by Terry Spear
“Goodnight, Caitlin.”
“Night, Levka.”
Assuming she wasn’t properly dressed and wouldn’t want a goodnight kiss, he finally left.
But the compulsion to have her as his mate had not abated.
When Levka returned to his stateroom, Arman was leaning back in bed, reading a medical journal. “You’re wearing a path across the zigzag carpeting. If you would at least zigzag when you did it, the wear on the carpet would not be as noticeable.”
“Go kiss her. Or better yet, why don’t you get it over with and just bite her? You’re disturbing my concentration.” Ruric flipped another page in The Great Galaxy War.
“Go to sleep, Levka.” Stasio tossed a book on the battle strategies of WWII on the bedside table and turned off his light. “You should not disturb the lady in her bed.”
“Besides,” Arman added, “what if you get caught?”
Levka thought of her dark hair splayed out on the pink pillow, of her long lashes hiding her eyes, of her full pink lips that her old boyfriend “Vlad” had wanted to kiss. “I’ll be right back.”
Chapter 11
Caitlin slept a fitful sleep. Levka leaned over and kissed her lips. She reached up to touch him like she’d done before, but he moved beyond her reach. It was best she thought she only dreamed of him coming to steal kisses from her…it was best he remain in the shadows of her night.
Later that night, Levka rolled over on his own mattress and saw Ruric was no longer in bed with Stasio. “Stasio, where’s Ruric?”
Arman sat up. “What’s going on?”
Stasio glanced at the empty space in his bed. “Gone.”
Running his hands through his disheveled hair, Levka groaned. “We need to find him.”
Arman growled. “You’d think after so many years he’d outgrow walking in his sleep.”
“I’ll go,” Stasio said, already slipping into his jeans.
Looking at Levka’s stern face, Arman let out his breath in exasperation. “We’ll all go.”
Once they left the stateroom, Levka shouted in his harshest telepathic voice, “Ruric, where are you?”
"Gently," Arman warned, going aft while the others went in the opposite direction. “It’s dangerous to wake a sleepwalker suddenly.”
“I swear I’m going to start tying him to the bed,” Levka said.
“I see him.” Stasio flew to where Ruric stood staring at the railing. “Come back to bed, Ruric. Time to sleep.”
“He knows he shouldn’t stay up too late. It always makes him sleepwalk,” Arman grumbled.
They all returned to bed, but after an hour had passed, humid air from the sea blew in through the balcony door. Levka stared at the open door, then glanced back at Ruric and Stasio’s bed. Ruric was gone again.
“I swear he’s a descendent of Eric the Red and he’s considering his next navigational course.” Stasio walked out onto the balcony and nudged Ruric to return to bed.
This time Levka stood next to the bed holding a pair of socks knotted together. Stasio raised his brows as he guided Ruric into bed.
“I’m sleeping the rest of the night. No more of this nonsense.” Levka tied one of Ruric’s wrists to the headboard.
Stasio shook his head. “You’d better tell him in the morning that you did it to him for his health.”
Returning to bed, Levka punched his pillow into shape. “I did. If he wakes me one more time tonight, I’m liable to push him off into the briny deep.”
***
The next morning the ship docked at the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao where colorful pastel buildings sat squashed against each other along the waterfront.
Levka hurried to meet Caitlin at her stateroom. She was wearing a baseball cap and carrying a purse. “Are you going ashore?” He wished he’d thought to question her earlier.
“Yes, I’m sorry. I should have mentioned it to you. Thomas paid for excursions for each island. I’m going on a tour of the island, caves, and a rum factory.”
“And Alicia?” he asked, as they appeared to be in a footrace to the dining hall.
“She’s coming, but she’s an awful grouch. Muttering something all morning about Dylan leaving her without saying goodnight.”
Levka smiled.
“Are you going ashore?”
“Maybe the next island. We hadn’t made any arrangements to get off here.”
“Make sure it’s the same excursion I’m on.”
“If I leave the ship, it will be.”
When they reached the dining room, they found Lynne already sitting at the table with Levka’s friends. Alicia raced to catch up to them and took her seat.
Lynne wore a perpetual cat-ate-the-mouse smile.
“What’s up?” Caitlin asked her. “I don’t think I’ve seen you so ‘cheerful’ ever.”
Giving her a sardonic look, Lynne reached for the strawberry jam for her toast. “Someone created quite a stir on the ship early this morning.”
“Where’s Dylan?” Alicia grabbed a cup of black coffee.
“That’s who created the stir. Seems he was sleeping naked outside of your stateroom.” Lynne’s blue eyes sparkled with intrigue. “So, what did you do, Alicia? Kick him out without his clothes? Or was it you, Caitlin?”
Alicia faced Caitlin. “Is that what happened? Is that why he left me?”
Caitlin looked over at Levka. “Naked?”
“He intended to throw you out of the stateroom, Caitlin. He was naked when he headed to the bathroom to do it. Do you think he would have allowed you to dress had he gotten into the bathroom?”
Caitlin’s jaw dropped.
“You threw him out?” Alicia asked Levka, her voice and brows raised in unison.
“It was either that, or Dylan forcing Caitlin out of the room. If that had happened, I would have reported it to your parents this time, not Caitlin. So your choice. Your parents know about your behavior? Or Dylan leaves your room?”
“It gets better,” Lynne said. “Two old ladies started screaming about a naked guy in the hall, waking him up. He ran to his room but didn’t have his key.”
Levka smiled.
“What happened to his key?” Caitlin asked Levka.
“Instead of throwing him over the railing, I threw his clothes. I guess his key was in his clothes.”
Her brow furrowed, she shook her head.
Lynne sipped some of her soda. “Then more people saw him pounding on his door, trying to get his roommate to open up. But his roommate wasn’t in the room because like us, he has to leave early to go to shore. Finally, some of the crew members took a very red-faced and belligerent Dylan into custody. I’m sure his parents are being notified. So are the chaperones who came with our group, though we never see them.”
“Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.”
“And now he’ll really be out to get me,” Caitlin responded, her communication annoyed.
“Well,” Lynne said, “if we’re going to make our tour bus, we better go. I’d say this has already been a memorable day. Maybe, Alicia, you can tell me what you and Dylan were up to before he ended up outside of your room, naked.” Lynne grabbed her bag and hurried out of the dining room.
Alicia glowered at Levka, seized her purse, and took off after Lynne.
“I’d better go, too.” Caitlin wiped her hands. She tilted her baseball cap back and kissed Levka’s cheek, seemingly less disgruntled about what he’d done to Dylan. “Thanks for last night. See you for dinner? We have lunch on the island, then return about two.”
“See you when you get back.” He wanted to pull her into his arms and give her a kiss that would heat her blood, but she was in too much of a rush. He watched her hurry toward the exit of the room, then glanced at his friends. Everyone wore small smiles.
The girl was a siren. He jumped up from the table and hurried after her. When he caught up to her, she smiled.
“I’ll see you off.” The passengers were all signing out to get off the ship
, but Levka pulled Caitlin aside. “Be good, and don’t let Lynne or Alicia bother you. If you have any trouble, communicate with me. I’ll come to your rescue.”
“You’re a true knight.” She ran her hand down his chest. “Thanks again for last evening. Maybe because Dylan got into so much trouble, he’ll be on his best behavior from now on.”
Levka pulled off her hat and leaned down to kiss her. He touched his lips to hers, felt the velvety softness, tasted the sweet tangy blackberry flavor she’d coated her toast with, got lost in her blue eyes sparkling with emotion. Groaning, he released her. “Go, or I’ll make you miss your tour bus.”
She hesitated. Then she gave another one of her award-winning smiles. “Wow.” She stuck her hat back on her head and gave his hand a squeeze. “I’ve…I’ve got to go, but…wow.”
He chuckled.
With a backward glance, she gave him another smile, then headed off the ship.
And took his heart with her.
“Are we going ashore?” Arman asked.
Levka wheeled around. Ruric and Stasio stood nearby, wearing smug smiles.
“We wait here.” Levka watched Caitlin’s figure diminish in size as she neared one of the tour busses.
“Are you worried about her?” Arman asked.
“No. Dylan is still on the ship and shouldn’t be a problem anymore. We need to try to learn something about those who plan some kind of prank on the ship, if they stayed behind.”
“Yeah, and whether we can fix the problem concerning the passenger manifest,” Arman added.
“Did you send someone else to have dinner with the captain in our place last night, Ruric?” Levka asked.
“Yeah, when we were searching for Caitlin and couldn’t find her, I assumed dinner with the captain was out.”
They walked back to their stateroom and found a couple of ship’s officers standing in front of their door.
“Maybe we should have taken a shore excursion after all,” Arman said.
“And miss all the fun?” Ruric grinned at him.
“Can we help you gentlemen with something?” Levka asked.
“There’s been some mistake in billeting, I’m afraid,” the gray-haired man said. “Somehow two teens assigned to your stateroom were bumped. Now they’re staying with teens whose parents paid for single occupancy.”
“So refund them some money,” Ruric said. “We’ve paid for our room, so it appears you’ve double booked.”
“I thought only airlines did that,” Stasio said.
“Do you have some kind of receipt to show you’ve paid for these accommodations?”
Ruric pulled out a confirmation slip. “Right here. It shows the four of us staying in this stateroom. You can’t get any more official than this.”
The older man looked it over. “Can I make a copy of this?”
“Certainly. Don’t tell me you don’t already have one though?”
“It seems we’ve overbooked,” the man apologized.
Ruric folded his arms and frowned. “Does that mean you’ll put us off on the island, and we’ll have to swim home?”
“No…no, somehow we’ll accommodate the two teens. It would be a lot more of a problem to move the four of you from the one room.”
Ruric smiled. “Good. Oh, and be sure and bring that copy back. It’s the only one we have.”
“Yes, sir. Right away. We’ll take the best of care of it.”
“Thank you.”
The men hurried off.
“Is it the only copy we have?” Levka unlocked the door, and they walked into their suite.
“No, I always carry a spare.” Ruric patted his pocket.
Levka opened the curtains to the balcony. “We could always share someone else’s room and have a built-in blood bond.”
“Speaking of which,” Ruric said, “how was Dylan’s blood last night?”
“Polluted,” Levka said. “I swear his blood was half rum. If I didn’t know better, I’d think I had a hangover from his near alcohol-blood poisoning.”
“Remember the time when we were stationed in England and those ‘old’ sergeants talked a green kid into drinking whiskey straight? Darn near killed him. Boy, were those sergeants scared,” Stasio said.
“Yeah, well that’s how I feel, and that’s why I like my blood from the blood bank.”
“Didn’t help that you were up late trying to get the nerve up to return to Caitlin’s room and kiss her,” Ruric said.
“I wanted to make sure she was asleep.”
“Worse,” Arman said. “No wonder people fantasize about vampires being sneaky.”
They all laughed.
“What are you going to do about her?” Ruric asked, looking out the balcony at the bustling port. “You can’t tell her what we are without the league’s permission. And they’ll only give it if you intend to make her your soul mate, which they have to approve as well. So, what are you going to do?”
“I won’t turn her, so I’m not going to do anything.”
Stasio sighed. “You said the same about Cassandra.”
“And she died before you could obtain the league’s permission,” Ruric said.
“You don’t want history repeating itself,” Stasio said.
Arman folded his arms. “I think Levka’s right. Leave well enough alone.”
“Easy for him to say.” A taste of her blood, a kiss from her lips…Levka shook his head. The siren had hooked him good.
***
Caitlin was glad she’d gotten on a bus that Lynne and Alicia were not on. She could just imagine their discussion about Dylan and what had happened. And how she and Levka were implicated in the great Dylan’s downfall. She smiled, although a bit evilly.
Passengers pointed to the rooftops of homes where green-scaled iguanas raced across the red tile. The black-skinned tour guide laughed. “They roam wild here, and the people catch them and eat them,” he said, in a thick Caribbean accent.
“Ooooh,” several of the passengers said in a disgusted way, while Caitlin wrinkled her nose.
The tour guide said, “They taste like fishy chicken.”
Someone pointed to a Kentucky Fried Chicken. “Guess they have them everywhere.”
“Yes, but they do not serve iguana.” The tour guide gave a flashy white-toothed grin. “You see the houses here are all painted in bright colors. The governor had ordered the houses painted that way since he suffered from migraines and the white stucco reflecting the bright sun gave him headaches. Later, it was discovered the governor owned the company that produced the paints everyone had to buy.”
Everyone laughed.
“Our first stop is the Hato Cave.” The guide motioned to a mountainside.
After climbing the narrow path they finally reached the cave, and Caitlin took a deep breath of the warm wet air. Most caves she’d been to were chilly. Oddly, this one was not. Lights cast eerie shadows on the limestone cut into the coral reef. Stalactites clung to the ceiling and sent their daggers downward. Caitlin reminded herself, stalactites hold tight to the ceiling, which was the only way she could remember the difference in the rock formations. She observed stalagmites nearby, reaching upward like miniature spiral mountains in some futuristic world. In places where the water dripped from the stalactites and deposited limestone on the stalagmite below it, whole twisted columns had formed.
The tour guide pointed to petroglyphs drawn on the walls. “Amerindian Arawaks painted these pictures fifteen-hundred years ago and used these caves for shelter and for burial grounds. A family was found buried together, the male’s skull placed in the center. Similar remains have been found on the island of Aruba. Flint tools have been located here also.”
The guide pointed to a cave farther back. “A colony of rare long nosed bats lives in there.” She guided the group deeper into the cave past dripstone pools.
Their footsteps and the guide’s words bounced off the cave walls. Another group followed behind them, and Caitlin could hear the same tal
k being given like a distant echo.
“In later years, during the slave trade, escaped slaves hid out for months in here,” the tour guide said.
Caitlin envisioned the slaves trying to find food and water and shelter away from their masters and how horrible it must have been.
“Fascinating, eh, Caitlin?” a deep male voice said behind her. Her skin crawled as if the water dripping on the walls of the cave were suddenly slithering down her arms and legs.
Turning, she saw the guy who had captured her heart, swept her off her feet, then given her up for dead after her parents and sister had died. Vlad. His hair was black and pulled back in a ponytail like usual, and his eyes glittered in the low light of the cave like glassy, black lava rock. Like Levka, Vlad was not the kind of person she thought she’d fall for. A Scottish Highlander tossing logs in the Highland games, strong, muscular, with curly, reddish blond hair--that’s what had caught her eye when she was fifteen. So why did she keep falling for these dark-haired, mystifying guys now?
Not comprehending how he could be here, of all places, she stared at him.
“I’ve been out of the country,” he said smoothly, reaching for her hand. “I wasn’t aware of your…tragedy.”
She tucked her hands in her shorts pockets. For months, after she’d gotten better, all she’d wanted to know was if Vlad still cared for her. When she tried to reach him, and couldn’t, she knew there couldn’t be anything between them. “What…what are you doing here?”
“Touring the cave, like you are.”
“You didn’t write or call me.”
“I was out of the country… on business.”
He was always away on business. He’d said he was an heir to a glass factory and needed to take care of it from time to time as its CEO. Couldn’t he have emailed her a note, or called, or something?
“I’ve come to be with you.”
“You’re not on the cruise, too, are you? I’ve never seen any sign of you.”
“I flew in this morning. I’ll be on the ship for the rest of the cruise.”
“Oh.”
“You sound disappointed.” Vlad reached out to touch her face, but she turned and hurried after the tour group.