a new day

A New Day

"Will you just jump."

"They’re not going to come out."

"Yes they will"

"The water looks so cool."

"It’s is, but you’re not going to care."

"I hate this."

"Well you’re the one who likes wearing bikinis."

"You know, I’ve never had to worry about wings before."

"Now you can see why I wear a one piece. Just jump in, they’ll come out."

"I’m telling you, I don’t have them."

"Anne I’m telling you, you do. They’ll come out when you jump."

"My back doesn’t feel any different."

"Will you just trust me, they’re there. When you jump, they’ll come out."

"How come I can’t just make them come out like you do?"

"Because you don’t know how to use them yet. But if you would just jump, your wings will come out."

"Can’t we just switch bathing suits?"

"Why, so I can go topless? I remember you laughing at me about that. So now it’s my turn."

"You suck."

"Just jump in the damn water Anne."

"How do you know they’ll come out?"

"Because I’ve had them for almost four hundred years that’s why."

"You know I’m scare of deep water."

"We’re only in like fifty feet of water. You’ll be able to go to the bottom and back up in like a few seconds. Just get in."

Anne had taken to immortality quite well. Her transformation had been rough, but once she woke back up she had done alright, well except for her silliness for getting in the water. It had taken her four days to die, and another three to wake back up. I had held her the whole time, when she finally woke back up I was

grateful. I didn’t know how long it would take not remember how much time had passed with me.

She had opened her eyes and said my name. It was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard. I had tried to wash her the best I could once she went out. But she defiantly needed to bath after.

Her body didn’t change much, except become more firm. Anne already had a nice body and a pretty face, now she seemed complete. As she showered in the small bathroom the boat had, I had gotten some of the food for her I had left over from my recovery. I had been left weak, but after a few days I was fine.

When I gave Anne the uncut rack of ribs, he face changed immediately. Anne looked a little different than I did, she had the same forehead ridges that I had, but they were more pronounced then mine. Her eyebrows were higher than mine and her cheekbones were more defined. Something that surprised me, the tips of her ears became somewhat pointed at the top.

Anne had gulped the rips down, bones and all. I laughed at her crewing on the bones; she just looked at me and wondered what was funny. She had also eaten several pounds of beef. I watched her eat with a great deal of satisfaction at her beauty and grace. Though she looked scary as hell as a vampire, she still had the playful humor that I loved underneath.

"Just jump in." I said again.

"I don’t think I want to go swimming Pip."

I thought about after she ate with a smile, we had made love until the sun had gone down. Like everything of our kind, the passion and need for each other were greatly magnified.

I sighed and pushed her. Anne flailed her arms for a second and fell in the water with a flop.

"Damn it Pip!" she said coming out of the water.

"Look, your wings came out." I said chuckling to myself.

Anne looked over her shoulders and giggled, "I do have wings!"

"I told you." I smiled and dove into the water.

I shot down deep, my wing pushing me through the water like they would in the air. I turn to surface and really push them. I shot out of the water like a rocket. As

I hit the apex of my jump, I pulled them in and landed with a large splash. I resurfaced and swam back over to Anne.

"Would you like me to help you get your top on now?" I asked climbing up the swim ladder.

"Could you please?"

Anne climbed up on the swim platform on the back of the boat while I retrieved her top. As I helped her, I saw a boat coming towards us at a high speed.

"Who’s that?" Anne asked with concern.

"Looks like the Coast Guard. Quick, put your wings away." I said doing the same.

"How?"

"Just think it and do it."

"I can’t!" Anne said starting to panic.

"Just go down into the cabin and try. We’re going to be boarded it looks like."

The Coast Guard boat was still far enough away that I was sure they couldn’t see Anne’s wings, but it wouldn’t take long for them to get here.

"Go!" I said and Anne quickly went down into the cabin.

Great.

Looks like we’re going to see how Anne does with humans.

I walked back into the boat and waited, I could hear Anne down in the cabin getting flustered about her wings.

"Anne you might want to quiet down, they’re almost here."

"I can’t get them to go back in!"

"Well you’re not going to if you don’t calm down."

The Coast Guard boat pulled up alone side us. There were several Guardsmen in uniforms and lifejackets. One of them had a line he was preparing to throw to me.

"Good morning." he said through a bullhorn, "We’re going to come aboard and make sure you have everything you need and have all you’re proper equipment."

"Okay." I shouted to them.

One of the men tossed me a line and I tied it to the rear cleat. I walked forward and tied a second to the front. Four of the Coast Guard men climbed into my boat. They asked to see the normal boating stuff, lifejackets, fire extinguisher,

boater’s license and registration. I think the men were a little surprised to see that the boat was registered to me. I guess some men think the water is the dominion of men or something.

"If you don’t mind we would like to inspect your cabin."

"Is there reason for that?" I asked.

"Standard procedure. Want to make sure you’re not carrying things that you shouldn’t."

"I guess I don’t have much of a choice. But if you’re going to poke your nose around my boat, I would ask that not all of you go down into my cabin. My girlfriend Anne is down there."

"That’s fine."

"And I’m going to make sure you don’t break anything."

"We won’t ma’am."

I escorted two of the men down into the cabin. They made a quick search finding nothing of significance, when they tried to go into the bathroom, we hit a bit of a snag. Anne had taken refuge in there, and her reluctance to come out had triggered some suspicion.

"Ma’am, we need you to come out of there please."

"I’m going to the bathroom."

"Ma’am you need to open this door now." the Coast Guardsmen said in a stern voice.

"Please don’t break my door." I said becoming irritated.

"PISS OFF!" Anne yelled through the door.

One of the men that were up on the deck poked his head in to see what was going on.

"She’s in a small bikini; I think she’s kind of embarrassed."

"I’m not embarrassed Pip, so shut up!"

"Anne, you have to come out of there." I said trying to calm her down, "Sir, in that other door to your left is sleeping quarters. We keep all our linen there; can you grab a blanket out of there please?"

"Sure." he opened the door and grabbed one and handed it to me.

"Baby, open the door. I have a blanket for you."

Anne opened the door a crack and snatched it from me and slammed the door. A few second later she opened it and came out with the blanket around her. She didn’t look embarrassed, she looked pissed. My heart about stopped, this could get ugly quick.

"Now what’s with all the fuss?" the man asked.

Anne tried to push passed us to go to the front of the cabin but the man pulled her arm to stop her.

"Get your hands off of me!" Anne said menacingly, a dark shadow fell over her features. For a moment, I thought the vampire would come out.

"This isn’t an airport!" she snapped and went and sat down at the cabin table with the blanket still around her.

I went over to Anne and whispered to her, "Calm down, if you vamp out, we’re going to have to kill them."

I turned to the men that were watching us, "Can you check the bathroom now please?" I asked trying to calm the tense atmosphere.

They went through everything quickly, "Now was that so hard?" one of them asked Anne.

I shook my head hoping they would drop it. As they exited I followed them out and shut the door behind me.

"I’m sorry about that," I said trying to pacify them, "A few days ago before we came out here, we had a man break into our home. Anne’s still a little skittish about the whole thing. Especially around men."

"That’s okay we understand."

"I really doubt that, but thank you."

Anne came up on deck after the Coast Guard left. She still had the blanket around her.

"A*s holes." she said watching them motor away.

"Feel better?" I asked.

"No, but I got my wings in."

I smiled, "Piss off?"

"Shut up."

"You want to go back to Oak Harbor?" I asked.

"Yes."

Anne and I headed back; she never took the blanket off as we cruised. Stupid Coast Guard ruined everything, whatever; I still had Anne sitting there next to me.

It was dark by the time we got back to the marina in Oak Harbor. Luckily I had packed more than one backless shirt for us to change into. I tied the boat up and locked the cabin door; I figured we would unload everything tomorrow.

I hoped that we wouldn’t have another incident with the wings when we got back, but Anne didn’t even think about it. She wanted to get back so bad she jumped off the back of the boat and took to the air like she had been doing it all her life. I smiled watching her go, I wondered if she would land as gracefully.

I remembered it had taken me several crashes to get the landing part of fly down; I smiled and took to the air after her. It only took a moment for me to catch her, Anne fell in on my right and I led the way back home. It felt so natural to have her there, like she had always been there my whole life.

"When we land, try to stand up while you’re flying and flap like hell or you’ll eat it." I called over my shoulder.

"Okay."

"We’ll go around back so you can land in the grass." Anne nodded and followed me around.

It was nice to watch her fly, it seemed so natural for her, I couldn’t wait to watch her land. The thought made me smile

I circled the yard a few times to get a little lower to the ground, "Watch me!" I yelled.

I came down and hit the brakes trying to show Anne what I meant about standing up. I pumped the wings hard and set down on my feet gently. I looked up in the air watching Anne circling, she tried to stand in flight without pumping her wings enough and stalled out and came down with in hard on her stomach.

"Ow" Anne said rolling over onto her butt.

"Got to pump those wings darling."

"I was."

"Not hard enough." I said pulling her up from the ground, "Don’t worry, it’ll get

easier. But other than your graceful finish, you fly well."

"Thank you." Anne said brushing herself off.

A week had gone by since we had gotten home from our trip without anything crazy happening. Anne and I were sitting at the kitchen island having coffee like we did most mornings.

"Are we crashing today? Or fighting?" I asked.

Anne still didn’t have landing yet, but it never seemed to get her down. She loved flying too much. Anne also surprised me with her ability to fight. She was a natural athlete as a human, so like all thing physical she was a natural at fighting.

Because Anne was short, she wasn’t a huge fan of the sword. Though with practice she would be very capable. Her favorite weapon was the spear. I had a carbon fiber shaft spear, with a razor sharp tip that could slash as well as stab. And on the other end, it had what looked like the rubber bottom of a crutch. Except this thing was made out of iron, and would work great for bashing heads. I had taken it off, so Anne wouldn’t hurt me, or herself.

"I think fighting."

I had put a blunt tip on Anne spear and I used one of my other swords for practice. I let Anne wear my armor when I taught her; hers wouldn’t be ready for another month. But I did wear my body suit; it was too big for Anne.

We changed and grabbed our stuff and went outside. I twisted and stretched a little, Anne was showing off by twirling her spear around. I smiled thinking how useless something like that would be in a fight.

"Anne, I know you don’t like swords, but I think we should work on you having to transition from the spear to the sword."

"Why?"

"Well the last few days I’ve been taking it easy on you. Today I’m going to push you a little harder."

Anne grabbed her two short swords and strapped them on.

"Ready?" I asked.

Anne nodded and charged with her spear. One of Anne’s greatest weaknesses was she tried to use nothing but pure brute strength. I lean, ducked and checked her spear. I made no offensive move towards her. Anne’s anger started to get the

better of her. She backed up a few paces and then charged. I spun out of the way and smacked her rump as she went by me with the flat part of my sword.

I laughed and Anne’s face went vamp. She snarled and charged; she stabbed at me several times, and then swung the spear at me like a baseball bat.

I checked the spear’s swing with the palm of my left hand, grabbed it, and struck the spear with my sword hilt. The spear popped up and struck Anne in the chin. I momentarily caught her off guard so I so with a quick pull with my left hand I took the spear.

She snarled again and drew both swords. She started swinging wildly and I almost laughed. I moved and checked her swings. She stabbed wildly and I struck one of the swords and she dropped it. Anne took the other sword with both hands and started chopping wildly at me. Eventually, I tripped her and she went down. Anne rolled onto her back and I put my sword tip to her throat. I sighed and looked down at her and shook my head.

I reached down and helped her up, "You know what you’re problem is?"

"That you’re way stronger and better at this then me?" Anne replied.

"Me being stronger then you means very little. Look at Arthur, he’s human, and he almost killed me."

Anne picked up her swords and returned them to their scabbards. I grabbed her spear and handed it to her.

"Thank you." she said lightly.

"There’s three things you have to remember when you’re fighting. Speed, strength and technique. Right now, about the only thing you have mastered is strength. But speed will neutralize strength. And that’s all I’ve been doing, you’ve been rushing like a lunatic on fire.

"Now when you match speed with technique, you have a deadly combination. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"I doubt it, but I’ll show you. Technique for me is absolute precisions in everything I do. Striking, blocking, and moving. Everything I do places me in the perfect place for a kill. Only technique will protect you."

"Okay."

"Using weapons, it’s like playing an instrument. Once you’ve mastered one, you’ve mastered them all. It isn’t the instrument you’ve truly mastered, but music. That’s why I would rather you practice with a sword then your spear. The sword is easier to learn to fight with."

"Yeah, but I like my spear."

"That’s fine, but I want to show you truly how unready you are to use it. Here, let me see one of your swords." I said dropping my blunted saber.

Anne handed me one and I stepped back to give us some room, "I’m going to fight you for real now. No screwing around. I’m going to show you just how much you have got to learn."

"Okay. Are you ready?" Anne asked.

I twirled my sword in front of me a few times, "Yes."

Anne bull rushed me with her spear. I let her come; she went for the easy kill. I checked the spear and spun past her. I jump kicked the back of her leg which sent Anne to her knees. I quickly grabbed Anne by her pony-tail and yanked her head back placing my sword to her throat. The whole thing took less than five seconds.

I sadly let her Anne go. I sighed knowing that if I was Arthur, she would be dead. Anne’s face slid back to being human and she got up.

"I’ll never get this." she said losing all confidence.

I walked up and touched her face, "Yes you will. I’ll keep embarrassing you like this. Then, you’ll do this for real and you’ll see how good you really are. Baby you’re a natural at this, and in a few hundred years, I bet you’ll be better than me."

"A few hundred years, great."

I smiled, "In time, you look at time completely different. I see a year, like you see a month. A month like you see a year. And decade, like you see a year. But that has nothing to do with what we’re talking about."

Anne and I stood looking at each other for a bit, "Are you ready to start again?" I asked.

"Not really."

I started to feel tense, Anne noticed, "What is it?" she asked.

I looked around and sniffed the air, I couldn’t place what I was feeling at first,

but then it dawned on me, "The Brotherhood."

At first Anne didn’t move, she just looked at me like it didn’t register.

"Come on." I said taking off into the house.

I ran up to my bedroom and got my weapons, I handed Anne back her sword. She sheathed it and looked at me. We looked outside towards the drive way and waited.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Do you know how many?"

"No." I said scanning the front yard.

After a moment, a single car came up the drive way. We watched as the car pulled up out front.

"Looks like there’s only one of them."

"One’s bad enough." I said.

The driver exited the car and walked up to the front door. "Stand back." I said to Anne.

Anne nodded and drew both her swords. I drew my knife and waited until he was about to knock. I kept my eye on him through the peephole. When he raised his hand to knock I ripped open the door.

I grabbed him by his collar a yanked him though the door. The man dropped his briefcase as I slammed him against the wall by the door. I placed my knife at his throat, I could feel his adam‘s apple moving under its edge.

"You’re brave to come here by yourself. If you didn’t, you’re a dead man." I said.

"I’m alone." the man said, "I come here in the name and authority of the Order of the Brotherhood to parley."

I looked deeply into his eye, I couldn’t tell if he was lying or not, "I except." letting him go.

"My name is Ben, I’m the emissary from the Board." he said picking up his briefcase.

I motioned him into the house, "Take a seat Emissary."

The man came in and sat on one of my couches. I sat across from him, Anne stood just away from us ready.

Seeing that I wasn’t going to speak, he continued, "The Board would like to offer you terms."

"Which are?" I said flatly.

"If you cease hostilities against the Brotherhood and continue living here quietly on your island, we will over look what happened in Seattle."

"What happened in Seattle?" I asked.

"We know that Arthur the One Eye attacked you here, and in retaliation of that attack, you went to Seattle. And I must say, the pool table was very poetic."

"The pool table?" Anne asked.

"I’ll tell you later." I said to Anne.

"Why should I believe that the Brotherhood will ignore what happened in Seattle?" I asked.

"The Brotherhood blames Arthur for Seattle. He was not acting on the behalf of the Brotherhood when he attacked you here. His orders were to report if our suspicions were true that you were a vampire.

"Once he found that you were he was ordered to leave you in peace and come back to Paris. An order he chose not to follow."

"And Arthur?" I asked.

"That’s the second part of our terms." Ben said opening his briefcase and taking out a thick folder, "Here."

I took the folder and opened it, "What is this?"

"It’s Arthur’s file. It is everything we know of him. His history, his case files, everything you will need to know to kill him."

"Why are you giving this to me?" I asked.

"Arthur is under the penalty of death. But he has escaped from our custody and is currently at large. Arthur poses no threat to the Brotherhood, but you do."

"So you want to make sure that when Arthur pays me another visit, I won’t take it out on you."

"Yes."

"So you wish for me to do your dirty work?"

"Whether Arthur comes to kill you or not, our offer stands. We only wish that if he does, you return him to us dead or alive. Whatever is convenient to you."

"Do you believe that he will come for me?" I asked.

"It is his history as you shall see." he said pointing at the folder.

"Eventually Anne and I will have to move from here."

"Yes. And when that becomes necessary, the Brotherhood will be more than willing to renegotiate our terms. As we figured you would with Anne, we ask that you do not change any more people into vampires."

"That would constitute to great of a risk for you?" I asked with a smile.

"You say that you wish to live in peace with your surroundings? You lived inconspicuously before, you wish that again? How can you do that with an army?"

"If the Brotherhood breaks their terms, I will make it my mission to eradicate them."

"The Brotherhood does not break their deals. You have lived long enough to know that truth."

"In time we shall see." I said.

"Yes we shall."

With that, Ben left.

"Do you believe him?" Anne asked.

"Yes. The Brotherhood has something going on back in Europe."

"What was he talking about with the pool table?"

I smiled at the memory, "I left a message for the Brotherhood, I left Arthur’s sword stuck in a pool table like the sword in the stone in the King Arthur tale."

"Oh Pip." Anne said.

Later that night I sat down with Arthur’s file to see if I could get some insight to what Anne and I were dealing with. As I read I found myself fascinated by the story of Arthur. The man seemed destined to hunt vampires.

"What are you reading?" Anne asked.

"I’m reading Arthur’s history." I answered.

"Oh yeah? Anything good?"

"It’s colorful to say the least. I haven’t gone into his case files yet, been reading on his childhood and how he got into hunting vampires."

"Do tell." Anne said sitting down next to me.

"There’s nothing on his parents, what the Brotherhood knows about him is that

he was abandoned when he was a baby by his biological parents."

"He grew up in foster care. He didn’t stay with anyone family long because he was such a troubled kid. But when he was thirteen, he went to a family who the father was a member of the Brotherhood. He held the title of Brother, there’s a file in here of his father’s opinion of young Arthur."

"Really?"

"Yes, his father believed there was something special about him. Whether he know he was a tracker or not he doesn’t say. But he started training his new foster child in the arts of fighting.

"It helped Arthur greatly; it focused all that negative energy towards something positive. His foster dad in his regular updates to the Brotherhood states that Arthur had become more then competent in fighting, that his abilities had surpassed those of even his fellow Brothers.

"Wow."

"I know, his foster dad had said that as soon as Arthur came of age, he would recommend him for membership, he also said as soon as Arthur could be trusted with the secrets of the Brotherhood he should be offered the title of Brother."

"So how did he get into hunting vampires?" Anne asked.

"A tragedy of course." I said.

"Of course."

"Arthur’s foster dad was killed by a vampire. Arthur was seventeen; you’ll find the irony in this. A female vampire attacked His father in the middle of the night."

"You don’t say." Anne said sarcastically.

"The reason other than he was Brotherhood for the attack is unknown. But Arthur saw the murder of his father."

"That’s sad. You could almost feel bad for him. I don’t, but you know."

"Yeah. So Arthur tracked this female vampire for two years. Which brings us to a cool side of the story, at least I think so."

"What’s that?" Anne asked.

"Well Arthur’s sword?"

"Yeah?"

"It belonged to his foster dad. Apparently that sword was given to his father by the current leader of the Brotherhood’s predecessor. I guess it was a Brotherhood family heirloom."

"It was awfully nice of you to give it back to them." Anne said with a grin.

"I know, right? Anyways, a month before Arthur turned nineteen, he found the vampire who killed his father."

"What happened, did he kill her?"

"No. But that’s how he lost his eye. She bit him on the face, she about killed him. But Arthur stabbed her in the throat, and she fled."

"That sucks." Anne said.

"Well, after his wound healed, he tracked her back down. It took him almost a year to do it."

"Did he kill her?"

"Believe it or not, no. They fought and about killed each other a second time. But again, she fled. But Arthur didn’t let her get far. He found her in Germany. This time he was a little smarter about it."

"What did he do?"

"Early in the morning, he caught the house that she was staying in on fire. When she tried to flee, he ambushed her and was able to kill her. He was twenty years old."

"Wow, he killed his first vampire by twenty."

"Actually, he killed his first vampire at seventeen. He killed two while he was tracking her the first time. Anne he was a legend with the Brotherhood before he even knew of their existence."

"And now he wants to kill you."

"Yes. But we’ll have a little surprise for him the next time he comes sniffing around."

"Oh yeah, what’s that?"

"You." I said with a smile.

"Do you want to go to bed?"

"Yeah, I think I’m ready to head that way." I said with a yawn.