H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (79 page)

“Let’s head back to the arena so I can see
one of the doctors,” Tommy said.

I looked down at my dear friend who went to
battle for me and said, “Sounds like a plan.”

I put Tommy on my shoulder and walked back
to the sixteen guys still standing that had fought alongside me.
Seven of them laid down their life here today. I’m not sure why,
but they did.

Why? Why would any of them fight this kind
of fight if they didn’t have to?

I looked at all the men. They were bloodied
and exhausted and I really didn’t know what to say. “Let’s take a
moment for the guys who lost their lives tonight,” I said. I
thought I would at least recognize the men who took their last
breath out here on this night.

We all put our heads down and I said a
little prayer. After a moment, I looked up to the men and said,
“You all fought bravely. I’m not exactly sure why any of you would
get mixed up in this, but I’m sure glad you did.”

“Why are you surprised, Josiah? We know who
you are,” one of the Mani men yelled out.

“All I can say is thank you. You all risked
the money you’re making with Romero to be here.”

“The money we’re making?” A Carni laughed
out loud. Then everyone else laughed. “I’m not sure what you’ve
been told, Josiah,” he continued. “None of us got paid. We’re all
paying off debts!”

“Wait a second,” I asked. “None of you
actually gets paid?”

“Technically, you can call it that. God
knows Romero does. That guy pretty much owns our soul until our
debts are paid off. And when it gets paid off, he could give two
shits about you. There’s always another newbie that is going to be
indebted to him. I heard he forces humans against their will to
become Mani and Carni so they can fight here to pay off their
debts.”

“That’s what happened to me,” the muscular
Mani man said. “I was an up-and-coming mixed martial arts fighter
just like you and refused to throw a fight that cost Romero a lot
of money. He caught up to me and gave me an ultimatum. He was
either going to kill me or I had to become a Mani and fight for
him.”

That was one of the worst things I ever
heard. “What’s your name?” I asked.

“Militia,” he said.

“Your parents were creative in naming you,”
I joked, knowing full well that was only his fighter name. I was
utterly shocked. I could not believe the rosy picture Romero had
painted to me about his little underground, mixed martial arts
world. He was only making a huge profit off of all these guys. He
wasn’t paying anyone. He was using them in a way that was Third
World, to say the least.

We all got ourselves together and headed
back to the arena. I still had Tommy on my shoulder. I thanked the
guys one more time and took Tommy and headed to the back. The
guards recognized us and let us through, but not without radioing
something in. Obviously Romero was being told Tommy was hurt.

“Let’s go see Gary,” Tommy said. “He’ll keep
my injury on the down low; he hates Romero as much as the
fighters.”

I had no idea Romero was so hated by the
fighters. I’m not sure if he was clueless about the fact, or
doesn’t even care. My bet is a guy as rich and powerful as he is
could give a rat’s ass what his employees thought about him.

We entered Gary’s training room and his eyes
looked like they were going to pop out of his head the second he
saw how bashed up Tommy’s leg was.

“What the hell happened, Tommy?” Gary
asked.

“You don’t want to know, Gary,” Tommy
said.

He helped me get Tommy over to the table so
he could lie down. Gary was really short and really bald. He was
pushing seventy and clearly was an old-school trainer. God knows
how long a guy like this had been doing this kind of thing.

Gary cleaned Tommy’s leg off with soap and
water. Other than the large gash directly above his knee, Tommy
seemed to be able to move it freely. I was pretty sure he hadn’t
broken anything.

After about twenty minutes of Gary doing
tests and taking x-rays, he came into the room and said, “There’s
good and bad news. The good news is there is no permanent damage.
The bad news, you won’t be able to fight again for another three
months.”

“You sure, doc?” I asked. “This isn’t one of
these cases where you say he won’t walk again and it gets better
overnight?”

“No, it’s the best case scenario. He could
try to do some training in eight weeks, and then probably be able
fight four weeks after that.”

Crap, Romero is going to kill both of
us!

“How many fights do you have left?” I asked
Tommy.

“Maybe seven,” he said gritting his teeth.
He was obviously still in pain. “Hey, Gary, can you give me
something for the pain?”

“No problem, Tommy. I’ll give you a month’s
worth of pain killers.” Gary left the room to go get Tommy some
medication.

“Dammit, this is all my fault, Tom. I
shouldn’t have asked you to come help.”

“Josiah, I don’t give a shit. I would help
you anyplace, anywhere. Romero can kiss my ass. I have made that
asshole so much money.”

“Why would I want to kiss your ass, Tommy,
especially after you broke my ‘no fighting unless it’s in the ring
rule’?” Romero shouted behind us. He entered Gary’s training room,
followed by at least eight body guards.

“Don’t worry, Romero. I can still fight.
It’s just going to take a couple months,” Tommy said.

“That might be so, Wolfie, but the deal we
had is off.”

“Fuck you! Richie Rich!” Tommy yelled, from
the table. “I have busted my ass for you.”

“A deal is a deal, and if you can’t fight,
there’s no deal. It’s that simple.” Romero then looked over to me
with a look that said, ‘look what you did.’

“Relax, Tommy,” I said, trying my best to
keep the situation under control. “Let me talk to Romero alone in
the hallway.”

Romero looked at me like I was crazy. “I
know you think you’re an important person in your little vampire
world, Josiah. But after tonight, I have nothing to say to you. You
nearly got one of my fighters killed tonight because of your little
issues you have. As of right now, there’s seven fighters
unaccounted for. That is seven debts you owe me.”

“I owe you?” I said, laughing. “I don’t owe
you, or anyone else, shit.”

“Oh, I think you do,” Romero said. Now his
bodyguards surrounded him and appeared to be ready to fight at a
moment’s notice.

“We have bent over backwards for your little
human trafficking operation here,” I said.

“Technically, there are no human trafficking
laws being broken. The last time I checked none of my fighters were
human.” Romero smiled at me with a devilish look.

I needed to hold my ground. I didn’t need
this shit. I was sick and tired of Romero and he was going to hear
it from my lips. “Say what you will, but we’re going to work
something out tonight, or there’s going to be a lot of bloodshed
starting with you, little man.”

“Little man?” Romero looked as if he was
going to come out of his skin. “Are you threatening me? You think
I’m going to let some Mani thug come into my house and threaten
me?”

“Call it what you want, you either work out
a deal with me, or I’m taking Tommy and if you try to stop us, the
first one to die will be you.”

As of that moment, every gun in the place
was now pointed at Tommy and me.

Guns don’t scare me. That can’t even kill
me.

“You might as well have all guns in this
arena pointed at me. Guns don’t intimidate me. So what’s it going
to be? Are we going to work out an honest deal? Or am I mopping up
this joint, starting with your face?”

Romero couldn’t believe what I had just
said. He stared at me for what felt like an entire minute. Then
Romero began laughing. “You are one crazy motherfucker! Holy shit,
the balls on this kid!” He stared at me and I didn’t flinch. Then
he calmly said, “We’ll work out a deal. Meet me upstairs in five
minutes.”

“It’s just going to be you and me up there,”
I said. “You can have your ‘entourage of camouflage’ stay
outside.”

“Isn’t it always just you and I,
Josiah?”

Chapter Twenty

I entered Romero’s suite and once again he
was planted in his chair. “You’re fearless, aren’t you,
Josiah?”

“I have to be. I’ve never had a choice.”

“Have you always been that way?” Romero was
looking me over and I couldn’t tell if he was turned on or
impressed. It didn’t matter to me, both concepts I could give two
shits about at the present moment.

“I’ve been kicking ass for quite a long
time. It’s all I know, it’s the one thing I’m sure I can do.” I was
still standing by the door. I wasn’t sure if I trusted him. I was a
little skittish. Having ten automatic weapons pointed at you
minutes earlier kind of does that to you.

“It’s refreshing having someone talk the way
you did to me in there. I have had ‘yes’ men around for almost
twenty years.”

“I bet you have,” I said.

“It’s annoying.”

“I could only imagine.” Even though I had
followers, the last thing I had was ‘yes’ men.

“Okay, Josiah, because of your little war
tonight, I lost ten fighters.”

“Seven,” I said, correcting him.

“So you do know the number?”

“I’m only repeating the number you said
earlier.”

“You and I both know some of my men died for
your little cause. That costs me money. That is what we need to
work out first. And not to mention Tommy is going to be on injury
reserve for the next six months.”

“It’s going to be three months.”

“Three, six, doesn’t matter to me. All I see
is lost dollar signs.”

“I bet you do. So, let me get this straight,
you need for me to pay off all seven debts. Let me guess. You want
me to fight in their place?”

“That assumption is pretty accurate,” Romero
said.

“Look, I fully understand the kind of
operation you’re running here. You prey off of other people’s greed
and misfortune. This isn’t the ‘day spa’ that you made this place
out to be. These are a bunch of guys basically fighting for their
lives on a nightly basis. You insinuated they were all getting
paid. The part that I can’t figure out is how I was different?”

Then it hit me. Romero just wanted me close.
He was never intending to ever pay me a dime. He was waiting for me
to make a mistake so I would owe him, too. In this case, he lucked
out that I offered up Tommy when I was drunk and didn’t even
realize it at the time.

“That’s neither here nor there, Josiah,
someone needs to pay up.” Romero was now in full Donald Trump,
businessman mode. He was going to get what he wanted or I wasn’t
going to leave the room. I knew I didn’t have a lot of leverage,
but I had some, because he needed me. I sure as hell didn’t need
him.

“You do understand,” I said. “I could say,
‘Screw Tommy! Kill him!’ And I could easily fight my way out of
here.”

“Really? You would say that about your
dearest friend in the world? Even after he saved your ass with
Krull? I don’t see someone with your integrity doing that kind of
thing.”

Romero sure knew a lot. If I didn’t know
better, I would have thought he had one of his guys out there
fighting alongside me just so we would be having this conversation
right now.

“If you think I’m afraid of looking over my
shoulder,” I said, “then you’re wrong. Looking over my shoulder is
all I know. I sleep with one eye open, and don’t trust a damn
person.

“All right, then we’ll kill Tommy and you
fight your way out of here.” Romero stared at me, and I stared back
at him. It was a good old fashioned stare down of who was going to
blink first.

“Let me know if that’s the plan, because
it’s just you and I in a small room,” I said, as threatening as I
could.

“What makes you think I haven’t killed him
already and I’m just waiting to kill you?” Romeo asked.

I knew he was bluffing just like he knew I
was bluffing about killing Tommy. “I know you’re bluffing because
you’re a businessman,” I answered. “And you’re not stupid.”

“That’s one thing I know I’m not…
stupid.”

“I have a proposal.”

Romero’s serious stare turned to a warm
smile. “All right, let’s hear the proposal.”

“Okay, it seems to me that the number
‘seven’ is the lucky, or unlucky, number here. Tommy has seven
fights left and you lost seven fighters tonight.”

“Okay, I’m listening.”

“The way I see it, it’s all about promoting
the best possible fight on both our ends. The money is obviously
out there. We just need ‘a fight’ that will bring in giant
revenue.”

“I like what I’m hearing so far. Go on.”

“Tommy is already built up, so he needs very
little promotion. The problem is actually with me.”

“With you? What problem would that be?”
Romero asked.

“No one knows who the hell I am. So…you give
me seven fights over the next three months while Tommy heals. You
have me fight whomever and whatever you want. I can fight vampires,
werewolves, zombies…you name it. I’ll fight Smokey the Bear if it
draws a crowd. I don’t care! Just make sure it’s the best you can
get so this crowd will start seeing my abilities and will keep
paying more to see me.”

Romero had a big goofy grin on his face. He
obviously loved my idea. “Go on,” he said.

“I will build momentum, and you tell all
your millionaire and billionaire patrons that Tommy’s taking a
small break. But he’s going to come back for a super match.”

“A super match? What kind of super match?”
Romero asked.

That was a good question, so I took a moment
to think it out. I thought about the fact I owed seven debts and
then it hit me. I came up with an amazing idea.

“In one night, Tommy will fight seven times.
We’ll call it ‘A Night of the Seven Deadly Sins.’ Each of his
opponents will represent one of the seven deadly sins. Have a fat
piece of shit to stand in for Gluttony and a greedy person for
Greed, and so on. The final fight will be Envy.”