Alek waited until they were thoroughly out of earshot before listing his demands.
"You will tell your superiors that you have taken me back to my cell, return my equipment, then run off somewhere else and pretend to deliver the message."
From the disappointed look he received Alek wondered if Dylan was fully aware of how frightened Alek was underneath his stance. This might have been a moment where the boy would have sighed, if that were an expression his kind was familiar with.
"Blackmail, then?" he asked, almost tired, "We're really going with blackmail?"
"You leave me no choice!" Alek cried, "I need to go home, or else all of you will-"
Alek cut the sentence short as he realized what he was about to say, causing a smirk to play on Dylan's lips.
"Die?" he offered less then helpfully.
"You know what I mean. At the very least, your ship will be destroyed."
"It'll be destroyed if we don't ask for your family's help too," Dylan said, "And if Doctor Barlow's right about the cocktail we might all be blacked out under the snow by the end this week."
Alek remembered seeing Dylan awaken from that state and imagined an entire crew popping out of the snow with murderous intent.
"Then I can try to convince them once I get back," Alek said, "Either way, I need to leave before it's too late."
Dylan studied him for a long time, before running a hand through his hair.
"Alright, alright," he said, "But first come with me."
Being lead through a ship of bloodthirsty monsters whilst simultaneously being full of blood gave Alek some perspective on what an unattractive lobster might feel like when cooks surrounded its tank. They would snap their heads up to inspect him as if they knew he was coming, study him for worth, and decide whatever they were doing was of a greater importance. This was disconcerting on its own, for all the Lady Boffin had assured his safety the law hadn't stopped Dylan before, but Alek was thankful at least his interaction with the creatures was limited only a fearful glance.
The further they walked the more irritable Dylan himself became, until finally he signaled for Alek to stop. Then, much to Alek's shock, he grunted and slammed his fist into a wall, leaving a sizable dent. The kind of dent that could damage even the storm walker, much to Alek's horror.
From the way his body convulsed Dylan might have been breathing heavily, but upon closer inspection Alek could see he was merely twitching with some insane passion. Finally he seemed to compose himself, and looked pitifully back at Alek.
"Listen, I know this is all strange for you, but can you try to be a bit less…scared?"
Alek froze in his place, unsure if he should be offended at Dylan's suggestion of cowardice or explain that he couldn't exactly help it.
"Alright, that was a daft thing to say," Dylan admitted after some time, "But…its just I can feel it."
"Feel…what?" Alek asked, "Fear?"
"Aye," Dylan croaked, "I can smell it on you, and your pulse is so loud I feel like you're beating me with it. I don't know how everyone else feels, but barking spiders can you calm down a little please?"
All Alek could do was nod slowly, unsure of how he would go about doing this. He supposed it was just something else to push away for later, like his parent's death and the magnitude of the Pope's letter. But then, it had been a lot easier to forget those things while held captive by monsters, Alek didn't think there was anything more pressing then escaping this ship. He was about to say so when he saw the desperation on Dylan's face, and for an absurd moment felt guilty that drinking his blood had made the boy so ill.
"I didn't ask to be captured," Alek said stiffly.
"I didn't ask to be woken up," Dylan retorted harshly, then his face softened into a smile, "I could be having a nice nap where you found me right now, only to be awoken once we're all set to take off again."
The way the boy spoke about laying dead in the snow almost sounded appealing.
"Could you not just do that now?" Alek asked, to which the boy shook his head.
"I don't think I could sleep now if I ran a thousand miles," he admitted, "But everyone says that's normal after your first black out. Apparently I'll be back to my usual self soon, and you can be as spooked as you like."
This time the comment wasn't entirely antagonistic, which Alek did not entirely appreciate.
"I'm not afraid," he insisted, crossing his arms, "I would say that my concern is perfectly justified so long as I am trapped within this godless beast."
Something about what he had said was funny to Dylan, he laughed like a real person might have and continued on his way. Alek fell in beside him, choosing to remain silent until they reached their destination. It seemed to be a store room of some kind, mostly destroyed by the crash but with the odd crate still in tact.
"You've spent most of the day Mesmerized," Dylan said, "Which means it felt shorter, but you actually haven't eaten in a long while."
Just as Alek was about to protest, he felt a pang of hunger wrench through his gut. Dylan seemed to notice this and smiled sympathetically.
"This food's for the beasties, but you definitely wont make it across the glacier if you don't eat. Wont be a feast, but take whatever you can for now. Might keep you alive, and we'd really prefer you alive if you don't mind."
"A sentiment I share," he admitted, "You needn't wory."
Dylan tossed him a brick of what turned out to be a packet of dried meat. Alek looked down at the suggestion in disgust, then sighed and went about unwrapping it. From his weeks on the run Alek could tell immediately that, while distasteful, the meat was fit for human consumption. Thinking of the hot bath he could have once this ordeal was over made it easier to eat the tasteless flesh, though he still felt his leather jacket would be easier to chew. After a valiant effort he no longer felt about to faint, but Dylan wasn't finished rummaging through the crates yet.
"One more thing," he said, coming up to Alek with a fistful or raw spinach.
Alek glanced between Dylan's outstretched fist and his face.
"You cannot be serious."
"I'm dead serious!" Dylan said, brows knitting together with concern, "Spinach is full of iron!"
Dylan said this with such emphasis that Alek felt he should have known what he was talking about. Apparently his blank expression tipped the boy off.
"You know, in the offhanded event you've been spontaneously suffering from an iron- deficiency for the last twenty-four hours."
Alek felt it wasn't even worth saying he didn't know what an iron-deficiency was.
The boy groaned.
"Iron-deficiency," he explained slowly, "Is a common side effect of blood loss."
Alek's eyes widened as he took the offering, unable to think of what to say.
"Ah," He finally managed.
The gesture was odd to him not only because he didn't understand how eating spinach would somehow make up for bleeding all over the snow, but also in the nature behind it in the first place. Since the moment he had broken loose of that trance Dylan had done nothing but help Alek, even if most of it was inadvertently.
It was almost surreal, linking this boy back to the thing that had attacked him. The creature who had held him down in the snow couldn't be capable of speech, or humor, or what Alek was realizing was a level of common decency.
"You aren't…" Alek found himself saying, "At all what I expected."
This caught Dylan's attention, "How'd you mean?"
"I don't know, I suppose when I picture a vampire- apologies, 'legal undead', I see someone…" he waived a vague hand, "…perhaps a bit more fixated with candelabras and torture chambers."
Dylan snorted at this, "I can't say I have a preference for either, and any who have either got themselves staked or could afford a cure."
"A cure?" Alek asked, "But Doctor Barlow said there was no cure."
"No perfect cure, aye," Dylan said, "But anyone with enough money can live as though they're human just as well. The treatment is like the vaccine. It turns you back but is only temporary, and the amount you'd need to take to live out a normal lifespan is more then any of us could afford."
He smirked, "If we could, there'd be no reason to be here, would there?"
Alek blinked at him, astonished.
When the Lady Boffin had described the undead as 'victims' and 'infected' he had to keep from rolling his eyes, but when he thought about it he supposed there was truth to the statement. It wasn't as though Dylan had chosen to be an abomination. In all likelihood the boy had probably been attacked just as Alek had. And unlike Alek, his attacker hadn't the decency to give him spinach afterwards. This was the past of all the men here, victims of circumstance left behind by the advancements of modern medicine.
The Leviathan was little more than a ship of slaves.
"Is it awful?" Alek found himself asking, to which the boy smirked and shook his head.
"Believe it or not I wanted this life before turning," he said, "Now I just know I'll get to stay here forever."
Alek searched for sadness in him but found none.
"So, that's you've been doing, serving on this ship since you changed?" Another surreal thought occurred to him, "How old are you?"
"In my forties, I suspect," Dylan admitted, "But there's really no point in counting. I know time is passing, but don't feel as if a moment has gone by since I woke up underground."
Though curious about the story behind that statement, Alek wasn't quite ready to inquire. There were other more pressing questions that came to mind.
"Doctor Barlow insisted I didn't need the vaccine, I didn't tell you bit me because-"
"Because you wanted to blackmail me, aye," Dylan interrupted with a smirk, "And now you're wondering if you're going to end up joining the crew."
Dylan shook his head.
"For that to happen I'd have to take it all." he said.
Alek sighed with relief, "Then it is a good thing I was able to shove you off."
"Shove me off?" Dylan scoffed, "Not barking likely. I snapped out of it the same time you did. I jumped off because I wanted to, if I hadn't there wasn't anything you would have been able to do about it, trust me."
The temperature of the room seemed to drop, if at all possible. Alek found himself flinching back instinctually, entirely outside his own influence.
Dylan picked up on his discomfort and chuckled lightly.
"It'd also take more then one trip. There's a lot of blood in the human body, and we're roughly the same size. I don't think I'd get away with draining you in one go," he looked away awkwardly, "I'm having a hard enough time handling what I did take."
"I'm beginning to think the law against taking fresh blood is more for your sake then mine," Alek mused aloud.
"I definitely never plan on trying it again."