Derek and I watched as we sailed away from Rome and then crawled into our beds to be rocked into an uneasy sleep. The seasickness hit me quickly and unexpectedly near dawn. I hurried to the nearest bucket and upchucked into it. Derek heard me sobbing into the bucked a few minutes later and came to comfort me. After I had finally emptied my stomach, I asked him, hoarsely, 'don't you feel queasy at all?'
'Nope.' This resilience to this horrific seasickness made me angry, but there was nothing that I could do about it.
My stomach seemed to become quite settled when Derek ate breakfast. I went without it and asked him to show me how to defend myself. He agreed to do so and within an hour we were on deck and he was showing me pressure points and different holds. A few of them were quite simple but several were much more complicated and, therefore, took much longer to learn.
The day melted away into night (with multiple heavings of an empty stomach) and we joined the eight-man crew on deck and watched them play cards. When the moon shown for an hour in the sky, a big burley redhead asked us to play. We both politely refused but when they kept insisting, Derek joined in. I, on the other hand, was quite exhausted but I wasn't ready for bed, so I headed to the pile of crates at the front of the ship. I climbed up on one and leaned against another, staring out into the sea as I began to dwell on memories of the past year. Especially what had happened since Halloween.
"Come on, you hermit," taunted Kait, "let's go out."
"I don't want to," I replied shortly, annoyed at her recent take to whining.
"It's just John's house," added Courtney, "And if anything bad happens, we'll just leave."
"I don't know…" I trailed off, trying to think of a good way to tell them off.
"Where is your sense of adventure?" asked Courtney.
' "Where is your sense of adventure?",' I scoffed and then sighed. 'Oh, Courtney, if only you would have known what had happened that night. I had my adventure, watched Anna die, knowing that I could have saved her.'
I felt my tears well up in my eyes, so I gazed up at the full moon and blinked a few times to get rid of them
'Lovely, isn't it?' asked a voice behind me
'Quite,' I turned to see a young man, about my age, looking up at the silver orb. He had long copper hair, deep brown eyes, and the beginnings of a beard on his youthful face. Yet, something about him looked familiar.
"You are Erica Townsend, are you not?'
'Yes,' I replied.
How did he know my name?
'The same one who helped the Valerious family?'
Oh, shit. Who is this guy?
'Yes, why?'
'I would like to thank you. I have heard that you had assisted them by killing Count Dracula. The entire town and country is grateful for it, but none have been able to find you since.'
'Oh, um, thank you…and who are you?' Wow, you're blunt…
'How rude of me,' he apologized, 'my name is Van.'
'Is there a last name that goes with that?'
'None that I know of. I had the majority of my memory lost almost six months ago. All I know is my name.'
'That's depressing.'
'Yes, more than you know,' he cocked his head to the side, 'but you remind me of someone I once knew.'
'I'm sure that I do. Could it be Princess Anna Valerious?'
'It's a possibility.'
We talked for almost 1½ hour before Derek practically escorted me to bed. And before I blew out the candle, I noticed that his back was to me as he lay in bed.
The next day, Derek trained me again, but this time how to shoot a gun. But he used as few words as possible to do this. This bothered me. During lunch, I finally confronted him about it.
'Is there something wrong?' I asked, taking a sip of water (I had practically lived on a form of bread that tasted like saltine crackers and water).
'No, why do you ask?' he didn't even look up from his sandwich as he said this.
'One, you haven't even said anything conversational all day. And, two, you can't even look me in the eyes.'
'There is nothing to talk about,' he replied as he stood and headed for the railing. I frowned.
What is his problem?
'Hi, Miss Townsend,' said Van, as he took Derek's now empty chair.
'Call me Erica,' I replied automatically.
'Is something the matter with your husband?' he asked.
'My husband? Why do you think that?' I asked, surprised.
'Sorry, I just assumed…' he paled and I laughed.
'That's fine. I suppose that it is unnatural for Derek and I to share a room without being married.'
'I suppose,' replied Van with a shrug. I glanced at Derek and our eyes met. As soon as our eyes met, I immediately knew and almost blushed.
Derek is jealous of Van. I almost smacked my head. How could I be so blind? But he couldn't like me that much…could he?
'What are you going to do in London?' asked Van. I looked at him again.
'We are meeting up with a friend.'
'Ever been there before?' I shook my head.
'But I suppose that there is a first for everything,' I replied, shrugging. 'Are you going to stay in London to look for family?'
'I don't quite know for sure.'
'Why don't you?' I suggested, 'maybe my friend may recognize you.'
'Why not?' he looked past me at Derek and I looked as well. Derek was still leaving over the railing. I inhaled deeply before asking Van, 'how much longer before London?'
'About eight more hours, I think. A little after nightfall.'
'Okay, I'll talk to you later, Van,' I replied and stood and walked to join Derek.
I mimicked Derek, leaning over the railing, and said, 'ship will dock after nightfall.' When he said nothing, I continued, 'perfect weather for sailing, isn't it?' Again, no reply. To test him to see if he was actually paying attention, I said in a low tone, 'as soon as we get to London, Van is going to take me to dinner. He asked to court me.'
'What?' he was now looking at me with fire in his eyes. I smiled.
'Ha, got you talking.' It took him a second before he realized that I was joking. He then frowned and gazed out across the tranquil, unending ocean.
'Seriously, what is wrong? You can tell me,' I said gently.
'It's nothing.'
'It's something,' I insisted.
'Don't worry about it,' he turned to me and offered me a smile, 'ready to continue?'
I nodded and we began our training again, talking and joking as though nothing had happened.
Men are the most strange and complicated breed of humanity.
LondonThat evening, Van accompanied us off the ship and all three of us headed for the Inn, which, as it turns out, Carl had told Derek that four rooms had been reserved for us at The Rogue Inn. The Rogue Inn was near the dock and was barely visible from the ship due to all the smog. Van and Derek flanked me, as thought protecting me, as we headed into London to the Inn to settle down in our rooms for the night.
As it were, I was still recovering from my bouts of seasickness, so I wasn't in the mood to eat or sleep, so I headed out into London with my "bodyguard", Derek. We were both laden with weapons and we had left Van at the Inn, telling him that we had a meeting that we had to attend to.
After a few minutes of strolling the streets together, I heard a howl, followed by a blood-curdling shriek. Without thinking twice, I sprinted towards the sounds, ignoring Derek calling for me to wait. The scream rang through the night a second time, this time to my left, in the alley. I turned the corner and skidded to a halt when I saw a huge shaggy gray dog a few feet inside. It stood over a body.
The dog ignored its victim, put its snout into the air and sniffed before it turned to me and snarled.
'Another hunter.'
I froze. Did that dog just speak to me?
I quickly grabbed at the gun at my belt, fumbling with the holster's securing strap to pull the pistol out. I finally pulled it out as the dog bound for me. It knocked me to the ground and then vanished onto the street.
I laid on the ground for a moment, recovering my senses, and trying to figure out what had just happened. A dog had just spoken to me and then jumped me.
I slowly sat up as I heard Derek's footsteps approach from behind. I felt him grab my arms and help me up.
'Erica, are you al right?'
'I think so.' Once I was steady on my feet, he released me and glanced out onto the street.
'What was that thing?' I bent over and picked up my pistol, and brushed it off before putting it back into my holster. I loosely put the strap back on and then looked up at the young woman slumped over against the wall. I could tell by the extreme dark coloration around her neck that her throat had been torn out.
'Werewolf,' I replied simple as I took a few steps towards her. I crouched down next to her. The air around her smelt of blood and I wrinkled my nose. I dislike the smell and taste the substance and this was no different. I carefully reached out and pulled back her dark curly hair from her face and neck.
'Is she…' he stepped up behind me.
'Yes, Derek, she is dead,' I confirmed. This girl was my age, possibly, and of middle class. Her dark hair reminded me, for some reason, of Anna. And her dark, large eyes, now lifeless, were like Anna's as well. Suddenly Anna's body replaced the girl's. My breath quickened as I heard a voice echo in my mind. You could have saved her, you killed her. You murderer!
I cried out as I tried to get away from the body. I scrambled backwards and fell my butt before crawling backwards until I stepped on my hand and fell. At this, I curled up into a ball and buried my face and began to sob.
'Erica?' I felt Derek touch my shoulder and I stopped crying and looked up at his bright blue eyes. 'What's wrong?'
I glanced over at the body of the young girl; Anna's was no longer there. I shivered once and wiped the tears from my eyes and stood. I brushed off my pants as I said, 'we need to get out of here before the police arrive and we become prime suspects.'
'Good idea,' he said. We then snuck out of the alley and hurried back to the Inn. I didn't say a word but I could see Derek giving me sideways looks, as though he was waiting for me to break down. As soon as we got to the Inn, I said goodnight and headed into my room. Without changing my clothes or pulling down my covers, I lay onto the bed and gazed at the dark ceiling. I couldn't go to sleep because that horrifyingly gory image plagued my mind.
Who was she? Did she have a family? Friends? And why was she chosen to die, in a city with thousands of girls? Why was she chosen to be hunted down and ruthlessly slaughter?
And I? Why wasn't I killed as well? This bothered me the most. The wolf had its chance and ignored it. And it spoke. Do werewolves speak? And those words "Another hunter"? Did that mean that he knew where Van Helsing was?
I silently cursed. Why hadn't I shot at it? I could have injured the accursed thing and questioned it. But now, it will go back to its leader and I may disappear as well. But, if I disappeared…would I go to be with Van Helsing or would I be killed?
'No,' I shook my head and turned over to my left side, 'deliberately getting captured is not an option.'
I closed my eyes as exhaustion finally took its toll on me and I drifted into a dreamless sleep.