H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (103 page)

“Let’s leave,” I said. “I have something to
tell you.”

“Okay,” Maya said, slowly.

We turned in our skates and headed back to
my car. I began to drive back and decided to pull over at the Rim
of the World High School parking lot so we could talk. I parked my
car in the large empty lot and took the keys out of the ignition
and stared straight ahead.

“What’s happening, Tommy? Are you having an
allergic reaction or something?”

“It’s not an allergic reaction,” I
answered.

“Then, please tell me what the hell is going
on.”

I didn’t say anything at first. I knew I had
to tell her and I was just praying this wouldn’t be a deal breaker.
“It’s something a little more bizarre than that,” I said.

“Okay, tell me. What’s happening to
you?”

I turned and faced Maya. She looked at me,
petrified, and it broke my heart. She was no longer seeing me as I
am. She was seeing this half-thing I had become. “Maya, there are
things in this world that are unexplainable, and up to a month ago,
I didn’t believe any of it myself.”

“Okay,” she said. She had apprehension in
her voice that scared me to tell her any more, but I had to.

“Maya,” I said plainly. “I’m in the process
of becoming a werewolf.”

“What? Are you fucking with me?”

“No, I’m not,” I assured her. “I’m not fully
understanding what’s happening to me myself. All I can tell you is
that I know werewolves are real.”

“You’re being totally serious, Tommy?”

“Yes.”

“And you can just say that out loud and that
doesn’t sound weird coming out of your mouth?”

“Of course it sounds weird. You need to
understand this is something I didn’t believe in either. But, I
have seen it with my own eyes. I have seen a human turn into a
full-blown werewolf.”

Maya’s eyes started darting back and forth
in a panic and she opened the car door; she started running across
the parking lot. I opened my door and yelled, “Where are you
going?”

“Anywhere, but here,” she yelled, back to
me.

“Maya! Please stop! If you care about me at
all, please let me talk to you!”

Maya stopped at the end of the parking lot
and refused to turn around. At least she stopped running. I walked
over to her and brought her back slowly to my car.

“I tell you what, let me tell you the entire
story and maybe it might make more sense. Maya, you know me. You
know I’m not crazy. You know if I think it’s true, then there’s at
least the possibility it could be because I’m not crazy.”

Maya sat in my passenger seat and she seemed
horrified. I reached over and held her hand. And right there, I
told her the whole story regarding Sasha and how I was bit and how
now I was in some sort of limbo phase. She was having a hard time
keeping it together. It didn’t help either that I mentioned dating
my roommate for a short period. She had a lot to take in. But she
did allow me to speak. I decided to hold off on telling her about
vampires.

Maya got out of the car again but this time
she didn’t run. She just sat on the hard asphalt parking lot,
crossed her legs and closed her eyes as if she was doing yoga.

I got out of my car and walked over to her.
“What are you doing?” I asked.

“This is how I calm down,” She said.

I nodded. “Go ahead, knock yourself
out.”

Maya sat there for a brief time and then
looked up at me. “What I don’t understand is…what’s happening to
you?”

“Like I said, Maya, I was bitten horribly in
the shoulder by a werewolf that was in his human form. I think
nature or the Triat has put me in some kind of werewolf purgatory,
where I’m neither a man nor a werewolf.”

“This is the same Triat my grandfather used
to talk about?”

“It could be a coincidence, but I doubt
it.”

“So, you’re saying you might be partially
immortal?”

“I don’t think that’s how it works. You’re
either immortal or you’re not.”

“But as far as you know, you could be
completely immortal?”

“Possibly. I don’t plan on testing it out,”
I laughed.

We sat out there and talked until the wee
hours of the morning. Maya seemed to believe me and how could she
not, I just sported a new beard and my face changed into a partial
werewolf. We eventually made our way back to the cabin, and to my
surprise, Maya didn’t pull away once after obtaining this new bit
of information about me. If anything, it drew her closer to me. The
rest of the weekend we just talked and shared—we took care of each
other.

Chapter Seven

During the next couple of weeks, Maya and I
continued to get even closer. I had decided to pay for Sasha to get
her Jeep out of the police impound lot. She agreed to do my laundry
and wash my car until I felt that she had paid me back.

Sasha had been pushing for herself and
Patrick to meet Maya for a couple weeks now. I hadn’t brought the
three of them together out of fear that Sasha would say something
inappropriate to Maya. Maya was cool that Sasha lived with me, even
though we had had a fling. I assured Maya that I had zero sexual
feeling toward Sasha, that we were just friends, and that Patrick
might be interested in Sasha. All of that explanation was good
enough for her.

I just felt it was better to just keep them
isolated. Plus, Sasha had made snide remarks that insinuated Maya
was going to lower the boom on me, at any moment, and show her true
colors. She couldn’t believe anyone can be as perfect as I claim
Maya to be. Well, she’s wrong.

I knew I couldn’t put off, forever, the
three of them meeting. Patrick and Sasha had become two of my very
best friends and Maya was my girlfriend. So, after being pressured
relentlessly by both Sasha and Maya, I put together a dinner for
the four of us in Hollywood. I knew I wanted zero problems, so I
had decided we all should go to someplace out of town. That way it
would be a new experience for everyone and at least we all would
have that in common. Or at least they would. I had picked a nice,
little restaurant called the French Market that I had gone to a
year ago on a blind date, set up by my trainer, Mo.

We took two separate cars down to Hollywood.
I had picked up Maya by myself and then we took the 10 freeway and
did a straight shot to Hollywood. I thought it would be silly for
Patrick and Sasha to follow us because it would be extremely out of
their way. So, we all agreed to meet at the restaurant around 8:00
p.m. It would be dark, so Patrick wouldn’t have any sun issues to
deal with.

We got to Hollywood in about an hour. We
parked in a small, rundown parking lot down the street from the
restaurant and walked to get to the French Market. I had let Maya
know that Patrick called me Kyro as a nickname and I made up a
story to explain why. It was an awful lie that made no sense, which
is one of the reasons why I don’t lie to people because I’m
horrible at it.

When we arrived, Patrick and Sasha were
already seated, having a drink. Sasha was dressed to the nines, her
hair done up real nice and had enough makeup on to last a girl like
Maya a whole month. Patrick and Sasha definitely looked like they
were on a date.

I led Maya to the table where my two friends
were sitting. They were laughing, drinking wine and engaged in a
conversation. I stopped at the front of the table, and Patrick
stopped whatever he was saying when he saw me, “Kyro! You guys made
it.”

I watched Maya’s face as Sasha looked up at
us.

“Hi guys!” Sasha’s eyes were beaming, her
face flushed with happiness.

“Hello,” Maya said. She seemed a bit
surprised that Sasha was a complete knockout. But as far as I could
tell, it wasn’t bothering her too much.

“Maya,” I said. “These are my two roommates,
Patrick and Sasha.”

“Hello,” Maya said again.

“Wow, she’s gorgeous, Tommy,” Sasha
proclaimed, as if I just showed up to the dinner with a show
horse.

Maya seemed embarrassed by Sasha’s overly
complimentary statement but smiled politely. I pulled out a seat
for Maya to sit down and then I sat next to her.

“So, what’s good, Tommy?” Sasha asked.

“I actually don’t remember,” I said. “I
would assume all the food is pretty good.”

“Tommy, didn’t you say you went here before
on a date?” Sasha smirked.

“Yes,” I said, staring at Sasha with a look
that said, ‘Did you really have to say that right off the bat.’

Sasha caught my look, and it didn’t seem to
matter to her because she had something to say, and it couldn’t
wait. “What kind of date was it, Tommy?”

“It was just a regular date, Sasha. It
wasn’t a big deal, so can you drop it?”

“And you had it here?” she continued to
badger me with questions.

“Yes,” I answered. “What’s the big deal?” I
was getting upset now. She didn’t need to push the issue.

“Look around and tell me what you see,”
Sasha said. She stopped herself from laughing out loud.

What was she talking about? I looked around
the restaurant and quickly saw what she was referring to. Every
table had couples having romantic dinners. There was something I
had apparently overlooked the last time I was here. They were all
same-sex couples. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Were you going through an experimental
phase?” Sasha joked

Maya looked around and figured it out, too,
that this restaurant obviously catered to a gay clientele. Maya
looked over me to join and joined in the joke. “Wow, she’s right,
Tommy. You have some explaining to do.”

Patrick jumped in for my defense, sort of.
“Dude, it’s cool, Kyro. We all are a little gay.”

“Very funny,” I said, to Patrick.

“Well, it’s good to know that you’re not
homophobic,” Sasha laughed.

“I guess not,” I said. “Okay, ha-ha. Live
and let live. Love and let love. Could we change the subject?”

“Yes, we can, sweetie,” Maya said. “We don’t
need to make you remember a time you’d like to forget.”

“Really? Maya? You, too?”

“Oh, sweetie, the only thing gay about you
is your body.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Gay guys are really in shape,” Sasha said.
“At my gym, all the hottest guys are gay.”

“Yeah, you’re a real gym rat, Sasha,”
Patrick laughed.

“Hey, I used to be. If I sit around eating
cookies all day and playing Monopoly, that is entirely your fault
for making it so much fun.”

I looked over at Maya and she seemed to be
enjoying our friendly banter with one another, and from that point
on, the four of us had a wonderful dinner with great conversation.
Sasha and Maya seemed to really hit it off. I couldn’t tell if
Sasha was just going along with it because that was the right way
to act, or if she generally liked Maya. I knew Maya liked both
Sasha and Patrick because she was far too real of a person to fake
the good time she was having. The dinner felt like a double
date.

We finished dinner and all agreed to meet up
at a coffee shop off of Silver Lake Street. The four of us walked
back to the little parking lot where Maya and I had originally
parked. Apparently, Sasha had also parked her Jeep in the same
lot.

I held Maya’s hand and we walked behind
Sasha and Patrick. They weren’t holding hands but they walked
closely together. We approached the parking lot and three
dark-haired guys, all dressed completely in black, walked toward
us. I had a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach; I knew
something wasn’t right. Surprisingly, they walked past us and
didn’t say a word. Then after a brief moment, the reason for my bad
feeling became apparent.

“Hey, Gutterball!” one of them yelled at
us.

I turned around at the oddity of being
called Gutterball. As I turned around, Patrick said, “Let’s get out
of here.”

“Do you know these guys, Patrick?” I
asked.

“Let’s just go,” Patrick repeated,
earnestly.

“Why are they calling you Gutterball?”

“Because I first met them at a bowling alley
and I wasn’t too good at bowling.” Patrick hurried to Sasha’s
Jeep.

“Gutterball! That’s you, right?” one of the
guys continued to yell.

Patrick continued to ignore them and that
didn’t make matters better. In a blink of an eye, the guy yelling
at us had shot his way across the parking lot and stood right in
front of us. The guy had shoulder-length, long black hair.

“Fucking Gutterball,” the guy said. “Where
the hell you been?”

Patrick looked up and nervously said, “I’ve
been around.”

“Well, you’ve been nowhere near us. As a
matter of fact, one might say you have gone completely out of your
way to avoid the Brotherhood.”

Great, as if I didn’t already know these
assholes were Mani— they were fucking vampires. I didn’t know what
to do. I mean these guys obviously came here looking for Patrick.
Someone must have given them a heads’ up that he was down here.

“Girls, get in the car!” I said.

“Fuck no,” Sasha said. “These guys don’t
scare me.”

“Maya get in the car,” I repeated. Maya
looked at me, scared, and it broke my heart. I never wanted to see
her ever give me a look like that. Maya jumped in my car and locked
the door. Her eyes were riveted on us and she was suddenly
pale.

“Cute girl, Gutterball,” the guy continued.
“Which of these skanks is your date?”

“Excuse me?” I said.

“Excuse you!” the black-haired punk repeated
back to me. “You probably will want to get into the car with your
girlfriend. You really don’t want to see this.”

“See what?” I asked.

“Well, Gutterball went AWOL, and there is
only one way we deal with AWOL cowards.”

“No one’s touching Patrick,” I warned
them.

The three Mani men all laughed at me.

“Cute,” the Mani guy said. “Patrick got a
boyfriend while he was gone. No wonder we found him in West
Hollywood.”