by H. T. Night
“As the hawk flies,” she said, pinching me. “Crows are vile.”
“What’s the difference between a crow and a raven?”
“Do we really want to talk about it?”
I shrugged. “Probably not. So does it really have to be this way?”
“What way?”
“The sacrifice and all the bloodletting, or whatever it is, that Atticai plans on doing to Lena.”
“Yes, Josiah.”
“And where is it going to take place?”
“It’s only going to be the four of us and Lena. We’re going to do it at the old Savoy Ranch. That’s where it is in the dream.”
“Savoy Ranch is popular with hikers and campers. Aren’t you afraid someone will see you?”
“Josiah, we are not afraid of anything. And don’t get any ideas. I’ve spared you tonight. But if you want to live you will stay here and wait for me. Once Atticai becomes the Chosen One he might show you clemency. That’s what I’m hoping for, at least. Otherwise, you’re going to have to spend the rest of your life on the run.”
“Great. I’m once again at Atticai’s mercy. I saw what his mercy did to me the last time.”
I rolled over and pretended to go to sleep. Like hell I was going to stay here. I’ve never run from a fight in my life, and no seven-foot goon, especially a goon I had already choked out, was going to stop me from helping a girl I cared about. Once Yari left I had about 24 hours to convince Lena not to trust those bastards.
Minutes later, Yari kissed me gently on the head. She opened the window after first peeling off the tape. I cracked an eye open and watched as she transitioned back into Daphne and took off out of the window. In a flash of wings she was gone, and, as I stared at the window, all I could think of was that I just watched a person turn into a bird.
I decided to wait about an hour just in case she decided to come back for any reason. As I waited, I gathered my stuff and left $200 on the bed with a note saying we were sorry for leaving early.
An hour later, I was stowing my things in Tommy’s Mustang. I had a brief moment when the pain of his passing hit me hard, and I covered my face and sobbed hard into my hands. Through all this madness, I hadn’t even had time to mourn Tommy. He had died only three days ago. Unfortunately, I was now caught up in a world that I needed to fix.
Even more unfortunate was that I didn’t have anything close to a plan; that is, unless you counted: find Lena.
I fired up the car and headed out. I very much intended to do just that.
Chapter Sixteen
I drove all night and got to Lena’s house at about 7:00 a.m.
There were no cars parked out front and the lights were out. The place looked empty and I suddenly felt hopeless. The only other place I could think to look was the creepy mansion in Victorville. I knocked on the door and waited. I kept looking in the sky for Daphne. Sadly, I knew I needed to avoid her as well.
Finally, I heard the door unlatch. It opened and Lena was standing there wearing white shorts and a red tank top. Her hair was messy and I had obviously woken her up.
“Holy shit, Josiah! You’re alive!” Lena jumped in my arms and hugged me. “Come in, I don’t want anyone to see you.”
“Where’s your family?”’
“They took off to Vegas last night.”
Lena grabbed a blanket on the floor and laid it on the couch. I looked around the living room area. It was very conservative. There were crosses on the wall, pictures of Jesus, and posters with Bible verses on them.
“Wow, I guess you rebelled didn’t you?” I said, referring to all the Christian stuff in the room.
“Don’t even get me started on the hypocrisy in this house. I am so happy you’re here.”
“You are?” I said, surprised.
“Josiah, I was so upset when I heard what they had done to you. You have to understand Atticai had no choice. I know on some level he was hoping you would make it. He just has to abide by the rules of the Triat. If Atticai wanted you dead, you really would be dead. He gave you an out, and you made it.”
“Some out,” I said, thinking about all the snakes. Sweet Jesus, I was going to have nightmares for the rest of my life. But the thought that Atticai wasn’t so bad actually intrigued me. Indeed, if he wanted me dead, they could have just dropped me from high above. I would have fallen a hundred or so feet, at least ten stories roughly. I would have been dead for sure. Instead, he sent snakes after me. Still, the big goon had nefarious plans for Lena, and that’s where I drew the line. Atticai, in the end, was no friend of mine.
And since when did I start using words like nefarious? Since I started talking about vampires. Vampires and nefarious sort of go hand in hand.
I shook my head, focusing my thoughts. “Well, before he decided to turn into his little black bird, I almost choked him out.”
“Be glad you didn’t. The other guys would had ripped you to shreds.”
“Why, Lena?”
“Why, what?”
“Why do you love him? Why do you want that world? Why do you have to be a part of them? You’re better than that.”
“Am I now? Look around, Josiah. I live in a two bedroom trailer house where my step dad finds a way to put his grimy hands on me every day. And if he’s not doing that he’s spying on me showering or changing.”
“Then move out. Go somewhere else.”
“Where? Where can I go?” She paused, perhaps sensing the silliness of her own question. A nineteen year old girl could go anywhere. In the least, she could move in with friends, like Tommy and I had done. She steeled her resolve and said, “I love Atticai and he loves me. And that’s enough for me.”
“But he doesn’t love you, Lena. He’s using you.”
“What do you know? You didn’t know any of them until a month ago and now you’re an expert? I know you lost your best friend and I can’t imagine how bad that is screwing with your head, but I’m not you. This is the life I want.”
“Lena, listen to me: if you leave tonight with Atticai, he will kill you.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about—”
“Lena, I know more than you know. I know about their prophecies. Atticai is to be their Chosen One. He is going to become some white eagle or something and save all the good Mani from the bad Mani. I know everything.”
“Then what’s the problem Josiah? Atticai and I will be connected always. Don’t you see? It’s beautiful.”
“Wait, you know?”
“I know what I care to know. I know Atticai needs me to fulfill his destiny and I’m willing to do whatever it takes and to do whatever he needs me to do to make that happen.”
“Even if it means killing you?!” I yelled. “He’s going to suck all the blood out of your body. You are basically going to bleed to death. You do understand that you are not one of them, right? You can romanticize it all you want. In the end he’s going to kill you.”
“I see,” she said, but I don’t think she saw at all. “What do you suggest I should do then, Josiah, since you seem to have all the answers?”
“Run away with me. I have over a hundred thousand in the bank from my MMA winnings and inheritance. Run away with me, Lena, and we’ll start a whole new life together.”
“Are you in love with me or something?”
I looked at her and really didn’t know how to answer that. “All I know is I don’t want you to die. I want you to live. I’m willing to do whatever it takes.”
“Josiah, come sit next to me.” She patted the couch next to her, and I did as she asked. “I know a lot has happened since you stuck up for me. To be honest, I cried for hours when they told me that you were dead. But every once in awhile, we’re given a chance to be a part of something greater than ourselves. Some people never get this chance. I’m going to take it.”
“But you’re going to die. And for what? So some hidden underground societies have peace?”
Lena put her arms around me and I found my head resting on her chest. I co
uld hear the strong beat of her heart. She was so amazing. She was so comforting, too. I came here to try to save her, but instead she was comforting me. I was exhausted and soon we both fell asleep in each others’ arms. There was nothing sexual about it. It was just two friends who discovered they loved each other.
* * *
We woke up around noon and I tried talking her out of it several times. Mostly, she didn’t want to talk about it. We got something to eat, and mostly I couldn’t eat. How can you eat knowing the person sitting across from you, a person you had come to care about deeply, was going to die in just a matter of hours. We talked a lot, and I got to know her even more. Every time I brought up her coming birthday, she shushed me with a haunting smile. All in all, it was a very strange day.
Finally, it was about 10:30 at night.
“You’d better leave, Josiah. They’ll be picking me up at any minute to take me over to Savoy Ranch.”
I walked over to her and hugged her tight. I hugged her the way I would have hugged my mom and my sister the day they got into their car accident if I had somehow known their fate ahead of time. I knew Lena’s fate. I looked down at her and kissed her on the lips.
“Lena, whatever happens, know that I care about you.”
“I know, Josiah. You better go.”
I left and, feeling confused and lost, realized there was one thing that could ground me. One very grim thing. So I went over to the hospital to find out where they had sent Tommy’s body. After all, I still needed to make funeral arrangements.
The eeriness of pulling into the hospital in Tommy’s car wasn’t lost on me. I shuddered slightly and felt sick all over again. I went straight to the front and asked them about the deceased. They sent me to the morgue in the basement. After going through a bunch of doors and two different security guards, I found a pleasant-looking lady wearing horned-rim glasses sitting behind a desk. She seemed to be waiting for me.
“How can I help you?” she asked
The room was cold. I shivered. I said, “My friend died in this hospital a few days ago, and I need to make funeral arrangements.”
I knew a thing or two about hospitals and death, since I had lost my whole family. I knew hospitals kept bodies until family members could make arrangements for a proper burial.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said, and to her credit she sounded legitimately sorry. “What’s his name?”
“Tommy Jensen.”
She paused and stared at me. “You’re the family of Tommy Jensen?”
“Yes, more or less.”
“You need to go back upstairs and speak to human resources.”
“Why?” I said. “I was told to come down here. What happened?”
“I can’t get into it, young man. You’ll need to speak to a hospital administrator.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Do you have Tommy or not?”
She stared at me and, amazingly, I saw that her hands were shaking. What the fuck was going on? I forced myself to calm down, even though I felt my heart racing.
“Please, what’s going on?”
She looked over my shoulder and then behind her. We were alone. “I’ve been working in this hospital for over twenty years and I’ve never seen what I saw with your friend.”
Now my heart literally froze in my chest. “What are you talking about?”
“I shouldn’t be telling you this. In fact, I was told specifically never to mention again what I saw.”
I was suddenly finding breathing extremely difficult.
“But you’re here now, and...you have a right to know.” She took off her glasses and started shaking her head. “Screw my bosses. Sometimes you just have to do the right thing.”
“Please,” I said. My voice sounded strangled to my own ears.
“Three days ago, I get this body sent down to me. It’s all scratched and has bite marks all over it. I’m thinking this poor young man is a mess. Anyway, I do what I normally do to prep the body for autopsy.”
She paused again, and I found myself leaning over her desk, supporting my weight.
“So I began to wash some of his wounds. But the weirdest thing happened. I would wash a wound and the body would heat up and the wound would...heal right before me. I called a couple of my colleagues over and we started cleaning all of his wounds. Two hours after he had been pronounced dead, his pulse returned.”
“What?!” I yelled. I couldn’t help myself. The word just burst from my mouth.
“Quiet down. Please. So listen, we are all freaking out because we have a freaking miracle on the table. My colleagues and I leave the room to find the doctors....” Her voice trailed off.
It was all I could do to not grab her by her damn uniform and shake the story out of her. “What happened, goddammit?”
“When we came back...he was gone.”
“What do you mean gone?!”
“His body was gone. We had everyone searching, but he was nowhere to be found.”
I felt my knees buckle. Tommy was alive? Alive?
“Why, why didn’t anyone call me?”
“This is out of my hands, you’ll have to talk to someone upstairs. I already told you too much.”
“So no one saw him leave? Not even the security?”
She shook her head.
I looked at the clock on the wall as the elevator closed. It read 11:30. Savoy Ranch was ten minutes away. I thanked her and left.
I wasn’t sure how but I was going to save Lena, but I was going to. I also wasn’t sure how I was going to find Tommy, but I was going to do that, too.
Chapter Seventeen
As I sat in Tommy’s Mustang, I wondered if Tommy had been back to the house. I also wondered if he was trying to contact me. He must have been. I had been so caught up in all this crap I hadn’t been around to see him. Well, I still needed to do one more thing and, to be honest I had no idea if I was going to make it out of this alive.
We’ll find out soon enough, I thought.
I headed to the ranch. The ranch was tucked away in the canyon right before you head you head up the highway for the mountains. It’s a popular spot for hikers and campers...and apparently, vampires.
Tommy and I used to train up there, which is how I know about it, since I’m not exactly the outdoorsy type. It was, admittedly, beautiful up there. Well, tonight there wasn’t going to be much beauty up there. Tonight was going to be anything but.
I bounded around hairpin turns and straight cliffs, driving wildly and recklessly. A few miles from the ranch I turned off my lights. I wasn’t sure how well a vampire’s hearing was, but I didn’t have to announce my arrival in a blaze of headlights, either. Using the moon as my sole source of light, I followed the slightly glowing road all the way to the Ranch.
As I rounded the final bend, at exactly 11:50, I saw some glowing towards the back of the ranch. A bonfire. Surrounding the fire were four black-clad figures. No, there was a fifth, too. Someone dressed in a white gown. Lena.
It was now or never. I had no plan other than to fight. Hell, that’s all I was good for anyway. I may not be a vampire, but I sure as hell knew how to defeat an opponent, dead or undead.
On a whim, I opened Tommy’s glove compartment and could hardly believe my good luck. There was a long, rusty railroad spike inside. What he was doing with it, I didn’t know, but I had my suspicions. The spike made for a perfect stake. Granted, it wasn’t silver, but it would have to do.
I shoved the spike in my front pocket, took a deep breath, and stepped hard on the gas. Tommy’s Mustang responded wonderfully. The tires spun, rumbling loudly, no doubt kicking up lots of loose rocks and rubber.
And I shot forward.
The pinpoint of fire that had been the bonfire grew rapidly in my windshield. Soon the fire and all five figures filled the glass, and I turned the wheel hard, screeching recklessly over loose dirt. Had the Mustang not been so low to the ground I might have flipped it. I jumped out of the car.
At
ticai, mouth open and as tall and gaunt as ever, just stared at me. “You’re alive?”
“Surprise, motherfucker.”
He nodded slightly and cocked his head. “I guess the evil has arrived.”
“The only evil is you, Atticai.” I looked at Lena and she looked scared. She looked, if anything, as if she was having second thoughts about this. “Lena, you don’t want to do this.”
Wyatt stepped forward. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing, Josiah? This isn’t about us. This isn’t even about Lena. This is about—”
“I know what this is about, Wyatt: killing Lena so that Atticai can become some super vampire to defeat the Carni and the fallen Mani.”
Atticai crossed his long arms over his narrow chest. “Oh my, I see someone has been given a prophecy lesson. And since it’s not the Reader’s Digest version that we give to Lena, that can only mean....” He turned to another black-clad figure, the smallest of the four. “Was he worth it Yari?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Atticai,” she said.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about, kid,” he said. “Don’t you think that I know you’ve fallen for Josiah? Don’t you think that I know the only way Josiah’s even alive tonight is because you saved him from the snakes?”
“It’s not true, Atticai.”
“Oh, it is true, but what I don’t understand is how the Triat has allowed it to happen?”
“You’re wrong, Atticai. He saved himself. He deserves your mercy.”
“My mercy? This Tandra who refused a chance to become a Mani deserves my mercy?”
“Please, Atticai, consider it.”
Wyatt snapped open his cell phone and looked at the glowing faceplate. “It’s almost time,” he said.
Atticai nodded. “But first things first.”
He grabbed Lena. Although she didn’t make a sound, the confident girl I had seen just hours before was long gone. She looked terrified. I wondered if Atticai had her under some sort of spell, the same type of spell he had placed on the snakes. What the hell were these Mani?