J.R. Rain's Vampire for Hire World: Fire Warrior (Anthony Moon for Hire Book 1)

by H. T. Night

  FIRE WARRIOR

  by

  H.T. Night

  Anthony Moon for Hire #1

  Acclaim for H.T. Night:

  “Vampire Love Story is one fast moving story, with action and romance, that held my attention throughout.”

  —Piers Anthony, author of Split Infinity and Virtual Mode

  “Bad Blood is fast, hilarious and sexy...the coolest vampire since Kiefer Sutherland. The Mount Shasta setting is dreamy. The cult is deliciously creepy. And Spider is as sexy as they come. I was pressing the ereader’s ‘forward’ button so fast that I broke it. Let’s hope we hear more from Spider.”

  —H.P. Mallory, author of Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble and To Kill A Warlock

  “Vampire Love Story is a hip and timely vampire novel filled with real characters and some of the coolest vampires since The Lost Boys! You’re going to love Night’s completely original take on the supernatural.”

  —J.R. Rain, author of Moon Dance and The Body Departed

  “H.T. Night is a riveting storyteller, capturing the essence of the vampire genre.”

  —April M. Reign, author of The Turning and Dividing Destiny

  “Vampire Love Story is a passionate story that is told from a refreshing perspective. This book was a blast. Night invents a brand new world for the Vampire genre. Great Job!”

  —Summer Lee, author of Kindred Spirits and The Sword of Peter

  “Hero Rising is more fun than a Carnival Cruise. Or a carnival, for that matter.”

  —P.J. Day, author of King’s Blood and The Sunset Prophecy

  “Night is a true storyteller. Cody Greer is thoughtful and inspirational! I enjoyed the ride.”

  —Elaine Babich, author of You Never Called Me Princess and Relatively Normal

  Fire Warrior

  Published by Rain Press

  Copyright © 2018 by Rain Press

  All rights reserved.

  Ebook Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  (Fire Warrior is based on the characters created by J.R. Rain; the use of story situations and supporting characters from the “Vampire for Hire” universe is authorized by J.R Rain.)

  Dedication

  I dedicate this book to my brother, J.R. Rain, my mentor and best friend.

  Acknowledgments

  I would like to thank the following people for helping me get this book out. It takes a village. I would like to thank Lee Sheridan, Betty Dvarcus, Summer Lee, Eve Paludan, April Reign, Rhonda Plumhoff, Leslie Whitaker, Sarah Wales and Team Night.

  OTHER BOOKS BY H.T. NIGHT

  VAMPIRE LOVE STORY SERIES

  Vampire Love Story

  The Werewolf Whisperer

  Forever and Always

  Vampires vs. Werewolves

  One Love

  Divine Blood

  Sons of Josiah

  Love Conquers All

  Resurgence (coming soon)

  ENTWINED SERIES

  Werewolf Love Story

  The Rise of Kyro

  Loving Maya

  Werewolf Without a Cause

  Angel Love Story

  Werewolf Redemption (coming soon)

  SECRET GUARDIANS SERIES

  Hero Rising

  Hero Unbound

  Vampire Iscariot

  Vampire Silver

  Silver Slayer (coming soon)

  WINNING SARAH’S HEART SERIES

  Cody Greer

  Looking Good, Cody Greer

  Lovesick Quarterback

  A Very Cody Christmas

  Be My Valentine, Cody Greer

  Spring Love

  The Summer of Cody (coming soon)

  HEART OF A WITCH SERIES

  Witch to Choose

  A Witch’s Magic

  Witch Love Story

  Witch World (coming soon)

  LOVE STORIES

  The Fourth Sunrise

  Romeo and Juliet: A Vampire and Werewolf Love Story

  In the Name of Love

  Getting Yours

  Santa’s Love Story (coming soon)

  DEADLY DREAMS TRILOGY

  Controlled Chaos

  Massacre Revealed

  Saving Hunter (coming soon)

  VAMPIRE NATION SERIES

  Vampire Nation

  Vampires vs. Humans (coming soon)

  Humans Unite (coming soon)

  ANTHONY MOON FOR HIRE

  Fire Warrior

  On Fire (coming soon)

  WITH J.R. RAIN AND SCOTT NICHOLSON

  Bad Blood

  POETRY

  Everlasting Love

  Fire Warrior

  “Anthony knew he wasn’t like other kids. He also knew that he wasn’t like other people, in general. No one in his family was.” —Vampire Fire

  Chapter One

  Sweat drips from my face as I toss and turn, trying to wake up.

  I want to scream, but I understand I am sleeping and this will pass.

  This nightmare has become a regular occurrence ever since I discovered I could summon my Warrior buddy. The Fire Warrior. We share a thought-linked flame that allows our bodies to unite, switch, or do whatever is going on when we become one. Over the last five years, I’ve come to terms with the knowledge that he is as much a part of me as I am of him.

  Tonight’s nightmare takes me back to when I was thirteen. Kidnapped. I am a captive in the warehouse, and I’m talking to the Devil. That’s right! I said, the Devil. You know, Prince of Darkness, King of Hell, extremely bad dude.

  I can still hear the footsteps of my creepy math teacher above me on a catwalk as I wait for my doom. Yet, this horrific being with a three-headed dog comes to my rescue. Then he’s gone. That being is Satan himself. Wrapping my brain around the fact that the Devil decided to help me is a hard concept for my thirteen-year-old brain to grasp.

  What happened after that? Well, it’s a sick, twisted tale. I try my darnedest to forget, but my dreams—my nightmares—obsessively take me back again and again. My experiences with danger have not been your usual teen variety, but somehow, I am still alive. My dreams, however, like to paralyze me during a heavy, sweaty sleep because sleep is the one thing that can contain me.

  We all have to sleep.

  What does that say about me? What sort of darkness lurks inside me? I am a vessel for fallen spirits. Some I chose to have and others took me without warning.

  I am not your usual boy. Wait, I just turned eighteen. Man.

  Darkness has always fought the light in my heart, body and soul. When I say soul, that is when it becomes tricky. I am not a bad person. In actuality, the evil I have allowed in my life has always been backed by good intentions. It is that fact that gives me the nightmares. If I embrace the evil, then I will probably be freed from the turmoil that lurks in the depths of me.

  Instead, my dead father possessed me for a couple years. It was an odd way to go through my early teen years. It wasn’t that bad. I was never too close to my father when he was alive, and I found it comforting to know that, in death, he was there for me at all times. In my frontal lobe, no less. Now, he no longer possesses me and I’m pretty sure no one else does either.

  Once again, I wake up drenched and need to wake up and change out of my pajamas, or in my case, out of my basketball shorts and a t-shirt. I look at my phone on the charger and it’s 6:00 a.m.

  This is an important day, so I figure it is as good a time a
s any to face my day. This is not going to be a typical one. That’s for sure.

  My senior year at Alchemy School is about to begin.

  Chapter Two

  I’d nearly finished packing my bags for school when I heard a knock on my door.

  “Anthony,” my mom called out. “You up?”

  “Yeah, Mom.” It was seven o’clock in the morning and I had been up for over an hour. I had just been lying in bed, pondering my insane life. I scurried out of bed, walked to my bedroom door and opened it.

  My mom stood in my doorway looking as intimidating as always, though she was eight to nine inches shorter than me.

  Why should anyone be intimidated by this woman?

  For starters, she was one of the top private investigators in the world. Being a terrific private investigator might not seem that intimidating in the case of that Murder She Wrote old lady. But then again, that character didn’t kick the bad guys’ asses the way my mom could. I had seen it firsthand.

  My mom is a creature of the night. Or, at least, she mostly is. Not too many people knew of my mom’s super-paranormal secret and I probably shouldn’t speak of it to anyone, but...

  My mom is a vampire.

  That’s right. My mom. The woman who baked me cookies when I needed a pick-me-up and who tucked me in at night… a bonafide vampire, Samantha Moon. She had introduced me to a world that I thought only existed in nightmares.

  My mom had been given amazing abilities to counteract the downside of her vampirism. She wore two medallions-turned-rings given to her by the alchemist and Dean of Students, Archibald Maximus. With these rings, my mother had discovered loopholes in the restrictions of the paranormal world. The super-science and secret methods of alchemy had been used to transmute known metals and gems into something mystical and unique—the rings allowed her to walk in daylight and eat regular human food, among other things. Alchemy was spiritual, too, but those mysteries awaited my discovery when I became more advanced in my craft. I am pretty advanced for a senior, if not the most advanced alchemy senior of all time. The thing about alchemy is, you can always improve. The better you are at using it, the more powerful you become.

  I had learned from my mom that there were creatures in the paranormal world just waiting to pounce on the weak. My family had been given supernatural gifts and sometimes, my mother needed my help. Not because I was a vampire—I wasn’t a vampire… well, not anymore. When I was seven years old, she’d saved my life when I had almost died from a life-threatening illness. She’d briefly turned me into a vampire, a creature like herself, just so she could turn me into a human again. She had acquired a special alchemy medallion that had one power: turning an immortal back into a human. It was a treasure that she’d been saving for herself—to use at the right time and the right place—but instead, she’d used it on me to save my life.

  I thought that most mothers in her situation would have sacrificed anything to save their sons from dying. But not all mothers were honest-to-God, undead vampires. Not only had my mom saved me from death by turning me into a vampire, but her next act of love, using her special medallion to change me back to a healthy human, had saved me from a damned life as a vampire. In my mind, Mom was my real guardian angel. And she still baked insanely good cookies. Okay, okay, she burned them most of the time, but her heart was always in it.

  On this particular morning, my mom was wearing a white terrycloth robe with her worn-out light-blue slippers. “Almost packed?” Mom asked as I crammed my running socks into a suitcase.

  “Getting there,” I said.

  “You nervous about going back to school?”

  I laughed, making light of my mother’s question. That mocking attitude had never gone over well. Her glare of disapproval was a familiar one. “No, Mom. I’m over what happened last year.”

  She looked worried. “If you need anything, Anthony, please contact me. I know you and your Fire Warrior pal can take care of business. But remember, I’m here if anything ever overwhelms you. Let’s be honest, we don’t exactly live dull lives.”

  “I will, but didn’t you say you were going to use this year to get more traveling in?”

  My mother grinned. “Something like that.”

  She was being vague. For my sake, no less. She and I had stood by each other’s sides countless times over the past four to five years, fighting God-knew-what sorts of creatures. My mother tended to piss off all creatures, both the living and the dead. Not to mention the undead. Her specialty was protecting humans and in the process, she always seemed to be on the wrong side of some bad-ass supernatural entity.

  I finished the last of my packing. I usually packed light for trips, but this was no brief trip. I was packing until Thanksgiving, so I needed three fairly large suitcases. It was early October, so I was looking at six weeks.

  My mom said, “Let’s leave before morning traffic stacks up on the 91.”

  I nodded.

  I felt my mom probing at my skull with her mind, even though she knew she wasn’t able to hear my thoughts. My sister, on the other hand, could hear my thoughts when I wasn’t on top of that little mind reading skill she possessed. Most humans had no choice. I was a different type of human with abilities that were so weird, it was as if they had been created in the twisted brain of a comic book fan. I was strong and fast with some supernatural powers, but I was probably not immortal. Why? Because I keep aging. They call me an in-betweener. I had heard of a mysterious vampire group that was rising up where they call themselves hybrids. I was not one of them.

  My mom, an immortal vampire who was now staring intently at me, was trying to read my mind.

  “I feel you trying to weasel your way into my head and you can’t, Mom.” I grinned. We both knew I had won that little mind-off. “Just ask me what you want to know, instead of tinkering with my head. Trust me, there is stuff in there you do not want to see.”

  She smirked. “I’ve told you, son, it isn’t personal. I just feel that if I could make my way into your mind, it would make me more—”

  “Powerful,” I said, finishing her sentence. My mom was no bragger. She knew she constantly needed to evolve in all her abilities because that was what her enemies were doing.

  My mom smiled. “We leave in two-and-a-half hours.”

  “Got it. I’ll be ready after my run.” I smiled because I had enough time to run. I loved running—pounding the pavement and using my piston-like legs as transportation.

  “Fine. I’ll be in my room watching Judge Judy.”

  Chapter Three

  My mom left my room.

  I began to dress for my run through the city of Fullerton, where I presently lived with her and my sister. I stood there in my blue shorts, choosing what to wear. Today, my running outfit consisted of red running shorts, a white t-shirt and a black hooded sweatshirt. I went with the Santa-meets-the-Grim-Reaper look. Running outfits don’t necessarily have to match in my book. I noticed that certain individuals treat running as a fashion statement with their matching outfits. I put on whatever was clean.

  When I ran, I preferred to run very far, and at a very fast pace. Running was not my first love and to be honest, was quite monotonous at times. Although I preferred boxing as my go-to exercise, Jacky, my trainer back in the day, was getting old. It just wasn’t the same training without the cankerous old Irishman.

  I hadn’t boxed with the intention of going pro in over five years. I’d had to move on for both my sake and Jacky’s. We had been playing with fire by putting me in a ring with anyone in my weight class. Jacky had an edge about him, but at his core was kindness. He had been my trainer in those days, but he meant more to me than that. Jacky had known I needed a father figure after the death of my own father… and he had been there for me.

  My dad had died when I was very young. Even as a young boy, I’d known two things about my father: He wasn’t perfect, and he’d loved my sister and me with all his heart. My mom hadn’t seemed to shake off what they had for a variety
of reasons. All I knew was, I loved the man and had a longing to be with him in any capacity. After he died was when our bond became the strongest… if you could wrap your brain around that.

  I find running to be a nice second exercise and stress reliever. This morning’s run wouldn’t be my ideal time to jog. I usually ran in the early evening. Regardless what time of the day I jogged, a peace and tranquility came over me. There was something about the speed of running that helped to release my mind from all of the stuff that weighed me down.

  This would be my last run in Fullerton for the next couple of months.

  Most of my studies at the Alchemy Academy were actually a secret from the rest of society. The school was in session year-round and never had more than one hundred students at any given time. It was located in the city of Big Bear in the San Bernardino Mountains. The school year was structured like a normal high school.

  Because my car was in the driveway, totaled, I would have to find a ride to school from my mother. I knew a guy who could fix it, but I had to go to the Alchemy Academy for the next few weeks. So, the repair would have to wait. How had I totaled it? Let’s just say the rumor that Southern Californians don’t know how to drive in the rain has now been supported by one more casualty: my car.

  My experience of becoming immortal and then, back into a mortal within hours, had left me changed.

  Although I had only been immortal for mere hours and was completely turned from my vampire state, something stayed in me after the whole experience—I was left with superhuman strength and speed that was off the charts… and I had other unusual gifts, too.

  Once my mother realized I had these elevated abilities, she’d pulled me out of boxing and any other sport I wanted to try. I understood that it was the right thing to do, but it was very hard to handle. Fact was, I had an unfair advantage.