What?

Never called them?

Then who had?

Could the vampire somehow mimic a person's vocalizations and called them back using Roshan's voice?

No, he must have controlled Roshan to make the call, and the ship doctor did not remember it, but the vampire could not have known the ones he wanted would be the ones to return; the whole League or just Mina herself could have been the one to walk through the door.

Unless just wanting Nemo and Jekyll was a lie, and he would have accepted anyone who walked into his web.

From the looks of the room, it had been the vampire who had assisted Victor in birthing the babies; Jekyll had been knocked out or hypnotized; he seemed out of it but unharmed, but that could quickly change, they had no idea of the power level this particular vampire had or what abilities.

The Captain knew about the super strength, mind control or something similar, psychic connection to the Creature, and ability to open locked doors or slip under them, possibly even Mina's retractable fangs.

Nemo would need to question both his crew and Jekyll about what happened once everyone was back in the Nautilus and they had gone back under the sea; there, the League could make proper plans then to rescue Frankenstein and there was no risk of someone just walking through the front door into danger, or someone sneaking in.

A thousand questions with no answers.

The Captain wondered if this Marcuse's words were just a distraction, hoping the thought of being used for an experiment would scare them off, and kisses did not always mean something of a sexual nature, he could have just done it to get a reaction out of Nemo for some amusement, since trying to kiss Nemo himself would have ended rather badly, paralyzed or not, the Indian was sure he could still use his mouth well enough to bite.

They would just have to up and leave the HQ, late hour or not; Nemo could not risk any of them falling asleep here. Nothing they had here currently was worth it.

Now to get the rest of their group moving...

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Mina and Nemo made their way back to the others to find that they had thankfully done as told and were safely in the infirmary, with Skinner sitting up in bed, a bit slouched over. Still, he seemed better than before, with a medical crew member informing the Captain that the invisible man had only two broken ribs, both minor fractures, but he would need to be careful.

"Once again, I shall be laid up in bed for several weeks! Do I at least get a pretty nurse this time?" Skinner joked, nodding his head towards Mina, who rolled her eyes and chose to ignore that request for now.

"It's been decided, and we are heading back to the Nautilus tonight; we can't afford to stay here any longer; the walls could have ears now that another vampire has been in this place," Mina informed the rest of the League who looked as though they wanted to ask questions that no one had an answer to "We can compare notes back on the ship, and there we will prepare a rescue mission for Victor Frankenstein."

"Hope this new vamp does not want to hurt him or those little ones..." Skinner sounded both sad and worried, the previous jesting tone gone, a bit of a foreign sound from him to Mina's ears, but he had a right to those emotions; he had grown close to Victor over the weeks and was the one who saved him from dying in the street like a sewer rat.

"He seemed more interested in getting his hands on League members" Nemo found a growl return to his voice; all members of the League were in danger as far as the Captain was concerned; nothing could be how it seemed at that moment; Nemo was not about to cower and let one of his friends be hurt because a vampire wanted to mess with him.

"What would he want us for?" Sawyer asked "to cut us up for parts like Moriarty?"

"I don't know, and I highly doubt any of us want or would like the answer," Nemo said, lightly trying to pull the sleeves of his coat over the bruises the Monster had inflicted, not able to stop the feeling of humiliation over having been snuck up on so easily.

"Well, the best thing is, like you said, to head back to the ship and make some plans there; I don't think vampires can breathe underwater," Quartermain quipped, not liking any of this and being far more out of the loop than he ever would like to be.

"I have never tested and do not wish to test the theory," Mina shot back before heading towards the door. "Keep close together; we don't need any more problems."

"Right...hey...where did the Doc head off to?" Tom alerted as everyone else looked around to see that, indeed...Jekyll was gone.

"Search everywhere!" Mina called urgently; how had he managed to sneak off? Was he already under a thrall? Or had he just walked away for some other reason?

If that man was not in trouble, he was GOING to be!

"Maybe he just walked off to change his shirt? We didn't see him again after the Nautilus almost sank till he was back in his fancy get-up after all," Tom suggested. "It is cold out"

"We can't take that risk" well, Mina took no joy out of embarrassing any of her friends till they were back to safety; Henry would just have to make do with a shawl or have someone with him as he changed.

"I'll notify the ship," Nemo said, pulling out a signal remote only to be stopped as Mina took the radio from him.

"Not yet; by the time we get from here to the ship, someone we don't want could sneak on board if the Naturalis surfaces before we arrive," Mina said, looking in the hallway, hoping to see a flash of red hair or the sound of a pocket watch being toyed with by nervous fingers.

Rustling

Mina headed for it, calling back to the rest of the League to follow her and came up to a room. The vampiress checked the door, which was locked.

Time to fix that!

A feral roar came from Mina's throat as she ripped the door off its hinges as quickly as tearing apart wrapping paper and the League rushed past her into the room.

A surprised squeak of shock came from inside before...

"DOESN'T ANYONE KNOCK ANYMORE!?"

"Hey, Doc, why are you changing all your clothes when you just got your shirt-"

A shoe flew over the gentleman thief's head as a more resounding roar erupted.

"OUT OUT OUT!"