by H. T. Night
“Tommy, we’re coming back,” Yari said. “How’s your little puppy-training session going with Josiah? Has he taught you to fetch yet?”
“Very funny.”
“We are coming back tomorrow. I think we need a united front now that we have Mani and Carni after all of us.”
“I see no problem with you guys returning at noon. Just don’t be noisy. I’ll probably be wiped out and asleep.”
“You’re not wiped out and asleep right now?” Yari questioned. “It’s nearly noon.”
“Exactly.”
Yari paused. “So, is Josiah’s little experiment working?”
“We will talk about it later,” I grunted, wanting to end this conversation and go back to sleep.
“Is he in the room with you? You don’t want to hurt his feelings?”
“No, Yari. I just don’t want to jinx it. We have one more night and it has been going insanely well.”
“‘Insanely well’ even,” she replied sarcastically. “Wow. I guess I better shut up.”
“You and I both know that will never happen.”
“I’ll hang up then.”
“Goodbye, Yari,” I said, then completely turned off my phone. I’m dead. Don’t need anyone calling me.
I couldn’t fall back to sleep, so I decided to go downstairs and see what Josiah was up to.
I walked into the den and he said something about the movie he was watching. I wasn’t paying attention. “Yari called me,” I said. “She said they will come back tomorrow.”
“She called you?” Josiah asked, with a glimmer of jealousy in his eye. “Are you guys like best friends now?”
“Relax, Josiah; you can’t put a claim on every woman in this house.”
“I’m not jealous, Tom.”
“Then what are you?”
“I don’t know what I am,” Josiah said, looking confused.
“Look, I know you two slept together. I know she followed you around for two years, but it’s obvious that you have feelings for Lena.” I then proceeded to tell Josiah that it was more than obvious he had true feelings for Lena. Which led to us talking about the night I died.
I felt the need to tell Josiah, for the first time, specifically what happened that night.
“After I lost to Atticai and Goliath had beaten me further and left me for dead, I was lying there in a pool of my own blood. I had a weird inner peace come over me. I figured I was done and I was about to go to the ever after. Then something extraordinary happened. I saw your sister. She was reaching out to me. I was dying and knew the end was near. I knew I was moments away from being with her again.” I was becoming too emotional and having trouble speaking. “I could see her face, Josiah. I could see your sister’s face. She was reaching out her hand to me. She was there to take me with her. It was the most wonderful feeling I ever felt. I reached out my hand and she took it.”
“She took your hand?” Josiah asked, stunned.
“I thought it was hers,” I said. “But it wasn’t. It was Yari’s. Yari took my hand and wiped the blood from my eyes. I reached out for your sister, but Yari was the one who was actually there. Jo, Yari saved my life. I had been left for dead. She risked everything to get me out of there. It was like your sister acted through her. Her touch was Yari’s touch.”
“Wow.”
“I still can’t believe that seven-foot beanpole kicked my ass.” I shook my head in disgust.
“Atticai did look like a beanpole, but that was where it ended. He was the strongest man I have ever fought.”
“Stronger than Krull?” I asked.
Then Josiah proceeded to give accolades to Atticai and I wasn’t going to listen to any of it. I hated the motherfucker and nothing would change that.
Josiah and I decided to play some Scrabble to kill some time. We had one of our epic matches. I was ahead 317 to 312 and we both completely lost track of time. The sun was going down and we needed to stop this game pronto. Josiah was in the middle of putting a word down and I just stood up, went into the cage room and lay on my back.
This time, something different came over me when I started turning. For the first time ever, I was able to choose when the turning was going to happen. It was a full moon now and I wondered if I actually had to turn. I was a creature of habit. I lay in the cage until Josiah became wise to the fact I could no longer play Scrabble because I now had paws. Although I felt I could control my movement, I felt drawn to the window. Staring out at the moon made me long for Maya. I howled out into the night for her. Josiah walked into the cage and just knelt beside me, giving comfort. I rested my head on my best friend’s shoulder and whined. My heart ached for my one true love. Josiah knew it because his heart ached for his entire family.
When I was done, I decided to test the boundaries of my werewolf form. I walked out of the cage and went upstairs and to my bedroom. I showed Josiah where I had kept some pictures underneath my bed. Josiah pulled them out and sat on my bed. I jumped up next to him and he went through each picture. Tears streamed down Josiah’s face.
“I miss them, Tommy,” Josiah said, “I miss them a lot. That day is a blur to me. When you called and told me they were in the hospital—I went into shock. I convinced myself they were dead, even before I made it to the hospital. That was the only way I could deal with it. It’s morbid, but it’s what I had to do. I don’t know how you dealt with it, Tom. You were in the room when my sister died.”
I howled my pain into the night. Josiah and I lay on my bed, mourning his family for the rest of the night.
Chapter Twelve
I woke up still in my werewolf form. Unfortunately, I hadn’t slept through my turning. Josiah wasn’t lying beside me. I was surprised at that. I jumped off the bed and looked around the cabin. I couldn’t find him. This was very odd. He wouldn’t leave me all alone, would he? Not without making sure I was locked in my cage.
I could smell Josiah everywhere in the cabin, but he was nowhere to be found. Did he go running in the middle of the night? I used my jaw to clamp onto the door handle, twisted my head and opened the front door. When I was on the other side, I kicked the door shut. Then, I followed Josiah’s scent through the grass and about five hundred feet up the road. I didn’t smell anything else. No vampires, no werewolves. Josiah wasn’t in any trouble unless he had been abducted by a UFO.
Something about being outside in the night air gave me an instant desire to piss. I decided I didn’t want to do it on the side of the road, so I trotted about two hundred yards into the woods. I sniffed around for the perfect spot and found it in the form of a big green bush. Oh, yeah, it had my name on it.
I let it go in a spring of glee. Midstream, I looked over my shoulder and who did I see? Josiah staring at me in a desperate, creepy way. I looked at him in a way I hoped he understood: turn your eyes away, weirdo.
“Let’s get back, Tommy,” Josiah barked at me. He really did need to cool it with the whole master-and-canine routine. I snorted my derision and followed his lead.
When we arrived back at the cabin, Josiah was acting odd. It didn’t seem like he knew what to do next. And the first words out of his mouth confirmed my observation.
“So, what now?”
I gave the best ‘what the hell’ look a werewolf could make.
“I know, Tommy. I am stumped.”
Suddenly, I heard howls coming up the mountain. They were faint but growing louder. I ran to the door and listened.
“What should we do?” Josiah whispered. He was not any help at the moment and the guy seriously needed to learn how to whisper. That poor excuse for a whisper sounded louder than most yells.
“I don’t know,” I thought.
“Did I just hear Tommy’s voice, or did I imagine that?” I heard Josiah’s thoughts. Holy shit.
“You didn’t imagine anything, Josiah,” I thought back to him.
“We can read each other’s minds?” Josiah asked through his thoughts.
“This is fucking huge,” h
e whispered out loud with the same frequency as before. “But we seriously need to talk about this later.”
“Josiah, talk to me in your head,” I thought. “They will hear you. Werewolves have keen hearing.”
“How do they know we’re here?” Josiah sent to me in a thought.
“This place isn’t exactly a secret. I sorta marked my territory right outside.”
“We have two choices. We can run, or we can fight.” Josiah was beginning to take control of the situation now and it seemed to fit him.
“I choose to fight,” I responded to him in my head, with enthusiasm.
“We are horribly outnumbered,” Josiah pressed. “If we choose to fight, we’ll need to isolate them.”
“We cannot allow them to attack us as a pack.”
“We need to split up.”
By using a series of walkie-talkie methods in our heads, Josiah and I were able to take out a group of werewolves and had them tuck tail and run away. Unfortunately, in the scuffle, Josiah and I were both forced to kill one werewolf each to save our own lives. The only werewolf left was Goliath and from what I could tell, he had some cognitive thought. That would be the only way he could lead a pack of wolves directly to my cabin. Josiah was doing his best to keep Goliath at bay, but it looked like we were going to have to make a change of course.
One thing was very apparent to me as the sun came up and I lay in my boxers soaked on top of my cabin roof: Now that I have cognitive thought as a wolf, my MMA training makes me the most lethal werewolf in the world.
Josiah thought we should exit Dodge immediately. He didn’t trust any of Goliath’s antics so he transitioned into his white eagle form and he carried me in his talons all the way down to his house. It was a ten-minute trip and Josiah did a good job of making sure no one saw us.
He dropped me off in the front yard and then transitioned back to his vampire form.
“Well, Tommy. How do you feel?”
“I feel better than one would think,” I replied to him in my mind.
“Are you answering me in your mind?” Josiah asked.
“Yeah,” I said aloud.
“I can’t hear you anymore. Can you hear my thoughts?”
I concentrated and heard nothing. “No,” I said.
“The sun is coming out and my skin is beginning to sting,” Josiah said.
With that, the two of us entered our house in San Bernardino.
Chapter Thirteen
Josiah opened the front door of the house and we walked in. It was dark inside, but I could smell and see Wyatt and Hector asleep on the living room floor.
We were still feeling pumped from our fight, and then the flight over here made us hungry. Josiah and I decided to tackle the kitchen and make some breakfast. We both burned a lot of energy fighting with Goliath and his goons. I had to admit, it was Josiah’s fight tonight. He did most of the work. He was stepping up in more ways than one. The growth I had tonight in my werewolf form was phenomenal.
Josiah made omelets and we bantered in the kitchen like old times. He told me about these dreams where he is being led to go to Draculas castle. He felt he had to go to Europe on some weird training expedition to Dracula’s castle and meet up with a blue gnome. The gnome was going to train Josiah like Yoda had trained Luke Skywalker or something like that. Life just couldn’t be any weirder.
At some point, we woke Yari and let her know that I could somewhat control my wolf and that Josiah and I could communicate mentally while I was in my wolf form. She scolded us for killing two of the Carni who came for us. She was afraid of the backlash. Afraid that I wouldn’t be able to return to “my kind,” especially because Goliath had been part of the attack and he was still alive. I wasn’t worried about being part of Goliath’s pack. Josiah was the only pack I needed. He was family and the only person I trusted wholeheartedly.
Yari was convinced that we weren’t safe and we all needed to relocate to her secret place in West Hollywood. She felt there would be an all-out Mani and Carni war against us. Once that woman got something in her mind, she was like a dog with a bone and refused to let go. So, everybody transitioned and flew on ahead. I was going to follow in the truck after having a nap. Once my adrenaline levels dropped, I was ready to crash. Josiah wasn’t pleased, but I couldn’t force myself to drive all the way to West Hollywood when I hadn’t slept all night. I would drive off the road get myself killed or worse, drive into someone else and kill them. So, I stayed and took a much-needed nap.
My cell phone beeped and woke me up. I picked it up and checked my text messages. There was one from an unknown number.
Meet me at the ranch and we will discuss your future among the Carni. Come alone and we might not punish your Mani boyfriend for taking a Carni life.
Yari was concerned enough to make everyone go to her secret hiding place in West Hollywood. If I had a chance to fix this, then I need to take it. Yari didn’t exactly overreact. If she was concerned, then I needed to be, too. I left my phone on the table, took a quick shower and dressed for success. I grabbed the keys off of my dresser and headed over to the ranch to talk to Goliath.
As I pulled into the ranch, I reached down to my phone to alert Goliath that I was there. That was when I realized I’d forgotten my phone on the kitchen table. Crap. I drove slowly up the dirt driveway and parked next to another truck. I looked around and saw Goliath exit the barn. He was walking directly to me. The sun was just making its descent behind him so I couldn’t make out the look on his face. I took a deep breath and opened the door.
“Hey,” I said, slamming the door to the truck. “Look, I’m sorry we killed some of your guys last night, but you attacked us, remember.”
Goliath came near enough that I could see the cat-that-ate-the-canary smile on his face. My heart skipped a beat and something bit my neck. I smacked my neck with my hand to kill the bug and everything went dark. It wasn’t a bug. It was a fucking dart.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself tied up outside in the middle of a field. I was still on the ranch. The sun had set a while ago, according to the stars in the sky. I figured a lot of time had passed. I looked around and everybody was here. Including Josiah. A bunch of vampires came here to find me, while my own kind was drugging me and tying me up.
“Well, well. About time you joined the party,” a hulking figure said. He motioned to a few others and they bore down on me. They started kicking me around like a soccer ball.
“Are we supposed to worship you? Huh?” one of the goons asked pointedly after kicking me in the back.
“You our Carni Messiah now? You rising from the dead and all?” one Carni mocked.
Lena’s scream echoed through the night and they stopped kicking me. What the hell was going on? I had led my friends into a trap. Obviously, they came looking for me when I didn’t show up at Yari’s place and they read the message on my phone from Goliath.
“You have a front row seat. We’re gonna kill your Mani chums,” one of the guys said, grabbing me under my arm. Another grabbed me by the other arm and they were dragging my beaten body towards Lena. “They came to save you. Aww, isn’t that sweet?”
I tried to take in everything all at once. Hector and Wyatt were up at the north end of the ranch, fighting off a half-dozen men each. Yari’s red hair caught my eye off to the northeast. She was facing off with a half-dozen Carni women and seemed to be enjoying herself. That woman was a handful.
It was Lena’s scream of terror that drew my attention back toward the trucks. Goliath was beating the snot out of Josiah and throwing him around like a ragdoll. I struggled with the jerks who held me back with vice-like grips. They were laughing loudly, but I still heard Josiah yell out, “Please, not like this!” Goliath picked Josiah up over his head. He gave a war cry and threw Josiah’s broken body down on the ground triumphantly.
I sobbed, “Josiah, I’m sorry!” I was an idiot for thinking I could reason with Goliath. The only thing that beast understood was his lust for blood. Th
e men dragged me closer to where Josiah and Goliath were fighting.
Lena broke free from the Carni who were holding her back. They were snickering. The sadistic fucks were getting off on this. Why would I want to be a part of a pack of animals like this?
Lena ran over to Josiah. She took his head in her hands and talked to him. I couldn’t make out what she was saying, but it didn’t look good.
God, please, I can’t lose Josiah, too. Please.
A mob of Carni surrounded Josiah and Lena. I couldn’t see or hear anything.
Goliath threw Lena to the side and focused on Josiah. Then the beast snapped his finger and one of the Carni assholes threw him a sledgehammer. Four Carni had pinned Josiah to the ground. I began howling in my human form.
Goliath held a silver stake in one hand and a sledgehammer in the other. I howled again.
“Get him to his knees,” Goliath said, referring to Josiah. “I want to see him beg. I want to see his eyes as he dies.” Goliath stood right in Josiah’s face. “See these eyes. I want them to be the last thing you see before you go ‘poof’ in the night. Hold his head tight,” he told his henchmen before turning back to Josiah. “I’m going to pound this deep through your pretty little neck.”
I was horrified and howling like a crazed dog. Then it happened. Josiah yelled, “TOMMY! SAVE ME!”
I didn’t know what to do. I focused all my mind, body and soul on turning into a werewolf. Then it happened. I melted into my werewolf form and howled at the top of my lungs.
“I’m coming, Josiah!” I sent to Josiah mentally.
I began biting and throwing any Carni I could get my claws on who was in between Josiah and me. I was the gray werewolf and these assholes were going to feel my wrath.
All the Carni who were still alive ran, except for Goliath.
“What kind of bullshit is this?” Goliath screamed. “It’s not even a fucking full moon. What the fuck, Tommy? Did they make a Mani out of you?”
I dove on top of Goliath. Goliath kicked my body off of him. I flew further than I thought I would. Goliath was insanely strong, werewolf form or not.