Skylar avoided facing Alucard while everyone else, besides her and Alucard, was either asleep or looking around aimlessly. Looked around the books. Skylar's hands shook a little as she traced the spines of each book with her fingertips. Alucard was silently looking through the books. A flash came to his mind of how close his face was to Skylar's just now. His hand clenched into a tight fist, and his heart thudded in his chest for a moment. He froze for a moment. Placing his hand over his chest, he felt his heartbeat steady for a moment. While Skylar was browsing a book she'd grabbed from the shelf, he observed her. His heart jumped a little seeing her focused. He looked away; his hair blocked his expression. His hands trembled slightly. He shook his head, looked at one book, and picked it up. He flipped through the book, mostly trying to distract himself, but he froze finding one page. The page focusing on seductive creatures known as succubi or something similar to it, taking on the form of a woman, known as Sirens, Rusalka, Lamia, and Huldre, all bring men to their deaths through enchantment and seduction. He self-consciously looked at Skylar as she looked at another book. He felt his face warm up slightly at the thought of Skylar possibly being one of these creatures, or possibly a new creature like them.
Alucard snapped the book shut, making Skylar jump. She turned her head to look at him. He didn't look at her, and he quickly put away the book he was looking at, then looked at another book. Skylar watched him for a moment, then shook her head and looked at another book. The tension between them was thick, and made the space they shared between those bookshelves almost suffocating. Skylar and Alucard didn't move an inch closer to each other, and couldn't look at or say anything to each other. Skylar left the space, almost running to look somewhere else for something to kill Dracula, or something to help with it at least. She kept walking around until she found a mirror covered with a cloth. Skylar stopped in front of the mirror. She came closer to the mirror and pulled off the cloth, seeing a crack in the mirror and writing along the edges. She realized what the mirror's intended purpose is.
"Alucard!" Skylar called up as she looked over the mirror, tracing her fingers over the carved ancient words on the mirror's edge.
"What is it?" Alucard called down as he rushed to find Skylar on the floor level of the hold.
"It's a travel mirror," Skylar said, looking at Alucard. I have only heard old stories and read some faint old books about them, but I recognize the markings around the mirror as old writings from descriptions. It's mostly scratched up, but fixable if done correctly."
Alucard came up beside her as she looked back in the mirror. He looked at the cracked edge and the markings. He could see the same things Skylar did. The writing, the use of the mirror, and how this could help us track and kill Dracula, even if he is Alucard and Dracule's father.
"It is," Alucard confirmed, running his gloved hand over the mirror's edge.
"Do you know how to use one?" Skylar asked him as the others came closer. Skylar glanced at Alucard as he looked over the mirror, and caught his eyes looking at her in the mirror, then looked away. Alucard's eyes remained on her in the mirror. He felt something strange in him begin to stir just by watching her alone. He couldn't understand it, and he was too scared to name it.