this, Thomas, I want to go out fighting,” Thaddeus said and then looked at Garrison for confirmation.
“Fighting to the end…” Gary stated as they pounded fists.
“It’s show time,” Daniel said and then sat down next to Nicole as the images of Manuel’s life were portrayed for all to see.
Images of Manuel as a youth tracking down and killing small animals with his bare hands were transitioned into him brutally killing just about everything in his path, both human and animal, as a teen and then a man.
“I’m glad the kids weren’t here to see this one,” den mother Belinda said.
“And I thought I was a killing machine,” Cal added and everyone laughed somewhat nervously.
And just as Daniel was about to turn off the flow of information, things got really interesting.
Manuel was awoken on the day of his wedding with a cold bucket of water. Most people in the room started talking because the endless string of violence was becoming a bit tedious.
“Hold on a second!” Daniel yelled and then said again because of a lack of cooperation. “I think we should watch this part.”
The visual focused on Carmen as the group could see her through Manuel’s eyes.
“Wait a minute,’ Daniel said. “I think we’re missing something. Let me rewind this a bit,” he said and then used his right hand to move back to a scene a few hours prior that he felt a significant amount of heat from.
“Where are you going?” Carmen asked as Manuel prepared to go out the night before their wedding.
Daniel scanned the possibilities and flashed two women from a neighboring village in the corner of the screen while he froze the main action.
“Nice!” Garrison exclaimed.
“Next thing you know this guy’s gonna’ want to bring a few dates to his own wedding!” Thaddeus added.
Carmen and Manuel went back and forth until he said, “What are you going to do about it Carmen? Want to call off the wedding? Then what will others think about you? Who will ever want to share your bed?”
All of the women in the room winced and Emily said, “Oh, that’s not gonna’ be good for business.”
“The wedding is off,’ she replied and all of the women clapped in approval.
“I’m starting to like this woman,” feisty Carla stated and then Daniel flashed her name on the screen. “Go, Carla!”
Manuel was about to fight back with force with his words and fists, but Carmen would have none of that. She closed her eyes and a now-frightened Manuel started shaking.
“Living beast of the day you must now be transformed into a dying beast of the night! As your sire, I will control your actions if I so choose. The spell only to be broken three cycles past the witch’s moon after I cease to exist!”
The next image was of Carmen pouring a bucket of water over Manuel’s head, waking him from his paranormal hangover.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I invited a few people from the neighboring village?” Manuel asked Carmen.
“Bingo!” Thaddeus yelled. “I told you that this guy would invite dates to his own wedding!” as the pictures of the same two women lined up for the previous night flashed across the screen.
Everyone razzed Thaddeus and he was showered with a blizzard of popcorn from all directions.
“The more the merrier,” Carmen replied and flashed a genuine smile for the first time in a long time.
“Honey, I want to hear what she’s thinking,” Nicole asked Daniel, who turned up the volume on Carmen’s thoughts.
“Serves them right for messing with someone else’s man. That’s their funeral. No garlic necklaces for them.”
The neck image shown was that of Carmen walking toward Manuel as they were about to get married. She pulled back her veil and real joy was spread over her face as she looked up at the blackening sky and then whispered to him, “You can run to the ends of the earth, but I will always find you.
He pulled back because he was unsure whether she was threatening him or trying to convey some sort of new-fangled romantic gesture.
The next images were of Manuel screaming and writhing on the ground in pain and Carmen saying to the crowd, “You might want to take a step back or two.”
And then she turned to the women of the night from the neighboring village and said, “You ladies might want to start running real fast!”
The women in the room starting clapping from delight until Manuel transformed into a vampire.
“Now go fetch!” Carmen said to vampire Manuel as he hunted down everyone that wasn’t adorned with garlic.
Belinda stood up and said, “Let me see his family tree!” because she sensed that something was amiss.
The scene shifted to a blood-drunk Ortiz feeding off a horrified Alexander Lowery. Manuel passed out and then Lowery came on line as a vampire after his transformation was complete. Then hundreds of branches formed off of Lowery, with the screen focusing on his encounter with Hartwell.
“Okay, okay! We’ve all seen this before!” He turned to Daniel and shot him a look that suggested that movie time was over.
“How many deaths is he away from 100?” a concerned Sharon asked.
Daniel used his mind to raise Manuel’s right hand and then formed the number two with his index and middle fingers.
“That’s pretty close,” she replied.
TWENTY-SEVEN
By the time the sun came up an hour later, everyone was sound asleep in their own beds. The warm rays penetrated the glass unobstructed and through Manuel Ortiz. The pain of his resurrection so severe that he might have thought it was his first time coming back from the dead, but it was his first time in more than 30 years making the transformation.
“Ohhhh!” he screamed after his head and neck were fused back to his shoulders and his internal organs came back on line after his heart started pumping again. He looked around the room and wondered for a moment where he was until thoughts of the previous day registered in his brain.
He first thought of Hartwell and then the image of Lowery thinking he was sneaking behind him was ingrained in the playback of the previous night. But, his fervent desire to be normal again was overriding his thirst to get back at Lowery for the coming night.
He glided into the room that was built for him the previous day and nestled into bed for so much needed rest. He didn’t awake until 11:00 p.m. that night and looked over to his nightstand, where a bunch of blood bags were waiting to fuel him up for the upcoming fight.
“You sleep well?” Hartwell asked Manuel after he showered, dressed and then walked into the main room.
“I could have slept for weeks,” Manuel replied.
Hartwell thought about Manuel’s 30 years inside a coffin under the ground and wondered about the vampire’s motivation heading into night two of the battle. Manuel plopped down on the couch and stared into space while he waited for the team to assemble over the next hour.
“What’s up with him?” Daniel asked Hartwell, who was standing in the middle of the room with a group of people that were observing Manuel.
“Is he just going to stand there in the middle of the field again?” Carla asked.
“From what we all saw on the screen last night, that guy can more than protect himself,” Andrew added.
Hartwell listened to the talking but everyone could see that he was trying to break down the potential battle strategies.
“What are you thinking, Thomas?” Garrison asked.
“Maybe we should leave him behind,” Maggie suggested.
Hartwell thought back to his recent journey with Manuel and came to a sobering conclusion.
“I don’t think we can.”
“Even if he’s just gonna’ take a knee and not fight back the next two nights?” Cal Brewster asked because he never liked to enter a fight without motivation.
Hartwell looked around a group that he had fought against and with, and their motivation was usually to either kill him or fight for him. B
ut now he was in danger of losing their interest because a stranger, albeit a related stranger, was in the midst of a mid-life crisis and wanted all of the discord in his life to cease. The witch that had turned him into a vampire, and generally made his life miserable, was gone and he simply wanted to live to rest of his life in peace and harmony.
Hartwell was ready to answer Cal’s question, but not completely.
“I’ll get back to you on that one. Let’s prepare to fight and see what happens. If I know one thing about this family, everything doesn’t always end the way we always think it will.”
It was a fairly weak answer to a pretty strong question, but it was the best Hartwell could do based on the unknown of Manuel.
“You ready to go, big guy?” Cal asked Manuel as he slapped him on the back.
Manuel was still in a trance and sitting on the couch, as he barely reacted to the love tap with emphasis.
“Is it time to go?” he said and then stood up slowly. His body language suggested Rip Van Winkle not the warrior that he used to be.
Thaddeus was walking with Cal and Emily and said, “If we survive this battle tonight, we have to start making some preparations for our life after all of this.
Cal and Emily nodded in agreement of their father’s plan, which undoubtedly involved robbing a few banks before their powers were gone. The trio used their abilities to fund their effusive grocery bills for years through the robbing of financial institutions and other assorted locations where cash was readily available.
Hartwell looked over at the trio, because he was always listening to everything, and flashed a knowing smile—for he was also