Prue slipped the walkie-talkie back onto her belt, then gave Seraphin a warm smile.

«They'll find him in no time. Lycan noses are made for this»

Nana leaped to her feet, almost vibrating.

«Lycanthropes?» She asked.

The Captain put a hand on her hip, an almost slack smile on her face, and took a moment before answering.

«Of course, a prestigious ship like this has a team of lycans. What did you expect? No expense spared here»

«I haven't... I haven't met them, I think»

«They're at sea almost all the time. They provide us with the fresh fish we eat every day, so they have little time to socialize, but I assure you, they're extraordinary people. I'm sure you'll be able to meet them as soon as they bring the lost big boy here».

Time passed, however, and the lost "big boy" remained just that. There was a bit of impatience in the group: several people wanted to return to their duties, or sleep, but instead they had to wait there to see if they should leave or not.

Suddenly, a very short woman, but with a stocky build, a thick, muscular neck, entered the living room. She was wearing a shirt with two fish on it, one white and one black, forming a circle similar to the Yin and Yang symbol, and underneath a pair of short white trousers decorated on the sides with intricate gold arabesques.

«Captain Goldhinde» She said «This man's tracks are old, he hasn't been on the ship for at least two days».

The news shook everyone present, whispered comments filling the air like the rustling of poplar leaves. Seraphin stepped back, making himself small, and joined his sisters' group.

«You think he's alive?» Martine asked seriously «He could have gotten stuck underwater during one of his dives. He could be lost at sea»

«That fish brings bad luck» Celestine muttered under her breath, stuffing her hands in her pockets.

«What fish?»

«The fish Seraphin photographed. The monster»

«We need to tell the captain about the monster».

They agreed: they needed to unveil what they had discovered. Once again, they sent their brother ahead, with the excuse that he was the most eloquent of the group.

«Captain, there's something we must... we must reveal»

«Reveal?» Prue Goldhind approached the man in two long strides, her heels clicking hard on the floor. «What did you do to President Alkahest's assistant?»

«Oh, we didn't do anything!» Seraphin fiddled with his phone screen. «But this creature, perhaps...».

Prue Goldhind gently took the phone from him, squinting as if she didn't understand what was in front of her.

«Jackie!» She exclaimed, and the short woman who had just entered came up beside her, craning her neck to look at the image on the screen. «What do you think it is?»

«A person wearing gloves»

«No. No, I'm afraid this photo was given to me by a marine biologist, and he would be able to distinguish a person wearing gloves from... from... what is this, Professor Panorme?».

Seraphin swallowed. He wasn't at all sure he had any answers to that question, but he tried anyway.

«We believe it could only be two things: a parasite attached to the body of a large, adult Regalecus, or a new species»

«Parasite? Where's the parasite?»

«The... the hand». Seraphin blushed, realizing how absurd that hypothesis might seem to someone who knew nothing about it. «The hand could actually be some form of parasite, not a real hand. It's certainly not human, it doesn't have the same volume, nor nails»

«Is it a parasitic hand?».

Seraphin shrugged, as if to say, "Well, I don't know how else to describe it".

«What do you think, Jackie?» Prue lowered the phone, allowing the short woman to get an even better look. «Does it look like a parasite to you?»

«It looks like a hand to me»

«Me too. But what the professor says is true, that it doesn't have nails, that it's not human»

«But why is he showing it to us?»

«It has something to do with Sangreal’s disappearance, I’m guessing?»

«You're telling me this hand snatched him away?» Jackie laughed, vibrating the air inside her nose in a sort of short grunt. «If a person disappears from a ship, I'd be more inclined to identify a possible vampire in the hold, rather than a hand, right? I know hands grab things» She laughed again, even more sarcastically «But a human being doesn't disappear like that».

Seraphin blinked, confused, and with a slight feeling of dread beginning to creep into the lower part of his stomach.

«A... vampire?» He asked, almost timidly

«Yes, in the hold» Jackie nodded «It's rare these days, but sometimes a ship still has a vampire or two hiding in the hold. They think they're getting a huge free buffet. It used to be a real plague, it was difficult to travel by sea»

«That's how having a team of lycanthropes became a sign of high quality for any ship voyage» Prue explained «Lycan cruises, research with lycans, cargo transport...»

«Cargo transport is particularly infamous» Jackie confirmed «Lots of locked containers that you're not allowed to open for work, on a ship you can't leave for long stretches of time. Lou worked seven years on a freighter, all those vampires in bubble wrap. She's seen more of them than the rest of the pack combined»

«So... could there be a vampire?» Seraphin asked, nervously smoothing his hair.

Jackie twisted one wrist, using the other hand to crack the joint «We didn't feel any signs of one while we were looking for Sangreal, but it could be. If one's there, we'll flush it out and eliminate him».

Seraphin nodded. The fact that the commander and Jackie weren't losing their cool should have reassured him, but it didn't. He felt responsible for Sangreal's disappearance, fearful that he, and potentially others, could end up in trouble or prey to a hidden predator because he hadn't bothered to let them know of their supervisor's absence sooner.

He tried to reassure himself: he couldn't have noticed easily, he'd been avoiding them for days... but the captain's "And you're only telling me now?" was hard to ignore.

«How do we keep ourselves safe until you find the vampire? In case there is one?» He asked.

«Right. While it's daytime, let as much light as possible into your rooms. The sun doesn't burn them on contact, but they tend to avoid it like a rabid animal avoids water»

«And after sunset?»

«That body will be gone by then» Jackie assured him.

Prue was sizing them both up with her eyes, silent. She was pressing her palm to her lips, the woman’s eyes darting from one figure to the next.

«Is there a chance a vampire will attack a person based on size?» She asked aloud.

«Of course. The more nourishment a single meal can provide, the less they have to go out hunting and risk being discovered and paying it on their skin»

Seraphin pressed his lips together uncomfortably.

If blood availability was the criterion, Sangreal would be the perfect victim. The tallest of the crew, a "big boy" whose body would certainly be adapted to having so much delicious blood circulating to nourish the lean mass of all those muscles. And, to top it all, a man with a tendency to isolate himself.

«Jackie, take the professor with you» Captain Goldhind decided «You or one of the other wolves. If there really is a vampire, we can't have it eating every man on board»

«And my sisters?» Seraphin objected, alarmed.

«They're not at risk like you are»

«We'll all be on patrol, though» Jackie objected.

«Even if you were to find yourself face to face with his undead little snout, I don't think there'd be a safer place on the ship than next to one of you»

«Not on the ship» she admitted, with a sarcastic laugh «You'd have to jump into the sea. Here's another thing you can do, Professor: if there's a vampire, find a wolf or find the sea. He won't follow you either way, and if he tried, he'd be torn to pieces by both»

«We should let the others know, too»

«Seems fair»

«I didn't know the sea killed vampires»

«You're a biologist, you study life. That's not life. Unless you study vampires, it's hard to know anything about them; they follow their own rules…».

Animated corpses. It was life, albeit a strange form of it, but he didn't blame Jackie for saying it wasn't life at all. Bacterial colonies that took over human and animal bodies, moving them like puppets, that fed by drinking blood and were capable of creating explosive amounts of energy to lend to the host body, allowing well-fed vampires to exert superhuman strength and regenerate tissue, preventing the body from rotting and decomposing, becoming the new engine of the nervous and digestive systems.

Legends said they had existed since before the Gray Age, but it was hard to imagine that such a condition hadn't arisen in those terrible years.

«So, Professor Panorme. Do you feel like going on patrol with one of the Sea Wolves?».

Seraphin said yes.

He warned his sisters that he was about to be taken into custody, which seemed to agitate them more than reassure them: it betrayed the fact that there was danger in the first place.

«I don't think there really is a vampire, though» He told them, smiling to show that everything was fine. He thought about how they were readying themselves to face vampires, but there was still a fish with arms somewhere around the ship, which, come to think of it, had also appeared in Nana's photos and had therefore been following the ship since the beginning of their journey.

A cold shiver ran down his shoulders and up the back of his neck, as if a cold hand had touched his nape.

He decided at that point that he had to stop thinking about it.

The fish, after all, could be a wonderful, harmless species he didn't yet know about; they could be two different fish specimens. Two fish with arms. None of whom were explicitly following them.

Sangreal would reappear, because no deformed fish had made him disappear underwater.

He didn't have to think about it.

Instead, he could pay attention to his patrol companion. It wasn't Jackie who had accompanied him, but another of the Sea Wolves: a kind woman with a sun-darkened face, named Lovell.

She looked about Seraphin's age, her strong body marked by frequent transformations. Lovell explained to him, at first hesitantly and then, noticing Seraphin's interest, enthusiastically, that spending a long time in one of her forms ended up affecting what her body considered "normal", retaining certain characteristics from one form to the next: she pointed out her bright, almost yellow ochre irises, the slight webbing between her fingers, the thick hair on her arms and legs.

«My sense of smell is a little better, too» She revealed, speaking in a pleasant guttural voice

«Is it because your nose maintains more complex structures? A bit like the other form?» Seraphin tried to guess.

«Like the other one» She repeated for confirmation «French is terrible to speak when you shapeshift; you lose half the letters. Jackie asked me to stay because I have the best sense of smell in human form. That way I can search without having to transform, and talk to you»

«I’m glad she did»

«You know what? Me too».

Lovell was a social person, as was Seraphin. She was used to working in a group, or as they called it, a pack, and they immediately found themselves at ease with each other: anyone who had seen them from the outside would have had a hard time imagining they’d known each other for less than a couple of hours.