Chapter 39
The Atlantic Ocean, 1912
“Do you think I should wear the blue tie or the red one?” Christian asked, holding each choice up to his neck in front of the full-length mirror.
“Hell, I don’t know. Wear them both,” Aaron replied.
“Someone’s a bit touchy tonight,” Christian said, turning to look at him.
“Someone takes forever to get dressed and then still can’t decide what he’s wearing.” Aaron dropped into a chair across the room, hopeful that Christian would get himself together before dinner. He knew he should’ve come at least fifteen minutes after Christian suggested so that he would actually be ready to go.
“Maybe the gray one,” Christian mumbled. “Where is the gray one?” He disappeared, and Aaron eyed the bottle of Scotch sitting on the counter, figuring he probably had time for at least one drink before his partner was ready to go.
After the Dracula hunt, Jordan Findley had requested to meet with him privately. Apparently, Ward had not only let the Leader know that Aaron had saved their mission, Van had also sung his praises. While Aaron insisted he hadn’t done anything beyond what was expected of him, Findley announced that he would now be the new Southampton Area Leader, and since the team was new, he could choose some recruits to go with him from a list of those who had recently voiced they might be up for a transfer.
Christian wasn’t exactly happy to be moving to Britain, and Aaron finally found out why. Having served in the patriot army during the American Revolution, Christian was not fond of anything British, even all these years later. But he had come, and Aaron found him to be reliable and a hard worker.
He’d also taken Catherine, and thinking of her made his irritation at Christian dissipate a bit. She would be meeting them at dinner—if they ever made it there. While he still wasn’t willing to take Vicky’s advice and open his heart, he very much enjoyed Catherine’s company. There was a possibility he might actually take a chance on love again someday.
But not today. Today, they had one mission: destroy the Vampire.
“All right, I’m ready,” Christian said, and Aaron looked up to see he had actually selected a black tie.
Shaking his head, he said, “Let’s go before you change your mind.”
They made their way down the Grand Staircase into the First Class dining hall. The social elite on both sides of the pond had done anything they could to get a ticket on the maiden voyage of this particular vessel, and glancing around the room, the crowd resembled the local gossip papers. J.J. Aster, Ben Guggenheim, Lady Duff Gordon, the Countess of Rothes, and so many other rich people he couldn’t name them all, milled around the room, complimenting each other on their attire and their acquisitions.
“Can a lady get an escort?” Catherine asked, sneaking up behind him and sliding her arm into his.
Dressed in a long silvery gown, her hair up in a chignon, she looked absolutely radiant. He vaguely remembered being unimpressed when he’d first met her, but now that he knew her well, he had grown quite fond of her button nose and lavender eyes. “You look lovely,” he said, leaning in and whispering in her ear.
“Why thank you,” she said with a wink. “You clean up nicely as well.”
Christian was ahead of them, and they followed him to their table. They were posing as a French couple, speaking to each other only in French whenever anyone else was nearby, and Christian was their business associate. Aaron had picked up French from Ward, and though Christian knew very little, so far, in the five days they’d been on the boat, they’d managed to fool everyone.
Pretending to be from France was not that difficult. He’d visited many times, and with his coloring, he’d been asked several times by people who did not know his last name if he was French. But as the boat had passed Ireland a few days ago, he had watched from the main deck, a sense of longing washing over him. There was nothing left for him there now; everyone had passed away or moved to America. Genty’s descendants now lived in New York City, but they were the only members of his family who even knew who he was. Channing and Onora’s families never knew anything about the Ternion. Perhaps he’d have an opportunity to visit once the boat came into port in New York in a few days.
“There he is,” Christian said, regaining his attention. Their mark was a wealthy doctor from Southampton. While they’d spent several months chasing him around the countryside, when they’d heard he planned to take Titanic to New York City, they all agreed this would be the easiest way to make sure he could not get away. The problem they were running into now was finding a way to destroy him without alarming the rest of the passengers. He rarely ever came out of his room, and when he did, there were always dozens of other passengers around.
Tonight, however, the plan was different. After dinner, they knew he would retire to the smoking lounge with the rest of the high society men as he had all of the other nights. This time, Christian would sneak into his room and be waiting there when he returned. Aaron and Catherine would trail him and put an end to him before he even knew what had happened.
As far as they knew, he hadn’t created any minions while he was afloat, and his wife had stayed behind in Southampton. The rest of their team should’ve already taken care of her.
“Who takes a vacation without their wife?” Catherine mused in French as the other passengers took their seats at their shared dinner table.
“The kind of person who wants to lure in beautiful women and seduce them so that he may eat them?” Christian whispered back. Though his French was not good, they got the message, and Catherine giggled.
“I hope not,” Aaron replied, “or you’re going to open that bedroom door to another cave of wonders.”
Thoughts of the three Vampire temptresses they’d fought off in the basement of Dracula’s castle left them all shivering, and they decided to focus on dinner while keeping an eye on their Vampire friend across the room.
