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My favorite!"
    The thought of yet more food made Grace feel queasy. "I think I'll go to my cabin for a bit."
    As she stood up, Mosh Zu and Lorcan broke off their conversation and turned toward her.
    "Are you all right, Grace?" Lorcan asked, looking concerned.
    "Yes." She nodded. "Yes, I'm fine. I'm just feeling a bit tired and off-kilter. I think I should go to my cabin and lie down."
    Mosh Zu nodded.
    Lorcan rose to his feet. "I'll walk you there."
    "No." Grace shook her head. "I'll be fine on my own.
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    You stay here. I'll see you later." She turned to Mosh Zu. "I apologize for my bad manners," she said.
    Mosh Zu softly shook his head. "Go, Grace. You need your rest."
    Grace nodded and pushed her chair back under the table, making her way as discreetly as possible across the floor of the banquet hall. But there was no escaping the laserlike gaze of Darcy Flotsam, who glanced up at her questioningly from across the table. "I'm fine," Grace mouthed to her, before turning and exiting the room.
    Grace felt better as she climbed the steps up to the higher levels of the ship. She considered going out on deck to get some fresh air but decided that she really would be best off returning to her cabin. The ship was deserted--everyone was down in the banquet hall--and she made swift progress along its corridors, gratefully pushing open the door to her room.
    The first thing she saw on entering the cabin was the painting that now hung above her bed. The picture had been a gift from Lorcan. It depicted a young man and woman stretched out lazily on a ship's deck. This ship's deck. The couple's eyes were fixed on each other as they basked in the afternoon sun and the first flush of love. They exuded joy and optimism, but Grace knew this was deceptive. The two figures depicted were Grace's mother
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    and the man Grace had thought, until recently, was her father. It captured Sally and Dexter at the peak of their youth and happiness. Soon afterward, their lives had veered into dark water.
    Grace's eyes locked on the image of Dexter Tempest. He might not be her father by blood, but he would always be her dad.
    She turned away from the painting and approached the dressing table and the mirror that rested upon it. She looked into the glass, scrutinizing her reflection. In spite of all the changes she was going through, she didn't look obviously stressed or run-down. On the contrary, she looked rather pretty tonight. Indeed, as Oskar had noted, the latest dress borrowed from Darcy had brought out the subtle coloring of her eyes.
    Grace found herself gazing deep into her own reflected eyes, watching the green shift to blue like the ocean waters. Then, she felt an increasingly familiar sensation. It began as a certain queasiness but grew into a deep, gnawing hunger. A hunger not for food but for blood.
    As the coil of hunger ricocheted through her body, Grace kept her gaze locked on the mirror, observing herself with horrid fascination, as the familiar emerald green of her irises disappeared and was replaced by dancing orange fire.
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    5 THE HOMECOMING
    "I'm home!" A familiar voice reverberated around the bridge of The Blood Captain as the door was flung open.
    Jez Stukeley and Johnny Desperado, Sidorio's two ambitious lieutenants, scrambled to their feet to salute their returning captain as he strode inside to join them. They were somewhat surprised to find Sidorio dressed in a silver fox fur coat and matching hat. Ever since the Big Romance with Lady Lola Lockwood, the captain's dress-sense had taken a turn for the bizarre.
    "It's great to be back!" Sidorio declared, dropping two hefty suitcases on the floor and standing, hands on hips, grinning at his two deputies.
    "Nice hat, Captain!" Stukeley said. "I take it you didn't honeymoon in the tropics, then?"
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    "No, the Ukraine," Sidorio said, unbuttoning his coat. "Lola wanted a snow and ice vacation."
    "How... quirky," Stukeley mumbled while nodding agreeably.
    Sidorio shrugged off the coat