Night Time: Two Novels Read online

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” she said, and to her credit, she sounded legitimately sorry. “What’s his name?”

  “Tommy Jensen.”

  She paused and stared at me. “You’re the family of Tommy Jensen?”

  “Yes, more or less.”

  “You need to go back upstairs and speak to Human Resources.”

  “Why?” I said. “I was told to come down here. What happened?”

  “I can’t get into it, young man. You’ll need to speak to a hospital administrator.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? Do you have Tommy or not?”

  She stared at me and, amazingly, I saw that her hands were shaking. What the fuck was going on? I forced myself to calm down, even though I felt my heart racing.

  “Please, what’s going on? Tell me.”

  She looked over my shoulder and then behind her. We were alone. “I’ve been working in this hospital for over twenty years, and I’ve never seen what I saw with your friend.”

  Now my heart figuratively froze in my chest, but I could feel an actual chill tighten my breathing. “What are you talking about?”

  “I shouldn’t be telling you this. In fact, I was told specifically never to mention again what I saw.”

  I was suddenly finding it extremely difficult to breathe.

  “But you’re here now, and...you have a right to know.” She took off her glasses and started shaking her head. “Screw my bosses. Sometimes, you just have to do the right thing.”

  “Please,” I said. My voice sounded strangled to my own ears.

  “Three days ago, I get this body sent down to me. He’s all scratched up and has bite marks all over it. I’m thinking this poor young man is a mess. Anyway, I do what I normally do to prep the body for autopsy.”

  She paused again, and I found myself leaning over her desk, supporting my weight.

  “So, I began to wash some of his wounds. But the weirdest thing happened. I would wash a wound, and the body would heat up, and the wound would...heal right before me. I called a couple of my colleagues over and we started cleaning all of his wounds. Two hours after he was pronounced dead, his pulse returned.”

  “What?!” I yelled. I couldn’t help myself. The word just burst from my mouth.

  “Quiet down. Please. So listen, we are all freaking out because we have a freaking miracle on the table. My colleagues and I leave the room to find the doctors...” Her voice trailed off.

  It was all I could do not grab her by her damn uniform and shake the story out of her.

  “What happened to Tommy?” I said sternly.

  She hesitated and then said, “When we came back...he was gone.”

  “What do you mean gone?” I asked.

  “His body was gone. We had everyone searching, but he was nowhere to be found.”

  I felt my knees buckle. I leaned on her desk, almost falling on it.

  Tommy was… alive?

  “Why, why didn’t anyone call me?”

  “This is out of my hands; you’ll have to talk to someone upstairs. I already told you too much.”

  “So, no one saw him leave? Not even the security?”

  She shook her head.

  I looked at the clock on the wall as the elevator closed. It read 11:30. Savoy Ranch was ten minutes away. I thanked her and left.

  I wasn’t sure how but I was going to save Lena, but I was going to. I also wasn’t sure how I was going to find Tommy, but I was going to do that, too.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  As I sat in Tommy’s Mustang, I wondered if Tommy had been back to the house. I also wondered if he had tried to contact me. He must have. I had been so caught up in all this crap, and I hadn’t been around to see him. Well, I still needed to do one more thing and, to be honest I had no idea if I would make it out of this alive.

  We’ll find out soon enough, I thought.

  I headed to the ranch. The ranch was tucked away in the canyon right before you head up the highway for the mountains. It’s a popular spot for hikers and campers...and apparently, vampires.

  Tommy and I used to train up there, which is how I know about it since I’m not exactly the outdoorsy type. It was, admittedly, beautiful up there. Well, tonight there wasn’t going to be much beauty up there. Tonight was going to be anything but beautiful.

  The Mustang bounded around hairpin turns and straight cliffs, as I drove wildly, recklessly. A few miles from the ranch, I turned off my lights. I wasn’t sure how acute a vampire’s hearing was, but I didn’t want to announce my arrival in a blaze of headlights, either. Using the moon as my sole source of light, I followed the slightly glowing road all the way to the Ranch, the Mustang taking the tight turns like a race car.

  As I rounded the final bend, at exactly 11:50 p.m., I saw a flickering glow toward the back of the ranch. A bonfire. Surrounding the fire were four black-clad figures. No, there was a fifth, too. Someone dressed in a white gown. Lena.

  It was now or never. I had no plan, other than to fight. Hell, that’s all I was good for anyway. I had a feeling that I was born for this moment. I may not be a vampire, but I sure as hell knew how to defeat an opponent, dead or undead.

  On a whim, I opened Tommy’s glove compartment and could hardly believe my good luck. There was a long, rusty railroad spike inside. What he was doing with it, I didn’t know, but I had my suspicions. The spike made for a perfect stake. Granted, it wasn’t silver, but it would have to do.

  I shoved the spike in my front pocket, took a deep breath, and stepped hard on the gas. Tommy’s Mustang responded wonderfully. The tires spun, rumbling loudly, no doubt kicking up lots of loose rocks and shredding rubber.

  And I shot forward in the car like it was a rocket.

  The pinpoint of fire that had been the bonfire grew rapidly in my windshield. Soon the fire and all five figures filled the glass, and I turned the wheel hard, tires screeching recklessly over loose dirt. Had the Mustang not been so low to the ground I might have flipped it. I jumped out of the car. Breathing hard, my mind was on the railroad spike in my front pocket.

  Atticai, mouth open and as tall and gaunt as ever, just stared at me. “You’re alive?”

  “Surprise, motherfucker!”

  He nodded slightly and cocked his head. “I guess the evil has arrived.”

  “The only evil is you, Atticai.” I looked at Lena, and she looked scared. She looked, if anything, as if she was having second thoughts about this, her compliance in her own demise.

  “Lena, you don’t want to do this,” I implored.

  Wyatt stepped forward. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing, Josiah? This isn’t about us. This isn’t even about Lena. This is about—”

  “I know what this is about, Wyatt: killing Lena so that Atticai can become some super vampire to defeat the Carni and the fallen Mani. Yada-yada. And they all lived happily ever, except Lena.”

  Atticai crossed his long arms over his narrow chest. “Oh my, I see someone was given a lesson in Mani prophecy. And since it’s not the Reader’s Digest version that we give to Lena, that can only mean....” He turned to another black-clad figure, the smallest of the four. “Was he worth it, Yari?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Atticai,” she said.

  “You know exactly what I’m talking about, kid,” he said. “Don’t you think that I know you’ve fallen for Josiah? Don’t you think that I know the only way Josiah’s even alive tonight is because you saved him from the snakes?”

  “It’s not true, Atticai.”

  “Oh, it is true, but what I don’t understand is how the Triat has allowed it to happen?”

  “You’re wrong, Atticai. He saved himself. He deserves your mercy.” Yari was grasping at straws.

  “My mercy? A Tandra who refused a chance to become a Mani deserves my mercy? What the hell had got into you?”

  “Please, Atticai, consider it.”

  Wyatt snapped open his cell phone and looked at the glowing faceplate.
“It’s almost time,” he said.

  Atticai nodded. “But first things first.”

  He grabbed Lena. Although she didn’t make a sound, the confident girl I had seen just hours before was long gone. She looked terrified. I wondered if Atticai had her under some spell, the same type of spell he had placed on the snakes.

  Wyatt and Hector stepped in front of them, forming a wall between them and me. Atticai walked behind Lena and looked at his watch on his left hand. “Ten seconds,” he said.

  Lena looked terrified. I didn’t blame her. Shit, she was surrounded by vampires, and her death was just seconds away. She suddenly began to struggle, the will to live in her strong and true.

  I did the only thing I could think of. I removed the iron spike from my pocket and ran at them. Wyatt jumped up into the air, Karate Kid-like, and kicked me full in the face. Motherfucker, I hadn’t expected that. Not the face! Now I was furious. Actually, I hadn’t expected him to be that fast.

  On the ground, I snapped my head around and watched as Atticai opened his mouth. Moonlight reflected off his elongated canines. He looked at me, smiled, and bit into Lena’s neck.

  I jumped up and summoned all my fighting instincts. This was, after all, going to be the fight of my life. And Lena’s.

  Wyatt came at me again. He tried the exact same move but I ducked beneath his kick, grabbed his leg and yanked him down to the ground. I punched him as hard as I could in the face. The blow rocked him enough that I jumped up and turned my attention to Hector, who was coming at me from the other direction. He hit me hard, so hard that I flew backwards and into something solid. A tree trunk. Air burst from my lungs as I sank to the ground. Good God, I felt as if I had been hit by a car. Oh God, my back. Not yet healed from the baseball bat injury, my back was on fire again.

  And before I could fully clear my head and see through the bright lights that had burst just behind my eyelids, two powerful ravens—Wyatt and Hector, I assumed—grabbed me in their massive talons and flew me up into the air. Once again, I found myself dangling from flying creatures. Being lifted up above the treetops had a definite way of clearing one’s head. Far below, in a small glow of fire, I could see three people standing. Atticai had his face pressed into Lena’s neck, and Yari stood nearby—on guard, I presumed.

  This time I was certain they were going to drop me—and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. I had failed to save Lena; in fact, I couldn’t even save myself.

  But instead of immediately dropping me, they flew up, up. Now, Savoy Ranch was far below. They were going to drop me from hundreds of feet up, making damn well sure I was smashed to smithereens.

  But they surprised me again, they circled back over a cliff’s edge, where they promptly landed, dropping me. What the hell? Both transitioned back into Mani and faced me. I knew then that they were both going to give me a thorough beating first, just like the undead scum they were. Mani bullies, really. No doubt they planned to drink from me first, too, and get a late-night snack squeezed in. After all, why let a good meal go to waste? Only then would they toss me off the cliff, dead and bloodless, to disappear in a broken heap of skin and bones.

  Well, I wasn’t going down without a fight.

  I charged forward, heaving my right hand at Hector’s face as hard as I could, while simultaneously kicking Wyatt with my left leg. It was an advanced move. Not something they teach you in MMA, since you don’t fight two guys at once. I had learned this one from Tommy. Anyway, the leverage I generated by hitting Hector transferred through me and gave my kick an amazing amount of force, a kick that landed square in the center of Wyatt’s chest. To my own surprise, the Mani tumbled off the cliff. I had no doubt he would transition back into a raven before hitting bottom. I would have looked for myself but, Hector had already jumped on top of me.

  Good God, he was incredibly strong. Before I could grab the bastard, I felt his teeth sink deep into my neck. The pain was so intense, I dropped to my knees. The bite had an odd effect. Almost immediately, it sapped my strength. I reached weakly for Hector, my hand futilely slapping and grabbing at him. He sank his teeth even deeper, tearing at my neck. Good God, I heard him drinking from my neck, sucking on me like a monster.

  Black encroached from the edges of my vision. I had been knocked out enough to know that I was about to pass out. And that’s when someone—or something—tackled Hector off of me. Both bodies fell off the cliff. I shook my head and grabbed my damaged neck. I crawled to the lip of the cliff and, bleeding and lightheaded, looked down.

  It had been Yari, once again saving me. I looked down and watched as both Yari and Hector transitioned before reaching the ground. It was like watching two dog-fighting WWII aircraft, tumbling and battling, wings tangled. Raven and Hawk clawed at each other, all the way to the ground. Once on the ground, both transformed back to their Mani selves, and the fighting continued, only this time Wyatt joined in. Sweet Jesus, they were beating the crap out of Yari. Sure, she got some punches in, but two Mani were clearly stronger and more powerful than one.

  Atticai was still sucking on Lena’s’ neck. Now I could see her fighting him, struggling. If ever someone had made a poor decision—Well, she wasn’t the only one who had made a poor decision. Who was currently sitting high atop a cliff at night, only moments from two vampires returning and finishing their job?

  And the one person who had saved me and had my back was currently being pinned to the ground by Wyatt. From high above, I watched in horror as Hector removed something gleaming. Even from up here, I could see what it was.

  A silver stake.

  They were going to kill Yari. And Atticai was going to kill Lena, and any minute now they would return and kill me, too.

  Good job, hero, I thought.

  But there was nothing I could do. I was stuck up here. If I jumped, I would surely die. There is no way I could survive that fall.

  But as I looked down over the cliff, something amazing happened. Simultaneously, both Yari and Lena yelled, “Josiah!”

  That was all I needed to hear to know my fate.

  Chapter Thirty

  I stared, stunned. But I didn’t know what to do. But suddenly—amazingly—I wasn’t weak anymore. In fact, I felt incredibly strong. But they were still so far below. What could I do? Still, my body felt suddenly indestructible, stronger than I had ever felt before. I had never taken steroids, but I imagined this is what they felt like—times ten.

  I stood up. I felt ten feet tall. I looked down...and without thinking, I jumped.

  And I didn’t just jump. I dove headfirst, as if from a high diving board. As I fell, I stretched my hands and felt the wind thunder over me. I knew I was going to die. I had to die. What was I thinking? I wasn’t thinking. It had almost been instinct to jump. But an instinct bore from what? But it didn’t matter. I had jumped. I had just done it without thinking twice.

  Too late now. Too late to even care.

  But what a way to go!

  I plummeted down. The wind whipped my clothes and hair crazily. My body felt unbelievably strong. I almost felt as if I could fly. Probably everyone who jumps thinks this. Perhaps this is the last thought all jumpers have before they hit bottom:

  That they could fly.

  But I did feel as if I could fly. In fact, I was suddenly certain I could fly. Of course, I was certain. I had no other hope to hang onto. I was about to get dashed across the rocky bottom and who wouldn’t wish they could fly?

  And that’s when something amazing happened.

  I stopped picking up speed. In fact, it felt almost as if I was slowing.

  Maybe that was part of death, too. Everything slowing down, right before I hit bottom.

  But I didn’t hit bottom. In fact, I was slowing down even more.

  What the hell?

  I looked at my arms, and that’s when I received the shock of my life. My arms weren’t arms. My arms were wings. Beautiful white wings. I instinctively angled my arms—or wings—and I swooped up, just missing t
he ground and the shocked faces below. I made my way up into the sky again. I yelled out, and an eagle-like screech echoed along the canyon walls.

  Somehow, I had transitioned. Somehow, I had turned into...the white eagle.

  Lena!

  I looked down, and my eyesight was amazing. I could see all the details below. Lena was still in Atticai’s arms. Her head was forward. He was fastened to her neck like a goddamn sucker fish. He was drinking deeply, his throat working, swallowing her life force. A deep bruise had formed around her neck where he was sucking her blood, sucking and sucking...

  I angled my wings, tucking them in, and dove down.

  I shot through the night, going faster than I had ever gone in my life. It was exhilarating. Atticai never saw me coming. Someone—Wyatt, I think—shouted to his vampire leader, but it was too late.

  I slammed hard into Atticai, piercing his neck with my great, hooked beak. The force of the impact was great. Atticai was thrown to the side, spinning through the air. My beak, I saw, had gone in one side of his neck and out the other. Just as Yari had said to do.

  Atticai rolled across the dirt, and I rolled with him, tucking in my wings. We were still deeply attached. Finally, we stopped and he opened his mouth, gasping. His terrified, confused eyes fell on me. And they widened even more as he realized what he was seeing...a white eagle. His mouth worked. Blood poured out of his nose and mouth, dripping over my own beak.

  “I don’t understand,” he whispered, unable to find his voice.

  I considered killing him. I considered watching the bastard die, but he had spared me once—although it had been a half-assed gesture. Still, I decided to return the favor.

  Except, I didn’t know how to transition back. What was I supposed to do? And suddenly, within seconds, I found myself—my normal self—lying next to a bleeding Atticai. Apparently, just wanting to transition back was all that was necessary to switch back and forth.