debris and disposed of it before it even hit the ground.
“That masking ability might come in handy when we need a break from time to time.”
Max smiled, “I hear you,” as he snuggled closer to his wife.
While the newlywed couple took a few extra moments to get going on this morning, the remainder of house was abuzz with activity. Garrison and his daughter Sharon, who had her protector capabilities reactivated only hours earlier, were instructing Emily, Cal, Aaron and Carla on the finer points of aquatic warfare.
It had been quite a difficult period of adjustment for father and daughter, as protector Sharon fell in love with hunter Cal and cosmically switched sides once Daniel sired a mortal Hartwell back toward vampiracy. Love had a way of making decisions for people in spots that might have otherwise been awkward.
Sharon woke up in the morning and walked out on the deck that circled the entire house, and inhaled the spray of the salty ocean air in her lungs. She knew this would be her day to get back into the ‘big pool.’ Daniel sensed that her DNA sequence was primed for alteration, and zipped out to the deck and relit the previously recessive sequence, enabling Sharon to fully utilize her protector sequence again. She smiled as she instinctively changed into a cat and gracefully walked along the narrow top railing of the deck.
Sharon then turned back into her human form and said, “Thanks, Daniel.”
“It was nothing… but, you’re welcome,” he replied.
Transformations were commonplace on this day, as people discovered new abilities that they had only previously fought and strategized against. The vampires were in the gym that was built in the south wing of the house, as they had two new sets of capabilities to incorporate into their already vast repertoire.
The vampires were a group that relied on their intense concentration to wear down an opponent. However, this focus was being tested by a less than day-old boy that was acting like a butterfly fluttering wildly after it was sprung from its transformatory cocoon.
“Samuel, can you stand still for a few minutes, we're trying to figure things out here?” Great Grandpa’ Hartwell asked the youngster in a soft tone.
Protectors Kayla and Nicole were aiding Thaddeus in a basic tutorial on how the vampires could efficiently manage their transformations. Max, Daniel, Hartwell and Maggie were listening to Thad, while trying to tune rambunctious Samuel out.
“I think it’s time to use a little selective tuning out here,” Daniel said to his father, who didn’t get the reference at first. But once Samuel disappeared from view, and the sound of his high-pitched voice stopped echoing off the walls of the gym – even though the roof of the domed structure was retracted – Hartwell fully appreciated the comment.
“Electric fence,” Hartwell said to Daniel as the vampire try to keep track of the little guy while limiting his mobility to a set area.
“Got it,” Daniel replied as he gave junior enough rope in which to try out his almost unlimited facades and abilities.
Samuel could have been anywhere at that moment and not been in touch with his surroundings. He had been so busy watching everyone changing into different beings, and it appeared that he could change into just about anything if he put his mind to it. His changes weren't limited to living beings, as he saw an airplane go by in the sky and then changed into a smaller version of the 747. Samuel then thought about a huge red lollipop and before he could react, he was a big cherry sucker. Of course, none of these changes were noted by anyone in the room, because Daniel had tuned Samuel out so the rest of the group could focus on their massive task at hand.
“Now, if I change into a grizzly bear,” Thad said and then changed into his bear alter ego. “What do you do?” Thad the bear asked Hartwell, who was still in his human form.
Hartwell was so used to just extending his finger, or using his blinding speed to confuse the bear, that he was at a momentary loss for the solution.
Thad could see that Hartwell was confused, so he turned back into his human form in order to drive home the teachable moment.
“Okay, let’s take a moment to think about this one…” he said to the group as he stood in front of Hartwell.
The one thing Thaddeus didn’t want to do was make Hartwell look stupid in front of anyone. After all, Hartwell was the reason that everyone was there in the first place, so he should be afforded the proper amount of respect in such dealings.
“If I’m big,” Thad said as he changed back into Mr. Grizzly, “then what are your options?”
Daniel helped his father out by placing a thought bubble filled with all of his options for everyone to see. The top row was populated with protector options, including cat, wolf, bottle-nose dolphin, Orca killer whale and hippopotamus; the center row was of his human image changing into a vampire; and the bottom highlighted the hunter options of pit bull, ram, grizzly bear and hawk.
Hartwell started, “I could stay in my normal skin,” he used his finger and circled his vampire image in the center. Then he achieved the kind or clarity he was famous for as a no-holds-barred vampire.
“Actually, there is no wrong answer,” he simply stated.
Thad had the face of a proud teacher, “That is correct, Thomas!” He then directed his subsequent remarks to the entire group. “You can use any of these options, depending on the situation. Let’s go through a few scenarios.”
He turned back to face Hartwell and changed back into a grizzly bear. “What if I’m aggressive and angry and you need to neutralize me?”
Hartwell stopped thinking and shifted into instinctual reacting, as he changed into a grizzly bear.
“Good. What if I am back peddling and you sense weakness?” Thad asked Hartwell as he did just that.
Hartwell thought of the biggest, legged thing he could change into and then turned into a massive hippopotamus.
“Then, once you have me pinned down…”
“You go bigger…” Hartwell the hippo said as he morphed into an orca killer whale.
Samuel was watching all of this and was mirroring his great grandpa’s moves, in between stints as a large ice cream cone and a bright red fire truck. Go easy on the kid… he is only about 12 hours old.
SIXTEEN
While the action was hot and heavy back at the house, things were equally as intense on the peaceful floor of the ocean. Marine biologist and protector, Agent Blake Wallace, was leading an expedition in search of hunters. His wife Belinda, who was an awesome swimmer as a vampire, was also testing out her sea protector legs as a dolphin, hippo and whale. Also along for the mission was Andrew “Shark” Brewster – the obvious inspiration for the group, as he was able to release his Uncle Cal from his watery grave, and the peacekeepers Joe and Valerie Winters – quite proficient in the water in their merman and mermaid personas, and Brandon Justice, who was also a merman but was struggling with his other potential abilities.
His mother in this life, Belinda, was concerned with her son’s apparent conflict.
“Being a vampire isn’t such a bad thing, dear,” Belinda said to Brandon as she flashed her glowing eyes on a rock pile on the dark floor of the ocean.
Blake and Andrew had been using their sonar to locate bodies and the others were removing enough rocks to make a difference at the appropriate time.
Brandon had yet to let his recessive vampire gene be activated and voiced his concerns to Belinda. He looked over at his girlfriend Valerie and then said, “I’m not sure how she’ll take it.”
“Take what?”
“Being a vampire again,” Brandon stated.
Belinda wanted to convey the gravity of the situation, which had somehow evaded Justice, who now spent his days spreading peace and switching between various hybrid creature personas.
“We won’t survive this if we’re all not at maximum strength.”
Justice got the message, but it appeared that he needed a final push.
; “I just don’t want to lose her. I love her.”
Belinda switched hats from mother to women with needs.
“What she wants is for you to marry her. I don’t think she really cares if you crave human blood on occasion.” She panned, “Don’t we all need a little warm, creamy blood every now and then,” knowing that his inner-vampire would be triggered by its ultimate motivator, blood.
The blood inside of Justice’s body boiled and then cooled well below the normal human body temperature and just above the icy vampire temperature. Brandon smiled and showed Belinda his fangs, while unfurling his wings.
“I will tell her when the time is right,” he stated.
“It might help if you had a ring to place on her finger when you reveal this,” Belinda added.
Miles away, Agent Blake was with Joe and Valerie Winters, leading the charge to finding the lost souls. A thousand hunters had been buried across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in an orchestrated effort by Lowery to continue his unimpeded romp across the paranormal world.
“Do you think he’ll change back into a vampire?” Joe Winters asked his daughter as they trailed Blake the dolphin.
He wasn’t prepared for what his daughter said next.
“I really don’t care what he changes into. Vampire, dolphin, hawk… whatever… I just want to be with him as husband and wife.”
“Marriage?” a confused Joe Winters asked. “Aren’t you a bit young to get married?”
Valerie shrieked in