Bloodlines: Dark Embrace

Chapter 8 - Splish Splash

We had been walking for hours now. Not once had Marcus looked behind us or stopped to listen for sounds of movement, it was almost as if the revelation of being followed hadn't phased him in the slightest, or even sent him into an alerted state. I was constantly turning on my heels, looking for this thing or person that was stalking us but it was to no avail, I had never even caught a glimpse of the perpetrator or heard a rustle in the leaves due to their footing.

The moon still shone it's bright light in the starry sky when we stopped at a small lake that both Marcus and I had stumbled upon. Upon seeing it, Marcus gasped and then we looked at each other, both donning a wide grin and raced for the lake, all worries of being followed flung from my mind for that small amount of time. I broke into full sprint as we got closer and overtook Marcus. As soon as I reached the lake I dove straight into the cool water and sat at the bottom for ten seconds, enjoying the cool water against my skin and the feeling of my hair flowing before reappearing on the surface. I span slowly around in a circle looking for Marcus, whom I found standing at the point where I had jumped in. He no longer had any form of clothing on his upper body, his chest and abs covered in way too much hair. He was just about to take off his trousers when I quickly span back around.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked with panic in my voice. "I don't want to see any of that!"

"Well, unlike you, I'm not daft," Marcus began. "I don't want to be walking around in drenched clothing for the rest of the night. And before you ask, daft is just another wonderful word for calling someone an idiot." He jumped into the lake, not even making a splash, it was as if the water was alive and had just swallowed him whole.

He appeared in front of me and splashed water in my face.

"I'm sorry, are you a child?" I asked, trying not to sound amused.

"Scared of a little bit of water, Servane?" Marcus asked teasingly. "Has the water hurt the big, scary vampire?" Marcus continued, while pouting jokingly.

"Shut up!" I replied, bringing my hands down hard into the water, causing a wave of water to cover Marcus. The wave of water covered my view for less than a second but in that time he had vanished, he wasn't underneath the water or beside where I had aimed. He reappeared behind me and tapped my shoulder, I turned to be met with a wave of his own that made me dunk under the water. Once I came back up a small ball of water smacked me in the face that forced me backwards.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, puzzled and dazed.

"Just a wee something that I conjured up." Marcus replied with a smug grin.

"A tiny ball of water just hit me in the face. How the hell did you do that?"

"Well, that's the secret of the trade, Lad."

"The trade? Being a vampire isn't a trade, plus, even if it was, I'm a vampire! So tell me!"

"Nah," Marcus said, beaming. He clasped his hands together and shut his eyes. Water began to float up steadily in a thin line, up through a small gap in his hands. Hid grin became wider than before - he opened his hands to reveal a ball of water the size of a tomato. The water swirled in and around itself, waves splashing against each other and sending droplets of water from the ball but they just slithered back up to it.

Being mesmerized by it, I didn't notice that Marcus had launched it at me until it smacked my forehead and sent me backwards and under water. It took me a few seconds to realize what happened before I reappeared at the surface. I grinned like an idiot and began to laugh like I hadn't done since I was a child.

"Marcus, you have got to show me how you do that!" I demanded, still laughing and smiling.

"Most definitely will, would love to see what you can do but I can't do anything till we reach the council. They're the ones that make the decisions and one of the most important decisions they make is if the new can use magic."

"Well that is really unfortunate, I'd love to be able to do what you can," I said, lowering my head and losing my smile, hoping that it would guilt Marcus into showing me the basics at least. The thought of being able to control water had never occurred to me, I knew that vampires were magical, mystical beings but I never thought we'd be able to do something like that!

"Sorry lad, I just can't. I'd be barred from attending council meetings and hell, I might even get hunted, it's just too risky." I let out a deep sigh, being a vampire is great but I can do bugger all until I get to the council. "It's not just water we can control either. Some of us can control fire, some control the air, some can even control the ground we walk on. Most of us can control at least one, sometimes two and a very rare few can control three of these powers. I promise, lad, as soon as we get to the council and get all the arrangements and such out of the way, I'll teach you as much as you can about these powers so that you can learn which you're best at. But in the meantime," Marcus began, moving his hands behind his back and then thrusting them forward, "think fast!"