When I finished with classes for the day, I wandered up to the snack bar, thinking about my newest assignments. I was concerned about how I was going to do the project for my Ancient Latin American Peoples class while in the Galapagos. I was pretty sure they didn't have any history there that qualified as ancient. I grabbed a smoothie and settled down at a table. A few minutes later, Charlie joined me.

"Hey," he said, settling in across from me with a hot dog. "Think you did well on that test?"

"Yeah, I think so. You finished pretty fast."

"I studied Animal Science. It's not plants, but I'm used to memorizing big, funny-looking words."

We laughed, and he took a bite of his hot dog. So, he didn't need to eat food. I wondered if he even got hungry or if eating a hot dog did anything for him.

"Did you just feel like eating a hot dog?" I asked.

"Pretty much. Smelled good when I walked by."

I still couldn't quite wrap my head around the fact that he and Dani didn't need to eat. Dani needing nothing but water made a bit more sense to me than Charlie needing nothing but wood. I had thought that every living thing needed water. Then again, I hadn't believed in magic and fire elementals, either.

"Do you ever drink anything?"

Charlie shrugged. "I'll steal a sip of something from time to time."

"So, you can drink if you want to?"

"Yeah. A little bit, anyway. I prefer it hot, but I can handle a sip or two of, say, smoothies," he gestured to my drink, "if I really want."

"But you don't need to drink?"

He shook his head. Weird. A girl from my Ancient Peoples class sat down next to us.

"Hey, Jen," she said.

"Hi, Beth." She hadn't been in class today and looked awful. "Are you okay?"

She shrugged. "I feel pretty cruddy. Slept right through my alarm this morning and just got out of bed like, fifteen minutes ago. I thought I'd come get a snack. Did we get an assignment in class?"

"Yeah, here." I sifted through my papers until I found it, and handed it to her. "I'm sorry you're sick."

"It's okay. I'm starting to feel better, and I'd rather be sick on the ship than in port." She looked over the assignment and handed it back. "Thanks. I'll have to find the professor and get it from her."

"Seems like something is going around," I said.

"How's your roommate?" Charlie asked. I looked over at him and stared in surprise. He sounded casual, but he was staring intently at Beth, and his eyes were doing something I'd never seen them do before. His irises were a mix of dark reds and blacks that reminded me of smoldering coals.

"Oh, have you talked to Kaitlyn?" Beth asked. "She's better, too. I guess we both caught the same bug."

I knew that non-magical people couldn't see elementals eyes changing, but I hadn't really gotten to experience it. Beth smiled at Charlie and answered him without a second glance, even though his eyes had suddenly changed. It was weird to know that she couldn't see it. But, I was more concerned with Charlie. His eyes were a mix of furiously flaring reds and oranges. He still stared at Beth, but it looked like he was looking at her neck. Suddenly, he stood.

"Well, I'm glad you're feeling better. Jen and I better get our project done," he said.

"Yeah," I said, trying not to show my confusion. "Let's go do that. Have a good night, Beth. Feel better!"

Charlie hurried away from the table, and I quickly followed him. I could actually feel heat radiating off of him as he walked.

"What's going on?" I asked.

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He turned, eyes still flaring, and put his hands on my shoulders. His hands were so hot they nearly burnt me.

"I don't have time to explain. Beth, and probably everyone else who has been sick, didn't catch a bug. A vampire has been feeding from them," he said. He spoke so quickly and quietly that it took me a moment to process the words.

"Whoa," I cried as it sunk in. "A vampire?"

"Listen very carefully. If I tell you to run, don't hesitate and don't argue. Run. Get back to your room as fast as you can and don't let anyone in, and stay there until one of us gets you. Do you understand?"

"But..." My head whirled. Vampires? Seriously?

"Do you understand?" he snapped.

I swallowed nervously. "Yes."

Chapter Nine

Charlie rushed across the deck so fast that I practically had to run to keep up. I followed him wordlessly, until we had made a complete circuit of Deck Seven. When we were nearly back where we had started, Charlie cursed and went for the nearest door. Once it became clear that we were wandering the inside of Deck Seven, my initial panic over the idea of a vampire started turning into annoyance. I wasn't even sure what we were doing.

"Charlie? Is there —"

He whirled, eyes still blazing. "What?" He looked and sounded so pissed that I took a step back in alarm. "Sorry." He squeezed his eyes shut and took a couple of deep breaths. When he opened his eyes again, the flames were calmer. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. It's a fire elemental thing, I can't help it." He sighed. "You're probably confused, not to mention freaked out, and I'm not helping by overreacting." Charlie smiled weakly. "Which is also a fire thing. What is it?"

"I — I was wondering what we're doing."

He started walking again, a bit slower than before. "Looking for the others. This is... It could be bad. We need to let everyone know and then regroup. I don't think we have a lot of time before sunset."

"Sunset? Do vampires really sleep during the day?" I decided against asking if they slept in coffins.

Charlie shook his head.

"But they really drink blood. Right?"

"Yeah."

I wasn't sure what he had meant by 'it's a fire elemental thing,' but I assumed that it was also the reason he wasn't in a talking mood. It was probably also not something he wanted to explain at the moment. We went down the stairs to Deck Six and outside. There were a few people scattered around the tables studying, but none of them were who we were looking for. Charlie picked his pace up again, and we started down the deck along one side of the ship. I had a dozen questions tumbling around in my brain. The most pressing one was, if vampires don't sleep during the day then could we run into one? I wasn't sure he'd answer it, so I just followed him, keeping a wary eye out as we passed doorways. We finished our search of the outside of Deck Six and went in. Charlie stopped suddenly, and I nearly ran into him.

"Is that the piano?"

There was a lounge on this deck with a piano that students frequently played. Once we were inside, I could faintly hear the sound of someone playing.

"Yeah, I think it is."

Charlie started in the direction of the lounge. We rounded the corner past the snack bar, and to my surprise, Dani was the one playing the piano.

"Wow," I breathed. He was really, really good.

"Yeah." Even though Charlie was clearly worried about the vampire, he had a small, odd smile as he watched Dani play. I wondered if Charlie had a crush on him; then I immediately felt bad. I hoped for Charlie's sake that it was just an innocent crush and nothing more. It would be hard to see somebody you really liked get married. The fact that Dani wouldn't like Charlie back, even if he was single, would have made it even harder.

There were a fair number of people gathered in the lounge, which made getting to Dani difficult. Charlie scanned the crowd nervously. Was it possible that one of them was the vampire? I shivered at the thought. We made it as far as the other side of the snack bar, but there were too many people between the piano and us.

"Dan!" Charlie yelled. Dani didn't hear him. "Danio!" After a moment, Charlie put two fingers in his mouth and let out a loud whistle. Dani looked up in our direction. His grin turned almost instantly into a look of concern. He immediately stopped playing and got up. He wound his way through the crowd until he reached us.

"What's wrong, C?"

"Not here," Charlie said. He led us out of the lounge and into an empty classroom.

"If this has anything to do with that Kevin asshole," Dani snarled the moment Charlie closed the door, "I swear I'll break his —"

"There's a vampire," Charlie said.

Dani stopped mid-sentence and stared at Charlie for a long moment. "W-what?" he finally choked.

"There's a vampire on the ship. Feeding."

Dani sucked in a sharp breath, and his eyes immediately started churning to black. "Damn," he growled. Then, he sighed and closed his eyes. Like Charlie's earlier, Dani's eyes seemed calmer when he opened them again. "You're sure?"

"Yes. Just bumped into a girl on deck who was sick this morning. It's faint, but she's got a bite."

"Drought," Dani snarled. He started cursing in a mix of Greek and English. It sounded like he was somehow humming at the same time. "Okay, where's everyone else?"

"We don't know."

Dani raked his fingers back through his hair and sighed. "I just saw TS a few minutes ago. With any luck, he's still on this deck. Let's go."

We left the classroom and followed Dani down the hall. He seemed just as worried as Charlie, which I found concerning. Maybe this vampire really was a big deal. After a moment, I noticed that Dani was humming under his breath. For the first time, his lyrical hums struck me as whale-like. Maybe he wasn't just humming, but actually saying something! We reached the end of the hall and stopped by the stairs. Luck was with us. Before we could decide which way to go, TS came up from Deck Five.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked when he saw us.

"You know that bug that's going around?" Charlie asked. TS nodded. "It's not a cold, it's a vampire feeding."