Chapter 6 – Sail Away

Azrael opened his eyes slowly. Mioko was still pressed against him, sleeping soundly, despite it being well past dawn.

Azrael sat up and stretched, all his muscles screamed their protest as they were forced to recover from another uncomfortable night's sleep. Glancing over the side of the boat he sighed heavily.

Water.

Stretching out into the unseen, endless water. Azrael growled and forced himself to look away, he hated water. He always had. It made him feel insecure because it was the only thing that could ever truly do him harm...and now here he was, on a boat, surrounded by it, sailing to a land that may not even exist.

How long had they been sailing? How long since they had stolen Rahab's boat in the dead of the night, eluding the watchful eye of the tower guard as they pushed the boat into the water and prayed it would bear them safely to the opposite shore...if there was one. Azrael looked up at the clouded sky. The clouds were thinner here, the suns rays shone through the occasional gap, blinding them with its rays. Mioko twitched as the sun became stronger. Azrael looked down on her. The sunlight bothered her in a way it had never bothered him. He leant over her and pulled the cloak he had laid over her the night before, higher over her body, shielding her from the sun, she stirred and snuggled further down against the cloak, but did not wake.

Azrael looked down on her for a moment more before he felt the hunger well up inside of him. He groaned. He hated the blood hunger, at sea. Here, the only blood they had were the bottles that Mioko had filled her bag to bursting with, and they had lost their warmth and with it, their pleasurable taste. Azrael reached into the bag and took out the bottle he had failed to finish the night before. He opened it and stared at the thick liquid within. He sighed as he knew he had to drink to quell the raging hunger in his body. Taking a deep breath he downed the remainder of the blood and grimaced, using all his self control to swallow and not spit it out.

"Something wrong?" Mioko's soft, tired voice asked. She was looking up at him, contemplating the look of utter disgust over his face. He threw the bottle over board, angrily. She sighed in realization, "By dark, Azrael, it's not that bad." She reached into the bag and finished her own feed. Azrael looked at her in disbelief as she calmly wiped her mouth, upon finishing the blood, "How can you stand to drink it cold?!" he demanded, "It's disgusting!" Mioko shrugged in response.

"We have no choice, we'd better get used to it. Who knows when we'll taste warm blood again?"

"If we taste warm blood again," Azrael muttered. Mioko glared at him,

"We will get through this," she said, with conviction and determination. Azrael purposefully looked away at the blue expanse around them, avoiding her eye. She rolled up his cloak and muttered her thanks as she placed it beside him. She stretched and slid herself to the front of the small boat. She leaned over and looked into the clear depths.

"The water," she murmured, "it's so much clear here. I've never seen it so blue," she glanced back at Azrael who was sitting, rigid, staring at the water suspiciously. Mioko sighed, Azrael's fear of water was well known to her. She couldn't imagine how he must be feeling, surrounded by it. She reached out and touched his arm, "Are you alright?" she asked, sympathetically. Azrael sighed and nodded.

He stretched out his legs and lay back, staring at the sky. He felt Mioko move to accommodate his change in position, by lying down on his back; Azrael had filled the boat in its entirety. "The clouds are thinner here," he noted. Mioko looked up and agreed, "We must be leaving the empire," she said, resuming her gaze to the water ahead. Azrael closed his eyes and breathed the clean air deeply, "Do you really believe in the forbidden lands?" he asked. Mioko looked down on him, though he couldn't see this, his eyes were still closed. "Of course I do," she reassured him. "I remember Raziel telling me about them as a child. He said he believed there was a place the slaves could escape to...across the sea where no vampire would dare to follow," Azrael opened his eyes and looked over at her, as she stopped. She was staring at his cloak, with a longing in her eyes.

"Mioko?" he asked, pushing himself up on his elbows, "what is it?" Mioko shook her head, snapping her back to reality, "Nothing," she said, her eyes inevitably drawn to the cloak. "I was just thinking about him."

Azrael looked down at the cloak; just visible was Raziel's clan emblem. Azrael unfurled the cloak so they could view the insignia in all its glory. They both stared at it for a moment before Mioko finally whispered, "I miss him already." Azrael nodded his response, mutely. "I wonder if he'd condone what we've done?" she asked, looking up at the first born.

"Of course," he said, "he wanted his clan to live on, those were his last words."

"Yes but," Mioko hesitated, "Maybe we should have brought more with us? Maybe more would have come?" Azrael shook his head,

"They would have stayed. Nothing short of Raziel's command itself would have moved them," he added, "besides, how could we fit the clan in this thing?" Mioko paused for a moment before she laughed loudly, "How indeed?" she muttered as they sank into an easy silence.

"You're like him," she said, softly, looking over at the first born. Azrael glanced up at her, "No, I'm not," he said, dismissively. Mioko smiled,

"You were more like each other than either of you realized." Azrael smirked,

"He liked you, I didn't." He regretted his words as soon as he'd said them. What he had intended to be as a weak joke had genuinely hurt her, the emotion visible in her face for only a moment before she turned away and stared back out over the ocean.

Azrael was on the verge of apologizing when he noticed how bright things had gotten around them. He looked up at the sky and for the first time in millennia he raised his hand to cover his eyes, "Mioko," he gasped, "look." Mioko glanced up and instantly regretted it, she groaned as the sun shone into her eyes, the thick blanket of clouds that had shielded them before, had thinned into nothingness, leaving the sun free to beat down on the land.

Mioko brought her knees to her chest and buried her face in the gaping hole she had created. She was still a fledgling and even though the sunlight had never been able to kill her, it still caused her great discomfort.

She felt Azrael wrap the cloak around her, protecting her from the blinding light. He slid in front of her so she was sitting in his shadow and finally, he lifted the cloak's hood to shield her face further. "Thank you," she whispered, turning to face the opposite direction. Azrael looked at her, almost sadly and muttered, "Mioko, I do like you." She leaned back against him for comfort, "I never hated you, Azrael," she murmured, staring over the side of the boat.

"Mioko?!" Azrael gasped, urgently. Mioko frowned,

"What? It's true, I never hat..." Azrael interrupted her before she could continue,

"No, Mioko look!" He turned her face to look straight ahead of the boat. In the distance, large peaks were coming into view, "mountains." Mioko gasped. Azrael looked at her, "Mioko, you were right! You and Raziel...you were right!"

TBC