The Immortal Warriors Boxed Set: Books 1-11

by H. T. Night

  “I’m sorry, Josiah,” Tommy answered. “I knew if I told you, you would possibly risk getting her killed. Is she okay?”

  “As far as I know she is. She’s okay and so are the babies.”

  “The babies?”

  “Yeah, Tommy. Lena is pregnant.”

  “Holy shit.”

  “Tommy, you can’t worry about that. You need to make it through these two fights.”

  “Do you know who I am fighting last?” Tommy asked.

  “Tommy you need to worry about Goliath’s kin. He wants your head on a platter.”

  “It’s you, isn’t it, Josiah? You’re my last fight?”

  Tommy knew he was going to have to fight me last. He had probably suspected it the whole time.

  “Don’t think about that right now,” I said. “We’re going to get through this fight. I’m going to help you the entire way.”

  “Okay,” Tommy said.

  “Does Goliath’s kid have a name?” I asked Tommy.

  “Yeah, it’s Tiny!” Tommy answered.

  “Of course it is.”

  Tiny jumped into the ring. The whole ring shook like a 10.0 earthquake.

  “He can’t be as good a fighter as his dad,” I said. “But I’ll bet he’s stronger.”

  “You think?” I could hear the sarcasm in Tommy’s voice, even in my head.

  The sixth bell rang.

  Tommy stood his ground on his side of the ring. Tiny was on the other side, smacking himself all over his body to get pumped up for the fight.

  “Tommy, I said. “The only way to beat this guy is you need to be relentless. You need to attack first and never let up.”

  “I have little left, Josiah.”

  “Dig deep, Tom. Give me the best ten minutes of your life.”

  “Ten minutes?”

  “Well, kick his ass sooner then,” I said. “You just can’t stop attacking him. Coming at him will only confuse him. A guy like this only does the attacking.”

  So, Tommy did exactly what I said. For the next five minutes he bit, clawed, scratched, slapped, punched and kicked Tiny with everything he had. Tommy was getting the best of him. He was until Tiny grabbed a hold of him. Tiny grabbed Tommy’s exhausted werewolf body and threw him into the crowd. Tommy crashed into a table and took out four patrons. Tommy transitioned and stood to his feet. He stood out in the crowd, completely worn out, looking at Tiny in the ring. He was panting for air, but knew he couldn’t stop. He jogged up to the ring and slid into it and was squared off with tiny man vs. man. He looked like a child compared to this behemoth. It was a classic Rocky vs. Drago.

  I knew Tommy hated fighting as the werewolf. In his mind, he felt he was limited. As long as he was in his Carni or human form, we couldn’t communicate.

  Tommy and Tiny circled the ring, faced off as man vs. man, not man vs. beast. Tommy still had amazing quickness, even though he had been fighting for the last two hours straight.

  Tiny was far too heavy. Any striking Tommy would do would only do minor damage to a guy that size. His only shot at beating a man of this size was to fight him as the werewolf even if he didn’t like it.

  They traded punches and Tiny was winning. Each blow knocked Tommy back at least three feet. Tommy’s punches were mild, compared to the massive creature’s powerful swings.

  Tiny grabbed a hold of Tommy and for the next three minutes, beat the crap out of him. It was the hardest 180 seconds I had ever witnessed in a fight. I felt sick, watching Tiny hurt him. Tiny punished Tommy in a way that wasn’t humane. There was little I could do.

  Or was there?

  I couldn’t let this happen any longer. I turned to Romero’s bodyguards and said, “Get out of my fucking way, I’m going out there.”

  They all stood their ground and there was a sea of bodies separating me from the door. I didn’t care. I transitioned into the great white eagle inside Romero’s suite and began spearing them with my beak. I knew they couldn’t shoot at me, because it would be too loud and if they missed, the bullets would go through the glass and into the crowd.

  I flew around clawing and swiping at the men. I was shredding faces and poking eyes out. Eventually, one of them opened the door to escape my wrath. That was all I needed. I darted through the door and flew myself down the hallway and into the holding area. I bolted through the black double doors that were still opened from Tiny’s entrance.

  I flew into the middle of the ring where Tommy was a bloody, beaten mess. He had fought his heart out. There was no way this vampire was going to end his life right here. Not if I had anything to do with it.

  I flew into Tiny’s back, knocking him off Tommy. I quickly transitioned to my Mani form and dragged Tommy out of the ring.

  The crowd went nuts once they realized the eagle was me. They began chanting my name. They had never seen me as the eagle and the crowd was beside themselves.

  I stood in front of Tiny.

  “This wasn’t part of the deal,” Tiny said.

  “What deal? You’re ‘Wrath,’ right? Well, I was the one who killed your father. Tommy merely helped. I was the one who took his life.”

  Tiny’s eyes stared at me with a glare that could burn through steel.

  “That’s right, Tiny,” I said. “Your fight is with me and as far as I see it, it’s a little fairer because I haven’t fought for the last two hours straight.”

  “All right, Josiah. Let’s do this.” Tiny charged me and I kicked him in the face, knocking him back into the ropes. I flew into him and unloaded a barrage of punches.

  Even though this kid was a beast, he was no match for someone with my skill set. I gave him a beat down of epic proportions. I would like to say Tiny gave me a better fight, but it didn’t matter at this point. I quickly dismantled him. In less than a couple of minutes of harsh strikes and kicks, I bloodied up Tiny as badly as he had done to Tommy.

  I knew Tommy needed to be the one to finish him off. It was a weird loophole, but I wasn’t going to risk Lena’s safety.

  Again, as I stood over a passed-out Tiny in the middle of the ring, I felt Lena all around me. It was the most bizarre feeling I had ever felt. I just finished beating a man senseless, and I could feel Lena in the pit of my soul as if she was an angel watching over me. Then a fear went through my body and I wondered if she was already dead and I was feeling her spirit.

  I jumped out of the ring, trying to shake off the feeling. I needed to trust the Triat wouldn’t allow that to happen, at least without me having a chance to save her.

  So, there it was. It was lights out in Tiny Town. I went outside to Tommy and dragged him back into the ring. Tommy had pulled himself up into a sitting position and made his way over to Tiny’s motionless body in the middle of the ring.

  “Finish him off, Tommy,” I said. “You have one more fight to go!”

  I walked out of the ring looking at Romero’s guards that now had surrounded all the exits. They didn’t know what to do. I had maimed their fellow soldiers, but I was still honoring Romero’s agreement. “Bring Romero to me,” I said to one of the guards at the black double-door entrance.

  The guard radioed Romero. Tommy and I were about to fight to our deaths and I needed a clear agreement when this was over. By the sound of the crowd, Tommy had finished Tiny off just like the others. Six were now dead.

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Romero came down to the black double doors where I was still standing.

  This time he had brought 35 to 40 armed security guards with him. This guy was definitely afraid. He looked like Muammar Gaddafi being protected by his military.

  “Don’t be stupid, Josiah,” Romero said. “If you want your family to live, there is only one way to do that. You need to kill Tommy, or vice versa.”

  “I understand that. All I want to know is: The second this fight is over, Lena better be delivered to me in seconds or I will come after you and I will kill you myself. And know this: If one hair on her head is hurt, this whole place is done for.”<
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  “Talk is cheap. Are you going to fight or not?” Romero lifted his radio. “Cause all I have to do is say is ‘Nata la.’ And the mother of your children is dead.”

  “Okay, I have one request. If Tommy beats me, you release her to him. His debt will be paid and you are done exploiting him for your financial gain.”

  “Fine,” Romero said. “But know this, Josiah. One of you will die in that ring. That is the only chance you have at saving Lena’s life.”

  I nodded my head and could not believe what the man Romero had ended up being.

  I stood in front of the black double door waiting for the announcer to make his way into the middle of the ring to introduce me.

  After a moment, the announcer said, “Envy.”

  Now the crowd was realizing that the two they just saw tag team the last opponent were now about to square off against each other. They realized that we were both Envy.

  I looked at the ring as I walked up to it. Tommy’s face was barely recognizable. He was covered in blood. By this point, most of it was his.

  “Transition, Tommy!” I yelled out.

  “Why?” he yelled down to me from the ring.

  “Transition, Tom,” I yelled. Some of the crowd was chanting Tommy’s name and some were chanting my name. By this point, neither one of us gave a shit. The crowd was a prop in this tragic Greek play. This theatrical production was about to become even more insane.

  Tommy transitioned into the werewolf as I entered the ring. We stared at each other like a good old-fashioned street fight about to commence, a real West Side Story.

  “Tommy,” I said, in my mind. “We need to sell this for a while. The only chance the two of us have to both get out of here alive with Lena is we’re going to have to give them a show until we figure out what to do.”

  “You know me, Josiah,” Tommy said, in his werewolf mind. “I love a good performance.” He could barely keep himself up.

  “That you do, my friend.” We circled each other. “Do you have any idea where Lena could be?” I asked.

  “No. All I know is she is in the arena complex. That’s Romero’s style. He would want the situation to be close.”

  “This is weird, Tom, whenever I’m in or near the ring, I have the most overwhelming feeling that Lena is close.” We continued to circle one another.

  The seventh bell rang.

  I jumped on top of Tommy. Even as the werewolf, he was still bloodied. I picked him up over my head and chucked him across the ring, much to the delight of the crowd. The werewolf slid in between the ropes.

  “You okay?” I asked, in my head.

  “I’m far from okay. I think every bone in my body is broken.”

  I let Tommy compose himself. We once again circled one another.

  “Romero said the word ‘down’ when he referred to where Lena was,” I said in my head to Tommy. I thought if we kept talking that he wouldn’t lose consciousness. “Do you know of any secret places in this place that are underground... like a bunker?”

  “There are no bunkers in this arena,” Tommy answered. “The only thing that’s underground is actually right below where we are standing. There is a storage room right underneath the ring. It’s big enough for people to walk and store things in.”

  “Store things like a body! Tommy, do you think there’s a chance they’re keeping her right below where we are fighting?”

  “It fits Romero’s sick profile,” Tommy said, now he was coughing up blood. “It’s the kind of sick, twisted shit he gets off on.”

  “We need to tear through the floor!” I said.

  “How do you propose we do that?” Tommy couldn’t even stand up straight, let alone rip into the ring floor.

  I looked around the arena and saw multiple fire extinguishers at each exit of the arena. Next to each fire extinguisher was an axe in a plastic case.

  “Tommy, there are at least four axes in the arena.”

  “How do you suggest I pick up an ax with my claws, Josiah?”

  “Trust me, you and I need to sell this fight. We will take turns beating each other up so it looks like we have the leverage. We need to tear through the ring floor in order to reach Lena. I feel her, I know she is underneath us. What is the floor made of?”

  “This whole place is made of wood. Romero is too cheap to make it out of anything else.”

  “We need to trade off taking the advantage. I’m going to knock you down, go with it and just take my lead.” I backed up and came at Tommy. I flew up in the air in my Mani form. The crowd cheered, they loved it when I did that. I was about twenty feet up and I shot my body into Tommy’s werewolf body, feet first, absolutely laying him out. My contact was pretty ferocious. Maybe too ferocious. I was trying to sell it, but I think I injured a battered Tommy even worse.

  “Holy shit, Josiah, that freaking hurt!” Tommy said, as he laid in the middle of the ring.

  “Just stay down,” I said.

  I flew back up and circled the arena in the air. At all four exits were a fire extinguisher and an ax. Only Romero would leave a weapon like an ax out in the open in this primitive, third world arena. The more I thought about it, this place was a piece of shit. It only gave the illusion of being an upper world-class arena. I flew down and punched a hole in one of the plastic cases that was holding an ax. I grabbed the ax from the inside. I held the ax in my right hand. I flew to the other side of the ring and did the same thing to grab a second ax.

  Tommy wasn’t doing much of anything in the middle of the ring. He was just lying there in absolute misery. That poor guy was in a hell of a lot of pain. Hopefully, this would soon be over. I flew back into the ring with an ax in both hands. The crowd roared and stood up. They were bloodthirsty. You would think they had seen enough. But the nature of man is an animalistic one. It is kill or be killed. And, unfortunately, there is something spectacular about watching two men fight it out to the death.

  I dropped one ax on one side of the ring. “Okay, Tommy, move to the middle of the ring.” Tommy then rolled to the center. “When I count to three, move out of the way! I’m going to strike the ring floor with everything I have.”

  “One, two, three...” I counted in my head and Tommy rolled out of the way. I struck the ax as hard as I could into the ring floor. The ax made a three-foot gash right smack-dab down the center of the ring. I looked down at the damage and I could only imagine that we would have to do this about thirty to forty times between the two of us to make our way to Lena.

  “You ready, Tom? You’re going to have to transition to your Carni form and grab an ax. It’s time for us to shred through this motherfucking floor and save Lena!”

  Tommy transitioned, to the delight of the crowd. He went to the other side of the ring and grabbed his ax. This must have looked like the most barbaric thing anyone had ever seen. Two grown men having a good old-fashioned ax fight. Not switchblades, but axes.

  “Let’s take turns dominating,” I said. “Let’s do the one, two, three, count.”

  So, Tommy and I proceeded to take turns dominating one another. We tore through that floor with everything we had, each of us taking turns. We started in the center and worked our way out. The crowd was going absolutely berserk with excitement as we wrecked the place. It was a spectacle to behold. We took turns beating each other up. We would pretend to be so hurt we couldn’t get up, and then the other one would annihilate the stage with the force of the ax. This went on for about twenty minutes. I was exhausted. I could only imagine how insanely tired Tommy must have been. He was reaching deep into a place that I never knew he had. It was fight or flight, and my boy was fighting to the bitter end.

  Then, it finally happened. I whaled down so hard with my ax that I cracked right through the ceiling of the storage space and we both fell into the storage space, a couple of feet from where Lena was being held.

  There was one of Romero’s goons with a knife to Lena’s neck. In a split second, I broke the goon’s neck. Tommy and looked around and ap
parently, he was the only guard in the storage space.

  I then turned to Lena. She was tied down and gagged. Tommy quickly transitioned to the werewolf and ripped through her knots with his claws and broke her free. She seemed weak, almost as if she didn’t understand what was happening to her.

  “Tommy, jump up,” I said, “Make it look like you have the advantage over me, as far as the audience is concerned.”

  Tommy nodded and as the werewolf, he climbed out slowly. He was absolutely exhausted.

  I took the gag out of Lena’s mouth. She was sweating and extremely dirty. She had bruises all over her arms and legs. These guys were going to pay for what they had done to her.

  “Are you okay?” I asked. I held her in my arms. I looked up at the ceiling and I could see Tommy in his werewolf body parading around as if he had killed me.

  “It’s been a rough couple of days, Josiah,” Lena said weakly. “I’m not going to lie.”

  “Is everything okay? Regarding the pregnancy?” I asked, holding my breath.

  “I’m pretty sure everything is still okay,” Lena answered. “I just need to get out of here.”

  “I know you do, sweetheart. Listen, Tommy knows this place better than I do. Stay here. Tommy will be back down and he’s going to help you out safely.” I kissed her forehead.

  To everyone’s surprise, even Tommy’s, I flew back up into the ring. Once they saw I was still alive, the audience stopped chanting Tommy’s name.

  “You couldn’t let me have my little moment, could you? Josiah?” Tommy joked. Even in his painful state, he had his sense of humor.

  “You’re going to need to transition back to your Carni form. I’m going to throw you back down to Lena and you’re going to get Lena out of here. You’ve been through more than enough tonight. This fight isn’t over. Romero and his men are going to pay for what they have done. There’s a safe place near here. Get Lena outside and she’ll take you there. Just tell Lena to take you to the Deity.”

  Tommy nodded. “How do you want to kill me? Let’s make this good!” Tommy said, always the showman, even in his exhaustion.