H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (110 page)

“Like in the trees or bushes?” Josiah
asked.

“Something like that,” I said.

“Why don’t you call the police or the fire
department? Or search and rescue with the sheriff’s office?”

“Like I said. It’s a lot more complicated
than that.”

“Try me,” he said.

I looked at Josiah. “All you need to know is
that we’re doing nothing against the law, and a good friend of mine
needs our help.”

“Is she hot?” Josiah asked.

“She’s really hot!” I laughed.

“Oh, really?” Maya said. “She’s really
hot?”

“Hey, I’m just trying to convince your
brother to help us.”

“I didn’t realize that the woman who lived
across the hall turned you on so drastically.”

“I’ll help,” Josiah said.

“Really?” Maya asked Josiah.

“You had me at ‘She’s really hot,’” he
said.

“Of course we did.” I started the car and
the three of us made our way back up the mountain.

“Really hot, huh?” Maya mumbled under her
voice.

I looked at her and said, “Trust me, you are
way hotter.”

“Now that’s just gross,” Josiah said.
“You’re talking about my sister.”

* * *

It was now around 10:00 a.m., so I was
crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. I pulled into the
Flatlands. This was where I last had seen Sasha last night. Sasha
had left this place after being dragged by a truck and beaten to a
pulp. She was injured badly and as far as I could see it, she
couldn’t have gone too much further without collapsing somewhere.
The likelihood was that she was within a one- to two-mile radius
from this spot.

I didn’t know if she ran off to the right or
to the left. The right was east of the spot. My instincts were
telling me that east was where she went. Just by determining the
positioning of everyone from the night before, the odds were that
she went east. I decided to have Josiah go south and Maya go north.
I didn’t like leaving Maya alone, but she insisted on looking by
herself so we could quickly cover more ground. We agreed to look
for sixty minutes and then return back to the Flatlands.

I closely scoured my area for about an hour.
I looked behind every piece of brush and up and behind every tree,
calling out Sasha’s name until my throat was hoarse. I didn’t mind
yelling her name loudly because anyone would think I had lost my
dog and was trying to find it. It was getting hot, and for an April
day, I was really itching and sweating something awful. It felt
almost natural to stick out my tongue and have saliva drip off of
it. I resisted doing so, but it was tempting. My inner werewolf was
alive and well.

One thing I did notice was that my sense of
smell was now off the charts. It was as if I could smell every
flower, piece of grass and dead carcass round me. I was hoping the
dead carcasses were only road kill and not poor Sasha. Then I got a
bizarre idea. If I had werewolf tendencies, then maybe if I grabbed
something of Sasha’s and smelled it, it might lead me in her
direction. At this point, I was hot and thirsty and needed to pee
pretty badly. I decided to head back to see Maya and Josiah and
regroup.

I got back to the car and called Josiah and
Maya on their cell phones and had them meet me back at the car. I
looked in my car for anything that Sasha might have touched. I
opened up my trunk and hit the jackpot. There was a sweater of hers
right on top of an old cooler. She had snagged it on another car a
couple months ago which caused her to bleed a little in the sleeve.
There were drops of her blood stained to the fabric.

I figured, here goes nothing. I nearly
shoved the sleeve part of the sweater entirely up my nose trying to
get a scent. There was a very strong scent on it. It was covered in
pheromones and human bacteria. It was very sexual and
unfortunately, it did arouse me.

I couldn’t believe what a horn dog I was. I
was getting turned on by Sasha’s sweater. Here I was, trying to
grab a scent so I could find a good friend and my animalistic
nature was taking over. Maybe I could use my werewolf’s high sex
drive to my advantage. So, I continued to allow myself to be turned
on by the pheromones. I didn’t care how it appeared because it was
giving me a strong scent and the more I sniffed her sweater, the
hornier I got. Suddenly, Maya and Josiah walked up. I turned my
body slightly, so they couldn’t see my half-arousal.

“What on earth are you doing?” Josiah asked.
“What are you, a dog trying get her scent?” he joked. He had no
idea how accurate he was.

“Ha!” I said to Josiah, which I sometimes
said to put him off when I didn’t want to answer something that he
asked me.

I pulled Maya aside and told her what I was
doing while Josiah decided to relieve himself behind a tree. Ah,
nature, it’s a bathroom to every species. “I got her scent from her
sweater,” I said to Maya.

“Is that what you were seriously doing? I
thought my brother was kidding.”

“Nope, he was right on.”

“Did you get a scent?” Maya couldn’t believe
those words came out of her mouth, but she also knew the severity
of what I had become.

“Yes, a big one. You and Josiah need to walk
in front of me because I’m probably going to be acting weird,
sniffing and stuff.”

“I was afraid you were going to start acting
weird, but this is even beyond my wildest imagination.”

“Very funny.” I hope she was kidding. I
hadn’t given her any reason not to trust me, and after last night,
she must know I’d do anything for her. I had a strong scent and the
truth was I had never done anything like this before. I decided to
walk about 50 feet in all four directions from the car. First, I
went south. I didn’t catch a whiff of anything that triggered the
scent. “Let’s go in the opposite direction for a look-see,” I
said.

“Seriously, Tommy, you called us back for
this?” Josiah asked. I could tell he was tired and cranky. My acute
hearing could hear Josiah’s stomach growling. We had promised him a
breakfast out and not delivered. Maya knew this was a matter of
life or death, to find Sasha, but even she seemed out of sync.

“I tell you what,” I said to them. “Why
don’t the two of you go get something to drink and meet me back
here in a half an hour?” I knew I could probably do a better job if
I wasn’t trying to openly mask the fact from Josiah that I was
sniffing around, trying to catch a direct scent of Sasha. They both
seemed exhausted and after what Maya had been through last night,
it made me feel better if she was at least with Josiah, because
that kid can take care of himself.

“Are you sure, Tommy?” Maya asked. “Aren’t
you thirsty, too?”

“I’m positive. I’m fine. There is a coffee
shop right up the way. Why don’t the two of you go up there and
grab some coffee or some juice and get yourselves rehydrated?”

* * *

I got a strong scent from the west. That
surprised me because that was the opposite direction from which
she’d run last night. I needed to respect my new ability and go
with it. I couldn’t allow my common sense or supposed human
instincts to override my werewolf instincts. They were my most
valuable asset for the task at hand.

As I went west, it led me to the main
highway. That wasn’t making me feel any better because there were
so many opportunities for her to be hit by a car. And if she had
been hit by a car and died last night, then I was obviously wasting
my time looking for her. The way I saw it, trying to save a friend
was never a waste a time.

I went across the highway and her scent was
strong right over the canyon. My werewolf nose allowed me to
discern the craziest things about Maya and I separated them out in
my head as I identified each of them: her sweat, her blood, her
pheromones released from fear and pain, a quick squat and hurried
urine splash behind a bush, and even the fragrance she was wearing,
right down to the low notes of something intoxicating in her
perfume. I tried to think of what it might be, visualizing the
bottles on my roommate’s dresser at home: ambergris oil in a
roll-on was her favorite. No wonder Sasha drove me nuts. The stuff
was joy juice for my nose with its aroma like sweet, smoky embers,
mixed with the allure of her skin’s own individual pheromones. It
was hard not to drool at how the scent that she rolled on almost
every day was the major trail that I followed. Her scents, here and
there on the ground and even on the wind, gave me great hope that
she was still alive. I did not smell her death, and I believed that
I would have.

On the other side of the street was a steep
canyon. I stuck my nose over it and got a strong whiff of Sasha’s
scent. I decided to go down in the canyon. The canyon was covered
in rocks, bushes, trees and brush. I tried to be careful, but the
angle was just far too steep. I stumbled down some rocks and dirt
and slid into an area that didn’t exactly look like the safest
place to stumble into. God knew what kind of animals were in here.
As a werewolf, a Carni, I feared less, actually, than as my former
human self, but I had a sense of smell that was very distinct of
rattlesnakes in the canyon, and I avoided their trails and
sidestepped around them, smelling them long before I saw them
almost camouflaged against their natural terrain.

But, the scent was now overwhelming and I
needed to continue into the thick brush if I was going to find
Sasha in time and get her to medical help. I grabbed a large branch
and began using it as a walking stick to help my balance as my body
kept going downward into the canyon at a pretty steep rate.

At the bottom of the canyon was the thickest
brush I had ever seen. My ankle gave out once again, and I stumbled
into it. As the ground became level, I scurried into it from my
45-degree angle.

“Sasha,” I yelled out. I resisted the urge
to howl for her, but wondered if a Carni howl would travel further
than a human shout. The scent was now as powerful a smell as I had
ever sniffed. I would have known her anywhere, or my nose would
have. I knew in my heart of hearts that she was here inside this
thick brush, dead or alive. But probably alive. I was confident I
had found her. I said a little prayer to myself that she was still
alive. I tried to hold my breath and see if I could hear her
heartbeat. I could not, but I heard the sound of many cicadas
clicking their abdomens, the fast, tiny heartbeats of kangaroo rats
as they dove into holes as my huge feet crossed their tunnels, the
high-pitched thrip-thrip of hummingbirds as they dived me when I
pulled back bushes, looking, looking for Sasha. All of the other
animals and insects were like a cacophony of noise that covered up
a human heartbeat, if there was one nearby, other than my own.

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.