More than Magic: Semester Aboard (53 page)

Nathaniel shoved TS away from him. TS hit the
ground and clamped both hands over his neck. But I could see the
blood running through his fingers. His face was almost gray. If he
didn't stop bleeding soon, he'd die.

"I was done with him anyway," Nathaniel
snarled. "Time for the main course."

He stalked toward me and I backed away. There
was nowhere to run. Charlie desperately struggled to push himself
up to help me, but couldn't. I could hear Thomas yelling, but
didn't dare look away from Nathaniel. I realized that he was
enjoying the slow chase and I forced myself to stop. Nathaniel
chuckled and then, fast as lightening, grabbed me. He dragged me
out from under the roof, away from Charlie. The rain had slowed to
a light drizzle, but it would still be enough to keep Charlie at
bay. Not that he was strong enough to follow. Nathaniel pushed me
and I stumbled. He laughed as I regained my balance. I fought to
keep my tears from falling and stood to face him. He forced me back
until I was pressed against the rails with nowhere to go but down
into the ocean. Even if I survived the fall, I doubted that Mariana
or Dani would find me in time to save me.

Nathaniel licked his lips, giving me a good
view of his fangs. His mouth was smeared with blood. TS' blood. I
was shaking uncontrollably. Here I was, a witch, I had a wand
and
a stake and I was powerless to use either. I'd never be
fast enough to stake him and my spells were useless. I tried
anyway.

"
Mar
!" I nearly sobbed. Even from just
two feet away, the spell was no stronger.

Nathaniel's cruel smirk widened. "I like your
spirit. You'd make a good vampire." Then he laughed. "I know!" he
exclaimed, as if the thought had just occurred to him. "I'll turn
you!"

"No!" Thomas screamed.

"In fact, I'll turn you and then force you to
kill all of your friends. And then!
Then
I'll let you have
the run of the ship. I wonder how many humans you can kill before
they kill you."

I leaned back against the rails, trying not
to collapse as reality closed in. I was so stupid. So naive. This
wasn't a fairy tale with a happy ending. There would be no
dramatic, last minute rescue. Thomas was trapped. He hadn't been
strong enough to free himself at night; he was powerless to do it
now. He'd just hang there and watch, helplessly. Charlie was still
trying, and failing, to get up. Even if he could the light rain
would take him down long before he was able to stop Nathaniel. TS
had passed out, or worse, and lay still on the deck in a pool of
his own blood. Mariana couldn't get back on the ship without Dani,
not that it mattered. She would be as useless as I was. And
Dani...for all I knew Dani was already dead. He'd been so hurt that
even if he was alive I knew he'd never be healed in time to help.
No, Dani wasn't going to suddenly appear and stake Nathaniel at the
last second.

The summer had been like a dream, some parts
of it a nightmare, but overall a good dream.
Magic
. The
things I had done, the things I had seen were all unbelievable. The
past month had been incredible. But it wasn't a dream and there was
no happy ending for us. I'd been playing witch. I should have
practiced my fire spell more. Would it have helped? Would I be able
to make bigger sparks? Flames? I could have at least practiced my
warming spell! If I could have gotten Charlie warmer faster we
might all be safe. No, I had messed around. My best and strongest
spell was useless. Night vision. Now that the sun was up I didn't
even need it. It was almost too bright already.

For a moment the entire world seemed to grind
to a halt. An insane idea struck me. I thought of how even the
smallest crack of light was abnormally bright with night vision.
The memory of everyone crying out when I turned on the light
flashed through my mind. I could see Thomas' eyes watering as he
turned away from the sun. I looked at Nathaniel. Not at his evil
smile or his blood-stained lips. I looked at his eyes, not at the
hunger or the pleasure in them, but the tears. The sun was behind
me and was bright enough that Nathaniel's eyes were already
slightly watery. What would casting a night vision spell on him do?
If I didn't try I was dead. If it failed, I was dead anyway. We all
were. I slowly raised my wand. He laughed.

"Trying again? Go ahead! See if you can singe
me this time!"

"
Mar
!" I screamed the word, putting
everything I had into it. I thought of how the world suddenly
appeared out of the dark. I thought of suddenly explosions of
bright light. I cast my night vision spell, knowing it was
strongest.

I don't know what I expected. More cruel
laughter maybe. Or a bit of surprise. Instead, Nathaniel screamed
in pain and buried his eyes in his hands. "Bitch! I'll kill you!"
Despite his words, he staggered back a step, eyes still
covered.

It probably went against everything witches
were usually taught, but I dropped my wand. Clutching my stake in
both hands I drove it into his chest as hard as I could.
Nathaniel's screams intensified and he fell back onto the deck,
blood pouring from around the stake. From the way he was screaming
I knew I had only hit two hearts. I dropped down, shaking, and
shoved the stake further in.

He was dead.

I fell back, overcome by a wave of relief,
shock, and fatigue. It was over. The rain had stopped and the
remaining clouds were parting. It was a beautiful morning, despite
the carnage on the deck because I hadn't thought that I'd live to
see it. Tears rolled down my cheeks and I didn't know if they were
from joy or if I had just been holding them in for too long. No.
The thought made my blood run cold. It wasn't over. TS was still
bleeding to death, Thomas was still trapped, and Charlie was still
shivering. I couldn't sit here doing nothing. The stake caught my
eye and I realized that it was made of wood. I forced myself to
move and yanked it out of Nathaniel's chest. I scanned the deck and
found two more, then ran to Charlie.

"Here, here!" I cried, thrusting them out to
him. I wasn't strong enough to help Thomas, but I could warm up
Charlie and then try to bandage TS somehow.

Charlie looked stunned, but grabbed them. At
first they burned slowly, then the flames flared up and the stakes
disintegrated into ashes. As Charlie ate I cast another warming
spell on him, useless though it was. Then I ran to TS. He was still
bleeding. Badly. I pressed my hands against his neck, trying to
slow the flow of blood.

"Jen," Charlie yelled. "Come on!" He had
staggered to his feet. He took a shaky step in my direction and
nearly fell. It was obvious that he wanted me to go to him, but I
couldn't understand why. When I hesitated he added, "I can
help!"

He could cauterize it! I jumped to my feet
and ran to him. I tucked myself under his shoulder and we started
walking. Each step was agonizingly slow. At last, Charlie
practically collapsed by TS. He immediately started prodding at the
wound. In a few seconds I smelled burning flesh. Charlie heaved a
sigh of relief and sank back. He'd stopped the bleeding. He reached
a hand out to me.

"Help me over to Tom."

I pulled him up; he seemed even weaker after
using some of his energy. He leaned heavily against me and slung an
arm over the rails after we reached Thomas, just to keep his self
up. Charlie inspected the rails for a moment while I studied
Thomas. He'd done more than broken his arm in his attempt to free
himself. It looked like a horrible mix of blood, flesh, and bone.
Thomas' chest was heaving and his face was streaked with tears.
Charlie grabbed part of the rail and frowned in concentration. I
watched in awe as the rail began to glow red-hot. When it was
bright red he pulled. The rail started to bend and a moment later
Thomas finally wrenched his arm free. He sagged heavily to the
ground with a groan of pain and relief. Charlie slid down too with
a sigh. But Thomas didn't give himself time to rest; he got to his
feet and hurried over to TS. I followed. Thomas spat the healing
saliva directly onto TS' neck and I watched in relief as the wound
started to heal. It was slow and when Thomas was done there were
still four jagged, indented scars in TS' neck. I could only hope
that we'd stopped the bleeding in time.

Without warning Thomas pulled me into a tight
hug with his good arm. "That was amazing. Incredible. You were
absolutely incredible," he gasped. He hugged me even tighter. "You
might have just saved everyone on the entire ship."

I hugged him back. It sounded insane. But I
had.

"How long has he been in the water?" Charlie
said.

The reminder that we still didn't know if
Dani was alive hit me and I leaned weakly against Thomas.

"Not long enough," Thomas said.

"Are you sure? He should've been back by
now." There was an edge of panic in Charlie's voice.

"I'm sure he's fine."

"But what if...what if..." Charlie trailed
off.

"God," Thomas spat softly. He hurried over to
Charlie, crouched down, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, hey.
Listen. Danio's all right. You know he's tough. He'll be fine."

Charlie's eyes were flaring and I realized
what Thomas was thinking. If Charlie started to panic he could
erupt again. I swallowed nervously. Surely he was too weak to do
much damage. He was staring past Thomas, almost like he hadn't
heard him.

"Char!" Thomas gave him a little shake. "He's
ok."

"He was soaking wet from the rain," I added.
"He already looked better by the time we pushed him into the
water."

"Really?"

I nodded, hoping Charlie couldn't tell I was
lying.

"Come on, the ground is wet here," Thomas
said. He helped Charlie to his feet and helped him back under the
roof.

When he had Charlie settled in with a fresh
pile of paper plates, Thomas went back and sat down next to TS. I
joined him. We sat in silence for a little while. Thomas was
absently scratching the top of TS' head, looking across the deck. I
followed his gaze and noticed the jackal's body for the first time.
I couldn't see any blood; it was like the jackal had just dropped
dead. It probably had when the vampire it was bonded to died. I
suppressed a shiver, wondering if Thomas would have died if TS
did.

"He'll be ok, right?" I asked.

Thomas nodded, and then smiled weakly at me.
"Thanks to you."

We were quiet again. Charlie had finished off
the plates and was clearly growing agitated again.

"I didn't see what happened to Danio," Thomas
said softly. "How bad was it?"

"One of the vampires punched him...in the
stomach." I didn't have to wonder if he knew about Dani's stomach,
his expression said it all.

"Did he really seem better by the time you
got him overboard?"

I shook my head and forced myself to say,
"Worse."

Thomas covered his face with his hand and
sighed. I glanced over at Charlie again. He was still sitting, but
it looked like the air around him was shimmering from heat.

"What do we do if Charlie erupts?"

"I don't know," Thomas said.

The silence stretched on once more. Thomas
spat onto TS' neck a couple of times, but never added any to his
own, mangled, arm.

"You need blood."

"I can wait," he said. I started to argue but
he cut me off with another firm, "I can wait." His eyes were
trained on the water and I knew he was worried about Dani. The
minutes ticked by. Then Thomas heaved a sad sigh. "We can't wait
out here much longer. We need to clean off the deck and go
inside."

But he made no move to get up. We kept
sitting and the waiting was agonizing. Then, suddenly, Thomas
looked to the side and jumped to his feet.

Dani and Mariana were at the rails.

Dani was still pale and Mariana had to help
him climb over the rails. He leaned against them once he was on the
deck, breathing heavily and clutching his stomach with one hand.
But he was alive. I was so relieved I could hardly stand. Thomas'
sigh of relief sounded like he had been holding his breath for
hours.

Neither of them was in any condition to walk,
but before anyone could offer to help Dani, Charlie had crossed the
deck and they collapsed to their knees in each other's arms.
Charlie broke down and sobbed hysterically against Dani's shoulder.
Dani sagged back and sat, pulling Charlie down with him. He took a
moment to dry himself and Charlie off, tossed the ball of water
away, and then buried his face in the crook of Charlie's neck. I'd
never thought of Dani as someone who cried, but I knew that the
blue-tinged drops rolling down his cheeks weren't ocean water.

And then Mariana barreled into me and threw
her arms around me. "Oh my God, you're ok! I was so scared!" She
tightened her grip and then gasped when she saw TS.

"He'll be alright," Thomas said.

Mariana hugged Thomas too. "I can't believe
it. I thought..."

He hugged her with his good arm. "Yeah...I
did too." He sighed and then said loudly, "Ok, we have to get off
the deck. I doubt many people got to sleep last night and they'll
probably be letting them out any minute now that the storm is
over."

Mariana and I were the only two in any
condition to throw the bodies overboard. It was sickening, hard
work and we were both coated in blood when it was over. Nathaniel
was the last.

"I staked him," I whispered as his body fell
over the edge.

Mariana put a hand on my shoulder. "You had
to." It helped to know that not too long ago she'd probably felt
exactly like I did. "It'll be ok."

I smiled at her and then we rejoined the
others. It didn't take much to convince Dani to dive overboard
again and I knew he wouldn't have given in unless he was still
seriously hurt. Mariana and I, somehow, managed to hold TS up
between us and Charlie leaned heavily on Thomas. It was painfully
slow going and I was worried someone would see us the entire time,
but the halls were empty. We made it back to the room without
incident. Thomas got Charlie onto a bed and then helped Mariana and
I heave TS onto the other one. Then Thomas flopped down next to him
with a groan. I sagged into a chair and Mariana sat heavily down on
the bed by Charlie. He pushed himself up and hugged her. She leaned
against him and I was sure I heard her sniffle softly. After a
moment Charlie lay back down.