"Be careful, you idiot, that box is filled with glassware!"
Jekyll snuck around the boxes and small pathways that made up the seedier areas of the town, knowing a man in a suit would be seen as easy prey. But, even if Henry did manage to grab the elixir tucked safely away in his waistcoat, he would much rather avoid a drawn-out fight that meant he could miss Mina entirely or, if he could not take the potion for some reason, force her to come to his rescue.
That would be a relatively poor start to what he hoped would be a lovely afternoon.
"Can you sense or smell anything, Edward?"
"There is something familiar here...but it is not Mina...wait...I do smell her...something is wrong; we need to find her and get out of this place quickly."
Henry could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up suddenly as his brain buzzed in alarm; what could be wrong? Was Mina hurt? What could possibly hurt a vampire?
Pain exploded at the back of Jekyll's head as something heavy slammed into his skull.
The world went black
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Henry groaned as he came to his senses; the first thing he noted was that his hands were tied behind his back with some sort of wire, the metal not yet warmed by his skin, and dug rather harshly into his wrists, thankfully not yet cutting into them.
"Oh, good, you are awake."
"No, not HIM!"
"Dorian Gray...but...Mina-"
"It takes more than that to take down someone like me" Dorian smiled smugly and grinned wider when the sound of a chain dragging was heard. "Oh, seems we woke up, dear Mina."
Looking off to the side, Henry could see Mina was, in fact chained up, the chain glowing with some kind of enchantment, something strong enough to hold a vampire.
A shudder went down Henry's spine as he caught a glimpse of Mina's eyes, blood red and feral. Was the chain doing something to her mind?
"What have you done to her?!" Henry hissed, trying to maneuver his fingers to fit through the loops in the wire, to perhaps loosen it enough to get free, it was painful, with the thin metal cutting the tops of his hands and fingers, causing warm blood to drip onto the floor, but he had felt a lot worse. The fact that the wire was moving with the aid of the blood helped his resolve.
Mina stopped struggling as harshly as her nose twitched in the air, no doubt the scent of freshly flowing blood was prickling her senses.
"Careful about spilling your own blood, Henry; Mina is not in her right mind; the scent will no doubt drive her even madder," Edward warned. "We handle the poof and call for aid, perhaps just removing the chains will help restore her sanity, but I would rather not be the one to test that theory"
"How do you suggest otherwise? One bite will not change us, but when she is like this, she could easily rip my neck out..."
"Maybe try shoving him at her, he's a sandbag dressed in a suit, and he is smaller, he won't please her for long, having no blood, but perhaps long enough to get it off"
"Just testing out a supposed enchanted chain...now...what might this be?" Dorian said, holding up the potion vial, the pink glass glinting from the sunlight peeking through a nearby window.
"It...a special type of alcohol I created. Mina can't enjoy it being...how she is...so I made her one she can taste properly," Henry lied, glad to know he was right about the chain and not about to let the immortal know what the potion was really for, he would no doubt shove it down Mina's throat to do God knows what to her the moment she was a mortal woman again, or just kill her outright.
"A doctor and a distiller, interesting resume..." Dorian sneered, "Well, since our dear Mina is not exactly in the best position to be drinking...I think I will see how this is"
Flashbacks to Dante gulping down the HJ9 formula back in the factory before turning into a demon-Hyde sent shivers down Henry's spine as he watched Dorian put the vial to his lips and tip it back, the contents of which not even a drop was spilled.
The immortal groaned, clutching his throat. "What did you put in that?!" Dorian choked and gagged; Henry thought he even might throw the formula back up. "I'm going to-"
He never managed to finish the sentence.
Finally, the wire dropped to the cement, and Jekyll launched himself at Dorian's feet, using the loss of balance to cause the other man to tumble right into Mina's clutches.
Dorian screamed as gleaming fangs found his neck, and much to his horror, felt hot blood spill down his throat and his body weaken as the elixir did its job.
Henry watched as the blood dripped onto the floor, it worked on Dorian?
A screech from Mina as her prey almost squirmed away drove the doctor out of his shock and he ran forward, barely avoiding becoming bitten himself as thin fingers found the clasp to unlock the collar, it fell to the floor with a thud and Henry almost made a most-un-gentlemanly noise of delight seeing red eyes turn back to blue.
Mina groaned as the pressure in her head lifted, it felt like someone had smashed a hammer into her skull and then sat on it and something heavy was in her arms, which the vampiress dropped in shock, seeing exactly who it was.
Then Henry caught her eye.
He looked terrible...and he was covered in blood.
Jekyll did his best to use his sleeves to cover up the many cuts on his hands, not wanting to alarm Mina more than she already was "Are...you...feeling better?"
"You're bleeding."
"It's nothing, let us just get back to the Nautilus..." Henry tried to soothe as he took Mina's arms to help her step over Dorian's twitching body, no doubt the both of them needed a bath and rest.
Mina nodded.