Lost in Magic (Night Shadows Book 4) (7 page)

Chapter Eleven

Mick pried his eyes open slowly the following morning. His body was still blissfully sore and the warmth curled up at his side was a perfect reminder why. But he couldn’t have had enough sleep already, not with the way he’d spent most of the night, so why was he awake?

“Mm, what’s that?” Ali’s sleep-laden voice asked at the same time as he registered the sound that had roused him.

His phone.

Damn it.
It was probably Doon again. But he wouldn’t reach the damned thing in time, anyway, so he opted to ignore it.

“Mick?”

Tightening the arm he had comfortably draped around her waist, Mick said, “My phone. It’s probably my boss.”

He felt the tension return to her beautifully bare body and wasn’t at all surprised by her response. “Shouldn’t you get that?”

“I’ll call him back.” He rolled properly onto his side, tugging her up to his chest. “Good morning,” he whispered as the ringing ceased.

Ali relaxed into him and offered him a smile. “Good morning, sexy.”

He bowed his head, catching her lips in a slow, leisurely kiss. There was a lot he needed to work on later in the day, but he intended to enjoy this moment. And he hoped like hell it wouldn’t be the only time he woke up with her in his arms.

Allison had curled her fingers into his chest when the ringing started again.

Mick broke from the curse with a harsh exhale.

“You should probably get that,” Ali said, the regret in her voice telling him all he needed to know about her opinion.

“I hate my job sometimes,” Mick said with a grunt as he rolled to his feet. His arms were cold already. But he tried to ignore the feeling as he moved to the floor beyond the bed and dug out his stupid phone. Finding it, he put the device to his ear with a grunted question. “What?”

“That’s no way to greet an old friend,” Doon lectured calmly. “Or is it too early for you where you are?”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Mick said, “Skip the ‘where are you?’ part, Doon. Why are you calling now? I thought the Council already met.” And if that was so, his fate would already have been decided. How had he never recognized how screwed up this system was before?

How had it taken a warm-hearted
werewolf
to open his eyes?

“We did,” Doon declared. “But out of respect for your late parents, I wanted to give you a heads-up.”

And now he’s playing that card.
Mick moved and sat on the side of the bed. He reached for Ali’s nearest hand as she pushed to a seated position, the comforter held around her chest. The woman took his breath away with the simplest things.
Focus
. Dragging his attention back to the call, he said, “Fine, what’s this ‘heads-up’ you’re offering?”

“We traced your cell phone,” Doon declared. “And they’re sending Rhea.”

Shit.
“Gee, I appreciate that,” Mick said. “It’s good to know I’ll get the common criminal treatment the minute I decide to take a breather.”

“Thare,” Doon said, “you know it’s not that simple.”

“No,” Mick snapped, threading his fingers through Allison’s. “I know it
could be
but you’re all a bunch of sticklers for
outdated
rules. You realize Rhea’s not the most by-the-books option you have, right? She’s as likely to
drown
me as to bring me in alive.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Doon replied coldly. “She’ll do as she’s told.”

“Maybe.” Mick disconnected before he could say anything worse. And to think, for a beat, he’d actually considered turning to the Council for help with this vampire problem he’d landed in.
They’d have just sent Rhea for that, too.
Probably.

“Mick,” Allison said slowly. “What’s going on? Who’s Rhea?”

Tossing the phone onto the nightstand beside the clock, Mick turned and managed a small smile for her. “Rhea’s a colleague of mine. But she’s dangerous. Temperamental. And she’s been ordered to apprehend me.”

“Apprehend you?” Ali straightened, pulling her hand from his, and narrowed her eyes. “You’re not some criminal! You just took a leave of absence!”

His lips twitched. “That’s now how they see it,” he said. “And I knew that when I ditched. Hell, that’s
why
I ditched instead of
asking
.”

“It’s still wrong,” she said firmly.

Mick turned and cupped her face. “You’re so sexy when you’re all riled up,” he said before covering her lips with his. She braced her palms over his chest as if to push him away, but she gave in without resistance to his kiss. Their tongues danced for a long minute before he pulled away reluctantly.

“I guess we can’t just stay in bed all day,” Ali mumbled, adjusting and tucking herself beneath his chin. She wrapped her arms around his torso, pinning the comforter in place with his chest.

Mick wound his arms around her in return. “You could,” he said quietly. “You don’t have any obligation to this. And you’d be safer.” He personally preferred that option, actually. He just figured she wouldn’t go for it.

“I can’t leave you to fend for yourself,” Ali argued without lifting her head.

He grinned. “You do know this is kind of what I do for a living, right?”

This time she pulled back to frown up at him. “You said you’re an earth witch,” she said. “What can you really do on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic?”

“That is a complication,” he said. Attempting a bit of humor he added, “But Rhea’s a water witch, so if she gets here fast enough I might be able to talk her into taking out a vampire.”

Ali scrunched up her lips in that adorable thinking expression he realized meant she disagreed with him. “She’d do that?”

Smoothing his thumb along her lips, Mick said, “Not likely, no. She’d probably say it was someone else’s problem.”

“That makes no sense,” Ali said. “I thought it
was
your job?”

Mick leaned forward, brushing a kiss to her forehead, and said, “I consider it my job. Rhea … does her own thing. She just does enough of it to the Council’s benefit that she gets away with that.”

Ali opened her mouth, probably to say more, but knocking at the door interrupted her.

Mick turned and looked toward the offending noise with a frown.

“Who could that be at this hour?” The question was Ali’s, but it echoed his own concerns.

Without a word Mick stood and stepped into his shorts. Whoever it was, no way in hell was Ali opening the door to them wrapped in a comforter. And he couldn’t think of anyone who had a good reason to be pounding on her door first thing in the morning.

“Mick, I should get it,” Ali said, sliding to the edge of the bed.

“Just pull the comforter up,” Mick argued, settling the belt at his waist and starting forward. “I’ve got it.” Now he just had to decide if he hoped it was Jude or a crewmember. Chances were it wasn’t Rhea.

He hoped.

The tears in Jude Michaels’s eyes when Mick opened the door, however, had him rethinking his wish to see the man. It couldn’t be more obvious Jude came bearing bad news. Guilt and deadly anticipation twisted a dark, burning knot in Mick’s gut. “Jude.”

“I-I’m sorry,” Jude said, his voice barely stable. He swallowed so heavily Mick could practically feel the lump in his own throat. “I just … my mom, she’s … dead.”

Mick squeezed his eyes shut, his grip of the door tightening.
Damn it.
There was no doubt in his mind the vampire on board was responsible. It even made sense. She’d survived an attack. She was a witness. It would be bad for a vampire looking for discretion to leave witnesses on a crowded ship. Why had that not occurred to him immediately?

He was slipping.

“Jude,” he said, forcing his eyes open. “I’m so sorry.” He was about to add more when a door just down the hall opened and another, unfamiliar, man stepped out. The stranger made no attempt to hide that they were his focus.

“Who the hell are you two? What’s going on?” the stranger demanded.

Mick knew instantly who the nosy man was.
Warner.
Ali had said he was just down the hall from her. A new kind of fire filled him, temporarily smothering the guilt in his chest, and Mick stepped forward. He heard Ali shift on the bed somewhere behind him and quickly pulled the door shut. No way in hell was Warner getting even a glimpse of her as she was.

Still, he tried to keep his voice civil. “This is nothing that concerns you,” he said. “If you don’t mind, we could use some privacy.”
Or go ahead and cause a scene. It’s not like I have murdering vampires to worry about.

“That’s not your room,” Warner said, ignoring Mick’s words completely as he stepped closer. At least he had the sense not to shout. “What’ve you done to Allison?”

“Is,” Jude started, looking between them, “now a bad time?”

“No,” Mick assured him, settling a hand on his shoulder in a gesture of comfort. “You’re fine.” He turned his attention back to Warner. “
He’s
the one with bad timing.”

“Well I’m so sorry,” Warner said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. “One of us is at least decent enough to worry about the single woman who’s
supposed
to be in the room behind you.”

Mick’s arm fell back to his side. He didn’t often get the urge to punch out a regular human, but he couldn’t deny the appeal right then. “Ali’s
fine
. I’d thank you for your concern, but frankly she’d rather you found a different obsession. And so would I.”

The door opened behind Mick before anyone could say another word. Ali emerged in the shorts she’d worn the day before and a new, loose fitting top. Apparently the woman knew how to dress in a hurry.

She ignored Warner completely and moved straight up to Jude. “Oh, Jude, I am so sorry,” she said, her voice full of sympathy and sorrow. She pulled him into a hug. “Why don’t you come inside. It’s more comfortable.”

“Allison,” Warner called, one arm lifting as if he intended to reach for her.

Mick, who’d caught the door to keep it ajar behind her, turned a glare to Warner. “Mind your own business.”

Ali continued to ignore him, keeping an arm around Jude’s shoulders as she adjusted to guide him inside. When she was brushing past Mick she whispered, “Just ignore him.”

Chapter Twelve

Allison couldn’t believe the guilt swarming her stomach. While she’d been lost in Mick’s arms, Jude’s mother had been killed. They
knew
there was at least one vampire on the boat. They
knew
it had attacked Amanda once before. How had it not occurred to her that Amanda might still be a target?
What if we could have saved her?

She nearly laughed at herself. What could
she
have done to improve
anyone’s
chances of survival in this kind of situation? The only thing she could have, arguably should have, done differently was not distract Mick. He, at least, might have had half a chance.

Her stomach clenched and she drew a deep breath. For a moment she held her thoughts back, staring at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. There was a bit of red around her eyes from the sympathetic tears she’d cried earlier for Jude’s pain. Except it hadn’t all been for Jude and his lost mother.
Amanda…
Amanda had been Mandy’s name, too, even though she’d never gone by it. What kind of miserable luck did Allison have to know
two
Amandas who fell, through no fault of their own, to hungry vampires?

No.
Neither death had been necessary by any stretch of the imagination. Mandy had been a warning. A message. Amanda Michaels had been … clean-up, she supposed. A loose end. Neither had been a necessary
meal
. Especially on the heels of the other dead passenger, whatever her name was. Because Allison was sure that the other passenger was dead and not just missing. A fact she suspected the crew of the
Euphoria
were also coming to suspect, as they’d just a few minutes before announced their impending return to Baltimore.

So much for my vacation.

But this was so much bigger than her. There were a couple
thousand
potential victims on board, most of whom were probably rather angry at the turn of events. Ignorance and anger never were a good combination. Worse, though, was that they were two days out from Baltimore. Who knew how many more people would die before the ship made port and police boarded. Police who would be just as ignorant as the rest of the passengers. Ill prepared to handle the real threat.

Suddenly she felt stifled.

Not by the once-spacious bathroom, or the single suite beyond, but by the very boat. The crowded, stranded boat.

Nausea rolled in Allison’s stomach and she braced herself against the sink, looking away from her reflection.
Breathe, Allison.
Yes, the situation was bad, but it wasn’t connected to the one she was trying to run from. More than that, just because a vampire was aboard didn’t mean it would come for her.

But you’re sleeping with a witch.
And for as surreal as that still was, she knew without a doubt that would drastically change her odds of being targeted. Her only recourse, though, was to walk away from him. And she had no desire to do that. The only thing she wanted
less
was to see him hurt.

“Ali?” the subject of her thoughts called through the closed door. “You okay in there?”

No,
she wanted to say.
No, of course not.
There were vampires killing people around her. Again. She was absolutely
not
okay.

But this wasn’t about her. And she wasn’t so weak as to let it cripple her even if it were.

“Just a second,” she called back, straightening. She stole another look at her reflection and smoothed her hair unnecessarily. So people were dying. That was bad, but not debilitating. She wanted to be a surgeon, she was going to have to get used to the idea of death anyway, right?
Think of the enemy like a virus. A disease.
Yes. The vampires on board were just cancerous tumors that needed to be found. Found and excised with subtle precision.

Telling herself to hold onto that focus, Allison turned and reached for the bathroom door. They didn’t have time for her to be losing her composure like that. Mick needed to focus and she needed to help him by not distracting him with her overworked emotions. Mick was their only hope—Mick was the scalpel that would cut out the tumor.

The sexy scalpel.

There might have been something wrong with her, she decided as she fought back a laugh.

Fortunately, Mick only raised a curious brow at her odd behavior.

They left her room together. It’d been a little over three hours since Jude had come to them in search of comfort. Less than thirty minutes since Jude had gathered himself enough to go back to his own room and begin making whatever kind of preparations he needed to. They’d asked Jude to call if he needed anything, but Allison doubted he would. And in the meanwhile, there was still the vampire situation to deal with.

She hadn’t the first clue how, but they needed to find the vampire. Or vampires. They at
least
needed to determine for sure if there was one or several.

“How do we do this?” she asked as the elevator doors slid shut, briefly isolating them from the rest of the ship.

Mick wrapped his hand around hers. “Honestly, it’ll be hard,” he said. “Slayers have this extra sensory perception that tells them when they’re near vampires or werewolves. We witches aren’t so lucky. We have to observe behavior and make judgment calls.”

“Meaning we have no chance,” Allison surmised on a sigh.

“Not necessarily,” Mick argued. “But it is slim.” The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, letting in more passengers. He stepped closer to her side, still holding her hand, and said no more. But he didn’t need to.

They had to search a crowded cruise ship for one or more vampires who’d so far done a very good job of
not
getting caught.

The only thing they had to go on, assuming Mick’s logic was sound, was that the vampire probably wouldn’t socialize on the top deck. Not because he or she would explode in the sunlight circa John Carpenter, but because the sun weakened them. Burned them, even, but not in a literal fire-on-skin sense. She supposed Mick was the resident expert so she didn’t argue when he suggested they start with the restaurant level.

But as they stepped out of the elevator and began a slow stroll down the hall Ali couldn’t help but wonder
how
they would ever identify their target. It wasn’t as if the vampire would be wearing a flashing neon sign or have a face covered in blood.

Blood.
Of course! Sure, whoever the vampire was, it wasn’t afraid to take the risk of going after a passenger. But what if those had been impulse attacks? Or attacks of convenient opportunity? They would still have needed a way to be
sure
they’d be fed on this cruise.

“Mick,” Allison said, tightening her grip of his hand and pulling him to a stop. She kept her voice low, mindful of being overheard.

Mick gave her a curious look, his eyes asking the question for him.

“Maybe we should check the infirmary,” she whispered. “The ship might store blood in case of emergency. Wouldn’t that attract a vampire?” She all but mouthed the final word but she was sure he knew what she’d said.

He frowned, his expression thoughtful. The faint layer of stubble that had grown along his jaw was dark and enticing. Distracting. But she knew better than to lose her focus, especially in the middle of a busy hall. Still, it was good when he finally spoke again. “That’s not a bad thought. But we might need to split up if we want a chance to check the stash.”

Ali smiled. “Then it’s a good thing you have a curious medical school student who’d love some real-life experience.”

Mick grinned and pulled her in for a quick, chaste kiss. It was over almost before it had started and well before she could lose herself. “A good thing indeed,” he murmured. He lifted his gaze, looking around one more time. “We should follow your idea first,” he said. “But if it doesn’t pan out, or probably even if it does, we should come back here.”

Ali pursed her lips. She saw his point at the same time as she saw the flaw. They only had so much time. “Tell me what to look for,” she said without moving.

He immediately snapped a frown back to her. “What?”

“Tell me what to look for,” she repeated calmly. “I’ll go to the infirmary. It makes more sense to be me. You look here. We’ll meet somewhere in the middle in, say, an hour?”

“Ali,” Mick said, his disapproval obvious. “No way.”

She cut him off before he could say more. “We’re on limited time, Mick. We should split up.”

Mick pulled her into his chest, turning them so that he had mostly backed her into the wall and passerby would likely think they were being inappropriate. “I’m not leaving you alone on a vampire infested cruise ship,” he said. His tone was firm. Undeniable. And somehow sexy as hell.

Allison pushed the thought from her head and placed a palm on his chest in an effort to calm him. “I know it’s unappealing,” she said, “but it’s a good idea, Mick. I’m sure you can see that.”

“It’s a
lousy
idea,” he argued. “You have no training. No experience in this. If you get caught you’re dead.” He all but growled the last word, telling her just how much he thought of that possibility.

She smiled and slid her hand up to his stubbly jaw. “Mick, I appreciate that, I do,” she whispered, “but we’re almost out of time. And what if Rhea takes you away before we port? Then I’ll be alone with a monster regardless. Not to mention Warner.”

His jaw ticked and she knew she’d struck gold.

Instead of arguing her point, Mick closed the distance between them with a rough, short kiss. He pulled back mere moments before they were interrupted.

“Hey,” someone said. “This is a family cruise. Keep that to your room.”

Ali blushed despite herself as Mick eased back enough to let a little air between them. He turned a lopsided smile to the unknown man, saying, “Sorry.”

Using the moment as her opportunity, Ali slipped from Mick’s grasp with a hand on his bicep, saying, “I should get going, anyway, sweetie. See you in an hour?” She didn’t actually wait for his response before offering a sheepish smile to the stranger and moving confidently toward the elevator bank.

She’d have been lying to say she had no nerves, but she intended to stick to her plan. Time was of the essence.