A Ripple In Time | Captain James Nicholls

Chapter Twenty-Five

"And my body was bruised and I was set alight, but you came over me like some holy rite, and although I was burning, you're the only light." -Florence and the Machine

The Brighton Estate, London; August 14, 1914

His arms were stiff. His legs seemed to be paralyzed and when he opened his eyes the dying light streaming through a crack in the curtain was blinding. All he could remember was the pain and the shock, watching on helplessly as his friends were mowed down like wheat in a field. Their screams still echoed in his ears. His breathing sped up to the point of near hyperventilation as he looked down at his chest, but there was no bandages and there were no open wounds left to fester.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, my friend." The voice that spoke to him was nothing but a gruff rasp and it took several long moments for him to place it to a face and name. James turned his head in the direction of the voice and attempted to sit up but his muscles were ridiculously weak and everything still hurt. "I would not do that if I were you." The vampire warned, standing from the corner he had occupied for the several days the man was healing. Precariously, Adam moved around the room, dodging the sunlight until he could close the curtain completely. He looked down at the Captain, who wore a pained and lost expression on his face. He had already been in a state similar to sleep for three days.

"Why am I alive?" James's question was broken as he remembered, everything rushing back to him in tidal waves. The war. The charge. His dying words and the final thought of his beloved. For all he knew she was still in France, hundreds of miles away from him and that only brought up numerous questions about the men in his company and his own mount. Had they survived? Was Joey still alive?

The answer to his vocalized question, however; was simple. Adam sat beside the Captain and raised his eyebrow. "Because of Belle." Captain Nicholls's expression immediately softened but still the look of confusion and terror remained in his eyes. Had it not been for her love of the mortal man Adam would have never risked bringing him back to the estate and he would have never entertained the thought of turning the man.

He looked around the room but found that asides from himself and Adam it was empty. The vampire opened his hand and in his palm laid the pocket watch. Frowning the Captain took it and ran his finger over the hole in the middle, this time, it was beyond repair, but then it dawned on him. Although it was inadvertent, Izabella Brighton had saved his life by giving him that watch. "Where is she?" There was a panicked edge in his voice and once more he tried to sit up, only to be forced back down on the hard floor by Adam pushing his shoulder.

"Tangier. She is safe with Eve." Adam wondered if Eve could feel the message he had sent yet, but regardless he looked up from the Captain and to one of the paneled walls covered with his designs and planned experiments. Silence encompassed the two men.

"I need to ask you a very serious question, Captain Nicholls." The cavalryman looked up with furrowed brows, awaiting the question that would come from the vampire, though he could never be fully prepared for what Adam was going to ask.

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Eve woke with the coming of the night a thin smile on her lips as she looked at the young vampire who had stayed with her for nearly a week, but she supposed that would change shortly. While the eldest vampire remained true to her nocturnal lifestyle Izabella still woke with the sun and busied herself in Eve's books or in the local markets, anything to keep her mind away from her beloved.

On this night Izabella had curled up on the opposite side of Eve's bed, blood stained her lips and cradled in her hand was a crystalline glass that at seeing the older vampiress pulled from her hand and placed it on the nightstand. Understanding the message she had received in sleep from her husband Eve looked back at Izabella one last time before leaving the room and moving towards the foyer where her voice would not wake the sleeping girl.