Chapter 12
Leandro
I began pacing as the ship started to move. I knew that Anais could look after herself and she might want to unpack and keep herself safe. It was worrying.
“Easy, big guy,” Alan replied. “She’s got Naomi with her. She’s probably doing her hair or something. They’ll be here soon.”
Although I wasn’t sure I wanted to relax, he had a point.
It wasn’t just Anais, and I had also told them to be careful.
There were many reasons she could not be here yet.
If I went hurrying out there to look for her, I might blow her cover and make it impossible for her to stay safe.
Might even paint a target on my back too big to handle.
Until we had some idea of what we were dealing with, we had to be cautious.
And me rushing out there to find out if she was alive wasn’t going to help keep her alive.
To some degree I had to trust that she could do her day job here as well.
After all, it was why I went to her. I knew she could handle this, and she has a team who make her even more formidable.
I tried to force myself to relax again and lean against the bar, or go admire the ocean and view as we sailed out of port, but I couldn’t bring myself to do those things either.
Eventually I went to the small bar and poured a drink. “Do either of you want anything?”
I glanced at my two guests and held up one of the whiskey tumblers as well as the whiskey bottles that were arrayed in the mini bar.
“No, thank you,” Tess replied as Alan shook his head. “None of us drink while we’re working, and I’m pretty sure that we’re all working on this holiday.”
Although I understood the sentiment and even admired it, I couldn’t bring myself to agree. Sometimes I needed it to calm the nerves. And my body processed it differently and far faster. Being a true-blood had its downsides as well at times.
“She’ll be here soon, I’m sure,” Tess added. “If they killed a vampire, they will need to wait until the ship is out to sea so they can get rid of the body.”
It was a good point that had me relaxing more than anything else I could think of. We had all discussed the possibility that a vampire would be waiting in her room. Naomi had gone with her to help protect her against that very situation.
Still, there was a chance it had been a far stronger vampire.
If they knew it was her who’d killed Ludis.
She had fought him without any help from me except the ring.
But there weren’t many turned stronger than Ludis had been.
It was one of the reasons he had been able to gather so many turned to his cause, and would have been so dangerous had he obtained this relic.
No matter how reassured I was, however, I knew there was a chance that Anais had been overpowered and needed me.
When there was finally a knock on the door, I hurried toward it, using every bit of extra speed I had to get there ahead of Tess and Alan. In their concern, they were swift to follow me, no longer afraid enough to hang back.
If I hadn’t been eager to find out if Anais was okay, I would have been amused by how quickly they’d adjusted to being around me. In many ways, Anais had been similar. Now she knew I would take care of her.
To my relief, Anais and Naomi were on the other side of the door, and I quickly backed up to let them in and past me. Naomi hesitated for a fraction of a second, but then came in. After checking no one had seen them arrive at the suite, I shut the door and followed them into the main section.
“We were attacked, just as we thought. One turned was waiting in the room.” Anais frowned and went to sit down on the sofa.
“It’s dead now though. We worked together. It’s in the water.”
Tess quickly hugged Naomi and checked her over. Alan clapped Anais on the shoulder and grinned.
“See, we’re a good team. Your vamp fella here was pacing like a bear in a cage.” Alan winked at me and I had to fight not to frown at what I hoped was a tease. I didn’t know the exact dynamics of this team. This could easily be their way of accepting me.
“He was?” Anais asked, looking up at me and grinning.
Although I was a little ashamed to admit I hadn’t coped well, I had no problem letting her know that I cared about her enough to have worried in the first place. I might have asked her here to help me, but I wanted to keep her safe as well. “Yes, I was. You took longer than I expected.”
She smiled and it lit up her face in the most beautiful way while making me feel better at the same time. She didn’t see any shame in it.
“So... what now?” Naomi asked. “As much as I’m really happy you two are getting along, very into each other, and it will help keep us all safe, if there are other vampires on this ship who are going to come into the cabin I’m sleeping in and try to kill my team leader and possibly me, I would like to get to work killing them first.”
Alan came a little closer and leaned on the back of the cream couch as well. “I’m all for that as well. We’re here to kill vampires. Let’s kill vampires.”
I glanced at Tess, but she didn’t say anything, all three of them looking toward Anais and not me. It was clear that she had earned their respect as their leader and they were more than happy to be in this situation with her.
“I should go to the lounge before dinner and see how many vampires we have on board. See if they are in multiple factions or all seem to know each other, introduce myself, that sort of thing. The four of you should stick together. Look for safer places aboard the ship where you could run, places to meet up in an emergency if you can’t come here.
And do things like get connected to the ship systems so you can use ship Wi-Fi to communicate with each other.
” I stopped talking as I noticed them all still glancing at Anais as if they wanted to check she was okay with me giving them commands.
Anais stood up so she could see all her team and me, frowning.
“We should definitely make sure we can all communicate with each other, especially if we’re not always going to be together in the same place.
And we’ll have to get ready for dinner as well, which means all being in separate places briefly. ”
Although I had more to add, I waited for her to finish.
She’d confirmed what I’d said already and then looked at me to see if I wanted to add anything else.
“I think we should stay in the groups we’ve been booked in for dinner as well.
Go to the dining room we’ve been assigned to.
A lot of the vampires won’t go to dinner every night, but those who want to get an idea of who is on the boat will be there tonight. ”
Tess shuddered. “Checking who might make a good dinner for them later?”
“Not exactly,” I tried to reassure her. “Most vampires don’t want to kill anyone they feed on. We tend to romance our victims and, well... enjoy them over a longer period of time. It doesn’t usually result in turned killing anyone directly.”
“Just when they can’t cope with being abandoned and the withdrawal,” Anais replied, her tone gentle.
I sighed, knowing I had no defense against that part.
“And that doesn’t cover this new group of turned, right?” Naomi asked. “The reason we’re here is because some turned on this ship think it’s okay to kill a lot more.”
At that question, I could only nod. “Those are the vampires we’re here to kill.”
“So we’ve got to figure out which are which? We can’t just kill them all?” Naomi asked.
“As far as I’m aware, that’s not how the academy works, or the Brethren.
If vampires are behaving themselves, we leave them be.
” While I knew it was a sort of unspoken truth, it was a truth.
The academy didn’t send vampire hunters and slayers after turned who were sticking to the rules the Brethren laid out. But did they all know that too?
The team looked between each other, and I hoped they were silently agreeing, but I tensed anyway, prepared to make my case if I needed to.
“We’ve suspected that for some time,” Naomi said. “Is there some sort of agreement between the Brethren and the academy?”
I shrugged. “Not that I am aware of. I think I would know, but given that there are other secrets coming to light, there might be some sort of unspoken agreement if nothing else.”
“It could simply be that there are so many problem turned, especially right now, that we never get the chance to go after the gentler ones who aren’t outright killing,” Tess replied.
I got the impression that she was the sweetest and gentlest of the group, but she had also shown herself to be fierce enough when it had come to the four of them caring about Anais that it wouldn’t make me underestimate her.
“Whatever the reason, I don’t think it would be wise to kill the turned unless we think they’re a threat,” I said. “One of the advantages Anais and I had on the last cruise was that many turned didn’t want to get involved.”
“Don’t pick a fight we might not be able to win with turned that don’t want to fight if we leave them alone. Got it,” Naomi replied. “So to dinner to try to figure out who is on our side and who isn’t it is then. I guess we’ll see you all there?”
Anais got to her feet again and I had to resist the urge to hug her and kiss her before I let her leave. She hadn’t given me permission to take her into my world again like that.
I watched her and Naomi leave, followed by Tess and Alan. It gave me a few minutes by myself to think about the mission and how I could handle it. My friend should have been aboard as well, but I hadn’t heard from him at all.
It was time to find him and head to the lounge.
By the time I found him, he was already in there and scoping out the different factions. He introduced me as Drew as soon as I arrived and made it clear he had already mentioned me as a friend and business associate of sorts. It was a cover story I could roll with.
There weren’t a lot of vampires to meet and I got the impression that the lounge wouldn’t be busy until much later. The few vampires here were the weaker ones who hoped to join a group.
Several came up to talk to us, but as soon as they realized I was not going to invite them into some special group where I was the powerful turned in charge and willing to look after them, but also there to look for the bigger, more powerful vampires, they moved on.
“We should go to dinner. See what our options are,” my friend said out loud a little before the restaurants were due to open. It was a little blatant for my liking, but it seemed to not only give us a reason to walk out, but trigger a sort of exodus of the other vampires as well.
It was almost amusing to see them leave now they felt they had a sort of permission and wouldn’t miss anything important. Petros chuckled as some of them even rushed to beat us to dinner, the pair of us strolling along, familiar enough with the layout of the ship to know where we were going.
There was a queue to get into the dining room, but it was already moving, the wait staff showing people to their tables with a practiced efficiency.
Alan and Tess joined the queue not that far after me, but neither of them acknowledged me when they saw me with Petros.
It was exactly how I wanted it for now. Not only did I not want Petros to know who was on this cruise ship with me, just in case I couldn’t trust him, but I also didn’t want to put them in danger from other vampires.
Anais was also going to pretend she didn’t know me, but I couldn’t see her in the queue yet.
I tried to be casual about looking for them all, making it appear as a quick scan of the faces and curiosity.
It was exactly the same sort of thing the other vampires were doing.
Starting to work out who were the vampires aboard and who were possible humans to enjoy in one way or another.
Before long I was seated at the eight-person dining table and able to survey those I was with. Because Alan and Tess were seated at my table and Petros was with me, I only had four new people to get to know. Two of them were vampires, and the other two were a more elderly human couple.
No one at the table was of much interest to me, the vampires two of the turned we had already met in the lounge.
I was sat next to probably the weaker of the two male turned, but that could give me an opportunity.
If I flexed a little, I might get some extra eyes and ears. I just had to handle this correctly.
“So, how long have you been in the business?” I asked him, hoping he knew enough of our kind and the way we tested waters to understand that much at least.
“About six months,” he replied. “I’m a relatively new recruit. Still working everything out, but I am making good progress. It is my intention to continue my education and grow a good business of my own.”
“I like a man with ambition,” I replied, leaning in a little toward him.
“That’s one of the reasons I’m here. I am looking for some new...
collaborators. My boss is an extremely experienced man and he is looking for some folks who will know that they’ve got a good deal and be loyal from the beginning. ”
The turned’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and I knew I had him hooked on my every word. After ordering his drink and waiting for the waiter to leave, he shifted closer. “What do you need from a person like me?”
I glanced around, making it a little more obvious that I was taking the view of the room and other vampires in it.
“Eyes and ears. We need eyes and ears, listening for people who might be up to plans of their own. Some of them have grown very ambitious, but they’ve missed something very important and they don’t know it.
Any information, even if it turns out to be on our own people, would be...
rewarded in ways that you can’t even imagine yet. ”
Although I couldn’t be fully sure that the vampire was going to take the bait, I knew it would be information that spread.
I’d not given away enough to look like I was against anyone here.
If this proved useful, great. If not, I’d make the vampire less easily indicted into whatever little club was being created here.
And I might just get a few rumors about this relic along the way.