Burning (Brotherhood of the Blade Trilogy #1) (2 page)

I looked down at the dark water. “Maybe if there was such a thing as a vampire hunter school, I could find out who the bad ones are, and leave the rest alone. Leave the ones like you alone.”

I don’t know how long it was before I snorted myself awake and was shocked to discover that a) I had fallen asleep and b) that we were heading for lights floating out in the vastness of the sea.

“
You’re taking me to a big ship.”

Smart boy.

“I get the hint. You want me to stay away. Thank you for not killing me.”

She slowed down and set me down on the roof of the control cabin. I found a set of ladder-like stairs to descend.

I looked up at her. A creature of the night, she perched unafraid on the top of the control tower.

“
Have a safe flight home, Samantha Moon. Where am I headed?”

She didn’t reply, but I sensed her smiling, and I might have sensed her thinking:
beggars can’t be choosers.
I smiled, too. Within a moment, she blended with the night and I had a serious problem: I was a stowaway on a cruise ship.

It was with equal parts of elation and fury that I found myself dumped on a cruise ship that was apparently bound for Hawaii on a fifteen-day turnaround cruise, according to all of the posters. My frustration was at a fever pitch and my confusion was utter.

I had failed to kill her, yet I lived because she’d let me live. I was not attending a jellyfish convention and I was not shark kibble. I was alive and so was Samantha Moon, who was, as far as I knew, the only good vampire on the planet.

Despite my encounter with her in her primitive form, I, Randolph Sebastian—Rand, for short—was
still
a vampire hunter.

Chapter Three

I felt naked without my crossbow, but I needed to blend in until I could disembark at the first port and catch a flight home. I was used to traveling, but I suddenly missed my wife and daughter with a terrible ache—that ache grew into a mounting fear that I needed to get home.
Now.

I stuck out like a homeless man at a luau. Mostly because I was dressed as one. And, I soon saw, there was indeed a luau in progress, complete with hula lessons. My homeless disguise had worked well on city streets, but now I was trying to make my way past throngs of people in Hawaiian shirts and muumuus and plastic grass skirts, all hula dancing to ukulele music. Spectators were blowing soap bubbles through plastic bubble pipes, drunkenly laughing at the song that inspired their silliness.

I was hideously conspicuous with a big cross around my neck, a garlic necklace, and a clear flask of holy water hanging on my hip. I tucked those three items inside of my tie-dyed tee-shirt, pulled my beat-up jacket around me, and pulled down the bill of my Dodgers ball cap.

As I followed the signs to the nearest men’s room to shed my homeless man’s disguise, I marveled at why one of the most powerful vampires I’d ever met hadn’t dropped me in the ocean. I’d certainly deserved death for shooting her. I suspected that the news of the demise of the vampire who had turned her had softened her up about me.

For what it was worth, I now considered Samantha Moon an ally.

Inside a toilet stall, I stripped off my homeless guy disguise until I was down to my blue jeans and black t-shirt.

I patted my wallet and car keys in my front jeans pocket and breathed a sigh of relief. I had a serious problem of what to do with my quiver of slender arrow bolts. I ditched the quiver and jammed the arrow bolts into a sock and rolled my pants leg down again. I ditched my tattered jacket in the garbage, too.

I saw a flower lei on the restroom counter and snagged it to help me blend. I needed to find out when the ship would get to the first Hawaiian port, and I desperately needed food and drink. I wanted to find a buffet, load up my plate, sit down, and plan a way to get home.

I made my way to an elevator where people were talking about going to the buffet on the Lido deck. I used the stairs.

Up on Lido, I was about to crash the buffet when a tall redhead with intense brown eyes approached me, a wiggle in her walk as she zoomed in on me. A married guy, I wasn’t interested in her, not one bit, but she zoomed in tighter, increasing eye contact. I turned to avoid her.

She said with a European lilt, “Randolph Sebastian?”

What the hell?
I turned back toward her.

“
Rand. Do we know each other?”

“
I’ve only seen your photo. I’m Gabrielle Dubois.”

I thoughtfully scratched the five-o’clock shadow on my chin.

“I knew your brother,” she added, almost hesitantly. Her voice was tender with loss.

“
Gabby?” I said, stunned, as realization dawned on me. “You’re
the singer and...hunter?”

“
My reputation precedes me.” She extended a hand and I shook it. For all of her wiggle walk, the gal obviously worked out.

For a few seconds, I took in what it all meant, that my dead brother’s super-famous ex-girlfriend and vampire hunting partner was on a cruise ship within a few feet of where Samantha Moon had dropped me.

Things began to click in my mind:
This is not a coincidence.

“
Forgive me,” I said, rubbing my eyes. “I’m just processing that
you
are here.”

“
Rand, it’s a myth that you can pull off being a stowaway on a modern-day cruise ship.”

“
You don’t know me very well.”

“
I want to know you.”

“
Obviously, Gabby, it’s not a coincidence that we’re both on this ship.”

“
That’s right. Any questions?”

“
A
million
of them. I don’t even know where to
start
.”

I stared at the large silver heart-shaped necklace that nestled on a silver chain deep in her cleavage. There was a faint line of a hinge in the center, to be folded onto itself into a sort of claw-like object. I was fascinated, never before having seen one. I had no doubt that it was a weapon, a vampire hunter weapon. Finally, after staring at her like a dolt, I said, “Your necklace is more than decorative. It’s deadly.”

She ran her finger over the chain, as women did, as if to make sure their necklaces were still there. “I see you understand. I have a bigger one on me, too.”

“
I’m beginning to understand. I can’t say I’m overjoyed. Your appearance has caused this misadventure to take on the feel of a shanghai.”

“
We need you, Rand. And you need us.”

“
I’m on my own, sister.”

“
Trust me,” she said and leaned in to whisper, “Besides, you need a ‘sign and sail’ card to eat, drink, get in a stateroom, buy anything, board the ship, and disembark. Better come with me.”

“
What is this all about?”

“
It’s not like we can talk about it right here,” Gabrielle said.

A uniformed crew member made his way to us. Gabrielle grabbed my hand and hissed, “
Merde!
”

“
What’s going on?” I asked.

“
You’re about to get busted.”

“
Shit!”

“
That’s what I said! Don’t you understand French?”

“
I got a C in it.”

“
French is one of the official languages of Switzerland.”

“
I didn’t know—”

“
You’ll catch on.
Allez!
” she insisted. In context, I guessed that meant, “Haul ass!” She pulled me along and I let her because she held all the cards—the ones that could get me food, drink, and an exit off the ship.

“
This is a contrived situation and I’m at a distinct disadvantage,” I said unhappily.

“
We’re on the same side,” she whispered back in a heavy French accent. “Oh, here comes trouble.”

“
Miss Dubois! Miss Dubois!” A crew member caught up to us. The buffet was swarming with passengers with loaded plates. Man, I wanted a Diet Dr. Pepper in a big cup of crushed ice. And some of those chicken taquitos that spun for hours on heated rollers. Where was a 7-Eleven when I needed one?

Gabby pasted a smile on her face and faced the uniformed guy. “
Oui, monsieur?
”

“
I know we aren’t supposed to ask, but may I have your autograph?”

“
Of course.”

He handed Gabby a music CD album with her photo on it and a pen. She asked brightly, “To whom shall I autograph this?”

“To my darling.”

Gabrielle signed the CD cover and handed it back. “Please tell ‘darling’ that I appreciate her support of my singing career.”

“I will. She loves your latest album of French torch songs.”

“
Merci
,” Gabrielle said. “I worked on that album for a year.”

“
That’s what my wife said. She’s in your fan club on Facebook. We both are.”

“
Wonderful. I’ll see you on the web and iTunes.”

The crew member suddenly looked at me, hard. “I don’t recognize
you
.”

The hair went up on the back of my neck.

“He checked in with the rest of my entourage on my VIP ‘sign and sail’ card.”

“
Miss Dubois, I make it my business to know all of the passengers—he is not one of them. I never forget a face.”

I was about to bolt and she knew it. But where would I go except to lead the security detail on a merry chase until they either Tased me or I jumped ship? I shuddered. It was a long way down and I was not in marathon swimming shape, not these days.

She grabbed my hand and held onto it, squeezing it hard. Her message was clear:
Don’t run.
Gabrielle opened her handbag and handed him a plastic key card.

“
Here’s my VIP card for my entourage.”

He scanned it with a device and said, “What’s your name, sir?”

“Sebastian.” I gave him only my last name. Make him work for the rest.

“
Rudolph Sebastian. You’re on my list after all.”

I stiffened at the mention of my dead brother’s name. Gabby didn’t meet my eyes. “Great,” I mumbled.

“How odd. I do see your name on Miss Dubois’s VIP group card, Mr. Sebastian, but we don’t have your photo. We should have done that when you boarded. Everyone is supposed to have it done when they check in.”

“
Rudolph was busy moving some light show equipment for me when we boarded. Maybe he got lost in the paperwork shuffle.”

“
This is the first time I can ever remember this happening.”

“
Good job, then,” I said.

“
We’re not supposed to miss anyone.
Ever.
I’m about to go off duty, but could you go to the purser’s office within the next hour for a photo? I’ll pass it on to the next officer that you’ll be in.”

“
Sure,” I lied
.

“
Rudolph and I better get to rehearsal. I’ll send him down within the hour,” she said.

The crew member nodded curtly and went to clock out.

“That was a close one,” Gabrielle said. “
Allez
.”

“
You got me a cruise ticket? Without my ID?”

“
Fame is power, Rand. More power than money is.”

“
Why did you use Rudolph’s name?”

“
Several reasons, the primary one being your safety, and the secondary reason that you look a lot like Rudolph and we already had his ID.”

“
I don’t like that you did that, but not for the reasons you think. I could never be mistaken for Rudolph. He was a hero and I’m anything but.”

“
That remains to be seen,” Gabrielle replied. She didn’t let go of me until she had swiped her VIP ‘sign and sail’ card in her stateroom lock.

Chapter Four

“
Swanky,” I said, looking around the suite.

A balcony faced the sea in her outside stateroom—the windows were open to the breeze. I was trapped on a vacation cruise without my wife and daughter, but I was in the same cabin with my dead brother’s curvy, super-famous ex-girlfriend. I smelled trouble.

“Can I borrow that swipe card? I want to phone Megan.”

“
I would like to talk to you first. About joining us—”