” I said softly from the door. Josiah was sleeping on a long brown couch.

  He opened his eyes and looked up at me. “Hey, what’s up?”

  “Want to talk about last night?” I asked him, hoping he wasn’t too sleepy.

  “Definitely, Tom.” He sat up on the couch and looked as white as a ghost.

  “Damn, Josiah, you’re paler than I have ever seen you.”

  “Not seeing sunlight in six weeks can do that to a person.” He smiled.

  “So, what do you think?” I just came out and asked him.

  “I have a lot of thoughts. I’m just not sure if any of them are valid.”

  “Valid or not, let me hear them.” He had started me on this journey, so he better have an end game.

  We walked into the kitchen and sat across from each other at the table.

  “It’s like this,” Josiah said. “How many immortal species do you know of? I mean, is it only Mani and Carni?”

  “There are rumors of other species,” I said, “But the only ones I know of for sure are the Mani and the Carni.”

  “Okay, let’s assume we are the only ones. We are both immortal, right? So whatever DNA—or whatever it is that’s inside us—that keeps us from dying of old age is similar to one another. It has to be.”

  “Okay.” I was intrigued.

  “What if the Mani is just a more evolved version of the species?”

  “Like you’re more intelligent than us?”

  “Not necessarily more intelligent. It’s more like the Mani just know themselves better because they have been around so damn long.” Josiah paused and then said, “It’s like this, the Internet wasn’t invented in a day. First, there was electricity—then telephones—then computers—then the World Wide Web! What if the Mani are in the Internet stage of their evolution and the Carni are still at the Franklin kite-in-the-sky electricity stage? Benjamin Franklin was one of the most brilliant men who ever lived. He would crap his pants if he knew what we could do with electricity now.”

 
I nodded in understanding.

  “What if the Carni haven’t figured out how to transition at will, the way Mani can? What if the Carni have always had the ability, but they have just been slaves to the full moon? What if they could resist the full moon and turn into a werewolf whenever they felt like it in the way Mani can? What if you could control it by transitioning back into Carni form when it’s a full moon and transition back to a werewolf during the day?!”

  “Wow, that would be amazing.”

  “We have broken tremendous ground in only 48 hours,” Josiah said. “I took your chains off and left the door open and you just slept peacefully.”

  “I know. I was calm. I remember feeling safe, like I was home.”

  “That is because of our bond.” Josiah paused. “I have a question for you.”

  “Okay.” I wasn’t sure where this was going.

  “You remembered everything from last night, right?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “You’re aware that you were licking me like I was a Creamsicle.”

  “Yeah, about that, all I can tell you is that it’s instinctive. I can’t high-five you or even give you a bro hug. When I’m in that state, licking seems perfectly okay. Don’t judge me.”

  “As long as you only do the licking as a werewolf, we’re cool.” Josiah laughed.

  “Don’t flatter yourself, pretty boy.” Josiah hated to be called ‘pretty boy.’ So he knew he had struck a chord. “Are we done talking about that?”

  “Yeah, we’re done, sloppy kisser.”

  I shot him a look.

  “Okay, okay,” Josiah said, raising his hands in defeat. “Now, I’m done.”

  “Josiah, there is one more night of the full moon left. Do you think we can accomplish what we need to in only one more night?”

  “I hope so.”

  My initial excitement had simmered down and I was growing sleepy. I told Josiah I needed to catch some z’s and went upstairs to take a four-hour power nap.

  Chapter Eleven

  I crawled into bed and tried to get some sleep. But I was awakened by my cell phone ringing just as a dream was getting good.

  “Hello,” I mumbled into the phone.