Chapter 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Tegan led me to the edge of the water and I stared at the dark abyss as it lapped at our feet. Indecision filled my thoughts as I looked up at Tegan. "So how much should we strip?"

He flashed me a mischievous grin. "You know my preferences but since we're not alone I would recommend only your shoes and socks."

We performed the task and I dipped my toes into the water. A shiver raced up my spine and I leapt back. "That's freezing!"

"Your body will acclimate to the blood soon," Conrad spoke up as he joined us at the ocean's edge.

Tegan shrugged. "Then what are we waiting for?" He raced past me and dove into the ocean.

My heart jumped as he disappeared beneath the dark, impenetrable waves. I scurried up to the edge of the tide and stood on my tiptoes searching the waters. Then a funny thing happened. The longer I searched the more I became aware that I could search the dark sea. My vision was vastly improving and in half a minute it was as though someone had dropped a sun into each of my eyes. Everything was as clear as day, and maybe a little bit clearer.

And yet my eyes still didn't see Tegan.

"Tegan!" I shouted as I risked the bone-chilling water up to my mid-thighs. "Tegan-ah!"

Something had grabbed my ankle and I was yanked off my feet. I landed on my back and my hard splashdown pushed the air out of my lungs. Desperate for some new stuff, I took a deep breath and sucked in a whole sea of salty water. A scream escaped me and panic overtook me. I thrashed about searching for up in a topsy-turvy world.

That's when the familiar face of Tegan popped up in front of me. He grasped my upper arms and gave them a shake. "Control yourself, Kate!"

That was easy for him to say. He wasn't drowning. Or was he? Shouldn't he have been?

Terror turned to befuddlement as I stared at his perfectly calm expression except for the concern in his eyes. That's when I noticed his mouth was open and he wasn't taking any breaths. I also realized the water didn't feel quite as cold as before. In fact, it was almost balmy.

Tegan squeezed my arms. "Take some deep breaths if you need to but you don't have to."

I did as he instructed and shivered at the uncomfortable sensation of water rushing down my throat. A coughing fit came over me and Tegan drew me against him. There we floated a few feet above the surface as I managed to get a hold of myself.

I drew away from him and opened my mouth like a snapping alligator. The water was now in and around me, the same sensation as air but with a touch more pressure on my chest.

Tegan patiently watched me acclimate. "Are you alright?"

I nodded. "Y-yeah, I think so."

Then I slapped him. The motion was hard enough that his head snapped to one side.

"Don't do that again!" I growled.

Tegan turned back to me with an apologetic smile. "I did deserve that, didn't I?"

"And then some!" I added as I stabbed a finger into his chest. "You could have given me a heart attack!"

He grasped one of my hands and set my palm against my own chest. "Not right now."

I dropped my gaze to my hand and some of the color left my face. There was no familiar thumping sensation in my chest. I gave a big gulp and looked up at Tegan. "I know Conrad said this was temporary but maybe we should've tested this out first on something else. Like Lusio or someone."

A crooked smile slipped onto Tegan's lips. "Too late now, so why don't we enjoy the sights?"

"Sights?" I wondered as he floated to one side.

My clear eyesight revealed the strange underwater world just off the shore. Seaweed swayed to and fro with the tide and parted to reveal the thick corals that covered the ocean floor. Their thick tree-like branches stretched out of the sandy bottom and mixed with algae to create a soft glow of life. Fish and crustaceans scurried away as we held hands and waltzed through the waters. Every step was a bounce and I couldn't help but laugh at the sensation of weightlessness.

"This must be what it's like to walk on the moon," I commented.

Tegan lifted an eyebrow. "Have your people been there?"

I grinned. "That depends on who you ask, but yeah. Anyway-" I turned my attention back to the vast expanse ahead of us, "-where do we go from here?"

He nodded to a spot a little to our left. "I think I feel a heavy vibration coming from there."

I spun around and grabbed his hand with both of mine and gave it a tug. "Then come on before we find out when our fishy functions stop working."

We swam through the myriad of fauna and soon rediscovered civilization in the form of a huge shipwreck. The boat had once stretched for some two hundred feet and half that for the width but nature and bad luck had brought it down. Enough of the hull remained to create a sort of rib cage with bits of planks stretched over the ribbed wood to create the horrible imagery of rotten flesh. Though the ruins were scattered about the place I noticed a trail of broken planks leading from a huge rock formation some five hundred feet further out to see. The ship had struck the stone and sank.

Hugh floated a few yards above the wreck while about two dozen vampires worked away at shovels. They stirred up a mess of wet sand that made it difficult to see the bottom.

Hugh turned at our coming and smiled at us. "So you have come."

"We didn't want to miss admiring your work," Tegan returned as we joined him in floating in the water. It was still so surreal to watch through vampire eyes the work being done in the remains of a sunken ship. Tegan nodded at the mess of the ancient sunken ruins. "How did a wreck this close to the shoreline remain untouched?"

Hugh returned his attention to the shipwreck and shook his head. "This ship has been salvaged before but not beneath the timbers. We're trying to dig those out right now to see if there might be treasures buried in the sand."

"Is Lusio that desperate for stuff that he's re-digging ships?" I wondered.

Hugh folded his arms over his chest and furrowed his brow. "That is the assumption, though Mr. Lusio hasn't told us as much yet. There is also the difficulty in the current further out to sea. Many vampires have been swept away these last twenty years because the proper assessment wasn't made for the water flow."

A little color drained from my face. "The vampires came back, though, didn't they?"

Hugh pursed his lips as he stared ahead. "Not all of them."

One of the vampires tossed aside a huge timber that must have weighed some five hundred pounds and waited for the air to clear before peering into the hole he'd created. He stiffened and whipped his head up. "Sir! I've found something!"

Hugh swam forward and we followed. The vampire worker pointed at something that glistened against the dull colors of the sea bed. Hugh dropped to his knees beside the artifact and swiped his hand over the water a few inches over the object. Loose sand followed his wake and revealed a silver platter at least two feet across.

Hugh leaned back and smiled up at his compatriot. "A good night's job. This will fetch a handsome price-"

"Look out!" one of the other vampires shouted.

A groaning noise caught our attention and I whipped my head up in time to watch the shaky wreck shudder and roll toward us. Those ruined ribs cracked in protest to the movement and their remains rained down on us. Tegan wrapped his arms around me while Hugh clapped his hands on the other vampire's shoulders and tossed him out of the way. I screamed as the ship collapsed on top of us, forcing its heavy weight down and pushing us into the soft sand of the sea bottom.

I felt Tegan's arms slip away and at the same time another weight almost as heavy appeared over me. A roar reverberated through the waters and I jerked my head back. The huge shadowy body of Tegan's dragon form towered above me and his tail curled around our unconscious friend. Tegan locked his legs and pressed his back against the hull. The ship shuddered and rolled back a little even as the other vampires frantically tried to tear the debris away from us.

That's when I realized something. Air bubbles were coming out of his mouth. I froze as I recalled Conrad's warning to us about the blood: it wouldn't last if another magic interfered with it. Tegan had used that magic to transform himself.

"No!" I shouted as I grabbed onto the metal plates on his chest. "Get out of here! Go on! Get to the surface!"

Tegan didn't heed my call as he gritted his dagger-like teeth and pushed harder against the ship. The air bubbles came faster and I could feel the strain on his body. I had to do something.

That's when I blew up.