stated. “Perhaps we should make alternate considerations for me to come back when the universe will be a little kinder.”
SEVEN
It seemed as if someone was either pregnant or being threatened in the House of Hartwell, so these special beings both appreciated and took full advantage of any periods of calm, no matter how short the duration.
“Did you see something following us yesterday when we left the bagel place with the girls?” Garrison asked Thaddeus as they were working on Thad’s classic car in the huge garage.
The hunter was always joking with his former counterpart in these lighter days, “You know I’m much better at pursuing than being pursued, Gar.”
Garrison shot Thaddeus a look as he handed him a monkey wrench, so Thad came clean “Yeah, I saw it.”
“What do you think it was?” Gary asked.
“I know it wasn’t a vampire!” Thad exclaimed as they both laughed.
“Or a hunter or protector,” Gary added.
“Let’s see, we’re done with everyone is Lowery’s family as far as we know… do you know of any enemies we have that haven’t been around for a century or so?”
Gary scanned the roster of potential players in his mind and came up empty, “Everyone is either buried or dust.”
“So why am I not getting a good feeling about all of this?” Thad asked as he tightened a bolt on the right side of the engine.
“Because maybe we’re in a bad biorhythm pattern,” Gary stated.
“Biorhythms? Are you still into that garbage?”
“No!” Gary said as he started laughing. I just ran out of excuses for all of this madness.”
Questions were flying around all corners of the House of Hartwell as these special beings always sensed the presence of ‘others’ around them.
“Did you see that women following us this morning?” Nicole asked Carla as they sat quietly in the knitting room in the hours leading up to dinner.
Carla laughed, “I didn’t know whether to pay for a new hairstyle or just break her off.”
“I know! Isn’t it crazy how normal our lives are one moment and how violent and unsettled it is the next?” Nicole observed.
“What is unsettled?” Maggie said as she walked into the room and restarted on her sweater and hat project.
“Our lives,” Carla answered.
“And then, not so much,” Nicole added.
“A few years ago I had my head buried in books, books, and nothing but books, and now I get to spread my wings and slice people’s heads off with my extremely long fingers,” Maggie said and then unfurled the long nail on her right index finger and picked up her yarn bundle.
Emily and Sharon entered the room and Emily immediately picked up the strange vibe.
“So what’s with those weird people following us around?”
“You saw them, too?” Sharon agreed as they took their place around the one place besides being with their spouses that they could air it all out: the knitting circle.
Belinda walked in and said, “Saw who?”
Valerie was right behind her, “Those bright red pumps in the window at Beach Haven Couture?”
“You saw those shoes, too?” Kayla said as she walked through the doorway.
Ariel peaked in the room and said, “What’s going on in here? Do you have room for one more?”
A rousing, “Yeah!” could be heard outside of the room and down the hall where Drew and Daniel were playing catch with a baseball in the sun room.
“Well they are having a good time in there today!” Daniel said as he tossed the baseball back to his first cousin. The speed of the throw made a pop in Drew’s well-oiled, leather glove.
“I don’t know how you feel about it, but I sorta’ like all of this tension around us.”
“Do you mean the kind of tension from creepy people that seem to be following us everywhere?” Daniel said as he caught a bullet throw from Andrew.
Drew was always ready for a good fight, “I swear if those people come anywhere near this house, I am going to beat the crap out of them!”
Since Cal Brewster was the originator of the any fight is a good fight campaign, he was quick to comment once he walked into the room, “Who are we kicking the crap out of now?”
Daniel decided to keep the ball in his glove as he replied to Cal, “Those creepy creatures that are following us.”
“Yeah, I would like to get a crack at them,” Cal replied.
“A crack at who?” Hartwell said as he entered the room. “Or is that whom? I’m never sure when I should use the possessive?”
“I think it’s whom,” Daniel replied.
“Whom, what?” Agent Blake Wallace asked as he walked into the sun room.
“We were talking about beating the crap out of the things that are stalking us,” Drew clarified.
“We’re being stalked?” Aaron said as his head barely cleared the top of the doorway.
“I’m glad you’re big and strong because you’re certainly not too bright,” Cal said in a playful fashion to the man that had married his twin sister.
Maxwell walked in with Samuel as Aaron started to playfully wrestle with Cal, picking him over his head and then throwing him across the room. Father and son acted quickly, as son turned into a cushioned gym mat and father joined him as the blue athletics accessory as Cal sailed through the air and then landed softly on a wide expanse of gym mats. Thaddeus and Garrison walked in from the garage and saw Cal lying on the floor on a few gym mats that they had never seen before. Once Cal was safe, Max and Samuel changed back into their human form and were spread out on the floor on either side of Cal.
“Oh, that makes sense,” Thaddeus said.
“But we still don’t know who is following us?” Gary continued his questioning from their discussion in the garage, as the room grew quiet as all eyeballs were now focused on Hartwell. Abilities came and went but Hartwell was always viewed as the leader of this tribe, being that he was the originator of all things supernatural.
He stroked his mostly grey beard and mustache and pondered the question at hand.
“We all know that if someone usually has interest in us, then their intention is generally destructive in nature. It is our duty as the protectors of this house – and I use the word ‘protector’ in the most affectionate way with complete deference toward our ‘hunter’ friends.”
The hunters, Cal, Thaddeus, Aaron and Drew, nodded in a sign of mutual respect and appreciation of Hartwell.
Hartwell continued, “We should fully understand what we’re dealing with before exhibiting any aggressive behavior of any kind.”
“And then we can kick its ass?” Samuel asked as he was swept up in the tsunami of testosterone.
Hartwell smiled and replied, “Yes, Samuel. Then we can kick its ass,” as he then flashed back to the first time he met Thaddeus and Garrison and how confused he was to be battling after 18 relatively carefree and unabated years as a vampire.
He was just hanging out in Pennsylvania one night when he decided to go to a bar for a late-night drink or two. While he never drank alcohol, he did benefit from the spiked blood-alcohol levels of his victims. It was well after midnight and Hartwell had already sampled some local talent before an unfamiliar face in the form of Garrison said bluntly “You don’t want to do that.”
Hartwell stepped back to get a good look at this baby-faced kid that dared to challenge him. “You should go home junior and help your mommy knit a quilt,” Hartwell replied with all of the cockiness of a predator in the prime of his death.
The young man was focused on the impending danger, not Hartwell’s pointed words, as he yelled, “Duck!”
Normally, Hartwell listened to no man, but his intense hearing was telling him that the directive was accurate. Thaddeus Brewster stood across the room with a silver-tipped arrow cocked in his bow, and released the vampire-killer
toward Hartwell’s core. Garrison Phillips stood calmly erect and reached out his thick leather-gloved right hand and caught the arrow an inch away from Hartwell’s slowly-pumping, cold, heart.
“We have to go,” Gary said as he clutched Hartwell’s arm and exited the bar with Thaddeus in hot pursuit.“
Eighteen year-old Thaddeus in his hawk persona pursued a flying for the first time Hartwell, who was weighed down by Gary, for more than three hours, not because Thad couldn’t catch them but because he wanted to learn more about his natural enemies.
They hit the ground in New Jersey as the still-cocky Hartwell said, “Maybe we lost him.”
He was facing Gary and a huge shadow consumed both of their forms. “Not in this lifetime,” Gary said as Hartwell turned and looked straight in the belly of a massive Grizzly bear.
“Run!” Hartwell yelled and then turned and did just that while Gary, who was playing the part of the ultimate protector, stayed behind to try to slow the angry creature down. He changed into a wolf and literally howled at the moon before jumping at Thaddeus’ furry neck, his jaw clenching on its target. The wounded bear roared in anger and pain and attempted in vain to shake the determined Gary off of him. Thaddeus regained his thoughts long enough to swipe his lengthy upper claws and puncture the body of the wolf like a pin cushion. Gary yelped in pain and then Thaddeus effortlessly tossed his limp body deep into the forest brush.
Hartwell was so confused by the turn of events that he ran as fast as he could instead of gliding or flying away. Although he had received three days of comprehensive information when he was making the