More than Magic: Semester Aboard (55 page)

"But you've run into fourteen!" Not including
dhampirs or other vampires he hadn't killed.

"That's my job! Jen, you see a vampire or
something and you run. I'm the idiot who grabs a stake and goes
after them. When
you
call MES to deal with it,
I'm
the one who takes the call. Vampires are not common. If I didn't
work for MES I don't think I would have staked any. Ever. Don't
base your ideas about the magical world on me, or anyone in my line
of work. That isn't how it'll be for you."

I couldn't believe I hadn't taken that into
account before. No wonder he'd encountered so many. But, something
he'd said stuck out. Dani hadn't just said vampire, he'd implied
that there were other dangers. I remembered the white-haired guy.
He wasn't a vampire, but he'd fought with them. Vampires weren't
the only danger out there.

"Dani?"

"Hm?"

"Have you...have you killed more than just
vampires? And dhampirs."

Dani nodded. Then, abruptly, stood. "I think
I need to take another dip before bed." He climbed, without his
usual flair, over the rails. He winced and rubbed his stomach after
he got over.

Somehow, I knew that if I didn't ask now, I'd
never get another chance. "How many?" I blurted.

I wasn't sure if he was going to answer, but
he finally whispered, "I don't know." Then, he looked at me with an
unreadable expression. "Hell of a thing to lose track of, isn't
it?"

Dani always seemed so friendly and
easy-going. He was easy to talk to, easier to rely on. And I knew,
beyond a doubt, that he'd risk his life for me. I had gotten so
attached to him and started to look up to him that it was a bit of
a shock to realize just how little I really knew about him.

"I uh..."

He paused just before he dove and looked back
at me expectantly. I had no idea what to say. I knew I couldn't ask
any of the questions tumbling around in my mind. I'd already pried
deeper than he probably wanted me to. And yet, somehow, I actually
felt a little better than I had before. He'd put a lot in
perspective.

"Thank you. For the advice."

"Thank me by taking it."

Not sure what else to say, I got up to go
into the room. My hand was on the door when he called my name. I
turned to see that he was still at the rails.

"What is it?" I asked.

"You shouldn't have had to deal with any of
this."

"I know but-"

He cut me off. "But you are. And...and you're
dealing with it better than most. It's remarkable. You should be
proud of yourself." He finally smiled. "For what it's worth, I am."
With that, he dove off of the ship.

I showered and settled in on the couch for
the night. My thoughts were still whirling, but not quite as
violently as they had been before. I went to sleep, and when I woke
up, we got ready for class. It was weird, almost surreal, to be
going about the day like a normal college student again. We split
up and went back to our own rooms for the night and then did it all
again the next day. Then we arrived in Costa Rica.

Mariana and I were on the same trip and we
spent the entire time together. It was just what I needed. We
really hadn't gotten to spend a lot of time with each other and it
was a fun change. It was also nice knowing that she felt the same
way I did; she hadn't been prepared to kill anyone either. I found
out that she was only in her first year as an intern and was just
as out of her element as I was. By the time we got back to the ship
I felt much better. And, to my relief, everyone else seemed better
too. Dani had made a full recovery and, maybe more importantly, was
acting like his self again. Thomas' arm was better and I wasn't
sure if I'd ever seen him in such a good mood. TS and Charlie were
both in high spirits too.

Things went back to normal. As normal as
being magical could be anyway. A silly part of me had worried that
maybe they wouldn't want to spend time with me anymore. I was young
and still quite ignorant about the magical world. But, I didn't
need to worry. We settled into a routine after getting back from
Costa Rica and enjoyed the rest of the voyage the way we should
have all along. Mariana and I had breakfast together every morning.
Sometimes one of the others joined us and then all six of us met up
for Latin American History. We sat together for the entire class.
Charlie and I went to our class together and then he'd join me for
lunch. We'd go over what we had learned in class and study. Then
I'd have my next two classes and meet Dani out on deck for
smoothies. We'd all have dinner together and then spend the rest of
the evenings by the pool, studying and talking.

It was weird sitting on Deck Seven. The deck
and rails had been repaired while we were in Costa Rica, but I
could see the new planks that had replaced what Charlie had burned
and the shiny rails where Thomas had been trapped. The first time I
returned I ended up going back to my room because it was so hard
for me. But, I forced myself to go back and get used to it. I
refused to let Nathaniel keep haunting me. It took a few days
before I could look out over the deck and just see people lounging
and laughing, not the bodies. Or the blood. Or the carnage. Then, I
was able to put it behind me and just enjoy being outside, and
alive.

There was one strange thought that hit me.
Unbelievably, I realized one tiny benefit to the fact Nathaniel had
been around; I'd seen more magic. I spent nearly as much time with
the others as I had when we were all sharing a room, but none of
them used their abilities very often. I knew I would never have
learned as much about vampires or seen how quickly some magics
healed if we hadn't been in that situation. Thomas didn't do
anything that I would have considered out of the ordinary for a
human. I didn't see any feats of strength or speed, or even his
fangs, for the rest of the voyage. The only thing Dani did was go
without food. There were days where I ate all three meals with Dani
and never saw him even bother getting a plate. I had a feeling it
was because of his stomach, but he assured me that was perfectly
capable of eating if he wanted to. Nonetheless, it was the only
real magical thing he did. I was sure that he and Mariana both dove
off of the balcony now and again, but since they could sneak away
to do it from Charlie's room I never saw it. And Mariana, of
course, was human out of the water and I never had another
opportunity to go swimming with her. I didn't see TS in his wolf
form again either and, like Thomas, he didn't do anything more than
humans were capable of, even at night. Charlie was the only
exception, but I never saw any more raging infernos or even smaller
fires. I noticed that he sometimes snapped his fingers, which made
tiny sparks, when he was deep in thought, but that was all I saw
him do. I wasn't exactly happy about it, but I had to admit that I
wouldn't have experienced nearly as much magic if we hadn't been
fighting Nathaniel.

I wasn't with any of the others in Nicaragua
and it was a bit odd. Even though I wasn't seeing much magic now, I
was at least talking about it when I was with the others. It was
almost a shocking difference to spend a few days with people
without ever once being able to mention magic. From time to time
people brought up the rogue wave, with no idea what the true cause
had been. None of them had any idea how close they had come to
being turned into dhampirs. Or worse. It was a relief to return to
the ship and fall back into my daily routine. I spent my trip in
Guatemala, our final port, with Thomas and TS again. It was similar
to Peru, but our conversations were much lighter and we didn't
spend nights together.

One of the best parts of the end of the
voyage was the formal dinner. Everyone dressed up and we were
spoiled with a delicious four-course meal. Mariana and I took
advantage of the spa package we had won and spent the afternoon
getting ready together. It was fun seeing everyone on the ship in
suits and dresses. Dani, naturally, looked too good to be true in a
suit. I was pretty sure that every girl on the ship shot Mariana a
jealous glare. Dani clearly got a kick out of the attention and was
even more amused that Mariana was irritated by it. Charlie, who
also looked really good, maintained a smug grin all evening. He had
to struggle not to laugh every time a girl came up with a flimsy
excuse to walk by Dani. TS had shaved a bit closer than usual and
made a token effort to tame his hair. He'd even gone so far as to
put on a button down shirt and nice pants. He made it very clear
that that he had never worn a suit and never planned to.

But I nearly did a double take when I saw
Thomas. I'd always thought of him as cute. If I was honest with
myself he was more than cute. He was actually really good looking,
handsome even. I had never really gotten the appeal of guys in
suits, but I took one look at Thomas and suddenly every time I had
heard 'Oh, I love guys in suits!' made perfect sense. I had to
force myself not to stare at him all during dinner. Every once in a
while I stole a quick glance at Thomas and, given his smirk, I was
sure that Dani caught me every time. Thomas had told me I looked
really pretty and I gave myself a moment to be silly and imagine
that his reaction to me in a dress was similar to how I felt about
him in his suit.

The remainder of the voyage would have been
perfect. It almost was, but there was one, tiny problem. Thomas.
Well, not Thomas himself; he'd been a problem since I'd admitted I
liked him. The problem was that he never once brought up our kiss.
And that drove me crazy. He didn't act any differently and I was
relieved that he hadn't distanced himself after the kiss, but he
acted like it never even happened. I wasn't sure how to bring it up
either. Even worse, I still wasn't entirely sure why he had kissed
me in the first place. The answer I wanted, of course, was that he
liked me. But the circumstances had been too extreme and there were
way too many possibilities. Thomas had been sure that he was going
to die any minute. Maybe he had just wanted one last kiss before he
did and I was there. Or maybe it hadn't been that sort of kiss at
all. Maybe it had been to comfort me. What did you say to someone
you had just told to run away and leave you to die? A kiss could
say a lot. Or he could have done it as one last thing to remember
him by. They were all plausible. Had our kiss been under better,
more normal circumstances I would have confronted him the very next
day. But they hadn't been and the worst scenario alone was reason
enough to not say anything. What if he was acting like it had never
happened because he didn't remember? Charlie said he remembered
seeing the vampire kick Dani and then had a vague recollection of
me pulling him out of the rain, but he didn't remember anything in
between. Nothing. Thomas had been hurt and scared, and probably
hadn't felt very well to begin with. Maybe kissing me had just been
a pure, gut reaction to the situation. Some brief vampire instinct.
Or normal guy instinct for that matter. For all I knew, Thomas had
no idea that he'd kissed me. Even worse, I knew that the more time
I let go by, the more awkward bringing it up would be. So, I didn't
say anything at all.

All too soon, the voyage ended. Laurie and I
packed up everything and tossed our suitcases out into the hall.
Then, we stood there, looking around an empty room. It was weird. I
felt like the voyage had taken years. I had been through so much I
couldn't believe it had all happened in a couple of months. It had
been almost a month since I had staked Nathaniel, but sometimes it
seemed like years ago and other times, like hours. And then there
was the voyage itself. I felt like I had just set foot on the ship
for the first time yesterday, but at the same time I felt like I
had been sailing forever.

"Weird, isn't it?" Laurie said.

I'd overheard enough conversations to know
that I wasn't alone. "Very," I agreed.

Someone knocked on the door. Laurie answered
it and then giggled, "It's for you."

It was Thomas. "Hey," I said in surprise.

"So, uh..." He shrugged. "I guess this is
it."

"Yeah." We'd gotten a memo that listed all of
the assigned disembarkation times. "Your Sea gets off at one,
right?" It was half an hour before my Sea, which meant we'd get
almost two hours together.

He shook his head. "I won that thing,
remember? I'm getting off now."

"Oh...right." I'd forgotten. Just like that,
it got awkward.
This
was goodbye and I was wholly
unprepared.

Thomas seemed nearly as nervous as I was.
"Have a safe trip. You'll keep in touch, right?"

"Of course."

"Sorry that uh..." He glanced at Laurie.
"Sorry things weren't always...ideal."

I smiled. "We lived." I knew Laurie would
have no idea just how serious I was being.

Thomas studied me for a moment, then hugged
me. "I'm not sure if I ever actually thanked you for...well,
everything.
You saved my life, not to mention everyone
else's." Then he whispered in my ear, "I owe you."

"I think we're even after all that."

He tightened his grip for a moment, and then
stepped back. He smiled and I could almost have talked myself into
believing that he was considering kissing me again. "How long is
your break after this semester?"

"Uh...almost a month." I hadn't expected that
question.

Thomas grinned. "Great. Keep it open?"

"Yeah! I will!"

"Good. Well, I'll write if you will."

I nodded. Neither of us moved and I wondered
if Thomas was as reluctant to part as I was. We hugged one more
time; his ribs were still too prominent.

"And you'll eat better?"

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

"Have a safe trip," I said, as he stepped
back.

"You too."