White Fangs by Tim Lebbon, Christopher Golden Page B

were implemented by the crew.
    "We should get up to the wheelhouse," Jack said. He was thinking quickly, considering and discounting options, and the moves left open to them were depressingly few.
    "Why?" Vukovich asked. "The boat's drifting."
    "In case something comes out of the water —" Louis explained.
    "If something comes out, we kill it," Vukovich stated firmly.
    "While we don't know what it is, it's best to avoid a fight." Jack grabbed Sabine's hand and headed forward toward one of the narrow staircases that climbed the superstructure, and the others followed.
    They passed a group of confused, frightened people, that Jack realized were three men and the three prostitutes Jack and the others had shared a carriage with on the train journey here. The madam was talking sternly, quietly, to her two employees.
    "Stay away from the water," Jack said as they passed. The madam just glared back at him with a hard expression.
    The drifting steamer had turned sideways on to the river's flow, and something struck it hard below decks once again, rapidly halting its progress down the river. The deck tilted to port, and Jack pulled Sabine down to the deck, scrabbling for purchase. The madam and one of the men fell against the wooden railing and flipped over, out of Jack's view. There were two splashes, and the sounds of them both surfacing and spitting water.
    And then came more terrible sounds. Still out of sight, the man cried out once, then his voice drowned out as he was quickly pulled under. The woman screamed. She was dragged into view across the river's surface, and Jack could see water foaming around her, her arms waving uselessly.
    She was pulled under suddenly, and the foaming water changed color. In the dusk, that color was dark. Jack had seen enough blood by moonlight to recognize its awful hue.
    The two remaining women were crying, trying to pull themselves up the sloping deck away from the edge, when the vessel tilted even further. Jack grabbed one woman's hand, and she grabbed her friend's, and he didn't release her until she had a good hold on a doorway.
    "Here, Jack!" Louis called. He'd smashed a window and was gripping the frame. Jack lunged for his outstretch hand and grabbed on, his finger's curling around the man's wrist, and Louise's long-nailed fingers fixing tight around his. Jack resisted the urge to wince at the grip — Louis was saving his life.
    Sabine clasped his other arm with both of hers.
    "Climb across me," Jack told her urgently. "Don't trust your feet. The deck is tilting more than you think." She did as he suggested, moving nimbly across his shoulders and reaching for the Reverend, where the tall man was holding onto a door frame. She held on behind him, looking across and down at Jack, and beyond him to the waters that held such mysterious danger.
    "We need to get to starboard!" Jack said. "Up and over, or through the ship. Whatever way, we can't stay here."
    "You don't think they can capsize the whole steamer?" Maurilio called back. He was further along the deck behind the Revered, he and Vukovich clinging to the deck with long claws sprouting from their tattered boots. You'll get noticed , Jack thought, but the idea was ridiculous.
    "They?" Vukovich asked. "Who the hell are they?"
    "That doesn't matter," Jack said. "They're strong, and seem pretty focused on killing everyone on board." He locked eyes with Louis, suddenly and uncomfortably aware of what he was describing. An ambush, a slaughter. These men with him — these more- than-men — were dreadfully familiar with such a thing. He glanced up at Vukovich and saw the big man's legs lengthened, his shoulders broadening, and his leathery face had deformed into a more exaggerated version of himself.
    "Vukovich," Jack tried to warn him, but his words were stolen by the night.
    "We can go this way," the Reverend called, indicating the doorway.
    The sounds of chaos continued and increased all around them. The ship tilted even more, timbers