by I D Johnson
“Can a lady get an escort?” Catherine asked, sneaking up behind him and sliding her arm into his.
Dressed in a long silvery gown, her hair up in a chignon, she looked absolutely radiant. He vaguely remembered being unimpressed when he’d first met her, but now that he knew her well, he had grown quite fond of her button nose and lavender eyes. “You look lovely,” he said, leaning in and whispering in her ear.
“Why thank you,” she said with a wink. “You clean up nicely as well.”
Christian was ahead of them, and they followed him to their table. They were posing as a French couple, speaking to each other only in French whenever anyone else was nearby, and Christian was their business associate. Aaron had picked up French from Ward, and though Christian knew very little, so far, in the five days they’d been on the boat, they’d managed to fool everyone.
Pretending to be from France was not that difficult. He’d visited many times, and with his coloring, he’d been asked several times by people who did not know his last name if he was French. But as the boat had passed Ireland a few days ago, he had watched from the main deck, a sense of longing washing over him. There was nothing left for him there now; everyone had passed away or moved to America. Genty’s descendants now lived in New York City, but they were the only members of his family who even knew who he was. Channing and Onora’s families never knew anything about the Ternion. Perhaps he’d have an opportunity to visit once the boat came into port in New York in a few days.
“There he is,” Christian said, regaining his attention. Their mark was a wealthy doctor from Southampton. While they’d spent several months chasing him around the countryside, when they’d heard he planned to take Titanic to New York City, they all agreed this would be the easiest way to make sure he could not get away. The problem they were running into now was finding a way to destroy him without alarming the rest of the passengers. He rarely ever came out of his room, and when he did, there were always dozens of other passengers around.
Tonight, however, the plan was different. After dinner, they knew he would retire to the smoking lounge with the rest of the high society men as he had all of the other nights. This time, Christian would sneak into his room and be waiting there when he returned. Aaron and Catherine would trail him and put an end to him before he even knew what had happened.
As far as they knew, he hadn’t created any minions while he was afloat, and his wife had stayed behind in Southampton. The rest of their team should’ve already taken care of her.
“Who takes a vacation without their wife?” Catherine mused in French as the other passengers took their seats at their shared dinner table.
“The kind of person who wants to lure in beautiful women and seduce them so that he may eat them?” Christian whispered back. Though his French was not good, they got the message, and Catherine giggled.
“I hope not,” Aaron replied, “or you’re going to open that bedroom door to another cave of wonders.”
Thoughts of the three Vampire temptresses they’d fought off in the basement of Dracula’s castle left them all shivering, and they decided to focus on dinner while keeping an eye on their Vampire friend across the room.
Dinner was full of questions posed to them in English which they pretended not to understand and conversation in French about whatever they wished since no one else at their table knew what they were saying. Before they had even finished, Dr. Williams excused himself from his seat across the room and began to walk toward the door.
This was not part of the plan, and as they exchanged nervous glances, Catherine came up with a solution. Clenching her stomach, she said in French, “I’m really not feeling well, darling. Might you escort me back to the room?”
“Yes, of course,” Aaron replied, helping her up from her seat and explaining to the others, also in French, that his wife was not well.
“What do I do?” Christian asked.
“Finish dinner; go make a search,” Aaron said, a fake smile plastered on his face so no one might guess that he was giving a directive.
Once they’d left the dining room, they split up. Aaron headed straight for Dr. Williams’s state room while Catherine went to search the promenade. She realized she needed to make quick work of it so diners from her table didn’t spy her there upon leaving dinner and wonder why she wasn’t in her room lying down.
Aaron couldn’t find Dr. Williams in his room, nor did he see him anywhere on the way. Without any way to communicate with his teammates, he decided to continue searching, hopeful that the reason he was coming up empty-handed was because Christian or Catherine had already destroyed him.
After a few hours, he ran into Catherine on C Deck. She was dressed in Third Class passenger’s clothing, and he hardly recognized her at first. “Anything?” she asked.
“No. You?”
She shook her head. “I ran into Christian earlier, and he said he couldn’t find him either.”
“Well, he didn’t just disappear,” Aaron muttered.
“Maybe he’s in someone else’s room. Maybe he’s taken a mistress,” she suggested.
Aaron considered the possibility. “Could be. But how would we know who it might be?”
“I don’t know. But chances are, if he’s with another woman, she’s a Vampire, too, which means we have more destruction on our plates.”
“All right,” Aaron nodded, realizing what she said was true. “Where are you headed?”
“On my way down,” she replied, gesturing at her dress which indicated she was a Third Class passenger and their quarters were lower in the ship.
“I’ll meet you on the First Class Promenade at midnight, all right?”
“Yes, sir,” she said with a wink.
He couldn’t help but smile in response. “If you see Christian again, tell him to meet us there, too.”
She nodded and squeezed his arm before heading off to the stairs that led down deeper into the belly of the ship.
Several minutes later, Aaron happened down a hallway in the Second Class passenger portion of the ship when he saw a door open at the far end of the hall. A reaction in his gut let him know it had to be Dr. Williams, and sure enough, the gray-haired Vampire stepped out into the hallway, headed the other direction.
Making a mental note of which room the doctor had been in, he planned to return later to check out the residence, and he rushed off after the doctor, thinking he hadn’t seen him. However, as he passed by the room the doctor had vacated, the door flew open and he felt himself careening into the wall across from it.
He looked up to see a nude woman with dark black hair piled atop her head, her skin pale, her teeth sharp. He didn’t have time to ascertain whether or not the doctor had just turned her or she had spent several days in her present form hanging out in her cabin waiting for the doctor to return. Clearly, she needed to be handled now, and privately if possible. Luckily, no other passengers had been in the hallway, and as he leapt to his feet, he kicked her back into the room, sending her into the far wall across from the door.
She was fast, and by the time he’d entered the room and shut the door behind him, she was back on top of him, claws reaching for his face. While she was vicious and full of energy, she was young and inexperienced. Aaron pulled a vial of Holy Water out of his pocket and splashed it in her face. As she began to scream and clutch at the burning spots, he pulled the stake from his breast pocket, and shoving her left arm aside, jammed into her heart.
Her shriek was earsplitting, and there was absolutely nothing he could do to keep the other passengers from hearing. Afraid they might come to investigate and think he was murdering someone, he snatched up the stake and flew out the door before anyone had the chance to discover him. By the time he rounded the corner at the end of the hall, he heard several doors opening and people questioning what in the world that sound was.
The doctor was gone, unfortunately. A thorough search of the area led to nothing, so Aaron headed back towards Dr. Williams’s state
room, thinking there was a possibility he may have returned, though he doubted it since that would be the first place they would look, and surely by now he was on to them.
As he reached the stairwell leading to the First Class passenger rooms, the boat shuddered. He paid it little mind and continued on his way. He checked his watch and saw that he had about twenty minutes before he was due to meet Catherine. Though it made him slightly nervous to think of her walking the decks alone, especially since he’d already been surprised by a Vampire they didn’t know was aboard the ship, he had confidence in her ability to keep herself safe.
When he reached Williams’s room, he found the door to be locked. That had never been a problem for him. In fact, he was able to pick almost any lock in a matter of seconds using a small piece of metal he often carried somewhere on his person for just such occasions. The door opened easily, but the room was empty. With a sigh, he headed back to the main deck, thinking if he walked like a human, by the time he arrived, it would be time to meet Catherine.
It wasn’t until he was back outside that he realized what that shudder had been on the stairs. He could see tiny pieces of ice on the deck below, children kicking it around having fun with it. A few passengers stood about, most of them in their pajamas, but no one really seemed to be too worried. And why should they be? They’d been told time and again nothing could sink this ship.
He saw Catherine walking toward him from the other side of the ship. Now, she wore a pink day gown. “Why do you keep changing clothes?” he asked when he caught up to her.
“Third Class passengers can’t just walk around up her,” she reminded him “Anything?”
“Not Williams, but I met his mistress. Lovely gal.”
“Really?” she asked. “Where?’
“Second Class. We danced for a bit, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.”
Catherine chuckled. “I can’t say that I’m sorry to hear that,” she said with a coy smile. “No sign of Christian?”
“No,” Aaron replied, looking around to see if he might catch a glimpse of their teammate.
“Do you think this iceberg is significant? I hear we might be taking on water.”
“Really?” Aaron asked, surprised. “I have no idea. I certainly hope not. I know there are not enough lifeboats for everyone.”
Catherine nodded. “If this boat sinks, there will be a lot of people who will not make it.”
Realizing that dwelling on that possibility was a waste of energy, Aaron suggested, “Why don’t you investigate up here, and I’ll go back down?”
“All right,” Catherine nodded. “Meet back here in an hour?”
“Yes, but if they start putting passengers on lifeboats, come sooner.”
He hastened off to search the lower decks, but the deeper he went, the more he realized Titanic was in trouble. There was already water on the floor on E Deck and passengers there were panicking, grabbing their children and their meager possessions, looking for a way to head up to a higher, drier deck.
He continued down, but upon reaching F Deck decided that there was little reason to go any further. The water was rushing in now. It was highly doubtful Williams would be down here. Even though cold water would have little effect on a Vampire, he would be up with the First Class passengers, attempting to blend in and take cover among them. With a sigh, he headed back up.
Taking one of the corridors that passed through E Deck, he found a crowd congregated at the end of the hall. While people were shouting in various foreign languages, only a few of which he understood, he soon realized that the gate was locked. Water was above his ankles now, and while it was only mildly unpleasant to him, he couldn’t imagine how it felt to the children who stood nearby in their nightclothes shivering.
Pushing his way through the throng, he reached the gate. With a quick glance, he realized it would take only a second to unlock if they would give him room. Shouting for them to back up a bit in every language he knew, including French, Spanish, German, Russian, and Czeck, he slipped his tool into his hand, reached around, and unlocked the gate. Moments later, a crowd of thankful people pushed past him, hopefully on their way to safety.
He assumed this locked gate was an isolated incident. After all, why would a ship lock its passengers below deck when the boat was flooding? It wasn’t until he encountered another locked gate on D Deck that he realized there was something sinister going on here. Rather than unlocking that gate, he ripped it from its hinges, not carrying what those who looked on thought, and after they’d all passed, he went up to meet Catherine.
By the time he’d reached the First Class Promenade, he realized just how significant the problem was. The ship was definitely sinking. A crew member handed him a lifebelt, which he took, thinking perhaps he could give it to someone who might actually need it. He saw Christian on the other side of the boat and waved at him, but Catherine was nowhere to be found. He checked his watch and saw that it was past time to meet, but since the lifeboats were beginning to launch, he thought, perhaps, she had come earlier and he’d missed her.
“Any sign of Williams?” Christian asked as Aaron approached him.
“Not for the last hour or so. I saw him in one of the Second Class halls. You?”
“No,” Christian shook his head. “Catherine was here, but she saw some people in the lower decks having trouble finding their way to the lifeboats, so she went to help.”
“This ship is going down,” Aaron muttered, looking around.
“I agree,” Christian replied, “and I think that should ferret Dr. Williams out.”
“Yes, but will we be able to take him out without anyone noticing?” Aaron wondered aloud.
“That is always the catch. I wish we had someone on our team who was very good at running interference.”
“Me, too,” Aaron agreed. “But we don’t…. So, let’s just keep an eye out for him and go from there, all right?”
Christian nodded, and they headed separate ways to see if they could find the mark.
Chaos had broken out on nearly every deck once the pitch of the ship became apparent. Taking on water had caused the boat to become unbalanced, and all around him, passengers were rushing toward the lifeboats. On the lower decks, people seemed much more panicked than where the First Class passengers were boarding. In fact, the orchestra was playing them a nice sonnet, and Aaron could hardly believe what he was hearing.
Below, people were having trouble reading directions and finding the correct stairways to reach the launching rescue boats. It appeared as if many of the boats were sent out into the Atlantic only partially filled, yet another fact that made absolutely no sense to him. The boat had more than enough people to fill each of them to capacity, yet the lifeboats were far from full.
A flare was fired into the night sky, leaving some gasping, others cheering, more still running for their lives. It was then that Aaron spied a familiar head of gray hair huddled in a crowd toward the starboard side of the ship where the next set of lifeboats would launch.
Certain it was Williams, he handed off the lifebelt to another passenger and slid his way through the crowd, a feat in itself considering how tightly packed the people waiting to get on the boat were. “Going somewhere, doctor?” he asked, placing his hand on the Vampire’s shoulder and pressing the stake against his back.
Dr. Williams released a soft chuckle. “Surely you can’t think to terminate me right here in front of all of these people?”
“If I did, it wouldn’t be the most unusual sight this crowd witnesses this morning. No, I won’t end you right here, but I will drag you over to that corner behind those benches and dispatch you there.”
“The hell you will,” Williams growled.
“You and I know this is all over,” Aaron stated, hoping he would just come quietly, though he knew in his heart he wouldn’t; they never did.
“No, you see, I’m about to get on this lifeboat and haul it out into the Atlantic where I can have my way with all of those aboar
d.”
The thought made Aaron not only sick but also quite angry. There was no way Williams was getting on that lifeboat.
As if the crew member at the front of the crowd had read their minds, he began to fill the boat, taking only women and children first. That cleared up some space, but as the boat began to fill up, those still standing on the deck began to grow anxious and push their ways forward. Just as the officer began to shout, “Anyone else then!” a flood of people poured up the stairs to their left, pressing into the small space, and providing several dozen more women and children to take those coveted spots on the lifeboat, including the one Dr. Williams had hoped to occupy.
Aaron saw Catherine trailing the crowd and realized she’d let all of those people up from the decks below, who had likely been trapped behind a gate. He smiled at her, and then, taking advantage of the rush, he grabbed Williams and dragged him toward the railing.
The Vampire struggled against him, but Aaron was not only stronger, he knew precisely where they were going. At this angle, he estimated Titanic would flounder in a half hour, and if that was the case, he would be in the cold water soon enough anyway. May as well get on with it.
“Help! Someone help me!” Williams shouted, hoping to draw attention from the crowd, but the other panicked shouts drowned him out, and Aaron had him pressed up against the railing, though he was struggling to get him off balance enough to tip him over.
Out of nowhere, a force slammed into them, sending them both tumbling over the railing, and as Aaron found himself falling into cold water—once again—he realized Catherine had hurled herself into them, forcing them both over the railing.
