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

by H. T. Night

  “Not much. No car.”

  “Well, I have my car. Would you like to head into town and see a movie or have dinner? Or do both?”

  “Are you asking me on a date?” I asked.

  Kat was quiet. Then she said hesitantly, “Maybe.”

  “A maybe date?” I asked.

  “Not a maybe date.”

  “Then what kind?”

  “A real date,” she said, shyly.

  “Then, of course, I want to come.” I paused. “So, should I pick you up from your dorm?”

  “Sure.” She giggled lightly.

  “I just want to say right at the top here that you might be driving, but I’m paying for the entire date. You can have whatever you want. Six boxes of Milk Duds at the movie theater. Four steaks at dinner. I don’t care.”

  “You can drive my car if that would that make you feel better. If that helps.”

  I couldn’t tell if she was serious or making fun of me. So, I decided to answer her question. “Truth is, I don’t have to drive, but if you’re offering, it might be fun to take your car for a spin.”

  “I’m not sure what a spin entails, but you can drive us to the movies. Pick me up at eight.”

  “See you then.”

  We both hung up.

  Chapter Fifteen

  I walked into the women’s dorms that were across a grass area that separated the two sides. I had visited Kat in her dorm room a couple of times over the past week. I walked up to the door and knocked. Her roommate was a girl in her second year named Judy.

  Judy answered the door and said, “Could you hold on? She is almost ready.”

  “Okay,” I replied.

  Then Judy shut the door.

  I waited in the hallway. I decided to put some more spearmint chewing gum in my mouth. I always had a full pack of spearmint gum on hand when seeing Kat. Tonight, I might need a harsh combination for my breath if dinner was intense. I had backup Altoids for such an event.

  I wore my nicest white button-down shirt with black jeans. I had on a pair of black leather shoes and was wearing my black leather jacket.

  In about four minutes, Judy opened the door wide and said, “Come in.”

  I walked in and Katherine was standing in the middle of her dorm wearing a black dinner dress and heels. She was wearing more makeup than normal and she couldn’t have been more beautiful.

  “Wow,” I said. My words tumbled out of my mouth. “You look incredible.”

  “Do I clean up well?” she asked in her sweet voice.

  “I would say so.” I was speechless and Katherine could see it on my face.

  “You look quite handsome, yourself, Anthony Moon. I never saw you wear that jacket before. It looks nice on you.”

  I smiled. “I never had any reason to wear a jacket out here until tonight.” Katherine and I were just standing there, staring at one another. “Your dress looks incredible,” I said.

  “Thank you.” Kat smiled.

  “Well, you two go on your date,” Judy said, pushing us out the door. “I don’t think I can take much more of your cuteness.”

  We both laughed and said goodbye to Judy. As we walked to her car, Kat stopped, took her keys out of her purse and tossed them to me.

  “You sure you want me to drive?” I asked.

  “When it comes to romance, I’m actually very old-fashioned.”

  “Romance it is then.”

  We walked out to the parking lot and I realized I didn’t know what car she drove. There were only seven cars in the entire parking lot. One of the cars was a small white Volkswagen Beetle. I was praying silently that it wasn’t her car. I hated driving stick.

  “You can drive a stick?” Kat asked.

  “Yes,” I said. I could drive it, but I didn’t enjoy it.

  “Well, that little white beauty is my car.”

  “Are you sure that both of us will fit in it?” I said, joking.

  “I know it’s small, but it is all we have at the present moment.”

  We walked over to her white Volkswagen Bug and I stared at it. “Well, we won’t be going too far.” I grinned at Kat and took note once again of how beautiful she looked.

  I walked over to the passenger door and took a key that had the leopard fur around it and assumed it must be the one for her car. It was either that or her dorm key, which I recognized. I opened the passenger door for her. Katherine sat in her car delicately, like a lady. Her car was extremely clean on the inside and it smelled amazing.

  It was weird going on a first date with someone in her car, but I was rolling with it.

  There was one movie theater in Big Bear. It had four movies playing. There were only two restaurants that I deemed date-worthy. One served Italian and the other, Mexican.

  I put the gearshift in neutral and I started the car. I put the car in reverse and I was rusty driving a stick. I pressed in the clutch, but I was grinding the gears something awful.

  “You sure you have driven a stick?” Kat asked.

  “My first car was a stick,” I said.

  “How long did you have that car?”

  “Two weeks. Then I traded it in for an automatic.” I laughed.

  “Well, remember, the clutch is your friend,” Kat reminded me. “But you don’t want to ride it like a boogie board.”

  I drove us out of the parking lot and headed into town. Town was a twenty-minute drive. Once we were on the open road, I was able to leave the gearshift in fourth and coast.

  We decided to go to a place called Azteca Grill that served down-home Mexican cooking.

  At dinner, Kat took the liberty of starting off the night with margaritas. Lime. I ordered a Pepsi because I wasn’t a big alcohol drinker. Even at Alchemy School, everyone acted like booze was the greatest invention. I had never felt that way. It just made me feel sleepy. I liked to have all my wits about me and booze definitely made that harder.

  Alcohol apparently made Kat extremely talkative and even more open than she already was.

  Kat and I talked about everything from politics to childhood memories. We both ordered cheese enchiladas with beans and rice. By the time dinner was through, Kat had consumed three margaritas and was starting to feel it. I was glad I was driving.

  “You still want to see a movie?” I asked, as I signed the bill and grabbed my jacket to leave.

  “Not really,” Kat answered. “I would like to go somewhere and just chill.”

  “At the dorms?”

  “No, not at the dorms,” Kat said. She was sounding drunker with each sentence.

  “Where, then?”

  “Take me somewhere out in the open on one of those trails you run. Somewhere we could go and just relax.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I know of a place. But you will have to do a little walking.”

  “How much?”

  “Half a mile,” I answered Kat. “There’s a side trail on my main running trail that leads to a giant oak tree that was a pretty cool place to relax. I had found it last year when I needed to go out for a walk and think, rather than run.”

  Kat thought about it for a total of two seconds and said, “Sure, let’s do it.”

  “I’ll lead the way.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  I drove us back to the dorms. We both climbed out of her Volkswagen Bug. I put on my leather jacket, as did Kat. She had on a cute white leather jacket with tassels at the bottom. Maybe Kat was a little more country than she let on.

  We walked off the Academy perimeter and began walking to my trail. As we hit the road, I was wondering what Kat was thinking. I used the Flashlight app on my phone to guide us in the night. When I ran, I didn’t care. I would run in the dark with only the moon and the stars to guide me.

  “You walk much?” I asked.

  “No, I don’t do too much exercise. Sometimes I go to the gym, but the truth is, other than riding the bike, I have no idea what I’m doing on the machines.”

  That surprised me because Kat seemed like she was extr
emely fit. “Well, I couldn’t tell. You look fantastic.”

  “You haven’t seen me naked,” she said in a way that I couldn’t tell if it was the truth or flirtation.

  “I bet you look pretty great naked,” I said, without realizing how flirtatious I came off.

  She nodded here head and gave me a look I couldn’t read. I wasn’t sure if she thought what I said had come across as creepy.

  She started it. “You want to know what I like about you?” I said, trying to salvage the conversation.

  “You only like one thing?” Kat said, smiling.

  Now, she had me blushing. I stumbled over my words for a second and then calmly said, “I like everything about you.”

  Kat stopped in her tracks and said, “Anthony Moon, where the hell did you come from?” Then she started laughing.

  “Why are you laughing?” I asked, starting to feel concerned.

  “I’m laughing because...”

  “Because why?”

  She took a deep breath and said, “Because you make me happy.” Katherine then reached over and held my hand.

  The second she touched me, an energy shot throughout my body and wouldn’t stop. I was in some type of euphoric shock. Just holding her hand sent an electricity through me that put me in a euphoric mess. More and more, I understood that there was an energy going through us. As we held hands, I was quiet and focusing on the energy. It felt powerful. This was more than just infatuation or love. Together, we had some type of power. It ran through my veins.

  I had to stop, and let go of Kat’s hand.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Could you feel that?”

  “Your hand?”

  “Yes, no. Not my hand.” I was a little flustered. “Could you feel what was transpiring between us when we were touching?”

  “You mean like lovey-dovey, tingling feelings?” she asked.

  “No, not that, but a power,” I answered, quickly. Then, it dawned on me that she immediately ran to a lovey-dovey feeling. Was she feeling that? I needed to know about something else. I would definitely bring that comment up later. “I felt a power,” I told her. “It was a power like nothing else I have ever felt.”

  “Power?” she asked. “Why would you feel any type of power?”

  Oh, boy, she knew nothing about me. I was hoping that however she came to know about my mother, she might also know about me.

  “Kat, who told you that my mother is Samantha Moon?”

  “Archibald Maximus.”

  “Did he tell you anything about me?”

  “Should he have?”

  I looked at her and was hoping she was telling the truth and not hiding anything from me. It might only be the alcohol that was making her act odd. “When did you first meet him?” I continued.

  “My senior year. I found his room on the third floor of Cal State Fullerton’s Library.”

  “You found it without being told about the secret room?” I asked.

  “I had heard about it from a couple of fellow physics students. I thought it was an urban legend. Then one day, I decided to look for it.” She paused and pictured the door. “There it was: The Occult Reading Room.”

  I knew now that she could be completely trusted. If Maximus trusted her, then I knew I could. But this was possibly too heavy to tell her.

  “You see,” I looked at Katherine and hoped this was a good time to share with her part of my story, “before I had my breakthrough as an alchemist, I possessed a certain amount of powers and skills that are not human.”

  “Not human?” I could see the caution in her eyes.

  “Katherine, I need to trust you with something that goes beyond our school and our sense of reality. I’m about to tell you something about who I actually am that might change the way you look at me.” I took a deep breath. “You know that my mother is a vampire.”

  Kat nodded. “I’ve heard some things. It doesn’t matter to me. I have met a couple in my life.”

  “You must know that she is unlike any vampire ever before her. She has been blessed with gifts and knowledge that no other immortal has been exposed to.”

  Kat stopped walking. I put my phone on the ground with the flashlight showing up and it gave some spooky lighting. “So, what are you saying?”

  “When I was seven years old, I had Kawasaki disease. I was extremely sick and Mom was told I was probably not going to make it. I became so sick that eventually, I passed out from a high fever. During that time...” I paused. I had never told anyone this story. This was much harder to share than I thought. I continued my story. “I was dying and taking my last breaths,” I said. “My mother had this sacred, secret medallion that was able to give me my life back. An alchemy medallion.”

  “How?” Katherine asked. She reached out and held my left hand with her right hand. I felt the same power I had felt earlier, but I was able to easily control the energy and continue with my story.

  We were still holding hands and I felt I could control my extreme feelings. I wasn’t sure which ones were love and which ones were giving me power. So, I continued to tell Katherine who I was.

  “First, my mom turned me into a vampire to keep me from dying. I was so sick that I wasn’t aware that it was happening. Then just as fast as she turned me, she gave me her alchemy medallion. One she had hoped to use someday on herself to make herself human again. But she used it on me instead. Ever since that day, I was turned back into a human. Sort of.”

  “Sort of?” Katherine asked.

  “Ever since that day, I have had extreme abilities. Nothing over the top. I can’t fly or anything. I’m just stronger, faster, smarter than most people. Actually, I’m probably faster and stronger than anybody. I would be shocked if an average human could handle me on any level.”

  “You fight a lot?”

  “I did. In the boxing ring.”

  “You’re not a boxer anymore.”

  “Once everyone that knew the real me realized I had an advantage over ordinary humans, I had to quit. It sucked.”

  “How old were you?”

  “Thirteen.”

  “Why did you like boxing so much?”

  I was quiet and thought about the question. “Jacky,” I said.

  “Who is Jacky?”

  “He was my trainer.” I paused. “My dad passed away when I was nine. I’m not exactly sure what happened to him.”

  “Was that why Jacky was so important to you?” Kat asked.

  “He is still very important to me. He is extremely old and now has a hard time getting around. He lives with his family in Oregon. I visit when I can. I wish I was able to see him more.”

  Katherine turned to me and her body language was inviting a hug. I embraced Katherine tightly. This was the first time we had hugged each other. It was a deep, longing hug that we both needed. When I let go, I looked down at her. She didn’t look up at me at first. Then, she glanced up and she put her chin up, inviting me to kiss her.

  So, I did.

  I gently placed my lips on hers and went slowly. Our lips touched a couple of times and then the dam broke. We began kissing passionately. I could taste lime margaritas on her breath. I had shot about five peppermint Altoids in my mouth in the car on the way back. It was quite a tasty combination.

  As we kissed, I held both her hands and now, not only was I feeling power, but I was feeling an intense, heart-pounding affection for Katherine.

  Was it love? It was early. I had never said ‘I love you’ to anyone other than my mom. I was pretty sure I had never said it to my sister. How could I be feeling such extreme feelings for a woman I had only known for ten days?

  We continued hugging and periodically kissing.

  That was a long time standing up. Eventually, my phone died and we lost our light source. We decided to head home and see the special tree another time.

  I walked her to her door.

  Kat turned around and faced me with her back to her dorm door. “I had a wonderful time.”


  I looked down at her and her greenish-blue eyes seemed bluer than usual. I gently kissed her lips.

  “You are so gentle, Anthony,” Katherine said between kisses. “Are you always this way?”

  “I am with you,” I said. I gave her a long hug with a small peck and I was off to my dorm room.

  As I lay in bed, I thought about Katherine. I had never felt this way toward anybody. My heart and now, it was wide open. I felt something deep inside was holding her back. I knew I had to take it slowly, but my mind was racing so much that I to get out of our dorm room.

  I walked outside and sat on the stump that was right in front of our room’s window. I looked up at the sky and realized it was a full moon. I laughed to myself, knowing full well the havoc that was to be wreaked on this night by a certain immortal species. I was a man with many secrets. Tonight, I let someone into my inner circle of information and I was completely at peace with it.

  I began thinking about Katherine’s mom’s murder. I had so many questions. I couldn’t ask her to relive those details again by asking her to give me the missing parts of her story. I had been hoping she would bring it up again, but that had not happened.

  How could her mother’s death be a cold case? A murder that had happened ten feet from her house in broad daylight? I needed to know more information. I decided to go inside and surf the Internet.

  I jumped on my computer and found two different stories about her mom’s murder. There was almost nothing in the articles. Some people say that journalism was so much better before the web. I had to disagree after reading these two pieces. The answers that I needed would only be in the police report. There was only one person I could go to find a cold case report in the city of Westminster.

  Detective Sherbet.

  But first, I needed to call my mom.

  Chapter Seventeen

  After class the following day, I went to my room, and for some crazy reason, my partner in crime was out of our room. He didn’t have a car, so he was stuck to the land as much I was. I decided this would be a good time to call my mom.

  I called my mom’s cell, hoping she was somewhere where she could receive a signal. To my luck, she answered the phone.