by Mark Woods
Charlotte didn’t mind.
Either way, the end results were still the same.
The worst bit of her night-time excursions was always waking up and remembering what it was she might have done. If the pills helped her forget, then that, she figured, was better than nothing.
One day, curiosity got the better of her and Charlotte went looking for the pills in a bid to try and determine what they were.
She found them eventually, hidden away in a bottom drawer in a bottle labelled Aconitum. After doing some research in Henry’s study, amongst the various medical tomes that he kept there, all Charlotte could discover was that the pills were some kind of herbal remedy derived from a plant sometimes referred to as Devils Helmet, or occasionally Blue Rocket for the flowers it produced, and was left none the wiser. She had no way of knowing that sometimes, and more commonly, the plant was also known by yet another name – Wolfs bane – but even if she had, it would probably have meant nothing to her and so, in the end, she just kept taking the pills.
It was Henry’s dedication to her, his endless obsession with helping her, and his willingness to stick by her regardless of her increasingly poor mental health or how she might feel about him in return, that first caused Charlotte to realise that somewhere along the way, he had fallen in love with her – and that somehow, she had come to love him too.
And so, eventually, she had finally agreed to marry him and the rest, as they said, was history…
Now, Henry was all that she had left – her own family having long abandoned her in the wake of her breakdown and everything that had preceded it – and he was the only person Charlotte had left that she believed she could truly rely on.
She had no idea the secrets he was keeping from her.
***
“Are you okay?” Henry asked her now, feeling her shiver beneath his embrace, a chill seemingly running down her spine despite the warm and clement weather.
His new wife, Charlotte, shook her head. “I think I’m starting to feel a bit sea-sick. Can we go back below decks now, back down to our cabin, Henry, please?”
Henry nodded, understandingly. “Course we can, my love,” he told her. “It’ll probably take you a few days to fully develop your sea legs. We had a long journey here; it’ll do you good to get some rest now so that we can enjoy the rest of the voyage together. Don’t forget there’s the Halloween Ball later tonight, you won’t want to miss that because you’re feeling ill. Better to have a little nap now, and then maybe you’ll feel more like yourself a bit later.”
With barely a glance back to where she thought she’d spied Lukaas, Charlotte allowed herself to be gently taken downstairs – below decks, she reminded herself. That was what you called it when you were on a ship.
Below decks…
Could it truly have been him, she thought, after all this time, doubting herself yet again.
And if it was, what cruel twist of Fate had caused them to cross paths again?
The Bellastaria was a small ship, one of the most luxurious cruise liners around right now but still small, and Charlotte thought it highly unlikely that if it was Lukaas she’d seen, that she’d be able to avoid him for the whole, entire duration of their trip.
But what are the chances? Charlotte thought. Really, what are the chances of it really being him again after all this time?
She was probably mistaken, Charlotte told herself. It was probably just someone who looked like him; looked like he had all those years ago. Five years was a long time and surely if it had been him, she tried to convince herself, he would have aged by now, or at the very least changed somewhat, in all the years that they had been apart. There was no way on God’s earth, she told herself, that he could possibly have remained the same all these years, as if no time had passed…it was simply impossible, unnatural…
Starting to feel panicky at the thought that it could’ve been Lukaas she’d seen, and still not entirely sure how she felt about that, Charlotte allowed Henry to lead her back down to their cabin and once safely inside, waited while Henry closed and locked the door securely behind them.
Trying to forget about what she just thought she’d seen, Charlotte took her new husband in her arms.
“Hold me,” she said.
***
Lukaas was standing at the stern of the boat – ship, he reminded himself, not a boat; vessels like this were always referred to as ships – also looking out across the ocean from the lower deck where he stood, when he looked up and saw her, Lottie, at exactly the same moment as he caught her looking back down at him.
It had been almost five years since he had seen her last, and there was no way, he told himself, that it could really, possibly be her…except it was. He was sure of it.
Lottie….
Lottie was on this ship, sailing back to England – just as he was – though if things went to plan, The Bellastaria would never end up reaching its final destination.
Much had changed since the last time that he had seen Lottie, Lukaas thought. He was a very different wolf now from the one he had been, back when he had last known her. After being summoned back to America, his continued arrogance and failure to observe the rules of the pack had seen him ending up being punished by his Alpha and declared a Ronin, or lone wolf. He had been cast aside and abandoned by the only family he had ever known…but this trip, this trip was supposed to be his way of going some way towards repairing all of that.
He had been offered one last chance, one final opportunity to prove his loyalty to the pack and show he could follow the rules, could be a team player, and now suddenly here she was, Lottie. The one who had gotten him into trouble with his Alpha in the first place, back in his life again, just as he’d thought he’d finally managed to put his past with her behind him. This threatened to fuck everything up for him again by stirring up feelings deep inside that he’d thought he’d long ago managed to banish and put aside for good.
It had been those same feelings for her initially, five years ago, that Lukaas still believed had been responsible for his exile. Though he too felt he must share some of the blame for his uncontrollable temper, and the rage that had led to him brutally killing the Vampyre that had marked her, still a small part of him blamed Lottie as well for seducing him and causing him to have feelings for her in the first place.
The sort of feelings that did not just simply go away, he now realised.
Fuck, Lottie, he thought. What are you doing here? And why now? Why did you have to walk back into my life after so many years apart?
There was something different about her, Lukaas suddenly noticed, picking up a change in her scent as it carried to him on the wind. Something had changed since the last time he had seen her. She still carried his mark upon her, the mark of the wolf – along with that of the Vampyre who had also marked her all those years ago – but there was something else, something different about her, almost as if the two marks combined had done something to her, had had an effect on her that neither he, nor the Vampyre who had bitten her, could ever have anticipated…
With a shock, Lukaas suddenly realised what it was; Lottie was no longer human…or at least, not fully as she had once been.
No, in the years since he had last seen her, somehow she had evolved. She had changed and become something else, something different. Something in between Human and Lycanthrope that was neither one thing nor the other but instead, something very rare. Something Lukaas had only ever heard talk about in whispers before, and that if he were being honest, had never really ever expected to see either.
No, somehow she had become a hybrid – part Lycanthrope, part Human, but worse, part Vampyre as well.
None of the other wolves on-board, Lukaas knew, would be able to sense it - not least because most of them were still cubs and as Ronin, who had never spent time in a pack, were far less disciplined than him - but he could…
Looking at her now, Lukaas found himself wondering how she ever must have coped all these years. From al
l he had read, and what little he knew, her transformation from human into hybrid would have left her with not just a thirst for blood but also a craving for flesh, and no doubt she must have spent much of the time since he’d last seen her feeling very troubled and confused.
Things must have been very difficult for her, Lukaas thought, and suddenly felt a tinge of guilt at having abandoned her all those years ago – something he never would have done had he known what his mark, combined with that of the Vampyre, might do to her.
I should have been there for her, he thought, but his orders from the Alpha to come home had been clear, and not something he had felt he could refuse at that time.
Maybe if he’d have known how things were going to turn out, if he had known he was going to end up being excommunicated from the pack anyway, then maybe, just maybe, he might have plucked up courage to defy his Alpha. Back then, however, he’d had no way of knowing what might happen, so he had simply done as he was told like a good member of the pack.
As Lukaas stood there, looking up at Lottie, he suddenly realised there was a man standing beside her. He saw the two of them together, saw how close they were, touching in a romantic way, and from the way the man held her figured that, most likely, this must be Lottie’s new lover and the man she had no doubt chosen to replace him with.
Lukaas felt a small tinge of jealousy and despite himself, found himself wondering who the other man was and how the two of them might have met.
Judging from their body language, they had obviously known each other for some time. As Lukaas continued to watch, he found himself wondering if this might be the one responsible for helping her through all the difficult times, the changes her body he imagined must have gone through since the last time that he had seen her.
How the man could possibly have known how to help Lottie, Lukaas didn’t know. He was no Vampyre or Lycanthrope, this much Lukaas could tell, even from all the way down here – but that was something to worry about later. Right now, Lukaas thought, he had bigger fish to fry.
He needed to get Lottie on her own somehow.
He needed to talk to her, and warn her, tell her that she needed to get off the ship and now…
She had no idea, no way of knowing, just how much danger she was in.
In the last eighteen months or so, attempts to form a truce between the Lycanthropes and the Vampyre – that had been going on for years, and that even his own Alpha had been keen to encourage – had fallen by the wayside. Largely because of a small group of Vampyre who were determined to sabotage the process and did not believe a truce between their two species was in any of their best interests.
In a bid to demonstrate a show of strength - and to show not only were they not ones to be messed with, but also, in part, to seek revenge against the Vampyre for the large numbers of wolves that had been killed in recent months - the Lycanthropes had set up a trap for the Vampyre, here on-board the luxury cruise ship, The Bellastaria.
Nicknamed The Lycanthroship by members of Lukaas’ pack because of the large number of wolves that made up its crew, the intention was to use the ship as a modern-day version of the infamous Trojan horse and to this end, had invited a large number of highly powerful and influential Vampyre to join them on The Bellastaria’s maiden voyage, the plan being to slaughter them all later once the ship got under way.
Supposedly there to take part in a series of peace talks, the Vampyre had been bribed with the promise of a good time and plenty of human guests on which to feed and feast upon. They were wholly unaware that once the ship got under way, it would be them who would be the ones being slaughtered and not just the humans, brought on as bait and chosen specifically because, for the most part, they were nobodies and unlikely to be missed.
The plan was to kill everyone on-board, devour the bodies, and then abandon The Bellastaria to drift like a modern-day Marie-Celeste. With no survivors left on-board, the fate of the passengers and crew would remain a mystery, and the Vampyre would be left with no proof of the wolves’ involvement in the killings.
Then, in about a year’s time, the wolves could re-launch and re-brand the ship, but this time with a new name and a totally new crew.
The Vampyre might suspect, but they would ever know for certain what had happened on The Bellastaria and to the rest of the world, the disappearance of everyone on-board would just go down as yet another nautical mystery to be pondered for years to come like The Bermuda Triangle, or the legend of The Flying Dutchman.
As part of their plan, the wolves chosen to act as crew had all masked their scent, so as to remain undetected by the Vampyre until they were ready to attack. The intention was to let the ship get fully underway, and then launch into attack mid-way through the Halloween Ball scheduled later tonight, when everyone was distracted, so they could wipe out all the Vampyre in one foul hit before they even knew what was going on.
If everything ran smoothly - and there was no reason, Lukaas thought, that it shouldn’t - this would strike back a blow not just for his former pack, but for all the other wolves all across the world who had likewise lost kin to the evil blood-suckers and their ways.
The human guests were just collateral damage.
Lukaas had been put in control of co-ordinating the attack, not only to prove to his Alpha that despite evidence to the contrary, he could still follow orders, but also to demonstrate he was still of use to his pack, but the last thing he had been expecting when he had agreed to this mission was to find Lottie on-board.
Hell, he had barely even thought of her in over four years, let alone attempted to keep tabs on her, or where she was and what she was doing.
He was regretting that now though.
Before his exclusion, brought about as a result of his alleged inability to follow his Alpha’s orders, Lukaas had been an important member of his pack. This, tonight, was his chance to win back not just his Alpha’s favour, but also the faith of the rest of his former pack and prove that he still had some worth.
If he did well, and if he successfully and seamlessly helped bring about the whole-scale slaughter of all the Vampyre on-board, he had been promised he would no longer be considered Ronin by his pack. He would be allowed to re-take his place back amongst the one and only family he had ever known, and be allowed to re-join his brethren, his wolf brothers and sisters, back where he truly belonged.
There was nothing Lukaas wanted more.
He had never been meant to be a Lone-wolf, he saw that now.
But first, before all that, Lukaas needed to help Lottie escape – he needed to help her get away and off of the ship to safety.
He owed her that much at least, he thought, after everything he figured she must have gone through in the years since they’d parted – not least all the changes her body must still be going through, even now, thanks to the twin marks he and the Vampyre had left upon her.
If he didn’t, and he let her die here tonight, let her get caught up in the slaughter due to happen in just a few short hours, Lukaas didn’t think he could ever live with himself.
No, he had to get her off the ship.
Even if it meant putting the whole mission at risk…
Lukaas turned, and was about to head for the stairs that would lead him back up to the upper deck where Lottie was standing so he could try and find a way of approaching her without causing a scene, when one of his fellow wolves apprehended him.
“The Alpha is on the radio for you,” the wolf, whose name he did not know, said to him, pulling him to one side so that he could talk to Lukaas without the risk of anyone overhearing. “He says you were supposed to call him when the ship set sail, to notify him and confirm that everything was all set and that everything was ready to proceed as planned.”
“Tell him I’ll be right there,” Lukaas said. He wanted to go, wanted to palm the other wolf off and go after Lottie now, strike while the iron was hot so to speak, but at the same time, knew he could not ignore a call from his Alpha.
Not if he
wanted to stay in his good books that is.
No, warning Lottie about how much danger she was in and how she needed to get off the ship would just have to wait for now.
Lukaas turned back to look up at the upper deck where he had last seen her, for one last wistful gaze, but Lottie was already gone – having no doubt already moved off to another part of the ship.
No matter, Lukaas thought. There was still plenty of time yet before everything all kicked off, and besides, it wasn’t as if she could hide.
He was a wolf, it would be easy enough for him find her; track her not just by her scent but also through the twin marks he and the Vampyre had placed upon her all those years ago.
For now, he had much more important matters he needed to attend to.
Like giving his Alpha a sit-rep and keeping him up to date with how everything was doing.
There was no need for him to know about Lottie being on-board, Lukaas thought. For that would just complicate matters, he already had a good idea what The Alpha would say – that he was letting his emotions get the better of him again, just like before – and the way he saw it, what the Alpha didn’t know, couldn’t hurt him…
And look what happened the last time you thought that, a little voice inside his head suddenly spoke up, doing its best to try and warn him, but Lukaas decided to ignore it.
One thing at a time, he thought. Just let me deal with one thing at a time.
First he needed to speak to the Alpha.
Then, and only then, could he start worrying about Lottie…
***
Henry waited until Charlotte was asleep and comfortably settled down in their cabin, and then made his way back to the upper decks to explore the rest of the ship.