More than Magic: Semester Aboard (49 page)

"Damn," he said suddenly. He tightened his
grip on me. "They're going to split us up. And I don't think we can
get out of this either."

"What?" Dani snarled. "How are they splitting
us?"

"Alphabetically."

"Alphabetically
how
?"

Before Thomas could answer Dani our Dean slid
his way into the center of the room and clapped his hands. Everyone
fell silent.

"Ok, thanks for your patience everyone," he
said. "We've decided that, just in case, we want to keep everyone
together. But clearly it's not going to work if we all stay here.
With any luck we may even be able to sleep tonight. If your last
name begins with A through I, please go to the Deck Five dining
hall."

I swallowed nervously. That meant I was
separated from Thomas and TS. Even without the threat of Nathaniel
I wouldn't have liked it, but the idea of being without Thomas and
TS with Nathaniel at large was terrifying. I clutched my purse, and
with it my wand and stake, closer.

"If your last name begins with J through R,"
Dean Dave continued.

Dani cursed.

"Please go up to the Student Union. That's A
to I, Deck Five dining hall and J to R, Student Union. And everyone
else, that's S through Z, make your way to the Deck Six dining
hall. Deck Six."

"We're on different ends of the ship?" Dani
demanded. He stood, keeping an arm around Charlie. "You've got to
be shitting me."

"I'll be fine," Charlie said. He still looked
worried. "It won't sink, right?"

"And we will be taking attendance again at
the doors," Dean Dave added. "Please remember that this is for your
own safety. We need everyone to stay together."

We stood reluctantly. Thomas hugged me
tightly.

"Be careful, after they take attendance we'll
figure out a way to meet back up safely."

"Ok."

Then we split up. Thomas, TS, and Mariana all
went one way and Dani, Charlie, and I went the other. We went up
the stairs and Dani and Charlie hugged. Then Dani and I went one
way while Charlie went the other. Dani's eyes were churning and I
knew he was furious about being separated from Charlie, but to my
surprise he put an arm around my shoulders.

"Got your wand?" he asked softly.

"Yeah."

"Stake?"

"Yes."

"Good. Not that you'll need them." He gave me
a weak smile and tightened his arm around me.

Most of the chairs in the student union were
bolted down, but the ones that weren't had tumbled all over the
room. After everything had been secured, everyone in the room found
a spot and settled in. Shortly before the first hour was up Dani
got a call from Thomas. He tucked his phone away and didn't look
happy.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Dani looked over at the doors and I followed
his gaze. There were professors by the door. "Tom says the doors
down there are being blocked too. They aren't letting anyone
out."

"What do we do?"

He shrugged. "For now we're not going to call
attention to ourselves. If any of the doors do clear then we're
meeting back at the room."

Another hour passed. The professors decided
that we needed sleep and turned off the lights. It was very strange
looking around with night vision and knowing that nobody else could
see. Bright pinpoints of light, cell phones, appeared as people
tried to keep reading or playing cards. It was almost comical
watching people stumbling around as they tried to find a place to
lie down. Dani and I were in a corner near the door. I was getting
tired and was sure that he was too, but neither of us slept. The
engines still weren't back online and the ship was rocking so much
I couldn't believe I wasn't sick. I was glad I had taken that
potion. After the third hour went by I started to fidget.

"You ok?"

"Yeah. I'm just nervous sitting here like
this."

"Look on the bright side, after three hours I
highly doubt that the ship is in danger of sinking anymore."

That did cheer me up a little. "That's
true."

Not long after our conversation a crewmember
came over and sat down near us. "We've almost got things sorted
out. Are you both alright?"

We both nodded. I studied her nervously; she
looked a bit young to be a crewmember. In fact, she looked like she
was in her early twenties.

She held out her hand. "I'm Sandra."

"Jen," I said, shaking her hand. A vampire
wouldn't be this friendly, right?

Sandra looked at Dani and smiled. "And you
are?"

"Dani. Nice to-" He stopped mid-sentence and
pulled his hand back before she could shake it. "Well, shit."

Sandra laughed. "That was impressive. What
gave me away?"

She was a vampire. Or maybe, if we were
lucky, a dhampir. Dani opened his mouth to answer, then his eyes
widened in shock. "Oh, you clever bitch." He adjusted how he was
sitting and put himself between Sandra and me.

She laughed and my breath caught in shock.
She had fangs. Long ones, in fact too long to be a dhampir. Then, I
realized that Dani must have; we hadn't slept in here yet. We
couldn't uninvite her.

"Now," Sandra said with a smug grin, "let's
go for a walk."

"We'll stay here, thanks," Dani said.

"I insist."

"If you try to make either of us go with you,
we'll cause a commotion. And I'm sure you don't want all of these
people to wake up."

Sandra considered it with a frown. Then my
heart sank as she smiled. "Did you realize that every single person
on this ship has just been locked out of the rooms they've claimed?
Do you have any idea how
easy
it would be for me to
barricade those doors and kill
everyone
in here? Or we could
turn everyone on the ship and then see what hundreds of hungry
dhampirs are capable of. It would be very entertaining. Or you come
with me right now and don't cause a fuss."

I had no idea how I had thought of her as
friendly before. Her cheerful smile was too sadistic and cruel to
ever mistake for friendly. Dani and I looked at each other
hopelessly. Then Dani slowly got to his feet. I started to stand,
but he held his hand out.

"Stay put."

"What?" I asked. Sandra echoed my
question.

"I'm going and she's staying," Dani said,
jerking his head in my direction.

"Both of you," Sandra snarled, "or
everyone
."

Seeing no other choice, I stood. We started
walking toward one of the doors.

"If either of you calls attention to us, I'll
still kill everyone in here," Sandra promised.

The two of us grimly followed her across the
room. For a moment I thought that the professor by the door would
stop us, but Sandra just smiled sweetly.

"Their rooms flooded, we're making sure
nothing was damaged," she told the professor.

Disappointment rushed through me as the
professor stepped aside. She flashed us a sympathetic smile and
waved us on. Sandra led us up a stairway to Deck Seven. As we
walked up Dani nudged me with his elbow.

"Hey, don't look so worried," he whispered.
"I'll protect you, ok?"

"Ok."

He gave my hair a weak fluff and continued up
the stairs ahead of me. When we got to the top Sandra turned to a
door that led outside.

"Go." She opened the door and gestured for us
to go out.

Dani yanked the door out of her hand and let
it swing shut. "Changed my mind," he said with a smirk.

My first thought was that Dani had snapped.
He'd been on edge all day and this was exactly the sort of
situation where I'd expect him to typhoon. But except for a couple
of black splashes in his eyes he looked perfectly calm.

Sandra curled back her upper lip and hissed
at him. She had to stand on her tiptoes to look him in the eye, but
she did. "I suggest you cooperate," she snarled in his face.

Then I realized that Dani was deliberately
provoking her. Sandra was so distracted by trying to stare him down
that she didn't see him pull out a stake. She never even saw it
until he'd already started slamming it into her chest. But she was
just a little too fast. I couldn't believe it, somehow she'd seen
the stake with just a fraction of a second left to dodge. The stake
must have gone a good inch or two into her chest, but she caught
Dani's wrist with her hands and struggled to keep him from driving
it further in.

"Jen, run!" Dani yelled.

For a moment I hesitated. I couldn't leave
him alone with a vampire, even though I knew there was nothing I
could do. Then I realized that if I could get back down to Deck Six
I could make it to the dining hall and find Charlie. If nothing
else, I could hide long enough to call Thomas. I turned and raced
down the stairs as fast as I could. I hit the landing so fast that
I had to grab the railing and swing myself around to change
direction. As I turned I glanced back up the stairs. I shouldn't
have. I looked just in time to see Sandra punch Dani right in the
stomach. He was on his hands and knees in an instant, coughing and
gasping in pain. Sandra yanked the stake out of her chest with a
wince and tossed it onto the floor. Then she turned to me and
smiled sweetly.

"Come back," she said.

Dani looked at me, eyes gray with pain, and
shook his head. I hesitated. There was nothing I could do to fight
Sandra. I couldn't do anything more than throw a few sparks at her.
But I also couldn't outrun her. I looked desperately down into the
halls of Deck Six. There was nowhere safe I could go before Sandra
would catch up to me.

"Now," Sandra snarled.

There
was
something I could do! I
couldn't fight her and I couldn't run, but I could stall! Sooner or
later Thomas would try to get in touch with us again. If neither of
us answered our phones he'd have to assume the worst and then he
and the others would come looking for us. Now I just had to try and
stall Sandra without letting her realize what I was up to. I stayed
on the landing and glanced again at Deck Six, partially to fool her
into thinking I was still considering running and partially out of
the silly hope that I'd see someone coming to help.

"If I have to come get you it isn't going to
be pretty," Sandra promised. Suddenly, she giggled. It was a cruel,
hollow sound that made me shiver. She was enjoying this. "Oh my,"
she said. "I must have hit you harder than I thought."

Dani was still coughing and I gasped in shock
as I realized that every painful sounding heave spattered the
carpet with blood. And there was a lot of blood. Sandra's punch
hadn't just knocked the wind out of him it had really hurt him.
Charlie's voice echoed in my head,
Dani's got an old abdominal
injury that never healed. It still bothers him sometimes.
Horror filled me. Charlie had made it sound like Dani's stomach was
prone to hurting for no good reason. If it was that debilitating to
begin with I couldn't imagine how much damage a direct punch,
especially from a vampire, would do.

Sandra looked back at me. "If you make me
wait any longer I'll kill him. Then I'll drag you back up here and
you'll wish you'd never run."

No choice. And no time left to stall. I
climbed the stairs as slowly as I dared. The fact I was making my
way back seemed enough to satisfy Sandra. I took my time, praying
with every step that I'd be able to stall long enough for help to
come. Every second I could gain us was precious. All too soon I
stopped at the top of the stairs.

"Now then, we can do this the easy way or we
can continue doing it the painful way," Sandra said. "Get up."

Dani didn't seem in any hurry to stand.
Sandra snarled in annoyance and grabbed him by the shoulder and
hauled him to his feet. Dani gasped in pain, but gritted his teeth
and stayed standing.

"I hope we plan to be more cooperative now,"
Sandra said. She wrinkled her nose and glared at Dani. "Your blood
smells absolutely disgusting." She turned to me and sniffed.
"Yours, on the other hand, smells lovely. Even when you aren't
bleeding." I took a step back in fear as she took one toward me. "I
don't think Nathaniel will mind if I have a little taste."

"Hey!"

The moment Sandra turned to look at Dani he
spat a mouthful of blood directly into her face. My jaw dropped in
disbelief and I couldn't tell which of us it had shocked more.
Sandra recoiled with a cry and wiped some of the blood away. She
stared at the streak of blue on her fingers, clearly unable to
believe what had just happened.

"How does it smell now, bitch?"

Sandra answered Dani by backhanding him
across the face. She hit him so hard she knocked him completely off
of his feet. I dropped to the ground next to him. I was terrified
of what Sandra would do to us and even more frightened now that she
had mentioned Nathaniel. But the guilt I felt was almost as bad as
the fear. Dani had spit on her to distract her from
me
.

"Are you ok?" I asked. I felt so helpless I
wanted to cry.

Dani pushed himself up onto one elbow and
wiped a trickle of blood off of his chin. Sandra's blow had split
his lower lip and it looked like a nasty bruise was already
forming. The furious black waves in his eyes churned to worried
gray ones. "You should have run and left me."

He had a good point, but I had one too. "You
wouldn't have left me."

"That's because I'm an idiot," he said with a
sad smile. "If you get another chance, you take it. Don't worry
about me."

I glanced at Sandra. "She said she'd kill
you," I whispered. Another surge of hopelessness and fear made me
shiver.

"It would've been worth it if you were
safe."

Sandra heaved a melodramatic sigh. "Enough
talking. Get up."

I offered Dani a hand to help him up. He took
it, but instead of leaning his weight on me he pulled me to one
side. I moved, even though I thought it would have been easier to
help him up from my original position. Then I realized that he had
moved me into the perfect place to block Sandra's view while he
picked his stake back up. As soon as it was tucked away, Dani got
back to his feet. We followed Sandra out onto the deck.