Page 72 of Kiss of the Vampire

“We sure did. You did great, Caitlin.”

Arman nodded. “You’ll have to teach us how to swim, too.”

Her lips still blue, she smiled. “Very invigorating, but way too cold. If we can find a nice warm swimming pool somewhere, I’d go for it. But not on the ship. It reminds me too much of the ocean.”

“Do you want to talk more about it?” Levka asked.

Caitlin shook her head.

Levka couldn’t help feeling disappointed that she didn’t feel comfortable enough to open up more with him. He reminded himself patience wasn’t one of his greatest virtues, and he’d have to give her more time.

When their bus arrived at the ship, his attention shifted to Alicia arguing with one of the parents who came along to chaperone as they stood on the gangplank.

Ruric watched from nearby and gave an elusive smile when he saw Levka.

“What news?” Levka asked.

“Alicia and her buddies planned to take a boat of their own out. But word got to their chaperones somehow.”

Levka nodded. “A vampire told them, no doubt.”

Ruric bowed his head slightly. “What happened to Vlad? I heard him cursing telepathically all the way through the ship. Though he moved invisibly, I followed his trail of blood to a stateroom. Have some trouble?”

“Arman and Stasio took care of it.”

“Levka’s thinking of fighting him alone,” Stasio said.

“No way,” Ruric said. “Together. Always, we stick together.”

“I need to change into something dry so we can eat dinner.” Caitlin headed for her stateroom.

“We’ll meet you at the dining room shortly,” Levka told his friends.

When they reached Caitlin’s room, she turned to Levka. “I know you only mean to protect me, but the more I try to discern what had happened, the more it seems I heard growling and hissing or something, and then Vlad disappeared on the jungle path. What really happened?”

***

Caitlin knew Levka wasn’t telling her the whole story about why Vlad had suddenly left. But no matter what, he wasn’t saying, so when they sat down to dinner in the main dining hall, she was still annoyed.

She greeted Arman, Stasio, and Ruric but ignored Levka. If she was to be his “mate,” he shouldn’t leave her in the dark.

Vlad was noticeably absent from their table.

Lynne and Alicia’s high pitched voices headed their way, grating on her. But most of all, Caitlin was perturbed with Levka’s silence.

Alicia plopped down in her chair. “I can’t believe someone told one of the chaperones what we’d planned to do.”

Caitlin looked over at Ruric. He gave her a devilish smile. “Thanks, Ruric.”

He bowed his head.

The waiter arrived and Caitlin ordered chicken on a bed of steamed rice. “You should have come on the excursion, Alicia, since your mom and dad already paid for it.”

Stasio ordered a steak, rare. “Ocean water was too rough to swim, but you could have swum in the pools fed by the waterfalls like Caitlin did.”

Alicia gave them a dirty look and when she began to butter her roll, she slapped her knife on it so hard, the soft butter flipped onto her lap.

Caitlin screened her smile.