A/N: Thanks for all the reviews. I'm glad you're all being positive about the werewolf thing, and I'm glad it pleases. I noticed after I started this it wasn't an entirely original idea, but hopefully my twists and turns will be :D Thanks again, and enjoy!
Charles Evans sat in front of the fire, his thoughts numbing his mind to everything around him other than the crackling hot flames in the wall before him, the glow filling him with a sense of hope and promise he had lost after the encounter in the back yard near those dogs.
If there was nothing he could stand less, it was unnecessary noise, and those filthy animals had most certainly been providing just that which irritated him most. Such had been his reason for exterminating two of them. It had kept the rest quiet after all, and his men in line. They knew his methods.
Not to mention, it had filled the boy, Sawyer, with a sense of silent fear that had thrilled Charles more than he could have imagined. It had made him want to laugh in the boy's face. Of course, seeing the arrogant lack of what he had been revelling in when the gun aimed squarely at Sawyer... now that had most definitely angered Charles. Such a sudden change in emotion had stunned him for only a moment.
He wanted Sawyer afraid. Oh yes, nothing else would do.
Charles smiled at the flickering flames, and sighed a sigh of content and relaxation at the heat that washed over him. His men were patrolling the city as he sat comfortably with his thoughts and imaginings. His men were ensuring that the little League did nothing out of line.
Charles would have hated nothing more than to have to exterminate them all.
Tom walked down the corridor of the Nautilus, Mina's words still fresh in his mind. Of course he didn't think she was jealous... did he? He wasn't so certain of that. Maybe he wanted her to be jealous, who knew?
Tom didn't, that was for sure. He wasn't certain what he wanted, except for one thing, and that was to ensure Anise was all right. She had reacted very badly to that which Tom had long ago made himself impenetrable to.
Werewolves though... he had heard stories of such creatures back when he was a kid, but never in his life until now had he thought them even marginally possible.
Of course, there were people such as Jekyll, Skinner and Mina to remind him otherwise. One, invisible to the naked eye unless so desired; one both man, and monster, changing at the simple ingesting of an elixir; and the other a creature that enjoyed nothing more than sucking on others' blood in the night when her hunger was unbearable.
Tom often wondered what would transpire if Mina's hunger became too much when they were all trapped aboard the Nautilus at sea. Would she give in to the urges? Tom suddenly realised he didn't want to think on that.
He was outside Anise's room, and even as he reached out to knock, the door opened, and her head emerged to see him standing there with his hand raised. He narrowed his eyes, and stammered for a moment, before saying, "How did you..."
"I heard a noise," Anise assured him quickly with the haunting of a smile. "I thought it could only be you, and maybe I should save you the trouble of knocking."
She pulled back the door for him to enter, and after hesitating on the threshold for a moment, did just that. He looked around, seeing the usual styled quarters that Nemo granted his guests. Tom remembered his own being very similar to this at first, and smiled as he recalled it slowly degrading into what he had been tempted to clear not long ago.
Anise crossed to her desk, where it was clear she had been sitting, and reclaimed the chair without a word.
Tom eyed the back of her head with concern, and asked, "Are you all right?"
"Not really," she murmured, never turning her attention from the wall before her. "I am afraid, Tom."
Tom thought for a moment she was exaggerating. People like Anise, like himself... they didn't give in to fear like that... did they? Maybe they were supposed to.
"There's no need to be frightened," Tom assured her quietly, frowning as he stood in the centre of the room, his hands once again finding the pockets in his pants seemingly of their own accord.
"There is every reason to be," Anise replied almost at once, and her head turned on him.
There was something unfamiliar in her expression that Tom wasn't so certain he liked. He frowned deeper.
"Mrs Harker herself insists that we are all in great danger, does she not? Who am I to contradict this?" Anise stood as she spoke, and crossed her arms tightly over her chest again as if afraid she was vulnerable if she did not do so.
"Look," Tom began cautiously, "Mina has the tendency to exaggerate on the danger a little from time to time. Nothing can get on this canoe without Nemo and his men knowing about it."
"But perhaps these creatures can," Anise whispered, only just on the verge of audible. "I am worried, Tom. Worried for the safety of the people on this vessel." Her eyes looked into his. "I am worried for you."
Tom wanted to smile at her warm concern, but stopped himself. He sighed quietly, and said, "You don't need to worry about me, Anise. I can take care of myself."
"But you said so yourself, Tom, that sometimes the danger can become too great for one person."
His stomach lurched as he realised what she was referring to. Huck... he tried to push it away, out of his mind, but it resisted rather unpleasantly.
"I know," Tom replied quietly, "I know I said that, but all we have to do is..." he paused. He wasn't sure if he should finish the sentence.
"What, Tom?"
"We have to watch out for each other," he completed, his eyes on the floor now, before slowly, they turned up to meet Anise's face, which was right before him. She had moved silently and without him realising across the floor to stand in front of him.
"I promise I will do all I can to protect you," she whispered to him, and her eyes looked as though they shone with tears.
Tom pulled one of his hands from his pocket, and reached up, gently stroking aside the tress of brown hair that had fallen across her face. "I won't let anything happen to you, okay? Do you believe me on that?"
Anise looked hesitant to meet his gaze, and he bowed his head so that he looked in her eyes as best he could. "Do you trust me?"
"Of course I do," was her immediate response, and her arms flung around him so suddenly he almost leapt back from her. "I don't want to see you hurt... I never want to see you hurt."
Was she crying?
Tom held her close to him, feeling her chest rise and fall rapidly against his with the quiet, almost inaudible sobs as they wracked her form. Everything comprehendible ebbed out of him as he embraced her, his head resting against hers comfortingly.
"It's all right," Tom spoke softly into her ear, "we can keep each other safe." He paused. "I won't let any of these... things... near you. You can hold me to that."
She seemed to stop crying, and he heard her voice as it was spoken against his shoulder, "I never want them near me."
He shifted his hold on her so that it was more secure and soothing. His grip on her was gentle, yet firm, as though he didn't want to let her go inside. "It's all going to be fine..."
Tom couldn't recall how long they stood there in the dim light holding one another, but it felt like an eternity.
With a growl as the unusual scent filled his nostrils, Jacques whirled instinctively, letting his senses guide his eyes to the intrusion on his privacy. A form hovered in the depths of the shadows beside the building, and his sensitive hearing detected their light breathing as they watched him.
"Do not be such a dramatiser," he grumbled, his words flowing out of him in perfect French now once he identified the scent of his companion.
"I would never dream of sneaking up on you, Beauvais," his intruder replied, just as fluently. Their accent was smooth and flawless, and he smiled despite himself at the sound of it. "Oh, do not excite yourself at my presence. It is necessary I do this, as you well know. If it were up to me-"
"You would not be here at all," Jacques countered impatiently, his words practically growled now. "I am very aware of your feelings on this matter, but thankfully, it is not up to you."
"And you would have me blindly follow the man who so clearly hates our kind?"
Jacques growled deep in his throat, forcing the lupine urges within him to be still. They obeyed for the moment. "I would have you show your gratitude to the man who saved your life. He could just have easily tossed it aside like garbage."
"And what a blessing that would have been," rumbled the voice in response, "then I would not be cursed to live my life like an animal." Yellow eyes glowed in the shadows.
"Tell me," Jacques grumbled with a sense of grim delight, "why do you look upon this so negatively? Others like you are not so cynical to this change. They have embraced it."
"But I did not choose this," retaliated the voice with an edge of their bestial anger, "it was forced upon me by a slavering beast no other than yourself if I so recall."
"And just think," Jacques said to them, as he stepped a little closer. A growl was what he received in warning to come no further, and he paid heed to it. "Without you, we would not have all that we do today."
Jacques' small laugh made tears shine in the other's eyes, and it only increased his mirth. "Oh, please, look at yourself. You are pitiful sometimes with your compassion and your sincerity." He cut off his laughter at once, rather ominously. "If it were up to me, I would not have entrusted you with this, and we would have our prize firmly in our grasp, where it could not slip so easily."
"It will not slip!" they assured him, though they did not sound convinced.
Jacques sighed. "Your affection is sickening. What will you do when the time comes? Tell me this..."
There was no response. His hand shot out like lightning and fastened in their hair threateningly. "I will tell you what you will do, and you will obey like the simple servant that you are." Jacques' now-yellow eyes took in their trembling form. "You will swallow this affection, and you will do no more than what is asked of you. You will perform that which you were entrusted to do so blindly by Charles."
"And what if I decline?"
"Then you will be punished." He threw them back against the wall, and heard their gasp. They stood for a long while, he staring into the darkness, and his companion's shallow breaths heard as they composed theirself. "Now..." he began sinisterly, "you will return to your duty, and ensure you do not fail. Time is ticking away, and you are showing no signs of progress."
"I have their trust!" they snarled at him. "No more was asked of me."
And then they were gone, as if they were never there. All that remained was a slight scent that lingered in Jacques' nostrils for only a moment, and he smiled at the fear he still managed to instil in them.