More than Magic: Semester Aboard (13 page)

"No!"

"Ok. Never mind then."

Dani still looked annoyed, but eyed Thomas
curiously. "Why did you think it was me?" He laughed. "He wasn't
getting pushy with my wife, was he?"

"Of course not," Thomas said.

"But Mariana wouldn't hit anybody..." Dani
continued thoughtfully. He hummed for a moment and then jerked up
in his chair. "Oh! I'm going to go find Kevin." With that he stood
and started out of the dining hall.

Thomas sighed. "Should've just kept my mouth
shut. I figured he knew. Excuse me, Jennifer. I think I have to go.
Just in case Dani finds him."

"Ok, bye," I called, feeling slightly
puzzled, as Thomas rushed off after Dani. I sighed and returned to
my lunch.

When I was finished with classes for the day
I wandered up to the snack bar, thinking about my newest
assignments. I was concerned about how I was going to do the
project for my Ancient Latin American Peoples class while in the
Galapagos. I was pretty sure they didn't have any history there
that qualified as ancient. I grabbed a smoothie and settled down at
a table. A few minutes later Charlie joined me.

"Hey," he said, settling in across from me
with a hot dog. "Think you did well on that test?"

"Yeah, I think so. You finished pretty
fast."

"I studied Animal Science. It's not plants,
but I'm used to memorizing big, funny looking words."

We laughed and he took a bite of his hot dog.
So, he didn't need to eat food. I wondered if he even got hungry or
if eating a hot dog did anything for him.

"Did you just feel like eating a hot dog?" I
asked.

"Pretty much. Smelled good when I walked
by."

I still couldn't quite wrap my head around
the fact that he and Dani didn't need to eat. Dani needing nothing
but water made a bit more sense to me than Charlie needing nothing
but wood. I had thought that every living thing needed water. Then
again, I hadn't believed in magic and fire elementals either.

"Do you ever drink anything?"

Charlie shrugged. "I'll steal a sip of
something from time to time."

"So, you
can
drink if you want
to?"

"Yeah. A little bit, anyway. I prefer it hot,
but I can handle a sip or two of, say, smoothies," he gestured to
my drink, "if I really want."

"But you don't
need
to drink?"

He shook his head. Weird. A girl from my
Ancient Peoples class sat down next to us.

"Hey, Jen," she said.

"Hi, Beth." She hadn't been in class today
and looked awful. "Are you ok?"

She shrugged. "I feel pretty cruddy. Slept
right through my alarm this morning and just got out of bed like,
fifteen minutes ago. I thought I'd come get a snack. Did we get an
assignment in class?"

"Yeah, here." I sifted through my papers
until I found it, and handed it to her. "I'm sorry you're
sick."

"It's ok. I'm starting to feel better and I'd
rather be sick on the ship than in port." She looked over the
assignment and then handed it back. "Thanks. I'll have to find the
professor and get it from her."

"Seems like something is going around," I
said.

"How's your roommate?" Charlie asked. I
looked over at him and stared in surprise. He sounded casual, but
he was staring intently at Beth and his eyes were doing something
I'd never seen them do before. His irises were a mix of dark reds
and blacks that reminded me of smoldering coals.

"Oh, have you talked to Kaitlyn?" Beth asked.
"She's better too. I guess we both caught the same bug."

I knew that non-magical people couldn't see
elementals eyes changing, but I hadn't really gotten to experience
it. Beth smiled at Charlie and answered him without a second
glance, even though his eyes had suddenly changed. It was weird to
know that she couldn't see it. But, I was more concerned with
Charlie. His eyes were now a mix of furiously flaring reds and
oranges. He was still staring at Beth, but it looked like he was
looking at her neck. Suddenly, he stood.

"Well, I'm glad you're feeling better. Jen
and I better get our project done," he said.

"Yeah," I said, trying not to show my
confusion. "Let's go do that. Have a good night, Beth. Feel
better!"

Charlie hurried away from the table and I
quickly followed him. I could actually feel heat radiating off of
him as he walked.

"What's going on?" I asked.

He turned, eyes still flaring, and put his
hands on my shoulders. His hands were so hot they were nearly
burning me.

"I don't have time to explain. Beth, and
probably everyone else who has been sick, didn't catch a bug. A
vampire has been feeding from them," he said. He spoke so quickly
and quietly that it took me a moment to process the words.

"Whoa," I cried as it sunk in. "A
vampire
?"

"Listen very carefully. If I tell you to run,
don't hesitate and don't argue.
Run
. Get back to your room
as fast as you can and don't let anyone in, and stay there until
one of us gets you. Do you understand?"

"But..." My head was whirling. Vampires?
Seriously?

"Do you understand?" he snapped.

I swallowed nervously. "Yes."

Chapter 9

Charlie rushed across the deck so fast that I
practically had to run to keep up. I followed him wordlessly until
we had made a complete circuit of Deck Seven. When we were nearly
back where we had started Charlie cursed and went for the nearest
door. Once it became clear that we were wandering the inside of
Deck Seven my initial panic over the idea of a vampire started
turning into annoyance. I wasn't even sure what we were doing.

"Charlie? Is there-"

He whirled, eyes still blazing. "What?" He
looked and sounded so pissed that I took a step back in alarm.
"Sorry." He squeezed his eyes shut and took a couple of deep
breaths. When he opened his eyes again the flames were calmer. "I'm
sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. It's a fire elemental thing, I
can't help it." He sighed. "You're probably confused, not to
mention freaked out and I'm not helping by overreacting." Charlie
smiled weakly. "Which is also a fire thing. What is it?"

"I-I was wondering what we're doing."

He started walking again, a bit slower than
before. "Looking for the others. This is...it could be bad. We need
to let everyone know and then regroup. I don't think we have a lot
of time before sunset."

"Sunset? Do vampires really sleep during the
day?" I decided against asking if they slept in coffins.

Charlie shook his head.

"But they really drink blood. Right?"

"Yeah."

I wasn't sure what he had meant by 'it's a
fire elemental thing,' but I assumed that it was also the reason he
wasn't in a talking mood. It was probably also not something he
wanted to explain at the moment. We went down the stairs to Deck
Six and went outside. There were a few people scattered around the
tables studying, but none of them were who we were looking for.
Charlie picked his pace up again and we started down the deck along
one side of the ship. I had a dozen questions tumbling around in my
brain. The most pressing one was, if vampires don't sleep during
the day then could we run into one? I wasn't sure he'd answer it,
so I just followed him, keeping a wary eye out as we passed
doorways. We finished our search of the outside of Deck Six and
went in. Charlie stopped suddenly and I nearly ran into him.

"Is that the piano?"

There was a lounge on this deck with a piano
that students frequently played. Now that we were inside I could
just hear the sound of someone playing.

"Yeah, I think it is."

Charlie started in the direction of the
lounge. We rounded the corner past the snack bar and to my surprise
Dani was the one playing the piano.

"Wow," I breathed. He was really, really
good.

"Yeah." Even though Charlie was clearly
worried about the vampire he had a small, odd smile as he watched
Dani play. I wondered if Charlie had a crush on him; then
immediately felt bad. I hoped for Charlie's sake that it was just
an innocent crush and nothing more. It would be hard to see
somebody you really liked get married. The fact that Dani wouldn't
like Charlie back, even if he was single, would have made it even
harder.

There were a fair number of people gathered
in the lounge, which made getting to Dani difficult. Charlie
scanned the crowd nervously. Was it possible that one of them was
the vampire? I shivered at the thought. We made it as far as the
other side of the snack bar, but there were too many people between
the piano and us.

"Dan!" Charlie yelled. Dani didn't hear him.
"Danio!" After a moment Charlie put two fingers in his mouth and
let out a loud whistle. Dani looked up in our direction. His grin
turned almost instantly into a look of concern. He immediately
stopped playing and got up. He wound his way through the crowd
until he reached us.

"What's wrong, C?"

"Not here," Charlie said. He led us out of
the lounge and into an empty classroom.

"If this has anything to do with that Kevin
guy," Dani snarled the moment Charlie closed the door, "I swear
I'll break his-"

"There's a vampire," Charlie said.

Dani stopped mid-sentence and stared at
Charlie for a long moment. "W-what?" he finally choked.

"There's a vampire on the ship. Feeding."

Dani sucked in a sharp breath and his eyes
immediately started churning to black. "Damn," he growled. Then he
sighed and closed his eyes. Like Charlie's had earlier, Dani's eyes
seemed calmer when he opened them again. "You're sure?"

"Yes. Just bumped into a girl on deck who was
sick this morning. It's faint, but she's got a bite."

"Drought," Dani snarled. He started cursing
in a mix of Greek and English. It sounded like he was somehow
humming at the same time. "Ok, where's everyone else?"

"We don't know."

Dani raked his fingers back through his hair
and sighed. "I just saw TS a few minutes ago, with any luck he's
still on this deck. Let's go."

We left the classroom and followed Dani down
the hall. He seemed just as worried as Charlie, which I found
concerning. Maybe this vampire really was a big deal. After a
moment I noticed that Dani was humming under his breath. For the
first time his lyrical hums struck me as whale-like. Maybe he
wasn't just humming, but actually saying something! We reached the
end of the hall and stopped by the stairs. Luck was with us. Before
we could decide which way to go TS came up from Deck Five.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked when he saw
us.

"You know that bug that's going around?"
Charlie asked. TS nodded. "It's not a cold, it's a vampire
feeding."

"Bloody hell," TS groaned.

"I don't suppose..." Dani said softly.

TS shook his head. "No." He slumped against
the wall and sighed. "This isn't good. Right, here's what-"

"We need to find Thomas and Mariana," Dani
said. His eyes were darker than I had ever seen them. "Then we need
to figure out if this is a vampire or just a dhampir and how many
there are. If we're lucky it's just a single dhampir."

TS cleared his throat. "Actually..."

"Hang on. I'm thinking. Where is Thomas? You
can get him and I'll try to find Mariana. Then-"

"You know what would be keen?" TS
growled.

"If you'd let me think?" Dani snapped.

"It would be keen," TS continued. "If MES had
sent a
Field
Agent with us. Cause now we have a situation
in the field
! In fact, it would have been even better if we
had a Senior Field Agent! An SFA would, by nature of the whole
being in the field
thing, outrank you in this situation.
And! Again since we're
in the field
an SFA would probably
have a good idea of what we should be doing right now, which, by
the way, isn't standing in a corridor like bloody idiots! So, can
you shut it a tick or do you want to keep doing
my
job for
me?"

"Sarcasm isn't going to help," Dani hissed,
literally right in TS' face.

"Neither is overreacting," TS said.

If anything, that seemed to make Dani even
angrier. His eyes were practically black and for a moment I was
pretty sure he was going to hit TS.

"Do not," TS whispered, nose an inch from
Dani's, "forget you're not the only one who has a bad history with
vampires. We're in a school for God's sake, Danio. Think how
I
feel!" His tone sent a shiver up my spine.

Dani's shoulders slumped and he shut his
eyes. "Sorry. Just typhooning." Charlie put a hand on his shoulder
and Dani sighed heavily. I couldn't help but notice Charlie let his
hand linger there.

"I know," TS said. "I'm sorry too. I'm a bit
on edge seeing as I'm human right now."

Dani jerked his head up, eyes wide. "Oh god,
Mariana's human too."

TS made a sound like a dog whimpering and
cursed. "Right," he said, looking back and forth between Dani and
Charlie. "You armed, Dani?"

Dani's hand flashed. In one smooth motion he
had tugged a knife out of his pocket and flipped it open. The blade
was a good five inches long, and was jagged. "Just this."

"That'll do," TS said. Dani snapped it shut
and it vanished just as quickly as he had produced it. "Your room
is closer, so that's where the three of us will go. With any luck
Mariana's already there. If you don't find her, come down to your
room and check in."

"Wait, wait," Charlie said. "If one of us is
alone it should be me."

TS shook his head. "Much as I hate to admit
it, I'll be useless until sunset. If this biter shows up Jen and I
might both need protection. Fire's better for that. You'll be fine
on your own, right?"

Dani nodded. "At least until sunset."

"You've got five minutes to meet back with
us," TS said.