For a while, Ethan was standing on the ship's bow, just watching the waves as they pounded against the hull. It was very peaceful until that moment that Stephen spoke from behind him. "You must see how happy Kylie is with me," Stephen said. "Are you really going to take her away?"

Ethan turned to face Stephen. He was angry, but he was trying to keep his rage under control." I thought we were clear on this," Ethan hissed. "She is my wife, and there is nothing that could change that. She loves me, and I love her!"

​​

"It is not so cut and dry," Stephen laughed. "If she loves you so much, please explain to me why she is sleeping in my bed. If it is her wish to stay, what will you do then? Will you force her to go, even if it is against her will?"

"I refuse to entertain this nonsense," Ethan growled. "She would never even touch you, let alone go away with you?"

"Don't be so sure," Stephen smirked. "She has already kissed me."

Ethan had been about to turn around and head to the lower decks to catch a nap, but Stephen's words froze him in place. He knew that Stephen was trying to provoke him. He didn't want to fall into any trap that might have been set for him, but he was having a harder and harder time remaining calm.

Ethan closed his eyes tight for a moment and forced himself to turn around. Step by painful step, he walked away from Stephen. When he reached the stairs, he took them down into the lower sleeping chamber. It wasn't until he was out of earshot that he let his temper slip. He cursed and punched the wall until the fire within him had burnt out. It was only then that he allowed himself to cry. In his entire life, he had never experienced such pain. It was like having tendons yanked from his body one by one.

Ethan came and went, over and over again, in Kylie's dreams. In them, he was like a wounded beast. One moment, he pretended to be stubborn and powerful, but the sadness in his eyes was intense, and she could see through his facade. He had been beaten black and blue, and she felt pity for him. Is this my fault? She wondered.

In her dream, she could read Ethan's mind and feel what he was feeling. She didn't know how this could be. She only knew that it made her uncomfortable. He had made her feel uncomfortable when he'd boarded Stephen's boat, and almost all of that discomfort had followed her into her dreams where she confronted him within the confines of some medieval dungeon. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" she shouted as she slapped him across the face.

Ethan's body reeled, but he made no move to retaliate in any way.

When Kylie woke up, she felt even more tired than she had been when she'd gone to sleep. She stretched, blinked a few times, and her eyes swept over the room in search of Stephen. She was disappointed to find that he wasn't there, but not surprised. She knew that it took a lot of work for a person to sail a boat by themselves.

In one of the smaller rooms, Stephen was mixing a potion and muttering to himself. On the first few nights, after he'd kidnapped Kylie, he'd hypnotized her and planted subtle triggers that would make her uncomfortable when she was around Ethan and more receptive to his advances. Then, once he was certain that the hypnotism was working, he'd begun to feed her a special potion of his own creation. Until he had complete control over her, this would assist him as he held her under his thumb.

As he worked, he thought about Nico. He had just learned about the man's whereabouts, and he decided that he needed to die. "I can't kill him myself, though," he realized.

"What are you talking about?" Kylie wondered. "Who can't you kill?"

Stephen turned around quickly and was startled to find Kylie standing behind him. Without missing a beat, he smiled and said, "Kill someone? Me? You must have misheard me. You should know by now that I wouldn't hurt a fly. Why don't you come to see what I'm working on?"

Kylie smiled and walked down the hall to meet him in the small room. She saw the vials and all of the other medical equipment. She frowned and looked at Stephen seriously. "What is all of this about?" she wondered.

Stephen put his arm around Kylie's waist and lied. "This is my 'travel lab,"

he said. "I have a full-sized laboratory in the basement of my cottage. I don't talk about it very much, but I am looking for a cure for the AIDS virus."

Kylie looked at him proudly. "That is very noble of you," she said, "but you are still just a medical student. How can you hope to succeed when so many men with PhDs after their names have failed?"

Stephen just shrugged. "There are things that cannot be taught in school," he explained. "I have known for a long time that I have an affinity for medicine. You are welcome to check my research any time you want. If you do, as the days pass, you will see what I am actually accomplishing."

Kylie bent over and looked into the microscope in front of her and saw a number of jelly-like blobs swimming around in a Petrie dish. Gasping for air, she pulled away and said, "They're disgusting. Why don't you just kill them?"

"Well," Stephen explained, "if I kill them, I wouldn't be able to study them. You don't have to fear them. You are safe. They can't get out of the Petrie dish. Furthermore, if the dish fell to the ground or something, they would just die. Outside of a host, they are not resilient at all. Once I stepped on a pin that had contaminated blood on it. I was afraid, but I shouldn't have been. I was not infected. The virus had already died."

Stephen turned to face Kylie then, and she leaned in and kissed him. It only lasted a second, and then she pulled away. She had been completely surprised by her own action. It was almost as if she'd been compelled to kiss him by some outside force that was stronger than her own will.

"Why did you pull away?" Stephen wondered.

Kylie looked down at her hands as if she were looking for the answer there. She felt queasy and, as if the kiss had triggered something inside of her, she felt her mind grow fuzzy and shatter. She almost fell to the floor, but Stephen caught her and helped her to the bed in the corner of the room. "What is happening to me?" she cried.

"It is okay," Stephen soothed. "I have something that will help you feel better," he assured her as he brought a beaker to her mouth and helped her drink it. With that done, Stephen began to rub her belly and chant medieval Gaelic words of power over her.

Within moments, Kylie was lost in a particular type of sleep that had been wrought through the merging of modern medicine and ancient magic.