previously-flourishing import/export business. The Chinese had stolen all of his merchandise and cash, so the prospect of going back to his supplier empty-handed without payment was quite painful. In those days, there were no terms of payment of leniency for nonpayment, only a smoking bullet between the eyes. So, instead of dying, which appeared like the logical conclusion, Gabriel was presented with a similar solution to the one that Hartwell received from Alexander Lowery.
“What troubles you, friend?” Brenda Vinson asked Gabriel as they sat in the same café years later.
“How do you know I’m troubled, ma’am?” Gabriel questioned.
The witch leaned in, “Because I can feel the heat from that firearm you just purchased, and your blood appears to be pumping in an accelerated pattern that suggests strife and stress.”
“I don’t know how you know that, but I would wish that you would leave me alone!” Gabriel said, trying to avoid any conversation that might change his mind.
“You know, you’re not the first person that has run into a little trouble, and I’m sure you won’t be the last. What if I told you that there was a way for you to get out of all this mess?”
Gabriel’s eyes opened wide, “Really?”
“And you could probably put that pesky supplier of yours out of business, and also square things up with the Orientals that put you in this mess in the first place.”
Gabriel wasn’t totally gone mentally, “What’s the catch?”
“You probably won’t be able to see that wife of yours for a while,” Brenda replied without hesitation.
“But she’s pregnant! Will I ever be able to see them again?” a confused, yet still self-centered Gabriel asked.
“Yes. This I can guarantee,” Vinson replied, trying to seal the deal on a future she had already seen.
As in every deal with forms of the devil, there are complications. Gabriel agreed to the deal without ever facing his wife again and at least telling her the truth. He turned up days later after he was found dead and then buried by his grieving wife Margaret, who had suffered a miscarriage shortly after being told of the shocking news.
Gabriel’s absence eventually created an opening for Hartwell, who had assumed when he met Billingsley that he was just a fellow vampire that he was happy to call a friend.
“I can’t believe you let her go!” a disturbed Hartwell said in anger to Billingsley after he turned around and made eye contact with him at the café.
“It’s not like I wanted to! I really didn’t have a choice!” he shot back at Hartwell and then turned to Maggie.
Hartwell would not relent, “You were just a yellow-bellied chicken!”
While he wasn’t sure why he had used that particular reference, it nonetheless found its mark.
“What did you just say?” Gabriel asked as he stood up from his chair.
“You heard what I said!” Hartwell countered, not wanting those words to have passed his lips more than once.
“Do you want to back that up?” Gabriel verbally pushed back in what amounted to ‘fighting words.’
Hartwell scoffed as he looked over his smaller, yet younger, adversary.
“What are you going to do, junior?”
It had been some time since Hartwell was involved in a confrontation without his vampirical powers. The last occurrence was a boxing match with Cal Brewster, and the fight nearly killed both of them. But Hartwell was so amped up that he put aside any adverse thoughts or trepidations.
“I’m gonna’ knock your block off!” Gabriel shouted.
Hartwell turned to Manuel, momentarily taking his eye of Gabriel, and said, “Would they have really said something like that back then?”
“Maybe the reference was a bit dated or pre-dated, I’ll give you that one,” Manuel replied as Gabriel charged toward Hartwell and struck him on the side of the head with a knuckle sandwich. Hartwell was so big and strong that the blow only made him wobble back a few steps before he regained his balance. He then smiled, which made Gabriel almost soil his well-pressed trousers.
Gabriel looked toward Maggie like he was about to abandon her again and run. She shed a few tears after absorbing the look but then became incensed when she really thought about it.
“You should have fought for me!”
Hartwell was already in motion by the time Maggie stopped talking. He reached back and connected with Gabriel’s jaw on a thunderous right fist that send Gabriel flying back toward the cobblestone street.
Maggie looked down at her stomach and said, “You should have fought for us.”
And then her mood brightened dramatically as she ran to Hartwell and jumped in his arms.
“I love you, Thomas! You will always fight for us.”
SIX
Before Hartwell even had a chance to enjoy the younger version of his wife, Manuel pulled him out to start their next ‘City by the Bay’ adventure. The two men were outside on the street facing the townhome that Hartwell and Maggie owned.
“Wow! I can see now that it was probably a good idea to be somewhere else during the turn of the 20th century plague in San Fran,” Manuel stated as he looked around and there was complete chaos throughout the city.
“Is this going to be before, or after, my family died?” Hartwell asked, trying to brace himself for the potentially-emotional impact.
“After,” Manuel replied. “This journey is not about pain, it’s about gain. We’re all trying to get somewhere in life, Thomas.”
“Well it’s good to hear that all of this serves some sort of purpose,” a non-believing Hartwell countered.
“More listening and learning, less lip, Hartwell,” Manuel said in a more stern voice, which reminded Hartwell of a feisty hunter named Cal Brewster, so he backed off for now.
They spied a person walking calmly down the street, so his demeanor set off a few alarms.
“It’s Lowery!” Hartwell stated.
“Who is he to you?” a clueless Manuel asked.
“He’s my sire.”
“Oh, that Lowery! Alexander Lowery?” Manuel asked after his memory kicked in.
“Yes, that’s him.”
“He’s quite the dresser,” Manuel said.
Lowery walked up to Manuel and said, “I get all of my suits custom-made by a tailor in New York. He has a brother who runs a shop down the block, so he fills in when I’m out here.”
Manuel nodded, “Good to know.”
Then he turned to Hartwell, “I smelled your desperation from two blocks south, Thomas. Ten minutes later and I might have been too late.”
“Is that right, Thomas?” Manuel asked.
Hartwell thought about the question and then decided that it would be best to answer the question by letting the situation play out.
“I’m not sure. I was pretty much out of my mind at the time.” Then he turned to the two men and asked, “Why don’t we just wait a few minutes and see what would have happened?”
So they stood outside of the building for the next five minutes, then 10 minutes, then 15 minutes.
“Do you think…?” Manuel started asking and then was interrupted by a flash of light above them, the loud popping sound of a gunshot, and then the voluminous thud of Hartwell’s limp body crashing to the floor.
Lowery looked at his wristwatch and said, “Good thing I happened to be hungry and walking down this block.”
Hartwell agreed, “Yes, I’m not sure if I would have heard anything you said if you came even five minutes later than you did?”
“The fortuitous part for you was that my hunter was in hot pursuit and I didn’t have much time to waste.”
Hartwell then switched gears, “Why were you trying to kill me recently?”
Lowery laughed and looked toward Manuel, who also appeared to be in on the joke.
“Don’t you know, Thomas? Hasn’t the hunger hit you yet?” Lowery asked his protégée.
Hartwell never liked to be toyed with and he definitely wasn’t in the moo
d for ridicule.
“What are you talking about Lowery? What hunger?”
Lowery got all serious, wiping any remnants of joy that remained on his face.
“The hunger to live, Thomas. This hunger will supersede any other feelings you have in your brain. Your mere existence will dominate everything in your life and you will place your own survival over all things around you.”
“Are you saying?” Hartwell asked, not having to even complete the question to be understood.
“Yes, I want to live forever.”
Hartwell could not believe his ears.
“Is this true?” he asked Manuel, somehow knowing that his guide was the source of all information of the three men.
“Yes. Alexander speaks the truth. I am a prime example of what he is saying. I spent 30 years under the ground, in the dark, in fear of something happening to me if I poked my head out and ventured above the ground. You become paranoid and distrusting of the people around you.”
“But all of the people around me love me!” Hartwell protested.
Manuel looked at Lowery and then both men rolled their eyes.
Manuel asked, “Don’t you live with hunters?”
Hartwell thought back to all of the brutal battles with Cal Brewster, his sister Emily and their father Thaddeus, and then wondered how long the détente would last.
“Well, most of them love me. At least the ones I’m related to,” he stated, reaching to find some solid ground to stand on.
SEVEN
Remember when you thought that Gabriel Billingsley was your friend?” Manuel asked Hartwell as they transitioned from standing in front of the townhome in San Francisco to a dive bar in Vancouver, Canada.
“Not only did I think he was my friend, I also thought