A Trail of Echoes (A Shade of Vampire #18)(19)

It was ironic. Despite Ben’s uncontrollable thirst for blood, I realized as the days passed that he was actually an easy person to get along with—at least I found him so. We both worked together to figure out practical day-to-day things, like having clean clothes to wear. Since I had only one pair of clothes, as did he, which were already dirty from our trip even before we left Ismailia, we ended up fashioning clothes for ourselves out of spare bed sheets—clothes being a very generous term. I just cut one to size and tied it around my chest so that it hung like a strapless dress, while Ben wore one around his waist.

As for food for myself, I was lucky that there was a stash of it in the storage compartment—all of it longlife food in packets and tins, and none of it tasty, but it was keeping me full.

Since there was only one bed in the bedroom, and not really enough room for one of us to sleep on the floor, I ended up sleeping alone at night. There was a couch up on the deck, and that was where Ben took naps when he felt like it—although he really didn’t sleep much. It was hard for me to sleep in the beginning. I wasn’t used to resting alone, nor was I used to the rocking motion of the boat, but after a week or so, I’d gotten used to it.

At night, we got into the habit of lighting up a small fire on the deck, inside a wide metal container that we found in the storage room. It was during those nights that I began to enjoy getting to know Ben better. Not just as the vampire, but as the human he’d been before he’d turned, and the human he still was when his bloodlust was at bay.

Finally one night, as we sat next to each other, I plucked up the courage to ask him the question that I had found myself wondering more and more recently.

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

He gave me a smile. “Why?”

I felt blood rush to my cheeks a bit. I’d been hoping that he wouldn’t ask me that. “Just curious.”

“No, I don’t,” he replied. “Do you have a boyfriend?”

I shook my head. I’d had crushes in high school before, but never a boyfriend.

I looked away from his face and down at the fire. Though I could feel his gaze still on me. I busied myself with my mug of instant hot chocolate, blowing on the liquid and tracing the rim of the cup with my finger.

“Well, I quite like you, Benjamin,” I said. “Especially when you’re not acting like a serial killer.”

He chuckled. “I like you too, River. This situation… sucks. But I’m honestly grateful that it’s you that I ended up stranded with.”

I raised a brow, prompting him to clarify.

He leaned back, resting on his palms as he looked at me, a thoughtful expression on his face. “You make me feel…” He paused. “Like I’m not Satan.”

I snorted. “Well, thank you.”

“You should take that as a compliment,” he said, a wry smile forming on his lips. “Not even my family could manage it.”

Setting my mug down, I bowed my head in honor. “Do you think they might present me with some kind of reward for being the one to tame the prince?”

“What kind of reward would satisfy you?”

Good question, I thought as I looked into his vivid green eyes. Eyes I was beginning to lose myself in.

“I… I, uh…” I found myself tongue-tied.

I knew what I should say—that all I wanted was to turn back into a human so I could return to my family—yet somehow, that wasn’t what I felt like saying in this moment as we sat together. I bit my lower lip.

Then something made me lean closer to him, and rest my head against his shoulder.

His arm slid around me.

I leaned up to kiss his cheek, then looked back at the fire. His fingers played with the tips of my hair, tugging gently against my scalp. It felt like a kind of massage, and, combined with the warmth of the fire, made me feel deeply relaxed.

Then his palm brushed over my forehead, moving aside my hair, and his lips pressed against the top of my head. Tingles ran down my spine and when he stopped, I found myself wishing his kiss had lasted longer.

My thoughts were interrupted as the boat rocked violently.

Detaching himself from me, Ben shot to his feet.

“What was that?” I whispered.

He raised a finger to his lips.

I heard the clanging of metal. It came from the stern of the boat, which was out of view from where we’d been sitting. We crept toward the control room in the center of the boat and peered around it.

Four tall, thin African men were standing on the deck, carrying guns. I gasped.

At first I thought they might be hunters. But something about their appearance told me they were not. For one thing, their guns looked too outdated, and their clothes were ragged and tattered.

“Who are these men?” I breathed, as a fifth man clambered on board and they began to walk toward us in the shadows.

“Pirates,” Ben whispered. “Wait here.”

Pirates. Of course, it made sense. By now we had reached the Gulf of Aden. Looking closer at the men, it appeared that they were Somali pirates.

Oh, dear.

They really picked the wrong boat.

Chapter 13: River

The pirates barely managed to release a gunshot before Ben sprang on them. Considering they might’ve even intended to kill us in order to hijack the boat, I couldn’t bring myself to feel too much sympathy for them. Still, I couldn’t bear to watch the scene. I’d witnessed too much gore already. I turned around and sat down by the fire, my hands over my ears as I tried to distract myself from what was going on at the stern of the ship.