Hero Rising Read online

  “Sweetheart,” Lena said staring me straight between the eyes. “I know who you are. I know what makes you tick. All I want to do is for both of us to weigh the possible consequences of a new career as a superhero. It’s not just that you aren’t here enough as it is, but that you are risking your life once again. I thought you were done with all of that! It makes me so nervous when you are out…looking for trouble and throwing yourself in the middle of it.”

  “I’m helping people.”

  “You can say this is about saving people all you want. But I know you better than you think, Josiah Reign. You like to fight, and saving people is just a means to that end.”

  I gasped in shock. She was both very right and very wrong.

  “I know you, my husband. You want to spill blood and kick asses, that’s what this superhero thing is about. The vampire wars are over and you can’t fight in the MMA ring anymore because you are supernaturally strong and it is unfair to your opponents. But to fight is an addiction with you.”

  “It isn’t.”

  “You can lie to me, but don’t lie to yourself. You know as well as I do that you will do anything and say anything to have my permission to go out and kick bad guys’ asses. So stop lying to me and stop lying to yourself. I’ve seen you watch Fight Club over and over with Tommy. You guys have made that movie into your own personal religion.”

  “Ouch!” I said. “Is it okay if I want to help people and I like to fight? Is that what you want? A confession?”

  “At least you admit it.” Tears were next, I knew. Lena was getting really emotional. In fact, she was the super heroine of pitching a fit with reason and logic, as well as emotion. Not that she wasn’t partially right about how much I liked fighting, but she knew how to get her digs in and amp up the drama to turn an argument into getting her way. Now, tears were in her eyes and her voice was cracking. Did I know this woman or what?

  “Lena, honey,” I said calmly. I had no idea what to say next, but she did. A tear spilled from her eye. Oh crap, I was in trouble now.

  “No, Josiah! The thing that kept running through my head is that you can’t possibly continue to show your face in Tandra situations. Don’t you think that will be too dangerous?”

  “Yeah, maybe you’re right,” I said. I wanted this discussion to be over. And I would make it so in my usual way—I hugged Lena and gave her a gentle kiss. “Let’s not talk about it for now and let’s get those boys their pancakes.”

  Lena breathed easier, thinking she had won, which was my intent. She gave me a wink and said, “Let’s go do that. Together.”

  By the time we got down there, we were given quite the surprise. The boys decided to make their pancakes themselves. Luckily, they hadn’t got to the firing-up-the-stove phase. But there were bowls, pancake mix, flour, sugar, and hot sauce all over the place. They obviously got confused with the ingredients. We stopped them and told them ‘no.’

  Lena and I couldn’t stop the fact the picture that we were staring at in our kitchen was pretty damn funny. The boys benefited this time—I had a great sense of humor and Lena’s wasn’t too shabby either…

  “Hot sauce doesn’t go in pancakes, little guys,” Lena said.

  “Well, it goes in tortillas,” Jason said. “So we thought, they are the same shape.”

  “Oh, boys,” I said. “Hot sauce does not go with pancakes. Trust me.”

  So, the four of us cleaned the kitchen. We gave the boys specific duties, ones suitable for very little boys.

  When we finished, Lena and I made real pancakes with scrambled eggs and toast. The boys and I chowed down. Lena couldn’t eat regular food with us because she was more of a vampire feeder in her physiology. It was very seldom she would attempt to try and eat with the family. She usually ended up having the worst stomach pains and was flat on her back for 48 hours. So, Lena had her special “mommy” drink. That was what we called it so the boys wouldn’t ever try it out of curiosity. We sure as heck didn’t want them drinking blood. As far as they knew, the red juice was only for Mommy. Again, I counted my blessings that being half vampire and half mortal allowed me to eat regular food. Lena wasn’t so lucky. For whatever reason, the Triat made it impossible for her to survive without a daily flask of blood. We got it special ordered from the States.

  After breakfast, Lena took the boys upstairs and read them their favorite book. She read to them, beach style. They had snacks and got to lie on their beach towels and listen. Hey, we needed to compromise some things in our lifestyle as vampires. I decided that I was going to move forward with the whole superhero thing.

  And regardless of whether Lena was fully on board or not.

  Chapter Seven

  I knew in my heart of hearts there was more to be done by me and that it would take years of superhero adventures before I felt normal again. Saving people was as normal to me as fighting.

  I was a healthy twenty-something vampire whose abilities, to put it modestly, were the best in the world. I couldn’t be expected to rot on an island and not help those who needed it. I admitted to myself that I missed kicking the asses of bad guys. Oh, I missed it like crazy. Lena was right about that, but my true motives were the feel-good reward of triumphing over adversity and evil. It was in my emotional makeup that I needed to do this a lot.

  However, my family needed me, too. I knew that and that was why I made the decision to become a superhero. It was my reason for existence: to save those who could not save themselves. If only there was a way to balance it, where I could just do an assignment on a regular basis, but come back to my little family and retreat into being a husband and a father. I loved that, too. I wanted it all.

  I needed to talk to Tommy. This time I wanted to have a serious talk with him about what he thought. We were too busy watching videos of me on the Internet and reading articles to truly consider the fallout if I continued. I knew what I wanted to do with these years. I just needed more validation and my wife loved me too much to give me the okay because it would always be about my safety and the kids to her. And their security. If anything happened to me, well, it would not be a good existence for her and the boys. I had no idea if she would even stay on the island or who would run it. Atticai? He barely ran his own island and was more of an absentee landlord sometimes.

  I called Tommy on my cell. We actually got a great signal out here back to the States.

  “Hey, bro, it’s me,” I said.

  “Josiah Reign, the princess of Helena himself. Now, first-class superhero.”

  “Why, Tom? Why do you mock me?”

  “Because I love you. Why you being so sensitive? Isn’t Lena giving up enough rosebud these days?”

  “I get plenty of rosebuds, thank you very much, not that I kiss and tell. Tommy, I’ve got a confession to make. It’s excruciating just sitting here in a castle all day and being a sort of king of the Mani. Just kidding but you know what I mean. After this weekend, saving those people, I felt alive. I liked helping others. I can’t stand it around this island. I never knew that peace was going to be so boring—”

  “—says the man who lives an ivory-tower existence. Make it more fun!” Tommy said plainly. “Dude you are a super-freak with all the things you can do. Maybe you should start saving the world. You got a taste of what it feels like to help ordinary folks. It’s a noble task. God knows the messed-up world needs it. Needs you.”

  “What do you propose?” I asked.

  “Get the old lady to let you do little things like save a kitten from a tree type of bullshit and then work your way up to the kind of things that I know gets your blood boiling—like what happened to you this weekend with saving people from a fire. You know one of the guys asses you kicked went to a reporter on Yahoo and told him all about you unloading on him and his friends.”

  “They were douchebags that were trying to rob two guys who just came stumbling out of a bar.”

  “I know.”

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  “Because o
ne of the two guys also went to a reporter for the L.A. Times and told him you were helping them and those guys were robbing them.”

  “Uh-oh. Seriously?”

  “Dude, turn on your computer. Get your satellite TV going. You are more popular than the president right now. The guy who told the Yahoo reporter got arrested. Dude, the whole thing is comedy—the comedy of stupid criminals. It was classic. Josiah, you are big freaking deal, bro. You can’t stop now. You’re on a roll again!”

  “I need this, Tom,” I said. “I needed to hear you say it.” I was loving everything I was hearing.

  “I know you do. You’re the Chosen One after all.”

  “Chosen? That title is long gone. I’m just a guy.”

  “What you are is a vampire superhero.”

  I laughed. I’d always felt like Superman, so maybe it was time to take that idea on more seriously. “No, I’m a vampire who happens to want to be a hero. Desperately. I can’t just sit here on my island getting rosebud from my wife and playing with my kids. I love that. I love them, but I miss who I really am inside, more every day.”

  “It doesn’t matter how you slice it, big guy. In my eyes, you can’t stop now. Go for it. No regrets, right, bro?”

  “Right.” I paused and reflected on Tommy’s last few statements. “Thanks for the talk.”

  “Anytime, bro.”

  Chapter Eight

  After having a very helpful and inspiring talk with my best friend, I needed to talk with my newbie bestie, Sion. Sion was a certified genius and also, he was local. Tommy was my heart, but he was in California. Sion was here and he was my local sidekick with different attributes than Tommy. Sion had scored a 1600 on his SAT’s when he was nine years old. Those kinds of attributes. Sion could help me in this ordeal. A lot. Maybe he would be my Alfred, Watson or Robin or something. I was sure he had heard by now what had happened since he stayed glued to the Internet, TV, and all media. I was wondering what he thought.

  Sion lived down the path from my castle. He lived in a cottage that suited his needs as a single man. Sometimes, he spent time back in the States in California, especially in San Bernardino at his house there. He had spent the last two years building an amazing laboratory in the back of his home in San Bernardino. He often left the Island for weeks at a time and went back home. Come to think of it, he had island fever, too. So did almost every other Mani on this island. I didn’t realize that what we fought for back in the day was for the Mani people to have a timeshare on an island off the coast of New Zealand. It was almost as if they used the island as a resort. But not Lena. She always stayed. More than anyone did.

  So, I lobbied Sion with a call to get his opinion on things. He told me he loved the superhero idea and that he would get to work on some cool gadgets I could use. I grinned as Batman’s tool belt came to mind. Sion went on and on how he thought how wonderful it was that I wasn’t going to sit back any longer and that I was going to start making a difference again. I have to admit Sion’s enthusiasm made me want to run out and do it that very night.

  Later that night, I decided it was time to have another major talk with Lena. She needed to hear my heart. My naked heart. She needed to see my passion. She needed to know that just like my calling before this that becoming a superhero was no longer a choice—this choice had been made for me, perhaps it was already in place before I was even born. I was starting to think that I was never going to be in charge of my own life.

  I found Lena sitting in one of our rooms upstairs, reading. She had put the boys to bed and was enjoying some alone time. She had her feet up and was wrapped in her favorite fluffy pink bathrobe and pink fuzzy slippers. She looked adorable.

  “Hey, babe,” I said as I peeked my head into her little room. She had made the room her getaway and I usually left her alone when she was in here because I knew it was her way of saying that she needed some space for the present moment. But tonight was different. I was in a bit of a selfish mood and wanted her thoughts on my future. “May I come in to the Batgirl Cave?”

  She smiled. “Of course, sweetheart. What is it?”

  Lena was sitting in a nice, big, light-brown comfy lounge chair. All of the other chairs in the room were hard wooden ones. Being comfortable was the least of my worries. So I grabbed one of the wooden chairs and sat my chair right in front of my beautiful wife.

  “What is it, Josiah?” Lena said.

  “I just want to run an idea past you and see what you think.”

  “Just an idea?”

  “Well, it’s an idea that I’m certain I want to do.”

  “Why don’t you just tell me what you’re talking about and we can go from there?”

  “It’s what I talked with you about before and our conversation started to take a bad turn and we kind of left things hanging. So, I am re-starting that dialogue in the most humble way I can. I want to help out, Lena.”

  “Around the castle?” Lena said in a snarky voice. She was obviously avoiding what I was truly meaning to discuss.

  “I want to help the world. Just like I did this last weekend.”

  “In what way?” she asked, even though she already knew.

  “In my way. The best way I know how.” I was eager to get started and I needed her ultimate blessing.

  “Kicking ass and leaving the police to clean up your mess? You know, that’s what the police are saying.”

  “The police?”

  “Yes, this is serious. They are saying that you are making their job harder.”

  “Well, I would have to disagree with every part of that statement. Now, tell me how I made things worse by saving all those Tandra from a burning building.”

  Lena paused.

  “Under the right circumstances, I’m a pretty good peace maker. You know this, sweetheart.”

  “I’m confused about what you’re asking of me.” Lena was sounding more and more not on board with my plan.

  “It’s a little like I’ll be a modern-day superhero.”

  “A superhero? You are still aware that you’re mortal, and at any time, you could be killed. We have already talked about this. I need you and the boys need you.”

  “You know me, Lena. You know nothing can touch me when it comes to Tandra.”

  “All a human has to do is shoot you with a gun or stab you with a knife. If that happened, it would be the end of everything for more than just you. Do you even think that if something happened to you that there wouldn’t be some sort of a political power struggle on this island, and that the boys and I would be out on our ear?”

  “That is not going to happen and I have a will and a trust set up for the boys and you. Sion has a copy.”

  “Oh. I’m glad.” She looked stunned. “I hope I never have to see it.”

  “I’m too fast, too smart, and too experienced to allow anything foolish to happen to me. Guns, knives, fists, I’ve seen them all. I’m sorry, but I’m just not worried about that. I’m better, quicker, and more passionate about seeing the good guys come out on top.”

  Lena looked at me and could tell by my enthusiasm that this was something I wanted to do. It was something I needed to do. At the end of the day, I wasn’t going to lose my marriage over it. We would have a conflict, but she would give in, and I would go on to do what I needed and wanted to do. I was just desperately yearning for her blessing. I might not ever get it. But I had to try.

  Lena paused. She looked me deep into my eyes and smiled. “You are such a good man. This is why I love you. I don’t want you to feel trapped here. Obviously, you can’t give up this idea and it is draining you to have something you want so desperately, and me getting in your way. So, if your heart’s dearest desire is really to help others, then I want you to reach for the stars.” Lena smiled and rubbed my cheeks lovingly.

  “Oh, Lena. Thank you.”

  “You keep asking me the same thing. What do you need from me in order to do this?”

  “Your blessing,” I admitted.

  “You have
it, on one condition. Don’t take on the world. Just find out who needs help, get in and get out. Fast.”

  I smiled at my wife and leaned over into her comfy chair and gave her as passionate a kiss as I could, due to the weird way I was standing. I think at one point I had my right foot in the air.

  “I love you, Josiah. If you are this hell-bent on it, just please promise me you will keep safe and that you will always come back to me. That’s all I ask. Live, Josiah. Live.”

  “I will. I promise.”

  Chapter Nine

  The next evening, I went to see Sion at his cottage. He was outside on the porch overlooking the ocean, and the half-moon shone over the water. It was beautiful. Up in the castle, I had a great view of the ocean and the town, but down here on the waterfront, I could hear the waves coming in and out. I breathed in the salty air.

  “Hey, Josiah,” Sion said when he saw me come up to the patio. “Good to see you.”

  I took a seat across from my friend. “How’s it going, Sion?”

  “Pretty good,” he said with a smile. Sion pushed his large, thick black-framed glasses up his nose. His glasses were so heavy that he was constantly pushing them up. He looked nerdy with those glasses but he was my nerd and we were tight.

  “What brings you down here from Rapunzel’s tower room?” Sion asked casually.

  I laughed. “She lets me out occasionally. But, I wanted to talk to you. Ever since what happened in San Bernardino,” I said, “I need to know what my next move is. I figured you’d be the guy who could give me the best sound advice, because you don’t base your decisions on emotions.”

  I was still getting used to the fact of what I was becoming: a superhero. This is going to be a lot of responsibility I was up for the challenge, but everything I been through the last few years had taught me that this new venture was going to be damn hard.