 
Blood Shadow

Book of Gabriel

Phil Wohl

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 Phil Wohl

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ONE

It was quiet in the town of Beach Haven the morning after Ariel Justice swam ashore and neutralized vengeful Claire Vinson, who was being guided by the vengeful strokes of her fallen vampire father. The power of Alexander Lowery was strongest between the time of his 100th death and his return to mortality. The vampire's protector, Abraham Ellison, separated his head from his body just prior to his awakening as a mortal. Claire was the secret love child of Lowery and her mother, Linda Vinson, a witch that had been on the run since the days after giving birth to Claire and then handing her over to her mother Brenda for veiled protection.

Thomas Hartwell was relieved that the bothersome influence of his sire was finally a thing of the past.

"I hadn't thought of that guy for so many years that I barely knew he existed," Hartwell said to his wife Maggie as she rested on his chest while they hovered over the bed.

She smiled, "Well, he was obviously thinking about you." She then shifted gears to a more curious path, "Where do you guys know that witch from? What was that woman's name again?" she asked, fully knowing many of the basic details she was about to hear.

The mood of the day would largely be determined by the phrasing of Hartwell's reply, so he took a moment to structure history in such a way to diminish a potential counter-attack.

"Brenda was our gateway from the mortal world to the vampirical world."

"Our?" she countered.

"Initially, it was me and Garrison. We were – well, it was mostly me – confused after Thaddeus initially came after me. I had spent 18 years without even the hint of adversity after I left San Francisco."

Hartwell realized that if he mentioned his reluctant exit from their home in 1902, following the tragic death of her and her son Nathanial – now Daniel – from the Black Plague, it would win him some points. Hartwell was so distraught back then that he was only moments away from taking his own life. That was, until, vampire Lowery offered him an opportunity to see his wife and child again in a future life by presenting a life eternal as a vampire.

While Maggie knew there was more to the story of how they all knew Brenda Vinson, she was willing to shelve that discussion for another day. There had been enough discord surrounding the family and she felt it was time for everyone in the house to simply heal and live.

After a full night of sleep, the Winters' family was alerting the family of their plans while a continuous stream of food was served during breakfast.

"We are going to head back to Portland later this morning," Joe Winters said to Hartwell and company as he spoke looked at his wife and growing twins, Bryce and Cheryl.

Catherine Winters looked at her daughter and wondered if she and her husband would be joining them?

Valerie was ready to answer her mother's unspoken query, but she looked around for her daughter Ariel before making such an important decision.

"Have you seen Ariel this morning?" she whispered to her husband, Brandon Justice, although all of the supernatural beings in the room could her just about anything said within a reasonable distance.

Brandon looked around but couldn't fix on a visual of his daughter, although he did pick up her scent moments later and said, "Here she comes."

Ariel had been out all night with Samuel, who was trying to put together the pieces of his first failed relationship.

"You can't keep blaming yourself for the trouble with the family. She had you under the influence the whole time," Ariel said trying to give super-vamp Samuel a break. "Besides, I would hardly call it a relationship when only one person is on the dance floor."

Samuel laughed, "And I don't think she was even in control of her faculties."

He might have looked all the part of 18 years old by his demeanor and muscular body tone, but Samuel's actual life experience totaled days, not years, due to the accelerated nature of his being after spawned from the super gene sequence of Kayla and Maxwell. Ariel had also experience a rapid transformation, and the two of them had been inseparable since she showed up in Beach Haven and helped restore order.

They glided through the front door and were happy to see everyone sitting in the main room eating together. It was the first time that either one could remember seeing their entire families in one room.

"Wow!" Samuel said as he greeted generations of Hartwell warriors.

"Where have you guys been?" momma Kayla asked her daughter, even though they were less than a year apart in age.

The chatter quieted as everyone waited for a response. It had been the pattern of this supercharged family to complete the fertile chain of boy meets forbidden girl and then they have a child a few months later, so it was understandable that the room was a bit apprehensive.

"We were taking," Ariel replied to Kayla as she turned to her husband Maxwell and said, "We did a lot of talking when we first met, too."

The room erupted in joy and laughter as another of their young charges were obviously keeping it in the family and fortifying the circle of life strong amidst the Hartwell tribe.

Valerie Justice – formerly Winters – looked at the glow around her daughter and her new beau and was no ready to answer her mother's unspoken question. She held her husband Brandon's hand and then said, "I think we're gonna' stay for a little while." And then she turned to Hartwell and asked, "If that's okay with you and everyone else."

Hartwell raised his glass, which in his world was a few pints of the finest Beach Haven blood extracted without a neck puncture, and exclaimed, "The more the merrier!"

Glasses were being clanked around the room as these special beings had survived crisis after crisis and now could see a little clear sky at the end of the rainbow.

Thaddeus and Garrison, the elder statesman of the hunter and protector clans, were standing behind the center island observing the pure joy around them.

"Is there any chance that we could get a little peace and quiet around here?" Gary asked.

Thad stroked the three-day growth on his face, "Under normal conditions – and I'm not really sure that anything going on here would qualify as normal – I would be inclined to say that it certainly looks that way. However, if there's one thing that I've learned about this group as of late, anything is possible."

Thad extended his arm and made a fist as Gary bumped him with his fist and replied, "I hear you, brother."

TWO

Catherine and Joe Winters decided to pick up and take the twins back to Portland after breakfast. While it was hard for Catherine to leave her daughter and granddaughter, she had done her job by nurturing both girls until they were ready to leave the nest. Of course, the process was much more expedient with Ariel, who shot up from birth to 18 years old in a matter of months. Besides, Maxwell had developed a technology where you could make a phone call and then sit with the person you were calling in same virtual room.

"We'll call you when we get home," Catherine Winters said to her daughter.

And before Valerie could step up and hug her mother, a blur named Ariel flashed in front of her and was squeezing her grandma' tight. Catherine was a hybrid being of great abilities but even she had no reply for the bear hug being administered by her granddaughter. The mood was light until she started turning different shades of blue from her oxygen supply being cut off.

"Ariel. Ariel, honey! Your squeezing grandma' to death!" a concerned Valerie said to her daughter as she tapped on her shoulder.

Ariel didn't get the message at first because she was too busy giving the love. But then she stepped back and said, "Sorry, grandma'!" and was about to go back in for another hug before her mother diverted her, "I think grandma' has had enough wind taken out of her sails already today," as she went in for her own hug.

"I'll be home soon, mom," a usually-strong Valerie said as she almost shed a tear.

"Stay strong, Val. I got the feeling that these people are going to need your strength again real soon," Catherine Winters replied as she was able to hug back.

Feelings of leisure and freedom enveloped the group as the prospect of not having to fight for their lives was sinking in. This was a welcomed sight for some people while others were grappling with all of the free time.

"You want to go a few rounds at the boxing gym this afternoon?" Cal Brewster asked Hartwell as they crossed paths in the hallway.

Hartwell didn't feel any aching bones at the moment because all of his blood was flowing freely through his body. This feeling of fluidity was one he was hoping to keep for at least a few days.

"Why don't we go play some golf instead?" Hartwell suggested.

Cal's bravado sort of thrust him into boxing, but he was just as happy to swing a club at a small, white ball for a few hours.

"I'm in! Why don't we take Daniel and Drew along for the round?"

"Excellent idea! I'll go get Daniel and you fetch your nephew and we'll meet at the garage in five minutes," Hartwell replied.

The two men had come to grips with so many layers of hatred and animosity between them. First you had the natural barrier of the hunter-vampire relationship and all of its complexities. The Hartwell-Cal fight was always the featured fight in any battle, and usually was the deciding matchup because Hartwell's survival or death was the focal point of any confrontation. Another layer of disgust developed when it was revealed that Hartwell was Daniel's father in a previous life. This came as quite a shock to Cal, who was Daniel's estranged father in this life. Cal was only separated from his son because Hartwell and company buried him on the bottom of the ocean for 15 years. So you could imagine Cal's fury once he was back on dry land and was informed of the news.

Daniel was happy to tag along with his two dads and glided through the hallway until he reached his wife Nicole. They embraced as their lips met, Daniel initiating the playback of their first kiss sending indoor fireworks above the couple's head. Daniel's first cousin Andrew walked by and said, "Are you playing back that first kiss again? Don't you think it's getting old already?"

Andrew was the unfortunate bystander of Daniel and Nicole's first kiss, as he was the third wheel that eventually fell off. For years he felt as if that was his kiss – that was, until he met Carla and everything seemed to fall into place. Except for the one time that he backslid into Nicole after Daniel broke up with her – he had just found out he was a vampire – and she looked to Drew for comfort. There were questions about the origin of Maxwell, at least as far as the baby daddy was concerned. Daniel beat his cousin to the punch again as he was Max's dad. The blow of not being a father was short-lived for Drew, as Carla gave birth to Kayla minutes after Maxwell was born. It's complicated, so you would probably be better served starting from the beginning of the story if you haven't done so already!

Agent Blake Wallace resided on both sides of his interpretation of the law in recent years, but his love for Daniel's mother in this life, Belinda, was unquestioned. Blake was also married to Sharon 20 years earlier and she had Nicole after he left and they were divorced. Sharon was a protector of Hartwell until she fell in love with Cal and was transformed into a hunter when Hartwell was turned back into a vampire following his 100th death and subsequent return to mortality. Cal's twin sister Emily married the only true outsider of the group, Aaron, and the massive hunter became a real asset to his clan.

Although the reentry into daily life seemed to be going smoothly for the members of the House of Hartwell, the same could not be said for the witches Vinson. All of the vampires, hunters and protectors had special powers, including the ability to transition through a myriad of facades in the vampirical, animal, bird, fish and mammalian kingdom, which was quite an asset to both distract and attack opponents during battles. But the three Vinson witches had little to fall back on other than their bag of tricks and spells, which had grown stale over the years.

"What do you want to do?" Linda Vinson asked her mother as they watched neophyte Claire sleep through that first night in the Beach Haven Hotel.

Brenda Vinson had seen her share of rodeos and knew when it was time stop running.

"Well, we could run back to Pennsylvania and live in a state that sounds a lot like Transylvania, or we could stay in Beach Haven and start anew together as a family?"

Linda had been on the run from Lowery for years and simply wanted someone else to set a solid course for her future.

"This town seems nice enough. Beaches, cool shops, vampires, protectors and hunters living together under the same roof."

And at that moment there were both sideswiped by a force they hadn't felt in some time.

"And, wow! Did you just feel that surge of paranormal kinetic energy?"

Brenda smiled as she was finally in the middle of things after years of hiding and inaction, "Yeah, we're staying."

It seemed that everyone with special abilities wound up sleeping under Hartwell's roof, but Brenda had other ideas.

"As much as I love those guys and I have a real history with them, I think it's important that we stay neutral on this one. You remember what happened last time you decided to get involved," she said to her daughter, reminding her once again that she had defied her wishes and shacked up with a Lowery the vampire who was quite charming at first blush.

Linda wanted to save her energy for battles she could potentially win, so she threw up the white napkin and handed her mother a fork so they could attack a large hunk of New York Cheesecake they ordered from room service.

"Oh my god," Brenda exclaimed at first taste. "They don't make cake this creamy and delicious in Pennsylvania.

Linda was in a cheesecake-induced coma but still had enough brain waves for one last bite of sarcasm, "Or Transylvania for that matter."

"Yeah, I've been to Transylvania and it rains so much that all you want to do is either dig remains up in a graveyard or sit around wearing sweatpants."

The two women kept eating and smiled at each other, content in the knowledge that they were back together again after all these years. They looked over at Claire and thought there was much to teach their young charge in their new home, Cheesecake Haven.

THREE

Thaddeus and Garrison had been on somewhat of a roll of late, as they had rediscovered much of the swagger they had lost in recent years. Being the elder statesman of the tribe had its advantages especially when conflicts arose, but the years started to drag on the duo until they were shown the error of their conservative ways.

"Why do you think we got so tight all of those years?" Gary asked as they sat down at their regular table at Beach Haven Bagel.

"I don't know?" Thad replied. "Maybe it was the influx of all of those kids? Maybe we were just getting older?"

"But now it appears that father time has stopped knocking on our door," Gary stated as their dates walked through the front door and giggled as they approached.

Thad smirked as he looked at Gary, "Kick-ass rock and roll," as he extended his index finger and pinky and stuck out his tongue before pumping fist with his partner in crime.

"Rock on," Gary replied as the gentlemen stood up and greeted their ladies, who were more than a century their junior in real years but only about 10 years younger in actual appearance.

Most of the House of Hartwell was out and about on this beautiful day. Brandon finally convinced his wife Valerie to join him, Carla and Belinda – his second mother – to get their feet done at Beach Haven Nails. Valerie sat down in the high-back, cushioned chair and was instantly transformed. Her feet were in a tub of warm whirlpool water and the beauty technician had placed a warm cloth over her eyes.

"I can't believe that I fought this for so long," she said as the last of her tension trickled out of her body and into the bubbly water.

All four of the luxuriators had towels over their eyes, but that didn't slow the flow of conversation.

"Honey, you just didn't know what you were missing," Belinda said.

"It's like an out of body experience," Carla stated.

"Sort of like when we're going through our changes during battle," Brandon said naturally and then peaked out from the corner of his towel to see if anyone was listening.

His Asian nail technician was standing right next to him and replied in her best 'hood' voice, "Girl, I know what you mean. My period can be a bitch, too."

The women peaked out from behind their towels and then everyone started laughing at Brandon's expense. Although he had become one of the most feared competitors on the field of battle, he was just one of the girls when they all went out together. He credited Belinda and Carla for helping him get in touch with his feminine side, a process that did not include his birth mother, Julie Justice, who never encouraged him in any capacity. His father, Gregory Justice, had been living off the fumes of his high school football exploits before he took a place in the bottom of the ocean with his wife, as Brandon was finally able to focus after his abusive parents were removed from the picture.

Meanwhile, back at the house, there was a small contingent of people that were busy reorganizing the floor plan.

"I don't think it's appropriate that Samuel and Ariel have a room together," Maggie stated.

Maxwell was standing with his grandfather, Agent Blake Wallace, and his wife Kayla and said to her, "We didn't live together until after the transformation.

"But he has already transformed," Aaron the oversized hunter interjected.

"It's those old-school values," Kayla hinted at disagreeing with her elder at first and then thought better of it, "But what's the rush? They have their whole lives ahead of them."

"Is it hot in here," Maggie asked amidst one of her first hot flashes.

"Do you want me to open the door?" Blake asked and then proceeded to the door after being prompted with a nod. "Maybe a nice ocean breeze will cool you down."

Blake slowly opened the door and started to give his opinion on the living situation, "Who knows, maybe they won't be as connected as we think?"

Everyone but Blake had an eyeful of the visual of Samuel and Ariel kissing just outside of the door and they were two feet off the ground.

Blake could see the smiles and pride of the other people in the room swelling, so he took a look for himself and then said, "One room it is."

Sharon, Emily and Nicole were in town at the Beach Haven Food Market, because it took at least three people to shop for that many hungry mouths. In fact, it probably took at least that many people to fill the voracious appetites of the hunters alone. Two large SUVs were necessary to shop for the week, although the food barely lasted two or three days at most. It was a good thing that Hartwell had amassed an unlimited supply of funds, because the drain of capital was quite intense.

"I never thought we would all be getting along, let alone living in the same house," Emily stated as they walked down the walls of glass doors of the frozen foods section.

Sharon had switched sides from vampire-protectors to hunters because of her love for Emily's twin brother, Calvin Brewster. The one obvious drawback of such a move was the estrangement from her daughter Nicole, who understood the move and was prepared to live with it. After all, Nicole had thrown caution to the wind and made a play for the love of her life – who just happened to be the vampire she protected – Daniel.

Sharon smiled as she opened one of the doors and collected and then tossed five pizza boxes into her cart.

"It took a while to get adjusted to not wanting to punch you in the face all of the time."

Emily laughed, "Ditto. The thought of you and my brother together sort of made me nauseous for a while."

Nicole chimed in, "Yeah, me too."

She then realized that she might be hurting Emily's feelings "Not that he isn't a quality piece of man meat."

Sharon and Emily looked at Nicole in shock and Nicole said, "Too far?"

They both nodded and Sharon said, "Yeah, just a little bit."

Nicole was embarrassed, "You know what I meant," as the women playfully chased her down the aisle with their carts.

Hartwell and Cal were schooling Daniel and Drew at the Beach Haven Golf Course over 36 holes, or two rounds, of stimulating competition. Much of the majesty and precision of the game was lost on the younger generation, who preferred their games faster and decidedly more virtual and violent.

"Why is it that this game is a lot more exciting when we play it on video?" Drew asked his cousin Daniel.

Daniel rolled his eyes, "Because we don't have to wait like 20 minutes between each shot and before each hole."

"Would you two stop bellyaching and start playing for god's sake!" Cal implored his nephew and his son.

"Yes boys," Hartwell added. "This game is all about concentration and keeping your focus steady throughout the round."

Daniel ignored the comment from Hartwell and yelled, "Snack bar!" as he and Andrew ran over to the snack bar and then came back as quickly as they left, "Can we have some money?" Daniel asked.

Cal interjected, "I got this one," as he pulled a $50 bill from his pocket and handed it to Daniel. "I'd ask you to get us a couple of beers but you two look too young to pull that off."

The boys had a look of being challenged when they zipped back toward the 10th hole snack bar. Hartwell walked over to the ball washer and removed a grass-stained ball from his pocket. He lifted the arm of the manual washer and then slipped the ball in place before pushing it up and down to clean.

Cal followed him and laughed, "You know they'll be coming back with four beers. Should we let them drink?"

Hartwell removed his ball from the washer and then wiped it off with his own handkerchief, avoiding the dirty towel that was hanging for everyone else to use.

"I say if you're old enough to get married, have kids, and kill enemies, then you're old enough to grab a brew."

Cal took a ball out of his pocket and then slipped it in the cleaner, wiping the slate clean of small talk in order to get to the heart of the matter.

"So, how long has that thing in the trees been following us?"

Hartwell laughed, "Since about the second or third hole. I thought we deserved a day off from fighting the good fight so I didn't mention it."

"The same thing that I was thinking," Cal replied. "Do you have any enemies from your past I should know about that might be attacking us all next?"

Hartwell scanned his memory as he took the washed ball out of Cal's hand before he dried it on the used towel. He dried the Titleist ball and then handed it back to Cal, "No, not that I know of. Lowery was the last big one that I can remember."

"I find it best in these situations to immediately confront a problem," Cal stated.

"You wouldn't do it any other way as a hunter, Calvin. But we do not want to alarm the boys."

But the boys had already caught on and were in the middle of a similar discussion, "Why is that thing following us in the trees?" Daniel asked after he suppressed the snack bar attendant's desire to ask for identification to purchase the beer.

Drew always liked the action and was less prone to ask questions before attacking, "Who cares? Let's kill it."

"Don't you think my dads' have been through enough lately? They could use a few days off before we go at it again," Daniel replied.

"And then we can kill it?" Drew asked and then anxiously waited for a reply like an obedient canine.

Daniel gave in, "Okay, then we can kill it." He was parched and needed a little boost so he asked the guy behind the counter, "Can I also have two energy drinks and can you put some of your own blood in two of the beers?"

The 33 year-old man found a knife and then pricked his index finger, sending a few drops of blood trickling into the full beer cup.

"At this rate it will take longer than this golf game," Drew said as he looked in disgust at his cousin.

Daniel lost patience enough to bite into the man's neck and then stream blood into both cups before setting him down on a chair and fusing the neck wound to avoid suspicion.

"There, that's better."

"Much better," Drew concurred.

FOUR

Cal and Hartwell headed to meet Thaddeus and Garrison after their golf marathon, as Daniel and Andrew left the second round early and went to the Beach Haven Arcade.

"Can you please pick up some Chinese food for dinner?" Maggie texted Hartwell, even though he didn't need a phone to receive the message. She could have just contacted him internally but she was loving her new iPhone too much to circumvent the process.

Hartwell turned his car around across a double yellow line, which prompted a police officer to turn his siren on in preparation of writing the senior vampire a ticket for an illegal turn.

"Cop," was all that Cal said.

Hartwell barely batted an eye as he reached into the brain of the police officer and quelled his desire to act upon his pursuit impulse. Police Officer Muldune turned off the siren and then went back to listening to the police scanner. All thoughts of a traffic violation were erased and it was as if the event never occurred.

Cal tuned to Hartwell, "I never realized how much easier life would be if we just stopped fighting."

Hartwell smiled, "I can't remember a time when we weren't fighting."

The duo was a few minutes away from Beach Haven Chinese Restaurant and a rendezvous with a familiar face once they got there. Brenda Vinson knew everyone and everyone knew Brenda Vincent. The elder witch of the Vinson family had spread her personal magic over the better part of the past few centuries, although her daughter had been around less than a century and her granddaughter on this earth for only 18 years.

"I had kids late," Brenda would often joke in her jovial, inviting style.

She was about to walk into the Chinese restaurant and get dinner for her family, but she was stopped in the alley-way between the restaurant and the back parking lot by a familiar person.

"Long time, Brenda," the deep, heavy-breathing voice boomed as the man's thick forearm surrounded her neck like a coiling cobra snake.

She joked, "Your scent smells familiar but I can't place the voice," knowing that the man would become a complete beast if confronted.

He removed his arm and she smiled and cooed with all of the charm of a Southern Belle, "Gabriel Billingsley! Where have you been hiding?"

They hugged and he replied, "Just close enough to see but far enough not to be seen."

She broke the hug and said, "How do you do it? With your size and rage it must be difficult to remain contained."

"Not with you as a friend," he replied.

"What can I do for you?" she asked.

"I need you to keep Hartwell and his clowns entertained in order to give me some room," he said bluntly.

This wasn't the first time that he had asked her for such protection, so she took it in stride, "For how long?"

He didn't like to be questioned and his short fuse was being tested, "For as long as I deem necessary."

She was going to tell Gabriel that her protection would not be as effective on this group of more advanced beings, but decided better of it. Gabriel ruled with an iron fist and had a vendetta that was now a few acres long. He had been waiting for an opportunity to strike but was not presented with a clear window in recent months. Fighting between the hunters, vampires and protectors had transitioned into a full-out attack by Lowery and his gang, followed by more revenge by Lowery by way of his daughter Claire Vinson.

"I was sure that Lowery would have put an end to Hartwell and group in a much more gruesome fashion than I could have ever done. He hesitated and couldn't complete a job that I should have finished years ago."

They exchanged a few more words and then Gabriel said, "What's your back, Brenda" in a threatening style.

She wouldn't give in to the temptation of engaging in a street fight, "Always, Gabriel. Always," as he walked away.

Brenda Vinson had obviously been around the block a few times and new her way through any paranormal neighborhood. She had assisted Gabriel Billingsley since the early 20th century when he truly became a beast to be reckoned with. But she was not so much a willing accomplice as a forced and coerced aid.

"Billingsley and his originals are back again," she said to her daughter Linda earlier that day.

"How can you tell?" the less-experienced witch asked.

Brenda smiled and then her face quickly turned to stone, "There is a very identifiable pattern that accompanies such rage and anger. He arrived the same day that we arrived, at night when everything was calm and Claire turned back to normal. It was as if he was waiting to see what would happen to Hartwell and the group as a result of Lowery's revenge."

"That is intense. But what is the point of all of this?" Linda asked.

Brenda pondered the question that had here stumped for decades.

"Billingsley always involves me in his plots but he never clues me in on what he is trying to do. Like any of these sieges, he's probably trying to right a wrong he feels was committed."

Back at the restaurant, Brenda played it all slick as she collected her brown bag of egg rolls and chicken dishes from the woman behind the counter. She then turned and nearly walked straight into Hartwell and his posse, even though she felt their presence at least two blocks from their destination.

"Oh!" she exhaled as Thaddeus was all-to-happy to steady Brenda in his arms.

She held the bag in her right hand and grabbed his bicep with her left hand, "You've been working out again, haven't you Thad?"

All of the men, except Cal, fawned over Brenda like they were under some type of love spell.

She then turned toward Cal and offered her left hand, "I don't think I have officially had the pleasure?"

Cal turned all formal, "The name is Brewster, Calvin Brewster, ma'am."

He then stepped back and wondered why he had just said that, but when he was just about to voice his concern all of his tension melted away. It was as if the touch of her hand produced an effect that guided the brain to think that Brenda Vinson was the most interesting woman in the entire world.

She turned away from Cal toward Hartwell, Thad and Gary, "Remember that time we were in China and we ate at that restaurant..." she asked and then recounted the details of the evening. Of course, there was never any dinner that included Hartwell and Gary with their hunter Thaddeus, because that would have most likely ended in bloodshed in the old days.

Cal was feeling a little jealous and left out by the reference to the dinner, but he thought he would hold his comments for a more quiet moment when Brenda was no longer in their company.

"Well, I'll see you guys around," Brenda said and then smiled real big and walked out of Beach Haven Chinese Restaurant.

Hartwell handed Gary a couple of crisp $100 bills and he and Thad walked up to the front counter to inquire about their order. The master vampire noticed the look of concern on Cal's face and wanted to pick his brain about what had just transpired.

"There's a lot more to that woman than meets the eye," Hartwell said as the two men went outside and starting walking down the block while looking straight ahead.

"Like the fact that you guys never ate dinner together in China?" Cal inquired.

"Exactly," Hartwell replied. "She has quite a grip, that witch."

Cal stopped walking and Hartwell turned to face him.

"I knew there was something weird about her! How is that Thad and Gary are affected by her spells but you and I aren't?"

"Are you saying that you didn't feel something back there?" Hartwell asked.

Cal grinned, "Maybe a little something. But then not so much. So, how did you do it?"

Hartwell leaned in and whispered, "I have a little trick up my own sleeve. She is working for someone, but I have been unable to figure it out for the past 100 years."

"Do you think it has something to do with our friend following us on the golf course today?"

Hartwell smiled, "I think it has everything to do with whatever was following us around today, but obviously it had no bearing on me beating you on that last hole."

"Do I have to say the word 'rematch'?" Cal asked.

Hartwell shook his head from side to side and replied, "Never."

FIVE

The full extent of Samuel's powers had yet to be determined because he was in a Claire Vinson daze for much of his rapid acceleration to adulthood. The combination's were endless as his father Maxwell had emerged from the union of Daniel and Nicole – vampire and protector – with a full cycle of facades, including wolf, hippopotamus, Orca killer whale and Bottlenose dolphin. But he also had the capability of copying anything he could see and he was a master of battle strategy.

Samuel is the offspring of Maxwell and his wife Kayla, a devoted peacenik and capable guardian of her parents, hunters Andrew and Carla Brewster. His coupling with Ariel Justice had everyone in the family intrigued as it combined all of the gene pools, including that of the hybrid creatures of the Winters' family, into a generation where anything would surely be possible.

Maxwell stood in front of his son, the two men with less time on the planet than a toddler still in diapers, and changed into his son.

Samuel yelled, "Whoa!" and then "Cool!" as Max morphed back into his own form and asked, "See if you can change into me now, Samuel?"

Somebody must have left the front door open because a beautiful monarch butterfly came between them and momentarily distracted Samuel. He changed into the butterfly and then flew with the original butterfly and toward the open front door.

Maxwell was still not mature enough to resist the temptation of changing into something so beautiful, so he followed his son and the unintended target as a trio of orange and black monarch butterflies floated out of the front door.

The real butterfly floated over the ocean and Max thought it was time for the duo to progress through a series of water-based creatures. He saw a dolphin and then changed into it in mid-air, creating a huge splash of water that butterfly Samuel narrowly avoided by also making the change. They went through change after change until they were miles away from home and sitting on a beach on the Jersey Shore.

"That was fun!" Samuel exclaimed as he jumped up and down from excitement.

"I'm glad you had a good time," Maxwell said as the two men stood up without the use of any muscles.

"But this is the form that I love the most," a shy Samuel said as he turned into his girlfriend Ariel as a mermaid.

Max started laughing at first because he was proud that his boy had inherited his lofty skills, but when his son split the image off into two – Samuel standing on the sand and Ariel in the same spot as a mermaid, he was confused.

"Samuel?" Ariel questioned as she was sitting in the kitchen one moment peeling the husks off corn and the next moment she was sitting on a beach looking up at Samuel and his father in her mermaid form.

"What am I doing here?" she asked.

Samuel turned his palms up in a "I don't know" stance and then simply replied, "I was just thinking about you and then you appeared."

Maxwell watched it all unfold and he grunted, "Whoa."

Getting back to the house took a little bit longer than Samuel turning into the house and the three people arriving home. But he was ultra-fast, even faster than the vampires that came before him, and they were back home within the time it usually took to start a car and pull out of the driveway.

Before they were even through the front door, Maxwell was communicating with his father and grandfather.

"Meet me in the main room of the house. Samuel is truly special," he conveyed to Daniel and Hartwell.

Hartwell was already in main room about to do take all of the Chinese food out of the bags, while Daniel and Drew were just walking through the door after their afternoon at the Beach Haven Arcade.

Samuel, Ariel and Maxwell came whizzing past them and Drew said to Daniel, "I could have used some of that speed to beat you when we were racing cars."

"But I still can't beat you at air hockey!" Daniel replied.

While Max was initially targeting an audience of two, what he actually got was a room-full of literally everybody and their grandmother.

Max pressed on, "It appears that not only can Samuel turn into anything that he sees and imagines, but he can also make the actual person or object appear."

Ariel wanted to take her new toy for a test drive, "I want to meet Beyonce!"

Samuel didn't even think for a moment before changing into pop star Beyonce and then splitting off into himself and the actual Beyonce.

A stunned Beyonce looked around the room and said, "Oh, hello."

The group said "Hello" in unison and in an upbeat tone.

"Can you sign this for me?" Ariel said as she looked behind her and Maggie handed her a piece of paper.

"You're a lot smaller in person than you appear on television," an honest Kayla stated.

Beyonce nodded her head, "Yeah, I get that a lot."

Kayla was not one to dwell in the negative, though "But you are so beautiful."

"Thanks!" the smiling star replied.

Just before it was about to start getting weird, Hartwell asked, "Dear, can you tell me where you were before you were here?"

"Oh, I was about to do a sound check at The Palace in Detroit, Michigan."

Hartwell then looked at Samuel and said internally, "Bring her back there and then pick up some Michigan stuff for me at the campus bookstore in Ann Arbor. The $50 bill that Hartwell propped up in his hand was gone along with Samuel and Beyonce, who were standing just off stage within seconds.

"Wow! That was fun!" Beyonce exclaimed. "Can I call you next time..." she started saying before Samuel disappeared and then was back in the main room of the house with assorted maize and blue items for Hartwell.

"Go blue!" Samuel said even though he had no idea what it meant at first.

"Go blue!" Hartwell replied as he put on a navy blue "M" hat and waved a 'number one' finger.

Daniel had seen enough, "This boy needs a little more history and facts to be more effective," as he placed his right index finger on Samuel's skull and downloaded a global library of information to his grandson.

"Wow! That was a rush!" Samuel yelled.

Daniel knew what was coming next, "Before we have a parade of stars and dignitaries through this house, let's sit down and eat and possibly discuss how not to abuse this gift."

As everyone agreed and moved to their place at the table, Hartwell pulled Samuel aside and said, "You have to learn how to best use your gifts, Samuel. We will all love you even if you don't make Albert Einstein appear."

All Samuel heard was Albert Einstein and he was now able to access a full profile of the 20th century genius through the upload from Daniel. He morphed into Einstein and then split into himself and the deceased genius. Samuel guided Albert to an open seat at the end of the table where Hartwell was sitting, and the calm man with the bushy gray hair and mustache said in his thick German accent, "It's been so long since I have had good Chinese food."

He then turned to Hartwell and said, "Hello, Thomas. Long time, no see."

Hartwell looked around the table and smiled, "It's good to see you again, Al. Wait 'till you taste the egg rolls. They are to die for."

Einstein smiled, "They better be. I'm already dead."

SIX

Breakfast was eaten and everyone in the House of Hartwell was busy and attacking the day. Everyone, of course, except Hartwell himself. He had been putting the pieces of the past two days together and came to the following conclusion about a person he hadn't seen in years.

"I didn't know that you were her daughter," he said internally.

Linda Vinson was walking through Beach Haven Drugs with her daughter and mother and was surprised to hear another voice other than her own in her ear. She had received flashes of voices in the past and quickly wrote off the statement and continued browsing through the plethora of shampoos. Linda wasn't as clairvoyant as her daughter but she was usually a conduit of information when the action really picked up.

Hartwell was never one to be patient, especially when he was feeling the weight of the world starting to engage his broad shoulders. He wanted answers and he knew where to go to get them.

"This isn't a flash or a blip, Linda. I really didn't know that you were Brenda's daughter?"

Linda recognized Hartwell's significant voice the first time he tried to contact her, but she knew that contact with the vampire would be both inevitable and potentially destructive when she realized where her daughter was headed a few days earlier.

"Mr. Hartwell?" she said softly out loud and then realized that all she had to do was think of what she wanted to say and her message would be conveyed.

"Mr. Hartwell?" she thought.

"Yes, it's me child."

Claire Vinson walked by her mother and a flash of brilliant light blinded her for a moment before she saw her mother and a familiar face on one side in her vision, and her grandmother and another man on the other side. The glared at each other until the tension built to a crescendo, at which point the four people ran at each other and her vision concluded with a cloud of dust that she tried to thin out by sweeping her right hand back and forth.

Linda saw the action and stepped out of her internal conversation with Hartwell to ask her daughter, "Mosquitoes?"

The vision was gone and Claire could now see clearly, "Yeah, something like that."

Claire was about to walk straight over to her grandmother and tell what she had just seen, but decided better of it when she saw Brenda Vinson talking to the man she was standing next to in the vision. She felt as if there was a lot more information she needed to collect before approaching either her mom or her grandma'.

"So, I assume that you made them all feel comfortable and that those idiots are as enamored with you as ever?" Gabriel Billingsley half-asked Brenda Vinson as he pretended to look at diabetes monitors near the pharmacy area.

It had been many years since Brenda used her powers of mystical persuasion to control Hartwell, Thaddeus and Garrison, but seemed to be happy with the results, "You know Gabe, it's like riding a bike."

He carefully placed the rectangular box in his hand back on the shelf and then starting walking away, "I will be in touch soon to unveil the next stage of our plan."

He looked at her in the eyes and nodded, and she returned the gesture with a nod in return. However, once he was out of sight her first thought was, "Our plan? Our plan? I wish I had never met this man!"

It was 1892 and the black plague was at least 10 years off in the blossoming city of San Francisco, California. Gabriel Billingsley and his wife Margaret were happily living the American dream, or at least that's the way it appeared from the outside looking in.

She became pregnant at about the same time that Gabriel's gold business was about to go bust, following years of tremendous prosperity. He happened to go broke the exact same day as his wife suffered a miscarriage, although it wasn't difficult to see that the cosmic stress produced by his failed business was what had led to the termination of the three-month pregnancy.

As Gabriel bled money from his business like a vampire biting into its prey, he ran across a woman that had a certain something that he couldn't put his finger on. The term 'witch' is one that is not comfortably either spoken or heard in any society, let alone a society on the verge of modernization.

Brenda Vinson was in her early 20s and in her infancy as far as her development as a witch. She discovered her powers one day as the blustery and cold north wind battered the San Francisco Coast in the middle of winter. Desperate for heat, she envisioned a warm fire on her way home from school. It was unfortunate at the time that she was looking at a newly-built church, because it then burnt to the ground within a few hours.

She didn't believe that the church was on fire at first, thinking that the developing blaze was merely an optical illusion, a figment of her active imagination. But then the heat from the church made her feel warm all the way home, even when she had turned the corner and was out of range. So, the early days were quite experimental in nature and Brenda was starting to get the hang of her witchy powers by the time her paths crossed with Gabriel Billingsley. However, while she had become more adept at harnessing her powers she still was unfamiliar with the ramifications of such actions due to her relative inexperience in the field.

"You appear lost, my friend," Brenda said with a certain familiarity to perfect stranger.

Gabriel was losing faith at about the same speed he was losing money, so he replied "I thought I knew where I was going in life, but now I'm not so sure."

They walked into the shadows of a nearby alley, as she had full confidence in her abilities to get her out of trouble if it came knocking.

He picked up his head and said, "Well, at least I have a baby to look forward to."

She extended her left arm and instinctively grabbed his forearm to provide comfort, but then she flashed on a not-so-wonderful outcome for the Billingsley family. Brenda unhooked her arm and stepped back, as the look of sadness permeated her face and body posture.

"What is wrong?" Gabriel asked.

"I see nothing but trouble ahead in your immediate future," Brenda replied.

Gabriel was steadfast in his conviction as he almost gave the appearance of being prepared for such a moment.

"Then maybe this world is not for me," he stated. "Perhaps we should make alternate considerations for me to come back when the universe will be a little kinder."

SEVEN

It seemed as if someone was either pregnant or being threatened in the House of Hartwell, so these special beings both appreciated and took full advantage of any periods of calm, no matter how short the duration.

"Did you see something following us yesterday when we left the bagel place with the girls?" Garrison asked Thaddeus as they were working on Thad's classic car in the huge garage.

The hunter was always joking with his former counterpart in these lighter days, "You know I'm much better at pursuing than being pursued, Gar."

Garrison shot Thaddeus a look as he handed him a monkey wrench, so Thad came clean "Yeah, I saw it."

"What do you think it was?" Gary asked.

"I know it wasn't a vampire!" Thad exclaimed as they both laughed.

"Or a hunter or protector," Gary added.

"Let's see, we're done with everyone is Lowery's family as far as we know... do you know of any enemies we have that haven't been around for a century or so?"

Gary scanned the roster of potential players in his mind and came up empty, "Everyone is either buried or dust."

"So why am I not getting a good feeling about all of this?" Thad asked as he tightened a bolt on the right side of the engine.

"Because maybe we're in a bad biorhythm pattern," Gary stated.

"Biorhythms? Are you still into that garbage?"

"No!" Gary said as he started laughing. I just ran out of excuses for all of this madness."

Questions were flying around all corners of the House of Hartwell as these special beings always sensed the presence of 'others' around them.

"Did you see that women following us this morning?" Nicole asked Carla as they sat quietly in the knitting room in the hours leading up to dinner.

Carla laughed, "I didn't know whether to pay for a new hairstyle or just break her off."

"I know! Isn't it crazy how normal our lives are one moment and how violent and unsettled it is the next?" Nicole observed.

"What is unsettled?" Maggie said as she walked into the room and restarted on her sweater and hat project.

"Our lives," Carla answered.

"And then, not so much," Nicole added.

"A few years ago I had my head buried in books, books, and nothing but books, and now I get to spread my wings and slice people's heads off with my extremely long fingers," Maggie said and then unfurled the long nail on her right index finger and picked up her yarn bundle.

Emily and Sharon entered the room and Emily immediately picked up the strange vibe.

"So what's with those weird people following us around?"

"You saw them, too?" Sharon agreed as they took their place around the one place besides being with their spouses that they could air it all out: the knitting circle.

Belinda walked in and said, "Saw who?"

Valerie was right behind her, "Those bright red pumps in the window at Beach Haven Couture?"

"You saw those shoes, too?" Kayla said as she walked through the doorway.

Ariel peaked in the room and said, "What's going on in here? Do you have room for one more?"

A rousing, "Yeah!" could be heard outside of the room and down the hall where Drew and Daniel were playing catch with a baseball in the sun room.

"Well they are having a good time in there today!" Daniel said as he tossed the baseball back to his first cousin. The speed of the throw made a pop in Drew's well-oiled, leather glove.

"I don't know how you feel about it, but I sorta' like all of this tension around us."

"Do you mean the kind of tension from creepy people that seem to be following us everywhere?" Daniel said as he caught a bullet throw from Andrew.

Drew was always ready for a good fight, "I swear if those people come anywhere near this house, I am going to beat the crap out of them!"

Since Cal Brewster was the originator of the any fight is a good fight campaign, he was quick to comment once he walked into the room, "Who are we kicking the crap out of now?"

Daniel decided to keep the ball in his glove as he replied to Cal, "Those creepy creatures that are following us."

"Yeah, I would like to get a crack at them," Cal replied.

"A crack at who?" Hartwell said as he entered the room. "Or is that whom? I'm never sure when I should use the possessive?"

"I think it's whom," Daniel replied.

"Whom, what?" Agent Blake Wallace asked as he walked into the sun room.

"We were talking about beating the crap out of the things that are stalking us," Drew clarified.

"We're being stalked?" Aaron said as his head barely cleared the top of the doorway.

"I'm glad you're big and strong because you're certainly not too bright," Cal said in a playful fashion to the man that had married his twin sister.

Maxwell walked in with Samuel as Aaron started to playfully wrestle with Cal, picking him over his head and then throwing him across the room. Father and son acted quickly, as son turned into a cushioned gym mat and father joined him as the blue athletics accessory as Cal sailed through the air and then landed softly on a wide expanse of gym mats. Thaddeus and Garrison walked in from the garage and saw Cal lying on the floor on a few gym mats that they had never seen before. Once Cal was safe, Max and Samuel changed back into their human form and were spread out on the floor on either side of Cal.

"Oh, that makes sense," Thaddeus said.

"But we still don't know who is following us?" Gary continued his questioning from their discussion in the garage, as the room grew quiet as all eyeballs were now focused on Hartwell. Abilities came and went but Hartwell was always viewed as the leader of this tribe, being that he was the originator of all things supernatural.

He stroked his mostly grey beard and mustache and pondered the question at hand.

"We all know that if someone usually has interest in us, then their intention is generally destructive in nature. It is our duty as the protectors of this house – and I use the word 'protector' in the most affectionate way with complete deference toward our 'hunter' friends."

The hunters, Cal, Thaddeus, Aaron and Drew, nodded in a sign of mutual respect and appreciation of Hartwell.

Hartwell continued, "We should fully understand what we're dealing with before exhibiting any aggressive behavior of any kind."

"And then we can kick its ass?" Samuel asked as he was swept up in the tsunami of testosterone.

Hartwell smiled and replied, "Yes, Samuel. Then we can kick its ass," as he then flashed back to the first time he met Thaddeus and Garrison and how confused he was to be battling after 18 relatively carefree and unabated years as a vampire.

He was just hanging out in Pennsylvania one night when he decided to go to a bar for a late-night drink or two. While he never drank alcohol, he did benefit from the spiked blood-alcohol levels of his victims. It was well after midnight and Hartwell had already sampled some local talent before an unfamiliar face in the form of Garrison said bluntly "You don't want to do that."

Hartwell stepped back to get a good look at this baby-faced kid that dared to challenge him. "You should go home junior and help your mommy knit a quilt," Hartwell replied with all of the cockiness of a predator in the prime of his death.

The young man was focused on the impending danger, not Hartwell's pointed words, as he yelled, "Duck!"

Normally, Hartwell listened to no man, but his intense hearing was telling him that the directive was accurate. Thaddeus Brewster stood across the room with a silver-tipped arrow cocked in his bow, and released the vampire-killer toward Hartwell's core. Garrison Phillips stood calmly erect and reached out his thick leather-gloved right hand and caught the arrow an inch away from Hartwell's slowly-pumping, cold, heart.

"We have to go," Gary said as he clutched Hartwell's arm and exited the bar with Thaddeus in hot pursuit."

Eighteen year-old Thaddeus in his hawk persona pursued a flying for the first time Hartwell, who was weighed down by Gary, for more than three hours, not because Thad couldn't catch them but because he wanted to learn more about his natural enemies.

They hit the ground in New Jersey as the still-cocky Hartwell said, "Maybe we lost him."

He was facing Gary and a huge shadow consumed both of their forms. "Not in this lifetime," Gary said as Hartwell turned and looked straight in the belly of a massive Grizzly bear.

"Run!" Hartwell yelled and then turned and did just that while Gary, who was playing the part of the ultimate protector, stayed behind to try to slow the angry creature down. He changed into a wolf and literally howled at the moon before jumping at Thaddeus' furry neck, his jaw clenching on its target. The wounded bear roared in anger and pain and attempted in vain to shake the determined Gary off of him. Thaddeus regained his thoughts long enough to swipe his lengthy upper claws and puncture the body of the wolf like a pin cushion. Gary yelped in pain and then Thaddeus effortlessly tossed his limp body deep into the forest brush.

Hartwell was so confused by the turn of events that he ran as fast as he could instead of gliding or flying away. Although he had received three days of comprehensive information when he was making the transformation from mortal to vampire, it had been 18 years and the vampire was desperately in need of a refresher course to better acquaint himself to his enemy. Thaddeus the bear roared and the ground shook as he started running in the direction of Hartwell. While Hartwell had a good 30-second head start, the speedy bear quickly made up the stagger, shocking Hartwell, who was scared for the first time in his vampire life.

He muttered under his breath, "What in god's name..." as he turn around to see the bear lumbering toward him at an impressive 50 miles per hour. Thaddeus grabbed Hartwell from behind and wasted no time ending their first of many battles. He picked the vampire over his head and then impaled him through a long, sharp branch of an adjacent tree. Hartwell, his back to the tree, had a four-inch-wide tree trunk running through his back and most importantly, his heart, as he dangled five feet off the ground. Before Hartwell died, Thaddeus turned back into his human form and walked up to Hartwell, "That's one," he said as waved his right index finger and then walked away.

The sun came up shortly after the end of the first battle, Gary coming to first as a wolf and then morphing back to his human form. He slowly rose to his feet and then followed the tracks and scents that led him to his greatest nightmare: Hartwell impaled on a massive tree branch.

Hartwell doubled over in pain and violently coughed after Gary freed him from the tree limb.

Gary said, "We have to get to the beach."

Hartwell's memory of his early training was sparse, but he did remember the picture of the beach and the word 'SAFETY.' And safety was on the shores of Maine, where he and Gary trained for months and became experts on their enemy, Thad the hunter, which meant that Hartwell wouldn't die as often on his march to mortality and his 100th death.

EIGHT

Hartwell was once again curious about his foe, and wanted to learn every tip and tendency he could wrap his mind around and then pass on to his troops.

"We're talking about the origin of the species here," Linda Vinson said to Hartwell internally as she layered sheets of lasagna in a glass dish and then alternated layers of ricotta cheese and ground turkey meat cooked in marinara sauce.

"Whoa! Were you able to find out who their leader was?" Hartwell asked.

"No, I'm still working on it, but I will get back to you as soon as I know."

While the riddle was a bit perplexing in its vagueness and complexity, there was a certain level of exhilaration for Hartwell being in the middle of a heated confrontation once again. It was his birthright as a vampire to take on all comers with a cool head and an even cooler heart, so he was not overly worried about what was about to come.

The special connections and bonds that these beings had formed in and out of the House of Hartwell was about to be tested in a major way. Feelings and life impediments that had been dead and buried for decades and even centuries for some people, were about to be dredged up from the grave and quickly renewed.

Linda Vinson was diligently attempting to find out the source of trouble not only for Hartwell but also to alleviate this sinking feeling in her loins that the conflict was much larger and more personal.

"Why are you and grandma' fighting?" was the question that Claire Vinson was dying to ask her mother.

But, instead, she instinctively was on her way to Hartwell's house just as she had done previously when she turned 18 and revenge was on her father's mind. However, this time her mind was clear and her intentions were pure – purely good, that is.

Another person that had never been to Hartwell's massive beach-front house was also on his way, and was being accompanied by some other people that might be of interest to many people inside the house as well. He walked up to the front door of what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse, the altered appearance being a perk of a vampire able to shield what you don't want others to see, and firmly knocked on the dilapidated door three times.

Samuel glided over to the door and Kayla yelled from the kitchen, "Make sure you ask who is there before opening the door!"

Of course, young Samuel was all 'think first ask questions later' and had absolutely no intention of speaking before winging the door open.

"Okay!" he replied and then asked in his most polite tone, "Who is it?"

"A friend," the deep male voice replied from the other end of the door.

That was good enough for Samuel, but not for his mother.

"Show me what he looks like," Kayla bellowed while carving up an avocado to put in a salad.

Samuel concentrated on the man on the other side of the door and then morphed into his form. He had no idea of the bomb he was dropping when he slowly turned around to face the group, the light from the waning sun reflecting off his face for dramatic effect.

Only two people in the room could identify the man, and they both were not in the room when the reveal occurred.

"Never seen him before," Thaddeus said as he looked at Garrison for confirmation.

"Nope. That chiseled face is not familiar to me."

"If nobody knows this man, I don't think we should let him in," Daniel said, trying to fill in as the leader of the pack while Hartwell was not present.

But punky Andrew never liked to back up, "What are you scared?" as he glared over to his Uncle Cal and they both smiled.

Daniel never was one to back down from a challenge, either, especially one that came from his cousin's mouth.

"Okay, let him in!"

Hartwell and Maggie glided into the room and their attention was focused on their son and his statement, not the image of the man that Samuel was portraying near the front door.

"Let who in?" Hartwell asked with all of the bravado and natural curiosity of a true leader.

Daniel then replied with all of the innocence and respect of a person that had absolutely no idea that the very point of his right index finger would put the very foundation of the family in jeopardy.

"Him."

Maggie and Hartwell turned their attention away from their son and to the man at the door, the very sight of which propelled them to an identical and stunning observation, "Gabriel?"

They then turned to each other and Maggie asked, "How do you know Gabriel?"

Hartwell could not believe that his wife new this stranger, because he never imagined her life without him.

The usually mild-mannered Maggie was flustered and shouted the first thing that came to mind, "How do I know him? How do I know him? I was the one that watched as he was buried in the ground!" she said and then used her legs to run off instead of simply gliding as the tears from her eyes instantly froze and created a slick path from the main room to the knitting room.

All of the women followed Maggie down the hall for support, but the one's that couldn't glide – Emily, Carla, Kayla and Ariel – were slipping and sliding at first until the vamp's held them up and brought them to more firm flooring.

Belinda got there first and asked the first question because they shared the mother bond over the generations with Daniel.

"Who is that man?"

Meanwhile, Hartwell glided over and approached the man as everyone gathered behind him in support. Like Maggie, he was the only person of his group to have any idea who the man was, and the suspense was starting to create tension. Hartwell slowly extended his hand and if you took a vote of everyone in the room, there wasn't a person in there that wouldn't have guessed extended nail and beheading.

Gabriel picked his right hand up from his waist and met Hartwell in a handshake.

"It's been so long, my friend," Hartwell said as the two men met in a hug.

"Too long," Gabriel Billingsley replied, although no one could comprehend the hidden meaning of his statement at the time.

NINE

Billingsley was just about to call on his minions because he had no idea how the reunion with Hartwell and Margaret would play out. But the handshake and subsequent hug with Hartwell guided him toward saving the rest of his surprises for another day. It would be more than enough for the two main players of the family to create dissension and confusion before moving in and completely destroying the remaining foundation of the family.

Maggie never got to answer Belinda's question because hell literally froze over. Samuel and Maxwell had to be called in to first warm the temperature as heat blowers and then dry everything off as huge, absorbent towels. Hartwell picked up his emotionally crushed wife after Gabriel left and then flew her out of the house so they could have a private moment for a change.

He floated above the water and stroked her hair with his long, thick fingers. Although these beings could do just about everything without physical contact, it was still the basic touch after all of these years that still had the most impact. It took a few minutes for her to finally calm dawn enough to talk about what had just happened.

"Well, it seems like you and I were the only people in the room to know who Gabriel Billingsley was, or is. Now, I spent the better part of my pre-Thad and Gary years as a vampire roaming the country with him, but the question that is haunting me is..." Hartwell said as he was about to pop the big question, but apparently his delivery was a bit slow for Maggie's taste. She knew what was coming and decided to blurt out the answer without thinking about the ramifications. Maggie's mind was a little scrambled by that point in the evening and she was trying to fight the incessant growling of an empty stomach.

"He was my husband!"

Hartwell was ready for just about anything but the word 'husband.' Even if she said that they went out for while, he would have been able to brush off most of it.

Apparently the loving stroking of the hair portion of the evening was over, because Hartwell glided over to the shore as they both landed on their feet.

"You were married to Billingsley? When was this?"

Hartwell and Maggie were so in love since she was reincarnated and became a vampire that this was the first time they had a real fight. Come to think of it, they barely fought on their first-go-round back in turn-of-the-21st century San Francisco either.

"Before we were married," Maggie replied.

"In this life?" he asked.

"No, the first," she countered.

The light finally went on in Hartwell's head, "Oh, he was the guy that died on the same day of the miscarriage? But he's not dead."

The look Maggie then gave Hartwell could have potentially killed him if he was a mere mortal.

"I told you that I don't want to talk about it!" she yelled and then unfurled her massive wings and flew away.

He was about to go after her but she screamed, "And don't think about coming after me!"

Hartwell had so many questions, but his mind instantly shut down from the emotional toll of being separated spiritually from his wife for the first time in over a century. He sat down in the sand and thought back to a time when he met Maggie and how his life had no real meaning before he tried to rob her bank. It was the days before he hit it big and staked his claim of gold – it was also a time when he first considered ending his miserable life, with the other time being after Maggie and Daniel, then Nathanial, tragically lost their lives during the 1902 Black Plague in San Francisco.

Daniel glided out after he sensed his father's sadness and then returned to a mortal position by landing on his feet and sitting next to his father in the sand, the two men gazing out into the rolling ocean.

"Are you all right?" Daniel asked.

"Not really," Hartwell replied. "You see, my son, in most worlds when life ends it ends, but in our world nothing is apparently over even when it's over."

Daniel had to fully process his father's words and then came to understand the point of his message.

"So, what you're saying is that the man that came over last night was dead and now he's not?"

"Yes," Hartwell replied.

"Well, we were dead at one point and now we're not," Daniel replied in the most honest way he could.

Hartwell was not one for restating the obvious, "Well, this man was your mother's husband before she was my wife. In fact, he was dead and buried years before I came on the scene."

Daniel was back being confused, "But you greeted him like you knew him."

Hartwell half-grinned, "We were boys back in the day."

"Is he a vampire?" Daniel asked.

"He was back then. Or at least that's what I saw," Hartwell surmised and then called on his cynical side to begin weaving his latest conspiracy theory.

Hartwell continued to pick Linda Vinson's brain on what happened from the time Billingsley died until he walked through the front door of his house, but she provided little clarity. The person that Hartwell should have been talking to was Linda's daughter Claire, who had become a virtual conduit for all things Billingsley following her exit from the world of Alexander Lowery days earlier.

While her mother and grandmother were out of the house, Claire strolled over to the beach by herself and took a seat on one of the stone and wood benches on the boardwalk facing the ocean. At the same time, Daniel was also walking on the boardwalk to sort out a part of his parents' past that he never knew existed.

Instinctively, he walked over to where Claire was sitting and he sat down next to her on the long bench. They looked at each other, somehow knowing that it was meant to be this way, and he put his left hand on her right shoulder and the picture show began as they both looked straight ahead at the 3D images displayed in front of them.

"Cool!" she said as he removed his hand from her shoulder and then sat back to gain any comfort while learning what all of the ruckus was all about. He also made sure that any passers-by on the boardwalk would not see them or have the urge to sit on the bench – it was if they were not even there.

The Gabriel Billingsley story started when he was still married to Maggie, who he called Margaret, and various scenes of marital happiness were shown on a purely G-rated level. Daniel was relieved to not have to watch his mother kissing another man – it was difficult enough for him to watch Hartwell and Maggie kiss in the first place!

Then the story shifted to the part where Gabriel was having business problems and was nearing the brink of insolvency. He starts talking to a young Brenda Vinson and Claire immediately chimes in, "Is that my grandmother?"

She leaned closer to the images and said to Daniel, "Can you pause that, please?"

Daniel was a proponent of self-service, so he replied "All you have to do is poke your index finger at the screen."

So Claire literally pushed the air pause button and the images froze. "You can zoom in the same way you do with an iPad, and if you want to know who the people are in the scene you can touch them with your finger.

Claire did just that and the name, "Brenda Vinson" appeared on the screen. She then touched the man's head and the name "Gabriel Billingsley appeared.

"I think I saw her talking to him the other day at the drug store? Can we look at that for a second?"

Daniel once again put his hand on Claire's shoulder and the images that she saw at the drug store reappeared in front of her eyes. She locked on her grandma' and the man and then touched the man's head and the name "Gabriel Billingsley" once more appeared.

"I knew it!" she exclaimed.

"Can we watch the rest of the original feed now?" Daniel asked.

Claire looked over at him and smiled, "Yeah, I'm ready."

Daniel swirled his finger around in a circle and the original images replaced the modern-day images in front of them. Claire was becoming even more comfortable with Daniel, "I bet you didn't even have to do that little trick with your finger."

Daniel laughed, "No, but it looked pretty cool, didn't it?"

"Yep," she replied in laughter.

They both sat back as the initial scene between Brenda and Gabriel unfolded.

"I see nothing but trouble in your immediate future," Brenda stated.

"Then maybe this world is not for me," Gabriel replied in want amounted to the initial piece of his response about coming back at a later date.

The movie rolled ahead to Maggie being at home in the bathroom and collapsing to the floor in tears once she realized that something was wrong internally and she had lost her baby. Claire started crying and so did Daniel, so he zipped off the beach and came back with a box of Kleenex for Claire and an ice bucket for himself.

Billingsley didn't even have the courage to say goodbye to his wife or even comfort her in her true time of need. Instead, he chose the easy way out by having his witch stop his heart in the middle of the busiest intersection in the city. Maggie slowed her tears long enough to answer the door after someone knocked, but the grim sight of the mortician sealed this day as the worst she had ever experienced in her life.

A brief scene of the funeral was followed up by a time-lapse video sequence of the grave and about a week going by with no change in the area. However, as the day swung to night on day seven, the fast forward feature slowed and the picture returned to normal speed. Daniel zipped out and then zipped back in with two huge tubs of popcorn, a cherry frozen drink for Claire, and a blood sippy bag for himself.

She nodded in thanks and then they nervously watched in anticipation as a form exploded from the flat ground and then came back down to earth, making a thunderous impact as it made contact with the ground.

"Slo motion," Daniel said between bites of the popcorn.

It was hard to see what the creature was that launched out of the ground, so Daniel started the frame again and touched the form and said, "Image clarity and definition," and then rotated his right finger 180 degrees to the left to rewind the frame to the point of ground clearance.

"They should put these in the schools. Then maybe I would have paid attention all of those years," she said while continuing to stuff her face.

"I'm with you on that," Daniel agreed as they banged fists somewhere in the middle.

The eyes of Gabriel Billingsley were distinguishable behind a whole lot of hair. It wasn't until he crashed down to the ground that it became crystal clear what the group was now up against. He was now a huge ape that appeared to be taking all of his rage and anxiety out on his chest as he pounded his fists and roared in deference to everything unholy.

"Whoa!" Claire exclaimed.

"Whoa is right," Daniel stated. "I didn't see that coming."

Since his Margaret was between worlds after her death, Gabriel decided to focus his energy on the bane of his existence, the man that moved into his place in his absence, Thomas Hartwell.

It was Billingsley that masterminded a plan to keep Hartwell around as long as possible in order to have him reunite with Maggie again, as the objective was maximum pain and suffering. Saying that Billingsley was delusional would have been completely accurate because he was the one that gave up his life with Maggie in the first place. Only, as is the case with most delusional people, they don't exactly see things ever as their fault and blame is much easier to place on the shoulders of others.

Gabriel had Brenda Vinson dispatch Alexander Lowery, a renowned vampire, to Hartwell house after Maggie and son died and just as Hartwell was on the verge of taking his own life. Brenda was also in control of Hartwell dramatically raising the pistol to his head, but in reality the trigger was never going to be pulled. It was Billingsley that wanted Hartwell to feel that he would have killed himself if Lowery had not knocked on his door and offered him the gift of being able to see his wife and son again one day. But, the reality of the situation was that Hartwell very well might have taken his own life if an other-worldly alternative was unavailable.

And once Hartwell finally came on line as a vampire, it was Gabriel Billingsley who buddied up to him after tracking him for several days. They spent the better part of 18 years together, traveling the world and drinking as much of people's blood as inhumanly possible. The last highlight that Daniel and Claire viewed was one of Hartwell and Gabriel drunk on blood and jumping up and down in personal victory together in the woods. The initial feed was of the backs of two vampires with wings unfurled, but Daniel's curiosity pushed him to lean forward for a closer look.

"Something isn't right here," he said as he place his fingers around Billingsley's image and then twisted it around so he could see the front of the so-called vampire.

Claire and Daniel gasped as the image of an ape en fuego replaced that of a vampire.

"Did my grandma' make your dad believe that Gabriel was a vampire?"

Daniel smirked, "I believe she did."

TEN

Just as Daniel and Claire were about to leave the bench and tart walking down the boardwalk, a second roll of film came through the corporeal world.

"Wait," Daniel said. "There's more."

Hartwell started to grow impatient as the years rolled by and there was no sign of the reincarnation of Maggie and his son Nathanial. Linda Vinson delivered her baby Claire and then almost immediately fled from her daughter and mother in order to protect them and herself. The splitting up of such potent Wiccan energies was the key to ensure potential survival.

It was only days after Hartwell had buried Cal Brewster in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean with the help of his protector Garrison Phillips and daughter Sharon. With the threat of the Brewster family killing him greatly diminished, Hartwell turned is full attention back to his original family. This was the point in time that he happened to meet Linda Vinson, and this meeting was purely a coincidence and was not triggered by anything Billingsley.

When nothing appeared in front of Daniel and Claire he looked over at her and she was convulsing from the presence of a new image. He grabbed her shoulder and projected the image in front of them so she could stop struggling and pull out of whatever pain the flashback was causing her.

She looked over at him, "Thanks."

He kept his hand on her shoulder to ensure that she would not slip back into her internal daymare.

Her mother was running and breathing hard as paranoia had finally gotten the best of her. She knew there was just so long or so far she could run and it would be only a matter of time before Billingsley and whoever he had working for him would be able to track her down. She smacked right into Hartwell as she looked over her shoulder and failed to identify who was in her immediate path. Hartwell was no stranger to people running, but it was usually away from him in attempt to get away. He had only turned one person in his century as a vampire and that was a young and helpless Brandon Justice a few years earlier in rural Portland, Oregon.

But Hartwell was feeling no pity on this day, at least not at first blush of this tasty morsel that he was holding in his vice grip. He quickly popped the top as he bit down on her neck and flashes of things he had never seen crossed his mind. He unhinged his razor-sharp fangs and glided back a few paces in surprise.

"You be a witch?"

Linda stood wobbly as blood started flowing out of her neck, staining her white shirt, "I be a witch," she replied just before her eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out.

Hartwell caught Linda before she hit the ground and she woke up the next day in unfamiliar surroundings. At first she was comforted by the relaxed feeling she experienced from her head to her toes that resulted from a fresh infusion of blood. But then she felt something pulling at her neck and reached up and tried to pull off a bandage she knew nothing about.

"Oh, you're up," Hartwell said as she saw the vampire gliding toward her and tried to get up and run away. She writhed in pain as her head was not ready for such movement.

"Yeah, I was just going to say you probably should avoid any sudden movements or you'll probably get a gigantic head rush accompanied by a headache."

"Why did you bite me?" she asked as she reclined and started to relax again.

"Well, as you already know I am a vampire..." he started to explain.

"No, that's not what I meant. What I meant to say was why did you stop biting me?"

Hartwell pulled up a chair and asked, "Is it all right if I sit down?"

She nodded in approval, "Of course," as the mutual politeness was working wonders to repair a relationship that might have gotten off on the wrong fang.

"When I bit into your neck, many things about you and your current situation came to my attention. The first of which was the fact that you are indeed a witch. Am I correct?"

Linda never liked to admit that she was a sister of the occult, especially when she was among others outside of the trade, but was willing to break her rule this one time due to the rather extenuating circumstances: she was being held captive by a vampire and he could drain her of her life within seconds.

"Yes, that is correct."

"Good," Hartwell stated. "I also know that you are running from someone that you fear greatly, and the very thought of this person makes you feel very vulnerable."

Linda was so relieved to be finally be able to talk to someone about her situation, that she about to reveal to Hartwell that the vampire that was out to get her was the same creature that sired his road to vampiracy in 1902 San Francisco. But it was a good thing that Hartwell had other things on his mind, because he did not have any interest in hearing about the past anymore. Looking back had caused him great anguish over the years and he was looking forward from now on.

"Oh my god, I'm so relieved that you know. L..." she was just about to say "Lowery has been chasing me for years" before Hartwell interjected, "It's not important who is chasing you. What is important, however, is that I think we can both help each other."

It was the parallel universe that was Linda Vinson's life. On the one hand she was lured into a brief romantic relationship with a vampire and then had his love child, unbeknownst to him. And then she literally ran into another vampire while she was trying to frantically avoid the other one, only to realize that she would be a better partner than a mid-day snack.

"What did you have in mind?" she asked as she put her hand out to receive some aid in sitting up.

Hartwell gently grabbed her arm and then supported Claire's weight as she attempted to stand up.

"You have to do this slowly or all of the blood will rush to your head," Hartwell explained.

"Well, if anybody would know about blood and rushing it would be you," she smiled and replied.

They started walking slowly, Hartwell using his left arm to support all of her weight, as he laid out the plan of action.

The image that Daniel and Claire were seeing was of their backs, so Claire moved forward and flipped the image with her left hand so they could see Hartwell and Linda's faces.

"Well, I need something of a locator spell to find my lost wife and son," Hartwell said.

"When was the last time you saw them?" Linda asked.

"About 100 year ago."

Her head almost snapped from the surprise of his statement, so he clarified his need.

"I've been expecting them to be reborn for some time now and it is starting to get to me, much the way the stress of avoiding a predator is obviously starting to erode your defenses."

They stopped walking and she nodded in understanding.

Hartwell continued, "I propose that I offer you the full protection of my cloaking powers in return for you alerting me when my loved ones have returned to me."

They shook on the deal and the picture faded to black.

Daniel filled in the blanks for Claire, "Your mother must have told him about me, but I was the one that told my dad about my mother. She was the librarian that helped me with some of the projects at my high school."

Claire smiled, "Your mom was the librarian at your school and you didn't even know it?"

"We got along so great, but I had no idea until my father told me what was happening after he transformed me into a vampire."

"And I was a zombie going after all of you to avenge my father's death, a man that my mother was running from for 18 years," she said."

"Welcome to the family," Daniel said as he opened his arms and gave her a hug.

"Thanks, Daniel. You're like the big brother I never had."

ELEVEN

The calm that enveloped the house following the victory over Lowery was replaced by confusion and gossip, as the inhabitants of the House of Hartwell were trying to get more steady footing on the topic of the day.

"So, Maggie was married before she met Hartwell?" Agent Blake asked the group as he held a ball of yarn for Belinda in the knitting room.

"She was not only married to this guy, she was also carrying his baby before she lost it," Sharon stated.

"Is that why he died?" young Kayla asked.

Emily interjected, "The timing of the whole thing is suspect. You would think that if this man came back after all of these years being dead that there were other forces at work here."

"What are we talking about here?" Aaron said as he unraveled some more yarn for Sharon.

Everyone looked back at Blake, who was the presumed expert of everything Hartwell after his years heading up the FBI Aquatic and Other Mammals Division. This basically gave Agent Blake license to spy on Hartwell and friends and do the thing he most coveted: keep an eye on his daughter Nicole.

Blake was at a loss at first, "This information obviously predates my tracking of Hartwell, but if I had to make an educated guess I would say..." and everyone moved to the edge of their floor seat, "Witches."

There was a brief moment of silence while everyone digested the possibility of witches invading their world. There wasn't a person in the room over 100, which had the impact of narrowing the information pool dramatically.

"Witches?" Valerie yelled.

"Yeah, that's all we need is to add witches to this mess!" Carla exclaimed.

Nicole added, "I would sooner believe werewolf's before I would believe witches."

Blake was an accurate historian, "But we don't have werewolves in this story."

Emily backed him, "He's got a point there. We have enough to deal with without letting those dogs in." She then looked over at Blake, "Still not buying your witch theory, but it was a good try though."

While everyone in the room was shooting down Agent Blake's theory that witches were behind Gabriel Billingsley's reemergence, it was his powers of deduction and a basic process of elimination that led him to this educated guess. The room had moved on and knitting was the goal, although Blake was still very much on the trail of the truth, as usual.

With phase one of Billingsley's plan in the books, the rousing success of his reveal was only a small part of the multi-tiered attack he planned for the House of Hartwell. And while he gathered his troops and prepared for phase two of the plan, Thomas and Maggie Hartwell were trying to work out their differences over at the Beach Haven Blood Bank.

"You could have told me the whole story about him," he said as he punctured a bag of blood with a specially-made straw that Daniel devised.

Usually, Hartwell would make sure his wife was taken care of before sipping some of New York's finest fresh platelet's himself.

She punctured the bag, took the first euphoric sip and then irrationally replied, "It's not like you opened up and told me you knew Gabriel?"

The blood must have gotten to Maggie's head because she left the conversation wide open for him, "Because I didn't know him when I met you! He was dead and then you were dead, so it would have been a complete waste of air for me to tell you the story about my friend Gabriel – who just happened to be your husband before me – while you spirit floated around after they burned your remains to the ground as a precautionary measure to limit the spread of the plague.

She looked at him in astonishment, "You're always yelling at me now, and that was perhaps one of the longest sentence I've ever heard in this or any life!"

"So now you're critiquing my sentences?" Hartwell asked. "Maybe I'm just a little on edge after my sire blew through town and threatened to kill us all and now your dead ex-husband is back and Satan only knows what his intentions are? Was that sentence of an appropriate length?"

She nodded in approval, "Yes, it was better."

Hartwell continued to drink when he felt Maggie's heart rate accelerate.

"Besides, why would he come back in the first place? How is it possible that he came back? Do you think he was reborn like Daniel and me?"

Hartwell tried to answer the questions in order, "To reclaim you and get revenge on me. I'm not sure on either of those last two questions, although I highly doubt that he was reborn like you."

Hartwell had his own witch on staff and surmised that Gabriel Billingsley had one performing all of the mojo he needed to span his two worlds. He was initially convinced that Billingsley was a vampire when they ran together in his carefree years, but was becoming more interested by the minute to dig deeper and see what was really going on. In the keep your family close and your enemies' closer world of supernatural beings, Billingsley wanted Hartwell's pain to be extricating when he came back and made Margaret fall in love with him all over again.

"Do you think he came back for me?" Maggie asked with more than a hint of female pride and personal affirmation.

Hartwell knew this discussion would be heading directly down the drain, so he stood up and threw his empty blood bag in the trash before digesting the edible straw that was not made of man-made compounds and could cause a problem if discovered.

"I can't believe that after all that we have been through, that you would even consider the possibility of opening your heart again to Billingsley."

She finished the remainder of her blood, at the straw and then threw the bag in the garbage. Maggie was confused and acted as a wounded animal by striking back at Hartwell, "I was in love with him even before I met you – or should I say rescued you!"

Hartwell dropped his head in defeat and walked away without saying another word.

Maggie realized the error and harshness of her statement and tried to backtrack in vain, "That's not what I meant! Thomas!"

Hartwell was gone as he zipped out of the hospital in what amounted to about one-quarter of his usual speed, which was still about five times as fast as the fastest human. He hovered over to the beach and sat on a bench throughout the afternoon and evening without so much as a blink of his eye. Maggie's words and actions combined with Billingsley's reemergence knocked him back to a place of severe internal hurt and vulnerability. While he wasn't exactly at the point when he was standing in his San Francisco house with a loaded gun pointed at his head, the feelings of helplessness and despair were now fresh in his mind. A life without Maggie would still be a life not worth living, or so he thought.

"Has anyone seen my father?" Daniel asked later that night as almost everyone was gathered in the main room of the house.

Cal shot him a look and then playfully raised his hand. "No, the other one with the sharp teeth, big wings and mainstream fashion sense."

"Haven't seen him after this morning," Cal replied.

The two people that could find him were his protector Garrison and hunter Thaddeus and they took a deep breath, then looked at each other and at Daniel and said, "Beach."

So Daniel looked over at his wife Nicole and said, "I'll be right back. If you don't see me in 30 minutes, gather everyone and meet me at the beach."

He kissed Nicole and then was out the door and on the boardwalk in less than three seconds, as he stopped first to put a few bikes and a skateboard back in the garage. Daniel arrived on the boardwalk about 100 yards from his father, who was the very definition of a dead man sitting. The thought of another man in Maggie's life served to deconstruct the foundation of his perfect family life brick by brick.

Daniel decided to walk because he loved the feel of actually touching the ground unless he was in a hurry.

"Dad?" he said in a soft voice knowing that his father could hear him just about anywhere.

No response from Hartwell was forthcoming as he continued to start vacantly into the expanse of the ocean. Daniel picked up the pace and was now at the bench Hartwell was sitting at on the vacant boardwalk.

"Dad, are you all right?" Daniel said as he sat down and put his arm around Hartwell.

Daniel waited patiently for a response because he could see that his father was in the process of replying.

"She doesn't love me anymore, Danny. She's gone again," Hartwell pouted as tears started rolling down his eyes and quickly changed into ice cubes once oxidized.

"Nobody is going anywhere, dad," Daniel said as he zipped out and then zipped back with a 40-pound garbage can – the kind that can't easily be transported off the beach – and held it gingerly with a few fingers with minimal effort. Of course, the fastidious nature of the vampire didn't allow him to even touch the receptacle without first completing a thorough cleaning. Not that the cleanliness of anything would have mattered to Hartwell in his current pseudo-vegetative state.

Hartwell's tears slowly melted into water in the moderate late spring air, so Daniel disposed of the waste basket and try to talk some sense into Hartwell.

She's not gone, dad. And I'm still here to."

"Danny, is that you?" Hartwell asked, thinking he was hearing voices of his past.

"Yes, it's me dad. It's me, Danny," which was weird within itself because Hartwell never referred to his son in the less-formal greeting of Danny, preferring to use his given name of Daniel which sounded a lot more like his original name of Nathanial.

"You have to talk to Blake about what's going on. He'll know how to make all of this right."

"Okay, but I'll have to bring you home now," Daniel stated.

"I don't have a home anymore. Just leave me out here and come back and get me once you and your mother come back to me."

Daniel wasn't having any of the pity party and he certainly wasn't leaving his father on the boardwalk and he sat and deteriorated. A half-hour must have elapsed because the rest of the family was en route to the beach while Daniel brought Hartwell back to the house and placed him on a comfortable seat in the sun room. He then returned to the main room where everyone else was waiting for him in the light-speed world of these special extra-special beings.

"He's resting about as comfortable as he can in the sun room," Daniel stated.

"How bad is it?" life-long antagonist Cal Brewster asked knowing that a part of him would die without Hartwell as his muse.

"Pretty bad," Daniel replied and then pulled Blake aside as the group bemoaned the plight of its leader.

"You got a minute?" Daniel whispered to Blake as he grabbed him under the arm and guided him out of the room. Maxwell saw the move and knew that he had to be wherever the action was, so he followed Daniel and Blake to the workout room and said once the coast was clear, "I don't know what you guys are up to, but I want in."

Daniel smiled, "Okay, Max. We could probably use your special skills and expertise on this project."

"Thanks dad and grandpa'!" an appreciative Maxwell said as he hugged the two men.

Maggie was still in town and closing down the Beach Haven Tavern, a place she had never been before this night. It wasn't like the matriarch of the family to turn to drinking when times got tough, but she had passed her normal capacity to absorb new information even though she was a new-age vampire and her hard drive was quite vast.

"One more whisky, please," she said to the aged bartender who was surprised that Maggie was still able to sit on her stool.

"What, is that 10 whiskies, sweetheart?"

"Eleven, but who's counting," she joked.

"You just passed my test," the barkeep stated. "If you can crack a coherent joke and get a laugh, then you can have another drink!" the jolly, round man proclaimed.

"Pour me one of those, too," a voice said from her left and then Gabriel Billingsley sat down in the seat next to Maggie at the bar. He placed a $50 bill on the bar, which solicited a chuckle from Maggie.

"You always knew how to make a splash."

"I always say, if you're going to roll you might as roll big," Gabriel said in his smoothest Don Juan dialect.

They had a lot to talk about after being apart for more than 100 years, and Gabriel lifted a bottle of whiskey once the bar was closed and the large wood door was closed behind them. He instinctively walked her home, although some of his intention was to taunt his future opponents.

Gabriel was waiting by the front door as Maggie searched for a key that she really didn't need to enter the house. It was an awkward almost first date scene where Maggie was trying to decide whether to give her suitor a small first date kiss? Only this suitor was an ex-husband who was presumed dead and very much in enemy territory.

Andrew looked in on Hartwell and saw two bodies near the front door moving closer together.

"Oh crap," he said as he honed in the Maggie's heartbeat and then another heartbeat of a beast he could not make out that obviously wasn't Hartwell. Drew quickly put one and one together and got two, running through the front door and placing Maggie inside, her mouth puckered to deliver a good night kiss.

Drew took one step forward and was very much in a punch first, ask questions later mood. He usually didn't think things out before he acted, and this case was the rule rather than the exception. He hauled off and belted Gabriel in the mouth, sending the somewhat surprised Billingsley falling backwards from a sucker punch rather than Maggie's pucker. Drew immediately broke his hand on Gabriel's steel jaw, but the injury healed by the time Gabriel did a series of forward rolls on the ground and pounded Drew with a wild right hand, which struck the hunter on the side of the head and sent him flying in an arc though ceiling of the man room, thundering loud when he landed just to the right of Cal Brewster on the floor.

Cal was the originator of the punch first, talk second action and his nephew had learned well. He rushed out of the door and attacked Gabriel by going after his midriff, talking his larger foe and the momentum sent the two men backwards. Cal's first impressions were that this person was strong, real strong, and he felt like he was trying to tackle a large cement mixer.

Billingsley flipped Cal over until his head was facing the ground, which appeared to be his next destination until he figured that it would be a good time to get bigger, much bigger. So he changed into his Grizzly bear facade, which startled Gabriel because he expected to walk right through this human with limited abilities.

Cal tucked to protect his head and then landed on his huge lower paws, as his massive nails dug into the ground to give him stability. He reached back and then connected with a thunderous right paw, which sent Gabriel flying high and far into the air and then splashing down into the ocean.

Thaddeus and Garrison came outside to see what Call was up to and saw the intruder flying through the air.

"Excellent hang time," Gary said to Thaddeus.

"We better get ready for war, because something tells me this isn't the last we've seen of Mr. Billingsley," Thad said to Gary and his son, who had now morphed back into his human form.

"I don't know what that guy is but whatever he is, I have never felt that kind of rage or the strength from anything I've ever encountered," Cal said.

"Not even Hartwell?" Thaddeus asked.

Cal looked at both Thad and Gary and shook his head in disbelief, "Not even Hartwell.

TWELVE

Gabriel fished himself out of the ocean, a place that he never enjoyed being, and was so angry that he thought of walking right back into Hartwell's house and taking them all on at once. But somehow his head cooled enough to guide him to slowly walk back to his crew's hideaway on the other side of town, about as far away from water that you could be in a coastal town.

He walked into the foreclosed house where the group was staying and slammed the front door behind him. The sound of thunder served as a wakeup call for everyone else in the house, as they assembled in the main room and stood in front of their leader.

"Let me get you a towel," a person said to Gabriel, who was still dripping wet.

Gabriel said nothing in return, offering only a ferocious roar in reply to everything that had happened on this night.

He stood there, fists clenched, eyes glowing bright orange, breathing heavy. He was burning a hole through the floor with his intense gaze, until he picked up his head and simply said, "We initiate phase two of our plan tomorrow," and then he walked out of the room without saying another word.

With Hartwell sitting in a daze in the sun room, Cal Brewster decided to gather the troops for a pep talk. Maggie was fast asleep in her room and he thought it was time for the group to talk about what was going on.

"We have to be prepared for just about anything at this point. If that guy's strength is any indication of what is to come," he said while pointing to the hole in the ceiling, "we are once again in for the fight of our lives."

Andrew had recovered from his flight through space and subsequent rough landing just outside of the kitchen.

"What I just experienced wasn't exactly supernatural, it was more primal."

Blake was intrigued, "Like some kind of beast?"

"Exactly," Drew replied.

Blake was already going back into full research mode with Daniel, who was keeping knowledge of Gabriel to himself, to try and uncover what kind of creature the group was up against. While he surmised that Gabriel was not a vampire because no one got the vampire buzz off him, he was still a good distance from determining the original of his enhanced powers.

Everyone readied for a potential siege the next day, working out and honing their battle skills as the day progressed. Maggie left the house early before breakfast after sleeping for the first night without her husband since they were reunited. She was less angry at him and more intrigued about the reappearance of her first love, Gabriel Billingsley.

Daniel and Agent Blake headed their separate but connected ways, as Blake went to talk to Linda Vinson after coaxing Hartwell into revealing what he should do next.

"Who should I talk to, Thomas?" Blake asked the night before with response. "I need to find out the origin of Gabriel Billingsley. He came here last night and tossed Andrew through the ceiling of the main room."

Hartwell came out of it and looked straight in Blake's eyes, expecting the former agent to recount a tale of excessive retaliation.

Blake smiled, knowing that his leader would not just sit and take another man walking on his turf.

"Cal changed into a bear and tossed him in the ocean."

Hartwell smiled and winked at Blake, "Go talk to Linda Vinson. I will tell her that you are coming. Let know no one know that I am playing possum."

"Not even Daniel?" Blake asked.

"He already knows. We are bound by a stronger tie than you can even know, given that we have both sired each other at different stages."

Blake put his hand on Hartwell's shoulder to acknowledge that he was glad that the group's leader hadn't in fact given up.

Hartwell then talked internally to Blake, "This guy thinks he's just going to come in here and pick up where he left off. I know Gabriel Billingsley. Maggie will see how self-centered he is when the truth finally comes out. It is a process she must get through to attain closure."

As Blake walked out of the room, Hartwell contacted Linda Vinson through her mind before slipping back into the deepest form of transcendental meditation.

Daniel thought it was important for his grandson Samuel to get back in touch with Claire Vinson, but that would have to wait until after he talked to her about what was going on. They met again on their favorite bench on the boardwalk and the meeting was cloaked in secrecy via Daniel's vast ability to do such things.

"He showed up at our house last night," Daniel stated.

Claire turned to him like the little school girl that she was and said, "Really? Was there a fight?"

Daniel smiled, "Yeah, you could call it that. He tossed my cousin Andrew through the ceiling of the house and then Cal threw him in the ocean."

"Wow! I wish I could have been there to see that!" she exclaimed.

"Well, today is your lucky day!" Daniel exclaimed as he replayed the scene in front of them after fetching some more popcorn and frozen drinks.

"I love going to the movies," Claire said as she watched the action unfold.

And as the action unfolded, Claire's future sight was triggered by seeing Billingsley in action. Her eyes went blank and her popcorn dropped toward the ground, as she was no longer in charge of her corporeal shell. Daniel was so fast that he caught the bucket of popcorn before it even hit the ground, put her drink aside and then put his hand on her head and broadcasted the image of her vision in place of the fight scene from the previous night.

Her vision focused on a volatile beast bounding through a wooded area, knocking trees down as he either swung on them or punched through them, and building up steam on his way to a bigger fight.

Claire came out of it and shook her head a few times to clear the cobwebs.

"I've never been with anyone else before when I have a vision," she explained. "Can you play that back again so I can see it from a more critical point of view?" she asked Daniel.

"Sure. Rolling back tape!" he exclaimed as the images from her vision were displayed in vibrant 3D color in front of them.

Daniel slowed down the image that was initially hard to see because the ground shook as the beast pounded it so hard. He clarified the image and then used some new technology to identify the hulking figure. The following information was displayed.

HOMINOID

Member of the Hominoidea family

Genus: Giganthopithecas

Commonly known as an ape or gorilla

Measurements: 6' tall, 400 pounds, 10' wingspan

"Well, that was useful," Claire said after the information was displayed over the picture of the ape.

"My dad said that Billingsley was a vampire when he was with him. How is that possible?"

Claire's cheeks were infused with a fresh blush of red, "My guess is that it's a little of what we would call magic."

Blake was out in town and met up with Linda Vinson at Beach Haven Java. He knew it would not be preferable if they were seen together, so he sat across from her on a comfortable leather tub chair. He inconspicuously sipped some of his black coffee, the order of which disappointed the girl behind the counter who was more used to whipping up a latte or cappuccino.

"Good morning. What do you think we are up against?" he said internally to Linda, who was enjoying her half-calf, mocha latte with soy milk. "And, by the way, that drink you're slurping on has more calories than a milk shake."

She smiled and patted her stomach, "Never gain a pound. I'm able to adjust my metabolism any time I feel a little bloated." She then shifted gears, "I still haven't been able to determine what you are up against, but its energy is off the charts. I don't think I've seen anything with that much concentrated rage. But, the one thing I can tell you is that there is more than just that a single creature that you'll have to deal with. If I had to guess, I would put the total as somewhere between five and 10. How many people do you have in your house?"

Blake did a quick calculation and replied, "Twenty."

"So it would appear that you would be at a distinct numbers advantage," Linda said, restating the obvious.

"Numbers aren't everything," Blake replied. "We were severely outnumbered in our last unholy war and managed to emerge victorious."

Blake broke character and looked directly at Linda, who returned the gaze, "I will be ready if Hartwell calls on me."

He stood up and said as he walked out of the store, "We all appreciate your loyalty."

THIRTEEN

It was a sleepy, 55-degree day in the town of Beach Haven and most of the inhabitants of the House of Hartwell were scattered in various locations throughout town. Family lines were upheld when traveling in packs to various destinations, with the intent being to be as much on guard as possible. Although there was no concrete plan in place, groups were established due to the unnatural order of a senior witch, and nobody was the wiser – at least at first.

Brenda Vinson created the groups at the behest of Gabriel to create the optimal exposure for maximum mental damage. It also left the door open for an old friend of Hartwell's to pay him a visit.

Thaddeus Brewster and his twins, Emily and Cal, were out with Emily's son Andrew for a bite to eat at Beach Haven Burger, although Thad's first choice would have been Beach Haven Bagel where he dined every day. His frequent lunch partner Garrison Phillips was out at 'The Bagel' with his daughter Sharon and his granddaughter Nicole. Brandon Justice was at the Beach Haven Library, and was buried in the oceanography section for an unknown reason. Agent Blake Wallace loved a good meal just as much as the next person, but he was hanging out at Beach Haven Sporting Goods in the hunting and fishing section, although he neither hunted nor fished.

Maggie was eating lunch with the delightful Gabriel Billingsley at the Beach Haven Brasserie, and the other nine people in the house would have been sequestered to the house, but that needed to be left vacant for other reasons, so they ventured out to a familiar haunt, the Beach Haven Diner, where the soup of the day was Split Pea.

It was too bad that all of the hunters were at play during this lunch hour, because they would have surely reminisced about killing Hartwell in sync with the diner soup specials. But for some odd reason, Daniel decided to talk about the subject when he usually would have no part in talking badly about his father.

"I heard this story about this one time when the hunters killed my father synchronized with the soup specials... here."

Max started laughing, "That must have been funny!" and everyone else at the table started laughing.

Belinda said, "That was the good old days before the kids were born and started having kids a few months later!"

There was more raucous laughter at the table as the remaining guests, Aaron, Carla, Valerie, Kayla, Samuel and Ariel really enjoyed the tales of days gone by, although some of it was at their expense.

Billingsley was waiting for his targets to get good and fat before pushing his bigger pieces into position on his chess board. Emily and Cal were chomping on their third and fourth everything burger platters, and Thaddeus and Andrew were throwing all caution to the wind by starting their fifth order, complete with both a deluxe French fries and onion rings. The owner of Beach Haven Burger, Tad Musgrove, promised the trio that he would rename his everything burger on the menu as the Brewster Burger.

A similar dynamic was unfolding a few blocks south at Beach Haven Bagel, where Nicole, Sharon and Garrison had cleaned out all of the bagel baskets and were on the verge of shutting down the place as the lunch crowd died down and there were no more bagels either being boiled or then baked. After Gary downed a corned beef sandwich on a toasted everything bagel and then topped it with a potato knish sliced in two and black and white cookie – black on one side of the sandwich and white on the other side – owner Rick Rawlings promised to post the sandwich on the board and call it The Garrison.

Meanwhile at the library, Brandon Justice was almost finished with all of the 1,244 books in the aquatics section. It was obvious that someone wanted him to pointlessly reference all things that lived under the water for a reason. Brandon loved to read, but not that many books in only a two-hour period. The eye strain was extensive and he was starting to burn out.

Agent Blake Wallace didn't get as much action on the sports fields following his days as a buff life guard. So spending an extensive amount of time in a sporting goods store – especially in the hunting and fishing department – was a long and basically uninteresting waste of time for Blake, but he couldn't think of anything else.

The entire eight-page menu at the Beach Haven Diner was being tested by the back table of nine, who were eating everything from chicken parmigiana to eggs Benedict to cheesecake with strawberries. Full menu turnover is always a problem at diners, as many fresh ingredients pass their prime without being ordered. Owner Stavros Marlos was delighted to have cleaned out kitchen pantries for a change and was thinking about closing the diner early for the first time on a non Holiday.

Just about the time that half the cows in the region were about to be rounded up to support the effort to feed the Brewster family at Beach Haven Burger, the place started clearing out. One table at a time of diners left the restaurant, some with their food in tow and some without. When the people behind the counter walked out and the kitchen staff followed the owner, who locked the front door on his way out, Cal finally stopped eating for a moment.

"Is it just me, or is there something really weird going on here?"

Thad put his fully-stacked burger down and said, "Yeah, it's starting to give me the creeps.

Emily held her stomach and added, "I think I'm going to be sick.

Drew was always easily influenced and had still not come out of his trance, "Can I have your fries if you're not going to eat them?"

The other three looked at Drew with disdain as Emily reluctantly agreed to his request. He grabbed the fries and shoved them in his mouth as if he hadn't eaten in days. A familiar masculine voice could be heard from the kitchen coming forward into the front room.

"You always did have an active appetite, Andrew. There were nights when one bottle of formula wasn't enough and I had to prepare a second bottle while your mother slept."

The sight of Randy Prince made Cal Brewster say, "What the..."

Emily said, "Randy?"

And Thaddeus exclaimed, "Oh, there goes the neighborhood!"

Randy Prince walked straight over to his son, Andrew Brewster and once their similarly-shaped eyes connected, Drew's obsessive thoughts of various indigestible foods were replaced by scenes of the early years between dad and son.

Drew finally realized who was standing in front of him, because he never really remembered his dad and hadn't heard many stories from his mom, uncle or grandpa'.

"Dad?"

"Yes, it's me son."

Thaddeus rubbed his eyes to make sure they weren't deceiving him.
He looked at Cal and said, "You were there. Hartwell cut him in half when he tried to get active in the family business."

Cal mocked Randy like he always had by laughing, "Yeah, he wasn't very good at fighting."

Randy took his loving gaze off his son for a moment and then glared at Cal with glowing orange eyes, "Why don't you test me now, hunter?" he said as he stood up and was about to make a move at Cal.

"There will be plenty of time for that, Randy," an experienced female voice said from the other room.

This voice was familiar to all of the people in the room, and instantly wiped the smug smiles off the faces of Cal and Thad, who stood up while Emily sat quietly in shock and whimpered, "Mommy?"

"Mom?" Cal said as if he could not be convinced of actually being able to see his mother again unless they met in heaven.

Mary Brewster, less gray and old and definitely more vital than she was last seen on her death bed, emerged from the shadows of the back room and entered the light of the main room. She looked over at Cal and said, "Yes, it's me Calvin." Then she nodded at Thaddeus and said, "Good to see you again, Thad."

Thaddeus was speechless for one of the few times in his life as his dead wife walked passed Emily and kissed her on the forehead whispering, "Hello, my sweet girl." Emily was always her mother's favorite and she made no bones about her affinity for her girl over her twin brother, who was so much like his mother that they often butted heads. Tears flowed out of Emily's eyes much as they did when her mother breathed her last breath years earlier.

"Give your mother a kiss," Mary said trying to work just about every angle of the room.

Cal kissed his mother on the cheek and she whispered in his ear, "It's been a long time since I have been able to drop you over my knee and give you a good spanking."

He smiled as he felt the strength of his mother and it was similar to that of the man he eventually swatted in the ocean, Gabriel Billingsley.

Thaddeus took a healthy step back from the woman that used to be his wife and said, "You died. I watched you die," as he tried to fight back the tears from memories of perhaps the worst day of his life.

Mary Brewster was in great spirits, "Does it look like I'm dead, Thaddeus?"

He said nothing and all of his thoughts and energy shifted to protecting his real family.

"Well, we will be seeing you around this lovely town that you now live in. Give Hartwell my love," she said as she grabbed Randy's hand and the two walked out the way they came in.

All of the supernatural events and reveals were going on at the same time, which meant that Beach Haven Bagel also cleared, save for Nicole, Sharon and Garrison. The front door was locked and a familiar voice could be heard ascending from the kitchen area.

"You know, when you put too much in your mouth you get indigestion, dear," a motherly voice bellowed and then came forward.

Sharon looked at her father Garrison like she needed confirmation that she wasn't hearing things. He was just as flabbergasted and for some reason they looked at Nicole, who had already left her seat and ran to the spot where her grandmother had walked to just behind the counter.

"Grandma!" she yelled as she embraced a woman that looked in the prime of her life.

Nicole stepped back and said, "You look so beautiful!"

Eloise Philips looked over her granddaughter and said with pride, "Oh how you have grown, Nicole, into such a beautiful woman."

Sharon stood up but Garrison remained in his seat, guided by years of dealing with such things. Sharon hugged her mother as tears streamed down her eyes, "You took up with a hunter and for that indiscretion you will pay," mother whispered into daughter's ears.

Daughter stepped back and then looked back in horror at her father, who already knew the homecoming was about to get dirty.

"You should have stayed buried under the ground, El."

She shrugged, "Not like I had much of a choice now did I, Gar?" as she nodded her head and then walked out of the back of the store.

Brandon Justice was reading the last book in the huge stack and was interrupted by a voice that had always been the bane of his existence when he was a mortal.

"You could read every book in the library and you'd still be a loser, BJ."

Brandon looked up and saw his annoying father, Gregory Justice, and his mother, Julie Justice standing next to him.

"We wanted to come back and thank you for burying us in the ocean years ago," Julie stated.

"No thanks needed," Brandon replied for a lack of better words.

"Payback's a bitch, BJ," his father said as he and his wife's eyes glowed in neon orange.

Brandon was now out of his book haze and stood up in an act of defiance, "You call me BJ one more time old man and I'll put you straight through that wall."

"You better watch who you call 'old man' squirt," the high school bully and abusive father said to his son, and then he and his wife smiled in defiance as they walked away from the aquatics sections and out of the library.

The last of the visits from the great beyond took place at Beach Haven Sporting Goods, where Agent Blake Wallace was trying to move a muscle, any muscle, and remove himself from the hunting and fishing department. He only had one person work with him on his FBI task force focused on all things Hartwell, and he was back to repay an old debt.

"You should have told me that you were doing all of that to keep an eye on your daughter," Agent Terrence Carter said. "There was no reason to put me in harm's way, Agent Wallace."

Blake said "Agent Carter?" although he was still unable to move.

Carter emerged from a row of fishing rods with a crossbow fully cocked and he was aiming it at Blake, who said the first thing that came to mind.

"Don't do anything you will regret, Terry."

"I don't live with regret anymore, Agent Wallace" as he shot the silver-tipped arrow straight through Blake's heart and it emerged from the other side of his body. Agent Carter grabbed Blake and sped to the back alley of the store, tossing him in a dumpster before anyone noticed and just as Blake was taking his last breath.

THIRTEEN

The nine people at the Beach Haven Diner were frozen in time and eating like it was their last supper. And as all of this madness was going on, Hartwell was paid a visit by a couple of old friends that had a fresh score to settle with him. There would be nothing else that could be set into motion within the family until the action at Hartwell's house was completed. His life was once again the only trigger that could end a battle, and he continued to give the appearance of not caring as danger entered the room, although he knew what was coming his way a few minutes before it even happened.

"Hello Thomas," the deep voice said from behind him in the sun room.

Hartwell didn't flinch at the sound and smell of his now greatest rival and former sire, Alexander Lowery. On his way to the sun room, Lowery stopped at a nearby, hidden location within the house and picked up an item that he knew would infuriate at least one person in the house.

"I brought one of our good friends along to witness the correct way to kill the unkillable vampire," Lowery said as his former protector – who was also the person that ended his previous life – walked into Hartwell's frame and said, "Hello, Thomas."

Hartwell was still staring straight ahead and gave the appearance of being in deep meditation. He was feeling quite vulnerable following Billingsley's reemergence in his wife's life, and it was uncharacteristic of him in his run as a vampire to throw his own pity party.

It was about this time that all of the other arranged meeting were wrapping up and the effected parties were about to survey the debris that was their lives. Calls for emotional help started going out for the members of the House of Hartwell from their loved ones. It was quite the scene at the back room of the Beach Haven Diner. Daniel fielded all of the call for help and sent Aaron to Emily and Carla and Kayla to Andrew at Beach Haven Burger. He then dispatched Valerie to be with Brandon at the Beach Haven Library, and Belinda to go to Blake and pull him out of the dumpster in the alley behind Beach Haven Sporting Goods. Finally, he looked at Samuel and Ariel and said, "Go home and take care of my dad. He needs your help!" as he grabbed Maxwell's hand and they zoomed to Nicole's side.

Back at the house, Hartwell was internally debating whether he should break out of his perceived trance and kick the crap out of the two so-called men in front of him. The advantages of this would be:

Lowery would finally stop talking and the shrill of his voice would be out of his head.

He could break out of his self-induced coma.

He could find out what other annoying people Billingsley had brought out of permanent retirement.

It would be nice to kill someone that he genuinely disliked for a change.

But while Hartwell was going over these various scenarios in his head, Lowery kept taunting his non-responsive subject.

"So you're going to just sit there in a rather poor lotus position and let me cut your head off without fighting back?" He looked over at Braden Lawrence and said, I can live with that!" as he lifted the heavy sword he was dragging on the floor with his left hand and baseball-gripped the handle with both hands and swung through the hitting zone, slicing Hartwell's contented head clean off as it rolled from his shoulders to the far left corner of the room.

"That got a much better roll than I thought!" Lowery exclaimed as Lawrence was about to respond in agreement. It had only been a few hours since Lowery was brought back from his shallow grave behind the Beach Haven Inn.

"I want to thank you for bringing me back," Lowery said to Billingsley, who was flanked by Brenda Vinson.

He then looked long and hard at Brenda Vinson and asked, "Do I know you from somewhere?"

Lowery's vampirical memory was about as short as his stay in the netherworld.

Brenda had been waiting to confront Lowery for years, "Yeah, you knocked up my daughter!"

Lowery still despised anyone going against his authority and lifted his hand like he was going to strike her down, but Gabriel said, "Freeze him," so Linda lifted her hand and did just that.

They then turned toward each other and talked it out while Lowery, with his face looking angry and his right fist cocked and clenched, was frozen in mid punch.

"I don't think it was my intention to being him back here to mess with your family," Gabriel stated. "We need him to focus on Hartwell and only Hartwell. I have to keep that vampire busy while I make the moves on my ex-wife," he said and then did a little dance move.

"Might want to update those dance moves before you take her for a night out on the town," she replied.

He kept asking for things and Brenda kept delivering, so he continued, "Can you update me with the latest and greatest?"

She loved to make up spells and see how they turned out, "We've had Travolta and Astaire, but now Gabriel needs to dance to today's fare." She then twirled he right fingers in order to complete the visual and then said, "You might want to give it a few more seconds to complete the download. Sometimes the transfer can be slow when there are other people on the network," Brenda joked as Gabriel was popping and locking and then quickly-spinning on the floor.

He jumped up to his feet and smiled, "That will do. Now take care of this big ape so he can focus at the task at hand."

"Gladly," she replied and then concocted the next spell while waving at Lowery, "You are here to settle a score, and for you Hartwell will be nevermore."

Brenda and Gabriel then moved over to the side as she unfroze Lowery and the momentum of his aborted thrust sent him to the ground.

He looked up at Brenda and she said, "Balance is sometimes an issue when you first come back."

Revenge was the only thing on Lowery's mind now, "I have to go get Hartwell, but could you bring back my protector to help me track him down?"

This should have revealed to Brenda and Gabriel that Lowery was not all the way under, but they were too busy playing with the ex-vampire to notice.

After Lowery sliced Hartwell's head off, he spun toward his former protector Braden Lawrence and his head was soon rolling into the corner next to Hartwell's. He felt the presence of others coming toward the house and said to fallen Lawrence as he dropped the bloody sword on the floor, "Now we're even" before bolting out of the house just before Samuel and Ariel whooshed in.

They both felt the heat coming from the sun room and Samuel stood in the doorway in shock as he gazed at the remains of his great grandfather on the floor near another body. The neophyte had never seen anyone in his family die before and was new to the ways of the tribe due to his rapid acceleration to manhood. Going from birth to 18 in only less than a couple of months had its advantages, but one of them wasn't the development of an advanced coping mechanism.

Samuel's internal anguish sent out a powerful signal to all of the people in town, which overrode anything they were about to deal with.

Daniel looked at Nicole, Max, Sharon and Garrison and said, "We have to go home. Samuel and Ariel are in trouble." Everyone heard Daniel's message and the sun room, which was a picture of meditative peace only five minutes earlier, was now completely full of confused and emotionally-charged people trying to untangle the mess.

FOURTEEN

"Who did all of this?" an outraged and angry Cal Brewster exclaimed.

It would hard to imagine such an emotional outburst from Hartwell's greatest rival only months earlier, but the two had become very close in recent days.

Daniel was about to step forward and simply replay the action, but an unexpected source stepped forward. Samuel was unexpected because he had never been in a position to do anything either for or with the family in terms of their battles. Daniel watched proudly as his grandson picked up the sword in his powerful right hand and said, "I can get a positive identification off the fingerprints."

Samuel released the sword into the air in front of him and the extremely sharp object floated about five feet off the ground before an image appeared and grabbed onto it.

Thaddeus's mind was still at Beach Haven Burger and seeing his wife again after all of these years. For some reason, the word 'fingerprints' slapped him across the face and brought him back into the task at hand.

He focused on the floating object and then the object of his wrath, "Is that my sword? And what is an image of that blowhard Alexander Lowery doing near my sword?"

The term 'blowhard' was so dated that it sounded funny, providing a much-needed laugh for a group that was under constant pressure and attack. After the giggling subsided, Samuel reached down and touched the fingertips of Braden Lawrence's body and his image came up, complete with his name and the title Deceased Protector.

Garrison remarked, "Well, that was predictable. I bet Thomas didn't even lift a finger."

The group looked over at Samuel and while he could have replayed the images of the brief skirmish, he looked over at youthful-looking Grandpa' Daniel to provide the playback. Daniel nodded to Samuel in recognition of the fact that he deferred to an elder even though he could have completed a task.

Everyone sat down on the floor as Daniel set the track and then returned moments later with popcorn and frozen drinks for everyone. He thought of how Claire Vinson would react to her father being back in town, or just being alive for that matter.

"After all of the eating we just did I'm amazed that I'm still hungry!" Andrew stated and then said, "Thanks, cuz." And everyone else said thank you to Daniel as he rolled the tape.

After everyone viewed the scene, Carla asked "The real question is what do we do with Lawrence?"

Kayla had formerly acted a peacemaker and family protector, but she was about to reveal one of her new capabilities with the help of Valerie and Brandon's daughter, Ariel.

The group had been previously unable to hear thoughts from the spirit world, but were now about to be dialed in.

Kayla's face became altered and she morphed into Hartwell as her body remained the same.

"I can't believe I just let Lowery kill me."

And before anyone could talk to him, Ariel changed over to look like Lawrence, "It wasn't like there was even an alternative scenario. You just sat there and took it."

"I didn't expect to see you here," the spirit of Hartwell said through Kayla.

Maxwell turned to Aaron and said, "Does anyone else find this disturbing? I mean, I love my grandpa', but it's not exactly cool to see his head on my wife's body."

Aaron replied, "Yeah, I could see what you mean," as he envisioned the vampire's head on Emily.

"Why are you looking at me that way?" Emily stated.

"I'm just glad that Hartwell's head isn't on your shoulders."

"Yeah, me too!" she replied.

Garrison was trying to keep the discussion on track.

"What are your plans, my friend?" he asked Lawrence, his fellow protector.

It was funny to see Ariel sitting Indian style with Lawrence's mature face with a four-day growth of beard.

"Well, I wasn't planning on coming back here in the first place. Things were sort of going pretty well and was liking where I was headed."

Hartwell looked around and said, "All I see is darkness. It's the place between life and death that we usually get our much-needed rest between battles."

And all of the people that had been there before nodded their head in understanding.

"Yes, it's the first time that I have been anywhere but the resting place. And it's everything I always hoped it would be and more." Lawrence glowed.

Hartwell asked, "So, are you saying that you don't want to stay and get back at Lowery?"

Lawrence looked around the room, "You guys obviously have something special that nobody else has. You've been able to resolve your unnatural differences and come together as one family. Coming back here after it was all over wasn't right," he said and then scratched his head with Ariel's right index finger. "While we appear to be what we were, I felt trapped in something I could not control until I died."

He looked around the room and then asked, "There's only one thing I would like to know before you let me move on. Which one of you killed me when I turned mortal?"

Since Samuel was the one that was previously under the witches spell, he answered.

"It was Lowery's daughter. He realized just before you killed him that he had a daughter. So he transferred all of those feelings of scorn and revenge to her and she basically turned us all against each other – although I was in a trance and didn't participate in the competition."

Lawrence looked at Hartwell and he concurred, "Yes, that about sums it up."

Thaddeus chimed in, "I'm thinking Viking funeral!"

"Didn't we do that last time he was killed?" Sharon asked.

"You built a boat, put me in it and then lit the boat on fire when I died?" Lawrence asked.

"Yes, but we didn't know what we were doing. Some mystical force was guiding us," Carla said.

"I thought it was a nice touch and it put me in a really good place," Lawrence responded.

"Then a Viking funeral it is!" Hartwell exclaimed as Kayla shook hands with Ariel.

"I'll see you all tomorrow morning!" Hartwell said as he looked around the room and didn't see Maggie. "Hopefully she'll be back by then."

"I'll see you all in the next world. Goodbye!" Lawrence stated as Kayla and Ariel's heads returned to their original states.

The family worked for the next 20 minutes on building a small boat after putting Hartwell's head back on his shoulders and propping him in a chair facing the sun so he could be reborn at the first hint of daylight the next day. The knitting club spun a covering for Lawrence's body in a respectable shade of dark blue and then wrapped him in it on the way out to the shore. It was dark out but every family member carried a torch to signify their participation in the spiritually-lifting, moving-on ceremony.

Gary stepped forward, being the eldest protector of the group, and said after Lawrence was placed in the boat, "This man did not die in vain. He was the ultimate protector of everything that was right until the very end. I am proud to say that we are brothers in protection, and he will always hold a special place in our lives and our hearts."

Everyone stepped forward and gently dropped their torches in the boat, as Andrew and Aaron pushed the boat well into the water. The glory of the entire boat and the body becoming engulfed in flames was not lost on Maxwell, who thought about fireworks in the background one moment and then he was lighting up the sky as fireworks the next moment.

He came back down to the ground as the group met in one big hug while standing on the beach. Cal then spoke, "This moment should be marked in time, because family should always be the most important thing for us. Whatever comes at us outside this world is not of us, and should be treated as such – no matter how much they look or sound like people we used to love and call family. Everything has its place in our universe, and all else should be treated as if our very survival is at stake."

He then broke free from the loving bond and said, "Tomorrow we go to war, but tonight let us celebrate!" he yelled as Samuel joined Maxwell in a round of joyous fireworks in the sky as the ash from the boat sunk into ocean and the remains of Lawrence floated up to the sky to reunite with his spirit.

FIFTEEN

"I thought that went rather well," Billingsley said to his group as he walked into the kitchen the morning after their initial siege with nothing more than a long dress shirt that thankfully covered everything that should be covered.

"Could you put some pants on, please!" Julie Justice yelled.

"Yeah bro, nobody needs to see your giblets when we're trying to eat breakfast," Gregory Justice added.

"You know, you two are so annoying that I would have dropped you in the bottom of the ocean, too," Agent Terrence Carter said.

And then a female voice came from the hallway and said, "I like him that way! That's why I married him in the first place," as Maggie Hartwell, formerly Margaret Billingsley, strutted into the kitchen one of Gabriel's dress shirts barely buttoned and nothing else but a smile.

"Va-va-va-va-voom!" Gregory Justice exclaimed and then he whistled. "You bagged that awful quick, compadre," he said to Gabriel.

"What is she doing here?" a concerned Randy Prince asked.

"Yeah, what if she is just here to spy on us?" Agent Carter continued the questioning.

"I think she looks divine in that shirt!" Mary Brewster said.

"Yes, I've you've got it, flaunt it," Eloise Phillips added.

"Lowery walked through the front door after spending much of the night aimlessly walking around the town.

Billingsley heard Lowery come in and said his female companion, "It was probably good that we waited another night before bringing him in."

The image of Maggie walked over to the coffee pot and then she morphed back into her original form, Brenda Vinson.

"Whoa! I didn't see that coming!" Julie Justice exclaimed.

"Who's this guy?" Agent Carter asked as Lowery walked into the room.

"That is Hartwell's sire. He's here to get revenge," Gabriel stated.

"Cut his head straight off his body yesterday!" a previously pensive Lowery bragged.

He was greeted by cheers and handshakes of congratulation as the away team celebrated an early victory by eating breakfast together.

The sun was clearing the horizon in the East as its strong beams forced its way into the rooms of Hartwell's house facing the water. The sun room was structured to elicit the maximum power of the rays at the earliest possible time. This fact became painfully apparent to Samuel, who slept in the room because he had never seen one of his own come back from the great beyond before. Maxwell was positioned in such a way that he would be exposed in sun before the light hit his great grandfather. He rubbed his eyes in pain from the extreme light, and then he remembered what he was doing there in the first place. So he elevated to his feet and stood in front of Hartwell, blocking the sun's rays for a moment until he realized that nothing would happened until he moved out of the way.

As the sun ascended into the sky, it reached Hartwell's feet first and then made its way up his body to his head, which became fused to his shoulders upon full contact.

Samuel couldn't believe what he was seeing, as Hartwell's hard drive rebooted and his spirit returned to his body as he calmly opened his eyes. This easy entry was in no way similar in any way to the abrupt restart that Samuel could expect in his initial renewals.

"Good morning, Papa!" an excited Samuel exclaimed.

Hartwell smiled, "What a wonderful way to wake up!" he gushed as he levitated to his feet and hugged Samuel for all he was worth.

Samuel whispered, "We all missed you."

Hartwell appreciated the kind and warm words but inwardly wondered if they were completely accurate. Although he had a wonderful and restful night of sleep, his first thoughts were of his beautiful family and then he went right back into the quicksand that was Maggie.

"Did she come home last night?" Hartwell asked Gary privately as the family ate breakfast together.

"We had another Viking funeral for Mr. Lawrence last night!" Max blurted out. And Samuel and I also lit up the sky with some fireworks!"

And Samuel and Maxwell almost lit up the ceiling of the house after showing Hartwell what they had done.

"Not in the house, boys!" Belinda yelled as Max and Sam came back down to their place at the big table.

"I think she did, but she left the house again before the sun came up," Gary replied.

"Did she look in on me?" Hartwell asked, looking for anything if not pity points.

She looked over at Daniel who seemed to have a video record of everything. He scanned through the feed in the hallway outside of the sun room and didn't see anything at first, but on a second pass he stopped the tape and said, "There!" as he had hope for the first time in the past day that everything would be all right between his usually unbreakable parents.

He broadcast the five seconds of the tape where Maggie peaked into the sun room and the quickly zipped out of site for a moment before reappearing and leaving the house. Daniel then showed Hartwell a feed of the sun and knitting rooms, where Maggie picked up a blanket she had knitted and went into the sun run and put it over Hartwell after she kissed him on the forehead. Daniel even raised the volume on some Maggie audio he picked up, "Just let me finish what I started."

Hartwell smiled for the first time since Billingsley reentered his life and his faith was restored that Maggie would come back to him once she finally had closure on her previous relationship, which had been hanging on with unanswered questions for over a century.

Maggie was on her way into town to meet Billingsley for breakfast. He was back in bed with Brenda Vinson and she was starting to develop feelings for the shallow charmer. It had been a long time since she had been able to let loose and have a good time, as she had spent the previous 18 years watching after her granddaughter like a hawk and making sure that Alexander Lowery came nowhere near her precious Claire.

"Do you think it's wise to continue this relationship on the eve of the battle?" she asked trying to engage him in conversation so he would be late for the date.

"I was hoping that I could convince her to switch sides and come fight with us," Gabriel said in response to the shallow question. "After all, we might be strong and have a superior battle strategy but we are deficient when it comes to actual numbers. We have eight – nine including you – and they have, 20 strong with her and 19 not-so-strong without her."

"You're not thinking about telling her the truth, are you?" Brenda asked, trying to put the time-release bomb in his head. While she knew that the truth always sets you free, she also realized that the truth – in this case – would also set Maggie free from the hold Gabriel had over her all of these years.

Billingsley got dressed and left his new family behind in favor of his old family. Maggie had been waiting at the Beach Haven Diner for the better part of 20 minutes and was starting to lose her patience. While she had initially focused on the good times she had with her husband, thoughts of their last days together started to creep into her subconscious and she was feeling a bit compromised and manipulated by his renewed attempt to court her.

"Sorry to keep you waiting Margaret, I had something I had to attend to this morning" he said as he kissed her on the cheek and then sat in the booth across from her.

She immediately smelled a perfume that was not her own and figured that this would be the last time they would be at such close range without trying to kill him. In fact, she had lost her appetite even before the waitress came over.

"Can I get you two anything to drink?" the perky 20-something waitress asked even though she was up all night with her toddler. She had consumed most of the coffee in the diner and was hoping that a coffee order would not be forthcoming.

Just as Gabriel was going to say something smooth and try to flirt with the waitress, Maggie cut him off and smiled at the waitress, "Could you give us a few more minutes, dear?"

It was music to the woman ears that wore the name tag 'Sarah' even though her name was Evelyn. She was new to the diner and an appropriate name tag had not been made yet.

Gabriel wasn't giving up that easy as he looked over her goods and her tag and said, "Thank you, Sarah."

The waitress rolled her eyes at the cheesy guy trying to flirt with her and left the table to check on the coffee in the sparsely-populated diner at 7:00 am.

Once the waitress was clear from the area, Maggie immediately went on the attack.

"Would it be okay if we discussed what happened before you died?"

Billingsley knew by the tone of the question that his wife would probably not be joining his team any time in the near future. He waited patiently for her questions but surprisingly felt little relief at finally sharing secrets that he had held for many years.

"What happened?"

"What happened with what?" Billingsley asked, knowing

what was behind the question but playing a little hard to get with the answer.

"I want to know more about your death, Gabriel."

"I would think that you would be more interested in my life, Margaret?"

She was growing uneasy, "Life or death, it's your choice, Gabriel."

"I found out that you were going to lose our baby in advance of it actually happening. This was also about the time that my business was about to be flushed down the toilet."

These were two statements that appeared to be mutually exclusive on the surface. But, open further and much deeper inspection, separating the life events was quite problematic and Maggie came to a stunning conclusion.

"Did you give up on us?"

The time had elapsed for sugar-coating responses, "Us? Us?" a defiant and largely delusional Gabriel questioned in an elevated tone. "There really was no us. You were so busy trying to plan a family that I lost focus and my business went bankrupt."

The mean-spirited and flat-out evil words painted Maggie's brain and she was no longer the scorned housewife trying to put the pieces of her shattered previous life back together. Sitting in front of Gabriel Billingsley was the ruthless vampire that could care less about her rival feelings. She didn't even bother to look around when she started tapping her right fingers on the table and then extended the long nail of her index finger cross the table and stopped, resting uncomfortably under her chin.

"I don't care who you are and where you have been, and your absurd statements don't even deserve a civil response. The fact is that you quit on us, Gabriel \- if that is the person I am really talking to right now. And if you move, speak, or even let out the slightest sound, your head will hit the floor faster than I can say "LOSER!" she said in a low but intense voice. I knew you were looking for a way out, and I also know who helped you get out."

Maggie had a flash of both current and prior interaction between Gabriel and Brenda Vincent before she made that last statement. Brenda Vincent's arrival in Beach Haven days earlier to support her granddaughter was also replayed for Maggie's viewing pleasure.

"I gave you everything and it wasn't enough. And now I will put aside all of the pain and guilt I have been holding all of these years and focus all of my energies on protecting the only family that I have ever really known. Come tonight, you're mine Gabe!" she said with the intensity of a woman scorned, using his shortened name that he despised.

Maggie retracted her nail as the waitress came over. She transitioned back into the Maggie that everyone knew and loved as the waitress asked, "Have you made up your minds?"

Maggie smiled, "Yes I have, little one. She pulled a $50 bill from her purse and moved closer to the waitress and whispered, "Go buy yourself something pretty, love. You deserve it," as she slid the bill into the waitresses apron pocket.

She looked over at Gabriel and smirked, "Catch you later, Gabe."

The waitress looked in her pocket and removed the bill, waiving it Maggie as she walked out of the front door, "Thanks!"

Maggie nodded "you're welcome" and then walked out of the diner, knowing that perhaps the most difficult conversation of her day was yet to come.

SIXTEEN

Maggie thought back to the early days with Thomas Hartwell on the way home. It had been a difficult transition from the death of Gabriel and her miscarriage to life as a fully-functioning woman again. She had thrown herself into work at a bank during the four years between men.

She had noticed Hartwell snooping around the bank back in 1902 San Francisco, which meant that he was either lost or planning to hold up the place in the near future. When he walked in with a gun and a plan that would have either landed him in jail or killed, Maggie had to step in and give him a second chance at life. It was now Hartwell's turn to give his wife of two generations, his soulmate, a second chance at making things right. She had to attain closure in her only other relationship that seemed to matter in her lives and was now moments from potentially her most important discussion.

Little did she know that Hartwell had remained at the front window with his wet nose pressed against the glass since Maggie was gone. He had no life without her and was starting to feel sorry for himself in the hours leading up to her homecoming.

"Do you think she'll come back?" Hartwell asked Daniel as they hovered above the glistening ocean.

Daniel laughed in a moment that had become all-too-serious, "Honestly, if I wasn't in the picture you would be in trouble."

Hartwell jerked his neck to the left because he thought Daniel was serious at first.

"C'mon! Don't play with me now. I'm in no condition for drama," Hartwell countered.

"Someone once told me that if you can describe what kind of condition you're in, then you're probably not in that type of condition at all."

It was the proper medicine administered by Daniel to use Hartwell's endless array of psychological pointers against the man himself. He shook his head and smiled, "I have taught you well. Too well."

"Well, at least you know I was listening all of those years you were by my side spiritually when I was growing up."

Hartwell nodded, "There is that, my son."

Daniel freely gave his opinion, "I don't think the bond between mom and that man is as strong as the bond that you have with her. They were only together a few years and your relationship extends over generations."

Hartwell thought about his son's statement and then used his powers for the visual to show Harwtell what his mother's spirit was focused on during her time between worlds. And, after five minutes of the same line repeated over and over again, "I must get back to Thomas and Nathanial!" Daniel finally let Hartwell out of the stream.

"All that time on the other side and I never heard the name Gabriel Billingsley even once," Daniel stated.

"Did you check all of it?" Hartwell asked.

"Yeah, all of it."

Hartwell smiled, "Good," as he extended his arm and bumped fists with his son.

Maggie was hesitant to walk straight into the house because she didn't want to appear presumptuous. She was perhaps the most sensitive person in the group and was always in tune with the vibe of her family members.

Maggie walked on the shore just outside the house and didn't look back as she strolled in the opposite direction of the house. She and Hartwell were so in tune that he would come out and join her if there was a reason to talk. Hartwell thought about making a grand gesture, such as sweeping her off her feet and whisking her to Paris or the site of the place they met in San Francisco, but he chose a more humble, straightforward approach instead.

He opened the door of the house and flashed over to about six feet behind Maggie, her heart beating ever-faster as Hartwell approached. It was if they were meeting again for the first time, as all of the excitement and fireworks of new love was reborn.

Maggie was about to turn round and jump into Hartwell's arms, but he had other plans.

"Keep walking and please don't turn around," he said internally as she put off the thrill of seeing her man for a few more moments.

She took the lead, "He gave up on us," she said simply but effectively.

"Who gave up on whom?" Hartwell questioned.

"Billingsley," Maggie replied.

"He's not going to attack us?" Hartwell asked, attempting to find some sort of footing in the conversation that felt steady.

"No, he's definitely going to attack," Maggie countered, "but I was referring to our marriage. I mean, the marriage I had with him."

Hartwell zipped in front of Maggie, as he was now off the ground, and now they were finally face to face as Maggie also lifted off the sand.

Hartwell got right to the point, "He has a witch."

Maggie nodded, "Yes, I just found that out. He knew about my miscarriage and his business was going under, so he decided to check out and come back at a later date."

"He also kept an eye on me for a number of years," Hartwell stated.

"I get first crack at him," Maggie sneered.

"That's my girl," Hartwell said and then snuggled up to his wife and kissed her.

Samuel was spying on the reunion and set of some colorful fireworks in the sky above their heads, but the explosions were not heard in the cocoon of true love as all of the family members walked outside of the house and applauded the reunion. Everything was right again at Hartwell house and Garrison turned to Thaddeus and said, "Now we can get down to business."

Gary smiled and put his arm around Thad, "I love this game."

SEVENTEEN

Billingsley's group was at a severe numbers mismatch heading into night one of the battle and his constituents knew it.

"How many people do they have again?" a usually confident Gregory Justice said somewhat apprehensively.

"I believe the number is 20," Gabriel replied in a matter-of-fact, casual way.

"20?" Julie Justice exclaimed. "What do we have? Like..." she said and then started counting the number of people in the room.

Gabriel had no patience for childish games, shoe blurted out "Eight."

Julie Justice ignored his impatience and continued her counting.

"Eight!" she proudly proclaimed, as her fellow family me members nodded in affirmation of her accomplishment as Billingsley rolled his eyes in disgust and mumbled, "This is going to be a long week."

Gabriel was not giving the full plan of his intended actions when he told the group, "We go in there guns blazing. Let's eliminate everything in our path and then ask questions later."

His cliche-laden statement definitely left unanswered questions from this quite literal bunch.

"Why would we have to ask questions after everyone on their side is dead?" Randy Prince asked.

"Yeah, from what I know about dead people, they really don't do too much talking," Agent Terrence Carter stated.

The grouped laughed, "It's pretty hard to talk when your heart is no longer beating," Eloise Phillips said.

"Darn near impossible," Mary Brewster added.

Gabriel had lost any of his remaining allotted patience, "Just kill everybody in sight!"

The mood was quite different at the House of Hartwell as the euphoria from Maggie and Hartwell's reconciliation spilled over to the high energy that was about to unleashed on an unsuspecting group of apes. It had been over a week since the last conflict and that had been soft in nature and heavy on friendly competition.

"So, what's the plan tonight chief?" a spritely Cal asked Hartwell.

Hartwell looked over at Kayla and Maxwell, who were the group's point people for everything strategic.

"From what our intel suggests, we will have a decided body count advantage, so it's always statistically best to go with the classic lawnmower formation in these type of situations. Hunters, hybrids and protectors with multiple blades on the front line and vampires on the second row cleaning up the mess." Maxwell stated.

Kayla continued, "Since these battles are won and lost based on the mortality of our vampires, it would be best to protect Mr. Hartwell, Daniel and you Maxwell," as she turned lovingly to her husband.

"Great!" Hartwell replied. "If the fight lasts longer than the first pass, then we should probably mix up the protection a bit," he said to Kayla and then smiled in respect to Cal and the other hunters.

It was nearing midnight and the House of Hartwell was aglow with activity. There was no doubt in the minds of these hardened warriors on what the outcome would be this night - they had faced more people and much longer odds in their lives as extra-special beings. Samuel and Ariel, as the only two people in the house that had not been directly involved in a tussle, were more anxious than apprehensive and were looking forward to unleashing their various untapped resources.

It was a quite different story on the other side of town, where Gabriel Billingsley appeared to be the only one in on the grand plan. The other seven would-be apes had absolutely no idea what was going to happen when they stepped on the pitch of the great lawn at Beach Haven Park. They all knew they were powerful beings capable of snapping a think tree limb in their bare hands, but were somewhat apprehensive about the vampires and other assorted creatures that would be in front of them. The intel on these creatures was quite thin, as Billingsley decided to keep them in the dark and let things play out naturally and the way he wanted it to be.

The 20 members of the House of Hartwell headed out just as the clock struck midnight, which alerted Gabriel that it was time to gather his own troops.

"We head out to the field in five minutes," he said to his people as they started to get into character, which for them meant that they were about to make the transition from their mortal shells into the apes that defined their existence.

"Let's roll," Cal said as he looked back at his fellow hunters, who had transitioned from being expert trackers that were always two or three minutes behind their targets, to a strong presence in front of the pack capable of being the first line of defense in a fight.

The protectors joined their former adversaries the hunters and the front line picked up speed, transitioning from a fast walk to a light jog to a full sprint by the time they entered the outskirts of the park. The vampires were always ready to rumble and needed very little preparation and warmup to be actively involved in a tussle of any kind.

The hunters and protectors slowed their frantic pace on one end of the field and the vampires settled in just behind them moments later. It was now time for Billingsley's group to meet their first challenge as a family so he snorted, "It's show time! Let's go!" as his clan had already made the transition into their ape selves.

The thundering heard of apes made the ground shake before they took to their air of whatever tree limp they could swing from en route to the park. Hartwell's group could see the trees swaying in the distance and the sound of primal screams of the apes rapidly approaching them.

Cal instructed his front row, "It doesn't matter what is approaching us! Just focus on the execution of your cuts and we will emerge victorious!"

The group cheered and raised their swords as the apes continued to swing closer to the field, the action slowing in motion to Hartwell's gang as the apes hit the ground on the other end of the field and gave no signs of slowing down before sizing up what they were up against.

"That's an interesting tactic," a glib Thaddeus stated, as he had seen his share of battles and knew that blind aggression was rarely successful.

"They must be either overconfident or underprepared," Gary replied as he stood shoulder to shoulder next to Thad.

"Let's hope for the latter, my friend," Thad countered.

Billingsley smiled as he and his apes came closer to their night one destiny and were just about to make contact with the front row of protectors and hunters from the other side. Hartwell was in the middle of the back line and he said to Maggie as he held her hand, "We might want to take a giant step back here, love."

Thaddeus, Garrison and their line of sword-swinging hunters and protectors acted as the blade of the lawnmower clipping off the unsuspecting line of apes and ending the fight before they reached the second line of vampires. The victorious front line roared and raised their swords while looking back at the vampires, who could have remained home and been eating blood ice cream for their lack of participation. Only two of the people on the back line had been impacted by the shredded body parts of the apes, as Samuel and Ariel were part of some ritualistic newbie hazing they knew nothing about.

"That's not funny!" Ariel whined as she and Samuel attempting to clear some of the apes' blood and guts off of them.

The vampires were ruthless and unyielding by nature, but they also liked to have a good laugh at the expense of others every now and then. They also were the most fastidious creatures on the planet, which meant that the unkempt nature of their family members and the field was starting to make them feel uneasy.

"Cleanup, aisle one!" Belinda yelled as the vamps quickly transitioned from punked mode into super cleaning mode, making Samuel and Ariel sparkling clean while gathering all of the Billingsley gang's body parts and placing them together in a secluded section of woods in the park.

Samuel smiled as he looked at the perfectly-clean Ariel from head to toe, "There, that's better!"

They started walking together behind the rest of the family out of the park, "We have to remember to back up a few steps tomorrow night."

He held her hand and replied, "I'm with you."

EIGHTEEN

It was early morning and the sun had already made its presence known on the small coastal town of Beach Haven, New York. The sun took a little longer to penetrate the tall trees in the depths of the park then it would have in their adversaries' sun room, which meant that the apes would have less time to prepare for their night two fight - not that it mattered to Gabriel Billingsley, who had his plan set for the entire week even before the battle started. He and his witch, Brenda Vinson had schemed ahead and thought they had enough information on the enemy to anticipate their actions.

"What if they don't do as you say?" he questioned her a few days earlier.

"Then you will be in for a very painful week," she replied and then kept talking as to avoid his wrath. "The pattern suggests aggression at all costs. There is absolutely no historic data that would suggest they have any desire to back up, which means you will get the outcome that you desire."

"Good, very good," he stated as he stroked the stubbly beard on his face. He then let go of the three day-old growth and said, "Be ready for additional instructions in case things don't go as we planned."

"I'll be ready," Brenda proudly replied.

One by one the apes were reborn from their slumber, completing the painful metamorphosis from inanimate body matter into full-functioning beings. After screaming from pain, all of the apes transitioned back into their human forms and frustratingly bickered about what had happened.

"Did we lose?" Billingsley asked as if he was taken by surprise by the outcome.

"It would be the most painful victory I have ever seen," Lowery grunted.

The person with the most combat experience spoke up, "Well, I've never woken up the next day in a thicket of bushes and won anything. We either lost, or won and had the best night of sleep ever," Agent Carter stated.

"Or lost and had the best night of sleep of all time," Randy Prince said.

"Yeah, that was a loss," Eloise Phillips stated.

"I agree with El," Mary Brewster concurred as the two wives of Gary and Thad were becoming fast friends, being that they had come from similar backgrounds as wives of men in the middle of a vampire fight.

They started walking back toward their house and Greg Justice turned to his wife, "We spent so much money and so many years looking for the right bed and it was in front of us the whole time!"

"You idiot, are you suggesting that were sleep in bushes?" Julie Justice replied in disbelief.

Greg loved to go at it with his wife, "When was the last time you remember sleeping that well?"

She ended the conversation with the definitive answer, "When we were dead."

Night two of the battle appeared to be a carbon copy of the night one festivities, at least on the surface. Hartwell's group lined up on the south side of the field at Beach Haven Park and waited for the apes to swing on by.

"What are we looking at tonight, Samuel?" Hartwell asked his grandson.

"I always say, keep doing what you're doing until somebody stops you."

Agent Blake laughed, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

"Let's mow these apes down and then get another night of blissful shut-eye," Thaddeus said trying to avoid the fact that he was about to kill his wife and her friends again.

"Love that sleep!" Gary added, as he also had some heavy thoughts going into the fight.

"Let's make this quick. We don't need to be around these people any longer than we have to," Sharon said, but she was secretly wanting to talk to her mother.

Andrew limbered up by moving his arms and his swords through the hitting zones, "This talk is going to make me crazy!" Drew had never known his dad and wasn't sure if he even wanted to broach the subject. He would always get tense and short of patience when difficult emotional equations were in front of him.

Brandon Justice had only one thing on his mind as a motivational tactic, "Don't call me BJ" he grunted under his breath.

The apes came swinging through the trees with a little more confidence than they had heading into the unknown of a night one fight.

"I think we can win tonight!" Agent Terrence Carter grunted as the rest of his ape family snorted in agreement as they zoomed in on the huge, open field in front of them. They hit the ground closer to their foes on this night and galloped the remaining 100 yards hunched over and dragging their knuckles on the turf as the front line of sword-swinging warriors readied for the siege.

Six of the eight apes met their maker courtesy of the front line lawnmower, and then Hartwell and Daniel put a quick end to Lowery's night by using their long, sharp nails to separate his huge ape head from his massive neck and shoulders. Billingsley wasn't as fortunate, though, as he went right at Maggie only to be met by sharp objects penetrating his entire body from the remaining vampires; Maggie then went all old-school vampire on him by taking out some of her anxiety through sinking her teeth into his neck and draining all of the blood out of his body within seconds. She looked into his now-vacant eyes and then pushed his limp body to the ground.

Hartwell smirked as he looked proudly at his wife, "Now it's a battle."

A major part of Billingsley's master plan unfolded on day three, as his minions felt empowered to go out in the community once they woke up refreshed and renewed in the field the next morning. There were still no casualties on the Hartwell side of the ledger but they were definitely less jubilant and relaxed than the previous morning.

"Did they get past the our front line last night?" Cal asked Hartwell as they ate breakfast.

"Yeah, a few of them trickled through, but Maggie let her fangs do the talking as she drained Billingsley."

"To Maggie!" Cal exclaimed as everyone at the table raised their glasses and toasted, "To Maggie!"

While talk around the table picked up, Cal then addressed his next question to Thaddeus, Garrison, Hartwell and Agent Blake.

"If they used the same strategy and so did we, then why did we not achieve the same result?"

Maxwell was listening and started to crunch the data as the others kept talking.

Agent Blake replied, "Could be a statistical anomaly."

"I thought I connected with every slice," Thaddeus stated.

"Me too," Gary agreed.

"Was anything else different than the first night?" Hartwell asked.

"Besides the fact that they didn't die as fast?" Daniel interjected.

"I sort of like a little competition in my battles," Andrew said.

"Yeah, count me in on that," the mountain of a man Aaron added.

"The boys are at it again," Belinda said to the group of ladies at the other end of the table.

Emily stood up and they cleared the dishes on the way to their favorite sanctuary, the knitting room.

"Why didn't the fight go as quickly s the first night?" she asked as everyone settled into their positions.

"Maybe they adjusted to our strategy?" Kayla countered.

Sharon put her two cents in, "Was there a full moon last night?"

"I was just glad to finally see some action and not have ape guts splattered all over me," Ariel said.

"They were strong," Valerie Justice stated.

"Real strong," Nicole added.

"Stronger than the first night?" Carla asked.

The group looked at Maggie, who still seemed to have an axe to grind with Billingsley and his apes.

"Stronger than the first night. Let's keep an eye on it tonight."

Maxwell came to a conclusion, but the group was not sold that it was completely conclusive, "They were 10 percent stronger on night two than they were on night one."

Samuel mirrored Ariel's conclusion, "I'm just glad I didn't get ape guts splattered all over me."

Daniel said to Max, "Collect all of the data at tonight's fight and we'll talk about the results tomorrow."

"What if they're even stronger tonight?" the neophyte Samuel asked the group.

Hartwell replied, "Then a few of us will be waking up in the in sun room."

The apes were feeling supremely confident on their way to the field that night.

"I haven't felt this good in years," Mary Brewster said.

"I don't think I've ever felt this good," Eloise Phillips countered.

"Starting to feel like I did when I was running up and down the football field in high school scoring touchdowns," Greg Justice stated.

"And I could do splits just about anywhere I pleased as head cheerleader," his wife Julie glowed.

Agent Carter chimed in, "I used to take down the bad guys back in the day."

"And I could bite into the neck of anyone I pleased," Charles Lowery added.

Billingsley smiled because his crew was about to make inroads into moving to the other side of the beatdown. It was his and Brenda Vinson's plan in the beginning to lure Hartwell's gang into a false sense of security.

"I want to get stronger with every fight," Gabriel said to Brenda.

She thought for a moment and then replied, "Each time you die your strength will become greater. So make sure you take a few defeats early to build up your power. By the time they realize what's going on, you all will be too strong to defeat."

The apes rumbled onto the field and showed no signs of slowing down as they approached the enemy. Maxwell abandoned his lawnmower strategy in favor of a scatter technique he simply called "Scatter!" which sent his warriors in all different directions like they were ants being moved off the top of a hill by a huge raindrop. The strategy was possibly less relevant than the execution, as the hunters, protectors and hybrid creatures were expert swordsman capable of defending the fiercest attack.

The night ended for four of the eight apes at the hands of the first line of defense, but four apes - Agent Terrence Carter, Mary Brewster, Eloise Phillips and Billingsley - made it to the second layer, which meant they would be battling the vampires. The protection that Hartwell, Maggie and Daniel initially benefited from Kayla was now down, courtesy of the more than three deaths suffered by front line players Thad, Gary and Cal. Billingsley went right after Maggie, Mary Brewster had already taken care of her husband and her grandson and was now en route to Belinda, Eloise Phillips also ended her husband's night early and was headed toward her granddaughter's husband Daniel, Agent Terrence Carter had disposed of Agent Blake Wallace and Aaron and was fixed on Brandon Justice, and Charles Lowery only had eyes as usual for Hartwell.

Lowery was inexperienced as an ape and probably would have preferred to fight Hartwell vampire to vampire. Sharp nails and even sharper teeth seemed like a better option to the elder vampire until he pounded his chest and then roared after driving Nicole and Carla into the turf. He jumped into the air and Hartwell decided to meet him half-way as he extended his nails and prepared to do a little outdoor rotisserie barbecuing.

Mary Brewster was perhaps the only person in her family that was consistently nice to Belinda during the mortal lives. But all of that equity she built up vanished in the blink of an eye as Belinda waited for Mary to make the first move. She had refined her craft over the years, paying close attention to the martial arts lessons taught by a host of instructors, including Hartwell, Daniel, Thaddeus, Agent Blake and Garrison. Mary rumbled toward Belinda and took a swipe at her neck with her meat hook of right hand. Belinda took a step back with her left foot, karate-chopped Mary with the back of her right hand and then spun around and swept her right foot through the hitting zone and took Mary's short, yet powerful legs out from under her sending her thudding to the ground.

It was obvious from the first punch that Eloise Phillips had an axe to grind with Daniel. The vampire had married his daughter and produced offspring in the form of Maxwell without her consent, or at least that's what she was spouting.

Daniel absorbed the blows to his head and stomach as she yelled in defiance and apparent anger, "You went behind my back and had relations with my granddaughter without my permission! Bad vampire!"

Daniel let her say her piece but then realized by a scan of her brain that these were not the waves of a family member. That the memories she was infused with were pre-programmed and were not of her own. He was on the ground and the blood trickling out of his mouth and nose stopped flowing and instantly healed, revealing a man with no apparent injuries. She almost took a step back from the sight of her best shots having absolutely no impact. He stood up slowly and then gained control of the conversation and fight.

"I mean no disrespect in what I am about to say, but are dead and my wife no longer has a grandmother. But if you were around..." Daniel continued to talk as he landed a huge right hand to her kidneys, "I would have surely asked you for your permission to spend time with Nicole," he said and then landed a mighty uppercut to the jaw that sent Eloise flying half-way across the field.

Brandon Justice was one of the most well-rounded beings in the House of Hartwell and Agent Terrence Carter was learning that real fast. Carter had only one look and that was powerful, angry and straight-ahead slow. Brandon started transitioning through his many facades as a hybrid creature, starting with his centaur exterior and finishing as a merman, which seemed to frustrate agent Carter as he was slapped upside his head with a huge fin.

Hartwell extended his blade-like nails on his right hand and pushed clean-through the hairy ape body of Charles Lowery, his vampire sire of a previous world. He looked deep into the eyes of the man he thought he was battling, but saw little in the way of actual humanity.

"Hugh, ain't that a hoot," he mumbled as Lowery's night ended. He retracted his finger-swords and then cleaned them diligently before glided over to Daniel, who he felt had experienced a similar revelation.

Gabriel Billingsley took his time to get over to his wife, somehow believing that his patience would create some added pressure and intrigue. The delay only served to let the other individual fights conclude, as Daniel beheaded a shocked Eloise Phillips, Belinda extended her left index finger and pierced the heart of a prone Mary Brewster, and Brandon Justice settled on his favorite vampire facade and took a huge bits out of the neck of Agent Terrence Carter, who's blood was drained within seconds, sending his useless carcass face-first to the turf.

Hartwell made it over to Daniel and asked, "Did you see what I saw?"

Daniel replied as the vampires made a circle around Maggie and Billingsley, "They are simply shells."

"Yes, nothing familiar exists in their souls," Hartwell countered.

Maggie was in no mood to counter-punch and see what kind of moves Billingsley had on this night. She had spent too many years mistakingly thinking about him and feeling bad for his plight in life to ever back up again. He saw the absolute look of rage in her eyes and knew that he would have no chance of surviving the siege, but he decided to fight gamely anyway. He stepped forward and raised both of his fists into the air and then came down with all of the force of hell on her head but she didn't budge. He continued to pound her at close range for the next ten seconds before he could punch no more. All of Maggie's focus was on the one thing she wanted to shatter and that was Gabriel's heart. All ten of her nails pierced his chest and entered through different parts of his heart. He was barely dead when she pulled her hands out of him, pushing him on his back to the ground.

"Useless," she grumbled as she barely cleaned her nails and walked away.

Everyone looked at Hartwell as Maggie glided home, "She has some issues with him. We should probably let her work it out fully."

They all nodded and then following Maggie on the slow-glide back to the house.

NINETEEN

The vampires rested comfortably while the limp bodies of the protectors, hunters and hybrids were propped up in comfy adirondack chairs in the sun room awaiting the new day. Maggie and her gang of vampires were so jacked up that they eliminated the apes and then walked away, leaving their bodies strewn across the great lawn of Beach Haven Park. The battle was now entering the less romantic and exceedingly more ugly phase, and the toughest days were yet to come.

The light hit Gabriel Billingsley first and his restful night of sleep was quickly pushed aside and he became enraged, flashing from his human form to that of his more natural selection, his ape self. He pounded his giant fist on the ground, causing the ground the tremor and his just-awake family members to come to attention and stand up. One by one they turned over from human to ape as they shuffled toward a spot in front of Gabriel in a military-standard straight line.

He pounded his chest and then galloped back and forth in front of the line, dragging his knuckles on the ground. He finally stopped after a series of passes and pounded his chest again yelling toward the heavens, "WE DON'T LOSE AGAIN!" His fellow soldiers pounded their chests and roared as they followed Billingsley through the trees back to their lair, where they would simmer until returning to the field that night.

There was very little said in the House of Hartwell leading up to night four of the battle. These hardened veterans knew what was happening in front of them and were even more well versed in being on the short end of extended struggle. Cal was feeling less than at his best and looked to canvas the group just a few minutes before hitting the cool night air and the park.

"Is it just me or do any of you feel a little sluggish today?"

Hartwell had been thinking all day that he had to take a different approach to this battle than just meeting it head on, because it had become obvious that as they days were moving along that his crew was becoming weaker and their opponents were growing stronger.

Hartwell kept silent as the others began chiming on their limited preparedness for the fight.

"Yeah, I have felt better," Aaron stated.

"I'd rather be watching TV than going out to fight," Belinda said.

"Do you always feel this way after a few night of going at it?" Samuel asked as the others discussed the feelings they had in previous battles.

Meanwhile, Daniel stood between Cal and Andrew and he elbowed both of them gently in the ribs and then pointed with his chin to suggest they observe Hartwell, who appeared to be deep and thought and was both physically and mentally separated from the group. Cal elbowed his father, Thaddeus, and Drew tapped Garrison and they all were checking out Hartwell as Daniel said, "I've seen him like this before. He is definitely up to something."

Everyone looked toward Garrison for confirmation because he obviously had the most battle experience on Hartwell's side.

"He will never let us perish."

Cal looked at Garrison and his eyes widened in the knowledge that his one-time arch nemesis was all about the family and he put his own feelings as a secondary consideration. Although many of the fights were about only the two of them, there was intent by Hartwell to draw him into a mano-a-mano battle to lure him away from his family, thus making the hunters a less effective group. This higher level of understanding would do little to help the group's plight on this night, however.

There were differing strategies taking shape as the groups headed toward the field of battle. Maxwell was considering groupings that would veil the group's diminished strengths and abilities, while Billingsley was oozing confidence and decided to go with a much more direct approach.

"Everything we've got at Hartwell. All of us focused on taking him out. Head off or heart out and we go home victorious. He is the only person of interest for us going forward."

Hartwell knew he would be the target of the apes on this night and not just because he was always in harms way as the key to victory for the opposition. The apes didn't mind temporarily sacrificing their lives with the promise of renewed and better life waiting for them on the other side.

His group waited for the apes on their side of the field and decided to internally communicate with Maxwell and Kayla only moments before the fight was to begin. His options were let everything play out and say nothing or attempt to preserve the strength of his family members, who would surely be weakened if they were to be slain.

"Children. It has come to my attention that we are in the midst of a siege of which we cannot oppose by conventional methods. I need you to step aside and let the apes end our night quickly by taking me out. Opposing them will only make them stronger and the work I have to do is not corporeal in nature. Please understand that I would never do anything to jeopardize this family and I will keep you posted every night on my progress."

They looked at Hartwell and nodded in understanding as the apes swung off the trees and pounded the ground as they headed toward the enemy. Maxwell remained cool even in the face of increasing pressure and yelled "Funnel!" internally to his other team members. Kayla then barked the first thing that came to mind, "Rolling thunder!" a strategy that meant absolutely nothing if Hartwell wasn't one of the people that was going to be protected.

The House of Hartwell members arranged in a funnel-like formation with Hartwell himself at the front of the cone. If anyone had realized that he had been put in harm's way, then the formation would have surely been altered. Even Daniel, who was always so connected to his father, was focused on spending quiet time with his wife Nicole when they returned home after the fight.

The tremendous force exerted by the ape eight easily popped Hartwell's head of as the passed through the vampire and beyond the other members of his crew. Under normal circumstances and within the rules of vampirical combat, the fight would have been over and the opposing parties would have gone their separate ways. But that was not the case on this night, because the apes made it abundantly clear that they did not play by conventional rules and would not be confined by a world that was not their own.

To a person, all of the people in the Hartwell group let their guards down once they saw their leader's head roll a good distance away from his body. They had been schooled in the finer points of playing to the whistle, or fighting until the battle was officially over. And, as far as they were concerned, the battle on this night was officially over.

Billingsley and his apes were so locked in that they didn't even see Hartwell's head separated from his body and rolling down the field like a runaway bowling ball. In the span of about 13 seconds, another nineteen heads were separated from their bodies without even slightest hint of a struggle. The amped-up apes then took the the trees and never looked back at the carnage that was their first victory as a group. They were now an unstoppable force that would be nearly impossible to stop without some sort of creative intervention.

TWENTY

Hartwell and his family were somewhere in between heaven and hell and the corporeal world, but he had more of a purpose in mind for his down time. His son Daniel happened to be the second person to perish on this night because Daniel, too, had an ulterior motive for his timely death.

Father was going to talk to Linda Vinson in her sleep and son was en route to an even more meaningful dialogue with her daughter Claire Vinson, who he had developed a decent rapport with following her unsuccessful out-of-body revenge experience against the family.

"Claire, I need to talk to you," Daniel said after he located her subconscious and then guided her spirit to a safe place for them to talk. She always liked the ocean so Daniel made sure they would be talking by a version of the coastline just outside of the house.

"Daniel, is that you?" she asked as she became more aware of her surroundings amidst a dream state.

"Yes, it is me Claire. I didn't mean to startle you in your dreams."

Her image sat down in the sand and Daniel plopped down right next to her.

"I know you wouldn't have come to me in my dreams unless something was wrong and your family was suffering," she made an educated guess.

Daniel lowered his head and then picked it up to talk, "We have run up against an opponent that appears to be getting stronger with each passing day, and something tells me that their added strength has more to do with intervention than preparation."

Claire smiled, "Then I guess my grandma' is at it again."

"We will surely perish if we cannot compete on an even playing field," Daniel said with no sign of sarcasm in his face.

She received the serious vibe and returned his mood in kind, "Then, a level playing field is what it will be."

Hartwell liked to be as direct as possible and he also needed every second of rest he could muster if he were to lead his family in perhaps their most difficult task to date. There were no beaches in his alternate universe, just clouds and blue sky.

"Your mom is killing us... literally!"

"Why hello, Thomas," Linda Vinson replied as she eased into this dream state.

"They died and got stronger," he added.

She also believed in being direct, "So don't kill them anymore!"

"That's what I was thinking," he countered. "But it would also be nice to let them exist in their truest form."

"As apes?" she asked.

He nodded, "As apes."

"It might take a few days," she stated.

Hartwell broke out of his serious gaze and smiled, just as his son had done moments earlier, "I could use the rest," as she drifted back to sleep and he went into a deep restful state for the next six hours.

Things were a lot more orderly and calm at the foreclosed and vacant house that was the apes lair. Everything was starting to finally turn their way and and their wasn't a restless soul in the house when the sun ascended from the horizon and started to reawaken the shattered bodies of the Hartwell clan. In fact, Gabriel Billingsley and his primates slept to almost noon and then grabbed a bite to eat before laying back down for an extended afternoon nap. The same restful atmosphere was not present in the House of Hartwell, where concern and worry for on the faces and minds of 18 of the 20 inhabitants. Hartwell and Daniel were the only ones with a plan and it showed.

Hartwell looked over at Daniel and said, "Don't you look like the cat that swallowed the canary."

Daniel smirked, "That depends on your point of view. You took that loss rather easy last night."

Hartwell didn't have to look at his son to know that his secret plan was really not to secret.

"We have to neutralize these apes."

Daniel nodded while looking straight ahead, "Already on it."

Night five of the battle was the beginning of a string of fights that would be the most hotly contested of the week. The vampires, protectors, hunters and hybrids were not about to walk out on that field again and make the mistake of being ill-prepared and not giving their best effort. Brenda Vinson's spell against Hartwell's clan was to reduce their capabilities down to core competencies while making the apes stronger with each subsequent death. So the group was down to just basic changes and this was confusing for Samuel, who had never been without his ability to do just about anything and everything he could think of.

He was outside and saw a seagull fly by but was unable to change into it, which caused him instant pause. He immediately thought of his favorite thing to change into, but when his eyes opened and he was standing in the driveway as an 18 year-old boy instead of a bright red fire truck, alarms went off in his head and he headed inside for an immediate explanation.

"Can anyone tell me why I can't change into things?" he yelled into the vacant and open room.

Hartwell and Daniel were trying to do their best to keep things quiet, but once Samuel entered the room and broached the sensitive subject it would be impossible to keep a lid on it.

"Yeah, why are those apes getting stronger each night?" Belinda asked.

"I know!" Aaron explained. "They were so forceful last night."

"I haven't felt rage like that in years," Thaddeus stated and then his buddy Garrison chimed in, "How is it that they are getting stronger each day?"

Agent Blake Wallace came into the room and said, "It must be witchcraft. That's the only explanation for their added strength and the fact that they have all come back after dying."

Andrew added, "Yeah, I was sort of wondering why all of those people so close to us were back."

"The emotional toll it has taken on all of us has been great," Emily Brewster said in a rare sensitive moment.

"They are using the emotional ties we had with them against us," Maggie explained. "We have to clear all of this loyalty and hesitation out of our heads and transfer all of the love and caring we have for these people and keep it amongst ourselves."

Hartwell and Daniel were done with their strategy session and glided into the room as the conversation was reaching a comfortable stage.

"Where have you two been?" Cal Brewster asked in a somewhat paranoid tone.

Daniel looked to his father for clarity and direction and, as usual, Hartwell took the lead.

"We have been trying to figure this mess out. You're right, Blake," he said turning toward the special agent, "we are dealing with witches and various spells that might alter the outcome of our conflict."

"In what way?" Cal asked.

"They were getting stronger and it appears that we will only have our basic powers and changes going forward," Hartwell replied.

"Were?" Nicole asked and then turned to Carla who agreed with her, "Yeah, he did say were."

Daniel addressed the inquiry from his wife and his cousin's wife, "They were getting stronger every time we killed them."

There was an audible buzz throughout the big room and then Maxwell stepped up to ask the next logical question, "Since we didn't kill them last night, does that mean that they won't be stronger today?"

Daniel looked at Hartwell for confirmation and Hartwell nodded in agreement.

"Yes, we believe that is correct."

Samuel then asked the most simple, yet most complicated, of questions, "So if we can't kill them, because that makes them stronger, then how do we fight them?"

Hartwell smiled, "Very carefully, Samuel. Very carefully."

TWENTY-ONE

The job on night five of the battle was to prolong the fight as long as inhumanly possible. This way, the energy of the apes could be drained without fully recharging their batteries through death. Maxwell and Kayla would be called upon to concoct their most intricate strategy that was designed to keep the battle going, but never come close to winning the fight.

The members of the Hartwell group ventured out to Beach Haven Park just as the clock struck midnight, walking quickly and then transitioning from a light jog to a full sprint just on the outskirts of the park. The apes were in motion even before their opponents hit the field, as they were in the prime condition and looking to make quick work of the enemy. This would be the apex of their abilities being that they had not died the previous night. Of course, the only being that knew about the added strength through only death was Gabriel Billingsley, because he had come up with the plan with Brenda Vinson in the first place. But he was not about to tell his charges about the potential for diminished power because he was so drunk on power that the details of his plan were now escaping his focused mind.

"Let's get this done" he grunted as he transitioned from ground to air through the trees, as the other seven members of his family followed closely behind. They were a determined group yet they would still be outnumbers by a more than 2:1 ratio in a full fight. The gravity of the limited personnel issue was probably the farthest thing from these apes mind at this point.

With the apes now in sight, Maxwell and Kayla were about to give their instruction for the initial stages of the fight. Kayla understood that the only way she could extend the tussle would be to protect Hartwell until three people died and she could no longer shield him. All fights started and ended with Hartwell and it was sort of ironic that he was the one to be protected, being that he was the most capable and experienced warrior in the group... although Cal Brewster would certainly have vehemently refuted that claim.

Kayla internally yelled out, "Hartwell, me and Maxwell!" as her orders of initial protection as Max absorbed the information and then barked out his own plan to the family.

"Rolling Thunder!" he imparted and the strategy behind the order became crystal clear as each person could see the transitional facades they would have to cycle through in order to confuse their opponents and continually keep them off balance.

Billingsley swung off another massive tree limb and was the first to hit the ground. The action slowed as he split off to the left side and was confronted by Thaddeus and Garrison, a hunter and a protector fully capable of keeping the apes best fighter occupied for a little while. Thad changed into a giant grizzly bear before Gabriel even approached him in order to distract his vision. The ploy worked as Billingsley turned toward Garrison who offered even less comfort in the form of Bottlenose dolphin that swatted the ape half-way across the field, prompting a fin to paw slap of sorts between the two teammates.

The once-confident apes were being confused and disoriented all across the field as they initial changes of the Hartwell gang were definitely causing their desired imbalance effect. Couples were working together exclusively for the first time. Maxwell thought it was time for the passion that existed between two to be leveraged in the arena of battle for the first time.

The power couple of Daniel and Nicole faced off against Mary Brewster, who was definitely surprised to see her nephew with long, swordlike fingernails standing next to - of all things - an Orca killer whale. Nicole opened her expansive Orca mouth and Daniel used the distraction to swat Mary about 200 yards into a bank of trees. Nicole morphed into her human form again and she and Daniel pursued their opponent.

Battle rookies Samuel and Ariel were face to face with Drew's dad and Emily's ex-husband Randy Prince, who was one angry primate. Smoke was literally pouring from Prince's flared nostrils as he rolled toward the couple like a runaway freight train! Samuel did the first thing that came to mind as he clenched his right fist and then swung it straight toward the face of the charging ape, connecting squarely on his jaw and sending him falling semi-conscious toward the grass on his back. Samuel looked over at an impressed Ariel and they banged fists in perhaps one of the most premature of celebrations.

The always-connected coupling of Andrew and Carla was guaranteed to be aggressive even if certain defeat was in the cards. These two rarely backed up, which made for some colorful verbal sparring between the two when they disagreed on subjects. But they did agree on one thing as Eloise Phillips rumbled toward them, "Let's get this thing!"

They ran toward the oncoming ape and then changed into Grizzly bears a moment before contact, Carla extended her right arm and Drew his left arm, connecting across the face and neck of the ape in a vicious clothesline. They morphed back into their human forms and high-fived each other while Eloise was seeing little birds floating in a circle over her dizzy head.

Lowery was his ornery self even if it was behind the guise of an ape in extreme heat. Even though he was far from his prime as a master vampire, he still maintained much of the data and performance records from his golden days. That made it much easier to combat Agent Blake when he came at him with some weak karate move. Lowery punched Blake forcefully in his chest after moving his head to the left to avoid Blake's first move. The blow was so severe that Blake's heart stopped beating for a few seconds after he hit the ground.

All Belinda saw was red once her man was lit up and then turned off. She wasn't thinking about strategy and how it was imperative to keep the apes alive at all costs - at this moment she had returned to her most pure form as a vampire, focusing on the jugular vein in Lowery's neck and the lava ooze of blood flowing from his hyperactive veins. The supercharged flow was a veritable fountain of youth for vampires. Lowery was still following through on his violent body blow when Belinda used her super speed to blindingly-fast attach her now-exposed fangs to Lowery's neck, which was a complete about-face in terms than what he was used to in his previous life.

Lowery struggled to break free of the mouth luck, but it appeared that the more he struggled the less strength he actually had to break free. Hartwell was watching the various fights, but he was drawn to this particular battle because of its vampirical nature. He looked deep into Lowery's eyes and saw his strength being sapped from him as his blood was being consumed by Belinda. Hartwell took a deep breath and let the night air fill his lungs. The intoxicating aroma of the very fluid that was his lifeline was everywhere as he said aloud in a sobering revelation, "Blood. It has always been blood."

Hartwell then switched his focus from Lowery to Belinda, "Please stop, my sweet B," he said referring to his endearing nickname for Belinda, the mother of his child in this lifetime.

Belinda's eyes were glowing from the euphoric impact of the electric blood, but the words were able to find the one shred of humanity she had left in her brain as Lowery was only a few drops away from being drained. His death would have also meant that he would be even stronger the next day. She pulled her fangs out of his thick, hairy neck and and let him fall backwards, limply toward the ground.

Hartwell then pulled aside his protective bubble partners, Maxwell and Kayla, and alerted them that a new strategy was in the offing.

"They key to this battle is blood," he said trying to get them to elicit vital information out of him.

"Do you want us to send the order now?" an eager Maxwell asked.

"Should I change the protection scheme?" Kayla inquired with bright, inexperienced eyes.

Hartwell tried not to grow impatient with his young charges, so he gave a grandfatherly look of love and said internally, "It's the questions that are important right now children, not the actions." He was in no rush to impart the wisdom of Belinda's actions to the rest of the group, who were in need of a good fight after so many quick endings.

TWENTY-TWO

Lowery was of no use for a good 20 minutes as the battle raged on around him. Blake and Belinda filled in throughout the field as the other fights appeared to be going on in concert, creating one big, seemingly orchestrated battle. The apes, to their credit, seemed to band together and were giving a great account for themselves even though they were greatly outnumbered and had only one facade to present to the opposition.

The seven apes created a box, a chain if you will, that would connect their efforts against the unyielding charge of their opponents. They were about as unaware of Lowery's compromised condition as they were about the strategy imposed by their opponents to keep them alive long enough to weaken their steely resolve.

Just before Hartwell's crew went on the attack, Kayla and Maxwell were vigorously campaigning to be released from the bench and sent into the game. Hartwell finally yielded because he figured that there would be no harm to let the kids play while he waited for the appropriate time to jump into the double-dutch jumprope of battle.

The blood strategy would not be employed until the apes were sufficiently weakened, and that would take a little time. Hartwell had his eye on Lowery and placed a huge straw in the vampire turned ape's neck to take a little drink of the good stuff every time he started to come to. Cal stood by his side and said, "It still mystifies me that you live on that stuff!"

Hartwell smiled, "You want a sip?"

Cal waved him off, "No, but thanks for asking."

With Hartwell and Cal predisposed, it was 18 vampires, protectors, hunters and hybrids against seven stationary apes at the height of their abilities, as Hartwell waited for his opportunity to enter the fray.

Bodies were flying everywhere as the apes tried to maintain a strong hold on their box of strength. It was quite a site to see as these apes fought off everything from Orca killer whales to Pit Bull terriers to Centaurs to rams to Hippos to Grizzly bears. Hartwell's bunch were also working in concert as he relayed to his vampires - Maggie, Belinda, Daniel, Brandon, Maxwell and Samuel - that they should hold back some of their power until he gave the word to drain Billingsley, Mary Brewster, Eloise Phillips, Randy Prince, Gregory and Julie Justice, and Agent Terrence Carter. He also had a strategy on who would be performing each task.

It was like watching a supernatural ballet as Andrew, Emily and Carla focused their energies on keeping Randy Prince occupied. The circle of apes had grown wider in the 10 minutes since the battle began and Hartwell's clan was able to isolate the apes it wanted to with suitable matches on both a physical and spiritual level. Having Drew battle the father he never knew along with his mother and wife, would help him work out some long-standing emotional issues and enable him to move on with his life. As the actions picked up, the apes reverted back to their human facades without even knowing it. Hartwell was able to get into the minds of the apes and make them believe that they were still fighting in their preferred exterior without even knowing that the change had occurred. Drew switched over to his favorite pit bull facade Carla picked him up with her hook-like talons as a hawk while Emily continued to pummel her ex-husband in her human facade. And, as Randy was about to go down from the accumulation of blows, Carla released pit bull Drew and he changed into a massive Grizzly bear about half-way from the free air to the ground. Prince looked up through almost-closed eyes and gazed up at the moonlit sky that was now obscured by the animal blocking its path. Drew made a huge impact on his father and the force of the blow rendered him unconscious and awaiting unimpeded blood extraction.

It would have been almost impossible for Brandon Justice to decide between his parents, so Hartwell made an educated guess and picked his father Gregory. He figured that boys usually have more trouble with their fathers than their mothers, or so he surmised, and it wound up be the right choice off the bat because Greg got his son's blood boiling right away as Hartwell had the mountain known as Aaron by his side.

"It's been a long time since I have been able to knock you down a peg, BJ." Greg said seeing himself as an unbeatable ape not a man who was just about as beatable as the strongest mortal. "It's nice to see that you have brought your big gorilla with you in case you can't handle this all by yourself, he stated looking at Aaron.

The nickname BJ had always triggered the killer mechanism inside of Brandon and his first instinct was to bite his father so hard with his fangs that it would break his neck on contact. While Brandon was about to rip out his father's jugular so the sound of his voice would be no more, his blushing bride Valerie was squared off against his mother Julie.

"You never supported Brandon, even when his father made fun of him and made him feel less than worthy. He's a brilliant man and he's smarter than both of you combined," Valerie said as she circled Julie.

Belinda stood by her side and added, "He's such a special boy and you almost took him down."

Julie ignored Valerie and decided to focus her energies on Belinda as she stepped closer to the only mother that Brandon cared to acknowledge. They were no only inches apart as Julie whispered with venom, "No matter how close you think you're getting to him, I am still his mother. You could never be me."

Belinda was a split-second away from taking a big drink of a Julie Martini, but she decided to strike first with words first and then drink second.

"I would never want to be you," she replied in the most direct and concise manner that she could before the two went back to a classic boxing pre-fight stare-down.

Garrison Phillips and Thaddeus Brewster had some unfinished business left with their wives, Eloise and Mary. It had been some time since the men had felt wedded bliss, and they had moved on to greener and more active pastures since then. Both men felt that had taken the marriages as far as it could go, being that their mortal wives had died of old age and disease, which was obviously an inevitability.

"I can't believe you've been taking up with that tramp lately. Did our marriage mean nothing to you?" Mary Brewster said to Thaddeus as she tried to get him off his game.

He was about to defend his position but then he realized that the person in front of him really wasn't his wife, but a reconstituted fraud of a being.

Mary Brewster stepped back and then hauled off and attempted to land a big right hand to Thad's jaw, which he caught with his left hand.

"Not today, Mary Berry!" he yelled in met nickname he had given his wife shortly after they met decades earlier. He couldn't bare to strike her as a mortal, because that would have been ungentlemanly, so he changed into a bear and bopped her over the head with his huge paw, knocking her out.

Eloise said to Gary, "Did all of our years together mean nothing to you?"

A tear rolled from his eye, being that he was always the more sensitive one out of he and Thad, and replied, "It meant the world to me, Weeze, but I had to flip the switch when you died." He stepped back and changed into a Bottlenose dolphin and then said, "And now it's time to flip you."

He turned around and scooped up Eloise with his fin and threw her in the air before juggling her like a round ball with the peak of his nose until she was overcome by the g-force of the blindingly-fast revolutions.

Nicole stood by Blake's side as he confronted an old friend in Agent Terrence Carter.

"You sold me out for this, Agent Wallace," Carter said referring to Wallace's daughter Nicole.

Blake looked at Nicole and she returned the look saying with her expression, "Oh no, he didn't!"

So Blake took the cue and exclaimed, "Oh no, you didn't!"

Carter countered, "Oh yes, I just did!" as the two men squared off in what can only be described as some form of Greco Roman Wrestling. Nicole stepped back to the enjoy the show as the two men started locking horns like two huge rams in the heat of the battle. Sparks flew off their bodies as they pounding into each other trying to gain some sort of competitive advantage. Blake being the teacher and Terry being the pupil became clear even in this dimension after Blake moved behind Terry and transitioned from the conventional to the unconventional, grabbing his opponent around the neck and deploying the move that launched many a career in the Sleeper Hold. Carter struggled to get out but Blake's grip was vice-like and could not be broken. Once Nicole noticed that Agent Carter's movements were slowing and his eyes were becoming sleepy, she walked up and raised his limp arm, which dropped back down as his world went black. She waved her arms signifying that Carter was out and then raised her father's arm in victory.

"That was quite impressive, dad," she said as they met in a loving hug.

The last fight involved Gabriel and Maggie, with Daniel as a not-so-innocent bystander.

"You think by starting your life with Hartwell and this boy twice, that eliminates every memory you had with me?" Gabriel pointedly asked.

Maggie had no more patience for such banter and went direct and internal to Hartwell, "Can I please drain this fool so he'll stop babbling already?"

Billingsley kept talking but Maggie did not hear him, preferring to focus on the exact moment that her husband gave the order to bring peace through violence. Hartwell surveyed the field and saw that all of the battles had resulted in knockouts. He then said internally to everyone, "Our plan should be to inflict as much damage without actually ending life. I will make it so they believe that they won when they wake up tomorrow morning. We shall now commence with the draining, which will be followed by a trip over to their house where we will put them to bed and then go over as a family to the diner and get some desert."

Everyone cheered internally as Hartwell gave the drinking orders to his vampires, including implicit instructions to leave enough blood - a few drops \- in order to sustain life.

It was as choreographed as the crescendo of any beautiful symphony, only this symphony was revolutionary in its melody. Hartwell rearranged the blood-letting sequence based on the energy flowing in the park. Andrew morphed into a bear and growled as his massive teeth tore into the neck of of his father Randy Prince. Brandon Justice's resentment was too strong for Hartwell to let anyone else finish the job on his father Gregory Justice, so the downtrodden kid formerly known as BJ drank at will.

Valerie then stepped up and flew over and sunk her teeth into the neck of Julie Justice as a hybrid creature, a half-bat half woman creature that was obviously her own creation. Garrison morphed into a wolf and then howled at the moon before ripping into his ex-wife's prone neck, while his partner in vampire, Thaddeus swiped his huge bear paw and left a long claw mark on her back before extracted blood from her neck. It was not known until Ariel activated her recessive vampire gene that she was capable of such feats, as she drank enthusiastically from Agent Terrence Carter's neck.

Maggie then ended Lowery's night and Hartwell did the same to Gabriel Billingsley's, as Maggie suggested that she had Billingsley blood coursing through her veins long enough now and didn't need to be connected to it any longer!

The great lawn of Beach Haven Park was a blood bath until the vampires stepped in and clean the pitch until in was sparkling clean. They also cleaned up the barely alive apes, still in their human forms, and cauterized their wounds that would fully heal and show no residue once on the next sunrise. The apes would also feel rested, joyous and full of confidence from their victory on this night.

TWENTY-THREE

It was a joyous late-night snack for Team Hartwell at the 24-hour Beach Haven Diner. Stavros was the owner of the restaurant and always seemed to be present at the front desk no matter what time of day or night it was. This round-the-clock work ethic was the first topic of conversation after he escorted the group into their usual dining place in the restaurant's back room.

"We have to find out if that guy is really human," Drew said to his buddy Daniel as they sat next to each other.

"I'll give him a scan once I get my full mojo back," Daniel replied.

"He's Greek," Thaddeus stated.

"Yeah, we know he's Greek. What does that mean?" Cal questioned his father.

Thad looked around the table and at least a few of the older set were smiling from recognition of what he was about to say.

"It means that the Greek's have a tremendous work ethic. They live to work. Or is that, work to live?"

"I think it's work to live," Maggie stated.

"But it could also be live to work," Garrison added.

Maggie nodded, "I see your point."

Menus were passed around the table and a waitress that was obviously on the other side of her later in life change trudged into the room.

"What can I get you folks?" she said pulling a pencil out of her expansive bee-hive hairdo.

"I wonder how many pencils she has in there?" Samuel asked Ariel.

She threw her hands up and shook her head in a humorous "I don't know?" gesture.

Hartwell made it easy on everyone, "Can you please bring us one of each desert on the menu and keep the coffee and tea coming."

She looked around the table and there wasn't a clean person to be found.

"You guys working late?" she asked Hartwell and he was mortified once he saw dirt everywhere. It was an odd site for a group of fastidious vampires to be surrounded by so much filth.

"Yeah, something like that," he replied.

She left the room and Hartwell communicated with his fellow vampires.

"Clean up ourselves in the diner, people!"

The other vampires looked around and were equally as flabbergasted to be amidst so much unrest. Within seconds, both the room and all of its diners were clean from head to toe as if they had gone through some sort of human car wash.

"There, that's better," Hartwell stated.

Cal could't believe his eyes, "You guys must be slipping."

"Spells are never foolproof. There are always gaps in translation. Don't get too used to us being this way."

"Come to think of it, the house has been a little less than tidy lately," Emily Brewster said, just trying to be her usual strong-headed self.

The vampires zipped out of the room and were back within five seconds.

"Not any more!" enthusiastic Brandon Justice exclaimed, which got a big roar of laughter then applause from everyone at the table.

The party at the Beach Haven Diner went on for a few more hours and everyone was sleeping in the House of Hartwell when the sun came up. The same restful and peaceful condition was not present in the house of apes, though. Screams emanated from every room as the sun permeated the windowsills of the house. Pain was ever-present in the bodies of the the depleted apes, who woke up in their human form despite thinking they were still apes. By the time they all met in the main room of the house, the agony they were experiencing was no longer an issue in their mind, thanks to Hartwell who made them all believe that they were unbeatable and a force this planet could not recon with and survive.

The spell that Brenda Vinson initially concocted to bring back Gabriel Billingsley and then some well-sourced allies was now being shelved by her granddaughter Claire, who had neutralized the impact of the apes' power and also inadvertently gave her mother Linda some time to organically complete the evolutionary circle.

The apes were amped all day for the night six battle, while their counterparts on the other side of town took a more casual approach to the evening and early morning's festivities.

"Would it even matter if we all showed up tonight?" Andrew asked Cal and Hartwell as they walked into the main room at 11:50 pm.

"I've seen stranger things happen, Drew," Cal replied.

"It would probably be prudent to take these guys seriously until this thing is over. Keep in mind that they still have strength and dying will only make us weaker," Hartwell added.

"I could not agree with more, Thomas," Cal said.

Drew looked at both Hartwell and his uncle and imparted the following observation.

"You do know that it is still creepy that you two are getting along so well? In the beginning, I have to say, it was somewhat comforting to see you together, but now I see you two getting a condo one day in Florida when you retire."

Cal took the barb in stride and said, "I prefer the West Coast."

Hartwell concurred, "Yeah, Northern California is really nice this time of year."

The two men walked away from Drew and Cal kept talking, "We could take a few of those Napa Valley wine tours..." as his voice trailed off.

Drew shook his head in disbelief and Daniel walked up to him, "What's up, Cuz?"

"Your father..."

Daniel needed clarification because he had two fathers in Hartwell and Cal and Drew knew it.

"Correction, your fathers, are so chummy that it makes me want to barf."

Daniel thought about the statement and then had to agree with his cousin, "I know! It was somewhat comforting at first, but then it just made me feel uneasy."

"Yeah!" Drew exclaimed. "That's what I said!"

"Is everyone ready to go?" Hartwell boomed as everyone started gathering for their short trip to the main field at Beach Haven Park.

"Now let us use this night as an exercise in preparedness and education for our younger generation. It isn't very often that we have the opportunity to spar with a hostile, live opponent and actually work on things that might help us the net time around."

The group was alerted to the fact that Hartwell had implied that more battles might be in the offing. Maggie was target of most of the wanton looks, so she took the lead in asking the obvious question.

"Honey, are we expecting be attacked again by more people from our past in the near future?"

Hartwell looked around the room and replied, "Do any of you have skeletons in your closet that we should know about?"

Naive Kayla turned to her mother Carla and asked, "Mom, why would I have skeletons in my closet? That is just gross."

Carla was going to answer the question with a logical answer, but she just lightly rolled her eyes and returned her focus to the conversation after saying internally to Kayla, "It's a figure of speech, Kay."

There was a lot of rumbling through conversation as the group tried to hash through the past to determine what was in their future.

"Food for thought, people," Hartwell said. We will have plenty of time to think about what is to come when we finish this latest confrontation."

"Any idea when that will be?" Emily asked.

Her twin brother Cal took exception to the lack of dedication, which was not like his persistent sister Emily.

"Why, do you have somewhere else to be?"

Emily turned toward her brother and replied, "As a matter if fact, Calvin, we have all been eyeing a knitting show in New York City in a few days."

Blake turned to Aaron and kidded, "I thought the show was next week?"

Aaron continued the ruse, "You said it was next month. Are we still going to be able to go?"

The women swarmed Aaron and Agent Blake and the group headed out the door as the clock inched closer to midnight.

TWENTY-FOUR

Rain was in the forecast for the overnight, following a few weeks of cloudless skies and moderate temperatures. Weather was always such an important part of the daily grind for the mortal community, but it had little or no impact during battles for these near immortals.

"Do you think we'll get 18 in tomorrow?" Hartwell asked Cal about the impending rain and their scheduled golf game.

Cal smiled, "Only if we play real fast," as the group waited in its customary spot on the great lawn as the apes were swinging through the trees their way.

"Protection?" Kayla asked Hartwell internally as the group listened in.

"Just me and you in the beginning. Once they weaken I want everyone out on the pitch working on their craft - me included."

"So, no strategy?" Maxwell asked.

"Let's try a tag team approach, where we work together and also tap put to observe," Hartwell replied.

"That sounds like fun!" Nicole said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, let's have fun out there!" Hartwell roared as the apes hit the field and with all of the confidence of an unstoppable force.

The fight started with some light drizzle and the usual disadvantage in numbers for the apes. Samuel followed Cal and Emily Brewster en route to a three against one showdown with the apes best fighter, their leader Gabriel Billingsley. The twins were so used to fighting together that it was a natural fit to be able to show young Samuel the ropes. Emily was always the decoy to open opportunities for Cal's knockout blows, so she rose into the air as a hawk to distract Billingsley's attention while Cal transitioned into one his favorite exteriors as a ram and lowered his horned head before making full contact with Gabriel's left side, sending him hurtling through the air and sliding across the now wet grass.

"That's one!" Cal exclaimed as he high-fived his sister and then Samuel.

Daniel and Drew renewed their teamwork from their days on the Beach Haven High School Volleyball Team with Nicole, where they were known as the Three Slamigos. Their target on this night was Agent Terrence Carter, who still had a few tricks up his sleeves from his days at the bureau. Drew was always the aggressor, whether he was playing ping pong or fighting over the last piece of pizza in the pie. He ran at Carter, who ducked at the sight of a Drew right fist and then dug his left fist into the hunter's kidneys. Daniel was trailing the action and took the opportunity to use his blinding speed to land an uppercut to the side of Carter's mug that sent the dazed ex-FBI agent down to the turf.

Fight number three involved gigantic hunter Aaron Driscoll and his protector counterpart Agent Blake Wallace squaring off against the diminutive Eloise Phillips, who stopped short at the sight of Driscoll.

"You are a big man," she said as Driscoll let his guard down and smiled. "But you know what I say? The bigger they are..." she stated and then lunged forward with her right fist and connected between his legs, "the harder they fall," as Aaron fell backwards while his hands covered the pained spot she struck.

Blake started hopping on the balls of his feet and said, "So, that's how it's going to be?" to his ex-mother in-law.

She nodded and then motioned with her left hand and said, "Bring it, life guard," referring to his glory days as a adored life guard.

Blake thought about changing into a few of his alternate forms but he decided to call on many of the skills he learned during his hours of martial arts practice.

"I see the boys have been teaching you a thing or two," she said trying to get into his head.

As a FBI agent, his instinct was to wait for his target to make a mistake and then pounce on the perp and make a collar. Eloise walked right into that strategy as she used her lack of size to attempt a lower leg sweep, but Blake jumped in the air and then angled his body in such a way that the force of his counter-attack would be focused on the thunder now in his right foot. He snapped his foot downward and connected flush with the center of Eloise's face, snapping back her neck toward a sharp connection with the ground.

Male chauvinist Gregory Justice eyed Carla and Nicole and said, "Well ladies, your place or mine?"

Carla looked at Nicole and replied, "Ours," as they burst into action like a couple of ninja warriors letting loose on a target. Carla changed into a pit bull and Nicole picked her up and threw her right at Justice's face. The snarling dog distracted his view, which enabled Nicole to change into a hippopotamus unnoticed, at least until she was about to make contact with him as he ducked out of the way from a flying Carla, who changed into a graceful hawk once she passed by Greg. Nicole struck Justice like a 16-pound bowling ball hitting the pocket and exploding through all ten pins as he revved no more than two feet off the ground for the better part of 50 yards before skidding for another 25 semi-conscious yards.

Greg's wife Julie had her hands full with Ariel, who was being counseled by Belinda. Ariel always acted so nice and sweet, so it was a surprise that she tried to take the lead in one of her first solo confrontations. She lunged at Julie, who easily avoided the punch and then elbowed the newbie in the back of the head, knocking Ariel down. Belinda took offense to this action and said, "Now that's not very nice," as she picked up Julie from her shirt and pants and tossed her almost effortlessly up into the top of the trees.

Valerie and Brandon Justice had their hands full with Charles Lowery, who took the offensive by getting both of them in a headlock. Lowery thought he was doing real well, too, and believed he was well on the way to choking both of his opponents out.

Brandon looked over to his wife and said, "Have you had enough of this yet?"

Valerie replied, "Just give him a few more seconds and we will kick this thing into overdrive."

A few seconds passed by before Val and Brandon transitioned into their minotaur personas, their heads feelings exactly the same to Lowery as they had since he started chocking them, but now their legs had been traded in for the hooves of angry bulls, scraping them across the ground until it was time to punt Lowery into a thick row of brush across the field.

Garrison teamed with his daughter Sharon to take on Randy Prince. Though the two would have been on much more familiar ground if they were in the water, they decided to bring a little aquatic fun to the Great Lawn of Beach Haven Park. Sharon had been able to access both protector and hunter capabilities because of her gene pool before this battle, but was now limited to only hunter exteriors.

She turned into a grizzly bear and said, "Do I look like a dolphin?"

Gary had already gained control of Prince and was spinning him on his dolphin and nose, "Yes, you do!" he exclaimed as he passed Randy over to his bear daughter who was on her back and continuing to spin the body with her furry legs.

"Batter up!" Sharon yelled as passed Prince over to her father and he swatted the human ball with his fin over a white picket fence.

"That's outa' here!" Sharon yelled as the high-fived and then hugged in celebration for the human home run.

The last of the matchups was Thaddeus and Maxwell against Mary Brewster, Thad's ex wife. It was the only confrontation where emotion could have entered into the fray.

"Are you gonna' be all right hitting..." was all that Max got out before Thad walked straight at his Mary and dropped her with one straight punch to the face.

Max continued, "Your ex wife... and I guess that answer is a resounding yes!"

Thad walked back past Max and grunted, "That thing is not my wife."

The action continued and Hartwell's gang continued to wear on the apes in their human facades until Hartwell thought it was safe to play. He turned to Kayla and said, "I think it's time for us to come out of our bubbles," and she obliged by rescinding the protection for her and Hartwell.

Fight action progressed in stages, from the initial blows to more team- and change-oriented action in the middle. Once Hartwell and Kayla became involved most of the action was purely instructional, with the senior members of the team offering up tips on how to en most effective within the battle.

In one station, Cal Brewster was illustrating the proper technique to both deliver and block punches.

Gabriel was used as a live punching bag, with Andrew holding him up when needed.

"When you punch, make sure you get your shoulder involved before letting your fist go anywhere near your target. This way, you're using the force of your body and not delivering a blow that will keep you off balance."

Samuel stepped up and stood in a boxing stance and Cal went behind him to help facilitate his learning.

"Step with your left foot and anchor it in the ground as you deliver the punch from your shoulder."

Samuel stepped up and awkwardly threw a right hand that barely grazed Billingsley's jaw. Gabriel woke up for a moment and swung his left arm and hit Samuel on the side of the head, awakening his senses and helping him focus on what he had just learned. He absorbed the blow and then retained his balance long enough to properly step back into a left hook that connected flush on Gabriel's jaw and knocked him out.

"You can let go of him now," Cal said to Drew. "By jove, I think he's got it!"

Daniel and Hartwell were at another station and doing the tai chi practice they performed daily while Daniel was growing up and Hartwell was the comforting spirit that was guiding him. Following and copying their every free-flowing movement was Carla, Nicole, Maxwell, Valerie, Brandon and Mary Brewster, who was a little woozy yet was a willing participant.

"I could have used this to calm me down a few months after you turned me," Brandon stated in a calm tone.

"I'm sorry, Brandon. I was on the trail of Daniel back then. You know I would have helped you if I could," Hartwell replayed in an equally dulcet tone.

"We're all family now anyway," Daniel added.

"It's nice to have family," a powerless Mary Brewster calmly interjected.

"Yes it is," Brandon said as he looked around the circle of trust. "No offense, but that probably doesn't include you," Brandon said to Mary.

"No offense taken," she replied.

Thaddeus and Garrison were teaching a different kind of self-defense course, as their methods were enmeshed in old-school techniques.

They decided to bring Charles Lowery in on the demonstration, because he was the ex-vampire they most wanted to strike repeatedly.

"When you use brass knuckles," Thaddeus said pulling out his favorite pair of brassie's from his right pocket, "it is important to keep in mind to let the hardware do the work for you."

Garrison handed out enhanced knuckles to Blake, Aaron, Belinda, Ariel, Kayla and Sharon, who fitted the brass piece on their strong hands.

The remainder of the barely functioning apes were standing in front of the class like a bunch of test dummies at an auto plant testing facility.

"As you can see, the weight of the knuckles propels the fist toward the target," Thad said and then struck Lowery squarely in the jaw. The rest of the group following his instructions and got better with each enthusiastic attempt. Garrison then went through the paces of showing the group how to effectively conceal and then use a Billy club, which was the front-weighted predecessor to the nightstick.

The beaten apes were barely able to stand after taking such an extended beating, so the group helped bring them home and place them in bed, much as they did the previous night. The vampires worked on altering the story of the evening in their minds while the coming of the new day's sun would restore their bodies to a functional, but not operational level.

TWENTY-FIVE

Hartwell and his band of educators and pupils decided to dine at the Beach Haven Diner again after hours and enjoyed a good meal before heading off to bed. Maggie was resting on Hartwell's chest and she said, "So, where do we go from here?"

Hartwell closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "I hope to have resolution of this later today."

Maggie smiled, "Good, because I really want to return to normal life."

Hartwell smiled, "And be able to go to that knitting show in Manhattan."

Maggie kissed Hartwell on the cheek, "And that, too!"

It was about 9:30 am and Hartwell had to attend to some business, so he strolled from his bedroom into the sun room and spoke internally to a familiar ally.

"I think we have it to a point that they are ready for whatever you have cooking," he said to Linda Vinson who had been working diligently on her counter-spell since their last conversation.

She replied, "We are good to go, Mr. Hartwell. Just bring your assets to the drop-off point and everything else is taken care of - except of course building the actual drop-off point itself.

"Thanks, Linda!" Hartwell exclaimed.

"Does this mean that we're all square now?" she hesitantly asked.

"It will be once this is all completed tonight," Hartwell replied and then went on with the rest of his day.

Later in the day, the family was gathered for yet another meal at dinner in the main room of the house.

"I know you don't like to mix food and business, but what is the plan for tonight, Thomas?" an somewhat eager Thaddeus asked as everyone else unstrapped the feed bag for a moment to hear his response.

"Tonight, we end this thing," Hartwell stated and then looked into the eyes of each person at the table. He then looked at his senior advisors, "Thad and Gary, you will lead one team in the construction phase of our plan, and I will lead the other team in transporting our assets to your location."

He then went on to detail deeper aspects of the plan and his desire to try the chicken parmesan dinner at the Beach Haver Diner once the job was done.

"You have to try the Thanksgiving Platter, too!" Thad gushed.

"Yeah, that homemade cranberry sauce and stuffing is to die for!" Emily added, backing up her father.

The plan on this night was to start at 9:00 pm, a few hours ahead of the usual start time for nighttime battles. Thad and Gary led a party of four vehicles that made the trek from Beach Haven to the Bronx, New York, to begin construction on what was planned to be more suitable permanent surroundings for their foes. And with their full powers restored by the combined powers of Claire and Linda Vinson, which was in direct conflict with the focus of senior witch Brenda Vinson, the entire job that would have taken months for an ordinary construction crew would take only hours for this supernatural bunch.

The apes would not be meeting Hartwell's group at the great lawn of Bech Haven Park on this night because they were too weak to even get out of bed. The final leg of their transformation from super-charged apes to helpless mortals, and then back to regular apes would be completed when the apes were back in familiar surroundings.

Hartwell and the other vampires left the house at midnight and took their time getting over to Gabriel Billingsley's house.

"Do you think we could go to 5th Avenue and check out some of the shops when go into the city for the knitting show?" Belinda excitedly asked Maggie.

"We could eat dinner after the show on the West Side and then stroll over to 5th Avenue before the stores close," Maggie replied.

"Sounds like a plan," Belinda beamed.

"You and Drew still averse to playing golf with me and Cal?" Hartwell asked Daniel.

"You guys are so serious when you play," Daniel abruptly answered.

Hartwell looked at Daniel out of the corner of his eye right eye like a consummate father and probed, "Is that the reason you do want to play with us?"

Daniel looked over at his father and looked away from him, "You guys are too good," he mumbled quickly as not to be humiliated.

"What did you say?" Hartwell inquired.

Daniel looked for real this time and smiled, "If anyone could hear what I just said, it is you."

"I'll play with you," Brandon said from just behind his sire and surrogate brother.

"Wasn't that training session fun, Samuel?" Max asked.

"Yes dad, that was the coolest!" his son Samuel gushed.

"I really liked using those brass knuckles," usually shy and etherial Ariel added.

The group arrived at Billingsley's pitch black house a few minutes later and each vampire collected their target, unfurled their massive wings and then were airborne and en route to drop-off point: BRONX, NEW YORK.

The group rarely ever made flights anymore because their vampirical powers appeared to be limited to nighttime battles in which their powers always appeared to compromised in some way. So it was nice to get a little fresh rarified air for a change.

The group touched down in the spot that was marked by a single lit torch, which meant that the location was ready for its new inhabitants. The apes still in their human form were placed near each other and Thaddeus picked up the torch as the vampires flew the construction crew out of the park.

Building the new Gorillas in the Midst of the Bronx exhibit at the Bronx Zoo might not prove as difficult for the transition of the apes, who had to get used to entirely new surroundings. A few minutes after the mortals were placed in their new habitat, they transitioned back into their ape form via the last affects of the spell woven by Linda Vinson.

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, these apes will be familiar faces no more and resume their natural form."

One by one the apes came back on line, but this time there was no trace of the loved one's that haunted the memories of the people in the House of Hartwell. They started grunting out of fear of not recognizing the scent of their surroundings, but were calmed somewhat when their leader, the ape formerly known as Gabriel Billingsley, came back on line. He led the group into the man-made cave that would now be their home. The other seven members of his ape family went inside and he turned back toward the opening of the expanse of the park and smirked devilishly as his eyes glowed a bright orange to signify that all traces of Gabriel Billingsley in fact had not been eliminated.
