Blood Shadow: Book of Manuel

appeared to be dizzy, but she was actually dizzy with plan.

  Emily's usual move would have been to finish Belinda off, but the calming thoughts implanted by the peacemakers curtailed such action.

  Emily turned her back on Belinda, who unfurled her vast vampire wings, and they were airborne before Emily knew what was happening.

  "Let's take a little spin to the beach," a now-confident

  Belinda stated, and Emily knew she had to do something before they reached water because it was not the favorite place for the hunter's to visit.

  She first changed into a rather tame Grizzly bear, and then a pit bull and hawk, as they were rapidly approaching the shore.

  Emily was still defiant as they neared the water, so Belinda ran through 15 up-and-downs, in-and-out of the salty water and then asked, "You calm now?"

  Water gushed out of Emily's mouth, along with a few small fish, but she still would not relent.

  "You know how I feel about seafood."

  Belinda countered, "Why does it have to be this way, Em?"

  "What way?" Emily replied, fully knowing what her rival meant.

  And then the conversation turned personal.'

  "Why did you have to shut me and Danny out?" Belinda asked about her family's treatment of her and her son after Cal disappeared.

  "What were we supposed to do?"

  Belinda was emotional, "Treat us like family!"

  Emily was in full denial, "You're not family!"

  Instead of continuing to butt her head against a concrete wall, Emily simply took a deep breath.

  "You know, if I wasn't thinking about vanilla-scented potpourri, I would have snapped you in half from that remark."

  "Yes! Vanilla-scented potpourri! Where can I get some of that?" Emily gushed.

  "They have it at Beach Haven Drugs and I've smelt a bunch of it at the mall."

  Belinda then got back on topic, "If you had no feelings for me," Belinda said softly, "how could you turn your back on Cal's son... your nephew?"

  All of the feelings that Emily had bottled up came to the surface at once. She started crying, "I couldn't live without Cal!

  Everyone thought he was dead, but I knew different. I knew where he was and I couldn't do anything to help him!"

  She continued, "Every time I looked at Danny I saw Cal," she revealed. "I'm sorry we left you and he cheated on you."

  "Thanks, Em" Belinda said as she rested her forehead on Emily's forehead as the landed softly in the beach.

  "No problem, B" Emily calmly replied.

  SEVENTEEN

  Only two battles remained, and at least one observer was being thoroughly entertained.

  "I don't think that I've ever been to any event that has kept me at the edge of my seat for this long, except for those two hours we watched the movie," Manuel said to Hartwell as he took of frozen yogurt topped with Cap'n Crunch. "And you made a good call with the Cap'n on the yogurt."

  Hartwell smiled, "Yeah, I had you pegged for a Cap'n kind of guy."

  "What did you get on yours?"

  "Well, I couldn't decide between brownie bites and Cocoa Krispies, so I put the brownies on the bottom and the Krispies' on top."

  "Talk about chocolate overload!" Manuel said.

  "Hey, we only live once," Hartwell stated in jest. "Or twice, I

  kinda' lost count."

  "Next time we're in the Vermont, I gotta' take you to Ben & Jerry's. They have the best blood-infused ice cream!" Manuel excitedly said.

  Hartwell thought that his new friend was becoming more and more comfortable being around the family for an extended period of time, and that was a good thing.

  "Do you want to stay and watch the rest?" he asked like two friends deciding on whether to stay until the end of a baseball game.

  "I really want to see what happened between Daniel and

  Cal," Manuel replied. "Can you give me the Cliff Notes version of the battle between you and Thaddeus? No offense."

  "None taken," Hartwell replied because he had already experienced everything before.

  "How many times have I cut your head off, only to have you come back and make my life miserable?" Thaddeus asked. "I would kill you for the next 50 days if it meant that you would no longer be my reason for living!"

  Hartwell then stopped the action and turned to Manuel, "Then we started getting along after that raw and revealing statement, and then I promised to repair his favorite sword that I had broken in half."

  "Hope that will prepare me for the written test later," Manuel joked.

  "Okay, let's get to the main event!" Hartwell exclaimed.

  "Yes, let's" Manuel replied, and the sat back and fully enjoyed his yogurt.

  Not a word was spoken between Daniel and Cal during the first four hours of the fight after the initial barbs. Cal's incredible boxing ability was neutralized by Daniel's knowledge of every form of fighting and defense that the world has ever known.

  The punching slowed as the boxing marathon had reached its 100th and final round. Cal's inner mechanisms pushed him to change into a ram as he backed up to give himself more room for a run-up. Daniel had ceased being Daniel the vampire and had to pause for a moment to deal with the violent changes occurring in his core.

  Daniel screamed toward the lightning-laced skies as the DNA of the hunter finally consummated its transition and altered his gene sequence. He took a few steps back and yelled as he changed into a ram.

  Manuel gasped, "Whoa! I definitely did not see that coming!"

  Cal was ready to charge, dragging his hoof across the ground in pure fury. The two juiced-up rams charged at each other from 30 paces in a cloud of thick dust.

  As focused was Cal was on the impact, he had a sobering thought just prior to impact.

  "Danny is a ram."

  The euphoria was short-lived as Daniel crashed into Cal and sent him flying through the air about 100 feet past his original starting point.

  "He got all of that one!" Hartwell said to Manuel.

  "Yes, he sure did," Manuel replied.

  Daniel was so keyed-up that he kept advancing toward a now human Cal, who could only watch his son coming toward him.

  "Danny!" was all he got off before Daniel plowed his head and plunged his left antler into Cal's midsection.

  But once Daniel realized what he had done, he morphed back into his human form.

  "Dad?" Daniel exclaimed, finally realizing that he had just done damaged to a person that wasn't fighting back.

  Cal was on his last breaths and made the final seconds count. He reached up and cradled Daniel's face with his left hand and proudly said with tears rolling down his cheeks, "I love you, son."

  Daniel held Cal as he died, crying from the pain of losing him and the joy of finding him again. A few minutes later, the sun peaked out from the east horizon, renewing Cal's life force and enabling the reunion to continue.

  Cal opened his eyes and said, "Good timing," as Daniel hugged him and then helped him to his feet.

  "How long was I out?" Cal asked as they started walking.

  "It was only a few minutes," the elated son replied.

  "Good to have you back, dad."

  "Good to be back, son."

  EIGHTEEN

  Hartwell and Manuel were transported from the fringe of the great lawn of Beach Haven Park to the calming neutrality of the inside of a teepee.

  "Did you do that?" a surprised and now paranoid Manuel asked.

  Hartwell thought deeply about the question and then answered.

  "I believe I did."

  "Why?" Manuel questioned.

  "Well, why did you do what you did to me?"

  "What?" Manuel asked, because he was both disoriented and really didn't understand what Hartwell was trying to ask.

  "I don't know?" Manuel replied once he understood the question.

  Hartwell nodded, "Then, maybe we should just go with the flow. I'm game if you are?"

  Manuel laughed, "I bet you are. The
heat appears to be off you now."

  "Yeah, why do you that that is?"

  Manuel replied, "Because I started to care about you and your family."

  Hartwell was in agreement again, "I know! One minute you want to kill them and the next their all living in your house and we're all on the same side."

  "It's time for you to meet Carmen," a woman entered and said to Manuel.

  "Guess we're not watching this one. You think I should meet her? I didn't turn so great the first time," Manuel said quietly to Hartwell.

  "I think you should go through with it, but I probably wouldn't be a great idea to let me out of your sight."

  "I'll take care of it," Manuel whispered. And then he talked to the woman standing across from him, "This gentleman will be joining us for dinner."

  The woman didn't dare question Manuel, who was the new chief of the tribe, but she did look the pale-face man over.

  "Is there anything else?" Manuel asked her with a strong hint of impatience in his voice.

  She glanced at Hartwell and said, "No."

  As the flap closed Hartwell stated, "Well, that was one of the most ominous "No's" I have ever heard."

  "Right?" Manuel exclaimed.

  The guys got dressed in traditional garb, Manuel wearing his chief headdress, and made their way out to the meeting place.

  "What do you think happened between you and Carmen?" Hartwell asked trying to stay ahead of the curve.

  "I don't know. Things were usually good between us when we were together."

  "Then why do you think you did the things you did?"

  Hartwell questioned, referring to Manuel's rampant infidelity.

  Manuel proudly stood ahead of and pounded his chest with his right fist, "Because I could!"

  He then suggested, "You might want to have an escape plan ready just in case things go bad. People of the sun don't exactly trust pale folk like you."

  Hartwell joked, "I wonder why? We just took your world from under you and made it our