Prologue: Of Water and Blood

A ghostly figure was sitting on an enchanted rock, in the middle of a large lake, gazing out at the yacht in front of her. The dark moonlight glistened off the silvery scales of her cold, icy tail; blue seaweed hair fell down her back, the rain pelting down upon it; and the pale blue skin of her upper body shivered as the breeze sent chills down her spine. Through the terrific storm, she heard laughter from the lighted yacht, no more than a hundred feet away, and she grinned and slowly licked her lips at the thought of all the warm-blooded men upon it.

Silently slithering down from the rock, Seriphae lowered herself into the dark blue raging water, head first. Her hair mixed in perfectly with the water, as it bobbed up and down with the bubbling waves. It looked as if it were part of the seaweed that entangled the rest of her body, covering her flesh.

Her body now fully in the water, she used her tail and long, gangly arms to push herself forward, against the waves. The ship was so close, but yet so distant, and it was tiring work to swim in these conditions; but that was what she had to do, for if it was perfect, sunny weather, people would see her and shriek before she had a chance to even make it to the ship.

“I need blood!” she gasped, in an unnaturally low, feminine voice, sounding as though it could be with her last breath. She had fasted for far too long now, and a chance like this hardly ever came up. She would take hold of this chance, and drain out of it as much bloodshed and human suffering she could before the dawn came.

Finally making it to the yacht, she pressed her clammy hands against the side of it, and used her powers to suddenly become ghost-like, making her look like a wisp of smoke. Her spiritual body glowed in a radiant light for a second, and then sizzled out with the touch of the water.

Using only a fragment of her energy, Seriphae entered into the yacht, bringing all the tiny particles of her spirit through the side of the ship. She looked as if she were glinting dust; no one would’ve recognized her as what she truly was.

Seriphae peered around her, making sure there were no dark figures to witness this upcoming event, even though she knew they would pass it off as some illusion which their tired eyes had tricked them into seeing. Her unseen eyes scanned the lower level as thoroughly as she was capable.

No one was in sight.

She, very slowly, started to materialize human legs, until a full figure stood solidly on the hard floor. She almost looked human, but no quite, because her white skin had a ghostly pallor to it; her black eyes had an unnatural hardness to them, as if made of glass; and, as she grinned, her teeth were now long, jagged fangs, ready to sink into flesh.

Her long black dress dragged against the hard wood surface as she stealthily made her way up to the sleeping chambers of the passengers on the yacht; her steps were so soft, it wouldn’t have been surprising if the passengers on the higher level mistook them for those of mice; her dry now-black hair fell down her back, and her long bangs hovered around her hauntingly beautiful face, enclosing her piercing eyes in shadow.

The dark vampire-mermaid was hunting for her prey that night, and she wouldn’t settle for anything less than the blood of an innocent man.