A sharp gust of wind blew a spray of rain, and possibly sea-water, into my face. I brushed my hair back out of my eyes and made a mental note to get a haircut. Should’ve gotten one before the trip started. Charlie gasped in surprise. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him back farther away from the rails and under the stairway.

“All right, mate?” TS adjusted his position on the stairs and peered between the steps at him.

“Fine. It missed me.” Charlie brushed at his shirt and frowned. “Mostly.”

“We could always go back in,” I offered.

“I’m fine, really,” insisted Charlie. “I need some fresh air anyway.”

“Still nauseated?”

He shrugged. “I was better, but this storm is taking some getting used to.”

I grinned at him. “You must feel lousy if you’d rather be outside in the rain.”

Charlie pointed at the overhang above him. “I’m not in the rain.”

TS stretched out, until he was taking up half of the stairway, and yawned. The wet, metal stairs looked like a horribly uncomfortable place to relax, but I sensed nothing besides contentment.

I heard a faint yell and a familiar laugh, far below us. I stood and looked over the rails and could just see Mariana, bobbing between the waves. A moment later the water splashed around her, and she and Dani were flying straight up toward me. I didn’t think I wanted to try it, but it did look sort of fun.

They hit the rails on the deck below us and I leaned way over the side to look. Dani glanced up at me and cursed. He helped Mariana over the rails and looked like he was waiting for something. I heard footsteps and turned. Mariana jogged up the steps from the lower deck and joined me at the railing. She waved to Dani and he dove back down into the water.

“He wants to get to the right deck,” Mariana said to me.

I sat back down and she leaned against the rails. I smelled something odd, but I couldn’t place it. I considered asking if anyone else smelled it, but I knew it was useless. Only TS had a nose strong enough and I couldn’t sense any curiosity from him.

Dani abruptly shot up into view, missed the deck by a mile, and kept going. He cursed and grabbed frantically for the railing as he fell back down. He managed to stop himself and sighed in relief.

“That was a lot easier without an extra few hundred pounds.” He vaulted up and onto the top rail, then sat down on it.

“I do not weigh a few hundred pounds,” Mariana said indignantly.

“Well, all the flailing doesn’t help.”

Mariana stuck out her tongue at him.

“How was the fishing?” Charlie asked.

“Fantastic. Great weather for swimming.”

Mariana turned her face up into the rain. “I wish it was like this all the time.”

TS made a retching sound and laughed.

Dani grinned at him. “Still feeling sick?”

“A bit. I think I might need to take another dose.”

Good, he needed one. I wasn’t feeling very well myself. I couldn’t tell how much was just picking up on his nausea and how much was because I was hungry.

“Don’t,” Dani said flatly. “Double-up on potions and you’ll regret it. Especially if you run out of that stuff in the middle of the ocean. Wait until it wears off.”

“That’s probably good advice.” TS sighed and stretched. “How you doing, mate? When did you last take something?”

Dani looked at him indignantly. “For seasickness?”

TS snorted. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

“Yeah, I know.” Dani shrugged. “Few months.”

“Brilliant,” said TS.

Dani shrugged again. “Mm.” I caught his eye and he flashed me a small smile. Then he narrowed his eyes in concern. “You don’t look so hot.” He spoke quickly and too quietly for anyone else to hear. I turned away.

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I expected him to push the issue; God knows I had given him enough trouble about his problems over the years. But the ship rocked roughly. My chair slid an inch toward the rails and I put a foot up to brace myself. Dani pitched back and grabbed onto the railing, quickly righting himself.

“Be careful,” Charlie said. “You’re going to fall into the ocean.”

“Oh yeah, falling into the largest body of water on Earth will suck,” Dani laughed.

Charlie clicked something in Sadehic that sounded irritated, then said in English, “You could hit the side of the ship and break your neck.”

Dani leaned dangerously far back and kicked his legs up. “And then land in the aforementioned water.”

“You could get sucked under the ship and ground up by the motors. All the water in the world wouldn’t save you from becoming hamburger.”

“Okay, that sounds less fun,” Dani said. “But, I’ve already checked for that. I’d have to try to get chopped up by this ship. And I don’t really want to put forth that effort.” He blew a kiss to Charlie. “I appreciate the concern though.”

I leaned back in my chair and put my other leg up. It felt good to stretch a little. My legs, hell, my entire body had started to feel funny over the past couple of days. I wasn’t exactly sore, but everything just felt wrong. I hated to admit it, but I was fairly certain that I was already feeling the effects of my severely reduced blood intake. “Now that we’ve established he’ll live, I could push him over for you,” I offered.

Charlie chuckled. “I’ll think about it.”

“Please do,” Mariana said. “He’s a jerk tonight.”

Dani laughed. “No, I’m not. You’re just upset because I made fun of you for freaking out and spewing ink everywhere.”

Ink, of course. “So, that’s what I smell,” I said.

Mariana glared at me. “I was attacked by a giant jellyfish!”

I bit back a laugh and sensed amusement from TS.

“Actually,” Dani snickered. “You weren’t looking where you were swimming and you collided with a normal-sized jellyfish. I’m sure he was just innocently minding his own business. And then you went and sprayed ink all over the poor thing, and screamed at it like a banshee.”

“I didn’t scream!” Mariana protested.

Dani grinned at her. “You totally did! You freaked out!”

I was sure that Mariana knew better than to let him rile her up, but nearly always let him.

“I did not!” she snapped. She looked at me like she expected me to intervene. I smiled back innocently. Dani would happily turn his attention to me and I honestly wouldn’t have put it past him to send me flying overboard. I doubted he could do it with the sun down, but I’d have to spend a few days watching my back.

Dani kept laughing. “You were all like, ‘Oh, Danio, save me Danio!’”

His imitation of her was apparently the last straw.

“Well, I… I…” Mariana spluttered. “Don’t be such a jerk!”

She whirled and took a step toward him. One of the side effects, and perks, of being able to move as quickly as a vampire can, is that you gain the ability to think quickly too. I was sure that I was able to observe more, and process it all faster, than other magics.

So, I knew Danio was going to fall long before he actually did. It all happened in an instant, but I caught every movement. Dani let go of the railing with one hand, like he was going to gesture to Mariana. At the same time, he loosened his grip with his other hand and started to adjust it. The ship rocked again, just as Mariana took a step in his direction. She stumbled and pitched forward. I was sure that she hadn’t intended to hit Dani very hard, but her hands were already raised and she caught him square in the chest as she tried to regain her balance.

Dani’s eyes widened in alarm. His laugh turned into a curse, and for one wild second he teetered on the rail. I started to stand; I had time to grab him. However, the ship was still tilted to that side and I wasn’t entirely sure he wouldn’t drag me over the rail with him. With my luck, I’d probably break my neck. And I really didn’t want to end up in the ocean during a storm.

And then he went over.

For a moment, we were all stunned. The only sound was the whistling of the wind and the rain hitting the deck. Then TS started laughing. He had a much better vantage point from the stairs than I did, so I knew that if he was laughing, Dani was probably fine. Charlie risked sticking his head out into the rain and peered down at the water. He quickly retreated from the rain and shivered. Well, if Charlie wasn’t worried, then I didn’t need to be either. That was that, then. I put my legs back up and chuckled. Mariana turned toward me, looking mortified.

“I-I…” she gasped. I almost felt bad. She clearly hadn’t intended to actually knock him off of the boat. Nevertheless, he’d be fine and it was good for a laugh.

"Oh my God!" a voice cried.

What the? I flew out of the chair and spun to face the speaker. A non-magic girl was running across the deck toward us! Why hadn’t I known she was there? Another gust of wind blew the rain against my back and answered my question. No wonder I hadn’t realized we weren’t alone. The wind was so strong I could hardly even smell her.

I sensed, more than saw, Tethys hop off the stairs. I took a step closer to the non-magic girl as she skidded to a stop. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Charlie move closer to the edge of the overhang.

“That’s Jennifer,” he whispered. “She’s in one of my classes.”

I found that a good strategy with non-magics was to just act like everything was normal. They tended to have trouble believing their own eyes, and when doubt was cast on what they had seen, it made it easier to convince them that nothing was out of the ordinary.

I smiled at her. "You're up late."

She looked at me like I was nuts. "What's the matter with you? We have to do something!”

Drat. "Do something?” I asked her. “About what?"

Her jaw dropped and she flung a hand in Mariana’s direction and waved it frantically. "She just... She just pushed Dani overboard!"

Well, there went any hope that she hadn’t seen it. Even worse, she knew Dani’s name. That would make it a little bit harder to convince her she had been seeing things.

I forced out a casual laugh. “It’s raining, you know.” The rain was certainly making it harder for her to see. It occurred to me that the deck was probably extremely dark for a non-magic, too. “And dark,” I added. “You’re mistaken.”

And then I heard the unmistakable thump of a person hitting the railing. Every English and Japanese curse word I knew flashed through my mind. The non-magic girl’s eyes darted over my shoulder and her mouth opened in shock.

"Jeez, Mariana,” Dani laughed. “If you wanted a divorce you should've just—" His words choked off into a sharp intake of breath and he fell silent.