“You guys don’t want to do this,” Iinstructed who I thought were two mortals.
“Do what?” one of the guysreplied.
I smirked,“Get your blood drained. I’m pretty thirsty andstarting to get a little light-headed, so if you could just movealong I could get back to what I was just doing. Unless you twowant to be dessert?”
One guy looked at the other andasked, “I didn’t think he was a vampire, didyou?”
The other guy replied, “No, I hadno idea!” Then he turned to me and said, “We’re sorry!We’re sort of new at this—we were just turned last week—anddidn’t mean to step on your toes.”
“My name is Hartwell,” I said as Iextended my right arm and open palm in greeting.
“The name is Byron,” one said andthe other offered, “Ryan.”
I later ran into Byron and his newrunning partner Brian and thought the exchange of personnel was agood trade.
I was in a sporting mood and saidas I picked up one of the girls, “I’ll give you guys one if youpromise to not kill or turn her.”
They looked at each other inconfusion as Byron, the more curious of the two, asked“We don’t know anything else other than killing andturning.”
I handed him one of the girls andthen picked up the other so I could teach a blood-based tutorial. Ibit into the girl’s neck and then drank a littlebefore talking again. “The key is to take just enough to satisfythe urge without eliminating the source. If we continue to use upall of the resources, there might not be enough for the next timewe are in need.”
This was obviously the earlierdays of my green ways in recycling. I drained half of my girlbefore giving it to Ryan, while Byron also followed myinstructions.
“So, if we come back here in sixmonths we can do this again?” Byron asked.
“Exactly!” I replied.
PAYBACK
A little background: every vampirehas a cosmically-assigned hunter - who is a natural enemy - and aprotector, who is a constant ally. It takes 18 years from birth forboth individuals to attain full maturity and understanding, withmost of the growth occurring in the subconscious untilthen.
With that being said, I was inPennsylvania one night when I decided to go to a bar for alate-night drink. It was just after midnight and many of thepatrons had exceeded the legal blood-alcohol limit in the days whenit was legal to drink and mount a horse. I had taken a fewunsuspecting drunks for a leisurely stroll in the alley for alittle puncture and drink, and was focusing on a third pigeon whenI was surprisingly impeded by an unfamiliar face.
“You don’t want to do that,” theman-child said with confidence. I stepped back to get a good lookat this baby-faced kid that dared to challenge me, because I hadbeen previously undefeated when it came toconfrontations.
“You should go home, junior, andhelp your mommy knit a quilt,” I replied with all of the cockinessof a predator in the prime of my death.
The man was focused on the“impending danger, not my pointed words, as he yelled,“Duck!”
Normally, I listened to no man butmy intense hearing was telling me that the directive wasaccurate.
Thaddeus Brewster stood across theroom with a silver-tipped arrow cocked in his bow, and released thevampire-killer toward my core.
Garrison Phillips stood calmlyerect and reached out his thick leather-gloved right hand andcaught the arrow an inch away from my slowly-pumping, cold,heart.
“We have to go,” Gary said as heclutched my arm and exited the bar with Thaddeus in hotpursuit.
“Flying would be good!” Garyyelled and jumped on me as I unfurled my wings and took flight.Thaddeus immediately took flight in the air in his human form andtransformed into an oversized hawk.
I looked back at Gary and asked,“When did I get these?”
“Do mean to tell me that all thistime you didn’t know you had wings?” Gary replied indisbelief.
Thaddeus the hawk came speeding byand shredded Gary’s back with one of his huge talons.
“Aahhhhhhhhhh!” he screamed andthen composed himself and said, “Do you mind going a little faster,big guy?”
We continued the back and forthbattle through Pennsylvania until reaching the border of NewJersey. My limited flying experience was no match for Thaddeus’proficient use of wind currents and advanced obstacle-avoidancemethods. A few more vicious swipes of the talon and we weregrounded. The 400-yard, full-speed fall would have crushed anymortal, but Gary quickly helped me up and I naively said, “Maybe welost him.”
It was 4:30 a.m. and thenearly-full moon was still shining brightly. I was facing Gary anda huge shadow consumed both of our forms.
“Not in this lifetime,” Gary saidas I turned and looked straight in the belly of a massive grizzlybear.
“Run!” I yelled trying to utilizea sophisticated tactic I utilized often as a mortal. But Gary,playing the part of the ultimate protector, stayed behind to try toslow the angry creature down. He changed into a wolf and literallyhowled at the moon before jumping at Thaddeus’ furry neck, jawclenched on its target. The wounded bear roared in anger and painand attempted in vain to shake the determined Gary off of him.Thaddeus regained his thoughts long enough to swipe his lengthyupper claws and puncture the body of the wolf like a pin cushion.Gary yelped in pain and then Thaddeus effortlessly tossed his limpbody deep into the forest brush.
I was so confused by the turn ofevents that I ran as fast as I could instead of gliding,teleporting, or flying away. Although I had received three days ofcomprehensive information when making the transformation frommortal to vampire, it had been 18 years and I was desperately inneed of a refresher course.
Thaddeus the bear roared and theground shook as he started running in the my direction. I must havehad a good 30-second head start on Thaddeus but the speedy bearquickly made up the stagger, shocking me, and I was scared for thefirst time in my life as a vampire.
I muttered, “What in god’s name…”as I turned around to see the bear lumbering toward me with thespeed and wildness of a
