In order to get to Paris they would need to cross the Celtic Sea to either Morlaix or a place north of Rennes. First they would need to run from St. Ives north-east to St. Erth, south-east to Helston and then south to Landewednack. Then came the water, then the next step in their journey – the track to Paris, through France.
"I think the fastest way would be the A394, from Penzance to Helston," murmured Tyler, running his finger along the green vein on the map. "That would take a few hours..."
"Why can't we just fly?" Caroline butted in.
"Our... 'Budget' only has enough for four flights, Caroline." Rebekah growled. "Dublin to Paris, Paris to Moscow and then all the way back again. We can't spend money outside of that, except for food for the witch and human."
Closing the door behind him, Arrow stepped into the room. They were seeking temporary accommodation in an elderly woman's house. Rebekah had compelled her to let them in.
"Duncan's sleeping," he said quietly. "He probably won't wake up for a few more hours. He's completely healthy, but just needs to replenish his magic reserves."
"We can't even send a message," Rebekah mumbled, staring at the map again. She glanced up at Caroline. "Do witches know teleportation spells?"
"Bonnie never used any, nor mentioned them," replied the younger vampire worriedly. "Sorry..."
"Even if they do, it would take too long to find a witch and to get them to perform it. We have no guarantee it would even work if they exist. Duncan's not got enough strength to start whipping people through space and time."
"Then we're going to have to run some more. Alright, we're going to find some humans and feed on them to get our strength back. I want everyone ready to move within the hour. Arrow, you'll carry Duncan and tend to his needs."
Everyone moved to leave the house. Caroline moved to follow Tyler, then stopped, her eyes widening, and spun around again. "Rebekah! I have an idea."
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
It was a good thing, Caroline realised, that Kol had taught her how to transform into her animal form. Granted she still struggled with the transformation itself, she had never actually spent that much time as her avatar. A few seconds was all it had been and she'd been so confused and dazed that she couldn't entirely remember much about what had happened, except that she'd felt dry and hot on the sand.
Tyler was listening to her explain her plan intently, his eyes not once leaving her face. They were filled with surprise and confusion, as though he had never known about the subtle powers of a vampire.
"Can I transform too?" He asked, glancing at the group as he helped drag the 'rented' speedboat out to sea.
"The first thing my brother," Rebekah spat the word with venom, "tried was to turn into an animal aside from his werewolf form. Every time he tried to turn into his vampire-avatar form as a hybrid, he found himself turning into his werewolf state instead. So no, Hybrids cannot turn into anything else. You already have a form."
"So what are your animal forms?" Tyler asked.
Rebekah's nose wrinkled. Arrow glanced away. Tyler said no more.
"Right, so focus on the animal..." Caroline murmured as she clasped her hands in front of her stomach. "Feel yourself shift..."
"Might want to step back a bit," Arrow warned silkily.
The water around Caroline churned. In one fluid motion she somersaulted back and slipped into the water and was consumed by an ethereal, dim light. The water rippled and she felt her arms folding so that her hands touched her breasts, her legs straightening out and face stretching outwards. Her vampire fangs extended and doubled in her maw.
She was a massive 10 ft with a grey back and white underbelly. She rolled over in the water and stared ahead of her, circling around. Her instincts were telling her to swim out and find some fish but her mind was telling her no, leaving her slightly confused.
Oh yes! I have to help the no-fins. That's... Wait. My name is... Caroline... No, that's the no-fin. My name... I don't have a name...
The Grey Nurse Shark tapped the bottom of the sand with her fins and pushed herself up to the surface of the water, lingering there, moving slowly with her sharp eyes locked onto the humans atop the boat. They were trying to loop something around her, like a long rope, and before she knew what she was doing she had snatched the loop in her teeth and started thrashing with it, trying to kill it.
Stop! Stop!
She stopped, lowered herself back into the water and wriggled forward, trying to get used to the new strange way of movement. She had no feet to walk; she only had a long tail which she whipped back and forth to steer with and propel herself through the water.
If I were a dolphin maybe this would be easier.
Atlantis, the bottle nose dolphin in Dublin, moved by wagging his tail up and down. Caroline couldn't because her back didn't bend that way. Experimentally she tugged on the rope in her teeth, trying not to snap it but at the same time trying not to hold it so loose it would pull away from her.
She flicked her tail to try and move but succeeded only in throwing herself out of the water like a torpedo. She splashed in again and rose to the surface just in time to hear Tyler comment.
"Flying sharks. We're fucked."
She chomped down on the rope again and started to pull, starting with slow movements, trying to get a grip on the steering. It wasn't as easy as it looked and she had a bad feeling she would walk funny for the rest of the day.
My fins can help me to steer, right? Let's try that...
Soon they were charging into the open sea, Caroline ploughing through the top of the waves, the boat rocking from side to side with the vampires clinging to the metal railing for their lives. Caroline was growing more and more excited and she swam faster and faster, leaving a long and uneven wake.
"We'll get there in no time like this," Rebekah laughed, her eyes alight. The gulls feeding nearby let out horrified screeches and flew away at the sight of the charging shark.
"I'm just glad that no other sharks can move this fast!" Whimpered Tyler, almost flying off of the boat as Caroline changed direction abruptly. He dove into the steering compartment and pushed himself against the chair. "Are we there yet?"
"Aw, is the little hybrid afraid?" Rebekah sneered.
"Nn-o!" Tyler's voice broke and he squeaked.
"If I'm not mistaken, that patch of land there is Cherbourg." Said Arrow, pointing to a barely visible mound of earth in the distance. "Paris is south-east of it."
"We'll give Caroline a few more minutes and then we'll have to call her into the boat," Rebekah said. "We can't have humans seeing a boat of people being pulled by a shark. That will attract attention."
"And we haven't already?" Tyler snapped.
Rebekah snorted. "Seriously, Lockwood? We're in the middle of the ocean. Who on earth could have seen us? Some birds?"
She climbed onto the top of the boat, leaned forward and tapped Caroline's tail with a long rope. The grey nurse shark disappeared under the water and they begun to slow. Then a hand gripped onto the side of the railing and a drenched but grinning vampire heaved herself up into the boat, her eyes alight.
"It worked!"
"Well done, Caroline," Rebekah nodded her approval. "I knew I'd made the right choice in making you my second in command. Now dry yourself off. Tyler, you drive the boat. Arrow, how's Duncan?"
Arrow opened his mouth to speak, but he was beaten to it. "I'm fine," yawned Duncan, stretching his arms and legs out and blinking open his eyes. "My braid feels like its caught on something... Arrow?"
Arrow looked down and unhooked one of the child's braids from where it had caught his button. The hair had started coming loose and he paused to neaten the braid. "Sorry 'bout that."
"S'fine," Duncan mumbled. He sat up on the vampire's lap, rubbing at his eyes to clear the spots from his vision. "Where are we? What happened?"
"Nearing France," said Caroline, squeezing the water from her shirt. "We got to St. Ives but you passed out. We, uh, borrowed a speedboat from there and travelled here."
"Mmm," hummed Duncan, looking around at the water. "It's a good thing I don't get sunburns..."
Arrow smiled, then added to the group, "It's scientifically proven that humans with darker skin burn less, whereas people with pale skin burn more often." He ran a hand over Duncan's hand, feeling the smooth, dark skin. It was quite beautiful, he thought. "Speaking of which, perhaps it would be a good idea to purchase some lotion for the human girl with us. She is quite pale."
"We can get some on the way to Paris," Rebekah said coldly. Arrow glanced up at her, curious as to her angered tone when referring to Elena. "For now let's just touch land, hide the boat and get to Paris as quickly as we can. Duncan, can you send a message to Elijah? Tell him we might – no, we are going to be late."
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Elijah felt a strange sensation in the palm of his hand. As Damon and Kol argued about battle strategies, Elena was training with him in her self-defence training. She abruptly stopped in mid-strike when she saw him clenching and unclenching his fist.
"Something wrong?" Asked the doppelgänger, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
Elijah remained thoughtfully quiet, lifted his hand and stared at it as though it had just tried to make a joke about him and failed. Elena jumped back in surprise when a candle of flame erupted from his hand, as big as a torch, before shrinking down to nothing.
In his hand sat a folded piece of paper. Kol looked over from where he had Damon in a playful headlock, pulled a lollipop from his mouth and asked, "What's going on?"
"Duncan sent a message," exclaimed Philip. The child hopped up onto the edge of the chair and peered into his hand at the paper.
Elijah unfolded it and read it out loud.
Just arrived in France, north of Rennes. Heading to Paris but we're going to be late. I had a seizure according to Arrow. Nothing to worry about though.
Rebekah and Caroline say to thank Kol for teaching her how to shift. We would have been stuck without it.
The handwriting changed. Elijah stopped reading it out loud. Kol puffed out his chest proudly at the shout out and returned to wrestling with Damon.
A here.
Elijah, Duncan's fine. I gave him some of my blood and he's recovering. It was oxygen poisoning – we had to travel underwater for a few hours to avoid being seen and he inhaled too much of the stuff. We landed in St. Ives but Duncan had lost consciousness so we chose a different method of travelling.
I want to talk to you when we arrive – maybe with Rebekah and Kol too. We should arrive long after midnight, maybe at six in the morning? Not sure. Depends on traffic. Not that Rebekah plans on obeying any speed laws.
Since when did Rebekah follow any laws? Elijah smiled to himself and scrunched up the message. In the hotel room they were in there was a table at the far end. They couldn't smoke in the hotel – not that any of them smoked anyway – so there were no ash trays. Though he needed to get rid of the message so that nobody else could read it, he couldn't exactly burn it.
"I'll take care of it," Philip offered, as if he had read Elijah's mind. Elijah tossed the small ball of paper to his charge and watched as he took it into the bathroom and flushed it down the toilet.
The hotel room was large with chalk white walls. Admittedly they hadn't paid for it. While Elijah wasn't worried, he still wanted to leave as quickly as possible. There was only one king sized bed, which was somewhat creased from when Elena had first entered.
"Whenever you enter a hotel room, the first thing you do is jump on the bed," she'd said. Damon had agreed but maintained his dignity and moved to stare out of the window. Kol had leapt on so hard he'd nearly snapped the mattress. Elijah had blatantly refused and Philip had hesitated and then bounced on, then immediately got off again and started writing.
"This is exciting, isn't it?" Elena prompted as Elijah changed stance and attempted to teach her the roundhouse kick.
"Leg higher," he instructed. "What do you mean?"
Elena swung herself around and tried again. "All of this- Ngh! Travelling. I've never been out of – Mystic Falls before."
"Well you've have to excuse that we won't have much time for sight seeing – keep your back straight! Maybe after Klaus is dead you can return and explore of your own leisure."
"Sounds like a good idea," Elena smiled. Suddenly she stumbled, yelped and fell backwards.
Elijah and Damon both grabbed her by the arms and hoisted her up again. Damon's eyes glittered with caution and protectiveness as the original handled the young woman but he didn't make any comment on it.
"Mind if I join you?" He asked instead.
"Hell yes he does! Get back over here. We're not finished!" Kol protested. Wrapping his arm around Damon's neck, he pulled him back and threw him roughly onto the chair. "Now hurry up! I asked you a question."
"Perhaps next time, Damon," Elijah said simply. "Philip, care to join us?"
Philip surprised Elena with his flexibility and strength as he sparred with her, correcting her moves and often stopping her to nudge her back into the best stance. It was so easy to forget that he wasn't a child, but a vampire whose strength easily outmatched her own.
Elijah stood back a while and let Philip take over. He found himself smiling as he heard Elena breathlessly call him a midget and got chased about the room, then pinned to the floor.
"Oh yeah? I'll Chuck Norris your face in!"
"Don't hurt her too badly," Elijah warned the boy. "We need her and she's no use if you break her arms."
"Don't hurt her at all," added Damon as he tried to get around Kol.
"Don't get in the way," Kol muttered. This time he got up, shoved Philip off and sat on him. "Elijah, I'm bored."
"Second name?"
"What?" Kol blinked up at his elder brother, snorted and then shook his head. "Oh. Ha ha, very funny."
"Hilarious," said Elijah flatly. "Elena, you can take a break from training now. I need to go somewhere. I will return shortly."
"Can I come?" Kol asked hopefully.
Elijah halted by the door, glanced over the original as if to check he was okay and then nodded.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
The Wedge-tailed Eagle dipped beneath the trees as silently as a mouse and peered at the mansion. Well it was more like a warehouse in that it was in a state of disrepair. The stench of musk hung heavy in the air. The chill ruffled his feathers and he stared intently at the entrance to the large human nest.
The copper stallion crept forward noiselessly and swivelled his pointed ears around to catch any noise that he could. Both could hear voices from inside – the voices of men and women. They were at a small forest by a zoo. Cars could be heard in the distance.
"There's a strange wall around the nest," hissed the raptor quietly. "One that makes people oblivious to its presence and walk around it rather than into it."
Sumatra narrowed his bulbous eyes and lowered his head slightly, scraping his hoof against the ground. "How do we get inside?"
"We wait for night fall." Decided the raptor, peering through one of the shattered panes, straight at the outline of a hybrid. "When they are few, we move in. No no-wing will be around then."
Sumatra grunted and shrunk back against the tree line. "Two-legs approach! Fly, my friend! Go!"