H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (38 page)

“Where’s Tommy?” I asked

“Your guess is as good as mine. He’s not
answering his phone, and he should have been here a long time
ago.”

“He never came over?”

“Nope.”

“Why didn’t you get me up?”

“The two of you seemed like you needed your
rest.” Yari raised her eyebrows at my neck. “Apparently, there
wasn’t much resting.”

I ignored her and continued about Tommy.
“This isn’t good,” I said.

“Do you think he did something stupid?” Yari
now appeared to be worried.

Hell, I was worried. “I wouldn’t put it past
him. This sucks! It’s almost daylight and someone needs to go find
him.”

“You can’t go,” Yari said. “You need to
limit how many times you transition up here. This is a highly
populated area. It isn’t like the Inland Empire. There are people
everywhere up here. You’re not exactly discreet when you
transition.”

“What should we do then?”

“I should go,” Yari was adamant about it.
But Tommy was my best friend and if something had happened, I
wanted to be the one to be there.

“He might have just gotten lost.”

“Or, he decided to take matters in his own
hands with his old Carni counterparts.” Which was very much like
Tommy.

“Lena should go with me,” Yari said.

“Why?”

“Because another pair of eyes would be
good.”

I thought about it. “Okay,” I answered. “You
guys should go quickly. Take Wyatt and Hector, ravens are little
more common.”

“Hey, Wyatt!” I yelled. Wyatt was asleep on
the couch.

“Where’s Hector?”

“Stop yelling. Hector’s asleep in the
bathtub!”

“Wake him up. You all need to go look for
Tommy.”

Lena came out of the bedroom and we told her
about Tommy and she volunteered to go look for him. I told her to
be safe and the four of them left to find Tommy.

I was still very tired. My body was telling
me it needed to sleep. I went back into the guest room and laid
down. I did not feel good about the situation

My eyes grew heavy. I closed them.

Suddenly, I heard, “why haven’t you
left?”

I opened my eyes and once again I was
outside the great white castle.

“Why haven’t you left?” It was the little
blue gnome. He was standing over me as I was on my back.

“Should I have left?” I asked.

“You know the location. It’s now a matter of
coming to see me.”

“Am I done with the wolf?”

“Have you tamed him?”

“I’m not sure. We connected, but...”

“But what?”

“I’m not sure if that was all there
was.”

“What else could there be?” The gnome said
looking down at me.

“I thought if we were able to tame him, he
might be able to control when he actually turns into a
werewolf.”

“You don’t believe that anymore?” The gnome
asked.

“Should I believe that?”

“Always trust your intuition.”

“I have been.”

“Then don’t stop now,” the gnome said. And
with that, I woke up instantly.

I had been asleep a long time and it was
dark outside. These vampire sleeps are eerie. Time goes by a little
too fast for my taste.

It was 8:30 p.m. and there was no sign of
anyone. What the hell? They had been gone almost 15 hours. This was
not good. What the hell was going on? I checked my phone and it was
dead. Fuck, I forgot to charge it.

I got up and went outside Yari’s front door.
I stepped onto the front porch and looked up to the sky. I knew
shit was about to go down. I could feel it in my… well, veins. This
was the calm before the storm. Tommy had done something stupid, now
I knew it for sure. He had gone back to visit his old clan. I felt
it deep in my soul. I closed my eyes and for the first time, I
began to see picture frames.

They looked like little short three-second
films. I could see Tommy. He was at the ranch where I had fought
Goliath. He was surrounded by many Carni men. Dammit, I lost the
vision. Shit!

I concentrated harder. I could now see a row
of trucks. They were filled with Carni; they were riding out to the
ranch.

My visions seemed to be skipping time. I
wasn’t sure if my second vision happened before or after the
previous one. I closed my eyes again. I could now see Yari and
Lena. They were trying to talk to Tommy and he wasn’t listening.
Shit! Tommy! Listen to them! You fucker! I lost the vision again.
Once again, I closed my eyes and concentrated with all I had. I
could now see Lena. The Carni’s had Lena!

Chapter Nineteen

I immediately transitioned into the white
eagle and flew up into the sky. My large wings flapped rapidly and
headed south to Orange County. I wasn’t sure how fast I was flying,
but looking down at the cars below on the freeway I could tell I
was going about five times faster.

I got to Anaheim Hills in mere minutes and
wasn’t sure what time frame my visions were in. As I got closer to
the ranch, I feared my last vision was the present. I looked down
and could see an all-out war going on down at the ranch. What had
Tommy done? He had put everyone in danger. Where was Lena? I
circled the ranch. All my friends were isolated, the same way we
did the werewolves the other night. I couldn’t see Lena!

Wyatt and Hector were fighting about six
Carni each at the north end of the ranch. Yari had her hands full
with a number of Carni women and from the looks of it, she seemed
to be doing okay.

Where was Tommy? Where the fuck was Lena? I
circled and scoped the ground.

I could see Tommy by the large trees
fighting three of the bastards. Where the hell was Lena? I could
see everyone except for Lena.

Then I spotted Goliath; he was between two
trucks. He appeared to be wrestling someone much smaller than
him—extremely smaller than him. IT HAD TO BE LENA!

She was fighting off the ogre. I didn’t
think and just reacted. I lunged forward with a force so ferocious
I felt like a heat-seeking missile crashing into a military target.
As I bolted to the earth, I extended my wings for more
acceleration. I was going to kill that overgrown piece of shit! I
was about a hundred feet from piling into Goliath’s back with my
sharpened beak when I heard Lena yelled out, “No, Josiah, it’s a
set up!”

It was too late. Goliath turned around and
was holding a ten-foot lead pipe in his hand. I tried to stop, but
couldn’t. My momentum carried me forward like an out-of-control
freight train. I was going too fast and was too out of control.
There was no way to stop!

I tried to veer out of the way of Goliath,
but there was no chance. As I came up on him, Goliath swung the
lead pipe like Albert Pujols during batting practice and whacked me
directly in my stomach. I ricocheted backwards off the pipe.

I fell to the ground about fifteen feet
away. I couldn’t move. He had hit my stomach with the full force of
the pipe. My stomach felt like it exploded. The pipe had torn up my
insides and I could feel my bones breaking inside of my body. I was
on my back and automatically transitioned from eagle to Mani. I
laid on the ground, spitting out blood.

I couldn’t see anything. I could hear bodies
surrounding me. I took my hand and felt my rib cage. All my ribs
were broken. My Mani blood poured out of my mouth. There was
nothing I could do and I was fucking helpless. What the hell! This
wasn’t the way this was supposed to end.

I didn’t know what to do; I was dying and
knew it. The pain was excruciating. I couldn’t just lay there and
have Goliath kill me. I did the only thing I could do—broken ribs
and split innards and all—I stood up.

I opened my eyes and could now see. All my
friends were being held by mobs of Carni. Ten to one was the only
way they could handle any of us. Well, except for me. All it took
was Goliath and a lead pipe.

Lena broke free from her mob and ran toward
me and another Carni grabbed her before she was able to reach me.
“Josiah!” Lena cried out to bring me down and use my friends for
bait, my lover.

What the fuck, Tommy. You led all of us to a
fucking slaughter. I couldn’t stand any longer, I was too weak. I
was in too much pain and I fell to my knees.

I looked to my right and saw Goliath slowly
walking toward me, savoring each moment with each step he took
closer to me. His back apparently was still hurting as he winced
when he walked. I looked to my left and saw Tommy doing all he
could to try to break free from his own Carni mob holding him back.
There were too many of them. There must have been over a hundred
Carni out here. They loaded up and we were all going to pay for it.
Goliath walked up to me. “What happened, Eagle man? You don’t have
any more magic?”

I was too weak to even concentrate. I
couldn’t do anything. I was in too much pain. I looked up to the
sky and called out into the night. I yelled out to whatever
force—whatever had been giving me these visions to spare me.
“Please,” I yelled out. “Not like this!”

Then I heard Tommy’s voice. “Josiah! I’m
sorry!”

He can’t give up, I thought. Was Tommy
giving up?

Goliath reached down with his giant hands
and picked me up. He raised me over his head like a prized kill.
With a giant warrior yell, he chucked my mangled body thirty yards
in the air. I landed on the ground in a heap of misery. Every bit
of me hurt. Every inch of me ached.

Wyatt and Hector had transitioned into
ravens, but they weren’t able to get away. They were being held
down like wild animals. They were put in steel birdcages that
seemed specially designed to catch Mani birds. There was nothing
any of us could do and the Carni knew it. So they let Lena go and
she ran over to where Goliath had tossed me. They let her go for
sick sport. To watch her see me die…

Lena dove on the ground next to me and held
my head as I laid on my back. “Josiah, try and do something,
anything. There has got to be something you can do.”

I looked up and saw my angel. I shook my
head. “Lena, please leave. They have let you go; you can transition
and get out of here.”

“I won’t leave you,” she said holding my
head in her lap. “Just like the needlepoint picture in the
cabin…”

Greater love has no one than this, that one
lay down his life for his friends. I tried to remember where that
saying came from. It seemed like it came from another life of
Josiah Reign, one that happened so long ago that I began to forget
who I was, as who I am took point.

The entire Carni mob had now made a wall
around us. They all seemed amused that Lena seemed to care for me
so tenderly. They were all calling out for Goliath to kill me.

Lena covered me with her body. “No one touch
him!” she yelled. But Goliath once again made his way to me.

“Lena, if you love me, please leave!” I
yelled.

“I won’t.” she said. “I’ll die here with you
tonight.”

“Oh, you will die, sweet Mani ass. All of
you will.” Goliath laughed.

I tried to sit up one last time, but I
couldn’t. Goliath grabbed Lena and tossed her to the side.

I looked up and for the first time, I saw
Yari. Our eyes met. She was saying something to me. Her lips were
moving but I couldn’t hear her.

Then Goliath’s giant body was all I could
see. Four other Carni came over and pinned down my arms and legs.
Goliath had a silver stake in his right hand. He was going to kill
me. He raised the stake up in the air and I could see it sparkle in
the moonlight.

“Get him to his knees. I want to see him
beg. I want to see his eyes as he dies.” Goliath got right in my
face. “See these eyes; I want them to be the last thing you see
before you go ‘poof’ in the night.”

Then he spoke to his Carni cohorts. “Hold
his head tight.” And then looked back at me again, his eyes filled
with hatred and menace, bloodlust and rage. “I’m going to pound
this deep through your pretty little neck.”

Goliath snapped his fingers and someone had
tossed him a sledge hammer.

This was it. He was going to kill me and
there was nothing I could do. I had already cried out to the Triat.
There was no way I was going to beg for my life. I was too weak. I
inhaled air and with my last breath I yelled, “TOMMY! SAVE ME!” I
turned my head to the crowd and could see Tommy’s eyes. He was
still being held back, but I could see his eyes—his bright yellow
eyes! TOMMY WAS TURNING!

Suddenly, Tommy howled at the top of his
lungs!! Everyone stopped and looked at him! Then it happened! The
freaking miracle happened! Everything came together in one moment;
my visions, training Tommy, the bonding, everything.

“I’m coming, Josiah!” I heard Tommy’s voice
inside my head!

In an instant, Tommy transitioned from Carni
to a giant gray werewolf. Goliath stopped in his tracks and turned
to face Tommy. Tommy had lunged forward in his werewolf form and
began biting and throwing Carni around with his enormous canine
mouth.

The four Carni’s had let me go to save
themselves from this crazed werewolf. I just fell to the ground
because I had no more strength. Tommy bit, clawed, and tore into
every Carni in his path.

All the Carni who were still alive ran. And
all the ones who died, disappeared. All except Goliath; he
stayed.

“What kind of bullshit is this?” It’s not
even a fucking full moon. What the fuck, Tommy? Did they make a
Mani out of you?”

I watched as Tommy dove on top of Goliath.
Goliath kicked Tommy off of him.

Tommy flew ten feet forward. Goliath charged
into Tommy still holding his silver stake. Holy shit! If anyone can
kill a werewolf with just a stake in his hand, it was Goliath.
Tommy bit Goliath’s hand and he cried out in pain as the bones in
his hand was crushed and then…he dropped the stake.

I was losing consciousness. Lena and Yari
both ran to me. I looked up and saw both women. Yari looked down at
me and told me what she was trying to mouth to me earlier.