the main room to see what was happening. The throng barely noticed Hartwell and Manuel when they came through the front door, partly because they were distracted but mostly because they never actually used the door. One moment they were gliding toward the house outside and the next they were inside.
"Thomas!" Maggie shrieked out of relief that her husband had arrived home safely. She glided over to him stuck to him like crazy glue, while everyone else made it over to Hartwell and either hugged him or slapped him on the back while Manuel instinctively moved away from the crowd and sat in a stool just outside of the kitchen.
One the welcome home parade subsided, attention naturally turned to the visitor that was assumed to have caused all of the ruckus.
The elder statesman, Thaddeus and Garrison, stood on each side of Hartwell and Gary asked, "Do you want us to take him out, boss?"
"Yes, we would be happy to dispose of him," Thad added like they were two gangsters preparing to get rid of a problem.
Manuel was a big proponent of loyalty, although he had spent most of mortal life satisfying his own needs at the risk of the other tribe members.
Hartwell held both arms out toward Thad and Gary's chests, mostly for the affect, and replied, "No, I think we're good here.
Our new friend Manuel Ortiz is going to stay with us for a while and I don't want anybody to try to hurt him.
Most of the people in the family focused on the word "try" and then looked Manuel over to what they might be up against.
Manuel stood up and flexed his muscles, but then Samuel glided over to him and changed into a virtual clone of Manuel, which frightened the old-school vampire, who had not been properly introduced to the new-school until now.
"Diablo!" Manuel screamed because it was the first thing that popped into his head.
Samuel repeated, "Diablo!" as everyone in the room got a good laugh out of it.
Blake walked up and escorted a stunned Manuel to a seat on the couch.
"How did that boy just do that?" he asked.
Blake smiled, "Evolution."
TWENTY-ONE
Once the war paint dried, the witches Vinson went their separate ways: Brenda to see Gabriel Billingsley, Linda meeting Hartwell at the Beach haven Diner and Claire strolling over to the beach to have a little chat with Daniel. While those discussions were important, it was sort of an impromptu meeting later that day that held the key to the future paranormal activity in the normally sleepy town of Beach Haven, New York.
Hartwell and Maggie sat in their usual booth, which was located some three paces to the left of the Beach Haven Diner cash register. He always liked to sit facing the door so he could keep an eye on the action, and his wife Maggie sat next to him because they were expecting a guest on this day.
The clock struck noon and Linda Vinson walked through the front door of the diner.
"Well, that was punctual," Maggie said with her usual perky voice.
"It's a good thing, I'm hungry," Hartwell replied.
Linda walked in and looked to the right first and then sensed Hartwell and immediately turned left and walked toward the table.
She sat down and nodded, "Thomas" and then "Maggie," as she greeted her hosts and then opened the gigantic menu, which read like a culinary manuscript.
"What's good to eat here?" Linda asked. "I feel as if I haven't eaten for days."
Hartwell wondered the same thing being that he had downed a bunch of blood bags at the house before they left and yet he was still famished.
“I know I’m hungry, too!” Maggie agreed.
“Breakfast is always good here. Pancakes, waffles, eggs, bacon…” Hartwell detailed and then looked at Maggie and Linda. “We might need a bigger table.”
“I’ve seen that look on your face before, Mr. Hartwell,” Trixie the waitress said as she walked over toward the table. “Why don’t you all move to this big oval table behind you. No need to order. I’ll just start bringing out your favorites until you tell me to stop!” she said and then disappeared into the kitchen.
“I like this town more and more each day!” Linda Vinson exclaimed. And then she changed the subject after they settled into their new table. “Do you think we’ll be able to stay?”
“That all depends?” Hartwell replied.
And then when he did not expand on his own question, Linda became even more curious.
“Depends on what?”
Trixie brought out a bunch of toast and drinks as Hartwell said, “Thanks, Trixie.”
“I’ll be back in a jiff,” she said and then scooted back into the kitchen to pick up items off the conveyor belt of continuous food.
Everyone was munching on toast as Hartwell started talking.
“Me, you, your mom, Maggie, your daughter, Gabriel Billingsley, my son…”
“So, basically, it’s going to take a village,” Linda stated.
Maggie looked at Maggie and then Linda and replied, “Pretty much.”
Claire Vinson had a special connection with Daniel, so when she went to the popular Beach Haven Boardwalk and sat on a bench, he knew it was time to go.
“You want to come with me?” Daniel asked his wife Nicole.
“Sure, where are you going?”
“The beach,” Daniel replied.
Nicole zipped out of the room and then zipped back in with some sunscreen on her nose, a beach umbrella and chairs in her hands.
Daniel laughed, “It’s not that kind of outing.”
“Oh!” Nicole said and then came back and forth in her original outfit.
And while their journey to the beach only took a few seconds, Nicole said as she felt Daniel staring at her nose, “Do I still have sunscreen on my nose?”
They came to a stop at the beach and Claire said, “Yes, it’s still there,” and then she offered a tissue to Nicole.
“Thanks, Claire,” Nicole said and then removed the lotion from her nose.
“You’re welcome,” Claire replied.
“So, what’s on your mind?” Daniel asked as they sat down on two benches facing the ocean.
While Claire knew why she was there, she wasn’t really sure how to broach the subject and her personal anxiety toward subject the showed.
Nicole could see she was struggling, so she extended an olive branch.
“Take your time, dear.”
“Thanks. It’s Billingsley,” she replied.
“I thought we took care of him?” Nicole asked Daniel in a surprised tone.
He was miffed, “Does anything really end in our world?”
Then Claire realized why she was there, beyond what her mother and grandmother had instructed her to do.
“Why can’t it end?”
“Because it never does,” Daniel replied.
“What if it could end?” she asked.
He was confused, so Nicole stepped in.
“Will we be living on the other side?” she asked, because death was a finality that no one in this group of extreme warriors would accept.
“I don’t see why not,” Clair replied. “But all of these problems will be replaced with the issues of your youth,” she added, referring to their mortal roots.
Nicole smiled because many of her best memories occurred before her and Daniel’s 18th birthdays.
“I can live with that.”
“Yeah, me too,” Daniel agreed.
Brenda Vinson knocked on the front door of the vacant house and Gabriel Billingsley opened the door in his ape form in case trouble was waiting on the other side. His minions followed close behind and were ready to pounce if their leader suffered a single shred of distress.
“Brenda! So nice of you to come!” he exclaimed, still in primate shell.
He then turned around to the group and forcefully grunted, which meant that everything was okay and they should find something else to scratch in another room. Gabriel morphed back into his human form and said, “I’m getting tired of this ape thing and not being able to speak in my own voice and be
understood. What else can we do?” he asked as if Brenda shared an equal weight and responsibility for his group.
“I can make them look like us again,” she replied.
“Good! I knew you could do it,” he enthusiastically replied with a tinge of relief.
“But it’s going to take a few days,” she added, knowing that anything Hartwell and company were cooking up probably could use a head start.
Billingsley had always been a control freak who never seemed to be in control of his own emotions or thoughts.
“Okay, but only a few days. I don’t want them suspecting anything that we’re doing,” he said as paranoia was becoming an equally-imbalanced emotion to revenge.
TWENTY-TWO
Brenda Vinson left Billingsley’s housed armed with the knowledge that she was solely responsible for starting the fighting again. She had felt sort of guilty after the last battle, although she really didn’t have much choice in the matter. But, this time, she had both the power and the motive to change things up a bit and finally take charge of a situation that had haunted her for the better part of the past 20 years. The only question was, how?
Manuel Ortiz had been an expert tracker in his teenage years, and he used that expertise to hunt down the energy of a person that was naturally drawn to. He had eaten lunch with Thaddeus and Garrison at Beach Haven Bagel, and said after eating one of their ‘everything’ bagels, “Nobody makes bagels better than New Yorkers.”
And then he followed it up with, “It’s too bad they’re such vile beings. In many ways they remind me of some of the people of my tribe… always picking at you, but then are the first person to stand behind you when they need protection during a fight.”
He left Thad and Gary in town and told them he would return home later