Templar Scrolls

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The impact stung my cheeks, and the salt burned my eyes. I swam fast and furiously in my attempts to reach the distressed boat. At my speed, I could keep up with a sailfish, one of the fastest fish in the oceans. My body moved easily through the water’s depths. I broke the surface to see I was more than halfway to the other vessel. Wiping the water from my eyes, I still had to blink a couple of times because I couldn’t believe what I saw.

It was difficult to sink a ship. After all, the vessels were designed to stay afloat, unlike submarines that rose and sank. It was common for waves to break over the sides of a ship and for tiny leaks to occur. But those rivulets of water would eventually find their way to the lowest point of the boat, the bilge, where the small stream would be pumped out. The waves crashing into this ship looked as though they were reaching up from the bowels of the sea and actively pulling it down into its depths.

I’d never seen anything like it. It was like a freak storm from hell—if hell were in the oceans. The scene looked like the boat had been caught in an Oz-like tornado swirling it around and lifting it out of Kansas. It crashed into the water, causing a mighty splash that pulled me under.

I saw two bodies beneath the surface. The bodies looked as though they were suspended in motion as they sank into the murky deep. I set into action, diving to reach them, hoping to get to them before all the air left their lungs.

As I got nearer, something flashed before my eyes. It looked as though it had been a pair of fins. But the scales were white and flowed out, almost like it could’ve been a fan’s tail. Or a nightgown. I swore I saw hair as white as strands of moonlight, but I blinked and the vision was gone.

I knew of only one being who could live beneath the surfaces of the ocean. And he had brown skin and dark locks. There were no such things as mermaids. At least I didn’t remember ever meeting any.

There were humans who could shift their shapes. But that tribe of people shifted into land mammals, reptiles, and birds. And they were all in the Americas.

The storm raged on above me. I turned my attention back to the people who’d fallen from the sinking ship. I raced to them, kicking my legs powerfully, shoving the water out of my way with my arms until I reached them.

Neither man appeared to kick, flail, or fight for his life. Their arms were stretched above them, as though hoping for the guiding hand of a god or an angel.

I wrapped my arm around the first man. In the water, bodies weighed less, so I was able to maneuver him in one arm while I used my other to steer me toward his companion.

Reaching the second man, I grabbed his limp body. It was difficult to propel forward without the use of my arms, but I managed. I was strong enough to heft them through the waters and get them back to my ship. Superhuman, remember.

It took me twice as long to make it back with my human cargo. The storm continued to wail and groan behind me as it focused its attack on the abandoned ship and left mine in relative peace. With Loren’s help, I hefted the two bodies onto the deck.

One man wore the dark blue and gold braids of a captain. The other wore a simple white shirt and slacks. He could’ve been a passenger or one of the captain’s mates. There was no way for me to tell. The captain had a gash across his forehead. His mate looked as though his arm might be broken. The limb rested at an odd angle.

Loren began CPR on the mate while I started compressions on the captain. The mate coughed up water and then immediately howled in pain, grasping at his twisted arm. He went silent when he saw me working on the captain. The mate clutched at his arm and gritted his teeth. He looked as though he was holding his breath as we all waited for the captain to take a breath of his own.

Finally, the older man gasped and then coughed up the sea. I turned him on his side to help get the salt water out of his airway. A shiver went through his body as he shifted onto his back. His eyes were unfocused, but the one word he uttered was clear.

“Father?” said the captain. His head turned back in the direction of his failing vessel, and his hand reached out.

The man beside the captain looked too young to be his father. I turned back to the sinking ship. I hadn’t seen another body in the water. Was someone else still trapped on the distressed boat?

The waters continued to batter the sides of the ship. The vessel looked like it had sunk lower on the horizon. It was only a matter of time before the sea swallowed it whole. There wasn’t time to debate. I stood at the side of my boat and dove back into the water to save the captain’s father.

In the depths, it was silent and peaceful. The moon’s light broke through the water to shine in the darkness. The water that flowed past my ears was a silent symphony of calm. But when I broke the surface, the gale winds came from every direction, battering the ship. In hundreds of years of sailing the open waters and coastal areas, I’d never seen an isolated storm such as this. I peered over my shoulder and saw my yacht was in relatively calm waters in comparison.

The other ship had sunk low enough that it was no trouble climbing aboard. When I did, the waters that had cradled me on my way here turned abusive. The ripples lashed out at me from every direction. The waters washed anything not bolted overboard and into the churning waters.

Sandwiched in a corner, I found a man. When I got to him, I noted he looked young, much younger than the captain. If this man had any children, they couldn’t be more than toddlers, even if he’d started very young. Was someone else still on board? Then I saw the priest collar gripped in his hand. So, not a biological father but a spiritual one.

The man had passed out. He was unresponsive but alive. I put him over my back and dove into the waters just in time. The ship groaned as the waves claimed it.

In the waters, I saw that flash of white again, like sheer cloth that would cover a woman’s legs as she reposed. But instead of feet, I saw a blinding light. It knocked me back, pulling me under.

It felt as though something was tethered around my foot, yanking me down to the seafloor. The force was strong. I was stronger, but I was also tired. Still, I knew I had to fight.

I could hold my breath underwater for an inhumanly long time. But the man I carried couldn’t. I kicked for the surface and finally broke through, feeling the heartbeat of the man on my back. It was weak, but it was there.

As I made my way to my boat, I noticed that the winds had stopped. The waves were calming. An eerie stillness settled over the water. A glance over my shoulder showed me that the other boat was sinking faster now. In just a matter of minutes it would be gone, as though it had never been there at all.

It had taken the Titanic nearly three hours to sink. I knew. I’d watched it go down as people around me shivered and others sank to their deaths. The boat before me was nowhere near the size of that doomed vessel. It also hadn’t split in two. But it sank as though it had been broken into a million tiny pieces. It also sank straight down, not tilting up or to the side like a normal sinking vessel.

I couldn’t stare and wonder at the marvel any longer. For the third time tonight, I had a non-responsive man mounted on my back, which wasn’t doing much for my feminine ego. I was so exhausted that my tired was tired by the time I got myself and my quarry back on board my boat.

“Oh,” Loren said, placing a dramatic hand to her chest as her eyebrows rose. “Look what the storm dragged in.” She gave the man a coquettish look that would have been funny had he been awake.

With the third man laid out on the deck, I could see what she was fussing about. This guy was handsome. He reminded me of that tall actor with the deep Texas drawl, Matthew McConaughey. This man had the same dirty-blond hair. His limbs were long and muscled, his chin square, and his cheekbones high. His lips were blue at the moment, but their shape hinted that they could be set in a serious line or pulled up in a sensual grin.

He’d lost his collar somewhere in the waters. I didn’t bother warning Loren off. He was unconscious. There was nothing she could do—at least, I didn’t think so.

I assumed I would have to fight her over who would get to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but before I could even begin compressions, his eyes opened. He coughed up sea water. And when his lungs were empty, his eyes fastened onto Loren. They were blue, by the way. I would’ve sworn this guy was the Hollywood actor… until he began to speak.

“Are you an angel?” he drawled, but his accent wasn’t southern. At least not from the southern part of the United States. He was Italian. Maybe the south of Italy.

Loren sighed. I did, too. But they were two entirely different sounds.

Part of the reason Loren and I were out sailing was to get over our past relationships. Loren was anti-relationship as a rule. She’d been betrayed by the only guy she’d dated more than once. I had recently broken up with my boyfriend of five hundred years and then started dating a guy I’d dated a thousand years ago. But a couple of weeks ago, I’d fallen back into bed with my ex. I’d come to the sea hoping to find myself, but I was still wallowing in confusion. Loren was already on to the next guy.

“Welcome to heaven,” she said.

“I am delivered.” He reached out to her. His fingers hovered just before her face, as though he dared not touch a celestial being.

“Father Gerard?” said the captain.

Loren’s face contorted as she looked between the two men. The captain was clearly the elder of the two.

“Father?” Loren said.

Father Gerard sat up, wincing as he did so.

I reached to check his body in an attempt to find any blood or broken bones. “Careful,” I warned, even as I didn’t find anything amiss on his person. It was miraculous he’d survived at all. But survived with his body intact? That was supernatural.

“The boat?” Father Gerard asked, trying to look out on the horizon.

“It’s gone down,” I confirmed.

Father Gerard looked around, as though to count his shipmates.

“We’re all here,” the captain confirmed.

His shipmate sat beside him with his arm in a makeshift brace courtesy of Loren.

“It is by the grace of God we are still on this earth,” said the captain in a shaky voice, his eyes still wide from their ordeal.

No, it was by the grace of me. But as always for my great feats, I didn’t get any credit.

The priest stood on weak legs and looked out at the sinking ship. Nothing remained of the vessel. The waters and wind had calmed now that the ship had gone down.

“Lord, have mercy,” muttered the man of God. Father Gerard turned back to Loren and me, assessing us. “How did you save us?”

“Oh…” I said. “We just fished you out of the water. No big deal.”

“We owe you our lives.” The priest’s voice was fervent. His attention remained on Loren. “You must be our guardian angel.”

I tugged at my soaked top. My lips pressed into a mute s***h. I decided to not be jealous as the credit went elsewhere.

“I’ve never seen a storm like that,” the captain said. “Been sailing these waters all my life.” Unlike Father Gerard, the captain sounded as though he was a Welshman.

“Where were you all headed?” I asked.

“Shropshire,” Father Gerard answered.

“We’re headed near there. We’ll radio the Coast Guard about your boat and get you guys to land.”

“Thank you,” he said. Again, to Loren and not me.

“We should probably get you out of those wet clothes,” Loren said suggestively as she guided him below deck.

I sighed. She was incorrigible.