H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (28 page)

“Okay, you’re Krull. Is that supposed to
mean something to me?”

“You’re a cocky little shit aren’t you?”
Krull would not tolerate my disrespect. It appeared that no one had
talked to him in that way for years. He seemed flustered and
confused, and I was enjoying that.

“This puny little man surely isn’t the
Chosen One I am to kill?” Krull yelled out to the other Mani that
surrounded us. “You’re just a child—a baby.” All the Mani
surrounding us laughed again. “How long have you walked the earth,
boy?”

“Walked the earth?” I asked. “What does that
mean?”

“How long have you been alive?” Krull
screamed.

“I’ve been alive for about twenty-one
years.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Why? Do I look like I’m already twenty-one?
There are few liquor stores that don’t card me.”

“Jokes? To me?” Krull looked as if he was
going to lose his mind.

“Look, Krawl.”

“It’s Krull.”

“Krull, Crawly, Night Crawler, Creepy
Crawler, —whatever. It really doesn’t matter to me. If you think
you can intimidate me you have another think coming.”

“You have it wrong, young Mani. My intention
is not to intimidate you. My intention is to destroy you.”

Krull then lunged at me and tackled me to
the ground. I threw him off my back. He was strong, but I was
stronger. Krull then came at me again and this time he glided
toward me as if he could fly himself. As he did so, he kicked me
straight in my chin. Damn that hurt!

“Josiah, we need to get out of here!” Yari
yelled. “There’s too many of them. They are here to kill you.”

Now, Yari says this?

“I figured they weren’t here to get an
autograph,” I yelled back. “Who isn’t trying to kill me these
days?”

I looked up and Krull had completely jumped
over me like in a video game. Prince of Persia came to mind, that
old-school game. He landed behind me, and high-kicked me in the
back of my head. I fell forward. I looked around and all the Mani
men had come for me. Two very large men had grabbed me and were
holding my arms so I couldn’t move. All of them surrounded me. One
by one, they were punching me in the face as if each person could
say they struck ‘The Chosen’ before he was killed. This wasn’t
good. This was damn awful. Each punch was more intense and more
painful. They were throwing me around like a rag doll. I knew I had
to fight back, but the odds were against me.

“Yari, get out of here,” I yelled.

Krull laughed. “Don’t worry, Chosen
Child—she ran a few minutes back, or should I say—flew away.”

“What do you want from me?” I yelled, while
being tossed from one Mani to the next.

“Let him be!” Krull called out. The last
Mani punched me in the ribs and I dropped right in front of him.
“All I want is to destroy you. Your mere existence is going to mess
up my plans—plans that have taken me 800 years to carry out.”

“I don’t know what your plans are, and I
don’t care to know.”

“Shut up!” Krull stopped himself and then
looked to the sky. “This is who you brought before me? A sniffling,
teen-age boy?” Krull was horrified at the prospect that I was sent
to stop him. Krull quit yelling at the sky and then turned his
attention back to me. “They chose you!? You are the prophesied
savior of the Mani people!? Look at you! You’re a hundred and
seventy pounds dripping wet. This is insulting!” Krull began a
frantic pace like a maniac on speed.

I got up and stood my ground. Truly, what
else did I have to lose? I couldn’t get away. There were too many
of them. I might as well go down swinging.

Krull then put his attention back on the
sky. He was apparently showing his disdain for Triat. “Is this your
way of MOCKING ME?!” Krull was screaming at the sky like a petulant
child.

I looked to the sky to see the direction
that Krull was yelling. Then I saw two red hawks, and two ravens
coming toward us in a fury. Thank God. My two Mani women friends
and my faithful henchmen ass-kickers were here.

Krull’s Mani clan saw the birds too, and two
of them grabbed my arms. The birds circled above us, squawking and
soaring. With utter quickness, the four birds dived down and clawed
the Mani men holding me. They let go of me and I quickly
transitioned into the great white eagle and flew up as fast as I
could. I needed to get the hell out of here. Two ravens and two
hawks followed me. Suddenly, one of the hawks began squawking
uncontrollably.

I looked back to see if anyone was coming at
us and I noticed on the ground the Mani had surrounded another
body.

I circled and turned back around to see who
it was. It was a man. Holy crap! It was Tommy! They had Tommy! What
the hell was he doing here?

It was Tommy, one lone Carni against Krull’s
gang of Mani barbarians that he’d been building for 800 years. I
never leave a friend behind, never turn tail, never run when
loyalty is on the line. And it was. Would I die to save Tommy? Damn
right, I would!

I circled back and made an impulsive
decision that took zero thought from my end. I flew down hard
toward Tommy. Krull had Tommy by his throat. SCREW THAT SAMURAI
PIECE OF SHIT! I aimed my beak at his back like a dagger and
torpedoed down to the mob. Krull was right in the middle of the
heap. I gave another burst of speed. My elongated beak cracked into
Krull’s back, piercing through his skin and muscles. Krull was a
specimen. I tore into him real good, but I had ricocheted off of
him on contact. He flew forward and I flew backwards. It looked
like a scene out of Rocky.

He let go of Tommy. I transitioned quickly
into my Mani form and charged Krull. Krull turned around to face
me. My beak had fucked him up pretty good. He was still in a daze.
I gave him the hardest uppercut punch I had ever given in my life.
He popped up about four feet in the air, I didn’t slow down—I
roundhouse-kicked him right in his fat skull before he hit the
ground, knocking him another ten feet in the air. I didn’t see what
kind of damage I had done because I needed to get Tommy the hell
out of here. I quickly transitioned back to the eagle, grabbed
Tommy by the shirt with my claws, and got him out of there. I flew
faster than I ever had before. My claws were deep into Tommy’s
shirt, the Mani Chosen One saving a Carni. He wasn’t going anywhere
with Krull. I had Tommy safely in my talons. The two red hawks and
two ravens followed us.

Lena was right. Everyone had my back, even
when the odds were stacked horribly against us. All four were there
to help me, including Tommy. I turned around, expecting ravens to
be close behind me, but we were alone. They apparently decided
they’d had enough. I didn’t take any chances by slowing down. I
kicked my speed into another gear with Tommy in hand—or should I
say clawed hand. I had hit Krull real good and I would have loved
to have been there when he realized that this boy just laid him
out. I knew deep down that I couldn’t fight him straight up. I had
to sucker punch him. But he had the numbers, and when you come to a
fight with 50 times the numbers—all bets are off.

“Fly up the San Bernardino Mountains and
head over to Running Springs,” Tommy said as he dangled from my
claws. “We’ll all stay where I’ve been hiding out.”

With that, the six of us made our way up the
mountain.

Chapter Eight

Tommy guided me to a cabin just north of
Running Springs. I dropped him down on the front porch and then
proceeded to land on the roof. I nearly fell off, but I had to
admit my landings were getting better. I settled on top of the roof
and watched my four bird-friends land next to Tommy and transition.
I nodded my head to let them all know the coast was clear from
where I was perched.

I lifted my wings, leaped off the roof, and
landed next to my friends. We all just looked at each other and no
one said a word. Somehow, through a will that was not our own, this
group of six had found one another. If I was ‘The Chosen,’ then it
was time for me to accept that these five were chosen with me.

“So, this is it,” I said out loud. “This is
who we are going to war with?”

“Yes, it is,” Lena agreed.

“We’re all in this together,” I said,
looking each of them directly in the face while nodding with
approval. Again, no one spoke.

Tommy broke the silence, “Let’s go
inside.”

“So, this is where you’ve been?” I asked
Tommy as he opened the door. Wyatt, Yari, Hector, and Lena all
walked in after him. Apparently, werewolves weren’t given the same
courtesy as humans. Everyone walked in without an invitation.

“There’s an upstairs and a bath,” Tommy
said. “My bedroom is upstairs and anyone is welcome to have it. One
of the rooms is not in use though.”

“Why is that?” I asked.

“Check it out.” Tommy walked over to a room
next to the living room. He went to the doorway and turned on the
lights. I peeked in and saw a giant steel cage with bars as thick
as 4x4’s.

“What the hell is that?” I asked Tommy.

“Sometimes I put myself in there.” Tommy
walked inside the room and made his way to the cage. He opened the
door of the cage and walked in. There were five lengths of thick
metal chains complete with wrist and ankle holsters at the back of
the cage. This is the type of cage I would have imagined they put
‘Hannibal Lechter’ in. The cage was big enough to house ten
gorillas. “These metal bars are what keep me from being a killer.”
Tommy was obviously referring to when he becomes a werewolf.

“Did you build this?” I asked.

“I got it from a zoo.”

“That must have been an interesting
conversation.”

“The guys thought I was some sicko serial
killer.”

“He sold it to you anyway,” I said, pointing
out the obvious.

“Two thousand dollars cold cash has a way of
allowing people to see things your way. For all I know, when I
become a werewolf, I just might be a serial killer.”

“You don’t know?” I asked.

“Most Carni have no recollection when they
become a werewolf. Some of the stronger ones can lead packs of
werewolves and still have little recollection of the details of
their night. Sometimes, I look at police reports to see if there is
ever a file that fits my description.”

“What description is that?”

“Apparently when I turn, I become a
six-foot-two gray werewolf.”

“A gray werewolf?” I laughed. “I knew you
were older than what you admitted.”

“It has nothing to do with age. Look at
Hector, he’s one of the palest guys I have ever seen, yet he
becomes a black raven when he transitions.”

I looked over at Tommy and shrugged. “Can
you believe all this? How the hell did we get thrown into the
middle of this?”

“Sometimes I wonder what any of this means.
Sometimes I feel each of us is just a pawn in the Triat’s twisted
game.”

I paused and leaned against the wall staring
at the odd visual of my best friend standing inside of a steel
cage. “Thank you, Tommy,” I said.

“For what?”

“Coming to help me, and trying to take on
200 Mani vampires by yourself.”

“Yeah, I was a big help,” Tommy said
sarcastically.

“It doesn’t matter. You risked your life for
me.”

Tommy paused and smiled. “All right, Josiah.
Don’t get all misty-eyed on me. You were the one who came back and
got me.”

“You would have done the same if you could
fly.”

Tommy nodded. “Let’s go out to the
others.”

Tommy and I left the strange room and headed
toward the kitchen. The kitchen was in the back of the cabin. Wyatt
and Hector sat at the kitchen table while Lena and Yari looked
through the cabinets.

“What are you guys doing?” I asked.

Lena looked over her shoulder and said, “I’m
seeing what supplies we have if all Armageddon breaks out.”

“I don’t think we’re going to fight off a
Mani army with pots, pans and a Sunbeam popcorn popper,” I
said.

Tommy walked over to Yari and whispered
something in her ear. Yari nodded.

What was that about?

“So, is this what we’ve been reduced to?” I
announced. “We’re hiding out like fugitives. I refuse to live this
way.”

“Look Josiah,” Wyatt spoke up. “You are not
ready to fight Krull.”

“Huh?” I said to Wyatt. “Where did that come
from, Wyatt?”

“None of us are ready to wage war against
him and you sure as hell aren’t. Krull is the most powerful Mani
ever. He possesses more Mani gifts than any Mani before him or
since. You pegged him right. He is the Genghis Khan of the
Mani.”

“Well, I’ve been doing some crazy shit, too,
over the past two days. I just might have him beat.”

“Like what?” Yari asked, adding to the
conversation.

“A lot of things,” I said. “What kind of
gifts did Atticai have that you all knew about?”

“He had every gift that Krull does. They
were pretty much equal except we all thought Atticai was The
Chosen.”

I asked again. “What gifts did Atticai have
that Krull still has?”

Hector who never says anything said, “They
both can fly.”

“All of you can fly!” Tommy interjected.

“Not as a bird, but as a vampire,” Wyatt
clarified.

“You’re telling me that seven-foot bean pole
that kicked my ass could fly?” Tommy asked.

Wyatt grinned, “He had all the other Mani
gifts as well. The only thing Atticai couldn’t do was see in the
future. If he could have, he would have known he wasn’t the
Chosen.”

“What if he did know?” I asked. “Maybe
that’s why he left me for dead to be bitten by all of those
snakes?”

“There is always a chance he did,” Yari
said. “But I don’t think so. There was a lot of good in Atticai. He
chose not to follow Krull. He and Krull had the ability to take
over the world if they would have joined forces. Atticai
refused.”