Away

Author's note: OO I made a pretty large mistake awhile back...you see, Selene is 148 (12721) years old in total, if the story began in 1777 she would be much older...so the current year is now written at the top of this chapter. Please disregard all dates prior to this one, I will have them updated as soon as possible. (this chapter written while listening to Roberta Flack's "Killing me Softly With His Song"). If you want to think of a ship for this setting, think of a small Titanic.

Thanks for the reviews you guys!

See chapter one for disclaimers.

August- 1886- At Sea en route to America

The trip had been not only long but also quite dull. Between other death dealers "letting lose" by doing such horrible things such as drinking from humans, to the constant banging of the people dancing in the above floors, the trip was rather horrendous.

The majority of vampires on this part of the ship were death dealers, aristocrats and also...Amelia. She was a completely incompetent bitch! Between her talking about such things as "fashion" and the whole "lycan issue", it was enough to drive anyone with half a brain mad.

Vampires with no real rank were consigned to second class deck and some servants. Lower servants were in third class or steerage. We never saw them, not even at night.

I was rooming with some other female aristocratic vampire. She spent most of the day asleep in another bed, like I did, and all night upstairs partying with her friends. We rarely spoke, I did not intend to start a conversation either. I think her name was Acelin, she was very short, had red hair and pale pasty skin that was heavily powdered. I remember her maids coming in from next door to tighten her corset every morning. Ha! What a sight, she would say "tighter!" as they would struggle to make it so. I hated those contraptions...horrible things they were! I never wore mine, not ever would I want to.

I tried to drink pig's or dog's blood when I could though, I am not the kind of vampire who enjoys feeding from mortals. Unlike some of the other members of our coven on the ship...

As for Viktor...I was not permitted to join him during the "sleeping" or "hibernation" ritual which was said to consist of draining all blood from the body and then preserving it in some kind of special coffin. Kraven joined him instead. I shutter even now to think of that man. Such a distorted fool he was to me. I would happily have Amelia rather then him for a leader. Amelia just ignores me and pretends I do not exist; what a perfect relationship between the two of us.

I am now sitting on the upper deck of the ship, watching as couples retire for the night, it is a very crisp and cold night. The stars illuminate the deckchairs and the moon is full so that everything seems almost as bright as day.

I am not wearing my death dealer's uniform, for some reason Kahn said that it would attract far too much attention. So I am wearing the largest, loosest dress I could find in black. I sit in such an unladylike manner, on the edge of the banister with one leg hanging off. There are small children that keep running back and forth on the below decks, their mother is chasing after the two little girls, screaming at them to not trip, one of them just did. So much like my nieces...Don't think of that Selene

I have moved on, I had to. For them, for all of my family. I had never left the country when I was a little girl. Mother would tell me that "You need not worry about things such as men! They will all be pursuing you in haste soon enough!" She would tell me, and then ask me to put up the fire.

I guess I should have really listened.

A maid is now accompanying me, she just sits here doing her needle work idly sitting down, Kraven ordered that I be attended to at all times, I could not go out on hunts by myself nor could I room by myself nor could I do anything by myself anymore. Sickening bastard.

"Hey Selene!" Someone shouts, I almost fall off of the side of the ship, I let out a small yelp as I fall on to my ass on the correct side of the ship. The person walks over and helps me up. It is Edward, he is dressed simply in a black blazer with a white shirt underneath, black pants, black shoes, he wears a broach on his neck and his hair is done rather neatly considering how tangled and messed up it usually is. Not that mine is any better; thanks to vampire healing it grows back to the length it was at my turning about once a week.

"Hello, Edward", I say, he is smiling from ear to ear.

"We have to go, come on!" He is now dragging me half-way down the ship, I am almost tripping over my dress as he does so. I stop suddenly and propel him in front of me.
"Stop dragging me! This dress is hard enough to walk in let alone run!" I said, straightening myself out. "We are not going to dinner with the elder that is ---"

"I know we aren't. We are going to dinner in general with the humans, Selene. Don't be so naïve." He said. "And get a corset and a dress on, I'll meet you in there in a few minutes."

"I am not going to wear a dress of any fashion other then this and I refuse to put on a bloody corset!" I cross my arms over my chest and begin to walk back to where my maid is still walking and doing her needle work at the same time.

"Yes you are, Kraven told me so that you must..." KRAVEN? I slam him against the wall and dig my hardened nails into his shoulders.

"You are going to tell me that you are LYING and that Kraven is NOT on this ship!" I said harshly, Edward looks very...confused.

"Well, alright, he's not here. A little birdie told me you had to dress like a lady." He said, nervously laughing. "All jokes aside, he is here. He's been staying down in steerage with the cattle, trying to steal away."

"How do you know?" I asked, intrigued.

"I was hungry this afternoon and I found him sleeping beside a cow." Oh, my, goodness. I mean, he was defying Viktor's orders!

"He is defying Viktor's orders!" I said, releasing him, I am slightly dumbfounded.

"I know and so does he. You should go down there and show him just how pissed you are..." Edward starts to laugh, I can also imagine the look on Kraven's face.

"Oh, that doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about him." I shutter and race back to my room, my maid following behind slowly and walking with her needlework.

I quickly find my cabin on the first deck, #25, and walk in to see Acelin taking off her clothes and changing into something else.

"What the hell do you think you are doing!? Barging in on me like that", she grumbles, obviously mad as she shuts the door, "the least you could do is knock!" She says, covering herself up with her dress and stomping into the sitting area to finish changing. Thank God this suite was large at the very least.

"I don't care! Where are my boots?!" I say, slipping off my dress and changing into my leathers.

"How would I know? I hate those atrocious things!" She says, I could sense that she was lying by her voice. I walk in on her, halfway up with her dress.

"I will say this once more, where did you put them you filthy whore!?" I ask, staring at her in the eyes.

"They are on top of the armoire." She says, pointing behind me. "What in the blazes do you need them for? Besides, there are no lycans on this ship." She says, slipping on her last of her dress.

"I know...but there are rats on here." I say, finishing the buckles on my shoes, slipping on a cloak to hide the guns that are holstered to my thighs and running out of the room.

I find Edward in front of the door and I shoved him aside. I ran down the flights of stairs at the end of the hall, leading into second class floors.

I passed mostly Irish women with children, a few of the more wealthy peoples emigrating from their homelands, a couple of vampire maids in the hallways. I stop there and see one of them whom I recognized from the Odoghaz.

"Where are the steerage stairwells?" I ask her, the maid who called me a 'burnt chicken' back in England.

"Down the hall to yer left, why bother goin' down there?" She asks, as I back up and start to run again.

"None of your business, bitch." I say under my breath, but by the slight gasp I heard she must have been hearing me say that.

I find the stairwells which are locked and guarded by various men in uniforms.

"Sorry, Miss. We can't let you down there." He says, a middle aged balding man with an obvious toupee. "You're...first class?" He says, staring at my cloak that I took from Acelin, it was well embroidered and was made of burgundy silk.

"Yes, my husband is down there, he got mixed up in boarding." I say, with my eyes trying very hard to look pleading and a small smile upon my face.

"Alright", he says, unlocking the gate, "But at least let one of us escort you..." I throw off his toupee in front of him a few yards as I take his keys, lock the gates and sprint down the stairs. I shove past poor immigrants, poor in general and workers from the upper parts of the ship...and then I see her. The vampire-slut from whom Kraven was feeding from earlier, a look of happiness is upon her face, she is crowded by her friends as they are all sitting down drinking blood mixed with alcohol from glasses: a vampire favorite in the covens for when blood is scarce or not wanted much. I slam my hands down and take a knife from my belt, holding it carefully under her neck, being careful not to break the skin.

"Now you are going to tell me where he is or I'll slit your pretty little neck." I say as I wrap another arm around the bottom portion of her neck.

"You mean Kahn?" She asks slyly.

"You know precisely whom I am speaking of." I say, I can feel her smile creep up upon her lips.

"Down the hall, towards your right, you'll smell the stench of where he is laying." She said, as I let go and run down the hall and towards my right. I really could smell the familiar stench of cattle. And I opened the door...and that's when I saw him.