H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (55 page)

While I was on top of him, I whispered in
his ear, “This isn’t a fair fight, Tom. You need to be a werewolf
to even have a chance. I’m controlling you like an infant. Come on,
Tommy, Mr. Superstar Wrestler, get out of my hold.”

“Fuck you, Josiah.” Tommy tried to spin
forward to get out of my grip but had no chance.

“Aw, don’t be that way, my little
Chihuahua!” Now I was being relentless. “It’s hard to handle, isn’t
it?” I said as I tightened up my grip on the body. I was
controlling his every movement. I was riding him like a steed. “The
young boy you trained can now kick your ass!”

With that, I let him go and he got to his
feet. I came up at him and delivered an eight-punch combination
hitting his shoulders, ribs and stomach. I pulled back and Tommy
was completely hunched over. He was badly hurt. I normally would
have stopped, because he was through. But not today, not after what
he had done.

I stepped toward him and something snapped
in my head. I don’t even quite remember doing it, but I was highly
aware it happened. I cocked my right fist back and I threw a
ferocious uppercut and landed it directly underneath his chin and
completely flattened him out. I broke the rule and I knew it. I
didn’t care that I had punched him above the neck.

“What the fuck was that,” Josiah?” Yari
yelled, as she came running down the stairs to Tommy’s aide.

I walked over to Tommy and his eyes were
rolled back. I slapped him on the cheek to bring him around.
“Tommy, you okay?” Tommy eyes focused and he looked at me and said,
“You hit my face.”

“I know. Now we’re even.” I turned around
and walked outside the house and sat on the porch. It was dark now
and I took a giant breath. I wasn’t proud of myself, but I felt it
needed to be done. I looked up into the starlit sky and I
transitioned into the eagle and flew upwards. I flew into the sky
at a wicked speed and I nearly rammed into another bird. As I
swished past it, I realized it was a red hawk. She was one of our
own.

I turned my head around, to make sure the
hawk was okay. I kept going once I realized that the bird was fine.
I continued to blaze across the sky. Then I heard a squawk behind
me. I turned around to see what it was. The bird that I nearly hit
was now following me. One might even say chasing me.

I glided up higher in the air and the bird
continued to follow behind. She was not letting up. The bird was
definitely trying to get my attention. I allowed the red hawk to
catch up with me, and as she did I saw the hawk’s eyes and knew who
it was. It was Lena!

Chapter Eighteen

My stomach was in knots and I didn’t quite
know what to do. I looked at the gorgeous bird and decided to fly
downward and land on the ground to see what she wanted. I landed on
the side of a dirt road near the 15 freeway. Lena landed next to me
and transitioned immediately. She was gorgeous. She was wearing a
white tank top with white Capri pants. She looked really good in
white. I looked across the street and noticed that there was a park
with a playground at the front of it. I sighed and then
transitioned to my Mani form.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yes, I’m okay.” Lena answered, quietly. I
could tell she was really emotional. I looked in her eyes, and they
were fiery red. She had obviously been crying all day.

“You don’t look okay,” I said.

Lena stared at me. There was so much pain
behind her stare.

“What’s wrong Lena?” I asked again.

“I miss you, Josiah. I miss you a lot.”

That was exactly what I needed to hear. It
was as if a giant weight had just been lifted off of me. “Really?”
I asked.

“I wanted to come back so many times, but I
was afraid of what you thought of me.”

“Why did you leave, Lena?”

“What was I to do?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t know what to think
anymore.” I was choked up. “I hadn’t seen you in weeks.”

“I couldn’t look you in the eye. You were so
hurt, and I thought I was doing the right thing by giving you your
space. I didn’t want to come between you and Tommy.”

“Lena, the last thing I expected when I came
back from Romania was to be shoved into the middle of a love
triangle.”

“I know. It was so unfair to you. This whole
thing got complicated fast.”

“Is it really that complicated?”

“You don’t think so?”

“It doesn’t have to be. It only is if you
truly love Tommy.”

Lena was quiet.

“Do you love Tommy?” I asked.

“I don’t know, Josiah.”

This was really hard to hear and I wasn’t
sure why she came for me if she still thought she was in love with
Tommy.

“Then why are you here?”

Lena looked at me and tears rolled down her
face. “Because I know that I love you.”

“You do?”

“Yes. I love you so much, Josiah.”

I looked across the street and began walking
over to the playground.

“Where are you going?”

“I want to swing.” I said, as I continued to
walk over to the sandy playground. There was a swing set next to
some monkey bars. The swing set had three separate swings attached
to it. I sat on the one in the middle and began swinging.

Lena came over and sat on the swing to the
right of me and started swinging herself. We sat there and swung
for a couple of minutes and then I stopped. “So what do you want?”
I asked.

“Josiah, do you love me?”

I didn’t want to answer that question. It
was too painful to say out loud. I looked over at Lena and she
waited me to answer.

“You can’t answer that question, Josiah?
It’s that hard of a question?”

“No, it’s not a hard question to answer.
It’s a hard question to live inside.”

Lena got up off the swing set and stood
right in front of me. “Do you love me?”

“Yes, I do,” I said. “I love you, and only
you.”

“Why do you love me?”

“Why?”

“Yes, why?”

“What is there not to love? Sometimes in
life you are moving along and love sneaks up on you. You never
expected it to happen, so you fall deeper. It’s more intense
because you weren’t looking for it. It was as if you were given a
gift out of nowhere. One day, Lena, you just magically appeared in
front of me. And I fell for you hard.”

“What do you want to do? You asked me what I
want. I’m asking you what you want.”

“I don’t know. You say you love me, yet in
the same breath you say you’re not sure how you feel about Tommy.
How is that supposed to make me feel?”

“That’s the thing, Josiah. What I feel for
Tommy has nothing to do with you. It’s a whole separate feeling and
an entirely different situation. So, I can’t control how that makes
you feel, I can only be honest about what I’m feeling.”

I stared at Lena and just felt lost about
the whole situation. “Why did you come back?”

“I came back for you.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, I flew over the house and I heard you
and Tommy fighting. I peeked through one of the trap doors and I
saw you punch him in the face and leave the house. I went after you
and then you nearly flew me over.”

“No, you nearly flew me over.”

“Either way, we almost had a collision.”

I looked at Lena and said, “Well, I’m here,
right now.”

“I know you are.” Lena reached out her hand
to me. I took her hand and sat her on my lap while I was still on
the swing. I wrapped my arms around her and held her as close as I
ever had before. As she sat on my lap, I felt a release come over
my body. I can’t explain why I feel the way I feel toward her. But
having her here with me, at this moment, was the only thing I cared
about. It was the only thing I truly wanted. In Lena, I was home.
In her, I was safe.

“I don’t want this to go away,” I whispered
in her ear.

“It doesn’t have to.”

She turned her head and faced me. I leaned
in and kissed her tenderly. It was a soft gentle kiss that seemed
to last forever.

“All I want is this,” I said. “This right
here. Everything else is trivial. Everything else doesn’t
matter.”

“You have this, Josiah. But you also have a
higher calling.”

“Tonight, all I want is you.”

“Well, you have me.” Lena sat on my lap on
the swing and we kissed and held each other for about an hour.

“So, what now?” I asked.

“Follow me.” Lena got off my lap and stood
up.

“Follow you?”

“Yes.” Lena transitioned into the red hawk
and flew up into the sky. I transitioned and flew after her. She
was heading toward San Bernardino. It appeared she was going to my
house that was by the college. She circled above my home and landed
in my front yard.

I flew down and joined her and we both
transitioned. I turned over the plant and grabbed the key and we
entered my front door. “I don’t know if we will be safe here,” I
said. “I’m pretty sure everyone knows I live here by now.”

“For once, Josiah, shut your mouth.” Lena
pushed me up against my hallway wall and we knocked down a bunch of
picture frames. She kissed me hard and passionately. She kissed me
in a way she never had done before. I kissed her back with all I
had. I had waited for this moment for two months. I was going to
give her all my passion. She began taking my shirt off and my
testosterone was in overdrive. I decided not to think and to just
experience whatever she was giving me.

She shoved me into my room and pushed me on
my bed. Our hands were caressing each other’s bodies as we kissed
each other, all over my bed. I was on top of her, kissing her
neck.

Lena stopped and looked at me. “I want you,
Josiah.”

I looked down at Lena and I wasn’t exactly
sure what she was saying. “Are you sure?” I asked.

“I want to experience all that you are. I
want you to be my first.”

“Are you certain?”

“I’ve never been more certain about anything
in my entire life.”

I kissed Lena and now took control of the
situation. I laid her down and kissed her entire body I started
with her neck, and made my way down to her breasts, I slipped her
dress off and she laid on my bed in just her bra and panties. I
kissed her stomach, her ribs, and her belly button. I made my way
down lower to her inner thighs. I was experiencing every inch of
her. I wanted every part of her body to feel loved.

Lena caressed me back and loved me
thoroughly. This was a moment unlike any other. This was an
experience for the ages. We kissed and held each other for hours
and then at the perfect time ‘we made love.’ It was passionate and
tender! It was everything I imagined it to be. When we were done,
we rested on the bed naked. I had never shown a woman more love in
my life. I was now completely in love with her. And I was scared to
death.

We both slept through the night which wasn’t
ideal for a couple of vampires. I woke up around six in the morning
and rolled over. “Good morning.”

Lena opened her eyes looked at me and then
rolled back over.

“Excuse me, young lady?”

“Yes?”

“Today is a wonderful day.”

“I guess it is.”

“I mean today is the kind of day that most
men remember forever.”

“Wow, having sex with me was that good?”
Lena giggled.

I smiled at Lena and said, “No.”

“Sex wasn’t good?”

“No, sex was great. Experiencing you last
night was amazing.”

Lena smiled and said, “Good, but first
things first. I need you to go to the kitchen.”

“Huh?”

“Just shut up and go to the kitchen.”

I got up, stretched, put on a pair of
basketball shorts, and went to the kitchen. My mouth dropped when I
saw what Lena had done. She had made me a cake in the middle of the
night.

“When did you get up?”

“How did you know I got up and made it?”

I looked at all the pots and pans in the
sink. The kitchen was a complete mess. “It’s a hunch.” I said,
laughing. I looked down at the cake. It was a chocolate cake done
in a circle that read. ‘My Josiah’s 21st birthday.’

“Your Josiah, huh? Am I back to being
yours?”

“You were always mine.”

“That’s good, because you’re coming to my
party at the mansion tonight.”

Lena did not look like she was into that
idea.

“You have to go, Lena. Every Mani from here
to Seattle will be there.”

“I know all about your party. Yari texted me
about it days ago, but I don’t know if I should go.”

“Why? Because Tommy is going to be
there?”

“It might be weird.”

“It shouldn’t. I think Tommy liking you was
more about me than it was about you.”

Whoops!

Lena did not like that comment. She didn’t
like the thought of being used. “I don’t want to argue about it
with you because it would only hurt your feelings, but I know Tommy
was in it for more than to just best you.”

“Well, Tommy is going to be there. Tommy is
always going to be there. That can’t be the reason why you do or
don’t do things.”

“I guess you’re right. Is Tommy okay that
he’ll be the only Carni?”

“Tommy is practically a Mani himself,” I
said. “The Carni would crucify him if he tried to go back.”

“I tell you what,” Lena said. “You go back
and help Yari get the party started and I’ll see you tonight.”

“You promise you’re coming?”

“Of course I am!”

“All right.” I kissed Lena on the lips. “So
we’re good, right? You’re not going to give me a pen or
anything?”

“A pen?”

“You know, so that later I have come back
here and blast ‘In Your Eyes’ by Peter Gabriel, at the window with
a ghetto blaster.”

“You’re a dork, Josiah.”

“You know, that movie is a classic.”

“I’ll see you tonight.”

I began quoting John Cusack. “I gave her my
heart, and she gave me a pen.”