H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (122 page)

“Trying out for some football thing,” she
said. “He’ll be home for dinner soon. It’s Mom’s special spaghetti
night. He never misses it. He’s planning on ingesting about five
thousand calories of pasta, sauce and garlic bread. A carb-loading
he called it. Mom has been cooking for two days.”

My mouth watered as I caught a whiff of the
feast from the kitchen. “Whew, I feel better knowing that he’ll be
home soon.” I paused. “Your dad have a gun in the house, just in
case?”

Maya shook her head at me. “Josiah is my
gun. Better than a gun, in fact. And for the sake of your friend,
Dave, I’m going to move on from this part of the conversation. This
is definitely a conversation we are going to revisit in the near
future. When I am not so pissed off. And when you have more
time.”

“I’m sure we will.”

“Have you talked to Marcos about anything?”
Maya asked.

“We both talked with him a couple of weeks
ago and he seemed okay, but now I wonder if it was all a ruse.”

“Where’s Marcos now?”

“At a junkyard in south Anaheim.”

“A junkyard?”

“You know where all those industrial
building are on the other side of Disneyland by the 5 freeway.
There’s a junkyard across the way from a sticker factory.”

“Why is he there?”

“He owns these luxury werewolf kennels. He
has werewolves go there and he protects them with high-end cages
when they turn. He provides them with some luxuries and safety
beyond a cage. It’s more like a resort. Actually, not a bad
business if you think about it.”

“And you think Dave is there?”

“I don’t know. We’re first going to check
his apartment, but if something doesn’t look or feel right, we are
going to see Marcos at the junkyard. And I’ll beat it out of him if
I have to, to find out what he has done with Dave.”

“I don’t want you to do anything,” Maya said
directly to me. Maya cared about me, and I knew I wasn’t going to
get her permission to go. The thing is, I never ask anyone’s
permission to do anything. I had given in to her not letting me
fight, but this time, a friend’s safety was on the line. Not even
Maya could stop me from doing this.

“I’m sorry, Maya. I’m going,” I said. “He’s
my friend and I have to know what happened. Especially, after I
gave him my word that I’d protect him.”

“What did he give you?” Maya asked.

“Huh?”

“If you are willing to put your life on the
line for someone, they better have offered you something great in
return. Even an imperative scrap of wisdom. Come on, throw me a
bone, Tommy! What did Dave offer you in return for your
protection?”

I stood there quietly and simply said, “I
don’t ask for anything. My loyalty is for free. You know that.”

Maya stared at me, and she was not happy.
“Why did you even come here like this? To torment me?”

“No! Because, I wanted you to know where I
went.”

“Why?”

“Because, it’s going to be dangerous. If
something happens, I wanted you to know…what happened and where.
These guys are Carni and they know how to eliminate other Carni
from this earth easily.”

“That’s reassuring.” Tears began to drip
from her eyes. Dammit! This was the last thing I wanted.

“Am I ever going to see you again?” she
whispered. “Tommy!” she wailed as quietly as a girl could in her
parents’ house.

“Believe in me, Maya,” I said. “I promise
that I’ll come out on top. Sweetie, I got to go. I could sit here
and talk to you all day, but I have people in the car. We need to
see if our friend is okay.”

“You brought back the whole six-pack over
here?”

“Everyone, except Dave. That’s why we’re
here.” I leaned over and kissed Maya on the top of her head. I took
in a deep breath through my nose and her scent was as fluid and
aromatic as ever.

“Did you just sniff me?” Maya asked.

“Sure did.” Then, I kissed her lips and
headed out of her room and out of the house.

* * *

Everything was taking a lot longer than I
had hoped. We were losing daylight again. We stopped in Dave’s
apartment and it was a mess. Things did not look good. There was an
obvious struggle. I wasn’t sure when the guys got there. His phone
was still on his dresser. I could see the text. I wasn’t sure if he
or someone else I had sent me that text yesterday.

The five of us knew what we had to do. We
needed to get to the junkyard.

We got back into our cars and made our way
to find Marcos. Hopefully, when we found Marcos, we would also find
Dave.

We pulled our two vehicles into the
Industrial District of Anaheim. I was in my Mustang with the twins.
Albert drove Steve in his lowered, red Nissan truck. Very
hip-hop.

We took a couple of lefts and ended up right
in front of the junkyard. The junkyard was completely fenced in
with barb wire and metal fences. Across the street was Orion
Commercial Stickers. There was an open parking lot in front of the
sticker factory with a few cars parked in the driveway.

We parked our two cars on the street, and
all of us got out of the two vehicles. We stood on the sidewalk
that led toward the junkyard.

“Does everyone here know Marcos Fausto?”

“I’ve heard of him, I never met him,” Albert
said.

“I met him once awhile back,” Steve said.
“He was a big prick.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” I said. “Well,
this is his Hotel for Dogs. And by dogs, I mean Carni. Behind those
fences, he has some of the nicest and fanciest cages anyone can
imagine.”

“I heard he charges $1,000 for a three-day
stay,” Eli said.

“Apparently, his bar and this place aren’t
covering his gambling debts. That’s why he was putting a lot of
pressure on Dave.”

“Why Dave?” Evan asked.

“Dave knows me and Marcos knows that we
became friends. Marcos wanted to control me with my fighting.
Typical Don King bullshit.”

“But you said, ‘no,’” Steve asked.

“No one controls me. Especially, a backward
asshole like Marcos Fausto,” I said plainly.

“Well, how do we get in there?” Eli
asked.

I looked at the property and it was fairly
secure.

“How do we get his attention?” Ethan
asked.

“Why don’t you and brother rip off your
shirts and start flexing,” I said. I knew it wasn’t the time for a
joke, but we needed to break some tension. Just then, I saw a
couple of his henchmen walk outside. “It looks like they know we’re
here.”

The two men walked over to us. We were only
separated by the caged fence. “May we help you?” the man said from
behind the fence.

“I’m here to see Marcos. He’s probably
expecting me.” I stared the man in his ugly bald face.

“Are you Kyro?”

“Yes.”

“Tommy-Kyro?” the guy confirmed.

“Just let him know, that Kyro and a few of
his friends are here to meet with him.”

The men left for a couple of minutes. Then
they returned and opened up the gate, I noticed they didn’t lock it
once we entered through. They were obviously planning on us leaving
quickly. The five of us went through the gate. The junkyard was
exactly that, a junkyard. There was crap everywhere out front. I
suspected that we would be taken to the back of the property. Where
they kept the cages and living conditions, but to my surprise,
Marcos, and about ten of his men, came from out back and met us in
the front.

“What can I do you for, Kyro?” Marcos asked
as he walked up, staring me down like a teenager ready to throw
down at a moment’s notice.

“I’m going to keep this short, Marcos.
Where’s Dave?”

“Where’s Dave?” he asked, mocking my
question. “Did you lose your little friend?”

“He’s my friend,” I said firmly. “He was
your acquaintance first,” I said. “He never showed up last night,
and I thought I’d come by and see what you know.”

“I am not your ‘Dave’s keeper.’ Did you
check his apartment?”

“Yep, it looks like you went in there and
thrashed the joint.”

Marcos was quiet, and then broke his silence
with a smile then followed by an awkward laugh.

“Let me get this straight. You think I know
the whereabouts of your friend and I went to his apartment and
turned it upside down?”

“Look, dude. Man up. Quit this going around
in circles bullshit. Dave was under the impression that unless I
fought on your behalf, you would kill him. Now he’s gone. So, in my
book, you’re prime suspect number one. Don’t make me call out the
Tandra police.”

He laughed at that. “And who are you,
fucking Columbo? Even if I knew where your friend was, why would I
tell you? And just who the fuck do you think you are to dictate
these terms with your lame threats?”

“I’m ‘nobody,’” I said. “A ‘nobody’ who will
rain a whole lot of hell on you. If you thought owing some thugs a
few bucks, made you nervous, you haven’t tried being on my bad
side. You wanna see MMA fighting? I can and will go MMA on your
person if you don’t cough up Dave, safe and sound.”

I looked up and I knew we were up against
the elements. It was going to be dark real soon. That would mean
there would be the second full moon in which all the Carni in the
junkyard would surely turn.

Marcos caught me looking at the sky, and he
grinned. “Worried?” he asked.

“About?”

“About ‘turning,’ and not being in a safe
place when the moon rises?”

“Do you see my friends next to me? As long
as I’m with them, any place is a safe place,” I said, with about as
much confidence as a man could possess.

“What do you expect to get from this
meeting? Tommy Jensen?” Now he was calling me by my real name, my
Tandra name. He knew I didn’t like that, from other werewolves.

“You tell me where Dave is and I might let
you live,” I said.

“Let me live?” Marcos laughed. “No one knows
where Dave is!” Marcos yelled out. “Unless you believe in the
afterlife and maybe he’ll come back as a slug or a daffodil.”

I kept quiet, holding in a howl of grief as
I saw the murder in his eyes. I looked at my guys and then looked
at the sky. The sun was going down, and it would only be a matter
of time until we would all start to change. I wasn’t leaving.
Marcos smug face was enough to make me feel like I needed to throw
up. Or kill Marcos.

“Did you kill him?” I asked softly. Dave was
the keeper of werewolf history, for five hundred years. And he was
a hell of a nice guy, too. I was attached to him. Very
attached.

“I didn’t kill him.”

“So, he’s alive?” Again, I was talking
extremely quietly.

“I wouldn’t waste my time on a second-rate
werewolf like Dave. I had a couple of my boys camp out at his
place, and wait for him to come home.”

Anger and disdain began to rise in my core.
I was about to pounce on Marcos with reckless abandonment, but a
strong smell came from behind me. It was a distinct smell that was
filed into my memory bank. It was Maya’s unique smell that I only I
knew. She was here, still smelling of sex with me. I was almost
freaked out of my mind with fear of something happening to her. I
backed up and turned my body around to not make it obvious that I
was looking for someone else. I was looking in the opposite
direction. There, across the street was Maya, sitting there in her
parents’ car, all by herself, like she was waiting for a burger at
a drive thru, yes, that nonchalant. Shit! What was she doing here?
I turned around and looked at Marcos and made sure I didn’t tip my
hand that my girl was across the street, watching in plain sight.
“We are seconds away from the full moon,” I said to Marcos.

“Looks like we are,” Marcos said to me. Then
everyone spread out, getting ready to battle. Marcos and I were
having a good, old-fashioned standoff. Both of us knew that if we
didn’t move, we would turn into werewolves right out here in the
open. I glanced over at the gate, and saw that it was still
unlocked and that was the last conscious thought I had.

The full moon had arrived.

* * *

I woke up and I was in a cage, a really nice
cage, to be exact. It had a great tree in the middle with blankets,
and pillows. There were slabs of raw meat in the corner on a
plate—T-bone steaks—and my mouth was watering. “How in the hell did
I get in here?”

I called out, “Hello?”

Then, from around the corner, Maya walked
in, sipping on a cup of coffee that smelled like a Starbucks roast.
Wherever, I was, she was here, too. She had a few scratches on her
arm, claw marks. But she was looking well.

“Where are we?” I asked. I turned and peed
behind a tree that had been planted inside the cage. By now, she
knew my drill, too. Wake up and pee like a racehorse. Get let out
of the cage.

“We’re in Marcos’s luxury cages,” Maya
said.

“Who is we?” I asked.

“You and each one of your friends. You five
survived,” Maya said with a big smile. My heart stabbed. Dave was
not here. She would have told me if he was.

“Where are Marcos and his men?” I asked.

“None of them survived.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means your five-pack killed all of them
pretty easily.”

Whoa! Wow! I digested this news without
remembering what had gone down.

Soon, I began hearing each of my friends
call out from other cages that were apparently in other rooms.

“Come on,” she said. “Everybody wants to
re-bond in their Carni forms.”

Maya let me out of my cage and one by one,
we let out my friends from their cages. Each one of them were safe.
My head was spinning because I had no idea what happened since moon
rise last night.

“Where can we de-brief?” I asked Maya, who
had had plenty of time to make herself familiar with the werewolf
luxury kennel layout.

“I’ll show you,” she said, and we followed
her like puppies, her perfume and fresh coffee like an allure that
we all scented. She sashayed down a florescent lit hallway like the
girly Tandra chick that she was.