“Cool! Thanks, grandpa’! Dad, did you see what Grandpa’ Blake just gave me?”
“Yes, Max.” Daniel smiled and then looked at Hartwell, because he was amazed at what his son had just done.
“I know,” Hartwell beamed.
“Is it always that easy?” Belinda asked as she placed a bottle in
Max’s mouth, even though he could have technically fed himself.
Garrison was working on a New York Times crossword puzzle and didn’t bother to even pick up his head.
“Here we go…”
Hartwell was ready to break out into a speech, but there was nothing to say.
“Yes, that was pretty easy!” he replied as everyone laughed. “My first fight, I wound up being skewered on the limb of a tree courtesy of my new friend Thaddeus Brewster.”
Maggie shot him a look and then eyeballed Maxwell, telling him “Not in front of the baby.”
“Cool!” Max exclaimed. “Did it hurt grandpa’? Did you get him back?”
“Yes, it hurt Maxwell. And I did get him back… eventually.” “You know they’re going to figure it out,” Daniel stated. “Eventually,” Hartwell replied.
“What did you guys do last night?” Nicole asked as she entered the
room.
There was only one person in the room who knew how to answer such a thorny question.
“They went bowling!” Max proudly stated internally.
Cal was in denial for months, as the vampire group’s precision was truly a sight to behold. It got so one-sided after a while that the hunters decided to take a break - a vacation if you will - from the beat-down.
The hunters had suffered through a multitude of thrashings as payback for the callous treatment Hartwell endured at the end of his first tour of duty as a vampire.
“I can’t believe they did that to me,” Hartwell said to Daniel, Max and
Garrison.
“To be honest boss, you didn’t put up much of a fight,” Garrison said. Hartwell was willing to accept that, but still shot Gary a look.
“C’mon, Gar! The daily soup special at the Beach Haven Diner?” “What does the diner menu have to do with killing someone?” Max
asked.
Daniel smirked and then played a five-minute montage of the week- long soup run in the middle of the room.
The week started with split pea soup, and the strategy worked so well that Emily Brewster returned to the Beach Haven Diner to see what the
daily soup special was - the top of the inserted, typed page read, “Squash
Puree.”
Emily devised a special stacking strategy that would incorporate both the soup special and Hartwell’s weakened state, including his inability to fend of the hunter trio. The vampire’s blood levels were low, because he was helping Daniel make the transition to vampire, and his protectors were also ill-prepared when the hunters showed up in the parking lot of Hooters at 2:00 a.m.
Gary was making small-talk with Sharon.
“I hear they have good wings here,” implying that he had frequented the glorified strip club in a purely culinary capacity.
Before the protectors could even react, Thaddeus the bear had pinned Hartwell down. Hartwell struggled to move, but his lack of strength made him an unwilling spectator. Emily jumped on her father’s back - also as a bear - and Hartwell was feeling the pressure of more than 1,000 pounds of hairy bear on top of him.
By the time Sharon and Gary picked up their heads and realized the fight had already begun grizzly bear Andrew had climbed up a nearby tree and was already airborne to his bear-pile destination.
Gary looked down at Hartwell and then eyed a descending Andrew and restated the obvious, “Ugh, that ain't not good.”
Andrew hit the pile with such force that Hartwell exploded - well, for our dining purposes, he pureed - in a 50-foot radius all over the parking lot pavement.
Soup was served on Hartwell the next three nights... he was cracked like a lobster, shot full of silver bullet holes like a bowl of Texas chili, and finally had his lifeless body dropped to the bottom of the ocean like a matzoh ball. It was a long week for Hartwell, who was busy protecting Daniel from any potential attack before he turned.
SEVEN
“Are we ever gonna’ get back out there again?” Drew asked Cal as
the senior hunter sat on the couch dipping potato chips into a can of French onion dip.
“You know, I can eat this stuff all day,” a glazed-over Cal replied, superfluous to his nephew’s comment.
Cal missed his mouth and a huge glob of dip plopped on his already- soiled t-shirt.
“You already do,” a disappointed and frustrated Andrew mumbled. Cal fetched another chip from the oversized bag and then scooped
up the dip from his chest and ate it.
“When was the last time you washed that shirt?” Drew asked.
It took Cal a few seconds for the snotty tone in Drew’s voice to resonate in his core.
“Are you trying to piss me off?”
“If that would get you to move off that couch, then yes!” Drew defiantly answered.
Cal had thoughts of teaching Drew yet another lesson, but those were squashed by a bag of chips and a zesty dip that wouldn’t stop calling his name.
Drew gave up and turned away while saying in disgust, “Fat ass.” Cal had a chip loaded and it was halfway in his mouth when Drew’s
words finally bit.
The bag of chips scattered all over the room as the dip was ejected into the air from Cal flipping over the table in anger.
“Fat? Fat?” Cal yelled as Drew smiled at first and then feared for his life as Cal the raging bull was on his tail. Cal picked up Drew and then hurled him through the front window, an act that would have caused major damage to a mere mortal.
Emily ran into the foyer and looked through the window. “What did he do to deserve that?”
“He called me a fat-ass!”
Emily couldn’t resist, “Those chips must have stopped calling your name for a minute.”
Cal was so angry that he picked up his twin sister and threw her through the window space, landing next to Drew.
Thaddeus witnessed the abuse first-hand and swung his foot, making solid contact with the swollen butt in question, sending Cal hurtling toward the front lawn next to his two victims. He then shook his head and looked around, “You’re all useless,” and then got up and walked away.
Cal’s pride might have been hurt, but a swift kick to his posterior had awoken his senses and given him a fresh perspective. While he was flying through the air, new realms of possibility were downloaded to his brain.
“We should get back to doing what we do,” Cal said to his father later that day.
“Apology accepted,” Thaddeus replied.
Cal never apologized - at least he would never utter the word ‘sorry’
unless it had a negative connotation.
Thaddeus knew his son, and it had become painfully obvious that Cal was sulking from losing so much. The only thing that would put an end to the pity party was his foot having a meeting with Cal’s butt.
“How do we stop them from killing us every night?” Thad asked, seeing that Cal’s brain was now in overdrive.
“I’ve detected a common theme in all of our defeats.” “What is that?” Thad questioned.
Cal moved in closer as if imparting top secret information. “We need Carla.”
Carla was the only member of the hunter party that had not participated in any of the fights, aside from baby Kayla of course. It had been a lonely life for her and the baby since the battles started. The family would leave in the evening and not return until she awoke in the morning, because it took that long for the regeneration process to complete.
“Carla, we need you,” Andrew said after he talked to Cal and
Thaddeus.
“What’s the matter? Did Kayla spit up? Does she need to be changed?” she replied.
 
; She was so focused on the baby that her mind had basically formed around the little one.
“No, no. You need to come with us to the next battle,” Drew clarified. “Oh, I guess that’s okay,” she said with some hesitation.
Kayla was in her crib taking a nap, so the veil of peace had temporarily been undone.
“Don't you want to go?” Drew asked, because he wasn’t convinced by her passive tone.
As the seconds passed, Carla became more in-tune with her hunter brethren.
“Yeah, I’m in,” she stated in a more confident tone.
Kayla drank a few more bottles and took a few more naps by the time her mom was ready to go out that night. The family drew straws and, ironically, Aaron picked the short one, which meant he would be staying behind to watch Kayla.
Carla put her daughter to bed and it was safe to say that Kayla had no idea of her plan that night. Twenty minutes later, however, she had a dream that her mother was out patrolling in the park and she screamed, “Mommy!” internally.
Carla thought she was hearing things but replied, “Go back to sleep, Kayla. Everything is all right.”
Kayla wasn’t convinced, so she acting on her instincts even while sleeping.
“They're out tonight,” was all that Maxwell said to his vampire team members.
It had been over a month since their last victory, yet the mood was still upbeat. In the modern-day vampire/protector world, there was no reason to walk around the streets at midnight unless someone was looking for you. There was no sense in being a sitting duck, because vampires always loved the action.
“I wonder what he’s going to come up with tonight.” Blake said to
Belinda as the others started to gather.
Nicole came out of her room, but before she did she said to Daniel, “I
want to go tonight.”
Daniel didn’t know what to say to his wife, so he decided to let the group decide her fate.
“Nicole wants to fight tonight,” Daniel said to the group. Hartwell was hesitant to comply with the request based on
superstition. He then deferred to Garrison, who stroked his gray beard while pondering the question.
“Tough to break up a streak,” but then he looked into Nicole’s bright blue eyes and, as usual, she got whatever she wanted from her grandpa’.
Garrison gracefully bowed out in order to watch his great grandson, as the other six people headed out to Beach Haven Park. Speaking of Max, he was back on his game this night.
“They have six: fresh mom subbing for sequoia tree,” he said referring to Karla fighting in place of Aaron.
Nicole angrily muttered, “Carla.”
“Stay in formation,” Cal whispered. “They have been coming at us from all angles.”
And come at them from all angles they did…
Max barked out the plan as the group approached the target. “Swan dive!”
The vampire group took to the air in unison and then the protectors, Nicole and Garrison, turned into super-sized Orca killer whales, while the vampires hovered over them to clean up anything that wasn’t pressed into oblivion.
Carla never saw the other group coming, even when the full moon cast a shadow over the descending whales. But she instinctively spun out of danger and then did a few forward rolls along the grass while reaching for her long, silver sword, which was secured at her waist.
The wins had come too easily for the vampire group. While Hartwell knew from adversity and losing a few, Daniel had no comprehension of what it meant to lose, even back to his days on the Beach Haven High School Volleyball Team with Nicole and Drew. The ‘Three Slamigo’s’ never lost a match and barely lost more than a few points in an afternoon.
Daniel obviously got too close to the action when Nicole scaled back from whale-self to human-self. The quick count of flattened hunters totaled five…
As Max said, “Still one in play,” Carla emerged from the shadows and fended off an advancing Belinda with a spinning backhand fist to the jaw, while she continued to spin. The blade of her sword reflected off the moon
as it glided clean through Nicole and then Daniel, separating their heads from their bodies.
Carla looked at Hartwell, not knowing the protocol of the fight. Hartwell placed his right fist against his open palm, shuffled his feet together, and then bowed to the skillful warrior.
Carla eased the adrenaline rush and then mirrored Hartwell’s action by bowing in respect back to him. She then cleaned the blood off her sword by wiping it on her shirt under her arm, and then put it back on her hip as she walked away. Hartwell picked up Daniel’s head and body and Maggie collected Nicole’s affects as they all flew off.
Carla slept like a baby that night, feeling satisfied and relaxed after a successful fight. The next morning she checked on Kayla and then took a long, hot shower before dealing with her little girl for the day.
Aaron was still asleep as the ladies were sitting in the kitchen. After a few minutes, the fallen hunters started trickling in from their overnight stay
in the park as worm food.
The group was not happy, to say the least, and were led by Cal who was completely frustrated.
“She didn’t make a difference, I was wrong!” he said to Drew and
Thaddeus as they strolled in wearing dirt, grass and blood-soaked clothing.
Sharon was the first to see a clean and seemingly-rested Carla sitting in the kitchen feeding Kayla.
Cal had already made the right turn from the foyer to his bedroom but Sharon said, “Cal,” but he didn’t react. She then called him a little louder, “Cal!”
Calvin Brewster was on the worst losing streak of his life and he wasn’t in the mood to be talked down off the ledge.
“What?” he replied in an annoyed tone.
Sharon wasn’t having any of that lip as she aggressively grabbed him by the shirt and pushed him into the kitchen, so he could get a better vantage point.
He was not overly surprised to see Carla, but he was surprised to see her looking so clean and rested.
“What are you doing here? How did you get back so fast?” Cal asked
Carla.
Carla turned from gazing at Kayla, and revealed a smile as wide as the mighty Mississippi.
Andrew was the first to react, “She did it! She did it!” he yelled while grabbing Cal’s arms.
A celebration ensued as Cal found a quiet moment and happily reflected, “She did it!”
EIGHT
“That girl was in the zone,” Hartwell said after Daniel and Nicole came back to life again the next morning.
For the first time in months, it was the vampire-protector crew trying to chase all of the unknowns.
“What happened?” a freshly-showered Daniel asked his son.
“I said there was still one in play,” Max replied internally while gurgling outwardly.
Nicole was the ever-protectant mother, “He did say that,” while looking at Daniel.
“Can you give us a replay?” Hartwell asked Daniel.
Daniel was reluctant at first because it could potentially be embarrassing, but he was convinced that it would be an excellent learning tool for the group.
He cast the 3-D image into the middle of the room as usual, as the team went airborne in search of another quick ending to a one-sided confrontation.
Daniel had the image on hyper slo-motion with multiple angle capabilities, as Hartwell stepped into the image and rotated it 180 degrees so they were behind the hunters and facing themselves.
“Wow, that is cool!” former beach king Blake Wallace said as Nicole and Garrison morphed into their whale-self’s.
“They didn’t see us coming,” Gary beamed.
As Nicole and Gary neared the contact zone an aura, for a lack of a better word, surrounded Carla.
“Did you see that?” Belinda pointed and exclaimed. “What is that?” Maggie asked.
Daniel froze the action and Hartwell touched Carl
a’s image with his finger so he could focus on her, and enlarge and sharpen her image.
“I didn’t know you could do that,” Daniel stated.
Hartwell looked real close,” I think it’s some sort of protective field.” “I didn’t feel any resistance when I hit the ground,” Garrison stated
and then he turned to Nicole, “Did you?”
She didn’t know what to say other than, “So much blubber… I didn’t feel hardly anything except the ground.”
The group laughed at her honest, yet sophomoric confession. Hartwell let the frame continue as he backed the image up to wide-
screen.
Carla roll-dodged free from Nicole the whale and then rose to her feet as Belinda advanced toward her after Max gave the alert.
“I had a clear shot at her but something stopped me from getting too close,” Belinda said.
The video advanced and it showed that Belinda would have finished
Carla off if she wasn’t restricted.