H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set

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H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set Page 85

by Night, H. T.


  I called out her name repeatedly. “Sasha! Sasha, are you here?”

  Then from a distance I heard a faint, “Tommy.”

  My heart leaped. “Sasha!” I called out, more joyful at that moment that I had imagined that I was capable of.

  “Tommy,” her voice was now a little louder. It was coming from the middle of the thick brush that stood before me.

  “Are you able to move?” I yelled out.

  “No. I think both of my legs are broken.”

  Fuck! How the hell am I going to move a woman with two broken legs up a canyon?

  “Hold on,” I said. “I’m coming to get you.”

  I used my stick to make a path in front of me as I get deeper and deeper into the thick branches and leaves. I was now completely inside and I was sweating profusely, trying to find my friend. My arms and face continued to get scratched and raked by the branches, but I pushed forward and ignored the pain. Finally, in the middle of the thick, humid brush, I found Sasha.

  She was lying in a fetal position, completely naked. I’m not sure what happened to her clothes, but her body was scratched, bruised, and as swollen I had ever seen a woman’s body in my life. Sasha usually had a very sexy body when she was naked, but that was the last thing on my mind. I let my hormones lead me to the scent, and that was it. I took off my large T-shirt and wrapped it around her body.

  I took off my shoes and socks, too. I figured I could at least wrap her feet in my socks. I put my shoes back on without my socks, as I was going to be doing the walking and needed the protection for myself. At least my socks could protect her feet a little bit, if needed.

  “Why are you getting naked?” Sasha asked as I quickly began removing my clothes.

  “I’m trying to clothe you with my clothes. I’d give you my underwear but as you know, I don’t wear any.”

  “I feel so weak,” Sasha said. Her face was covered in dried blood and this poor girl looked like a horrid mess.

  “Sweetie, listen. Are you sure your legs are broken? If they aren’t, I can move you.”

  “They might not be broken but I can’t put any weight on my legs.”

  “That’s okay. That’s good enough for me. I’m getting you out of here.”

  I began clothing Sasha with my shirt and socks, although she would be panty-less. My shirt was long enough that it covered her body right below the important parts.

  “What happened to me, Tommy?”

  “Listen, I’ll tell you everything later, but first, let’s get you out of here.” I leaned over and picked up Sasha and put her over my shoulder as gently as I could. I was just wearing blue jeans and tennis shoes. The brush continued to cut my arms, hands, shoulders, and now my bare back as I exited out of the treacherous wilderness that was a tangle of plants with thorns, spines and spikes.

  Once I hit the open canyon and was completely out of the brush, I stopped to get my breath. My adrenaline was going, but I couldn’t deny the pain and fatigue I felt. I gave it all I had hiking up the 45-degree canyon, lugging a 115-pound woman over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry. At times, I felt as if I was going to pass out myself, but I battled through it.

  Finally, I made it to the highway.

  “Sasha, we’ve made it out,” I said.

  She didn’t respond. I laid her on the side of the road and I laid next to her, trying to catch my breath. The dry, thin air didn’t help my breathing any. The sun blistered down on both of us and I knew I’d better get up before people thought we were both hit by a car and called for an ambulance.

  I got back to my feet and threw Sasha back over my shoulder. I headed back to where I had parted ways with Maya and Josiah. Eventually, I made it back to the area and Maya and Josiah were standing next to my black Mustang, both of them looking worried. They saw me stumble up and they both hurried over to me.

  I maneuvered Sasha’s body so she wouldn’t give Josiah a nice peep show. I wanted to spare her that embarrassment.

  “Is she okay?” Josiah asked.

  “No, but let’s get her to my apartment,” I said.

  “You don’t think we should take her to the hospital?” Maya asked.

  It wouldn’t be the first time Sasha and I had to go to the hospital. This time it would be for her, not me. “I doubt she has any kind of insurance,” I said.

  “They will still treat her,” Maya said. “She’s severely injured. By federal law, I don’t think they are allowed to turn her away until she is at least stabilized.”

  “All right,” I said. “Josiah, Google the nearest hospital.”

  Josiah took out his phone and fiddled around a bit to get connected to the internet. “The closest hospital is Arrowhead Community Hospital. It is about 15 minutes down the mountain.”

  “Thanks, Josiah, that was fast.”

  “Hey, man, when it comes to the ladies… I do everything fast.”

  I gave Josiah a look as if to say that wasn’t the smartest thing a man could say, but this was too important of a moment to get too silly and start ribbing him. “Good job, Josiah. It’s nice to know you’re good for something.”

  The four of us got into my Mustang and we headed for the hospital.

  * * *

  We took Sasha into the emergency room at the local hospital in Arrowhead. She regained consciousness after they put an I.V. in her arm and she got some fluids in her.

  We needed to get her to my apartment quickly, before dark. There were two more nights of the full moon—technically, there is only one full moon a month, but the day before and the day after it were also werewolf time. I wasn’t sure how we were going to deal with the cage-in-the-apartment situation, now that there were two werewolves in the apartment. I figured tonight it was going to have to be a cage for two. I wasn’t sure if that was the safest idea. I had no idea what my temperament was when I changed. How primal were werewolves when they turned? I didn’t want to kill her in the cage, or possibly do something even more disturbing. I had no recollection of what had happened when I had turned the night before. I’m not sure if we would attack each other in such close quarters.

  First, they needed to release her to our care. I was right about her not having any type of insurance. Unfortunately, we lived in a day and age that it was a primary consideration for profit-run hospitals to make profit their priority. They were only required, as Maya had said, to keep uninsured patients until they were stabilized. And then, kicked to the curb, to whatever motley, ragtag, bloody, scratched and shirtless hooligan who wanted to claim the injured patient and whisk her out of their sterile-draped ER cubicles. So, when she had a blood pressure that was deemed stable, the hospital released her to our care. The X-rays had showed that she had no broken bones. She only had sprains in her legs and ankles. There was no structural damage in either leg. That was very good news. I felt sorry for Sasha. She really didn’t have anyone else but me. I had become her only family. I felt she had become my responsibility. At least, in the meantime, I wasn’t sure how cool Maya would be about me nursing a female friend back to health.

  The next order of business was to feed the teenage garbage disposal that we had brought along for the trip. Josiah ate an excessive amount of food, but to the kid’s credit, he worked out all the time and burned calories at an enormous rate. As far as I could tell, the kid didn’t have an ounce of fat on his body.

  We stopped at a Norm’s in Riverside and let Josiah devour about 4,000 calories worth of flapjacks, hash browns and bacon. He put away food more food than a family of four. The rest of us ate pretty light. My stomach wasn’t feeling right and the last thing I wanted to do was fill up.

  I dropped off Josiah at his parents’ house and reassured him of the secrecy that we all had shared up in the mountains. He didn’t perceive anything in the paranormal sense, but he had every right to question what the hell a grown woman was doing out in the middle of brush in the heart of San Bernardino Mountains. To my surprise, he didn’t ask too many questions. We just told him that Sasha got real dr
unk and walked off. Sasha was okay with a teenager thinking she was a lush, because he couldn’t exactly know the truth, that his friend and his friend’s friend were members of an elite club that I jokingly thought of in my head as “The Real Wolfpack.” The last thing any of us wanted to do was to get Josiah involved in all of this…paranormal activity.

  I had a feeling that compromising the truth about being a werewolf was something I was going to have to do quite often. When needed, I was going to have to stretch the truth for my own safety, security, and well-being. I sure didn’t want to end up as the feature story on that crazy news network that leads with what bleeds or restrained to a bed in a county psych ward.

  When we got back to the house, we all went over the details of the night that was in front of us. We agreed that if she had to, Maya would let Sasha out of the cage for her own safety if Sasha and I decided to fight inside the cage. I hoped there were similar instincts that werewolves had that were similar to humans and if I was comfortable with Sasha in my human form, then I should be okay when I turned into a werewolf.

  “I’m not worried, Tommy,” Sasha said. “This isn’t the first time I had to share a space with a fellow Carni.”

  “Yeah, but this is the first time you will ever share a space with a Carni who is a professional fighter. My animalistic instincts are to fight. I’m hoping my paternal instincts will take over and I will protect you, rather than hurt you, or—”

  “—We’ll be fine,” she interrupted me.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked Sasha.

  “Well, aside for some cuts and bruises, I feel all right. My legs are still pretty weak. And I am sure thirsty, despite the I.V.s they stuck in both arms.” She winced and pulled off the surgical tape and cotton from inside her elbows, looking with a grimace at the swelling and bruising. “Ow,” she said.

  I nodded my head at Sasha. “We’ll get you taken care of. I have a stash of Gatorade and other electrolyte sports drinks. Do you like that kind of stuff?”

  “Yes, please. Like four of them right now, any kind, would be good,” Sasha joked.

  I looked at Maya and asked. “Are you okay with all this?”

  “We don’t really have much of a choice. We didn’t have time to go anywhere else.” Maya’s face didn’t assure me that she was okay with this at all. But she was such a good sport that she just rolled with bizarre shit like this. Even if it internally rubbed her the wrong way.

  “You’re an amazing person, Maya,” I said, as I prepared the cage. I tried to make sure that Maya knew that she was still my woman. I had spent a lot of time on Sasha and my wolfie senses indicated an annoyed scent coming from Maya. We had 30 minutes before the full moon would be out and we needed to make sure everything was okay.

  Soon, the full moon was upon us and Sasha and I were already securely locked in the cage.

  The night was a blur, but I had flashes of recollection. Unlike the night before, in which I remembered nothing, I could remember seeing the bars from inside of the cage and howling. I didn’t say that I remembered key events about the night, but at least I remembered something.

  I woke up and I was on top of Sasha’s sweaty body, possessive and protective. Uh-oh! We were both dripping wet but still had on our shorts and T-shirts. Whew!

  The clock read 6:30 a.m. I looked to the left side of the room. Maya was asleep in the recliner.

  “Maya,” I called out in a cross between a whisper and a bellow. “We’ve changed back to bipeds. I need to pee real bad. Can you open up the cage?”

  Maya opened her eyes, and slowly moved her body over to the cage, grabbed the keys that were on the counter and let me out. I ran to the bathroom and relieved myself.

  I came back out and covered Sasha with a blanket. She was still asleep and I didn’t want to bother her.

  Maya and I left the living room and made our way to the bedroom. As we entered my room, Maya said, “You and Sasha can no longer stay in your apartment when you turn, Tommy. How the police didn’t show up last night is beyond me.”

  “We were loud, huh?”

  “No, you were loud. Poor Sasha’s whining and whimpering was drowned out by your howl.”

  “My howl was loud?”

  “Off the charts loud. Suicidal Tendencies speed metal loud. But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst of it was your constant barking and yelping.”

  “But, was it sexy? That is the real question.”

  “Yeah, you were all about the sexy last night,” Maya said. “But that had nothing to do with the noises you were making.”

  “Please tell me we didn’t do anything physical? Me and Sasha?” My stomach sank.

  “By physical, do you mean did you sniff Sasha’s butt all night? Your nose was a very bad boy last night.”

  “My nose?” I took off my clothes and wrapped a towel around me to take a shower.

  “Your nose was one kinky exploring machine. I kept poking you with the broom, trying to make you stop. One thing was for sure. Whatever odor that was coming out of Sasha’s butt seemed to delight your senses. You couldn’t get enough of smelling her. It was like you tried to suck her butt up your nostrils.”

  I felt myself blush. “But nothing sexual happened?”

  “Not when I was awake.”

  That relieved me. “Well, let’s just assume it didn’t.”

  “Tommy, the truth is, that didn’t bother me nearly as much as you yelping all night.”

  “I thought you said it was sexy?”

  “Your howl is sexy. Your yelp reminds me of an oversized Chihuahua’s bark that annoys you to no end with its constant noise.”

  “So, there is a difference between my howl and bark?”

  “Yes, your howl comes from a deep place inside your soul. It’s a melodic sound and it stirs up emotions when heard. Your yelp or bark sounds like a bitter old junkyard dog that has nothing better to do than to snarl and growl. You’re going to have animal control out here if you spend another night here as a werewolf. You’re far too loud for an apartment.”

  “Where should we go?”

  “The only place I can think is your grandmother’s cabin. It’s in the middle of nowhere.”

  “What about Sasha?”

  “What about her? Do you plan on taking care of her forever?”

  Oh shit! Maya was claiming her turf, which was me. And not subtly either. I looked at Maya, and thought about Sasha, who was still passed out asleep in the middle of the cage. “So, you’re sure nothing weird occurred last night, other than some butt sniffing?”

  “It was constant butt sniffing. At one point, you rested with your nose about a half inch from her tush. Really Tommy, you were so gross!”

  “If nothing sexual happened, then why should we be separated?”

  “You don’t leave the poor girl alone. You’re loud and predatory. In her werewolf form, she is very submissive to you. I feel bad for her. She spent most of the time showing you her belly and tucking her tail between her legs, whimpering and whining. I’m sure she was miserable.”

  “That’s awful.”

  “Yes, it was. You were. We need to figure out a way to have you not be in the same spot as her.”

  I looked at Maya and a part me felt as if the real place that all of this concern was coming from was jealousy. She was obviously irritated with my werewolf behavior. It was one thing to be in charge of my actions when I was a human, but now I had to apologize for things I did when I couldn’t even remember my actions. “Look Maya, I’ll do whatever you think we should do. This whole thing is weird for both of us. But we are going to have worry about next month. We aren’t going to have enough time to figure something out today. Let’s rent a U-Haul truck and haul the cage up the mountain to the cabin. That is going to be a task in itself.”

  Maya smiled at me. “You’re right, nothing about this conversation is normal. Not by a long shot.”

  * * *

  Sasha eventually got up and got ready. She moved around really slow and who
could blame the poor girl after the abuse she received a couple of nights ago. The fact that she was moving around as well as she was surprised the hell out of me.

  I showered up and the three of us rented a U-Haul and brought the cage up to my grandmother’s cabin. I dragged it up into the house with very little help from the two girls. But I put it in the room to the left of the door. It was an empty room, so now it was designated as ‘the cage room.’

  We spent all day moving and getting the cage into the space. I bought weights and locks to keep it locked down. Time got away from us and even though Maya didn’t like it, Sasha and I were going to have to share a cage on the third night. Maya and Sasha weren’t BFF’s but they got along. It was interesting to have two beautiful girls at my disposal. I cared for both deeply, but in two completely different ways. Soon, Sasha and I made our way into the cage and we dealt with the third night of the full moon.

  Once again, we woke in the morning drenched, on top of each other. I called out for Maya. This time she wasn’t in the room with us when we woke up. Again, I had faint memories of the night before. They were less visual memories and more instinctive once I remembered how I felt, as opposed to what I saw.

  I called out Maya’s name again. Finally, she came in and I had to piss like a race horse. She unlocked and opened the cage door. Before I could step out, Sasha dashed past me and ran to the restroom. I had another bathroom upstairs. So I ran up to the stairwell and took the largest piss I had ever taken.

 

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