“What if you took a few gulps of mine?”
I whirled round and stared at Micah, barely believing what he’d just said. Caleb looked just as shocked as I felt.
“Werewolf blood tastes bland to vampires,” Micah continued. “You wouldn’t crave me like you would Rose… And even if you did, I’m strong enough to defend myself.”
I could see that Caleb was tempted by the offer as he continued staring at Micah.
“You’d do that?” I asked, leaning forward and gripping Micah’s forearm.
“I think I owe you that much,” the wolf said.
I looked up at Caleb with pleading eyes.
“All right,” Caleb said, after a few more seconds of eyeing the werewolf. “I’d be a fool to not accept… Thank you.”
I gathered my food and water bottle and crawled out of the way. I sat at the edge of the boat to give the two men room. Micah stood a foot away from Caleb and extended his right arm. One hand still on the wheel, Caleb gripped Micah’s arm and dug his fangs into his wrist. Micah flinched, but remained steady. Caleb groaned as he gulped deep once, twice, thrice, and then a fourth time. He lifted his fangs out of Micah and licked his lips. Micah and I both stared at him expectantly. Micah extended his arm again, offering more.
“No, it’s okay,” Caleb muttered, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand before replacing it on the wheel. “You’re right. Wolf blood tastes like crap.”
Chapter 20: Rose
We didn’t make it to Panama in that boat. Not even close. The boat ran out of fuel after a day and we had no choice but to make a stop in Aruba. It was early evening as we approached the shoreline. Micah took a turn navigating as we headed toward a port.
I kept expecting Caleb to drop dead. I found it hard to believe that seven days hadn’t passed by now, what with our initial leg of the journey, then being transported by vehicle all the way to the tip of Venezuela, and now traveling all this way by boat. Caleb hadn’t said anything yet, but I was sure that he shared my suspicion.
“Do you think something could have gone wrong with the spell?” I asked hopefully. “Maybe it’s no longer working? I mean, there’s no way we can still be within seven days.”
“You’re right. I should be dead by now.”
“Is there any way that the spell could have lifted?”
He paused, running his thumb over his jaw. He looked disturbed suddenly. “If… Annora never recovered—if she… died—I believe that’s the only way it could have lifted.”
I walked up to him and placed my hands on the railing next to his. “How could she have died?”
There was a long pause before he answered. “It’s possible she died because I left her alone in that cave.”
“What were you doing with her in the first place?”
“I…” His voice trailed off. “I was trying to fix her.”
I swallowed hard, touching his hand. “I’m sorry.”
He brushed me away, walking to the opposite end of the boat as we entered the harbour. I decided to leave him alone for now. He needed space. I went and stood next to Micah in the control cabin. He was eyeing the boats nearby.
“So how do we know which ones are empty? And which can be stolen? Which have people on them already?” I asked.
He shrugged. “We’ll just have to make a guess.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. We’d stolen too much in the past few days already. I really didn’t want to have to steal an expensive yacht.
“We should only take a small boat,” I said.
But Micah’s eyes were already widening on seeing a beautifully crafted yacht a few meters away.
“That one’s small,” he said, pointing to it.
He was right. It was small in size, but it looked terribly expensive.
“We should find one less… valuable.”
“Rose,” Micah said, turning on me, “we need a boat that’s not going to break down on us. One that will take us to Panama, and then all the way back to The Shade. Most of these boats clearly aren’t designed for long-distance travel anyway… We need to find the best boat for the job.”
I wasn’t happy, but I also didn’t know how to argue.
“Okay,” I breathed, more to myself than to Micah.
“Caleb,” Micah called, pointing to the yacht. “What do you think?”
Caleb stared at it, then shrugged. “It looks good enough.”
“Let me check it out,” Micah said. He drifted our boat parallel to it, then, with one leap, he climbed aboard. He was hardly acting like a man who’d just had his leg ripped open by a leopard. Then again, he wasn’t a man.
After a couple of minutes, Micah landed with a thud back on our deck.
“No, that boat’s security is too tight. It would take too long to figure out how to start it. We need to move on.”
We moved from boat to boat. Micah only made it to three more boats before he turned back into a wolf, and Caleb took over after that. It seemed that all of these had the same type of security. And soon there were no more eligible boats left in the small harbor to check. Caleb navigated the boat back out of the port and continued sailing along the beach.
“We’re almost out of fuel,” Caleb said. “We should hit the beach and keep searching for a boat on foot. We’ll be faster that way.”
Caleb navigated the boat to a sandy white beach and we all jumped out. The beach was empty, and we had to hope it stayed that way. Anyone who caught a glimpse of Micah running toward them in the dark might die of fright.
As I’d become accustomed to by now, I pulled myself onto Caleb’s back and we began running, Micah keeping up to our right as he bounded along the sand.
“Over there,” I said, squinting and pointing toward a dark shadow floating in the water in the distance.
The beach we were running along stopped abruptly as we reached a cluster of rocks. Caleb and I entered the warm sea and began swimming, Micah splashing at our side. We swam around the rock and appeared on the other side. I realized that this was a private beach. There was a large villa built on a hill with an infinity swimming pool out front, overlooking the ocean. As we approached the boat in the water, Caleb climbed aboard while I waited with Micah floating in the waves.
This looked no less luxurious than the others. If anything it was more. It also wasn’t too large. I was relieved when Caleb looked over the side of the yacht a few moments later. “Okay, this will do. There’s also spare fuel below deck.”
Caleb dove back into the water and helped me onto the boat. Once he’d set me down on the deck, he returned to the side of the ship to help Micah up. Micah unfortunately was not so adept now that he had four paws. It proved to be quite a struggle. Micah had no problem leaping out of the water, but he kept slipping as he reached the edge and falling back into the water.
“On three,” Caleb said. “One, two, three.”
Micah leapt and this time, Caleb gripped the fur behind his neck and hauled him over the edge, head first. Not the most elegant of deliveries, but he did the job. Caleb hurried away and a few moments later, the boat was moving.
Perhaps since this was their private beach, the owners had been more lax on security. Or perhaps they were even going to use it this evening. A pang of guilt stabbed me as we glided away in the beautiful vessel.
I headed with Micah to the control cabin where Caleb sat, studying the controls intensely. I didn’t want to disturb him while he was concentrating, so I spent the next hour exploring the yacht with Micah, while Caleb made some headway getting us back on course toward Panama.
The boat was much bigger on the inside than it had looked from the outside. There were actually three levels beneath deck, all containing beautifully designed bedrooms—five in total—and sleek marble-paneled bathrooms with hot water. I locked myself in one and took a shower, relishing the feeling of hot water seeping through my greasy hair and running down my back. I lathered my hair with a fruity-smelling shampoo and massaged it until my hair felt sque
aky clean. Once I’d finished in the shower, I dried myself with one of the big fluffy red towels and tied my hair up in a bun. I rummaged through the closet of the bedroom next door. I found a silk dressing gown and slippers which I changed into. More guilt tore through my chest. I hoped that somehow, once we returned to The Shade, we’d find a way to send money anonymously to these people, and hopefully return the boat.
Dressed, I walked out of the room and looked up and down the corridor outside. I’d already explored all the levels by now, so I returned to my favorite room on the boat—the master bedroom on the top level. The entire ceiling was made of tinted glass and it afforded a magnificent view of the night sky. I flopped down onto the silk sheets and stared up. It was quite surreal, lying there on the soft bed, staring up at the stars while gliding across water. After only a minute of lying there, I was already feeling relaxed and sleepy. But I didn’t want to rest now. I got up and walked back to the control room.
Caleb wasn’t there. The vessel had been put on autopilot. I went down to the middle lower deck and passed Micah resting in one of the bedrooms. “Do you know where Caleb is?” I asked.
“Above deck,” he mumbled.
I climbed back upstairs and walked outside. I spotted Caleb standing at the stern of the boat, hands on the rail.
I wasn’t sure whether he was ready to be disturbed. I decided it was best to leave him alone a bit longer, and backed away. But he’d detected my footsteps already.
“It’s okay, Rose,” Caleb said, his back still turned to me.
“Are you all right?” I asked, approaching slowly. I noticed that he too was wearing a change of clothes—black cotton pajamas. His hair wet, he smelt of bath gel.
“Yes,” he said, though I could see that he was still preoccupied. I assumed by Annora. I recalled that old photo album I’d seen back in Annora’s study. How happy and in love they had looked. I could understand Caleb feeling grief over her. Perhaps a part of him still believed that the real Annora was still living, hidden somewhere beneath the evil witch she’d become.
“By the way,” he said, “the date is displaying in the dashboard. It’s been nine days since I left the island.”
Relief rushed through me. We’d suspected the time had passed, but this confirmation was a melody to my ears.
“So what does it feel like?”
“What?”
“To be free.”
“I… I guess I haven’t had time to think about it much yet.”
“Now you could do anything,” I said. “You could escape to the supernatural realm if you wanted to, and hide out there. You wouldn’t even have to come live with us in The Shade, if you didn’t want to…” My voice trailed off. I was trying to cheer him up, but he didn’t respond. Silence fell between us.
“I guess you’re still thinking about her?” I asked.
Finally, he looked down at me. He smiled, though I saw pain in his eyes. “I suppose I just wish things could have ended differently.”
I looked out at the glistening waves. “How would you have wanted things to play out with her… with you?”
He heaved a sigh. “I wish she’d never met me, all those years ago. I wish she’d found another man, married him and traveled the world. Then settled down and had lots of children. The life she’d always dreamed of having. The life she’d wanted with me… The life I couldn’t give her.”
“It wasn’t your fault that bastard merchant turned you into a bloodsucker,” I said. “I hope you don’t still blame yourself for how she turned out.”
“Nobody forced me to turn her. I gave into my bloodlust. That was a decision I made. If I’d fought harder, I could have controlled it. Like I have with you.”
“But she seduced you—”
“As if you haven’t?” he snapped. “As if you aren’t even now as we speak, just by your very presence?”
I stopped short, staring at him.
“Back in the rainforest, I had your blood in my damn mouth, Rose. You have no idea how close I was to devouring you. Yet I chose to fight it. I chose to spit it out, every last drop. I could have done the same with Annora. It’s a lie to say I couldn’t have. So do I still feel guilt? Yes. Am I fully responsible? No. She made her own choices too. But I played a key part in her ruin. And nothing will ever change that.”
He was breathing heavily as he stared back out at the water, frustration marring his handsome face.
My mother’s words echoed in my ears. “I know an excuse when I hear one. Don’t you dare deceive yourself into believing you’re the victim, Rose Novak.”
She still said this to me sometimes when I made excuses for things I clearly did have a choice over. And those were the same words she’d spoken to my father, all those years ago. She’d told me their story. How they’d first met. She’d always believed my father had a choice in the things he did, and that was how she’d helped bring him out of his darkness. I supposed my mother was right, and that I shouldn’t be making excuses for Caleb either.
Mom. Dad. Thinking of them made me ache inside. It felt like an age since I’d last seen them. Guilt welled in the pit of my stomach for all the worry I’d caused them in the past months. I hoped that they were all right and that they wouldn’t come looking for me again. And my brother—I hoped he was all right too. We just have to return as soon as we can.
Seeking to distract myself from the pain, I looked up at Caleb again. I touched his forearm and his brown eyes lowered to my face.
“You’re right, Caleb,” I said. “You’re not a victim. You had free will. You made your choices, and now you have to live with them, just as I do. I don’t feel sorry for you at all. And you have no right to either.”
His expression softened a little, a hint of amusement in the corner of his lips. “And what choices have you made?”
I blew out. “God, where do I start? I decided to get Corrine to alter my brother’s and my passports. We told our parents we were going to be in Scotland for the summer, when in fact we ran off to Hawaii. Then when you finally returned me to the island, I decided to leave again and ended up in Annora’s dungeon. Then I betrayed my parents again by going out with Micah when I was supposed to be grounded. And now here I am, apart from them again. All because I decided to befriend that stupid werewolf. And that’s just in the last few months. I’m not sure my parents will ever trust me again…”
Caleb’s eyes remained fixed on me, as though he was taking in my every word.
“So you now regret it all?” he asked softly.
I was about to exclaim, “Of course.” But I paused, biting my lower lip. As bad as I felt, I couldn’t honestly say that I did regret it all. Because without my trip to Hawaii, I doubted I would have met Caleb. But somehow, I felt shy to say this aloud. The way he was staring down at me made me feel butterflies. Blood rushed to my cheeks and I looked down at the floor. I hoped that would be enough of an answer for him.
It was. He twisted back toward the ocean. We passed more time in silence. I hated how awkward things felt between us. How serious he still looked. We’d had nothing but anxiety surrounding us for the past few days, I felt we both owed it to ourselves to take a break. At least for a few hours. We’d stolen this gorgeous boat. We might as well enjoy it while we could.
I cast my eyes around the deck and noticed a row of closets. I walked over and began rummaging through them. Bottles of liquor filled the first. The second was filled with spare towels and sheets. When I reached the third, I almost squealed with delight. A stack of CDs and a stereo player. I fingered through the disks and picked out some soft rock. I slid it into the player and turned up the volume.
Caleb rolled his eyes as I walked toward him, a big grin on my face.
“Not now, Rose. I’m really not in the mood,” he muttered as I gripped his hand and tugged him toward the center of the deck.
“When are you ever in the mood?” He allowed me to drag him away from the edge. “We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. You need to learn to s
witch off sometimes…”
I draped my arms over Caleb’s neck and pulled myself against him. He gave in and slipped his hands around my waist, resting them on my lower back. He still felt tense as ever. I wasn’t sure there was any way I could make him completely relax while he was around me. My blood was too much of a distraction for him to just be present with me.
As we began swaying to the music, I rested my head against his chest, closing my eyes and listening to the slow, steady beat of his heart. The first song finished, and the second started, more upbeat than the last. I drew away from Caleb.
“Now, I want you to dance crazy with me.”
Caleb looked at me in mock disdain, cocking his head to one side. “You mean, how you dance normally?”
“Precisely.” I loosened my hair and shook it out. “I’ll teach you how to really dance. No more of your perfect rhythm and crap like that… Now, watch carefully because it’s a skill not easily acquired.”
I cast a glance at Caleb before I began my performance. I didn’t have any particular moves in mind. The reaction on his face was my only guide as I danced about in the most awkward way I could manage—which wasn’t difficult for me.
I kept my expression deadly serious as I went about instructing him how to perform my impossible-to-replicate “moves”. My antics were beginning to work. He was smiling. A broader smile than I’d ever seen on him. I dared believe he was even close to letting out a chuckle.
I didn’t care that he didn’t join me. It didn’t matter. I was happy to make a fool of myself if it meant drawing a laugh from him.
Finally, he did it. A short burst of laughter. It was music to my ears. I couldn’t remember if I’d ever even seen him laugh. I’d seen him smile. Sort of. But never laugh.
I collapsed on the floor, spreading out my limbs as I lay panting. My mission had been accomplished. I’d made Caleb Achilles laugh.
“You’re a crazy woman,” he said, hovering above my head and frowning down at me.
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