by Phil Wohl
group. When Kayla and Maxwell were born, the natural coupling of Daniel and Nicole – vampire and protector – and Andrew and Carla – both hunters – went largely unnoticed. But, the coupling of Maxwell and Kayla – vampire and hunter – gathered immortal energy until the creation of Samuel sent a sonic boom through the bloodline of Lowery.
While vampires and hunters had mixed in the past, this was the first coupling in the Lowery ‘family tree’ that produced offspring. This was viewed as a direct betrayal against all vampires, especially one such as Lowery who had spent his vampire life trying to strengthen the coven.
SIX
The conception of Samuel most impacted Hartwell, after of course Kayla and Maxwell. It was a case of Hartwell knowing something was up before he and Daniel recognized two heartbeats within Kayla when she touched their shoulders.
Images of Lowery came to Hartwell in his visions, both while awake and during times of meditation and rest. While he didn’t share the details of these visions with anyone else, his son Daniel started to sense that something was afoot, but he didn’t approach Hartwell until after the official announcement of Kayla’s pregnancy.
“You don’t seem like yourself lately,” Daniel said to Hartwell as they hovered above the ocean as if they were sitting in a boat. He then acted like he was casting a fishing line, although there was nothing visible in his hands.
Hartwell was very rarely serious unless it directly involved his family or doing battle.
“Who am I acting like?”
Daniel ingested the sarcastic response and returned with his own barb.
“Like a really jittery, paranoid version of yourself.”
Hartwell looked around because he didn’t want to air his visions with the group just yet.
“Got one!” Daniel said as he flipped his faux-fishing rod and a large fish emerged from the water and nestled on top of the water as if it had landed in the boat. He was now wearing a bucket hat with fishing lures attached all around.
“Love the hat!” Hartwell said, trying to change the subject and put off any talk about his visions.
Daniel was not buying it, “So, these visions you’ve been having…” was all he had to say to reinvigorate the conversation.
“How did you…” Hartwell started to say, before realizing how extraordinary and advanced his son had become.
“I just scanned you and saw this really creepy guy who was threatening you.” Daniel said and then tossed his hat into the sky until it disappeared. He then pointed to the flapping fish next to him and flicked his finger, propelling the fish into the air and then to safety back into its watery home.
He leaned closer to Hartwell and sneered, “I don’t like it when people threaten you.”
Hartwell smirked, “Yeah, I don’t like it either,” he replied as the two men touched heads in an expression of love and devotion.
Daniel was instantly linked into a vision of Alexander Lowery, which he projected in front of the two men on the water.
“Thomas, I can see you found your son…”
“Who is this guy?” Daniel asked Hartwell.
Lowery was able to interact with the men.
“I am your father’s sire, my son.”
Daniel wasn’t playing any of that, especially from a source that appeared to be threatening his family.
“I am not your son,” Daniel hissed.
Hartwell had never seen his son so combative and confrontational.
“No need for hostility, for you can look at me as a grandfather of sorts,” Lowery said, trying to keep Daniel calm.
Daniel scanned the vampire’s image and replied, “In blood only.”
Lowery then turned his attention to Hartwell and his mood quickly turned south.
“As for you, Thomas... I am quite disappointed in your progression. Only sired once in your century while our race has become vulnerable.”
Hartwell knew that Lowery would not be confronting him just because he had only sired Brandon Justice. He tried to stall for time so he could tell Daniel to protect Kayla.
“So, what is this, my century performance review?” Hartwell panned.
Daniel received the message and then left his projected image on the water while he zoomed back to the house to locate Kayla.
It was quiet on the main floor, as Daniel located Kayla sleeping in a bedroom that had just been built by Thaddeus. He sent out a distress signal and the room was filled up within seconds.
Belinda was getting a pedicure and still had fresh polish on her toes, “Oh darn, it streaked!”
“We’re under attack,” Daniel simply said.
He looked at Max, “They’re after Kayla,” he said and then zoomed out of the room and replaced his image on the water with the real thing.
Cal, Thaddeus and Garrison organized everyone back at the house, while Kayla slept peacefully in the midst of pending chaos.
“What’s wrong?” Samuel asked Maxwell.
Maxwell thought, “You are what’s wrong,” after he scanned the conversation on the water.
“You have breached the covenants of centuries of vampires by letting your descendants mix with the enemy and produce a species of which cannot be,” Lowery said to Hartwell.
Samuel was gaining in strength, knowledge and size by the minute, and he realized for the first time that his being was a crossing of the streams of the immortals.
“I am what’s wrong, daddy?”
Max recovered quickly, “You are about all that is right in the world, Samuel. As long as I am here, nobody will ever harm you.”
Kayla came out of a deep sleep momentarily, “Are you talking to my stomach again?” before she floated back asleep.
“He talked to me first!” Max said internally as Samuel smiled.
Meanwhile, back on the water, the verbal battle between the ages continued as Cal joined Hartwell and Daniel in their discussion with Lowery.
“Hunter, glad you could join us,” Lowery stated in his usually creepy and calm voice.
Cal was ready to reply before he sensed vampire, really bad vampire.
“Do you know this guy?” he asked Hartwell.
“He sired me,” Hartwell replied.
“Oh, that would explain the stench,” Cal said to Lowery with the intent of only getting under his skin and not his allies.
Lowery smiled, “You will get your chance, hunter. In fact, you all will get your chance soon enough to pay for your transgressions. Your day of atonement will once on the day of the new moon.”
Daniel and Cal looked at Hartwell for clarification, but he put his hands up – palms up – to say he didn’t know.
“I’m a little out of practice.”
Lowery rolled his eyes, “Even more disappointed now, Thomas.” He then continued, first starting to explain the ‘moon’ concept. “A moon… oh, the hell with it! Just be ready to meet your maker two months from today!” he yelled as his image vanished.
The three men absorbed the information and then Hartwell looked at Cal in confusion, “How are you standing here right now?”
“Yeah, I thought you didn’t like water,” Daniel added.
“Max brought me out here,” Cal answered.
“I’m here with Kayla,” Max said internally to the men.
Daniel said, “Thanks, Max.” He then turned to Cal, his father in this life, and said, “We have two months to make you guys more comfortable around water.”
He then looked at his father in his previous life, and said to Hartwell, “By comfortable, I mean in the water not in the bottom of the ocean for 15 years.”
Hartwell looked at Cal, “Sorry about that.”
Cal smiled, “Just give me a ride home and we’ll call it even, for now.”
Daniel held Cal’s arms and scanned his genetic code, making a shocking and potentially game-changing discovery.
“Hold that thought,” he said as he flashed back to the house.
SIX
It was now summer, which meant that vampires on the East Coast were situated on Martha’s Vineyard, Cape Cod, the Hampton’s, Fire Island, Newport and the Jersey Shore. The dense concentration of people in these areas made it easier to target the wealthy, who usually had a superior grade of blue blood.
Alexander Lowery had been gradually gathering his charges in anticipation of snuffing out a ‘new evil’ that was about to emerge in Beach Haven. He had sired hundreds-of-thousands of vampires in his 150 years in the field, although many were now either mortal or had passed away. With 100 deaths as a barrier for all vampires on the road to mortality, it became difficult to protect them all.
Lowery had been stuck on 99 deaths for the better part of the last 25 years. He actually came up with Hartwell’s strategy of burying the hunter on the ocean floor years before Hartwell used it on Cal. He had all of his vampires employ a similar strategy - this way, he was able to build his vampire and protector army unabated. Hunters were buried from the rocky coast of the Pacific Ocean to the sandy beaches of the Atlantic Ocean. So, their march through Hartwell and friends to Samuel was a clear, unobstructed path.
Lowery was talking to his long-time protector Abraham Ellison.
“It’s going to be like Custar’s last stand at Little Bighorn. They have 18 people and we have thousands.”
“Never underestimate an opponent that is backed into a corner on their home turf,” Ellison replied.
“We have numbers and we have the cause. What do they have? Hartwell? He didn’t even act like a true vampire over the past 100 years. What kind of army does he have? He only sired one little boy, and that kid is afraid of peanuts!”
“I don’t think he