Page 25 of Kiss of the Vampire

Caitlin cut into her egg. “It’s all right if she wants to go swimming.”

Dylan glared at her. “Like you have any say in it.”

She smiled at him and the look was pure pixie-like, mischievous and full of the devil.

“Are you going to watch Alicia swim?” Levka asked, figuring she’d still take her baby-sitting job to heart.

“Sure.” She sounded resigned to it.

“Do you mind some company? I’d want to sit in the deck’s shade. I burn easily in the full sun. Fair skin.”

She nodded. “Me, too. That would be nice. I’d like that.”

Dylan said something under his breath, then tugged at Alicia. “You finished with your breakfast? Let’s go.”

“She’ll go when I do.” Caitlin said.

He turned and glowered at her.

“Well,” Lynne said, “this is a first. I’ve never seen Caitlin decide things for you, Alicia. Hope you snap out of it soon. Come on, Dylan.” She tossed her napkin at the table and it missed it and fell on the floor. “We’ll get ready and meet Alicia later.”

When they left, Caitlin said to Stasio, “Alicia’s not a very nice person, but I think maybe we ought to let her be herself for a while. Don’t you?”

Stasio’s blue eyes studied her. “If it pleases you.”

“No, but she’s too weird like this.”

Stasio bowed his head. “Finish your breakfast, and she’ll be back to her own spiteful self.”

Caitlin ate the last bite of her cinnamon roll and licked her fingers. “Okay, turn her loose.”

Alicia slammed her fork on the table and jumped up from her seat. “I heard you call me spiteful, you, you, jerk,” she said to Stasio.

Caitlin hurried to get out of her seat to keep up with her foster sister.

“As for you, Caitlin, what were you doing dragging me out of my bed last night to sit in the lounge in a lifejacket? Were you nuts?”

Caitlin glanced back at Stasio. He smiled and shrugged.

“You should have wiped Alicia’s mind,” Levka communicated to Stasio.

“Those under hypnosis remember what has gone on, though using our vampiric charm is not quite the same since we can convince people to do what they would not normally do. But if Caitlin knew that under hypnosis people remember what happens to them, I didn’t want her wondering why Alicia had lost her memory. Caitlin might have worried.”

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.