by Night, H. T.
“Our child?” I asked.
“Who else’s child would it be?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you’re like Mary and you had a miraculous conception!”
“No, Josiah. There is nothing miraculous about this, other that I’m carrying your baby.”
“My baby…” I said, calmly.
“Yes. That’s whose baby this is.”
I looked at Lena’s stomach. I reached out and touched it. Could this really be true? Could she be carrying my baby?” How is it even possible that two vampires could conceive a child?
I looked up at Lena and gave her a comforting smile and said, “Lena, we will figure all this out.”
Lena looked back at me and I could tell she needed me. She needed for me to tell her everything was going to be okay. I exhaled and said, “If you are truly pregnant, then this is a divine situation. You and I are going to be parents.”
“Aren’t you scared?” she asked.
“I don’t know what that feeling is anymore. What I do know is that I love you and I ‘m going to love our child with every bit of me.” I once again smiled at Lena. Lena nestled her head into my chest. I leaned back and held her calmly. This was an amazing twenty-four hour period. “Lena,” I said. “There is someone we’ll need to speak to. I think there was someone who knew this was going to happen.”
“The Deity?” Lena asked.
“Yes. She did everything but tell me straight out that this would come to pass. Now her cryptic speech makes perfect sense. I thought she was only talking about the Mani people. I see now that she was also talking about our child.”
“When should we go see her?” Lena asked.
“Are you okay to transition?”
“I think so.”
“I don’t know if transitioning will be a good thing,” I said, “especially as the baby grows.”
“Then we better see her quickly,” Lena said.
I agreed that this was something we needed to do ASAP. “We’ll go tonight when it gets dark.”
We both closed our eyes and just held each other for a couple of hours. I eventually got up and went back to my room to lie on my bed and think. For the rest of the day, I was in a fog. I kept it quiet that Lena was pregnant and I told Lena not to tell anyone. Unfortunately, we couldn’t trust anyone with this kind of information. At least, until we understood it better ourselves.
So that night, Lena and I both transitioned and flew down to Mexico. We were off to go see the ‘the Deity.’ I had a feeling she would be expecting us.
When we arrived at the orphanage, Lena and I were led down into the underground bunker by a security guard. We were led to the room where I had met the Deity the previous time. Lena seemed to be holding up well. It was extremely muggy once we were underground. It was a lot hotter than I remembered. We were both sweating as if we had just gone for a jog in 100-degree weather.
We walked into the Deity’s room and she was sitting with two very small Mexican children on the floor. It appeared they were dressing dolls and playing house. The Deity looked even more stunning than I remembered. This time she was wearing a long purple dress. She looked like an angel. There was a glow about her that seemed to be more prevalent than the last time we met.
“Hello,” I said.
“Josiah, you have brought a friend,” she said.
“Yes, this is Lena,” I said.
“So she is.”
“Hello, Your Holiness,” Lena said. I had asked Lena on the way up to address her that way.
“Sit with us. This is Michael and Felicia. They are two of the best help I have.” The Deity looked at the children and said, “Go children, I need to speak to the nice man and his love.”
Both kids kissed the Deity on her cheek and ran off.
“Cute kids,” I said.
“Their poor mother was murdered in broad daylight.”
“That is harsh,” I said.
“Most of my kids have horrible realities, but it’s my job to love them and take care of them so we can change whatever unnecessary evils have been assigned to them.”
“How do you explain to them who you are?” I asked.
“I don’t,” she said. “They will hear things and eventually they will know on their own without any explanation by me.” She paused. “So, Josiah, you now need guidance? Some new counsel?”
“Yes,” I said, “to say the very least.”
“I can imagine. You must have lots of questions.”
“I do,” I said. “We both do.”
Lena spoke up. “We need to understand what’s happening to my body.”
The Deity smiled at Lena. “You are with child.”
“Am I?” Lena asked.
“Oh, yes, sweet angel. In you is the key that will save us all.”
“Save us all?” I asked.
“Yes, Josiah,” the Deity smiled, and then turned to Lena. “In you, sweet child, is the seed of all men. Josiah, your calling is one for the ages. But your child’s calling is even bigger than what you will be asked to do.”
My heart sank. “How so?”
“Josiah, you will have a long, full existence. Your child’s existence will not be so lucky. It will almost be Christ-like.”
“Christ-like?” I asked.
“Yes, he will be martyred.”
“Martyred? What? You mean sacrificed?” I asked.
“Not sacrificed. His death will be the final act that will allow the Mani to live in peace for hundreds of years. He will live an extraordinary life, but a very short one. What you need to realize is, there isn’t just one infant in Lena; there is also another.”
Now I was completely confused. I looked over at Lena and she was glowing. “Josiah,” Lena said to me. “I’m carrying twins.”
“Twins?” I looked to the Deity for an answer.
“Yes,” she answered me. “And they will be on opposite sides of the spectrum. One will be as pure as the driven snow. The other will have a dark side, a very dark side.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I felt as if my heart was going to come out of my chest. “How is any of this possible?” I asked.
“The heart of every man will be represented in both boys. It will be up to you to maximize each of their greatness.”
I was floored. How could this be? Now there were twins? Are you kidding me? I don’t know what came over me, but I just laid my head back on the floor and looked up at the ceiling, completely dumbfounded.
“I knew this is a lot to hear, Josiah.”
The Deity took my hand and I sat up. I looked at the Deity and asked, “Will both boys die?”
“No, just one. It will be the most amazing act of unselfish love.”
Lena was also overwhelmed by the moment. Tears were falling off her face like a faucet. I scooted over to her and held her in my arms. “Are you okay?” I asked.
Lena stared straight ahead and calmly said, “I’ve never felt more love in my heart as I do at this very moment.”
“Josiah,” the Deity said, to me. “You will need to keep Lena safe. Others will soon know that she is with child. There is a lot of evil out in the world that does not want to see this come to pass. Take her and go back to your home, and love her. Love her with all of your being.”
“I will,” I said. “But I have one more question.”
“Yes, my child?”
“How is it possible that she is even pregnant? Regardless of prophecy and the supernatural overtones? Tell me scientifically, how could she possibly be pregnant?”
The Deity looked at me and said, “It’s very simple, Josiah; you both are not 100 percent Mani.”
I took a step back and was extremely confused. “What does that mean?” I asked.
“Because you were Lena’s final bite that turned her, she is forever a part of you.”
“Okay, still…” I persisted. “What does that mean?”
“You are both still human,” the Deity answered.
“What?” Lena
and I both belted out.
The Deity smiled and said, “Both of you are equally human as well as Mani.”
“We are half breeds?” I asked.
“Not half,” the Deity said. “You have all the characteristics of both races. You are full breeds, as you would say, of both races. That is why you are immortal as well as fertile. You are the first strand of Mani that will be able to reproduce. You’re our Adam and Eve as it were.”
Holy crap! This was a lot to take in.
I looked at Lena and she seemed to have a peace come over her. She looked up at me and said, “I always knew, Josiah. In my heart, I always knew this to be true. Everything that has been said tonight, I have always known deep down in my soul. I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it, but now that it’s been revealed I now know what it was.”
“Those are your maternal instincts, child,” the Deity said to Lena.
“Your holiness,” I said. “Thank you. Thank you for giving us the wisdom of ourselves that we most desperately needed to find.”
“You have many things you need to settle, Josiah. Go and be the leader we all know you can be.”
I took Lena’s hand and as I stepped to the door, I stopped and turned around. “Will it be okay for her to transition?”
“She must not change after the second month. Josiah, the life that’s inside Lena will be human. It will grow and have a human’s life.”
With that, we left and I took the mother of my two future children home.
Chapter Twenty-three
I took Lena into my room and held her. We had received a lot of very intense information tonight and we would need time to process the new knowledge. I laid there on our bed and closed my eyes. I was dozing off when I heard Lena say, “Jo?”
“Yes,” I said, waking up.
“Are you concerned?”
“Of course I am. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around everything. What I do know, sweetheart, is that everything in my life has been turned upside down since the very first day I protected you at that frat party. And I’ve been able to handle anything that has come my way and this will be no different. It does make me nervous to think about the kind of world we’re bringing them into.” I looked at Lena and smiled. “But in my eyes, these two lives that are inside you are a celebration. All the things I once worried about don’t seem to be important at all anymore.”
“I thought you didn’t worry,” Lena said, smiling at me.
“No... I worry. I just don’t allow it to manifest itself into full-blown fear.”
“I love you, Josiah Reign,”
“I love you, too. Forever and always.”
With that, I closed my eyes, and was out like a light. Suddenly, I was awakened by a rushing wind. I opened my eyes and I was lying in front of a beautiful creek. There were trees all around and even a water snake at the rim of the creek eating a fish.
Yes, I was having another vision.
There was a rock at the back of the creek and the hot sun was out and it didn’t appear to bother me. I sat on the rock and stared out into the water.
This was my kind of vision. It was a little bit of Utopia right here in my mind.
Then I heard a voice that knocked me off the rock. “Son,” a man’s voice said.
I turned around and nearly passed out on the spot. I was face to face with my father. I didn’t know how to react. I knew this was a vision, but here he was… right in front of me. It had been years since I’d seen his face.
I got up from off the ground and went to him. “Dad!” I said, as choked up as I had ever said his name in my life.
“Hello, Josiah,” he said, as he reached his arms out to me and I ran into them. I hugged him tightly. He even smelled like himself, a combination of Old Spice and soap.
“Are you real?” I asked.
“I’m real to you. That’s all that matters.”
“I missed you so much,” I said.
“I have missed you too, son. Your mother says hi..”
“Mom? Is she here?”
“No, son. I was the only one allowed to come.”
“Do you know about me?” I asked. “Do you know what I’ve become?”
“Son, you haven’t become anything you weren’t already. Some of us gain weight, some of us go bald. But deep in you, you are the same incredible man I raised you to be.”
“But Dad, I’m a vampire.”
“That may be so, son. But at the end of the day, you’re everything I raised you to be and more. You can’t be summed up by one term. You’re loyal and forgiving. You have an amazing sensibility to fight for what is right and what is good in the world.” He paused, and then looked at me with a giant smile and said, “And now, you will be a father.”
Tears dripped from my eyes. “I don’t know, Dad. I don’t know if I can do it.”
“None of us think we can do it, but the great thing about fatherhood is that it’s forgiving. And as long as you’re honest with yourself, to your partner, and to your children, you will always be able to do what is right. It may take you a couple of times to get it done. But you will.”
“Dad…”
“Yes, son?”
“This has been so hard. Doing all of this alone has taken a toll on me.” I sat back on the rock and stared at the creek.
As I sat staring at the water my father walked over to me and put his arm around me. “I know, son. You have been asked to take on a tremendous burden. The thing is that you don’t have to do it alone. Others have been given a similar calling and so will your two boys.”
“I just feel like…” I continued to say. Then, suddenly, I no longer felt my father’s hand on my shoulder. I turned around and he was gone. Then, in an instant, I woke up.
I sat up and looked around the room. My heart was heavy, but in many ways, I felt some of the burden had been lifted off me. I looked over and watched Lena while she slept. I had a new fire in my belly to get things done. I could thank my father for that.
Chapter Twenty-four
It was time for me to have my first fight to help erase mine and Tommy’s debt. Although, fighting in this underground fighting club was something not in the initial plan, I felt in my heart that I needed to do this. I wasn’t sure exactly how this played into the bigger picture, all I knew was, I was being very drawn to finish the task. I had been relying on my gut feeling up to this point, so this was no different.
Romero had been in contact with me through text messaging. I was going to be having my first fight this upcoming Saturday night. My fight was going to be the main event and I was fighting an undefeated werewolf named Cooper. He let me know Cooper had a following similar to Tommy’s and to expect the crowd to despise me. I was going to be the ‘heel’ apparently. I’d make sure the crowd was on my side before the night was over.
I didn’t think much about the fight. I was pretty sure I’d be able to work over any opponent. I knew I wouldn’t be able to tell Lena what I was doing. The way I looked at it, it served no good purpose to let her in on how I got mixed up in trying to free Tommy from the economic clutches of Romero.
I arrived at the arena thirty minutes before my fight. Romero told me I was going to be entering the arena to some speed metal music similar to Tommy’s. I let Romero know I would never reveal the eagle to the crowd. He agreed that it wasn’t necessary, being that I could fly in my human form.
He told me to not knock Cooper out in the first three minutes, but make it look like it was a battle. I told him I couldn’t promise anything. If this werewolf was as tough as Romero said he was, I was going to want to knock him out the first chance I had.
I got a glimpse of Cooper before the fight. He was an all-black werewolf and he was quite large.
I went into the holding area. I kept to myself while all the other fighters eyeballed me. I was a sight to behold on this particular evening. I decided to vampire up my wardrobe for affect. I decided to go with the ‘Atticai’ look. My hair was a little longer these days so I
oiled it down to make it look wet. I also decided to put some black mascara on my eyelashes to give the whole rock and roll image going. I wore a long black trench coat that didn’t restrict my movement. I had to admit the coat made me look pretty badass. My outfit was topped off with a black T-shirt and black slacks; I definitely had the dark Gothic color scheme going. And no Gothic wardrobe would be complete without a nice pair of black Doc Marten boots, which alone, were pretty kick-ass all by themselves.
I was told I’d be introduced first because I was the challenger. I was surprised that Romero didn’t come into the holding area and see me off in my first fight, but then again, he was a pretty unpredictable cat.
A bearded man came to the door and said, “Josiah, it’s time.”
I walked out into the hallway from the holding area. All that was separating me from the crowd were the two black double doors I had seen many times from the flip side. I could hear some ‘Suicidal Tendencies’ blaring in the arena. I had to admit my adrenaline was going a hundred miles an hour. This was going to be fun. In the end, I love to fight and that was exactly what I was getting myself into tonight.
I stood behind the black double doors and waited to be introduced.
Suddenly, I heard the announcer scream, “Josiah Reign!” So much for keeping my name discreet; the world now knew I was a vampire. Well, the very rich part of the world.
The doors opened and I heard a ton of boos. I’d never been booed before, and to be honest, it kind of sucked. I walked out and even had a drink hit me in the face. So much for classy billionaires. Why did these people hate vampires so much?
“Show us the black raven!” One guy yelled.
I smiled. It would blow their freaking mind if I was to transition to the great white eagle. But this jacked-up group of people didn’t deserve to see that kind of show.
They continued to shout, “Show us the black raven!” I ignored everyone and made my way to the caged ring. The cage door to the ring was opened for me to walk inside and I entered the cage. I looked around the crowd and the boos were deafening. I began to feed off of it. At first, it kind of hurt hearing so many people hate you when they knew nothing about you. On this night, I was playing the role of the villain, and I was going to embrace it. In this underground, immortal fight club, vampires were the bad guys. If this crowd wanted a bad guy, then a bad guy they were going to get. I turned to the audience and double-birded them. That’s right, I straight flipped off the richest people in the world, and you know what? I fucking loved it.
