by H. T. Night
Wyatt, the same guy who tried to feast on my arm, started the van and threw it into reverse. Dirt and grass and mud kicked up and soon we were bounding over the sidewalk and back onto the street. There, he shoved the gearshift into drive and the van literally squealed away, briefly slewing sideways.
Most of the seats had been removed. The others freaks were hanging out the windows. Only Lena and the red-headed girl were looking at me.
I wanted to ask where the hell they were taking me, but I was still weak and oddly drained of energy. And so I did the only thing I could think of, I closed my eyes and hoped I would awaken from this nightmare.
Chapter Three
I must have passed out.
When I opened my eyes again, the redheaded woman was lying next to me. She had my wrist in her hand and was putting rubbing alcohol on the bite marks. “Does it hurt?” she asked.
“A little,” I said.
“Wyatt is very sorry for biting you. He thought you were one those pricks at the party.”
“Yeah, sorry, dude. That was totally my bad.” Wyatt said to me from the driver’s seat. “I thought you were making a run for it.”
I had no idea how to respond to a guy who had just bitten my neck and drank blood from my arm. I’m sure my expression said it all, probably a cross between What the hell? and Seriously? You drank my blood?
Instead of answering, I turned back to the redheaded girl and asked, “Where are we going?”
She looked at me with a softness that was a complete one-eighty from what I had seen earlier, when she was whipping dudes into submission. “We’re headed to the Flatlands. It’s just north of Arrowhead.”
“We’re in the mountains?” I asked. If so, that means we had been driving for over an hour.
The girl nodded. “We weren’t about to stick around and allow you and Lena to get arrested.” She grinned a little. “We’re not complete monsters.”
Being arrested was nothing new to me. Then again, explaining the bite marks on my wrist and neck to the police might be hard to do. Yeah, it was probably best to get the hell out of there. Then again, getting the hell out of there with these weirdos might not have been my best choice, though.
Atticai was sitting up against the inside of the car door. With his long limbs bent sharply, he looked a bit like a preying mantis. He had his arm around Lena. A protective gesture, I thought. Kind of like an older brother protecting his little sister. Anyway, Atticai was staring at me, and it was making me feel very uncomfortable. I’m not used to feeling uncomfortable. I decided I didn’t like the feeling. Normally, a guy openly staring at me like that was grounds for a serious beating. But because I was so physically drained, I decided I would let Atticai slide for now. Yeah, let’s go with that reason.
He stared at me for another few seconds and then asked, “Did you really beat the shit out of those five guys before we got there?”
I thought about his question. I wasn’t sure if the king freak would be impressed by that or threatened. Finally, I shrugged and said, “Yeah, I did.”
“With only your hands?” he asked.
“And my feet,” I said, making a kicking motion that looked awkward because I was still lying down.
Atticai nodded. “Impressive,” he said. He was now stroking Lena’s hair, who was sort of sitting there impassively. I couldn’t tell if she liked his touch or not. Anyway, he was treating her more like a pet than a human being, which I found creepy as hell. He looked back at me. “So what’s your name?”
“Josiah.”
“Well, thanks, Josiah. I’m not sure what would have happened to Lena if you hadn’t stepped in.”
Was this guy for real? Was he really acting this normal? He and his buddies just got done literally ripping the flesh and drinking the blood of the party goers, and he was just sitting there, calming petting Lena.
I shivered. Something very weird and very wrong was going on here. And I was trapped in the van, still weak as hell from having my own blood feasted on.
Sweet Jesus.
The third guy spoke up. “What are you?” he asked. “Some kind of superhero?” He was sitting in the front passenger seat next to Wyatt. He was as thin as the others and just as pale, and he was often grinning, as if he found all of this funny.
I sat up a little more, feeling some of my strength coming back. Or willing my strength to come back. The redheaded girl and Atticai were still staring at me. I guess I was just going to have to get used to these creeps staring at me. Granted, having a beautiful redhead staring at me was certainly less creepy, but not by much.
I said, “I just wanted to help Lena.” I looked over at her again. Now she glanced at me and smiled, even while Atticai continued running his fingers through her hair. She had a sort of zen presence about her now that she was obviously very safe.
Or maybe she’s just as freaked out as you, I thought. But I doubted it. She knew these people. And she wasn’t afraid.
“Well, you guys seemed to have things pretty well under control,” I said, purposely not mentioning the part where they also seemed to have enjoyed a late night snack.
Seriously. Who were these people?
The red-headed woman wrapped a bandage around my wrist. “My name’s Yari,” she said, taping the bandage on. Her touch was gentle, pleasant...and oddly cold. As if her fingers had been dipped in a bucket of chilled blood. The contradictory nature of all of these individuals was making my brain spin.
“Yari?” I asked, trying to pronounce it correctly.
She smiled at me. She really was beautiful. I felt like her bright, searching eyes could see right through me. “Yes...Yari; it rhymes with Atari.” She smiled.
As creeped out as I was, I smiled, too. “Wow, an old-school gamer. I’m impressed.”
“Oh, you have no idea how old school I am.” She grinned, then flicked her gaze over to Atticai, who was still staring at me. “The freakishly tall scary fellow here is Atticai.” She nodded toward the driver. “You already know Wyatt. And in the passenger seat is Hector. Hector likes to smile a lot and doesn’t say much, but when he does he asks profound things like ‘Are you a superhero?’”
I nodded and actually smiled at everyone. I guessed introductions were in order considering I was being kidnapped.
Wyatt suddenly turned the van hard to the right and hit the brakes. “We’re here.”
Atticai leaped into motion, his long limbs unfurling in a blink like some weird alien life form awaken from a slumber. He threw open the bay door, and he and Lena jumped out. I slowly followed with my bandage around my wrist and no doubt a damn big hickey on my neck from Wyatt. Remind me to kick the freak’s ass later.
The Flatlands was a giant gravel parking lot that was surrounded by trees. We were obviously in the heart of the San Bernardino Mountains. The sky was lit-up by stars that you just can’t see in the city. There were several trucks and cars parked throughout the gravel area. Beyond the cars were fires and voices and many dark-clad figures. It appeared to be a giant party, a rave of some sort. Except everyone here appeared to be dressed in black.
A freak convention, I thought.
There were bonfires everywhere and the sounds of old-school Suicidal Tendencies blaring. A quick scan and guestimate told me that there were at least a hundred or so of these “emo” characters.
I was led over to one of the bonfires. Atticai still had his arm around Lena. He was still giving off this protective vibe when it came to her. It was surreal, to say the least.
Anyway, as we walked up there was no doubt who was the alpha male in this group. A sort of swatch opened for him and he walked down the middle of it. Everyone seemed to turn and watch him. I stopped at the edge of the fire with Yari and watched as Atticai took off his trench coat and then his T-shirt. He was pretty ripped. He was damn pale, granted, but the dude had some serious game in the ab department. His stomach looked like it was carved out of alabaster by Michelangelo himself. No wonder Lena liked this guy. Even though he was a
huge freak, he was a man among boys in this adoring crowd. Anyway, as he turned his back to me, I saw that he had a pretty strange tattoo covering the upper half of his back. It was, in fact, writing. Big black Old English letters spelled out the acronym “C.O.N.”
Okay, whatever.
One of the guys at the party walked up to Atticai and handed him a wooden jug that looked like something out of 1800’s. Atticai grabbed the jug and immediately jumped on the hood of one of the trucks and took a long drink from whatever was in the container.
He then turned and looked straight at me. “Hey, Josiah! Wanna swig?”
“What is it? I asked from the other side of the fire.
“A little of everything. Tastes like shit, but that’s not the point.”
I was about to ask what the point was, but I decided I didn’t really want to know. It was probably laced with God-knows-what. Whatever it was, I know I didn’t want it in my body. Not with my big fighting coming up.
“I’ll pass.” I said. “I’m in training.”
“Training?” Atticai laughed. “Training for what?”
“For a fight I’m having next month. I’m a professional fighter.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep.”
“No wonder you kicked so much ass. I didn’t realize I was in the presence of Muhammad Ali.”
“I’m not a boxer. I’m a mixed martial artist.”
“You mean that crazy Royce Gracie crap?”
“It’s evolved since him, but, yeah.”
Everyone at the party was now looking at me. They seemed impressed that Atticai was taking a liking to me. As if we were old friends or something. I still wasn’t sure what I thought about all this.
I was just about to relax a tad when someone shoved me hard in the back. I took a couple steps towards the fire and turned around and immediately dropped into a fighter position. Standing there was a bleached-blonde idiot about my size, staring at me.
“You think you’re bad shit?” the guy asked.
You have got to be kidding me. Was I really about to have another scuffle? This dude looked ridiculous. This guy had a Danzig shirt on and had several piercings in his face. One punch to his face would tear him to shreds, not to mention ruin about five hundred dollars worth of jewelry.
“No,” I said. “But I could beat the stupid out of you.”
The bleached-blonde guy got up in my face. “I don’t like you.”
“Back the hell off, Rubidoux!” Atticai shouted.
“Why? If this guy is such a badass, then let’s have him prove it.”
“Rubidoux, you’re tanked. Trust me, you don’t want anything to do with this guy,” Atticai insisted.
But Rubidoux didn’t listen. He took a swing at me and I instinctively ducked. When you fight, you always go by instinct. You also have to account for your surroundings, and especially friends. In this case, I knew that I couldn’t strike this guy or I might have dozens of guys on me. Punching out friends always has a way of getting other friends riled up. But friends will generally let a fight play-out if it goes to the ground. Of course, what happens after that is anyone’s guess.
Anyway, I knelt down and shot my shoulders straight into his legs. In one smooth motion, I picked him up and threw him hard to his shoulders, pinning him down on his back, while holding down both his arms. A perfect take-down. I was very careful not to touch his face. Had we been alone, he would already have been knocked out.
“I don’t know you,” I said to Rubidoux. “I have no problem with you. You need to calm the hell down.”
“All right, man, get the fuck off me.”
“You going to be cool?” I insisted.
Then without warning Rubidoux turned his head and puked all over the rocks. I jumped back as the dumbass wiped his mouth.
As I stood back, Atticai did a whooping warrior-scream at the top of his lungs. When he was done acting like a crazy man, he pointed at me and shouted, “I knew this guy was badass!”
Everyone yelled and cheered and many mimicked his ear-splitting rebel yell. I was apparently caught up in some kind of Goth pep rally in my honor.
“On second thought,” I said to Atticai. “Give me some of that.”
I walked around the fire and over to him. He grinned and handed me the wooden container. I sniffed the contents and almost lost my own lunch and dinner. It smelled like dead fish and dead everything else. But it was too late to turn back. Everyone was watching me. Holding my breath, I downed the disgusting contents like water.
Yeah, it was the worst thing I had ever drank.
But I was fired up. I always get fired up when I kick someone’s ass. Even weird Goth dudes. As I pulled away from the wooden jug, I yelled at the top of my lungs—the same Braveheart yell that Atticai seemed to prefer—and everyone immediately cheered.
And as they bellowed and whooped and hollered, I could only think: What the hell have I gotten myself into?
Chapter Four
Everyone went back to partying.
The music got cranked up louder, and insanity seemed to fill the air. I went and sat on a giant log next to the bonfire. I looked over at Lena, who was still standing with Atticai. For once, he didn’t have his arms around her. She caught me looking at her and gave me the kind of look that suggested I had somehow been accepted.
Did I even want to be accepted by these people?
That putrid drink was pretty powerful. I had a buzz going almost instantly. Redheaded Yari walked over to me. Damn, she looked good. Her black lace dress was looking pretty amazing on her, too. That Rubidoux character had gotten my testosterone raging and now Yari’s outfit was sending my hormones through the roof. Or, at least, straight up to all those stars in the sky.
“You had quite a night,” she said, sitting next to me. She was sipping on a bluish drink in a clear glass.
“Whatcha drinking?” I asked. My voice, I noticed was slightly slurred. It also sounded sort of distant, too, as if I had spoken from about ten feet away. Weird, I know.
“Oh, it’s my own special blend. I call it ‘Sex On the Beach and Everywhere Else Too.”
“Is that a joke?”
“If you want it to be.”
I looked at her. God, she was a bright light in all this Goth doom and gloom. She smiled at me. I smiled back. I wanted to kiss her, until I reminded myself that earlier tonight I had watched her drink from some guy’s neck. I said. “You know, you guys are going to have to give me back. Kidnapping is illegal in this state. And all other states, for that matter.”
“I’ll take you back any time you want. Do you want to leave?”
I thought about that. The party was raging around me. Bodies dancing around the massive bonfires. There was a sense of excitement, of freedom, of hungry passion. The hungry part, admittedly, made me a little nervous, but other than that, this was a pretty cool party.
“Actually, I guess not,” I said, shrugging. “At least, not yet.”
She smiled knowingly, as if she already knew what my answer would be. She said, “We figured those guys would have thrown you under the bus once the cops came. You were probably looking at about ten counts of attempted murder. No joke.” She was probably right.
“Luckily none of those assholes even knew my name.” I guessed I should be more grateful that the Addams Family here took a liking to me. “I guess I’ll stick around for awhile, as long as no one tries to eat me.”
She laughed. “Cool. Let’s go for a walk.” Yari took my hand and led me off the Flatlands lot and into the woods.
I was quiet for a bit. I felt safe with her. I don’t think I had ever met a girl who could kick as much ass as I could. I finally asked, “Who are you guys? I mean, are you guys part of some kind of band or something?”
“Why do you say that?”
“It makes sense. I thought maybe your band’s name was Con?”
“Con?” Yari laughed.
“The letters written across Atticai’s back.”
; “Those are initials. It’s an acronym for Children of the Night.”
“And what—or who—is that?”
“Us. Our clan. Our group.”
“All those people back there?”
“No, just mainly the ones who kidnapped you.” Yari smiled at me again.
“So what are you guys, then? A club?”
“Something like that. We’re just some people who have one or two things in common.”
I guess biting into people’s flesh and thinking you were vampires were the things they had in common, but I decided to keep that to myself. Instead, I said, “Are any of those guys back there your boyfriend?”
Yari smiled at me. “Do you think if I had a boyfriend back there that I would be out here in the woods with you now?”
“Probably not.”
“Besides,” she added, “I don’t do the boyfriend thing. Too much drama.” I could feel her eyes on me. “What about you? Got yourself a girlfriend?”
“It’s been awhile since I had one.”
“And why is that?”
“Don’t have the time. And, like you, I’m not into all the games.”
“I guess we have something in common, then.” Yari handed me her drink.
“I guess we do.” I took a sip. “That actually tastes pretty good. Granted, that’s not saying much, but I think anything would taste better than the crap Atticai gave me.”
She smiled. “Well, despite popular opinion, I’m still very much a girl, and I like girlie drinks.”
“Trust me, you are very much all girl—or all woman—from where I stand.”
“Are you flirting with me Josiah?”
“Maybe,” I said.
We stopped walking and I leaned up against a tree. Yari sat on a giant rock next to me. I looked down at Yari—and decided that we needed to get real. “So what the hell is all of this, Yari? And please be honest with me.”