Crossing the Atlantic

   ‘Where are you going?’ I asked annoyed.

  Here standing at the edge of the Atlantic’s vast emptiness, it completely boggled the mind that I was about to swim three plus thousand miles. And the thought did not sit well with me.

   ’Just around the corner Conner relax, I’ll be right back. Don’t worry Conner the crossing will be fine. Ed, Tabs, you want to help me for a second?’ John said with his normal at easy smile.

   ’Sure.’ said Tabitha getting off the ground by the camp fire Sebastian had made here on the beach.

  Ed got up willingly I think just for the opportunity to be away from me. I looked up towards the sky and though I had no idea what time it was, I knew it would be dawn soon. My confidence in this madness was starting leave me as it seemed one by one everyone found a reason to leave.

  Though I knew people were going to need to feed before the crossing of the Atlantic, actually seeing our numbers dwindle was starting to show me how crazy this whole affair really was.

   We had gathered eight of the North American Vampires. One I had already killed because we couldn’t trust him, stupid a*s Andrew. That left us at a whopping thirteen Northerners. We did have the five South Americans; though they did not try to kill us as we followed John through the western edge of South America I still was somewhat leery of their level of commitment in fighting Cline.

That left our numbers at eighteen total.

I sighed and looked out at the ocean, ’Damn.’ I mumbled to myself.

  Gloria walked up next to me and laid her head against my arm.

   ’Do you know where we are?’ Gloria asked.

   ’I have no idea other then we’re on the east coast. I stopped asking after we came over the Appalachians Mountains.’  

   ’Conner don’t worry, swimming the ocean isn’t a big deal. I’ve done it lots of times. Remember a few months ago how scared of flying I was and how silly you thought that fear was?’

   ’Yeah.’ I said without emotion.

   ’Well try to look at it logically. You can’t drown, and you aren’t going to starve to death nor are you going to freeze. So even if you sink to the bottom of the ocean you’ll be fine. The worst that could happen is that we’ll get lost for a few months. But eventually the currents will bring us back to land.’

   ’I know.’

   ’And if we’re all lost at sea for a few months, then at least you and I will have a little peace and quiet.’

  I smiled a bit thinking about having some peace and quiet with Gloria, I just didn’t want to be lost in the middle of the ocean to get it.

   ’That’s not what I’m thinking about, look.’ I turned and nodded to the camp fire where out of our whole warring party only Sebastian, Emma and Butch sat.

   ’There’s only five of us.’

   ’Conner they’ll be back.’

   ’Will they Gloria?

   ’Of course they will. They’re all too afraid not too, and the South Americans want to fight to bad not to come back. They all said they would be back from feeding before the sun came up and there’s still several hours until that happens.’

   ’Well if the Southerners don’t come back who cares, I don’t really trust them anyways. But if the other don’t come back…’

   ’Conner stop. They’ll be back.’

   ’And what if they do? Then what, we’ll attack Cline? Roberto at whim had a whole group ready to look for me and Emma when took off from the car before the Council. You don’t think Cline isn’t as prepared as Roberto?

   ’Conner I wouldn’t worry about that, I’m sure Roberto already had them there. You can’t keep a large vampire population together in one place for very long.’

   ’Oh yeah, why not?’

   ’First of all please don’t snap at me because you’re all pissy, second if you use that thick skull of yours it might dawn on you after a few months all those vampires would have to feed. The fact that he had so many ready to look for you was coincidence with you running off. Roberto’s gathering them was for another purpose Conner.’

      ’Defend!’

  Gloria and my eyes shot at Emma as she came at Sebastian with her sword while he sat motionless at the fire. The sudden shout from Emma seemed to startle Sebastian as he tried to get his sword out to check her sudden attack. But Emma was too fast for Sebastian and he just had to jump from her.

  Sebastian’s run quickly turned into a counter attack once he got his sword free from his belt. The two vampires attacked one another in the cold winter’s night, they charged each other up and down the beach. Now and then they would end up in the water, but the two of them seemed to ignore their surroundings as they fought one another.

   ’What’s that all about?’ I asked Gloria.

   ’What’s what all about?’

   ’That.’ I said nodding at Sebastian and Emma.

   ’There just sparring.’

   ’Right.’ I said sarcastically.

   ’It is what it is Conner. The best thing you can do is to stay out of it.’

   ’What is that suppose to mean?’

   ’It means you’re a block head sometimes and whatever is happening between those two doesn’t concern you or need you to meddle. So just leave it, okay?’

   ’I guess.’

   ’I mean it Conner, stay out of it.’

   ’I don’t even know what I need to stay out of, but whatever.’

  In the distance I could hear the hurried footsteps of three vampires, ‘Sebastian!’

  Sebastian and Emma quickly joined me and Gloria back at the fire.

  John, Tabitha and Ed came running quickly towards us, each carrying a large bundle.

   ’What’s going on?’ asked John with concern, his eyes shifting back and forth looking for danger.

   ’Nothing,’ I said. ’It was just Emma and Sebastian playing around.’

   ’Oh, we thought there was a fight going on.’ said Tabitha.

   ’What do you got there?’ I asked.

  John dropped his bundle in front of him, Tabitha and Ed did likewise.

   ’Flippers.’ John replied.

   ’Huh?’ I asked.

   ’Fins’ Tabitha said correcting John.

   ’Sometimes the North Atlantic can be a bit treacherous in her moods. I figured since we had a few moment before we left I would go get some for us. Though I don’t know they will be strong enough to take the abuse we shall surely give them.’

   ’What do you mean treacherous John.’ I asked with a bit of worry on the word treacherous.

   ’Conner what have you done your whole life, plug your head into a video game or placed it under a rock?’ asked John.

   ’What the hell is that’s supposed to mean?’ I asked rudely.

   ’Conner, it’s the middle of winter. The North Atlantic has bad storms, icebergs and so forth. You’ve heard of the Titanic right?’

   ’Yeah.’ I said smartly.

   ’Well that’s where the damn thing sank.’

   ’And we’re going to swim across it. I’m liking this idea more and more.’ I said getting irritated.

   ’Conner don’t worry,’ Gloria said reassuringly.’ I know John and I have crossed the Atlantic several time and we’re fine.’

  John smiled at the memories of chasing Gloria years prior.

   ’You all watch, this is going to end up being a huge pain in the a*s.’

   ’Well Conner none of us have passports, and we are probably wanted in connection to who knows how many crimes after the house blew up. I know the cops probably opened our safes and the blood fridge. So it’s not likely we could get new passports. And because all our money is now gone, we can’t charter a flight to Europe. So if you have another way to get to Europe that won’t let all of Europe know we’re coming and wont rile the humans up like a hornets’ nest, we’re all ears.’

  Sometimes I really hated it when Gloria was right, ’Look I know you’re right, you got to remember sometimes I still think human. And swimming the Atlantic Ocean doesn’t seem smart. You know?’

   ’Well, get over it.’ said Gloria who was clearly annoyed.

 

  Over the next hour or so everyone had showed back up. The five southerners, Butch and his crew and my happy little family, Gloria, Tabitha, Emma, Sebastian, John Barleycorn. Eighteen in all, with eighteen of us we were going to attack one of the most powerful vampires known.

   Cline.

  Good old Cline, I met him once when Gloria and I were summoned before the Great Council. We now were going to attack Cline in his home. Which had an unknown amount of vampires living there, with an unknown amount of weapons.

  Now that the sun came up Sebastian had put out the fire and gathered everyone near the water’s edge. We stood in a small gaggle, I had my back to the sea, Gloria, Sebastian and Emma stood next to me. The Northerners stood in their little group and the Southerners stood together, all had their eyes on me.

   ’Tabs, do you still have that parachute cord in your backpack?’ I asked.

   ’Yeah I think so.’ she said pulling off her back pack.

   ’I don’t want to hear you think, either you do or you don’t, I kind of need to know which.’

   ’Alright, alright, hold on a sec while I check Mr. Bossy.’

   ’If you have an extra weapon bring it up here to me please.’

   ’I got the cord Conner.’

   ’Thank you Tabs. Hang on to it for a second.’

  Butch brought up the few extra weapons that he had been carrying. I nodded at the ground; he nodded once and stabbed them into the sand in front of me. Emma stabbed her extra falcata in front of her. Sebastian un-slung the two short Roman fighting swords and placed them on the sand in front of him. Ed un-slung his extra broad sword and handed it to John and John brought both his extra and Ed’s up and stabbed them into the sand in front of me and went back to where he was standing.

   ’Now that the theatrics are finished,’ I said shaking my head, ’I aim to kill an Ancient. I’m here to fight for my way of life, do you all understand? This crap between you and the you Southerners, we don’t have time for it now. If you can’t put your differences aside, I got nothing for you.

   ’You Southerners wish to fight for your own lands, I’m giving you an opportunity to do so, but to do so you’re going to need the help of the Northerners, and my weapons. None of them,’ I said nodding towards North American Vampires,’ Think I should give you weapons; they think that you’ll just turn on them and we’ll have a fight.

   ’You all want to fight? Then pick up your choice now and let’s settle this once and for all.’

  No one moved other than to look around at each other, ’I can’t do what I mean to do without you.’

  No one made a move towards a weapon, ’I won’t let anyone stop you from picking up a weapon.’ I said to reassure the Southerners.

  Pablo was the first to move towards the pile of weapons. He reached out and took up one of the simple crafted broad swords, no one breathed or moved as he faced me.

   ’Conner, I will fight for my lands with you in hope of making them a better place.’

  I reached out and placed my hand on his shoulder.

  I smiled and nodded at him, ’Sounds good to me.’

  In turn the other four Southerners came forward and picked out their swords.

   Allen did not hesitate to come forward and claim the last falcata, ’Well, if I’m going to be in a fight, I would rather be armed.’

   ’I’ll agree to that.’ said Trevor as he came forward to grab the last broad sword.

  Tom and Chloe were the only ones not armed, ’Don’t worry, if we all don’t die attacking Cline, I’m sure there will be more of them.’ I said to the young looking couple.

   ’Let me see that parachute cord Tabs.’

  Tabitha handed me the role that I had put in her backpack several days ago. I unraveled about six feet of cord and cut it with my teeth. I handed a length to everyone with a weapon.

   ’Tie one end of this to your sword and the other to you. If you lose that sword while we are swimming, you better dive to the bottom of the ocean to get it. If you want some cord to you can sling it over your back that’s fine I have extra, but if you do sling it, I still want you to tie it to yourself. Everyone still have their fins?’ I asked.

   Everyone gave their unenthusiastic response to my wanting to make sure we weren’t missing anything.

   ’I’ll give you all a minute to get yourselves situated. John, a moment?’ I nodded away from the group.

   ’Yeah what’s up?’ he said as we walked apart from the group.

   ’You’re going to lead us across right?’

   ’I can if you like.’

   ’Do you think anyone will be waiting for us on the other side?’

  John thought for a moment then shrugged, ’Don’t know for sure, I believe I was successful in clearing out the eyes and ears of the Council here, but it’s hard to tell. I believe we’ll be able to land without anyone noticing us, but after that if we’re seen by anyone we’ll have to kill them. This thing we’re going to do will only work if we can get to Cline without being seen. If we lose the element of surprise we’re as good as dead. I think even Sebastian would agree with that assessment.’

   ’I would.’ Sebastian said without looking up from what he was doing.

  At that moment the entire group stopped to listen to John and I.

   ’There’s a pretty good chance we’ll get separated at sea. So we will need to rendezvous somewhere before we hit France.’

   ’Where do you recommend?’ I asked.

   ’Northern Scotland maybe.’

   ’Where in Northern Scotland?’

   ’There’s a beach with a bluff that would work.’

   ’What beach?’

   ’The one that no one will be at.’

  Getting annoyed I pressed for more details, ’John, in case you haven’t figured it out, I haven’t been to Scotland before, I might need a little more on what the beach looks like.’

   ’Look you meat head, I know you haven’t been to Scotland before, I’m pretty sure the only one else besides myself and Gloria who might have been there is Pablo, but I bet if I gave them the name of the beach neither of them would know it. So what good would giving you the name be for you? It isn’t like you could stop and ask for directions to it. The only ones that wouldn’t be scared of you would be vampires and the minute you stop talking to them they would be running off to the Council.

   ’And since Scotland is in Cline’s territory it would be him they would be running too. So I wouldn’t recommend asking the nearest vampire on how to get to the meeting up point.’

  ’Thank you captain obvious, so if none of us knows this certain beach, how are we all going to find it?’ John and I had been friends since we met, and from time to time he would irritate me with his smart a*s comments. Now was no time for him to be cute.

   ‘I don’t know, use your eyes? That would be my guess. Swim up and down the coast till you find it maybe.’

  I could feel my skin starting to get hot; I did not need to look at it to know that it was turning grey. No one moved behind me, they had all seen me kill Andrew for being a thorn in my side.

   ‘Conner?’ Tabitha called from behind me.

  I tilted my head slightly in an acknowledgement.

   ‘Could you please not hurt my John please?’

   ‘I’m not going to hurt John.’ I said trying to calm myself.

   ‘John isn’t being sarcastic towards you, he’s just being practical. We all can find the north side of an island, once we do, find an empty beach with a bluff. That’s where we’ll all meet if we get separated. If there’s more than one and there’s no one there, we keep looking.’

   ‘Thank you Tabs.’ I said with no rudeness.

  We were going to need to kill Cline soon or I was going to go crazy.

   ‘One other thing, if you do get separated from the group stay out of the English Channel, the Channel’s always watched. If you have a wrist watch, keep the sun in front of you until about…I don’t know about ten o’clock in the morning and then let it pass behind you on the right. You should be fine. When it gets dark let the current take you then start over when you see the sun start coming up. Sooner or later you’ll hit land. Once you make a land fall, listen to the language of the nearest human settlement. If you hear French run like hell back to the ocean, if any of the Ancients catch you your dead. If you try to drop Conner’s name you’ll be tortured then killed and give everyone else away so don’t get caught.’

    ‘To elaborate on what John just said, though most of the Council hates Cline they fear losing power more then they hate him. To protect their power, they’ll protect him. So remember this, anyone we meet from here on out is an enemy. If we run into anyone in the ocean then they die without mercy. Same goes for on land, and if anyone gets away from us were dead.’

  Sebastian’s seriousness in his short speech surprised even me.

   ’Are we ready to go swimming?’ I asked with a smile and no humor.

    Everyone nodded that they were so with that I nodded to John to go ahead. John gave me a little smile and asked, ’Who’s more foolish?’ and turned and walked into the water.

  We did not follow in any particular order; we just walked into the ocean.

  The thought of just walking in the ocean made me smile. I had heard of people that committing suicide by walking into the ocean. It did not seem like a particular good way to die; in a strange way could we be doing the same thing? But with us, I know we were walking out on the other side. But walking out to what? What end would this little swim take us? I knew it would take us to Cline. I would attack Cline if everyone left me.

  Gloria wouldn’t leave me, which I knew. I don’t think Sebastian would leave; he was having too much fun to leave. Plus I don’t think he would leave Emma. And Emma I don’t think would leave Gloria. At least there would be four of us to fight Cline. Then what? What would happen once Cline was dead? Would the Council come after us? I’m willing to bet they would.

   I guess I would use my time crossing the ocean to think about that. Sebastian would probably say don’t worry about it, but how could I not? I wasn’t planning on dying in the process of killing Cline, so I had better think of something quick on what we will do when the Council comes for us.

  Gloria had said that Roberto’s troops had already been assembled for a different purpose back when I saw them before the Council. What if she was wrong? What if once Roberto found out that I had run off he summoned that large group? What could he do in a day if that were true? How quickly could the whole Council mobilize, and where? Prague? That would be my guess. I wonder how fast an army of vampires could travel. I wonder how fast the Council’s army could travel from Prague to Cline’s compound.

   ’Conner!’

   The shouting of my name brought me back from the rabbit chasing in my head I looked around and saw no one but Sebastian about a hundred yards to my right. I saw him and no one else.

   ’Conner get under the water!’

   ’Huh?’ I yelled back to Sebastian.

   ’Look to your left! A ship, get under the water!’

  I turned in the direction that Sebastian was pointing and there coming right at me was a cargo ship. It was about five or six hundred yards away. I don’t suppose we needed a ship calling the Coast Guard saying they saw a bunch of people over board out in the middle of the ocean. I laughed and nodded to Sebastian and dove under.

  I was amazed at how well I could see and hear, it seemed as if I could see for at least a mile through the water. And the sound of the approaching ships propeller was almost deafening. I looked about me and saw Sebastian swimming straight down, underneath him some two hundred odd yards or so was the group just floating.

  I started swimming towards them, I was amazed at the speed I could cover the distance. I did not know if it was the vampire in me that made me swim so fast or if it was using the fins. Though I did swim once back in the mountain lake where I was changed. I couldn’t tell how different the speed was because of how different the situation was. There I could see the bottom of the lake and how quickly I came to the shore. If it wasn’t for the fact that that I came up on the group in about three seconds I wouldn’t even be able to tell if I was even moving.     

  When I got to the group everyone was looking at me, Gloria was shaking her head. I knew what she was thinking of, my lack of concentration in the task at hand. There was no way I could tell her I was thinking about more important things then a stupid cargo ship. She would just say everything else is more important then what’s going on right at that moment. And she would be right, like always.

  As we watched the cargo ship over our head, it made me wonder if vampires were the start of the mermaid and merman legends. If really what mermaids were, were vampires swimming across some ocean and they were not paying attention to their surroundings. Then some superstitious sailor looked out and saw one of us swimming by.

  Or some sailor who had been pressed into service like Sebastian had said was becalmed with no wind and looked out and saw a beautiful vampire woman swimming naked next to his ship and he called down to her. And this vampire woman not wishing to miss a meal called him into the water where she in turn fed on him. I’m willing to bet that’s where the legends started.

  Sebastian reached out and bumped my arm; I turned and looked at him. He pointed towards the surface with his thumb; I nodded and followed him back to the surface.

   ’Dang Conner, your mind is really wondering today.’ Sebastian pointed out, ’What in the world have you been thinking about that has you so scattered brained?’

   ’Oh nothing, mermaids.’ I said.

   ’Figures.’ Gloria said smugly and shaking her head.

   ’It’ll be dark soon, so we should get going here soon if we want to make some miles before dark.’ John said.

   ’Before dark, what time is it?’ I asked with a bit of surprise, ‘There’s no way it that much time could have past, we couldn’t have been in the water no more than a few hours.’

   ’We haven’t,’ John replied, ’it’s only a little after twelve noon.’

   ’Then how could it be getting dark soon?’ I asked with a little confusion.

   ’Well for one, it’s winter time. Two, for the most part we’re heading east so we‘re losing the sun. So I would say we should keep the sun straight to our backs, which should keep us more or less traveling in the right direction.’ John added.

   ’How will you navigate once the sun goes down?’ I asked in wonder.

   ’I won’t. I can’t navigate by the stars; I’ve not educated myself enough in them to guide myself by them. But to answer what is going to be your next question for the most part we’ll tread water and let the current take us where it will till the sun starts to rise.’

   ’Great.’ I said with no enthusiasm.

   ’Don’t worry, once the sun makes the eastern sky glow we’ll know where east is. As long as we go east we’ll make a land fall. There’s a lot of solid land to the east. If we hit ice, we’ve gone too far north. If the water starts get too warm then we know we’ve gone too far south and we’ll need to head north.’

   ‘Anyone ever hear of a compass?’ I mumbled to myself.

  John’s lack of worry about swimming eased my mind a little, but I knew I wouldn’t be okay till I was on land. The deep water always scared me, hence the reason I went into the Army and not the Navy. If you got into a bind in the Army, you could always run. But if you got into a bind in the Navy, what could you do if you were in the middle of the ocean?

  We swam for about another three hours till the sun set in the west. We had been spread out over a mile but as we lost the light, we grouped up. John has said that keeping together while it was night was probably the best thing we could do, which I agreed. There was no reason to lose each other in the night for lack of being able to stand each other.

  There was still a rift between us and the Southerners. I did not like to include myself in that mistrust, but they did not see any difference in me and the other Northerners. I think the vampires from the south were in a constant teeter totter on who they hated more, us or the Europeans. But I guess killing one out of the two was better than nothing.

  Sebastian swam over to me and smiled, ’So, what do you think of swimming so far?’

   ’I think I would rather fly, and I hate flying.’

  Sebastian laughed at my grumpiness, ’Don’t worry; I’m thinking we’ll stop in Scotland even if we don’t get scattered out here at sea. A chance to rest and eat, I’m sure everyone will be glad to feed on the wild life there. There’s no way a large group like this can eat in Scotland. Twenty some odd victims in one place at the same time, the humans won’t think vampire. But I’ll assure you that a vampire will be suspicious to it. And right now if someone farted too loud in France Cline would go on alert.’      

   ‘That nice to know.’ I grumbled.

   ‘Can I asked you something?’ asked Sebastian.

   ‘Shoot.’

  Gloria swam up close to me; she didn’t care for being left out of Sebastian and my conversations.

   ‘You seemed like you had a great deal on your mind, I was a bit curious of what you were thinking about so hard that looked like you were going to give yourself an aneurism.’

   ’Roberto.’

   ’Baby, why were you thinking about him?’ Gloria asked, ’You’re still not worried about what we were talking about earlier are you?’

   ‘What were you thinking about?’ asked Sebastian with concern.

   ‘Nothing Sebastian, just Conner worrying about nothing.’

   ‘I was…thinking about something that happened before Gloria and I went before the Council.’

   ‘So you have been thinking about what we were talking about. Conner I’m telling you, it was coincidence that Roberto’s soldiers were gathered. Will you please for my sake trust me on that and quit worrying about it. You have enough to think about other than that.’

   ’What are we talking about?’ asked Sebastian.

   ’Conner’s worried that that one night when he ran off from the car, that Roberto call up all those soldiers to go after him. And I told him that it was just coincidence that he had them gathered, but he won’t let the thought go.’

   ‘Ah, I see. Well Conner you can relax, Gloria is right on that. It was coincidence that they were gathered up; I was a bit worried about that too. But I unlike you asked about it.’

   ‘You asked Roberto?’ I was a little shocked that he would.

   ‘Goodness no, I asked Horatio.’

   ‘What did he say Sebastian?’ asked Gloria.

   ‘Horatio said The master does not include me in his confidence.’ said Sebastian imitating Horatio’s proper speech.

  I chuckled at Sebastian’s sarcasm, ‘In other words none of your damn business.’

   ‘Yeah.’ said Sebastian curtly, ‘I can understand your concern about that Conner, but Gloria’s right when she said it had nothing to do with you. But why he had them gathered does bother me a bit’

   ‘Do you think it had something to do with our house being destroyed Sebastian?’ asked Gloria.

  Great, thanks Gloria, I hadn’t thought about who blew up our house in a while. Give me something else to worry about, ‘I doubt it baby, mostly because I hadn’t torn up the Council yet.’

   ’I’m thinking that the reason Roberto had those soldiers assembled was to make sure you two went before the Council, and to hold you by force if necessary.’

   The three of us turned towards Pablo as he shared his thoughts in the reasons why Roberto had summoned his guard.

   ’That’s very interesting thought Pablo, where did that come from?’ asked John joining in our conversation.

   ’I was summoned to the Council once. I had a friend on Roberto’s guard, he tipped me off that the guard had been summoned preceding my summons to the Council.’

   ’Why would Roberto summon his guard for your summons Pablo, doesn’t the Council have its own guard?’ asked Gloria.

   ’Of course they do, but I was living in Roberto’s territory, it was Roberto’s responsibility to bring me if I refused.’

   ’I remember that, why were you summoned if you don’t mind me asking?’ asked Sebastian.

  Pablo smiled at the memory of long ago, ’I was planning a coup against Roberto. He found out, and I was summoned to appear before the Council.’

  Sebastian laughed, ’You tried to overthrow Roberto?’

   ’No, I never got the chance.’

  John turned in the water and looked at Pablo, ’How did they not kill you? I would have thought they would have looked at your coup as treason.’

   ’They did,’ Pablo shrugged, ’I was sent a letter in secret by Cline which said that if I would go into exile they would not go after my conspirators. He said in the letter that if I disappeared then my conspirators would fear the worst and their dreams of overthrowing one of the Ancients would vanish.

   ’I had to strength to take on Ancient, but not the whole Council. So I took Cline up on his offer to go into exile. Cline didn’t want the mind of the coup, he wanted its heart.’ 

   ’Once Pablo disappeared, I was given a list to track down.’ said Sebastian with a touch of sadness.

   ’And you killed them all didn’t you?’ Pablo asked.

   ’Every last one of them, though until now I knew not why I was killing them.’

   ’I was banished to hide in the wild lands of the new world. And as the colonials came the wild lands that I was safe in, if you can call them safe got smaller and smaller.’

   ’Pablo, why did you have to hide like that?’ asked Gloria with a great deal of sorrow.

   ’Cline said that if I was ever seen again then the entire might of the Council would come after me. So pay attention Conner, this is your fate if you fail. The merciless will come after all you love and death will be their fate. When this is over I have a debt to settle with you Sebastian.’

   ’Your wife?’ Sebastian asked.

   ’Yes.’

   ’So be it.’ was all the answer that Sebastian gave.

 

  As the night wore on the weather worsened, it first started with the waves. What began as ten and fifteen foot swells quickly escalated to thirty and forty footers once the wind kicked up. Once the horrendous down poor started, the waves seemed to come out of nowhere from all directions. Gloria had grabbed onto me once the waves started getting bad and let me fight to stay on the surface. I had yelled to everyone to go under, but the currents under the surface were too strong to keep in sight of each other. So we tried to ride the storm out on top. Emma had seen Gloria attach herself to me so she attached herself to Sebastian.

   The others did likewise to try to at least to say in pairs. The Southerners all clung together as one group, I guess us Northerners didn’t have the affection for one another like they did.

   Gloria and I were separated by a wave that looked like it was the size of a building. I had heard the roar of the wave come up behind us. When I first turned and saw it coming at us, my first thought was that the ocean had thrown a huge building at us. I just shook my head at what I figured from the start would be inevitable. I looked at Sebastian and he just smiled and shrugged his shoulders and yell, ’I’ll see you in Scotland!’

   The last thing I remembered before the huge wave crested and fell on us was reaching back with my left hand and grabbing my sword and hoping that I tied the cord tight enough.

  I didn’t know that a vampire could be knocked on conscious but when the wave hit me, I felt like my whole body was coming apart at the molecular level. If I was human, the shear velocity of the impact I think would have killed me.

   The last time I remember was feeling pain over my whole body like that was when I was changed into a vampire. I was swept down into the deep at an incredible speed, as consciousness came back around I noticed that I still had the sword in my hand but it was not in the leather sleeve that Tabitha had made for me. The cord was still attached to the hilt, and the other side was still attached to the shoulder straps of the sleeve to which I was glad.

  I remember being told if I ever get into trouble in water and needed to know which way was up or down I needed to blow bubbles. So I tried to let some air out of my lunges, but I quickly discovered that my lunges were full of water.

  Great.

  I started looking around trying to figure out my up from my downs and discovered that not only did I lose my fins, but I had lost my pants and my underwear. This trip was getting better by the moment.

  I looked at my sword in my hand and dropped it. I figured all I needed to do was go the in the opposite direction that the sword went. Seeing that it tried to sink behind me I quickly grabbed it and put it back in its sleeve and swam in the direction I figured was up.

  It was then I noticed that I was alone. I almost panicked when I noticed that Gloria was no where to be seen, I shot up as quickly as I could towards the surface. It took me almost five minutes to reach it, when I hit the surface I shot out of the water a good fifty feet into the air. As I climbed into the air, a large wave passed under me. As I fell, I made a quick scan around me. I was alone.

  As I fell, I coughed all the water out of my lunge and grabbed my sword to make sure I didn’t lose it when I hit the water. I was alone, damn it. Now what I thought?

  I dove back down under the surface of the water to avoid getting smashed again by another huge wave. I had to dive down several hundred yards to avoid being pull up into the waves as they went by overhead. The current was incredibly strong, but what could I do about that? I was at the will of the North Atlantic Ocean.

  

  The storm that tore our group apart lasted three days. I surface periodically throughout those three days to look for the sun, but the sky was dark grey or black with thunderstorms so it was impossible to try to find east. The only thing I knew for sure about my position was that every time the sun came up behind the grey or black clouds was that the water was warmer.

  On the fourth day since we were all scattered the storm broke and I watched the sun rise in the east. With all of my might I swam towards the rising sun. as the day grew older I notice that the sun was going over head to my left. I knew this was not a good thing, because when we left the States the sun passed to my right in the sky.

  This was bad because that could only mean one thing; I was in the southern hemisphere. Oh man this couldn’t be good, that meant if I went directly east I was going to come ashore in Africa. Unless I missed the Horn and ended up in Asia somewhere. The though frighten me, so I pushed myself to the limit of my being and tried to go as far as I could while I could see the sun.

  As the sun set in the west, I pushed as hard as I could till there was no light in the western sky to guide me east. I went with John’s plan for night even though I hated not trying for the east. But I was lost bad enough as it was and I didn’t need to make it worse. I did not want to end up in Antarctica or something, I didn’t know if vampires could get frost bite over time and since I was half naked there were parts of me uncovered and I didn’t want to test that out. If I came back to Gloria missing pieces, she would be pissed.

  I wondered how scattered we were? Was everyone as lost as I was? It was an eerie thought having all of us lost at sea. We all could have been pushed way out of the way like this. It was good that we had a rendezvous point, well more or less a rendezvous point. But we never talked about how long we should wait; I wonder how long I would wait for some of the lost party?

  I think I would wait at least a month for the core group of my vampire family. Vampire family that’s kind of funny I never had much of a family to begin with. I think I would wait for a month for the Southerners; Pablo’s need for revenge against Cline would drive him to find the no name beach with a bluff. But if the Northerners thought they could get away from me because of the storm I think they would, well except for Butch. I think he would look for us he loves a good fight, most bikers do, and I’m willing to bet he would make sure any he could get his hands on would make them show up. Sebastian would bring all he could and he wouldn’t leave Emma and Emma wouldn’t leave Gloria and Gloria wouldn’t leave me. Stupid rabbits in my head. I bet I could chase those things around in my head for hours.

  I bobbed and bobbed in the water waiting for the sun for what felt like forever, but just when I couldn’t take the waiting anymore I saw a dim light in the east. The funny thing it was in the direction in which I had been facing for most of the night.

  I started off at once in the direction of the dim light. The sun gradually rose in the eastern sky, the brightness of it made me close my eyes. I did not need them to know the direction of the sun; I could see the light through my eyelids. As the sun rose, I made sure that I kept the sun to my left to keep myself going in the general direction of east.

  When the sun was directly over me I caught the most beautiful smell I had ever smelled, land. The smell shot right though my body like an electric jolt of joy. With a renewed since of hope I kicked my swimming into high gear and followed my nose towards land. The first thing I was going to do was find me a pair of pants I thought to myself.

  As the sun was getting ready to set in the next few hours I saw land for the first time. To hell with swimming ever again I thought to myself as I swam towards the tan landscape. If we survive the next few weeks and we need to get back to America, there was no way I was going to swim. If I never had to swim again in my life I wasn’t going to. Well, I knew I was going to have to swim to get back up north to Scotland. I don’t think I’ll be able to run there, get across the Channel without being seen by someone.

  So I guess the plan was to get ashore, find a horse or a donkey to feed on, get a pair of pants and head back north. Well maybe not in that order, but something in along those lines anyways.  

  As I came towards the beach I could see a town that came right up to the beach. There was only a road that separated the beach and the town. There was tall yellow grass like weed that went up both side of the road as far as the eye could see.

  I could here thousands of heart beats coming from the seaside town. The wet pumping of blood made my mouth water thinking about how refreshing a nice warm pull from a soft warm neck. I could feed till I was fat and bloated and no one would be the wiser. Besides this was Africa, who’s going to care if I fed on a few hundred people in a day or so? Besides I was going to need all my strength in fighting Cline.

  As I walked up the beach completely heedless of the fact I was not wearing any pants, I walked towards the road. I could have moved much faster and swept through several residents without making a sound, but why bother? Who here could possibly stop me. In all the talks we’ve had about the vampire power holders, never once was Africa mentioned.

  I could move my family here and we would be the power of the world. I could make a thousand vampires and none could stop me. Not the Council, not the East, none. All I would have to do is feed and go find Gloria.

  The name Gloria stopped me in my tracks. What was I thinking about it, maybe Hephaistion was right. Maybe I would try something like being a vampire king after a few thousand years.

  I had to stop this kind of thinking right now and see it for what it was. Hunger. Since becoming a vampire I can’t really remember being hungry like this. Stupid swimming the ocean, I had to eat and eat soon.

  I suddenly heard shouting within the town. I wondered what all that noise was about. I walked up onto the road and looked for traffic off in the distance. Not seeing any I turned to my right and headed for the yelling I heard several blocks away.

  Somewhere in the direction of the yelling I heard several vehicles start up. I could hear the tires of the what sounded like two vehicles throwing dirt as they pealed out, their engines screamed in protest as their drivers drove them beyond what they were used too.

   ’Now what in the hell?’ I said to myself as I found myself walking slowly towards the sound of the vehicles.

  Suddenly two red Toyota pick-up trucks came shooting out of an ally towards the road off to my right about two blocks away. Each truck looked like it had a dozen men in the back and at least two in the front. Right before the trucks hit the road they slammed on their breaks, all of the men stood in the back of the trucks and stared at me.

   ’What in the hell are they doing?’ I mumbled to myself at the sight of the poorly dressed armed African men.

  One of the men yelled something in a language I didn’t not understand and pointed at me. All of the men raised what looked like AK-47 assault rifles at me. There was about a half a second pause and they all opened fired at me.

   ’Holy s**t!’ I said as the full automatic weapons fired at me. Several of the bullets were tracers, not that that mattered to me. To my surprise I could see all the bullets coming at me. I was struck in the chest and legs two dozen times before I could even move.

  I turned and took off up the road and was grateful that vampires were bullet proof. I did not run off at a vampire’s pace because I didn’t want some story of some supernatural being disappearing in front of an angry third world posse. Off to my right from a third story window someone opened up on me with a heavy machine gun. I could see the large bullets hitting the ground around me. Behind me I heard the trucks pull onto the road after me. The men in the lead truck started firing over the cab of the truck at me. I started taking small arms from the windows of the entire block.

   ‘I think it’s about time for me to get back into the water.’ I said to myself laughing. Running back to the water made me think about the story I heard about Cline’s witch Ava and how she was messing around with humans and how she was burned by a U.S. soldier during the Second World War with a flame thrower. Emma was made in Ava’s attempts at trying to do some kind of vampire skin grafting. Poor Emma, the torture that Emma had endured at the hands of Ava and Augustus was horrible.

  The thought of Cline burned in my head; it suddenly made my thoughts quiet sober. and I was losing valuable time screwing around with these humans. I turned suddenly towards the ocean and at a vampires pace I shot at the water. The shooting ceased almost instantly for to the humans I must have looked like I vanished into thin air.

  I guess for the rest of their lives, those men will talk about the half naked white ghost that they chased away from their town. And when those men grow old, they will tell the grandkids about the ghost that came one afternoon to their town.

  I shot into the water like a missile, barely leaving a splash. I swam out a few hundred yards out away from shore and headed north. I kept several feet under water, there was no way I was going to lose the shore.

  As I swam north I started to form a plan on getting back to Europe. The first thing I was going to do was to stay under water till the sun set. Second, I would find me a pair of pants. I didn’t really like the idea of stealing from such poor people, but I justified it that it wasn’t their life I was stealing.

  Third, I had to find something to eat, this vampire hunger about drove me crazy earlier and I didn’t need second episode of delusional grandeur.

 

  After the sun had set on the fifth day since we were all scattered by that violent storm in the North Atlantic I found a pair of pants. They were hanging on a wall outside of a pigpen, I was able to clothe my butt and feed my face in the same place. I fed on two large hogs and took their carcasses with me back into the sea and I managed to do both without being shot at. I was quiet proud of myself.

  I did not wait for the sun to rise to head north. I figured as long as I stayed near shore the chances of me getting lost were minimal. The one thing I was worried about was ending up in the English Channel. My geography wasn’t so hot, I knew if I hit ice I went to far so my biggest concern was passing France, I was also a little worried about Spain but what could I do? I had to get to Scotland.

  I swam for three days underwater up the African and European coast without surfacing. I didn’t not swim with the recklessness that I did trying to hit land after the storm, the farther I went north the more cautious I became.

 On the forth morning since I headed north, and the ninth day since being lost at sea I peaked my head out of the water and saw land to my left and became concerned. Was I all backwards again? What in the world could be to my left if I was following along the coast of Europe?

  My heart sank, did I just surface in the Channel I thought? I immediately dove under water and headed towards the land to my west. Damn it! I though, how could I be so stupid and swim right into the English Channel and then surface? John Barleycorn had warned us all to stay out of the Channel, and now I’ve put everything into jeopardy.

  As the water became shallower I surface and took off like grease lightning up the beach. I drew my large claymore in case I bumped into someone I did not know. I needed to know desperately where I was, the sun had not yet come up over the eastern horizon so I hauled a*s inland.

  I ran through the lush green country side, the air smelled so nice and clean. There was still a think wet fog that covered the ground. I could taste freshly cut grass somewhere, if there was freshly cut grass there was people. Damn it, I couldn’t believe I came up in the middle of the damn Channel.

  I came flying right into the middle of a sleepy little village, I felt like I was in the middle of a monster movie with the setting of this village. One large mixing bowl, two cups and fog, one sleepy village and one large vampire.

  I could hear off to my left two people talking, so I slipped into a shadow so I could concentrate on the voices. If I could make out the accent maybe that would help in telling me where I was. Not that I needed too, I was knee deep in trouble, if the Channel was watched I was dead in the water. As I closed my ears to try and concentrate, I found I was having trouble understanding.

  I just couldn’t put meaning to the words I was hearing. I wondered if the giant wave that hit me hit me a little harder than I thought it did.

  It suddenly dawned on me they weren’t speaking English. Which didn’t make sense to me, not English, not French, Gaelic maybe? Holy crap! I bet I was in Ireland! I didn’t come up in the Channel after all! I hauled a*s back the way I came to the water.

  As I approached the beach I put my sword back in my sleeve, right before I hit the water I jumped as far as I could out over the water. I reached back as I flew and grabbed my sword to make sure I didn’t lose it on impact.

 

  Around what I figured was noontime I rounded the northern part of the island of Great Britain. I stayed about a mile out from shore and kept one eye on the beach. Sooner or later I figured I would see this deserted beach with a bluff. After about an hour I saw one made me feel hopeful.

  I breast stroked towards the beach at a slow vampire pace. I knew from this distance no human would see me, but a vampire if he or she were watching would be sure to see me. Once I got within a few hundred yards from shore I pulled my sword. I knew a vampire could cover that distance whether on land or water in a blink of an eye.

  If anyone of our party had been captured, any beach that looked like this one would be watched and I had the peculiar feeling I was being watched. About a hundred yards from shore I stopped and scanned the top of the bluff. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt I was being watched. I do not know if it was the combat veteran in me or some heighten vampire sense, but I could feel it.

  I sat there for a moment more when my gut was proven right, in a flash a vampire at full speed came out of the thick forest and shot off the top of the bluff. The vampire flew right at me, and if it wasn’t for the fact that I could clearly see the vampire was so much smaller then I, I would have fled. The small vampire hit the water at about the half way point between me and the beach. The small vampire was under the water only for a second before resurfacing.

   ’Conner!’ shrieked the female vampire as she swam towards me.

  Gloria.