More than Magic: Semester Aboard (50 page)

"It took you long enough, Sandra."

Nathaniel's cold voice stopped me in my
tracks. At first I couldn't see him. The pool deck was dark and
empty. Glass-topped tables and lounge chairs were scattered all
over the deck. Some of them were still sliding and tumbling around
as the ship pitched in the storm. Rain was coming down in sheets.
Then I spotted several figures sitting by the pool. It was hard to
see them through the storm, but one of them stood and I knew, I
just
knew
, that it was Nathaniel. Sandra shoved both of us
forward and into the rain. The drops were falling so hard they
almost hurt. I had to bow my head and squint just to see. And it
was cold. The bitter wind only made the sting of the raindrops
worse. Dani grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

"I'm sorry, Jen," he said. I wasn't sure I'd
ever heard a tremor of fear in his voice and it chilled me far more
than the rain did. "You never should have gotten towed into
this."

We were close enough that I could see
Nathaniel clearly. There were five others with him. My mouth felt
dry. Dani and I hadn't been able to fight one vampire. We already
had Nathaniel and Sandra to contend with. Even if all five of the
others were dhampirs, we had already lost.

Chapter 28

Nathaniel walked toward us with an awful,
evil smile. He studied us for a moment and then turned to
Sandra.

"Well? What took so long?" he snarled.

"They were uncooperative."

"And why is the water elemental
bleeding?"

"He was
very
uncooperative."

"What did I say to you about him?" Nathaniel
asked.

"That you wanted him alive," Sandra said.

"Alive? Is that the word I used?"

Sandra actually looked afraid. "Uninjured,"
she whispered.

"I thought that's what I said."

"He spit on me," Sandra said.

"Uninjured? Should I be flattered?" Dani
asked.

Nathaniel turned back to him and smiled. "I
only want you unharmed so that I can have the pleasure of doing it
myself." He looked at us for a moment. "When...oh, I've forgotten
his name...a pity." He didn't sound at all sorry. "When I learned
of your presence on the ship I thought it would be fun. I've never
been able to hunt on a ship. I never imagined you'd all put up such
a fight. And I did have some fun. But now...well you killed several
of my dhampirs. And Francesca. I was beginning to tire of her
anyway, but I did intend to do it myself." His eyes narrow and he
glared at Dani. "You were especially irritating." Suddenly, his
glare turned into a frown. "What did you do to him?" he snapped to
Sandra.

I looked at Dani in concern. He was breathing
heavily and looked unsteady. I was still having trouble keeping my
balance as the rough waves hit the ship, but I had never noticed
Dani having any problems. Now every time the ship rocked I was
worried that Dani would fall.

Sandra looked nervous. "I had to use
force."

And then Dani crumpled to the ground and lay
still.

"Dani!" I cried in horror.

"Leave him," Nathaniel said.

I stopped before my knees hit the ground and
stood, shaking. Nathaniel walked closer to us, face twisted in
fury.

"What did you do, Sandra?" he repeated.

"I hit him...I didn't mean to hit him as hard
as I did I..." Sandra hesitated and swallowed hard. "I think I may
have...accidentally ruptured something."

Nathaniel's hand flashed out and he slapped
her across the face. "Fool! I told you that the water elemental was
probably the only one who would put up a decent fight! And you
bring him to me like
this
?"

"I'm sorry!"

"You realize that this is the exact opposite
of uninjured. What are you going to do about this?"

"I-I...I could kill him for you?"

Nathaniel just glared at her.

"He
spit
on me and nearly staked me!"
Sandra cried. "Please, allow me to kill him. I'll make sure he
screams, I promise!"

Nathaniel considered it. "Fine."

"Thank you. You'll enjoy watching this."

Sandra hurried over to Dani and lifted him
off the deck. He still didn't move and hung limply from her hand. I
felt a few tears slide down my cheeks. I hoped that the rain would
hide them, because I knew Nathaniel would be pleased that I was
crying. Nathaniel crossed his arms over his chest and glared. Then
something on Dani's wrist caught my eye. It was a tattoo of a red
and black star. I hadn't seen that one before, which made sense
given that it only showed up when his wrist was wet. My heart
skipped a beat. It was
raining
. If Dani was wet enough for
his tattoos to appear, how he could he possibly be hurt enough to
pass out? He'd seemed better
before
being soaked by the
rain.

"I don't hear screaming," Nathaniel said with
a bored sigh.

He spoke too soon. A horrible shriek of agony
echoed across the deck. Sandra fell to the ground; Dani's stake
embedded deep in her chest. For a moment the only sounds were the
roar of the wind, the thundering rain, and Sandra's gasps of pain.
Then Nathaniel started laughing.

"You fool! You brought a
water
elemental into the
rain
!"

Dani was back on his feet, carefully edging
between Nathaniel and me. The cut on his lip was completely gone
and so was the bruise. It looked like Sandra had never struck him
at all.

"Dispose of that," Nathaniel said, gesturing
to Sandra. "Throw it overboard."

The other five sitting by the pool got up and
walked closer. One of them stopped next to the Sandra.

"She's still alive, Nathaniel." I spotted
short fangs as she spoke and sighed in relief. At least one of them
was only a dhampir.

"And two of her hearts are clearly punctured.
I said throw her overboard. Do it or you'll join her."

The dhampir girl went to grab Sandra's legs.
Another person went for her arms. It was a balding guy who looked
well over thirty. Another dhampir.

"Wait, let me have my stake back," Dani said.
He sounded fine, the rain
had
healed him.

"Excuse me?" Nathaniel laughed.

"You heard me."

Nathaniel held up a hand and the two dhampirs
holding Sandra paused. "Why do you think I would want you to have a
stake?"

Dani shrugged. "You said you thought I'd put
up a decent fight. I assumed that meant you'd like one."

"And you think I'd want you armed?"

"Well, we both know you're the one who will
walk away," Dani said lightly. I couldn't believe he was able to
say it with a grin. "If I'm armed, the added element of danger
might make things a little more exciting for you."

Nathaniel burst out laughing. "I like the way
you think!"

He walked over to Sandra and drove the stake
further in. Sandra gasped one last time before dying. Then
Nathaniel yanked out the stake and waved at the dhampirs. The two
of them carried the body to the rails and tossed it over. With a
threatening smile, Nathaniel handed Dani his stake.

"Here you are. I hope it gives you an extra
minute or two."

"Me too."

As far as I was concerned, the stake had
already bought us a minute. I wondered if Dani was trying to stall
too.

Nathaniel's smile widened. "Keep the attitude
while you can, elemental. You and all of your friends will die
tonight."

"Funny, I was going to say that to you."
There was something in Dani's voice. A slight strain. The fear that
he wasn't fully healed and was just bluffing struck me.

Nathaniel laughed again. He took a few steps
back and regarded us for a few moments. Then he curled back his
upper lip and snarled. I watched in horror as Nathaniel and Dani
stared each other down. Any moment one of them would lunge.
Nathaniel took a step to the side and Dani mirrored him. They
started slowly circling each other. Too late, I realized that
Nathaniel was trying to position himself between Dani and me. I
glanced nervously at Nathaniel's companions. They were all watching
in amusement. I trusted that they were too afraid of Nathaniel to
interfere in his fight. But I didn't believe that Nathaniel
wouldn't go after me. I pulled out my wand and backed up, almost
shaking with fear. I wished that I had spent more time practicing
my fire spell. Maybe if I had put more effort in I'd be able to
make more than sparks now.

I realized a fraction of a second before
Nathaniel did that his plan had backfired. He had managed to get
Dani away from me, but Dani had let him. In turn, he had gotten
Nathaniel to stand directly under the roof that covered the pool
bar. I spotted movement on the roof just before Thomas dropped down
right on top of Nathaniel. Everyone on the deck stared in shock as
Thomas and Nathaniel fought. Everyone but Dani. While Thomas
grappled with Nathaniel, Dani turned and rushed the others before
they could join the fight. He reached them at the exact moment TS
hurled himself off the roof. All five of them went down in a heap
as hundreds of pounds of wolf landed on them. For a few moments it
was chaos.

"Jen! Jen!"

I turned to see Charlie, by the snack bar and
well out of the rain. He beckoned me over and I raced to join him.
He hugged me and I felt the rain drying as he did.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine." I was still shaking and now that
I was dry I knew it hadn't been the cold rain.

We both turned and watched the fight
helplessly. Thomas and Nathaniel were fighting while TS and Dani
were busy with the rest. They were outnumbered, but miraculously
holding their own. But Dani didn't seem as agile as usual. He was
still hurt. I knew that the girl and the older guy were both
dhampirs, which gave me hope that we could still win. I had a
feeling that another man was a dhampir too. He looked about our
age, but he and the other two were acting nervous. Judging from
their reactions they had never seen a werewolf before. They also
looked shocked the first time Dani chucked a ball of water at them.
He was gathering the rain into balls and lobbing them right and
left. I doubted that they hurt, but being hit in the face by a ball
of water had to be distracting. But, I could tell from the way the
fourth man was darting around that he was a vampire. Luckily, he
was actually having trouble without the dhampirs' help. Every time
he went after Dani or TS, the other one jumped in. It was the fifth
person who was making me nervous. He was fast enough to be a
vampire, but he was hanging back from the rest of the group. There
was something different about him.

"Mariana is in the room. Go back with her and
stay there," Charlie said.

I gaped at him. "I can't just leave!"

"There's nothing you can do." Angry flames
flared in his eyes. "There's nothing
I
can do. Go get
somewhere safe."

"But-"

"I can hardly see in this rain, Jen. I can
take care of myself, but if we get attacked I can't be sure that
I'll be able to protect you. Get out while you can."

I held up my wand. "Can't we do what we did
before? I make sparks and you set them on fire?"

"I don't think..." He sighed. "Ok. We can
try."

I aimed my wand at the odd one out. He was
further from the others, an easy target. "
Mar
!"

For a moment my sparks were just tiny specks.
Then Charlie flung out a hand and the sparks burst into flames.
They didn't last long. The flames burned out incredibly
quickly.

He shook his head sadly. "It's too wet. I
can't keep a fire going in this rain."

The one we had set on fire turned to us and
started to run. He crossed the deck in a split second. It almost
looked like his feet hadn't even touched the ground.

"Big mistake," he said.

I couldn't believe how fast he was. I thought
vampires were fast, but somehow he'd been even faster. I took a
step back in shock and stared at him. He had white hair, blowing
wildly in the wind, and pale skin. His eyes were what caught my
attention; they were white and blue. And moving. He wasn't a
vampire or even a dhampir. He must have been an elemental! He
raised a hand and swung it forward like he was throwing something.
A gust of wind nearly knocked me off my feet and raindrops suddenly
pelted me.

"Going to set me on fire now, imp?" he
laughed. He made imp sound like an insult.

I looked at Charlie in horror; the rain had
hit him too. Thankfully, he hadn't been hit by much, but I could
see the water steaming off of him and he was rubbing his arms.

"I would if you'd stop cowering in the rain,
sylph," Charlie said.

The white-haired guy laughed and raised his
hand again. Then someone tackled him to the ground. They rolled
across the deck and out of the rain. Mariana! The white-haired guy
angrily shoved her off of him and started to stand. Charlie lunged
at him, fireball in hand, and the two tumbled back. He managed to
get away from Charlie, but he was hurt. Then, impossibly fast, he
ran away from us and back out into the rain. Mariana started to
follow but Charlie grabbed her arm.

"Don't. There's too much wind out there; he's
got the advantage. He could knock you right off the ship."

"I'll be fine!" Mariana said. "Even if I do
go overboard!"

Charlie turned to me. His eyes were beyond
smoldering, they looked like a bed of coals ready to go out. He
wasn't just worried. He was scared. "I'm useless in all this damn
rain. You two have to get somewhere safe while you can. I don't..."
He glanced over his shoulder at the battle. It was raining so hard
I was having trouble seeing and I was using my night vision spell.
Charlie looked back at us, eyes even dimmer. "I don't think we can
win this," he said in a choked whisper.

We both stared at him in horror.

"But...but," Mariana started.