Night Breed; The Night Breed Saga Book #1

Chapter 1

I sat on the edge of my bed; flipping through the pages of ‘A briefer history of time’; as one of the movers shuffled around me, taking the boxes out of my room and throwing me the occasional look of disdain. I ignored the guy, much like I was ignored by just about everyone around me.

I hate moving, I thought to myself.

Thirteen cities in eleven years, Jason swore this one was going to be the last.

Yeah right.

Jason said that every time we had to pack up and move, and yet here we were, packing up and leaving Scottsdale, Arizona. I didn’t mind leaving here, I hated this place anyhow. It was always so hot here, and I was certain the sun never stopped shining. It wasn’t that I really didn’t like the sun; it just had a glare I could never get used to no matter how long I stayed outside.

People would ask me why I always had a pair of sunglasses on, teachers used to give me hell for it and put me in detention. Eventually even that stopped, they gave up when they found it did nothing to dissuade me from wearing them. They also realized wearing them did nothing to hinder my concentration, I was always the last one to raise my hand when they had a question but always the first person to have the right answer. A few times I would even raise my hand to point out when they made a mistake. A lot of my teachers found it irritating when I challenged their, oh so perfect knowledge in front of the class, but not Mr. Todd.

Mr. Todd was my eleventh grade science teacher, and to him my knowledge was a fascinating and exciting thing. He was the one who had recommended me for the honor roll during my first semester at Arcadia High.

I hadn’t liked the attention it garnered me at this school, I much preferred when the other students just ignored me. I almost always tried to fit in when I first came to a new school, and I always failed miserably. It was never for a lack of looks, standing nearly 6 foot 4 put me on the taller side of the spectrum, it also wasn’t for a lack of athletic ability. I had tried out for the swim team and had quickly risen to the best swimmer at the school, despite my muscle tone being far bulkier than the other swimmers. I tried to be the best at everything I did; I attributed it to the strict military proficiency in which my house was run. Jason expected us to do the best and be the best at anything we did, and wouldn’t settle for anything less.

Don’t get me wrong Jason is a good parent when he’s around, I don’t call him dad since he isn’t my real father. I was adopted when I was less than a year old. I guess my parents hadn’t wanted me so I was left on the doorstep of an orphanage. Jason and Trina hadn’t been able to have children and when they came to the orphanage they picked me, I guess in that respect I was lucky.

Another mover, in jeans and a black tank top came into my bedroom, he was a large sweaty man with a hairy back and a receding hairline, he smelled like he hadn’t showered for a few days and was ripe with cigarette smoke that wrinkled my nose every time he had come in to take a box. He grabbed the box I was resting my feet on and jerked it out from under me.

You could help you know. he said with a scowl that I was used to seeing from just about anyone I spent long enough with.

No thanks, I wouldn’t want to take your minimum wage away from you. I snorted derisively.

The mover wheeled about with the box and stalked out of the room grumbling about punk-assed kids.

Trina walked in to my bedroom carrying a box of bathroom stuff, she was wearing tan slacks and a green sleeveless blouse, she was looking over her shoulder watching the mover stomp down the stairs loudly.

She looked back at me with a grin that lit up her green eyes and said, What’s he on about?

I rolled my eyes and said, Told me to help, told him no.

Trina laughed, her shoulder length light brown hair swinging with the movement.

Trina always laughed.

The main reason I liked Trina was because it was nearly impossible to get the smile off her pretty face.

I had never met a more blissfully happy woman in my entire life. It wouldn’t hurt you to carry something you know. she scolded me playfully.

I’ll carry my car keys and my jacket. I replied with a grin that I had caught from her, Trina’s smiles were contagious.

I patted my pocket to emphasize my heavy burden. The keys in question were to the one car that I’d had since I was sixteen, like that was so long ago. I remembered when Jason told me he was going to buy me a car when I turned sixteen and how I had thought he was full of it. Sure enough though he came home from deployment one day and told me to get my jacket we were going out.

It was a used car, but that was okay, I knew Jason didn’t make much. Therefore I wasn’t surprised when we pulled into the used car dealership to pick me up my first ride. I’d looked around and around the whole lot, a few old Camaro’s and a beat up Mustang GT caught my eye but I finally settled on a 1978 Pontiac Grand Prix.

The salesman said I was getting a real gem; this one had come with an aftermarket 350 small block in it. Jason hadn’t really approved of the engine but he knew I was responsible enough not to kill myself on my first drive. I figured he was banking on the second or third drive. The car was surprisingly comfortable; it had vinyl bench seats which I replaced with racing buckets in the front.

I replaced the tired automatic transmission with the shifter on the column for a four speed on the floor. The salesman had been right the engine was great and with a few tips and tricks I’d learned in auto shop and a couple trips to Pep Boys I had a rumbling machine.

I’d tinted the back windows and the sides as much as law would allow since I didn’t care much for the glare in the daytime. The car had been an absolutely hideous metallic lime green with a vinyl patch on the top that matched it and gave it a very vomit worthy look. That changed quickly and I painted the car a sleek midnight black.

Trina loved the job I did on the car, while Jason was overly protective and somewhat skeptical, so in a fit of teenage rebellion I hand painted bizarre flames on the car stretching from the nose all the way back to halfway along the trunk. I’d thought his head was going to pop off and spin around when he came home and saw what I had done to the car. Trina had only laughed and affectionately nicknamed it my ‘Dragon Wagon’ and so it stuck.

Looking down at Trina's 5 feet 3 inches, I pulled my keys out and spun them like an old gunslinger spinning his peacemaker, smiling crookedly as she laughed at me. All that was left in my room was my bed, my television set, and my person. It took two movers less than five minutes to extricate all three of us from the room.

Less than ten minutes later they had the load secured and Trina was pulling out of the drive in her and Jason’s red Dodge Caravan ahead of the moving van and followed by me in my ‘Dragon Wagon.’ I hit the window winder button and raised my darkened windows up so I could turn on the air conditioning as we drove down the street and started out of town.

I reached down and hit the speaker on my cell phone when it started ringing in my center console,

Hey honey, you still with us? Trina asked in her sugar-sweet phone voice.

We haven’t even been driving for ten minutes Mom, of course I’m still back here. I said with a laugh.

Trina came back over the speakers of my car, Just checking sweetie don’t want you to get lost.

I raised an eyebrow to myself as I stared at the back of the gigantic moving truck thirty yards in front of me and said, I have a pretty big target to follow.

Trina laughed in the other end of the phone and said, Okay Jaryd just call me if you need a pit-stop for any reason.

I nodded for a moment forgetting that she couldn’t see me, then said, Okay will do.

I hit the off button a second after she did. I shook my head as I hit the cruise control button and kicked my feet up a little. I had driven the entire way from upstate New York to Durango, Colorado without being the one who had to call for the multiple pit-stops, and the same from Durango to Scottsdale.

I reached down into the console, past my phone and pulled out a jewel case, I flipped it open and popped a CD into the CD player in the dash. Schwarzwald snarled across my speakers and I started bobbing my head in approval. Schwarzwald had been high on my list of favorites before Hollywood made them an international name, which hadn’t ceased to alienate me from the other kids in my junior high schools before the bands rise to popularity.

I continued to bob my head to the beat, singing along with the German lyrics, it didn’t bother me that I didn’t understand a word that was being said.

When we hit the city limits Trina called again to check on me, and to let me know she had just gotten off the phone with Jason and the house would be ready for us to move in by the time we got to Fayetteville. I was sort of looking forward to Jason’s new posting, he’d told me once he trained at Fort Bragg. It was there that he’d learned how to fly helicopters, and now he was going back to where it all began to teach others how to fly them.

Jason had a pretty good military record, he had flown combat missions in the Apache helicopter in Iraq and Afghanistan and had won a lot of medals. He had discussed the idea of me joining the army now that I was eighteen; I told him I would think about it.

I hadn’t given it any thought.

We stopped off at an AM/PM to grab a few sodas and Trina had me download the coordinates to the new house in her GPS system. I swore she was a complete techno novice at times, though there were times when she could surprise me. This wasn’t one of them. The movers were waiting in the truck looking a little impatient by the time we exited the store. I was too busy sucking back on an ice cold Coca Cola to pay them any mind. Trina had asked them if they wanted anything but they had declined so I had zero sympathy for them.

I thumbed the remote start on my car and hopped in. I’d taken the time to download the coordinates to my GPS as well so I pulled out just ahead of Trina and squealed my tires in protest ahead of the rest of the convoy. I saw Trina shaking her head with a laugh in my rear view mirror.

***

It was well after seven at night in Las Cruces New Mexico when we pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant just around the corner from the hotel we had gotten for the night, the movers were off doing their own thing. I estimated they were probably drinking at the tavern next to the hotel. I sat down in the booth across from Trina and when the waitress came to our table and gave us our menus Trina thanked her quietly and opened her menu up to have a look at what the restaurant offered.

It wasn’t a super fancy restaurant, more like one of those middle class family places where you have supper every Sunday night or something. A few minutes later when the waitress came back I ordered a thick cut steak with French fries and salad appetizer and a Coke again. Trina laughed at me as I ordered, it was all on the military’s tab so I wasn’t going to let their generosity go to waste. She ordered a pork cutlet with Caesar salad and coffee. I sipped at my coke while I waited for the order to come.

I’m sorry Jaryd. Trina said to me suddenly.

I had to look up and raise an eyebrow to see what it was that she was talking about. I’m sorry we're moving again I mean.

I shrugged, It’s no biggie Mom, the semester just started so I’m good. Truth be told it didn’t really bother me all that much aside from the insufferable moving again. That was a small inconvenience though, I didn’t have a single friend at that school. To tell the truth I didn’t have a single friend in Scottsdale at all, no one had taken the time to even wish me good luck on my trip when it had been announced that I was moving.

Mr. Todd of course made a big production of my leaving in my senior year, he gave me several science books he thought I would enjoy. Which I did.

I thought about my time in Scottsdale, it had been the strangest move so far. Despite the attention from Mr. Todd no one else had given me even the time of day. I didn’t really think of myself as bad looking, I kept my black hair several inches long and continually had to brush it out of my eyes. Being over six feet tall, and I had to admit I had a decent build on me with all the swimming and weightlifting I did so it always confused me why no one seemed comfortable around me.

Suddenly I realized Trina was still staring at me, I mean it, it’s okay Mom, it’s not like we’ve never done it before.

She looked a little chagrinned as she said, I know, and Jason didn’t want to move us again, he knows it’s hard on you making new friends each time we move.

I scoffed, What friends?

Trina shook her head and said, You know what I mean, I do think this will be the last time though. This promotion is a big deal.

I also knew what she was silently saying as well, no more deployments.

I nodded silently as the waitress brought us our meal, I caught a strange look on her face when she put mine down in front of me. I couldn’t quite place the meaning of the look but she gave me the strangest glance, before she nodded and turned to Trina and asked if we wanted anything else. I asked for some steak sauce, Trina asked for a refill on her coffee, the woman nodded and walked away without another glance.

I had time to ponder the look since Trina had an annoying habit of eating in silence. This wasn’t the first time I had gotten this look, even though I didn’t know what it meant, a lot of people regarded me this way. It was perhaps a curiosity mixed with apprehension? Sort of like getting closer and closer to a cage with a wild animal in it, all the while being scared for your life but still too curious to look away.

I’d never really considered it that way, like I was some sort of mysterious danger. I more or less thought maybe they were trying to place the brand of my cologne. I shrugged quietly to myself and dug in to my food.... the steak was done to a perfect rare. I loved the taste of a good rare steak, still juicy enough to drip all over my plate but not quite flesh hanging off my fork. I think it took me about two minutes to eat the entire cut.

Maybe that’s why Trina doesn’t talk during supper? She’s too horrified at my Hoover impression?

I did notice that she didn’t even look my way as I stuffed another huge chunk of meat in my mouth. The waitress came back to the table and brought me a fresh coke even though mine was barely half drained.

She smiled at me as she put it on the table, Here you go sir. She said to me before she turned and walked away with my half full glass.

I stared after her with my mouth hanging half open.

Trina hadn’t missed that exchange either as she said, What was that about?

I shook my head as I said, No idea.... did she call me sir?

Trina giggled a little and said, She sure did.

I shook my head in disbelief and then went back to my food with renewed gusto. I saw Trina grimace and look back down at her food, yep, must disgust her. I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself very quietly as I stuffed a half a dozen fries in to my mouth. The rest of the meal passed in silence, aside from several interruptions by our waitress who seemed much too concerned for our enjoyment of the meal.

When she finally brought the check Trina held out her hand and took the folder from her. I noticed I wasn’t getting the same look from her now, she almost refused to make eye contact with me.

When she finally did meet my eyes she looked back at the floor as though she were embarrassed. Everything was to your satisfaction? she asked quietly, and I couldn’t tell if she was asking Trina, or me, or both?

It was terrific thanks. Trina said as she scrawled her signature and a decent sized tip on the sheet then handed the folder back to the waitress, who gave me one more look before she turned and walked away briskly. I just shook my head as Trina got up and began putting on her coat. I followed her example and slung my leather jacket on.

I hopped into the passenger side of the minivan, followed by Trina who had popped the automatic door locks. I slid my seatbelt on with a click right before she did, then she reached out with the key and started the van. I realized that Trina was thinking about the strange encounter with the waitress just like I was.

That was certainly, different. I said quietly after a few moments of awkward silence.

Trina just nodded and said, Well, maybe she liked you?

I laughed nervously and said, Must have been it.

Trina nodded with a smile, brushing it off as a woman thinking I was good looking, she really hadn’t seemed very old, maybe twenty or so, so it could happen.

I started to feel a little better about myself by the time we got back to the hotel, not too many had ever really paid that sort of attention to me, maybe it meant that this was going to be a change for the better. Trina opened the door and I followed her into the hotel room, stopping for a moment to admire myself in the mirror, I liked what I saw.

Trina caught me flexing in the mirror and laughed at me, which caused me to blush before I darted into the bathroom to take a shower before she could take one of her world famous hour-showers and use all the hot water.

I closed the door on her protests and started the water, I’ll be like fifteen minutes. I called out through the door. I stripped down quickly and hopped in under the hot water, adjusting it with enough cold to keep from boiling like an egg. I reached for the soap and realized with surprise that there was a radio in the bathtub, I clicked it on and set it scanning through the channels.

I found a station I liked and started singing along with the new age rock coming over the speakers. I sang out of tune till there was a bang on the wall beside me.

Apparently the wall was thin enough to be heard in the other room, I tried to ignore the piece of pale green paint that fell off the wall and splattered down into the tub by my feet. I lathered some shampoo in to my hair and went back to singing, ignoring the protests from next door, hell it wasn’t even eight in the evening. I imagine they got a moments peace while I was drowning myself rinsing the soap out of my hair, only to start again at the top of my lungs.

I walked out of the bathroom toweling my hair off, Trina was sitting on the side of her bed with her eyes clenched tight and her fingers stuck in her ears.

I glared at her as she opened one eye to peek at me comically. Please, I’m gonna be a star. I said with a wave of my hand.

Trina laughed and said, Yeah there’s an old saying, something about quitting your day job.

She had the bathroom door closed by the time the pillow struck it.

When Trina came back out almost an hour later I’d already set up my laptop and plugged in to the internet in the room and had loaded up my favorite online video game.

You better not be playing my Conjuror. she scolded me playfully.

I chuckled, Yeah I’m playing your Conjuror, when I could be playing my Monk.

Trina walked over to the desk where I was playing, she looked down over my shoulder where I was killing. What are you doing there? You don’t get much experience there.

I shrugged and said, Leveling my wizard as well. I pointed at my screen and she saw the green head of my Wizard standing beside my Monk.

Trina nodded and went over to her bed while she finished drying her hair. What time are we leaving? I asked her quickly while I killed another monster.

Trina shrugged as she reached in to her suit case and pulled out a hair brush, as she ran the brush through her hair she said, I was thinking we would be on the road by about nine, after breakfast?

I nodded as I pushed buttons, I’ll be ready. I hit a couple more buttons and killed one last monster then I logged out and unplugged my laptop and put it back in the case.

Trina was already sprawled out on her bed by the time I climbed into mine, Night. She said as I flicked out my light.

Night, Night. I said into the darkness.

Trina’s mouth was hanging open as I stuffed a half of a pancake in my mouth. I looked over at her and raised an eyebrow as syrup trickled down my chin,

What? I said, almost completely unintelligible as I started chewing.

Trina just laughed at me and cut up her egg and took a bite. I chomped down the other half of my pancake as soon as my mouth was clear enough and began cutting up my sausages, instead of devouring them whole.

The waitress, an older lady with grey hair tied back in a bun brought Trina another coffee and took my glass of Pepsi to bring me a refill. For the most part we ate in silence aside from me asking Trina how far we were going to get today.

She was smiling out the window as she said, I figure we should make it to Fayetteville around noon, on Friday if we keep up this pace.

I nodded as I stuffed more of the meat in my mouth and chewed in an orderly, proficient military manner.

I assumed from the look of the movers when we got back to the hotel that their sobriety might need to be questioned but Trina seemed to think that they were fine to drive, perhaps a little hung over. I expected a fifty car pileup on the freeway along the way now. I didn’t care much for the way they looked at my mom, I knew Trina was pretty but the movers seemed to regard her like a steak.

I figured Trina saw this but didn’t pay it any mind as she climbed into the van while I slung my jacket over the seat in my car and closed the door. I had to grab my jacket to get my keys out of the inside pocket before I put the key in the ignition and started the car. I growled under my breath when the moving van deliberately cut me off on the way out of the parking lot, though I didn’t let it bother me long on the four lane road as I whipped around them and pulled up to drive beside Trina.

I set the cruise control button and took my foot off the gas driving almost exactly parallel to Trina along the highway. I saw her laughing at me as I sang along to the music going in my CD player. Traffic was light which was a good thing as we went along our way eastward so I tapped my feet and beat my hands along the steering wheel to the beat from the speakers.

After yet another stop at a seven-eleven we were headed out of town and back on to the interstate, I had taken the time to get a nice big thirst buster for the road. The movers hadn’t bothered to stop with us this time and had gone on ahead of us. I didn’t care... I didn’t pay them any attention on the road anyway and they knew the way to where we were going.

My cell rang on the highway and I looked down to check the call display. I thumbed the hands-free and said, Hey Jason, what’s up?

Hey kid, I just wanted to let you know there are two high schools within a twenty minute drive of the house we got. He paused for a moment then said, I was going to go do your registration today, so did you want to go to the big school or the smaller one?

I pondered that for a moment, I was almost six weeks in to my senior year, how did I want to play it? At the big school I was sure I would be noticed for a day tops and then would fade into anonymity quickly. At the smaller school I may probably find myself news for a little longer, but then it dawned on me this was a Base town, so it must be a revolving door of students.

I finally said, I’ll go with the smaller school I think.

Jason said over the speaker, Sure thing Jaryd. I almost heard the apology in his thoughts, then he said, Hey, I just wanted you to know, I really am sorry we had to leave Scottsdale.

I nodded then said, I know, it’s cool.

Jason sounded sympathetic as he said, I promise this is the last one, this one is going to be a permanent posting.

I nodded again, this time a little more unconvinced,

After a few second pause he said, Either way though you’re eighteen, you won’t have to move anywhere else that you don’t want to now.

I grinned, Oh eager to kick me out are you?

Jason laughed on the other end of the line and said, You know it, your room is going to make a perfect office.

I laughed too, and then said, I think I will just live at home till I’m thirty.

Ha! Jason replied dryly, That will be the day.

I chuckled as he paused over the phone, and then said, Miss you kid, see you when you get here.

Miss you too, Dad.

As I hung up the phone I knew Jason would appreciate that one, I hadn’t called him Dad more than ten times in the last two years since they had told me I was adopted and had actually proven that it wasn’t just what all parents say.

I hadn’t taken it well that night when they told me, the argument hadn’t been a kind one. I remembered the talk with Trina that night after Jason had gone to the Base. I remembered how she had started to cry when she had told me about when they found out they couldn’t have kids, and how difficult the decision to adopt a child had been.

She told me a lot of things that night, like how hard it had been for them to come to the decision to adopt, or how hard it had been to actually adopt a child. Turned out adoption services took into special consideration Jason’s career choice and the dangers that were associated with it, they almost turned them down.

Trina also told me about the day they had gone to the children’s home in Oklahoma City to adopt their first, and what would prove to be their only child. I guess there had been a lot of babies there, but apparently something about me had caught Trina’s heart and she’d decided on me.

In retrospect I guess I was happy they had picked me, because they had done just that. They picked me. You know the old story, you can’t pick your family. Jason and Trina did pick their family, and I don’t think I could have imagined a better pair of parents for any child. I had to admit I was pretty lucky.

Chapter 2

We got in to Fayetteville just after three in the afternoon, Trina had been pretty accurate except she never did take her frequent pit stops into account. I followed close behind her as she drove us through the streets, we only past the same mall twice this trip. It had been worse when we got to Scottsdale and we had ended up lost for several hours. Finally she turned us down a quiet and well treed road. I could tell which place was ours with the moving van parked in the drive.

We pulled up to the curb and I stared out my windshield at the house, it was huge! Three floors of an old white house stared back at me as I fumbled for the ignition to shut off the engine to my car. I climbed out of the car and zipped my jacket up, it had been almost seventy degrees when we left Scottsdale and now the temperature felt closer to freezing. I stared at the house all the while as I took a few tentative steps up to the curb. Trina had called it Victorian, which meant little more than old to me, but it was so nice.

I looked at the green storm shutters on the windows, all propped open despite the colder weather. Jason was already standing in the driveway as one mover guided the other one back in the moving truck.

Trina jumped out of her minivan and ran up and threw her arms around her husband, who lifted her clear off the ground as they spun together, Oh Jason this is perfect!

Jason grinned lopsidedly and said, Well it isn’t small, and the picket fence is green... But it’s ours. Jason looked over at me as I leaned on the fender of my car blowing in to my hands to keep them warm,