by H. T. Night
Lena closed her eyes and then she opened them. She exhaled and walked in the direction of...
The End
To be continued in:
Vampires vs. Werewolves
Return to the Table of Contents
VAMPIRES VS. WEREWOLVES
by
H.T. Night
Immortal Warriors #10
Vampires vs. Werewolves
Published by H.T. Night
Copyright © 2011 by H.T. Night
All rights reserved.
Dedication
To my mother and father. I love you guys.
Vampires vs. Werewolves
Chapter One
“Lena,” I said. “Let’s go. We don’t need to be a part of this.”
Lena just stared at me with zero expression on her face.
“Seriously,” I continued. “After last night, please don’t do this. Let’s get out of here. We don’t need to be a part of this.”
Lena’s eyes softened as she looked at me. I didn’t know why she wasn’t moving. What could she possibly be considering?
Atticai saw an opening and decided to take it. “Lena,” he said. “You know, deep down, who your soul mate will always be. You and I have something that is eternal. He might have been inside of your body, but all this time, I was in your head.”
What the fuck? Atticai was seriously making a play for Lena?
I looked at Lena with a look that said, ‘There is no way you’re considering leaving with that animal!’
Then the situation became even more weird.
“Lena,” Tommy said. “You don’t want to be part of any of this. Neither do I. I know you care for me. In my heart, I know that you love me. Let’s leave all of this behind us. You and I can go somewhere far from here and share a life together.”
Lena looked over at Tommy, and I could see she was having a hard time with this decision. She was surrounded by three guys, each of whom had an emotional investment in her. But I didn’t have an evil agenda and honestly, neither did Tommy. Atticai did. Oh yes, he did!
Like the showdown shootout with Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. This was Lena’s three-way standoff. She looked at us three males, from one to the other, then swiveled her head back and forth between Tommy and I and then between Atticai and me. Lena’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. She was utterly stumped.
What the hell was going on? How could she possibly even consider either one of these two other guys?
Again, Atticai made his case. “Lena, you know deep in your heart that I am your first and only true love.”
I looked at Lena and she looked at me. She was clearly confused. You have to be kidding me. “Lena,” I said. “After last night...”
Lena looked at me and then completely turned around and looked at each of us.
What the hell was she doing?
She stopped and looked at Tommy, and then she turned and looked at Atticai.
What in the world could she be considering?
She looked at me and I could see the love in her eyes.
“Lena, there is no decision here,” I said. “Let’s go.”
Lena closed her eyes and then she opened them. She exhaled and walked in the direction of Tommy.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. Lena walked in the direction of my best friend and not me. Tommy seemed as shocked as I was. Atticai could have cared less. All of this was just a game to him. He was extremely amused that she didn’t choose me. He was almost giddy with malicious glee. Tommy looked down at Lena, smiled and asked, “Are you sure?”
Lena was quiet. So, Tommy repeated his question. Finally, Lena said, “I don’t know if I’m sure, Tommy. What I do know is, I’m standing in front of you.”
Tommy nodded. “We don’t need any of this,” he said, trying to soothe her.
“I know,” she said. “But I need to know something, Tommy. Do you love me? Or is this something you’re clinging to because you’ve run out of options?”
Tommy was quiet. His face showed a large amount of empathy and compassion for Lena. I knew Tommy. I knew Tommy better than he knew himself. At this moment in time, he wasn’t sure what he was doing. He was impulsive and competitive and this was the kind of thing that was right up his alley. It spilled over with drama and intrigue and Tommy lived for that shit.
One thing I did know for sure... Tommy was as confused about Lena’s behavior as the rest of us. He looked into Lena’s eyes and then looked over her shoulder at me. I looked on as if I was witnessing a car accident where I was the victim of a hit and run. Unable to hide my devastation, my face must have shown my bewilderment and despair and I couldn’t stomach much more of this. I felt numb, yet tears burned my eyes and I couldn’t have held them back for pride, ego, or anything. I gave Tommy a look as if to say, ‘Why? Why would you do this to me?’
He looked me in the eye and said something under his breath. It was hard to hear him but I read his lips. He said, “I have nothing. You have everything.” Then he turned to Lena and did something that surprised even me. It was a selfless act from a person who, over the past month, had only demonstrated large displays of selfishness.
“You should stay,” he said, to Lena. “These are your people and this is where you should be.”
Lena looked confused, but most of all, she seemed overwhelmed by everything around her. She put it all out on the line for him. Her reputation and her friendships, but most of all, she risked me. She sighed with a small amount of relief. She knew this was a decision she might never be able to live down. And, perhaps, she wouldn’t be able to.
Tommy stared deep into her eyes and said, “Make no mistake about the fact that I love you. I might not be your destiny, but I love you.” Tommy kissed Lena’s forehead and then turned to me and the crowd behind me. With indignation and froth in his voice, he said in a large, grand manner, “I could never be one of you. But I was willing to fight for you. I would have laid down my life for any of you. Tonight, you all rejected me, not because of my character, but because of what I am. That is unforgivable to me.”
Tommy paused and then looked over at Atticai, who seemed to be enjoying the three-ring circus that he had started. “Most of you would defend this piece of crap over me in two seconds just because he drinks blood for the same reason you do. But, the reality is, he would never lift a hand to help you even if you were dying in the street. I was a fool to think that any of you, especially my dearest friend, would have my back. I was a damn fool! In the end, your loyalty is with your own, even when he’s a piece of shit like this man.”
Tommy, in an act of pure defiance, walked toward the mob. A mob that was ready to kill him without remorse. Tommy approached them anyway because he could care less. Tommy then spit in Atticai’s direction. “Atticai lied and deceived everyone”—Tommy turned and faced me—“especially you, Josiah. Yet you defend him. Why? Because he’s a vampire? A fucking vampire? Something that you didn’t even know existed a year ago.” Tommy spit again at the ground, and this time it was in my direction. I was stung.
“Tommy!” I shouted.
“No, Josiah! Loyalty means nothing to you, so why should it mean anything to me?” Tommy stared through me with disgust and intolerance. “Goodbye, brother.” Then he spit a third time for good measure. I think that one was for anyone who wanted it. He then transitioned into the great gray werewolf and ran off of Flatlands in a blaze of glory.
A couple of vampires transitioned quickly into ravens and started to go after him. I yelled, “LET HIM BE! OUR FIGHT IS NOT WITH HIM!” The transitioned Mani turned back and stood down. It was good to know they still listened to me. After all, I was their Chosen One.
Lena stepped out and watched as Tommy ran off the grounds in one last display of absolute disloyalty to me. I was embarrassed and humiliated by the entire night, but most of all, my heart had been broken to the point of numbness.
I looked at Atticai and he began to clap in my direction. First a slow clap, and
then he clapped with ferocious applause. “Excellent job, Josiah! You managed to lose your best friend and your girl in the same moment.”
I had had enough of this cruel piece of crap. “Why shouldn’t I kill you, right here and now?” I said, as viciously as I have ever spoken to a person in my life. But this wasn’t a person. This was an extremely bitter and evil man who was delighting in my pain.
“You’re welcome to try to kill me, Josiah. But I don’t see what good that will do. You have a 50 percent chance of succeeding and it still won’t erase the fact that the love of your life would rather lie with a dog than with you.”
“Atticai,” I said. “At the end of the day, nothing you say or think matters. You don’t matter to anyone. You never mattered to the Triat and, especially, you don’t matter to the cause I’m fighting for. Twice, the Triat used you to just get me further in my training as the Chosen One. So, if that is something you want to hang your hat on, by all means, go right ahead. You did a damn good job as Goshi, but that task is complete. Now, if you choose to take your place in our society, you will serve the good of the cause, not your own interests. You’re a fine fighter. You could always be the Robin to my Batman.”
That definitely got under Atticai’s skin. Atticai wanted to attack me, but he also knew it wasn’t a smart decision. His body language was resigned, acquiescing, which showed me that he was standing down.
“I see that inside of you is a man who is not willing to serve the Mani for the greater good. We can be changed from man to Mani, but we cannot change our core sense of who we are. You believe you were born to be a leader and you do not follow well, even when you know it is the right thing to do.”
I saw a glimmer of acknowledgment in Atticai’s eyes. He agreed, though he would not admit it aloud. To do so, he would have had to collapse his entire value system and crush his own monstrous ego. I knew that he never would.
I smiled at the man who used to be my friend, Goshi, and I knew that deep inside that incredibly twisted head was a good person trying to find his way back.
So I said, “I’m going to let you live, Atticai. But, mark my words, there is no you and me after tonight. This was once your cause, but it is not any longer.”
I then turned to the crowd. “If any of you want to change your allegiance and stand with Atticai, who will try to overthrow the destiny and prophecy of me, the Chosen One, this is the time to do so, but know this: If you follow Atticai against me, it begins a civil war which will divide us and weaken us as a species, as a race, and as a supernatural community. If you choose to follow me, then you will have no part with this man. He is no longer a friend to the cause.” I looked out onto the crowd, and to be completely honest, I fully expected everyone to walk over and join Atticai. Loyalty didn’t mean much of anything at this moment in time.
“Don’t be shy,” I said. “This cause is bigger than our own lives. And know this: I will not come after you if you decide to leave with Atticai, the traitor and now, the pariah. All who join him will be outcasts, following the cause of a man who pretended to be the Chosen One, even though he knew all along that he was not.” I waited and watched as twenty vampires left the mob and stood with Atticai—one of them being Rubidoux—and I wasn’t too surprised.
“You’re a good man, Josiah,” Rubidoux said, as he walked by me. “But I can’t stand behind a man who associates with Carni. I just can’t do it.”
“No hard feelings, Ruby. You’ve need to do what you feel.” Over a hundred Mani stayed on my side. We outnumbered Atticai’s group at least six to one.
I turned to my group and said, “Be ready, because our fight is near. Not today, but soon.”
I desperately needed to get the hell out of here. I felt as if I would break down at any moment. I transitioned into the great white eagle and flew up in the air. I circled the group and looked down at my precious Lena. Once again, she broke my heart. I loved her and I was a fool for doing so.
Never again.
I squawked as loud as I could and flew high up into the air.
Chapter Two
I flew off into the night sky, not having a clue about what had just transpired. The whole night was extremely overwhelming and exhausting. I didn’t know where to go or what to do.
After I was out of sight of the group, in midair, I transformed to my Mani form, my Superman-ish form of a man flying with arms in front of him. It was effortless, not like my eagle wings, which sometimes tired after long flights.
I knew that in every situation, choices weren’t black and white. At the end of the day, Lena had made her choice. She had chosen Tommy. And then, Tommy, even though he loved Lena, said he rejected her because he felt that he was not her destiny.
I was reeling from the double-whammy of emotional shocks. I needed a fresh outlook, a new venue, in order to prepare for the weeks ahead as the leader of the Mani. I decided not to go home to Victorville. As a matter of fact, I wanted to escape in a way that I had never done before. So, I kept flying. I flew north and just kept going. I flew for hours; below me, I saw Northern California, then Oregon, then Washington state. I made my way through Canada. I kept going and didn’t stop. I wanted to fly until I felt something in my core. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t feel a damn thing.
I eventually reached Alaska. An odd thing started happening ahead of me. I could see the sun peeking up on the horizon. Almost as if I was flying into a sunrise. It made no sense because it was three in the morning. Then it occurred to me that it was summer time and the farther north one traveled, the longer the sun was out. One could actually hit parts of Alaska where it’s sunlit twenty-four hours a day. That was not an ideal situation for a vampire. As a matter of fact, that would be a vampire’s nightmare.
I decided to make a literal U-turn in midair. I could have transitioned back to the eagle at that point, but I wasn’t ready to do that yet. There was something incredibly liberating when I flew in my human form. I felt less restricted. Right now, if I felt trapped in any way, I might lose my mind.
It was growing closer to 5 a.m. and I knew it wouldn’t matter what state I was flying in, the sun was coming up no matter what. I decided to transition into my eagle form just to be safe and I dropped my elevation to just above the clouds; the morning scenery was majestic with the sun peeking through. It was absolutely amazing how clouds look when flying directly above them. It almost appeared that someone might just be able to walk on top of them. It made me smile to imagine myself cloud surfing.
As I flew, I could see a snowy mountain in the distance. It was Mount Rainer. It was about the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. The snow-capped mountain looked like something one would see in a J.R.R. Tolkien film.
I decided to fly down so I could stand at the peak of the mountain and just take in my entire surroundings. I needed to rest and what better place to do so? I had been flying for about four hours straight. Yes, faster than a speeding bullet.
So, I descended down to the peak of the mountain. The closer I flew to the mighty landscape, the colder I felt underneath my feathers. Eagles were pretty resilient, but cold is cold.
I landed and stood on top of the beautiful, magnificent mountain and took in everything that the view had to offer me. It was absolutely spectacular. I had a moment of self-reflection. I had never felt more alone than I did at that moment. I wondered what Helen, the fake duchess, was doing. I didn’t know why, but I felt like she might be the only person in the world who could possibly understand what I was feeling.
This was starting to be a painful existence and the numbness I had been feeling was transferring into large amounts of pain and loss. I was tired of feeling sorry for myself. I was tired of trusting and loving the wrong people. I looked up into the sky and decided it was time to go back to Victorville and face everything head on. It was time to follow my true destiny and leave all of this nonsense behind.
I flew up and headed south and made my way back to Southern California. I arrived back at the house and I knew I didn
’t want to see Lena. I was sick and tired of allowing her to affect me the way she did. This situation was ridiculous. I felt like I was trapped in an episode of 90210, but with vampires and werewolves. I was tired of wasting my time on this.
I was beginning to wonder exactly what my calling was. Up to this point, I’d been waiting for some type of divine intervention to fall into my lap, even though I was supposedly the divine intervention. Who did a Chosen One even pray to? In many ways, it had on a consistent basis, waiting for a divine sign of the right things to do for an entire species and their society. The one thing I had been waiting for was the only question I had up to this point.
How the hell was I supposed to save the Mani race and what did that mean, exactly?
I knew the best people to speak to on this subject were Helen or Atticai. I had no clue how to reach Helen and, after last night, Atticai was the last person I ever wanted to speak to—he had his own interests and agenda and I no longer trusted him in any way. I needed to know answers. Truth be told, up until now I had been afraid to know the truth of my calling, because of its magnitude and impact on so many people. If I knew the truth, then I had to do something about it. I hadn’t been sure I was ready until... right now.
I had one more loose end to tie up, to get to the bottom of. Then I knew I’d be ready to take on whatever was expected of me. I flew through the trap door that led to my room. I transitioned as I landed on the bed.
I left my room and went to Yari’s bedroom. I opened the door without knocking, which was a mistake; she was lying naked on her bed above the covers. All I could say is... Wow! I grabbed a blanket and put it over her. “Sorry,” I said softly.
“Thank you, Josiah,” Yari said.
“You’re awake?”
“Yes, and I’m glad I am. Did you enjoy the peep show?”