More than Magic: Semester Aboard (37 page)

"Jeez," Mark breathed. He went over to the
dead vampire and took a closer look.

"Oh, Danio," Charlie said.

There was something in his voice that made me
look at Dani. I gasped when I saw what Charlie had. Dani had been
badly burned when he staked the vampire. His entire arm was bright
red and already blistering. There was steam actually rising,
practically billowing, up off of his arm.

"I'll be fine," Dani said. He leaned down and
grabbed the vampire's leg. "Help me toss her." I realized that his
unburned arm was the one the vampire had injured. If we were
attacked again, Dani wouldn't be able to fight.

Before anyone could reply I heard a scream of
pain and a howl. My breath caught in my throat. It wasn't over,
Thomas and TS were still fighting! I raced for the stairs. I
couldn't do anything to help, but I couldn't bear to leave without
knowing what was going on; without knowing if anyone was hurt. I
slowed down once I reached the stairs. Even with my heart hammering
in my chest I knew better than to rush blindly into the fight. What
I saw when I got down the stairs was enough to make me sigh in
relief. The female vampire was already dead. TS was snarling and
snapping at the vampire and Thomas was inching closer, stake in
hand. Nathaniel's neck was still torn and bleeding from where TS
had bitten him and he was clearly hurt. Then I realized that TS was
limping. One of his back legs looked broken. Thomas didn't have any
visible injuries, but he was obviously tired.

Dani put a hand on my shoulder and I nearly
jumped a mile. "Get back to the room. Take Mark and..." He trailed
off and his eyes widened in horror. "Where's Mariana?"

I had been so overwhelmed that I hadn't even
thought of her. "She went overboard with the dhampir!" I cried.
Guilt surged through me. I should have said something as soon as
she jumped. What if she'd been hurt?

Dani immediately pursed his lips like he was
whistling, but I couldn't hear anything. He waited a moment,
listening, and then did it again.

"Anything?" Charlie said.

Dani shook his head, eyes churning in
concern. "She isn't answering." He sounded terrified.

"Then go!"

TS yelped in pain and I looked back at him in
time to see him sail across the deck and crash into the wall.
Nathaniel dodged Thomas and ran over to TS. TS tried to scramble to
his feet, but Nathaniel reached him and kicked him viciously in the
side. TS let out a strangled yelp and collapsed back onto the
deck.

Next to me, Dani took another step down the
stairs. He glanced at the rails and then looked back at TS,
obviously torn.

"Go! Get Mariana," Charlie said. "We'll be
fine."

With one last worried glance at TS, Dani
rushed down the stairs. Nathaniel hissed at Dani, looking like he
expected Dani to attack. Instead, Dani went straight for the rails
and dove overboard. Even though Dani hadn't done anything, his
presence had been enough of a distraction. Thomas rushed up behind
Nathaniel and must have been a fraction of an inch from staking
him. Nathaniel dodged him hissed again as Charlie and I hurried
down the stairs. Mark was right behind us.

"Both of you go back to the room," Charlie
said.

"I can help! I'm a vamp, or dhampir or
whatever!" Mark insisted.

"Then help protect Jen," Charlie said. I
wanted to protest, but without my wand I was even more useless.
That, and I knew he was saying it to make Mark feel better.

With that, Charlie ran across the deck,
fireballs flaring in his hands. The last thing I wanted to do was
leave, especially with Thomas still facing off against Nathaniel.
But there was nothing I could do to help and I'd only be a
distraction.

"Mark! We have to go, come on."

He looked reluctant to leave the fight. I
started up the stairs, hoping he'd follow. I heard another furious
hiss from Nathaniel. I turned to make sure Mark was behind me and
was just in time to see Nathaniel grab TS by his broken leg and
swing him at Charlie and Thomas. Thomas dodged, but TS collided
with Charlie and they both crashed into the deck with a shout and a
yelp. Nathaniel laughed an evil, bone-chilling laugh. I saw that I
had been wrong, Thomas
was
hurt. He had sagged against the
wall, breathing heavily and clutching his leg. He looked like he
was in a lot of pain. My heart leapt into my throat as Nathaniel
turned back to Thomas. He lunged forward and Thomas dove out of the
way. I was relieved when he stood back up with his weight on both
legs. Nathaniel swung at him
,
and to my
horror
,
I realized that he had a stake too.
Charlie was back on his feet, looking for an opening, while Thomas
and Nathaniel circled each other. TS was trying to get back up, but
it hurt just to watch him struggle. His back leg didn't just look
broken anymore; it looked mangled. Nathaniel had done even more
damage when he had thrown TS. I had to fight back the urge to vomit
when I spotted shards of bone caught in the blood-matted fur. With
another hiss, Nathaniel lunged at Thomas, just as Charlie rushed
forward. Nathaniel must have seen the flash of fire. He seemed
focused on Thomas and I was sure that Charlie had him. I didn't
even see what happened, but suddenly Charlie was flying backward.
He hit the deck hard and didn't move. I could see dark smoke rising
up and knew he was bleeding. I watched in horror as Thomas and
Nathaniel grappled.

They lunged at each other again and again.
Suddenly, Thomas dropped low and threw himself at Nathaniel's legs.
Nathaniel roared in pain and the two of them broke apart. Nathaniel
staggered and then fell to one knee. It looked like Thomas had
injured, if not broken, the other one. Then Thomas brought his
stake down. I heard a choked cry of pain and a spray of blood
coated both of them. Then an ear-splitting howl echoed across the
deck. For a moment, time seemed to stand still. I couldn't move,
couldn't breathe. Nathaniel slid his stake out of Thomas’ stomach
and Thomas collapsed to his hands and knees. He coughed and blood
spattered the deck. Nathaniel stood over him, laughing. Then he
kicked Thomas right in the stomach and laughed even harder as he
pulled away a blood-soaked foot. He shoved Thomas over onto his
back and then knelt down with one knee planted firmly on Thomas’
chest. TS, still howling, was frantically trying to get up. He
managed a few steps across the deck before falling again with an
agonized whine. Charlie started to slowly sit up, but Nathaniel had
hit him hard. His mouth and nose were practically gushing blood and
were still billowing smoke. He started to stand, but fell back to
the deck, clearly still dazed from his injury.

Thomas had hung on to his stake and started
to raise it. Nathaniel pinned his wrist down and raised his own.
For one horrible second he stayed motionless, stake poised above
Thomas’ chest. Charlie was on his feet, but looked so unsteady;
there was no way he'd be able to get across the deck to Thomas in
time. And then Nathaniel cried out in pain and dropped the stake! A
knife had stabbed completely through his wrist. Nathaniel jumped to
his feet and dodged Dani's stake by a fraction of an inch. He
backed away, blood dripping from his wrist. He sagged a little to
one side. Whatever Thomas had done to his knee hadn't healed yet.
Nathaniel curled back his upper lip and snarled in fury. But he
looked around at all of us and I knew he was worried about his
odds. Dani stood protectively over Thomas, stake ready.

"What's wrong?" he growled. "Not having fun
anymore?" He flipped out his second knife. "Come on, you piece of
shit, show me what you've got."

And then Nathaniel turned and bolted. Even
though his leg was injured he moved so fast he was a blur. I
thought for sure that Dani would chase him and he looked like he
was seriously considering it. Then Nathaniel vaulted over the
railing and down onto Deck Four. Dani cursed and dropped to his
knees by Thomas. My legs felt almost too weak to hold me up. I just
wanted to sink to the ground and stay there. I felt an almost
overwhelming urge to sob and couldn't tell if it was from fear or
relief. Instead, I rushed over to Thomas and Dani. It was even
worse up close. Thomas’ face was almost gray and his eyes were
squeezed tight. He looked like he was in terrible pain. The awful
sound of his ragged breathing was all I could hear. Dani ripped
open Thomas’ shirt and I clapped a hand over my mouth in horror.
There was blood everywhere.

"Oh my God, is he ok?" Mariana cried. I
turned and saw, to my relief, that she looked unhurt. She rushed
across the deck toward us, dripping wet.

Dani barely glanced at her. Instead he
whistled and Mariana turned and ran to TS instead. Dani started
cleaning blood out of Thomas’ wound. I got a good, sickening look
at the huge hole in Thomas’ stomach. It was only clean for a
second, then it started filling with blood again. Without
hesitating Dani stuck his fingers a good two or three inches into
the wound. I nearly threw up from the sight and had to turn
away.

"Man, he got you good," Dani said softly. He
held his hand out in front of Thomas’ face. "Let me have some of
that healing stuff." Thomas spat into his hand and Dani put his
fingers back in the wound. "Char!"

A moment later Charlie sagged down to the
deck next to us. It looked like the bleeding had stopped, but a
huge bruise was spreading across his face. His nose looked broken.
Dani glanced in his direction, then did a double-take.

"That bastard."

"I'm alright," Charlie said.

Dani nodded and then said, "Can you get
this?"

"Yeah." Charlie slid his fingers into the
wound and Dani pulled his out. "This is going to hurt. Sorry,
Thomas."

I wasn't sure what he meant, but suddenly
Thomas stiffened and gasped in pain. Dani grabbed his hand and held
it. I noticed that Dani's burned arm looked much better. It was
already scarred and looked more like weeks old instead of just
minutes. His dip in the ocean had sped up the healing. At least
somebody was recovering.

"This won't take long," he said. "Get that
one too, Char."

Thomas gasped again. Then, to my horror, I
smelled burning flesh.

"You don't have to cauterize it," Thomas
gasped. His voice was weak and strained. "It'll stop bleeding on
its own."

"Not fast enough," Dani said. "You've already
lost a lot of blood. Right here," he added to Charlie. He turned
and looked over his shoulder. "Mariana! How's he doing?"

Mariana was kneeling next to TS. It looked
like she was petting him. "I think he'll be ok!"

"I'll check on him," Charlie said. He went
and sat down by TS and Mariana.

"Wow, look at all that blood!" Mark had
joined us. He was inching closer, staring at Thomas in
fascination.

"Get back," Dani snapped. "You're close
enough."

"I just wanna see," Mark said, taking another
step.

Dani actually picked up his knife with his
free hand. "I said, you're close enough. Go sit on the stairs over
there."

"But-"

"That was an order, not a suggestion!" I
could see a touch of black splashing in Dani's eyes.

"Hey! You can't just-"

"Mark!" Mariana called. She stood and walked
toward us. "Come help me throw the body overboard."

It looked like Mark practically had to force
himself to turn away, but he went over to her.

"Go easy on Mark," Thomas said weakly. "He
can't help it right now."

"I know," Dani said softly. "I just don't
want to take any chances." He laughed, a hollow attempt at his
usual chuckle. "Considering that I'm one drop away from typhooning,
I think I'm doing pretty well."

"I'll be alright, go help Tethys."

Dani patted his shoulder. "I'll take care of
him, Tom." He pulled off his shirt, balled it up, and pressed it
against Thomas’ stomach. Then he took my hand and held it firmly
against the shirt. "Put pressure on it, ok?"

I nodded. Now that his shirt was off I could
see a huge bruise on his shoulder where the ship's railing had hit
him. I was surprised it hadn't been broken, if not at least
dislocated. Then again, the water had healed his burned arm. His
shoulder must have been much worse before he dove into the
ocean.

"And hold this." He grabbed my other hand and
put Thomas’ hand in it. Then he got up and hurried over to TS.

"Are you ok?" I asked. It was lame, but I
couldn't think of anything better.

"Yeah. I'll be fine." Thomas gave my hand
what was meant to be a reassuring squeeze, but his grip was so weak
that it only worried me more.

"Do you need blood?"

Even with how hurt he was he looked
reluctant. "Yes," he whispered, not meeting my eyes.

"Now?"

"When we get inside." He heaved a sigh and
closed his eyes.

Dani returned and knelt down. "Let's go." He
slid an arm around Thomas’ back and helped him sit up. He started
to put his other arm under Thomas’ knees.

"Don't you dare pick me up like that," Thomas
grumbled.

Dani chuckled. "I have a feeling you'll be
just fine."

He pulled Thomas’ arm over his shoulders and
the two of them slowly stood. Thomas was clearly trying to keep
from crying out in pain. He leaned heavily against Dani and I
quickly tucked myself under his other arm. We slowly started for
the stairs. Going up them seemed to take forever. At least, we
reached the top.

Dani cursed. "We still have to get rid of
the..." he trailed off." Jen, did you stake the dhampir?"

I looked across the deck. The dhampir was
lying on the deck with a stake in his chest. He was clearly
dead.

"No," I said.

Dani frowned in concern. "Well, we have to
take care of the bodies. Wait here."

He helped Thomas rest his weight half on me
and half on the railing. He went over to the dhampir and started
dragging him to the side of the ship. Mark hurried over and helped.
Together, they threw the dhampir over the side and then went over
to the female vampire. I heard a soft whine and looked over at TS.
He was human and leaning heavily on Mariana and Charlie. In
addition to shattering his leg it looked like the vampire had hit
him in the face. One eye was nearly swollen shut and that entire
side of his face was black and blue. Dani returned and we slowly
made our way inside and to the room.