H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (29 page)

Tommy added, “Do you think it was in the
Triat’s will that Josiah killed him?”

All of the other Mani looked at each other
as if to say they didn’t know.

“You all look disappointed that ‘The Chosen’
wasn’t Atticai,” I remarked.

“We’re not disappointed,” Yari said. “We
just had no idea it was going to be you.”

“The word isn’t disappointed,” Wyatt said.
“We were just fucking surprised as hell. Then when you refused to
talk to us for weeks, we wondered if it was all a mistake.”

“Do you guys think it was a mistake now?” I
glanced at all of them. Lena and Yari both shook their heads.
Hector and Wyatt however looked at me blankly. “Are you and Hector
completely on board, Wyatt? I need to know. Because if you’re not,
I completely understand and would hold no resentment toward you—if
you wanted out.”

Wyatt paused and looked at Hector. “We don’t
want out, Josiah. We just want to make sure when all of this is
over and when we prevail over Krull that you don’t plan on killing
us.”

“What?” I asked surprised.

“Why wouldn’t you, Josiah?” Wyatt continued.
“We both tried to kill you. We’re two of the three reasons you
became a Mani unwillingly.”

“All of that may be true, Wyatt. But that
isn’t who I am. I respect that you were loyal to Atticai. You were
only doing what you felt the Triat wanted you to do. I can’t be any
angrier at you than I am at Tommy for kicking my ass in the ring a
month back. He only fought me because the Commission told him he
had to.”

“So, we’re cool?” Hector came out and
asked.

I smiled at Hector and Wyatt. “We’re cool,
guys. As long as I know from here on out that I can trust you, all
is forgiven.”

My eyes went to an older needlepoint picture
hanging on the cabin wall. The words seemed to fit the current mood
in the room and I nodded at it, so that Hector and Wyatt would read
it, too: ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down
his life for his friends.’

Hector and Wyatt let out relieved sighs.

I looked at Yari. “So, what’s the deal with
Krull? Is he going to hunt me down until he kills me?”

“Or until you kill him,” Yari answered.
“Krull is a prideful son-of-a-bitch. Atticai was the only person
who ever matched up with him. Since you laid him out, he now looks
at you like a greater challenge. He had no idea what hit him.”

“Only because I sucker-punched him,” I
stated.

“In a Mani-on-Mani fight, everything goes.
You were well inside the rules. Krull won’t forget. But neither
should you.”

“I almost wish we still had Atticai. It
would be one more body.”

“Atticai would have never yielded to you,”
Lena interrupted. “What happened to him that night was his destiny.
The Triat knew he would never accept anyone else to lead us, no
matter how much any of us cared for him. You did what you were
supposed to do. You did the right thing.”

Wow, I was getting mixed signals from Lena.
Was she happy or sad that I was now in charge?

“Okay,” I said. “If Krull is going to come
after me, then that means he is coming after us. If this is too
much for anyone and you want out—let it be known now.”

I looked at Hector.

“I’m in,” he said.

“Hey, I got Hector to talk again,” I joked.
“This is an epic night.” Hector smiled. I looked over at Wyatt.
“You in, Teethie?”

Wyatt laughed. “I told you that night that I
didn’t know you weren’t one of those frat douchebags.”

“Did I at least taste good?”

“Oh, you taste good,” Yari responded. Yari
had been my second bite when she sucked the snake venom out of
me.

I looked at Yari. “You in?”

“I’ve been in for two years with you,
Josiah.”

I nodded and looked at Lena. “What about
you? You don’t have to be part of this.”

Lena shrugged. “You’re joking right? Josiah,
this thing that we all are part of—is the only thing that matters
now.” I nodded at Lena. I was afraid for her. She was barely five
feet tall and maybe 100 pounds. This wasn’t going to be easy.

I looked over at Tommy, who by now, was
making himself a sandwich. “How about you, werewolf boy? You want
to stand and fight with a bunch of vampires?”

Tommy looked around the group. “Well
considering none of you has tried to kill me yet, that’s what I
plan on doing. I don’t really have too many options, anyway.”

“All right,” I said. “I need to know two
more things. First, what is our money situation? Do you guys have
jobs? How do you pay for stuff?”

Everyone laughed.

“We don’t need jobs, Josiah,” Yari
answered.

“What? Do you all steal?” I asked.

“None of us are thieves. We all have our own
money for different reasons.”

“Do you have bank accounts?”

“Swiss bank accounts,” Wyatt laughed.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

Wyatt looked over to Hector and Hector gave
him a nod as if to say it was okay to tell me.”

“Hector used to be a prince.”

“Hector? A prince? You’re screwing with me,
right?”

“Serious as a heart attack, Josiah.”

“Prince Hector?” I looked over at Hector and
he grinned.

“Yeah, so he’s set,” Wyatt continued. “I’m
set because of some great real estate ventures I made in the 90’s
when the market was good. And Yari—”

Yari interrupted Wyatt and said, “I had a
few ‘friends’ along the way that have allowed me to live
comfortably for quite some time.”

“So, you’re a gold digger?” I asked.

“Not a gold digger. I like pretty things and
men seem to like to provide me with that.”

“This is why I never cared to ask about your
money situations,” I said. “I was scared to know.”

“Josiah, there is a combined wealth among
the three of us that approaches Donald Trump.”

I looked over at Lena. “Don’t look at me.
I’ve been sponging off my parents and these guys for the last
couple years.”

“Well,” I said. “I still have a lot of
inheritance left, so I guess money is the least of our worries.” I
knew that Tommy had some money from his MMA winnings. “So, my next
question is what Mani gifts does each of you have?”

“Don’t look at me,” Tommy goofed. “I can
only bite people once a month when the moon is full.”

“What about you, Hector?”

“I can transition and sometimes see the
future.”

“Wyatt?”

“The same,” Wyatt answered.

“Lena, what can you do?” I asked.

“I can erase thoughts and transition. I
might have more. I don’t know.”

“Yari, what about you?”

Yari was quiet. “Yari?” I repeated.

“I can do everything, but fly in Mani form,”
she said plainly.

“You serious?” Tommy said, nearly choking on
his sandwich. He seemed impressed.

“I’ve been around a long time. You pick up
skills along the way.”

“Then you’re going to be as valuable as
hell,” I said, pleased.

“I’m not sure how valuable I’m going to be
to the cause,” Yari said. “Mind reading and memory erasing only
work on the very weakest Mani and Carni. My skills will be limited
against Krull’s crew.”

Then something dawned on me. Yari said she
had every skill except flying. That means she could see into the
future. She must have known that I was The Chosen. I didn’t want to
say it in front of everyone. But it all made sense now. The reason
she saved me, and why she let me know how to defeat Atticai. I
thought she did all that because she was in love with me.
Apparently, she was only doing the will of the Triat.

“Don’t sell yourself short, Yari. The reason
why I’m alive is because of you.”

Yari seemed pleased that had I said that. “I
can tell you this, Josiah. Krull will not come for you here. You
are going to battle Krull at another time. It won’t be here, and it
won’t be anytime soon.”

“You know that for sure?” I asked Yari.

“As far as Krull and his minions are
concerned, we will be safe here.”

“What about you, Josiah?” Tommy came out and
asked. “What gifts do you have?

“I’m not exactly sure.”

“You said earlier that you could do some
weird shit now,” Tommy added.

“I’m not completely sure what I can do.” I
said again.

“You must know something.” Tommy persisted.
“What things can you do differently? Are you faster? Are you
stronger?”

“Well, I can change into the white eagle
and…”

“Tell them, Josiah,” Lena said bluntly.

“Tell us what, Josiah?” Yari said. “What
aren’t you telling us?”

I hesitated. Why didn’t I want to tell them
the truth? Maybe I was scared that if they knew all I could do,
they’d expect me to be some kind of Christ-like figure. I wasn’t
ready to tell them. I looked across at Lena.

Lena said in a soft voice. “You need to tell
them.”

I exhaled and said, “I can fly, too.”

“As a Mani?” Wyatt asked.

“Yes, I can fly even when I’m not the eagle.
But I can’t control it very well. And I don’t know exactly how to
start it.”

“Holy shit!” Hector spouted.

We all laughed.

“Anything else?” Tommy asked.

“Yeah, there is one more thing. But I have
less control with this than I do flying.”

“What is it?” Yari stared at me
intently.

“Tommy,” I said. “Do you have a Styrofoam
cup somewhere?”

“Yeah.” Tommy opened the cabinet directly
behind where he was standing in the kitchen. He grabbed a bag that
had Styrofoam cups inside. “Do you need just one?” he asked

“One will be fine; you can put it on the
table.”

Tommy placed the Styrofoam cup at the center
of the table. “Everyone step back and stand next to me and look at
the cup.”

Everyone walked over and surrounded me. The
table was about 5 feet away.

“All right, watch!” I stared at the cup.
Once I felt a connection, and a bond with it, I closed my eyes,
turned my head, and opened my eyes, staring at the left wall. And,
with a sudden boost of energy, the cup shot off the table and hit
the ceiling.

“What the hell?” Tommy shouted. “You can
move stuff with your mind?”

“Yes,” I said.

“I have never heard of a Mani being able to
do that,” Yari said.

“Me neither.” Wyatt continued. “That must be
a specific gift given only to Josiah. How heavy of an object can
you move?”

I looked at the group and said, “I moved a
400-pound boulder the other night. It lifted off the ground and
flew about 40 yards.”

“Can you control it precisely?” Yari
asked.

“Not even close,” I said. “Just right now I
tried to make the cup hit the left wall and it hit the ceiling
instead.”

“So, you tried to move it in one direction,”
Lena asked, “and the cup went in another?”

“I can move it, but not control it.”

“Do you have any control over it,
whatsoever?” Tommy asked.

“I am able to connect with an object almost
on a spiritual level; other than that, not really. Once I have the
connection, the object moves whatever direction it wants.”

“Just like any skill, Josiah,” Yari said.
“You’re going to have to master it.”

I was tired and once again had had an
exhausting night. “All right, guys. I’m beat. I’m going to find a
bedroom and get some rest.”

Chapter Nine

I found a room in the far west corner of the
house that was some kind of guest room. It appeared to be a room
that had been added onto the cabin after it was built. The room
only had a couch and a very old TV. I flopped on the couch and
stared at the ceiling remembering my vision from the night before.
‘Tame the wolf,’ I thought. I had very little experience, if any,
with the species. Other than those Neanderthals at the bar, the
only other wolf I knew was Tommy. Was Tommy the wolf that needed to
be tamed? Was I to train him? Tommy was already a great fighter. If
anyone needed training, it was me. I knew nothing about being a
werewolf. How was I supposed to train him? I laid there pondering
this and then it hit me! I jumped up and went back to the kitchen.
Everyone was still sitting around shooting the shit.

“Hey, Tommy, I have a couple questions for
you.”

“Yeah?” Tommy answered. All eyes were on
me.

“Why exactly do you lock yourself in a cage
when you become a werewolf? What are you afraid of?”

Tommy didn’t hesitate to answer my question.
“I’m afraid of hurting someone,” he said, “or doing something that
might cause someone to want to hurt or even kill me.”

“Do you have any recollection after you come
out of your werewolf state?” I asked.

“I don’t have a stream of memory. I remember
glimpses—or random moments.”

“Are there any specific details that you
remember in those glimpses or random moments? Why do you suppose
you remember those moments opposed to others?”

Tommy thought for a second. “Maybe I
remember the times when my senses are heightened.”

“Really?”

“Where you going with this, Josiah?”

I looked at the group and said, “I had a
vision last night. Or at least I think I did.”

“And...” Tommy pressed.

“I won’t go into the details of the dream,
but I’ll tell you the message I was given. I was told ‘to tame the
wolf and I will find myself.”

“And you believe that I am the wolf?” Tommy
asked.

“Why wouldn’t you be? It’s the only thing
that makes any sense.”

“So, what’s with all the memory questions?”
Yari asked.

“I’m thinking somehow I need to tame or
train Tommy when he’s in his werewolf state.”

“How are you supposed to do that?” Lena
asked. “Have you ever seen a werewolf when it has completely
shifted?”

“No. But I think that actually is going to
rule in my favor. I won’t have any preconceived feelings about it.
I am coming into it with a clean slate.”