by H. T. Night
Romero and I had actually taken our communication into the 21st century. We had been emailing each other for the last six weeks. And I wasn’t the most computer-savvy person.
This is why I had no idea what I was walking into when I came into my bedroom. Lena was sitting in front of the computer, going through my emails from Romero.
“What are you doing?” I asked Lena. She just stared at me and didn’t say a word. She just looked at me with confusion. Finally, she said, “Are these emails a joke? Who is Romero?”
I walked over to the computer and turned off the monitor.
“Josiah, what is going on? Have you been seeing Tommy and arranging some kind of MMA fight in Mexico?”
“It’s complicated,” I said.
“I don’t care what it is. Why haven’t you told me anything?” Lena was extremely upset.
“You never asked.”
“What kind of answer is that?” Lena yelled, at me.
“Look! You never even asked what Tommy wanted that night I saw him at his cabin. So, I just figured you didn’t want to know.”
“I didn’t ask,” Lena said, “because I thought if it was important enough, you would have told me about it, especially after all that we have been going through these last few months.”
“I didn’t want to worry you.”
“Bullshit. You wanted to keep Tommy and me separated.”
“Huh?” I said. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“You have been seeing Tommy for months. You still think, after all we have been through, that something might happen between him and me. So much so, that you had been living a double life. You still don’t trust me. Even after visiting the Deity. You still don’t trust me.”
“It’s not like that, Lena. I swear.”
Lena sat up on the bed and was beside herself. She looked exhausted. I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her. “I trust you, Lena. I really do.”
She shrugged me off and said, “You have been fighting, too? Why?”
“I had to.”
“Bullshit. You’re Josiah Reign, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do!”
“In this case, I did. Tommy was in some serious trouble. We’re talking million-dollar trouble.”
Lena stood up and went to her room. I followed her in there. “Get out, Josiah. Just go. I am so disappointed in you. I’m carrying your children in my womb, and you still don’t trust me. I’m not some kind of out-of-control school girl.”
“I’m sorry, Lena. There was just so much going on. I didn’t want to worry you. You have to believe that.”
“Just get out of my room. I need to be alone.”
“Really. It’s going to be like that?”
“Josiah, I need some space. Just give me that.”
I walked out of the room and went up to mine. I lay on my bed and just felt awful. I probably should have told Lena at some point. That had to be the worst way for her to find out, through a freaking email.
A couple hours had gone by and I decided to check in on Lena. I knocked on her door and there was no answer.
Finally, I yelled out to her, “Lena! You in there?”
Still, no answer.
“She left, Josiah,” Yari yelled, from the living room.
I walked into the living room and Yari was lying on the couch. “Where did she go?”
“She jumped in one of the cars and went for a ride.”
“How long ago?”
“Probably two hours ago. She was pretty discreet about it. I noticed because she sounded pretty determined to leave in a hurry.”
“I’ve need to go find her,” I said.
“Did the two lovebirds have a spat?” Yari snickered.
“Not now, Yari. This is more serious than you think.” I left through the front door. I decided to transition into the eagle and go scope the area and look for her.
I looked everywhere but Lena was nowhere to be found. I checked Tommy’s cabin, Yari’s townhouse, even Flatlands. Tommy wasn’t anywhere either. A part of me started to feel extremely jealous, thinking there was a chance they were together.
I looked for Lena for the next 24 hours straight and she wasn’t anywhere inside a 100-mile radius of Victorville. And I couldn’t find Tommy either. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all.
Chapter Twenty-six
It was the day of my fight and it had been 48 hours since I’d last seen Lena. I was going to be fighting that night. I needed rest. Yari, Cyrus, Hector, and Wyatt had been looking for Lena as vigorously as I had. She was nowhere, not even a hint of her. Nothing. I was absolutely sick to my stomach thinking about it.
It was going to be hard for me to focus and I was just praying she was okay and had found a safe place no one knew about to clear her head. I didn’t want to fight tonight, but I had no choice. I just needed to trust that she was safe.
Lena was weighing heavy on my mind, but I needed to get this done. I needed to clear Tommy’s debt as well as my own.
I arrived at the arena and to say my head wasn’t in the game was an understatement. I decided to go into the holding area and see if he was even there. There was a part of me that thought he and Lena had split town. There was no sign of Tommy in the holding area.
“Hey, Josiah,” Militia, the vampire that fought with us a couple months back said. “Looking for Tommy?”
“Actually, I am,” I said.
“He’s in Gary’s trainer’s room.”
Of course he was. I should have checked there first.
“Thanks, Militia. Are you watching the fight tonight?” I asked.
He smiled and said, “In a manner of speaking, yeah.”
Didn’t quite understand what that meant, but I needed to go see Tommy before his first fight. I entered the trainer’s room and Tommy was sitting on the trainer’s table. Gary was looking him over. Tommy looked up at me and grinned.
“How do you feel, Tom?” I asked.
“Like a million bucks,” he said, winking at me.
“You better; you’re going to be pretty exhausted before this night is over.”
“Have you seen the card?” Tommy asked.
“Nope,” I answered.
“Romero is leaving some of the matches as a mystery. He won’t even tell me who I’m fighting in a couple of the fights. He is a total douchebag.”
I nodded my head, knowing Tommy was going to have one of the biggest shocks of his life when I entered the ring in that final match. I wonder who else Romero was keeping a mystery.
“Josiah,” a deep voice said, from behind me. I turned around and it was one of Romero’s goons.
“What is it?” I said.
“Romero wants you to watch the fights from his suite.”
“Tell him I’ll be there in a minute.”
“He told me to make sure you come with me.”
Seriously, was he going to power-trip me after the millions and millions of dollars I’d just made for him?
“Tell him,” I said, firmly, “that I’ll come up there when I’m good and ready.”
The goon stared at me and I gave him a look that pretty much demonstrated my defiance. I looked at Tommy and said, “Before I go watch this circus, I need to ask you a question.”
“What is it?” Tommy asked.
“Has Lena come to see you?”
Tommy looked at me, surprised.
“Has she?” I insisted.
“Josiah, the last time I saw Lena was that night at the Flatlands.”
I looked him in the eye and I knew he was telling the truth. Tommy wasn’t a liar. He likes to omit things, but he wasn’t a liar, if asked straight out.
I nodded my head. “Good luck, Tom!”
“Who needs luck when you got these?” Tommy flexed his muscles and kissed each bicep individually.
That’s my boy! Nobody loves themselves some Tommy more than Tommy himself.
A part of me was relieved that they hadn’t seen each other. It stil
l didn’t erase the fact that Lena was missing.
I made my way up to Romero’s suite. I went in and this night we would not be watching the match alone. He had some serious ‘suits’ in the room. I swear I wouldn’t have been surprised to see the richest man in the world, Carlos Slim, on this night. Everyone was wearing tuxedos and had a gorgeous, classy woman on their arm.
“Josiah,” Romero said, “Come in and sit next to me.” I am an incredible judge of character and there was something extra sleazy about Romero on this night. The man was swimming in millions, and that might have had something to do with it.
“It’s about to start, Josiah,” Romero said. “I would offer you a drink, but then again, you are the main event...”
All eyes in the room were on me. These men who could buy and sell me twenty times over were looking at me like I was Mickey Mantle. The adoration in their eyes was poignant. I humbly smiled at them and took my seat next to Romero. On this night, I was his prize pony and if he wanted to parade me around, I had to go along with it.
Romero’s automatic wall opened up so now everyone in the suite could see into the ring. Everyone in the room found a place to sit. At least, the more important ones did. The others remained standing.
“Tonight is going to be an amazing night, gentlemen,” Romero announced to the room. “Grab a hold of your seats because this is going to be a wild ride!” Romero was sure full of himself. I imagined he had other tricks up his sleeve to make the night memorable.
I leaned over and whispered in Romero’s ear, “How did you pull off charging half a million a ticket?”
Romero winked at me and whispered in my ear. “I promised them they were going to see something they hadn’t seen before, and they will.”
“What is that?” I asked, with a bit of dread in my gut.
“You’ll see,” Romero said, with a confidence that only a psychopath would have demonstrated.
The entire crowd was wearing tuxedos, and the women were similarly dressed, as if it was a night at the Oscars and they were red-carpet ready. The ring announcer slowly made his way to the middle of the ring and addressed the crowd.
“Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, you are all going to witness a one-of-a-kind event. The ‘immortal beast,’ Tommy, will take on seven opponents one right after another with almost zero time between each fight. Tonight, we present to you, ‘A Night of the Seven Deadly Sins.’
The crowd erupted in a frenzy of applause.
The ring announcer continued, “Now, it’s time to introduce you to your werewolf. No fighter has taken this arena by storm as much as he. He has an undefeated record of 68-0. He has beaten wolves, vampires, and anyone else who has faced off against him. Every one of his opponents has left the ring defeated! Let’s give a round of applause to the ‘immortal of all immortals’... Tommy!!!”
The double doors opened and Tommy walked out as serious as I had ever seen him. The crowd all rose to their feet, cheering. Tommy had a game face like no other. There wasn’t a hint of joy on his face; he didn’t even acknowledge the crowd. This was about his freedom. He had an intensity that even I hadn’t seen before from him. He looked like he was ready to tear off someone’s head. There was something else that was different about Tommy’s entrance. He seemed to be carrying a black bag with him into the ring. As he walked up to the ring, he tossed the bag to the side of it.
“What’s in the bag?” I asked.
“Oh, you’ll soon find out soon enough,” Romero grinned.
I didn’t like the sound of that at all. Romero was up to something and it looked like Tommy was in on it.
“Which sin is first?” I asked.
“We thought we give him an easy one. Gluttony is first. We found ourselves the biggest, fattest, out-of-shape vampire that needed to make a buck.”
“Tommy will kill him,” I said.
“Possibly,” Romero smiled.
“What’s the order of the sins?”
Romero pulled out a list from his pocket that he had penciled on. “Okay,” he said. “We have Gluttony... then Greed.”
“Who’s playing the part of Greed?” I asked.
“Not playing. He is Greed. We offered the guy five million dollars if he wins.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“He has no chance of winning, Josiah. Remember, I’m a businessman. This guy can barely move, let alone fight. His greed was stronger than his sense of self-preservation. He knows he can’t win, but he is a slave to his own desire for money, no matter what the consequences.”
“Okay, then who?”
“Then we have Sloth. That will be a semi-tough one for our boy. He’s an ex-priest that has pretty much been living in apathy for the last 300 years.”
“A man of the cloth?” I asked. I didn’t like the sound of that.
“He’s a bit backslidden,” Romero laughed. “After that, we have Lust.”
“Who did you grab for that?” I asked.
“One of the toughest Mani broads you have ever seen. Not to mention, she’s a whore. Hence, the whole lust part.”
I didn’t like the idea of Tommy fighting a woman and I knew he wouldn’t either. “Does Tommy know that his fourth opponent’s a woman?”
“We might have failed to mention that to him. Anyway, on the back nine, there are three mega super fights. We have a returning fighter who promises he will not only beat Tommy but kill him inside five minutes. So he’s our Pride. Then there’s Wrath followed by Envy.”
“Who’s Wrath?” I asked.
“It’s another big surprise; at least it will be for Tommy.”
“Who is it?” I pressed. “It better be a fair match.”
“If by ‘fair’ you mean is he fighting a ‘one-on-one fight,’ then it’s very fair,” Romero laughed. “But, he will have his work cut out for him. You do remember Goliath, don’t you?”
“Yes,” I said. Goliath was the hugest creature I had ever fought. It took Tommy and I both to kill him.
“Well, he had a son. His son is bigger than his father. The thing is his son didn’t choose to go into the family Carni business. He chose to become a Mani. Biggest motherfucking vampire I have ever seen.”
Romero was enjoying this far too much. It felt like he didn’t care if Tommy died or was seriously hurt. He just wanted a good show.
Romero continued, “So, this kid wants to kill Tommy pretty bad after what the two of you did to his father. I’d be careful, Josiah. Because if he beats Tommy, no matter what, we will still have a seventh fight because he wants you next.”
“You have it all figured out, haven’t you?”
“Put it this way, Josiah. If at any point Tommy goes down, you’re my ace in the hole.”
“That wasn’t the deal,” I said. “If he gets hurt or, worse yet, dies, then he’s paid the ultimate price toward his debt. You’ll still have your money.”
“He might have, but you still will owe me at least one more fight. We’ll cross that road when we reach it,” Romero smiled. “Shhh... the announcer is about to introduce Gluttony.”
I looked out as the announcer waited for Tommy to transition into the werewolf, to the delight of his adoring billionaire fans.
Tommy stood in the ring inside the steel cage. I decided to try to speak to him. “Tommy!” I said, in my mind. “Can you hear me above the noise?”
Tommy gave me no response. I wasn’t sure if he could hear me or if it was just too loud. Suddenly, the two black double doors opened.
The announcer took the microphone and just simply said, “Gluttony!”
And gluttony it was. Holy crap! The fattest vampire I had ever seen walked through the doors. He didn’t even walk. He waddled. He weighed over 700 pounds and only stood barely six feet tall.
Why would this guy enter the ring with Tommy? Surely, he knew he had no chance. This was the fattest person I had ever seen, vampire or otherwise. This was a very, very big boy. He huffed and puffed as he slowly made his way to the ring. I wasn’t even sure
he could make it to the ring without giving himself a heart attack. He eventually made it there. It seemed like it took the guy ten minutes to move 50 yards.
Tommy in his gray werewolf form just stood on one side, staring at the obese steak that was before him.
“Tommy,” I repeated. “Can you hear me?” Tommy twitched in the ring, as if to be shaking my voice out of his head. Now, I was beginning to wonder if Tommy was ignoring me on purpose for some reason. Maybe he knew he had his work cut out for him tonight, and just needed to focus and not have me talking into his ear. I decided to shut up and let him fight.
The bell went off. Tommy circled his opponent. And the guy was having a hard time even turning in circles.
Suddenly, Tommy leaped on the guy, knocking him straight to his back. The great wolf wasted no time. He bit the guy’s neck and he went completely limp. Then something happened that was as unexpected as anything I had ever seen in a ring. I couldn’t have imagined this happening, even in my wildest dreams.
Tommy transitioned back into his Carni form and stepped out of the ring.
What was he doing?
To the left of the ring was the black bag Tommy had brought with him. He reached in and grabbed a metal spike out of the bag and held it in his hand.
Oh no! What the hell was he doing?
The overweight man was flopping in the middle of the ring. Tommy had already seriously injured him by just chomping on his neck. Tommy walked back into the ring. The crowd had no idea what they were about to witness. Or did they?
Maybe that is why they all paid $500,000 for a ticket.
This was out of character for a Tommy fight. He usually showboated and played up to the crowd. He fed off of it. Not right now. He was all business and I was afraid of what he was planning to do. Tommy, with a metal stake in hand, jumped on top of his obese opponent while he was lying on his back in the ring. It looked like he had jumped on top of a bouncy house that kids play in at birthday parties. Tommy sat on top of his stomach. The man looked terrified.