The Price Of Humanity (TMOE #3)

Chapter 5: Out of sight

Why had he agreed to all this?

Tom watched Abram's transformation with growing discomfort. He'd been troubled enough as it was, what with Lucius' condition and Lucius' recent tantrum on deck and Lucius' incessant questioning of things that were far from his business and pretty much anything Lucius, really. Now he had to watch poor, barely conscious Richard be threatened by a creature even bigger than him, which had only happened once before with the garm incident.

Which had also been Lucius' fault.

"Tom—" Lucius' voice said behind him, as if emphasising his already obnoxious presence in Tom's thoughts.

"Tom will be fine," Ethan's voice then said, and it sounded as though they were moving up the stairs. "Richard would never hurt him, even like this."

That much was true, at least. Tom had no reason to fear Richard's uncontrolled state. It was a perk only he possessed, but while that was a comfort it was far from a guarantee that Richard would listen to him, and that was the bigger issue at hand.

He had to take a step back as the membranes on Abram's now wingified arms spread out and blocked his view entirely, only causing Richard to be more distressed.

Poor Richard. His mind was not aware enough to understand who or what Abram was anymore. All he could see was a creature trying to keep Tom away from him. His Tom.

Just as Abram got ready to ward off any potential attacks however, Richard stopped to look up at the ceiling. He tilted his head to the side, ears pointing upwards and nose sniffing the air while seemingly growing more and more agitated.

"Richard," Tom tried, ducking under Abram's wing to show himself. "I'm alright. He's not dangerous. Not to us."

Richard spared him a glance, suddenly conflicted while looking up and down but finally settled his gaze upwards again, and before Tom could retreat backwards he'd begun sprinting forward.

"Captain, I—" Tom began as Abram drew a breath to screech again, but before either of them could utter a sound Richard had spurred his legs against the floor and jumped with impressive force up through the deck opening, sending boats flying and leaving the two of them stumped.

"What...?" Tom whispered, but Abram was far more distressed than he was as he hurried to the opening only to stop abruptly in front of it.

Tom made a face, realising why Abram could not chase after him, and while the other vampires were strong and possibly possessed some inhuman abilities few of them would be able to handle a moon-drunk Richard. The younger ones even less so, and with Abram and Ethan being the only two candidates onboard and one suddenly being incapacitated, it didn't bode well.

The fact that Richard could be injured still remained though. A couple of vampires at a time wouldn't do much but if half a crew managed to gang up on him at the same time things could get messy, so despite it going against his wish of staying away from trouble, Tom had to do something.

"What now, Captain?" he asked while hurrying to Abram's side, trying to look up and see if Richard was still in view.

Abram's sharp, golden eyes turned in his direction before narrowing, and Tom winced. Was Abram blaming him because he'd failed to make Richard listen? It didn't seem very Abram of him, but Tom had also never seen him in a situation like this before.

Things got worse as Abram looked up again, and then back to Tom, seemingly deciding on a chaotic route and Tom couldn't do much but hold his breath as he was grabbed by a big, clawed hand that effectively swung and tossed him through the hole to land him, not too gracefully, up on deck.