They followed s Cal asked, "Isthat where we went to the fair yesterday?" as he did a mental scanof the area and said to his sister internally, "Watch for that oldfountain at the Northeast edge of the square."
Thad was amazed at thetransformation of his kids from scared children to cold-bloodedvampire hunters. But he also knew that if would take a while beforethey could match wits with me. He knew I was going to let Garrisonoccupy him while I battled his inexperienced kids, but he alsorealized what I already knew: one day they would no longer beexperienced and pose a significant roadblock for my way of life. Ilooked over at Sharon and hoped that she could stem the tide andlet me focus on the male twin, whatever his name was. I knew hisname and he knew mine, but it was always all business when wefought.
Nature then took its course as weall jogged then sprinted on air way to the town square. Not anotherword was spoken during the 30-second fight, which was on theshorter duration of all of our encounters. We hit the square and myplan started to take shape - Garrison immediately locked upThaddeus and headed right for the twins without any awareness as towhere Sharon was.
Calvin had this look on his facethat said, "Punch me!" so I did just that as Sharon and Emilyclashed for the first of many occasions. I drove Cal into a bank oftrees and then followed the path of his trajectory. Thad and Garyhad become good friends in the years they were my caretakers, andused the opportunity to catch up after a nearly 20-yearbreak.
"How are you, my friend," Thadsaid as they gave the appearance of fighting. I learned in lateryears that the two had become experts at giving the appearance ofgenuinely disliking each other, even though they were really twopeas in a pod doing the same job on opposite sides of thebattle.
"I am well," Gary replied. "But Ican't believe you had twins!"
"I know! What were the odds ofthat happening?" Thad replied. "Good thing, though, we couldn't letyou have that much of an advantage."
"We knew this day would come,"Garrison stated.
"And now our lives are no longerour own," Thad said. "At least for now," he added.
Emily and Sharon unsheathed theirswords, probably because they weren't too confident about theirchanges yet. They went back and forth until Sharon surprisinglygained a noticeable advantage, which caught Cal's eye even thoughhe was about to get his lights put out by me. He jumped in the airand changed into a hawk, speeding through the air toward hissister. He neared the pile and changed into a fierce grizzly bear,and his roar stopped Emily from delivering a fatal stroke. Shelooked up at the bear and was frozen in time as he swept acrosswith his right paw and cleanly separated her rather pleasant headfrom her shoulders.
Emily was not pleased, "Awww! Whydid you go ahed and do that! I could have taken her!"
Cal's actions set off a series ofreactions that quickly ended the battle for the night. Garrison wasgenuinely disturbed at the sight of his daughter being killed, sohe said to Thad "Excuse me old boy" and then zipped over to Cal andput an end to his sister with the blade of his sword while helooked on in terror. The sight of seeing his daughter terminatedmoved Thaddeus, but his son was not moving, which put him at adistinct advantage.
Thad realized on the way over tome, Gary and his immovable son, that his twins held the key toreasserting dominance in the battle. If they were able to become aforce then maybe they had a shot to avoid taking nightly dirt naps.I also realized that nightly confrontations would only make themstronger, so it was incumbent upon me to stretch the time outbetween fights.
Gary was in a different realm whenhe put the sharp edge of rthe blade through Cal's back and heartand then squared off against a charging Thaddeus as Cal's limp bodyfeel to the ground. I could tell by the velocity of Thad'sheartbeat that Gary's night was about to be over, so I closed myeyes and for the first time in my existence as either a mortal orvampire, I meditated.
Thad jumped in the air as aferocious pit bull terrier and Gary was about to slice him downuntil he changed into grizzly and swiped his head clean off. Hethen set his sights on me, swinging his blade toward the center ofmy body. I focused on the the breeze and felt a sudden shift ionthe air flow, so I clasped my hands together and surrounding hisblade. I then extended my nails on both hands and thrust them intoThad's chest in one motion, much to his surprise.
My first thought was to clean upthe bodies and the mess, because it wouldn't have been good form tohave the five bodies strewn in the middle of town before the dawnreinvigorated them. My first thought was to dump them all in theocean, but I decided on a scatter strategy instead: Gary and Sharonin their backyard with a decidedly Eastern exposure, Thaddeus onhis back porch with Emily, and Calvin, well Calvin, he needed to betaught a lesson and wake up in the one place that he didn't want tobe. So I dropped him in the ocean and his body sank half-way downbefore it floated to the surface and then washed up on the shorejust before daybreak.
I slept like a newborn baby thatnight. In fact, it was probably the best night sleep I had inyears! And while I peacefully slumbered, the sun was rising on acrystal-clear summer day. Cal's waterlogged body washed up on theshore and he was the first out of five to receive the healing raysof the sun, because of the unimpeded view of the sky on thebeach.
The rays of light flickered on theocean, making its way to the shore and Cal's being. Water startedpouring from his insides as the process of repairing a dead soulwas in progress. Recovering from the first death was always thehardest, whether you were a
