by H. T. Night
“It’s nice finally to grow up, huh?”
“I don’t know, is it?”
“Is it what?” I asked.
“Is it any different? I mean, the last few days have been great, but you barely spend any time with me.”
“What are you talking about? I’m always in the same room with you.”
“You’re in the same room, but you’re miles away in your mind.”
I looked at Lena and said, “I promise you, when all of this is over with Krull, I will make it up to you every single day. For now, a lot of people need me.”
“I know.” Lena began to reflect and then laughed out loud.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I remember being in class and having the uncontrollable desire to squeeze your butt.”
“Squeeze my butt?” I laughed out loud and it startled Jason.
“Your butt is still one of your best physical attributes, Josiah.”
“Well, considering I have never intentionally exercised that part of my body, I’ll take it.” I smiled and leaned back in my rocking chair. I had fed Jason earlier with formula from a bottle. I looked at Lena and thought about how I had kept Lena out of the loop for her own good. I never told her about Krull snagging a third of my army or the fact that I was now also a werewolf. I just don’t want to worry her.
Lena could tell something was on my mind. “What are you thinking about, Josiah?”
“I think it’s time I shared with you a couple of things. Just know I have kept these two things from you only because I didn’t want to worry you after your pregnancy.”
Lena now looked worried, and that was the last thing I wanted her to feel. She did, however, need to know the severity of the situation. “Okay, what are they?”
“The first thing is actually kind of cool.”
“Cool?”
“I think it is. It might not have been cool the way I found out about it, but the thing itself, is very cool. I can’t show you right now, but I have a whole new talent. I can also become a werewolf.”
“You’re joking, right?”
Lena looked confused. “So, now you’re half vampire and half werewolf?”
“No, I’m a lot vampire and very little werewolf. The only thing that is werewolfie about me is I can turn into one if I choose to.”
“I want to see it,” Lena announced. “Put Jason in his crib and make room to become this werewolf that is really cool.”
“Are you asking me to do it because you think I’m messing with you, or are you asking me because you want to see what I look like?”
“Maybe it’s a little of both.”
I stood up and put Jason in his crib and turned to Lena. I made sure I wasn’t going to run into anything as I transitioned into the great white wolf. Yeah, I’m going to call the wolf ‘great’ too. I stood there, staring my fiancée in the face, huffing and panting like Old Yeller.
“For the love of God! Are you freaking kidding me? Change back, Josiah. You’re going to scare the boys.”
“I’m not going to scare the boys,” I thought in my head to myself.
“You certainly will. Look at you, you look like something out of horror movie.”
Holy crap! Lena heard my thoughts.
“Lena,” I said in my head.
Lena wasn’t looking at me, but said, “Yeah.”
“Look at me!” I shouted in my mind.
“Quiet! You’re going to wake the baby.”
“No, I’m not,” I said. “Look at me.”
Lena raised her head up and stared at me with her own mouth open.
“I’m not moving my mouth. You can hear my thoughts.”
I thought Lena was about to pass out.
“Easy, Lena.” I transitioned back into my human form.
“Let’s see if you can hear my thoughts,” Lena said excitedly. “Turn back into the wolf.”
“I don’t need to turn into ‘the wolf’ to hear your thoughts,” I said.
“Are you kidding?”
“Lena, I have been able to hear anyone’s thoughts in this house if I wanted to since I came back from Mexico. I grew stronger after that escapade. I choose not to listen to your thoughts. I can turn it off if I want to.”
“You’re telling me that you always turn it off?” Lena pressed.
“Yes, I do.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Lena, don’t stop believing me now. If I tell you something, it’s the truth.”
“You waited this long to tell me that you can turn into a werewolf.”
“Omission is not the same as lying. If you ever had asked, I would have told you the truth.”
“Semantics. I don’t like that you can do that.”
“That’s the whole point is that I don’t do it. I have the ability to do it, and I don’t. That should count for something.”
Lena sat in her chair with Joshua and smirked. “You get all the breaks.”
“I think the Triat knew what they were doing, not giving you the ability to hear my thoughts. I don’t think you would be so nice.”
“I sure as hell would know every time you check out Yari’s ass.”
I laughed out loud. “She does have a great ass.”
“Shut up.”
“So do you, babe. Ever since your pregnancy, your junk in the trunk is hot. Baby definitely has now ‘got back.’”
“Really, you like it?”
“I love it. As a matter of fact, I would like to get up close and personal with it right now if you like. We can put the boys down and go upstairs.”
“Hold on, Casanova, you told me there were two things.”
“I did, didn’t I?”
“Okay, well...”
“The second one isn’t that cool. Actually, it’s potentially dangerous.” I paused and then said, “About a month ago, on the night we came back from dropping off Donya with Atticai...” I tried to choose my words carefully because I didn’t want to freak her out.
“Go on, Josiah. What happened that night?”
“We lost a few men to Krull. He was here.”
“He was here. Here?!”
“Yep.”
“Josiah, this isn’t good.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” I said. “I would never let anything happen to you and the kids. I haven’t left by myself since. I have always made sure you and the boys were safe.”
“You were keeping me safe from something you left me in the dark about.”
“Lena, I had to. Things are different now. Not only are you the mother of my children and my fiancée. But... you’re also capable of dying a lot easier than either one of us had known. I want you nowhere near danger from here on out.”
“But you left us here? It’s not safe for the boys to be here.”
“It’s safe as long as I am here,” I said.
“But you won’t always be able to be here.”
“I understand that. I’ll come up with something. For now, all I can do is trust fate.” I looked at Lena and did my best to give her a comforting look. I needed to trust that this wasn’t how this was going to happen where Krull did something as atrocious as hurting my family. That couldn’t be in the Triat’s script.
Suddenly, I heard a commotion in the living room.
I stood up immediately and said sternly, “Stay here, Lena. Stay with the boys.” I locked the door and closed it behind me. I went into the living room, and all of my crew was staring out of the window. “What the hell is happening?” I called out.
“We don’t know!” Yari said. “There are at least three hundred Mani out there.”
“Are you fucking serious?” I hurried over to a window in the kitchen.
“There is no sign of Krull.” Tommy was looking through the kitchen window. “Josiah, check it out. I don’t recognize any of these guys. They don’t look that intimidating.”
I went over to where Tommy was staring out the window. I looked out and saw enough Mani to start a war.
At the front of this mob of vampires was a blonde-haired woman... that I recognized. It was Helen. “Everybody relax!” I yelled out. “I know who it is.” I went over to the front door and opened it.
The second I went outside, Helen called out to me, “Josiah!”
“Helen!” I yelled back. “I see you brought some friends with you.”
Helen walked over to me. She looked incredible. She was dressed in a tight body suit with a tank top. She had been sweating. So I knew something was up.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Krull ambushed my group,” Helen said.
“Define ambush,” I said.
“We were staying up in Northern California at a vineyard I own. Somehow, Krull found out about what I was putting together.”
“What were you putting together?” I hadn’t a clue what she was talking about.
“An army to defeat him,” Helen answered.
“We seriously need to start communicating better,” I said. By the time those words came out of my mouth, my guys had barreled through the bunker and stood, facing Helen’s group, ready to defend their turf.
“Stand down, soldiers,” I said loudly and they nodded in unison, but still looked ready, if need be.
Wow, it took them fifteen minutes to realize there was an army up here. We had a response-time problem. I definitely needed to train them harder. My guys were a motley crew compared to Helen’s prima donnas that she brought over. She had more men, but she also had women in her group. Yari and Yomaida were the only women in my group.
Helen had at least a hundred.
“Where did you recruit these guys?” I asked.
“I didn’t have to,” Helen said. “They all came to me. They each had a vision to find me in Napa Valley. About six months ago, twenty Mani just showed up at my vineyard.”
“They just came out of nowhere?” I asked.
“Yep, each of them had their own distinct vision to come find me. After the first day, about five to ten kept showing up each day until our numbers hit 500 men and women.”
I looked out and didn’t see 500 Mani. “Where are the rest of them?”
“Like I said, we just got ambushed by Krull. He came into our vineyard and attacked us when we were sleeping.”
“Sleeping? Seriously?” This was rough. Krull wasn’t playing fair. What did I expect from a sociopath? “You are all welcome to stay here. We have an enormous bunker. We might need to pack six in a room. But something tells me something is going down real fast.” I looked over at my guys and told Sion to show everyone to the bunkers.
I yelled out, “I want you guys to make sure our guests feel the same hospitality I gave you when you first showed up. Now we are strong enough to fight Krull.” I looked out at all the Mani and few Carni. I was pleased that this had happened. Not because Mani lost their lives, because that was tragic, but I now had a strong four-hundred-person army, and that wasn’t too shabby. I watched as Helen motioned to her army to proceed to the bunkers.
I turned to Wyatt, Hector, and Yari. “Could you organize this and increase the blood order for the mess hall? I need to get Lena and the kids out of here. Wyatt, can you come with me?”
I turned around, and Helen and I made our way back to the house. “You have a lot of property around the world, correct?” I asked Helen as we walked.
“Of course,” Helen said.
“I need for you to allow my future wife and our two children to stay in the most obscure place you have, preferably one in another country.”
“I have a place in Amsterdam that is off in the countryside that no one is staying in. It should be perfect. No one even knows we own the property. It’s not even on the tax rolls.”
“Sounds perfect.”
I went into the house and told Lena that everything was okay, as of now. I told her to pack her stuff. That she, Linda and the boys were moving to Amsterdam. I needed a man to go with her. It needed to be someone I trusted; someone who was tough. Most of all, it needed to be someone that was asexual.
Wyatt was the perfect candidate. He’d sowed his wild oats a long time ago, and he was as tough as anyone I knew. I should know. He kicked my ass on the first night I met him. But, then again, I was human when he did that to me.
Things were getting frightfully real, extremely fast. I took Lena, Linda, Wyatt and my boys to LAX. I waited with them until they went on the fourteen-hour flight to Amsterdam. When the boys were born, Hector had arranged to get them U.S. passports and had them ready. His foresight stunned me.
When the airline called their row for my family to board the plane, I walked them to the tarmac. I held my fiancée’s hand. Then I gave her a giant hug and kiss.
“The last time, it was you who was going away,” she said, her eyes misted with unshed tears.
“You guys need to be far away from what is going to go down. Wyatt is going to take amazing care of you. Just do me a favor and not fall in love while I’m gone,” I said, only half kidding.
“I’ll do my best,” Lena said, as she grabbed my hands with hers.
I leaned down and kissed her. I looked at Linda, our supernanny, and said, “Take care of my family over there.”
“I always do, Mr. Josiah.”
“I know you do. I trust you and I’m grateful that you would serve us without question, here or anywhere.”
“Of course.”
I gave Wyatt a hug and told him to contact me if he ran into any problems. The last thing I did was kiss my two boys goodbye. I took both their hands and told them individually that I loved them. It was time for them to leave, and I waved until I couldn’t see them anymore.
Once the door shut, I turned around inside LAX and knew I needed to make one last visit to the Deity.
That is exactly what I did.
Chapter Twenty-four
I stepped into The Deity’s room from the bunker hallway. Her Holiness was sitting in her rocking chair. She looked up at me and smiled as I entered the room. She had a welcoming look on her face that showed she knew I was coming. “Hello, Josiah.”
“How are you on this evening?” I asked, standing by the door.
“Please come in and have a seat next to me.”
I stepped in and walked over to her and sat cross-legged next to her chair. I wasn’t sure why, but something didn’t feel right at this moment. Nonetheless, I had a lot on my mind and just sighed deeply. There was an anxiety and a burden that always seemed to pour out of me whenever I am in her presence. She brought out my truth. It was the only place where I could be transparent. I know she wouldn’t judge me, and her unconditional love swarmed her aura like a fog.
“You did well, Josiah,” the Deity said to me.
“In regard to which detail?” I asked. “A lot has happened since I’ve seen you.”
“Josiah, I am aware of all you do. Each time you are given a task, you not only succeed, but you surpass what is intended.”
I was quiet. I hadn’t quite come here for praise, although it was gratifying to be appreciated by someone of such outstanding stature. “In regard to Donya. That was a no-brainier in my book. If I didn’t go get her, it would have weighed on me until I did. It’s hard for me to be aware of such atrocities and not want to do something about it. I think you knew that and that is why you told me.”
The Deity smiled at me and said, “I told you because I was led to tell you. What you did with that information was entirely up to you.”
“Sometimes, I wonder if I’m making the right decision. One of these days, I’m bound to make a wrong one.”
The Deity did something out of the ordinary. She laughed out loud. “Oh, Josiah...”
“Why are you laughing?”
“I’m laughing because most of your decisions have been the wrong ones. You’re like a golfer who shanks his first putt, but manages to get par with some lucky strokes by the time the hole is done.”
“Did you just give me a sports analogy?” I asked, mightily surprised.
&nb
sp; “I used to love to play golf before my eyesight left me. I knew Bobby Jones. I played with him a couple of times.”
“Bobby Jones? You’re serious?”
“I’m not going to start lying now.”
“So, what you’re saying is that I have steered off my path of destiny, but still manage to climb back on when all is said and done?”
“Yes. That is why you have been chosen to do this task for our people. It was based on merit or knowledge. The Triat saw your heart and attention to detail. You trust your instincts. And your instincts usually find a way of getting the job done.”
Something had been bothering me, and I knew now was a good as time as any to ask. “Did I do the right thing in regard to Cyrus?”
“Why do you question yourself?”
“It is my belief that some Mani left with Krull because they felt at the end of the day I am no better than he is, that I would kill my own, without any regret.”
“Even still, you have regret. What did you see when you touched him?”
“I saw all of us dying. Even you. That was when I knew the Triat had given me the insight.”
“Do you think killing him was the wrong decision?”
“I don’t know if I would have talked with him and told him what I saw, that maybe I could have changed his destiny. That’s the one part about the whole ordeal that bothers me. I didn’t give him a chance. Maybe instead of killing him, I could have changed his mind.”
“But, when a man has deceit in his heart, that is something not even you can change. It is a character flaw that is engraved in a person’s DNA. It is the same as being a sociopath.”
I nodded my head and said, “I’m sure I did the right thing.”
“Then I never want you ever to question it again. It will only eat you up inside.” The Deity leaned back and took in the room. “How are the boys?”
“You tell me,” I joked. “You seem to know exactly what I’m doing.”
“Does that bother you?”
I looked at the Deity and smiled. “No, it gives me peace. Knowing you’re watching over me is better than any guardian angel.”
“Okay, I’ll ask you again. How are your boys?”
“The boys are terrific. It’s early to tell, but one thing is clear. Jason has a supernatural touch on his life.”