by H. T. Night
I stepped toward him and something snapped in my head. I don’t even quite remember doing it, but I was highly aware it happened. I cocked my right fist back and I threw a ferocious uppercut and landed it directly underneath his chin and completely flattened him out. I broke the rule and I knew it. I didn’t care that I had punched him above the neck.
“What the fuck was that, Josiah?” Yari yelled as she came running down the stairs to Tommy’s aid.
I walked over to Tommy and his eyes were rolled back. I slapped him on the cheek to bring him around. “Tommy, you okay?”
Tommy’s eyes focused and he looked at me and said, “You hit my face.”
“I know. Now we’re even.” I turned around and walked outside the house and sat on the porch. It was dark now and I took a giant breath. I wasn’t proud of myself, but I felt it needed to be done. I looked up into the starlit sky and I transitioned into the eagle and flew upwards. I flew into the sky at a wicked speed and I nearly rammed into another bird. As I swished past it, I realized it was a red hawk. She was one of our own.
I turned my head around, to make sure the hawk was okay. I kept going once I realized that the bird was fine. I continued to blaze across the sky. Then I heard a squawk behind me. I turned around to see what it was. The bird that I nearly hit was now following me. One might even say chasing me.
I glided up higher in the air and the bird continued to follow behind. She was not letting up. The bird was definitely trying to get my attention. I allowed the red hawk to catch up with me, and as she did, I saw the hawk’s eyes and knew who it was. It was Lena!
Chapter Seventeen
My stomach was in knots and I didn’t quite know what to do.
I looked at the gorgeous bird and decided to fly downward and land on the ground to see what she wanted. I landed on the side of a dirt road near the 15 freeway. Lena landed next to me and transitioned immediately. She was gorgeous. She was wearing a white tank top with white Capri pants. She looked amazing in white. I looked across the street and noticed that there was a park with a playground at the front of it. I sighed and then transitioned to my Mani form.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yes, I’m okay,” Lena answered quietly. I could tell she was becoming emotional. I looked in her eyes, and they were fiery red. She had obviously been crying all day.
“You don’t look okay,” I said.
Lena stared at me. There was so much pain behind her stare.
“What’s wrong Lena?” I asked again.
“I miss you, Josiah. I miss you a lot.”
That was exactly what I needed to hear. It was as if a giant weight had just been lifted off of me. “Really?” I asked.
“I wanted to come back so many times, but I was afraid of what you thought of me.”
“Why did you leave, Lena?”
“What was I to do?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t know what to think anymore.” I was choked up. “I hadn’t seen you in weeks.”
“I couldn’t look you in the eye. You were so hurt, and I thought I was doing the right thing by giving you your space. I didn’t want to come between you and Tommy.”
“Lena, the last thing I expected when I came back from Romania was to be shoved into the middle of a love triangle.”
“I know. It was so unfair to you. This whole thing got complicated fast.”
“Is it really that complicated?”
“You don’t think so?”
“It doesn’t have to be. It only is if you truly love Tommy.”
Lena was quiet.
“Do you love Tommy?” I asked.
“I don’t know, Josiah.”
This was hard to hear and I wasn’t sure why she came for me if she still thought she was in love with Tommy.
“Then why are you here?”
Lena looked at me and tears rolled down her face. “Because I know that I love you.”
“You do?”
“Yes. I love you so much, Josiah.”
I looked across the street and began walking over to the playground.
“Where are you going?”
“I want to swing,” I said, as I continued to walk over to the sandy playground. There was a swing set next to some monkey bars. The swing set had three separate swings attached to it. I sat on the one in the middle and began swinging.
Lena came over and sat on the swing to the right of me and started swinging herself. We sat there and swung for a couple of minutes and then I stopped. “So what do you want?” I asked.
“Josiah, do you love me?”
I didn’t want to answer that question. It was too painful to say out loud. I looked over at Lena and she waited me to answer.
“You can’t answer that question, Josiah? It’s that hard of a question?”
“No, it’s not a hard question to answer. It’s a hard question to live inside.”
Lena jumped up off the swing set and stood right in front of me. “Do you love me?”
“Yes, I do,” I said. “I love you, and only you.”
“Why do you love me?”
“Why?”
“Yes, why?”
“What is there not to love? Sometimes in life, you are moving along and love sneaks up on you. You never expected it to happen, so you fall deeper. It’s more intense because you weren’t looking for it. It was as if you were given a gift out of nowhere. One day, Lena, you just magically appeared in front of me. And I fell for you hard.”
“What do you want to do? You asked me what I want. I’m asking you what you want.”
“I don’t know. You say you love me, yet in the same breath, you say you’re not sure how you feel about Tommy. How is that supposed to make me feel?”
“That’s the thing, Josiah. What I feel for Tommy has nothing to do with you. It’s a whole separate feeling and an entirely different situation. So, I can’t control how that makes you feel, I can only be honest about what I’m feeling.”
I stared at Lena and just felt lost about the whole situation. “Why did you come back?”
“I came back for you.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, I flew over the house and I heard you and Tommy fighting. I peeked through one of the trap doors and I saw you punch him in the face and leave the house. I went after you and then you nearly flew me over.”
“No, you nearly flew me over.”
“Either way, we almost had a collision.”
I looked at Lena and said, “Well, I’m here, right now.”
“I know you are.” Lena reached out her hand to me. I took her hand and sat her on my lap while I was still on the swing. I wrapped my arms around her and held her as close as I ever had before. As she sat on my lap, I felt a release come over my body. I can’t explain why I feel the way I feel toward her. But having her here with me, at this moment, was the only thing I cared about. It was the only thing I truly wanted. In Lena, I was home. In her, I was safe.
“I don’t want this to go away,” I whispered in her ear.
“It doesn’t have to.”
She turned her head and faced me. I leaned in and kissed her tenderly. It was a soft, gentle kiss that seemed to last forever.
“All I want is this,” I said. “This right here. Everything else is trivial. Everything else doesn’t matter.”
“You have this, Josiah. But you also have a higher calling.”
“Tonight, all I want is you.”
“Well, you have me.” Lena sat on my lap on the swing and we kissed and held each other for about an hour.
“So, what now?” I asked.
“Follow me.” Lena slid off my lap and stood up.
“Follow you?”
“Yes.” Lena transitioned into the red hawk and flew up into the sky. I transitioned and flew after her. She was heading toward San Bernardino. It appeared she was going to my house that was by the college. She circled above my home and landed in my front yard.
I flew down and joined her and we both
transitioned. I turned over the plant and grabbed the key and we entered my front door. “I don’t know if we will be safe here,” I said. “I’m pretty sure everyone knows I live here by now.”
“For once, Josiah, shut your mouth.” Lena pushed me up against my hallway wall and we knocked down a bunch of picture frames. She kissed me hard and passionately. She kissed me in a way she never had before. I kissed her back with all I had. I had waited for this moment for two months. I was going to give her all my passion. She began taking my shirt off and my testosterone was in overdrive. I decided not to think and to just experience whatever she was giving me.
She shoved me into my room and pushed me on my bed. Our hands were caressing each other’s bodies as we kissed each other, all over my bed. I was on top of her, kissing her neck.
Lena stopped and looked at me. “I want you, Josiah.”
I looked down at Lena and I wasn’t exactly sure what she was saying. “Are you sure?” I asked.
“I want to experience all that you are. I want you to be my first.”
“Are you certain?”
“I’ve never been more certain about anything in my entire life.”
I kissed Lena and now took control of the situation. I laid her down and kissed her entire body I started with her neck, and made my way down to her breasts, I slipped her dress off and she laid on my bed in just her bra and panties. I kissed her stomach, her ribs, and her belly button. I made my way down lower to her inner thighs. I was experiencing every inch of her. I wanted every part of her body to feel loved.
Lena caressed me back and loved me thoroughly. This was a moment unlike any other. This was an experience for the ages. We kissed and held each other for hours and then at the perfect time we made love. It was passionate and tender. It was everything I imagined it to be. When we were done, we rested on the bed naked. I had never shown a woman more love in my life. I was now completely in love with her. And I was scared to death.
We both slept through the night, which wasn’t ideal for a couple of vampires. I woke up around six in the morning and rolled over. “Good morning.”
Lena opened her eyes, looked at me and then rolled back over.
“Excuse me, young lady?”
“Yes?”
“Today is a wonderful day.”
“I guess it is.”
“I mean, today is the kind of day that most men remember forever.”
“Wow, having sex with me was that good?” Lena giggled.
I smiled at Lena and said, “No.”
“Sex wasn’t good?”
“No, sex was great. Experiencing you last night was amazing.”
Lena smiled and said, “Good, but first things first. I need you to go to the kitchen.”
“Huh?”
“Just shut up and go to the kitchen.”
I jumped up, stretched, put on a pair of basketball shorts, and went to the kitchen. My mouth dropped when I saw what Lena had done. She had made me a cake in the middle of the night.
“When did you get up?”
“How did you know I woke up and made it?”
I looked at all the pots and pans in the sink. The kitchen was a complete mess. “It’s a hunch,” I said, laughing. I looked down at the cake. It was a chocolate cake done in a circle that read. ‘My Josiah’s 21st birthday.’
“Your Josiah, huh? Am I back to being yours?”
“You were always mine.”
“That’s good, because you’re coming to my party at the mansion tonight.”
Lena did not look like she was into that idea.
“You have to go, Lena. Every Mani from here to Seattle will be there.”
“I know all about your party. Yari texted me about it days ago, but I don’t know if I should go.”
“Why? Because Tommy is going to be there?”
“It might be weird.”
“It shouldn’t. I think Tommy liking you was more about me than it was about you.”
Whoops!
Lena did not like that comment. She didn’t like the thought of being used. “I don’t want to argue about it with you because it would only hurt your feelings, but I know Tommy was in it for more than to just best you.”
“Well, Tommy is going to be there. Tommy is always going to be there. That can’t be the reason why you do or don’t do things.”
“I guess you’re right. Is Tommy okay that he’ll be the only Carni?”
“Tommy is practically a Mani himself,” I said. “The Carni would crucify him if he tried to go back.”
“I tell you what,” Lena said, “you go back and help Yari get the party started and I’ll see you tonight.”
“You promise you’re coming?”
“Of course I am!”
“All right.” I kissed Lena on the lips. “So, we’re good, right? You’re not going to give me a pen or anything?”
“A pen?”
“You know, so that later I have to come back here and blast “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel, at the window with a ghetto blaster.”
“You’re a dork, Josiah.”
“You know, that movie is a classic.”
“I’ll see you tonight.”
I began quoting John Cusack. “‘I gave her my heart, and she gave me a pen.’”
“Okay, Say Anything. Leave, and I’ll see you tonight.”
Chapter Eighteen
It was now daytime, so I had transitioned to the eagle on my way back to the mansion.
It was my 21st birthday and I was finally street legal, I thought, jokingly, as I flew through the Inland Empire sky. I arrived in Victorville in minutes and headed toward the house. I flew into a trap door that led to my room and landed on my bed.
Damn, I had become a stud at this landing thing.
I was feeling bad about the day before and I decided to speak to Tommy and make sure he was cool after being sucker-punched by me. It wasn’t a sucker-punch because I stood right in front of him, but we had established rules, and I had broken them.
I knocked on Tommy’s door.
“Yari, go away!” he yelled. “Seriously, I’m tired of you fucking with me!”
“It’s not Yari,” I yelled through the door. “It’s Josiah.”
Tommy didn’t answer right away. After about two minutes, he finally opened the door.
“You’re not going to punch me again, are you?”
“Of course not.”
Tommy opened the door completely and let me into his room. I noticed his chin was split open and he had a half-ass bandage on it. It almost appeared that he was trying to show off his battle wound, even one that was the result of a Scrabble game.
“Sorry about the chin,” I said, as sincerely as I could.
“No worries, Josiah. I deserved it.”
“You didn’t deserve it. I had already forgiven you.”
“Obviously you didn’t,” Tommy said. “Your eyes went red and you wanted to kill me.”
“My eyes didn’t go red.”
“I saw it in your eyes, Jo. You forget I’ve trained you since you were fifteen. I know when you get that look in your eye. That’s when all bets are off and you’re just going pound someone’s ass. Instead of it being someone’s ass, it was my face.”
“I always said you had the face of a horse’s ass,” I said, jokingly, and Tommy smiled. “How was Yari screwing with you?”
“Oh, she is pissed off because I didn’t want to go to the store and pick up some items for the party. I told her I’d go in an hour but that wasn’t good enough for her. So she has been blowing into a dog whistle all morning.”
“A dog whistle? That’s a crack up.”
“Oh, no, it’s not, Josiah. Those things should be illegal.”
“I know what I’m buying the next time I’m at the pet store.”
“You would.” Tommy looked at me and seemed happy that he and I were being cool. “Hey, I have something for you.”
“You didn’t have to do that, Tommy.”
“Shut up. It’s your birthday. Of course, I bought you something. I’m not going to be the douchebag that doesn’t give you a present.”
“Well, it’s good to know your heart was in the right place. Not wanting to be the douchebag and all.”
Tommy walked over to the closet. “I know this isn’t going to compare to the island that Hector plans on getting you, but it was in my budget.”
“Seriously, an island?” I asked, laughing.
“Maybe not that extravagant, but he did mention something about seventy virgins.”
“It pays to know royalty, what can I say?”
“Come here.” Tommy opened his closet door and pulled out one of his nicest leather jackets I had ever seen. It had a military collar and was gorgeous.
“Is this for me?” I asked.
“Of course it is.”
I picked up the jacket and put it on. I looked in Tommy’s long mirror and damn, I looked fucking good. “Wow, Tom. Thanks.”
“No problem. Hey, check this out.” Tommy went back to his closet and pulled out the same identical jacket.
“You bought us matching jackets?” I asked slowly.
“Sure did.”
“I’m not sure what to make of that,” I said, laughing.
“You don’t like it? I think we look good.”
“Well, I think BFF bracelets would be less gay.”
“Oh, shut up, Josiah. The jackets are badass.” Tommy put on his jacket and looked in the mirror with me.
“All we need now is a big T-birds emblem on the back of them and then we can go out and meet up with the pink ladies.”
“Very funny.”
“Seriously, we should go down and drag race later,” I said, laughing.
“All right, Josiah, if you don’t like it, I can take it back.”
“Listen, Kenickie, it’s awesome. I love it.” Tommy was a good guy and I was just giving him a hard time.
“Hey, you’re Kenickie, Blondie. I’m Zuko,” Tommy stated.
“I am so more Zuko than you are,” I said, pointing out the obvious.