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Lenos was just thinking about going to find his captain when Alucard appeared again. He didn’t think that he needed his sense of when something was wrong to see that something was had happened, but evidently that wasn’t true. Alucard slipped back into the fray easily, as if he hadn’t just been missing for several hours. A few other competitors had noticed he wasn’t here and had asked, but no one seemed to think much of it. When Lenos brought this up to Stross, the Night Spire’s first mate just said, “I’m sure he’s fine. Are you worried about him?”
“No,” Leons said. “I don’t think he’s in trouble, if that’s what you mean.”
“Then stop dwelling,” Stross had said as he patted Lenos’ shoulder, in a way that clearly meant he had some important business to attend to at the bar.
Lenos would not, he thought, have worried so much if Lila Bard hadn’t also vanished.
It could be nothing—but Lenos doubted that strongly. That girl was an omen, and it would only be a matter of time before he learned what for.
So it was a relief, in part, when Alucard appeared again, alone. But how everyone else missed the jolting way that Alucard moved, as if wearing something heavy, or how he grinned like a grimace and made too many fists as he poured himself more wine without touching the bottle, Lenos had no idea. When it seemed that no one was looking, Alucard all but vanished, like he was stepping into some private room behind his eyes, only to be pulled back when someone called his attention.
Alucard left not long after Lenos, catching up to him on the street and asking for a word, privately, in his room. It didn’t surprise Lenos, after watching Alucard all evening, but being alone with Alucard in close quarters never felt any less heavy, no matter how long they knew each other. Lenos suspected that Alucard was a different person when he was alone. He wondered what that person was like, although by nature it wasn’t possible to know. The way that Alucard could so easily fade into a crowd gave him away as someone very skilled at disappearing. And then at any moment, he could appear with a sudden weight that made it hard to look away. Alone with Alucard, it was like that weight fell squarely on Lenos’ shoulders.
But that wasn’t fair, Lenos though. As he watched, Alucard pulled off his jacket and carefully hung it out of the way, before loosening his collar and rolling up his shirt sleeves. It might be that Alucard naturally cut a grand figure (with his noble birth status being secondary to his place as Captain), but tonight he had called Lenos here in confidence, like a friend.
“What did you think of tonight?” Alucard asked.
“Fine. Exciting.” He wasn’t enthusiastic as he spoke, and although Alucard was half-turned away from him, Lenos saw how he touched his wrists. “Where’s Miss Bard?”
“She,” Alucard said, “is no longer part of this crew.”
“Ah.”
“Yeah. Do you want a drink?” He was already reaching for a bottle. “Wait. You don’t.”
“Do you not just want to sleep?” Lenos asked. “It hasn’t been quiet lately.”
“You’re right about that,” Alucard said, taking a glass and filling it halfway. He offhandedly motioned for Lenos to sit, although Lenos did not. He was glued to the spot, and he couldn’t take his eyes off Alucard. The way that he paced did not set Lenos at ease.
“Miss Bard?” Lenos prompted.
“Got it in her head that she wanted to compete it the Essen Tasch,” Alucard said, “and what Lila wants, Lila gets. She took out one of the other competitors—Stasion Elsor, did you see him?”
“She killed him?” Lenos asked, suddenly remembering Bels.
“Killed him? No,” Alucard said. “He’s on a sip sailing out of here tonight. My hand, of course, so say a prayer for me that I’m not found out.”
“I… she…”
“What else was I supposed to do, Lenos?” Alucard asked, finally turning to look directly at his second mate. “It would look a certain way if she were found out.”
For a moment, Lenos had the sense that Alucard wanted reassurance, which was just… too ridiculous to even consider. But the longer that Lenos looked into Alucard’s stormy eyes, the less that Lenos could shake the thought, nor think of anything to say, and so he settled with, “There was nothing else to do.”
“I don’t regret taking her on.”
Lenos stayed quiet. It was something he and the others had been over at first, before finally accepting Lila as part of the crew. Alucard knew this, and explained briefly that he was bringing her aboard, that he had his reasons and would appreciate if everyone else respected them. But she had killed one of them, and even if she’d forgotten that, Lenos hadn’t.
So seeing Alucard like this, because of her…
“I shouldn’t have come back to London,” he said, not as a captain nor as a competitor, but as an exhausted man who, by morning, would be collected again. He would be the perfect image of what a competitor should be. In his way he would always be untouchable, but for right now, as he rubbed his wrist and frowned, Lenos could believe that he was anyone.
“Do you mean that?” Lenos finally asked.
Alucard shook his head as he sipped his wine. “That’s not an easy question.”
“Is there a chance that Delilah will be caught?”
“A chance,” Alucard said. “She works through people like she’s in a dream, damn what happens to anyone else.”
If he were anyone else then Lenos would have taken his drink away and laid a hand on his arm, telling him to think more about this later. But Alucard was his captain, and two things struck him at once.
That this went deeper than Miss Bard.
And Alucard Emery was furious.
He looked at Lenos again, and Lenos froze. What did Alucard see? His eyes were so clear that Lenos couldn’t have believed that Alucard didn’t know exactly what he was thinking, as clearly as if he’d spoken the words aloud.
“I think I’ve kept you long enough.” Alucard was smiling. The knife’s edge of rage was gone, and he really did just look worn out—but nothing that a night’s sleep wouldn’t fix.
“Let’s not tell anyone else,” Alucard went on, “about our friend.”
“Do you care if she knows that I know?”
“Not in the slightest.”
“What are you going to do?”
While Alucard considered the question, Lenos was certain that he saw that darkness again. He knew that Alucard had not been in London for years, and by his scars it was clear that his captain had a history. That was all that Lenos knew, but it was what he thought of now. Everyone had a history, but here, Lenos had the sense that Alucard’s wasn’t so far away.
“I suppose that I’ll just keep hoping I get paired against her in the tournament,” Alucard said, “so that I can kick her ass.”