by Night, H. T.
The boos grew louder and louder. Oh, this crowd hated me and they hadn’t even seen me fight. I circled the ring and just let the noise consume me. Then the lights turned off and some lame techno music started blaring over the loudspeaker. It sounded like really bad house music that you would hear at a wedding reception.
The black double doors opened and Cooper was being wheeled in to me. He was introduced by the speaker.
Damn! He was big! He was at least twice my size in weight. I was going to have my hands full. All right, Triat. Give me one more favor.
Cooper’s cage was connected and locked into the center ring’s cage. All that was separating us was his cage door that could easily be lifted up by the goons outside that wheeled him in.
Here goes nothing. They lifted Cooper’s cage door up. And this outrageous beast came at me like I was a steak dinner. I floated up off the ground in my Mani form so I could look at the beast below.
I heard someone yell from the crowd, “Did you see that? That vampire can fly.”
I flew over Cooper and landed behind him. The confused beast had no idea where I had gone. Too bad for him; I high-kicked the wolf in the back of its head, sending him into the side of the cage. I jumped on his back and rode him like a bull. The crowd went nuts. They loved it. Wow, they were a fickle group.
“Ride him, Josiah!” one guy yelled. So ride him, I did. I rode his back and just stayed with him like he was a mechanical bull in a country bar and was trying to stay on to win a basket of barbecue chicken wings. He tried knocking me off, but I was too strong. I covered his eyes, much to the delight of the crowd. In a matter of seconds, I had won this crowd over, at least some of them.
Another group began chanting “Cooper! Cooper! Cooper!”
But another was chanting, “Reign! Reign! Reign!” I had to admit, I loved that second chant a lot better.
Damn, it felt good!
From Cooper’s back, I grabbed him around the waist and rolled him over in a Greco-Roman spin move. I tilted him over, making sure his snapping, ferocious mouth wouldn’t bite me. The crowd went nuts. They probably had never seen a vampire willing to get this close to one of these beasts. Well, they had never seen me, and I was going to give them a show for the ages.
I let Cooper go and taunted him by flying around the ring. He tried chasing me, biting at me, clawing at me. I was having a good time. I figure at least five minutes had gone by and it was time to punish this wolf.
I elevated ten feet over the beast. I dove down feet first and drop-kicked him in the face with a force that was as brutal a kick as I had ever delivered.
I heard the poor wolf yelp. He was disoriented and I took advantage of it. I did an eight-punch combination, with my last one being a cross between an uppercut and a hay maker.
The wolf fell backwards. The crowd went berserk chanting my name. Cooper was done. He tried to get back up. But fell down. The medics dove into the ring and cuffed the beast and carried him off in his cage.
I watched and felt the noise of the crowd. “Reign, Reign, Reign.” I had easily given that werewolf its first loss in a manner of minutes. I had arrived in a big way.
I walked out of the ring and gave a high-five to some of the richest people in the world. As I reached the door, one of Romero’s body guards said, “Romero wants to see you.”
I figured he would. I had just given a show for the ages.
When I got to Romero’s suite, he was alone. I guess he knew the score by now. If I hadn’t tried to kill him by now, I wasn’t going to do it anytime soon.
“Impressive,” Romero said.
“I thought so,” I said. “I have six more of these fights and then Tommy’s match?”
“Yes,” then, if you’re willing… we can renegotiate.”
“For more fights?”
“Why not, you seemed to be in your element out there.”
I smiled, “Maybe.”
“You loved it, didn’t you?” Romero grinned.
“It was a good time. I’ll just leave it at that. When is the next one?”
“In two weeks. I’ll work on getting you a better opponent.”
“I’ll see you in two weeks.” I left his suite and signed a couple of autographs on the way out.
Yeah, this was fun.
Chapter Twenty-five
Over the next three months, life was interesting, to say the least. Lena had reached the point where she couldn’t transition. It would put her and the lives inside her at risk and under no circumstances would I allow her to do any type of risky behavior.
I had finished my seven fights and each one was even more epic than the next. I was a huge fan favorite, and yes, I loved it.
I had checked in with Tommy and his injuries had healed and he was training like a mutha. That was good. I wasn’t sure how I was going to fight Tommy. I knew if it looked choreographed, it could negate the whole deal we had with Romero. I was a man of many secrets these days. Tommy had no idea I was going to be his final fight on his epic night. I figured it was best not to tell him. I had done a lot for him and he was just going to have trust me once we got in the ring.
The other secret I was keeping was that Lena had no idea I had been sneaking off being king of some underground, billionaire, immortal fight club. I knew I needed to tell her. I just couldn’t figure out the best way to do it.
Her pregnancy wasn’t going very well, she was sick all the time. It was hard on a Mani woman to be carrying two human babies. It was doing a number on her body’s chemistry.
I had defeated four werewolves and three vampires in the ring over the past twelve weeks. My vampire matches were really one-sided. None of them had a chance against me. In my third Mani fight, my opponent looked so terrified I put him out of his misery real fast and knocked him out in fifteen seconds. Romero didn’t like it, but all my fights couldn’t be world class. One thing was for sure, the weekend belonged to me.
Weekdays, on the other hand, were the time I was putting together my army, or lack thereof. Unfortunately, I had a weak batch of Mani men who were willing to fight the good fight. They had heart, and in the end, heart wins battles. But warriors also win battles, and I didn’t have many of those.
I put together a training regimen that would make an MMA fighter exhausted. If they didn’t have natural instincts as fighters, they would at least be the best-conditioned ones. My crew was slowly coming around, but I knew it was going to be awhile until they could take on the likes of Krull’s men.
It was a week until Tommy’s “Night of the Seven Deadly Sins’” fight. In each fight, Tommy’s opponent would represent one of the deadly sins, just like Romero and I had discussed. I knew it was very ‘Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman’ but it was a damn good marketing strategy. I heard he was selling tickets at $500,000 a head for that night. Why anyone would pay that kind of money was beyond me, but then again I wasn’t a billionaire who had money to burn.
Romero and I had actually taken our communication into the 21st century. We had been emailing each other for the last six weeks. And I wasn’t the most computer-savvy person.
This is why I had no idea what I was walking into when I came into my bedroom. Lena was sitting in front of the computer, going through my emails from Romero.
“What are you doing?” I asked Lena. She just stared at me and didn’t say a word. She just looked at me with confusion. Finally, she said, “Are these emails a joke? Who is Romero?”
I walked over to the computer and turned off the monitor.
“Josiah, what is going on? Have you been seeing Tommy and arranging some kind of MMA fight in Mexico?”
“It’s complicated,” I said.
“I don’t care what it is. Why haven’t you told me anything?” Lena was really upset.
“You never asked.”
“What kind of answer is that?” Lena yelled, at me.
“Look! You never even asked what Tommy wanted that night I saw him at his cabin. So, I just figured you didn’t want to kno
w.”
“I didn’t ask,” Lena said. “Because I thought if it was important enough you would have told me about it, especially after all that we have been going through these last few months.”
“I didn’t want to worry you.”
“Bullshit. You wanted to keep Tommy and I separated.”
“Huh?” I said. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“You have been seeing Tommy for months. You still think after all we have been through that something might happen between him and I. So much so, that you had been living a double life. You still don’t trust me. Even after visiting the Deity. You still don’t trust me.”
“It’s not like that, Lena. I swear.”
Lena sat up on the bed and was beside herself. She looked exhausted. I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her. “I trust you, Lena. I really do.”
She shrugged me off and said, “You have been fighting, too? Why?”
“I had to.”
“Bullshit. You’re Josiah Reign, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do!”
“In this case, I did. Tommy was in some serious trouble. We’re talking million-dollar trouble.”
Lena got up and went to her room. I followed her in there. “Get out, Josiah. I am so disappointed in you. I’m so hurt that even though I’m carrying your children, you still don’t trust me, like I’m some kind of out-of-control school girl.”
“I’m sorry, Lena. There was just so much going on. I didn’t want to worry you. You have to believe that.”
“Just get out of my room. I need to be alone.”
“Really. It’s going to be like that?”
“Josiah, I need some space. Just give me that.”
I walked out of the room and went up to mine. I laid on my bed and just felt awful. I probably should have told Lena at some point. That had to be the worst way for her to find out, through a freaking email.
A couple hours had gone by and I decided to check in on Lena. I knocked on her door and there was no answer.
Finally, I yelled out to her, “Lena! You in there?”
Still, no answer.
“She left, Josiah,” Yari yelled, from the living room.
I walked into the living room and Yari was lying on the couch. “Where did she go?”
“She got in one of the cars and went for a ride.”
“How long ago?”
“Probably two hours ago. She was pretty discreet about it. I noticed because she sounded pretty determined to leave in a hurry.”
“I’ve got to go find her,” I said.
“Did the two love birds have a spat?” Yari snickered.
“Not now, Yari. This is more serious than you think.” I left through the front door. I decided to transition into the eagle and go scope the area and look for her.
I looked everywhere and Lena was nowhere to be found. I checked Tommy’s cabin, Yari’s townhouse, even Flatlands. Tommy wasn’t anywhere either. A part of me started to feel extremely jealous, thinking there was a chance they were together.
I looked for Lena for the next 24 hours straight and she wasn’t anywhere inside a 100-mile radius of Victorville. And I couldn’t find Tommy either. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all.
Chapter Twenty-six
It was the day of my fight and it had been 48 hours since I’d last seen Lena. I was going to be fighting that night. I needed rest. Yari, Cyrus, Hector, and Wyatt had been looking for Lena as vigorously as I had. She was nowhere, not even a hint of her. Nothing. I was absolutely sick to my stomach thinking about it.
It was going to be hard for me to focus and I was just praying she was okay and had found a safe place no one knew about to clear her head. I didn’t want to fight tonight, but I had no choice. I just needed to trust that she was safe.
Lena was weighing heavy on my mind, but I needed to get this done. I needed to clear mine and Tommy’s debt.
I got to the arena and to say my head wasn’t in the game was an understatement. I decided to go into the holding area and see if he was even there. There was a part of me that thought he and Lena had split town. There was no sign of Tommy in the holding area.
“Hey, Josiah,” Militia, the vampire that fought with us a couple months back said, “Looking for Tommy?”
“Actually, I am,” I said.
“He’s in Gary’s trainer’s room.”
Of course he is. I should have checked there first.
“Thanks, Militia. Are you watching the fight tonight?” I asked.
He smiled and said, “In a manner of speaking, yeah.”
Didn’t quite understand what that meant, but I needed to go see Tommy before his first fight. I entered the trainer’s room and Tommy was sitting on the trainer’s table. Gary was looking him over. Tommy looked up at me and grinned.
“How do you feel, Tom?” I asked.
“Like a million bucks,” he said, winking at me.
“You better, you’re going to be pretty exhausted before this night is over.”
“Have you seen the card?” Tommy asked.
“Nope,” I answered.
“Romero is leaving some of the matches as a mystery. He won’t even tell me who I’m fighting in a couple of the fights. He is a total douchebag.”
I nodded my head, knowing Tommy was going to have one of the biggest shocks of his life when I entered the ring in that final match. I wonder who else Romero was keeping a mystery.
“Josiah,” a deep voice said, from behind me. I turned around and it was one of Romero’s goons.
“What is it?” I said.
“Romero wants you to watch the fights from his suite.”
“Tell him I’ll be there in a minute.”
“He told me to make sure you come with me.”
Seriously, was he really going to power-trip me after the millions and millions of dollars I’d just made for him?
“Tell him,” I said, firmly, “that I’ll come up there when I’m good and ready.”
The goon stared at me and I gave him a look that pretty much demonstrated my defiance. I looked at Tommy and said, “Before I go watch this circus, I need to ask you a question.”
“What is it?” Tommy asked.
“Has Lena come to see you?”
Tommy looked at me, surprised.
“Has she?” I insisted.
“Josiah, the last time I saw Lena was that night at the Flatlands.”
I looked him in the eye and I knew he was telling the truth. Tommy wasn’t a liar. He likes to omit things, but he wasn’t a liar, if asked straight out.
I nodded my head. “Good luck, Tom!”
“Who needs luck when you got these?” Tommy flexed his muscles and kissed each bicep individually.
That’s my boy! Nobody loves themselves some Tommy more than Tommy himself.
A part of me was relieved that they hadn’t seen each other. It still didn’t erase the fact that Lena was missing.
I made my way up to Romero’s suite. I went in and this night we would not be watching the match alone. He had some serious ‘suits’ in the room. I swear I wouldn’t have been surprised to see the richest man in the world, Carlos Slim, on this night. Everyone was wearing tuxedos and had a gorgeous classy woman on their arm.
“Josiah,” Romero said, “Come in and sit next to me.” I am an incredible judge of character and there was something extra sleazy about Romero on this night. The man was swimming in millions, and that might have had something to do with it.
“It’s about to start, Josiah,” Romero said. “I would offer you a drink, but then again you are the main event…”
All eyes in the room were on me. These men who could buy and sell me twenty times over were looking at me like I was Mickey Mantle. The adoration in their eyes was poignant. I humbly smiled at them and took my seat next to Romero. On this night, I was his prize pony and if he wanted to parade me around, I had to go along with it.
Romero’s ‘automatic wall’ opened up so
now everyone in the suite could see into the ring. Everyone in the room found a place to sit. At least, the more important ones did. The others remained standing.
“Tonight is going to be an amazing night, gentlemen,” Romero announced to the room. “Grab a hold of your seats because this is going to be a wild ride!” Romero was sure full of himself. I imagined he had other tricks up his sleeve to make the night memorable.
I leaned over and whispered in Romero’s ear, “How did you pull off charging half a million a ticket?”
Romero winked at me, and whispered in my ear. “I promised them they were going to see something they hadn’t seen before, and they will.”
“What is that?” I asked, with a bit of dread in my gut.
“You’ll see,” Romero said, with a confidence that only a psychopath would have demonstrated.
The entire crowd was wearing tuxedos, and the women were similarly dressed, as if it was a night at the Oscars and they were red-carpet ready. The ring announcer slowly made his way to the middle of the ring and addressed the crowd.
“Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, you are all going to witness a one-of-a-kind event. The ‘immortal beast,’ Tommy, will take on seven opponents one right after another with almost zero time between each fight. Tonight, we present to you, ‘A Night of the Seven Deadly Sins.’
The crowd erupted in a frenzy of applause.
The ring announcer continued, “Now, it’s time to introduce you to your werewolf. No fighter has taken this arena by storm as much as he. He has an undefeated record of 68-0. He has beaten wolves, vampires, and anyone else who has faced off against him. Every one of his opponents has left the ring defeated! Let’s give a round of applause to the ‘immortal of all immortals’… Tommy!!!”
