More than Magic: Semester Aboard (21 page)

"Dani!"

He was at the bathroom door in a second. He
looked slightly unsteady on his feet, but obviously ready to defend
me anyway.

"What's wrong?"

"Laurie never woke up."

"She's probably fine." Nonetheless, Dani came
over to see her. He felt her pulse for a moment and then nodded.
"Yeah, she's ok. Vampires can inject a sedative through their
fangs. She'll wake up in a few hours, maybe even in time for class,
although I doubt she'll feel well enough to go. But, she should be
up and around in time for dinner, we'll check on her later."

Even if he hadn't looked slightly pale, I
could tell from his voice that he was still recovering and I felt
guilty for panicking and making him get out of the water.

"Thanks," I said.

"Got all your stuff?"

"Almost." I hurried into the bathroom and
grabbed my toiletries bag, glad it was still packed from the trip.
"I'm ready. Do you need more time?"

Dani leaned against the doorframe of the
bathroom and shook his head. "I'll be ok."

He lobbed a ball of blue blood, I assumed
from the carpet, into the shower. I let it rinse down the drain,
then shut off the shower and squeezed into the hallway with him. I
handed him his knife and he smiled weakly in thanks. Then he pulled
out his room key, readied his knife, and opened the door. He pushed
me back as he did, but the hallway was empty. Dani inched forward
and looked up and down the long hallway.

"Do you see him?" I whispered.

"No. Ready to run?"

I nodded and Dani grabbed my hand, gave it a
reassuring squeeze, and then we dashed out of the door. It slammed
shut behind us as we sprinted down the hallway. Even though our
goal was only four doors down the run seemed to take forever. Dani
skidded to stop, swiped his ID, and shoved me into the room ahead
of him. When the door closed he sighed heavily and slumped against
it. Only then did I realize I had been holding my breath. I let it
out with an equally relieved sigh. Mariana jumped up from the chair
by Charlie's bed and hurried over.

"What took you so long? I was getting ready
to freak out! What were you-" Her eyes locked on to the still
healing gash on Dani's forehead and she gasped. Her gaze dropped to
the fading bruises on his neck and her eyes widened in horror. "Oh
my god! What happened? Was it the vampire?"

Dani nodded.

Mariana paled and threw her arms around him.
"Are you ok?"

"I'm fine."

"Did you get him?"

"No." A touch of black splashed into Dani's
eyes. "But I will." Even though his voice was still a little
hoarse, there was no mistaking the menace in it.

Mariana hugged him tighter, then released him
and turned to me. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, Dani saved me."

Dani ruffled my hair and gave me a
half-hearted smile. "No, I didn't. Jen saved me."

Before I could protest Mariana wrapped her
arms around me. Dani slid past us and sat down on the bed by
Charlie. He laid a hand on Charlie's forehead and looked
relieved.

"He's a lot warmer," Mariana said.

"Yeah." Dani stood and rubbed his neck. "Are
you ready for bed? I'm going to shower." Mariana nodded. "Ok. It's
all yours when I'm done, Jen."

I followed Mariana into the room and Dani
went into the bathroom. Mariana shivered and sank down onto the
couch. I quickly used my warming spell on Charlie. He made a little
content sound and snuggled deeper into the blankets. I smiled in
relief, then sat down next to Mariana and looked nervously in the
direction of the bathroom. I was worried that Dani was back in the
shower, maybe he was more hurt than he was letting on.

"What happened?" Mariana asked.

I summarized the encounter with the vampire
and how stupid and guilty I felt for not uninviting him sooner.

Mariana hugged me again when I was done.
"It's not your fault, you didn't know. Fin-rot, I probably would
have panicked and forgotten that I could uninvite him. And if you
hadn't, Dani...I don't even want to think about it." She
shuddered.

The bathroom door opened and Dani came out.
Judging from the amount of steam that followed him, he had taken a
really hot shower. He walked near us and I could actually feel the
heat radiating off of him. He quickly climbed into bed with Charlie
and, to my relief, Charlie looked like he moved closer to the heat.
When he was comfortable, Dani looked at us.

"Go take a shower and clean up and relax,
Jen. You need it," he said.

I glanced down at my shirt and shuddered. In
addition to the blood that had been on it before it was smeared
with his blood too. So were my hands and arms.

"I'm sorry I'm kicking you both out of bed,"
he said.

"Charlie needs it more than I do. I'll be
fine."

"Don't worry about it, Dani," Mariana
added.

As soon as I was in the shower I scrubbed
better than I ever had before. It still felt like there was blood
on me. I shampooed three times, just in case there was blood in my
hair and then washed again for good measure. When I was done
washing I sank down to the floor and just sat under the stream of
hot water. I realized that I was shaking, but couldn't stop.
Tonight had been the most horrible, frightening night of my life.
I'd never really been afraid before, not like this. Sure, there
were the occasional chills walking across campus at night, knocks
on the door while I was home alone, frantic calls from Rachel when
Emily went to a friend's house without telling her, but none of
those were real terrors. Chills and bad feelings were nothing but
what-ifs. What if there's a murderer in the parking lot or a robber
at the door or Emily was kidnapped? Better yet, they'd end. I get
safely in my car, the deliveryman would go away, and Emily would be
safe and sound. Everything about tonight was different. The vampire
had been real. He'd tried to kill us and he almost had. Dani,
Thomas, and Charlie were hurt and the vampire was still on the
ship. It could all happen again tomorrow night. I had never
imagined being this terrified in my life.

Even the most pain I had ever been in was
when I broke my ankle skiing. It had been scary for a few seconds,
but then it was over. I knew the ski patrol was going to come,
Shannon was kneeling next to me, and as much as it hurt, I knew it
was over. I had truly, genuinely thought that I was going to die
tonight. I shuddered and wrapped my arms around myself. Even worse
was the helplessness. I had never felt so weak before. Kickboxing
was the only thing I did that remotely resembled fighting and I
didn't think my exercise routines would be very helpful in a fight.
I had never even seen a real fight before tonight. Every once in a
while a couple of guys tussled on campus, but never with the
intention of killing, or even seriously injuring, each other. I had
never, ever been in a situation where I needed to defend myself or
the people I cared about.

For a moment, I felt guilty again. All of the
things I could have done ran through my mind. Not going to Deck
Three alone, having my wand, learning more fire magic, asking
better questions...everything tonight could have been avoided if I
had taken a moment to think. I realized bitterly that even if I
wasn't strong enough to magically fight a vampire, I could have
done more. What if I had jumped on his back or hit or something
while he was choking Dani? What was the worst that could happen,
I'd be hurt too? I was useless.

Then an awful thought struck me. What if it
was
always
like this? The thought was almost more terrifying
than the fight had been. What if this was normal for magical
people? Swimming in the Galapagos with Dani and Mariana had been
amazing, but what if it was just as rare of an experience for them?
I'd almost been killed by something I hadn't even known existed.
How many other dangerous magical beings were out there, just
waiting for a chance to attack? What if there was always a vampire
or something lurking in the shadows? Almost being killed had
obviously upset Dani, but all things considered he was handling it
pretty well. It was like it wasn't the first time his life had been
in danger. Like he was used to it. Then there was the fact that TS
had driven a stake into someone's heart without even hesitating. I
didn't think he was happy he had killed someone, but I got the
horrible feeling that it wasn't the first time. I was sure Dani had
too. I knew they had all fought vampires before. Even if it was
part of their job, just how often did this happen? Plus, it seemed
like they were pretty highly ranked in MES. What was MES doing
hiring college students to do this sort of this? Were they that
hard up for employees? Maybe the employee death rate was so high
that they
had
to turn to college students.

For a moment I wondered if I could just stop
using magic, right now, and go back to being a normal person. True,
the vampire had fed from Laurie; but she was going to wake up and
think she had a bad cold. She'd miss a day of classes and then be
fine. Laurie, and everyone else on the ship, was going to spend the
rest of the voyage blissfully ignorant of what was happening.
Nobody was going to go about their day looking for vampires around
the corner and hiding in their rooms at night. It would be better
to just enjoy the voyage and not know about the vampire. Almost as
soon as I thought it, I discarded the idea. It wouldn't be better.
As horrified and helpless as I had felt tonight, I wanted to know
if there was something dangerous out there. And dangerous or not,
how could I give this up? There were thousands, probably millions,
of people out there who watched movies about werewolves and read
books about magic, and wished that it was all real. I had spent my
childhood, and even some recent years, daydreaming about magic. For
me that dream had come true, and I couldn't just stop using magic
because I had had a bad night. I glanced up at the sink and saw my
wand balanced on the edge. I had a magic wand! I'd be crazy to not
want to be a witch.

Then, for the first time since I had gone
down to Deck Three, I felt better. I had a magic wand. I was going
to get stronger! Just because I was too weak to fight vampires now
didn't mean I always would be. I could practice fire magic and get
better. We'd beat this vampire, we'd be ok. And next time I'd fight
too. If I was able to light a fire instead of making sparks I'd
actually have a chance. Tonight would have been totally different
if I had been powerful enough to join in. I stretched up and
grabbed my wand.

"
Mar
," I whispered, aiming it at the
edge of the bathmat.

A small spark appeared and then went out,
leaving behind a tiny black mark. I smiled and vowed to never feel
as helpless as I had tonight again. I had a wand, I just needed to
learn how to use it to protect myself.

Thomas didn't even have that.

My heart felt like it skipped a beat as the
thought hit me. I couldn't believe how brave Thomas had been. He
didn't have a wand or any magic to speak of and he hadn't hesitated
to protect me. At least Dani had martial arts training. He
obviously knew how to handle himself, but Thomas was just a skinny
guy who couldn't use magic anymore! TS had been brave too, he was
only human tonight. He looked pretty big and strong, even as human,
but he had been just as brave as Thomas to fight the vampire. I
felt weak again. I certainly could have tried to do more. Thomas
had. I suppressed a shudder. Thomas was so lucky he hadn't been
hurt more seriously. He'd walked away from a vampire with a broken
arm and, at worst, a punctured lung. He'd at least be able to make
up an excuse and get his arm set by the ship's doctor. He was
incredibly lucky. So was Dani. He wasn't human, but being a water
elemental didn't seem to give him much of an advantage out of the
water. I didn't think he was any stronger than a human. They were
both lucky.

I thought back to the first fight with the
vampire. It really was a miracle the vampire hadn't driven the
stake deeper into Thomas' chest. No. It wasn't a miracle. It wasn't
even luck. It was
impossible
. The vampire had had every
advantage. Even if the vampire wasn't freakishly strong, Thomas
would have had a hard time stopping the stake as it was brought
down, yet he had. There was no way he was
that
strong. The
vampire had lifted Dani completely off of the ground with one hand
and held him there. Dani had even been hitting him and the vampire
hadn't acted like he was heavy. He'd picked up TS, who had to be
twice Dani's size, over his head and thrown him halfway across the
deck. A human couldn't match that strength. I'd maybe believe TS
could have done it, he looked stronger than the average human, but
there was no way Thomas was. He was average height at best and,
honestly, sort of scrawny. He looked like the kind of guy who was
more comfortable with a computer than a football, but he was
obviously stronger than he looked. Thomas had tackled the dhampir
and pinned him down without even trying! He'd gotten the upper hand
against the vampire more than once. It wasn't possible. The only
explanation was that they were keeping secrets from me. Again.

Now I was mad. There was
no way
Thomas
could have stood up to the vampire without some sort of magical
help. If that was the case, they could have told me. If it was a
magic potion or something I probably could have taken it too! I was
annoyed that they still hadn't been honest about TS being sick, but
I could at least excuse it. If it was just a magical cold or
something, I didn't need to know about it. And on the other hand
if, God forbid, it was something really serious I could understand
that TS might not want to talk about it. The problem was that they
were all evasive when I brought it up. Did they think I was that
stupid and unobservant or something? Everything that had happened
to Dani could have been avoided if I had asked about vampires, but
how could I be expected to ask questions if I knew they weren't
being entirely honest? Whatever Thomas had done was something I
did
need to know. I was sick of being kept out of the
loop.