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“Speaking of which,” Ruric said, “how was Dylan’s blood last night?”
“Polluted,” Levka said. “I swear his blood was half rum. If I didn’t know better, I’d think I had a hangover from his near alcohol-blood poisoning.”
“Remember the time when we were stationed in England and those ‘old’ sergeants talked a green kid into drinking whiskey straight? Darn near killed him. Boy, were those sergeants scared,” Stasio said.
“Yeah, well that’s how I feel, and that’s why I like my blood from the blood bank.”
“Didn’t help that you were up late trying to get the nerve up to return to Caitlin’s room and kiss her,” Ruric said.
“I wanted to make sure she was asleep.”
“Worse,” Arman said. “No wonder people fantasize about vampires being sneaky.”
They all laughed.
“What are you going to do about her?” Ruric asked, looking out the balcony at the bustling port. “You can’t tell her what we are without the league’s permission. And they’ll only give it if you intend to make her your soul mate, which they have to approve as well. So, what are you going to do?”
“I won’t turn her, so I’m not going to do anything.”
Stasio sighed. “You said the same about Cassandra.”
“And she died before you could obtain the league’s permission,” Ruric said.
“You don’t want history repeating itself,” Stasio said.
Arman folded his arms. “I think Levka’s right. Leave well enough alone.”
“Easy for him to say.” A taste of her blood, a kiss from her lips…Levka shook his head. The siren had hooked him good.
***
Caitlin was glad she’d gotten on a bus that Lynne and Alicia were not on. She could just imagine their discussion about Dylan and what had happened. And how she and Levka were implicated in the great Dylan’s downfall. She smiled, although a bit evilly.
Passengers pointed to the rooftops of homes where green-scaled iguanas raced across the red tile. The black-skinned tour guide laughed. “They roam wild here, and the people catch them and eat them,” he said, in a thick Caribbean accent.
“Ooooh,” several of the passengers said in a disgusted way, while Caitlin wrinkled her nose.
The tour guide said, “They taste like fishy chicken.”
Someone pointed to a Kentucky Fried Chicken. “Guess they have them everywhere.”
“Yes, but they do not serve iguana.” The tour guide gave a flashy white-toothed grin. “You see the houses here are all painted in bright colors. The governor had ordered the houses painted that way since he suffered from migraines and the white stucco reflecting the bright sun gave him headaches. Later, it was discovered the governor owned the company that produced the paints everyone had to buy.”
Everyone laughed.
“Our first stop is the Hato Cave.” The guide motioned to a mountainside.
After climbing the narrow path they finally reached the cave, and Caitlin took a deep breath of the warm wet air. Most caves she’d been to were chilly. Oddly, this one was not. Lights cast eerie shadows on the limestone cut into the coral reef. Stalactites clung to the ceiling and sent their daggers downward. Caitlin reminded herself, stalactites hold tight to the ceiling, which was the only way she could remember the difference in the rock formations. She observed stalagmites nearby, reaching upward like miniature spiral mountains in some futuristic world. In places where the water dripped from the stalactites and deposited limestone on the stalagmite below it, whole twisted columns had formed.
The tour guide pointed to petroglyphs drawn on the walls. “Amerindian Arawaks painted these pictures fifteen-hundred years ago and used these caves for shelter and for burial grounds. A family was found buried together, the male’s skull placed in the center. Similar remains have been found on the island of Aruba. Flint tools have been located here also.”
The guide pointed to a cave farther back. “A colony of rare long nosed bats lives in there.” She guided the group deeper into the cave past dripstone pools.
Their footsteps and the guide’s words bounced off the cave walls. Another group followed behind them, and Caitlin could hear the same talk being given like a distant echo.
“In later years, during the slave trade, escaped slaves hid out for months in here,” the tour guide said.
Caitlin envisioned the slaves trying to find food and water and shelter away from their masters and how horrible it must have been.
