The Werewolf Whisperer Page 2

  “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 needed to avoid. This is all kind of knew to me.

  “Mistake or not, you fucked up. We’ll meet at 2:30 at Barners 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 at me back 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 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 pm. I had four and a half hours before this stupid fight. They wanted me to round up my Mani counterparts. Do 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 “ala kazam” and 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. This is what happens when I transition. 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 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 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 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 your speed and landing was a total bitch.

  I took off in the direction of Lena’s trailer park. I hope she is 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 do my clothes go when I transition? They were always back on my body. 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 she was not sure how to greet me. Quite frankly, I wasn’t sure how to greet her either.

  “You look pale,” she said.

  “So do you,” I replied.

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

  “That’s not my way.” 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.”

  “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.”

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

  “Yeah, that one’s a bitch, and the only way I can get out of that one 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 her floor. She was so much more beautiful than I remembered.

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

  “Just yours.” I laughed awkwardly.

  “I heard that once you drink blood, your stomach aches for more and your taste buds turn against human food.”

  “So, have you had human blood?”

  Lena’s fidgety movements made me concerned. I wanted answers to my serious questions. “Yes, I have,” she whispered under her breath.

  “Wow.” I said flabbergasted. “You didn’t waste any time.”

  “Don’t act so holier than thou, Josiah. You’ll get a craving and when it hits, you will have very few choices.”

  “Who was it?” I probed.

  “Remember our little frat buddies?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Let’s just say Ron’s fat ass had enough blood for four Mani.”

  “Did you kill him?”

  “I let him live. “

  “Aren’t you afraid he’ll say something to someone?”

  “You do know we have a thing called mind control? The weak Tandra are receptive to it. It actually saves their lives. Otherwise, I would have killed him because he knew too much.”

  “So mind control is true?”

  “Some of us have it, and some of us don’t. We are all given gifts from the Triat. It’s up to us to figure out what they are. Some are prophets, some can heal, some can control minds, and some can read minds. Atticai was able to read minds. That’s why he liked you.” Lena paused. A longing in her eyes made it clear that she wasn’t over Atticai.

  “Where do you think he went? Do you think I killed him?”

  “I don’t know Josiah; you pierced his neck real good. Just like humans, none of us are entirely sure what happens to Mani when they die.”

  “So no one knows where they go when they disappear?” I asked.

  “There are rumors the same way there are with mortals. There are tales of an afterlife: Mani given a second chance, a rebirth, even a chance at being mortal again. But there are not enough facts about it. No one really knows what happens for sure.”

  “So, when a vampire dies, they just disappear?”

  “Yes. Otherwise there would be dead vampires everywhere. By now humans would have had a field day on the autopsies.”

  “Is that what happened to Tommy. Is that what happens to the Carni?”

  “Actually, no. The Carni are as close to humans as you can get. Mani history goes back as far as 10,000 years ago. While Carni history is 500 years young.”

  “How’s that?” I had been under the impression that werewolves and vampires were manifested at the same time.

  “Mani believe that Carni are an inferior species. Werewolves believe in a lot of myth and untruths.”

  “Why do they do that?”

  “It’s a way to justify giant mistakes they have made so they can be at peace with it.” Lena’s soft voice filled the room. I could see her desperately trying to answer my questions when she had questions of her own.

  “I know about wanting to feel a sense of peace. For two weeks I’ve tried to find my inner peace.”

  Her lips twitched into a semi-smile. I listened and she continued. “The blurring lines of truths and fiction have forced them to live so far outside the Triat’s will. Mani believe that Carni have forgotten what their purpose is and they are no better than savages.”

  “Purpose… I’ve been trying to figure that one out for two weeks. What is our purpose, Lena?”

  Well, you were chosen by the Triat even before you were a Mani. Josiah, there is something greater out there – something amazing.

  “What was amazing was my other life; my human life.”

  “Yeah but think about it this way, we are wiser than the average living species. We have a window to the world. People live and then die, and in the course of living, they know nothing. Perfect ignorant bliss.” She smiled at me.

  “You have a way of making this sound . . . almost glamorous.”

  “Maybe it is glamorous Josiah. You’ve been given a gift. Don’t turn your back on the possibilities.

  “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Of course.”

  I needed to know more about werewolves, and unfortunately, I needed to know about them fast. “Do Carni become stronger once they are turned from Tandra to Carni?”

  Lena thought for a moment. “Not like the Mani,” she said. “They might get a tad stronger and quicker, but nothing close to what occurs in a Mani’s body after its transformation.

  “Mani become much stronger?” I asked.

  “Put it this way Josiah, I could barely hurt a mouse when I was mortal. The other night I was holding that frat boy Ronnie down like he was a kindergartner.”

  I laughed. “So, I basically turned you into a bad ass.”

  Lena shook her head at me. “Yeah you did Josiah Reign, and never forget that.” Lena then smiled brightly at me. It was the first time in a long time I had seen her smile like that. She was radiant. She had little dimples and frankly, my heart melted.

  “So what happens when they turn into a full blown werewolf?” I asked.

  Lena’s smile turned serious. “When a Carni turns into a werewolf it can hold its own against a Mani. Most of the time they are stronger. But Mani can fight with cognitive thought. While werewolves are like wild lions that just want to tear through their prey. There’s not much thought to it.”

  “What about the full moon? Is that a myth, or is it real?”

  “Oh it’s real. Too real. It is then, and only then, they turn from Carni to werewolf.”

  “So your everyday Carni, walking around is just slightly stronger than a human?”

  “Yup.” Lena stared at me with wonder. “Why are you asking so many questions?”

  “One more question,” I said. “Why would any Carni ever fight a Mani in a one on one fight?”

  “Oh, they do when it’s a full moon.”

  I looked up in the sky. It was a half moon. Why the hell would the bartender want to fight me if he knew I was a Mani and would be stronger? He must have thought, he could easily take me. I was still getting zero respect. I guessed being anointed the ‘Chosen One’ didn’t mean I was looked at as a bad ass.

  “What’s going on Josiah? Why are you asking so many questions about the Carni?”

  “Tommy disappeared from the hospital, so I’m thinking he is still alive. If he is, I need to find him.”

  “He is alive, Josiah.”

  I nearly fell to the ground. “What? He is? How do you know?”

  “Some have seen him.”

  “Where is he?”

  “No one knows where he stays, but he is definitely still alive.”

  I had a growing excitement spreading through my body. If anyone could tell me how to defeat a Carni, it would be Tommy. The problem was I had no idea where he was staying either. He was obviously hiding out for his safety.

  Lena could see my wheels turning in my head. “What is it Josiah? What’s going on?”

  “I have a scheduled fight tonight with a Carni.”

  Lena’s mouth literally opened and her eyes stared at me hard. After a second of glaring she asked, “Where?”

  “Some Ranch in Anaheim Hills.”

  “You’re joking?”

  “I wish I was. I hadn’t even been out in public for an hour and one of those assholes picked a fight with me. Why would he fight me? It’s not a full moon.”

  “Because Carni are arrogant, Josiah. It is why Tommy fought Atticai and got his ass kicked. Carni’s think they run the show. To them, we are just Gothic freaks who worship the devil.

  “We don’t worship the devil, do we?”

  “Of course not. But that is what the Carni has reduced us to in their heads. They can’t explain how we are a more advanced race, so they just say our abilities are given to us from the Underworld.”

  “Gothic freaks or not,” I said, “no one picks a fight with someone they know can kick their ass.”

  “That’s the thing, Josiah. They
don’t think you can kick their ass. It’s like they have a jock mentality. They can’t accept that the outcast freak-show can kick the captain of the football team’s ass.” Lena got up off the ground and sat next to me on the couch. “You know if you fight him, you cannot use any of your vampire powers as long as he’s not a werewolf?”

  “Vampire powers? I don’t have any vampire powers.”

  “You don’t know it, but you do. At this point, the only thing you need to worry about is not turning into the eagle. That will freak them out and they will probably think you’re Satan himself. If that happens it could get real ugly.”

  “Nice,” I said sarcastically. “I don’t even know how to fully control it. What if it happens by accident?”

  “Don’t let it, Josiah. You have powers and abilities that no Mani before you has ever had or ever will again. No one knows exactly what you’re capable of. You probably have every gift that has ever been bestowed on the Mani and ones we still don’t know about. So fight the guy straight up. Don’t do anything out of the ordinary.”

  “Let me ask you this,” I said. “Can I bite him?”

  “Yes, because trust me that’s what he’ll try to do to you. You can fight him anyway you want, you just can’t use what they call “magic.”

  “They seem to think I’m going to bring a sea of Mani with me to the ranch for back up.”

  “You can’t show up there alone. Because they don’t always play fair. They do have a strict rule of only fighting one on one. So you won’t have to worry about being jumped as long as you don’t use any of your special Mani abilities.”

  “Do I have to go? I have nothing to prove to those guys.”

  “Did one specific Carni challenge you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you accept?”

  “Yes.” I stated.

  “Then, guess what? You better go, or you will anger the Triat.”

  “I don’t even know what or who the Triat is.” I said defiantly. “Is it God, or Mother Nature, what is it?”

  “It’s all those things and more. It’s the balance. It’s the code we all live by.” Lena took my hand. “Josiah, you need to respect the Triat more than anything you have ever paid reverence to. If you listen, and open yourself up, the Triat will guide you. You need to ask for guidance.”