H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (56 page)

“Okay, Say Anything. Leave, and I’ll see you
tonight.”

Chapter Nineteen

It was now daytime, so I had transitioned to
the eagle on my way back to the mansion.

It was my 21st birthday and I was finally
street legal, I thought, jokingly, as I flew through the Inland
Empire sky. I arrived in Victorville in minutes and headed toward
the house. I flew into a trap door that led to my room and landed
on my bed.

Damn, I had become a stud at this landing
thing.

I was feeling bad about the day before and I
decided to speak to Tommy and make sure he was cool after being
sucker-punched by me. It really wasn’t a sucker-punch because I
stood right in front of him, but we had established rules, and I
had broken them.

I knocked on Tommy’s door.

“Yari, go away!” he yelled. “Seriously, I’m
tired of you fucking with me!”

“It’s not Yari,” I yelled, through the door.
“It’s Josiah.”

Tommy didn’t answer right away. After about
two minutes, he finally opened the door.

“You’re not going to punch me again, are
you?”

“Of course not.”

Tommy opened the door completely and let me
into his room. I noticed his chin was split open and he had a
half-ass bandage on it. It almost appeared that he was trying to
show off his battle wound, even one that was the result of a
Scrabble game.

“Sorry about the chin,” I said, as sincerely
as I could.

“No worries, Josiah. I deserved it.”

“You didn’t deserve it. I had already
forgiven you.”

“Obviously you didn’t,” Tommy said. “Your
eyes went red and you wanted to kill me.”

“My eyes didn’t go red.”

“I saw it in your eyes, Jo. You forget I’ve
trained you since you were fifteen. I know when you get that look
in your eye. That’s when all bets are off and you’re just going
pound someone’s ass. Instead of it being someone’s ass, it was my
face.”

“I always said you had the face of a horse’s
ass,” I said, jokingly, and Tommy smiled. “How was Yari screwing
with you?”

“Oh, she is pissed off because I didn’t want
to go to the store and pick up some items for the party. I told her
I’d go in an hour but that wasn’t good enough for her. So she has
been blowing into a dog whistle all morning.”

“A dog whistle? That’s a crack up.”

“Oh, no, it’s not, Josiah. Those things
should be illegal.”

“I know what I’m buying the next time I’m at
the pet store.”

“You would.” Tommy looked at me and seemed
happy that he and I were being cool. “Hey, I got something for
you.”

“You didn’t have to do that, Tommy.”

“Shut up. It’s your birthday. Of course I
got you something. I’m not going to be the douchebag that doesn’t
give you a present.”

“Well, it’s good to know your heart was in
the right place. Not wanting to be the douchebag and all.”

Tommy walked over to the closet, “I know
this isn’t going to compare to the island that Hector plans on
getting you, but it was in my budget.”

“Seriously, an island?” I asked,
laughing.

“Maybe not that extravagant, but he did
mention something about seventy virgins.”

“It pays to know royalty, what can I
say?”

“Come here.” Tommy opened his closet door
and pulled out one of his nicest leather jackets I had ever seen.
It had a military collar and was gorgeous.

“Is this for me?” I asked.

“Of course it is.”

I picked up the jacket and put it on. I
looked in Tommy’s long mirror and damn, I looked fucking good.
“Wow, Tom. Thanks.”

“No problem. Hey, check this out.” Tommy
went back to his closet and pulled out the same identical
jacket.

“You got us matching jackets?” I asked
slowly.

“Sure did.”

“I’m not sure what to make of that,” I said,
laughing.

“You don’t like it? I think we look
good.”

“Well, I think BFF bracelets would be less
gay.”

“Oh, shut up, Josiah. The jackets are
badass.” Tommy put on his jacket and looked in the mirror with
me.

“All we need now is a big T-birds emblem on
the back of them and then we can go out and meet up with the pink
ladies.”

“Very funny.”

“Seriously we should go down and drag race
later,” I said, laughing.

“All right, Josiah, if you don’t like it, I
can take it back.”

“Listen, Kenickie, it’s awesome. I love it.”
Tommy was a good guy and I was just giving him a hard time.

“Hey, you’re Kenickie, Blondie. I’m Zuko,”
Tommy stated.

“I am so more Zuko than you are.” I said,
pointing out the obvious.

“What are you talking about? Kenickie has
blonde hair and Zuko has black hair.”

“All right, you can be Zuko.” I said. I
looked at both of us in the mirror and we did look good even if we
looked like we were about to break out into the “Greased Lightning”
song

“Thanks, Tommy,” I said. “The jacket is
awesome. Again, I’m sorry about hitting you in the face.”

“It’s cool. It didn’t hurt.” Tommy snickered
at me.

“I’m sure it didn’t,” I said, as I turned
around and left the room.

I went back to my room and relaxed until it
was time for my party. Yari told me to stay away and not do
anything.

People started showing up around 9:00 p.m.
And by 11 o’clock our new home had become a full-blown, raging,
crazy-ass-vampire bash. The funny part about it was I didn’t know
hardly anyone at the party. I counted seven people out of about 120
that I had met or at least seen before, one thing was for sure,
they all knew who I was and wanted some alone time with me. I felt
like Don Corleone in The Godfather.

It was like everyone wanted to say the right
thing to please me. To be honest, it was making me feel
uncomfortable. I wasn’t good with unprovoked adoration. I wasn’t
even good with provoked adoration. I was happy that everyone had
accepted me and seemed to be on board with whatever was to come. It
was clear that there were two sides growing. Krull had his crew and
now, I was slowly getting mine together. All my instincts were
pointing to a shit storm of epic proportions coming very soon and I
knew we all needed to be ready.

I purposely didn’t consume any alcohol
because I didn’t want to be drunk when Lena showed up. Tommy, on
the other hand, was throwing back shots and beers like they were
Tic-Tacs.

I was nervous in the anticipation of Lena
showing up. I really wanted her to be here with me. I wanted to
share this party with her. All the adoration from everyone else
didn’t mean a thing to me without having her by my side.

I wanted to make a statement that we were
together. That this was the person I chose to be with. I knew I
could have any woman at this party. Shit, I could probably have
most of the men if I swung that way. I didn’t want anyone else. I
only wanted Lena. And unfortunately, it was now past midnight and
there was still no sign of her.

I went out to the front yard and looked in
all directions for a red hawk. There was nothing. ‘It’s my party
and I’ll cry if I want to’ seemed to be appropriate right about
now.

I was now leaning toward drinking, and if I
was planning on doing any kind of alcohol intake tonight, there was
only one guy to party with, and that was Tommy.

I went inside the house and looked for him
and I couldn’t find him in the house. Eventually, I found him in
the backyard sitting by the pool at a table surrounded by Wyatt,
Hector and Cyrus. I walked out to the backyard and made my way over
to them.

“Look guys!” Tommy yelled out. “He honors us
with his presence!” Tommy was very drunk and saluted me like I was
a five-star general.

“At ease, soldier,” I said. “Have you been
behaving around all these vampires?”

Tommy stood up and said, “Why is it that
whenever any of you Mani dick-holes talk to me, you find it
necessary to always point out that I’m a werewolf?”

“Sorry, brother,” I said taking a sip of his
beer. “I wasn’t aware that you didn’t want me to recognize.”

“Oh, you best recognize, homey!” Tommy said
taking the beer from me and sat back down.

“Trust me, I always do,” I said, laughing. I
pulled up a chair at the table. “Are you guys having a good time?”
I asked the others.

“There’s a lot of hot Mani ass here,” Cyrus
said.

“You better not let Yari hear you talk like
that,” Wyatt said to Cyrus. “She pissed her circle around you.”

“Is that why none of these hotties are even
looking at me?” Cyrus asked.

“I wouldn’t doubt it,” I said “Yari can be
possessive.”

Tommy then stood up again. “How come you
guys always have to say I’m a werewolf?”

“Didn’t we already have this talk?” I
said.

“Listen, Choseniah, I wasn’t finished
talking.” Tommy walked over to me.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought you were done,” I
said, as condescendingly as possible to a drunk without him
realizing you were indeed being condescending.

“I’m not your gay friend,” Tommy said to
me.

“No one said you were,” I said, surprised at
the absurdity of his statement. “But, I could bust out our matching
T-bird jackets and people might think differently.”

“You know what I’m saying. Don’t act like
you don’t.” Tommy looked down at me and took another swig of his
beer.

“Actually, I have no idea what you are
saying,” I said to him.

“You know, whenever a group of friends have
a gay friend, they always have to bring up that he’s gay all the
time. Well, I’m not gay. I’m a werewolf. Not that there is anything
wrong with that. You know, being gay and all.” Then Tommy busted up
laughing. “Get it, Josiah? Seinfeld.”

“I got it, Tommy,” I said rolling my
eyes.

“Believe it or not,” Cyrus said. “I
understand what he’s trying to say.”

“Actually, so do I,” I said, laughing.

Tommy collapsed back in his chair and said,
“Hey, Josiah!”

“What buddy?” I said to Tommy.

“Where’s Lena?”

“That’s a good question.” Tommy must have
been drunk to bring her up to me.

“I think she didn’t show up because she’s
doesn’t want to face the truth,” Tommy said.

“What truth would that be, Tom?”

“Hey, Tommy! Shut up!” Wyatt said. Wyatt
knew Tommy was about to say something very stupid. What Wyatt
didn’t know was that I was intimate with Lena the night before and
there was really little Tommy could say to me that would set me
off.

“Tommy, why don’t you slow it down?” Cyrus
said to Tommy.

“I’m not that drunk. I’m just having some
fun.”

“Okay, then answer my question. What truth
would that be?” I asked.

Tommy looked at me and his wheels were
spinning. I knew he wanted to say something, but even as drunk as
he was, he filtered it out and didn’t answer me. “Nothing, Josiah.
I was just talking nonsense.”

I looked over to the back door and Rubidoux
walk out and I called him over to us.

“Hey, buddy,” I said. “What’s going on? When
did you show up?”

Rubidoux shook my hand and gave me a bro
hug. “I got here about a half hour ago. I heard you’re living here
now.”

“Yup, it’s a pretty nice set-up.”

“I bet,” Rubidoux said. “Hey, there was some
weird guy outside looking for you.”

“Where?”

“Right outside.”

“What did he look…?” I looked up at the
backdoor way and Yari came walking out with the smallest cake I had
ever seen. It had one lone sparkler on top. The cake was the size
of a Hersey bar. “I’m sorry, hold on,” I said.

Yari walked over to where I was sitting,
“All right everyone! It’s time for the cake!”

No one was paying attention. So she walked
on top of the diving board and screamed, “MAY I HAVE YOUR
ATTENTION!”

Now everyone stopped talking and listened.
There was probably half the party in the backyard.

“This is Josiah’s 21st birthday,” Yari
continued to yell. “And I got him a cake.”

“Way to go all out on the cake, Yari!” Tommy
yelled out laughing.

“Well, considering you and Josiah are the
only two that can eat it, why splurge?”

“True dat, home-girl,” Tommy sat back
down.

“All right everyone! Let’s give Josiah our
Mani birthday chant!”

Then the entire party that was in the
backyard did a weird birthday chant that sounded like some kind of
Mani war cry. It sure wasn’t the Happy Birthday song, but it
definitely was heartfelt. I closed my eyes and wished for happiness
and blew out the candle.

“Anyway, Rubidoux, what were you
saying?”

“There is some weird guy out front that
wanted to speak to you.”

“Weird, how?”

“Well, he’s in a costume,” Rubidoux said,
laughing.

“A costume?”

“Yeah, and he’s a little person.”

“A little person?”

“You know, like a dwarf.”

“Oh shit! It’s Goshi!” I yelled. “Where’s he
at?”

“He’s in the front yard.”

I ran through the house and everyone
followed me to the front yard. There he was! Goshi was standing in
the middle of the grass He was wearing a white robe, and if this
dude ever looked like Papa Smurf, it was now.

“Goshi!” I yelled out to him.

“Josiah,” Goshi said, with his arms extended
out to me. I ran up to him and hugged him.

“You showed up!”

“Yes, I did.”

“Wow, how did you get here?” I asked.

“You’d be surprised how many people don’t
ask questions when you look the way I do. They tend to go out of
their way to make me feel accepted.”

I turned to the party and said, “Everyone,
listen up, this little blue guy here is the toughest Mani I have
ever trained with.”

I heard some giggling.

“You think I’m kidding! I am not. This is
my...” I looked at Goshi and said, “We never established what you
are to me.”