"Please excuse the interruption," came our Dean's voice. "We've got one final surprise for everyone! Deck Seven will be closing in an hour so that our crew can set it up for the Sea Day Party! We're keeping the pool open late tonight. We'll have music, a dance floor, and food at the snack bar is free!" Everyone cheered as Dean Dave paused. "Because of the party, we've rescheduled tonight's pre-port lecture to... twenty minutes from now. Our lecture should take about two hours and will be immediately followed by the raffle drawing! However, anyone who does not attend the pre-port lecture will not be allowed to participate in the raffle!"

I wasn't surprised. The pre-port lectures were usually fairly boring. The professors spent a little time on history and culture, but spent most of it talking about safety, health, and things that didn't matter if you had common sense. The lectures usually had very low attendance, so it made sense that they were offering incentive to be there. Nonetheless, the dining hall filled with boos as our Dean went on to say that nobody would be allowed into the lecture after it started, nor would people who left be let back in.

"Guess we're going," TS laughed.

We finished eating and followed a grumbling crowd to the classroom. We got there early enough to find a place near the doors and settled in. I'd never seen so many people at the pre-port lecture. It was, as expected, fairly boring. Then, the raffle started. The lecture was worth it; all six of us won. TS and Dani got to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the ship, and Mariana and I both won spa gift certificates. Ten lucky people, including Thomas, were chosen to be the first students to disembark when we got home. Charlie, however, ended up winning one of the biggest prizes: a private suite on Deck Five.

After the raffle, we went down to our rooms to pack for Chile. TS suggested that we check out Charlie's new room and, assuming it was big enough, all stay there for the night to be on the safe side. After a detour to get Charlie's key changed, we headed for his room and found that it was more than big enough to hold all of us. His room was more than twice the size of ours. It had two large beds, two desks, and a table with four chairs.

"Bloody hell," TS said, "I think I'm jealous."

"Oh my God, there's a bathtub!" Mariana cried from the bathroom.

"Big-looking window, too." Dani pushed aside a curtain, and the room flooded with light. "Whoa, we have a balcony!" He opened the door, stepped out, and leaned way over the railing. "This might work." The balcony was so large that it held a table and chairs with room to spare.

Thomas joined him outside. "I wish we'd thought of this before the trip. A balcony would have solved a lot of problems."

He glanced over his shoulder at the horizon. "We've got less than an hour before sunset. I think we should get up to dinner."

"Agreed," TS said.

We left our things in Charlie's room and went to get our last meal. The day had flown by without a trace of the vampire, and I was starting to wonder if we were being overly paranoid. Then, halfway through dinner, Thomas stopped in the middle of a sentence and, to my surprise, hissed. It wasn't anything like the terrifying hiss I had heard the other vampire make, but he curled back his upper lip and let out a soft snarl. I wasn't sure if it was my imagination or not, but two of his teeth looked a bit sharper than they normally did. Everyone fell silent and followed his gaze across the dining hall. The biter was here. His teeth were bared, too, and I felt a chill just remembering his hiss. He studied us for a moment and then, with inhuman speed, turned and left.

"I think we've pushed our luck far enough," TS whispered. "Sun's about to go down."

Nobody argued. We got up and left the dining hall, using the door furthest from the one the vampire had. We got to Charlie's room safely, and everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

Spotting the vampire seemed to have dampened everyone's spirits. We turned on the TV, and everyone was relatively quiet. Once it was dark enough, Dani decided to practice finding our balcony from the water. With everyone on Deck Seven the rooms would be mostly empty, and there was less chance of him being seen. I spent quite a while watching in awe as he fearlessly dove off the rail and, a few minutes later, shot up out of the water and landed again. He ended up by the wrong balcony a few times, but eventually got comfortable enough to take Mariana fishing. By the time they got back, everyone was ready to go to sleep.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

We were trying to work out the sleeping arrangements, when Mariana opened one of the closets to put her suitcase in. It was a living room. There was a couch—twice the size of the one in Dani and Mariana's room—and a second table and more chairs. After that discovery, it was easy to figure out where we'd all sleep. Dani and Charlie took one bed, Mariana and I shared the other, and Thomas took the couch. TS turned into a wolf. Even though I knew he was a werewolf, I hadn't seen him in his wolf form since the night I learned about magic. I almost laughed out loud when he turned in small circles like a dog and settled down on the floor by the couch.

He looked comfortable, but I had to ask, "Are you going to be okay on the floor?" He answered by opening his massive jaws and yawning. In addition to being larger than a normal wolf, I was pretty sure that his fangs were a lot bigger too.

"He doesn't even use his bed in our room," Thomas said. He reached down and scratched TS behind one ear. "You'll be fine there, right?"

"Right."

As I climbed into bed, I felt a little awkward knowing that Thomas was right in the other room. I didn't mind sharing the bed with Mariana; Shannon and I had tried to fit on smaller beds than this. I'd even gotten used to Dani and Charlie being nearby. I tried to convince myself that I only felt awkward because Thomas was a guy and, unlike the two of them, actually interested in girls. The problem with that theory was that I didn't mind sharing the room with TS. Then again, I didn't have a crush on him. I hated to admit it, but Thomas only bothered me because he was Thomas.

Everyone was eager to disembark in the morning, but I had a feeling nobody else on the ship was in as much of a hurry as we were. Every time the line moved forward past a doorway, Charlie and Thomas carefully poked their heads around to make sure the vampire wasn't lurking behind it. We all heaved a sigh of relief when we were safely on land. I hoped that when we got back on the ship, the vampire would be long gone. We split up to our respective busses for our trips. Charlie and I sat down together at the back of our bus, away from everyone else. I spotted Dani, Thomas, and TS talking outside their bus.

"They're all going skiing, right?" I asked him. I had heard them talking about it.

"Yeah."

Dani started laughing, and Thomas punched him in the arm. I was honestly surprised that they were going on a trip together.

"Dani seems to love messing with Thomas," I said.

Charlie chuckled fondly. "He loves messing with everyone. He's got an immature streak as tall as he is. But Thomas is his favorite target."

"Are they friends?"

"Dani and Thomas? Yeah, they're great friends!"

"Really?" I looked out the window again. Dani, Thomas, and TS, were all laughing. "I feel like Thomas would get sick of Dani teasing him."

Charlie laughed. "Nah, Thomas either ignores him or puts up with it while he bides his time for the perfect opportunity for revenge. And between you and me, Thomas gives as good as he gets."

"Oh. I was worried that they didn't get along very well," I admitted.

"You'd think so," he laughed. "They're practically brothers. Dysfunctional, mind you, but just as close. Honestly, in some ways Dani is closer to Thomas than he is to me."

I looked at Charlie in surprise. "What do you mean?"

He shrugged and looked past me out the window. His eyes were dark and hardly flickering. "They're... They've both been drenched down to ashes before. I think that when that happens you gain an understanding you can only share with someone who has been there, too. They've been picking on each other as long as I've known them, but I think they do it because they know they can always count on each other when it matters."

"Oh." I looked at them curiously. I assumed his ashes comment was about Thomas being turned, but wasn't sure what Dani could possibly have experienced that would compare to that. Then again, I was Dani's age and my life hadn't always been picture perfect. Tragedy didn't care how old you were. Although I was surprised that Dani and Thomas would be as close as Charlie said they were with so many years between them. Could Thomas really be close friends with someone so much younger? "And the age difference isn't a problem?"

"No way. Age is just a number. It's only a problem if you let it be."

That made sense. Thomas wouldn't have to hang around college students if it really bothered him. In fact, not making age into a problem applied to me too. I was the one worrying about how Thomas felt being so much older than us. It hadn't been an issue before I found out, and I would never have guessed on my own. Maybe I needed to accept that Thomas was in his sixties and then move on. Sure, it was weird to know how old he was, but if Thomas didn't mind being around us, then there was no reason for me to dwell on his age.

"I guess that's true," I said.

Suddenly Charlie's eyes flared. "Oh, this could be bad," he groaned.

I followed his gaze out the window, but couldn't figure out what he saw.