H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (41 page)

“Excuse me,” I said to Helen and unbuckled
my seatbelt and got up out of my seat. I made my way around Helen
and noticed a strange scratch on the back of her neck. I thought it
was odd. “Wow, that’s some scratch!” I said.

Helen felt the back of her neck and smiled,
“I have a pretty frisky kitty.”

“I bet you do,” I said, not sure if she
meant anything sexual by her statement.

I went to the bathroom area of the
plane.

Damn, it was cramped.

I took care of business and then checked my
hair in the mirror. It was pretty messy. My hair was in serious
need of a good haircut.

I decided to turn on the water faucet and
put my entire head in the tiny sink by rotating it back and forth.
It’s a quick trick I do to get my hair in order fast. I took off my
leather jacket and dumped my head into the tiny sink. I used paper
towels to dry off my hair. I slicked back my hair using my
fingers.

Why was I doing this? Was I trying to
impress Helen?

She definitely seemed interested in me, but
that was the last thing I needed to worry about. I had enough on my
plate, just trying to get to Romania in one piece. Not to mention
the whole I’m-in-love-with-Lena part.

Lena wasn’t officially my girlfriend or
anything, but she did tell me she loved me. I was pretty damn sure
I loved her. But, there was something very intriguing and sexy
about Helen. But that was as far as I was going to take it.

So, there I was, primping in the mirror
trying to look good for a woman for whom I knew nothing was going
to come of our brief acquaintance, just two random people, in
random seats on a plane to Heathrow. It could have been anyone next
to me, but I was glad it was her.

My blonde hair curled over with a little
Superman twist that would have make Christopher Reeve jealous. My
eyes were looking especially blue. It must have been the lighting.
My face was remarkably mark-free, which was a miracle, considering
how many life-altering fights I’d been in, over the last few
months. My black shirt was wrinkled from sleeping in the seat. I
did my best to straighten it over my blue jeans.

I am a sexy beast, I thought.

I stepped out of the restroom holding my
leather jacket and walked back to my seat. The flight attendant
caught my attention and asked, “Would you like your meal now? You
were asleep when I passed them out.”

“Sure, what is it?”

“You have a choice between meatloaf and
chicken.”

“And what if I’m a vegan?”

“Then we can double up your sides.”

“Lucky for me, I’m not a vegan. I’ll take
the chicken.” The waitress shook her head and was not amused with
my antics.

I stepped inside my row and in front of
Helen. She was listening to her MP3 player and just scooted aside
as I walked in front of her.

I sat back in my seat and flipped down the
movie thingamajig in front of me. Bridget Jones’s Diary 1 and 2?
Are you kidding me? I am not a chick-flick dude; Tommy was into
movies like Fried Green Tomatoes and Prince of Tides. I swore I saw
him crying during both films.

I flipped through the movie list. I ticked
them off in my head as I searched in vain for Never back Down,
Rocky, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, even a Jackie Chan. Nada.

Weren’t there any action flicks? Hell, I was
an action movie all by myself. Someone should write my story and
put it on the big screen. Maybe someday, I would.

I flipped through each movie. All they had
were Adam Sandler flicks and British titles that I didn’t even
recognize. I sat back and sighed. All I wanted was a good gangster
movie or at least Daniel Craig film. No 007? I was going to England
for crying out loud. Not even the Welshman, Sean Connery.

“Nothing good?” Helen said to me.

“Nope! You have the right idea by listening
to music.”

Helen took her earplugs out of her ears and
looked over at me. “We should be in London in a couple of
hours.”

“It appears to be that way.” I smiled at
her.

“So, Josiah, what is a young man like
yourself going to a country like Romania for?”

I looked at Helen and I give her credit; she
did seem real interested in me. I have always liked that trait in a
woman. “You could say I’m going there on business.”

“What business is that?”

I grinned. “I’m in the business of kicking
ass.”

Helen expected me to laugh or say I was
kidding. She sat and waited for me to make another statement. “Oh,
you’re being serious. What the hell do you do?”

So, this is the part where I now needed to
lie to people. I haven’t had to do this yet, so I wasn’t even sure
if it was going to sound good. “I’m a fighter,” I said. “I’m going
there for training. I’m meeting up with a world-class trainer.”

Okay, so far that is the total truth.

“A fighter? Like a boxer?” she asked.

“Yes, I box. I also do other things.”

“What kind of other things.”

“I kick.”

“You’re a kick boxer?”

“No, I’m a mixed martial arts fighter.” I
still wasn’t lying. I was technically still in the Commission. I
wasn’t sure what they think happened to me since I hadn’t shown up
for training for a while, let alone a fight.

“Oh, okay,” she said, nodding her head.
“That is very interesting.”

“That’s me,” I said. “I’m Mr.
Interesting.”

Mr. Interesting? Are you kidding me? Why was
I being such a tool?

Then I smiled like a total dork does after
he knows he said something completely moronic. To her credit, she
held in a giggle. I could see it.

“Do you have a girlfriend, Josiah?”

I looked at Helen and wasn’t sure how to
answer the question. So, I said, “That’s the billion-dollar
question!”

“A billion dollars?” Helen asked. “Not a
million? Damn, it must be complicated.”

“Not so much… complicated,” I said. “There
has just been a lot of drama really fast.”

“Do you like the drama?”

“Not exactly. No one could be prepared for
the kind of drama I’ve seen.” That was about as honest of a
statement as I had ever delivered.

“Why don’t you get out of the relationship?”
Helen asked.

Helen had it completely wrong.

“The drama isn’t about her. She’s not the
one creating it.”

“Then who is creating it?”

Here is where I wanted to say, the Triat,
werewolves, vampires, something like that. But, I didn’t want her
to think I should be in a mental institution, so I thought I would
better say, “An ex-boyfriend.”

“Does she still love him?”

I paused. “That I don’t know for sure. I
suppose she does. But he isn’t exactly with us any longer.”

“He died?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, I get it.” Helen had the look people do
when finally something makes sense. “And she still cares about
him?”

“I don’t think that kind of thing just goes
away. The whole thing smacks of hero worship, something he didn’t
deserve.”

“Well, that isn’t good.” Helen seemed to be
really pouncing on the fact Lena might still have feelings for
Atticai. She didn’t know that Atticai was psychopathic vampire who
tried to drain her blood for some weird purpose that only he seemed
to understand.

“There’s a lot about the entire situation
that I can’t really explain.”

“Try me.” Helen turned her entire body
toward me and looked me in the eye.

I was hesitant to tell Helen exactly how I
felt about Lena. I guess this was the test of my loyalty to her.
“Something is constantly drawing me to her. Sometimes, I feel like
it’s beyond this world.”

“Something supernatural?” she asked.

“Actually, that’s exactly what I think it
is.”

“Wow! You’re a romantic!”

I couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or
a bad thing with her. “I’m not a romantic,” I said. “Trust me! I’m
the farthest thing from that, but when something keeps staring you
in the face, you eventually give in to it and consider it might be
a higher power that has brought you together.”

“Look, Josiah. You might not want to think
you’re a romantic, but I have a good read on people and that is
exactly what you are. Unless, the reason you feel that way is
because you’re a religious fanatic.”

“I’m not a religious fanatic in the
slightest. I will say this though, anyone who is a humanist and
thinks this world is the beginning, middle, and end is greatly
mistaken.”

“And how does Josiah know that it’s not?”
she asked.

I looked at Helen and smirked. I liked it
that she talked about me, to me, in the third person. It was sort
of classy.

She looked at me expectantly.

I really wasn’t planning on getting into
such a deep conversation with her. I was actually surprised that we
were having such philosophical dialogue so quickly. I don’t know
why, but I think I trusted her. Maybe, it was because when we
talked, she constantly made eye contact with me. Or maybe it was
the fact that she was even interested at all, a woman who didn’t
think that the earth revolved around her. What I do know is that I
can’t reveal too much to a random record producer who I just met on
an airplane. So, I decided to change the subject. I gave a little
shrug, by way of apology for my nondisclosure.

“So, Helen,” I said. “What’s your story? A
rock star boyfriend?”

“My story isn’t quite that interesting. I
have no boyfriend and I haven’t quite figured out the meaning of
our existence, like some people.” Helen winked at me.

Damn, she was cute. Stop it, Josiah! Think
of Lena. Remember her? You know, the girl who laid her body on top
of you, while a seven-foot werewolf was trying to kill you.

I decided to reel in the conversation and
back it up and keep it light. She was getting much too close to
asking pointed questions. Still, I found it very easy to talk to
her, almost as if we were talking over the phone. We talked for the
next couple of hours about movies, politics, and current events. It
was shocking how we had practically the same opinion on most
subjects. She was a news and pop culture hound, like me. We both
seemed to like the same things. It was effortless talking to her;
almost like we had known each other forever. She was cute as hell,
but my heart was with Lena.

Then the pilot’s voice came over the
speaker: “We’re on the approach to Heathrow. We’ll be landing
shortly. I hope you had a pleasant flight. You’ll be going through
Customs before you get your next connection, and to those of you
who are staying in London, don’t miss the Tower of London tour.
It’s 900 years old and was built by William the Conqueror.”

My eyebrows went up. Did I have time for
that tour? Nah. Focus, Josiah.

“Wow!” Helen said. “That was the fastest
eleven-hour flight that I have ever been on.”

“It did go by fairly quick, didn’t it?”

“Good conversation tends to do that.”

“Yes, it does,” I agreed.

“You know what we did, don’t you?” Helen
looked at me intently.

“What did we do?” I said, concerned.

“We had the all-night-talk,” she said,
plainly.

“What’s that?”

“You know when you first meet someone and
hit it off, you spend all night talking to them on the phone.
That’s what we had. We talked about everything.”

“It was fun talking to you,” I said.

Helen started to say something and then
stopped.

“What?” I asked.

“I have this stupid dinner tonight, and it’s
a couples’ thing, and I don’t have anyone to go with.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure you won’t have a hard
time finding a date.” I knew she was insinuating that we should go
together, but I didn’t feel right about it. I knew I was very
attracted to her and that was not a good situation to put myself
in. Lena. Her name was like a little heartbeat inside of me.

Helen was quiet.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I don’t want to find a date. I want to go
with you,” she said, with an amazing, giant beautiful smile.

Even though I knew that was where she was
leading, but I was afraid to hear the answer. The weird part was
that I didn’t know why I was scared. Was it because I thought she
didn’t want to go with me, or was it that it would put me in a
weird predicament with Lena?

“My flight to Romania is in five hours,” I
told her.

“Do you have a set time you are to meet your
trainer?”

I thought about it for a moment. I really
didn’t have a set time for anything. The gnome was waiting for me,
regardless. Helen could tell by my expression that I was
considering it.

“Listen,” she said. “I know the guy who runs
the Claridge’s Hotel. He’ll put you up in his best suite. It’s like
$5,000 a night.”

“I don’t have that kind of money,” I said,
shocked.

“Don’t worry. He owes me a favor.”

Damn, just to stay in a suite that’s $5,000
a night would be worth it.

“It’s the Davies Penthouse,” she continued.
“It is immaculate.”

“You have that kind of influence?” I
asked.

Helen laughed, “Oh Josie, you have no
idea.”

I sat back and thought for a moment. I
really wanted to do this. After all the crap I’ve been through,
this sounded like a blast.

“Ok, two things,” I said. “One, you need to
know that I am very serious about how I feel toward Lena and I
would be escorting you only as a friend.”

“No problem. I just want to spend a little
bit more time with you. You’re a pretty cool guy, Josiah. What’s
the second thing?”

“Never call me Josie ever again.”

“You got it Jo-Jo.”

I shot her a dirty look and we both buckled
our seatbelts before the flight landed.

Chapter Three

I knew the second I got off the plane that I
was going to need a specific plan in regards to the sun. As I had
nothing to show Customs except for my leather jacket, they gave me
a funny look and waved me through. I was about to embark on a lot
of pain if I wasn’t quick and precise in how I left the
airport.