Auric's Journey

[Note for readers... based on .bunnie.'s characters]

 

    Auric Vanderhof, a vampire of note, had been chasing his brother Zuric for hundreds of years. It was the the midpoint to the 17th century when Zuric fled Europe to head to the “New World”. Zuric wasn't running from Auric himself, but the entire governing body of the thousands of years old society of vampires that had reestablished the species in the 15th century.
    The 13th and 14th centuries were tenuous times, there was a real danger of vampires disappearing all together. It was seen that it would be in the best interests of the vampires to expand into the human ruling class. During the 15th century, the self-proclaimed leader to the newly formed governing body for the vampires found a family of royal ambassadors that could all be turned. It was Lazzlo, the leader of the governing body, who started the story of Auric and Zuric.
    The search for a ruling class turned up a few people that had positions of power. However, they were always easily corrupted by the blood addiction that the vampires developed after feeding on blood for too long. Finally, a righteous  noble took power and word spread that his entire family could be turned. Lazzlo, without any real research, approached this man time and time again. Only to find out that the royal ambassador was a deeply religious man. Though he understood that Lazzlo and the ones like him were not to be taken very lightly. Even though, by the ambassador's beliefs, vampires were abominations against god. Also, vampires were in almost all facets of the ruling class already. They would make a deadly enemy.
    This brave man stood against the ever growing madness for power that Lazzlo thirsted for. His name was Matthias Farkas. A royal ambassador for the reigning blue-bloods of Hungary. Lazzlo had broken first and started with a more unwise plan of attack. Lazzlo would make this religious zealot pay for his commitment. In a move that would seem ill-advised, he went forward with threats against Farkas's first born son.
    Farkas heard the rumours of the viciousness the vampires threw at their enemies, so he bartered with Lazzlo. Farkas offered Lazzlo a slave, Lazzlo laughed at this offer. What good would a slave do when there were humans who would do anything to be permitted to live as a vampire? Farkas offered, what he hoped wouldn't be seen as food, a maiden per month. Lazzlo laughed at this as well, it was seen as a pittance. Lazzlo's madness seemed to grow daily, Farkas finally relented and cursed one of his children with what he saw as a life of the damned.
    It was far from what Lazzlo wanted, but he took the offer. Unknowingly, both Farkas and Lazzlo had shaped the contours of the European histories of man and vampire through the slave. Though Farkas fought against it, saying that it wasn't a part of the deal, he had to relent. Lazzlo was already in farther than Farkas wanted him. Lazzlo took as a slave a young and inexperienced man of the church. That man came to have his own torn history with the vampires, but he had given the vampires a very strong foothold in Europe.
    What Lazzlo didn't count on was the 2nd born son's reaction to learning what had happened to his family. Zuric knew what little Lazzlo had allowed him to learn. Mostly, Lazzlo was teaching the young vampire his ways of cruelty and ruthlessness. As Zuric grew older, what he knew of his family slowly ebbed away. Farkas eventually died and the first son took his place. It was then that Zuric had learned how far Lazzlo had let everyone drift apart. Zuric had mostly stopped ageing and when he approached the new ambassador, he came unrecognized.
    Lazzlo then made one of his biggest mistakes, he started ignoring Zuric's family to concentrate on the larger opportunities that the church had for him. This angered Zuric, he saw it as disregarding everything that they were working towards. Worse, Zuric saw this as abandonment by Lazzlo after decades of faithful service.
    Zuric turned on Lazzlo and hit back where he knew it would hit hardest. Zuric slaughtered the entire  religious section that Lazzlo considered the most powerful. This had split the two, but not so much that Lazzlo didn't try and keep Zuric on his side. Lazzlo knew that everything he taught Zuric would be one of the biggest threats against his leadership. It became a real threat that Zuric would be able to usurp Lazzlo's position. It was already too late, Zuric had his mind bent on making Lazzlo pay. Zuric's attacks on began to escalate. Lazzlo had to fight to keep the church from turning against all vampires and keep Zuric from making matters worse with his attacks.
    It was about that time that the 2nd son had entered the picture. He found out from, the eldest brother, that there was indeed a 3rd son of Farkas who still lived. The 2nd son had believed, since he was a child, that his younger brother had died. However, besides knowing that there was still a younger brother, what the eldest only knew was lies told to him by Lazzlo.
    The 2nd son disappeared, it was a time of turmoil in his homelands so he easily slipped away into obscurity. Eventually, he wound up in England as a Kin. He made the sacrifice of serving the vampires to find out what had really happened to his younger brother. It was many long years after he'd left his homelands to search for his brother. By then, there had been strong rumours of a revolution within the vampire species itself. He'd been lucky to escape the slaughter of one of the oldest vampire families in England.
    It had been that slaughter that finally made the 2nd son, a Kin, worthy to be turned. By that time, he was a very old man and only turned to rebuild the ranks of vampires in England. It was then that he learned how far the war between Zuric and Lazzlo had gone. The oldest vampire clans in Europe were being targeted and Lazzlo was slowly losing control on all sides.
    The circle of vampires that Lazzlo had been a part of, the ones that called themselves the leaders of the governing body, had mostly been killed. Only Lazzlo had survived Zuric's continued revolution. Then Lazzlo made another very big mistake in a fit of rage. It happened just as the 2nd son was returning to Hungary to learn what more he could of his own past. Before getting home, Lazzlo killed everyone in that bloodline except one person who was fatally injured. The 2nd son got there just in time to hear from his oldest brother that the murders had been done as revenge for Zuric's continuing war on Lazzlo. Everything that Lazzlo and Zuric had been doing cost the lives of the entire bloodline of Farkas.
    It was then that the 2nd son became more widely known as Auric. To himself, he swore revenge on all vampires. Auric let it be known that he did blame Zuric for what had happened. That word had spread slowly among the vampires. Auric thought that if he could become strong enough to defeat Zuric, then Lazzlo and the rest of the vampires would fall as well. They would  lull themselves into thinking that they were safe.
    Auric had let came to be called a Vehemist, after ridding the world of Zuric, he would let himself grow old and die. When news of this had reached Lazzlo, he was excited. Here was another powerful ally if he could persuade Auric to take place at his side. By then, the governing body was in disarray and Lazzlo had proclaimed himself the leader of all vampires. Auric turned down Lazzlo's offer, saying that all he wanted was Zuric dead. With that, Lazzlo begrudgingly offered to help Auric hunt down their common enemy. Lazzlo had given Auric power to execute in exchange for his help to defeat Zuric.
    Zuric, learning that another of the most powerful vampires in Europe had begun to hunt him, began trying to start his own clan to rival Lazzlo's. The fact Zuric saw that they were actually more of a clan than an entire governing body was something that weighed heavily on Lazzlo's mind. That the entirety of vampires in Europe were in such a state of disarray was troubling.
    Auric lead the way, Lazzlo only followed to make sure of Zuric's death if they could find him. It amounted to a scouring search of Europe. Zuric began to make use of the fear behind his name, but with that came a larger group to lead. Word had spread about a small band of unknown Kin, following those reports, Auric and Lazzlo were closer than ever to catching their target. Unfortunately, Zuric had learned that they were closing in and due to his careless building of a clan. Zuric had to flee, leaving behind his Kin. In the long history of all vampires, that had been a first. If Kin weren't to be turned, they would outlive their usefulness and die of old age while still waiting, or they would be killed outright.
    The little band of abandoned Kin began to search for Zuric as well. When they were found, before they could get any useful information about where Zuric could be, they were slaughtered. Auric heard what Zuric had done, something considered unthinkable like abandoning his Kin, he flew into a rage and killed them all. It was then that Lazzlo had found out how committed Auric was to getting his revenge on Zuric. Lazzlo also saw that Auric, no matter if he was on his side then, would become a near identical threat. Before Lazzlo could think about what to do, the situation resolved itself in his favour. It was only a temporary solution, but having to deal with both brothers was way too dangerous, even for Lazzlo.
    News had reached Auric that maybe Zuric had gone to England and that he might be trying to head to the New World. Auric headed back to England, keeping an eye and ear open for any news. One day,s there had been news of a haunted ship drifting with the currents...

 

    Auric sat in the corner and listened to the tavern's, less than honourable, patrons talk. Cold blue eyes looked at everything, stared at nothing. The little place was little more than a hastily added room to the only building beside a lonely wharf. Inside the small, rain-faded structure was a few meagre tables and a bar. All of which constructed from the bits and pieces of unused wooden planks. Anything that people found floating in the water or laying on the docks, still in good enough condition, was put to use.
    Everything inside the small shack had been brought in by it's patrons one night at a time. If they needed something on which to play cards, they would find the parts so they could make a hasty little table. The bar was put up so they would have a place to set their drink as they stood and guffawed through tales of the seagoing life. Chairs were a luxury until an enterprising soul pirated away a few, he tossed them overboard and those that stayed afloat where fished out of the drink and put to use. So everything inside had a weather chewed, ragged edge look, much like the nightly patrons. They did their business by the dull, greasy light of a few lamps.
    There was one in the tavern though that didn't seem to fit along with the regular clientele, but the other patrons ignored him. There were the odd rich folk that would wander in to quench their thirst before they headed out to sea again. Aside from the few cursory stares that Auric had to endure for the first little while, they had forgotten him as just another soul who wanted to wet his whistle. Auric wore a tricorne hat pulled low so that he could watch. Hair hung on the sides of his face, shoulder length and grey. The long coat, which he had taken from an unfortunate vampire, dragged too low, but no one seemed to notice. It covered his clothes well. For the days that lead up to his discovery of this little place, he'd wandered the streets and followed the gossip and stories of the sailors in the area.
    Most of the talk had been about where they had been. The adventures they'd had at far off lands on trading runs. Their adventures at sea with storms and swells that could only be explained as rolling mountains of ocean. Most of it was lies, likely all of it by the looks of the people who spent the most time at the tavern. He had listened a long time to the same stories over and over again until he heard one that sounded much too different than the regular rabble. It might have even been true. This story came from an old sailor who'd been at sea for more years than most of those gathered had been alive. At first, it started as only another wild tale, but grew into something that caught more and more ears. The normally boisterous tavern grew quieter as more people started to pay attention to the crusty old sailor, his story came on a voice that sounded like a rasp on rusty metal.

    “Aye! I would swear by every god there is that there be such a ship!”
    None laughed at him, there were rumours that there was actually a ship that had been found at sea just like the one this old man had described. The old sailor seemed to stop only to dare one of the listeners to try and push the story away as superstitious twaddle. None did.
    “By god, we latched on to that cursed ship and the captain sent a few over to search for survivors. The captain, as stout a-seagoing sailor as any two men listening now, felt the ghosts of that abandoned ship telling him to sail away. But he was bound by his duty, he would expect any other ship's crew to do the same for him.
    Aye, the did make their way over and the deck had been washed clean by the rains, you see. The first mate made his way down into the bowels of that haunted ship and he'd left it as fast as he could. He tried to make a proper report to the captain, but it was all blubber. Then the first mate did all he could to make the captain cut loose. To put the ship behind them and never look back. But the captain, he had to go over, the only thing that he could understand from his first mate was there had been blood.
    The captain took a group of men with him and they had to go and see. Even as he saw from the hatch to the lower decks, he should have known, had to have known, that it would only get worse. It didn't sound right, there had been no creaking from the sway of the ocean, the vessel was lodged in glass, he said. When he made his way down into the holds, he saw that most of the doors and latches were smashed open. Whatever had been down there searched for whatever it found in that last hold. It had been the sleeping quarters for the crew. It was a shambles, the door had been a thick oak slab of wood. Whoever was inside tried to lock out whatever was on that ship.
    The door still had boards nailed to it from the inside. From the inside! It was smashed open and whoever was inside that little room, god help those poor b******s. The captain said he had never seen anything like it. A few of his second boarding party had left, running for the open light of day. What he saw, he only said was the bloody artwork of the slaughter. The floor had bloody footprints, signs of the death panicked, trying to crawl into a corner and hide. The walls, bless those men, walls streaked with blood from floor to ceiling. Bloody hand prints. Those men had been killed by the devil hisself!
    The captain and the rest of them left right quick. Aye, you'd better believe it. But he did one thing right, he sent that cursed ship straight to the bottom. Put that haunted thing right in its grave.”


    Auric listened with a keen ear. The gathered crowd, who you'd expect to break into rough laughter at such a tale, only sat and murmured to one another. They heard the same tale come from a few different sailors, but this one had been almost first hand. Auric waited for the little crowd to break up and the mood of the tavern to get back to it's rowdy state. That's when he approached the old story telling sailor to ask a few of his own questions. Auric sidled up beside the old man before he could get too drunk.
    “Give me a bottle of your finest.” Auric asked the man who tended to the patrons.
    The barkeep only huffed a snort of laughter at this, the best was also the worst, these people guzzled anything that would get them falling down drunk. Still, Auric watched as the man made a little show, he wiped the dust off a bottle that was nearly identical to the rest of them lined up against the wall. It hit the table in front of Auric, he flipped a coin through air at the barman.
    “Sir, might I trade you this bottle of the tavern's finest for answers?” Auric clunked the bottle down in front of the old sailor.
    “Aye, but sir only befits a man of stature, to you, I can be Bill.”
    “Alright, Bill. Would we have a deal? My fine bottle here for only a few of your words?”
    “Aye. Ask away my lad, but be quick, a burning thirst shall cut off my voice before too long.” The old sailor, Bill, cackled at his own creativity.
    “Bill, I need to know how long ago this ghost ship was seen.”
    “My lad, the ship was as real as you or I, t'was nary a ghostly thing about it.” Bill thumbed the cork of the bottle, it squeaked.
    “Right, how long?”
    “Four months, but that ship could been out there for years.”
    “The name of the ship?”
    “No name, the captain didn't mark it.” Bill pulled the cork out and dropped it into a patch work pocket sewn to the front of his shirt. He squinted at Auric. “Would you?”
    “No, the dead might have followed me home.” Auric didn't believe that, but to have Bill try and convince him would be a waste of words and Bill indeed worked to drink himself into a slumber.
    “Steep price for so few words, my lad.” Bill's eyes seemed to see something inside Auric.
    “I agree, so tell me who was the captain of the ship.” Auric asked and Bill crooked his finger.
    “Don't tell anyone,” Bill whispered in his gravelly voice, “but I'm just passing along the story I heard from a pretty little barmaid.”
    “Your secret will be safe with me. One more question, where can I find such a pretty little lass that would be willing to fill my ear with such a story?” Auric let a half smile cross his lips, Bill roared with laughter when he saw.
    “You're looking for a tavern that only serves to sailors, I'm an old sea-dog myself so they permitted me a drink or two. Head south, first little scrape of dock you find. Dangerous going for a man who's never seen the open sea and you have that look about you. Maybe, you just keep to my telling and call it settled.”
    “Sir, maybe you're right, I should find myself another lass and take your word to heart.” Auric flicked his finger and the bottle 'tinked', then he winked. “Have a drink on me.”
    Bill laughed and raised the bottle.


    Auric left the tavern and stepped into the night, a fog had settled on the sleepy little port town. Auric walked along the street and headed anywhere he could wait out the rest of the night. There was one thing he knew, if it was a place which only served a certain clientele, a little tavern likely wouldn't welcome a stranger who showed up in the middle of the night.
    Auric headed south, at every sign of approaching people, he would lightly disappear into the woods and continue to head south. He kept the oceans crashing waves within earshot. Since he was in no rush, he strode slowly. It was almost dawn, the sky in the east began to change colour, when Auric sensed something. He knew the feeling from before, there were vampires in the area that had recently fed. When the wind changed direction, Auric could smell the coppery, wet odour of blood. He could almost taste it. It smelled like death, still, it was enough to touch off the want in the back of his mind.
    Auric stepped up his pace and saw that a scrape of a dock was exactly what it was. It was a little dock that seemed to be built only as an emergency landing for ships. Small ships at that. It was nestled in a steep cove with a treacherous looking road only wide enough to accommodate small carts. Auric could sense that the vampires were close, maybe it was built as it was for a reason. Although, if Auric could sense them, he knew that at least one of them had to have fed not too long previous. The thought struck him, there was only reason it would've felt the way it did. Even though the dock had been in the wash of the early sunlight and a light breeze off the sea, it was still ominous for that odour.
    Auric made his way down as quickly and quietly as possible to the brick and board building. Smoke had still came from the small chimney. Windows seemed a luxury to the place and the only large plate of it had been broken. Auric could hear a group discuss something inside the small tavern, they weren't humans. These vampires had killed innocents and Auric would kill any of them brave enough to stand and fight. Those would die first, then the ones he had to track down. He snuck up to the broken window, it was broken from the inside and there was blood on the glass. Auric ground his teeth, fought back an urge to run his finger through the congealed blood and taste it.
    Auric burst through the window and with a glance didn't recognize any of the vampires, they had piled the bodies of the slain humans in the middle of the room. Before any of them even knew what happened, one of them fell to the floor, head lopped from his shoulders. Auric had swiped it off with a backhand knife of his right hand. He drew back his fist and a split second later felt the crunch of a skull meeting his fist, then the warmth of a head wrapped around. Auric splayed his fingers and the head fell to pieces.
    “Sir! Stop!” One of the remaining two vampires held his hands in front of himself. The other stumbled backwards, feet propelled him towards the door.
    “You have but a tick to tell me why I shouldn't kill you where you stand.”
    “We were ordered here to investigate the story of a deserted ship, then destroy any witnesses.” The braver of the two vampires stood as if reporting a soldiers orders.
    “Don't move, I'll be a moment.”
    Auric dashed out the door and saw that the other vampire already made his large strides up the road. The vampire moved fast, feet lightly raised dust every few dozen feet as he sprinted away. Whoever this was didn't even try to follow any of the old laws. Auric knew things were starting to change, but this was still new to him. Not a few decades in the past, the vampires would never run. The one that waited back at the tavern knew not to try and escape. These thoughts had barely enough time to go through his mind, he was already in arms length of the vampire that had fled. Auric reached out and ripped back the spine from between the shoulder blades of this coward. The idiot had the audacity to try and scream, to try and beg for his life. Auric stomped the vampires head flat. He threw the body over his shoulder and quickly made his way back down to the tavern. The other vampire didn't move at all, he stood stock still. At least this one was disciplined. Auric threw down the dead vampire and looked at the human bodies that lay in the middle of the floor. Carefully, he laid them side by side. The smallest must have been the pretty barmaid that Bill had talked about. A growl rumbled from deep inside Auric.
    “Sir, we were ordered to....”
    “I heard.” Auric stood up and walked over to the first vampire he'd killed and ripped the headless corpse's clothes off then kicked it into the corner with disgust. The vampire's body crashed into the wall and thumped to the floor. “Who gave such a despicable order?”
    “Master Lazzlo, sir.” The vampire looked shocked to hear that Auric would call anything of Lazzlo's despicable. What was even more shocking was seeing Auric cover the humans, even shooed the flies away from their faces.
    “Master?” Auric huffed a small laugh that spoke more despise than his tone could carry. “Master. He gives himself titles as if the world owed him such.”
    “Sir, I have a courier heading back to Master Lazzlo at midday, I have to send my report along with him.”
    “What did you learn? Tell me. I suspect it's the same thing I came here for.”
    “The story of a deserted ship afloat in open sea, Master Lazzlo, thinks that he may have found where Zuric had disappeared to.”
    “Fool, you killed these humans to stop the spread of a sailor's ghost story? It has already spread far beyond here, I heard the story last night from a tavern not a nights walk away from here. What did you expect to do? Kill everyone who had this story in their mouth?”
    “I don't understand.”
    “Just tell me what you learned.” Auric stood up then walked to be face to face with the remaining vampire.
    “Sir, I know who you are and we're after the same thing.” This vampire, as much as he seemed to want to keep to the old codes, was showing signs of corruption from Lazzlo. Throwing away human lives for such minor things.
    “That is not what I asked.”
    “The one you chased down and killed had just been turned not two weeks ago. He had the burning that he could not control and when one of these humans started to bleed, he killed them all in a frenzy. Before we could do anything, they were all dead.”
    “I see. What I don't understand is how a vampire that should have been kept away from any human, for a much longer time, wound up here. Who was his holder?”
    “Me. Sir.”
    “And Lazzlo sent you on this errand knowing that you, or this fool,” Auric nodded his head to the floor on his right, “should have never been out this far? So soon?”
    Before the remaining vampire could answer, he clutched at a gaping hole in his chest. Auric had snatched out his heart and held it up for him to see what had happened. Auric forced his mind to where it had to be for what he had to do. What little action there had been still wore down on his strength. He gave the heart a lick and the taste made him feel as though there were a rusty nail scraping down his bare spine. It was something he could bare though, this vampire wasn't one of the ones that just finished feeding. Auric bore down on his mind and every time he had to do this, it was like he had never done it before, feed on vampire blood.


    Auric had finished his business and set the tavern ablaze before anyone would come along. It had been Lazzlo's doing that cost these people their lives, but Auric couldn't do anything about it. He was on the trail of Zuric and that looked like it would take him across the ocean. The trip had been attempted a few times before, but the length of the journey was always too long for vampires to endure. They wound up killing too many of the crew and have to sail back east with a skeleton crew. Auric suspected that was what happened to Zuric, he stowed away and when the blood lust came upon him, he used the humans on the boat as food. After that, Auric could only guess about the whereabouts of Zuric. Maybe he waited for another ship to come by and then stowed away again.
    The plan that formed in Auric's head, to follow this gamble, was already a horror story. However, the commitment to catch Zuric was so deeply ingrained that Auric thought nothing of going against his instincts for preserving the humans. These Kin, they were expendable. Auric made his way to Lazzlo's stronghold. Lazzlo had chosen a very mountainous region of Austria for the stronghold. Auric could only drop his head and close his eyes, to keep from openly laughing at the lavishness that Lazzlo used to celebrated his own leadership. It was as much a marble fort than anything else. Pillars erected and massive stone arches lined a walkway to his chambers. Auric's footsteps echoed through the huge hallway that lead him along.
    What troubled Auric was the absence of anyone. It was common to find Lazzlo surrounded with a selection of beings like him. Most of them would be the ones that were hungry for power. Would watch those like Auric pass with a sly and crooked smile on their faces. Lazzlo had seen and also heard of the way that Auric treated these types. Vampires, that used titles and threats to get what they wanted, knew to tread very carefully about Auric. Humans, who thought they were safe in the company of beings such as Lazzlo, only knew Auric as a cold blooded executioner. His disdain for any that held title before their own name followed him. Lazzlo hemmed himself into a very tight corner, Zuric and Auric on either side and it would only take a very minor slip to bring down everything he had built. Consequently, when he was to have Auric on a visit, Lazzlo would clear his stronghold.
    “Auric, my old friend.” Lazzlo's voice travelled far in this chamber that was lined with silly little puffs of cushion. Extravagance that had been paid for with the deaths of many innocents. Lazzlo had dressed in the purples of what he thought would represent a kingly stature. Silks and furs hung to the floor as Lazzlo moved.
    “Lazzlo, I may have found him.”
    “We have also been keeping an eye out for your brother. I have a group that should have been reporting back by now. The one I left in charge came back with a very interesting story, Auric.” Lazzlo's eye lids drooped and he lowered his chin to his chest an grinned.
    “There were five?” Auric returned the grin.
    “Yes. One had escaped, he saw everything.” Lazzlo lifted his long and gangly hand to the left and a vampire who still wore the clothes of the wharf rats stepped into the chamber. He looked familiar.
    “Master Lazzlo, that is the one, he killed without authority. He is an animal. He drank....”
    “Quiet yourself, Henrik, your blathering will end your useless life.” Lazzlo flicked his hand at Henrik.
    “Those fools you had sent, they were far too late to stop the spread of any information about a bloodied ship. Sailors in the area were already spreading the tale. They had murdered innocents, if this is the man who was in charge at that tavern, he should die.”
    “Now, now.” Lazzlo stood and walked down the few long steps to where Auric stood. “Killing poor Henrik for following my orders would be an injustice in itself. Though, I do see why you'd think it was murder. I thought that it would be most prudent to stop the spread of a horror story, that of a ship which obviously fell victim to a vampire. You know that the church is in disarray from Zuric's revolution, all they need to break relations with us is a story like that of a ship covered in blood.”
    “I've already told you that the story is well beyond that tiny harbour. And I see that nothing had come of it. Really Lazzlo, your methods are far too sweeping, you will be the one that breaks any friendly relationship you have built with the religious order. That is, if you continue treating the humans with anything less than the respect you show for your own kind.” Auric stood stolidly and stared at Lazzlo.
    “Auric, have you not, in your relentless hunt for Zuric, killed many vampires and humans that tried to stand in your path? Indiscriminately slaying any that you thought were in league with Zuric?”
    “Yes.” Auric answered, no sense of regret in his voice.
    “You think you can lecture me on the rights and wrongs?”
    “They were innocent.”
    “Were they? What if I told you that they were the ones who set Zuric on his way on a merchant ship bound for the New World?” Zuric walked back up to his throne and paced.
    “Did they?”
    “I don't know. This fool brought with him a blood hungry vampire that should have been kept away from any humans. The man was still Kin by all accounts.” Lazzlo walked towards Henrik and pointed at him. “You, wait outside, I don't want you to make a mess of my chamber floor.”   
    “Yes, Master.” Henrik strode past Auric.
    “I have a plan, Lazzlo. I need to follow Zuric.”

   
    Auric told Lazzlo of the plan, it made Lazzlo titter with delight. Here was the great and powerful Vehemist champion willing bring down horrors upon both vampires and humans. Lazzlo agreed to use any resources that Auric needed to make this plan happen.
    “Auric, my old friend, you may not like this, but the best I can offer you is standing outside waiting for his executioner. If you can convince Henrik to go along with your intentions, he will be most loyal.”
    “You'd burden me with such an idiot?” Auric looked over his shoulder as he got ready to leave.
    “No, it is your job to do with Henrik as you wish. If you do not execute him, use him for your own means. Though, I'll advice that before he was turned, he did captain his own ship.” Lazzlo's voice carried as he watched Auric walk away. Auric heard the laughter follow him, what he had planned was worth a laugh if you were in the right position.
    Henrik was stood at the furthest point away from the entrance. Stood on bare earth and looked into the eastern horizon. Hands clasped behind him with his feet spread at shoulder width. His stance told Auric enough about Henrik, that there must have a tradition bred in his human life that died very hard.
    “Henrik.”
    “Yessir.” Henrik didn't flinch or budge at the sound of Auric's approach.
    “I have a few questions for you.”
    “Yessir.”
    “I'm told that you're a loyal and honourable,” Auric paused and almost laughed when he wanted to say man, “servant of Lazzlo's?”
    “Yessir.”
    “You understand what I am and who I am?” Auric accepted his role of executioner when it served him, but rarely did Lazzlo use him in such a capacity.
    “Yessir. It is said you are an assassin, an executioner, strength to rival Lazzlo's.”
    “Assassin? Never done anything as cowardly. I administer justice and that is all.”
    “There was no justice for those four you killed at the Holm docks.” Henrik turned his head very slightly.
    “Holm docks, I never knew it had a name.”
    “Yessir.” Henrik seemed agitated that Auric didn't even seem to notice any mention of those he killed there.
    “Auric, if I'm to be executed, I'd rather it be soon, before having to endure much more of your pointless conversation.”
    “Can you still sail?” Auric must have found it funny because he had a grin on his face as he asked.
    “Yessir.”
    “Do you believe, in your heart, that the people at Holm dock needed to die for only hearing a tale of a haunted ship? What damage would a tale like that to do to us? It's just as easy to put a tale like that on pirates, isn't it?”
    “I agree. I didn't want to follow those orders, but things are changing. You can not disobey an order. I think this is the reason I was sent. But you know that last vampire you killed there? The one that didn't run? I turned him personally, he was one of my greatest friends from almost eighty years ago now. You snatch his life away without any thought.”
    Auric only nodded. He didn't want to let Henrik know that he felt a tinge of regret. It was one of Auric's wishes that more vampires would treat all lives with the same respect. Here was a vampire who'd kept a very large part of his human side in his close friendship, then had to see Auric end it in a split second.
    “You are as terrible as all the stories I hear. Bent wholly on revenge, slaughtering any and all that stand in your path.”
    “I'm sworn, I think that is something that you would understand.” Auric took a deep breath and slowly let it back out. “We have work to do.”
    “I am not to die here?”
    “No. However, you may think worse of me when you hear what I have planned.”


    Henrik thought he had the measure of Auric, but when he heard the entirety of the plan, it put a sliver of fear in him. Auric seemed to walk the line between madness and self-destruction. First, they had to acquire a ship large enough for their plans. Then gather the personal for the endeavour, all of which would have to be Kin. Lazzlo was gathering the rest of the needed provisions. What scared Henrik wasn't the fear of Auric, but the fear that they were about to attempt the passage to the New World, the Americas.
    Henrik knew more about the attempted passages by vampires than Auric. Even when he relayed these stories to Auric, he still had to fight off a shudder when Auric didn't seem to consider this a problem at all. Of course, Auric would have the most plentiful food source, he would face starvation last. Henrik's fear of such a thing happening wasn't so bad when he was a human, but now things like that were coming to light. Starved and alone wasn't so bad, but what if he lost control and killed his own crew? The thoughts kept creeping into his mind, it made Henrik unsure of himself.
    Lazzlo had made good on his word, he'd gathered the worst of the vampires. The ones that were merciless murderers, the ones that only lived to feed their addictions and had lost all sense. They wouldn't care what was happening to themselves, only that they would be able to feed regularly. Lazzlo also gathered Kin that were expendable, also criminals according to Lazzlo and his religious servant. Auric didn't like thinking about this side since the religious order thought nothing of condemning even the innocent to torture and even death. Yet Auric, like he had told Henrik, was sworn to catch Zuric.
    While Lazzlo had gathered their provisions, Auric and Henrik were busy readying the ship for the journey. Henrik proved to be an excellent test subject for the holding cells for the vampires. The ship had sunk into the water a good deal with the amount of metal they used for those cells, but when Henrik couldn't break through, it had to be more than enough for their built purpose. As for the food for the Kin aboard, Lazzlo made sure they they were more than prepared. Most of their haul would probably last two trips. Lazzlo wanted to make absolutely sure that Auric would reach the Americas.
    There were six cells for the vampires, twenty-four for the of Kin. The cells for the vampires was put at the lowest level by Auric's order. He knew that Lazzlo would be relying on the opinion of the religious for their criminals, a few would turn out to be innocent.  This wore on Auric's mind, he kept reminding himself that if they didn't die here, their lives would end even slower at the hands of corrupt church officials.
    During the last week before they were to depart, Lazzlo had sent a vampire prisoner nightly. A small contingent of guards to keep an eye on the dock. Human's were generally a curious bunch, but when they were warned off that they were looking at a prison ship, they would wander away. The people that hung around the area were mostly people who would want to avoid things they saw as lawful. Also, the guards hadn't been lying, it was a prison ship. The nights were a thick soup of fog, so the groups making their way down the docks weren't seen.
    They were guarded by vampires that Auric recognized. Most were loyal henchmen of Lazzlo's, but a few were on speaking terms with Auric. Mostly little nods of recognition and few words. The prisoners would see Auric and either fall into line or panic and try to escape. This was the usual vampire scum that Auric had to deal with all the time, the ones that let the want for blood dig so deep that they couldn't control anything anymore. These were the ones that would know no mercy from Auric. When the last vampire was in his cell, the criminals and Kin for the twenty-four cells were all brought at once. Auric had specifically asked for no women, but Lazzlo had included one in the group. The woman had been escorted by a clergyman that Lazzlo must have sent along.


    “A fine little w***e she'll make for all the men aboard your vessel, make good use of her, good sir.” The plump, short man, dressed in the simple robes of his order, grimaced as he handed over the last prisoner.
    “I told that fool that there were to be no women on this journey. What is the meaning of this?” Auric stood and filled the night sky above this little man. Shadows flickered across their faces, the little man held up a lamp to see Auric`s face.
    “I consider it a personal affair. However, if you must know, this little harlot had a child out of wedlock.”
    The woman had her hands chained behind her, but that didn't stop her from trying to hit the pompous little man. The little man danced away and boldly laughed. Auric took hold of the back of the woman's shirt and heard it rip as she tried to get at the cackling clergyman. Before she could completely tear away the meagre shirt she had on, Auric stepped in front of her.
    “You, what is your name.” Auric took hold of the little mans robes and lifted him to his toes.
    “How dare you! I am a man of....” The little man's cheeks flushed.
    “Name!” Auric bellowed.
    “Bish...”
    “I asked for your name, not title. You will find I am most unforgiving of people who hide behind titles.” Auric had lifted the little man so his feet dangled, toes reaching.
    “Barius!”
    “Unusual name for the area. Tell me, do you know the nature of our journey?” Auric set the man on his feet, but kept a hand entwined in his robe.
    “I travelled from Italy, brought to this forsaken island to teach. I came tonight to make sure that this w***e be put on this ship.”
    “Her crime doesn't merit her death, not by my opinion. You didn't answer my question, do you know the nature of our journey?” Auric's eyes bore into Barius', he was visibly shaken.
    “I know not! Now unhand me before...” Barius reached up and tried to wrestle away Auric's hand, his feet still dangled and kicked as he tried to plant them on the dock.
    “Do you know that I asked that there be no women on our journey?” Auric didn't feel the fingernails that claw at his skin.
    “Master Lazzlo had said that you might make an exception for me if I had asked.”
    “Lazzlo only wants me gone. I find it worth a laugh that he may have sent you only to get rid of you. Did that ever cross your mind?”
    “But Lazzlo is your master! He has given me his assurance that this woman shall be put on this ship!”
    “Tell me, what is your crime.” Auric kept his eyes trained on Barius.
    “Mine? I don't understand” Barius looked left and right, hoped for help that he should have known wouldn't come.
    “No. Yours.” Auric flicked his eyes over and met the woman's gaze.
    “I have done nothing wrong!” She yelled, then tried to get at Barius again.
    “She's lying! She had given birth to a child out of wedlock!”
    “Where is this child.” Auric wondered if the baby had been taken away, maybe Barius told the truth. Still, Auric found this far from worthy to call for an execution.
    “She's dead.” The woman stopped her struggle and Auric could feel her chest start to hitch. “He had my baby put to death.”
    A deep rumble came from deep inside Auric, he wrapped his hand around the Barius' neck and started to squeeze.
    “She's... lying.” Auric eased his grasp.
    The woman had dropped to her knees and wept, she didn't try and defend herself from any of Barius' accusations. Barius only tried to wriggle away, both of his hands worked to free himself. Auric slowly turned his head and bore his eyes into Barius again.
    “You think that a minor thing as a child out of wedlock is enough to sentence both mother and child to death?”
    “He's the father.” The woman spoke in a flat tone. “He's trying to hide the evidence of his own crime. He had my father send me to him for lessons in reading and writing. The only thing he wanted was me for his own repulsive wants.”
    “That vile temptress seduced me! She is an evil minion of the devil!” Barius' voice screeched.
    “He raped me.” The woman dropped her hands to her sides, whatever strength she had worked up to fight her fate faded.
    “Lies! Good sir, I am a man of the...”
    Auric saw that Barius' eyes were filled with what might have been lust, he looked down at the woman that he had broken. Auric glanced down and saw that the woman's breasts were bared. Even now, as lives were hung in the balance, Barius couldn't control himself. Barius looked up and saw that Auric knew what on his perverse little mind. Fear clouded his eyes as he saw Auric's rage build.
    “You!” Auric bellowed at a posted vampire guard who kept people from the ship. The guard turned and was at Auric's side in a flash.
    “Yessir.”
    “Stand.” Auric looked down at the woman, she did as told, she covered herself when she had noticed. Auric's anger seemed a palpable thing and it demanded compliance. “You swear that you tell true?”
    “I do. I can show you where he buried my baby. My father knows what he has done and I fear for my father's life after I am gone.” She stood tall, even with the tattered rags and all, it was an admirable thing in Auric's eyes.
    “Farryn.”
    “Yessir.” The guard stood at attention.
    “What is your name?” Auric ask the woman.
    “Abbey Booksmith.”
    “Farryn, Abbey Booksmith is to be guarded under my name. Do you understand?”
    “Yessir, Abbey Booksmith.”
    “Abbey, I can assure you that this man will pay.”
    “No! She's lying! You can't do this to me! I'm a man of the...”
    “Henrik! Get yourself down here!” Auric bellowed up into the ship, Henrik was beside Auric before Abbey could look around to see who this Henrik was, all she saw was the wisps of fog swirling where Henrik passed.
    “Yessir.”
    “Stow this below decks, he has graciously taken it upon himself to take this prisoner's place.” Auric had wrapped his hand in Barius' robe and held him out as though the robes weren't filled with a squealing little man. Abbey looked at this with shock in her eyes.
    “Farryn, do you understand my order?”
    “Yessir, to the letter. I will carry it out, not from fear, but from respect. Justice is becoming a hard thing to find these days.” Farryn glared at Barius.
    “I agree. Also, make sure that Abbey's father is looked after.”
    “Yessir.”
    “Now, Abbey, you must go with Farryn, he will bring you to wherever you call home and make sure that you're safe for as long as you need guarding. Do you understand?”
    “Who are you?” Abbey asked, clearly puzzled by the way that Auric had taken a bishop and planed on taking him along on a journey somewhere.
    “Auric.”
    “But you're kidnapping a very powerful man, he'll be missed and they will come to me for answers.”
    “Milady, that is what I'm there for, I will answer for Auric.” Farryn saw that she shivered, he started to take off his coat, the cold finally gotten to Abbey.
    “Farryn will tell you as little as possible, I'm giving you and your father your lives back, all I ask is your secrecy and trust.”
    “Sir?” Farryn looked puzzled and shook by what Auric had just said.
    “I understand your hesitance, but you're only telling as little as possible. I understand that Abbey will be footing the line of becoming Kin, but if anybody is curious, she'll have to be brought inside to be,” Auric furrowed his brow, he knew was about to bend an ancient law of secrecy, “to be a historian of sorts. If you have to explain beyond that, recount the fact that our history beyond the black death is gone.”
    “You think that will be enough?” Farryn knew that if word had spread that a human knew of the vampire society, Abbey would have to be called Kin, that made her life something that could be erased with a mere whim.
    “If my life is to be a burden on many people, I wish you didn't save it.” Abbey piped up, a little bit of spirit rode her voice. It made Auric smile.
    “Abbey, Farryn has my orders to protect you. The church will surely miss this fool that has taken your place. They will wonder how you managed to survive one of their executions while ridding yourself of one of theirs. Farryn here will have to provoke the use of my name, “Auric shook his head, he hated to know that his name reached far enough to be used as such, “that will be enough to keep you and your father safe, but you'll learn of who we really are. Therefore, Farryn has to impart knowledge that we've kept secret for thousands of years. If this happens, your biggest threat won't be from the clergy, it will come from,” Auric searched for the right word, “us.”
    “Who are you?” Abbey looked like she on the edge, ready to scream the question. She had been saved, by people who seemed more powerful than the church.
    “Abbey, after you find out, you'll wish you didn't know, all I ask is that you put your trust in Farryn, that is the only thing you have now, in time, you'll know more.”
    “Auric, I know it's a lot more to owe you for my life than to ask for all these answers. All I want to know, or trust, is that Barius will pay for what he has done. Barius deserves much more than he is going to get.”
    Auric raised his eyebrows, “Abbey, after you hear the story from Farryn, you may have a change of heart.”


    Henrik suggested they sail without an official name for the ship, though the crew of Kin murmured about it, Auric agreed. What would be the point of naming a vessel that they didn't want remembered. They put to sea in the early light, purposely let any other ships slowly disappear over the horizon. Auric made a round of all the prisoners. All but one remained silent, loudly cursed the name Auric and prayed in full baritone. For a small man who spoke with a high pitched voice, Barius did manage a deep voice that filled the entire deck. Auric could only grin, he wanted to make Barius pay, to taunt him with his fate, but it would be better to let Barius find out on his own.
    The criminals in the other cells were mostly resigned to whatever happened since they were Kin. If they were to be food, they knew full well of what might come. What Auric wasn't sure about was the vampires. Though he couldn't care less for anything that befell any of them, no matter their background, he wasn't sure if he would have problems with them. It wasn't long before he knew that one of the vampires would be trouble before too long. As he made a slow paced walk past their cells, he took time to look in each. Every vampire inside would cast their eyes away, they knew Auric by his cold blue eyes. As he reached the last cell, a hand shot out of the narrow bars and took his arm.
    “Let me out or die.”
    Auric looked in, passed the narrow bars and into the eyes of a truly mad man. His hair long and stringy, matted with what must have been blood and sweat. The vampires shirt was torn half way down the front. Auric knew that the eyes behind these bars were not any Kin or vampire. This vampire might have actually thought that he was one of the rare few given a gift. Auric knew that it was more of a curse than anything else. This poor soul survived only to kill, killed only to survive. While this was the way for many vampires, Auric didn't see himself grouped within those. Auric was sworn to revenge.
    Auric only raised an eyebrow at the threat.
    “I am a creature of the night. I will break free and eat your soul, foolish mortal. Free me and I promise you that I'll leave you and most of your crew to your destination. I hunger.”
    Auric took hold of the vampire's wrist and easily pulled his hand away. Still, the vampire had the crazy look in his eyes. Whatever had happened to this fool had deceived him into thoughts of unlimited strength, that he was obviously the most powerful being on the ship. It seemed as though the fool had already forgotten that he had been captured and handed over without a thought. Auric was disappointed on two sides. First, his name and face wasn't enough to keep this man in line. Second, Auric hated that his own mind worked in such a way, that had been the way of Lazzlo and Zuric. Yet, if he couldn't convince this weak-minded vampire that he was far over-matched, there would eventually be trouble.    With a little pressure, the bones in the vampires hand snapped one at a time. Instead of screams of agony, the vampire darted another hand out through the bars. He wrapped it about Auric's neck and tried to strangle, then tried to tear flesh away. Auric let go of the mutilated hand and the vampire dove backwards into the wall. The vampire clutched his hand, he flexed it as he tried to make it useful again.
    “Very wise decision, foolish mortal. Mark my words, I will escape and you're the first I will hunt down.”
    Auric couldn't believe his ears. The crazy thing that cowered in the cell still didn't understand even after an example. He called for Henrik, in a few seconds, they both looked into the cell.
    “Do you know who this is?” Auric asked.
    “No.” Henrik slowly shook his head, corners of his lips pulled down.
    “Why would this fool still live? If he were found, he should have been executed on the spot.”
    “Sir?”
    “You, what is your name?” Auric glared through the bars.
    “I am legion. I am the one who's name is provoked for the entry of darkness.”
    “Alert the crew, they aren't to get too close to this cell.” Auric decided that to open the cell and kill him would be a waste. Henrik had already warned Auric that a journey, even one as well planned as theirs, may come to troubled waters.
    “Yessir.” Henrik spared one more look into the cell and then the door itself, then he was on his way above desks to give out the order.
    “You are a fool.” The vampire spat at Auric. Auric almost replied in kind, but decided against mockery. A little starvation would do this insane creature some justice.


    The ship's sailing had been expertly handled by the crew that Henrik had put together. Auric really began to see Henrik as a friend before too long. Something that Auric hadn't allowed himself for decades. Eventually, Auric could see the strain that got to Henrik, the way that he paced and stared at the ship's sailors, he slowly drifted into a predatory state and if Auric let it go on for too long, who knows how far Henrik would go to satisfy his want.
    “Henrik,” Auric called over his shoulder, “report.”
    “Steady as she goes, sir. Right down the line and up.” Henrik stood beside Auric.
    Auric saw Henrik's eyes watch a sailor as the sailor sorted out one of the lines. Auric knew that look from seeing a starved animal contemplate if what he was looked at was edible. It was too close and yet, Auric admired the fact that Henrik never brought up his hunger at any time. He did his duties as best he could.
    “A word?” Auric walked to the hatch that lead below decks.
    “Yessir.”
    Auric made sure to stand in front of Barius' cell door. The little wooden bowl that they had used to dish out food for the prisoners looked as though it were licked clean. The smell that had escaped the cell was horrendous, Barius was the only one who refused to use the provided bucket. He had decided that if he had to endure such squalid conditions, so would everyone else, including Auric. Though it was always Henrik who would be the one to come by as the crew emptied the prisoner's buckets. Barius had given up screaming at them, lecturing them, praying for them, and had just settled for watching them. Still, Auric was sure that Barius had no idea what he was brought on the ship for.
    “Henrik, I can see that you're burning with need. I know you respect the crew and that is admirable, but these prisoners are here to serve us.”
    “Auric, when I had heard of your plan, I thought you a monster, I am afraid that your madness is spreading and I find my own quality fading. I knew it would come to this and I had hoped that I would feel the resistance. Now I only hope that I can control myself. Please, give me your permission, sir.”
    Auric hated to know exactly how Henrik had felt, though Auric's will was stronger than Henrik's, it wouldn't be too long before he would start to feel the burn inside him. He fished in his pocket for a large ring of keys and pulled it out, he held it up for Henrik. The hand that reached for them shuddered with hunger and excitement. Henrik's breath came faster.
    “Prisoners! Volunteer!” Henrik nearly screamed down the hall. Five different hands popped out of the cell bars.
    Henrik walked past the first volunteer then stopped at the second and looked in. The keys began to jangle, the prisoner began to sob quietly. Henrik looked through all the keys as he tried to match up the lock and key for the cell, but finally just dropped the keyring to the floor. He punched his hand through the heavy wooden door and yanked out the lock, the door swung open. From where Auric stood, he could only see Henrik disappear into the cell. Auric heard the short scream of the prisoner, then the all too known gurgle of a choked scream.
    A small tingle of satisfaction had entered Auric as he heard Barius begin to openly weep. Then all hell broke loose a deck below. The scent of blood had drifted through the ship and reached the vampires that had been locked up. The last thing Auric heard, before running below decks, was a yelp from Barius. Auric knew that Henrik wouldn't hear any of the blood-thirsty screams. The sound of nails on metal, fists pounded and deep ringing travelled throughout the ship. For all but one of the blood crazed vampires, a quick glare through the cell bars was enough to quieten them. Yet, there was one at the end who was already deep into his own madness. Auric peered in and was met with the hands of the vampire prisoner as he reached for Auric. He stepped back and the hands closed around thin air.
    “Quiet yourself.” Auric could only warn.
    The vampire threw himself against the door. Bit at the air by the cell bars. He drew back to the wall and began to run at the door again, he didn't even notice the fist that flashed through the bars and drove him backwards. Auric stood and looked in to see if he still breathed. Even though he was in control, he had to get up above all this and into the clear air. He climbed the ropes and rigging, he stood as high as he could to breath in the clean, pushing the smell out of his mind. Auric could feel the life as it flowed into Henrik. It made Auric grind his teeth and clench his fists, it was like a breath of fresh air to a drowning man. It was enough for Auric to understand how a frenzy of killing could start.
    It took a long while before Henrik came back up, what marked it was a shriek of Barius. It always made Auric smile when he heard Barius in turmoil. Henrik had the body wrapped in it's tattered cell blanket, although there was probably a large open wound, there was but only a small spot of blood on the blanket. Auric saw Henrik pause for the slightest second before tossing the body overboard. Maybe it was Henrik's sense of nobility that made him say a quick word. Auric hoped that's what it was, it could have just as easily been a moment for Henrik to contemplate on how to get just a little more blood from the corpse.
    Auric didn't spare too much thought about it though, soon enough he'd be below trading two lives for his own food. No matter how despicable their crimes may have been, still it wore on Auric's conscious. He kept his mind over the horizon to where he was headed. The sun had touched the water and blooms of red filled the sky.
    He trip had been going smoothly so far. The worst that the ship had run into was a light rain and gentle waves. This made the Kin crew uncomfortable. They were a superstitious lot, they told Henrik that the storms were gathering their force to come all at once. Barius heard the rumours from above and started in that the ship was doomed, that his very own heavenly protector would sink such an abomination. That a vessel of demons would reckon with the almighty himself farther down the journey.
    Henrik asked Auric if he was okay a few days later. It wasn't really apparent, but Henrik had wondered how often Auric had to feed. Auric started to feel the need to stand, to walk and pace. Later, Auric stood on the bow of the ship as he stared west. As precarious as it looked, he easily rolled with every wave. He didn't talk to Henrik on anything besides the day to day running of the ship. Were the crew feeling well, the prisoners in order, the Kin provisions being looked after.
    What really kept Auric from feeding was only the taste and the smell. All his life as a Vehemist, his worst feeling were towards vampires who only saw humans for what they really were. Food. Now he'd taken that a step further and were treating humans as a farmer would treat hay. He knew that the time would come when he would surpass even those inhibitions and only struggle with the unpleasantness as he drank vampire blood. That awful smell, the terrible taste.
    The need to feed came upon him how it always did, he would just let his instinct for survival and trust to his sense of right and wrong to guide him. Auric didn't mean to do it, but he glared at Henrik, it was his only way to tell him it was time. The good man that Henrik was, only nodded solemnly in return. It wasn't above Auric to use this time to stop by and see Barius. To jingle the large ring of keys and rattle the key around in the lock while he hungrily stared at Barius. Auric decided he'd better just get the job done with before he found himself burdened with thoughts of Barius' blood. After all, Barius did deserve to die. The little little man had screamed himself into a faint. Auric grinned and looked down the row of doors.
    What he didn't want to do was see the poor prisoner's face if he told him what was about to happen. It was a touch on the ludicrous side, since the prisoner's already know what they were there for. Still, Auric couldn't help but feel in the back of his mind that it would be easier if it didn't feel like leading a lamb to the slaughter. He stopped in front of a door and opened it quietly, the prisoner sat on the floor with his elbows on his knees. He stared at the floor and only waited. The cell door creaked open, still the prisoner didn't look up. Auric saw when the prisoner's eyes began to blink, after that, they would glide up and see who came for him. Auric waited for his eyes to be fully closed before he stepped forward and rapped him on the side of the head, Auric knocked him unconscious. It might have been a mercy on a prisoner who deserved no such thing, but he paid with his life to give Auric life.
    Auric lifted the man and threw him over his shoulder. Then he made his way down one more deck and had to go by the cell with the insane vampire. Auric wanted him to suffer as much as possible. Auric knew vampires from the his past that acted in the same manner. He first fed on vampire blood when he encountered a male and female that had the same lunatic look in their eyes. As Auric walked by, a hand flashed out and tried for the leg of the unconscious prisoner. The move that was surprisingly fast, even for Auric. Still, he had caught the hand before it could wrap around the ankle and start to pull. Auric crushed the bones and then twisted, he wrapped the the vampire's arm around his own as if it were a limp piece of rope. The most he'd gotten was a desperate growl though, the vampire tugged his broken arm back through the bars.
    Auric made sure to make fierce eye contact with every vampire in their cells as he went by. For all the good it would do, the journey depended on their survival, but Auric hoped that they wouldn't figure that out. That was the only reason that he'd chosen the vampire at the end of the corridor. Auric looked through the narrow opening and told him to stand with his back to the wall. Auric's hands shook as he tried to work the key into the lock. Blood lust shook his hands. He hated the feeling but he craved it at the same time. To Auric, it had always been almost a sexual feeling. However, the feeding part would instantly make it a feeling of horror. That first taste of vampire's blood had never changed in all the years he did it, as bad then as it was so many decades ago. The key turned and the door creaked open.
    As soon as the vampire saw what Auric had over his shoulder, a blaze of pure hunger shone in his eyes. Auric put the unconscious human on the floor as gently as he could, the vampire made a move to lunge forward. Auric's hand was around the vampire's throat, he pushed the to the wall so hard that the metal of the cell began to creak. The hatred that Auric had felt matched that of the hunger the vampire had felt. Auric stepped back and shook his head so that the vampire would wait until Auric was out of sight. Auric stepped back through the door and closed it, a few seconds later, the wet sounds of torn flesh and slurped blood came from inside the cell. He locked the door and paced up and down by the other cells. Dared any of then to start a racket. The one at the other end did start to growl as if he were a dog. Auric half expected a howl to start, but all that he heard was the raged breath from all the cells. They all fought the urge to try and bash their way out, no matter the consequences.
    Auric figured that if he were in one of the cells, even he might have lost control. The scent of human blood, as it flowed free, reminded him of the sweet smell of flowers and the tang of berry juice. His mouth had begun to water, a dim sensation of a well-fed vampire began to emerge from the cell. It tickled in his mind, he could almost sense all that vampire experienced. See what the vampire saw, smell what he smelled. Auric knew that after a while it would grow stronger and it was almost always at the same time that it would hit the peak. That's when Auric would strike.
    Auric sat on the floor by the cell door. He waited and kept his mind on that feeling growing from inside the cell. The thoughts that he could almost read were just out of his reach, they were the names that were at the tip of your tongue. The word that you know is right there, but won't show itself.  He had his eyes closed and concentrated hard, he decided that it had been long enough.
    Auric stood and didn't bother using the key, the cell would no longer be put to any use so he pushed his hand through the lock and bent the metal out of the way, the door still didn't budge. Auric ripped it off its hinges and dropped it on the floor behind him. The vampire had his thirst quenched and was at his strongest. Still, Auric, even at his weakest point for the whole trip, was way too much for the vampire. He dove at Auric, suddenly he stopped in mid-flight, he clutched and tore at Auric's vice like grip squeezed around his throat. The vampire clawed his hand and swiped at Auric's face, what would have torn the face off of a human glanced off Auric like a gentle breeze. Auric began working his jaw, not for any other purpose than to prepare himself for that taste. A grimace showed, to the vampire, it must have looked like a devil's grin. The eyes of the vampire shot back and forth in a panic. Before any words could even begin to form, it was pinched off in his throat. A little 'gurk' was all that managed to escape his mouth.
    Auric slammed the vampire to the floor, hand still wrapped around the thing's throat as the vampire writhed. Hands beat at his head, feet kicked at him, tried for grip and then pushed as hard has it could. The vampire fought every step of the way, Auric knew this struggle and cherished it. As much as he hated the taste and smell, he knew exactly how to do the next part quickly and with as much effectiveness as possible. Auric's fingers dug through the throat of the vampire and tore out a neat hole, one that would let the body bleed out quickly.
    Auric wrapped one arm around the vampires shoulders and and gathered the legs with his other arm. This was done as the vampire still struggled. The vampire still thrashed, but it grew weaker. Auric could feel his jaw stretch, he put his mouth over the hole he'd made and lifted the body over his head, it still twitched. Auric sucked every drop of blood out that he could get. He crushed the vampire's corpse together until he could hear bones snap. Legs, ribs, spine, hips, all crushed in his arms like dry twigs. A hand still tried to clutch at his coat. When Auric was done, he stood and flung the body out the cell door. He felt the power surge into him, he flexed every muscle and the deep rumble rolled out of him, he let it out in a roar.
    Auric's senses, which were more keen than everyone's on the ship combined, burned with recognition. He could hear the hearts beat faster after everyone had heard the deep growling roar that felt like it had shaken the entire ship. He could smell everything, from the rancid bilge water, Barius' filthy living conditions, all the Kin, and even the open sea air. His eyes took in the indentations of the cells ceiling, minor imperfections in its manufacturing. The one sense he didn't want at the moment was the heightened sense of taste, it stayed in his mouth. He wanted to find something that would wash that taste away.
    He strode past the cells with the vampire's body slung over his shoulder. He didn't bother to look in any cell but one. Auric looked in at the lunatic thing and saw only the stupid gaze of the unlearning. What he saw was a look of recognition, that the disturbed vampire thought of Auric as almost an equal. Auric wanted so much to rip the door open and step inside to slay this fool, for no other reason to rid his mind of that idiot stare. Auric walked away before his raging sense took over for his temper. When he stepped up onto the deck, sailors scrambled out of his way. Henrik had stood as far upwind as he could to keep from the stench.
    Auric walked to where he saw sailors dump things overboard and grinned when he noticed that one of the vampire's hands was still trying to clutch at his coat. He reached around the jaw and unceremoniously ripped the vampire's head off. He tossed the body into the water as though it were just the lightest piece of trash. It splashed into the water and Auric watched it float away as the boat slid along. Auric drew his hand back and threw the head in a high arc, it sailed through the air and made the smallest splash of water in the distance. Henrik guessed that it had reached as far as a cannon ball would reach at its farthest.
    Auric saw that one of the sailors had a small flask in his belt, he motioned him forward. The sailor looked around, then looked up at Henrik, Auric could see from the corner of his eye that Henrik made the smallest of nods. The sailor stepped forward and Auric snatched the flask away and took a mouthful of whatever was inside. It tasted like dust, whatever it was, but it was better than the taste in his mouth, he spat it overboard and handed the flask back to the sailor.
    “Thank you, good sir.” Auric spat again.
    “A kindness that needs no thanks, master.” The sailor took the flask back and put it in his pocket.
    “Master? Never, I'm in your debt for your safe passage. My name is Auric and that is all I will ever ask of you or anyone else who works this ship along its course.”
    “Auric.” The sailor seemed to contemplate. “No, I cannot, but if you'll permit me to call you 'sir' as Henrik does, then you'll do me an honour.”
    “Very good.” Auric nodded, an eye watched the head bob up and down on the waves. “Is there a bucket? I need to rinse this rancid smell off my clothes, Henrik looks ill, does he not?”
    The sailors laughed, they found a suitable bucket and tied a rope so Auric could draw seawater.


    It was a while before the ships crew let themselves fall back into routine, they still cast a wary eye at Auric. That was an oddity for Auric, he tried hard to fit in more with the humans than the vampires, yet the humans on the ship were more comfortable with Henrik's presence for the most part. It might have been their own tales that they'd heard passed along for the longest time while they were Kin. Stories of vampires that were far more powerful than the others only encompassed beings like Lazzlo and Zuric in their murmurings. As far as they knew, most vampires were evenly matched save for the few of legend. Though they did hear about Auric, he was still fresh on the tongues of the gossipers among the Kin and most of them never thought they'd ever meet one such as he.
    Henrik also seemed to be full of questions that he never asked. Auric could tell by the way Henrik's eyes would flick here and there as he tried to find something else to talk about while his mind raced with his questions. Auric stood on the highest mast and watched the horizon to the west. For the first time, Henrik joined him and stood beside him.
    “Sir?”
    “Finally work up the courage to ask your questions?”
    “Sir?” Henrik had a sheepish grin on his face. “It's not that, I just didn't want to bring it up in front of the men.”
    “Good idea. Ask away.”
    “How, no, why vampires?”
    “I'm a Vehemist. Conflicted would be a mild way to describe my condition. Vampires made me who I am.”
    “Zuric?”
    Auric only shook his head, unsure how Henrik would react to knowing how Auric really felt.
    “Lazzlo,” Henrik said in a flat tone, maybe Henrik knew how Auric felt.
    “Lazzlo.” Auric nodded.
    “Is it true that he killed your entire family as revenge on Zuric?”
    Auric nodded.
    Henrik shrugged, finally just threw his opinion right out there regardless of what anyone thought. “Why not killed Lazzlo first?”
    Auric raised an eyebrow and looked over at Henrik. A look that said that Henrik were took quite a risk to blurt out anything like that. Especially against Lazzlo.
    “I know, sir, you think I'm Lazzlo's man, but he has a lot of enemies, at first I was by his side as an admirer of his way that he started pointing the vampires in one direction, but he began going further and further down a path that less and less people wanted to follow. The killings at the Holm dock are becoming a common occurrence. Yet, he foolishly stands alongside people like Barius.”
    Auric smiled, those days a lot of vampires were hesitant, to say the least, to call themselves human. Even to refer to themselves in terms of man as Henrik did wasn't commonly done. They felt that they were above them by far.
    “Sir?”
    “You call yourself a man?” Auric asked.
    Henrik laughed, “yessir, sometimes I do. I don't think that I can call myself a Vehemist though, but I don't want to call myself something that Lazzlo is making us out to be.”
    “Henrik, I understand you more than you know.”
    “Thank you, sir.”
    Auric sighed, with nothing other than the long voyage, there was nothing to do but tell Henrik how he came to be the vampire hunter he was, “long story, but we are sadly lacking other things to fill the time.”
    “Yessir.”
    “A long time ago, I was like you. I fed on humans, then grew to hate every second of it. Though, and I know how you start to feel it, seems to grow from the bottom up, that hunger, the thirst. I wish I could recall the times when I took human lives without a thought. Maybe it was when I still knew a few people and could call them friend. Yes, now that I think about it all, it was when they died. They got to live a life, all the way from birth to the grave. They died on their own terms. When we were Kin, we thought nothing of dying, after we were turned, we thought nothing of killing. For most of us, we just stop thinking about it, life becomes meaningless when you realize that you have watched everyone you know die. Either killed or a natural death.”
    Henrik nodded and stared out at the horizon. Auric thought for a moment, then realized that he had killed Henrik's good friend without a second thought. He continued his story.
    “I had been just wandering really. In England, Zuric killed the largest clan and that's why I was turned, only to preserve the species, that's what I heard from Lazzlo. At the time, I could understand it and I thought I could use the fact that my life would be a lot longer. Only to find out what had happened to my brother. All I knew was that he wasn't really dead, it was something I had been told over and over so I just accepted that he must have died. Then, Zuric and Lazzlo's war, it took too much. I hated them both, but I didn't want to just throw my life away trying to kill Lazzlo. I was still an old man when it all started.
    The first months, I fought everything, even trying to convince myself that I'd keep my real name. By the time I should have been far too old and in the grave, that's when I really abandoned my name and started living as Auric. It was another small step into a life I suddenly wished I'd never asked for. I knew that I'd gladly give it up to live out the rest of a human life, but that would mean Zuric and Lazzlo would still be free to continue waging their war. More humans would die, I committed myself to becoming a Vehemist. Though, at the time, I was still killing humans so I'd live. Every time I'd kill, I'd feel just a little more of a monster. Something that Lazzlo had created, I'd feel more like Zuric.”
    Auric shook his head. “It's a terrible thing, to feel lost between two worlds. I was a vampire who'd killed humans, yet, I was a vampire who saw humans the same way as the rest of them. Us. Still, I continued on, I couldn't stop, the burning thirst is merciless. In time, I grew stronger than most, not out of any sense of wanting to be, I just survived, I thought it the same as a human just living out his days. Instead of growing older, I was getting younger and stronger.
    One day, I came upon a vampire who'd attacked a family who'd I'd been friends with. The father was a Vehemist and he'd been turning into a happy, grey haired old man. The rest of the family weren't called Kin, but since it was the way it was done, he'd been considered Kin. The vampire slaughtered all of them. For months, I'd tracked the killer across England, I finally caught up with him. He'd been in contact with Lazzlo and was one of their executors. I thought that maybe this guy would be enough, I would kill him if I could then Lazzlo could send whoever he wanted at me. It was easy, it wasn't even much of a fight. I buried his body and burned his head.
    It had been another few months, I'd been living in the wilderness, when I'd been found by a Kin courier. Lazzlo summoned me before him, even then he'd been placing himself higher than everyone. I accepted my fate before I knew what it was, he told me that I'd killed his head executioner. As funny as it was, I was commended. The vampire I grew to despise for making me what I was wanted to be my friend. I don't know what it was, he underestimated me in far too many ways. Maybe he was just arrogant, drunk on his own power, because he knew who I was. The one that killed my entire family with his own hands, asked me to help him rid the world of my brother.
    I kept my tongue, I kept my composure. If I dared to attack him then, I'd fail. I did want Zuric dead. No matter how twisted Lazzlo made him through the years, he should have known that any time he'd go against Lazzlo, he would be putting all of our lives on the line. He pushed Lazzlo too far, by then I'd disappeared to England and was within the Kin. Trying to find out what had happened to my brother.
    There was so much hate, I wanted every vampire dead. So, when Lazzlo appointed me executioner, I thought of it as a start. The vampires that could stand against me were being killed by Zuric. Maybe Zuric would eventually come after me. No, he started to flee, every time I'd be getting close, he'd be like a whisper on the wind. I had followed him to a small village, a crossroads so it supported a tavern and there's when I saw something so despicable, I'd stepped my boundaries. I decided who was to die without consulting Lazzlo.
    There was a vampire there who had the look we see from the one down in that first cell. I'm sure you know that look. Maybe it was a joke put in place by Zuric. I stayed well out of sight and kept an eye on that man. He kidnapped a little girl and disappeared before I could save her. The only way I found them was by chance, the wind blew in the right direction and I smelled the blood on the air.”
    “A child? The scum had killed a child?” Henrik finally spoke up.
    “Yes. But it was worse when I'd found their small hut in the darkness of a forest. The place even seemed a part of a fairy tale, there were no trails, no well worn cart tracks, nothing. I watched from the woods, there were two of them inside, taking turns feeding on the girl. Then I wasn't sure I'd be able to kill them both at the same time. They had just fed and were at their strongest. I  forced myself to watch, they'd bathed themselves in the blood, then...”
    “Please, I need not hear that part.” Henrik's fists were clenched.
    “I waited, the male came from the cabin, carrying the wrapped bundle, he carried the body into the forest to bury. That's when I had sprung, soon as the there was just the one inside the cabin, I snuck in through the window. As hard as I could, I threw my fist at her and she fell dead. I had no idea how long the male would be, but I had to do something I thought I would never do. Before thinking for too long, I'd gotten to my knees and fed on the female. I began to cough, trying to keep every bit of it down, when I noticed that there were feet coming at me. He kicked me away from the body and I hit the wall and fell to the floor.
    I felt his rage, his sorrow, not the full brunt of it, but I knew exactly what he felt. It seemed as though I could see through his eyes in the farthest part of my mind. He came at me, I was still forcing myself to quit coughing and retching. Before I knew what had happened, I was holding a large piece of his throat in my hand. The look in his eyes, I hoped it was the look he saw in his victims eyes. I chopped his head from his shoulders with the side of my right hand.
    It was then I found that I didn't need human blood. If I needed to feed, I would only kill vampires from then on. I didn't keep it a secret from anyone either and I made damn sure that Lazzlo knew. Still, I knew that he and Zuric were way too strong. I heard from someone that they are so strong that they can change into,” Auric thought for a few moments, “demons. They must have lived frightening lives, maybe it was something they had learned from the church before they tore down the middle. Maybe it's  something that Lazzlo had passed on.”
    “Demons?” Henrik had never heard such a thing before.
    “I only heard it from a Kin that was long in the tooth and had a taste for the wines.”
    “Demons.” Henrik simply stated.
    “I can only hope that it's the rambling of a drunk's nightmares.”
    “Yessir.”
    “If the stories of Zuric's disappearance to the Americas are true, I fear that I'll never catch him. Vast wildernesses and there is no way to track him, Kin can't help.”
    “Sir? Might I ask you a question about what you,” Henrik paused and tried to think of the right words, “will do when you must feed?”
    Auric only shook his head, he didn't like to think about that. Surely, Zuric would have no problem in that regard, but Auric didn't want to start killing humans again. It never came to what he wanted and what he needed and a choice between the two though. In the back of his mind, there would always be that part of him that would relish that he might have to feed on human blood again. Henrik must have seen this on his face.
    “Sir, if you are sworn, then you do what you must.”
    “Yes.” Auric nodded. “What I must.”


    Again Henrik waited as long as he could, but he had to go to the prisoner's deck, the last volunteer was taken. The next time, when there weren't anymore volunteers, Henrik had to ask Auric to help him chose. So a prisoner was knocked unconscious and Henrik only had to go to find the cell. Auric repeated his first routine, waited as long as he could, but he eventually gave in. Still, only for Auric's amusement, Barius and the insane vampire remained. In his mind, those two would have to wait longest for their fates. Auric decided that a long time ago.
    Auric's sense of cruelty bad backfired on him on a cold, wet, and very windy day. Everything had to be fastened down. Henrik watched the storm's approach for a long way, though he had said there was a chance that the storm would miss them. It didn't, but they had been prepared except for one thing. The large door that Auric had torn from it's hinges was making a racket. Henrik took a few of the men to secure it to something, they made a quick tour of the remaining prisoner's cells, everything was in order. Henrik went down to the lowest deck and saw what made the racket. He made sure to keep the sailors safe as they made their way by. The Henrik lifted the large door into the cell and they secured it to the bunk.
    To Auric and Henrik, the light down in the vampire's deck had been sufficient, but to the Kin. There had only been a few lamps that were barely kept in working order. So, what they saw as they made their way past the vampires cells were very dark cells that seemed to be filled with shadow. The sailors kept their back to the opposite wall and crept along. Their eyes flicked nervously at the narrow bars, they expected to see the eyes of starved maniacs. What they saw was worse, narrow openings that held back the darkness inside and nothing more.
    As they made their way back out, Henrik heard something large snap up above, it might have been a mast so he ran up to the main deck. The men were on the prisoner's deck so Henrik thought they would be safe. The ship rolled hard and one of the sailors slipped and tumbled back down the stairs. Without a thought, he stood to see if he was okay. A little bumped and bruised, but he felt alright. However, he was right next the narrow opening of one of the cells. A hand flashed out of the cell door, it hooked around his neck and started to pull. The vampire inside yanked on the sailor's head, tendons tore and boned cracked.
    The lowest deck had broken out in its own madness. Vampires in a blood fury thrashed back and forth in their cells while one of them took on a meal. Another hand darted out between the narrow bars and tried to lift. The vampire grasped for any grip he could find. The bars were far too close together for a body to fit, but the vampire tried anyway. The sailors clothes were torn off in his attempts to jerk the body through the bars. The vampire did the only thing that came to mind, he jammed his hand into the soft stomach and tried to pull the body through the narrow opening. Long ropey tendrils of the sailors innards spilled out and plopped to the floor. Again and again, he tried for a better grip until the legs of the poor mutilated sailor fell to the floor. By then, Auric had heard about what had happened.
    Auric reached the cell and without any warning of any kind, he tore the vampires arms off. Then the door was completely been torn away, Auric was in a fury. The vampire, for the first time, saw what he really was to Auric, only food. Still, he tried to kick and bite at Auric. Auric let him bite and kick as much as he could, he tucked the vampire under his arm and carried him out into the corridor. He walked to the next cell and then put the crazed vampire down. He struggled and tried to crawl away, to get to the sailor's legs that were laying on the floor. Auric took hold of the vampire's arm with one hand and pushed down the shoulder with the other and tore the limb off.  Auric stuffed the limb through the bars of the cell, then moved down and tore off the lower leg and stuffed that through the next cell's bars, then the other leg in the next cell.
    “If you don't want to be force fed each other for the remaining length of the journey, you will stay in line. I give no further warnings.” There was no replies, as far as Auric knew, these vampires hadn't said a word the entire trip.
    Auric reached down and picked up the limbless vampire by the throat, with the back of his left hand, sliced off the head. The last thing on the vampire's face had been a stupid sense of recognition. What little satisfaction there was to be had turned to dishonor. Auric bent and picked up the head, he walked up to the deck and dropped the body into the sea. In a fit of rage, he ripped the top of the skull off and tore the brain out of the head. Making absolutely sure that the vampire was dead. He crushed the brain and threw the pieces of head into the sea.
    Auric stood at the bow of the ship and let the heavy rains rinse the stench of the vampire off. Henrik finally heard about what had happened. He had been busy dealing with what had made its way loose.  Henrik helped tie a line around a piece of railing that had been smashed by a loose boom. Before he could ask Auric for forgiveness, for letting a man die because he didn't make sure they were all safe, he saw Auric disappear below deck.
    Auric reappeared a while later with the mutilated remains of the sailor wrapped in a blanket. Henrik saw Auric call to one of the sailors asked him to say a few words. Henrik couldn't hear anything that had been said by the sailor, but knew it was over when Auric leaned as far over the side as he could before he dropped the body into the water. Auric could have ordered Henrik and his men to go and clean the mess, but Auric did it himself. Made trip after trip to be sure that every little bit of blood and gore was gone.
    Auric surprised Henrik when the storm calmed down. He apologized to Henrik. It was the first time that Henrik had realized that Auric saw the ship, and all the crew aboard, under Henrik's command. Somewhere between leaving the dock to go on the journey, Auric decided that Henrik was indeed in command of the ship. Henrik never thought he had been in command of anything, since Lazzlo had given over his life to Auric, he thought he was more of a servant than anything. Suddenly, he felt free again, sailing a ship with a crew under him. It wakened feelings in him that he thought he'd forgotten. All he would need to feel the rest of it again would be the chase and the plunder.
    “Henrik.” Auric caught Henrik with a little smile on his face as he stared off into the distance.
    “Sir?”
    “I been thinking, I let that thing live so it would suffer. That turned out to be a mistake. There still is one on this ship that I keep alive so he would suffer.”
    “Barius?” Henrik asked.
    “Right. What crimes he committed does merit his punishment, but I think that it might be time for him to answer for the things he has done.”
    “Sir, if I may speak.” Henrik couldn't stop the words before they'd left his mouth, old habits died hard.
    “Of course.”
    “I have heard what he had done, also, he is nary a threat to any of the crew, you, or I, than any of the other humans on this ship. Maybe that blasted mouth of his, but the crew doesn't listen to him, the other prisoner's ignore his ravings.”
    “You're saying that he's deserving of more waiting for the gallows?”
    “Yessir, if I could, I'd have the responsibility for him.”   


    With that, Barius' life was put in Henrik's hand. When it came time to feed, Henrik would do his new duty with glee, taunt Barius. Auric was down to his last meal, only one vampire left and that one had begun to ignore Auric's threats. What was worse, it was about then that he saw that the vampire began to bruise himself and the bruises started to stay longer. If the journey continued on for much longer, then the vampire would become a human again. Before Auric could really contemplate on whether or not he would feel worse killing a human, that previously been a vampire, Henrik was yelling that he saw land.
    Auric climbed up the mast and stood beside Henrik, far off he could see the tops of rolling hills. The sun had risen in time for them to see the land. There were trees, thousands of them, millions. For some reason, this made Auric feel uneasy. He'd expected cliffs or beaches, not the ocean then trees. Also, it was a new land to vampires, there would be food, but none for Auric. The only source of food that remained on the ship would fast become human again. Maybe Henrik would help him somehow. For the first time in a really long time, Auric began to feel really alone. When he hit that land at the horizon he really would be alone. Except for Zuric who was, by all accounts, still far more powerful than Auric.
    “So Henrik, where are we to land the ship?” Auric asked as he scanned the land mass that grew in front of them.
    “Sir, we have more than enough provisions aboard to make it back home, if I may have your leave.” Henrik looked nervously at his feet. He didn't want to give up the sea life just yet. Auric could sense that in him.
    “Henrik, I do believe there be salt in ye veins.”
    “Yessir. I thought I'd never get to feel the sea spray on my face again. Feel the world rocking beneath my feet.” Henrik had a grin on his face.
    “Well then, you've done me all that I've asked, look,” Auric pointed, “that's all I asked of you.”
    “Sir.” Henrik pointed to the south along the coast at a little dot that hung on the horizon.
    “It's another ship.” Auric stared at it, he couldn't make anything out except the shape.
    “I don't think it would be wise to try and meet another ship at open water, we're not flying any flags, we don't even have any way to raise one unless I stood up there and waved it with my hands.”
    Auric, for the first time that Henrik ever heard, laughed hard.
    They turned away from the ship, slowly outran it as they headed north west.
    “Henrik, I think it best that I just swim from here, it's not too far. I swam the channel more times than I care to count.”
    Henrik grinned and loud thunder came from behind. “What the devil, they're firing on us!”
    The men scrambled to get more sails up, whoever was in pursuit fired without warning. Without a way to fight back, their only option was to run.
    “Sir, about that last vampire on the low deck?”
    “Yes, I was hoping that I could take him along, but I will have to forage.” Auric shrugged, a splash not a ship's length, flew up from the sea behind them.
    Auric kicked the door in and the vampire didn't have the time to look up at all before Auric had punched his hand through the vampire's forehead. To make sure, he tore the head off and ran back up to the deck. Henrik bellowed orders. Auric looked down into his hand and tossed the head into the water.
    “Report.”
    “They are falling behind, but when break for the east, they may be able to cut across our course. It will be close.” Henrik had the biggest smile on his face, he felt at home for the first time in a really long time.
    “Henrik, I think I'd best take my leave.”
    “Sir, it has been a pleasure. I hope that we meet again some day.”
    “Henrik, you're a good man so I ask a few things of you, if you make it back to England.”
    “Anything, I guarantee it'll be done to the best of my abilities.” Henrik looked back, another splash, but it was further away.
    “You remember the name of the woman?”
    “Abbey,” Henrik thought for a few seconds, “Booksmith. Abbey Booksmith.”
    “Right, I ask that you check on her and Farryn. If the church can't get to her, they might try and go through Lazzlo.”
    “It will be done. Anything else?”
    “Forgive me for killing your friend. I wish I had gotten to know him now that I know that there are  those out there that are men of your calibre.“
    “Sir, he would have pestered me until I forgave you, he was a good man. You have my forgiveness.”
    “It's a fine ship you run, Henrik, I shall miss your company, it's been a long time since I anyone I could call anyone a friend.”
    “It has been an honour, sir.”
    With that, Auric dove into the water and swam for shore. It didn't take long, when he set foot on land, he walked to the tree line and turned to see Henrik's ship as it faded over the horizon. The pursuing ship had given up the chase and turned back. Auric smiled with the thoughts of Henrik and his crew, how they would have laughed as they saw the other ship give up the chase. Auric did hope that Henrik made it back home. Besides being Auric's friend, he had a job to do. First, Barius had to pay for his crime, then Henrik had to make sure Abbey and Farryn were fine. Auric really didn't know why he felt that he had to keep Abbey safe, maybe it was the first time he'd given his word to a human in such a long time. Maybe it was that Barius had done such a horrible thing.
    Auric stood for a while, the thoughts still an ocean's breadth away until it came upon him that he couldn't do anything about any of that no matter how badly he wished it. He was on his own again. In flash of epiphany, everything was new again. For him and for Zuric. Somewhere on this massive new world, Zuric prowled.

 

Author's Note

I've been piecing this together for so long, I can't even think of any note to add. Other than, I never written anything outside modern times. For the questions people might ask, yeah, Abbey has her own stories with Farryn and Henrik. Zuric is at North America, he starts to raise havoc until... well, that's a whole other story concerning a whole other world. The vampire saga concerning them is only a minor footnote. As it says in the Broken Hand Knowledge Base for Vampire Types and History. I'm working on Version 4 of that right now so it'll be down for a little while, I'm hoping to have it back up before the 30th. Oh, Barius doesn't get eaten by Henrik, but he does die on Henrik's return journey.

Seriously, I thought this story would only turn out to be maybe 3000-4000 words, but it kept growing and I had a lot of fun writing it. If I may have permission to continue, well, in the future I'd write about Henrik, Abbey, and Farryn.
I still didn't answer how Auric came to be Auric Vanderhof. To be honest, I never thought of that yet. lol

Well, hope you enjoyed.

Reviews

[Nancy Lee Shrader]

This I did enjoy. I hung on every word. I as an author have read manuscripts for publishers and given my opinion for publication. If I had been given this manuscript; it would have gotten a big thumbs up. Continue this story until it is of novel size, and do a bit of editing. Well done author, well done!

[Sean M. Addams]

i liked this storyline alot in this and character development was great in this... you defintley deserved your award on this... awesome job on this one!!!

[deeps]

Dang Gum! This is truly intersting I must say.
I really like this, there's alot of detail in this really.
Such wonderful imagery involved.
The charcters are simply amaing.
Liked this alot. I really did it was enjoyable to read.