Kiss of the Vampire

by Terry Spear

  Ruric shook his head. “Her foster sister is a terror.”

  “Take me down to the pool,” Levka said. “I want the best seats out of the sun and with a view of the pool so she can keep an eye on her foster sister, but not too close that it will bother Caitlin.”

  “Got it,” Ruric said. “I’ll oust a few people right now.”

  Arman wheeled Levka to the elevator, and they heard Alicia down the stairs, her voice high pitched and whining. “I don’t know how you ever talked me into going to see that comedy show. Stupid thing wasn’t even funny. And from now on you won’t be making my decisions for me about swimming or anything else. What will Dylan think?”

  Stasio shook his head. “I liked her better when she didn’t speak.”

  Arman chuckled. “Caitlin may decide she wants her back the way she was.”

  “There’s something wrong with the ship,” Levka said.

  His friends turned their full attention to him.

  “I heard one of the crew speaking to another about it this morning when Caitlin and I were waiting for the elevator. They were out of sight, but they were speaking Greek. Something about a stabilizer being out. Because the storm was so bad last night, they had to deter from our original course. When they put into our first port, they’ll have the stabilizer repaired. But there’s something else.”

  “What?” Arman asked as they loaded into the elevator.

  Levka told them privately, “I’m not sure. There’s some concern about the passenger list. I wonder if they’ve found out we’ve moved some of the passengers together so we can have the stateroom big enough for the four of us. Or it may be that the Dallas league is having the ship’s passenger manifest looked into. It may be nothing related to us, but I don’t know for certain.”

  In an exasperated manner, Arman threw his hands up in the air. “I should have figured Ruric couldn’t pull this off.”

  “No sense in panicking yet," Stasio said. "It reminds me of the time we got in the middle of those blokes storming the Bastille. We got out of that okay. We’ll figure out something here, too.”

  Shaking his head, Arman wheeled Levka onto the pool deck.

  Ruric rocked back and forth in a cozy covered swing for two, situated underneath the deck to ensure the sun never hit them. Swimmers filled the pool, and all of the lounge chairs were either occupied, or someone had spread towels over them, reserving them for future use.

  Ruric stood and motioned to the chair. “My prince.”

  “You could have saved us a couple of lounge chairs. What if Caitlin had wanted to stretch out?”

  “Your gratitude is underwhelming, Levka. You do realize the swings are the most sought after resting place? There’s only ten on the whole ship, and some try to hang on to them day and night, leaving their belongings on them while they eat or sleep. Really quite rude.”

  “So you just moved their belongings to a chair?”

  Ruric smiled.

  “Ruric?”

  “The couple charted a starship for unknown territories, beamed right up in the transporter, and whoosh, they were gone.”

  Levka glanced at a man and a woman lying on a towel in the hot sun a few feet away.

  “Is that them?”

  “Yeah, they probably didn’t get enough sleep last night because of the storm.”

  “They’ll get sunburned.”

  “They’ve been hogging this same swinging chair since the cruise began. It’s time they gave it up to someone more worthy.” Ruric bowed his head.

  “Wake them and make them move to the shade.”

  Ruric took a deep breath. “They weren’t cooperative before.”

  “I’ll help,” Stasio said. “You take the guy. I’ll deal with the woman.”

  They walked over to the man and woman while Arman helped Levka to the swing. But as soon as he sat down, one of the girls who had spoken to him on the elevator headed in his direction. No way did he want anyone but Caitlin to sit with him. Then he spied them. Caitlin and Alicia were almost to the pool, though Caitlin was giving it a wide berth as she looked for him.

  Arman waved at her and hurried to intercept the other teen before she took Caitlin’s seat.

  “Wow,” Caitlin said, standing before Levka in short shorts and a T-shirt. “How did you ever manage to get one of these to sit in? They’re always full.” She glanced at Stasio and Ruric who were talking to a man and woman. “Don’t tell me. They made them move.”

  Levka couldn’t help but smile. “They wanted only the best for us.”

  She took a seat next to him. “I noticed everything else was reserved or being used.” She sighed. “It must be nice to have such really good friends.”

  “You don’t? It seems to me you would have lots.”

  She rubbed her arms as he rocked the swing gently. “I used to. When I had to…to move, I lost the friends I had. It’s not the same where I live now. They are all really rich doctor’s and lawyer’s kids. Everyone has their own cliques. No one’s interested in the new kid in town.”

  “Your foster father works as…?”

  “A heart surgeon. Even Mildred is a pediatric nurse. They’re loaded.”

  “And your parents?”

  She stared across the deck. “My parents and sister drowned last spring break.” Her words sounded hollow.

  “Drowned?” he prompted.

  Facing him, she said, “I…I don’t want to talk about it.”

  She wrung her hands in her lap, and he took her hand and held it. “I know how that feels.”

  Her eyes filled with tears, as she looked at him.

  “My father was killed in the war,” he said, purposefully leaving out the era or location, “and my mother and sister died, too. I was only six when an uncle took me in.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “He died later.” Levka took a deep breath. “When I turned eighteen, I was on my own.” He motioned to his friends. “All of us were. We became best of friends, watched out for each other, stuck together through all the good times and bad.”

  “You don’t go to school?”

  How could he tell her he’d been to schools for hundreds of years just to find out what other teens his age were studying, but that he’d already lived through so many of the events they were learning as history?

  “Sure, we go to school,” he said.

  “But what about money? How do you live?”

  “We all have inheritances, work side jobs, and are careful how we spend our money.” He didn’t want to tell her most of their money came down through the ages, that they were all Welsh princes with Russian family roots before this. No matter how enlightened she might be, she’d never believe it.

  She motioned to the ship. “But you’re spending a small fortune on a cruise.”

  “Sometimes, you have to spend a little money and enjoy life.” Although they hadn’t had to spend a dime on it, just moved some rich kids out of their suite whose parents had paid for it.

  Leaning against the seat, she seemed to relax. “I’ve never known anyone quite like you and your friends. I used to have a couple of close girlfriends, but after…”

  When she didn’t say anything further, Levka wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “After what, Caitlin?” He was the dark prince who should have ensnared her with his powers, yet she was the one who drew him in, captured him with her impish, but beguiling smiles, her fragility, her strength.

  She nestled her head against his shoulder and for the first time, he felt no pain in his chest.

  When she didn’t speak any further, he listened to her breathing, shallower, her heart rate slowed. She’d fallen asleep in his arms. Already, he felt himself slipping into the dark bottomless pit like he had when he’d met Cassandra. Like before, he couldn’t seem to disentangle himself from Caitlin. Damn his friends for encouraging their relationship. Nothing but tragedy could ever come of it.

  He wanted to run away as far as he could get from her, flee to the o
ther side of the world, never see her bright blue eyes or her sunshiny Florida smile again. She snuggled closer to him, and he tightened his hold, never wanting to let go.

  Glancing at the pool, he saw Dylan and Alicia speaking. They looked in his and Caitlin’s direction. They both grabbed their towels and headed inside.

  Torn between waking Caitlin so she could continue to act as her foster sister’s chaperone, or keeping her in his embrace, he saw a ship’s crewmember speaking to Ruric, which brought the earlier worry to mind. Had discrepancies in the passenger manifest been discovered?

  Chapter 7

  Stasio joined Levka at the swing and smiled. “Like old times, eh?”

  “You know this is folly.” Yet Levka couldn’t fight the feeling Caitlin filled some need, an emptiness he’d felt for too long. With her snuggled against his chest, he felt whole again.

  “We have known you for so long, Levka. We know she’s the one for you.”

  Levka ignored Arman’s comment and motioned with his head toward Ruric, still speaking to one of the ship’s crew. “Do you know what’s going on? Has it to do with irregularities in the ship’s manifest?”

  “I have no idea. Ruric is too busy conversing with the crew member to let us know privately. Did you see Caitlin’s foster sister and Dylan slip away from the pool and go inside?” k'12

  What was Levka to say? No, he didn’t see them leave because he was too busy enjoying his time with Caitlin? Yes, he saw them slip away, but he was too busy taking pleasure in Caitlin’s company and didn’t want to let her go?

  “I didn’t wish to disturb her after the bad night she had and because we woke her so early.”

  Stasio gave him one of his all-knowing looks. “Did you want me to check on them?”

  “No. If Alicia wants to mess up her life, she’ll do it no matter what Caitlin’s foster parents said. Caitlin isn’t responsible for her foster sister’s actions.”

  Ruric finished his conversation with the crewman, then walked under the archway and headed toward Levka and Stasio. He masked his expression so well that Levka hadn’t a clue what he was thinking. In fact, all of them could master that ability which made it impossible for any of them to know who had the best hand of cards during one of their games. Good news? Indifferent? Bad?

  Ruric soon joined him, glanced at Caitlin sleeping in Levka’s arms, and smiled. Tying his wild red hair into a tail, he scoffed at the wind. “The constant breeze on this ship makes me wish I’d cut my hair short. In a spaceship, we would have no annoying wind under perfectly-controlled conditions that the most illustrious scientists could create.”

  “I remember a time when we were becalmed on a schooner and prayed for a good stiff wind. Now, we are on a ship that has no need of wind, and you’re fussing.” Stasio glanced up at the ship’s Dutch flag, whipped around by the turbulent air.

  Ruric smiled. “Everything’s relative. Back then, we were running out of food and water. And, as I recall, the captain was trying to outmaneuver Jean Lafitte, the gentleman pirate.”

  “Gentleman, right,” Stasio said. “He was as violent and bloodthirsty as all the rest.”

  “But eloquent in his speech,” Ruric said, bowing. “And the young women liked him.”

  “But not the men who he stole from,” Arman argued.

  “What news have you?” Levka asked, interrupting the history lesson.

  Again, Ruric made a non-too subtle observation of Caitlin in Levka’s arms. “I have no worry now that you have found the one for you. ‘Tis good when it has been so long.”

  Grinding his teeth, Levka said, “Enough!”

  Caitlin stirred. Levka tightened his hold on her. His friends smiled.

  “What news from the ship’s crew?” Levka asked privately again, attempting to mask his annoyance.

  “Good news. We dine with the ship’s captain this evening.”

  Levka stared at him. “You cannot be serious.”

  “He was most generous. Though it will be nothing like dining with the captain of a star cruiser in deep space.” Ruric switched to telepathic communication. “Bad news is the ship’s crew is verifying the passenger list, room by room. Initially, I had convinced the teens, now buddying up together with others, that that’s the way their parents had arranged it. Since then, others on the cruise who knew it was not so, began asking questions. Worse, two of the guys do not get along. The other teens know this as well and are insisting the two would never have shared rooms with the kids from our suite. Someone—maybe one of the teens affected—contacted a parent. Now, the crew is trying to determine how we ended up with the larger stateroom and the other boys ended up sharing rooms with someone else from their high school.”

  “And you said?”

  “It’s easy for me to handle one crewmember at a time. It’s the unraveling of the fragile web of lies we have woven that is causing problems. Too many people to control. Oh, and by the way, Dylan is one of the guys who gave up his room to us.” Ruric gave a sardonic smile.

  “So he figured he could get Alicia to his room privately, but now he’s got a roommate?” Levka asked.

  “Yep. And his roommate is a guy who could snore a wine cork off its bottle, according to talk I overheard. Not only that, but the guy’s sneakers smell like something that had been dead for several days.”

  “I wouldn’t wish Dylan a better roommate,” Levka said. “So what about the room arrangements?”

  “They’re leaving them the way it is for now. Unless someone discovers we hadn’t paid for the room.”

  “How did you manage to get us into the room?”

  Ruric wiggled his fingers. “Computers. I tapped into their billing and room reservations. The only thing I’d like better is if I could just tell the computers verbally what to do and didn’t have to waste my time typing in all the commands. ‘Computer, report on status of room reservation.’ Within seconds the computer would respond favorably. ‘Prince Ruric, your room is now available.’ Typing is not my forte.”

  The others groaned.

  “Ruric, just tell us what is important,” Levka said.

  “I overheard a conversation a deck above us earlier this morning that concerned me. A couple of guys were talking of pulling a prank on other passengers. They didn’t say what or who they wished to cause trouble, but I wanted to make you aware of it.”

  “Would you recognize them if you heard them speaking again?”

  Ruric bowed his head, his green eyes ominous. “If I see who they are, I will make them think twice about doing anything aboard ship that is not…proper.”

  ***

  Not wanting to eavesdrop, Caitlin stirred against Levka’s chest to let him and his friends know she was awake. But then she sat up abruptly, worried she might hurt Levka’s wound. “I’m so sorry, Levka. You should have pushed me away.”

  His brown eyes darkened. “My chest no longer hurts. I’m sure by tonight, maybe sooner, I’ll be able to walk and will no longer have to use the wheelchair.”

  “Are you sure?” She couldn’t believe he’d truly recover that quickly when he’d been so weak earlier.

  “I’m pretty sure.”

  “Maybe you can lend him a shoulder if he gets dizzy.” Ruric smiled.

  “Ha! Like I helped poor Levka the last time. I’m so sorry about that.” She felt as if she’d been lying in the sun as hot as her skin grew just thinking about him sitting on the deck next to his wheelchair when he’d fallen.

  She suddenly realized she hadn’t been watching her foster sister and jerked her head around to look at the pool. Staring at the pool, then at the bodies soaking up the sun’s rays nearby, she immediately saw both Alicia and Dylan were gone. “I’ve got to go.”

  “But—” Levka didn’t get to say anything more, or if he did, she didn’t hear him as fast as she proceeded in the direction of the stairs to her deck.

  She would prove to Mildred and Thomas their faith in her was justified. But what nagged at her most were bits and pieces of the
conversation Levka and his friends had been sharing. There was some problem with the passenger manifest. Some trouble with Dylan having a roommate when he shouldn’t have. Some reason Levka and his friends ended up with the stateroom instead.

  She’d just been waking from a warm, lazy sleep, snuggled next to a Phat guy, dark-haired and eyed, and totally mysterious and intriguing. His large hand had caressed her arm in a soothing, tender way. He’d only stopped to squeeze her more tightly against his warm, hard body when she’d stirred the first time.

  But something had awakened her fully this time. A kid’s shrill cry in the pool that seemed miles away. The splashing of water, too? Something had brought her out of her comfortable nap, and in her groggy state, she’d heard their strange conversation—words spoken, but not. Concerns shared, but hidden. Someone was planning on pulling a prank on passengers. But who and on whom?

  Ruric was the one who had heard the someone talking. Ruric would take care of whoever it was.

  She hurried down the stairs. Why was Levka reluctant to let her go? Worried what she’d find? What would she find? Alicia fooling around with Dylan?

  Clenching her teeth, Caitlin hurried inside, then down the stairs to her deck and to Dylan’s room. Her stomach tumbled a million times before she reached his door. Then she remembered what Ruric had said—but hadn’t exactly said. Dylan was sharing a room with another boy. She pressed her ear to his door and listened. No sounds. If they were in there, wouldn’t they be talking or something?

  She looked in the direction of her room. If they were in her room…

  Stalking down the carpeted floor, Caitlin shortened the distance to her room. Her hands shaking, she pulled her key out of her pocket and jammed it into the lock.

  When Caitlin stepped into the room, she found the beds made and the sunlight streaming in through the open window. The shower was running in the bathroom. Caitlin put her ear to the door and heard giggling, then Dylan’s voice.

  Caitlin’s heart sank. If Alicia was going to do it with Dylan fine, but not in their suite. She banged on the door. “Alicia, tell Dylan to get his butt out of there.”