30. Back Off
Chapter 30
Back Off
Cabin 417—Fifteen minutes later
B y the time Henry drank the fifth bag, he felt better physically, but emotionally, the fact some unknown assailant had wounded him enough to require medical treatment lodged in his chest like a stake pinning him down. With his Krav Maga training, he should have overpowered the intruder. Instead, he had limped away like a beaten dog.
And Cerissa. She couldn’t stop hovering, asking if he was okay, taking his arm like he was an old man, helping him to sit up, suggesting he lean on her if he needed. His desired goal was to leave the ship and get to the hotel room without fully losing his dignity.
Antonio finished packing the bloody towels in a plastic trash bag for proper disposal. “I’m sorry about the charges. The invoice will appear on your ship’s folio as a transfusion. The ship has turned the medical department into a profit center. Expect to be overcharged.”
“I understand.” Henry moved to the edge of the bed and placed his feet flat on the floor. His head no longer spun, but Cerissa gripped his arm to steady him. He struggled to remain polite. “Thank you for your help. I appreciate it.”
After the door closed behind Antonio, Henry asked Cerissa to flash home and retrieve clothing for him—he couldn’t leave the ship shirtless. She returned with a clean pair of sandals and a brand-new short-sleeve shirt, one of the Hawaiian ones he’d purchased via mail order but hadn’t packed—too busy for his tastes. But it would do in a pinch.
His shorts had miraculously survived devoid of any blood splatter, and the shirt didn’t clash too badly with them. The outfit would do for the brief trip from the cruise port to Waikiki Beach. Prior to the wedding, he’d cleared their presence with the Hawaiian community, so all he had to do was make it to the hotel without toppling over.
Cerissa lifted his small bag. “Let me take this for you.”
He gripped the handle and tugged. “Thank you, but I can carry it myself.”
“Please?” She didn’t release it. “The satchel only has your shaving kit and what you wore last night inside. Just put it on top of my roller bag—it’ll balance there just fine.”
“Cerissa—”
Rolf snorted. “ Ach . Just do what she wants, so we can get out of here.”
Henry plopped his bag on top of hers, and Cerissa adjusted the weight so it wouldn’t fall off. Rolf got the door and held it for everyone to leave, and they were soon down one flight of stairs to deck three and out through security. They entered a warehouse-sized building with an open ceiling two stories high and luggage neatly lined up in rows on the concrete floor. Henry located theirs by the pole marked with a green A—the same green A on his luggage receipts.
Cerissa snagged a porter with a large cart to transport the luggage to the taxi stand, and they grabbed two cabs for everything.
Henry growled his displeasure. Between him and Rolf, they could have carried their combined luggage. He didn’t need help.
She gave him a dirty look. “You’re a terrible patient, you know that?”
“I am not a patient. I’m perfectly fine.”
“Please, let’s take it easy for now. You were unconscious less than an hour ago.”
He decided not to fight her.
The Waikiki Escape Hotel was a tall, modern building, with lush greenery and saltwater tanks built into the lobby’s walls housing colorful tropical fish. Cerissa rubber-necked when they reached the tanks, so he found the platinum check-in desk, offered his credit card for incidentals, and asked for four keys to the penthouse.
They had the entire top floor reserved, which gave Cerissa and Karen each their own master suites, with two other bedrooms for daytime sleeping rooms—he wouldn’t have to bunk with Rolf this time. A bellhop followed them in the elevator, and once he deposited each couple’s luggage in their room, Henry tipped the young man.
Afterward, he met with the others in the central living room area. “Rolf, would you mind taking our mates to dinner?”
Hurt showed in Cerissa’s eyes. “What aren’t you telling me? Are you in pain? We can have food delivered here—”
“Cerissa, I am all right.” He clasped her shoulder and pulled her in for a hug. “I may join you later. I have a phone call I need to make.” He stepped back and caught her gaze, trying to say with his eyes what he didn’t want to say aloud.
She squeezed his arm, her eyes glistening with tears.
“I will be fine. Enjoy your dinner.”
Rolf tapped on her shoulder. “I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”
Henry nodded his thanks. “The steakhouse in this hotel has an excellent reputation. If the ladies want seafood, there is a five-star restaurant within walking distance.”
Karen held up her hand. “I vote for seafood.” She then patted her slightly distended belly. “We pigged out on the cruise. Something lighter would be great.”
“Seafood is fine with me.” Cerissa motioned at her suite door. “Just give Henry and me a few minutes alone before we leave.”
“Okay,” Karen said, “but don’t be too long.”
Henry followed his wife, and once the door closed behind them, Cerissa faced him, her fists resting on her hips. “Henry, why aren’t you going with us?”
“I need to talk with Father Matt.”
“I could feel something was wrong. Did I upset you?”
He rested his hands on her shoulders and squeezed gently. “No. I just need time to process what happened.”
“The attack?”
“Yes.” He’d already explained to her he hadn’t seen the attacker clearly, only glimpsed impressions of the woman’s height, hair, nails, and skin tone. No useful details and nothing of her face. He had no more to add that would help identify the vampire. “Now go and enjoy your dinner. I may take a walk after I talk with Father Matt. If I’m not here when you return, don’t be concerned.”
“You’re sure?” She cupped his cheek.
“I am.”
She sighed. “If you insist.”
“Thank you for your understanding, cari?a .” He hugged her tightly to him. When he released her, he tilted her chin upward for a gentle kiss. “Everything will be all right.”
“If you feel unwell, call me. Promise?”
“I promise.”
Cerissa hugged him one more time. “Oh, I need to refrigerate the blood sample.” She dug into her roller bag and removed the tube, then grabbed her purse. He followed her on her way out, and she stopped to put the sample in the penthouse refrigerator. “I’ll test it later.”
As soon as the front door closed, he collapsed onto an overstuffed chair in the living room. His energy was unstable, and he carefully rested his sore shoulder against the backrest. He hadn’t realized how much he had been struggling to hold himself together in front of his wife.
Taking his phone off his belt, he called Father Matt. They spoke for the better part of an hour while he stared out the floor-to-ceiling windows, which gave a panoramic view of the white sand beach and the dark profile of the dormant Diamond Head volcano crater in the distance under a full moon.
The peaceful view should have cheered him up, but it didn’t. Finished with the call, he changed into his swimsuit, went outside the hotel, and walked onto the beach. The hotel’s floodlights lit the turquoise waters and white sand. He kicked off the sandals and enjoyed the feel of warm sand underneath his feet, then strode out to where the waves were slowly receding—the tide was going out. He dove under the first large wave, felt the sting of the salt against the scabbed-over wounds, and lost himself in the water.
Penthouse suite—Two hours later
W hen Cerissa returned from dinner, she said goodnight to her friends and disappeared into her suite alone. Henry was indeed gone. Keeping busy was better than moping with worry. She unpacked two of his three suitcases—he still hadn’t reset the code on the third—then went out onto the balcony to look at the stars and the ocean. A lone figure sat on the beach, and she recognized the profile immediately.
Henry .
It took all her willpower not to leave the suite and join him on the beach. Instead, she returned to the suite’s living room, closed the balcony door so she wouldn’t disturb him, and picked up the phone to call Ari.
“Hey, Ciss, how’s the honeymoon going?”
“We’ve had an interesting time.”
“That doesn’t sound like a glowing endorsement.”
“Tonight, something happened, and Henry’s not talking with me about it.”
“He’s refused to talk with you?”
“Not quite.” She paced by the tall windows, watching Henry for any sign of distress. “More like he wanted to talk with Matt, and then he wanted to spend some time alone.”
“And this is driving you nuts, right?”
“How did you guess?”
“Because I know you. Where is he right now?”
She stopped to peer through the window. “Out on the beach. I can see him from our balcony.”
“Good. That means you resisted the urge to join him.”
“Yes.” She sighed. “I called you instead.”
“Good for you. You’re making progress. You’re not trying to rescue everyone from everything.”
“If that’s true, why do I feel so unsettled?”
“It takes time to break habits, Ciss. With more practice, you’ll get better at it.”
A fluttery feeling ran under her skin and settled in her stomach. The desire to run to Henry’s side was like an irresistible magnetic pull. “I just want to help him.”
“You can’t. We talked about this back when you rescued him from the avalanche—”
“Speaking of which, I want access to the Lux’s plan to battle the climate catastrophes.”
“Huh?”
If she couldn’t solve one problem, she’d solve another, and if the change of topics gave Ari whiplash, that was fine with her. “We just went through a hurricane in the middle of the Pacific in October, Ari.”
“You have had an interesting honeymoon.”
“Tell me something I don’t already know.” She snorted at him. “I can see the Lux are tracking climate warming issues—tornadoes in Los Angeles, a scorching heatwave across the South for most of the summer, and a massive earthquake in Alaska possibly caused by glacier melt. I’ve been asking for nearly a year, but I’m still denied access to our long-range plan to fix the problems. Not knowing is driving me nuts.”
“You know I can’t share that intel. That’s a decision for Agathe to make.”
“Yeah, about that.” Cerissa ground her teeth. “I want you to convince her to give me access. We need a why , and I haven’t been able to think of one related to my work with the blood clones.”
“Okay, I’ll consider the issue, but don’t think you can derail my lesson about love that easily. You might not want to hear my relationship wisdom, but you’re getting it.”
Cerissa rolled her eyes. “Fine. What’s your so-called wisdom?”
“The best thing you can do for Henry right now is give him space. Let him take the time he needs to sort out what’s bothering him and then be open and willing to talk when he wants to talk.”
Cerissa hated the sound of that. It warred with every instinct she had. “That gives him all the control.”
“It gives him control over what’s bothering him.”
“But—”
“Wait. Hear me out. Imagine you and Henry were sitting at a dinner table. You each have plates of food. How would you feel if he tried to tell you how fast to eat, or what to eat first?”
She slumped onto the couch. “It wouldn’t feel good.”
“Now imagine you trying to tell him the same thing.”
“The analogy breaks down there—he doesn’t eat.”
“Don’t be a smartass. Pretend he can eat. How do you think he’d feel if you started telling him how quickly he had to get the food off his plate?”
Grr . She hated it when Ari nailed the truth. “Fine. I understand. He needs to process at his own pace. That’s your point, right?”
“Yes. Now, why don’t you find something fun you can do without him? Morph, or go to the Enclave, or call another friend and chat. Read a book. Surf the internet. Whatever. Just quit focusing on Henry.”
“But we’re on our honeymoon. I’m supposed to focus on him, and being alone feels wrong.”
“You can do this, Ciss. Patience will pay off big dividends in the long run. Let Henry have his space, regardless of timing. He will be grateful. Trust me.”
“But I didn’t chase after him when he left the theater.”
“Huh?”
“The style of circus ticked him off. You don’t need the details. It’s just… I was able to let go then. Why is it so hard now?”
“Lifelong habits don’t change overnight. And you, my dear cousin, have needed to rescue everyone for as long as I’ve known you. You’re working on it now, but it’s not linear. You’ll be better, then worse, then better again. The key is you keep trying.”
“Thanks.” Before she left the Hill, Ari had mentioned flashing to Hawaii to do touristy stuff during the day. “Do you think you might join us tomorrow?”
“Could be. I’m not that busy at the moment. I hacked Petar’s phone, and as soon as Tig returns, I’ll give her full access.”
“Return? Where did she go?”
“Hunting down leads. Petar’s casino and a suspect in Poway. So during the day, I’m footloose and fancy free. I could show you and Karen around the island. It’s been a few months since I’ve been there. The nightclubs are great hunting for sexual conquests.”
“I didn’t realize you were still hunting for those these days. I’ve noticed you going out less.”
“Well, not as often, true, but Gaea and I have an understanding. I’m available to single women or men on vacation, looking for a good Hawaiian lei…”
“Your lousy sense of humor is showing.”
“You love it, though.”
“Goodnight, Ari.”
“Goodnight, Ciss. Call me if you want company.”