Jekyll awoke to the very uncomfortable feeling of being shaken violently and shivering as a sudden blast of cold air hit his chest, and the sounds of ripping hit his ears, a familiar but unpleasant sound.
The last thing he remembered was..was..sharp pain in his...then...
Victor!
Henry's groggy eyes opened and met Nemo's face as his own nearly flushed when he realized that his shirt had been torn open, hence the cold air; what on earth was Nemo doing?!
"No bites," Nemo sighed, relieved as opening the other man's shirt exposed nothing but pale, unblemished skin. The vampire had told the truth.
"What happened?!" Jekyll nearly sat up but was forced back down by Nemo. "Where is Victor? What happened to that man?" had that man killed-
"Gone, all of them, the man and the creature collected Victor and the babies and took them away...I ...the man was a vampire and somehow kept me under an enchantment, so I could not move to stop them," The Indian admitted, feeling ashamed he could not fight off the spell.
"But those babies are too small to go out in this cold!" Henry ran his hands through his hair, brain foggy, and even Hyde seemed out of it. Jekyll saw him bobbing his head back and forth from a quick glimpse at a nearby mirror. Nothing was making sense in his head.
"I think they will be alright; the sire and the vampire did not seem to wish them or Victor harm, but ...they called him Marcus, he seemed very interested in you and me...he even kissed your forehead before he left"
Shaky fingers reached up to touch the spot where lips had touched.
A kiss?
From a vampire?
"Di-did he...do any..anything to..you?" Jekyll asked slowly, almost fearing the answer.
"Other than force me to sit still as he stole away our patient, nothing; I am unharmed" Nemo did his best not to growl. Every instinct in him screamed to chase after the ones who had dared do this, but they needed to tell the rest of the League; first, Mina was a vampire herself and might be able to offer better insight into what all this was about. And he could not leave Skinner and Jekyll alone if they chose to return.
"Liar...your neck...it's bruised," Henry tried to scold, but it came out shaky and almost a whisper.
"That came from the Monster, but he stopped when the vampire commanded him" The Captain waved off the concern as he pulled his coat further up his neck in a poor attempt to conceal the bruises.
"That Creature works for the vampire?" Henry asked, unable to keep how stunned he was out of his voice. If the wretch and a vampire of all creatures were running loose somewhere, it would end badly for any nearby innocents.
"I think it is more or less a relationship of convenience," Nemo said. "The vampire provided him with something he wanted, and he does some of the man's dirty work in exchange."
"What use would a vampire have for what is essentially a Gollum made out of flesh?" Henry wondered. Yes, the monster appeared very strong, but vampires possessed the strength of ten men.
"A Gollum that provided him a willing subject for his experiments and led him to one of the Leagues headquarters," Nemo pointed out, the thirst for vengeance swelling in his chest, wishing the others would return soon before he did something foolish.
"Erm, forgive me, but, why would he want us? Victor was undoubtedly still young when he found the means to extend his lifespan, which lent himself to the experiments more easily..well you and are ...well."
"Too old?" Nemo asked, not able to help the mild amusement at his friend's flushed face.
It was true that Nemo was too old, being in his fifties, at least to provide the purpose Victor had.
Still, Henry was only thirty-six, women had given birth in their forties before, but the Captain highly doubted the vampire would wish to try the same experiment twice, especially after his supposedly first attempt yielded such fruitful results already.
Three healthy babies to tend to, the monster seemed to love the newborns, so he might be able to prevent the vampire from experimenting on the children. At least, any overly dangerous experiments.
And who was to say he even wanted Nemo and Henry for experiments at all? Perhaps he wished to torture them both for secrets he had left without hurting anyone, but his first experiment would no doubt take up a lot of attention, at least temporarily. And he only kissed Jekyll out of amusement because he knew it would make Nemo angry.
The door opened
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Mina's eyes widened, not even hearing as Sawyer and Quatermain came up at her heels, birthing fluids coated Victor's empty bed, and some scratches had been worn into the sheets, her senses blared as she could smell and almost physically feel the presence of another vampire lingering in the room.
Bruises on Nemo's neck and hands, one boot missing, heart rate accelerated, and stress coming off him in waves, the monster must have grabbed him, but he seemed unharmed besides the bruises and missing shoe. That seemed out of character from what she had seen of the wretch.
Henry's shirt was torn open, only enough to expose his shoulders, not looking as he usually did when he transformed into Edward, how had that happened?
But neither looked as though they had been bitten, a fact for which Mina was beyond grateful, but both looked like they had been through a lot.
And where was Victor?!
"They took Victor and the children, put Jekyll and me into some sort of trance to prevent us from following, thankfully the vampire nor the creature deemed it nessasary to harm us, or if what the vampire said before he left is saving it for a later date" Nemo informed, still feeling very incensed at being controlled like a puppet.
"Later date?"
"Yes, he said, 'I have plans for these two before they all left."
"What sort of plans?" Henry chipped in, trying to cover himself back up with his torn shirt despite the buttons having been scattered all over. The kiss was now forgotten with his task of trying to hold the cheap material together.
"He did not specify, but I highly doubt it means anything good, and we still need to figure out where they went so we can rescue Victor from their clutches; I don't think they mean to harm anyone right now, but that can easily change," Nemo said as he too tried fixing his rumpled clothing, having more luck than Henry was, and tried to look as confident as one could with a missing boot "There is also something I wish to discuss with you in the hallway Ms. Harker."
"Why can't you say it to the rest of us?" Tom asked, grimacing a bit when he caught sight of the blood on the bed.
"Just stay here, or rather, all of you go to the infirmary to be with Skinner; make sure nothing has happened to him," Nemo ordered, the tone in his voice forcing the other three men to start heading for the infirmary, and the Captain waited till he heard the door of the medical room close before turning to Mina, a sudden tiredness radiated from him.
Mina was very concerned now. "What is it? What else did he say to you?"
"The vampire, Marcus, they called him, kept me under a trance; I never felt anything like it; my entire body couldn't move" Nemo felt a strong urge to itch where the man's fingers had touched his face to turn it "He did not harm either of us, but he did kiss Jekyll's forehead before leaving"
"That thing... kissed him?" Mina's mouth became a thin line as a thick accent rang in her head.
Kiss her once, but only on the forehead.
But what happens if a vampire does the kiss? Dorian never had anything to fear from her vampirism. Everything about him was practically ash in a thin coating of flesh. The man had produced no blood for her curse to infect and his seed sterile, so he was of no worry to her on that issue either.
But after meeting Victor and what he had gone through, and knowing the one who had done it to him was another vampire, a powerful one to have the ability to control Nemo, Mina had, of course, never tried to use her thrall on him, but he seemed to have no interest in her, unlike the other men of the team at one time or another and seemed to be the only one who proved wary of her nature.
He backed away from her when everyone else had been shocked into stillness, and it was not a hard thing to guess he was strong-willed. Tom was too, but his youth often led him not to use it when he should.
Quartermain still had enough guts to quip at her once and a while, even after learning her true self, and Mina often had to fight against spilling those guts to the floor.
But she digressed ...Shouldn't Nemo have been able to fight off the thrall? If this vampire had done what he had to Victor, then the Lord only knows what he might have done to his own body to make himself more powerful.
Mina could go any time of day and still be just as powerful, her transformation had been unable to complete with the original Dracula's death, but she still craved blood and had a weakness to iron; she had managed to overcome the weakness to holy objects and could stand garlic as long as she did not eat it herself.
Now a vampire who could puppeteer the strong willed, could, in theory, have all of their strengths and none of their weaknesses, had his eyes set upon the men she called comrades in arms and perhaps on her softer days, siblings of a sort.
"I know you will not like this answer, but we should make a retreat, we will not leave Victor to a horrible fate, but we need to get to a safer location to plan our next course of action; this place has been compromised" Mina paced slightly, trying to think "all of us need to rest and recover"
"I agree with you wholeheartedly on that, I will fetch who I can, and we-"
Groaning and footsteps hit Mina's ears as crew members suddenly smashed the door in.
"That was unlocked..."
"Captain? Ms. Harker? But...where is.." Roshan spoke up, looking no worse for the wear, if not a bit confused.
"Seems he controlled more than just me.." Nemo growled but was relieved that it seemed all his crew that had stayed on the land were all accounted for. "Check yourselves over for any strange blemishes or marks, we have an enemy vampire lurking around
"Vampire?! But what about-" Roshan began only to be silenced by a raised hand from Nemo.
"Let us worry about making sure everything is in order with those present before we launch a rescue mission; from what I observed, Victor is in no immediate danger, we need to look over what we know, and I'll need your story on what happened before we returned after you called us" Nemo stated, only to get a confused look.
"We never called you."