Read Absolution - The First Book Of The Vampire Immortalis Trilogy for Free Online Page B

good fortune, nothing more. A fierce storm off the coast of Newfoundland almost sunk her, and it blew her so far off course, that it added two full weeks to the journey, resulting in the already meagre food and water supplies being rationed further.
    It was during this storm that Adam developed the bloody flux, a severe form of dysentry that is accompanied by internal bleeding. Together with smallpox, the flux was to claim 18 lives aboard The Hector during that 11 week voyage. It would have been 19 lives if Anna hadn't been nursing Adam as he lay dying below decks.
    When he was within hours of breathing his last, Anna knew that she could not bear to see him die in her arms. It was then that she offered him eternal life. Until that moment he had no idea that she was a vampire. He was in no condition to fully absorb this startling revelation, but even in his feverish state he knew that he didn't want to say farewell to Anna. Not now. Not ever.
    Anna had fallen in love with him too, but she knew that even if he lived for an eternity, it was still goodbye. She knew full well that her actions meant breaking the blood oath that all vampires under the protection of the Immortalis swore to uphold at all costs. It, more than anything else, secured the Pax Libertas, allowing vampires to live peacefully, if anonymously, among mankind.
    When The Hector finally made land, Anna slipped ashore unnoticed, without telling Adam. She knew running from the Immortalis was pointless. No matter how long it took, the enforcers would find you. The vampire lover who had saved Anna from certain death had been hunted down and destroyed within days of her crossing the divide between human and vampire. Instead, she gave herself up to Jacob and awaited her fate before the Grand Council. By the time Adam found out she was gone, it was too late. The Council had voted. Anna had been unexpectedly spared, but not without punishment. She was sentenced to purgatorium until such time as she was able to redeem herself in the eyes of the Grand Council. Purgatorium was a state of being that meant she was banished from the vampire community while being obligated to serve the Immortalis until redemption. She was also forbidden from ever seeing Adam again.
    But now, Adam was looking deep into those green eyes for the first time in over 200 years. He had spent two centuries living in North America without ever seeing so much as a glimpse of Anna. As an enforcer for the Immortalis, Adam lived the life of a transient nomad, criss-crossing the continent, sometimes in defence of the Codex, but more frequently to take the fight to foot soldiers of the Battalion Sabbatarian, the clandestine organisation intent on ridding the world of vampires. Whenever Adam arrived in a new town, he hoped to catch even a fleeting moment with Anna, but it was never to be. Unbeknown to Adam, while he went from Austin to Baltimore to Charleston, Anna was living a world apart in Amsterdam or Berlin or Copenhagen.
    “Grab your bag,” said Anna. “I've an abbey to show you.”
    With that, the two of them walked the short distance to the ticket office, arm in arm.
    “Do you know what, you don't look a day older,” Adam said to Anna as she bought two admission tickets.
    “Well, thank you, kind sir!” she replied. Given their true ages, she had considered asking for two concessions for senior citizens, but thought better of it. The dour man behind the ticket desk had already raised an eyebrow when the two Americans had requested one audio tour in Spanish and one in French “just to hear what they sound like”. Despite their accents, neither Anna or Adam were American, and both spoke their chosen languages fluently, but when people expect dumb Yankee tourists to roll up, it seemed rude to disappoint them.
    Once inside the abbey's grounds, Anna and Adam made straight for the graveyard which runs along the south side of the main church building. It didn't take them long to find the small area of