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  She walked over and disappeared into one of the cars and sat next to a blonde woman dressed in a black-hooded robe that semi-shielded her face. That had to be Maya! I jumped out of my car at the sight of her. I stood in front of my Mustang all by myself. On the other side of this gravel yard they called Flatlands were four cars filled with God knows what creatures and Maya. I was worried about Patrick, too, but he wasn’t my priority. I hoped he wouldn’t be my enemy in this fight, because I loved him. But Maya was my reason for existing. I was driven to ridiculous courage by my love for her.

  One by one, the car doors opened and people jumped out. I wasn’t sure if they were all Mani, but that question was soon answered for me.

  Monty, the main vampire from the other night, made his way to the middle of the group. I wasn’t sure who was in charge. I scanned the group and then I saw Patrick. Two Mani men had him pinned by his arms. Thank God, Patrick was alive! And obviously not on their team. Yet!

  I noticed that Maya was still in the car with a redheaded woman. Our eyes made contact. She appeared shaken up and worried. She pushed the hood back so that I could see it was her and not some creature.

  “Let her go,” I yelled. Someone laughed from the back. He made his way to the front and the asshole had green hair. He had obviously dyed it to look menacing, but he looked more like Kermit the Frog than an intimidating vampire.

  “Who are you?” I yelled out.

  “Me?” the green-haired man said. “Monty, I thought you said this strapping young man would make a great addition to our brotherhood?”

  Monty made room for the green-haired man to have center stage. “Trust me, he will,” Monty said.

  “How can I ask anyone to join my Brotherhood when he doesn’t even know who I am?”

  “Get over it, Kermie,” I said. “I’m not exactly keen to your world! It’s nothing personal. Why don’t you let Maya go; she has nothing to do with this.”

  “We plan on letting her go in due time, but first, you and I need to have a little chat.” This guy was extremely feminine. It was really throwing me off.

  “Just let her go. It’s not personal!” I insisted.

  “When you say that this isn’t personal, that’s where you’re wrong. This whole meeting is personal. We have your girl and your friend. If we didn’t make this personal, then we didn’t do our job.” He grinned evilly, his fangs exposed. I had the creeps. Big time. Fear prickled up and down my spine.

  If I wanted Maya back safely, I knew I needed to play ball with this guy. “What do want to chat about?” I asked.

  “You’re our number one draft pick. We’re here to make sure you sign with us.”

  “I don’t even know who you are!”

  “We’re the Notre Dame of the paranormal world. Everyone wants to sign with us. We’re the best.”

  “You have an interesting way of trying to persuade me, by kidnapping my girlfriend and taking my friend,” I said. “And you can’t convince me you aren’t evil by using football metaphors!” I yelled. “There’s a place in hell for guys like you, but you’re so evil, you can’t even get in there because the devil would be jealous!”

  “We do have a case of the dramatics, don’t we? But I guess it’s par for the course for a Theater Arts grad.” He turned around and laughed at his own joke with his Mani henchmen. The others saw him laughing and joined in. Yep, henchmen. Followers. I knew that if I brought Green Hair down, the others would be easier.

  “So, tell me exactly, what do you want from me?” I asked, looking over at Maya as I asked my question. In my mind, this wasn’t about him or me. This was only about keeping Maya safe.

  “We want you to join our Brotherhood!” the green-haired man said.

  I looked at everyone. “Is everyone here part of the Brotherhood?”

  “I’m not,” the super tall guy said. “I heard that you were some kind of stud and I came to see for myself.”

  “Nice,” I said. “Now that you see me, what do you think?”

  “I’m not impressed.”

  “Sorry, I don’t meet your approval, but then again, you’re built like a beanstalk, so what do you know?”

  This obviously pissed off the walking bean pole. He said, “Everyone that is not a Mani, you need to leave now!” They all looked at each other and didn’t move.

  Then the green-haired one said, “You heard him! All Tandra leave. Now!”

  “It’s good to know your group respects their elders,” the tall guy said. He was clearly disgusted that no one listened to him.

  “You know kids these days, Atticai. They have no respect.”

  “Well, they better learn some, or I’m going to start making my presence known to your people, Timo. You better get your crew together and get them on the right page.”

  Timo, the green-haired guy, looked worried. He obviously feared Atticai something fierce. He yelled, “You heard him! All humans leave! Except the girl. She stays.”

  “She better be staying or we have nothing to talk about,” I said.

  About three carloads of people took off out of the parking lot. There were only six Mani left standing, seven if you counted Patrick: Atticai, Timo, Monty, the two Mani holding Patrick, and the redheaded girl who was in the car with Maya.

  “Okay,” I said. “Let Maya out of the car. I want to make sure she’s unharmed. If you’ve turned her into a Mani, I don’t want her back.”

  Timo snapped his fingers and the car door opened. The redheaded woman walked out with Maya. She looked frightened to death.

  “So, do we have a deal?” Timo said. “Her life for yours?”

  “Not so fast, Timo. Let her go, and then we’ll talk,” I said.

  Timo continued to speak. This was obviously his deal and Atticai was just observing. He was apparently above Timo in whatever vampire hierarchy they had going on.

  Timo smiled with a devious smile of evil glee, one that looked through me, rather than at me. “We will let you two love birds get reunited when you agree to join us in the Brotherhood.”

  “So, if I do this, you will let her and Patrick go?”

  “Patrick?” Timo laughed. “No, Patrick is going to die. We thought that he could be your first task in the Brotherhood. You know, help kill our dead weight. He’s weak. It’ll be an easy initiation kill for you. Every member of the Brotherhood has an initiation kill.”

  “That isn’t going to happen, Greenie. There is no way I’m laying a finger on Patrick.”

  “Don’t tell me that this weakling Mani is going to be the deal breaker for releasing your squeeze?” Timo said, all giddy and clearly mocking me.

  “Say what you want, but that’s the only way I’ll do it,” I said.

  “You’re not going to let this half pint dictate the terms,” Atticai said to Timo, insulted.

  “Half pint?” I yelled at Atticai. “Everyone is a half pint to your freakish ass, you giant blight on dark creature society.”

  “You better watch your mouth.” Then Atticai walked toward me. I was ready to fight his stringy ass at a moment’s notice. Timo yelled at Atticai, “Please calm down. This isn’t about you.”

  “You’re damn right this isn’t about me, because if it was, this bearded idiot would be dead.” Atticai pointed his finger directly at me.

  I had obviously pissed him off. I glanced over at Maya and she looked absolutely petrified. “Maya, are you okay?” I yelled over to her.

  “I’m okay,” she answered back.

  “Have they hurt you? In any way?” My heart was jumping. If they had touched her...

  “No, not at all.” She knew what I meant.

  “Hurt her?” Timo said, shocked. “She received the spa treatment today.”

  “She better have. If I ever find out that any of you pigs laid a finger on her, there will be hell to pay!”

  “I know, I know,” Timo said, bored and antsy. “You’ll kick all our asses. Send us to Hades in a hand basket. Blah, blah, blah. Do we seriously need to play this melodramat
ic macho Tandra bullshit? Look, you in, or are you out?”

  “No one is going to hurt Patrick,” I repeated myself. “I mean it!”

  “Damn, you honestly fell for Patrick, didn’t you? Are you sure he isn’t the one you’re in love with?” Atticai laughed.

  “He’s my friend,” I said.

  “Hell, we all have friends,” Atticai said.

  “Maybe. I choose mine more carefully.”

  “Okay, that is really sweet,” Timo said, returning to the conversation. “But the deal that’s on the table isn’t Patrick. The only reason we kept him alive was for you to show loyalty to us by killing him.”

  “Well, then you underestimated my loyalty to my friends,” I said.

  “Are you for real, dude?” Timo looked like he was about to lose his mind with all of this negotiation.

  Suddenly I heard some commotion coming from down the street. I turned around and saw a giant white dually truck come flying up the gravel track. The guy in the truck was dragging an animal behind his truck by a chain. What the fuck was going on? I looked closely and that’s when I saw it wasn’t just any animal, it was a black werewolf. It was Sasha. She was all beaten down and mangled from being dragged on the road.

  “What the fuck?” I yelled. “What the hell are you guys doing? She had no quarrel with you!”

  “Don’t tell me you love werewolves, too?” Timo pleaded sarcastically, then looked at the remaining vampires and said, “This guy really isn’t cut out to be a Mani.”

  “Let the werewolf go!” I said. My heart was going full ramming speed now, and I tasted the blood of revenge in my own mouth as I bit my own lip.

  Timo had had enough. “You know what? I’m tired of this. You’re going to need to show some loyalty here.” He looked at the driver who was also a Mani and said, “Moses, let the wolf go. I want to see what kind of fighter this guy is.”

  “You want me to fight an injured werewolf?” I said, flabbergasted.

  “It’s not ideal, but I’m in the mood to kill a werewolf and this seems like the most fun. To make you do it while we watch.”

  I looked at everyone and all the Mani seemed highly entertained by the prospect of a human and werewolf tussle.

  “You’re crazy,” I said. “It’s not even a fair fight. You dragged her with a pickup truck.”

  “Just leveling the playing field by providing a handicap to your outmatched human frailty. Then you will win easily over the werewolf,” Timo said. “You will show some loyalty to us, or I’m going to kill you right now.” Timo controlled himself and then said, “You need to despise the very sight of these primitive creatures. Kill the werewolf! Kill the werewolf!”

  All of the Mani began to take up his chant.

  I looked over at poor Sasha and then I looked at Maya. She was shaking her head for me not to do it. Then I looked at Patrick, and he mouthed to me, “Don’t let her die, Tommy.”

  “All right,” I said over the chanting. “Let her go. I’ll kill her.”

  The chanting stopped.

  “Please don’t!” Maya yelled.

  “I have to! I’m sorry!” I took off my shirt. “Everyone back up,” I said. Moses took off the chain that was wrapped around Sasha’s neck. When the second the chain came off, Sasha tried to run to the woods. Whatever survival mechanism that was in a werewolf’s DNA was on overload right now because she knew she was in danger and did not want to stick around and fight me, for sport or for the Mani’s pleasure. She was in luck. Neither did I. Sasha turned tail, put it between her legs and ran.

  I ran after Sasha and jumped on top of her back before she made it to the woods. We rolled on the rocks and I landed on top of her, pinning her wolf head back so she wouldn’t take a chomp out of my face. I held her neck back tightly with both of my hands so she couldn’t lunge forward and bite my neck either.

  “Kill the beast!” Timo yelled out, laughing.

  Sasha took a swipe at my neck with her claws. That was definitely not the place I wanted her to get me, so I flipped her over and kicked her off me and she flew five feet in the air.

  “Yes, that’s what I’m talking about,” Timo yelled. “Hey, beard boy, you’re going to need this!” He threw me a silver stake from where he was standing. I caught the cold metal spike and dropped it on the ground. It was heavy like silver. It would kill her if I used it.

  Sasha and I were now squared off. I figured the best spot for her to bite me was my lower back. I had a lot of muscle back there and I would still be able to be flexible after she injured me by taking some of my flesh in her mouth. I jumped into her and turned my back, practically giving her my backside as an offering. She bit down into my lower back and from that moment, I blacked out.

  ***

  Later, I was told that this is what happened...

  Sasha bit down into my back and I dove off of her. She saw she had injured me and took off into the woods. She was able to get away. I was lying on the rocky ground and within seconds, hair protruded out of my body from every part of me. My body grew bigger in mass to the point that I ripped into my pants like some kind of Hulk.

  I turned to the Mani and howled at them at the top of my lungs. The redheaded girl and Atticai transitioned into their bird form and flew away, wanting no part of my rage. It was apparently not what they had signed up for.

  There were five Mani men left with Patrick and Maya. Maya ran to my car with Patrick. They locked the doors so I couldn’t get in. I hope I wouldn’t have harmed them, but I was a crazed werewolf in search of revenge against everything with two legs. At that point, I don’t think I could have figured out the good guys from the bad guys.

  The five Mani men surrounded me and began to transition, periodically spearing me with their raven beaks that they used like swords.

  I swiped Monty out of midair when he became a raven and he fell to the ground. I dove on top of him and bit through his neck, killing him instantly. He vanished into thin air.

  Two other Mani saw what I had done and transitioned and flew off, afraid. Apparently, Patrick wasn’t the only Mani who didn’t have the stomach for fighting.

  All that was left was Timo and Moses. Both deserved to die on this night.

  They decided that transitioning into ravens wasn’t the way to go. Timo ran over and grabbed the silver stake that he had thrown to me earlier. I flung my body at Moses. He apparently roundhoused me and caught me in the head. I rolled across the gravel and then he jumped on my back.

  I rolled and reversed him, so apparently, my MMA instincts were in effect, even when I was a transitioned werewolf. I bit down into his collarbone. I bit down strongly, crushing his bone.

  I was told that Timo came barreling from behind me and tried to stab the silver stake into my back. At the exact moment that he slammed the stake forward, I jumped off of Moses, who was below me and Timo accidentally speared Moses right into his neck with the silver stake. It went completely through his neck and Moses also disappeared.

  All that was left of the terrible Mani was Timo. Timo against a werewolf named Kyro. It was a mismatch, even if I was in my human form. But it had been a hell of an unfair fight, now that I was a werewolf.

  Timo still had the stake in his hand and we circled each other—periodically, he would lunge at me with the stake.

  One of those times, he lunged too far, and his arm was too vulnerable. I bit into it and snapped it like a twig. He cried out in pain, and then I jumped on top of him, and well... I wasn’t told exactly how I killed him. But I was told it was pretty gruesome.

  When I had finished off all of them, I ran into the woods, following Sasha’s tracks.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I woke up the next morning and I was in the middle of the bushes somewhere on the mountain.

  I looked down and I was in my human form. I was drenched from head to toe, and I needed to pee badly. I did my business and then walked out from the bushes. I was on the main highway on the mountain and across the street, I could see my Mustang.
Inside it, Maya and Patrick were sleeping. Maya was asleep on Patrick’s shoulder. Patrick rested with his head leaned back in the driver’s seat.

  I walked across the highway and went to the driver’s side and tapped the window. Startled, Patrick woke up and gently placed Maya’s head to the other side of the car and then he opened the door and climbed out. The sun had just come out and I could tell he was in immense pain from the heat and light of day.

  “Transition, Patrick, you’re frying your skin.”

  “I will. Just give me a second,” he said.

  “All right.”

  “Kyro, thank you.”

  “Don’t worry...”

  “No, dammit! Let me thank you. I’m going to go away, and I want to thank you for everything. You saved my life. A few times.”

  “Why are you leaving?”

  “I need to get away from here. I need to start over. I stayed with Maya all night and made sure she was safe. I owed both of you that.”

  “Don’t go, Patrick.”

  “I have to. This is no place for a vampire who wishes he wasn’t one. If it’s not the Brotherhood, it will be some other Mani wanting me dead. The Mani are strong in these parts and I need to go to a place where I can just live and not be who I am. Or what I am.”

  I looked at Patrick and I knew he was right. He wasn’t a fighter. You can’t make someone stand up and fight for himself. He was better off finding a new life. I reached out my arms and hugged him. “I want to thank you, Patrick.”

  “What could I have possibly done for you?”

  “You helped me get my life back. You showed me what’s important.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “Friendship.”

  Patrick nodded and then smiled at me. “Goodbye, Kyro.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “I don’t know. That’s the great part. I don’t know where I’m going. It could be anywhere. All I know is, it will be far away from here.” With that, Patrick transitioned into a beautiful black raven and flew high above the clouds until I couldn’t see him anymore.