Soon a cry for help came to Cormac and Melusine's ears. Into the clearing among the seaweed and coral swam a human being, capable of breathing underwater much like Cormac. It was a man of twenty-four years of age. He was half-Hawaiian and half-English. He was dark-skinned and golden haired, his body that of a champion swimmer, his attire simply a pair of green swim trunks and there was a knife sticking out of his back.
The man's blood filling the water, Cormac swam over to as Melusine gasped and covered her mouth with her right hand. Upon seeing Cormac and Melusine, the man said: "Two Children of the Storm… How long?"
"We were only transformed this year." Cormac answered.
"I've been unable to be out in the air for more than five minutes for eleven years, little brother." Stated the man. "My name is Jacob… Jacob Kealoha… and my love, a Surface-Born Mermaid like your friend here, is a captive! Her name is Rhonda… Rhonda Hartsfield! She has been a mermaid for six years now and if she is not rescued quickly, she may be something else for a long time!"
"What do you mean?" asked Melusine, his voice filled with fear. Was Rhonda to be a slave for the rest of her life? What was going to happen to her fellow Surface-Born Mer?
"Vampires!" Jacob exclaimed. "Vampires have her… Or a vampire at least, I'm not sure how many they are. He took her to the old citadel that way!" He pointed to the southwest while tightly gripping Cormac's left arm. "It has a gong in the likeness of an ammonite shell in the courtyard."
Cormac was tempted to make a joke in regards to just in case they got confused by another citadel on the way, but he held his tongue and instead told Jacob: "I'll find her, you just stay here with Melusine and rest, we'll get that knife out of your back, patch you up with some bandages of seaweed and…" Feeling Jacob's grip on his arm loosen considerably, Cormac grew panicked. "J-Jacob?"
Jacob slowly floated down to the seafloor. His eyes were open, yet he saw nothing. He breathed not and save for the water slowly moving his hair and his arms to some extent, he moved not.
Jacob Kealoha was dead.
To say that Cormac was left unshaken by this would be untrue. Floating there, trembling, he stared wide-eyed at the body of a Child of the Storm like him, one whose transformation involved being able to breathe underwater but being unable to be out in the air for more than five minutes… a brother… A brother found, a brother lost and all in a matter of minutes.
Still shaking, Cormac turned to Melusine. The Surface-Born Merrow-Maiden was frozen with shock and wherefore shouldn't she have been? No one ever expects to see someone die right in front of them. True, there had been a knife in Jacob's back, but both she and Cormac had hoped the wound wasn't deep… That the wound had not been fatal.
Thus, did the two sixteen-year-old Children of the Storm dig a grave for their poor departed fellow. With nothing to use but their hands, they dug into the seafloor until there was a hole big enough for Jacob's body. His gravestone, was the rock that Cormac had been sitting on and with his brand, Cormac had scratched upon the departed's appellation.
When all was done, Melusine said to Cormac: "I'm coming with you!"
"Melusine, I'd rather you stay here."
"Near a grave? Cormac, I am not letting you go alone. You could be outnumbered."
"Even with you being there with me, we could still be outnumbered and with me being the only one with a weapon—" Cormac's eyes widened as Melusine held up the knife that had been in Jacob's back. "You're joking!"
Shrugging, Melusine answered: "What better way to return it to its owner than to plunge it into his chest… Her chest? Their chest. I'll return it to the owner by plunging it into their chest. I figure if knives were good enough to kill Dracula, then a knife will be good enough to kill an underwater vampire."
Cormac could do naught but smile. Truly it was well that he and Melusine had found each other.
"Alright." Said Cormac with a nod. "Let us be on our way."
Thus, did the Young Egan and the Surface-Born Merrow-Maiden go on their way. They knew their objective well, rescue Rhonda and avenge Jacob. It didn't matter if they would have to do the former and then come back to do the latter later. They were headed to that citadel where these Vampires of the Deep were residing, that citadel with gong in the likeness of an ammonite's shell in the courtyard.
An ammonite's shell… By encountering Uyakh, Cormac and Melusine had seen a prehistoric fish, a living fossil, a megalodon, but could an ammonite, a prehistoric cephalopod, still exist? It seemed possible, but how could either the Young Egan or the Surface-Born Merrow-Maiden know for certain? Cormac was still expecting some man-sized octopus to be encountered, while Melusine had "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" on the mind and was hoping to see a giant squid, just hopefully one not so aggressive as the one that attacked the Nautilus.
Still… Vampires… Vampires of the Deep! What would come next? Werewolves of the Deep? Neither Cormac or Melusine could comprehend how that possibly could have worked, the Deep Ones already looked have fish so obviously werefish were out of the question, yet the question remained: what would the Young Egan and the Helena of the Deep encounter next?