Even though our goal was only four doors down, the run seemed to take forever. Dani skidded to stop, swiped his ID, and shoved me into the room ahead of him. When the door closed, he sighed heavily and slumped against it. Only then did I realize I had been holding my breath. I let it out with an equally relieved sigh. Mariana jumped up from the chair by Charlie's bed and hurried over.

"What took you so long? I was getting ready to freak out! What were you-" Her eyes locked on to the still healing gash on Dani's forehead, and she gasped. Her gaze dropped to the fading bruises on his neck, and her eyes widened in horror. "Oh my god! What happened? Was it the vampire?"

Dani nodded.

Mariana paled and threw her arms around him. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Did you get him?"

"No." A touch of black splashed into Dani's eyes. "But I will." Even though his voice was still a little hoarse, there was no mistaking the menace in it.

Mariana hugged him tighter, then released him and turned to me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, Dani saved me."

Dani ruffled my hair and gave me a half-hearted smile. "No, I didn't. Jen saved me."

Before I could protest Mariana wrapped her arms around me. Dani slid past us and sat down on the bed by Charlie. He laid a hand on Charlie's forehead and looked relieved.

"He's a lot warmer," Mariana said.

"Yeah." Dani stood and rubbed his neck. "Are you ready for bed? I'm going to shower." Mariana nodded. "Okay. It's all yours when I'm done, Jen."

I followed Mariana into the room, and Dani went into the bathroom. Mariana shivered and sank down onto the couch. I quickly used my warming spell on Charlie. He made a little, content sound and snuggled deeper into the blankets. I smiled in relief, then sat down next to Mariana and looked nervously in the direction of the bathroom. I was worried that Dani was back in the shower, maybe he was more hurt than he let on.

"What happened?" Mariana asked.

I summarized the encounter with the vampire and how stupid and guilty I felt for not uninviting him sooner.

Mariana hugged me again when I was done. "It's not your fault. You didn't know. Fin-rot, I probably would have panicked and forgotten that I could uninvite him. And if you hadn't, Dani... I don't even want to think about it." She shuddered.

The bathroom door opened, and Dani came out. Judging from the amount of steam that followed him, he had taken a really hot shower. He walked near us, and I could actually feel the heat radiating off of him. He quickly climbed into bed with Charlie, and, to my relief, Charlie looked like he moved closer to the heat. When he was comfortable, Dani looked at us.

"Go take a shower and clean up and relax, Jen. You need it," he said.

I glanced down at my shirt and shuddered. In addition to the blood that had been on it before, it was smeared with his blood, too. So were my hands and arms.

"I'm sorry I'm kicking you both out of bed," he said.

"Charlie needs it more than I do. I'll be fine."

"Don't worry about it, Dani," Mariana added.

As soon as I was in the shower, I scrubbed better than I ever had before. It still felt like there was blood on me. I shampooed three times, just in case there was blood in my hair, and washed again for good measure. When I was done washing, I sank down to the floor and just sat under the stream of hot water. I realized that I was shaking, but couldn't stop. Tonight had been the most horrible, frightening night of my life. I'd never really been afraid before, not like this. Sure, there were the occasional chills walking across campus at night, knocks on the door while I was home alone, frantic calls from Rachel when Emily went to a friend's house without telling her, but none of those were real terrors. Chills and bad feelings were nothing but what-ifs. What if there's a murderer in the parking lot or a robber at the door or Emily was kidnapped? Better yet, they'd end. I get safely in my car, the deliveryman would go away, and Emily would be safe and sound. Everything about tonight was different. The vampire had been real. He'd tried to kill us, and he almost had. Dani, Thomas, and Charlie were hurt, and the vampire was still on the ship. It could all happen again tomorrow night. I never imagined being this terrified in my life.

Even the most pain I had ever been in was when I broke my ankle skiing. It had been scary for a few seconds, but then it was over. I knew the ski patrol was going to come, Shannon was kneeling next to me, and as much as it hurt, I knew it was over. I truly, genuinely thought that I was going to die tonight. I shuddered and wrapped my arms around myself. Even worse was the helplessness. I had never felt so weak before. Kickboxing was the only thing I did that remotely resembled fighting, and I didn't think my exercise routines would be very helpful in a fight. I had never even seen a real fight before tonight. Every once in a while, a couple of guys tussled on campus, but never with the intention of killing, or even seriously injuring, each other. I had never, ever been in a situation where I needed to defend myself or the people I cared about.

For a moment, I felt guilty again. All of the things I could have done ran through my mind. Not going to Deck Three alone, having my wand, learning more fire magic, asking better questions... Everything tonight could have been avoided if I had taken a moment to think. I realized bitterly that even if I wasn't strong enough to magically fight a vampire, I could have done more. What if I had jumped on his back or hit him or something while he was choking Dani? What was the worst that could happen? I'd be hurt too? I was useless.

Then, an awful thought struck me. What if it was always like this? The thought was almost more terrifying than the fight had been. What if this was normal for magical people? Swimming in the Galapagos with Dani and Mariana had been amazing, but what if it was just as rare of an experience for them? I'd almost been killed by something I hadn't even known existed. How many other dangerous magical beings were out there, just waiting for a chance to attack? What if there was always a vampire or something lurking in the shadows? Almost being killed had obviously upset Dani, but all things considered, he was handling it pretty well. It was like it wasn't the first time his life had been in danger. Like he was used to it. Then there was the fact that TS had driven a stake into someone's heart without even hesitating. I didn't think he was happy he had killed someone, but I got the horrible feeling that it wasn't the first time. I was sure Dani had, too. I knew they all fought vampires before. Even if it was part of their job, just how often did this happen? Plus, it seemed like they were pretty highly ranked in MES. What was MES doing hiring college students to do this sort of thing? Were they that hard up for employees? Maybe the employee death rate was so high that they had to turn to college students.

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For a moment, I wondered if I could just stop using magic, right now, and go back to being a normal person. True, the vampire fed from Laurie; but she was going to wake up and think she had a bad cold. She'd miss a day of classes and then be fine. Laurie, and everyone else on the ship, was going to spend the rest of the voyage blissfully ignorant of what was happening. Nobody was going to go about their day looking for vampires around the corner and hiding in their rooms at night. It would be better to just enjoy the voyage and not know about the vampire. Almost as soon as I thought it, I discarded the idea. It wouldn't be better. As horrified and helpless as I felt tonight, I wanted to know if there was something dangerous out there. And dangerous or not, how could I give this up? There were thousands, probably millions, of people out there who watched movies about werewolves and read books about magic, and wished that it was all real. I spent my childhood, and even some recent years, daydreaming about magic. For me, that dream had come true, and I couldn't just stop using magic because I had a bad night. I glanced up at the sink and saw my wand balanced on the edge. I had a magic wand! I'd be crazy to not want to be a witch.

Then, for the first time since I had gone down to Deck Three, I felt better. I had a magic wand. I was going to get stronger! Just because I was too weak to fight vampires, it didn't mean I always would be. I could practice fire magic and get better. We'd beat this vampire. We'd be okay. And next time, I'd fight too. If I was able to light a fire instead of making sparks, I'd actually have a chance. Tonight would have been totally different if I had been powerful enough to join in. I stretched up and grabbed my wand.

"Mar," I whispered, aiming it at the edge of the bathmat.

A small spark appeared and then went out, leaving behind a tiny black mark. I smiled and vowed to never feel as helpless as I had tonight again. I had a wand. I just needed to learn how to use it to protect myself.

Thomas didn't even have that.

My heart felt like it skipped a beat as the thought hit me. I couldn't believe how brave Thomas had been. He didn't have a wand or any magic to speak of, and he hadn't hesitated to protect me. At least Dani had martial arts training. He obviously knew how to handle himself, but Thomas was just a skinny guy who couldn't use magic anymore! TS had been brave, too. He was only human tonight. He looked pretty big and strong, even as human, but he had been just as brave as Thomas to fight the vampire. I felt weak again. I certainly could have tried to do more. Thomas had. I suppressed a shudder. Thomas was so lucky he hadn't been hurt more seriously. He walked away from a vampire with a broken arm and, at worst, a punctured lung. He'd at least be able to make up an excuse and get his arm set by the ship's doctor. He was incredibly lucky. So was Dani. He wasn't human, but being a water elemental didn't seem to give him much of an advantage out of the water. I didn't think he was any stronger than a human. They were both lucky.

I thought back to the first fight with the vampire. It really was a miracle the vampire hadn't driven the stake deeper into Thomas’ chest. No. It wasn't a miracle. It wasn't even luck. It was impossible. The vampire had every advantage. Even if the vampire wasn't freakishly strong, Thomas would have had a hard time stopping the stake as it was brought down, yet he had. There was no way he was that strong. The vampire lifted Dani completely off of the ground with one hand and held him there. Dani had even been hitting him, and the vampire hadn't acted like he was heavy. He picked up TS, who had to be twice Dani's size, over his head and thrown him halfway across the deck. A human couldn't match that strength. I'd maybe believe TS could have done it, he looked stronger than the average human, but there was no way Thomas was. He was average height at best and, honestly, sort of scrawny. He looked like the kind of guy who was more comfortable with a computer than a football, but he was obviously stronger than he looked. Thomas tackled the dhampir and pinned him down without even trying! He'd gotten the upper hand against the vampire more than once. It wasn't possible. The only explanation was that they were keeping secrets from me. Again.

Now I was mad. There was no way Thomas could have stood up to the vampire without some sort of magical help. If that was the case, they could have told me. If it was a magic potion or something I probably could have taken it, too! I was annoyed that they still hadn't been honest about TS being sick, but I could at least excuse it. If it was just a magical cold or something, I didn't need to know about it. And on the other hand if, God forbid, it was something really serious, I could understand that TS might not want to talk about it. The problem was that they were all evasive when I brought it up. Did they think I was that stupid and unobservant or something? Everything that happened to Dani could have been avoided if I had asked about vampires, but how could I be expected to ask questions if I knew they weren't being entirely honest? Whatever Thomas had done was something I did need to know. I was sick of being kept out of the loop.

I got out of the shower and didn't even bother to dry off. I wrapped a towel around myself and squared my shoulders. I was going to march out there, shake Dani awake if I had to, and demand my answers. I turned the doorknob. All I had to do was push the door open, when I stopped. I thought of Dani's face, his eyes, when he had gotten back on the ship with Charlie. Aside from the vampire, it had probably been the scariest thing I had seen all night. He'd been so furious. How would he feel if I woke him up asking about Thomas, the very person he was mad at?

That was another thing they should have told me. The conversation between Thomas, TS, and Mariana had worried me. I knew that fire elementals had self-control problems, but I hadn't realized water elementals did, too. They had been genuinely worried that Dani would hurt Mariana. If elementals could actually lose control to the point where they would hurt a friend, shouldn't I have been told? I had been alone in the middle of the ocean with Dani. Had my life been in danger? I felt so safe with him. He'd been willing to, and nearly had, given his life to protect me tonight, but could he just as quickly turn around and kill me? Dani had looked ready to attack Thomas. If he hadn't been holding Charlie, I had a feeling he would have. My stomach clenched at the thought that Dani had looked mad enough to literally kill Thomas. And I couldn't convince myself that he wouldn't have tried. Less than an hour ago, I had been thinking of Dani like an older brother. I had known he'd protect me. I was almost afraid to even go out into the room with him. I certainly wouldn't wake him up and ask about Thomas.

I shivered. Dani had been so mad at Thomas. His words suddenly hit me, and I sucked in a sharp breath. No. No way. Dani had been ready to hurt, maybe even kill Thomas. But all he had done was yell and tell Thomas to stay out of his room. If you were ready to hurt someone physically and had to do it verbally there were a million things you could say that were meaner than telling someone they weren't welcome in your room. But Thomas had reacted like it was a terrible, hurtful insult. Even TS and Mariana had been shocked. It didn't sound that bad, at first. But if you were a vampire, and a good friend had uninvited you from his room, it would be a serious insult. I couldn't believe it, but it all fit. Thomas wasn't a wizard anymore because he had been turned into a vampire! It explained why he'd been able to fight so well. Everything fell into place. I thought of all the glances, all the words, and whispers. Thomas was a vampire.