Kiss of the Vampire

by Terry Spear

  “Lust?

  “Bloodlust. It’s when we have to feed. But it also occurs when we desire to make our chosen mate ours permanently. It takes a great deal of control not to make the girl our own before getting our league’s permission.”

  Vlad suddenly glanced at Levka, and Caitlin had the feeling Levka had spoken to him telepathically. Shifting his attention back to her, Vlad smiled but didn’t say anything.

  Turning to Levka, she frowned. “What did you say to Vlad?”

  “To let you eat your lunch in peace.”

  “Do you know what he tells me?”

  “Of course. That we are big mosquitoes.”

  “I want to know what really happened to Vlad.”

  “Hasn’t he already told you?”

  “Sure. Arman and Stasio bit him. But I want the truth.”

  Levka pushed his empty salad plate aside. “The truth is who knows with Vlad? I’m beginning to think he’s crazy. Self-inflicted wounds maybe?”

  Now that, she could believe. Vlad was crazy. Obsessive over her. She could see him making up wild stories. Sure, maybe even hurting himself to back them up.

  She took a roll from the bread basket and buttered it. “Next time you extend your teeth, be sure and show them to me, will you, Vlad?”

  His smile and the menacing gleam in his eyes were wicked. “Rest assured, my love, I will show them to you the first chance I get.”

  Chapter 17

  After dinner that night, Levka, his friends, and Caitlin watched a movie. But halfway through the show, Levka’s head drifted to her shoulder, and she found him sound asleep.

  “Rough night,” Arman explained.

  “Trouble sleeping?” Caitlin asked.

  Arman nodded. “Ruric sleepwalks when he’s overly tired, and Levka went looking for him for a couple of hours last night.”

  “Oh. Poor thing. Levka should have gone to bed and not stayed up for the movie.”

  “He should have, but when I suggested it, he nixed the idea. Seems being with you was too much of a draw.”

  She sighed. “Well, you should have told me, and I would have gone to bed earlier so he could get some sleep.” She took Levka’s hand and held it, wishing he already lived in Orlando and went to her high school, that he could take her to the dances, to movies, to just hang out and talk. Why did he have to be from Texas, so far away? She couldn’t ask him to pull up roots just to move near her, especially not when his league had a job for him to do.

  Trying to take her mind off the return trip home and the realization they’d soon part ways, she attempted to concentrate on the movie as the jewel thieves tried to make their big museum heist, but she soon saw Vlad watching her from several rows away. Chill bumps coated her arms. Why didn’t he live in Texas instead?

  ***

  Later that night, Arman and Levka escorted Caitlin to her room, though Levka was still pretty groggy.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to relieve you sometime tonight?” Arman asked.

  “I’ll be all right.”

  “You fell asleep during the movie. Caitlin asked you twice about your trip to Martinique tomorrow, and you never answered her.”

  “Check on me about three in the morning.”

  Arman nodded.

  “And make sure Ruric doesn’t sleepwalk again. The sock trick does wonders, except wait until he’s asleep before you tie him or you’re liable to suffer a black eye.”

  Arman laughed. “Later.”

  As tired as Levka was, he knew he should have Arman watch over the girls. But some primitive part of him didn’t want Caitlin spending the night with another vampire, even if he was his good friend. He’d only felt the same primal possessiveness over one other girl, Cassandra, and he knew beyond a doubt Caitlin was meant to be his. Yet he knew it couldn’t be.

  By the time he settled onto the couch, the girls had already gone to bed. With the injuries Vlad had sustained at Arman and Stasio’s teeth, he wouldn’t be fully healed until tomorrow. Even so, it was best to be vigilant, Levka reminded himself.

  In the middle of the night, he woke to hear Caitlin speaking telepathically, “Go away, Vlad. I’m not inviting you in, so quit asking. It must be what? Two in the morning?”

  Levka held his breath, wishing that he could hear Vlad’s telepathic communication. Then to his surprise, Vlad granted him his wish.

  “Did you know Levka’s watching over you right this very minute? Ever on the alert, not wishing to lose you to me?”

  “You’re certifiable, you know?” Caitlin responded.

  “He will not be as much of a gentleman as me. So take care when you get up in the morning. He will be watching every move you make.”

  Not every move, Levka thought. But keeping his eyes off Caitlin proved a challenge. Still, Levka couldn’t help berating himself for falling asleep sometime during the night. What if Caitlin’s telepathic communication hadn’t woken him? What if in a moment of weakness she had let Vlad in?

  “Go away!” Caitlin said to Vlad.

  “Goodnight, dearest Caitlin.”

  The telepathic communication ceased for a time, then Vlad said, “Goodnight, Levka. You won’t be able to watch her always.”

  Levka sensed Vlad moved away from the door. He called to Arman, “Are you awake enough to relieve me?”

  “I’ll be there as soon as I dress.”

  Within a few minutes, Arman was standing before the sofa. “Get your rest. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “I’ll return at six.”

  Arman smiled, all knowing.

  Yeah, no way would Levka let any other vampire watch his siren when she got up in the morning, even if her usual routine was to dress in the bathroom. What if she changed her habit this morning?

  ***

  Caitlin tossed in her bed for the umpteenth time. She couldn’t get Vlad’s words out of her head. Levka was watching her every move in the stateroom. Right. Vlad was nuts. Yet despite knowing this, she couldn’t get to sleep, waiting to hear more of his insane communication.

  Before she had truly slept much at all, her alarm rang. Bleary-eyed, she stared at the clock. Hadn’t she just gone to bed?

  She slapped off the alarm and headed to the bathroom before Sleeping Beauty beat her to it.

  After rushing to get ready and missing breakfast, she and Levka and his friends arrived at Martinique’s Balata Botanical Gardens, nestled at the foot of towering mountains. Razor-backed ridges surrounded the volcanic mountain, Mt. Pelee, shrouded in dense clouds.

  “Stick close to me, like before,” Levka warned her at Les Ombrages, the path leading through a mini-rain forest.

  “Hmpf. After Stasio and Arman bit Vlad I can’t imagine he’d try to bother us in the gardens today,” she teased.

  Levka frowned at her. She smiled.

  “I’m serious.” He tightened his hand around hers.

  Caitlin breathed in the sweet floral fragrance from the thousands of varieties of flowers and tugged him down another path, until she noticed Arman watching them from an intersecting walkway.

  “Besides, this time even Ruric is with us,” she said to Levka.

  “Yes, he was disappointed he didn’t get to see my mermaid swimming in the pool at Concord Falls yesterday.”

  “Hmm, well, there are lots of ornamental lakes here, if the park caretakers didn’t mind me swimming.” Slowing her pace, she observed the blood red hibiscus, purple begonias, and orchids in a rainbow of colors. She looked up at Levka. “I wish I could swim in the ocean’s aqua surf, just once before we return home.”

  “We still have St. Martin tomorrow, if you want to go to the beach.”

  “Maybe…” She pulled him along. “Maybe we could go to one for a little while. I could try and wade out a little ways.”

  “We can certainly give it a try.”

  Caitlin caught a glimpse of someone watching them near the Creole mansion in the center of the gardens. She swore it looked like the tracker, Petroski, but then he f
aded away down another path.

  “Would the tracker still be keeping an eye on you and your friends?”

  “Why would you ask that?”

  “I thought I just saw him over there.” Caitlin pointed in the direction he had taken.

  “No. He told us he would be returning to Dallas. He knows where we are and would have no reason to monitor our movements after we said we’d return and do the league’s bidding.”

  Maybe so, but she swore it was Petroski, and he was watching them. “Will you tell your friends?”

  Levka smiled at her.

  “Well? Even if you don’t believe he’s here, I bet you’ve told the others to keep an eye out for him.”

  “You’re right. I’ve told them what you think you’ve seen, and they’re keeping a lookout for him as well as for Vlad, though they feel as I do, that Petroski is not here.”

  “You are absolutely sure?” She raised her brows with the question.

  He wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “No. That’s why I told the others to watch for him.”

  “If he’s here, then what?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Levka?”

  He directed her down another path. “Seems Stasio and Arman’s biting Vlad was not enough.”

  “You’re kidding. He’s here?”

  “In the flesh.”

  Suddenly, Vlad converged on their path, but tourists strolled down virtually every walkway, and she didn’t believe he would create a scene here. She stared at his neck. The bandages were gone, and there wasn’t a mark of any kind on the skin.

  “Vampires heal fast, Caitlin,” Vlad said, as if he’d read her mind.

  Now she realized the wounds weren’t even self-inflicted. He must have gotten blood from meat in the ship’s kitchen.

  “I’m here with Levka.”

  “And his friends. What’s one more? Even that pesky Dallas tracker is wandering around here somewhere.”

  “You saw him?” Caitlin asked.

  “Back that way.” Vlad motioned with his arm. “So what kind of trouble are you in now?” Vlad asked Levka with a devilish gleam to his eye.

  Levka moved Caitlin around to his other side, isolating her from Vlad.

  She couldn’t help being amused by his protective possessiveness. “If you’re all vampires, how come you can be out in the sun? Aren’t you supposed to burn up in the sun’s rays?”

  Vlad humpfed. “A myth perpetuated by fiction writers.”

  “Ah. So then what about your aversion to crosses?”

  “What we are has nothing to do with religious persuasion.”

  Glancing up at Levka, she observed his solemn expression, then she asked Vlad, “Do you have a reflection in mirrors?”

  “Again, this has nothing to do with what we are. We have a need to replenish our blood. That is all.”

  “And you heal quickly.”

  “Yes.”

  And you can’t go into someone’s room unless invited, she thought to herself as she recalled Levka’s insistence she not invite Vlad in. “What about earth?”

  “What about it?” Vlad asked.

  “Don’t you have to sleep on your native soil?”

  Vlad laughed. “Sure, stuffed in my pillow, though housekeeping has a fit about it. And I keep it in my shoes during the day so that I can move around.”

  “I see. What about you, Levka?”

  “If I have dirt in my shoes, it’s by accident.”

  Loving his sense of humor, she wrapped her arm around his waist and gave him a warm embrace. When Levka leaned over and kissed her head, his lips turned up just a hair.

  “We’ve seen, Petroski,” Ruric warned. “I don’t like it. Since he’s here, it means he’s not satisfied.”

  ***

  After the tour of the botanical gardens, they returned to the ship, but everyone seemed to be ill at ease. Levka’s friends didn’t even join them for lunch.

  For the third time, Caitlin asked Levka, “Why are your friends not joining us?” Though she enjoyed spending time alone with Levka, she worried his friends’ absence was an omen of ill-tidings. She lifted another slice of pizza to her lips.

  Levka gave her a polite smile, but his dark eyes seemed worried. “I’ve told you twice they were tired and would grab a bite to eat later. Are you sleepy?”

  “Exhausted. I’m going to lie down after we eat.” But she didn’t believe Levka for a moment. “Were they worried the tracker would get on the ship?”

  When he reached over and patted her hand, she pulled it away to show she didn’t like it one bit. She was not going to be pacified.

  “Nothing to worry about,” Levka assured her.

  “Right,” she said, sarcastically. “Just like Vlad is no one to worry about, right?”

  He didn’t answer her, and she knew then he really was concerned about Mr. Petroski.

  After lunch, she was a little curt with Levka when she retired to her stateroom. She couldn’t help it. Why did he keep leaving her in the dark when she was supposed to be his “mate”?

  She gave a haughty laugh and started to climb into bed when she saw Alicia was fast asleep.

  Caitlin realized she hadn’t worried about what was going on with Alicia for some time now. Where did she go for the day?

  Caitlin pulled the cover to her chin. She wasn’t her foster sister’s babysitter, she had to remind herself, which didn’t stop her from stressing about her.

  ***

  All the rest of the day and into the evening, Levka and his friends tried to determine if the tracker was on board the ship. Though they couldn’t locate him, Levka couldn’t quash the sinking feeling the tracker wasn’t through with them yet.

  Ruric took Levka aside and said, “I’ve heard more whisperings about the plot against the passengers, but nothing sure about what is going to be done or when.”

  Levka shook his head. “It’s the tracker I’m most concerned about.”

  “I think he doesn’t want you to have Caitlin.”

  Leaning against the ship’s railing, Levka looked out to sea and watched as the pale cold moon turned pink, then pumpkin orange and then eerily blood red in its entirety. Blood moon…hunter’s moon, so named when the hunters tracked and killed their prey in the moonlight. “Vlad won’t have any say in it.”

  “Do we kill him, then?” Stasio asked.

  Letting out his breath in exasperation, Levka said, “We’ll deal with this matter if it becomes more of an issue.”

  Arman shook his head. “No good will come of this.”

  Ruric touched Levka’s shoulder. “Caitlin just walked into the building that houses the dining room.”

  Levka glanced at his watch. “She’s early and didn’t wait for me to get her.”

  “She doesn’t appear to be happy.”

  Clearing his throat, Levka said, “She’s angry because I won’t explain what worries me about Petroski.”

  “So then she is most likely assuming the worst,” Stasio said.

  “Well, I can’t explain what might be the worse-case scenario, can I?” Levka headed for the dining hall, assuming unless he explained more, Caitlin was bound to give him an icy reception. And if he did clarify what he thought the tracker was up to? Ensuring he stayed away from Caitlin?

  She wouldn’t understand.

  ***

  Several hours later, Levka watched over Caitlin in her stateroom. He wasn’t sure now what to do. Return home and do what the league wanted, but leave Caitlin to fend for herself against Vlad? No, he would never do that. Maybe Petroski knew that.

  Then what? Move to Orlando and guard over Caitlin there? He would have to be ever vigilant, and he didn’t think he could manage watching over her constantly even just on the cruise, let alone day in, day out wherever she lived, forever.

  Which meant his only option was to turn her.

  And that meant the death sentence for both of them.

  He unbound his hair and ran his fingers through it as he reclined on
the couch. As much as he wanted her and desired more than anything else in world to keep her safe, he couldn’t see any way out of their dilemma.

  Chapter 18

  The next day when they arrived at St. Martin in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Caitlin couldn’t curb the nervous jitters skittering around in her stomach as she dressed in her stateroom.

  Alicia gave her a snide look as she pulled her shorts on over her swimsuit. “So you’re going to swim in the great, big, scary ocean. Well, don’t go where I am because I don’t want you to embarrass me by screaming bloody murder if you have one of your panic attacks.” Hurrying out of the room, Alicia slammed the door behind her.

  Taking a deep breath that didn’t settle her nerves, Caitlin soon joined Levka and his friends who all acted as her moral support for her swimming excursion. Or at least attempt at swimming.

  She still wanted to know what was going on concerning Petroski, but today she wanted to put that concern aside as she tried to suppress the way her skin pebbled up in tiny goose bumps all down her arms and legs.

  The white sand was warm and silky between her toes as ivory-shelled crabs ducked into holes that disappeared immediately afterwards.

  The rolling aqua waves beckoned her to come and play. Having loved the ocean since she was very small, she hated how afraid she was of it now.

  She waded out to her knees, then turned back and motioned to Levka. “Come in. Water’s nice and warm.” She wanted him nearby. Something about him gave her an inner strength when she couldn’t seem to conjure it up herself, and she could definitely use some of it now.

  The only thing that helped her slightly was the fact she could see through the crystal clear water all the way to the sandy white bottom. No sharks. Just pretty blue and yellow fish swimming in schools around her legs, some attempting to nibble on her.

  After Levka surrendered his T-shirt, he walked in up to his knees in his denim shorts.

  She smiled. “Sorry. I didn’t think about you wearing shorts, not swim trunks.”

  “They’ll dry.” He took her hand and strolled in the water along the beach for a little way.

  Then she pulled him to a stop. “Okay. I’m going to get in. It’s shallow up to our chest a ways out. Do you want to come with me?”