It was freezing out on the pier. Dorian had noticed this matter with slight interest as he waited for Mina to arrive. What was really pulling his attention away from the nasty weather was the face of a small boy looking out from a frosty window across the way. He had his little hands pressed to the glass and his rather large nose flattened there. Dorian was sure he was waving to him.

He stepped behind some crates, but found himself curious as to if the boy were still there at the yellowed glass. When he was a boy, had he ever been interested in staring out windows on frozen nights, of course not! He was hardly allowed to do anything when he was young and then, upon meeting dear Basil, he wasn't even allowed to grow old and die.

But did he really miss it? Of course not! Why miss death?

He peeked around the crates and was quite startled to see Mina standing there staring at him with worried curiosity, "What are you doing?" she asked with a slight curve to her brow, "Are you hiding?"

He stepped out, now clearing his throat, "Nothing. Just waiting on your lateness." He almost snapped at her, but curbed it into a low groan of disapproval.

"You men would wait till the end of time if we were to will it so." She said.

She looked absolutely stunning in her red coat and matching gloves. Her hair was down, hanging loosely in beautiful curls around her perfect face.

He eyed her, "You fed very well, I see." He said as he brushed past her. His eyes went to the little boy's window, but the child was gone now and the room beyond was dark.

"I always feed well when I know I'll be dealing with you." She paused to pull her hair from her face with her gloved hand, "This wind is dreadful tonight."

Dorian took one last look at the darkened home and then turned back to the crates. He walked over, leaning his body against one of the large boxes, "Why are we here? What dark drama are we to reenact tonight? If anything, I want to be the hero this time and not the evil traitor."

"Come, I want to show you something." She moved along the crates, her coat blowing around her ankles. Dorian could now see that she was wearing red boots also. He smiled lightly, wondering where on earth she had found them.

She did have style, he had to admit that. And a wonderful grace, even when wearing such high heeled boots.

He turned to look back at the window, but it was still draped in the darkness of the night. If the boy was still there then he was looking at them, but not being seen.

He resorted to ignoring the child. Mina meant to show him something, but what? He looked at her. She was still out in front of him walking down the long pier. Her black hair flying about wildly behind her. Her boots clicking on the frozen wood below her.

What was it that Basil had said about vampires? Yes, he had told him something about them. But now, with the wind blowing all around him and the constant roar of the waves he couldn't concentrate on anything stored in his mind so he chose to think about it later.

Mina had now stopped at the very end of the pier. She stood there like a stone statue.

When he finally paused himself by her side, she looked at him, "Look down there, just below the waters face and tell me what you see."

"Are you planning to push me in?" he asked, but stepped closer to the frozen edge.

"Do you see it?" she asked, her hand now grabbing his arm as if to keep him with her, "Right there below the surface?"

He did see it. The top edge of the Nautilus. The water lapping over it causing it to glimmer like some fine edged sword.

"We're all to board it tomorrow night." She said softly, with a hint of questioning in her voice.

Dorian was still staring down at it.

Now he moved back, "And?" He asked as he brushed her hand from his arm, "What does this have to do with me?"

"I need you to come with me." She said this in one breath, her eyes still staring down at the ship, "I need your blood."

He leaned himself on the rickety railing of the pier and stared at her, "I see." He said slowly, with somewhat of a pull to his voice, "And what do I get from this venture?

The wind lifted her coat so that she gripped it, pulling it tighter to her body. She now walked over to Dorian and stood staring out at the ocean, "What do you want?"

He stared at her profile for the longest moment, "What's on the Nautilus for you?"

"It's complicated." She reasoned, now tilting her head down to look at him, "I must see Quatermain."

Dorian blinked away some of the snow that was falling now, "Why? And how is it that he has come back from the dead?"

"Voodoo. I think Nemo is willing to explain it to me some night, but for right now all I have been told is that he is alive and well. Before he died he promised to introduce me to someone who could restore my mortality. I must know if this person still exists." She shivered lightly, now crossing her long arms under her breasts, "I want to taste food again, Dorian. You didn't lose anything to your immortality. I lost everything to mine."

"Oh." He said and moved from the railing, "And I suppose you think my immortality is a thrilling affair? Like I just walk around singing about how fantastic my life is. Please, Mina." He looked over at the boy's window again, but still there was no light there. He wished for the boy to show himself again. Where had the child gone? It was almost as if he were now searching for himself in that boy.

He scoffed at himself without Mina seeing him doing so. What the hell could he project onto a small child?

She didn't turn, "Please Dorian."

"I seem to recall the last time we were together you tried to kill me so why do I owe you anything?" he was peering over the edge of the pier again, looking down at the Nautilus, "It's gone deeper."

She turned to him, her hair now blinding her; "You tried to kill me first."

"I placed my sword in your stomach very much aware of the heart being my main target." His hair was now covered in a soft blanket of white, "You slayed me with my painting and left me there for dead."

She busied herself with pulling her hair up on top of her head, "This argument could go on forever. And I don't have that much time. Will you come or not?"

"Hmmm…" he now had that slight grin tainting his pale lips, "I think I just figured out what I want."

"You're usually good at that." She was leaning now where he had been leaning, her head tilted back so that the snow fell on her face.

"How long will this voyage be?"

She closed her eyes, "A month."

"And I suppose I will be hidden in your room?" He neared her, but stepped back upon seeing the bite wound on her neck. He hated the sight of it.

"Yes. I don't think the league would agree to you being on board."

He wanted to kiss her throat, "I'll be bored to death."

She rolled her head now so that her chin was touching her chest and her eyes were still closed, "I'll keep you company."

"I want Lucifer on board." He said and caught sight of the lit window again. He stared out at it, now seeing that a tall figure was standing there. He puzzled this for a moment and then went on, "But that isn't all."

She shook her head and groaned. Dorian surpressed his aching want for her, now turning to move back toward the crates at the other end of the pier, "Can't you make this easy for me." She moaned as she followed.

"Getting out of a cursed painting isn't very easy either, dear Mina. Thank God Ba…" he moaned from a gust of wind that rattled past, "You must agree upon everything or I won't go."

He paused behind the crates, "Thank God what?" she asked, "Finish that sentence."

"It's not important." He said, but his eyes showed that it was the answer to the mystery of his immortality, "Now, what else do I want?" he purred with his dark eyes boring into her.

She seemed to realize where they were standing, "This is not the proper place for that." She said as she moved deeper into the shadows of the large boxes.

He grinned lightly, shaking the snow from his hair, "Really Mina, you have a very dirty mind, but that isn't what I am looking for right now." He stared out at the far off lights of another pier, "A month long voyage will leave me needing a few things. So, by the end of the trip this is what I want or you belong to me for a year."

She stepped to the side of the pier, "All right."

"You'll get me Jekyll's pocket watch, Tom's gun, Skinner's coat and Nemo's beard."

The wind whipped up around her and she turned, "That's insane."

He slid his dark eyes up to meet with hers, "Those are my terms, take it or leave it."