by Phil Wohl
Hartwell said to Max, “So he’s not after you, Kayla and Samuel after all!”
The three men nodded in accord.
Hartwell defiantly concluded, “Well, if it’s me he wants, then it’s me he’ll get.”
FOURTEEN
In reality, Lowery wasn’t really sure how many lives Hartwell had left, and he really didn’t care! He would have his army keep swinging for the fences until Hartwell ran out of lives. And then they would go after him one more time as a mortal, even though Lowery knew this was the most heinous breach of the vampire code – not that vampires are the most ethical and moral of species…
While Hartwell house was abuzz with activity, including mental and physical training, Lowery was merely lounging at the Beach Haven Inn waiting for his full complement of vampires and protectors to arrive. They had taken over the hotel and drained most of the registered guests and staff, before Lowery turned each and every one of them, further bolstering his impressive army.
While most of the supernatural guests were having a good time, there was one important cog in the lowery machine that was starting to dissent. Abraham Ellison had been with Lowery since he turned 18 and was summoned to protect the vampire. It was hard for him to remember a life without Lowery, where his every thought was to protect and serve, protect and serve.
He needed to leave the Inn for a few hours and clear his head, so he went into town and decided to get something to eat. The appetite of the protector is a lot more subdued than that of the hunter, but it is still measures volumes above that of the average mortal. A body of this capability and skill needs fuel to keep functioning at a high level, and when Ellison saw the words “Beach Haven Bagel,” he knew he had come upon a place that would certainly help fill his belly.
Everything looked so good, so he stepped up to the counter and a teenage, pimple-faced kid asked him, “Can I help you, sir?”
“Yes, you can young man. I’ll have two everything bagels with lox cream cheese, one poppy seed bagel with tuna salad and one with whitefish salad, one potato knish, two pickles, two bags of chips and three black-and-white cookies.”
The kid was unfazed by the order, and wasn’t even the least bit curious if the man would eating all of the food himself.
“Is that to stay or to go?”
Ellison looked around the 15-seat establishment and replied, “I think I’ll eat it here.”
The kid said, “Just take a seat and I’ll bring it over to you when it’s ready. Do you want any of the bagels toasted?”
Ellison was obviously in an adventurous mood.
“Yes. Can you toast the poppy seed bagels, please?”
“No problem,” the kid replied.
“He would make a good candidate for the Lowery Conversion Program,” Ellison muttered under his breath.
The low-voiced words would have usually gone unnoticed if a few extraordinary beings were not also present in the restaurant. Thaddeus and Garrison were meeting their lady friends for lunch and just happened to be merely a pebbles’ throw away from Ellison.
“Did you hear that?” Thad asked Gary internally.
Gary was busy eating, but he jokingly replied, “About the kid wanted to know if that guy wanted any of his bagels toasted?”
He winked at Thad, who was about to set him straight before he realized the jest.
“Who is that guy?” Gary asked.
Thad inhaled a few times through his nose and then closed his eyes in oder to fully process the man’s essence.
“That’s pure protector. I’m surprised you don’t recognize the scent of one of your people?” Thad questioned.
Gary inhaled a few times and then came to the same conclusion.
“Must have been masked by the musky scent of the lox. I can barely smell anything over that stuff!”
“I will have to keep that in mind next time I’m trying to track you,” Thad replied half-jokingly.
Ellison sat down and then noticed that the two men were looking his way, so he nodded in a rather subdued greeting. He sat down but didn’t realize at first that he was among creatures that were as special as he was. He must have been downwind from the fan that was working its magic in the corner of the room, because the scent of a hunter filled his flared nostrils
About the same time that Ellison caught wind of Thaddeus, the hunter was focused on protector in the lunchtime bagel crowd. The smell of fresh bagels baking and then being slid into bins was replaced by the scent of the enemy in his midst. He nudged Garrison, who looked at him and quickly realized by the urgency in Thad’s eyes that it could be time to throw-down.
Ellison stare was unwavering on Garrison as he said internally, “You wouldn’t go against your own kind now, would you?”
“But I would,” Thaddeus sneered.
Garrison put his hand on Thaddeus and said, “There will be plenty of time for that, Thad.”
“Yes hunter, I’m sure we’ll see each other again real soon,” Ellison said in his most creepy voice.
Thad’s mood appeared to brighten instantly, at least outwardly, as he turned to the two ladies he and Gary were keeping company with and jovially said, “Ladies, will excuse me for a moment. Nature calls.” Then his face turned cold at he looked at his new partner in crime, “Gary.”
He smiled as he stood up and then locked his happily-intense gaze on Ellison, who was definitely under the impression that the hunter had backed down. He looked into the hunters’ eyes and experienced a flashback of the Thad walking toward him a few days earlier and then everything went dark.
Thad casually dipped his hand in his right pocket and then gripped his brass knuckles again, as Garrison sat back in his chair and once again enjoyed the show. While the action that occurred next was too fast for the human eye to detect, it was in beautiful slow-motion for Garrison Phillips.
Thaddeus was so old school that he was wearing a pocket watch with the chain connected to his left belt loop, and the watch nestled comfortably in his left pocket. He dipped his left hand into his pocket and pulled out the watch, clicking it open effortlessly with his thumb. The move was meant as a diversionary tactic to interrupt Ellison’s focus, and freeze his thoughts, because he must have figured out that he had already run into Thad and his jarring right cross.
The pocket watch was angled in such a way as to deflect the sun’s rays into Ellison’s eyes, who squinted when the light interrupted his gaze. Thad took one hard step to his left and bent his left knee, as all of his power was shifting forward toward a blinded Ellison. Thad’s right hand hit the daylight as his enhanced knuckles traveled a tight and short path from high right shoulder toward the center of Ellison’s universe. Knuckles crashed against the bridge of Ellison’s nose as Thad dipped his pocket watch back in its home, while using his now-open hand to palm Ellison’s head and stop it from moving violently.
Thad kept on walking to the bathroom, only stopping briefly to nod at Gary, who gladly returned the gesture. Ellison was once-again unconscious from a mighty Thaddeus punch, but this did little to deter the bagel kid who was about to make a big lunch delivery.
“Okay! Here we go, sir,” as he carefully placed two trays of food down on the table in front of Ellison.
“Would you like something to drink?” the kid asked before realizing that the customer could not answer.
The kid chuckled, “Must be nap time. I’ll bring you a cup of coffee just to be on the safe side.”
The men were gone with their ladies by the time Ellison woke up ten minutes later. Blood was trickling out of his nose and into his mouth, and he almost choked on the vital liquid. But he quickly recovered and removed a handkerchief from his right pocket and dabbed the red fluid away. He looked down and picked up the steaming cup of black coffee and angrily mumbled, “Two weeks… we’re going to kill these guys.”
Ellison entered Beach Haven Bagel unsure of his vampire’s intentions, but left with a renewed sense of confidence i
n Lowery. He now felt that the agenda was secondary to repeatedly ending the life of any hunter that got in his way again.
FIFTEEN
Kayla woke up the morning after giving birth to Samuel and almost simultaneously marrying Maxwell, and felt like everything that happened was just a fluffy – but extremely painful – dream. That was, until, she rolled over and snuggled next to Maxwell and then Samuel came gliding through the room.
“Zoooooom!” Samuel yelled as he was taking his powers out for a test drive,”
Maxwell happily turned toward Kayla and said, “Good morning.”
They looked at each other and she said, “Can you believe the size of that kid? If he keeps getting bigger, it’s going to be impossible to hide him.”
Max fully absorbed the conversation he had the previous day with Hartwell and Daniel, and was no able to show off his new talent to his blushing bride. Max was zooming around the room one second and then he could be neither seen nor heard the next.
Kayla sat up suddenly and exclaimed, “Where did he go? Samuel, where are you?”
And before she could even finish the sentence, Max removed the cloaking shield and Samuel reappeared.
“I’m right here, mom!” he giggled.
Kayla looked at her husband in amazement, “I guess size doesn’t matter, then. Can they see him now?”
Max kissed Kayla on the forehead, “No, only we can see him.”
Samuel crashed into a glass vase in the foyer and then swept up the