H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (13 page)

“Just like that? One minute he’s full of
life kicking ass in the ring, and twelve hours later, he’s…dead?” I
wasn’t making sense, and I knew it. Who could make sense at a time
like this?

“If you need grief counseling, we can
provide you with that—”

“I don’t need grief counseling.”

I fell to my knees. I couldn’t think
straight. What I needed was a hospital bed of my own.

Chapter Eighteen

I made my way to a chair in the waiting
room. I leaned back my head and couldn’t believe that this happened
to me again.

Fuck this!

I got up and stumbled toward the door.

What the hell was going on? Tommy? Dead!

I pushed my way outside and looked up into
the morning sun. I dropped to my knees. My heart felt as if it was
going to rip from my chest. I needed to get out of here. I went to
my truck. But I didn’t trust myself to drive, not right now. So I
started running. I ran past cars in the driveway and people walking
to their cars. I got to the sidewalk and started sprinting down the
street, heading the opposite direction of traffic. The sidewalk
soon ended and I was now in the street, running in the direction of
approaching cars. I didn’t care. Let them hit me. I didn’t
care.

Fuck them. Fuck everything.

I kept running as fast as I could make my
body go. Cars swerved around into the next lane. Horns honked
everywhere. Tires screeched. And still I ran. Now, a car was coming
straight for me. I refused to move over. It screeched to a stop,
smoke billowing up around its tires. But I didn’t slow or deviate.
Instead, I ran up onto its hood and ignored the shocked expression
of the middle-aged driver. I ran over the roof and down the trunk,
leaving massive footprints in the sheet metal. I didn’t care. I
didn’t care about anything.

Eventually, I turned a corner and found
myself in a dirt parking lot. Some cars followed me in. I dropped
to my knees, sucking air, trying to breathe, trying to die.
Whatever came first, I didn’t care.

A guy in a big, black Ford truck got out of
his vehicle and began yelling at me. “What the hell were you doing,
you stupid asshole!”

I ignored him, hardly saw him. He was just
background noise.

Another guy jumped out of a white Mazda. A
chubby Asian dude. “You stupid piece of shit...what the hell were
you trying to do?”

God, I was in so much pain. I didn’t care if
these two guys wanted to kick my ass or not. I was going to let
them just have at me. I dropped my chin against my chest. My heart
was racing so fast. Finally, I just let out a long, bellowing wail.
It was shocking, the level of animalistic grief in that long wail.
It was a primal sound, one that I was freaked out came from within
me. It woke me up, in a way, and I asked myself where I was running
to. Tommy wasn’t out here. He wasn’t anywhere. He was gone.

One of the annoyed guys asked me if I needed
help, but I didn’t respond. Eventually, they both got in their
vehicles and drove off. From above, I heard the beat of Daphne’s
wings and an occasional screechy squawk. I don’t know what it was
about that bird, but she was attached to me. The morning sun beat
down on my neck. Its heat comforted me.

Eventually, I made it back to my truck and
drove home. I opened the door and went straight into Tommy’s room.
He kept his room meticulous, just as he did everything else in his
life. He still had pictures of himself and my sister on his
dresser, even though she had been dead for three years. He had
pictures of them at Disneyland and one from her senior prom.

On top of his dresser was a framed picture
of Tommy and me. We had our arms around each other after my first
MMA fight. I had knocked the guy out in one minute, so Tommy and I
were sporting the number one sign. We both seemed so happy. This
picture was about a year old, which would have been two years after
my family’s accident. Tommy and I knew, without ever talking about
it, that we were bonded for life, brothers not of flesh, but of
hearts. Now...he was gone. He had gone to heaven. Now I had my
pops, mom, sis, and Tommy all looking after me. From above.

I sat on his bed and lay back on his pillow
and stared at the ceiling. Up there was a movie poster of Never
Back Down. Tommy had eaten, slept, and lived mixed martial arts
fighting.

“So, what am I supposed to do now, guys?” I
yelled out loud. “You guys think I can do this alone? Well, I have
news for all of you...I can’t.” I rolled over, and I got up. I
looked at myself in Tommy’s mirror above his dresser. “But it looks
as if I have no choice.”

Chapter Nineteen

I felt lost. I didn’t know what to do. I
just wanted to get out of here. Go somewhere far away. I needed to
talk to someone. I needed to talk to someone I trusted. I needed to
talk to Lena.

I got in my truck and drove over to her
house. She answered the door immediately.

“Josiah,” Lena said, surprised. “Are you
okay?”

“No, I’m not.” I said. “Can we go somewhere
to talk?”

“Sure.” She grabbed her coat, and we both
got in my truck. I drove around the corner and parked in a church
parking lot. I suddenly found speaking exceedingly difficult. I
collected myself and, with her concerned eyes on me, I blurted out,
“Tommy is dead.”

“How do you know?” she asked.

Her question was completely out of left
field. “What do you mean, how do I know? I was at the hospital when
he died. A cop told me!”

“Oh, no. This can’t be happening.” Lena
covered her face and looked away.

Okay, either this girl had no clue how to
console someone hurting, or something else was going on. “What
can’t be happening? Lena, do you know something about this?”

She looked back at me. Yeah, something was
wrong. “What is it, Lena? Please. Tell me.”

“You’re not going to believe what
happened.”

“Tell me.”

“Let’s go for a ride.”

So we rode. I pulled out of the church
driveway and soon we were cruising on a mostly empty freeway, going
nowhere in particular. Lena turned in her seat and looked at
me.

“Josiah, how well did you know Tommy?”

“I knew him like a brother.”

“Then perhaps even brothers keep
secrets.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Tommy had a secret, Josiah. A big
secret.”

I was in no mood, and, quite frankly, she
was beginning to irritate me. I needed to be consoled, not
presented with riddles. It took all my power to bite my tongue, and
simply growl, “How the hell would you know about Tommy’s secrets?
You hardly knew him.”

“Josiah, this might be hard for you to
understand. This will be difficult for you to process.” She took a
deep breath, touched my hand tentatively, and then retracted her
hand.

“Just say it, Lena.”

She nodded. Tears were streaming down the
side of her cheeks. This night was just getting weirder and
weirder. “Josiah, Tommy is what’s called a Carni.”

“What the hell is a Carni?”

She was staring at me again. Even in my
peripheral vision, I could see her lower lip shaking.

“Please, talk to me, Lena. I’m seriously
confused. What’s a Carni?”

“They’re werewolves.”

I looked at her, and she was dead serious.
She didn’t even blink. Her eyes were piercing right through me.

“Tommy’s werewolf name is Kyro. He’s one of
the most notorious werewolves in the area.”

“Lena, listen to me. And listen to me good.
You are freaking crazy. Atticai, Yari, Wyatt, Hector, all of you
idiots are stone-cold nut jobs. Tommy was as normal as anyone I’d
ever known. I was with him every day. I’ve never once seen him
become a...” I couldn’t even say it. This was all far too
insane.

I got off the freeway and got back on, going
the other direction. I wanted Lena out of my car. She was only
making a shitty night worse. I wanted nothing more than to dump her
at her trailer park and never see her again.

“Listen to me. You never saw it, Josiah,
because he can control it. Tommy is an advanced Carni. The only
time they can’t control it is during a full moon.”

“What?”

“Think about, Josiah. Did Tommy mysteriously
leave every month for about 48 hours?”

“That’s silly. Tommy was in the reserves. Of
course, he would leave. He was on duty for the United States
military. On rotation. Duty.”

“Other than his word, did you ever see proof
that he was in the reserves?”

“In my world, someone’s word is pretty much
enough. His was.”

“Josiah, the last thing I want to do is
wreck your world. But you are going to have to open your eyes.
Everything you know to be true is upside down. There is a whole
world of Carni and Mani all around us. And by their mercy, they
don’t kill the Tandra.”

“Tandra?”

“Yes. We are the Tandra...the mortals.”

I couldn’t wrap my mind around any of this.
“How do you know so much?”

“Because they let me in. I don’t know
exactly why, but Atticai says on my twentieth birthday next week,
everything will be clear to me.”

“So who—or what—killed Tommy? That’s even if
I believe this, which I don’t.”

Lena was quiet.

“Who killed Tommy, Lena, since you know so
fucking much?”

“Atticai confronted him after the fight in
the parking lot.”

“What?”

“Atticai approached him, and Tommy, of
course, knows exactly what Atticai is. They got into a heated
discussion. Atticai was defending you, saying a Carni had no
business competing in Tandra sports. He told Tommy that if he
continued to test the Triat, it would be to his demise.”

“What the hell are you smoking, girl? What
the hell is the Triat?”

“The Triat is the unbinding force that
allows the Carni and Mani to live in peace along with the
Tandra.”

“You have fucking lost your mind, Lena.
You’re making up a bad religion in your head to explain what you
don’t understand.”

“Please—”

“Tell me what they did to Tommy!” I
screamed, sounding as if I had lost my mind, as well. I pounded the
dash and left a dent in it.

Lena shrank against the passenger side door.
“Tommy challenged Atticai.”

“Where and how?”

“They went to old Rogue Field over by
Wasserman. They knew it was isolated enough that they wouldn’t be
seen by regular folks. Only Carni and Mani were invited. ”

I heard myself breathing. I heard my heart
beating loudly in my ears. What the fuck was going on?

“Were you there?” I asked.

“Yes, I was.”

“So what happened?”

“Atticai and Tommy battled.”

“You’re lying. You’re crazy.”

She went on, ignoring me. “Your friend
battled bravely, but Atticai had too much power.”

“Atticai killed him?”

Again, Lena got quiet.

“Did Atticai kill him?”

“In the Carni tradition, once a Carni loses
to a Mani in a public fight, all the observing Carni mangles the
remainder of the body.”

Honestly, how the hell was I supposed to
respond to that? I decided to keep to the facts. “Who drove him
down to the hospital? He was alive when he was dropped off at the
door.”

“I don’t know who dropped him off, Josiah.
He was left for dead.”

“But someone drove him to the hospital.
Who?”

“I don’t know. Everyone left late in the
morning. When we left, Tommy’s body was still out there.”

“I don’t believe you. I don’t believe any of
this. Atticai killed Tommy because he’s a crazy, delusional,
Goth-crazed psychopath.”

I exited the freeway.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to the Flatlands. I’m going to
find Atticai.”

“Josiah, if you go there—and if you tell
them that you know anything—they will kill you. Your ignorance of
them is what keeps you alive. It’s what keeps all Tandra alive, by
decree of the Triat—”

“Please, just shut your mouth.”

“Drop me off at my house because I don’t
want to be a part of this.”

“I will gladly drop you off. But you were
willing to be a part of it last night when Tommy got killed.”

She didn’t answer that, which was just as
well. The more she opened her mouth, the more I started not liking
her. After I parked in front of her trailer park, Lena got out and
walked over to my window.

“Don’t go away angry, Josiah. Please. For
me. Try to forget all of this and just go back to your normal
life.”

“What life, Lena? Tommy was the last of my
family, and your family killed him.”

She shook her head and stepped back away
from my truck. I reversed out of her community’s driveway, tires
squealing pas the 5 m.p.h. sign, and headed to the Arrowhead
Mountains. I was going to find and hurt Atticai.

My mind raced as I drove. What if, on any
level, any of this was true? But how could it be? This wasn’t
freaking Groovy Goolies Saturday morning cartoon show where
vampires and werewolves were the norm. This was real life.

My head hurt. My heart hurt. Everything
hurt.

And one way or another, Atticai was going to
hurt, too.

Bad.

Chapter Twenty

My truck bounded onto the rocks at the
Flatlands, where I soon skidded to a halt.

There was a small party going on out here,
maybe about twenty guys total. But they were scattered around, more
casual than the other night. I jumped out of my truck and looked
around for Atticai. Everyone stared at me. I stalked toward them.
There, he was. The tall goon was standing by himself near a
bonfire.

“Josiah,” he said, and turned to face me.
The firelight highlighted his gaunt feature. His striking nose, his
small eyes. He said, “You might want to watch your every move from
this point on.”