21. Hunting
Chapter 21
Hunting
Hawaiian Desire cruise—Later that night
C erissa and Karen dined without the guys, and then joined them to go dancing at a club they hadn’t yet tried.
Henry offered his hand, and Cerissa let him lead her onto the floor for a slow dance.
He pulled her in close. “You are looking particularly beautiful tonight, querida mia . Something about the jewel tones makes your eyes even more stunning.”
She’d selected a crossed-waist, thigh-length evening dress in jewel-toned diamonds featuring a sheer silk layered on a stretch-satin lining. The sleek feel of the fabric riding over her skin as they moved together made her think of the nightgown she wore on their wedding night.
When he pressed his fingers on her lower back, he cued her which way to move—left, right, forward, back—and she let her body flow at his will. Sighing, she looked into his eyes. The black pupils were blown out. “You’re looking quite handsome yourself. Should I guess what’s on your mind?”
“You don’t need to guess. I’m happy to tell you.”
She chuckled, then pursed her lips. His hips brushed against her, and she felt his growing interest. “You, sir, are incorrigible.”
He stepped back and spun her through a turn. “We’re on our honeymoon. Would you have me any other way?”
They danced for a few hours, then returned to the honeymoon suite, where she enjoyed a satisfying horizontal dance with him in bed. Afterward, they showered together and dressed casually, returning to the living room to relax when someone knocked. She wasn’t expecting anyone. Wasn’t Rolf spending the night with Karen?
Henry squeezed her hand. “Do you mind if Rolf and I go back to the tables? He said he’d come by once Karen was asleep.”
Oh, so they’d made plans without telling her. “Yes, I do mind a little, but I understand. Go ahead.” She kissed him quickly before he answered.
Henry gripped the doorknob and cracked open the door. “Give me a moment—”
Rolf pushed the door open and stepped into the living room. “I have something you’ll both want to hear.” The door shut automatically behind him. “Antonio tried calling you, but you didn’t answer.”
Henry shrugged. “We were probably in the shower.”
“Well, he called me instead. There was another biting incident tonight.”
Henry frowned. “Same type of victim?”
“Yes. They met at the piano bar.”
Cerissa crossed her arms. This was just what she’d feared. “Was the victim okay?”
“Not quite. Antonio said the bite was worse this time, and she took more blood.” Rolf skewed his eyes to the side, his brow wrinkled. “The victim required an…infusion?”
“Blood or saline?”
“Saline. Yes. That’s the word he used.”
Cerissa let out a breath. So significant blood loss, but not enough to require a transfusion. She turned to Henry. “See? The biter is escalating. We need to do something.”
“Antonio has her picture now. He can ask security to program the ship’s cameras to watch for her, and once he finds her, he can let her know about the medical center’s blood supply. We should not become involved.”
“But—”
“Enough.” Henry gestured to stop. “Rolf and I are going to the casino.”
He leaned in as if to kiss her, but she placed her palms on his chest, stopping him. The victims hadn’t consented to the bite, and she wasn’t consenting to his kiss. Not the way she felt. Live feeding on unsuspecting mortals had always bothered her, and Henry wasn’t willing to do anything to stop the rogue.
“Are you going to kiss me goodnight and wish me good luck at the tables, or are you going to stand there and pout?”
“I’m not pouting. I’m irritated. There’s a difference.”
Over Henry’s shoulder, Rolf smirked at her. “It looks like pouting to me, too.”
Cerissa scowled at Rolf, then stormed out of the room. How could they be so stubborn? Antonio needed their help. She closed the bedroom door behind her and waited, her ear pressed against the wall.
Ka-thump . The heavy door to the corridor shut—they’d left. She let out a breath, unaware she’d been holding the air in. Someone had to stop the vampire who was behind the attacks. They couldn’t let her continue to practice live feeding, especially if she was injuring her victims.
Cerissa returned to the living room and searched the suite for options. Antonio had struck out when he checked with security for an unoccupied room that was being regularly accessed, which left the cargo area as the obvious next choice for a stowaway. But how to get there?
Taking the stairs wasn’t an option. The security cameras would see her enter the crew-only area. She couldn’t use her watch crystal to flash there. She didn’t know the layout, and flashing blindly was a bad idea.
What about the daylight bracelet, the one that protected Henry from the sun but would make the wearer invisible when activated? She rushed to his jewelry travel case on the bedroom dresser. The bracelet was missing. He must be wearing the device as a safety precaution while at sea because of the early moonrises, and she’d loaned hers to Rolf for the same reason.
She tapped a finger on her chin. What to do, what to do.
She needed a private path to the cargo hold. She swung around, scanning the living room, and found the solution. An air-conditioning vent big enough for her purposes. Two small screws held the grate on. How to open it?
From among her toiletries, she grabbed a metal nail file and used the blunt end to remove the screws. The grate fell off. Perfect. Now the challenge was to both morph and crawl into the ceiling vent at the same time. She stood on a chair, hoisted herself up, and, starting at the top of her head, slowly morphed into the shape of a reticulated python, a non-venomous snake. Since those old-world snakes could grow over two hundred pounds, transforming into a one-hundred-and-twenty-five-pound python was no problem.
She slithered through the opening until her tail finally made it into the air-conditioning duct, then worked her nose into a seam to escape to the utility space underneath the flooring. Each suite had its own HVAC system and sucked in fresh Pacific Ocean air, so the rooms wouldn’t cross-contaminate if someone became ill. Because the ducts weren’t interconnected, she had to crawl through the utility space.
The stowaway would probably be on the first or second floor—where crew quarters and storage containers were located. She headed downward, taking the turns that led to each lower level, until she’d passed fourteen floors, arrived on the first floor, and re-entered the ductwork there. For her snake’s skin, she’d chosen a dark gray and black diamond pattern, so her shiny scales reflected little light as she passed the large, utilitarian air-conditioning vents on the storage level. No one would see the shadowy figure that silently slithered by.
She flicked her tongue in and out, trying to detect the scent of the blond vampire. When she caught a faint hint of the woman’s unique smell, she followed the ductwork, but came upon a problem she hadn’t expected. She had no way to remove the grates from her side. Even if she had hands—which she didn’t—the screw heads faced out into the room and the cargo hold walls were solid. There was no way to exit.
Although she wouldn’t be able to escape the silver insulation ducts and search the cargo, she continued to slither toward the scent, detouring through a separate section of ductwork where she had to. When she reached the point with the strongest scent, she pressed the side of her head against the grate and, with one eye, peered into the storage area. The woman stood beside a long surfboard, waxing the surface.
How was it possible that no cameras had observed her there? Had she damaged the ones nearby? Or mesmerized the security guards to leave her alone?
Next to the woman was a truck-sized cargo container. Cerissa could see in—the double metal doors were wide open—and other boards lay inside, along with a sleeping bag and pillow to one side.
Gotcha.
Now all she had to do was find her way back to the suite and tell Henry.
Fifteenth-floor hallway—An hour earlier
W hy hadn’t Rolf kept his mouth shut? Accusing Cerissa of pouting after she’d already rejected Henry’s teasing only made things worse. Henry harrumphed as he allowed the heavy suite door to close behind him . “I did not need that kind of help.”
“She will forget my words by tomorrow night.”
“You had better hope so.”
“ Bah . I don’t put up with that attitude from Karen.”
“Really?” Henry replied. “It sounds to me as if you tolerate a lot more from Karen than I do from Cerissa. After all, Cerissa isn’t the one traveling with silver handcuffs.”
Rolf glared at him, but kept his mouth shut. They took the elevator to the casino and joined a game of Texas hold ’em. After six hands, Henry was barely ahead.
A new round began. The dealer dealt the two hole cards to each player, then, after a round of betting, laid out the three flop cards in the rectangles white-inked on the green felt covering the half-circle table. Between his hole cards and the flop, Henry had three of a kind, but his mind wasn’t on the game.
Completing tasks was important to him, whether it was finishing a poker hand or having a conversation with his wife. He hadn’t given Cerissa a fair opportunity to express herself. He thought she was overreacting to the unaffiliated vampire, but that didn’t mean her concerns weren’t valid. After all, the intruder had injured the latest victim enough for the man to require IV fluids.
He called the bets on the turn, and his three of a kind became four when the croupier dealt the river card. After collecting his winnings, Henry rose from the padded stool. “I’m calling it a night,” he told Rolf. “My mind is not on the game.”
“You’re going back to make up with her, aren’t you?”
“I am going back to talk with my wife.” He squeezed Rolf’s shoulder and leaned over to whisper so the others at the table wouldn’t hear. “You will learn with time, my friend, that it is better not to go to sleep angry with your mate.”
“I get farther with Karen by giving her gifts. That usually solves whatever is bothering her. There are probably shops still open on the sixth floor if you want to do the same.”
Henry scoffed. “You might try apologizing instead of buying your way out of trouble. It can deepen the bond.”
“We wouldn’t be on this cruise if I didn’t owe Karen Drachenfutter . Don’t attempt to sound like a wise old married man. You’re only five nights into your marriage.”
Henry snorted a laugh at the German term for dragon food—gifts to appease the angry dragon at home. “Perhaps. But sharing my feelings with Cerissa has benefits in the bedroom and the living room.” He tossed a black chip to the dealer, a hundred-dollar tip. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I will see you later.”
“Good luck.”
When he reached the fifteenth floor, he tapped the key card on the bridal suite’s reader and entered the living room. The door to the bedroom was open, and the lights were on. He searched, but couldn’t find Cerissa, then he checked the notepad by the phone for a message—maybe she’d flashed to the Lux Enclave to morph. But no note.
He returned to the living room, and, rubbing his chin, stood thinking for a moment. Maybe he should go back to the casino. She may not return tonight if she went to the Enclave.
Something smooth and cool touched the top of his head and he jumped, pivoting in place. The sound he made wasn’t technically a scream. No one stood behind him. He tilted his head back to glimpse a six-foot-long python stretched out, hanging from the open vent. Its head reached his shoulders, tongue flickering, tasting the air, and it undulated onto him. He jumped again, reaching over his head to grip the dry, cool skin of the muscular snake. The python’s tail let go of the vent, and its weight slapped his back.
He spun around, trying to dislodge the reptile—who got the message and slithered along his body onto the floor. It headed for the bedroom.
Before he could slow his hammering pulse, Cerissa returned, tying the belt of her robe. “I didn’t know you were afraid of snakes.”
He swatted at his jacket, brushing his hands over his shoulders and chest. Could snakes leave scales behind? “I am not afraid of snakes. I do not like them. There is a difference.”
“Really?” She flopped onto the couch. “They are quite good for the environment. They keep down the rat population, and other vermin.”
“That may be. But it does not mean I want one crawling on me.” In the old days, when he used to sleep in cemetery crypts while traveling, a snake would occasionally slither across his lifeless form. He hated the feeling to this day.
“Sorry.” She shrugged. “I needed a way down. It was hard enough getting into the ductwork. So when I saw you, I figured you could break my fall and I could let go.”
He raised an eyebrow at her. In the past, she’d called it his judgmental eyebrow. He imagined it looked that way now. “Why were you in the ductwork?”
“Hunting,” she said smugly. “I found the vampire’s lair.”
Henry rubbed a hand over his face. “I told you not to go looking for her.”
“And I told you we needed to find her. I’m tired of feeling like Karen and I are under house arrest simply because she’s lurking around out there. Besides, you refused to hunt her. You never said I couldn’t.”
“You sound like a lawyer.” He took the chair across from her and pinched the bridge of his nose. They should talk this out. “You know I didn’t want us further involved with this matter.”
“But we are involved. Antonio came to you because he has no one else to turn to.”
“It is not like we are in the town of Mordida, where her activity might cause suspicion to be thrown on the Hill. We are on a short ocean voyage. It will be over soon.”
“She could still go too far before our cruise is over. Now we know where she sleeps. There’s no harm in trying to convince her to stop her live feeding. Isn’t it safer for the other passengers if we do?”
The most recent incident bothered him. Why had the woman taken more blood this time? It would be safer if she stopped live feeding altogether.
He sighed, and his shoulders slumped. Cerissa was right. Speaking to the vampire was worth a try. “Tell me where she is, and Rolf and I will talk with her.”
“Uh, I can’t do that. You’ll have to take me with you.”
He pressed his lips together skeptically. That sounded like a fib, but he’d never be so rude as to call his wife a liar. “You cannot or you will not?”
“I know she’s on the first deck, sleeping in a shipping crate. But there are dozens of such crates in the hold of this ship. I have the map in my head. I need visual landmarks to find her. From the air ducts, I looked through the vents at various points, and will recognize the path that way.”
“And I should believe this?”
“Henry! I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“I know you wouldn’t directly lie. But perhaps you are omitting a crucial fact?”
“I think I should be insulted. You and Tig believed the Cutter when he told you the same thing.” Cerissa crossed her arms. “Besides, I was in snake form. That brings with it certain mental limitations.”
“Very well. My apologies for questioning your motives. We will get Rolf and Antonio and find our stowaway.”
“Let me grab my purse first.”
But before they could walk out of the suite, Henry’s phone rang. He checked the screen, and his gut clenched. Had something else gone wrong at home? “It’s Tig.”