H.T. Night's 8-Book Vampire Box Set (21 page)

“Excuse me,” I repeated. “I’d like a Vodka
Coke.”

The bartender turned around again and
motioned for me to lean in so he could speak in my ear. I
obliged.

He whispered in my ear. “Get the fuck out of
here you piece of shit. I don’t serve your kind.” And then he took
a step back and smiled as if he had told me good wishes.

“My kind?” I said, shocked. “What the hell
are you talking about? We’re both white males in our twenties.
Except that you need a shave and a bath, we’re practically the same
guy.”

“Listen you Mani fuck, I can have about ten
Carni’s over here in two seconds. So, you either leave peacefully,
or we can all have some fun tonight at your expense.”

I was completely surprised by the
bartender’s comment. He knew I was a Mani? How could he tell? “How
do you know?” I asked.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“I need to know. How could you tell?”

The bartender stared at me with utter
amazement. “I can smell the filth on you. You reek.”

“Is that because you are a Carni?”

“Are you fucking for real, man?” The
bartender was not having any more of my questions.

I didn’t care. I persisted, I needed to
know. “Are you Carni? Is that why?”

“You have five seconds to leave.”

“Tell me and I’ll go.”

The bartender whistled across the bar. That
was my cue to leave; he wasn’t playing games. Dammit, I didn’t even
get a fucking drink.

I turned around and headed for the door. I
could feel every eye in the place on me. My senses were tingling.
This wasn’t good. I hurried out the front door and did not turn
around. I passed the doorman. Was he a Carni? Did he set me up?

I was now in the parking lot and I could
hear people behind me.

I got to my truck and reached into my pocket
to grab my keys. I dropped them and leaned over to pick them up.
Why was I so nervous? I unlocked my driver side door and got into
my truck.

How the hell was I supposed to know this was
a werewolf bar? Was there such a thing? Was I going to be running
into this all the time? Had I been going to werewolf bars and clubs
for a while now and never even known it?

I slid my key into the ignition. I put my
truck in reverse, and began pulling out of the parking lot. Without
warning, a man jumped on the hood of my truck like a wild animal. I
slammed the brakes, the man leaped over my windshield and into the
bed of my truck.

I jumped out of my vehicle. I guess this was
going to go down. Dammit! Why the hell did things always have to go
down with me?

“What the hell, man?” I yelled at the idiot
in the bed of my truck. I turned around and there were five guys
coming up behind me, one of them was that seven-foot monster.
Fucking great!

“Look, I don’t want any trouble,” I yelled
to the men approaching me.

“You asked for it, you Mani scum, the moment
you set foot in our bar,” the smallest of the men called out. That
was usually the case. The runt of the group always seemed to be the
loudest.

I had no idea what I was up against if they
all decided to jump me. How did I defeat werewolves? I was pretty
sure all these guys were Carni; I had no idea how strong they could
be. I knew that Mani strength was off the charts. But head to head,
Mani versus Carni? I was in uncharted territory.

“Look,” I said, “this is all kind of new to
me. So, let’s just call it a mistake and I’ll go on my way.”

“Ha ha. He’s a newbie,” the runt yelled out
again. “Poor bastard. He’s just trying to find his way.”

“Exactly,” I replied, knowing full well I
was being mocked by the little shit.

“Well just to let you know, rookie,” the
little man continued, “when we have a dispute, we don’t settle it
in bar parking lots. We have specific locations where we settle our
scores. That way the Tandra don’t have to be involved in our
business.”

“I don’t have a score to settle with any of
you. I made a big mistake coming here. I’ll just leave.”

“This pretty boy is breaking my heart,” the
guy in the bed of my truck said. “You almost want to just kill him
here and put him out of his misery.”

“Is that what you think?” I asked. “That I’m
a pretty boy?” Now my blood, or whatever runs through my veins, was
boiling. It didn’t matter if I was human or vampire. I was still
going to get no respect because of how I looked. “Okay, so how does
this work? Do I fight one of you, all of you, or do I just pick
which of you has the least teeth and we go from there?”

“This is between you and me.” A voice came
from the bar entrance. It was the bartender. He had made his way
out to the parking lot. He was about my height and about thirty
pounds heavier.

“You?” I asked. “Why, because I ordered a
drink?”

“No, because this is my bar and you
disrespected it by coming here, knowing full well you aren’t
welcome.”

“For your information, I was just telling
the boys from Deliverance here that I haven’t looked online yet at
which Carni bars and restaurants I need to avoid. This is all kind
of new to me.”

“Mistake or not, you fucked up. We’ll meet
at 2:30 at Barnes Ranch in the hills.”

“Where the hell is that?” I moaned.

“Someone get this fucker a GPS system or a
Thomas Guide. It’s up in Anaheim Hills. Take Imperial Highway as
high as you can. You can’t miss it. It’s the last ranch you hit
before the mountains. So, go round up your Mani cohorts and we’ll
make it a party.”

I stared at the bartender. If he was a
human, I knew I could kick his ass in seconds. But I had no idea
how strong a werewolf was. Did they only get strong on a full moon?
I had no idea what the hell I was up against. I sighed and asked,
“Are we done here?”

“You better show up, Blondie, or we’ll hunt
you down.”

“Hunt me down? You serious?” The bartender
glared back at me and I looked him in the eye, “I’ll be there,
scruffy.”

The guy on the bed of my truck hopped off on
cue. How did this happen? I wasn’t gone for an hour and I seemed to
have pissed off all of the Carni Nation. I cautiously got into my
truck. My door was still open from when I jumped out. I got in
slowly and started my engine. I closed my door. I eased out of the
parking lot, making sure I didn’t hit any of those assholes. God
knows I wanted to.

What the hell did I just get myself into? A
fight? At some ranch? What is this? The Outsiders? I looked at the
clock and it read 10 p.m. I had four and a half hours before this
stupid fight. They wanted me to round up my Mani counterparts. Did
I have Mani counterparts? I knew four Mani, and none of them would
be eager to come with me to a slaughter.

I decided it was time to go find Lena. I had
ignored her long enough. I had enough time to find her before the
fight, I just hoped she wasn’t too pissed at me for ignoring
her.

I pulled into a Taco Bell parking lot. I
figured I would transition into the eagle so I could get to Lena’s
home faster. I hadn’t transitioned from Mani to eagle that many
times, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure how to fully control it. It
wasn’t like I could say something like “alla kazam” and presto, I
was now an eagle.

I put my keys under my seat and left my door
unlocked. I got out and walked behind a Dumpster so no one could
see me. I closed my eyes and imagined I was turning into the white
eagle. At first, nothing happened. How the hell did I do this
before? I relaxed and concentrated. I felt a rush of wind come over
my body, which is what happened the other times when I had
transitioned.

In an instant, my eye level dropped three
feet. I was no longer six feet in height. I was a three-foot tall
eagle. I tilted my head to look at my body and extended my wings.
Something caught my eye across the street. My reflection in the
glass of an office building was magnificent. Damn, I was beautiful.
What a gorgeous creature. For a brief second, I forgot I was
looking at myself. It was like I was at a nature exhibit, staring
at some rare, nearly extinct eagle. But I wasn’t, I was staring at
myself. I was the white eagle. For the first time, the reality of
me being this animal was extremely real to me. It was
heartbreaking. I was no longer Josiah, the man. I was Josiah, the
thing. I was a freak of nature, an unnatural beast-bird-man with a
tragic path ahead of me, if the last two weeks were any indication
of what I faced as The Chosen One. The body count alone was ripping
up my heart and sometimes made me question who I really was now,
and what I was. Was I good or was I evil? Was I a man or a
creature? I didn’t have the answers yet. I didn’t know if I ever
would. I teared up and shook my tears off my beak.

I looked around and saw no one near me, so I
knew it would be safe to fly. I flew up awkwardly. Flying was
surreal, and I didn’t quite know how to shift my weight just yet. I
got some good momentum and flew high in the sky above the clouds so
no one could see me. I still wasn’t fully comfortable with the
whole flying aspect of all of this. It was terrifying at times. It
was hard to judge my speed and landing was a total bitch.

I took off in the direction of Lena’s
trailer park, hoping she would be there. The air felt amazing.
Flying was a spectacular feeling. I’d had dreams that I could fly
in the past and it definitely didn’t feel like this in my dreams.
This had a sense of delicacy to it. It wasn’t a gliding feeling
like I had imagined flying to be, it felt more like a sleek missile
ready to barrel into anything in its way.

It only took about ten minutes to get back
to the Inland Empire. I decided to fly over a park across the
street from Lena’s place. There was an old barn at the Far East end
of the park. And about two football fields’ worth of grass in front
of it. I decided to land on the grass. I knew my landing was going
to be rough;, it always was. I made sure no one could see me. I
circled the grass a couple of times. Damn, I was horrible at this.
I aimed down to the ground and of course, went much faster than I
wanted to. I slammed into the earth and rolled like a sack of
potatoes falling out of a delivery truck. I decided to transition
back to my Mani form immediately, so I wouldn’t break my wings.

I finally stopped rolling and I was face
first in the dirt with a mouth full of mud. Yummy. I got up, spit
the mud out, and brushed myself off. Where did my clothes go when I
transitioned? They were always back on my body when I returned to
my human form. I couldn’t quite figure out why. Definitely
something I need to ask about.

I jogged across the street over to Lena’s
trailer park. I found her trailer and walked up to it. I knocked on
the door. There was no answer. I knocked a couple more times and
still there was no answer. I was about to give up when I heard a
squawk from above. A beautiful red hawk landed right in front of
me. It appeared to be either Yari or Lena.

Chapter Two

The mesmerizing hawk stared at me intently.
I waited for it to change, to take on its human form. Instead, it
stood perfectly still, staring me down. Minutes felt like hours
when the bird finally bent down and transitioned into Lena. She
still didn’t say anything. I could sense that she was not sure how
to greet me. Quite frankly, I wasn’t sure how to greet her
either.

“You look pale,” she said. Hmm, not exactly
a hello.

“So do you,” I replied. But I thought, look
who’s talking.

She glanced down at the concrete behind me.
“I thought you had run off or something.” She then kicked a pebble
across the asphalt.

“Run off? That’s not my way. I am sometimes
just…incommunicado.” I watched her. She was beautiful. Her
jet-black hair looked shorter than I remembered. She must have cut
her hair since I’d last seen her. She was wearing a black tank top
with black stretch pants. I stated the obvious. “You cut your
hair.”

“Sure did.” She looked down and then back up
at me.” Why didn’t you answer your phone calls or answer the door
when I came by?”

“I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“Do you think I do?” Lena was now visibly
upset.” Remember, I’m this way because of you.”

“It was what you wanted, Lena.”

“It was what I wanted when Atticai was here.
Now, I’m not sure. I’m not even sure what our purpose is.”

“Don’t look to me for answers. I’m
completely in the dark. Literally and metaphorically.”

“Yeah, that makes two of us,” she murmured.
Lena opened the door to her trailer. “Come in.” she said. “You know
that’s a rule?”

“What is?”

“We can’t enter a human’s home unless we’re
invited in.”

“Really?”

“It’s a stupid rule, but we need to live by
it.”

“Silly me. I didn’t get my rule book when I
joined up.”

I entered her trailer home and apparently,
her parents weren’t there. I didn’t see any cars parked out front.
“I don’t even know which is myth, and which is real.”

“Most of what you find on Wikipedia is myth,
but there are some serious truths.”

“I figured out the sunlight one real fast.”
I mentioned.

“Yeah, that one’s a bitch, and the only way
I can get out of that is to transition.”

I sat down on the couch in the living room
and asked, “what about the whole drinking blood part?”

“There are ways around that. Eventually, we
do need blood or we’ll weaken.”

“Are you able to eat other things?”

“Not really. I get very sick.”

“I haven’t gotten sick yet. I’m able to eat
the same things I had ate before.”

“You’re lucky,” Lena said as she sat
cross-legged in the middle of the floor. She was so much more
beautiful than I remembered.

Lena caught me looking at her. I could tell
it made her a bit uncomfortable. “Have you had any human
blood?”