H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (19 page)

Well, I wasn’t going down without a
fight.

I charged forward, heaving my right hand at
Hector’s face as hard as I could, while simultaneously kicking
Wyatt with my left leg. It was an advanced move. Not something they
teach you in MMA, since you don’t fight two guys at once. I had
learned this one from Tommy. Anyway, the leverage I generated by
hitting Hector transferred through me and gave my kick an amazing
amount of force, a kick that landed square in the center of Wyatt’s
chest. To my own surprise, the Mani tumbled off the cliff. I had no
doubt he would transition back into a raven before hitting bottom.
I would have looked for myself but, Hector had already jumped on
top of me.

Good God, he was incredibly strong. Before I
could grab the bastard, I felt his teeth sink deep into my neck.
The pain was so intense, I dropped to my knees. The bite had an odd
effect. Almost immediately, it sapped my strength. I reached weakly
for Hector, my hand futilely slapping and grabbing at him. He sank
his teeth even deeper, tearing at my neck. Good God, I heard him
drinking from my neck, sucking on me like a monster.

Black encroached from the edges of my
vision. I had been knocked out enough to know that I was about to
pass out. And that’s when someone—or something—tackled Hector off
of me. Both bodies fell off the cliff. I shook my head and grabbed
my damaged neck. I crawled to the lip of the cliff and, bleeding
and lightheaded, looked down.

It had been Yari, once again saving me. I
looked down and watched as both Yari and Hector transitioned before
reaching the ground. It was like watching two dog-fighting WWII
aircraft, tumbling and battling, wings tangled. Raven and Hawk
clawed at each other, all the way to the ground. Once on the
ground, both transformed back to their Mani selves, and the
fighting continued, only this time Wyatt joined in. Sweet Jesus,
they were beating the crap out of Yari. Sure, she got some punches
in, but two Mani were clearly stronger and more powerful than
one.

Atticai was still sucking on Lena’s’ neck.
Now I could see her fighting him, struggling. If ever someone had
made a poor decision—Well, she wasn’t the only one who had made a
poor decision. Who was currently sitting high atop a cliff at
night, only moments from two vampires returning and finishing their
job?

And the one person who had saved me and had
my back was currently being pinned to the ground by Wyatt. From
high above, I watched in horror as Hector removed something
gleaming. Even from up here, I could see what it was.

A silver stake.

They were going to kill Yari. And Atticai
was going to kill Lena, and any minute now they would return and
kill me, too.

Good job, hero, I thought.

But there was nothing I could do. I was
stuck up here. If I jumped, I would surely die. There is no way I
could survive that fall.

But as I looked down over the cliff,
something amazing happened. Simultaneously, both Yari and Lena
yelled, “Josiah!”

That was all I needed to hear to know my
fate.

Chapter Thirty

I stared, stunned. But I didn’t know what to
do. But suddenly—amazingly—I wasn’t weak anymore. In fact, I felt
incredibly strong. But they were still so far below. What could I
do? Still, my body felt suddenly indestructible, stronger than I
had ever felt before. I had never taken steroids, but I imagined
this is what they felt like—times ten.

I stood up. I felt ten feet tall. I looked
down...and without thinking, I jumped.

And I didn’t just jump. I dove headfirst, as
if from a high diving board. As I fell, I stretched my hands and
felt the wind thunder over me. I knew I was going to die. I had to
die. What was I thinking? I wasn’t thinking. It had almost been
instinct to jump. But an instinct bore from what? But it didn’t
matter. I had jumped. I had just done it without thinking
twice.

Too late now. Too late to even care.

But what a way to go!

I plummeted down. The wind whipped my
clothes and hair crazily. My body felt unbelievably strong. I
almost felt as if I could fly. Probably everyone who jumps thinks
this. Perhaps this is the last thought all jumpers have before they
hit bottom:

That they could fly.

But I did feel as if I could fly. In fact, I
was suddenly certain I could fly. Of course, I was certain. I had
no other hope to hang onto. I was about to get dashed across the
rocky bottom and who wouldn’t wish they could fly?

And that’s when something amazing
happened.

I stopped picking up speed. In fact, it felt
almost as if I was slowing.

Maybe that was part of death, too.
Everything slowing down, right before I hit bottom.

But I didn’t hit bottom. In fact, I was
slowing down even more.

What the hell?

I looked at my arms, and that’s when I
received the shock of my life. My arms weren’t arms. My arms were
wings. Beautiful white wings. I instinctively angled my arms—or
wings—and I swooped up, just missing the ground and the shocked
faces below. I made my way up into the sky again. I yelled out, and
an eagle-like screech echoed along the canyon walls.

Somehow, I had transitioned. Somehow, I had
turned into...the white eagle.

Lena!

I looked down, and my eyesight was amazing.
I could see all the details below. Lena was still in Atticai’s
arms. Her head was forward. He was fastened to her neck like a
goddamn sucker fish. He was drinking deeply, his throat working,
swallowing her life force. A deep bruise had formed around her neck
where he was sucking her blood, sucking and sucking...

I angled my wings, tucking them in, and dove
down.

I shot through the night, going faster than
I had ever gone in my life. It was exhilarating. Atticai never saw
me coming. Someone—Wyatt, I think—shouted to his vampire leader,
but it was too late.

I slammed hard into Atticai, piercing his
neck with my great, hooked beak. The force of the impact was great.
Atticai was thrown to the side, spinning through the air. My beak,
I saw, had gone in one side of his neck and out the other. Just as
Yari had said to do.

Atticai rolled across the dirt, and I rolled
with him, tucking in my wings. We were still deeply attached.
Finally, we stopped and he opened his mouth, gasping. His
terrified, confused eyes fell on me. And they widened even more as
he realized what he was seeing...a white eagle. His mouth worked.
Blood poured out of his nose and mouth, dripping over my own
beak.

“I don’t understand,” he whispered, unable
to find his voice.

I considered killing him. I considered
watching the bastard die, but he had spared me once—although it had
been a half-assed gesture. Still, I decided to return the
favor.

Except, I didn’t know how to transition
back. What was I supposed to do? And suddenly, within seconds, I
found myself—my normal self—lying next to a bleeding Atticai.
Apparently, just wanting to transition back was all that was
necessary to switch back and forth.

“You...” gasped Atticai, holding his neck
and sitting up. “You were the one in the visions. I didn’t know.
How could I have known? You were the Chosen One.” Atticai coughed,
and more blood dribbled down his chin. “I was the evil. I was the
evil in the dream.”

Atticai closed his eyes and then just
disappeared. In a night, where I had found myself turned into a
white eagle, seeing a man disappear in front of me, really freaked
me out. But I didn’t have time to worry about it. Next on the list
would be to save Yari; that is, if I wasn’t too late.

I scrambled to my feet, and discovered I was
still wearing the same clothes I had been. Okay, now that was a
neat trick.

Focus, Josiah. Find Yari.

But I didn’t have far to go, or much to
worry about. She was standing with Wyatt and Hector, all three of
whom were staring at me, open-mouthed. Yari stood still, staring at
me as if she had seen a ghost. And that’s saying something about a
girl who was already extremely pale faced and was a supernatural
being herself.

“You’re the one, Josiah. You’re the Chosen
One. I can’t believe it.”

“Never mind that, we need to help Lena.” I
turned and spotted her lying on the ground. Blood dribbled from her
neck, soaking into the dirt around her. I ran to her side and
picked her up. She didn’t look as if she was breathing.

“What do I do?” I yelled. “Someone tell me
what to do!”

“There is only one thing you can do,
Josiah,” said Yari.

“What? Tell me!”

Amazingly, the others didn’t seem to care
what happened to Lena. Why should they? They were used to killing;
they were used to death. What was one more dead Tandra to them?

“Tell me, or I’ll rip all of your fucking
hearts out!” I screamed.

“She is lost,” Yari said. “Unless....”

“Unless what?”

“Unless you choose to turn her.”

“What the devil are you talking about?”

“To save Lena, you will need to turn her
into a Mani.”

“I don’t understand.”

Yari smiled gently at me. “You are one of
us, Josiah. You have been bitten three times by a Mani. It takes
three bites to turn her.”

Through my scattered, crazed thoughts, I
realized she was right. The first had been when Wyatt bit me. The
second had been when Yari sucked the poison out of me. And third
had been Hector, up on the cliff. That’s why I was able to
transition.

“You need to help her become a Mani, or
she’ll die. She has lost too much blood.”

“But you just said three bites...”

“This will be her second bite.” Atticai was
obviously the first one. Yari walked over and lifted Lena’s wrist
and bit down into it, drawing a small amount of blood. Blood
dribbled out, but certainly not as much as I would have thought,
until I remembered how much blood Atticai had surely consumed.

“Now, you Josiah,” said Yari gently. “But
you need to get her conscious.”

“Why?”

“Perhaps she should have some say in the
matter?”

“Of course.” God, I wasn’t thinking at all.
Who could, under these circumstances? But I did as I was told. I
patted her face gently. “Lena, wake up.”

I repeated this a few more times until her
eyelids fluttered and finally opened.

“Josiah?” she whispered.

I smiled down at her. She was still in my
arms. “Yes. Lena, I need to know...do you seriously want to become
a Mani?”

Lena smiled. “Of course, Josiah. That’s all
I ever wanted.”

I looked at Yari. “Now what?”

“Bite her anywhere. Allow your new teeth to
pierce her deep enough so that her blood flows into your mouth.
Drink her and swallow. It won’t have to be much. Just enough so
that the bond is felt by the Triat.”

“Okay.”

I ran my tongue over my “new teeth,” pausing
at the canines. My tongue stopped and slid along the full length of
them. They were as long as a mountain lion’s incisors. Hell,
longer.

“Hurry, Josiah,” said Lena.

I nodded, opened my mouth, leaned down, and
sank these new teeth deep into her neck, the opposite side where
Atticai had feasted. Her blood tasted metallic and warm...and
utterly delicious. I stopped, forcing myself to pull back. I
released my teeth and looked down at her. And before my very eyes,
the two puncture wounds in her neck closed. As did the wounds in
both of her wrists. She looked up at me and smiled.

“You can set me down,” she said.

I did so, and she stood and rubbed her neck,
and I could only stare in stunned silence. It was all so much to
take in. I knew that at any moment, I would wake up from some
long-ass dream, no doubt fueled by some highly illegal
hallucinogenic drug, slipped to me by some nefarious means. But for
now, I was awake. Wide awake. And I was a Mani.

“What happened to Atticai?” asked Lena,
looking around. I knew then that she had sincerely loved the tall
bastard.

“Atticai is gone,” Yari said.

“Is he okay?”

Yari shook her head, and Lena covered her
mouth. Finally, she said, “So the prophecy wasn’t fulfilled?”

“Oh, it was fulfilled, just not by
Atticai.”

“I don’t understand,” said Lena.

“Josiah is the Chosen One.”

She stared at me, and it was then that I
also knew that she had strong feelings for me, too. Yari saw the
look that passed between us, and didn’t like it, but she didn’t say
anything. I turned to Wyatt and Hector. Both were openly staring at
me, and both looked nervous as hell.

“Relax, guys.”

“We cool?” Wyatt asked. “I mean, no hard
feelings about us, um, trying to kill you and all?”

“Oh, I’ll be kicking your asses later, but
for now, we’re cool.”

They both grinned, and we all stood there in
silence. I wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened, but I knew
more would be explained to me, much more. But for now, there was
only one thing I wanted to do. Well, two.

“Let’s get out of here, guys,” I said.

We all transitioned: Lena and Yari into
beautiful red hawks, Hector and Wyatt into black ravens, and myself
into the great white eagle.

We flew, together, over the San Bernardino
Mountains. I was now part of the Children of the Night. I was now a
Mani. I was now supposed to be their savior. But two beautiful
women, C.O.N. business, and even the ass-kickings of my new
henchmen would have to wait.

My first order of business was to find
Tommy…

To be continued in:

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Vampire Love Story #2

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