* * *
The four newly acquainted supernatural beings, Reggio and Jade, with her speed and strength, as she referred to them, along with many others, witches and warlocks alike, spent the rest of the day emptying out their library in the underground chambers and moving all their history to the mortal’s church, traveling back and forth through the miles of swamp and worsening rain in an attempt to save it from the rumored flood that was believed to be on its way to them. Reggio was not sure if this way true, not even knowing if Jade thought it was true, but he could see the changes each time they set foot out into the swamp.
The changes he noticed were subtle at first, just the rain and wind continually growing worse with each trip, but as the day progressed, so did the changes. When compared to he and Jade’s first trip out, the swamp had become a much different place. Besides the wind and rain, he noticed that it was much darker than when he first stepped out into the morning, and it was nowhere near nightfall. It seemed to be getting darker as the day went on, which was odd to the vampire, something he hadn’t experienced before. Also, upon crossing the bridge for the umpteenth time, he noticed that the small stream of water beneath it had become a steady torrent, moving into the swamp from the lake. And if Reggio’s eyes were not deceiving him, the lake seemed to be a bit closer than it was the first time he’d looked at it. Its waves were now crashing up against the trees set farther out from the undergrowth of the swamp, where it once was dry. And as they made their way down the same path they had traveled each time, he noticed that the swamp around them was beginning to encroach onto the once dry ground of the trail. All around them the swamp was moving, almost as if it were alive, all the animals seeming to be running for whatever shelter they could find. The wind came in bursts. At times it was calm, hardly blowing at all, but in a moment’s notice it would explode from out of nowhere and just scream through the trees with strength that Reggio had never felt before.
“Have you ever seen anything like this before?” He asked out loud during one of the wind’s mighty gusts.
“No, never anything like this,” Jade yelled back to him, “But what worries me is that the storm is not even on top of us yet! This is merely the outskirts of its power!”
“What was that?!” Reggio called out to her, not hearing anything she had just said.
Jade looked back at him. “I said that we need to hurry up!” She yelled back to him instead.
She was not the kind of witch to worry about things, but she was beginning to believe that her superiors were not over exaggerating their fears. If there was one thing that was able to make her feel any semblance of fear at all, it was nothing other than Mother Nature herself. She was old enough and wise enough to understand that just as Mother Nature created all things over time, she could destroy those same things at any moment and turn them all into nothing more than memories in a mere instant. So as she splashed through the ankle deep water on the trail, leading the other three as they all balanced stacks of books against their chests, she realized she was beginning to worry about this storm.
“We must quicken our pace!” The witch called back to the others as she walked quickly up ahead of them.
“That’s easy for you to say! You’re only carrying three books!” Reggio yelled back to her, trying to rush himself as the Speed was right on his tail, pushing him forward.
The vampire glanced back at the small warlock only to get an ugly look in return for his comment. “So you think this is so easy, do you?” He asked the Speed as he quickened his own pace. “Well, I don’t think your friend back there is saying the same thing.”
The Speed glanced back for a moment to see the Strength straggling behind, and as he did, Reggio rushed up ahead, trying to get some ground between himself and the quick little warlock. But before he knew it the Speed was right back behind him, moving at the same pace that he was. Reggio just smirked at him as he kept moving, not at all being surprised by him.
A mile or so later, the four of them, after the Strength finally caught up, made it back to the mortal’s settlement once again. Jade went inside the church with the books while her speed and strength waited outside with Reggio in the pouring rain. He walked around the church, keeping his distance from the gargoyles, and waited for the strange feelings to return. Even though he had made sure to stay away from the church, he still expected the feelings to return… but they never did. Instead he felt eyes upon him, watching him closely, so he turned and began looking around as innocently as he could.
Of course, he should have figured out right away that there was no reason to worry.
It was just the Speed and Strength watching his every move with paranoia as they followed him wherever he walked.
Reggio could only shake his head and try his best to pay them no attention. Instead he watched the mortals as they scrambled about in the storm. Many of their small huts were being slowly ripped apart and knocked over by the damaging gusts of wind. They were becoming scattered in the rain, entire families being run out of their homes in unison.
He shook his head, thinking this as no place to hold the weak. He would have been tempted to just rush them all and drench himself in all their blood just a day before, but after drinking the blood of a warlock, the thought did not even enter into his mind. He just found them pathetic in their panic. Then one of them caught his eye, running through the settlement on top of a horse and yelling at the other villagers, “We will not survive this storm out here! We must take cover! Everyone follow me to the barracks!”
He was speaking in a language that the vampire did not understand, the same as the mortals he slaughtered along the river upon his arrival, so his attention was easily drawn away by Jade as she exited the church with an angry look upon her face. He wanted to ask what happened inside, but she moved quickly in the opposite direction they had come from without even a glance in his direction. Her speed and strength were at her side in a moment’s notice, and Reggio had felt other choice but to follow right behind them.
Chapter 9 - First a Frantic Calm
Vampire Storm (Volume 1 : The Hurricane Journals) Page 14
