Page 42 of Kiss of the Vampire

It couldn’t be that hard. It didn’t look that bad.

Arman seized Levka’s free arm. “You’d drown.”

“Caitlin will drown.” Levka yanked free and grabbed the pole that Caitlin had tried to use. Shoving it near her, he stretched it out and shouted, “Caitlin, grab the pole.”

“Just a minute!” Caitlin shouted.

Lynne clawed her way on top of Caitlin’s head, shoving her under. Caitlin rose to the surface, coughing. Seizing the preserver, she tried to grab Lynne’s arm, but the girl pulled her loose from the preserver. They both went under.

Somehow Caitlin managed to free herself and hooked the rope tied to the preserver onto the pole. Then she dove under and grabbed Lynne. When she reached the surface, she captured the preserver again. “Pull, Levka!”

With one arm wrapped around Lynne’s neck, she held onto the preserver with the other. Levka hauled them toward the stairs. Lynne dragged Caitlin down again. Both came up coughing. Arman and Stasio leaned over the pool and pulled Lynne, sputtering and gagging, out of the water. Ruric and Levka helped Caitlin out.

She kept coughing, but as soon as she stood on the deck, Levka wrapped his arms around her in a hard embrace. He reminded himself he couldn’t have her, but his heart told him otherwise. No matter what the league wanted, he wanted her for all eternity. He wanted her, no matter what she wanted even. The darkness inside him was speaking, and he feared the bloodlust would take over. Even now as he held her against his chest, he listened to her pounding heart, heard the blood rushing through her veins, calling to him to take his fill.

“Hey!” a crewmember shouted from an upper deck. “Pool’s closed for the night.”

“Right.” Levka kissed Caitlin on the forehead. “You got in the water.”

She hugged him back, but didn’t say a word.

A guy came out of the building wearing swim trunks. Lynne’s date for the night? “What’s going on here?”

“I got a leg cramp,” Lynne whined. “And I nearly drowned. Where were you?”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have been kicking so much of the water out of the pool,” Caitlin said, her voice still gravely from coughing. “It might have killed you.”

Lynne glared at her, but Caitlin ignored her and snuggled closer to Levka.

“Can I take you back to your room, Caitlin?” Levka asked, not wanting to let her go.

“Yeah, thanks, I’d like that.”

“Need us?” Ruric asked.

Levka shook his head.

“I’m sorry about what happened earlier today, Caitlin. I wanted to know what had happened, but I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“I didn’t want you or your friends to get hurt, Levka.”

She shivered when they reached the air conditioned hall, and he wrapped his arms tighter around her.

For a moment, she listened at the door.

“If anyone’s in there that shouldn’t be, I’ll toss him out.”

She shook her head. “And make him madder.”

Levka lifted her chin. “He wasn’t here earlier, was he?”

She looked away from him.

That’s why she hadn’t changed her clothes earlier. “He’s not going to keep you out of your own room, Caitlin.”

She opened the door and stepped inside. She couldn’t see anything because of the darkness of the room, but Levka saw Dylan sleeping with Alicia in one of the beds.

“Why don’t you take a shower and get warmed up?” Levka asked Caitlin.