As we got in my car, Liz brought up a very important problem.
"How are we supposed to get to wherever this 'darkness' is?" she asked.
"That…is actually a very good question," said Michael.
"Hang on - you don't have a way to get there?" Dominic said. "Even the original League had Captain Nemo!"
"Perhaps they just don't know what the Seer lass has planned," suggested Daniel.
"Oh, no," said Phoebe. "I don't even know where we're supposed to be going. Really big oversight on my - "
Suddenly, Phoebe gasped and spasmed, throwing her head back. Liz, who was sitting beside her, yelped, and Arnold jumped up to help her. However, she came back and said, "Not to worry, not to worry, just a vision." She looked at me. "I know where to go, Will. Drive to Ireland - and go as quickly as possible!"
I nodded and pushed the pedal to the metal. In 20 minutes, we were in Ireland.
"Good, good," said Phoebe. "Take the shortest path to the waterside."
I followed her instructions and was at the waterside in 10 minutes. I could see a man in the distance on a dock and - was that a boat?
"Everyone, go!" she said. "That's our ride!"
We jumped out of the car and ran for the man. As we got there, the man looked up, and I recognized him. I stopped.
"Ted?!"
He stopped getting ready to leave in what I now recognized as a submarine, and came over.
"Will!" he said. "I didn't expect to see you out here! What are you doing here?" He looked around. "And who are these?"
"Hey, Ted," I replied. "Meet the new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen."
I proceeded to introduce everyone to Ted Wolfram, one of my friends from the US. He was a cop, but his dad was rich, and gave him gifts in an attempt to make up for the fact that he wasn't there when Ted's mom died. He also knew about my being a vampire, although I don't know how he'd be my friend without knowing that.
"So, sucked anyone recently?" he asked me.
"Wow. That was really insensitive, man," Michael said. He knew Ted, too.
I laughed. "I don't care, Michael. He's just trying to be funny."
Michael grinned. "I know."
"So, this hot lady's a vampire?" Ted said, taking Sera's hand. "Doesn't look a day over 25 to me." He kissed Sera's hand.
"You have good manners," Sera replied. "But please don't touch me."
Ted took his hand away from Sera's. "Understood, madam," he said.
"Mr. Wolfram," Phoebe said. "We are here because we need a ride."
"Because you're friends of Will," replied Ted. "Okay. Where to?"
"That's fair, actually," said Arnold. "Where are we going?"
"Where are we going?" said Phoebe. "We're going…to Los Angeles."
* * *
As we climbed onto the sub, I asked Ted, "Are you on vacation? Is that why you're here?"
He nodded. "I made the mistake of telling my dad that I was going to Scotland, and he decided that he would send two of his frickin' bodyguards with me on his private jet. So I left for Scotland in the sub, which is probably the only gift he's ever given me that I use. I decided to drive through Ireland before I left."
"You know he's just trying to be a good father," I replied. "That was his way of trying to protect you."
"He lost that right when he let my mother die," Ted replied, slightly bitterly. "Besides, I'm a cop. I don't need a bodyguard."
He then changed the subject by calling for everyone's attention. "Okay, guys! I don't have a huge ammount of rooms, only one per type of supernatural being! So a room for Invisibles, a room for Hydes, a room for Dorians, a room for werewolves, and a room for vampires. I only have two other rooms, mine, and one for guests that are normal humans. Sorry, but I don't have a room for Seers or elves. So y'all head to your rooms, Liz to the Invis room, Arnold the Hyde room, Michael the werewolf room, Daniel the Dorian room, and I'm sorry, but Will and Seraphine will need to share the vampire room. Dominic and Phoebe can come to me to figure out what their rooms are."
We all headed to our rooms, which were all in the same hallway. I'd been in Ted's sub before, so I knew where it all was. When Sera and I walked into the vampire room, Sera sighed annoyedly.
"Seriously? A room designated for vampires, and there's no coffin to sleep in?"
The room was darker than others, and it had a fridge in a corner. Like the other rooms, the bed in the center was a large king size. I'd slept on it before, and I knew it was actually really comfortable.
"Well, most vampires don't sleep in coffins anymore," I replied. "I, for one, don't. And I'm generally the only vampire on board Ted's sub, as all the others would be there only to drink Ted's blod."
"Speaking of which," added Sera. "I'm hungry. And I'm not drinking your blood. Where do I get some blood?"
I pointed at the fridge. Sera went over and opened the door. Inside were several jugs of blood.
"Is it human?" she asked.
I shook my head. "Pig. And besides, you can't drink human blood anymore, remember?"
She nodded and reluctantly took one of the jugs out. She poured some blood into a cup and drank.
"Eh," she said after a sip. "Human blood?"
I shook my head. "Pig. Second best-tasting, after human."
Sera continued drinking, and walked over to the bed and sat down. I sat down beside her.
"So," I said. "We're on a sub. How interesting is that?"
She shrugged. "I can't even feel us moving."
"I know," I agreed. "It's cool."
"No, it's not," she said. "It's actually somewhat warm."
I sighed. "It's a figure of speech. You know what, I'm tired."
I got up and started looking around the room. Sera watched me in confusion.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Looking for something else to sleep on," I said. Finally, I gave up. "I think we're gonna have yo sleep in the same bed."
"Yay," Sera replied unenthusiastically.
"Don't too excited," I said drily. "People may think you're excited to sleep in the same bed as me."
"But I wasn't - oohh, was that sarcasm," she said.
I laughed. "Yes. It was sarcasm. Now, come on. Even vampires need to rest."
I stripped down to my undergarments and climbed into bed.
"Do I need to get naked?" Sera asked me worriedly.
"I'm not naked," I replied. "And no, just strip down to your undergarments, or whatever you feel comfortable sleeping in. For me, that's down to my underwear."
"TMI, man," said a muffled voice from inside my bag.
"Shut up, you idiot warlock," replied another voice inside the bag, this one a female.
"Oh for - Salem, Hilda, did y'all stowaway in my bag?" I said.
Hilda wriggled out of my bag, then Salem.
"It was Salem's idea," said Hilda, licking her paws.
"No, it wasn't!" exclaimed Salem.
"Don't lie, Salem," I replied.
"Okay, yes it was my idea," amended Salem. "But she was the one who wanted to go with you."
"We both wanted to," said Hilda, still licking her paws. "And you said it first."
"Prove it," said Salem.
"I can quote you," Hilda said. "'Hilda, I really want to go with Will! I miss our old, adventurous days when we were evading the Wha.'"
"Y'all shut up," I interrupted. "I was about to go to sleep."
"As was I," Sera added. "And I think I'll sleep in my undergarments."
She stripped down and climbed in bed. She shivered.
"I hate when I have to sleep cold," she said. "And this mattress doesn't hold body warmth."
"Don't you have to when you sleep in a coffin?" asked Salem, as he and Hilda jumped onto the bed.
"Actually, the dirt holds the little body warmth vampires have," she replied.
"Yeah, I hate sleeping cold, too," I said. "I think all vampires do. My theory is that since we're basically dead bodies, we don't really have body warmth, so when we sleep, we want to be warm, so as to make up for the warmth our bodies don't generate."
"That sounds about right," said Sera.
"Here," Hilda said. "Salem and I will sleep on your backs, and you two can figure it out from there."
Salem and Hilda positioned themselves at our backs, and Sera fell asleep quickly. However, I could see her shivering. She was also twitching and muttering like she was having a bad dream. After about 30 minutes of this, she woke up and screamed, "FATHER, NO!"
She started sobbing and saying, "No, no, father, please no." I tried to comfort her by saying, "It's all right, Sera. It's all right." while rubbing her back.
She loked up at me.
"You have no idea why I'm crying, do you?" she sniffed.
"I - I'm sorry, I can't say I do," I replied.
She sniffed and wiped her eyes. "It's alright, you wouldn't." She took a deep breath. "I was having a nightmare. My father and mother weren't married, you know. My mother was human. When I was four, my father, Dracula, made me watch him suck my mother's blood. He - he drained the blood, and the life, out of her until she flopped down on the floor, dead. And I was screaming the entire time. It wasn't long after that when he made me a vampire."
I was silent. "I'm sorry," I finally said. I wrapped my arms around her. "You're my friend, and I'm yours. Cry as much as you want. I'm here for you."
She buried her head in my shoulder and cried. She cried so hard that she went to sleep. I lay down, her head on my shoulder, and my arms around her, until I went to sleep, too.
It felt like only an hour later when we were woken up by the heavy rocking of the ship. Salem and Hilda were running around, and Michael burst in.
"Guys, something's attacking the ship!" he said.
Then he ran out of the room. Sera and I quickly got dressed, and we headed for the cockpit. In it were Liz, Daniel, Arnold, Phoebe, Michael, and Ted. Dominic was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Dominic?" I yelled over the cacophony of alarms and creaking and rumbling.
"We don't know!" Liz called back. "He seems to have just vanished!"
"Show us the creature attacking the ship!" Sera yelled, her face determined.
Ted nodded and pressed a button on the console. The front of the ship suddenly became transperent and we could clearly see what was attacking us. It was huge, and had a body like a dragon, but large flippers instead of legs. It had seven heads, and the middle one was somehow breathing smoke from it's nostrils even underwater. It's hide was extremely tough, almost like…interlocking shields. Sera cursed in Romanian.
"It's the Leviathan," she said, confirming my worst suspicions.
