Blood Shadow: Book of Manuel

fault, Em," he said, telling his sister. "I blamed everyone but myself for what happened next, but now that I see that I was just being plain selfish."

  "Do we have to go through the rest of this again?" Thaddeus asked Manuel and Hartwell as they observed the scene.

  "Yeah, it was pretty painful the first time," Garrison added.

  Both Hartwell's were outraged, so they spoke at the same time.

  "Why was it painful for you, Gary? We stopped getting our butts kicked for a while!"

  The dueling Hartwell's were too much for most of the people to handle, so they looked to Manuel for relief. He used his right index finger and merged the Hartwell’s.

  The next step in the process was Hartwell taking Cal to the bottom of the ocean and Sharon and her father Garrison burying him with rocks as Orca whales. But before the completed the act in real life, Manuel replayed the confusing scene for all to see, especially Hartwell, and thought it would be more effective if the actual players reenacted everything.

  Hartwell said to Sharon, "Meet you at the bottom," before scooping up Cal and then standing off to the side with Manuel.

  Once Hartwell hit the water there would be no way to stop the inevitable. Thaddeus fought to get loose from Garrison when he saw what was happening, but Sharon came over to help hold him down.

  Thaddeus had no idea what Hartwell was planning, but he could see the extreme look of concern on Sharon's face.

  "You can't let him do this!" he pleaded with Sharon.

  Sharon tried to fight off the fresh tears because her ultimate duty was to protect Hartwell.

  "It's what he wants!"

  "But is it what you want?" Thad asked, trying to desperately appeal to her more sensitive and love-struck side.

  She initially said, "It really doesn't matter what I want, does it?" but she decided to say instead, "Why is it that the only thing that matters is what he wants?" she asked with a strong hint of dissatisfaction, gesturing toward Hartwell.

  It had been four years since protected, and only protected, Hartwell. She had subsequently switched to the other side when she fully committed to Cal.

  "I have a fresh perspective in this," she stated. "Even now, every time someone comes after him, we always have his back no matter what he did in the past!" she said looking lovingly at Cal. "Those were the longest and emptiest years of my life when you were buried at the bottom of the ocean."

  "I always knew you were alive," Emily said to Cal, "and that he was up to something!" she added with venom as she glared at Hartwell.

  "I just couldn't get there in time," Thaddeus said as he had been let free by Sharon and Garrison. He had flown after Hartwell as a hawk and almost caught him until Gary jumped out of the ocean as an Orca killer whale and swallowed him whole.

  "You asked why it was painful for me the first time," Garrison Phillips said to Hartwell. "The minute we did this I knew I had lost my daughter forever. She was so down all of those years, because we all knew that one day Cal would return. But now I feel that I haven't lost a daughter—actually it's quite the opposite—I have gained a son," he said looking at Cal.

  Cal looked at his own dad, Thaddeus, and asked, "Is it okay if I call him dad?"

  Thaddeus laughed, "Sure! We spend so much time together now that the kids can barely tell us apart."

  Gary chuckled, "Yeah, there have been a few times when Samuel called me Uncle Thad!"

  NINE

  The scenery went blank again and Manuel and Hartwell were only separated by fog.

  "Has this become the 'bash Hartwell' tour?" the vampire asked as he tried to displace the fog so he could see Manuel.

  The fog cleared and the duo was sitting on a bench at the Beach Haven Boardwalk facing the ocean. Manuel sat calmly and enjoyed the golden rays of the sun for a moment before responding. He knew there was only so far he could push Hartwell before he either lost interest, or rebelled.

  "While your actions have caused many of these people—including your wife and son—great pain, it has also fostered a tremendously-cohesive family structure.

  Hartwell wasn't sure how he should approach the bad cop/ good cop treatment, so he remained silent, which was unusual for the alpha vampire.

  Manuel opened his eyes and turned to look at Hartwell. "Did you hear what I said?"

  Hartwell still wasn't having it, "Yeah, I heard you."

  "So why didn't you respond?"

  "I'm just waiting to see where you're going to take me next. “Then I will react," Hartwell stated.

  Manuel admittedly had something in different in mind than what he was originally going to do after gauging Hartwell's mood. They had a long road to go, but a slight detour with a lighter and more positive spin could only help the process.

  "A lot of stuff has happened for you on this beach," Manuel stated. "It would appear that the water here means a lot more to you than just safety," mentioning the water advantage the vampires and their protectors had over their pursuers, the hunters.

  And instead of the two of them watching the action, Manuel put Hartwell directly in the game. A warm feeling came over Hartwell and his more than 100 years of waiting to be reconnected to his son was over. While he was aware that his son Nathaniel had been reborn through the odd combination of hunter Calvin Brewster and some random woman named Belinda, it wasn’t until the group moved to Beach Haven, New York that Daniel was of age need his father, any father.

  Cal was on the bottom of the ocean and the boy needed to be guided down the path of life with a more masculine hand.

  Hartwell relived the feeling of being needed again, and he described the details of the events as they unfolded.

  "Belinda was so concerned with Daniel's health that she was constantly shuffling him in and out of doctor's offices even if there were no signs of illness. She had been on her own for years after Cal disappeared and then she became estranged from his family, which was basically Emily and Thaddeus Brewster.

  "Do you think you had something to do with that discord?" Manuel asked, playing the role of a therapist for a spell.

  "Yes, and it was completely self-serving, but I had waited 100 years for my boy and wife to come back and I didn't want anything, or anyone, to get in the way of those reunions."

  Manuel nodded in understanding and then Hartwell continued.

  "I was in this exact spot, gazing at the ocean and trying to find my center, when a call of need came from the hospital and I could begin my life again, somewhat anew."

  Hartwell, who previously was in a pair of shorts, a t-shirt, flip-flops and sunglasses, was now in his more familiar tan trench coat and New York Yankees baseball cap in the clouded darkness of the day in front of Nightsdale Hospital—which had subsequently been renamed Beach Haven Hospital to go along with the town-themed naming of every business to improve the regional profile.

  "What's with the Yankees hat?" Manuel asked.

  "Well, I used to be Red Sox fan until they traded my friend to the Yankees," Hartwell replied. "He was so angry and felt so betrayed when it happened that he came to me with nothing but revenge on his mind. George and I used to drink together at this bar on Delaney Street in Boston - he loved scotch and I had a particular taste for blood, at least, until, he became bitter both inside and out."

  Manuel searched his mental database for players named George that had been traded from the Red Sox to the Yankees, but kept coming back to a single transaction in 1919.

  "Are you talking about 'Babe' Ruth?" he questioned.

  Hartwell laughed, "Yes! Nobody really called George Herman Ruth 'the Babe' back then.

  "Are you saying that babe Ruth was a vampire?" Manuel asked.

  "Why are you surprised? They were playing with so dead it was like hitting a couple of tube socks, and the parks were so cavernous it was like trying to hit one out of Yosemite. That man was so strong after I got done with him that he could have probably hit one out of Yosemite! Ever since then, I've been a Yankees fan, more or less."

  "Yeah, I guess I?
??m with you," Manuel concurred.

  They both walked in through the automatic sliding doors of the hospital and then Hartwell smiled at Daniel, just as he did years earlier when the boy was in the waiting area with his mother, and Daniel smiled back.

  "What did I tell you about strange people?" Belinda Thompson asked her son.

  Hartwell thought, "There's no one stranger than you, mom."

  And Daniel laughed and thought, "You can say that again!"

  "There's no one stranger than you, mom," Hartwell thought again as Daniel laughed and Hartwell focused his energies on influencing Dr. Marc Levine to follow his marching orders.

  Daniel and Belinda were ushered through the golden doors, much to her surprise and delight, and present-day Daniel was awoken from his slumber at Hartwell's house and was now walking next to his younger counterpart.

  "Who are you?" young Daniel asked as he looked up.

  "I am you," modern Daniel replied as he looked down and then extended his fist.

  "I'm cool with that," seven year-old Daniel beamed at seeing his muscular development.

  "I bet you are, little guy," Daniel countered with a big smile on his face, while Belinda focused on the promise of the vaunted swine flu vaccine.

  Hartwell put Dr. Levine and Belinda in an extended slumber, but before she went out, Belinda said to both Daniel's, "I just didn't want anything further to happen to you. There were so many things in our world that I just couldn't explain." And then she looked at Hartwell, "It sort of freaked me out." And, as she was fading, Hartwell replied, "You did a great job raising him, Belinda, and you