One Love (Vampire Love Story #5)

by Night, H. T.

  “How bad are these people if terrorists are keeping them in prison camps?” Tommy asked.

  “First off, this isn’t a terrorist group that is keeping them captive,” Sion said. “It’s a radical political one. They operate on a completely different level.”

  “What’s the difference?” Yomaida asked.

  “The difference is this: one is persuaded by money, and the other is persuaded by what they feel is the need of Allah or God,” Sion answered.

  “So, we are dealing with a political organization?” Yari asked.

  “Trust me,” I said. “It doesn’t make them any less dangerous. The only difference between them and the terrorists is that they are rich.”

  “Hold on,” Wyatt said. “Let me get this straight before we all risk our lives to save this woman. You found out about her from the Deity?”

  “Yeah, I did,” I said. “But, she asked me not to do anything about it.”

  “But she told you, a guy with the biggest superhero complex?” Wyatt said cynically.

  “You think she wants me to do something about it?” I asked.

  “She knows you can’t help yourself,” Tommy said. “Especially, she knows how you want to please Atticai.”

  “I don’t want to, please Atticai!” I said indignantly.

  “Pleeeease!” the entire room exploded and yelled in my direction.

  Wow, was it that obvious that for whatever reason that I wanted to be accepted by him? I backed down and admitted it. “Well,” I said. “I want to help because I think it’s the right thing to do. A woman is in a prison and the guy who loves her has become a Mani asshole because he thinks she’s dead. If we rescue Donya, I think we can save Atticai.”

  “And...” Yari asked, leading.

  “Come on! The poor woman has been a prison camp for over forty years.”

  “And…” Wyatt asked.

  “And if I do this and deliver her to Atticai, he might get out of his funk.”

  “And?” the whole room asked.

  “And… he might marry Lena and I to each other—he’s really the only one who can do it right now and Lena’s belly is ticking like a time bomb—I want my boys to be legitimate and have my name. I want Atticai to get his faith back in the Mani, that we help each other, no matter what. And maybe he will join us in the fight against Krull, be by our side in battle with his amazing skill and history of kicking ass.”

  “Oh my God,” said Tommy, always my biggest critic as well, as my best friend. “Josiah, you have gone completely bananas with this superhero complex. You’re out of control. You ain’t no superhero, so don’t try to make yourself into one. Didn’t one man already die a horrible death for all this stuff? Don’t even think you are a hero in that league.”

  I replied, “I don’t! Come on, Tommy! Okay, here’s the thing: I want to save Donya and use her to gain Atticai as an ally in the fight against Krull. It still doesn’t erase the fact that it’s the right thing to do and that it is about justice and mercy. And what are you talking about, Tommy? I can’t help myself? Well, neither can you. If I have a Superman complex, then you have a Batman complex.”

  “That’s why we’re besties, Josiah. You complete me.” Tommy gave me a grin. “Oh, shit, in for a penny, in for a pound. It looks like we are going to go get Donya.”

  “You want to break into a prison camp that has numerous guards with machine guns and save her?” Hector asked.

  “Yes,” I said, answering Hector’s question. “But I have one problem. That is why I need your help.” The room was now quiet because I never ask for help. I usually just get up and do things. “What I’m about to tell you is so top secret that it’s a matter of life and death. In fact, my life and death. So, if you can indulge me. I need to have you each come up and stand next to me.”

  “Stand next to you? Why?” Yari asked.

  I knew this was where I was going to sound like a complete diva, but I couldn’t take any chances and I needed to know who had my back. “One by one,” I said “I need to look into your heart. I need to see if you’ll ever betray me.”

  “What kind of Houdini bullshit is this?” Tommy said, laughing.

  “Look, this is very huge what I’m going to allow the group in on. You need to swear to me and to our alliance that you will keep this ‘in-house.’”

  “And you can see the future? What are you? A prophet?” Yomaida asked.

  “I’m a lot of things, Yomaida. But what I can do is see things that no one else can. It might be a little mystic and weird, but it’s all I have and if I can do it. Then this is the best time to do this skill because all of our lives will depend on it.”

  “You’re going to touch us and see if we have any plans to betray your trust?” Wyatt asked.

  “Yes. I mean this with all due respect to each of you. I am much more powerful than any of you. I will be able to see right through you.”

  “No argument from me,” Wyatt said. “I’ll go first. What do I do?”

  I looked at Wyatt and said, “Come and stand in front of me.” Wyatt got up and walked over to me. He stood right in front of me. I took both my hands and cupped his face.

  “If I would have known this was going to so homo-erotic I would have oiled up and put on a Speedo,” Tommy said, laughing from his side of the room.

  “Shut up, Tommy!” I said.

  I continued to cup Wyatt’s face, and then I placed my right hand over his heart. I looked him in the eye and asked him the first question. “Wyatt, are you loyal to me?”

  “Yes,” Wyatt answered. He was telling the truth. I could see it.

  “Do you ever plan on betraying me?”

  “Never,” Wyatt answered. He was telling the truth.

  “Will you ever repeat the inside information I’m about to tell, even in death to our enemies?”

  “I will never repeat it.” I stared into Wyatt’s eyes and felt his truth. He was clean.

  “Holy shit, Batman. When did Josiah become the male Deity?” Tommy laughed.

  “Quiet, Tommy,” Yari said. “This is obviously really important or Josiah wouldn’t see the need to do this. Obviously, Josiah has something major to tell us. You don’t always have to be a comedian. Just grow up.”

  “Okay, Tommy, come here,” I said. “Let’s get you out of the way.” Tommy came over to me and Wyatt sat down. “Please try to be serious.”

  “Do you really have to do this after all we been through?” Tommy asked.

  “Probably not. But it’s only fair to the others,” I said.

  “Okay, ask away.” I asked Tommy the same questions and he passed with flying colors, as did Yari and Hector. That left the three newbies. These were the three I was most concerned about.

  Yomaida was next, and she answered honestly. In my heart, I knew she would pass. And when she did, I was relieved for Tommy’s sake.

  Then it was my little man, Sion. This one made me really nervous because I had given Sion a lot of inside information. Sometimes, in life, you have to trust someone on instinct. Sion seemed to have nothing to gain by showing up here and helping me. He knew he was doing the right thing, and was being led by something positive in his life. When Sion passed, a giant relief came over my body.

  That left Cyrus. Cyrus was a vampire I’d met at Griffith Observatory who’d changed teams. Whenever someone changed sides, it always put a cloud of suspicion over them. If they changed sides once, what would make them not want to change sides again?

  I called Cyrus up, and he came up to me and stood still. He had an uneasiness that didn’t feel right, even before I touched his body.

  Cyrus stood in front of me, and I asked him the first question after I cupped his face and placed my right hand on top of his heart. He looked to the left when I asked the first question. “Are you loyal to me?”

  He looked to the left and then into my eyes. Cyrus said, “Yes, I am very loyal, Josiah.”

  Then something over took my body. All I could see is a black cloud of deceit.
So, I repeated the question again, and he answered in the same way.

  He wasn’t telling the truth.

  I decided to ask him the second question. This time, it was worse. When I asked him if he ever planned on betraying me and he answered, ‘no,’ I got visions of several times he had betrayed me past, present and future. This was not good. This was downright despicable. I tried not to let on to the others that Cyrus was failing miserably.

  Then I asked the third question, “Will you ever tell our enemies what I’m about to tell you? Even in death?”

  “No, I won’t,” Cyrus answered.

  Then I saw a vision. I could see Cyrus kneeling before Krull, offering up all of our information gladly and even with glee. Then I saw something that made me weak in the knees. I saw everyone in the room dying. But the worst part is, I saw Lena and my children being killed by his deceit. This was the ultimate betrayal. I looked around the room, and there was a long metal sword in the corner of the room. It was ornament for the room that was never planned on being put to use. Oh, it was about to be used.

  “Cyrus,” I said. “Go grab the sword in the corner of the room.”

  Cyrus looked at me, shocked, “Why?”

  “Just do it,” I said coldly.

  “I don’t want to.”

  “You should. It looks remarkably sturdy.”

  “What are you talking about, Josiah? That sword is from the tenth century. It’s one of the most expensive items in this house. Why would I want to use it?”

  I never took my eyes off of Cyrus. It was now growing apparent to the rest of the room that Cyrus had failed. Tommy stood up, ready for anything.

  And in a fit of anger, I summoned the sword with my hand telepathically. The sword flew across the room and landed in my hand. “Here you go, Cyrus! Take the sword!” I said.

  “I don’t want the sword. Please, Josiah.”

  “It needs to be a fair fight,” I said in a slow, malicious tone.

  “I don’t want to fight you. Josiah, I swear to God I’ll never betray you.”

  Again he was lying. I could see it. I never allowed myself seriously to take Cyrus in before. What the hell was I doing, allowing such a Judas inside this group? But unlike Judas, Cyrus wouldn’t follow through on his betrayal. He had already been approached by Krull. I could see it. God knows how long he had been giving our information to Krull’s side and weakening our cause. He had put myself, my family and my friends all in jeopardy. His fate was inevitable.

  “If you don’t take the sword, then I can rest, knowing that I gave you a chance,” I said, staring into Cyrus’s eyes.

  “Josiah, what are you doing?” Wyatt yelled out. Everyone stood up then, knocking over chairs and getting the hell out of the way of that sword that I wielded with the ruthless efficiency of my dark task.

  I jumped on top of Cyrus with the sword in my hand and before he could say another word, I stuck it directly through his neck. It was a clean vampire kill shot.

  Cyrus had no time to respond. His body vanished. I turned around and said to the group, “His betrayal would have killed us all. It needed to be done. You’re just going to have to trust me, that I know what I’m doing.”

  The room was silent. It was the first time I had not killed out of self-defense during a fair fight. I didn’t like the hollow anguish afterward, nor did I find any comfort in the fear that misted the eyes of my trusted supporters, that I had murdered Cyrus in cold blood in front of them, based on a feeling I had that they themselves could not even comprehend.

  I stood there, panting and looking at the horror on my friends’ faces. The Triat, in making me the Chosen One, had also made me judge, jury, and executioner. I was not enjoying my rising powers of discernment. In fact, it took all the power that I had inside of me just not to throw up.

  For the first time ever, I saw Yari cry. Hector put his arm around her and patted her shoulder as she wept silently, her on-again, off-again lover a traitor and slain before her eyes by the Chosen One.

  I made no apology to her. Or anyone else, for that matter.

  His usual jovial self locked down tight, Tommy shouted, “Josiah, just what the hell kind of secret do you have?!”

  Chapter Thirteen

  There was a deafening silence in the study. My friends weren’t sure if I had lost my mind and was about kill each of them. I needed to assure them that the choice I had just made just saved their lives. “Please, no one be afraid. This was something that had to be done.”

  “What the hell did you see?” Yari said. “You just fucking killed one of our own. What kind of Lord of the Flies bullshit is this?”

  “Yari, I understand that you were close to Cyrus. To be honest, I am disappointed that you weren’t able to see how deceitful of a person he was.”

  Yari walked over to where Cyrus had laid before he disappeared and just blankly looked at me. “Josiah, I know you have a lot on your plate. This, however, is something you needed to give the rest of us a heads’ up on. You don’t just kill a member of the inner circle on a whim.”

  “You shouldn’t question Josiah,” Sion spoke up and defended me.

  “Hey kid! Shut up!” Yari said, snapping at Sion. “Josiah didn’t just kill someone you had been romantic with for the past year.”

  “Yari, look at me,” I said. “I want you to see what I saw.” I grabbed Yari’s head with both my hands and closed my eyes. I recalled the horror I had seen when I touched Cyrus’s chest. I recalled all of his betrayal and even the death of Yari herself. I let go of her head, and Yari knelt to the ground and wept. I had never seen her so vulnerable. So completely wide open.

  “Josiah did the right thing,” Yari said. “Cyrus was going to be the end of us. Every one of us.”

  I looked at the group and said, “I saw evil. Cyrus was evil to the core. He was also a lot stronger than he let on. That is why he was able to hide it from you guys. This was the first time I had a chance to catch my breath and to truly see what he was made of. Trust me when I tell you that it was pure evil. He was still a loyal follower of Krull. God only knows how much information he has fed him.”

  “I stand by your decision, Josiah,” Hector said. “There was always something about that guy that rubbed me the wrong way and now I know why.”

  Each person seemed to agree with Hector, so I calmly told everyone to sit back down. “Now, that I know I can trust each one of you, I am going to tell you something that can alter everything if it is ever let out. If our enemy would find out this bit of information, it would debunk all we have tried to do as a unit.”

  “For God’s sake, Josiah. What is it?” Tommy blurted out.

  I stared at the group and calmly said, “I am mortal, and so is Lena.”

  “That’s impossible. You’re the most incredible Mani of all time,” Wyatt said. “There is no possible way that a drop of you is mortal.”

  “Well, Wyatt, I’m very much a Mani. I’m just also human. And if you’re just a tiny bit human, it can only mean you don’t have immortality.”

  “So what does that mean? Yari asked. “I have been around a hell of a long time and have never heard of this.” Yari was concerned. “Who told you?”

  “The Deity. Think about it, guys. How else could Lena be pregnant? We both are vampires and mortals. We can die of disease, a gunshot wound to the heart. Even a slit wrist.”

  “This is remarkable. So, you’re going to age just like every other putz out there?” Tommy asked.

  “There is nothing wrong with aging. I was told Lena and I would age at a much slower rate, but we will get older and someday perish from this earth.”

  It was weird. Everyone in the room acted as if I told them I had cancer and had a year to live. This wasn’t that serious to me. After all, it’s what humans have to live with every day. Their own mortality. Vampires get a free pass on that. It really isn’t that fair, if you really want to break it down and dissect the truths about it. Why should vampires and werewolves live forever? What made the
m so special?

  “I just want all of you to know,” I take comfort in knowing that my life is going to have a natural beginning and end.”

  “This is major news. Thank you for trusting me, Josiah,” Yomaida said.

  “No need to say thank you, Yomaida. It is what it is. You passed the test,” I said smiling in her direction.

  “If I didn’t, would you have killed me?” Yomaida asked.

  “I don’t know. It would have depended on the level of betrayal I would have seen,” I replied.

  “Trust me,” Yari said. “What I saw when Josiah grabbed my head was brutal. Cyrus’s betrayal was extremely awful. I wanted to break it off with him anyway. He had grown distant in our relationship, and now I know why.”

  I looked at the group and said, “I know now that each of you is trustworthy. To be honest, I find that to be very exciting.”

  “So, what’s the plan?” Hector asked.

  “Yeah, what’s the plan?” Tommy asked. “Also, why are we helping Atticai? He has been such a little bitch lately.”

  “Tommy, there is a lot of good in Atticai. I know it. I have a feeling that if we find this woman and bring her to him, it would make him a new man.”

  “Or weird him out. You do know she isn’t a vampire, Josiah,” Yari said. “She’s going to look old and she might be in poor health or suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.”

  “I know.”

  “Do you know if she is even alive?”

  “Wait a second.” Tommy said. “She is human? How old is this broad?”

  “She is in her sixties,” I said.

  “You think dropping off an old lady who has spent the last forty-plus years in a prison camp at Atticai’s feet is going to make him happy?”

  “I was told she was the love of his life. Love has no age and no time limit. If Atticai is the kind of man I think he is, then he will celebrate her love, no matter how old she is physically. After all, the guy is 300 years old himself.”