More than Magic: Semester Aboard (29 page)

He chuckled. "I know. Logistical issues
aside, no, different types of elementals can't procreate together.
The same holds true for a lot of magics actually. Which is
partially why there aren't too many of us running around."

"Oh."

He stretched and flopped down on the bed.
"Well, I'm ready to get some sleep. We've got a nice early flight
back tomorrow. That is, if you're done picking my brain. But it's
fine if you're not, I'm sure you've got plenty of questions
smoldering away in there."

His use of the word smoldering reminded me of
our visitor. "Just the one you didn't answer before. How were you
able to tell that she was a fire elemental before you opened the
door?"

"I could sense the heat. The only thing it
could be was another fire."

"Neat." Another thought struck me. "Would you
be able to tell that someone is a vampire without having to see
their fangs?"

"I wish. But they run at the same temperature
as a human. So do dhampirs."

For the first time I wondered if there might
be physical differences between vampires and dhampirs. I knew they
were different in terms of strength. Maybe there were more
differences. "Are there any differences between vampires and
dhampirs? Ones that I'd be able to see."

"Nothing big. The only foolproof one that I'm
aware of is the size of their fangs. Dhampirs have much shorter,
thinner fangs than vampires. Although, I'm afraid that one's hard
to spot until you've seen both. Another, less reliable, is
age."

"Age?"

"Remember what I told you earlier? We stop
aging in our early to mid-twenties."

I nodded.

"Well, that holds true of
all
magics.
Vampires have to be witches or wizards to begin with. So, in most
cases they've already stopped aging by the time they're turned.
They'll look the same age that you and I do, even though we're
decades apart."

"But Thomas was only nineteen," I protested.
I'd never thought about it before, but he looked older than
nineteen. Then again, I hadn't put much thought into our ages
anyway. I'd just assumed we were all close to twenty-one.

"
All
magics. Vampires who are turned
early keep aging until they stop naturally. But dhampirs aren't
magics to start with.
That's
the difference. If a non-magic
has already aged beyond the magical stopping point and gets turned,
they'll just stop where they are. So, if you've got someone with
fangs who looks fifty, it
has
to be a dhampir. But, as I
said, that way isn't as reliable."

I was able to figure it out this time.
"Because a non-magic who is turned early will keep aging like
Thomas did?"

Charlie nodded. "Unless they look noticeably
older than a normal magic, you can't be sure if you've got a
dhampir or a vampire. Not without being able to see their fangs."
He yawned. "Excuse me. Anything else?"

"I got it. Thanks."

I decided to reread the letter from Jon to
take my mind off vampires again. It worked. I was a summer intern
for MES, with a brand new debit card and my tuition was being paid.
And so were 'other costs.' "Charlie?" I asked as I joined him in
the bed.

"Yes?"

"What did Jon mean by ‘other costs?'"

He clicked his tongue in thought and I
wondered if he was mumbling to himself like Dani did. "Probably the
port excursions, textbooks, technology fee, things like that."

"So...the
entire
voyage?"

"Yeah."

I stared wide-eyed at the ceiling. I hoped my
night vision spell would wear off soon, otherwise I'd never fall
asleep. The voyage was really, really expensive. Rachel had done it
years ago and had assured me it was worth every penny. It certainly
had been so far, but I still felt guilty she was spending so much.
I couldn't believe we were going to be reimbursed. I shivered when
I remembered the other 'perk' of being an intern: life
insurance.

Chapter 17

Everyone was half asleep on the long bus ride
to the airport. I dozed on and off, but tried to stay awake to
watch the scenery I had missed on the dark ride when we had
arrived. I had the letter from Jon in my pocket and peeked at it
several times; I still couldn't quite believe it. I slept for most
of the flight back as well. Late in the afternoon we got on the bus
to go from the airport to the ship. As we rolled into the city I
looked out of the window at the colorful buildings and admired the
coastline. The city was so mountainous that I never knew what the
view would look like next. One moment it was ocean with houses
scattered precariously on the cliffs, then all of the houses were
neatly in a row right next to the bus. We paused on a corner and I
looked down the steep cliff that sloped away from the road. I had a
perfect view of a street down below us.

The vampire.

My breath caught in my throat as I stared at
him in horror. He was casually walking down the street. I looked
frantically around the bus and spotted Charlie's fiery hair several
rows away. And then the bus started moving again. I leaned back
against my seat and tried to breathe evenly; looking out of the
window had lost its appeal. It only took a couple of minutes before
the bus stopped by the entrance to the dock. I was relieved until I
realized how close to the ship the vampire still was. It seemed to
take forever to get off the bus, grab my suitcase, and find
Charlie.

"How are-" he began.

"Charlie, I saw him!" I lowered my voice so
nobody else would hear. "The vampire!"

Charlie's eyes flared bright red and then
dimmed to worried coals. "Where?"

"Back there, when the bus stopped a few
minutes ago. He wasn't that far away."

"Ashes." He looked in the direction the bus
had come. "Straight back to the ship then. You ready?"

I nodded. The two of us hurried down the
sidewalk and soon boarded the ship. We stopped by my room and I
quickly got some clean clothes and my textbooks. Then we went
straight to Charlie’s. It felt like I didn’t breathe until we were
safely inside. Dani was sprawled on one of the beds surrounded by
books and papers.

"Hey," he said as he scribbled something.

"Hey," Charlie said.

Dani looked up and frowned in concern.
"Everything ok?"

For a moment I was surprised that Dani could
already tell something was wrong, but realized that it wasn't that
impressive considering they'd been dating for twenty-four
years.

"The biter's in the city," Charlie said.

Dani cursed and got up. He tossed his
notebook onto the bed and hugged Charlie.

"You sure it was him?" he asked, kissing
Charlie on the top of the head.

"Jen saw him. Not very far from here."

Dani hummed under his breath. It sounded
melodic, but I had a feeling it translated to something vulgar.

"Where is everyone else?" I asked.

"Tom and TS are in some office getting the
report on our biter. Although I suspect we know more than they do,"
Dani added grimly. "And Mariana is either still on the plane from
Easter Island or on the way to the port." He frowned and his eyes
lightened and grayed. "I really don't like the idea of her on her
own now that I know the biter is so close to us."

"When are Tom and TS getting back?" Charlie
asked.

"Not sure. In fact, I'm not entirely sure
where they are, which I don't like considering that they don't know
that the biter is roaming the streets as we speak."

"We could call them and tell them," I
suggested.

Dani and Charlie exchanged a look, and to my
surprise they both chuckled. Charlie handed his cell phone to Dani,
who went out onto the balcony.

"Thanks for that," Charlie said to me, still
looking rather amused.

"You weren't going to call them?"

He actually blushed a little. "Despite the
fact that I've spent the past few days trying to convince you that
age doesn't matter...well, you do have to remember that I'm sixty.
Using a cell phone every time I need to get in touch with somebody
still isn't my first instinct. Back when I was your age," he said
with a grin, "I had to walk fifty miles to school barefoot and we
didn't have cell phones. That being said, don't get the wrong
idea," he added quickly. "I'm pretty tech savvy. I can text as fast
as your average college student and I'm pretty handy with computers
and such, in general. I'm just taking a bit of time to adjust to
the convenience."

I laughed. "So, if I ever need help with my
computer, I should call you?"

Dani has just come back in. "If you do he'll
just give me the phone. If I can't fix it, it can't be fixed."

"Good with computers?"

Charlie rolled his eyes. "Water elementals
pick up everything easily. It's rather irritating sometimes."

Dani tossed Charlie his cell phone and
laughed. "Don't complain, it makes your life easier."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going to unpack," Charlie
said. He went into the little living room where our suitcases were.
"What were you working on?" he called.

"Big essay for my Latin American Politics
class." Dani went over to the bed and picked his notebook up.

"The one that's due tomorrow?"

"Maybe."

I heard Charlie laugh from the other room.
Dani looked at the bed for a moment, then grabbed his textbook and
went back out on the balcony. I couldn't resist following partway.
It was weird to think that he and Charlie had been dating for
longer than I'd been alive.

Dani dropped his things on the table, but
instead of sitting down, he leaned against the railing and looked
out over the water. "Beautiful day, isn't it?"

"Yeah," I said, assuming he was talking to
me. "How was skiing?"

"Fun." He looked over his shoulder at me with
a wry grin. "Snowy. How was Atacama?"

I matched his grin and joined him by the
railing. "Fun. Dry."

He laughed and ruffled my hair. "I find
deserts usually are. Well, the dry part anyway."

"It was fun too. Although skiing in the Andes
would have been neat. I can ski at home though."

"I can too. But Char was set on the desert,
so I figured I'd take the opportunity to go be reckless. Plus, this
was the only port where Tom, TS, and I all wanted the same
trip."

"I honestly couldn't tell if you and Thomas
get along," I admitted. Even if I didn't say anything Charlie would
probably tell him.

Dani laughed. "Can't imagine what gave you
that impression."

I laughed too. "But Charlie said you and
Thomas are really close."

He nodded. "I love him like my own brother.
Don't tell him I said that." Despite the fact he chuckled as he
spoke, his eyes were just a little grayer than usual.

"I'm sure he knows."

"Maybe," Dani said with a smirk. "Tom isn't
the most observant guy."

"Even if he doesn't, I bet he feels the same
way about you."

"Oh, I know he does," Dani said. He looked
down at the water and spoke again after a long moment. "Tom's one
of the very few people I'd trust with my life, no questions asked.
He's a damn good friend." Dani's eyes suddenly splashed from gray
to bright blue and he arched an eyebrow at me. "He's a good catch
too."

He didn't mean...no. "What?"

Dani grinned. "Like I said, he's not
observant." His grin widened. "But I am."

I felt myself blushing as Dani laughed. "It's
not...I mean..." Even if I protested Dani had already figured it
out, I knew he wouldn't believe me if I said he was wrong. "It
wouldn't work."

"Why not?"

I glared, hoping he'd withdraw the question.
Instead he looked at me expectantly. I sighed. "Well...we're too
different."

Dani pointed at himself. "Water elemental."
He pointed into the room. "Fire elemental. Try again."

"He's a vampire?"

Dani shrugged. "There are a lot of people in
the world who would consider that a valid reason and I know you
aren't one of them."

I was tempted to argue that I had started
crushing on Thomas before I knew he was a vampire, but knew Dani
was right; finding out hadn't changed my mind. But there was one
real problem. "He's older than me."

"So?"

I looked at Dani incredulously. "He's forty
years older than me!"

"So?"

"Th-that's a huge difference!"

Dani shrugged. "Honestly thirty, maybe forty
years is about average."

Are you serious?"

He grinned and ruffled my hair. "We gotta get
you thinking like a magic. A few decades here and there don't
matter. Hey, C!" Charlie came over to the door. "What's the average
age difference for a couple?"

"Uh...thirty years maybe? Thirty-five?"

"See?" Dani said turning back to me.
"Honestly, you'd be lucky to fall in love with someone within a
decade of your age."

"I wouldn't say lucky," Charlie said. "That
implies it matters."

"Easy for you to say! You two aren't..." I
trailed off. I had assumed that if Charlie and Thomas were both in
their early sixties that Dani would be too. "How far apart are you
two?"

"Couple of decades," Dani said.

At the same moment Charlie said, "Twenty-two
years."

Dani chuckled and elbowed him. "To be
exact."

I looked from one to the other. Once again
the fact magics, we, didn't age was a little hard to take in.
Neither looked any older than me, but one of them was twenty-two
years older than the other. I studied them and honestly couldn't
tell who it was. Then I did a little more math and my heart skipped
a beat. If Charlie was sixty, then Dani had to be either forty
or...

"Dani? How old are you?"

He grinned and I could tell that he knew what
I was thinking. And that I was right. "Eighty-one."

My jaw dropped and Dani started laughing.
Charlie punched him in the arm. "Quit laughing. She's still getting
used to it." He went back inside and closed the door.