The Immortal Warriors Boxed Set: Books 1-11

by H. T. Night

  “Yes, he does. How do you feel about that?” The Deity took my hand because she knew this bothered me. She read me so well.

  “It scares me. I want to understand it better.”

  “That is why you’re his father. Fatherhood isn’t necessarily just given by blood. It’s given by responsibility. As Jason gets older, it will be something only he will fully understand. Healing will be one of his many gifts.”

  “Is he going to be like me?”

  “Not at all. He is nothing like you. He is nothing like any of us.”

  “That’s not that comforting.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I understand what I am and I could help him to be all he can be.”

  “You will, but in your own way. Josiah, you are a fighter. A born soldier. It is at the core of your heart. Jason won’t have any of those characteristics. He will be mild and tenderhearted. He will have knowledge and insight. He will win battles with his words, not with his fists.”

  “I have another question. Jason needed to heal Lena, seconds after he was born. I had tried to do it, but I couldn’t. Why not?”

  “When someone has the power of healing as a gift, it serves no purpose if they can heal themselves. Healing is a selfless act and needs to be looked upon as such.”

  “But I was trying to heal Lena, the mother of my two little boys. It doesn’t get more selfless than that.”

  “Josiah, you and Lena are bonded beyond this world. In many ways, you already are ‘one.’ The Triat works in mysterious ways and apparently one of them is this: When two people are connected as you two are in the spiritual realm, then it will be treated as if you two are one. Therefore, the power of healing was obsolete.”

  I nodded my head. I couldn’t question a gift I had no business having in the first place. I had other thoughts on my mind. “It’s close, isn’t it? The battle against Krull?” I reached my other hand out for the Deity to hold it. She took both my hands and placed both her hands inside them.

  “Is that why I have become a werewolf, too?”

  “Josiah, the werewolf transformation surprised me as well. Then again, nothing should surprise me in regard to you. Josiah, I have something else extremely pertinent to share with you.”

  I looked at The Deity and knew this was going to be extremely serious. “What is it?”

  “Josiah, I am going away.”

  “Where? Why?”

  “Because it is not safe for any of us. Krull has hit his crossroads, and he is ready.”

  “Where will you go?”

  “Somewhere safe. You need not worry about me.”

  “I need to worry only about Krull.”

  “You’re about to experience a Mani bloodbath of epic proportions. Many of our people will die in the battle. But, sadly, it needs to be done. Otherwise, Krull will do the unthinkable.”

  “Which is what?”

  “Reveal us to mankind. He is only looking at you as an obstacle. His real mission is to turn hundreds of thousands of Tandra into Mani and kill the rest of the human race, except for the few who are kept only for food, in captivity, to be selectively bred and milked for their blood, like human dairy cows. He aims to take over the world and make it one race, one power. Him.”

  “And it is up to me to stop this madman?”

  “Yes, that is why you are the ‘Chosen One.’ Your heart is for the survival and quality of life of all people, regardless of whether they are human, Mani or Carni. You see the value of life.”

  I wanted to stay with her longer, but I know I needed to get back. I stood up and kissed the Deity on the top of her head. I looked down at her and said, “I’m not sure what my end result in all of this is. And I don’t want you to tell me. If this is the last I see you in this form, I want you to know that ‘in you’ has been my hiding place. This room has been my temple. Thank you for that.”

  “Josiah, no matter how dismal a situation feels to be, never quit, and remember always, to look up.”

  I smiled, and I left the room.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  I left the orphanage compound and decided to transition into my eagle form, so I could fly and get home a little more stress free. When I flew in my human form, I was always afraid someone might snap my photo on a cell phone camera. Before I knew it, there could be a viral video on YouTube of a man flying through the night sky.

  As I flew back, something didn’t feel right. It was a feeling that I couldn’t shake. I felt something awful was in the midst. I pressed forward, however. I flew over Temecula. Temecula is a city in California that has one of the biggest Indian casinos in the United States. It also has a lot of vineyards along Highway 79. I was flying over Highway 79 when I heard a loud, screeching sound in the distance.

  I halted my flight, and I decided to ascend higher in the sky. That was not a pleasant sound. I decided to transition back to my Mani form. As I glided upwards, my worst nightmare had just occurred. There were hundreds of ravens coming at me from every direction.

  At first, I held out a glimpse of hope that they were my own crew. I wasn’t so lucky. One by one, these birds drilled into my flesh first. I fought them off to the best of my ability. But it was impossible to fight so many different creatures coming at me from so many different directions.

  I flew to the ground and landed in a desert area off Highway 79 deep in a private vineyard. I was by myself, so I began calling out to Tommy and Helen in my mind for help. But I had no luck. Neither one of them responded. Tommy was obviously not in his werewolf form and for whatever reason, Helen wasn’t responding.

  “Helen,” I yelled out in my mind.

  Nothing.

  I was about to transition to my werewolf form and call on Lena, but I didn’t have time. Within seconds, all the ravens that were once in the sky had surrounded me. Then in unison, they all transitioned into their Mani forms. I was surrounded by at least a thousand Mani men, on the enemy’s team. It was an incredible sight to behold. Then, like the Red Sea, they parted to each side. Out from the middle, Krull appeared, and he walked up to the center, yelling, “No one touch him! At least... not yet!”

  Krull was one of the most muscular beings I had ever seen. His long black hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and his face was pale. He had put warrior makeup on his face, arms and neck. Being that he was of Japanese descent, he looked like something out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. He was John Woo’s wet dream. Clearly, he had to be the baddest motherfucker on the planet. But as far as I was concerned, he was the second baddest motherfucker on the planet. Even as beat up as I was by the ravens, I stood my ground. I didn’t have much choice. I wasn’t about to fight a thousand Mani men. And no way in hell would I surrender and serve the evil entity that was Krull, a Mani would ruin the entire planet if he was not stopped.

  “This is a real Mani army!” Krull yelled out. “You probably recognize some of my men!”

  I looked around his army. There were guys that I had taught, fed, and sheltered for the past nine months. Now, they were facing me as enemies.

  “Are you through with your little Boy Scout mission of trying to stop the inevitable?” Krull continued, as he inched closer and closer to me.

  “You know I’m not!” I shouted back.

  “That’s too bad.”

  “I don’t see it as a bad thing.”

  “I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse!” Krull said, in a lousy Marlon Brando impression from The Godfather.

  “You corrupt, power-hungry warmonger. You wannabe Mani overlord. You son of hate and misery. You harbinger of death and destruction. I don’t want to hear anything you have to offer.”

  Krull looked at me with contempt. “Well, look around, Josiah, you don’t have much of a choice. You can’t exactly fight your way out of this one.”

  “Josiah, it’s Helen. What’s going on?” I heard Helen’s voice in my head.

  I looked at Krull and smiled, trying not to give him any clue I was communicating with some
one telepathically. “I’ve been ambushed. I’m in Temecula off of Highway 79. Krull is six feet from my face. I need everyone down here fast.”

  “We’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  I looked at Krull and he nodded his head to a person behind me. Then suddenly, I was hit over the back of my head by something. It was the worst pain I had ever felt. This was not good.

  I fell forward, and I totally blacked out.

  ***

  I opened my eyes, and something had happened. I was no longer on Highway 79. I was no longer surrounded by Mani ready to kill me on the word ‘go.’ I remembered what The Deity had said to me. ‘Look up.’

  I looked up, and I was on a beach somewhere. It was a location I didn’t recognize. I laid there, far away from the world. Suddenly, I heard a voice in the distance.

  “Josiah.” It was a woman’s voice. “Josiah, can you see me?” I turned around and there was a blonde woman walking toward me wearing a light blue dress. At first, I thought it was Helen. As she approached, it was clear to me who this was.

  It was Maya Reign. My sister.

  “Maya?” I asked.

  “Yes, Josiah.”

  “Where am I?”

  “You’re dreaming, Josiah.”

  “So, you’re not real?”

  “I am very real, but you are dreaming.”

  “How can you be real if I’m dreaming?”

  “Hold my hand,” she said. Maya walked over to me, and I held her hand.

  “This is going to hurt. Just keep holding my hand.”

  “What’s going to hurt?”

  Suddenly, my eyes opened, and I had regained consciousness. I looked around, and I was 100 feet in the air. I could see mountains and trees in the distance. I was strapped into something metallic. I looked all around me, and I was a mess. I was in some kind of torture device. My hands, wrists, ankles and feet were killing me. But nothing hurt as much as my head. Something was pressing up against my skull.

  I’m not sure how much time had passed, or the whereabouts of my location. All I knew was that I was in a lot of pain.

  “Josiah, you’re awake!” a voice called out from below.

  I could barely breathe. Whatever was holding me up was restricting my breath. It was some kind of elevated crucifixion device that these sick fucks had put together in their spare time.

  One of the things that kept hurting and made me wish for death was my head. I thought it was because I had been hit in the back of the head before I lost consciousness. But, again, the pain was also in front of my head, protruding into my temples.

  I tried to look at the image below me that was speaking to me, but the pain was too intense and I passed out again.

  Once again, I slipped back into a dream state. I opened my eyes and I was back on the beach. I was looking out into the ocean and I could hear seagulls flying overhead. My sister was walking toward me from just offshore, the water at her hip level.

  “Don’t give up, Josiah, don’t ever give up. I am here. I am with you!” Maya walked up to me and wrapped her arms around me the way she used to when we were kids when I was afraid of the dark.

  “What’s happening to me?” I asked, pleading with her.

  “You’re going to be okay. Just whatever you do, don’t give up.”

  I opened my eyes back into consciousness. I was back in the mechanical torture machine. I could see a mass of Mani men below me.

  “You enjoying yourself, Josiah?” Krull yelled. He had elevated his body in the air to match mine. I looked all around me and could see I was also on some kind of crane. The pain I was feeling in my head, hands and feet were excruciating. It was the worst pain I had felt in my entire life. What were they doing to me? Krull continued to float right in front of me where I was hanging. “Confused, are we, Josiah?”

  “What is happening?” I asked. I was at his mercy. I was completely helpless. I looked down at my feet and I could see a steel bar going right through the top of my ankle from one side to the other. They had pierced my feet. I looked to my left, and my left arm was pinned to a metal crane with several spikes piercing through my wrists and hands. To my right, they had done the same to my right arm.

  They were crucifying me in a metal cross that was 100 feet above the earth. I was also tilted at a 45-degree angle in which my body was being pulled forward. Again, my head hurt more than any part of my body.

  Krull flew in front of me holding a mirror and now revealed that he was holding a mirror. “Look at you, The Chosen,” Krull said, mocking me. “We decided to crown The Chosen while you slept.”

  “Why?” I yelled. “I never asked for that!”

  “But, so you are,” Krull announced, looking at his men. I looked down and there were a lot less Mani here than met me in Temecula. “You are the chosen king,” Krull continued. “Every king needs his crown, and here is yours!” Krull lifted the mirror he had in his hand to my face. I looked at my image. They had implanted a metal crown on top of head and through my skull. Entering from all sides of my head were metal spikes that were drilling into my skull.

  Holy shit! This was not the way it was supposed to end.

  I had no idea where I was, and whatever was happening to me had cut off all communications to Tommy and Helen.

  Krull looked at me. “You thought you could communicate with your friends with your mind?” Krull laughed. He somehow knew that I tried to contact Tommy and Helen. Then I began to lose consciousness again. “Don’t go away, Josiah,” Krull shouted in my face, laughing at the top of his lungs. “We need to talk!”

  It was no use. I slipped out of consciousness again. I was now floating in a raft in the ocean. Maya was with me as the sun shined down on me. It was the first time I had felt the sun in quite some time and it was nice. My dreams were the only relief I was getting from the agonizing pain that was being delivered to me. This was the first time I was aware of my reality while I was with Maya. My conscious and unconscious self was merging into one.

  “Help is coming, Josiah, just hold on,” Maya said. “Just hold on!”

  Again, my eyes popped open. Krull was right up in my grill, using his fingers to open my eyelid. “Hello, Josiah. You awake?” Krull was just messing with me now. “Are you finished with your disillusioned prophecy? Will you now join me? Or will you leave it all out here tonight? Literally? Every bit and piece of you?”

  I spit in his face. “I deny you!” Through my pain, I blurted out, “I will never stand with you. I will never turn on this world. Your ideology is outdated and self-serving. I will die here, before I would ever agree to follow you!”

  “That’s too bad,” Krull said, shaking his head.

  Then I heard a voice from the sky. “You won’t have to! Look up, Josiah!”

  I looked up and it was Atticai, followed by a sea of ravens. He was coming right for Krull, leading with his foot. Atticai kicked Krull in the face in a downward spiral. Krull collapsed to the ground onto his back. I looked around me and several ravens followed Atticai down.

  Krull didn’t have a lot of men in this location and he was clearly outnumbered by Atticai’s crew. That didn’t stop his proud men from fighting, however. The next few minutes were as bad as Mani bloodbath as I ever could imagine. I was stuck on my metal cross, unable to lead or assist my Mani army. It was probably a good thing because I doubted that I could have been much help, in my current condition. But to my complete surprise, Krull retreated and took his army out of whatever secret location he had brought me to.

  Atticai gently released me to the ground and it took about 45 minutes to unhook me from Krull’s mechanical crucifix. The most painful part was removing all the metal spikes from my hands, feet and head.

  I collapsed to the ground. I was battered, bruised and bloodied. But I had been saved. I was saved by the last person I ever thought would be my rescuer. Atticai came to my rescue. I looked up and once again, I blacked out. This time there was no Maya... only darkness.

  Chapter Twenty-six

/>   I’m not exactly sure how everything transpired, but somehow I was brought back to my house in Victorville. For the next two weeks, I slipped in and out of awareness of my surroundings and sleep.

  I would have memories where I was awake and Lena was lying next to me, just holding me. That would never last long because I would lose consciousness again.

  In my ocean world, Maya, my sister, was there each time, getting me through. This time it was Lena, but I started realizing that she was actually there. She had come back from Amsterdam to see me.

  This went on for days. Then finally, I woke up, and it was for good. I opened my eyes and felt more strength than I had felt in a long time.

  I looked up and saw Lena. She was really there and it wasn’t a dream.

  “Hey you,” Lena said to me. “Are you back for good?”

  “I hope so.” I maneuvered my body and sat up. My butt was extremely sore. But nothing to the pain I had in my head, hands and feet.

  “Are the boys here, too?” I asked, not sure how I felt about Lena being back.

  “No, they are still in Amsterdam with Linda and Wyatt. They are both doing an amazing job watching over them. You’d be happy to know they’re both taking their jobs seriously.” Lena looked at me, and I could tell she was trying to be strong.

  “What’s wrong, sweetie?” I asked, knowing better.

  “What’s wrong? I can barely recognize you. You look awful, Josiah.”

  “Thanks.” I had no idea how bad I looked. I could only imagine how gruesome my face must look after having metal spikes drilled into my head.

  “I don’t think I can do this,” Lena said, breaking down.

  “No one is asking you to. Please go back to Amsterdam where you can be safe.”

  “I don’t want to go back to Amsterdam! I want to be with you! What I’m trying to say is I can’t watch you die. I can’t bear witness to you giving this ultimate effort where you return to us like a dog that has been run over by a car and dragged for miles!” Lena began to cry. “I can’t imagine what they did to you. What you had to go through. And for what? For those people out there? Those Mani men and women that you don’t even know?”