Blood Shadow: Book of Hartwell Read online

  when everyone was brought into play – there was no need to start a brawl on such a celebratory occasion.

  Andrew’s girlfriend, Carla, had also flown in for the event, as they both barely got out of high school with a diploma. No college for either one of them, as they believed that they were schooled in the classroom life and any book-learning would be useless in the adventure they were about to undertake.

  Andrew ran out from his bedroom at his mom’s bellowing and was followed by Carla, who was literally taking a ride on his piggy-back. The happy couple and Daniel spent a great deal of time together over the past year, especially when the Thompson’s went over to the Brewster’s for their famous year-round barbecues.

  But this was the first time that the two couples would be together face-to-face – primarily because Andrew was keeping Carla away from Nicole – and Nicole was the one feeling the butterflies in her stomach before the party.

  “So, what is she like?” Nicole asked Daniel the previous day as they sat under a shade tree in her backyard after school.

  Daniel wanted out of the awkward conversation as soon as humanly possible.

  “I don’t know?” he weakly replied.

  “What do you mean, you don’t know? Just give me something.” He stood up and looked down at her, gesturing with his hands for

  emphasis.

  “I’ll tell you one thing, she’s not… she’s nothing like you!”

  Daniel quickly realized the sting his pointed words might have, and moved to nip any potential damage in the bud.

  “That’s not what I meant! What I meant to say is that she’s a female Drew. Yeah, she’s Drew with longer hair, boobs, and..” he looked down to other bodily regions.

  Nicole’s long face was erased and a smile stretched across her face as she got up and chased Daniel, saying, “What do you know all that?”

  He stopped and grabbed her, holding her tight as their faces were only inches apart.

  “A lot more since I kissed you at the dance,” and they passionately kissed.

  Back at the Brewster’s house, Nicole walked through the door and proceeded to the kitchen, where she was greeted by Emily Brewster.

  “Hello, Nicole!” Emily exclaimed, trying to sound positive.

  Nicole wasn’t buying it. She knew that Emily had it out for her since she chose Daniel over Drew at the dance. But, this wasn’t the day to start trouble, and Nicole was much too sweet to throw the first punch.

  “Hi, Mrs. Brewster!” My mom made a Jell-O mold shaped like a bat for the party.” She put the plate down on the kitchen table. “It was the only mold she could find when she opened a box of Halloween stuff.”

  Emily was startled by the desert and started coughing furiously.

  “Are you all right, Mrs. Brewster?” Nicole asked as she rushed to get a glass and fill it with tap water.

  “Here, drink this,” Nicole stated as she handed the glass to Emily and patted her on the back.

  Emily stopped coughing but was still choked up, so she pointed to the backyard in anticipation of Nicole’s next question.

  Nicole said, “Thanks!” and then opened the screen door and walked outside, immediately locking her eyes with Carla Perkins. She walked straight at Andrew’s girlfriend – because she did look like a female version of Andrew – while Daniel watched the gap close between the two girls from across the yard.

  “You must be Carla,” Nicole said as she extended her hand in greeting.

  “You must be Nicole,” Carla replied as they locked in a death grip with their right hands while engaging in a sista’ hug.

  Carla immediately felt threatened by the pretty Nicole and moved fast to establish her territory.

  “He’s my man,” Carla grunted in Nicole’s ear.

  Nicole would usually back off when provoked, but chose to take the low road for a change.

  “Only ‘cause I let you,” denoting a hint of jealousy and a big dose of possession.

  Nicole had no reason to be jealous, but she was uncomfortable with the sight of Drew with another girl. Daniel walked up on the tug-of-war and separated the two future mud-wrestlers and said, “How is everyone going here?”

  Drew was probably the happiest he had ever been at that moment. The two women he loved were openly fighting over him and, for a change, Daniel was on the outside looking in.

  Daniel made sure to stay clear of Andrew and his warrior princess for the rest of the night. Any more sparks and the tension would surely have ignited into a blaze.

  The band was rockin’ and the food was plentiful.

  “I’m gonna’ go to the bathroom. Follow me inside in a few minutes,” Nicole yelled in Daniel’s ear as they watched the band play.

  So, a few minutes later, Daniel made his way inside where he knew that something good was about to happen. He walked through the kitchen doorway and was slammed against the front hall closet.

  Nicole was in heat, “Let’s go back to your house.”

  They ran back to Daniel’s house with speed they had never experienced before. The three-minute car-ride was usually a 12-minute walk and a six-minute run, but they made it this day in under a minute. And that was about as long as it took for Daniel and Nicole to leave a trail of clothing on the way to his bedroom.

  “My birthday present to you is…” Nicole said as she rolled on top of

  Daniel, their bodies becoming one.

  “But…” Daniel mildly protested about the lack of protection. Nicole picked up her left hand and revealed a small purple pack. “I’m on the pill.”

  Daniel was a little slow processing the information, and then it hit him. “Oh, THE PILL!”

  He thought to himself, “That is like the best present anybody’s ever got me.”

  They never returned to the party. About an hour later, Nicole wished her soul-mate a happy birthday and then Daniel passed out after she left.

  SIXTEEN

  Daniel woke up in the middle of the night and walked into the den, where a familiar figure was waiting for him. He rubbed his eyes a few times and said, “It’s you.”

  And then Hartwell – who was now a few inches shorter than his 6’4” son – finally emerged from the shadows at 2:44 a.m. on his son’s 18th birthday.

  Hartwell held his arms open and said, “It’s time, my son.”

  Daniel walked toward Hartwell as the two men met in a long embrace. Just as Daniel started to pull back, Hartwell quickly spun him around and turned into his vampire self. Without hesitation, he then violently bit into a shocked Daniel’s neck.

  “What?” was all Daniel could get out as Hartwell continued to drain his blood before sinking to the carpeted floor.

  Hartwell had his arms around Daniel as he neared closer to death with each shallow breath. The vampire then bit into the underside of his own left wrist and offered it to Daniel.

  “Now drink, my son. Drink so you can finally be with me again,” Hartwell said as he held Daniel’s head toward his wrist so he had to drink the blood, which was more potent than that of a whole team of athletes on steroids.

  Daniel quietly resisted at first but then drank the blood like it was the best thing he had ever tasted.

  “If you get excited, I might be offended,” Hartwell joked as the damage to Daniel’s neck was neutralized and his vitality was fully restored.

  “There’s only one thing left to do,” Hartwell stated.

  Daniel was so high off the blood that he only grunted in response.

  Hartwell said, “See you on the other side,” as his large, thin hands bordered both sides of Daniel’s head until he made one quick motion, breaking Daniel’s neck and instantly killing him.

  Hartwell smiled, “Cracks like lobster.”

  Daniel looked peaceful in the slumber of death, as Hartwell carried him back to his room and tucked him in bed. Feeling like a parent made Hartwell so emotional that he almost shed his first tear since the early

  1900’s, but the moisture froze
in the corner if his eye before hitting the air. He then receded back into the shadows until the next phase of the process had to be implemented.

  Belinda Thompson knew her son was tired and decided to let him sleep. When she checked on him just after midnight, he was snoring so loud that she had to close the door, after kissing him on the forehead and wishing him a happy birthday. But, when she looked at the clock in her car after showing a few houses the next day, it read 2:58, so she thought it was time to go home and check on the birthday boy.

  Before she could walk into the door of her house, Hartwell was working his mojo.It would be obvious to the mortal eye that something was seriously wrong with Daniel as he underwent his vampire transformation. This would not be an ordinary transformation because of

  the blood that Hartwell had infused in Daniel’s veins years earlier at the hospital. Also, Daniel would not be an ordinary vampire once the full conversion was complete.

  Hartwell made Belinda believe that Daniel had mononucleosis, and his white blood count was very low. He also transmitted into her brain that Daniel needed to rest for a few weeks and that he was not to have visitors under any circumstances. He especially didn’t want Nicole to be poking around, because Daniel needed to undergo a pure transformation, free from outside forces. Belinda was also instructed to stay clear of her son.

  Hartwell had many thoughts along the way that he would eliminate Belinda when this time arrived, but now he was having second thoughts. Although she was annoying and disruptively meddlesome, the woman served an emotional purpose and any actions he would take to free her from life would certainly put a wedge between him and Daniel.

  Although it appeared counter-intuitive to believe that Daniel would need attention to get stronger, the opposite was actually true. Each day his body got a little stronger, even without the apparent need for sustenance in the form of food and water. Instead, Hartwell would come by every

  morning and place a few drops of his blood on Daniel’s tongue.

  While Hartwell knew this would strengthen Daniel, he also knew that it would weaken himself to the point of vulnerability. But, he figured that after more than a century of gorging, pillaging, coercing, murdering, and just about any gluttonous behavior that did not involve even an ounce of caring, it was probably time to give back a little.

  Sacrifice was only mentioned in the vampire ‘handbook’ when others were targeted, but this was obviously a special circumstance. Hartwell would do anything for his boy, including giving up his own hedonistic existence.

  While Daniel was beginning his transformation on that first morning, Nicole texted him furiously throughout the day and was starting to think something was wrong – so she decided to stop by his house.

  The front door was closed, so Nicole politely knocked at first and then rang the bell when there was no initial response. Belinda Thompson came to the door and opened it, but kept the screen door locked. Nicole tried to open the screen door but was denied access.

  “Is something wrong, Mrs. T?”

  Belinda moved up to her side of the door and spoke quietly.

  “To tell you the truth, honey, Daniel has mononucleosis. He has a dangerously low white blood count and he needs rest for the next couple of weeks. We’ll see you then. Have a good night.”

  Emily stated her Hartwell-inspired addendum and then closed the front door.

  Nicole walked away from the front door and said, “That was weird.” She predictably walked around the house and tried to sneak in

  Daniel’s window – as she had done countless times – but it was locked and the shade was drawn. Her next thought was to smash in the window, but that was suddenly interrupted by an overwhelming desire to go home and then come back to see her boyfriend in a few weeks.

  Nicole was on her way and so was Hartwell, who had to enjoy his last days as a relatively free vampire until Andrew turned 18. The timing of Daniel and Andrew’s birthdays could not have been worse for Hartwell,

  who would not have time to recoup his strength before Andrew was unleashed. With Andrew in the battle, the numbers were now strongly in favor of the hunters. With Gary, Sharon and Hartwell left to fight Emily, Thaddeus and Andrew, it would only be a matter of time before Drew got through. But, there would be a lesson to be taught before the onslaught.

  “He has mono, Em,” Belinda said to Emily Brewster a few days after the party. And then Belinda continued, being Hartwell’s mouthpiece while Emily analyzed what she was hearing.

  “Mono?” she thought. “I’ve never heard of a hunter coming of age and then getting sick.”

  When she got off the phone, she went to Thaddeus and said, “Belinda said Daniel is sick with mono. Is it normal to be sick during the transformation?”

  Thaddeus laughed, “It took you days to get over it. I can’t believe you forgot!”

  Emily laughed and then put it out of her head.

  “You’re not going to feel so great next week,” Emily said, relaying the information to Drew. “Your cousin is home in bed and your aunt said it is mono,”

  She continued, “More like ‘hunter.'"

  A week went by and Andrew was getting antsy.

  “Who is the target?” he asked Thaddeus and Emily while sitting at the kitchen table, while bouncing his legs up and down.

  Thaddeus looked at his watch and replied, “You got another 20 minutes. Why don’t you wait outside and we’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  Andrew nearly ran outside, leaving Thaddeus and Emily to ponder their immediate future.

  “What if Drew can't handle the strength of the fight because of his inexperience?” Thaddeus questioned, being that Drew had just awoken from his transformation.

  “Then we’ll lose. He’s gotta’ learn eventually,” Emily replied, trying to ebb the flow of negativity from her father.

  Hartwell envisioned Andrew’s first setback being a particularly brutal one on the beach. A kill that would definitely send a message.

  The sides would be three-on-three with Nicole still a week away from entering the fray. The fights never started near water, but Hartwell always like to lure his aqua-phobic opponents to their watery grave. Vampires liked the water just as much as their mammal protectors, and could hold their breaths under water even longer.

  Wherever Hartwell was located, that was where the fight would start. He could have just waited on the shore, but that would have broken some sort of code – you see, in order for fighting to be restricted to only late night, Hartwell needed to start the fight on land.

  On this night, he decided to be a little more ironic and dramatic than usual, by waiting for his hunter friends on the football field at Beach Haven

  High School. The same venue that Andrew had graduated from only days earlier.

  “He’s at the high school,” consummate tracker Emily said as the hunter’s started their pursuit.

  What Andrew lacked in reasoning and intelligence, he made up for in raw power and drive. He was so excited that he ran ahead of Emily and Thaddeus once he heard the destination. Once he was within the confines of his school, he spotted Hartwell on the field and picked up speed until he slammed into the vampire on the south end zone and continued driving him into the ground with a furious 100-yard tackle all the way to the north goal- line.

  Emily and Thaddeus trailed their boy by a good 30 yards and were headed off by Sharon and Garrison once they reached the field, leaving Andrew to deal with the main source of evil all by himself – seemingly, another part of Hartwell’s plan.

  Hartwell was weaker than usual, but still had more than enough strength and experience to teach the young charge the first of many lessons.

  While Hartwell was getting beatin’ down on the field, Sharon was doing her best to distract Emily, who she knew would be trying to track the

  progress of her son. When she started with an eye gouge, Emily became enraged and shifted into a ram punting Sharon onto the football field with her majestic horns.<
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  Thaddeus was also watching his grandson and was trampled by a hippo in the form of Gary, who kept running toward him as a wolf. He quickly shook of the cob-webs and gave chase as a pissed-off grizzly bear. Thad caught the wolf by puncturing his claws into the body, causing Gary

  to let out a yelp. He then wanted to hurl the wolf into the bleachers, but

  Gary changed into a hippo, snapping Thad’s claws off at the surface.

  Hartwell watched many Muhammad Ali boxing matches over the years and was in the process of performing his own version of the ‘rope-a- dope.’ The boxer’s version incorporated lying back on the ropes with the opponent punching himself out. Hartwell’s version also required a lack of aggression designed to give Drew an air of overconfidence.

  While Andrew as grizzly bear repeatedly picked up Hartwell and slammed him into the turf, Hartwell figured the boy had only a few minutes left in his internal battery. At that point, as his experience suggested with young recruits, he would lose the ability to control his changes.

  Hartwell’s plan was to tire the boy while his protectors held their own, which they were doing. Emily always liked to make things interesting when

  she fought Sharon, but she was being too cute with her moves on this night after seeing that her son had things well in hand against Hartwell.

  She switched into a hawk and picked up Sharon, who was lying on the ground as a wolf, bleeding from her wounds. Emily planned to drop Sharon on the wood bleachers, but Sharon had other ideas. She changed into an Orca whale, causing Sharon to plummet toward the bleachers with her. But before impact, Sharon changed into a cat, flying into the air as Emily absorbed the blow as a bear, smashing 10 rows of bleachers and then making a huge hole in the ground. Sharon, as house cat, landed safely on Emily’s back and made sure to dig her sharp claws into her semi- conscious foe.