by Phil Wohl
about losing Kayla, and your parents, and me and your nanna,” he said, referring to Maggie, “and look deep inside yourself to unlock your true potential.”
Max looked over at Hartwell and seemed lost. He was born at a different time when hunters did not live with vampires and protectors under one roof. His birth was also one wrapped in controversy, as his origin was wondered to have been from either Daniel or Andrew until he – while still unborn – made it abundantly clear to Daniel that he unequivocally was his father. The lasting impact of this stunted beginning appeared to still be impacting him to this day.
Hartwell could sense Max’s emotional difficulty despite his seemingly calm façade. While it could have been more productive to go directly to Daniel and talk about the issue, he decided to utilize a more indirect route that might take a little longer, but it had the potential of producing better long-term results.
He let Max go as the group’s more rapid walk changed over to a light jog. Of course, the vampires usually let the others use their feet while they glided about six inches above the earth’s surface. This gave Hartwell more time to work on Nicole’s mental side, while her physical side eased into a pre-fight warm-up.
“Nicole, you must reassure Maxwell that his place in this world is by your side. He is trying to come into his own, and it appears that he has blocked his true powers off out of fear for losing you and Daniel. He’s never fully gotten over the question of his origin.”
Nicole’s subliminal mind processed everything Hartwell inputted, and then placed it away for the time being so she could focus on the battle. He then put only one thought it Daniel’s subconscious, “Support anything your wife decides to do.”
The collective jog graduated to a run then a sprint, as the group rolled up on the great lawn of Beach Haven Park for a Wednesday night rumble.
Ellison sat back in his deluxe lounge chair by the pool and was in a cigar smoking mood, so he had a few of his minions go down to Cuba and fetch him some stogies. He clipped off the end of the cigar, lit up the other end, took a big puff, and then said to Ellison, “It’s time.”
Ellison mumbled to himself, “Oh happy day.”
Lowery heard him say something and yelled, “Say something, Ellison?”
“Yes sir, I said this will be a happy day!”
Lowery smiled broadly and took another puff of his smelly cigar, “Yes it will, my spunky friend. Yes it will.”
Ellison was in no mood to prolong the battle on this night. There would not be a feeling out process his time around. He turned to the throng of minions and asked a nearby vampire to take him up in the air so he could speak to the collective. Once he was about 50 feet in the air he yelled, “Full-out attack!!”
The hoard of vampires and protectors followed him in the sky in what looked like a diamond formation. By the time they reached the park, the diamond had transitioned into the shape of a pesky mosquito.
Hartwell’s group saw the formation buzzing toward them and then Max said the only thing on his mind when he barked internal instructions to the group.
“Bug zapper formation!”
Hartwell’s almost laughed at the call, which elicited the team to form an electric force field situated from the ground to almost 30 feet above the ground. Lowery’s determined group, led by Ellison, inched closer and closer until Ellison screamed out of frustration as he collided with the Maxwell’s force field in a kamikaze-like maneuver where he gave up his life so he could be put out of his misery, even though he knew that the others could crash through.
The collective strength of the giant mosquito was no match to, what amounted to, the backyard bug zapper. Fewer than 500 of Lowery’s men perished, including Ellison, and all of Hartwell’s group bit the dust this time. Kayla’s protection worked like a charm until the collective inertia of the swarm of mosquitoes buzzed right through Thaddeus, Cal and Emily.
TWENTY-EIGHT
The house was real quiet that night, as Kayla decided to catch up on some rest after she realized that no one would be coming home until the dawn. But there was a lot more action going on at the field than a pile of lifeless bodies was letting onto.
Hartwell’s subliminal messages to Maxwell, Nicole and Daniel achieved its intended result as the spirits of all three people floated above the rubble of their now-useless bodies and into a dimension that only existed in their minds. Hartwell’s subconscious also came along for the float, although he harkened back to his early days with Daniel was merely was an interested observer from afar.
“How did we get up here?” Maxwell asked. “I thought we were dead.”
“A better question might be, where are we?” Daniel asked.
The thick clouds receded and the three were in Nicole’s hospital delivery room, which Max had marked as the place he had been the happiest in his short life with just his parents.
“We’re in my birthing room,” Nicole stated. “Wonder what we’re doing in here?”
Max blushed, “I think that was my fault.”
“Why did you bring us here?” Nicole asked.
Daniel was sitting in a big chair against the wall next to Nicole, who was lying in her hospital bed, which was made out of a cloud. Max was in an adult-sized bassinet – if there is such a thing – and was swaddled in a large light blue blanket.
Max thought about the question and then the answer came easily to him as he looked around the room.
“I don’t know why, but this was the happiest time that I can remember with just the three of us.”
Nicole and Daniel were flabbergasted by their son’s statement. In their minds, Max couldn’t have been brought up in a more supportive, loving environment. They looked at each other in a shocked form of solidarity, with just a hint of denial and healthy portion of parental guilt.
Daniel took the lead because Nicole was temporarily unable to verbally express her confusion, even in her subconscious mind.
“I don’t understand,” he said and then he looked at Nicole. “We don’t understand? Are saying that once we left this hospital room that it all went downhill?”
Nicole was starting to get her bearings back as Maxwell answered Daniel’s question.
“I can’t explain it, but I felt comfortable and at peace in this room, and when we left everything changed for me.”
“Was it something we did?” Daniel asked.
Max tried to be diplomatic because he didn’t want to hurt his parents’ feelings.
“I don’t think so,” he replied, although he knew deep-down that the answer was a resounding “Yes!”
Something snapped in Nicole and she was on the offensive before the two most important men in her life even knew what happened. She rose from the bed and held Daniel’s hand, channeling the appropriate flashback that she was going to narrate for Max’s viewing.
The three of them were now standing in the middle of the main room at Hartwell’s house, years earlier when Daniel came over and his father broke the news to him that he was a vampire.
“I am you mother and I can sense you still have some anxiety over the origin of your life,” Nicole said to Max after she was able to tap into his nerve center.
The family never talked about the whole Andrew-Nicole-Daniel triangle after Daniel was revealed to be Max’s father, probably because they were all happy to finally put the stressful issue to rest.
Nicole continued, “When your grandfather told your father about where he came from and what he had to do to see his son again, your father was astonished to learn he was a vampire,” she said over Hartwell showing Daniel black-and-white pictures of their family in turn of the 20th century San Francisco.
“It took your father a while to wrap his arms around his destiny, but he probably knew all along that he was different than everyone else. Am I right?” she asked Daniel.
He smiled, “You’re right.”
She flashed back further, “A few weeks before that, we celebrated his 18th birthday… if you know
what I mean,” she said leaning into Daniel, who hugged her tight.
“C’mon!” Max yelled at the sight, sounds and thoughts of parental affection.
“Okay,” Nicole said, as she patted her son's head. “Once your father came to grips with being a vampire, the one thing he knew had he to do was protect me. It was early in his development, so he was unsure what horrible things he could do if he was around me.
Daniel, Nicole and Maxwell are then transported to the boardwalk, where Daniel is Sharon breaking up with Nicole. He told her that he had been with another girl and he said, “she was better than you.”
Modern-day Nicole looked at Daniel, “That hurt.”
“I have apologized for that about a thousand times…” he said looking at Nicole first and then Maxwell, who had the look on his face that his father should make that number 1,001.
“I’m sorry,” Daniel said to his wife, and she replied, “I accept your apology, again.”
Then she continued telling the story, “I was obviously crushed over losing the love of my life,” she turned and she and Daniel blushed. “I went home and cried so much that I used a box of Kleenex.” The three were now on Nicole’s old room as her mother said she was going out to get some more tissues. "Your grandmother went out and I was in no position to be alone, so I contacted the person who I knew would bring me comfort in my time of need, even though we hadn’t spoken for some time. It was purely instinct at that point.”
Drew