The feathered plume smacked Mack in the face for the fifth time. His eye twitched.

"As you can see, we've had a few encounters that have left us worse for wear." The Ravelock facsimile droned on. It was a good one, Mack had to admit, nearly as good as those he encountered in the cyber clubs on Hume. The Captain's virtual duplicate lacked a few necessary qualities to fool the brain, and while Mack was aware the moment the simulated Captain buzzed against his senses, even Eleni was catching on.

"You're not Ravelock," she whispered, a hint of horror in her pale gold eyes. The facsimile paused before its shoulder dropped with a sigh.

"How bad is he?" Mack eyed the deck. There was old blood saturated into the wood grain of the Nephele. More than one of their battles against the Krakens left the lingering taint of death.

"The last encounter, one of the beasts attempted to rip the ship in half. If he hadn't held the wheel, it would have succeeded," said the facsimile.

"Is he alive," said Mack. He prodded the lower decks of the Nephele with his other senses. The influence of the Edgewise rose, humming against the back of his thoughts. Despite his reservations and unanswered questions, the tavern remained at the ready, a poignant gesture he wouldn't waste a second time.

"He--"

The facsimile flickered out of existence. Eleni gasped.

Mack frowned, puzzled by the sudden interruption. His other senses swept the ship again. Most of the combined crew were still above deck, including Eleni and the Munch. His apprentice had wandered below and she wasn't alone. He caught the coppery notes of the vampire and the flickering life force of the real Ravelock. He pulled back, concentrating. There was a hint of something familiar and elusive, something that didn't belong.

"What is he doing here?" Mack focused harder.

A jolt pierced his skull, a warning that rang between his ears. He swore, shaking his head and blinking furiously. Golden tinged shadows played against the inside of his eyelids with each blink. The tethers of the Edgewise were vibrating in his mind, a deep, bone rattling warning.

"Son of a bitch," he snarled as he sprinted for the lower deck.

Calponia gnawed on her thumb, aimlessly wandering the hall. Well, this was a bombshell she hadn't expected. Here she thought the worst part of crushing on the recalcitrant vampire were the obvious interspecies difficulties. Him being flipping royalty, that was, well she didn't know how to process it just yet.

Who the hell was she kidding?

"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" Calponia slumped against the wall and pressed the heels of her hands hard against her eyes. She went and caught feelings for the stupid royal vampire. They crept up on her, without warning or permission, but really, who was she to crush on anyone? Here she was treating his dietary habits as a failing when the bête noire seethed under her skin. The thought unleashed the sickening torrent of anxiety and fear that had been building inside of her.

She was the toxic one, the ticking time bomb under their noses. She felt it inside her, blooming like some poisonous flower as the Kraken loomed over her. What on Earth possessed her to think she could use the bête noire to her advantage? Wield it like a tool? Like trying to control a hurricane or a tsunami. What was she thinking! She smacked the back of her head against the wall hard enough to sting.

Mack was wrong about it not hurting the Edgewise, he had to be, because he didn't feel it, that suffocating pulsing power pulling her down. How could the Edgewise protect her, or anyone, from the bête noire when it finally spilled out of her full force? The knowledge choked her. She couldn't breath.

A panic attack crawled up her throat. She smothered it, clutching her knees. Funny, she didn't think Eugene's royal revelation would be the straw that broke the camel's back, but she had avoided examining how deep her feelings went for so long she blind sided herself.

She sniffled. "Always be honest with yourself," she whispered.

"Calponia? Is that you?" A faint voice wheezed. She startled, looking for the source. The room across from her was open but dark. "Are you there, dear?"

She shoved off the wall, approaching the darkened room, a storage room judging by the boxy outlines of crates visible from the hall light.

Calponia caught a whiff of stale Earl Grey tea, mothballs, and something vaguely spicy. Half moon spectacles glinted from the shadows. "Mr. Henderson?" She rushed toward him, drawing short of throwing her arms around the old man. The bête noire still hummed too close to the surface. She wouldn't forgive herself if she hurt him. "What in the world are you doing here? How are you even here? I thought you went home?"

He smiled up at her, eyes crinkling with mirth. "Decided to tag along with the pirate and crew. How do you like Oceanus so far?" He patted the box next to him for her to sit. Her relief at seeing her old friend and neighbor was palpable, and she remembered that Henderson knew about her uncle. Perhaps he had answers. She settled next to him.

"It's fair wondrous," she said, glancing around the room. There was a port window, where the stars continued to streak by. He must have been in here admiring the view.

Henderson tapped his cane against the metal flooring. "It is indeed. A unique world. There is none quite like it in all the realms. It's a shame the Krakens will decimate it."

A trickle of unease whispered through her relief. For a second a nagging sensation of something amiss slipped through. She blinked at him. "Mack will send them back to their realm," she said, wishing her voice didn't waver. The Krakens, and her reaction to them, terrified her to her core.

"Of course he will," said Mr. Henderson, offering a reassuring smile. "Those scuttlebutts don't stand a chance, but their mark has been made. If you reach Infra in time, it will still be decades, perhaps a century, before they recover. And then there's the other issue."

She stared at him. "What other issue?"

"Krakens, once they have a taste for something they never forget, never stop looking for a way to weasel on through. This realm will never truly be safe again."

Calponia swallowed at the implication. The hooded man had to know what he was doing when he tore all those holes through the multi-verse. Dooming entire worlds on a whim. How could anyone be so callous, so monumentally selfish? All for the eponymous prize of the Heart of the Edgewise, a concept she still couldn't grasp. What was so special about the Heart that someone would potentially destroy the whole freaking universe for it?

"What thoughts are churning away in your head, my dear?"

She shook herself. "You told me you've watched my family for a long time. Did you...do you know how my uncle died?"

Mr. Henderson tilted his head to look at her with a sad baffled smile. "What do you mean?"

Her hands fidgeted, tapping the top of the box she sat on with hollow metallic thumps. She moved them to her lap, the edges of the photo poking against her skin inside her sleeve. "Did the bête noire kill him?"

Mr. Henderson sucked on a tooth. "You feel it rising don't you? Gaining strength?"

She nodded, swallowing hard. "I feel like I'm running out of time." She stilled, plucking the photo free. "And then there's this. Is this him? My uncle?"

Mr. Henderson plucked the photo from her hand, his normally jovial expression suddenly a blank unreadable slate. "Where did you get this?"

"It fell out of Mack's pocket earlier, except he couldn't tell me who it was," said Calponia. She had been staring at her hands, a mix of worry and shame dragging at her. Something nudged at her mind, a whisper of shadow and silk. It made her look up at the old man. Her breath caught in her throat.

The photo crackled faintly from the tightness of his pinched grip. Mr. Henderson looked up at her with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. The normal warmth was absent, replaced by something cold that made the hairs stood up on the back of her neck.

"I haven't seen this face in a long time," said Mr. Henderson softly. There was a note in his tone she didn't understand but it touched some inner instinct. Calponia tensed to bolt and found she couldn't move. "I forgot, you know, how much you look like him. That damn foolish entity was supposed to completely wipe him from memory. It seems even a limited sentience can entertain foolish sentimentality."

"What are you talking about?" Her muscles shuddered and twitched but her hands remained firmly in her lap. She tugged and strained, but couldn't so much as twitch a muscle. Her gaze slid to Henderson. "What did you do?"

Her tongue felt thick in her mouth as her jaw froze up. Her heartbeat doubled as the crack of unease broke wide open. Her pulse thrummed like a dozen trapped hummingbirds under her skin.

Ravelock appeared at the door. His gaze flickered to the old man, filled with shock and accusation. "I did not invite you on my ship."

Henderson slid to his feet with far more limber grace than he'd ever shown. "Why, that's just disrespectful of your elders, sonny." He snapped his fingers. Ravelock blew apart like living static.

Calponia shrieked inside her head. Realization rolled. It had to be one of the Captain's holograms. Mr. Henderson clicked his teeth with distaste. "A waste of tech."

She looked up at him, her eyes the only part of her that could still move. A horrifying answer clicked into place as another whiff of stale tea and spice invaded her senses. She recognized that smell, amazed she hadn't put it together before now.

"Seems we are running out of time," said Mr. Henderson. He held up the picture. She felt a pressure in the air a moment before the photo disintegrated into dust.

Part of her felt nine shades of stupid for not putting it together, but no one had, not even Mack so she cut herself a break for not recognizing the man in the hood sooner as she considered her options. Henderson basically ignored her, using his cane to draw a line up the wall since he clearly didn't need it for support. Not a line, a door, he was drawing a door. Sweat rose up on her skin. She'd walked right into this handy little trap.

Screw that. Her muscles clenched. Now would be a great time for the bête noire to rise, but no, it just sat there, bloody useless. She ground her teeth. What good was having a volatile bloody curse if it couldn't even misbehave when she needed it to?

Wait...she ground her teeth. Calponia kept herself absolutely still, testing her movement by wiggling her toes inside her shoes. It felt like moving through molasses but she could do it! She needed to push harder, which meant poking the sleeping dragon inside her. The idea made her sweat more, but she was running out of time and --

A snarl tore through the air, rippling from down the hall. She might have jumped out of her skin if not for the spell or whatever still trapped her fast like a fly in amber. In a blink, the doorway filled with pissed off vampire and her pulse did a ridiculous flutter. Priorities, she snapped at herself, yanking hard on the binding.

"You." Eugene literally growled the word. He blurred as he shot forward.

"Such a nuisance," said Mr. Henderson. His words made her stomach plummet. She tensed, feeling the pressure a moment before the old man caught the vampire by the throat. Henderson held Eugene in place as the vampire grappled with the hand that held him, snapping his teeth at his captor. "Rude as the pirate. You haven't soaked up enough power to take me on, boy."

Henderson tapped the wall of the ship with his cane. The siding trembled. There was a groan and screech of metal as it rippled. A spike of metal shot out, pinning the vampire to the wall straight through his chest. The binding on Calponia snapped as she shrieked. She'd made it to her feet, taking a step toward Eugene when it latched back on, freezing her with a hand raised.

"Excellent, you're stronger than I anticipated," said Henderson, his tone cheerful. "Now, let's move this along, dear."

Calponia was frozen facing the pinned vampire. Dread pooled in her stomach as his head lolled, the crimson fading from his eyes. No! She'd seen him shake off a knife to the heart. Henderson might have whammied her again, but she was screaming like a banshee in her own head. She squashed that screaming voice. It couldn't help her right now. It couldn't help Eugene. She concentrated, trying to call up the bête noire with everything she had. Blood slid thick and fast down the metal jutting into the vampire's chest. The fingers flexed slowly on her outstretched hand.

From the corner of her eye, Ravelock, the real Ravelock, appeared, crawling on his hands and knees. His unshaven face was deathly pale as he lifted a pistol toward Henderson.

The old man didn't even turn around. Tap.

Calponia couldn't scream her warning. Ravelock flew backward, pinned at the shoulder by another metal shard. Blood bubbled at his lips.

"Shame," said Henderson, "I liked you."

Ravelock gave him the finger as he slumped. The old man chuckled. The sound wound around her, sinking into her skin like a thousand metal slivers. Her body trembled as rage burned inside her with white hot intensity. Something answered the blaze, a cool darkness that soaked it up, like a viper in the sun.

Calponia released a breath in a sonorous echo that filled the air. Eugene's eyes fluttered open, widening as he met her gaze. What sort of monster did she look like to him? She could feel it now, the bête noire rising, filling her. It felt incredible.

Part of her recognized that was a very bad sign.

Her head turned, vision narrowing on Henderson as he finished tracing the doorway. The bête noire hissed in her mind, a presence alien and familiar as it slid over her, enveloping her. It would keep her safe, it would destroy anything that got in her way. It gathered, readying to strike.

The vampire groaned. Calponia tore her gaze off Henderson and looked at him. He clutched at his chest. Not at the metal piercing at him, but above it, clawing at his clothes, his eyes frantic. Confusion wavered the influence of the bête noire. What was happening to him? She froze as his fingertips began to blacken.

"You were warned, vampire," said Henderson, "If you'd destroyed it all, she wouldn't be affecting you like this now."

She? The bubble of rage and power popped. Calponia fell on her butt, gasping. The bête noire's power vanished, leaving her light headed and trembling. Shit! Henderson turned to her at least, clearly aware of what she'd been up to and not the least bit concerned. He approached her, holding the cane at his side as he bent down and grabbed her by the ankle.

Calponia whimpered. She wasn't proud of it. He grabbed her like it was nothing, like the bête noire was nothing to him. She yelped as he jerked her forward with that scary strength, her head whacking back against the floor.

"Time to go, dear," he said, dragging her forward. He tapped the wall once more. Light outlined the doorway. He was going to take her. Her friends were going to die. Panic seized her. Calponia thrashed, kicking at him with her free leg to no effect. What the hell was he?

A shot of light whizzed over her, striking Henderson in the arm that held her fast. He let go, likely more from startlement than pain, but Calponia wasn't wasting the opportunity, scuttling backward until she slid in the blood pool beneath Eugene. Henderson's head snapped up, staring through the doorway as Ravelock fired again. The impact made him stagger.

"You should be dead, pirate," Henderson snapped.

"Temporarily enhanced, and that's Captain to you," Ravelock sneered, firing again. Henderson was ready for it now, anger twisting his features into an ugly hateful mask. He raised a hand, likely to make the pirate explode like his hologram. Calponia tried to move, half frozen with fear.

A diminutive figure flopped to the ground beside Ravelock, bone clicking against the floor as the muzzle of a rifle took aim.

"Eat teeth," said the Munch.

The blast was deafening in such close quarters and while Henderson shook off a few laser blasts, the bicuspids drilled deep into his shoulder. He swore, slamming back against his own doorway as he fought to recover. The air hummed. Over the cloying scent of blood and burnt metal, Calponia caught a hint of smoky whiskey and nearly sobbed with relief. The pressure built and broke with a hollow thwap, like a cork releasing from a barrel.

The tavern master appeared between her and Henderson. His entrance sucked the oxygen out of the air.

"I'm disappointed, Jacob," said Mack.

***Author's Note***

Apologies for the delay folks, got incredibly sick this past month but we are back on.