by H. T. Night
Tommy then did the unspeakable. With a mighty thrust, he rammed the metal rod all the way through the giant vampire’s neck. Then poof. The giant vampire disappeared.
Tommy had killed him.
I was absolutely sick to my stomach.
The crowd cheered and groaned. They weren’t sure whether to celebrate or be horrified. Most were horrified, but there was a part of the crowd that loved every minute of it; it was exactly what they paid for. They were the ones who were becoming increasingly louder and louder with their cheers.
Tommy looked up to Romero’s suite and stared at where Romero was sitting. He raised one finger up to show that he was one down and had six to go.
He sat on his hind end in the middle of the ring to catch his breath. Then he stood up to his feet as the crowd began chanting, “Tommy! Tommy! Tommy!”
“Tommy!” I yelled, in my head. “What the hell are you doing? You don’t have to kill them!”
Again, Tommy didn’t answer. He just shook his head in the ring, obviously shaking my voice out of his head. Something was going on. I looked at Romero and he seemed pleased. He had specifically told me in a previous conversation that killing was not part of the spectacle he liked to put on. But then again, it appeared that he had lied about everything when it comes to this place.
Romero motioned to one of his bodyguards to come over to him. The man walked over and Romero whispered something in his ear and the man left. I tried to read Romero’s lips and his mind but he was a trained Tandra. He thought and spoke only in Spanish. He knew I had the ability to read minds, and he was aware, one slip up, and he would show whatever ‘hand’ he was trying to hide from me. He and Tommy were up to something and as far as I could tell Tommy was on board for whatever reason.
“How soon will the next fight be?” I asked Romero. I purposely did not mention the fact Tommy had just killed his opponent.
“His fight will start as soon as the ring announcer gets to the microphone,” Romero said.
Chapter Twenty-seven
The ring announcer made his way back to the middle of the ring and simply said, “Sloth,” into the microphone.
The black double doors opened and a man who was in pretty good shape entered the arena. He was wearing some kind of Friar Tuck outfit, I guess to demonstrate that he was an ex-priest. As he walked in, he ripped off his outfit and threw it to the ground.
Tommy was sweating in the middle of the ring, but he had a lot left in his tank. I was waiting for Tommy to transition back to the werewolf, but he didn’t. It appeared he was planning on starting the fight in his Carni form. The unpredictability of his actions just kept on coming. Tommy reached down and picked up the stake with which he had killed Gluttony.
Was he just planning on killing this guy right out of the gate?
The second bell rang.
Tommy charged the priest, and the priest transitioned into a black raven, slipping through Tommy’s fingers. The raven flew to the other side of the ring and transitioned back to the priest.
Tommy again charged him and again the priest transitioned into the black raven and made his way to the opposite side.
I could tell this was annoying Tommy. Tommy hated when someone ran from him. The priest once again transitioned back to his Mani form.
I could see the wheels turning in Tommy’s head. Tommy had amazing instincts. He had a special rule that he lived by: If someone made a move or action more than twice, the likelihood of them trying it a third time was extremely high.
Tommy grinned at the Mani and charged him. The priest transitioned to the raven, but this time Tommy held back, and with lightning-fast reflexes, he caught the bird in midflight as he tried to fly past him.
In a panic, the priest transitioned back into his Mani form as Tommy had a hold of him. It didn’t matter that Tommy had reached down with his right hand and grabbed the metal stake and jammed it through the priest’s neck. He disappeared instantly.
Inside of five minutes, Tommy had now killed two Mani.
Tommy wasn’t a guy who craved the kill. In fact, killing was against his nature as much as it was mine. This was not like him. He was killing for a reason.
I turned to Romero. “What the hell is he doing? Why is he fighting to the death?”
Romero smiled. “What can I say? Our boy puts on a great show,” Romero laughed.
Now I was pissed off. Something was up. “Did you offer him money to kill?”
“Not even Tommy would be influenced by that, you know that, Josiah.”
“Why is he killing his opponents?”
“Shhh, Josiah. Quiet, here comes some eye candy for both of us to enjoy.”
I looked out into the crowd and the announcer was already in the middle of the ring. Tommy had a crazed look in his eye.
“Tommy! Talk to me! Why are you doing this?” I pleaded with him in my mind.
This time he answered. “I have to, Josiah. That’s all I can say!”
I turned my head, and Romero’s greedy ass was standing up watching the ring announcer. The announcer took the microphone and said in a solemn voice, “Lust.” It seemed the deaths were also affecting the announcer in a bad way.
What was going on? I needed to piece this together.
The black double doors burst open. One of the sexiest women I had ever seen stepped out. She was an Amazon. She was six-foot-two with legs that stretched on for days. She was dressed in white lingerie, if you could even call that skimpy outfit that. She was carrying a white whip that matched her revealing outfit. Her get-up made WWE divas look like nuns.
“How does she represent Lust as a fighter?” I said to Romero. “The only Lust that is going on is from the men in the crowd.”
“Don’t feel too bad for her, Josiah. She’s a notorious werewolf hunter. She killed over 50 werewolf men in the ring, and she loves doing it.”
This wasn’t good. I hoped Tommy wasn’t planning on killing the woman. Tommy transitioned into the gray wolf. The woman immediately transitioned into a beautiful red hawk. The crowd booed. They apparently wanted to gawk at her body a little longer.
I looked at the audience; no one had left. This was what they had paid for. They paid a half a million a seat to watch death. And that was exactly what Tommy and Romero were giving them. What was making Tommy go along with it? I had no idea.
The third bell rang. For about two minutes, the fight looked like a bizarre episode of Wild Kingdom. It was a red hawk fighting a giant gray wolf.
Apparently, she had a game plan and she was sticking to it. She was not going to let Tommy get a hold of her.
The crowd began to boo at a deafening level. Romero didn’t like that. It was as if Tommy was unsure about what he wanted to do. He wasn’t fighting back. The hawk would bolt into him like a spear and pull back. Tommy wasn’t doing much of anything except standing there.
Her pattern was blatantly obvious. Every 11.5 seconds, she bolted in. I could time it in my sleep. Tommy knew it, too. It was as if he was letting her get to him.
She finally gave up her strategy of strictly fighting as the red hawk. She transitioned into her womanly form, to the absolute delight of the crowd. You would have thought they were watching a mud-wrestling match in Buenos Aires, not that they had just witnessed two individuals being killed before their eyes.
Tommy remained as the wolf. They circled one another for about another minute. I knew Tommy could easily leap on her and take her out, he was reluctant. It was obvious that the killings were affecting him.
Even though Lust was only wearing a G-string, complete with a revealing bra and sexy nylons, the audience was craving more bloodshed. They began to boo once again.
Then Tommy said to me in my head, “I’m sorry, Josiah.”
He then leaped on top of her and mauled her like a cat tearing into a bird. But she wasn’t a bird. She was in her womanly form and it was extremely hard to watch.
She tried fighting back, but she was no match for Tommy. She laid there, almost
motionless. Tommy transitioned back to his Carni form and grabbed the stake that was still in the middle of the ring.
Then he did something that both surprised and disgusted me even more. He dragged the mangled Mani woman all the way up to the window in front of Romero’s suite. There was only a giant plate of glass separating Tommy and Romero. Tommy still had a hold of the woman, who was barely breathing.
“This is what you want to see?!” Tommy screamed at Romero. Tommy then whispered something in the woman’s ear and closed his eyes as if he said a prayer. Then he shoved the metal stake into her neck and she disappeared.
Tommy stood there staring through the window at Romero. I wasn’t sure what Romero was going to do. Then, he slowly stood up and began to clap, as did the crowd. It was the sickest display of affection I had ever seen a crowd give. Romero wanted a night to remember and Tommy was sure giving it to them.
Chapter Twenty-eight
I sat back in my chair, totally overwhelmed at what I was witnessing, the downward spiral of Tommy into the darkest emotional place I’d ever known him to inhabit. This was supposed to be a night of seven deadly sins, and the deadly part was as apparent as the sins themselves.
Tommy had three huge matches before I was supposed to step into the ring with him. He just took down Gluttony, Sloth, and Lust.
Next was “Greed.’ It should be an easier match. Romero made it sound like he offered an average fighter an insane amount of money to just get into the ring with Tommy. I guess the guy now knew what his life is worth because he would not leave this ring alive.
Tommy stood alone in the ring in his Carni form. I couldn’t communicate with him even if I wanted to. He needed to be the werewolf for us to be able to hear each other’s thoughts. I think he purposely was in his Carni form, so he wouldn’t have to hear an earful from me.
The fourth fight was taking longer to start, compared to the others. I looked at Romero and he was leaning back in his chair in a sea of his own blissful arrogance. I knew he and I weren’t going to have any kind of truthful conversation about what was happening in front of our eyes.
A feeling of uneasiness had now manifested inside of me. Something was going on and that was as obvious as Romero’s ego. Whatever Romero had worked out with Tommy had to be gigantic to have him kill his opponents. Romero had either offered something huge in return or was blackmailing Tommy.
“What’s taking this fight so long to start?” I asked Romero.
“That’s a good question.” Romero snapped his fingers and then whispered something into one of his bodyguard’s ears. His bodyguard then whispered something back to him.
Romero smiled and said something stern in Spanish in his bodyguard’s ear and he promptly left the room. Romero looked at me and gave me a business smile that men do when a situation isn’t good.
“What’s the problem?” I asked.
“Apparently, ‘Greed’ isn’t as greedy as we were hoping.”
“He backed out?”
“He’s trying to.”
“Well, think about it. Why wouldn’t he? He just witnessed Tommy kill three of his opponents. He’d be a fool to go out there.”
“A deal’s a deal,” Romero said, plainly, to me. “We already gave him part of the money just to show up. From what I hear he already sent it back to his family in Guatemala.”
“How are you going to convince him to fight?”
“Easily. We’ll kill his family if he doesn’t.”
“You have got to be kidding me!”
“It’s practical,” Romero said with no emotion.
“You would even kill the women?” I asked.
“It didn’t seem to stop your friend,” Romero smiled. “Why should it stop me?”
He was ruthless. This night was not going to end well, that was one thing I knew for sure. The feeling of death, and yes, even a little bit of fear had now taken over my body. Something was going on and I needed to find out.
I decided I better duck out of the suite and take a look around. “I need to prepare for my fight.” I stood up. “I don’t need to watch anymore.”
“It would probably be good if you sit and watch one more fight,” Romero said to me, like he was my father.
“I need to prepare,” I said.
“When does the great Josiah Reign ever prepare before a fight? I’ve been told that you have shown up seconds before your previous fights and won easily.”
“None of them could hold Tommy’s jock. Tommy is a world-class fighter and it’s going to be the fight of my life. He’s already beaten me in the ring once and I don’t plan on him doing it again.”
“He might have beaten you when you were mortals, there is no way he’s beating you now. Oh, you’ll be fine. You forget, Josiah, I’ve seen you fight. Tommy is a great fighter, as he has demonstrated tonight. But you are the greatest fighter I have ever seen. You’re the Muhammad Ali of the underworld,” Romero laughed.
He was trying to build me up, but I saw through it. I saw through his game, more than he knew. He was trying to keep me away from the ring area for whatever reason.
“I will need to get my head right, Romero, at some point. I’ll watch one more, but then I need a place to get settled before it’s my turn to enter the ring.”
I sat back down in my seat and looked out into the arena. Tommy stood in the middle of the ring. He was only wearing some ripped jeans and had no shirt on. His back was to us. It was as if he refused to look in Romero’s direction. The crowd loved him as they chanted his name repeatedly. I knew that was the only solace he was feeling at this moment. The killings were weighing heavily on him.
Then the announcer once again made his way to the middle of the ring. He grabbed the microphone. The announcer appeared to have seen enough. He looked pretty shaken up. He said in a deep voice, “Greed,” and stepped out of the ring.
The black double doors opened and a Mani man entered who looked to be about fifty years old. I recognized him, he used to own a Mexican food chain in the states called El Burrito. It went bankrupt a year back. No wonder he needed the money. He wasn’t a fighter. He was a failed businessman.
“This isn’t even close to being a fair fight!” I said to Romero. “Age alone, that guy can’t compete with an athlete such as Tommy.”
“You’d be surprised. That’s Manuel Vega. You recognize him from his humorous El Burrito commercials, but he was a golden gloves champion such as yourself in his youth.”
“That was at least 40 years ago. Tommy is in the prime of his life.”
“What can I say? You offer a man five million dollars and he grows a pair of balls.”
“Or if you threaten his family by gunpoint,” I said back to Romero. Romero just looked at me. He knew I was getting riled up. He was a smart guy and knew when to shut up, even though he was a billionaire.
This wasn’t going to be good. Tommy watched as the guy tentatively approached the stage. Then something else hit me, this guy wasn’t a Mani or a Carni. He was a human, a Tandra.
“You can’t do this, Romero!” I yelled.
“Why is that?”
“He’s not immortal, he’s only a man.”
“Wow, you’re good, Josiah. What are you, some kind of Las Vegas psychic?”
“This is inhuman,” I said.
“Well, then it’s good that Tommy is no longer human.”
“This is wrong. It’s against the Triat code. We can’t fight unwilling humans. You’re damning Tommy!”
“Don’t talk to me about your vampire voodoo, son. Tommy agreed to fight seven people tonight, regardless who they are underneath their skin. There was never talk about each one having to be immortal.”
This was not going to be good.
Tommy was smart. He was going to know quickly that this guy wasn’t a Carni or a Mani. The only chance he had was if he never transitioned to the werewolf. If he fought the guy only in his Carni form, he might be able to skate past the Triat by-laws.
Tommy turned tow
ard the Romero suite and shook his head at Romero. He knew this guy was mortal.
Thank God.
“Come on, Tommy,” I whispered, underneath my breath. “Whatever you do, don’t transition.”
Tommy reluctantly took a fighter’s stance, as did Manuel Vega. Here were two people fighting to the death and neither one of them wanted to fight each other, but for two completely different reasons. One didn’t want to kill, and the other didn’t want to be killed.
The fourth bell rang.
Manuel came at Tommy and with his right hand. jabbed Tommy’s chin. Tommy didn’t even try to move out of the way. Tommy purposely took the jab. The jab is used to set up a much harder punch. This man was a southpaw, meaning his power hand was his left.
Manuel continued to move around Tommy and soften him up by jabbing him in the face. Tommy stood in his way and just took each punch. Manuel was giving him the best he had. Then he unloaded a left hook that hit the side of Tommy’s face. Again, Tommy didn’t move out of the way. The left hook shook him up a bit, but didn’t knock him down. Manuel was giving the best he had and Tommy not only took each punch, he didn’t even try to get out of the way of them.
This was about to be a bloodbath. When a Carni or Mani dies, they disappear, end of story. If a human being dies, his remains will be left in the ring.
If a gory, bloody, punch fest that led to a fatality was what this crowd paid to see, then they were about to get their money’s worth. I, on the other hand, didn’t need to see any more. I closed my eyes, knowing this poor businessman’s destiny.
I leaned my head back and just listened to the cheers, moans and groans of the crowd. The sounds that were coming from inside the ring were brutal. The sounds of horror filled the arena. I refused to look into the ring. Instead, I opened my eyes and looked at the faces in the crowd. There were few cheers. People stood on their feet with blank, horrific looks on their faces. Still, no one would leave. I could only imagine what Tommy had to do. I didn’t want to know.
