"Ah, my reputation precedes me? I suppose my dhampir talked. Fool. And let me guess..." He studied us with a dark smirk. "The weak vampire and the baby witch?"

Thomas pushed his arm into me. "Go, run for your room. Don't argue."

I turned to run and froze. There was a woman standing on the stairs below us. She smiled, and I could see the light glinting off her fangs. She looked young, and her fangs looked big.

"Thomas," I said, terrified. "There's another!"

He glanced over his shoulder and pulled me closer.

"Dear me, what are we to do?" Nathaniel laughed.

"You're the one who turned the dhampirs then?" Thomas said.

"Yes."

"And who was Hugh? Have you been on the ship this entire time?"

"Curious are you? Buying time for your friends, maybe?" Nathaniel laughed. "Don't bother. We saw you leave your room. You haven't been gone nearly long enough for them to worry." He smiled. "Hugh was an idiot with a rather brilliant idea: board a cruise ship, feed, and get off at the next port. But the fool encountered you and decided that it would be a challenge. Francesca was taking me on a tour of Chile. Seeing the sights, sampling the wines... sampling the locals."

"We made nice with the local magics, and they warned us about a feeder on the ship," the woman said. She laughed, and I felt a chill. "We found him, and he told us all about you, and it did sound fun."

"So, Hugh showed you one of our roommates, and you turned him?"

Nathaniel sneered. "The fool wanted to keep you to himself. I'm the one who found the human and turned him. Hugh thought dhampirs were useless, after you killed his first, but I know better."

Suddenly, Thomas grabbed me and yanked me down. TS took a flying leap and slammed both front paws into Nathaniel's chest. The two sailed right over our heads and crashed into the deck below. Francesca dove off of the stairs and out of the way. TS clamped his jaws around Nathaniel's neck and shook him like a dog with a toy. I hadn't seen him fight a vampire as a wolf before and I felt a surge of hope; surely our chances were better than they had been when he was human. TS yelped as Nathaniel started to fight back, but he didn't let go. Francesca raced toward them but stopped short. I could tell she was trying to figure out how to rescue Nathaniel without hurting him more.

"Get to the room, go!" Thomas cried to me, then he flew down the stairs.

He didn't even hesitate, but brought his stake right down at Francesca's back. She dodged, but screamed in pain as the stake scraped a deep gash in her back. Mariana's fears of being a distraction came back to me, and I turned to run back to my room. If I lingered on the stairs, they'd come after me the first chance they got, and I'd only get in the way. I reached the top of the stairs and froze in horror. Dani, Charlie, Mariana, and Mark were all on the deck. But they were facing off with three other people! If they were all vampires, we were as good as dead. With nowhere to run, I pulled out my wand and held it ready.

Fireballs flared up in Charlie's hands, and two of the vampires gasped in shock and backed away. I felt a little bit of hope rise up. If the two of them were dhampirs, then maybe we had a chance, after all. I noticed with relief I didn't recognize either of them. They hadn't turned anyone else on our ship. There was a woman who looked a lot older than us. Good, at least one was a dhampir. The guy looked like an average college student. The third was a blonde girl. She hadn't reacted to Charlie's fireballs. She snarled, and I got a good look at her fangs. The guy recovered from his shock and snarled, too. His fangs were remarkably shorter and stubbier than hers. But I couldn't be very relieved that he was a dhampir, not when I could tell because I was comparing him to a vampire.

The blonde girl was just as surprised as I was when Dani launched himself at her. She twisted aside and dodged his stake, but not his knife. She backed away, snarling, with a deep gash in her upper arm. She was so focused on Dani that she didn't notice Charlie until he grabbed her from behind. The two burst into flames, and for a moment, I thought it was already over. Then, she flipped Charlie onto his back on the deck and sprinted away. Charlie was up like a shot, and he and Dani moved until she was trapped between them and the rails. She eyed Charlie's fireballs warily. They hadn't been exaggerating when they said the first fight would have gone differently if they had been prepared. It looked like they had also been right that any two of them could take on a vampire. Dani's fighting skills and Charlie's fire had the vampire at bay. She already looked seriously burned.

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"Help me, you fools!" she screamed.

The two dhampirs looked at each other and inched forward. Mariana had a stake, but I knew she was as helpless as I was. Mark just stared with what looked like morbid fascination. If the dhampirs joined in, Charlie and Dani would be outnumbered. Even if they were only dhampirs and not vampires, I didn't like the odds. The two dhampirs took another step forward, as Dani and Charlie pressed closer to the vampire. I gripped my wand tightly, wishing I were strong enough to help. Then it struck me; I could help! If the dhampirs were new like Mark, they didn't know much about magic, either. I boldly pointed my wand at them and took a step closer.

"Stay there or I'll burn you to a crisp!" I yelled.

They both looked at my wand with wide eyes, and I could tell they were considering my threat.

"What are you, a witch or something?" the female dhampir asked. I couldn't believe my luck. If Nathaniel hadn't told her about witches, she'd probably believe anything I said. The other dhampir and Mark looked equally curious.

Dani attacked again, and the girl just barely dodged. The two dhampirs took another cautious step. I couldn't keep bluffing without a little magic. For all they knew I was just pointing a stick at them. In fact, even though my wand started to look a bit more polished, it still looked like a stick.

"Mar!" Tiny flames, bigger than I had ever cast, burst into life in the air in front of the dhampirs, and they both cried out in shock. But then, they smiled and my heart sank.

"She can't set us both on fire," the guy said.

Then, they both moved. The woman sprinted straight for me, and I had to scramble away. It was an accident, but I dodged in the direction of Mariana and Mark. The girl backed up, hissing furiously as Mariana raised her stake threateningly. I regained my balance, and soon, the dhampir found herself facing both of us. Mark hissed back at her, and I got an awful feeling that he was enjoying this. I glanced to the side and saw, to my horror, that the guy had launched himself at Dani. He seemed more worried about Dani's knife than his stake and was latched on to Dani's back, trying to disarm him. The vampire took advantage of the distraction to launch herself at Dani, fangs bared. Charlie met her halfway, and the two crashed to the deck in a fiery tangle of arms and legs.

The dhampir woman considered the three of us and smiled. She met my eyes, and I knew that she had figured out my bluff. If I hadn't set her on fire yet, I wasn't going to. She turned and raced across the deck to join the fight. Mariana dropped her stake and tackled the dhampir before she reached Dani. For a moment, they struggled. Mariana was taller and had a longer reach, but the dhampir was stronger and faster. I knew it wouldn't last long before Mariana was overpowered. Their struggle took them closer and closer to the rails, and I realized Mariana's plan just before she braced a foot on the bottom rail and hauled the dhampir over the side with her. I ran to the rails and looked over just in time to see them both hit the water and disappear beneath it. Surely, Mariana had the advantage once they were in the water, but I was afraid for her anyway. Nobody but Dani was capable of helping her.

I looked to see if Dani had seen Mariana go overboard and gasped in horror. The dhampir had wrestled Dani's knife and stake away and was between the weapons and Dani! Just as I turned, the dhampir attacked again and pinned Dani's arms behind his back. As Dani struggled to free himself, the vampire hurled Charlie halfway across the deck. I had only a moment of relief that she hadn't thrown him overboard, but then she went for Dani. Charlie was too far away to help, and there was nothing I could do but watch.

I don't know how he did it, but suddenly Dani dropped to his knees and freed his arms. In the same moment, he grabbed the dhampir, yanked him over his back, and sent him crashing into the vampire. They both fell, and Dani half-rolled, half-flipped backward, grabbed his knife, and lunged forward again. It wasn't the right time, but I was awed. I knew that Dani studied martial arts, and I thought that I had seen him in action, but it seemed like I had only gotten a sample of what he was capable of. There was an awful scream of pain, and the dhampir staggered away from Dani, blood gushing from his knee.

The vampire recovered quickly and raced for the railing. Dani followed, and for a moment, I thought the vampire was trapped. A screeching, ear-splitting sound echoed across the deck. The vampire spun away from the rails and swung something at Dani. It felt like my heart was in my throat, as Dani dodged what I was sure would have been a fatal blow. But he wasn't fast enough. The vampire's weapon looked like it only clipped Dani's shoulder, but the force knocked him off his feet. He was up quickly, but it was obvious that the vampire had hurt him. The vampire gave her weapon a threatening swing, and I realized in shock that it was part of the ship's rail; she had snapped a part of the metal railing completely off. There was a gap with twisted metal on either side where she had broken it. I knew that vampires were frighteningly strong, but this was insane. Dani rolled his shoulder with a grimace of pain and switched his knife to his other hand. The vampire took a step closer to him and took another swing. Dani backed away, and the vampire smiled. We didn't have a chance if we couldn't get close to her.