 
Blood Shadow

Book of Samuel

Phil Wohl

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2011 Phil Wohl

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ONE

After over a century of one of the deepest blood feuds in the history of inhuman warfare, peace had finally descended on the sleepy coastal town of Beach Haven, New York. The unstable element of calm, however, is that it can retain its current form only when the variables remain relatively constant.

"Can you make them believe that we no longer have to pay taxes on the property?" Thaddeus Brewster said to Thomas Hartwell as they sat around a large round table at the Beach Haven Diner.

Hartwell looked around at Cal Brewster, Aaron Driscoll, Agent Blake Wallace, Daniel Thompson, Andrew Brewster, Garrison Phillips, Joe Winters, Brandon Justice - who dropped the Winters last name and went back to his original surname - and then at Thaddeus and replied, "I can do you one better. What if you lived in a house that doesn't even exist?" referencing his own house, which was masked from mortal view.

The combination of vampires and their protectors with their natural enemies, the hunters, appeared to be working out on the surface. But would taking the big step of moving in together be prudent?

Cal looked over to his dad, Thaddeus, for some kind of age-old wisdom.

"That works for me! We have a few million left but I don't want to go back to robbing banks again!"

One relative newcomer was a sponge for information.

"You robbed banks?" neophyte Maxwell Thompson excitedly asked as he glided in and took a seat at the table.

"Where did he come from?" Andrew Brewster questioned.

"Max, you have to stop sneaking up on us like that," his father Daniel instructed.

"Maxie's too fast for his own good," Hartwell added in a somewhat proud tone of voice.

"I know, Kayla does the same thing to us," Cal concurred. "It's starting to make me feel old."

Maxwell was a shade over two years old but had grown like a beanstalk into the strapping body of an 18 year old. Yet, it appeared that everyone was still talking to him as if he was a toddler.

"Why does everyone still talk to me like I'm a baby?" Max asked the collective.

Agent Blake stepped up, "No, that's not true little one..."

The group watched as Max threw his hands up in disgust, then turned to Blake to convey that he blew it.

Daniel spoke for the group.

"All right, Max. Point taken. Now sit down and have a few cheeseburgers."

Max was happy to be out and to be just one of the guys. Everyone at the table knew that no matter how accomplished and skilled they had become, Maxwell Thompson had the advanced physical and mental tools to eclipse them all.

The meal was a hearty and happy hour, and then Kayla walked in to say hello and pick up her man. She started by kissing her father, Andrew, and then greeted everyone else at the table until she got to her intended target. Kayla wrapped her arms around Max and said, "I love you" with a little more emotion than usual.

Max always felt loved by his girl and didn't think much about the added emotion. But he was one of the few people at the table that didn't sense that something was different.

When Kayla simultaneously put her hands on Daniel and Hartwell's shoulders in greeting, they both got a flash that gave them a clear view into her inner being. As vampires, their lives were continuously connected to the heart and everything encompassing the bloodstream.

Daniel talked to Hartwell internally as Kayla walked around the table and she and Max left together.

"Two. Did you feel two?"

Hartwell wasn't quite ready for the reality of the situation and his face turned a little paler than usual.

"Yeah, that was two."

Cal the hunter never stopped pursuing Hartwell even in times of peace. He looked across the table at his rival and stared deep into his watery eyes. Hartwell wiped his eyes with his hand and then placed the ice shavings on his plate. The frozen tears of the vampire quickly melted into a small pool of water, but that didn't slow Cal's pursuit of the truth.

He rose from his seat and said to Drew, "I'll be right back. I have to go to the can."

Cal then glared at Hartwell and looked toward the bathroom area once they made eye contact. The eldest vampire was a little slow to the take, but decided to finally follow Cal once he incorporated a head flip with some rapid eye movement.

Hartwell trailed Cal right past the bathrooms and into the vacant back room.

"What the hell?" Cal exclaimed.

As usual, Hartwell refused to play along.

"What's your problem? I don't have to go to the bathroom."

The old Cal would have punched first and talked second after a remark like that. However, these were different times and Cal was trying to work on a new look: anguished restraint.

"We have to get that internal communications thing going!"

Hartwell stood in front of Cal stone-faced, fully knowing that his communications preference could be fulfilled at any time.

"What do you have to say in private that you couldn't say out loud?" he asked internally.

Cal was so worked up that he didn't realize Hartwell had already complied with his wishes.

"I wanted to ask you..." Cal said before realizing that the vampire - and part-time ventriloquist - had communicated with him without moving his mouth.

"Okay! Cool!" he exclaimed once he caught on. "I like you a lot better when you don't flap those sharp gums!" Cal said internally as the conversation went all-internal.

Hartwell nodded at Cal, "You think that face is pretty when your mouth is open and is catching flies?"

"Prettier than yours!" Cal shot back, stepping into the word trap.

Hartwell shook his head from side to side and replied, "That's all you, Calvin."

Cal laughed out loud instead of throwing down.

"Okay, blood-sucker. Just answer one simple question."

"Shoot."

"Ever since I've known you, and that is a lot longer than either one of us can remember, I've only seen you cry twice. So why the frozen water today? Was the chili spicier than usual?"

"Twice?" Hartwell contested.

"I saw you cry that one time you killed me after we returned from our mortality vacation."

"How did you see that? Weren't you dead?"

Cal replied, "We can see things for a little while before the system shuts down."

"So you saw that one time I..." Hartwell started saying until Cal knowingly interrupted. "Yeah, and we'll talk about that later. But the other time you cried was when Maxwell was born."

"It isn't every day that you become a grandfather," Hartwell stated.

Cal then internally played the series of events that led up to the frozen waterfall. He saw Kayla's hands resting on Hartwell and Daniel's shoulders, and then the spontaneous combustion ensued.

"Or a great grandfather!"

TWO

Hartwell begged Cal not to say anything, at least not yet, as they returned to the table in a staggered fashion to try to avoid suspicion. But, the problem with trying to keep things on the down-low with a bunch of supernatural beings is that they're a bunch of supernatural beings.

Thaddeus and Garrison knew something was up and everyone appeared to be grilling Daniel about what he knew. Hartwell turned back to Cal before they even had a chance to sit down and said, "I got this."

There was a continuous audible buzz around the table until Hartwell said, "Settle down. Settle down," as he used his hands to emphasize his point.

"What's going on here, Thomas?" a concerned Thaddeus asked.

Hartwell was always a fast thinker on his feet.

"Why don't we all meet back at the house in two hours, and then I will explain everything," he said looking at Cal and then Daniel.

These guys liked to eat, so they put their collective curiosity aside for a bit in order to put a small dent in their appetites.

The meal ended and everyone scattered to various parts of the town.

"Max, we need to talk to you," Daniel said internally to his son.

Kayla was in town getting her hair done, so Maxed flashed over to the Beach Haven Sporting Goods to meet his dad and grandpa'.

Hartwell turned and Max was standing behind him in the golf aisle.

"My god, you're fast!" Hartwell exclaimed in surprise.

"You rang?" Max panned as he picked up a driver from a large bin of golf clubs.

"This game doesn't look so hard," Max said as Daniel came behind him and took the club out of his hands.

"You gotta' watch out here. You could kill someone with this thing."

"Or poke their eye out," a jesting Hartwell added trying to be a buffer between father and son.

"I have to work on my short game," experienced golf pro Hartwell added as he led the boys toward the large putting green in the middle of the cavernous store.

He then looked at the putters available for use and the fastidious nature of the vampire prohibited him from using such germ-infested items. So he zipped home and then came back with three sparkling-clean putters.

"Here," he said to Daniel first and then Maxwell, "these will be better for us."

Hartwell measured up the first ball from about 20 feet and stroked it smoothly, propelling the dimpled white ball effortlessly into the middle of the hole.

"That's easy!" Max said as he stepped up and synthesized the data into his system.

He pulled the club back and Hartwell coughed under his breath, while his dad grunted, "Miss!"

Max was startled by the razzing and reflexed a screaming line-drive about five feet off the ground and headed for the front window like a guided missile. Daniel saw the need for action before the ball either became impaled in someone's head, or shattered the floor-to-ceiling windows and then continued to do damage in the town.

He jetted toward the ball and stopped it before it found a home in a cashier's throat, stopping a moment to smile at Hartwell and Max before returning back with the ball unnoticed.

"That could have gone wrong," Hartwell said. "We have to work on your swing, Max."

"But you guys..." Max pleaded.

"You have to learn how to shut the crowd out," Daniel stated, channeling his days as a star volleyball player.

"When?" Max started asking until Hartwell anticipated the question.

"Your dad was a star volleyball player in high school. In fact, your mom and Uncle Drew were awesome, too!"

"Never lost a match. We were The Three Slamigos!" Daniel explained.

Max couldn't believe his ears. "What? Why volleyball?"

"It was the only sport we could all play together," Daniel said.

Hartwell added, "It was also the only sport you were less likely to either kill somebody, or defy all of the modern laws of physics without being noticed.

"That, too!" Daniel beamed.

He then stepped up and measured a 15-foot putt.

"Have you noticed anything different about your girlfriend lately?"

Max was young and impetuous, so it was no surprise when he zipped out and then zipped back before mere mortals could blink.

"No."

"You sure about that?" Daniel asked.

Max went back and forth again as Hartwell sunk another lengthy putt.

Max predictably returned, still with no idea what his male role models were talking about.

"Five bucks you miss that," Hartwell said to Daniel, who proceeded to do just that and then hand over a finsky to his father.

"What am I looking for exactly?" Max questioned.

Hartwell focused on his next putt and didn't look at Max.

"Put your hand on her shoulder and tell me what you see?"

Max returned as Hartwell stroked the ball toward the hole.

"My hand got wet. She's getting her hair done."

"Inside!" Daniel impatiently exclaimed.

Max was starting to lose patience with the game of 20 questions. Hartwell's putt fell inches short of the hole and he reached in his pocket to pull out the five dollars that Daniel just gave him. He extended his arm as Max threw a mini temper-tantrum by slamming his left leg to the ground, sending a tremor through the sporting goods floor and also part of the town.

The after-shock caused the ball to drop into the cup and elicited Hartwell to recoil his arm and return the green paper to its rightful home in his front right pocket.

Daniel was a bit distracted from losing the bet in such a back-handed fashion, but he broke from the disappointment long enough to say, "Two beats, Maxie!"

"Two beats," Maxwell muttered to himself until the reality of the statement kicked in and then shifted into hyper-drive.

He raced back to Kayla, the quarter-of-a-second flash felt like hours in Max-time. She wasn't nearly as fast as Max, but she felt the warmth of his lips without actually attaining visual confirmation.

Max looked dazed as he stood in the middle of the putting green with a smirk on his face and the two 'peace' fingers of his right hand aloft.

Hartwell muttered something to Daniel internally and the struck the small white ball with the face of his putter. The ball rolled through Max's slightly-parted legs and nestled gently into the sparkling white cup.

Daniele exclaimed, "WOW!" as he jabbed his hand in his pocket and pulled out a $20 bill.

"I have to learn how to play this game!"

Hartwell waved the money at his son, "Then you'll have plenty of time to get this back one day!" he said out loud and then concluded his thought for Daniel's thoughts only, "when we're playing with our foursome!" Hartwell winked.

Daniel smiled and the two of them glided over and hugged Max in the middle of the store.

THREE

The women were a little more hesitant to mix together than the men. Back at Hartwell's house, the first of the female sanction to object was also the last person anyone who would have thought would object.

"Are you saying that we are all going to live together?" Maggie asked Hartwell as they talked in their bedroom.

"I'm just as amazed as you are that I came to that conclusion, but I was thinking of you and the rest of the family when I came up with it."

Maggie couldn't believe the war was actually over. She had to make sure before diving into the deep end of the rivalry pool with both feet.

"What brought this about? I mean, besides the Winters' family and the peaceful thoughts that followed all of that fighting."

Hartwell glided in close and hugged his wife, whispering in her ear, "Kayla's going to have a baby."

Maggie pulled back and had absolutely no idea what to say next. She could sense, however, that he had a little more information left to spill by the extreme glow in his face.

"A boy?" she said catching on to the paternal pride of the male generational link.

Hartwell nodded and the room was filled with ice-cubes of joy within seconds.

Other vampires can always sense when their brethren are crying, especially when the core temperature of a structure drops precipitously.

Belinda was on the move the moment the first ice cube hit the floor. She glided through Hartwell and Maggie's bedroom and said, "What's going on? Why are you guys cubing?"

She saw their smiling faces, "Ah! Tears of joy! What's the happy occasion?"

"We're all going to live together!" Maggie exclaimed.

"No, really, what's the good news?"

"Kayla is pregnant with Max's son!"

"Oh then, that is good news!" Maggie exclaimed as she glided over and joined the unflavored Icee party.

One-by-one the remaining members of the vampire/protector clan filtered in until seven of the eight members were in the room waiting for Maxwell to come home. He entered without being seen but once discovered, he was tossed up in the air in a hero's welcome.

Max made the most important stop of all between the sporting goods store and home. If he and Kayla were going to be outed on the grand stage in front of all of the families, then he was going to make sure that the most important person would be clued in to the discovery.

Kayla walked out of the hair salon in all of her splendor and Max was instantly enthralled.

He gasped, "You look beautiful, my love!"

Kayla blushed a bit at her boyfriend's obviously honest statement.

"Thanks, Max!" she said as he sped over and kissed her.

The connection of their lips sent the imagery Max intended of a journey from lips to her stomach, revealing her warm heartbeat and then the heartbeat of another.

Kayla was in shock.

"I'm pregnant?"

She then blurted out the next thing that passed through her mind.

"I was born just two years ago and now I am having a baby? How did you find out?"

She didn't trust that Maxwell could have figured it out himself, and his feelings were slightly hurt. Although, deep down, he knew she was right.

"You touched my father and grandfather's shoulders and they detected two heartbeats," Max explained and then transmitted the flashback to Kayla.

Their initial inclination was to race back to their respective families and break the news. It had been such a short period of time since they were a couple and the cohesive force between them was still being fused.

"Do we have to tell everybody?" Kayla asked.

Max replied, "People are going to find out anyway, so we might as well tell them."

He saw the confused look in Kayla's eyes, so he sought to ease her pain.

"Together."

Kayla resisted the thought of a united front a first, largely because the families had been going at each other for so long. It had been her dream, almost since birth, to have peace within the families so all of those dynamic personalities could fuse together into one productive unit.

She looked at Max and replied, "Together," as they hugged.

Hartwell and Cal were back at Hartwell's house, making the necessary preparations to expanding the house in order to accommodate all of the families.

Garrison walked by and asked, "Do you think we should add a second floor, or simply extend the current floor plan?"

Thaddeus then entered the discussion.

"Don't need to hear footsteps overhead."

Daniel listened to the conversation and then quickly processed the variables.

"Check out this schematic," he stated as he brought up a 4-D illustration of an open-design, multi-level architectural design, where privacy and flow were paramount.

"Wow!" Thaddeus exclaimed. "How long have you been able to do that?"

Hartwell interjected, "He picks up new things ever day."

Daniel smiled, "I just thought about the design, and then it was there," he said, motioning to the model.

Andrew Brewster was always the show-off of the group. From his days as the center hitter as part of The Three Slamigos in high school, to this moment, when he stepped up and flexed his new-found mental muscles. Daniel always seemed to bring out the best, as well as the worst, in Drew.

He stepped up to the design and said, "We could put a bunch of floors on this thing."

Drew took his right hand and manipulated the design around to add a few floors.

"We could also add a solar-powered elevator."

Agent Blake Wallace jetted into the room, "Or even add a cool fireman's pole in the center of the house," as a joyous image of Blake slid down the pole in the design.

"Yeah, that would be cool!" Aaron concurred as he stood next to Blake.

The women were in town and zoomed back into the house one-by-one as Aaron finished speaking. Emily Brewster was first through the door, being that 'first' was still important to her.

"What is cool, honey?"

"The fireman's pole running through the middle of the house," Blake interjected.

Belinda said, "Who puts a pole in the middle of the house?"

Carla and Nicole, fresh off their endless battle of fight-therapy, were now as connected as Kayla had hoped.

"Did you tell these guys that they could design or house?" Nicole asked.

"It wasn't me," Carla replied. I'm surprised they didn't install stripper poles and fantasy sports draft boards in each room."

Drew looked at Daniel and exclaimed, "Dude!" to see if Daniel could incorporate those enhancements to the design.

Maggie brought everyone back down to earth.

"There will be no stripper poles in my house!"

She then clarified her position.

"In our house."

Sharon backed her up, "Amen!"

The architectural design displayed in the center of the room was constantly changing as suggestions continued to fly cross the room. Daniel was trying to make everyone happy, but it was looking more and more like 14 separate houses were going to be built.

Just as the noise in the room reached a crescendo, Max and Kayla appeared but remained unnoticed, until Daniel and Hartwell realized that their discovery was about to become public. Hartwell lightly smacked Cal on the arm with the back of his hand,which would have formerly sparked a brawl.

Cal looked at Hartwell, who nodded in Max and Kayla's direction. The three men were in a silent accord about what was about to go down, and this was confirmed by the glow on the couple's faces. The hunter put his hands up and said, "Whoa! Can we all calm down for a moment?"

The conversations were still boisterous, so Cal looked at his dad, as usual, for help. Thaddeus changed into a hawk and called out in a shrieking tone, causing everybody in the room to cover their ears while the front window glass shattered.

He then changed back into his human form and dropped back down to the floor. Garrison, his oldest rival and peer, looked at him like he had gone mad.

"You could have just whistled," Gary commented as he positioned his tongue and then emitted a high-pitched whistle, which blew out the kitchen windows before Max and Kayla walked into the center of the room.

The carefully walked over the glass as Max stated, "What's going on in here?"

Before anyone could respond, three stray dogs walked through the door and then over to Garrison.

Belinda was every bit of the den mother, and her penchant for fastidiousness was even more pronounced than her vampire brethren. The canines were dirty and flea-ridden, at least they were before Belinda got a hold of them.

Her son from another mother, Brandon Justice, said "Wow!" as the dogs went through a full wash, a flea bath, had their nails clipped and ears flushed, received all of the necessary shots, and were wearing flea collars.

The other vampires also cleaned up all of the glass in about the time it took for the protectors and hunters to inhale and exhale.

"I always wanted a cleaning crew," Emily Brewster said to her twin brother.

"Yeah, I could get used to this," Cal replied.

FOUR

Kayla and Max had come back to Hartwell's to make a big announcement. They experienced 18 years of aging in only two years, culminating with the ultimate consummation of their burgeoning relationship.

While most two year-olds would be celebrating the graduation from diapers to pull-ups, from bottles to sippy cups, Kayla and Max were entering an unchartered, grown-up space.

Before the announcement hit the waterfront airwaves, various connected family members already sensed what would soon be apparent. With Max's great grandpa' Hartwell, and father Daniel the first to know, and then Kayla's grandpa' Cal informed shortly thereafter, word matriculated fairly quickly after that. Daniel and Hartwell told their wives, Nicole and Maggie, Cal told his wife Sharon, who told Cal's sister, Emily, who told her husband Aaron and then her father, Thaddeus.

A similar dynamic existed within the vampire-protector sect: Nicole told Belinda, who filled in Agent Blake, who passed on the good news to Great Grandpa' Garrison. So, by the time that Max and Kayla entered the room, the only beings that had not heard about the pregnancy were the three brilliantly-clean dogs that had been scrounging for food only moments earlier.

While the news of the pregnancy spread, it was the sex of the baby that remained a mystery to most. The shock, and then joy, of the pregnancy had eclipsed any subsequent thought on what was actually in Kayla's womb. Max and Kayla stepped forward and were now surrounded in a loving circle of family.

"We wanted to announce something to all of you together," Max stated.

He then looked at Kayla, as the emotions of the day finally started to take her over.

"I have thought of this day ever since I can remember, which may not seem like a long time to most of you but it has been my life's pursuit. To see all of you standing together in peace and love in this room..." she said before the tears started flowing.

The ice cubes from the vampires hit the floor and gradually turned into pools of water from the collective heat in the room. The dogs were quite thirsty and welcomed the puddles of charged-up liquid, which forged their internal organs to function even better than their outside appearance looked.

She turned and looked at Max, who continued where his girlfriend left off.

"It is with great pride and love that I announce that Kayla is pregnant with our baby."

The crowd cheered and the 16 people met in a joyous group hug. The 17th person in the room had something to add, though...

Max heard a voice and asked through the din, "What's that?"

He then backed up a few steps and yelled, "There's one more thing!"

The crowd quieted as Max continued, "Samuel wants us to know that he loves us all!"

Nothing should have surprised this group of supernatural beings, but the airing of a new name created somewhat of a recognition delay. Samuel wasn't aware at that moment that he could communicate with each and every member of the group, or he would have surely made his presence known.

Everyone in the group stepped forward to congratulate Max and Kayla, and then the 'old guard' – Garrison, Thaddeus and Hartwell, branched off and chatted.

"Is it me, or has her stomach... how should I put this?" Hartwell said.

"Sprouted?" Garrison filled the blank.

"Yes, sprouted. Thanks, Gary..." Hartwell replied.

The three elders cocked their heads in tandem to get a better angle of Kayla's little baby bulge.

"Yeah, that wasn't there yesterday," Thaddeus stated.

"I don't even think that was there when we first walked in," Hartwell added.

"I give that kid three months," Daniel added as joined the conversation.

"Three months of what?" Drew asked as he moved toward the heat in the room.

Cal wasn't far behind his nephew, "That kid's gonna' pop out of that jail."

"It isn't so bad in here," Samuel said to himself as he heard the manly conversation.

"Don't get too used to it," Max said internally to his son after hearing what he said. "I get the feeling we're going to need you before long."

FIVE

Life was much different in turn-of-the-20th-century San Francisco. The panicked public was talking much less about addition, and was solely-focused on mass subtraction. The black plague had swept through the 'City by the Bay' and the population was thinning as a result of this contagion.

The lack of able bodies was also radically impacting the vampire population. While the strains of the insipid virus did not kill most vampires, it weakened them to the point of near mortality, which was like death for most vampires.

One of the families impacted by the plague was the Hartwell's: Thomas, his wife Maggie, and their son Nathaniel. The Hartwell's had been thriving in post-Gold Rush San Francisco and love was in abundant supply.

That was, until, the plague entered their house and claimed the life of both Maggie and Nathaniel, who is now Daniel. Thomas was crushed, as he aimlessly wandered the streets before returning home to end a life that was rendered meaningless without his wife and son. He picked up a gun to his head and was only seconds away from ending it all, before a knock on the door gave him another option.

"Please go away!" Hartwell yelled as he picked up his heavy gun and pointed it toward his head.

"Don't do it," the voice calmly said from the other side of the door. "I have a way that you will be able to see your wife and son again."

Hartwell had truly run out of options. It was either blow his brains out, or listen to a voice promising full restitution. He walked to the door and lowered the gun to his side, "How do I know you're not one of vile things that bite people?"

"I'm offended," the man said. "How do I know that you're not lousy with the plague?"

Hartwell nodded his head in understanding, "Well, how can I get my family back?" he said as he leaned the barrel of the gun against the door.

The man literally wasn't born yesterday, "You're going to have to let me in to find that out, Thomas Hartwell. What other choice do you have?"

Hartwell reflected briefly on the events of his life and then looked over at the loaded gun. He opened the door and said, "Okay, you can come in," which unlocked his last seal of protection in the mortal world.

While Hartwell kept a tight grip on the gun, the distinguished-looking gentleman walked in slowly, hardly befitted the demeanor or aggressive tendencies of a savage beast. The man's beige wool, three-piece suit, well-groomed mustache, and classic bowler hat that he removed and held in his hand, lessened Hartwell's anxiety as it had for the hundreds of his unsuspecting victims. He then conveyed the mental message, "You can put the gun away. We are all friends here."

So Hartwell put the gun in the top drawer of his desk and asked, "Can I get you anything, friend? I'm going to put up some tea."

The man reached down into his vest pocket and pulled out a gold pocket watch, which he had picked up along the way. He opened the engraved latch and realized that his window of opportunity was closing fast. Surely the hunters were tracking his scent and would be closing in within minutes.

Hartwell walked back into the room and was instructed to sit next to the man on the couch.

"My name is Alexander Lowery and I am here to offer you eternal life." Lowery thought for a moment and then decided to slightly alter his claim, "In any event, you can last pretty long if you eat people on a high-fiber diet and do your best to avoid those persistent hunters."

Hartwell didn't really care about himself and his life at this point, "What about my wife and son?"

Lowery's hair was slicked back and finely combed as he stroked his moustache before speaking in a dramatic tone, "Your boy shall rise again on the moon of the new century. Oh, and your wife should be along in another eight to 10 moons after that."

Hartwell was confused, "How long is a moon?"

Lowery replied, "A moon is about a month in most circles, give or take a few days. In Germany..." he started before screams and heavy bangs could be heard in the street below.

A muscular fellow wearing a finely-tailored suit burst into the room, "My good fellow, you might want to speed things up a bit!"

Lowery's eyes transformed from brown to orange and razor-sharp fangs sprouted from the upper and lower portions of his mouth, as he ferociously bit into the right side of Hartwell's neck.

The searing pain Hartwell initially felt was replaced by the euphoria of seeing his wife and son waiting for him in the distance. Lowery quickly drained Hartwell's blood and then opened the vein on his right wrist to keep Hartwell from dying, "No, not just yet. You have some work to do before you see them."

Hartwell drank the blood from Lowery's wrist as if he was a baby with a bottle. Only this 'formula' was the bridge from mortality to immortality, from man to monster.

Lowery was able to track Hartwell over the years, but chose to view his progression from afar. Hartwell and Lowery blazed two completely separate and distinct vampire lives. Hartwell choose to focus on reuniting with his family, while Lowery made a succinct and concerted effort to procreate the dark race.

Hartwell's lone disciple was Brandon Justice, who he sired only a few years before reuniting with his reborn family. Justice was now going back to be with Hartwell and company following a few-year stint with a group of effective peacemakers, who had returned back to Portland, Oregon, to tie up some loose ends.

Lowery, on the other fang, was sired in a period when the vampire population was thinning to the point of near-extinction. So he felt it was his duty, and rite of passage as a vampire, to sire as many vampires as possible. While Hartwell was satisfied with draining people of their blood as a source of sustenance, Lowery traveled the globe in his 150 years as a vampire and now had a veritable army of disciples.

Alexander Lowery had only recently become re-introduced to Hartwell and his small group. When Kayla and Maxwell were born, the natural coupling of Daniel and Nicole – vampire and protector – and Andrew and Carla – both hunters – went largely unnoticed. But, the coupling of Maxwell and Kayla – vampire and hunter – gathered immortal energy until the creation of Samuel sent a sonic boom through the bloodline of Lowery.

While vampires and hunters had mixed in the past, this was the first coupling in the Lowery 'family tree' that produced offspring. This was viewed as a direct betrayal against all vampires, especially one such as Lowery who had spent his vampire life trying to strengthen the coven.

SIX

The conception of Samuel most impacted Hartwell, after of course Kayla and Maxwell. It was a case of Hartwell knowing something was up before he and Daniel recognized two heartbeats within Kayla when she touched their shoulders.

Images of Lowery came to Hartwell in his visions, both while awake and during times of meditation and rest. While he didn't share the details of these visions with anyone else, his son Daniel started to sense that something was afoot, but he didn't approach Hartwell until after the official announcement of Kayla's pregnancy.

"You don't seem like yourself lately," Daniel said to Hartwell as they hovered above the ocean as if they were sitting in a boat. He then acted like he was casting a fishing line, although there was nothing visible in his hands.

Hartwell was very rarely serious unless it directly involved his family or doing battle.

"Who am I acting like?"

Daniel ingested the sarcastic response and returned with his own barb.

"Like a really jittery, paranoid version of yourself."

Hartwell looked around because he didn't want to air his visions with the group just yet.

"Got one!" Daniel said as he flipped his faux-fishing rod and a large fish emerged from the water and nestled on top of the water as if it had landed in the boat. He was now wearing a bucket hat with fishing lures attached all around.

"Love the hat!" Hartwell said, trying to change the subject and put off any talk about his visions.

Daniel was not buying it, "So, these visions you've been having..." was all he had to say to reinvigorate the conversation.

"How did you..." Hartwell started to say, before realizing how extraordinary and advanced his son had become.

"I just scanned you and saw this really creepy guy who was threatening you." Daniel said and then tossed his hat into the sky until it disappeared. He then pointed to the flapping fish next to him and flicked his finger, propelling the fish into the air and then to safety back into its watery home.

He leaned closer to Hartwell and sneered, "I don't like it when people threaten you."

Hartwell smirked, "Yeah, I don't like it either," he replied as the two men touched heads in an expression of love and devotion.

Daniel was instantly linked into a vision of Alexander Lowery, which he projected in front of the two men on the water.

"Thomas, I can see you found your son..."

"Who is this guy?" Daniel asked Hartwell.

Lowery was able to interact with the men.

"I am your father's sire, my son."

Daniel wasn't playing any of that, especially from a source that appeared to be threatening his family.

"I am not your son," Daniel hissed.

Hartwell had never seen his son so combative and confrontational.

"No need for hostility, for you can look at me as a grandfather of sorts," Lowery said, trying to keep Daniel calm.

Daniel scanned the vampire's image and replied, "In blood only."

Lowery then turned his attention to Hartwell and his mood quickly turned south.

"As for you, Thomas... I am quite disappointed in your progression. Only sired once in your century while our race has become vulnerable."

Hartwell knew that Lowery would not be confronting him just because he had only sired Brandon Justice. He tried to stall for time so he could tell Daniel to protect Kayla.

"So, what is this, my century performance review?" Hartwell panned.

Daniel received the message and then left his projected image on the water while he zoomed back to the house to locate Kayla.

It was quiet on the main floor, as Daniel located Kayla sleeping in a bedroom that had just been built by Thaddeus. He sent out a distress signal and the room was filled up within seconds.

Belinda was getting a pedicure and still had fresh polish on her toes, "Oh darn, it streaked!"

"We're under attack," Daniel simply said.

He looked at Max, "They're after Kayla," he said and then zoomed out of the room and replaced his image on the water with the real thing.

Cal, Thaddeus and Garrison organized everyone back at the house, while Kayla slept peacefully in the midst of pending chaos.

"What's wrong?" Samuel asked Maxwell.

Maxwell thought, "You are what's wrong," after he scanned the conversation on the water.

"You have breached the covenants of centuries of vampires by letting your descendants mix with the enemy and produce a species of which cannot be," Lowery said to Hartwell.

Samuel was gaining in strength, knowledge and size by the minute, and he realized for the first time that his being was a crossing of the streams of the immortals.

"I am what's wrong, daddy?"

Max recovered quickly, "You are about all that is right in the world, Samuel. As long as I am here, nobody will ever harm you."

Kayla came out of a deep sleep momentarily, "Are you talking to my stomach again?" before she floated back asleep.

"He talked to me first!" Max said internally as Samuel smiled.

Meanwhile, back on the water, the verbal battle between the ages continued as Cal joined Hartwell and Daniel in their discussion with Lowery.

"Hunter, glad you could join us," Lowery stated in his usually creepy and calm voice.

Cal was ready to reply before he sensed vampire, really bad vampire.

"Do you know this guy?" he asked Hartwell.

"He sired me," Hartwell replied.

"Oh, that would explain the stench," Cal said to Lowery with the intent of only getting under his skin and not his allies.

Lowery smiled, "You will get your chance, hunter. In fact, you all will get your chance soon enough to pay for your transgressions. Your day of atonement will once on the day of the new moon."

Daniel and Cal looked at Hartwell for clarification, but he put his hands up – palms up – to say he didn't know.

"I'm a little out of practice."

Lowery rolled his eyes, "Even more disappointed now, Thomas." He then continued, first starting to explain the 'moon' concept. "A moon... oh, the hell with it! Just be ready to meet your maker two months from today!" he yelled as his image vanished.

The three men absorbed the information and then Hartwell looked at Cal in confusion, "How are you standing here right now?"

"Yeah, I thought you didn't like water," Daniel added.

"Max brought me out here," Cal answered.

"I'm here with Kayla," Max said internally to the men.

Daniel said, "Thanks, Max." He then turned to Cal, his father in this life, and said, "We have two months to make you guys more comfortable around water."

He then looked at his father in his previous life, and said to Hartwell, "By comfortable, I mean in the water not in the bottom of the ocean for 15 years."

Hartwell looked at Cal, "Sorry about that."

Cal smiled, "Just give me a ride home and we'll call it even, for now."

Daniel held Cal's arms and scanned his genetic code, making a shocking and potentially game-changing discovery.

"Hold that thought," he said as he flashed back to the house.

SIX

It was now summer, which meant that vampires on the East Coast were situated on Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, the Hampton's, Fire Island, Newport and the Jersey Shore. The dense concentration of people in these areas made it easier to target the wealthy, who usually had a superior grade of blue blood.

Alexander Lowery had been gradually gathering his charges in anticipation of snuffing out a 'new evil' that was about to emerge in Beach Haven. He had sired hundreds-of-thousands of vampires in his 150 years in the field, although many were now either mortal or had passed away. With 100 deaths as a barrier for all vampires on the road to mortality, it became difficult to protect them all.

Lowery had been stuck on 99 deaths for the better part of the last 25 years. He actually came up with Hartwell's strategy of burying the hunter on the ocean floor years before Hartwell used it on Cal. He had all of his vampires employ a similar strategy - this way, he was able to build his vampire and protector army unabated. Hunters were buried from the rocky coast of the Pacific Ocean to the sandy beaches of the Atlantic Ocean. So, their march through Hartwell and friends to Samuel was a clear, unobstructed path.

Lowery was talking to his long-time protector Abraham Ellison.

"It's going to be like Custar's last stand at Little Bighorn. They have 18 people and we have thousands."

"Never underestimate an opponent that is backed into a corner on their home turf," Ellison replied.

"We have numbers and we have the cause. What do they have? Hartwell? He didn't even act like a true vampire over the past 100 years. What kind of army does he have? He only sired one little boy, and that kid is afraid of peanuts!"

"I don't think he likes any nuts," Abe replied.

"Even cashews?" Lowery questioned.

"Nope."

"How about pistachios?"

"Doesn't like those either," Ellison answered.

"Filberts?"

"Not sure what they are, but I'm sure those are out, too."

"Walnuts? He has to like walnuts."

Abe was losing patience with the aging Lowery.

"What part of 'no nuts' don't you understand?"

"You've been getting testy with me lately," Lowery shot back.

Ellison finally said what had to be said.

"If you haven't noticed, we've been aging a lot more than we used to."

While it was true that Lowery had put his mortality and the mortality of his protectors and hunters on hold, the artificial nature of the blockage was wreaking havoc on the unnatural order of things. Lowery was 30 years old when he was turned by Christopher Monroe while vacationing in San Diego, California. Monroe had since filled in his punch card of 100 deaths and then lasted another 10 years as a mortal before being trampled to death by a runaway horse and carriage.

Lowery now looked every bit of 45 to 50 in modern times, while Ellison progression had been significantly steeper, putting the seasoned protector well above the minimum age to become an AARP member.

"We only have one death left..." Ellison stated.

Lowery was bordering on over-confidence, if not the other side of that cocky fence already.

"They'll have to get through thousands just to get a shot. And, who is going to take me out, Thomas Hartwell?"

Ellison could not argue with such logic, "You've got a point there. I don't see him finishing the job in this lifetime."

Hartwell's wife Maggie had known him for lifetimes and could sense that her man was on the edge.

"What's wrong, Thomas?"

There is no easy way to tell your wife that your very presence is endangering the whole family and, most importantly, a child still in the womb.

"We appear to have a major problem."

Hartwell was usually less wordy and more precise with his communication.

Maggie looked at him with concerned eyes, at first, and then quickly changed the look to a "spit it out" countenance.

"My sire is back, he's really pissed, and he's coming after us," Hartwell blurted.

"Why is he coming after us?"

"Maxwell, Kayla and Samuel, especially Samuel. Apparently, the breeding of vampire and hunter is a no-no in our community."

"But, the kids are in love," Maggie said like any protective great grandmother.

Hartwell closed his eyes and felt the energy surrounding Lowery. He opened his eyes and disclosed, "He is protected by many more are on the way."

"Hundreds?" a concerned Maggie exclaimed. "At last count we had 18, plus a group of peaceniks and an unborn child."

Samuel was now spreading his wings beyond his parents, as his abilities developed.

"Don't worry great grandpa', everything will be all right."

"Are you sure?" Hartwell said internally to Samuel, but Maggie heard him.

"Sure about what? We are severely outnumbered," she said out loud.

"Don't worry great grandma', everything will be all right," Samuel said to Maggie.

"Are you sure?" Maggie said to Samuel internally, but Hartwell heard her.

"Sure about what?" Hartwell questioned before he finally caught on. "Is that kid talking to you, too?"

Maggie smiled, "Yeah, he's something else, isn't he."

Hartwell nodded, "Yes he is." He felt more assured, "Yes he is."

SEVEN

The Winters' family – Joe, Katherine, the twins – Bryce and Cheryl – and Valerie, who was Brandon Justice's girlfriend – were living the good life on the West Coast until the distress signal came from Beach Haven, New York.

"Are those people fighting again?" a slightly-irritated Katherine asked her husband.

The family had completed their peace-seeking task and was now back in Portland, Oregon, or that was the original plan. They felt like outsiders in the house of Hartwell and were more comfortable at home in their Western surroundings.

Joe listened intently as Hartwell internally communicated the trouble that was coming their way.

"Okay, we'll see you in a few days," Joe said internally to Hartwell, which was heard by all of the family members.

Valerie was the real hot-head in this cool-thinking bunch, and she came storming in from the backyard, where she and Brandon were cultivating the soil for fall planting. She took off her muddy work gloves and places them on the white counter.

"What did I tell you about bringing that dirt into the house?" Katherine Winters said to her daughter.

Their quiet and peaceful world was shattered within a few seconds, and everyone was on edge.

Brandon was right behind Valerie and had luckily maintained much of the fastidiousness from his days as a vampire. He removed both of their shoes, and put both pairs of gloves on the porch, while he quickly swept the room clean to a sparkle.

Katherine was quite pleased, "That boy has some useful skills. I'm glad that his best vampire feature remained."

"Stop cleaning up after me!" she said. Then she looked at her parents, "Does this mean that we can't go to Stanford?"

The conversation was an exercise in futility for Brandon. He knew that if his family needed his help, he would be there right away. After all, Hartwell would never put him in harm's way unless he had no other options.

Katherine Winters did not want to uproot her family again. The temporary nature of their sojourn from New York to Oregon started to feel a lot more permanent when the Big Apple was a good distance in the rear-view mirror.

"I don't think that is any place for the children. They are not 'special' like these other kids that grow up in only two years," Katherine stated to Joe.

"We're not special?" Bryce said as he entered the room.

His twin sister Cheryl was close behind, as usual, and added, "You always told us you were special."

Joe was under siege and knew that his permanent place was with his family, but he could not resist the call for help.

"This is all new information to me. The way Hartwell told me was that his sire was unhappy with Max and Kayla..." he looked over at the twins and chose his words carefully, "being together." He looked at his wife and said, "She is pregnant with a baby boy named Samuel."

Brandon instinctively started laughing in joy and clapping, but he was the sole elative being in the room. He was confused, "Why is this not great news?"

Katherine replied, "Vampires and hunters mixing has happened before, but..." she also looked at the little ones, "the production of another generation is frowned upon."

Just then, Brandon got a flash download from Daniel, which depicted Alexander Lowery as Hartwell's sire.

"Whoa!" Justice exclaimed as he went away for a few seconds to view the feed.

All of the tension in the room turned to concern for Brandon.

"Are you all right, Brandon?" Valerie asked in fear.

Brandon came out of it and needed another moment to collect himself.

"It's Hartwell's sire. His name is Lowery and he's coming to get Samuel with an army of vampires and protectors."

"How many?" Joe asked.

"It's hard to say, but odds are we'll be severely outnumbered," Brandon replied.

Valerie always liked a good challenge, like the one she completed by extracted Brandon from his life as a vampire.

"I'm in," she said simply.

It was obvious from the energy in the room that Joe, Valerie and Brandon would be headed back to New York, while Katherine and the twins would be staying behind. While the separation would be painful for a tight-knit family that was rarely apart, it would go a long way to finally putting an end to the frantic bi-coastal lifestyle of a family with a peaceful duty. Katherine also hoped that her people would return in one peace, but it was the family's nature to maintain a positive and upbeat outlook.

EIGHT

So Valerie and Joe Winters went with Brandon Justice back to Beach Haven to gear up for the fight of their lives. If they thought that taming a small group was a tough peace-keeping mission, then domesticating an entire hoard of angry vampires and protectors would be a long-shot at best.

"Welcome back, friends," a chipper Belinda said to the trio as they walked through the front door of chez Hartwell.

"I would like to say that it's good to be back, but..." Joe Winters started saying, as he was initially disappointed to leave his family and help fight someone else's fight.

Brandon walked up and hugged Maggie, who he looked at as his mom, and then turned to re-focus Joe after his vampire alter-ego filled in some crucial information.

"It's Lowery," Justice simply stated.

"Who's Lowery?" Joe asked.

"Hartwell's sire. He's coming after all of us, not just Kayla and Samuel. I can feel his heat."

"Little bro' is right," Daniel said as he slipped undetected into the main room of the house, the sound of his voice preceding the visualization of his body.

He continued after he hugged Brandon and his Oregon posse, "We all have to be ready for the onslaught that is about to come our way."

Daniel closed his eyes and silently summoned the rest of the group to the center of their living world. Hartwell and Maggie were first to glide into the room, primarily because their bedroom was just a few yards from the gathering. Daniel's wife Nicole appeared quickly at his side, and was followed by Hartwell's protector Garrison, Nicole's father and Belinda's husband, Agent Blake Wallace, who stood next to Belinda and held her hand.

A cluster of Brewster's appeared in the room as if they were transported together. Cal, his wife Sharon, father Thaddeus, his sister Emily and her husband Aaron, and nephew Andrew and his wife Carla. It was obviously their nature to always be tracking the vampires and their protectors.

It took Max and Kayla a few extra seconds to join the gathering, due to Kayla's sluggish state. She had been sleeping like a hibernating bear for at least 20 hours of every 24-hour day, and was barely conscious when she went to the bathroom and ate sparingly.

Max held her upright as they zipped into the room.

"Nice breeze," a peaceful, but half-asleep, Kayla said.

"You can put her back to sleep," Daniel communicated to Max internally.

Max complied with his father's wishes and set Kayla down gently in their bed and neatly folded the cover over her.

"Going back to sleep now," Kay mumbled before rolling on her left side and slipping back into a deep slumber.

Max returned seconds later to the main room, but Daniel had one more suggestion.

"Can you cloak your room for privacy... what we have to say here, she doesn't need to hear, at least not yet."

Max's processing speed and capabilities were far superior to that of his predecessors, but he was still getting a handle on some of his abilities.

Daniel started to talk, but the other vampires and protectors realized they had been placed in the 'cone of silence,' not Kayla.

"We can't hear," Hartwell said to Daniel as he noticed the other people tapping their ears and standing in silence.

Max put his left index finger up to indicate "one minute," and then shifted his thoughts to what he concluded must be Kayla.

Daniel started talking again, but this time the hunters and the group's Oregon friends were on the outside looking into the silent conversation. Max was catching on, as he retrieved Kayla from her bed and simply put his hands over her ears to satisfy the frustrated crowd. He put her back in bed and then completed his original task.

"Can everyone hear me now?" Daniel asked as the sound was greeted by scattered thumbs-ups and raucous applause, while Kayla truly slept in silence.

"Way to stick with it, Maxie," Hartwell said as he patted his grandson on the back.

"I will turn the floor over to my dad..." Daniel said as he looked at Hartwell, and then turned to Cal, "at least one of my dads, once I share with you what I recently discovered."

Cal nodded in appreciation of the recognition, as he and his son were moving in a positive direction after mending broken fences.

"I was out on the water with my two dads and we were talking to Mr. Lowery, who - by the way - is everything that this family should stand against."

There was an audible murmur of agreement hear throughout the room.

"If we have to do battle, better that we band together in a common cause against someone who threatens the very fabric of our wonderful existence."

"He's been listening to those Martin Luther King, Jr. speeches again," Garrison whispered to Hartwell.

"Who do you think put them in his head?" Hartwell replied.

The energy in the room grew more intense.

"When we were on our way back to the house..." Daniel started, but he was not as good as explaining as Hartwell, who could always command attention with few words.

"Let me just show you," he stated.

Originally, he was going to flash back to let everyone view the ride back with Cal and what he had discovered. But, then he figured that a live demonstration would pack a greater punch.

He reached over and grabbed Cal by the back of his shirt and then projected his insides, like a 3-D x-ray, in the middle of the room. Of course, he could have accomplished the task without even touching his father, but Daniel was all about the visuals.

"As you can see, this man is in prime physical condition," he said as Cal and everyone else smiled at his medical prognosis.

"Let's get into the real meat of this," Daniel said as he extracted Cal's DNA sequence with his right hand. He could have simply maneuvered the data with his mind, but it looked a lot cooler to physically extract the genomic code.

The DNA strand would have looked only like the tracks of a roller-coaster, if Daniel hadn't thought ahead. He started to analyze the sequence.

"This is his dominant gene, which makes him a hunter above all else," as the 3-D image of the gene morphed from Cal as a man to his alter-hunter-egos as a pit bull, then a ram, then a ferocious grizzly bear, then flying away as an impressive hawk.

"So, nothing new here. But, when you look a little deeper into the recesses of the gene pool..." he explained as his image jumped into Cal's gene pool and then emerged with a shiny strand.

"Thank you," he said to his own image.

"You discover that hunters not only have the capacity to hunt, they also have the natural ability to..." he paused for the added affect.

"PROTECT!" he exclaimed dramatically, as the gene sequence transformed into a wolf, then a bottle-nose dolphin, then a hippopotamus, then an Orca killer whale.

A gasp could be heard throughout the room. Daniel then shuffled Cal back a few steps and grabbed Blake, who had made the transformation from FBI agent to protector.

"I suspect the reverse is true with protectors."

He flipped his father-in-law's gene sequence and highlighted the recessive gene, which displayed the pit bull, ram, bear, and hawk sequence.

"Cool!" Max yelled with all of his boyish energy. "Can I do that?"

Daniel looked over at his son, "In time, superstar!" as all of the people in the room were conversing back and forth.

Agent Bake was impressed, but that did little to curb his enthusiasm as a biologist.

"What about vampires?"

Daniel had a feeling that Blake would ask that very question, so he had a model of his own body at the ready. People stopped talking after they heard the question, which had shocking implications. Vampires were already the fiercest of warriors and would be almost impossible to kill with enhancements.

He reached inside of his own body and pulled out two DNA sequences, one in each hand. He turned over his palms and the evolutionary tract of the protectors was rotating in his right palm, while the hunter sequence morphed in his left palm.

Hartwell's eyes widened from the rush of power.

Max said, "Whoa! I can do all that?"

Hartwell put his arm around his young charge.

"In time, my boy. In time."

NINE

Hartwell gazed at his son with such a sense of pride. The second go-round with Daniel – who was Nathaniel in his previous life – had wildly exceeded his expectations. There was even question after Daniel found out about Hartwell, if they would have any relationship at all. Daniel was as furious as he was confused at the prospect of becoming a vampire.

Thomas Hartwell had waited over a century to reunite with his boy. Their relationship had been unexpectedly severed the first time around, when the father barely had a few days to say goodbye to the young son.

It was a different dynamic with Thomas and his wife Maggie. There strong love connection knew no boundaries, and the time apart did little but bolster an already-strong bond. Being either mortal or vampire had little impact on Maggie, who appeared to be the same person on both sides, other than her insatiable craving she now had for human blood.

Thomas and Maggie rarely made small talk, preferring to always get right to the heart of the matter.

"I always had faith in you, Thomas," Maggie stated as they sat in their bedroom in a quiet moment after the big meeting.

"Even when I was going to rob your bank?" Hartwell asked.

"Maggie was unwavering in her conviction, "Even when you were going to rob my bank."

She then probed further as the topic opened up.

"How did you plan on getting the money out of the safe?"

He was surprised, "It was in the safe?"

She couldn't believe his naiveté, "No, we usually left most of the cash behind the counter, and then had some just lying around for people to take samples."

He laughed, "That's funny. I was watching you for a few weeks and you never put the money in the safe until after closing time."

She looked at him in disbelief, "That's why I put the money in the safe in the first place. You must have been the worst bank robber in the history of San Francisco, because I knew you were trouble the first time I laid eyes on you."

Hartwell was confused, "Are you saying that you didn't trust me?"

"No!" Maggie exclaimed. "I was hooked from the moment our eyes first met. Trust you? I was trying to save you from yourself and protect you."

Hartwell's enormous pride was hurt at first, even though he was reliving an event that took place more than 100 years ago.

He laughed, "I really had no chance of robbing that bank unless I walked in and you handed me a satchel of cash."

Maggie chuckled, "You had this sad look in your eyes like someone had stolen your new bicycle, or something."

"I didn't know what to do, Mags," he confided.

"That is why it's so hard for me to think back to the before and then the after..." he said, referring to her death.

"Lowery is bringing me back to the most dark and vulnerable part of my existence. I can't lose you two again," he said as he broke down and impersonated an ice machine while Maggie comforted him.

"You are not that desperate person anymore, Thomas. You are surrounded by a huge, loving family, and you will never be alone again."

"You promise?" Hartwell asked.

"I promise," Maggie replied.

Hartwell abruptly stopped bawling and his shattered demeanor changes at once, reassembling the fragments his confidence.

The vampire efficiently cleaned up the small mess, and everything was right again in his world.

"Let's go get this guy and wipe him from our world!" Hartwell defiantly pronounced.

Maggie thought to herself that it was a good thing that Alexander Lowery existed in the first place. Without him, there would have been no Thomas in this life for her to come back to.

"You told him two months?" Lowery's protector Abraham Ellison asked him.

"Why, is there a problem with that?" Lowery questioned, with just a splash of indignation in his voice.

Ellison looked around the large hotel conference room, and all he could see was vampires and protectors growing increasingly edgy.

"If you ask me, I think we have two more weeks, tops, before we blow the roof off this place."

Lowery did his own surveying and then agreed with his confidant, "But, you know I like to play fair. I don't feel like projecting myself cross-town again, can you just go over there and tell Hartwell that we need to make a scheduling change? Wouldn't want to wait the extra time, anyway, just in case that kid decided to pop out early."

Ellison was a gentleman, so he put on his best Sunday suit and semi-cruised over to Hartwell's house. Full speed might have caused perspiration and potential creasing of the trousers, so he cut back a bit on the power, which increased his relatively short journey to five minutes from about two minutes.

Hartwell, Garrison, Thaddeus and Cal were sitting on the deck planning strategy for their training sessions, when Garrison get the sense that he was about to experience protector overload.

"I feel another protector approaching," Gary stated as he diverted his attention away from the conversation.

"Yeah," Hartwell concurred, as he also picked up the vibe, "and he's extremely neat and well-dressed."

Hartwell was already hovering above the ground, but the other three men stood up to properly greet Ellison, who they viewed as nothing more than an intruder.

Ellison glided into view and then stopped only a few feet from the men, which was an obvious ploy to disclose how confident the attackers were.

Cal was closest to the old-world protector, and would be the first to react after Hartwell, who looked at the man and had an instant flashback. He was lying on the floor in the parlor of his San Francisco house, when a sturdy man busted into the room just as Lowery was going to sink his teeth into Hartwell and turn him into a vampire.

Hartwell was on his last breath as a human, but could hear the man say "We have to hurry..."

When Ellison spoke again, it met with a different reaction this time around.

"I am here..." was all he could get out before Cal Brewster hauled off and decked him with a thunderous right hand to the jaw. The massive blow knocked Ellison down to the ground, as he was surprised to be struck without warning.

He was about to get up and stand in the same spot, but Cal quickly put an end to that, "If you get up and stand that close to me again, I'll put you right back down on the ground, pal."

Ellison laughed as he removed a white handkerchief from the pocket of his pocket and gently dabbed his bloody lip as he stood up. It had been some time since he had been struck in anger as a result his adversaries being buried in the bottom of the ocean. In a strange way, he kind of liked it. So, he stood in exactly the same spot he was before and the result was a left hook to the gut and a right cross to the jaw.

He groaned this time from the effective combination, and was about to get up and stand in the spot, when Cal said, "I'm gonna' knock this bum out."

This time, his father, Thaddeus, stepped up and put his arm out in front of him, "That won't be necessary, Calvin. I think you made your point."

Ellison was undaunted as he stood up and shuffled to the same spot.

Thad smiled and winked at Garrison and Hartwell as he reached inside of his pocket and fitted a pair of brass knuckles around his right hand. He then spun and struck Ellison with a furious right hand, which was further amplified by the knuckle enhancement. Ellison was out cold before he even hit the ground.

His longtime foe Garrison was impressed and took the opportunity to reminisce.

"I remember the first time you hit me with a pair of those. I was in dreamland for at least 15 minutes."

Hartwell laughed as he was now fully back from his flashback.

"That was about the time he hunted me down and separated my head from my body."

Thad looked out into the brilliant blue sky with fluffy white clouds and felt at peace.

"Good times."

The men returned about 15 minutes later with a bucket of water, which Cal was happy to douse the man's face with. Ellison shook his head from the shock of gaining consciousness, and then sat up while he removed the excess water from his face and straightened his short hair with his fingers. He had learned his lesson and would not stand up this time.

"While I appreciate the contact, I simply came here to deliver a message. Due to a scheduling conflict, we are going to have to move up our attack to two weeks from today, instead of two months from now. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

Cal still wasn't satisfied. The natural friction between hunter and protector was the strongest conflict he had ever felt, aside from his previous distaste for Hartwell.

"Sorry for the inconvenience?" Cal sneered.

This time, Ellison stood up and said defiantly to Cal, "You will get your chance, hunter. I will be happy to engage you in bare-handed fisticuffs once Lowery's people descend on this plane like locusts. Our very numbers will darken the sky more than any plague this earth has ever seen."

Hartwell said to his allies internally, "No my words, gentleman. Let this man free from our presence so we can prepare for this battle. We have not a moment to spare."

Ellison sensed that his work was done and then zoomed back to Lowery.

"What happened to you?" Lowery asked at the sight of his disheveled and battered protector.

"Hunter times two."

Lowery smirked, "Then you shall have first crack at those men once we arrive."

Ellison smiled, "I was counting on it, boss."

TEN

Two weeks was a lot shorter time than two months, but the urgency of the preparation remained a constant in the house of Hartwell. In reality, no amount of time could have prepared them for the massive onslaught that was coming their way, but it could have allowed for a higher level of creativity to take form.

Everyone was congregated in the main room of the house, and there nervous chatter heard from every mouth. The heat was always coming from Hartwell's direction, only this time it was focused on him from an external source. When he finally heard enough of the widespread panic, he put his hands up and then spoke.

"Please. Please, settle down!" his voice hitting a crescendo.

"We don't have a lot of time, and all panicking will do is get us all killed." He turned to Garrison, "Gary, you round up the protectors and hunters and teach a crash course in swimming in the big pool we have in the backyard," Hartwell said, referring to the Atlantic Ocean.

He then turned to Blake, "We next have to figure out where they have buried all of those hunters. Agent Blake, you're obviously the man for that job."

Blake nodded and smiled at Hartwell for the well-earned respect.

"Vampires," Hartwell said, as Maggie, Daniel, Belinda, and Maxwell formed a two-by-two block in front of him.

And, just as Hartwell was going to speak, Kayla slid across the floor and stood behind the other four vampires; her belly the size of a watermelon in less than a month's time.

She was just as surprised as everyone else, "That wasn't me. It was Samuel."

"You have to get me out of here!" a desperate Samuel voiced internally to the crowd.

Maxwell was too emotional to act rationally in matters concerning his son, so Daniel stepped forward. He projected Samuel's image in the middle of the room and went on to detail his grandson's progress.

"Well, he's coming up on four weeks old and almost the size of a four-year old. Thirty pounds in weight and all of his vital organs are functioning normally. Normal, that is, for a vampire of that age."

People laughed with pride.

He then focused on Kayla, "Kayla is obviously a sturdy girl. At 5' 10" and 175 pounds, 30 of that baby weight, she has reached maximum density whereas any more growth of Samuel might put her in danger."

"They'll be coming after Samuel," Cal stated.

Kayla countered, "If they can find him."

Hartwell pronounced, "Then tonight, under the veil of the moon, we will bring Samuel forth into our world."

"Should I get ready to go to the hospital?" Kayla innocently asked.

All of the vampires cringed and Maggie cried, "No!"

"Those places are a germ nightmare!" Belinda added.

Daniel scanned Kayla's body and then said, "I can have this... I mean, him, out of you in five seconds. Within ten seconds you will be back to normal after I infuse your body with fresh cells."

"Oh, that sounds a lot better than going to the hospital!" Kayla exclaimed.

A nervous Maxwell added, "Yeah, a lot better."

"All right, let's get to work. Vampires, we stay right here and help Blake with his research. Joe, Valerie and Brandon, you guys work on alternative strategies. Everyone else put on your swim trunks, because it's free swim!" Hartwell stated.

The hunters left the room and then came back in only moments later in various forms if swimming attire. Thaddeus wore an old school, one piece outfit, complete with an attached tank top and shorts; Drew and Carla were wearing the latest in surf and board-sport apparel; Sharon sported a U.S. swimming one piece and Aaron wore a tasteful knee-length suit; but, the mood in the room shifted once brother and sister, Cal and Emily Brewster, made an appearance.

Emily, who never professed modesty, wore a skimpy bikini with a thong bottom, which left nothing to the imagination. Equally as revealing was Cal, who nearly took some eyes out with his red Speedo suit.

Cal noticed the eyes on him and said, "Too revealing?"

As he zoomed out of the room and put on a black Speedo, "Better?"

"Calvin, there are children in the room!" his father Thaddeus stated. "Maybe something a little less drafty," he added, as he grabbed a towel and placed it around his almost-naked daughter.

"Wow! Those images will be burned in my memory. Wish I could swap out my hard drive," Daniel said. He then turned to his aunt and uncle and said, "You two are toned! Just a little too much information for me, that's all."

Emily wasn't going to give up on her bikini, but this time she came out with a more suitable cover-up.

"It's not every day we get to swim... at least, willingly."

Cal reentered the room wearing swim shorts that kept his 'boys' well hidden.

"Better?" he said to the room.

"Better!" the room replied.

On the other side of town at the Beach Haven Inn, Alexander Lowery was greeting and organizing his charges coming in from all over the world. They were all-too-happy to reconnect with their father, as well as long lost brothers and sisters, most of which they were meeting for the first time.

It had been a rather active 150 years for a vampire that had completed a few laps around the globe. A life in death spent procreating the race, instead of simply draining people of their blood and moving on. He spent more time with most of his converts than he did with Hartwell, who got the abridged version of the vampire's handbook as Lowery's hunters were in hot pursuit.

Braden Lawrence had always been in a thorn in Lowery's side up until the day he took up residence at the bottom of the ocean. It had been a peaceful 25 years for Lowery not having to plan his every move around the pursuit of his hunter. This lack of interference also made him a much more dangerous predator and willing rival for Hartwell and family.

Lowery's minions were quite large by number, but they definitely lacked the edge necessary to sustain a lengthy assault. The goal would be ridding the earth of Samuel and his parents, first and foremost, and then wiping the slate clean by eliminating anyone associated with the unholy union of vampire and hunter.

It was also interesting how unaware Lowery was about the intricate details of Hartwell's vampirical family tree.

"I sired Hartwell and he sired his son Daniel, who was Nathaniel - albeit a dead Nathaniel - when I came into the picture," Lowery said to Ellison and a score of vampires hanging on to his every word.

"Daniel and his protector had a son they named Maxwell, and here is the tricky part," he said looking to add a little drama to jack up his constituents.

"Maxwell fell in love with his hunter... and she is pregnant with their child."

A gasp could be heard throughout the room as reaction of the unholy alliance spread. Most of the vampires did not bother to ask questions when their dark lord requested their attendance. They fully realized that if Lowery wanted to see them, then just being seen would be satisfaction enough.

Many of the vampires had either flirted with the enemy, or more-than-flirted with the enemy during their years as a vampire. But, to cross the line and not only fall in love, but to produce another... that was more than just an error in judgment, it was a crime punishable by death among vampires. Although there were no written rules to prohibit such an action, it nonetheless went against everything that was unholy.

"Hartwell has stood idly by while his coven has defied generations of unspoken rules that are rarely every broken!" Lowery proclaimed. "He spent his century as a vampire producing only one addition to our superior race! One lowly teenager who has no more power than any of us has in our sharp fingers!"

The crowd grumbled in distaste, as the angry mob was now tuned into Lowery's frequency.

"We must quickly wipe these people from our great earth, so we can go back to strengthening our ranks!" Lowery stated as the crowd roared.

"Thank you all for coming to my side, my children."

The crowd chanted, "Lowery! Lowery! Lowery!" as the papa vampire felt the pride of a thousand satisfied parents.

Lowery had so little interest in Hartwell leading up to his discovery of the Max and Kayla coupling, that he was unaware of Hartwell's 100th death, his mortality, and then his rebirth as a vampire via the fangs of his son, Daniel. His lack of attention to detail also confused his protector, Abraham Ellison, who wondered aloud how Hartwell's 'family' had grown exponentially.

"I understand the siring of the kid, and then the protector and hunter that came on stream, but some of the other numbers aren't adding up?"

"You worry too much!" Lowery exclaimed, as he tried to change the subject. "Does it really matter if they have 10, or 18, or even 50? We have an army and they have what amounts to a nice little club."

Although Ellison was still confused by the extra parts, he decided to do what he always did, by giving in to his vampire. After all, it wasn't his place to set the record, or his vampire, straight.

"You're right, boss. What chance do they really have?"

"Amen!" Lowery exclaimed, with his hands raised over his head like a preacher.

ELEVEN

"What chance do we really have of surviving this, Thomas?" long-time protector, Garrison Phillips, asked his vampire.

Hartwell was never at a loss for confidence, even in the face of certain impending doom.

"What chance did we really have of surviving any of this? Of being reborn after our lives were extinguished and we were left to be merely mortal?" Hartwell started. "I think we - and by 'we' I mean me - have to be willing to take a few shots for the greater good here."

"Greater good?" Garrison questioned. "And, by greater good, do you mean, your greater good?" he asked in a half-kidding tone.

Hartwell smiled, "There is no me anymore, my friend. The only time I will say 'me' going forward is if I have to make a sacrifice that will benefit us all. We need to figure this thing out before we can mount a serious attack. If we are willing to accept our fate and surrender our minds to a superior opponent before they even attack, then we have surely lost more than just the battle before the first blow is struck."

Gary pondered the statement, "So, what do you suggest we do?"

Hartwell was resolute in his determination, "Dig, dig, and dig. And when you get tired, dig some more. I have no problem taking the initial hits, because we still have the majority of our lives left."

"Seventy-two to be exact," Garrison stated.

"So, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility to give up a handful of those while we find a way to Lowery. He can't have many lives left, but there is no way that we can go shot-for-shot with them every day. He's going to have so many layers of bodies in between him and us that it will be impractical of us to go conventional with this fight."

Gary smirked, "Since when has it been like you to go conventional?"

Hartwell laughed, "Never. Not even when I didn't know you."

"Do you trust Hartwell?" Emily asked her brother Cal.

Cal was confused by the straightforward question.

"What do you mean, do I trust him? What is trust, anyway? I don't think this is about him, Em."

"Then what is it about? Because I'm about to lay it all on the line for someone I despise."

Cal simplified things, "Would you do it for Kayla, your granddaughter?"

"Would I do what, put my life on the line? In a heartbeat!" she said, answering her own question.

"Because it's only through semantics that Hartwell is involved. The real attack is coming toward your granddaughter and that huge baby in her belly."

Emily was concerned, "How are we going keep her and the baby from danger?"

Cal had a reaction for every action, "First off, I believe if Hartwell dies then the day's conflict ends."

"How many lives does he have left?" she asked.

"About 70, give or take. We could give a bunch without jeopardizing our lifestyle."

"And then?"

"And then the fight begins. We have 14 days to figure out what happens after that." He thought for a moment and then concluded, "First thing is we have to find a way to bring our brethren back from a place that I am all-too-familiar with, the bottom of the ocean."

"I hear you," Emily concurred.

It took Cal 15 years to be released from his watery grave on the bottom of the ocean. He initially blamed Hartwell for his plight, but in more recent days had come to grips with his own part of the banishing. Cal knew that crossing the line and going after Sharon Phillips, who was a protector, would infuriate Hartwell. In hindsight, that was part of the reason why he did it in the first place.

Cal initially thought that he had his nephew, Andrew Brewster, to thank for his release. It was Drew who repeatedly banged his shark head into the rocks, which helped free Cal's limp, water-logged body and send it to shore. But upon further inspection, it was Hartwell who triggered a series of events that led to Drew's anger and subsequent taking it out on the rocks.

Everything in Cal's life was an extension of Hartwel, and he spent so many years trying to untangle himself from the vampire, only to finally come to the realization that it wasn't so bad after all. He had met and fallen in love with Sharon through Hartwell, and now they were happily married. Cal had also come knew that he was at his best when Hartwell was either across from him, or next to him. Simply, Hartwell brought the best out of him and he couldn't imagine his life without the vampire.

"Is there any way we can get over there without being detected?" Daniel asked Kayla and Maxwell, as he sat down to lunch in town with his wife Nicole.

Maxwell proved to be a master strategist and Kayla had the power of protection.

Nicole could see that her son and his future wife were struggling with the weight of the question. Kayla had been overrun with baby and Max was totally preoccupied with impending fatherhood.

Nicole smiled at her husband, "Might be better to have this conversation tomorrow, or the next day, after Samuel comes out."

Samuel couldn't wait to get out and make a difference in the world. He listened to every conversation and would become so excited that he incidentally caused his mother pain.

Kayla grabbed Max's hand and squeezed it so hard that he lost concentration. Daniel could see that Kayla and his son were in great distress, so he went internal to talk to Sam.

"Samuel. This is grandpa' Daniel. You have to do me a favor, okay?"

"Of course, grandpa'," an excited Samuel replied.

"You have to lie completely still for the next two hours until I can get you out of there. Can you do that?"

"I guess so," a reluctant Samuel replied.

"If you do that, then I will sit down with you and plan our counterattack, together."

While it would have been more direct to tell Samuel to stop because he was hurting his mother, but the words probably would have had only a short-term impact on the youngster.

"Really?" an excited Samuel exclaimed as his mother entered a new dimension of discomfort.

"Really. Start now. I'll see you in a few hours, buddy."

Samuel replied, "Thanks, grandpa."

The pain stopped and Kayla loosened her death grip on Maxwell's left hand. Since they were at the Beach Haven Diner, Kayla had a veritable dictionary of food at her disposal to counteract the pain. When she saw the words "Chili Dog," she knew that it would be only the first of many courses that could divert the pain.

"Are you sure you want to go in that direction?" a sympathetic Nicole asked.

"What difference does it make? If I am going to be miserable the next few hours, I might as well go down swinging," the usually non-confrontational mother-to-be replied.

She then looked at Max and added, "If I'm going down, you are going down with me."

Max had no reply for that statement other than "Yes, dear."

Thaddeus and Garrison wound up at their favorite place, Beach Haven Bagel, for a late lunch. While they had always respected each other over almost a century of battles, their friendship had blossomed in recent months.

"We have to find some women to go dancing with after this is over," Thaddeus said.

"I know just the ladies," bird-dog Garrison replied.

He walked up to the front counter and said to the kid behind the counter, "Can you send a couple fat-free, chocolate-chip muffins and some decaffeinated tea to those ladies at the corner table?" Gary peeled off a $20 bill from the wad rolled in a rubber band and gave it to the kid.

"Keep the change," he said and then walked back to the table to sit with Thaddeus, who was amazed at Gary's moves.

"I never realized you had it in you, Garrison?"

Gary looked at Thad in the eye, "It's our time, Thaddeus. If not now, when?"

"Good point. Which one do you fancy?" Thad inquired.

"Well, I know you have a thing for read-heads..."

Thaddeus smiled, "That's what I love about you Gary, you always do your homework."

Gary laughed, "Except for the first time when you caught Hartwell by surprise!"

"I wish I could have bottled the look on his face when I impaled him on that huge tree!"

"Ah, the good old days..." Gary said.

"Such fond memories," Thad added as he gently patted his friend on the back.

TWELVE

Meals were consumed and Samuel managed to remain still through a barrage of chili dogs, stuffed peppers with Tabasco sauce, and the tangiest lemon chiffon pie this side of the Mississippi. Samuel liked the pie, but would have prepared the dish with a little less whipped cream and a little more crust.

It was the night that Samuel was going to be thrust from his warm, yet limiting womb, to an outside world that was about to open its gates to the bowels of hell. Daniel knew that time was of the essence being that Samuel appeared to be growing with each passing moment, increasing the likelihood that the youngster would breach the confines of Kayla's innards at any moment.

"Are we going to eat dinner before, or after, the birth," a voracious Cal Brewster asked, speaking for his always-hungry band of hunters.

Hartwell mulled the question, and looked at his wife in the kitchen, "What are we having?"

Maggie replied, "Spaghetti and meatballs!"

Blood and things that concerned the body had absolutely no negative impact on the vampires, so it was probably up to the protectors and the peacekeepers what the order of activities would be.

"What do you think, Gary?" Hartwell asked his protector.

Gary looked over at Joe Winters, who still hadn't found a comfortable place within this ever-expanding tribe. Being a peace-seeker placed him in a secondary, passive role amidst a wave of aggression. But, it was now his job, as well as his daughter Valerie and Brandon Justice, to try and combat the mass of vampires and protectors only weeks away from trying to end their world.

"How are things going over there," a concerned Katherine Winters asked her husband on the phone only minutes before the gathering.

Joe wanted to reassure his wife that he could handle whatever was coming his way but, frankly, he had absolutely no idea what was coming his way.

"I think we'll have a better idea what we're up against in the next week, or so."

Katherine was alarmed by the neutrality of the response, because it wasn't Joe's way to be overly negative or non-committal in his dialect.

"Just be safe, honey, and come home to us," she simply said.

Joe knew what his wife was saying, without the words actually coming out of her mouth. They had been together for decades and any shift, no matter how subtle, was easily detected.

"It's the only place I want to be," he replied.

And just before Joe was about to answer "We should eat before the birth," because consuming any food after viewing such an act could prove difficult, Kayla shouted, "NOW! Get him out NOW, Daniel!"

So, the dinner discussion was tabled for the time being, and it would be spaghetti and meatballs after Samuel made his appearance.

It appeared that Daniel was evolving more and more each day, and now was fully in the role as a new-age midwife. He had discussed the particulars of the birth with the other vampires, and they were all ready to assist with the most obvious of vampire proficiencies, the clean-up.

A ray of light shone from Daniel's right hand as he focused on Kayla's stomach.

She again screamed, "NOW!!" as Samuel's expansion was threatening to split her in two.

Everyone was in a circle of love as Daniel moved his forceful hand and painlessly opened Kayla's stomach in what amounted to a bloodless c-section; his mind keeping her vital organs intact throughout the procedure to keep her stable.

Daniel was also communicating internally with Samuel.

"Okay Samuel, it's going to feel cold at first but if you keep moving, then warmth will be waiting for you. Float toward the light right now and you will be with us!"

Samuel couldn't wait to get out, and floating toward the light and into the welcoming arms of Belinda, who was holding a towel. Hartwell and Maggie joined her giving the boy a full cleaning while Daniel worked to press a virtual reset button and give Kayla back the body she had before she got pregnant. Organs were shifting around so fast that only Maxwell could see what was happening.

Daniel fortified Kayla's insides and then closed up the opening in her stomach, leaving nary a mark. Max dabbed his father's forehead with a towel, just as an assisting nurse would do, and then he moved a bag of blood toward Daniel's lips and let him take a drink.

Belinda took Samuel and placed him on Kayla's chest. Max put his arm around his girlfriend and his son and said, "Mr. Winters, will you do us the honor of marrying us? He then turned to Kayla and asked, "That is, if you will marry me, Kay?"

He produced a ring, and she said, "Of course I will marry you Maxwell."

All of this drama was not lost on Samuel who asked, "Did you get me anything, dad?"

All of the sudden, Max knew what it was like to be a dad. He looked at Daniel and shook his head in disbelief at the self-centered natured of his newborn son. Daniel looked at Hartwell and then Cal, and they all shared in a warm fatherly moment.

The only people who knew the answer to that question were Aaron and Blake, who had assembled a bike for Samuel only minutes before the gathering.

Blake said, "There is a new bike in your room."

Samuel bounded off of his mother's chest and zoomed past the crowd and into his room, once he located the bike.

Aaron added, "Be careful. I'm not sure that we put it together right. There were a few extra parts."

Samuel came flying out on the bike, and first the front wheel came off and then the back wheel jettisoned. He crashed into the center island in the kitchen and then stood up unharmed, all 50 pounds of him.

"Again!" he yelled, before doing something that completely astonished a room of people that were not easily astonished.

"Let me make just a few modifications," Samuel said to himself as he worked on the bike. He flashed from the main room, to the garage, and even into town to the local bike shop, but that wasn't the eye-opening part. The crowd witnessed Samuel morphing in and out of the various facades of his gene pool. First he was a vampire removing the chain on his bike with his sharp, extended finger. Then he went through the series of protector fronts: cat, wolf, bottle-nose dolphin, Orca whale, and hippopotamus. Finally he transitioned through the hunter series, pit bull, ram, grizzly bear, and then as a hawk flying thought the air with the keys to his new dirt bike in his talons.

Once he hit the ground he was Samuel again, the boy that was just born a few moments earlier. The crowd of loved ones looked on in amazement, but Samuel was clueless to what he had just accomplished.

He looked around and felt the strange energy, "What? You don't like the color?"

Maxwell felt his inner hawk rising and also probably felt the need to show off a little.

"Just make sure you ride that outside."

"Can I do it now?" Samuel asked.

Max looked back at Kayla, who was more interested in getting married than impeding the flow of her son's progress, and she nodded that it was all right.

"Just stay around were we can see you!" she firmly stated, as full-throttle Samuel zipped out of the front door with his new toy.

Max cleaned up the floor as a vampire and then flew back to the gathering as a hawk, before settling back on his own two feet as himself.

"I didn't see that coming..." Cal said.

"How long have you known that you can do that?" Kayla asked.

Max smiled, "About 15 seconds ago. Now, let's get married."

Kayla smiled, "Gladly."

Everyone turned to Joe Winters, who said, "Friends and family, we are gathered here tonight to celebrate the union of Maxwell and Kayla..." as Samuel rode his one-of-a-kind dirt bike and experienced real, unfiltered joy for the first time in his young life.

THIRTEEN

The wedding was blissful and the spaghetti with meatballs sublime, as the inhabitants of the house of Hartwell took a brief moment to enjoy life before focusing fully on the task at hand. It seemed that with age came a certain confidence from being through the wars, the battles, and coming out the other end all the wiser.

"We have to get some sort of strategy pieced together," Hartwell said to Daniel, as Max joined them.

Max had survived the birth of his child, and reveled in his marriage to Kayla, and still only had two actual years of life to show for it. But this lack of real-life experience did little to deter him.

"The only strategy we need is, don't get either Kayla or Samuel killed."

Daniel tried to focus his son, "It is Samuel I am worried about." And then he saw the look of puppy love in Maxwell's face. "Let me clarify that... by all appearances, Samuel has about three weeks – from my calculations – before he turns 18 in our world. Until then, we have to protect him at all costs because he won't have extra lives like Kayla."

He then turned to Hartwell, as an idea flashed through his incredible brain.

"Maybe we could mask Samuel the same way you concealed the look of this house for years?"

Maxwell was confused, "What is dad talking about grandpa'?"

"Do you want to do the honors?" Hartwell asked his son.

"By all means, you take this one," Daniel said, deferring to his father.

A split-second later, the three men were standing in musty and dirty abandoned warehouse, which gave Max the instant urge to clean.

"Before you clean anything, let me explain," Hartwell said.

"Who turned off the water?" Aaron yelled from an adjacent bathroom as he was taking a shower.

Daniel took the lead, "Let me localize that," as he kept the warehouse look in the main room and returned the rest of the house to its actual condition.

"Thank you!" Aaron yelled.

"You're welcome, big guy!" Daniel countered. "Got to keep the big man happy."

Maxwell then discovered a whole new world of powers that he never knew existed. He first brought a 3-D image of Samuel into the middle of the room, "So, how do we hide a kid that simply won't sit still?"

He was about to disguise his son as a tree stump or a fire hydrant but, instead, his mind transported his corporeal body cross-town, where he was viewing the mass of vampires and protectors assembled at the Beach Haven Inn. Maxwell then brought his father and grandfather along for the ride.

Daniel said, "Whoa! That's a new one."

Hartwell added, "It was just a matter of time before the magic kicked in."

"There is something really big here that we haven't examined," Maxwell stated. He used his index finger as he telestrated various things throughout the room with complicated mathematical and scientific formulas that floated above its subjects.

"We have two different forces at work here. On the one hand, we have Alexander Lowery..." Max lists Lowery's life stats as he pulls Lowery in for a closer look. "He has procreated the race like no vampire either before or after him." He sighs, "Problem is, that each successive strand of life, or death as it were, becomes progressively more deficient than the last. This might very well disprove the theory that there is real strength in numbers."

Daniel was flabbergasted, "First of all, holy crap! I thought that I could do some cool stuff."

The fact that Daniel would still be just below the legal drinking age in real years did not escape Hartwell, who had been around more than five times as long as that. What he lacked in new-age skills, he more than made up for in life skills and real-world knowledge.

"Thanks for that astute observation son, but are you saying Maxie that Lowery's minions experience a progressive weakness with subsequent iterations?"

Max smiled, "That's exactly what I'm saying."

"So where am I on the chain of death?" Hartwell asked.

Max pulled up a seemingly endless strand of vampire lineage and scrolled through the faces from bottom to top, from the more recent to the earliest people that Lowery sired. He moved through the listing at the speed of light, stopping only when he sensed Hartwell's face coming into view.

Hartwell was taken aback by the image, "Who took that picture? Is that the best picture they could find of me? It looks like I was in a police line-up."

Maxwell adapted to the obvious request for a reshoot.

"Say cheese!" Maxwell exclaimed as he flicked off a flash for the effect, as a new image of Hartwell replaced the crime scene photo previously inhabiting his spot in the Lowery Sire of Fame.

"That's better! Thanks, Maxie."

"No problem, grandpa'."

Max then scrolled above the new and improved Hartwell image and all he saw was red Xs.

"There has to be more than 50 vampires that came before me..." Hartwell started until he could feel his grandson ready to pounce with the actual number. "What is it, 53?"

Daniel and Max stated in unison, "52."

Hartwell laughed, "You two are funny. So, answer me this, what do the red Xs mean?"

Max was quick to respond, "Maybe they're no longer vampires."

"Could it be possible that they've all reached 100 deaths and are mortal?" Daniel guessed.

Hartwell mulled the two scenarios and then rolled up one of his own, "Or maybe, just maybe, all of these people are dead, and that's why I'm next on the list."

"Are you saying they just died?" Max asked.

"Or were they eliminated?" Daniel countered.

"Why would Lowery kill the vampires with the greatest strength?" Hartwell inquired.

"Maybe he doesn't know what we know... maybe he just assumes that vampires that were around the longest are the biggest threat to him?" Daniel said.

Hartwell and Maxwell mulled the Daniel's astute observation and Hartwell said to Max, "So he's not after you, Kayla and Samuel after all!"

The three men nodded in accord.

Hartwell defiantly concluded, "Well, if it's me he wants, then it's me he'll get."

FOURTEEN

In reality, Lowery wasn't really sure how many lives Hartwell had left, and he really didn't care! He would have his army keep swinging for the fences until Hartwell ran out of lives. And then they would go after him one more time as a mortal, even though Lowery knew this was the most heinous breach of the vampire code – not that vampires are the most ethical and moral of species...

While Hartwell house was abuzz with activity, including mental and physical training, Lowery was merely lounging at the Beach Haven Inn waiting for his full complement of vampires and protectors to arrive. They had taken over the hotel and drained most of the registered guests and staff, before Lowery turned each and every one of them, further bolstering his impressive army.

While most of the supernatural guests were having a good time, there was one important cog in the lowery machine that was starting to dissent. Abraham Ellison had been with Lowery since he turned 18 and was summoned to protect the vampire. It was hard for him to remember a life without Lowery, where his every thought was to protect and serve, protect and serve.

He needed to leave the Inn for a few hours and clear his head, so he went into town and decided to get something to eat. The appetite of the protector is a lot more subdued than that of the hunter, but it is still measures volumes above that of the average mortal. A body of this capability and skill needs fuel to keep functioning at a high level, and when Ellison saw the words "Beach Haven Bagel," he knew he had come upon a place that would certainly help fill his belly.

Everything looked so good, so he stepped up to the counter and a teenage, pimple-faced kid asked him, "Can I help you, sir?"

"Yes, you can young man. I'll have two everything bagels with lox cream cheese, one poppy seed bagel with tuna salad and one with whitefish salad, one potato knish, two pickles, two bags of chips and three black-and-white cookies."

The kid was unfazed by the order, and wasn't even the least bit curious if the man would eating all of the food himself.

"Is that to stay or to go?"

Ellison looked around the 15-seat establishment and replied, "I think I'll eat it here."

The kid said, "Just take a seat and I'll bring it over to you when it's ready. Do you want any of the bagels toasted?"

Ellison was obviously in an adventurous mood.

"Yes. Can you toast the poppy seed bagels, please?"

"No problem," the kid replied.

"He would make a good candidate for the Lowery Conversion Program," Ellison muttered under his breath.

The low-voiced words would have usually gone unnoticed if a few extraordinary beings were not also present in the restaurant. Thaddeus and Garrison were meeting their lady friends for lunch and just happened to be merely a pebbles' throw away from Ellison.

"Did you hear that?" Thad asked Gary internally.

Gary was busy eating, but he jokingly replied, "About the kid wanted to know if that guy wanted any of his bagels toasted?"

He winked at Thad, who was about to set him straight before he realized the jest.

"Who is that guy?" Gary asked.

Thad inhaled a few times through his nose and then closed his eyes in oder to fully process the man's essence.

"That's pure protector. I'm surprised you don't recognize the scent of one of your people?" Thad questioned.

Gary inhaled a few times and then came to the same conclusion.

"Must have been masked by the musky scent of the lox. I can barely smell anything over that stuff!"

"I will have to keep that in mind next time I'm trying to track you," Thad replied half-jokingly.

Ellison sat down and then noticed that the two men were looking his way, so he nodded in a rather subdued greeting. He sat down but didn't realize at first that he was among creatures that were as special as he was. He must have been downwind from the fan that was working its magic in the corner of the room, because the scent of a hunter filled his flared nostrils

About the same time that Ellison caught wind of Thaddeus, the hunter was focused on protector in the lunchtime bagel crowd. The smell of fresh bagels baking and then being slid into bins was replaced by the scent of the enemy in his midst. He nudged Garrison, who looked at him and quickly realized by the urgency in Thad's eyes that it could be time to throw-down.

Ellison stare was unwavering on Garrison as he said internally, "You wouldn't go against your own kind now, would you?"

"But I would," Thaddeus sneered.

Garrison put his hand on Thaddeus and said, "There will be plenty of time for that, Thad."

"Yes hunter, I'm sure we'll see each other again real soon," Ellison said in his most creepy voice.

Thad's mood appeared to brighten instantly, at least outwardly, as he turned to the two ladies he and Gary were keeping company with and jovially said, "Ladies, will excuse me for a moment. Nature calls." Then his face turned cold at he looked at his new partner in crime, "Gary."

He smiled as he stood up and then locked his happily-intense gaze on Ellison, who was definitely under the impression that the hunter had backed down. He looked into the hunters' eyes and experienced a flashback of the Thad walking toward him a few days earlier and then everything went dark.

Thad casually dipped his hand in his right pocket and then gripped his brass knuckles again, as Garrison sat back in his chair and once again enjoyed the show. While the action that occurred next was too fast for the human eye to detect, it was in beautiful slow-motion for Garrison Phillips.

Thaddeus was so old school that he was wearing a pocket watch with the chain connected to his left belt loop, and the watch nestled comfortably in his left pocket. He dipped his left hand into his pocket and pulled out the watch, clicking it open effortlessly with his thumb. The move was meant as a diversionary tactic to interrupt Ellison's focus, and freeze his thoughts, because he must have figured out that he had already run into Thad and his jarring right cross.

The pocket watch was angled in such a way as to deflect the sun's rays into Ellison's eyes, who squinted when the light interrupted his gaze. Thad took one hard step to his left and bent his left knee, as all of his power was shifting forward toward a blinded Ellison. Thad's right hand hit the daylight as his enhanced knuckles traveled a tight and short path from high right shoulder toward the center of Ellison's universe. Knuckles crashed against the bridge of Ellison's nose as Thad dipped his pocket watch back in its home, while using his now-open hand to palm Ellison's head and stop it from moving violently.

Thad kept on walking to the bathroom, only stopping briefly to nod at Gary, who gladly returned the gesture. Ellison was once-again unconscious from a mighty Thaddeus punch, but this did little to deter the bagel kid who was about to make a big lunch delivery.

"Okay! Here we go, sir," as he carefully placed two trays of food down on the table in front of Ellison.

"Would you like something to drink?" the kid asked before realizing that the customer could not answer.

The kid chuckled, "Must be nap time. I'll bring you a cup of coffee just to be on the safe side."

The men were gone with their ladies by the time Ellison woke up ten minutes later. Blood was trickling out of his nose and into his mouth, and he almost choked on the vital liquid. But he quickly recovered and removed a handkerchief from his right pocket and dabbed the red fluid away. He looked down and picked up the steaming cup of black coffee and angrily mumbled, "Two weeks... we're going to kill these guys."

Ellison entered Beach Haven Bagel unsure of his vampire's intentions, but left with a renewed sense of confidence in Lowery. He now felt that the agenda was secondary to repeatedly ending the life of any hunter that got in his way again.

FIFTEEN

Kayla woke up the morning after giving birth to Samuel and almost simultaneously marrying Maxwell, and felt like everything that happened was just a fluffy – but extremely painful – dream. That was, until, she rolled over and snuggled next to Maxwell and then Samuel came gliding through the room.

"Zoooooom!" Samuel yelled as he was taking his powers out for a test drive,"

Maxwell happily turned toward Kayla and said, "Good morning."

They looked at each other and she said, "Can you believe the size of that kid? If he keeps getting bigger, it's going to be impossible to hide him."

Max fully absorbed the conversation he had the previous day with Hartwell and Daniel, and was no able to show off his new talent to his blushing bride. Max was zooming around the room one second and then he could be neither seen nor heard the next.

Kayla sat up suddenly and exclaimed, "Where did he go? Samuel, where are you?"

And before she could even finish the sentence, Max removed the cloaking shield and Samuel reappeared.

"I'm right here, mom!" he giggled.

Kayla looked at her husband in amazement, "I guess size doesn't matter, then. Can they see him now?"

Max kissed Kayla on the forehead, "No, only we can see him."

Samuel crashed into a glass vase in the foyer and then swept up the debris and disposed of it before it even hit the ground.

"That masking ability might come in handy when we need a break from time to time."

Max smiled, "I hear you," as he snuggled closer to his wife.

While the newlywed couple took a few extra moments to get going on this morning, the remainder of house was abuzz with activity. Garrison and his daughter Sharon, who had her protector capabilities reactivated only hours earlier, were instructing Emily, Cal, Aaron and Carla on the finer points of aquatic warfare.

It had been quite a difficult period of adjustment for father and daughter, as protector Sharon fell in love with hunter Cal and cosmically switched sides once Daniel sired a mortal Hartwell back toward vampiracy. Love had a way of making decisions for people in spots that might have otherwise been awkward.

Sharon woke up in the morning and walked out on the deck that circled the entire house, and inhaled the spray of the salty ocean air in her lungs. She knew this would be her day to get back into the 'big pool.' Daniel sensed that her DNA sequence was primed for alteration, and zipped out to the deck and relit the previously recessive sequence, enabling Sharon to fully utilize her protector sequence again. She smiled as she instinctively changed into a cat and gracefully walked along the narrow top railing of the deck.

Sharon then turned back into her human form and said, "Thanks, Daniel."

"It was nothing... but, you're welcome," he replied.

Transformations were commonplace on this day, as people discovered new abilities that they had only previously fought and strategized against. The vampires were in the gym that was built in the south wing of the house, as they had two new sets of capabilities to incorporate into their already vast repertoire.

The vampires were a group that relied on their intense concentration to wear down an opponent. However, this focus was being tested by a less than day-old boy that was acting like a butterfly fluttering wildly after it was sprung from its transformatory cocoon.

"Samuel, can you stand still for a few minutes, we're trying to figure things out here?" Great Grandpa' Hartwell asked the youngster in a soft tone.

Protectors Kayla and Nicole were aiding Thaddeus in a basic tutorial on how the vampires could efficiently manage their transformations. Max, Daniel, Hartwell and Maggie were listening to Thad, while trying to tune rambunctious Samuel out.

"I think it's time to use a little selective tuning out here," Daniel said to his father, who didn't get the reference at first. But once Samuel disappeared from view, and the sound of his high-pitched voice stopped echoing off the walls of the gym – even though the roof of the domed structure was retracted – Hartwell fully appreciated the comment.

"Electric fence," Hartwell said to Daniel as the vampire try to keep track of the little guy while limiting his mobility to a set area.

"Got it," Daniel replied as he gave junior enough rope in which to try out his almost unlimited facades and abilities.

Samuel could have been anywhere at that moment and not been in touch with his surroundings. He had been so busy watching everyone changing into different beings, and it appeared that he could change into just about anything if he put his mind to it. His changes weren't limited to living beings, as he saw an airplane go by in the sky and then changed into a smaller version of the 747. Samuel then thought about a huge red lollipop and before he could react, he was a big cherry sucker. Of course, none of these changes were noted by anyone in the room, because Daniel had tuned Samuel out so the rest of the group could focus on their massive task at hand.

"Now, if I change into a grizzly bear," Thad said and then changed into his bear alter ego. "What do you do?" Thad the bear asked Hartwell, who was still in his human form.

Hartwell was so used to just extending his finger, or using his blinding speed to confuse the bear, that he was at a momentary loss for the solution.

Thad could see that Hartwell was confused, so he turned back into his human form in order to drive home the teachable moment.

"Okay, let's take a moment to think about this one..." he said to the group as he stood in front of Hartwell.

The one thing Thaddeus didn't want to do was make Hartwell look stupid in front of anyone. After all, Hartwell was the reason that everyone was there in the first place, so he should be afforded the proper amount of respect in such dealings.

"If I'm big," Thad said as he changed back into Mr. Grizzly, "then what are your options?"

Daniel helped his father out by placing a thought bubble filled with all of his options for everyone to see. The top row was populated with protector options, including cat, wolf, bottle-nose dolphin, Orca killer whale and hippopotamus; the center row was of his human image changing into a vampire; and the bottom highlighted the hunter options of pit bull, ram, grizzly bear and hawk.

Hartwell started, "I could stay in my normal skin," he used his finger and circled his vampire image in the center. Then he achieved the kind or clarity he was famous for as a no-holds-barred vampire.

"Actually, there is no wrong answer," he simply stated.

Thad had the face of a proud teacher, "That is correct, Thomas!" He then directed his subsequent remarks to the entire group. "You can use any of these options, depending on the situation. Let's go through a few scenarios."

He turned back to face Hartwell and changed back into a grizzly bear. "What if I'm aggressive and angry and you need to neutralize me?"

Hartwell stopped thinking and shifted into instinctual reacting, as he changed into a grizzly bear.

"Good. What if I am back peddling and you sense weakness?" Thad asked Hartwell as he did just that.

Hartwell thought of the biggest, legged thing he could change into and then turned into a massive hippopotamus.

"Then, once you have me pinned down..."

"You go bigger..." Hartwell the hippo said as he morphed into an orca killer whale.

Samuel was watching all of this and was mirroring his great grandpa's moves, in between stints as a large ice cream cone and a bright red fire truck. Go easy on the kid... he is only about 12 hours old.

SIXTEEN

While the action was hot and heavy back at the house, things were equally as intense on the peaceful floor of the ocean. Marine biologist and protector, Agent Blake Wallace, was leading an expedition in search of hunters. His wife Belinda, who was an awesome swimmer as a vampire, was also testing out her sea protector legs as a dolphin, hippo and whale. Also along for the mission was Andrew "Shark" Brewster – the obvious inspiration for the group, as he was able to release his Uncle Cal from his watery grave, and the peacekeepers Joe and Valerie Winters – quite proficient in the water in their merman and mermaid personas, and Brandon Justice, who was also a merman but was struggling with his other potential abilities.

His mother in this life, Belinda, was concerned with her son's apparent conflict.

"Being a vampire isn't such a bad thing, dear," Belinda said to Brandon as she flashed her glowing eyes on a rock pile on the dark floor of the ocean.

Blake and Andrew had been using their sonar to locate bodies and the others were removing enough rocks to make a difference at the appropriate time.

Brandon had yet to let his recessive vampire gene be activated and voiced his concerns to Belinda. He looked over at his girlfriend Valerie and then said, "I'm not sure how she'll take it."

"Take what?"

"Being a vampire again," Brandon stated.

Belinda wanted to convey the gravity of the situation, which had somehow evaded Justice, who now spent his days spreading peace and switching between various hybrid creature personas.

"We won't survive this if we're all not at maximum strength."

Justice got the message, but it appeared that he needed a final push.

"I just don't want to lose her. I love her."

Belinda switched hats from mother to women with needs.

"What she wants is for you to marry her. I don't think she really cares if you crave human blood on occasion." She panned, "Don't we all need a little warm, creamy blood every now and then," knowing that his inner-vampire would be triggered by its ultimate motivator, blood.

The blood inside of Justice's body boiled and then cooled well below the normal human body temperature and just above the icy vampire temperature. Brandon smiled and showed Belinda his fangs, while unfurling his wings.

"I will tell her when the time is right," he stated.

"It might help if you had a ring to place on her finger when you reveal this," Belinda added.

Miles away, Agent Blake was with Joe and Valerie Winters, leading the charge to finding the lost souls. A thousand hunters had been buried across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in an orchestrated effort by Lowery to continue his unimpeded romp across the paranormal world.

"Do you think he'll change back into a vampire?" Joe Winters asked his daughter as they trailed Blake the dolphin.

He wasn't prepared for what his daughter said next.

"I really don't care what he changes into. Vampire, dolphin, hawk... whatever... I just want to be with him as husband and wife."

"Marriage?" a confused Joe Winters asked. "Aren't you a bit young to get married?"

Valerie shrieked in frustration, sending out a signal to Blake that they were stopping, while simultaneously telling her father that she was a woman and a force to be reckoned with.

"For god's sake, dad! Were you there last night when a two year-old gave birth and then you married her to another two year-old? I am 20, almost 21 years old. Why can't you just treat me like a woman already?"

If Joe was above sea level, he would have shed a tear.

"But, you are my baby. My little girl."

Blake backtracked and was touched by the conversation. It was a similar exchange that he had with his daughter Nicole when he found out that she had been with both Daniel and Andrew around the time of her 18th birthday. He had no contact with Nicole ever in her life, because his marriage to Sharon Phillips had broken up when she was only a few months pregnant with Nicole. It was definitely a difficult conversation to be having with a girl that had made the transition into a woman.

Dolphin Blake made his way back up to the surface to get some air, and was followed by shark Drew, who changed back into a hawk and did some gliding above the water for a few minutes. This left Blake Wallace alone with his heavy thoughts for a few moments.

The arduous task ahead of him was as emotionally exhausting as it was physically demanding. Blake had just become comfortable with his new family after so many years on his own as an FBI agent. While he tried not to think of the peril that awaited them, it was hard to look past the potential of the siege they would soon be under. He and his small team had also only unearthed 50 potential hunters and there were still many hundreds to uncover in such a short frame of less than two weeks. It was also unknown whether time and the strong pull of the ocean would do the rest of the work and free the hunters from their watery tombs, as there wasn't time to completely free each person and bring them to land where the process to regain strength would wait until the next sunrise.

Human Drew came back down and thought for a moment about making a smart comment, since his relationship with Blake had started in those early days as quite contentious. Blake was carrying a few extra pounds in those days and Andrew took every opportunity to remind him of that. But Drew noticed the look of concern on Blake's, now human face and sought to sooth instead of inflame on this occasion.

"Don't worry, AB," Drew said using Agent Blake's initials to carve out a nickname.
Blake liked the nickname and replied, "We have a long road ahead of us."

It appeared that some of Hartwell's ancient wisdom had finally been rubbing off on Drew, because what he said next was completely out of character.

"Peace is every step, AB. Peace is every step."

Blake was expecting a random rah-rah speech from the prince of adrenaline, but what he got was a fist-full of undeniable wisdom that hit him upside his head.

He nodded his head in approval and replied, "Then peace it shall be," as he stuck out his right fist and was met by Drew's left fist in a true sign of solidarity.

SEVENTEEN

The first week went by without further incident, meaning that Abraham Ellison stayed away from the hunters and didn't get knocked out again. Cohesiveness was the word with the most staying power in the house of Hartwell. Especially tight were two forces that couldn't have been moving in more opposite directions only weeks earlier.

"Are we serving the taco shells filled or unfilled?" Nicole asked Carla.

Carla pondered the question and once she downloaded the image of a soggy taco, she replied, "Unfilled. It will be fun to pass around ingredients in a cooperative manner."

Nicole turned to Carla and they looked into each other's eyes. They had been through so much together in their short, but connected, lives...

Nicole growing up with her early years spent in another town and then suddenly being jerked away, almost overnight – from her friends and familiarity – to live in the sleepy coastal town of Beach Haven, New York. While she showed up for her first day of school with a boat-load of apprehension, all of that melted away when she came face to face with a boy wearing way-too-many layers of clothing for an early September day on the East Coast.

Daniel was the center of her universe since they met outside of the school on that day, although she and Andrew Brewster also appeared to connect when they all entered Mrs. Williams' classroom. Little did these gifted children know that their tight relationship was the function of a mystical triangle between vampire, protector and hunter. And this bond continued through their days in middle and high school as volleyball's Three Slamigos, in which they used their burgeoning powers to dominate the county's teams.

But it wasn't until their first real semi-formal high school dance that the division between hunter, vampire and vampire protector became pronounced. Nicole really wanted to go with Daniel, to have Daniel step up and ask her out, but she didn't want to hurt her friend Drew's feelings. So, she decided to go with both boys to avoid the awkwardness of leaving one of them behind, especially hot-tempered Drew.

The three teenagers were having a great time at the dance, breakin' and spinning they way on a long string of fast dance songs. But the light mood shifted once the deejay queued up a slow song, signaling that playtime was over and one of the boys would have to step up and become a man. Hartwell watched his son from the corner of the gym as it was Andrew who surprisingly stepped forward after his cousin failed to act on what was obviously in his heart.

Hartwell was usually a casual observer, preferring to exist in the corporeal world for Daniel instead of the real world. He could sense that Daniel was headed in a passive direction by the rapid acceleration of his heartbeat, and took the liberty of spiking Drew's punch with a laxative that would surely send him running to the bathroom even if he got up the nerve up to ask Nicole to dance. Hartwell knew the association of a hunter and a protector was dangerous, especially if it superseded the beings that were at the top of the food chain, the vampires.

So Drew asked Nicole to dance, which made Daniel want to kick himself down the block for being so shy. They took a few steps toward the dance floor and then Drew felt nature, or the unnatural, taking its course. He excused himself and galloped off to the locker room, while Daniel stepped up and did something he should have done only seconds earlier. They walked out to the dance floor and then instincts took over, making their strong bond of love unbreakable.

The slow music was taken over by another wave of dance music, but the couple was still attached like Velcro and slowly shifting. Once they were alerting of the beat shift, being that they were the only people in the crowded gym still stuck on the slow groove, they adjourned to an outside landing where the magic happened. When they kissed everything made sense in the world. That was, until, Andrew finally emerged from the bathroom and the locker room and set out to reconnect with his friends. After scanning the innards of the gym for a few minutes, he stepped out on an adjacent concrete slab just outside of the gym. Drew inhaled some fresh spring air into his lungs and discovered a familiar scent nearby. He looked to his left and saw a couple kissing and then giggling. When they talked to each other, he picked up the voices and then was able to make a positive ID. A jolting discovery that sent him bounding off angrily as a pit bull, although he didn't even realized that he had changed outer forms.

The kiss effectively split up the Three Slamigos and subsequently sent Drew into Carla's arms when they met at wilderness camp the following summer. Drew found in Carla what he couldn't elicit in Nicole: a partner that loved him as much as he loved her. And it remained that way until the day that Daniel turned 18 and began his transformation into becoming a vampire. When Hartwell told Daniel what he had become, Daniel thought that he had to keep Nicole as far away from his dangerous self as possible.

Daniel then abruptly broke up with Nicole, which drove her into a crying fit and reaching for someone familiar to comfort her. That 'familiar' body happened to be Drew, and he jumped at the opportunity to finally have a shot with Nicole. Drew comforted Nicole in a way that he knew how, and a few months later Nicole found out she was pregnant. But Daniel also had been with Nicole on the night of his 18th birthday – only a few weeks before Drew – so there was a real question of who was the baby's father?

Drew then told Carla and she became enraged, although she decided to stick by her man because she had learned in the days after Nicole's discovery that she, too, was pregnant. The possibility of Andrew being the father of two babies did wonders for his ego, but it would have had devastating impacts if he was the father of Nicole's baby. Nicole wanted Daniel to be the father of her baby, not Drew, and Carla could not disagree with that sound logic - she did not want to have Drew's attention split in two after a moment of weakness, an animalistic reflex, if you will.

It was a long road for Carla, who just happened to be Brandon Justice's hunter when he was a vampire. She grew up in Oregon and was constantly beaten down mentally by Justice in advance of her 18th birthday and the day that she would become the hunter, not the hunted. It was Drew that gave her the confidence to stand up to her abusive foe, but it was Carla who eventually came to terms with Justice and forgave him when he begged for her forgiveness.

Drew wound up being the father of Carla's baby – named Kayla - and Daniel was the father of Nicole's baby – named Maxwell. But the animosity between the two women did not end there. Nicole caught Carla flirting with Daniel and then they squared off in a number of highly-contentious fights, culminating with a very successful fight therapy session in the last battle before peace was established between the hunters and vampire/protectors.

It had been smooth sailing for Nicole and Carla since then and the two women had surprisingly become the best of friends, much to the delight of their children. They were fixing dinner in the kitchen and had, what can easily be called, a 'moment.'

Nicole stepped up toward Carla, who met her half way in a warm embrace. They started crying from the emotional toll the tense rift had on each woman.

"I'm so happy to have you in my life," Nicole imparted in between sobs.

Carla was thinking along the same lines, "Ditto."

They broke the hug of sisterhood a few seconds later, dried their eyes with tissue, and then did what any self-respecting pair of mothers would do, they served tacos.

EIGHTEEN

Speaking of the Justice formerly known as a vampire... he was slowly working up the nerve to ask his girlfriend, Valerie Winters, to marry him. He eventually went to his big brothers, Daniel and Andrew, for some much-needed advice.

"Why is this so hard?" he whined, as Andrew got him in a soft headlock and gave him some light taps on his head.

Brandon and Drew had come a long way from the abyss that was their relationship. While Drew now had the upper hand as one of Brandon's older brothers, there was a time when Drew came to the aid of Carla and got beaten down by Justice. He never forgot that day and seemed to hold on to the grudge, even when Carla had moved on and she and Brandon considered themselves friends.

All of Andrew's 'Justice angst' came to a head on the day of the hunter's master plan to dispose of Hartwell after he had become mortal following his 100th death as a vampire. Actually, it was Calvin's Brewster's brainstorm that roped Drew into joining his uncle, who he followed around like an obedient puppy dog.

The plan had two parts, thanks to Andrew's urging that he be allowed to dispose of the annoying Justice. Cal was more-than-happy to dispose of another former vampire that had caused his family trouble and was a source of tremendous distress for his nephew and his nephew's woman. While Cal was ridding the world of Hartwell for good, or so he thought, Drew was lurking in the shadows as Brandon left Beach Haven High School on a lunch break and headed through the park to meet with Carla, who was on her way with Kayla in a stroller. Even though Kayla didn't stay small for long, she was nonetheless baby-like at this point in her life.

Justice unwittingly cut through a wooded section of the park that had a narrow paved path, but little visibility to the outside world. Beach Haven was considered an extremely safe town with few robberies or violent acts in its sleepy history. That was, before Hartwell and his collection of other-worldly beings scheduled bloody battles in the park, the football field of the school, and any other remote area they could to battle on after the townspeople had put head to pillow at night.

Andrew intercepted Justice on the path and plunged a sharp knife deep into his being. The shocked high school honor student fell to the ground, as Drew retracted the knife and threw it carelessly into an adjacent bank of bushes. The event was witnessed by Thaddeus Brewster, who had a strong feeling that his son and grandson were up to no good.

As Thad went to clean up Drew's mess, Carla sped through the scene and rescued her boyfriend from certain death. She raced toward the ocean as Brandon's breath turned shallow, the Winters' family awaiting them in the water as the gateway harkened a new life.

Valerie had been jealous of Brandon's blossoming relationship with Carla, so she was happy to extract him before he became too attached to her. The nature of their vampire-hunter relationship had flipped once he reverted back to being a teenager and she was a few years older. Justice often drove Carla to hair and nail appointments when she was pregnant with Kayla, and even helped her pick out a pregnancy test when she was unsure if she was 'with child.' This friendship was equally as uncomfortable for Valerie as it was for Andrew, and the duo were happy to put a stop to it for a while.

"It's hard little brother because you're hesitating," Drew said as he play-wrestled with Justice.

Daniel sat back in a beanbag chair that Carla had Drew donate to Brandon for his room.

"Yeah, listen to him! Everything was okay once he flashed that ring."

Drew released Justice from the headlock and got serious for second, "Yeah, that ring you made me was unbelievable!"

"You made him a ring?" Justice excitedly asked.

Daniel sarcastically replied, "No Brando, I made a ring for Carla."

Justice was undaunted, "Can you make one for me? I mean, for Valerie."

Daniel looked at Drew for confirmation and his cousin nodded in an affirmative manner.

He then turned to Justice, "Do you have specific designs in mind?"

Brandon thought about ring designs as much as his 20 year-old brain would allow.

"She likes flowers."

Daniel needed more information, "What kind of flowers?"

"If he says roses, I'm gonna' hurl," Drew said internally to Daniel.

"Roses," Justice predictably answered.

"Bingo!" Daniel yelled internally to Drew.

He then zipped out of the room and returned with a dozen roses sitting on top of a silver band.

He kidded, "Too big? How many carrots do you want?"

Drew interceded, "Gotta' have at least three!"

Daniel zoomed back into the room with three large carrots still with their stems on, and handed it to Brandon before exiting the room again. Brandon offered Drew a carrot as he plopped down in his old friend, the bean bag chair before grabbing a carrot and taking a big bite from the top.

"It's good for the eyesight," he said, as Justice took a bite out of one of his carrots.

Daniel returned from his trip to the diamond mines of South Africa, and forged the diamond onto the setting before polishing it in the ocean and adding fresh water pearls to create flower-like accents around the facing. He then used the ink of a squid to inject color into the pearls and was back in Brandon's room.

Drew and Brandon were in a bit of a carrot stupor, but their sharply enhanced eyesight was able to pick up Daniel as he sped mightily back into the room. The breeze from Daniel's super speed caused the leafy stems of the remaining carrot stumps to blow like swaying palm trees. Justice waited with baited breath as Daniel retracted his clenched palm to reveal a spectacular one-of-a-kind engagement ring.

"Whoa!" Justice exclaimed as he couldn't believe his eyes.

"Whoa is right!" Drew added. "There isn't a girl in the free world that would say no to that."

Brandon jumped into Daniel's arms and said, "Thanks, Daniel!"

Daniel was always happy to please, especially for the one's he loved, "It's my pleasure, little brother."

The stage was set for Brandon to put the moves on his girlfriend and possibly tell her that he was moonlighting as a vampire. He wasn't quite sure how well a proposal-confessional, or a confessional-proposal combination would work, but he was confident that the massive ring would bridge the gap to any potential static that would be coming his way.

It had been some time since he and Valerie had some significant time alone, being that they were always surrounded by her family. The appeal of extremely rare steak had been growing ever since Brandon's vampire genes were reactivated, so he made a reservation at the Beach Haven Steakhouse for a special evening he explained as "Celebrating our three-year anniversary."

Coincidentally, it was the couple's three-year anniversary, but Valerie could tell by the expression on her boyfriends face that he was up to something. The really interesting part was that she also had something up her sleeve.

"Wow, you look amazing!" Brandon said as his eyes nearly popped out from the sight of Valerie's revealing mini-dress.

"You don't look so bad yourself," Valerie replied as she eyed Brandon's new suit that Daniel had and tailored from Italy. Just a little something the vampire picked up on the diamond trip.

Brandon helped Valerie into his Mini Cooper and then they drove 10 minutes to the restaurant. Of course, he could have used his vampire powers and zipped them there in the time it took for her to get in the car, but that would have spoiled one of the night's surprises and the evening would have started on the wrong note.

The maitre de at the Beach Haven Steakhouse showed the couple to their table and then the waiter came over and was about to ask them for their drink order, until he looked at baby-faced Justice and was about to ask him for some identification of his age.

Valerie stepped in and averted a potentially-awkward discussion, "We won't be drinking tonight. I'll have a diet Coke."

Brandon was hoping for champagne, but settled for "Shirley Temple, please."

The waiter nodded at the neophyte, who happened to be three years older than the experienced server in real years, and replied, "Very good, sir."

"I was drinking well before that guy even had his first beer," Brandon said trying to reassert his manhood and worldly experience as a man.

"Don't worry, Brandon. We'll have plenty of time to drink in our life," she replied, but almost gave away his surprise.

He reached into his right pocket and gripped the box her engagement ring was in, "There is something I have been meaning to ask you..."

And just as he was ready to get down on one knee, the waiter came back and delivered Valerie's diet Coke and Brandon's red, fizzy, virgin cocktail.

Don the waiter went on for another five minutes about the specials, when all Brandon could think about was a blood-rare t-bone steak and a huge rock on his girlfriend's hands. It never seemed like the right time to pop the question after that, because Brandon was enjoying his steak and couldn't think of anything else but drinking the blood of each and every restaurant patron. So, he decided to focus all of his attention on the steak for the time being.

The meal ended and Don was on his way back to give a full review of the desert menu, but Brandon would have none of that. He used every ounce of his vampirical powers to make Don think that the couple was gone and had given him and extremely generous tip, which Brandon actually did before his next action.

He scooped Valerie up into his arms and zoomed out of the restaurant, landing in the one spot he knew she would understand. Brandon put Valerie down in the sand after he removed her shoes. They were standing at the beach-head that Valerie took Brandon before he made the transformation into her world.

"I guess you can tell by now that I've opened a door that was previously closed," referring to his reestablishing his powers as a vampire.

She calmly nodded in understanding, so Brandon read the green light and proceeded without caution.

"I brought you here to this spot so I can do something that I should have done... well, I probably should have done this a few weeks ago."

He removed the red velvet box from his pocket and then smoothly lowered himself down to one knee. He opened the box and said, "Valerie Winters, will you make me the happiest man in the world by agreeing to marry me?"

Her eyes lit up like the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree and yelled "HELL, YES!" as she extended her left hand and he placed the mammoth piece of jewelry on her ring finger.

He rose to his feet and hugged her tight, spinning her around and around from sheer joy. The sun was setting behind them and the lights of ships making port could be seen in the distance. It was the perfect setting for romance, so the newly-engaged couple went on a kissing and hugging binge for a few minutes.

When the steamed cleared, they walked hand in hand up the long sandy shores toward the parking lot where Brandon was about to zoom them both back to the restaurant to fetch his Mini Cooper. They looked back at their special place in the surf and then Valerie took over the special night of festivities.

"Before we go back to the restaurant and then home to everyone, I have something to tell you. While I appreciate that you were honest with my about unlocking your vampire genes, I have to admit that I haven't been completely forthcoming with you."

Brandon wasn't really sure what was coming next.

She extended her right arm and wiggled her index for him to come closer so she could whisper in his ear. He bent down and she said two simple words that rocked his world and sent their relationship to a whole 'nother level.

"I'm pregnant."

NINETEEN

"I tell you, this is one potent family!" Cal Brewster exclaimed as Brandon told the family the good news as they sat down for dinner.

Joe Winters had been trying to come to grips all day with the double shock of marriage and then baby. Somehow the news of the pregnancy had cushioned the blow of his daughter's impending marriage and the pure joy it brought to his wife, who had come in with the twins to give Valerie a big hug.

"A baby! Who's having a baby?" Samuel came in and out of the room as a blur, as his strength seemed to grow on an hourly basis.

"Was that Samuel again?" Belinda asked.

"I don't know, I didn't see him," Sharon replied.

"That boy is getting way too fast for his own good... and the good of this house," Maggie added, as the crash of another glass object could be heard in an adjacent room.

Samuel had been breaking things with great regularity, but had discovered that his abilities extended beyond sheer speed and being able to talk to people internally. He stared at the broken vase on the floor and did little but imagine the vase in the state it was before he knocked it over. Time rewound as the vase recollected its watery and flowery contents and flawlessly reassembled on Maggie's nightstand.

"Cool!" Samuel said, being impressed with his own accomplishment.

He proceeded to spend the rest of the night breaking things and then putting them back together again, like nothing had happened at all. Samuel's 'behavior' became so disruptive at one point that the collective dispatched his parents to see what all of the ruckus was about. Since Kayla didn't feel like chasing after Samuel, she sent perhaps the only being on the planet that could even remotely keep up with him.

Max was the strategist of the group and needed every ounce of his analytical mind to process what he was witnessing. Samuel was whipping around his play room like a tornado, destroying everything in his path and then backtracking to fix each item before it hit the floor.

"What the...?" Max said to himself as he moved closer and took his son by the arm.

"What is going on in here young man?" Max said, playing the part of the stern dad to a two day-old kid.

Samuel stopped in his tracks, which caused the remaining broken items to crash to the ground. He then looked at his father in frustration and replied, "I was just going to fix those things."

"Fix what?" a thoroughly-confused Max asked his son.

With that, Samuel went back to work and once he envisioned all of the broken items as whole again, they did just that.

"So, you can break things and then put them back to the way they were before?" Max questioned his son.

"Yeah, isn't it cool?"

Max thought of the widespread applications that his son's skill could have beyond fixing toys, lamps and vases. What of the human uses? He wasn't a deep thinker like, perhaps, previous generations, who would at least roll a thought around in the brain before acting. Max was very much from the impulse generation, a quality he obviously shared with his son.

"Yeah it's cool!" Max replied, and then fetched the nearest sharp object, which just happened to be a sword he collected from Andrew's room, and sliced open his forearm.

Samuel was visibly upset and seeing his father not only be hurt, but being injured by his own hand.

Max seemed impervious to the pain as he tried to focus Samuel, "Let's see what you can do with this?"

Samuel didn't know what to do for the first time in his young life. His skills were off the charts but his social mind was still very raw and was a work in process. Max did little to help his son's mind freeze, as he continued to cut himself up in order to push Samuel to stop internalizing his feelings and simply react to what was in front of him.

Samuel was pushed to the edge of supernatural thought as his father kept slicing until he placed the blade on his own neck. He furiously shook his head "No," somehow hoping his dad would end the madness and put the sword down.

Before Max basically executed himself, he left his son with these sage words, "Only you have the power to make all of this go away. Act, Samuel. Act."

The big playroom went quiet as Maxwell slit his own throat with the skill and grace of a virtuoso violinist. Samuel had a split-second meltdown where he doubted both his place in the universe and ability to clean up the mess before him, but then did the only thing he knew how to do: he acted.

Since Maxwell's head was hanging on to his shoulders by a thread, Samuel decided to work top-to-bottom to ensure the speediest and most efficient recovery. Samuel imagined his father's head and body unmarked, and within two mortal seconds – which seemed like five minutes to Samuel – he was like a supernatural tornado, circling Maxwell until he was as good as new.

Samuel stood in front of Maxwell, and curled his lower lip over his upper lip to signify that he was not happy.

Max came back on line and exclaimed, "Wow! That was a head rush!"

He then noticed that his son was making it painfully obvious that he wasn't pleased.

"I know you've only been out here a few short days, son," Max started before he realized that Samuel needed to be held.

Max picked up the 100-pound Samuel and gently put his head against his son's.

"If you have the power to heal us, then you must help me and your grandfather to learn the way. This is a gift to be shared, Samuel."

He kissed Samuel and the forehead and then put him back on the ground. The observable question then purged his lips, "So what else can you do?"

Samuel thought for a moment and then did the only other thing he knew how.

Just at that moment, Kayla decided to pop her head in the room. What she saw wasn't mayhem, but it did nonetheless stop her in her tracks.

"Maxwell?" was all she asked because she was too dumfounded to say anything else.

Standing in front of her was the real Maxwell, his wounds now a thing of the past, and Samuel, as a carbon copy of his dad.

"Yes, dear?" an unwitting Max replied as his attention was diverted away from his son, who he had asked to show him 'what else he could do.'

Transitioning from fire engines to airplanes, then to human beings seemed like a logical progression for Samuel, who was just copying what he saw.

Max looked at his pale wife and stepped toward her in concern, but so did Samuel. Both Maxwell's then asked simultaneously, "What's wrong?"

Kayla's eyes were large as she nodded at Maxwell number two on a hunch.

Max looked over, expecting to see Samuel doing something that would undoubtedly make his pulse race, but all he saw was... well, himself.

"Dad! Everybody! Get in here!" they both shouted, as the contents of the big table dispersed into the playroom.

"Holy, Maxwell!" Aaron exclaimed.

The group wasn't sure at first whether the Max copy was an intruder, or some kind of visual trick.

Max quickly regained his faculties and said, "Samuel?"

Kayla surprisingly asked, "Samuel?"

Samuel changed back into himself.

"Hello!" he playfully said and then sped around the room.

Hartwell needed more, so he yelled, "Can you change into me?"

Samuel stood next to his great grandfather as, his great grandfather.

"How about me?" Belinda asked.

Samuel was having fun so he quickly obliged the request.

The requests were coming hot and heavy after that and Samuel was all about multi-tasking, but he decided to complete a batch order instead. On one side of the spacious room was the real family, and the other side was the Samuel version, which was an exact replica.

"That could come in handy," Thaddeus said.

"I feel a little better about our chances," Garrison added as he put his arm around Hartwell.

Hartwell was the master at digging deep and uncovering a situation's deepest meaning. He then unfurled the nail of his right index finger and attacked Samuel's version of Cal Brewster.

Cal never wanted to be left out of a fight, especially when it concerned Hartwell.

"He always goes after me! No way he's having all the fun!" he yelled as he fetched a sword and went after Samuel's version of Hartwell.

The real test was if Samuel could absorb the full characteristics of both Hartwell and Cal. Hartwell went at Samuel's Cal and he changed into a pit bull to avoid the swipe of the vampire's lethal blade. He then changed into a grizzly bear and went on the attack.

Meanwhile, Cal was going after Sam's Hartwell with his own sharp blade, but was being counteracted by the vampire's long finger until he changed into a grizzly bear with sharp claws.

The two sets of combatants went through a few more changes before Samuel's attention span diverted him to the far-reaches of the room, where a Monarch butterfly had floated into the room and caught his attention. Samuel's versions of Cal and Hartwell disappeared as he turned into a copy of the butterfly instead.

Hartwell turned to the real Cal and said, "Maybe his attention span will improve by next week."

Cal smirked, "Either that, or I'll be coming at you," saying that he enjoyed going up against his one-time nemesis again.

Hartwell always got the last word in, "The pleasure was all mine, hunter."

TWENTY

Agent Blake Wallace was a bit discouraged when he and his team returned to the house that night. There were a thousand hunters to unearth from the bottom of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and they had found only a few hundred in the week they had been searching. They were undermanned and running out of time.

Blake and his weary excavators, Andrew, Belinda, Brandon Justice, and Joe and Valerie Winters, collectively plopped in the chairs of the oversized dining table. No one was in the room, but the food was on the table and it was still steaming hot.

"Tacos!" Drew exclaimed, as he grabbed a couple of shells and started passing each successive dish of meat filling, cheddar cheese, and mixed greens around the table as the other people returned from the playroom and started to fill in the empty seats.

Carla saw the drained look on her man's face and felt from what she had seen through Samuel that help was on the way.

"Help is on the way," Abraham Ellison said to Alexander Lowery as they lounged as a duo at the vacant Beach Haven Inn outdoor pool.

Lowery had a pair of small goggles that were protecting his eyes from the rays of the almost full moon. He held a bright silver reflector shield under his skin and replied, "I am too pale. Hopefully this will give me some color," copying what a mortal would do in the full sun of the day.

Ellison perked up, "Here is the delivery guy!"

"Oh, good deal!" Lowery stated. "I haven't converted a soul in days!" he said as he mauled the neck of the first person one of his minions had extracted from the street.

Lowery was getting on in years and was long-in-the-tooth even for a vampire. While dining, he was having a Hartwell flashback from the early 1900s.

"My name is Alexander Lowery and I am here to offer you eternal life."

"CanI bring my video games?" the pimple-faced pizza kid asked.

"Your boy shall rise again on the moon of the new century. And your wife should be along in another eight to 10 months after that," Lowery said as he was fully immersed in Hartwell.

The guy was becoming agitated, "What is this freak talking about?" He then touched his bloody neck. "And why is my neck bleeding?" He looked up at Lowery and was all-excited, "Are you a vampire? Are you making me into a vampire? Cool! My reflexes will be even more awesome and I will stay up all night and play against people all over the world!"

Lowery snapped out of his Hartwell flashback long enough to fight the urge to snap the guys neck without turning him into a vampire.

"I don't know, Abraham. This generation is so consumed with their virtual world that I'm not sure what value he would have as part of my army?"

"I hear you, but once he is transformed he will crave blood and do what you say. This means that he'll be another of your minions that wants a shot at Hartwell and company."

Lowery looked down at the prone kid and the kid smiled back, signaling that he was choosing a life as a vampire over a snapped neck and death. Ellison could see Lowery's indecisiveness written all over his face, so he offered an amiable solution to the dilemma.

"I could flip a coin?"

"Head's he dies, tails he dies but gets to drink some of my blood and fight for me next week," Lowery enthusiastically stated.

"Hey, do I get a vote?" the guy asked.

"Flip the coin," Lowery stated.

Ellison reached into his pocket and flipped the silver coin high into the Beach Haven night, surpassing the highest floors of some of the tallest buildings in town. The coin came spinning back down a few second later and gently landed in Ellison's right palm. He quickly slammed the coin into the palm of his left hand and then revealed the result.

"It's heads!"

Lowery was all set to snap the kids' neck like the body of a cooked lobster, but Ellison interjected in the nick of time.

"Oh wait, this is my two-headed coin!" he said, inspecting the coin after making his initial pronouncement.

Lowery joked to his prey, "Head's I win, tails you lose! Good one, Ellison!"

Ellison pulled another coin out of his right pocket and inspected it before tossing it in the air. It took a few seconds for it to settle back into his sizable palm, and then he turned it around and smacked it onto his other hand. He uncovered the coin and said, "It's tails!"

Lowery looked confused, "Wait, what does tails mean again?"

The bloody guy under his elbow was quick to clarify the decision before he even considered the ramifications, "It means I get do die and then drink some of your blood!"

Lowery nodded his head in understanding, "Okay, as you wish!" he stated, making the full transformation into mortal façade into blood-thirsty predator. His teeth sunk into the man as he drained most of his blood in only a few hungry seconds.

"Wow! What a buzz!" Lowery exclaimed as he looked toward the moon, sunk his teeth into his wrist and then let his blood trickle into the man's mouth.

"This is the part I like the best!" an enthusiastic Ellison said.

"Me too, my friend. Me, too," Lowery concurred as the man came back to life and sat up.

"Wow! I feel great!"

"Yeah, about that..." Lowery said as he gripped the man's head on both sides with his long fingers and then effortlessly snapped the neck rendering the man limp.

Lowery licked his lips and said to Ellison, "Have one of our people throw him in one of our holdings rooms until he snaps out of it in a few days."

"Of course, your Excellency," a jovial Ellison replied.

"It won't be long now, Abraham," a unusually candid and emotional Lowery said.

Ellison was touched by the comment, "I look forward to it, Alexander."

TWENTY-ONE

The second week of preparation began for the House of Hartwell. The first week was a time of aquatic awareness for the hunters and the second week gave the hunters a turn at teaching everyone else about their aggressive, tracking world. That would mean that the vampires and protectors would be looking ahead instead of looking back for a change.

It was also a time of continued changes for Samuel, as well as Valerie's growing stomach, which seemed to captivate everyone.

"How long do you think this one will take?" Belinda asked Maggie as they looked at Valerie's stomach.

"I don't think it will be as fast as Samuel, but at this pace that kid will be out of there within the month."

"Is that where I was mommy?" a five-foot-plus Samuel asked as he sat on his mother's strained lap.

"Well, you were in here, Samuel," Kayla said rubbing her stomach.

As usual, Samuel said the first thing that popped into his head, "How did I fit in there?"

Everyone laughed, "I don't know, Samuel. Why don't you ask Aunt Valerie if you can talk to the person inside of her stomach?"

Samuel walked over to Valerie, "Aunt Valerie, can I talk to..." he then put his ear on her belly and said, "Ariel."

"Why, Ariel?" Valerie questioned.

"She likes Ariel. You know, the little mermaid?" Samuel's replied with a straight face.

Valerie smiled a sort of awkward smile, "Have any of you ever heard of a baby naming itself before?"

There was a lot of eye-rolling in the room, until Nicole said, "That big kid was in your stomach less than two weeks ago. What sense does that make?"

"Good point," Valerie replied and then gently rubbed her stomach, "So, it's going to be a girl. It's going to be Ariel."

Everyone picked up the nearest glass and Joe Winters proposed a toast, "Here's to Ariel. Here's to my beautiful daughter and granddaughter to be."

Glasses were clanked all around at the inevitability of another female being added to the extended family.

"Here, here!" papa Hartwell said as unity within the house of Hartwell had never been greater.

Discovering, enhancing and talking occurred over the two weeks leading up to the anticipated siege. But now it was time for everyone to put all of the hours of preparation to good use and fight an evil that had walked into their backyard and threatened the peaceful and productive life they had attained.

This conflict was much different than all of the other battles the inhabitants of the House of Hartwell had experienced. The first thing that Hartwell, Thaddeus and Garrison noticed was the lack of a war council to meet in order to establish the rules of the battle.

"Thought that protector would show up again and invite us to dinner to discuss the terms?" Gary said.

"This vampire is presenting a front that he is going after you because your people broke some sort of unwritten code," Thad stated.

Hartwell took all of the wisdom in of the two people he had known the longest in life and, subsequently, in death. He had been carrying the burden of an entire family for weeks and he was searching for a way to solve the riddle that was now before him.

"Do you think that Lowery came to my door to help me?"

Since Gary was his protector, he took the first shot.

"Do you mean now or back in San Francisco?"

"San Fran," Hartwell simply replied.

"It's been a while, refresh me," Thaddeus the hunter said.

Hartwell formed a gun to his finger and put it to his head.

"Oh, sorry," Thad apologized, not wanting to make Hartwell feel the loss of his wife and son again.

"In that case, he definitely wasn't there for anyone but himself," Thad followed up.

"Why do you say that?" Gary inquired. "Supposedly, his motivation was that he was there to procreate the vampire race."

"Maybe," Hartwell quietly interjected.

"What else could he be doing?" Garrison asked.

"Shielding," Thaddeus interjected.

"Shielding?" Gary questioned.

"Shielding!" Hartwell exclaimed. "It's a strategy based on the premise of eternal life."

"Eternal life?" Gary again questioned.

The other two men looked at Gary to make sure that he would stop acting so dumfounded every time they spoke.

"Sorry," Gary stated.

"He keeps adding to the ranks and using those minions to kill off the names at the top of his sire list, one by one," Hartwell stated.

"And he's also buried all of the hunters on the bottom of the ocean in order to live a completely unimpeded life. Who's going to stop him when there's no one after him?" Thad conjectured.

The look on Hartwell's face turned from thoughtful to cold slab of stone.

"We are."

Garrison was one of the greatest protectors in the long history of protectors primarily because of his attention to detail.

"How?" he asked, as the sum of the potentialities was not adding up in his head.

"It's not going to be easy and we'll have to take a real beating before we find our opening," Hartwell pronounced. "You guys ready for it?"

Thaddeus clasped Garrison's hand in brotherhood, and Hartwell took his hands and covered both of their hands in solidarity. "But the key to our strategy is keeping Samuel safe and away from danger until he comes of age."

Thaddeus laughed, "By the looks of that, he should be ready at any minute."

TWENTY-TWO

Battle day had finally arrived. Katherine Winters returned to Portland, Oregon, a few days earlier with the twins, Bryce and Cheryl, and final preparations were being made for dinner and the night's strategy. The lighthearted mood of the past two weeks was exchanged for the tense quiet that usually accompanied the battle. The last real 'game' action these warriors had was now months in the rear view mirror, but the members of the house of Hartwell had trained hard over the past two weeks.

Brandon Justice had never participated in all all-out battle, because his own vampire family didn't receive the necessary time it needed to grow. While he was aware of Carla as his hunter, he never reached his 18 years as a vampire in order to be presented with the greatest gift of all as a vampire – besides the sharp teeth, the blinding speed, and the keen fashion sense – a protector of their very own.

Valerie could always read Brandon's thoughts – literally – so she was quick to back her man as usual.

"I'll be your protector," she said.

Justice broke out of his haze and replied, "Really? You would do that for me?"

"Who else would you want as your protector?" she innocently half-asked, until the reality of the question finally synched with her paranoia.

"Did you have someone else in mind besides me? Because that wouldn't be good for us... we just got married."

Brandon stopped thinking about himself for a second, which was easy for his peacekeeping half but a little more difficult for him as a vampire.

"No! No! You are the only person that I want protecting me!"

Nervous discussions were popping up all over the house, the most contentious of which could be found in Maxwell and Kayla's room.

"I can't believe we're still going back and forth on this!" Max said in an exasperated tone.

"It's a big decision, Max! Do you want to lose your son? He's only been around for a few days and already you want to get rid of him!" Kayla fired back in a harried tone.

"So, use one of your sources of protection on him and my father and I will veil him in a cloak of secrecy, too." Then he mumbled something that, perhaps, he shouldn't have let out. "Not even sure if that will work, either..."

"What? You're not sure if you can protect Samuel?" Then she did what any toddler-aged kid would normally do.

She screamed, "Mom!"

Max was equal to the task, "Dad!"

Carla sped into the room, but was preceded by Daniel who was faster than everyone in the house but Max. They were followed into the room by their spouses, Andrew and Nicole.

"What's wrong, honey?" Carla asked her daughter.

"Max, you rang?" Daniel questioned his son.

"Max isn't sure that he and his dad can hide Samuel," Kayla said, sounding like she was about to become unglued.

"She wants to use one of her powers to protect Samuel in addition to us blocking anyone from seeing him!" Max said to Daniel.

The generals, Hartwell and Cal, zipped into the room at the mention of a potential strategy change so close to the beginning of a battle. The plan called for Kayla to protect three of their best hunters, Cal, Emily and Thaddeus because it was thought that they would be most effective in turning back the initial charge of Lowery's army on the front line.

One-by-one the remaining people not in Kayla and Max's room entered because the rest of the house was quiet and all of the heat was focused there.

Agent Blake, who looked about as exhausted as he felt, asked "Have we even determined yet if Kayla can protect anyone outside of the hunters?"

Blake had been under the sea for the past few weeks and was not in on any of the strategic discussions. Neither were Andrew, Valerie, Brandon, Joe, or Belinda, and they all were looking for some answers.

Cal stepped forward and gave the most concise answer he could muster.

"Short of me taking a sword and killing a vampire..."

Hartwell clarified the position, "We won't know until one of us is really under attack."

"Yeah, you really can't simulate a real attack, anyway," Cal concurred.

"So why don't we just try it tonight and see what happens," the massive protector Aaron said, trying to be bold.

The group looked at Hartwell, Cal, Thaddeus and Garrison, who happened to be standing next to each other in a neat semi-circle.

"Nice grouping," Aaron said to Garrison, who looked around at his counterparts and said, "Thanks, big guy."

"I'm not sure that this is the appropriate time to be testing something that could be risky," a cautious Thaddeus replied.

"The first night of a battle should be used to gauge an opponent, not to play offense," Cal added.

Garrison put his two cents in, "We're not even sure what we're up against?"

Hartwell knew he had to do something to cut the tension in the room. No fight had ever ended when he was nervous and unsure. The idea of having both a protector in Garrison and an impenetrable bubble from Kayla would obviously been appealing at a different point and place in his life, but not today.

"While I would love to be protected in this fight for our lives, I feel that it would be both cowardly and self-centered of me to accept such protection. After all, this fight is all about me and I have placed you all in the line of danger and peril."

He then took a deep breath and waited as his words painted a vivid canvas of loyalty for his family to view. He looked around at each and every person and then said, "If it's me they want, then ME they will get!"

Cal stepped forward, "But they'll have to step through all of us to get to you, my friend."

Hartwell shook hands with Cal, in what would have been considered the most improbable display of loyalty only a few months earlier.

"Me, too," Hartwell's protector Garrison added.

"And me," long-time Hartwell hunter Thaddeus chimed in, as one by one, all of the people in the room expressed their individual loyalty until there was a wall of vampires, protectors, hunters and peacemakers in front of Hartwell.

Samuel was listening from the hallway and even he got into the act, albeit premature for a being under 18 years of internal age to participate in a battle. Everyone knew, including Samuel, that if he was fatally wounded during a fight before he turned 18 that there would be no going back, no life that would come anew when the sun came up the next day.

He zipped into the room and stood in front of House of Hartwell.

"Me, too!" the enthusiastic , almost six-foot young man said as he couldn't wait to test out his plethora of new-age skills.

Hartwell talked internally to just Samuel and said, "You're time will come, my amazing boy. But you have to let things go during the next group of days. Can you do that for me?"

Samuel calmly agreed as Hartwell was once again the driving force of one in the fight of his death.

TWENTY-THREE

Hartwell knew the moment that Samuel's abilities surfaced, that he had to go off the grid and plan ahead. After all, no war was ever won or lost after the first battle, or so he thought. He figured that Samuel would age less in the last days of his transformation because of the complexities of his talents. Hartwell surmised that his great grandson was around 15 in internal years as of the first night of the battle, so he had to find a way to not only keep Samuel out of harm's way but also focused on some future point in time when he could jump off the bench and contribute.

The second tier of Hartwell's strategy was to not inform the other members of the house of his thoughts. While it sounded counter-productive to exclude everyone else from his planning, the lack of widespread knowledge was actually part of his plan. Bravado is essential in each battle but deception might play an even larger part in the outcome. Hartwell thought, when you're coming into a battle with less than your best – or, as in this case, you are so outnumbered that it's probably laughable that you spend time preparing at all – then you have to find a way to make your opponent believe that you think you can win and then, when you're losing badly, make them think that you have given up.

Everyone was jacked up as the lasagna dinner with garlic bread and green beans had fully cycled through, followed by a full ice cream sundae bar at 8:00 pm. The battle wasn't scheduled to start until the prey actually walked out on to the field and waited to be attacked.

It was a weird dynamic for the hunters because they were used to waiting until the vampires and protectors strolled out to the field, and then they could track them to begin the fight. In those days, they were few unknowns to each fight. The participants were generally the same and the opponents on each side were established, in both skill and tendencies. Battles in recent months had taken a turn for the different when Max and Kayla became involved. He was the consummate battle strategist and she used her peacenik tendencies to protect her loved ones.

Hartwell thought about how he would approach the first battle, but decided to stand out front and at least present the appearance of caring. He looked at Cal and then the rest of his family as they stood in the main room of the house as the clock struck midnight, and said, "Let's walk."

Walk turned into jog, which transitioned into run and then sprint. It was decided during the week leading up to the first battle that the football field at the high school would only be utilized on the weekend to avoid any potential contact with students and teachers in the morning after a battle. This being a Tuesday night, it meant that the first battle would take place at the great lawn of Beach Haven Park, which also happened to be closer to the Beach Haven Inn than the high school. Not that it would have mattered to Lowery's charges, at least not in the first days of the war.

Once Lowery sensed that Hartwell and company were on the move, he had Ellison gather the troops around the outdoor pool.

"Friends! We have come upon a most momentous night in our history, as one of our own has strayed away from us, threatening the very fabric of our existence."

Lowery realized that all of these vampires and protectors had not heard the story of the vampire and the hunter that had produced offspring, so he took the opportunity to fill in the blanks.

"A vampire and a hunter have produced offspring and are living under the same roof as one of my originals sires, Thomas Hartwell. And I am told that the baby is scheduled to be born within the month," Lowery said, showing his ignorance toward Samuel's arrival and Kayla's expedient recovery, thanks to Daniel.

"Our objective is simple. We must kill Hartwell repeatedly until he reaches death number 100. Then, once he and all associated with him are mortal, we will destroy them all so that future generations of vampires and protectors can live free without the potential for everything we've worked for, and everything we've died for, going away."

There was a huge roar from the crowd. Lowery waited for the noise to wane, and then continued.

"Let's start tonight by making sure that we all can live and do anything we want, for as long as we all want!"

The stirred-up crowd roared again.

"There's only one thing that I would like to request on such a historical night. The objective we all have is to kill this man..." as Ellison unfurled a two-story banner affixed to the wall with Hartwell's face plastered on it.

"His name is Hartwell and he has only sired one vampire in his more than 100 years as a vampire."

"Booooooooo!" chants echoed off the inn and around the pool.

"Although I am eager to get this done, I would like all of you to take your time and enjoy the fight for a change. They have less than a few handfuls of people, and we have a nation, big and strong. So, make sure that you give all of those hunters, protectors and vampires a chance to show you what they've got before going after Hartwell full force, because once he dies the fight is over," Lowery stated, giving his appearance that he was a just man who had a penchant for following the rules of the ages.

There was also unwritten rule that suggested that vampires didn't fight vampires, and protectors didn't fight protectors. It was also commonplace to let a vampire live a normal life after turning back into a mortal, although Lowery shattered that myth by speeding up the process by eliminating name after name on his personal sire list.

Lowery was quite aware the he and Hartwell controlled the fight, even if he was sitting by the pool while his minions did his dirty work. Ellison had a scouting party survey the field and then he reported back to Lowery once he received the information they were looking for.

"They are all there," he said to Lowery.

"Even the pregnant girl?" Lowery asked.

"No, they left her at home," Ellison replied.

"Good," Lowery said in an evil tone. "Very good. Let's put the fear of Lowery in them. Give the signal to attack."

Ellison smiled and replied, "My pleasure."

Lowery was in a jovial mood, "But you get first crack at those hunters, as I promised."

Ellison smirked, "Thanks, boss."

"Send a smallish first wave before we hit them with our big guns, then you can go in there and destroy those hunters once they feel good about themselves," Lowery stated.

Ellison was miffed as he thought to himself, "So much for getting first crack..."

While Kayla wanted to help the family fight against Lowery's hoard, and they could use all the help they could get, it was decided that she would stay home and keep both of her eyes on Samuel. Daniel thought he could mask her appearance, but the elders figured that Lowery would wait to get to Kayla and her Samuel once they disposed of Hartwell. There was no sense in putting her center stage looking fit when she when her stomach was supposed to be stretched beyond any human capacity. The potential of discovery was just not worth the risk, and while Hartwell had made a secret agreement with Samuel, his participation in the plan was going to be tenuous at best, at least the first few days when he was younger and impatient.

Max and Kayla also wanted to keep any images of a violent conflict away from Samuel. His capabilities were growing exponentially and no one knew if he had the ability to view the fight even if he wasn't there. The fact was that Samuel was able to just about anything he wanted if he simply had the thought in his head. His brain was like his personal Jeannie, where any wish he had he could grant.

Samuel knew the power that his Great Grandpa' Hartwell wielded. As an original vampire, and a first generation vampire in a growing family, he was the power source and someone to be both respected and listened to. It was difficult for Samuel to listen to anyone, let alone Hartwell, with all of this raw power coursing through his constantly-pumping veins. A few days was a short period of time in most people's lives, but it was an eternity for Samuel and his drive toward his 18th inner birthday and freedom.

TWENTY-FOUR

Maxwell was on the field for his first battle. While he sat on the sidelines and watched battle after battle that he orchestrated for his side, this was his first foray into actually taking a hit and hitting back. There were no words that could prepare him for what he was about to face, however. The battles he had witnessed had been more on-on-one in nature, and would be tame in comparison to the onslaught of vampires and protectors that were getting ready to ascend on Beach Haven Park.

Max did lay out a strategy designed to take advantage of their collective abilities, though. He planned on having his team members come out the perpetrators in what he called a "wave" strategy, whereas there would be a continuous flow of invariable forms coming at the unsuspecting opponent.

"First platoon, you are good to go!" Ellison shouted at his comrades waiting for his instructions in the parking lot of what was left of the Beach Haven Inn.

He almost decided a few minutes earlier to pack it in and sit in his room until Hartwell was killed, but then he remembered the repeated punches to his face with bare and brass-covered fists and decided – as usual – to follow his vampire's orders.

Vampires, with their protectors in tow, took to the sky and made quick work of the two-minute journey.

"Incoming," Cal said as the others followed his lead and looked toward the sky. His senses, and the senses of the other hunters, were tingling at the proximity of the enemy.

As the enemy drew closer, the group waited for Max to give them instructions. Once he called out the plan, they would automatically gel into the appropriate formation and be prepared to fight.

Max timed his call just right as he yelled, "Wave formation!"

The 18 members of Team Hartwell formed a straight and tight line as the enemy landed 2x2 in the field ahead and made no attempt to do anything but come out the group full steam ahead. The fly-in was staggered, which definitely benefited the Hartwell gang in the early going.

The action slowed as Hartwell was on the front of the line as his vampire self, slashing the first of his fellow vampires and protectors, as Maggie fed off of his image by changing into a hippo that crushed the injured parties on contact. The line continued with Daniel as a vampire, Nicole as a bottle-nose dolphin, Carla as a pit bull, Andrew as his favorite shark, Brandon Justice as a centaur, Valerie as a mermaid, Joe as a bird man, Garrison as an Orca killer whale, Belinda as a vampire, Agent Blake as a ram, Maxwell as a lion, which was the biggest cat anyone had ever seen, Aaron as a wolf, Sharon as a mermaid, as she crossed the streams without even knowing it, and Cal, Thaddeus and Emily made up the end of the wave formation in protection bubbles holding swords.

By the time the 200 vampires and protectors from Lowery's crew got to the back of the line, there wasn't a single one that hadn't been sliced, diced, shredded, chomped, or liquefied. Hartwell and his group looked around and rejoiced as they changed back into their human forms.

Back at the Beach Haven Inn, Lowery sat back in his pool lounge chair and sensed that a few hundred of his men and women had perished, but he knew that once the sun came up, they would live for another day. He screamed at Ellison, "Send 400 in this time!"

Ellison was about to grab on to the nearest vampire for transportation, but Lowery decided to prolong the agony of waiting for him.

"Not yet, Abraham! It's not your time yet!"

Ellison spit in disgust on the ground and then gave the order, "Next block of 400, you're up!"

"Keep it coming, Maxie!" an enthusiastic Hartwell yelled down the line to his grandson.

Although Hartwell knew what the eventual outcome would be, he was still happy to be doing what he loved best by doing battle with any worthy adversary.

He looked back at his most worthy opponent, Calvin Brewster, and smiled, "This is a lot more fun than I remember."

Cal returned the smile, "Tell me about it!"

The vampires were always thinking neatness second first, so they cleaned the bodies off the main part of the field and to the periphery like a bowling alley pin sweeper. Lowery's second wave of vampires and protectors received the same instructions as they first wave and came in as served on a platter for Max's wave strategy.

Team Hartwell buzzed through the 400 combatants in only a few seconds more than it took to dispatch of the first 200, employing the same images they used the first time around.

Lowery was very casual at first, sipping a human blood margarita with a long straw before he started to become frustrated with the ease at which Hartwell's crew was dispatching of his people.

"Ellison!" Lowery shouted as his protector was in front of him instantly and instinctively.

"They've easily dispatched of our first 600, do you have any ideas?"

"Do I have any ideas?" Ellison thought to himself. "I have had great ideas for years and do you listen to me?"

He obviously spent too long on the internal rant, "Well do you?" Lowery impatiently asked.

"I got this boss. Let me handle it from here," he replied.

Lowery lacked the necessary motivation to come up with an alternate plan, so he offered retribution as his incentive.

"You're not going to let those hunters keep knocking us down, are you? Because if you do, it's going to be your hide next."

Ellison didn't even here the last thing that Lowery said, because he had been making idle threats at him for over a century without actually following through. The proof in that theory was the fact that Ellison was still around and acting as Lowery's protector and – for the most part – his executive assistant.

There were still a few thousand vampires and protectors left and Ellison had a good idea what strategy he would implore even before he hit the ground of the great lawn at Beach Haven Park. He went with a party of 100 fighters, and watched as they were mowed down by the wave of Hartwell's people. Ellison had given instructions to the remaining members of Lowery's posse to follow up and blanket the sky in a wide formation a few minutes after he left with the original party.

Maxwell was feeling good about what his group had accomplished, as nobody on the team had suffered as much as a scratch through the first three rounds of eliminating 700 of Lowery's people. Although Belinda did complain for a brief moment, "Oh, I broke a nail," and then a second later her advanced healing powers kicked in. "Never mind! It healed back up!"

Just as Max glibly said, "This isn't so bad," the bright, moon-lit sky darkened as if impacted by a lunar eclipse. The collective breadth of the force that was coming their way covered the entire sky and cast a huge shadow over the park.

Ellison communicated with his horde even before they hit the ground. "No one is to approach these people until I give the order. If you follow me, we will emerge victorious on this field today!"

Lowery's gang landed in the field in front of Hartwell and his family, a good 200 yards ahead in the clearing. They were at least one hundred across and about 25 deep by the time they came to a standstill.

"Maxwell said the one thing that was on everyone's mind, "Holy sh..."

Grandma' Maggie, the school librarian, altered Maxwell's intention and finished his thought for him "Schnitzel!"

"Schnitzel?" Daniel questioned.

She replied, "It was the first sh-sounding word I could think of."

"You used to make great schnitzel back in the old days, dear," Hartwell chimed in.

Thaddeus was interested, "We should put that on the menu."

Garrison was also a fan of the old-school dish, "Yeah count me in on that."

Nicole was not amused at her son's foul mouth, "I don't want to hear you say words like that again, Maxwell!"

"But, mom!" Maxwell whined, as his personality was much more juvenile without his wife Kayla around to provide the backbone.

Hartwell was never one to give up, but he was thinking that it wouldn't be a bad idea to spare his family some serious pain.

"What do we do now, Maxwell?"

Max was obviously the wrong person to ask for leadership at that point.

He feebly said, "Lawnmower formation," but Agent Blake replied, "That's an awful big lawn, Max!"

"Yes it is," Hartwell said with a straight face, although he was smiling broadly inside.

Lowery's mob was about as disorganized as any bunch he had seen. It reminded him of the first night he met Garrison, as he and his protector made a weak attempt to escape the focused and skilled pursuit of Thaddeus Brewster. The army facing them was already soft and Hartwell didn't want to use his family to sharpen their skills in any way.

"Lawnmower it is," Hartwell said to Max and the group, knowing full well that an advance like that in one single line would be relatively easy for a huge block of fighters to counteract.

It turned out that Hartwell was half as accurate as he had to be. Their all-blade ground attack efficiently mowed down the first seven rows of Lowery's men, including an astonished Ellison, who tried to run away but was Ginsued by Cal and Thaddeus, who definitely had it out for him.

Rows eight to 25 went airborne to avoid the lawnmower and then quickly descended on the group of 18, putting a quick end to the battle by killing 14 of the available players before putting an end to Hartwell by cleanly slicing off his head from about 15 separate angles. The fight came to an abrupt end, as Thaddeus pulled Cal and Emily under a pile of bodies so that no one would discover that they had escaped danger. Kayla's protection had once again proved to be effective, but it did little to stop Lowery's mob from claiming victory on this night.

Lowery sat back in his chair and closed his eyes as he breathed a sigh of genuine satisfaction, with a small touch of relief. He opened his eyes and looked out into the sky as his minions were returning.

"That's one," he said, fully expecting his plan of ridding the planet of Hartwell to fully materialize.

TWENTY-FIVE

Lowery's remaining army had vacated the field and Hartwell's surviving soldiers waited a few minutes to make sure the coast was clear before emerging from under the pile of fallen comrades. It wasn't pretty on the bottom of that pile but hunters Thaddeus, Cal and Emily Brewster were unfazed by all of the blood and dismemberment around them.

"Wow! These guys really know their way around with a blade," Thaddeus said as he looked at a few of his people.

Cal, as usual, was unimpressed, "There were like 2,000 of them! Eventually someone had to hit the mark with a shot."

"How many lives does Hartwell have left?"

Thaddeus was the always good with numbers leading back to their days as invincible bank robbers.

"He's got more than 60."

Emily rolled her eyes, "Then we better to think of something, because this guy is not going to stop until he runs out of time."

Thaddeus was contrite, "That could be a long couple of months on the bottom of the pile."

"I won't go out like that!" Cal said defiantly.

His father smiled, "I know you won't, Calvin. You never do."

The three surviving members of the fighting Hartwell's managed to get all of the body parts of the expired members into the sun room of the house, which had a decided Eastern exposure to take full advantage of the early morning healing powers of the sunrise. They all showered in their separate bedrooms and then went into the kitchen for a late night/early morning snack.

Samuel was fast asleep after trying to stay up for the better part of an hour. He would have normally been able to go the distance, but his hard drive was now working overtime and needed the extra sleep time to make preparations to come on line. The other person that remained in the house during the battle was Kayla, but she hadn't slept a wink. She was too busy worrying about the safety of her family, and the health of her husband.

Kayla had flashbacks for the last hour-or-so since Samuel went to sleep, about the time when she almost put an end to Max's life. Her overriding concern for peace pushed her to jump off the sidelines and come to the aid of her hunter family by attacking the vampires. She picked up a sword and glided toward an unsuspecting group of vampires that had circled her father, Andrew. They had toyed with Brewster by poking long straws into him and extracting his blood like a human sippy box. She could not watch the torture any more, as the last of her family was fighting for survival in this particular battle. In those days, it was forbidden for Max and Kayla to come off the sidelines because they had not reached the magical internal age of 18, and would be confined by the boundaries of their mortality.

Kayla walked into the room looking tired and depressed, as her grandma', uncle, and great grandfather noticed the morbid nature of her disposition.

"Are you okay, Kay Kay?" Thaddeus asked.

"I see that my protective vision worked," she said. "Where are the others?"

"In the sun room..." Emily said before Kayla zoomed out of the room in advance of Emily finishing her thought, "but I wouldn't go in there if I were you."

Kayla faced all of the expired people, who were propped up with their body parts scattered among their individual chairs facing the East. She noticed that a few of the parts were mismatched, so she spent a few minutes completing the puzzle that was in front of this mercenary.

"You should go talk to her," Thaddeus said to Emily.

She took a huge bite out of a ham and cheese sandwich that muffled her reply, "You're right. I'll go talk to her."

Emily strolled through the halls into he came up on the dimly-lit sun room, where her granddaughter was sitting against the huge bank of windows and blankly staring at all of the bodies in front of her.

"Why didn't I protect them?" Kayla asked as tears continued to flow from her eyes.

"You can't protect all of them, Kayla," Emily replied.

"No, I mean my parents and Maxwell," Kayla said, specifying her intended targets.

"Okay," Emily simply replied as she was hurt at first that her granddaughter had such little regard for her life.

Kayla broke out of her haze when she internally felt her grandma's insides cool of and then visually confirmed her inner feelings by viewing her facial expression.

"I love you grandma', Kayla said as she stood up and hugged Emily. "I wasn't trying to hurt your feelings. It just bothers me to see them like this."

Emily realized from the first time that Kayla revealed she was able to protect people that it would be a burden on her to watch the other unprotected people suffer. The guilt associated with such an exclusion/inclusion decision-making process was started to wear on the girl after only one day of the battle, so Emily had to set her granddaughter straight before she was rendered ineffective.

Emily, in one of her softer moments, held Kayla's hand and led her to sit down with their backs against the windows.

"You see Kayla, these bodies that we have are just vessels for our spirits. You might look straight ahead and see piles of body parts and destruction, she said pointed to the bodies in front of them, "but I see spirits hovering over us and preparing to seize the new day once it is upon us. Death, for us, is just an extension of a long life that we will live together. A lengthy journey that only pauses at time to catch its breath."

She then made the most pertinent point that she had, "Look at me."

Kayla turned and looked at her grandmother, and then Emily continued, "I have died so many times that we both don't have enough fingers and toes to count it. You know what the best part of dying in this world is?"

"What?" Kayla asked.

"It's the peace that comes with being off-line for a few hours. I'll tell you, no sleep that I have ever had has been so calm, restful and restoring."

"Does it hurt?" Kayla asked.

Emily tried to be as direct as possible without throwing Kayla back into her pity party.

"Only for a split-second when you're alive. Once you die, you go to another place with sunshine, fluffy clouds and soft, caressing breezes. Come to think of it, it's like going on a four-hour vacation."

Kayla smiled as she wiped her moist nose off with the sleeve of her shirt, "Really?"

"Really. And you're lucky none of these vampires witnessed what you just did, because they would have disinfected you and everything else in this room."

They stood up and hugged again, and a flash of the past rocketed through Kayla's brain.

"How did you survive?" was all that she asked her grandmother.

Emily stepped back and they started walking out of the room.

"What do you mean, how did I survive?"

Kayla followed Emily into the main room, where Thaddeus and Cal were still eating.

"I mean, how did you all survive after the protection was broken?" Kayla questioned.

It had been some time since the hunters had been in a battle, so they weren't so sure of the order of things when it came to Kayla protection.

"We just jumped under a pile of bodies," Thaddeus replied.

Kayla was already emotional, but now she was starting to become uneasy.

"As each person on the team dies so does your protection."

"So we weren't protected when that black cloud of Lowery descended on us?" Emily asked, although she was now more confused than ever.

"You were protected up until the point that everyone but Mr. Hartwell was killed. Where was he on the line?" she asked, knowing that Maxwell must have employed some sort of form strategy.

"He was in the front when we were doing the wave..." Thaddeus said, as he, Emily and Cal did the wave with their paws, changing into two grizzlies and a pit bull on its back legs jumping into the air.

They changed back as Cal had somehow gained some clarity of the positioning when he changed.

"He was in the middle."

"That means that once he dies, the fight for the night is over," Kayla stated.

"Why do you say that?" Emily asked.

"Because if that wasn't the case, then they would have kept chopping and we wouldn't be having this discussion right now," Kayla replied.

"Good point," Thaddeus added.

Cal was one to always cut to the chase, "So, why wouldn't we always put him in front of the line?"

Thaddeus never liked to hoist the white flag of surrender up so early, "Because that would mean that we're giving up."

"I'm just saying that there's no reason to sacrifice everyone until we can figure some way to fight on a more level playing field."

Emily always backed up her twin brother, "Cal is right. We took out probably half of their army, but we were much more effective at combating them in small doses. There is no way they won't throw everything and the kitchen sink at us right off the bat tomorrow night." It was already the next day, so she adjusted her statement, "Make that tonight."

Thaddeus processed all of the information and then put his two cents in, "I've never seen something like that in my whole life. Let's see what happens tonight and then we'll move on from there."

Cal and Emily were willing to give it another go, if not for themselves, for their father. The both nodded in agreement and said, "Okay."

"Are you okay with that Kayla? Same plan again tonight?" Emily asked.

Kayla was also behind her family and replied, "Okay," although she was not in favor of letting her parents and husband flap in the breeze of death much longer.

TWENTY-SIX

The huge sun of the day was making its way above the horizon and there were no clouds in the sky to impede its ascension. The Eastern exposure of the sun room was designed with the reawakening in mind: no trees or other objects between the window, the ocean, and the sky.

There was much truth to the assertion that death got easier and less painful over time and this proved and tested theory was being played out on Maxwell, who had died for the first time since becoming a vampire. The light hit him first and he was in excruciating pain as his body parts and organs reattached and his brain was rebooted and came back on line. He screamed and then zipped to where Kayla was in one decisive action. She was half-asleep with Samuel taking up most of the bed, as he came in early in the morning and was now sprawled out.

Samuel eyes opened at the scent of his father as he jumped into his Max's arms and excitedly said, "Daddy!"

Samuel may have been fast asleep for most of the night, but when he awoke a few hours earlier, he realized that something was amiss, something was wrong. So he ventured out of his room and into the darkness of the sun room, because that was where his instincts guided him. He stood in the room with his back to the ocean and stared blankly at the collection of barely unrecognizable bodies in front of him.

It had only been a few weeks of life for Samuel and already he was being exposed to the grittier side of the family activities. The sights and smells heightened his sensitivity and made his being even more focused to complete the transition from growing young man to, perhaps, the most powerful force on earth.

Kayla smiled at the sight of her husband back in one handsome and usable piece.

"Oh, that was painful," Max intensely whispered into Kayla's ear as he kissed her cheek.

However, the pain he was feeling only moments earlier was now a thing of the past courtesy of his highly advanced central nervous and immune systems.

Kayla could sense that he was feeling better, "I hear it gets easier but I'm not sure if I care to watch all of this for too long."

Max was still young and was basically clueless to the direction of the battle. He really had no idea what would happen that night, let alone what Kayla would say next. Max hadn't fully tapped all of his capabilities yet because things had been happening too fast socially for him to be able to unleash his powers. It would be too rudimentary to believe that the son of a vampire and a protector would be limited to cycling through basic changes and be responsible for the positioning of the other supernatural beings during a battle. His father Daniel, in contrast, had the time and the guidance to unlock all of his inner workings and develop them further over time.

Hartwell was putting on a good face once the remaining members of the family came back to life, as the sun had made a full appearance and its brilliance could be felt in every crack and crevice of the room.

"That wasn't so bad," he said as he hugged and kissed Maggie.

"No, I thought we gave a fairly good account for ourselves," she replied.

"Wow, I needed that sleep so badly!" Agent Blake moaned as he stretched his arms to the 30-foot ceiling. "I forgot how peaceful that time off can be."

He hugged Belinda and said, "But I did miss you."

Daniel turned to Nicole and said, "Yeah, it does get easier," referencing a discussion they had months earlier about how dying did get easier over time.

Carla jumped on top of Drew in typical Carla style, and Aaron and Sharon raced out of the room to find Emily and Cal, and the couples were reunited a few seconds later. Valerie Winters admired her new engagement ring as she hugged fiancé Brandon Justice. Joe Winters was famished, so he decided to walk into the kitchen and prepare a huge batch of eggs, bacon, pancakes and waffles.

The men stayed behind in the sun room as Maggie, Belinda, Nicole and Carla decided to go back to their rooms and take showers.

"That was a lot of people at once," the usually-composed Daniel stated to kick off the conversation.

"Is there any way you can short-circuit their gene pool?" Agent Blake asked.

"I'll check into that,' Daniel replied.

Cal was never one to take short-cuts.

"You don't think we can beat them straight up?"

Blake didn't have to cycle through calculations to come up with a direct answer to the question.

"No. Not if they come at us with everything at once, instead of delivering smaller packages to us on a silver platter."

Garrison was always the voice of reason, "He's got a point."

Thaddeus, as usual, wasn't too far behind, "If they swarm us, then we will have little chance of surviving."

Hartwell was running out of bodies of varying temperature to support his campaign of false hope. But, there still was one man among them that could turn the tide with one completely delusional, yet wildly popular statement.

"Have you all become so soft that it's over after one fight?" Andrew said as he angrily tore the sleeves off of his long-sleeve t-shirt. "I've seen all of you get knocked down time and time again, only to get up and fight and fight until... whatever! What does death mean to any of us, anyway? Let's just go out there and do our best and see what happens!"

He looked around at the other men, "Is anyone with me?"

Just then, the intoxicating smell of a variety of breakfast foods – especially bacon – wafted into the room and invaded the nostrils of these highly sensed beings.

His cousin and best friend Daniel was the first to his aid, "Yeah, I'll do whatever you want if I can get some of that bacon."

"I'm with him," Blake added

They all started walking out of the room, "A few stacks of pancakes would hit the spot right about now," Thaddeus said.

"I have to tell him to put some cheese in my eggs," Garrison voiced.

Hartwell was left in the room with Drew, who was trying to show some restraint for a change.

"I thought you made a very convincing argument, Andrew," Hartwell said as he put his arm around Drew. "You know you want to get some of those waffles," Hartwell said as they raced each other for the door.

TWENTY-SEVEN

Team Hartwell was back on track for the second night of the battle following Andrew's surprising and inspirational remarks. However, things were not as copacetic at Team Lowery, as Abraham Ellison awoke from his five-hour dirt nap. It had been at least 25 years since Ellison had given his life to protect Lowery, so the renewed pain of being in the middle of Maxwell's lawnmower was still fresh on his mind when he reassembled and was given fresh life of the dawn.

"What the..." Ellison shouted as he initially gasped for breath.

He looked around as hundreds of Lowery's minions came back on line and were starting to internally review the night's events. Ellison was in no mood to sit around and commiserate with the pack of hired hands. Instead of turning to a vampire and asking for a lift back the Beach Haven Inn, he took out some of his frustration and aggression and ran as fast as he could back to his temporary home.

Lowery was never hard for Ellison to find because, for as long as their vampire-protector status stayed intact, the bond between them would remain strong. Ellison focused in on Lowery and located him in a shady spot in the pool area, just about the same spot he was in when Ellison went to fight the night before. Lowery, for his part, wasn't moving much these days but he did know the exact moment that Ellison's life ceased to exist during the fight. This momentary concern, however, evolved into a smile when he discovered that Hartwell had also exhausted another one of his lives.

Ellison was all ready to fight with his vampire, but Lowery quickly diffused the potential volatility of the situation, at least initially.

"Great job of strategy, my friend!" Lowery yelled loud enough so that most of his minions would hear.

A smattering of applause turned into a big round of applause as momentum gained throughout the complex.

Ellison waived to acknowledge the acknowledgment of his last siege, although it was actually Lowery's game plan that he had followed. Lowery then slapped Ellison with the same hand he had just patted him on the back.

"Let's make sure that the events of last night never happen again," he said in a tone that was meant for just one.

"What do you mean?" Ellison asked with a tinge of scorn and annoyance.

Lowery could sense that his protector's questioning his orders had a deeper intent, and he must nip any and all insubordination in the bud.

"Well A-bra-ham," he said with emphasis, "if you must know," Lowery said, putting the purported lower death form in his place, "we lost many more people than we should have last night. I wasn't sure of the outcome for a few moments and you know how much I hate to be in suspense."

Ellison didn't answer because it wouldn't have been pretty.

"Do I like to be in suspense, Ellison?" Lowery said as he ditched the informalities for more pointed dialogue.

"No."

"No, what?" Lowery demanded.

"No, boss."

That was a sufficient enough level of graveling for the vampire. Ellison couldn't believe that he was being reduced to this, "No, sir."

"Ahh, that's better. Was that so hard?"

Ellison succumbed to the moment but it did little to soften his resolve. All of the meaning of being a protector had been drained from Ellison over the years, to the point that he had been questioning Lowery's procreation methods. And now it had finally come to a head in the sleepy town of Beach Haven, of all places.

After a few good meals and some quality times with loved ones, the inhabitants of Hartwell house were ready for the second night of war. Thanks to Andrew's inspirational words, the collective mood on the way out was quite positive. The main difference from the previous night was a reduced level of concern for Samuel, who had run out of energy at 11:00 pm and was already fast asleep.

"That boy crashed early," Agent Blake said to his wife Belinda.

"He reminds me a lot of Andrew as a boy. Always in constant motion until he passes out from exhaustion," Belinda said.

Emily agreed with that observation, "Yes! That is so right!" She would know, as Drew's mom she was constantly trying to keep up with his frantic pace.

Hartwell smirked because he knew that the boy had energy to burn, and he was only sleeping because he was in the process of of completing his full transformation. He was just as eager for Samuel to become of age, because that would mean that he would no longer have to take Lowery's crap. In the meantime, he was going to look into tapping into his grandson Maxwell's vast talent base.

He walked with Maxwell while Maggie strolled with Daniel and Nicole for the first few paces out of the front door. Hartwell decided to go internal with the conversation, seeking a more subliminal tilt to his words.

"Maxie, you must put aside all of your fears about losing Kayla, and your parents, and me and your nanna," he said, referring to Maggie, "and look deep inside yourself to unlock your true potential."

Max looked over at Hartwell and seemed lost. He was born at a different time when hunters did not live with vampires and protectors under one roof. His birth was also one wrapped in controversy, as his origin was wondered to have been from either Daniel or Andrew until he – while still unborn – made it abundantly clear to Daniel that he unequivocally was his father. The lasting impact of this stunted beginning appeared to still be impacting him to this day.

Hartwell could sense Max's emotional difficulty despite his seemingly calm façade. While it could have been more productive to go directly to Daniel and talk about the issue, he decided to utilize a more indirect route that might take a little longer, but it had the potential of producing better long-term results.

He let Max go as the group's more rapid walk changed over to a light jog. Of course, the vampires usually let the others use their feet while they glided about six inches above the earth's surface. This gave Hartwell more time to work on Nicole's mental side, while her physical side eased into a pre-fight warm-up.

"Nicole, you must reassure Maxwell that his place in this world is by your side. He is trying to come into his own, and it appears that he has blocked his true powers off out of fear for losing you and Daniel. He's never fully gotten over the question of his origin."

Nicole's subliminal mind processed everything Hartwell inputted, and then placed it away for the time being so she could focus on the battle. He then put only one thought it Daniel's subconscious, "Support anything your wife decides to do."

The collective jog graduated to a run then a sprint, as the group rolled up on the great lawn of Beach Haven Park for a Wednesday night rumble.

Ellison sat back in his deluxe lounge chair by the pool and was in a cigar smoking mood, so he had a few of his minions go down to Cuba and fetch him some stogies. He clipped off the end of the cigar, lit up the other end, took a big puff, and then said to Ellison, "It's time."

Ellison mumbled to himself, "Oh happy day."

Lowery heard him say something and yelled, "Say something, Ellison?"

"Yes sir, I said this will be a happy day!"

Lowery smiled broadly and took another puff of his smelly cigar, "Yes it will, my spunky friend. Yes it will."

Ellison was in no mood to prolong the battle on this night. There would not be a feeling out process his time around. He turned to the throng of minions and asked a nearby vampire to take him up in the air so he could speak to the collective. Once he was about 50 feet in the air he yelled, "Full-out attack!!"

The hoard of vampires and protectors followed him in the sky in what looked like a diamond formation. By the time they reached the park, the diamond had transitioned into the shape of a pesky mosquito.

Hartwell's group saw the formation buzzing toward them and then Max said the only thing on his mind when he barked internal instructions to the group.

"Bug zapper formation!"

Hartwell's almost laughed at the call, which elicited the team to form an electric force field situated from the ground to almost 30 feet above the ground. Lowery's determined group, led by Ellison, inched closer and closer until Ellison screamed out of frustration as he collided with the Maxwell's force field in a kamikaze-like maneuver where he gave up his life so he could be put out of his misery, even though he knew that the others could crash through.

The collective strength of the giant mosquito was no match to, what amounted to, the backyard bug zapper. Fewer than 500 of Lowery's men perished, including Ellison, and all of Hartwell's group bit the dust this time. Kayla's protection worked like a charm until the collective inertia of the swarm of mosquitoes buzzed right through Thaddeus, Cal and Emily.

TWENTY-EIGHT

The house was real quiet that night, as Kayla decided to catch up on some rest after she realized that no one would be coming home until the dawn. But there was a lot more action going on at the field than a pile of lifeless bodies was letting onto.

Hartwell's subliminal messages to Maxwell, Nicole and Daniel achieved its intended result as the spirits of all three people floated above the rubble of their now-useless bodies and into a dimension that only existed in their minds. Hartwell's subconscious also came along for the float, although he harkened back to his early days with Daniel was merely was an interested observer from afar.

"How did we get up here?" Maxwell asked. "I thought we were dead."

"A better question might be, where are we?" Daniel asked.

The thick clouds receded and the three were in Nicole's hospital delivery room, which Max had marked as the place he had been the happiest in his short life with just his parents.

"We're in my birthing room," Nicole stated. "Wonder what we're doing in here?"

Max blushed, "I think that was my fault."

"Why did you bring us here?" Nicole asked.

Daniel was sitting in a big chair against the wall next to Nicole, who was lying in her hospital bed, which was made out of a cloud. Max was in an adult-sized bassinet – if there is such a thing – and was swaddled in a large light blue blanket.

Max thought about the question and then the answer came easily to him as he looked around the room.

"I don't know why, but this was the happiest time that I can remember with just the three of us."

Nicole and Daniel were flabbergasted by their son's statement. In their minds, Max couldn't have been brought up in a more supportive, loving environment. They looked at each other in a shocked form of solidarity, with just a hint of denial and healthy portion of parental guilt.

Daniel took the lead because Nicole was temporarily unable to verbally express her confusion, even in her subconscious mind.

"I don't understand," he said and then he looked at Nicole. "We don't understand? Are saying that once we left this hospital room that it all went downhill?"

Nicole was starting to get her bearings back as Maxwell answered Daniel's question.

"I can't explain it, but I felt comfortable and at peace in this room, and when we left everything changed for me."

"Was it something we did?" Daniel asked.

Max tried to be diplomatic because he didn't want to hurt his parents' feelings.

"I don't think so," he replied, although he knew deep-down that the answer was a resounding "Yes!"

Something snapped in Nicole and she was on the offensive before the two most important men in her life even knew what happened. She rose from the bed and held Daniel's hand, channeling the appropriate flashback that she was going to narrate for Max's viewing.

The three of them were now standing in the middle of the main room at Hartwell's house, years earlier when Daniel came over and his father broke the news to him that he was a vampire.

"I am you mother and I can sense you still have some anxiety over the origin of your life," Nicole said to Max after she was able to tap into his nerve center.

The family never talked about the whole Andrew-Nicole-Daniel triangle after Daniel was revealed to be Max's father, probably because they were all happy to finally put the stressful issue to rest.

Nicole continued, "When your grandfather told your father about where he came from and what he had to do to see his son again, your father was astonished to learn he was a vampire," she said over Hartwell showing Daniel black-and-white pictures of their family in turn of the 20th century San Francisco.

"It took your father a while to wrap his arms around his destiny, but he probably knew all along that he was different than everyone else. Am I right?" she asked Daniel.

He smiled, "You're right."

She flashed back further, "A few weeks before that, we celebrated his 18th birthday... if you know what I mean," she said leaning into Daniel, who hugged her tight.

"C'mon!" Max yelled at the sight, sounds and thoughts of parental affection.

"Okay," Nicole said, as she patted her son's head. "Once your father came to grips with being a vampire, the one thing he knew had he to do was protect me. It was early in his development, so he was unsure what horrible things he could do if he was around me.

Daniel, Nicole and Maxwell are then transported to the boardwalk, where Daniel is Sharon breaking up with Nicole. He told her that he had been with another girl and he said, "she was better than you."

Modern-day Nicole looked at Daniel, "That hurt."

"I have apologized for that about a thousand times..." he said looking at Nicole first and then Maxwell, who had the look on his face that his father should make that number 1,001.

"I'm sorry," Daniel said to his wife, and she replied, "I accept your apology, again."

Then she continued telling the story, "I was obviously crushed over losing the love of my life," she turned and she and Daniel blushed. "I went home and cried so much that I used a box of Kleenex." The three were now on Nicole's old room as her mother said she was going out to get some more tissues. "Your grandmother went out and I was in no position to be alone, so I contacted the person who I knew would bring me comfort in my time of need, even though we hadn't spoken for some time. It was purely instinct at that point."

Drew came over to comfort Nicole and Max had had enough, "Okay, mom, let's move on!"

"Please!" Daniel added.

Then Daniel played a scene that even Nicole was not aware of. It was Drew leaving Nicole's room with her settling in under the covers and saying, "Can you close the door, Danny?"

Nicole looking at Daniel with amazement, "Did I say that to him? No, I couldn't have said that to him!"

Daniel simply smiled and then replayed the wonderful slip of the tongue, "Can you please close the door, Danny."

"Looks like you said it, mom."

"Well, I'll be..." Nicole muttered. "Well at least you could see where my head was at."

"Never had a doubt," Daniel replied.

Nicole was ready to get back on track and finish her story.

"Then Drew went to the beach to clear his head, because he was so upset that he betrayed Aunt Carla and their relationship. That was about the time that your father descended from the sky and dropped the bomb, and the knowledge, on Uncle Drew that he was a vampire, not a hunter. Andrew became so upset that he wound up releasing Uncle Cal from his watery tomb."

They witness Daniel flying away and then Drew reacting angrily by soaring up into the clouds as a hawk and then splashing down into the surf and changing into a shark, diving to the depths of the ocean and slamming his hammerhead nose against a huge rock formation.

"Uncle Cal happened to be under those rocks..." she added. She then tried to sum it up like a defense attorney presenting her final arguments, "So you can see that it looked a lot worse than it actually was, Maxwell. None of us were obviously invested in anything else than what the natural order dictated. I've always loved your dad from the moment we met at grade school. Cosmically, we are the only parents you ever could have had."

She then looked at Daniel and he nodded in approval of the statement, "What your mom said..."

Maxwell's clouded mind finally cleared, as the morning sun started its gradual climb up the morning landscape. He and his parents were no longer at the beach as they all came back on line next to each other on the open Beach Haven Park field. They looked over at Hartwell, who was experiencing a more touching, ice-cube from the eyes moment.

"That was beautiful," Hartwell said as he had witnessed the entire successful family reunion.

He regained his composure and thought ahead to bigger and better things, "Time to get to work, Maxie," he said in a stern voice to his grandson.

Max had been reborn during his five hours off the grid.

"I'm ready to rumble, grandpa."

TWENTY-NINE

An interesting battle took place on day three of the war. Hartwell's big plan included Samuel's participation, so he regrettably had to get into Max's head a little bit to slow him down. A key part to his strategy was to keep Lowery and his people in the dark about the real capabilities they were up against. He had been in Daniel's head for days already, which stopped his son from attempting to alter gene sequences in order to try the level the playing field a bit. The Hartwell clan was so outnumbered that they could never win a straight battle, no matter what organizational tactics Max employed.

Speaking of Samuel, he retired to his bedroom shortly after dinner and then fell fast asleep a few seconds after his head hit the pillow. This obvious exhaustion was really Max's internal computer shutting his external body down so it could go to work. It would be a pattern that would continue for the next six days, with Samuel sleeping round-the-clock by the end of the period. Hartwell did his best to keep the attention off Samuel, while also testing some of the other pieces of his strategy in the meantime.

"Are we going to do anything different tonight?" Cal Brewster asked the group a few hours before they were going to head out to Beach Haven Park for the third round of the war. "Because, round two didn't go quite as well as round one."

"They adjusted to our strategy and sent the whole army instead of little groups," Aaron replied. He continued, "We have to find a way to separate the horde into smaller pieces."

The image of a cheese and cold cut slicer behind a deli counter came into Max's mind and then the thought made a break for it on the outside, "Deli slicer."

"What about a deli slicer, Maxie?" Hartwell asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

"Have you ever seen the slicer they use behind the counter at the deli?"

Everyone replied, "Yes," at different intervals.

"It takes a large chunk and reduces it to thin slices. We somehow have to funnel their width in the air to something more narrow..." he was saying before Cal Brewster tired of the whole thing.

Although Hartwell did not enjoy seeing his grandson be cut down to size, he nonetheless counting on the most abrasive of the hunters to want to pursue instead of purely reacting to every little thing their opponent did.

"I really miss the days when I could walk up to one of you and just... what are the words I'm looking for?"

Drew filled in the blanks for his uncle, "Throw down?"

Cal nodded at Drew in approval, "Yeah, we threw down!"

"Like when we both punched out that annoying protector a few weeks ago?" Thaddeus added.

"Yes!" Cal replied. "Just like that! I knocked him down, he got up, and then you pulled out a pair of brass knuckles and knocked him out!"

"And again at the bagel store," Garrison added.

"But, if we engage them in hand-to-hand combat, then there is no chance we can win," Hartwell stated, knowing that the collective pride of the group would be overwhelmingly in favor of dropping the gimmicks in favor of going out fighting the old-fashioned way. It was just ironic that Hartwell now had the opposite view in his older years – that pride had nothing to do with it and you should try to win by any technologically means at your disposal. When it was just he and Garrison fighting Thaddeus, and even Emily and Cal, there was so much less on the line. But, now that the family had grown and even integrated, it didn't really pay to take chances and be focused on pride as a directional factor.

Thaddeus was now on center stage for a change as he turned to long-time opponent Garrison, "Didn't that look like it felt good?"

Gary smiled, "Yeah, I would like to take a shot at him."

"Count me in!" the largest member of the group, Aaron, enthusiastically shouted.

Maggie had heard enough of all of the club-dragging and drooling of the cavemen in her midst.

"So, what you saying is that we have no chance without a plan, but you guys don't care because it doesn't look manly?"

Thaddeus looked at Garrison, Cal and then Andrew, and they gave a collective "Yeah."

"That makes a lot of sense," Belinda chimed in, calling on a bit of sarcasm.

The tide was turning and the women appeared intent on jumping off the sinking ship.

"It always sounds like you don't even need us there," Carla said.

"Yeah, then why do we even have to go?" Nicole added.

Emily finally caved and got fully in touch with her softer side, "Hey, we could work on knitting that quilt for the winter!" she said to the other woman.

"Yeah, I just went to Beach Haven Knitters and got us all new needles and supplies!" Sharon happily chimed in.

"Can you teach me?" Kayla asked Sharon.

"Of course!" Sharon replied.

Fellow knitting enthusiast Valerie Winters finally had a reason to enter the conversation, "You guys knit?"

The women left the room and the sounds of dissension were music to Hartwell's ears, better than any Vivaldi concerto.

Agent Blake turned to Joe Winters, "This isn't good."

Joe replied, "My sentiments exactly."

Hartwell made sure the men stayed sufficiently macho in their pursuit of engaging in a 'real' fight for a change. A few hours later, the men were in the main room of the house, while the women were in the newly-built knitting and crafts room in the west wing of the house. While they cared about their men and the cause they were fighting for, their thoughts couldn't have been further from the battle that was scheduled to take place that night. When they heard hard rain falling on the roof of the room, their plans for the night were sealed.

"Is that rain?" Nicole asked.

The women looked up toward the ceiling to gauge the weather, "Sounds like it," Sharon stated.

"I just got my hair done this morning," Belinda said.

Carla chimed in, "Just put a fresh coat of polish on my nails."

Maggie was up next, "Deep-conditioning my hair."

"I like to knit," Valerie added.

Then the group looked at Emily because she was the consummate warrior who would never back down, at least under normal, dry circumstances.

She was in no mood to stop such progress, "I'm just sick of dying!" she said while holding a spool of yarn for Valerie.

Back at the front door, the men felt like they had a job to do.

"We're leaving!" Cal Brewster yelled loud enough so the women could hear from the other room.

"All right!" Emily yelled back. "We'll see you in the morning!"

"Call us when you have a strategy again!" feisty Belinda added, as the women enjoyed a good chortle.

THIRTY

It rained hard the next three nights, as the women continued their knitting crusade while the men remained steadfast in their position to prove a point. After the first night and then the early morning, the men felt they were making progress.

"We almost got into a real fight!" Aaron half-boasted as the men walked up to the house.

"I think you should call that guy Ellison out tomorrow night," Andrew said to his Grandpa' Thaddeus.

"Did you even see him in the middle of that gang tonight?" Brandon Justice asked.

"No, you'd think that he would be all about revenge and getting back at us," Garrison added.

"What kind of protector is he?" Cal asked. "I might let you knock me down once, just to get the blood flowing, but anything after that would lead to a beat-down.

Blake said to his new buddy Joe Winters " I told you this would be a disaster."

Joe, who was trying to think peaceful thoughts, said "At least it was fast."

"That's the best sleep I've had in a long time," Blake added.

"I'm with you on that one," Joe concurred.

Hartwell was overjoyed that the boys still had plenty of fight left in them after they were annihilated in what amounted to a five-second fight. Without a strategy call from Maxwell, they were merely 10 men strong looking to go old-school against more than 2,000 vampires and protectors. They stood in place with their fists at the ready position and were diced and sliced like a bunch of carrots and used as colorful garnish in a salad.

But the first night that turned into the day was not a total success in Hartwell's eyes. He could see that Daniel and Maxwell were quieter than usual, which meant that they had probably checked out mentally and shut down the things that made them amazing. His resolve to keep everyone in the dark remained intact, but the hold he had on secrecy was loosening with every nap in the park.

Night two without the women wasn't much different than night one, but the group did yell, "Ellison!" in unison, which seemed to get the attention of Lowery's protector on the way back to the Beach Haven Inn.

"Were they calling my name?" Ellison said to a vampire that was giving him a ride home.

"I believe they were," the man replied.

Ellison was flattered with the gesture, even though he had remained a distance observer to the actual fight, of you want to call it that. He quickly grew tired after the first two nights of waking up in the middle of a moist field. So, he decided to place himself in the latter third of the siege when less than a third of the manpower was utilized in successive days. He was so far back, in fact, that he didn't even notice that the women had stayed home and there were only 10 unarmed men standing in the way of the group and a massive karaoke party that started to become a nightly thing back at the Inn's pool area.

Alexander Lowery so enjoyed listening to karaoke and signing really bad Easy Rock ballads, that he had his minions steal the best equipment on the planet. Lowery felt so invincible after the third night that he started karaoke night complete with kegs of beer and packets of human blood as far as the supernatural eye could see.

He serenaded his returning troops with songs from the 1970s and 1980s that many of the artists would have gladly taken their own lives, in return for Lowery's promised silence. Lowery's minions loved him and were eternally loyal to him because of the big party he always threw when they were together, which was obviously an effective smoke screen. It appeared that the only person that figured out his rolling hit list was Ellison, probably because no one else of significant age and experience was around to tell the grim tale because they had been eliminated.

Lowery didn't have a care in the world because no one had ever challenged his authority except Braden Lawrence, who was Lowery's hunter. But he had been buried in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for the past 25 years, so the chance of meeting with any resistance was slim. Once Lowery felt the extinguishment of Hartwell's energy source each night, it signaled the end of any potential danger for him and a jumping-off point for the party to start. It didn't take long after that for his people to return and begin the nightly celebration.

The minions partied all night and then slept all day until it was time to go out and do it all over again. They had never been defeated and had barely been challenged in an individual battle, although the tussle of the first night against Hartwell's bunch represented the closest anyone had ever been to beating them. The loss of more than 1,000 people was unheard of before then, but the masses chalked it up to faulty strategy that was quickly amended. It had become so easy by night five that Ellison was not even needed to call out the charge order. The troops simply got up at the stroke of midnight, flew in the air to the desired location and then flew back only minutes later. It was barely worth even getting dressed for.

Night five's location was the Beach Haven High School football field, just as it had been the previous night. The Friday and Saturday night battles were at the high school because school was out for the weekend and the venue was basically deserted. Lowery's gang made quick work of Hartwell and company the first night, but took full advantage of the field the second night as many people reminisced about their high school days. Heads of the 10 men were used to simulate winning football plays or field goals that won championships in days gone by. Some men stayed on the lighted field for a good 20 minutes after the battle had officially ended, while being cheered on by the group of former cheerleaders in the bunch.

"The party started," one protector alerted his quarterback vampire.

The vampire then threw the head in his hand, which just happened to be Hartwell's, 100 yards down the field through rain and the bright yellow goal posts, and thudded and then rolled through the end zone.

"It's time to fly!" the vampire dressed in his old uniform said to the rest of the team as they took to the sky and headed back to home base.

The morning came and light filtered through the trees of the extensive school property and onto the professional turf field. Hartwell's head rolled back to his body, which was on the 50 yard line. The heads of all the other men made a similar bowling ball-like journey, as the transformation on this cloudy, dreary day was taking at least an hour more than it normally would on a sunny day.

Hartwell was the last to wake up and experienced pain that he hadn't felt since his early days as a vampire.

"Wow! My head feels like it was used as a golf ball!" he said as he sat up and strained to regain his equilibrium.

"Yeah, what happened last night?" Daniel asked.

The mystery of everyone's headache was solved by the hunters, who were able to view things around them for a limited time after they were killed during a fight.

Cal stepped up, "Football."

"What about football?" Blake questioned as he tried to adjust his neck to alleviate the pain.

Andrew had his first after-life vision as a hunter, "Holy moley! They were playing football with our heads!"

Garrison needed confirmation, "Is that right, Thad?"

Thaddeus flashed back to being punted and then spinning through the air before everything went black.

"Yeah, I believe I was punted."

"That's not right!" Hartwell yelled as he was still being bothered by a splitting headache.

Aaron usually wasn't the one to challenge Hartwell, but his migraine propelled him to say, "There he is! I thought you left us for dead!"

Hartwell was in no mood to be mocked by a rookie.

"What did he say? Was the tall piece of wood mocking me?" Hartwell asked Cal and then zipped over to Aaron and knocked him out with one titanic punch.

"Cool!" neophyte Maxwell said as Andrew took exception to the positive reference to one of his own getting hurt. Since Drew wasn't related to Maxwell, even though he was almost his father, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

"Someone has to teach that kid a lesson," Drew said as he came at an unsuspecting Maxwell from the side and sucker-punched him.

Daniel couldn't believe his eyes, "Oh no, you didn't!" he said as he went at Drew and gave him a good beating.

It wasn't long before a few errant comments turned into a full-scale brawl that lasted a good 30 minutes. There wasn't one change of external façade during the whole fight, giving this band of men with raging levels of testosterone a chance to finally vent their desire to fight. By the end of the half-hour of flying fists, there wasn't a man amongst them that carried any ill will. They walked back together from the football field to Hartwell's house, taking their time via a remote route. By the time they walked into the house it was nearly 9:00 am and everyone was up and eating in the main room.

Not only was it later than usual for the men to be coming in but they were all bruised and bloody, which never had occurred previously following a reawakening.

"What is going on?" Nicole asked the girls at the table.

Emily smirked, "I think the boys are ready to fight again."

THIRTY-ONE

Hartwell was now within range to fully execute his plan and let the others in on his big secret. But he needed help in determining whether Samuel was ready to back him in this plot, and he knew just the person to provide that precious intelligence.

"Hey son, you have a minute?" Hartwell asked Daniel internally from another room after breakfast.

Daniel was doing a whole lot of nothing, so he glided into the main room and spoke out loud, "Sure, what do you need?"

Hartwell was always paranoid, which was part of his vampire persona, but he was especially wary of letting anything slip with so many lives on the line.

"Let's keep this between you and me," Hartwell said internally.

"Okay," Daniel replied. "What's up?"

This was the point when Hartwell had to decide between complete anonymity of the action, or bringing a trusted confidant into the fold. The quick analysis revealed that there was no real way to misdirect Daniel, because every question he usually had usually started with the word why?"

"We can win this," he said simply.

Daniel processed the statement and then smiled, "I knew you had a plan!"

"I'll tell you all about it, but we have to go see Samuel first," Hartwell replied, keeping the conversation between the two men.

They zipped into Samuel's room where he was sleeping soundly and breathing rather heavily, as if he was fully exerting himself.

"Wow, he's really working hard in there," Daniel stated.

"You looked that way in the final days before you made the turn," Hartwell added.

"How long does he have left?" Daniel asked the obvious question.

Hartwell replied, "That's what I need to know. Do you think you can find out for me?"

Daniel closed his eyes and instantly went to work on the inside of Samuel's body. He analyzed his grandson's brain waves, neurons, and motor functions, and then extrapolated the data.

"Less than 24 hours."

Hartwell was pleasantly surprised, "I was thinking more like days. This is good news! Are you sure?"

Daniel looked at his father with wonderment, "You could always ask around for a second opinion."

Hartwell realized that his question was a bit off-putting, and moved to quickly apologize through a hug. He whispered in his son's left ear, "We have to gather the entire family for a strategy session."

They broke from the hug and Daniel smiled, "I'll get the troops together, General."

Everyone was gathered in the main room of the house as various early-afternoon snacks were being served. Tubs of multi-flavored popcorn in brightly-colored tins were everywhere.

"There is something about the combination of buttery, salty, cheesy and sweet that just works so well, "Thaddeus said to Emily as if he was reviewing an entrée at a four-star restaurant.

"I have some good news and some bad news," Hartwell stated at loud knowing that the statement would get everyone's attention.

"Start with the good news! We could use some of that!" Cal Brewster yelled.

"Very well, Calvin," Hartwell replied. But, first, we're going to have to take one more beating tonight."

There was a collective groan heard throughout the room. Hartwell moved quickly to put an end to the families' troubles.

"But then we will reclaim Beach Haven tomorrow night!" Hartwell exclaimed.

There was a huge roar heard throughout the room that was equal in intensity to the inside of any sports stadium after a touchdown, home run, or winning shot.

"Let's split off into the same groups we had a few weeks ago. Aquatics team I need to talk to you first outside," Hartwell added.

He walked outside with Agent Blake Wallace, who was followed by his daughter Valerie, Brandon Justice, Belinda and Drew. The team's work had curtailed in recent days because of the battles and subsequent dirt naps.

"Have we located all of the underwater cells?" Hartwell asked, trying to see how ready the team was to proceed with the grand plan.

"Yes we have," a proud Wallace replied as he looked around at his team.

"Is Lawrence near?" he asked about Lowery's hunter.

"He's off the coast of Australia," Blake replied.

"That's probably the opposite of close. Can we get to him now and be back for the fight later?"

There was only one person on the team that had the kind of speed and strength to accomplish the task.

"I'm you're man!" vampire Belinda yelled.

"I can get there through the water while you take to the sky," a highly motivated Andrew chimed in.

"Blake looked around at his group, "We started this together, so why don't we end this together!"

He looked to Hartwell for confirmation and said, "Sounds like a plan. If you don't get back by midnight, go right out to our spot at Beach Haven Park."

They all zipped off in varying directions, Belinda taking to the sky as she unfurled her vampire wings and the others diving into the ocean, changing into their favorite aquatic persona. The three-hour journey each way would also involve another few hours of excavation, as Lowery mad sure he buried his hunter so far under the ocean floor that he would never get out.

With the aquatics group out on assignment, it was time for Hartwell to brief the other groups about his plans for next two nights of battles. The hunters and protectors were now in one group, while the vampires were always in a league of their own. Hartwell started to work on the inside and then he would disseminate the information to the periphery.

"We should make this one as quick as possible tonight," he said to Maxwell. The longer we are at rest, the stronger we will be for tomorrow night. We're going to need all of our strength to take Lowery out."

Maxwell reviewed the potential strategic possibilities in his head and came to a definitive solution.

"Obviously no protection from Kayla, combined with the Kamikaze strategy. We have to just fly right into them."

"Do you think they'll notice that we're not trying?" Maggie asked.

"How about the quickest end to a veiled attempt at trying to win?" Daniel asked.

Hartwell then remembered another important factor, "We also want to be near the shore when we wake up, because we're going to have a lot of company," he said smiling at the group.

Max scanned through the possibilities until he hit on the winner, "Quail hunting."

"Quail hunting?" the collective asked.

"We fly away and then they shoot us out of the sky," Max explained.

"That will work," Daniel stated.

Hartwell patted his grandson on the back and said, "Just the start of big things, my boy!"

Hartwell then walked back inside and had a pow-wow with the hunters and protectors, who had formed a nice bond despite being on opposite sides of the vampire fence for so long.

"Everything has to come together just right for us to end this thing tomorrow," Hartwell said with a bit more confidence than someone was unsure of the outcome.

"They key to our success will be to keep Lowery's army at bay until our reinforcements make their way to Beach Haven," he continued.

Thaddeus was the most connected with the world of hunters, as he got a sense – a tingling – in his core that something was afoot, or a shore, with his people.

He stepped toward Hartwell and looked him straight in the eye, "You're releasing all of them?"

"All of who?" Emily asked.

Just then, Drew also got the sensation that his grandfather felt only a few seconds earlier.

"All of us."

"How are you doing that?" neophyte Aaron questioned.

Garrison looked at Aaron like he had two heads, "Are you questioning this man?" he said, referring to Hartwell.

Cal chimed in, "Yeah, I wouldn't do that!" He then looked around at the group, "Let's just focus on what we can do to get us out of this rut."

"I'm banking on the aquatics team for search and identification of all of the hunters that are buried from our shores of the Atlantic to the far reaches of the Pacific Ocean, where I've been told that they have buried Lowery's hunter far deeper than I buried my friend Cal. Sorry about that, buddy," Hartwell said in a cheeky tone to Cal.

"It wasn't just you," Garrison said as he came to the aid, as usual, to his vampire.

Sharon was hesitant at first to drum up old drama, especially since she had a big hand in burying her now-husband.

"Yeah I was there, too," she confessed while looking at Cal with a pair of puppy-dog eyes.

The group was waiting for Cal to issue a pass for an act that was performed many moons ago before the friendly integration. But, instead of going for the high road, he sarcastically walked on the low road.

"It's all right. I'll get you all back one day."

The group started laughing at first, until Cal's stoic facial expression caused an abrupt shift of the collective mood. He waited until everyone felt vulnerable and then burst out into laughter saying, "I'm just bustin' on you!"

Thaddeus looked at Garrison and laughed, "That boy always did have a sadistic sense of humor."

Garrison wiped the sweat from his brow, "Tell me about it."

THIRTY-TWO

The aquatics team had to exhume Braden Lawrence's body the night before the new dawn, and they were proceeding on schedule. Lowery's hunter had perhaps the longest route to travel to Beach Haven and it would take him a while to regain his strength before hitting the road. Maxwell estimated that Lawrence would probably begin the journey as a slower-moving hawk, because he would seek to avoid the water after being trapped in it for 25 years. He mapped out the hunter's trajectory and that factored in to the timing of Hartwell's plan for the following night.

"Looks like they're not going to make it back to walk with us," Max said to Hartwell as he uploaded a global positioning system and then downloaded it as a 3-D image in the center of the room.

"They're about 20 minutes away," Max added as they all looked at the digital clock he superimposed on the side of the display, which read 11:45 pm.

"Then we'll leave at midnight and take our time getting over there," Hartwell replied.

On the other side of town, little or no preparations were being made for night six of the Hartwell massacre. Lowery was still lounging by the pool in the same spot he was since he arrived in Beach Haven. Fresh bodies were served to him in anticipation of blood hunger, and this also presented many opportunities to sire additional members of his growing army.

The group of vampires and protectors were strong en masse, but the regression of strength and powers over the generations would be evident during a more even fight. The excitement of the fight had fully drained from Abraham Ellison's body and he was now just waiting until Lowery's army completed the job – putting Hartwell down for the count – so he could follow his vampire to the next bore of a town.

Many of Lowery's minions were gathered around the pool area and he said, "Hurry back, because it's 80s night and the mood is right!" And then he sang, "Oh yes it's 80s night, oh what a night!"

Word spread quickly and then Lowery added, "I'm also going to make a huge batch of margaritas!"

The crowd roared as Ellison mumbled to himself, "If he sings any more of those silly songs, I'm going to have to cut my own head off... which will grow back the next morning, anyway."

Hartwell's family left the house after Daniel gave the latest update on Samuel to his father.

"Still on schedule. He should be up just before the dawn."

"Did Max download the latest schematics?" Hartwell asked.

Max zipped in the room before either man knew he was even there. "Yep! I did it a few minutes ago."

"Is he going West to East?' Hartwell inquired.

"No, I figured East to West would be more efficient to take full advantage of the sunrise."

"Excellent. I'm so proud of you both," Hartwell stated, as a few tears escaped his eyes and tumbled to the ground as ice cubes.

"I'm getting much more emotional in my old age," Hartwell said.

And then Maxwell made his day, "You're not old, grandpa'!"

Of course, then Hartwell thought that being a grandfather meant that you were, of course, at an advanced age... but that was pointless brain fodder for another day.

Armed with the knowledge that everything was going according to plan, Hartwell led his troops out to a battle they had no intention of winning, let alone giving any effort at all. If they would have known that 80s karaoke night and margaritas were waiting for Lowery's group, then they would have realized that Maxwell's strategy was completely unimportant.

They had time to get out to the field, so a leisurely jog was in order.

"What do you think you're going to dream about tonight?" Aaron asked Blake.

"It's always about the water," Blake replied.

"I dream about the bologna sandwiches my mom used to make me when I went to school," Aaron stated.

"Every night?" Blake asked.

"Sometimes I dream about apple pie," Aaron replied.

"Hunters do love their food!" Emily exclaimed. "I've been thinking about a huge vat of baked beans with hot dogs cut up in them."

Andrew chimed in, "Pizza with everything on it."

"Endless ridge potato chips with dip," Carla added.

It was Thaddeus's turn, "A table stacked with nothing but filet mignon, whipped potatoes and red wine."

"Cotton candy,' Cal said shocking the group with his revelation. "What, I loved cotton candy growing up!"

"Going to the circus with my dad," Sharon said.

"Me, too!" Gary said all excited. "I mean going with you," he said to Sharon.

Nicole said, "The Three Slamigos!"

"Yeah, I had a few of those!" Daniel agreed, harkening back to their days with Andrew as volleyball royalty.

Max was next, "Gummi bears."

"Awwwww!" the crowd bellowed for cuteness, until Maxwell clarified his dreams, "With blood in the middle."

That left Maggie and Hartwell to reveal their dreams.

They looked at each other and Hartwell said, "Lady's first."

"Books. Love me some books," she said.

Everyone expected Hartwell to reveal his true dreams, but he was never one to reveal too much of himself, especially when the dreams were so much more enjoyable than the others.

He said, "World peace. That's what I dream of," as the substitute dream answer had the group running after him until they got close to the field.

Daniel asked Hartwell internally, "What were you really dreaming of?"

Hartwell laughed, "Fighting with Cal."

Daniel chuckled, "That's what I thought."

THIRTY-THREE

The group was now running at top speed as the approached the great lawn of Beach Haven Park. Maxwell was tracking the whereabouts of the aquatics team, which appeared to be on the optimal course to complete a seamless transition going into the sixth battle.

It has been an arduous afternoon and early evening for the water-based team on their journey to the outer banks of Australia. Locating Lowery's hunter, Braden Lawrence was relatively simple but extracting him from the depths of the ocean was another story entirely.

The team would have been elated if the removal of Lawrence was as simple as Andrew's accidental mining of Cal Brewster, who was locked in his ocean prison for 15 years. Drew's hammerhead shark façade simply slammed against the huge rocks of the Thomas Hartwell Detention Center until it loosened the bars enough to allow Cal to float to the water's surface and then he was pulled onto shore by the changing tides.

This time around, Hartwell was the impetus of the extraction not the jailor. He had two separate plans in his mind to choose from: one was the release of all things hunter, and the other was allowing Samuel to mirror the Lowery's men in the sky, thus opening the door for him – and anybody who wanted to tag along – to make a run at Lowery. The fight couldn't end each night until either Hartwell or Lowery were eliminated, with the only distinction being that Lowery had been killed 99 times previously and was now down to his last and final life before turning back to a life of mortality.

But 25 years of easily avoiding that final death made Lowery feel as if he was a true immortal, a force that did not have to follow any of the rules of the supernatural world. He usually rolled through eliminating the people he sired, checking off name after name and doing little research into the opponent he was facing. Most vampires on the list were in small groups that included only a protector and no hunter, because all of the vampire hunters had been buried in the ocean. Lowery's campaign of removing the hunters from the equation drew unanimous praise and loyalty from his army, which eventually translated into absolute trust and admiration. So, when he came calling on the individual vampires of his list, they were more than happy to welcome him and were completely unprepared for the betrayal.

But then he came up against a family for a change; a quite diverse family where vampires lived with hunters and protectors, which Lowery labeled "an unholy alliance." He made no attempt to check on the powers of the individual players, and really could have cared less to be filled in on the recent history of the House of Hartwell. To Lowery, the equation was straightforward and rudimentary: we have thousands and you have less than a bushel.

The aquatics team blended in to the pack and Hartwell was quick to get conformation from Blake before the group headed into the great beyond.

"Done deal!" Blake yelled.

"Great! Lawrence resting comfortably on the beach?" Hartwell asked.

Blake replied, "Sleeping like a baby."

The extraction of Lawrence took more than an hour, and there was doubt in the group for a little while whether they would be able to bring him out. Blake and Belinda slammed the ocean floor as Orca killer whales, Andrew did the hammering with his shark head and the three peacemakers use their fins to disperse the layers of sand and oceanic debris. Once they pulled the limp body of Lawrence from the ocean floor and into the breezy air, Belinda changed into back into her vampire self, unfurled her massive wings, and then flew the hunter to shore where he would await the dawn and his renewal. Hartwell even thought about transporting Lowery's hunter back to Beach Haven, but figured that the element of surprise would be much more effective via an arrival closer to the day seven fight.

Hartwell's group ran on to the Beach Haven Park pitch and then made an abrupt bee-line toward the ocean in a loop toward Lowery's group, which was not visible quite yet. There was no time to waste in ending the battle, because the group needed to have the maximum amount of rest and downtime in order to fully charge their battery and be ready for perhaps the most significant battle of their lives.

Lowery's hoard turned the corner and was headed straight at the Hartwell group, which was traveling from West to East - ocean to shoreline - in an attempt to be dropped directly on the beach, which provided a completed unabated exposure to the morning sun. Hartwell didn't think the original plan of quail hunting was necessary, so he spoke internally to the group.

"Does anybody mind if we go back to Max's original plan of just flying into them?"

A collective "No!" could be heard as Max gave further instructions.

"If we slow down just a little bit, we should be at the optimal spot for solar exposure."

"See you on the other side!" Cal Brewster yelled, as the group slammed head-long into the raucous mob and made sure that no one from Lowery's group perished. This was important because Hartwell thought it would be wise to go it alone and not share the beach with any of Lowery's vampires or protectors. It was vampire paranoia at its finest, but it was also a detailed execution of an absolutely brilliant plan.

One-by-one the lifeless members of the team thudded down into the fluffy Beach Haven sand, while Lowery's crew made a wide u-turn and headed back to the Inn for a night of signing corny songs and slurping down potent, slushy drinks.

As the party raged on to the wee morning hours, Abraham Ellison remained detached from the group and was sleeping peacefully in his room. Little did he know that the coming day would be a drastic contrast to the relative incubation he had experienced, but he would welcome the change of pace with open arms.

THIRTY-FOUR

Kayla was still fast asleep at 4:44 am, but the same could not be said of the only other inhabitant in the house. Samuel's eyes had been twitching and his body gyrating for hours as the final stage of the download was processed. Only minutes earlier, his body had come to a complete rest and then the top half of his body transitioned from horizontal to vertical and his eyes opened, revealing an intense light blue glow.

Samuel smiled as the instructions for the morning were downloaded, which was the combined effort of Max and Daniel to plant a comprehensive schematic code. All Samuel saw was Orca killer whales everywhere blanketed the ocean floor, while digging up the one-thousand intended hunter targets. Hartwell and his guys were hoping that Samuel would arise before the dawn in order to take advantage of as much sun as possible, as this part of the plan came to fruition as he exited the front of the house without using the door. This next-generation hybrid being simply transported himself through the wall without doing any damage to the structure or himself.

The initial phase of the plan went into play as Samuel hit the water. On impact he splintered off into a thousand Orca killer whales that instantaneously locked on to tracking coordinates, as the activities of the jam-packed day were officially underway.

Once Samuel had uncovered the body of a hunter, he used his powerful tail to flip the wilted bodies of these men and women to shore where they would await the powerful rays of the sun to restore their powers. It would take a few hours for full restoration, and then the contact with Samuel affectively rerouted these hunters away from immediately attacking their vampires and to the water outside of Hartwell's house. The completion of each hunter phase would increase the power of the remaining individual Orca's and improve the efficiency and power of Samuel's actions, which enabled him to speed up the process and effectively circle the globe during the morning hours.

While the underwater operation was well underway, Kayla woke up because she sensed a change in the house and in the very air that she breathed. It was 6:00 am and it was still relatively dark outside, as she made her way down the hall, stopping to peek inside of Samuel's room to make sure he was all right.

"Isn't that interesting," Kayla said out loud as she was both surprised and excited to see no sign of Samuel amidst a perfectly made bed.

Since Kayla was not part of the nightly battles, she had excluded herself from any talk of strategy or fighting. The resident peacenik - even before Joe Winters and his family made their presence known - was much happier in her tight little world, which was complete with images of fluffy teddy bears and Adirondack chairs at the beach.

As the sun began to rise above the horizon, the 18 beheaded members of Hartwell's house experienced their bodies and heads reuniting. And, as the sun's full affects poured through their beings, a renewed sense of awareness and hope blanketed the family. For this would be their day to emerge from the shadows of obscurity and reclaim their place within mainstream society, free from discrimination and scorn. At least that's how it was written up on paper...

Body parts fused and internal organs started pumping again, signaling the much-anticipated rebirth. As family members came back on line, they immediately zipped back along the shore toward the house.

Daniel was in front of Hartwell, as their intense speed blurred the scenery around them.

"Those extra few seconds of rest really made the difference," the son said in a sarcastic tone.

Hartwell playfully chased Daniel into the house, "Wise guy!"

The family gathered in the main room as Kayla feverishly worked on having breakfast ready for everyone when they came home.

"Good to see you again, Kay-Kay!" Grandma' Emily happily exclaimed.

"It's great to be seen again, grandma'!"

Thaddeus was always working with his hands on one project after another, and this morning was no exception. He was especially excited to have the opportunity to be with so many hunters in one place, so he banged out a large neon sign that read, "WELCOME HUNTERS."

He walked inside the house and directed his question at Hartwell, "What time do you think they'll start arriving?"

Hartwell looked over at his brain-trust and Daniel accessed the health of each hunter while Maxwell pinpointed each hunter's location. They combined thoughts and then transmitted a virtual map and arrival board to the right of the TV in the main room.

"Thanks! Can you leave that up there?" Thaddeus said.

Daniel looked at Thaddeus and replied, "No problem, grandpa'!"

The house was alive amidst preparations for the day. After cleaning up after arriving at home, everyone sat down for a good meal before attacking their individual chores for the day.

"You know how much we eat," Emily said to the group, "so you can imagine how much us times about 100 would consume."

"We have to go shopping after breakfast," Maggie said.

"But, I would recommend staying away from fish for either lunch or dinner," a cheeky Andrew added, as everyone at the table got a good chuckle on this day of positives that warmed Kayla's heart as she served stack after stack of pancakes to a famished group.

The group hit the local grocery stores hard, cleaning out Beach Haven Natural Foods and Beach Haven Produce Market before 10:00 am, leaving behind a few thousand dollars and making sure that every item was scanned through the intricate Point of Sale systems.

"Good thing another truck is coming after lunch," the manager at the produce market commented.

Thaddeus built a temporary outdoor kitchen, complete with a massive grill, to handle the overflow of preparation and cooking. His good friend Garrison proved to be a quite helpful assistant, and he also shed some light on previously unreleased information.

"You know, he was deciding between releasing the hunters and letting Samuel duplicate the siege from Lowery's group in the sky," Garrison stated.

Thad kept working but Gary now had his full attention.

"I thought it would be easier from a strategic standpoint to simply let Samuel replicate the hoard, but he wanted to let the hunters free. Must have still had some guilt in keeping Cal down there?"

Thaddeus knew that Hartwell meant everything that he did, and he did everything that he meant. Thad stopped banging nails for a moment as the two men looked at each other and exclaimed, "Nah!"

THIRTY-FIVE

The cooking was fast and furious inside and outside of the house for the next few hours as weary travelers started to arrive in bunches.

There were four common questions of the Lowery-linked hunters:

  1. "Where are we?

  2. "Why am I not killing a vampire right now?"

  3. "Is this heaven?"

  4. "Is there any logical reason why we are eating with vampires and protectors?"

The answers to those questions were:
  1. ### Beach Haven, New York

  2. "Because you have to get your strength back before killing one later."

  3. "Possibly."

  4. "Because it's his house and he bought all of this food."

Samuel arrived home at about 4:00 pm, after stopping for a few hours in California to do some surfing, which apparently was his form of meditation. He was a good son and called ahead, via internal communication, to his parents and told him he would be home soon. By the time he walked through the front door, he was greeted with a massive roar and applause from all of the hunters, who appreciated his efforts in freeing them from their watery graves. He was also greeted with a hero's welcome when he stepped into the main room, but Samuel and everyone in the house knew that there was still much work to do on this day.

Once he sat down and had a snack, consisting of a few bags of both blood and Doritos, it was time to talk about the final strategy for the battle that night.

"I would like to make sure that we keep the fight within the confines of the park," Hartwell stated.

Max checked his internal capabilities and found an application he could utilize to section off the thousands of fighters into a prescribed two-mile area.

"I can do that," he said to Hartwell and the group.

Braden Lawrence joined them for the conversation, because he was obviously a key person in the plan.

"How is this possible?" the old-school hunter said as he was surrounded by nothing but new a new age of species.

Cal replied, "Evolution."

"But I still get to kill that bastard Lowery, right?" an impatient Lawrence asked.

Hartwell looked at Thaddeus and Cal for confirmation and they nodded in approval.

Thaddeus still had a chip on his shoulder about Ellison, though.

"Just as long as you leave that protector to us," he said, referring to him and Cal.

"Ellison?" Lawrence questioned. "You can have him. I'm been thinking of nothing but ending Lowery for 25 years now."

Cal looked at Hartwell because he had spent the better part of 15 years in a similar position. And when the hunter was finally freed from his underwater prison, he went right at Hartwell and registered the vampire's 100th death.

He smiled, "I understand," and then he looked at Hartwell with a certain level of accomplishment and satisfaction.

As usual, Hartwell was equal to challenge, "Looks like we're going to have to visit that boxing ring again when this is all over."

Cal flashed a devilish smile, "I thought you'd never ask."

Every kind of meat that could be grilled was grilled that night, and all of the people at and around Hartwell's house were fully fueled for the big battle. The action was much slower and less festive at the Beach Haven Inn, except for the insides of Abraham Ellison, which had been percolating all day since he was awoken from a dead sleep. It had been a quarter-of-a-century since he had woken up with a cold sweat after images of Lowery's hunter scanned through his dreams. But, on this morning, Lawrence was once again the main attraction and Ellison knew the hunter was coming.

Instead of alerting Lowery of the impending siege – like any respectable protector would do – he simply kept the information to himself as all of the other drunken and hung-over protectors remained in the dark. Normally, these protectors would have been alerted to the presence of their vampire's hunters, but Daniel was able to put a block up around the house, much in the way that he and Hartwell veiled the existence of the house for years.

The connection between Ellison and Lawrence was too strong, and Ellison could finally see a righteous end to all of Lowery's madness. Ellison stayed out of the house all day and tried to focus his mind because he knew that his favorite hunters, Cal and Thad, would be coming to try and permanently punch his lights out. Since Lowery stopped Ellison from getting a proper revenge, he was completely jacked up to finally be getting an opportunity to at least even the score.

THIRTY-SIX

Midnight was closing in, which meant it was fight time! Samuel and Kayla would be included in the Lowery battle for the first time and they were excited. She planned on utilizing her rolling protection during the battle, and he would be a vital cog in filling in gaps in numbers during the fight.

Hartwell addressed his family on the inside before they went outside and rounded up the hunters for the battle.

"The only thing that matters is that we do this together, no matter the outcome," he said simply.

Everyone banged their swords and feet on the floor in support of his words.

"To family," Cal said, and everyone shouted in support, "To family!"

Hartwell then addressed the thousand hunters outside, "It doesn't matter if we live or die tonight, because tomorrow we will all be free!"

The roar from the crowd melted into chants of "FREE-DOM! FREE-DOM!"

Everyone knew their place in a siege that Maxwell the historian entitled, "The Trojan Horse." All but five members of Hartwell's army would be heading out to the park, while the other five people would be routed to the Beach Haven Inn to spend some quality time with some old friends.

A group of 16 originals from the House of Hartwell strode on to the great lawn of Beach Haven Park, signaling to Lowery's army that it was time to 'get some.' The karaoke would be focused on the Detroit Motown era and the drink of the night promised by Lowery was the old standard, the Boilermaker. What Lowery's army didn't know, at least until they breached the confines of the field, was that the hunters were effectively positioned in just about every tree throughout the perimeter of the lawn and were ready to pounce at a moment's notice. The other major thing that they didn't count on was that each and every one of them would perish on this night without so much as taking the life of one of their opponents. They would be waking up the next day as mortals, completely stripped of their vast powers and abilities, which made for a rather surprising evening.

Lowery's gang hit the field and went straight at the seemingly feeble row of fighters. But the smile across each and every face gave an early indication that either and an ambush was in the offing, or the group enjoyed dying a great deal more than anyone could imagine.

Just as Maxwell sealed off the area, he gave the signal through a high-pitched shriek, which that took out half of the windows in town, that it was time for the hunters to exact some revenge before becoming permanently retired. Twenty yards before the thousands crashed into the few, hunters found their vampires and Samuel kept the associated protectors busy by fighting them with an exact hunter clone. He did this after imagining that the broken windows were in their original form and then he restored them.

Hartwell's people joined into the fight, too, as Kayla used her rolling protection of three people while picking up a sword herself and keeping a bunch of protectors occupied.

Lowery's vampires and protectors had never seen protection before, or even the vast abilities of the family members to change into a full spectrum of body images. It became quite disconcerting when Daniel altered the DNA sequences of the hunters and gave them the capability to change into the full spectrum of protector facades, including wolf, cat, hippo, bottlenose dolphin and Orca killer whale, in addition to pit bull, ram, grizzly bear and hawk. There was one sequence in particular that was memorable involving all of the members of the team.

The action started with Kayla, who used one of her protection on Maxwell, as another vampire came his way. Max sliced the vampire in two and then used his crash course on martial arts to use a spinning back kick and break the back of an oncoming protector. Max then spun out of the protection and transferred it to his father, who punched his fist clean through the body of another vampire and then used his sword-like fingers to slice through a protector from both sides. Daniel then catapulted his cousin Drew in the air and a protected Drew came down with two swords in each hand and sliced a vampire and his protector in four pieces. Drew flipped the protection through Kayla to Nicole, who changed into her new favorite animal, the grizzly bear and sliced up a few protectors while Carla as hippopotamus then went airborne and thunderously squished the unsuspecting targets.

Aaron was pretty scary in his human façade, but he was even scarier as ram as he head butted three members of Lowery's oncoming army right into Belinda's extended nails. Emily then got into the act as a bottle-nose dolphin, flipping protector after vampire after protector to Blake, who utilized some of his new sword skills to distract the chain of bodies long enough to have Sharon the shark end their night. Meanwhile, Joe and Valerie were assisting Brandon Justice, who had been waiting for days to break out his full vampire arsenal and put aside any and all of his hybrid changes. Valerie as mermaid enchanted men in their tracks while Joe used the hind legs of his Minotaur façade to kick over the bodies to a slicing Justice. At the end of all of this was Maggie keeping an eye on Samuel, but the reverse was actual more of the case. Samuel was able to change into anything he wanted to, and it appeared that he could change into, and replicate, anything that came into his head. He took out two hundred vampires and protectors at once when he changed into a cruise ship; he liked the word 'cruise' so much that he turned into a cruise missile and blew up another large group. It was apparent that Team Hartwell was very much on their way to completing the rout, but there was still much work to do for the other five people at the Beach Haven Inn.

Lowery was sitting on his lounge chair at the pool and sipping a beer, while Ellison waited in the vacant parking lot for his suitors. Hartwell walked into the light and the shimmering caught Lowery's eye.

"Why hello, Thomas," he coyly stated without looking at Hartwell. He stood up and continued, "I was wondering when you would show your face here."

Hartwell had Garrison by his side, "I can see you brought your protector. I would summon mine, but I don't think it will be necessary."

Lowery glided over to Hartwell and then tried to order Gary to move away with his mind, but Gary would have none of that.

He looked at Hartwell and said, "I'll wait over there."

Lowery came real close to Hartwell, trying to intimidate him before acting.

Hartwell moved in even closer and said confidently, "You have no idea who you are dealing with. If it was up to me, I would do you right here, myself."

"You don't have it in you, Thomas," Lowery defiantly stated. "Remember, it was me who sired you."

Hartwell smiled, while alerting his new friend Lawrence that it was show time. He then delivered the set-up to Lowery by saying, "At least the first time," noting that Daniel had sired him after he was already mortal.

Lowery stepped back in surprise and questioned Hartwell, "The first time?" as the heat-seeking missile that was Braden Lawrence zoomed through the air and smoothly moved his strike hand with his sword though the hitting zone.

The shocked look on Lowery's face endured as his head rolled off of his shoulders and then tumbled into the pool.

Lawrence looked back and said to Hartwell, "That was not as dramatic or as satisfying as I imagined it."

Hartwell cocked his head and replied, "I know! Let's go see what's going on with your boy Ellison. Maybe that will be a little more satisfying?"

Thaddeus and Cal Brewster were in the parking lot before Hartwell and Garrison made contact with Lowery. Ellison felt their presence and, of course, Cal made the first move. While his first action was a lunge, his second action was a loud thud onto the parking lot concrete, courtesy of a Louisville Slugger baseball bat to the side of the head.

Ellison threw the bat aside and said to Thaddeus, "Now that we have dispatched of the preliminaries, it's time to get to that bare knuckle fight we were talking about a few weeks ago."

Thaddeus knew he could take Ellison, so he reached into his right pocket, grabbed his brass knuckles, and threw them to the pavement. "With pleasure."

Both men removed their suspenders from their shoulders and let the straps drop below their waists. Ellison cracked his knuckles and then picked his hands up the fight ready position and Thad did the same.

"I was boxing champ at my local club five years running," Ellison said as the two men slowly circling each other.

Thad landed a hard left jab to the bridge of Ellison's nose and then followed it up with a right hook to the body and a left hook to the side of his head, sending Ellison down to one knee.

"I don't like to talk when I fight," Thaddeus said.

Ellison rose to his feet and replied, "Then silence it will be," as he wiped the trickling blood from his nose and corner of this mouth. He then tried to fight back with a strong combination, which barely grazed Thad's ear. Thad was letting Ellison get closer to him so he could be in range to deliver the most potent of his blows, the overhand right.

Lowery's protector then landed a left hook the Thad's kidneys and followed with a right hand that landed flush on Thad's jaw. The blow had the force of a baseball bat and would have knocked out just about everyone else on the planet except for rock-jawed Thaddeus, who then delivered a series of lightning fast one-two, one-two body shots to a shocked Ellison, while loading up for his knockout punch. Thad cocked his right arm and fist just beyond his shoulder and then initiated the punch that Ellison never saw. Just as Thad's knuckles connected with Ellison's jaw, Lawrence had beheaded Lowery, which ended his life as an immortal. Lowery's 100th death also signified that every associated with him would also become mortal. So that meant that the man that Thaddeus had just knocked out was now a mortal.

Hartwell, Garrison and Lawrence made their way over to the parking lot and Thaddeus saw them coming.

"Did I knock him out before he was mortal?" Thad yelled.

"Did you hit him with that right cross?" a knowing Hartwell asked.

"Hell, yes!" Thad replied.

"Then that was definitely a knockout. I'll never forget the first time he hit me with one of those..." Hartwell said as Thaddeus walked over and picked up a groggy Cal.

"The next thing I knew it was the next morning!" Hartwell exclaimed as the men walked away in laughter.

Speaking of the next morning...

Ellison sharpened the blade of his favorite sword all night and paced anxiously by the pool after recovering from being knocked out by Thaddeus. He waited for Lowery to complete the painful process of reawakening to mortality, and there was no mistake to what he had to do next. While Ellison thought that slicing Lowery's mortal head off would end his 150-year reign of terror, the hidden truth was that the wheels of revenge were already in irreversible and lethal motion.

