going forward to moderate the collective mood in the house until something could be figured out.
The vampires stayed out of the hunters and protectors way until the scheduled battle at midnight. Although they were not fully committed to the fight because of the extemporaneous circumstances that arose earlier in the day, it was nonetheless their legacy to uphold the standards of being a vampire. While there were more than two hunters and protectors for every vampire, the night five tussle would prove to be the most highly contested struggle of the week.
This one proved to be a brawl from the opening bell, as the vampires ventured out the great lawn of Beach Haven Park as the hunters showed the protectors how the two-minute follow up was done. Apparently, it didn’t matter if Claire was the puppeteer behind the production, because Cal still went right at Hartwell and clocked him with a strong right hand to the side of the head. The individuals were limited to their natural powers on this night: vampires focused on their blinding speed, huge wingspan and flying ability, and incredible dexterity and precision with their long nails; protectors with their innate ability to anticipate danger in between human, cat, wolf, bottle-nose dolphin, hippopotamus and Orca killer whale exteriors; and hunters, with obvious tracking and pursuing abilities in human, pit bull, hawk, grizzly bear and ram facades.
The hunters and protectors were working in pairs, using a floater to fill in wherever necessary as the flow of the fight dictated. The starting match-ups were as follows: Cal and Emily versus Hartwell; Blake and Sharon versus Belinda; Garrison and Thaddeus versus Maxwell; Nicole and Carla versus Daniel; and Aaron and Kayla versus Maggie, with Andrew serving as the able-bodied floater.
Emily and Cal had fought Hartwell in tandem so many times while awake and also in their sleep. The two would often dream about fighting Hartwell ever since they turned 18 and came on-line as his hunters. While their father Thaddeus was often preoccupied with Garrison, it was up to the twins to take down the nasty beast time and time again. And they had become so proficient in double-teaming Hartwell that he had to either do something to stop the momentum, or risk being killed 100 times and potentially miss out on seeing his wife and son again. So, Hartwell did what any cold-hearted, blood drinking vampire would do, he buried Cal in the bottom of the ocean and enjoyed 15 relatively peaceful years while he shadowed his son Daniel.
Since there was no real way to fight Hartwell straight up, unless you were Cal and had enough moxie in your fists to justify the insanity, there was always some element of trickery in the twins’ strategy. Emily was usually the decoy to give Cal an open look at Hartwell, which was all he usually needed to finish the job. Cal provided the decoy on the occasion to Emily’s knockout punch, but that approach was unsuccessful more than it was successful. Hartwell never took his eye off Emily because he knew that she would always be the key to any action that Cal would follow up with.
Hartwell was moved off his spot after the first Cal punch, but he made the loss of equilibrium work for him by flipping backwards through the air and then kicking an unaware Emily in the head, sending her airborne toward the ground. Cal usually talked with his fists but he was all about sword-play after the initial blow. Hartwell unfurled the nail on his right index finger and then engaged Cal by punching him in the head with a left hook and then kicking him to the ground next to his sister. Drew noticed the negative tone to the fight and tried to fill in, but Hartwell anticipated the move by flying into the air to avoid the extent of Drew’s sword and then came down with a one-two kick to the side of his head that placed him next to his mother and uncle on the soft turf.
Agent Blake had studied Belinda’s moves ever since he became her protector, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that he seemed to anticipate her moves before she even consciously knew what she was doing. Sharon had logged many more years in the vampire and protector game even before the two of them had come along, and also had a view into what Maggie was going to, which created a mismatch at least at the outset of the fight.
Blake and Sharon both swung their swords at Belinda, who had the index fingers on both hands working to protect herself from the advances of her opponents. Blake kept moving to his right until he was behind Belinda, causing a sort of paralyzing situation for the vampire as it was virtually impossible for her to keep an eye on both people. Belinda tried to counteract their strategy by flipping through the air so she could land facing the protector and hunter. But Blake anticipated this move and told Sharon to use her hawk persona to ground the airborne vampire. If Belinda had used her wings to exert extra force, any advances by Sharon would have proved fruitless. Sharon jumped in the air as a human and then transitioned into a hawk with a massive wingspan, making up the gap between she and Belinda before the vampire came out of her flip.
Sharon grabbed Belinda’s arm with her long talons and then hurled the off-balance Belinda toward Blake, who was waiting for her on the ground as an Orca killer whale waiting to swat her with his huge and powerful tail. Belinda sailed past Thaddeus and Garrison, who were trying to bring a little old-school brawling to Maxwell’s new-school fighting tactics.
The old guys were working on a classic high-low attack, where Gary was going for the legs and Thad prepared to swing his right arm and strike the vampire in the head. Maxwell’s mind moved so fast that he saw Garrison before he even hit the ground, and responded by immediately moving out of range of Thaddeus. With wings extended, he took the air about ten feet above the ground looking down and then mockingly waving at both Thaddeus with his arm extended and Garrison at the end of his flop on the ground.
Thad looked down at Gary and said, “Let’s take this to the air,” as he changed into a hawk, picked Gary off the ground, and then flipped him into the air in his human form and then watched him change into a smiling dolphin spinning Max around with his nose like a beach ball.
Daniel didn’t take the challenge from his wife Nicole and Drew’s wife Carla as seriously as he might have taken – let’s say – a challenge from Drew and Cal. He smiled as the women confronted him with nothing but their bare hands. It had been quite some time since Daniel had witnessed an actual cat fight first hand. At the time he was a sophomore in high school when a fight broke out on the other end of the gym between two senior girls that were apparently having an issue with each other’s pursuit of a certain starting quarterback of the football team.
The flashback of that nasty fight was quickly replayed in Daniel’s mind and it was also playing out on the Beach Haven Park field. While Daniel didn’t have long hair, it was obviously long enough to grab onto and make him scream in pain. Carla grabbed the back of Daniel’s hair while Nicole stepped up and kicked him in the shins and then she leaned into a punch in the most sensitive of his areas, sending him in shock to his knees and then to the floor courtesy of a Carla elbow to the back of the head.
Aaron stepped up and threw a right hand at Maggie, but the vampire blocked the punch with her left hand and then countered with a right hand of her own to his exposed chin, sending the giant hunter to an early seat on the ground. She then stepped toward Kayla, and possibly underestimated the one known for peace by making the first move, a roundhouse kick. When Maggie’s right foot sailed past Kayla head, the newbie quickly reacted with a elbow to the prone thigh and a straight right hand to the area surrounding the vampire’s core, her heart, sending her astoundingly gasping for air on the ground.
Maggie momentarily wondered if she was going to be able to continue or if the blow would prove fatal and cause her heart to stop beating. A few seconds of normal breathing answered that question, but Kayla was on her with a combination to her back and head that was anything but peaceful. This girl had turned ninja for a day and was becoming Maggie’s biggest nightmare with Aaron also getting up from the ground.
Drew was the last one to hit the deck but he was also the first one to race back and attempt to get at Hartwell. That was, until Cal pushed him aside and suggested he find another duo
to accompany. Drew threw a parting kick at Hartwell’s ribs, which was blocked and countered by spinning Drew’s legs, propelling the hunter rotating through the air like a working drill bit.
Cal had enough with the whole trickery scene for the time-being, and picked up his sister by the hand as they both went in sword-first after Hartwell, who appeared extra attentive and motivated on this night. While Cal was always satisfied with his rugged human features, he had always been partial to his grizzly bear façade. He and his sister would often sit around the house as bears after they came of age, partially because it scared the crap out of their father and primarily because they thought the big creatures were cool. While the sight of Hartwell, with his wings and fangs fully out fighting two bears holding swords would have tested mortal comprehension, it was a welcome return to the very roots of this battle.
Belinda sailed half-way down the open field before she stopped her momentum by extending her wings. A few flaps later and she was back in front of Blake and Sharon, eager to take the fight to them. Instead of waiting for the duo to make the first move, Belinda