Brianna stepped in closer to the dais, apparently wanting to talk to the baron further. Aidan took a good look around. There were people dancing, food, laughter, and generally a good time all around. He smiled at Flame Song and held out his hand as the musicians struck up a new song. “May I have this dance?”

Flame laughed. “You ought to know I’m not the best dancer.”

“But you’re the only one I care about.”

She blushed and took Aidan’s hand. Aidan held her close as they circled the dance floor, just enjoying her nearness. She was beautiful in the warm light of the many lanterns set up around the courtyard. Her green eyes sparkled and she smiled warmly down at him. He smiled back, amazed all over again at the beauty of this amazing woman. His newly enhanced senses let him smell the scent of her, feline, feminine, with a hint of perfume overlaying it. He felt a different sort of hunger stir as he gazed into her eyes. My blood may not be all my own these days, he thought to himself, but it’s a red as the next man’s. Too bad we’re not likely to have much privacy for the next few days. Ships aren’t exactly known for plentiful and spacious accommodations.

And so it proved. The ship they boarded the next morning, with Aidan and Lavasida half blinded by pain and sunlight as they stumbled aboard, was fairly small with only a pair of cabins for the seven of them to share. Lavasida, Aidan, and Flame took a little windowless cabin while the other four shared a slightly larger cabin with little portholes that looked out just above the water line.

The first day passed without incident, as did the night, but mid-morning on the second day Aidan was awakened by someone calling his name. “Aidan! Aidan! Wake up!”

“Huh? What?” Aidan opened his eyes to see Lavasida bending over him, the other vampire’s sword drawn.

“Come on! There’s a battle going on up there and they need us!”

Aidan jolted to full awareness and drew both his daggers. He followed the Dark Lord through the narrow passageway and up a steep stair onto the deck. In a glance Aidan took in the situation. A thick veil of fog, for which Aidan was profoundly thankful, hid the sun. The sky was still far too bright for his taste, but at least he wasn’t feeling the punishing blow of direct sunlight.

A second ship, flying a skull and crossbones, was grappled to their own ship. Pirates were pouring aboard the ship and the baron’s sailors were fighting them off with Aidan’s fellow Clan members fighting along side. Aidan quickly took to the air, gaining the high ground, and picked his first target. One pirate quickly went down, dead or simply fainted from blood loss Aidan didn’t know. He caught a glimpse of white fur as he returned to the sky and looked down to see Flame dispatching a pirate. He also saw a second pirate behind her who, rather than closing with the deadly cat, had a dagger in his hand, pulled back to throw.

“Flame!” shouted Aidan, but before he could do anything the pirate had thrown the knife. It thudded into Flame’s side and she cried out. And then all of the sudden her form blurred and wavered and instead of a huge firecat there was a slender human woman standing there, unarmed but for a small dagger of her own.

The pirate grinned and drew a curved cutlass. Flame backed into the rail, having nowhere to retreat to. And Aidan dived, daggers drawn. He hit the pirate from behind, with the full force of his dive behind him and his left-hand dagger leading the way. The pirate and Aidan together crashed into the deck. Only Aidan got up. He pulled his dagger from the pirate’s heart and wiped it off on the dead man’s shirt.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes. What about you?”

“I…” Aidan started to say, “I’m fine,” but suddenly the fog began to break up and a beam of sunlight shone directly on the ship. Aidan gasped and collapsed, flattened to the deck by the hammer blow of light. Flame looked up to see the other ship breaking off, cutting away the grapples and retreating back into the fog.

“Looks like we won. Guess I’d better get you back below deck.” She draped Aidan’s arm over her shoulder and hoisted him to his feet. She made a little noise of pain as the attempt to lift her husband sent a sharp twinge of pain through her wounded side.

“Here,” said a voice out of nowhere, “I’ll get the lad.” Aidan rose into the air apparently unsupported as the invisible Belak easily lifted the slight aerian.

“Thanks,” said Flame. Aidan just groaned. The sunlight was just about the most painful thing he’d ever felt. He felt as though his skin was on fire, though there was no visible reddening. But it wasn’t just his skin that hurt, it was his whole body. The sun seemed to pierce him and pass through him, reaching every bit of him. When at last Belak carried him down the hatch he sagged in relief.

“Here, I’m alright. Put me down.”

“Sure lad,” said the dwarf, putting Aidan back on his feet. “And now I’ll go fetch the cleric for you, lass,” added the voice from nowhere, and the tread of heavy booted feet was clearly audible going back up the stairs.

“Are you really alright?” asked Flame, clearly worried.

“Yeah. Sunlight doesn’t seem to do my any real damage, it just hurts like nothing else.”

“And you’re very lucky that it works that way here, Aidan,” said a voice from the stairs. The Dark Lord, Lavasida, was descending. He let out a relived sigh as he reached the shadows. “Back on Mysteria sunlight will burn you and it can even kill you. If you were there, you’d probably have died just then. Then again, if we were on Mysteria my amulet would be working and I wouldn’t have to suffer the pain of sunlight.” He smiled a sharp-toothed smile. “There’s nothing you can slice so thin that there aren’t two sides to it.”

“How do you stand it?” asked Aidan. “I just collapsed.”

“You’re young yet, and new to vampirism. You’ll learn to deal with pain as you gain more experience. But then you’re not likely to remain a vampire long enough for it to make much difference.”

Just then Lon came down the stairs. “Belak told me Flame Song was injured?” he said, making the statement into a question.

“Yes. Not badly though. I just got a dagger in the back. It didn’t go in very deep, and I was a firecat at the time.”

“It’s getting far too crowded in the hall,” said Lavasida, trying to avoid the cleric’s touch. “Come on, Aidan, let’s go back to our room.” Aidan nodded and made his way down the narrow passage into their little cabin. Aidan sat down on one of the two narrow beds in the room and relaxed.