Vampirates 5: Empire of Night (7 page)

Bart nodded. "I think I speak for us both when I say that we've enjoyed working with you again. You were

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born to be a captain, Cheng Li. But like Cate said before, the terms of our loan were for a specific mission--Operation Black Heart. If you want to discuss extending our contract, you'll have to go back to..."

"Molucco!" Cheng Li said sharply, as if keen to get the name out of the way as quickly as possible. "Yes, well, perhaps I shall."

Cate reached out her hand to Cheng Li's shoulder. She smiled softly at the Federation's youngest and most ambitious captain. "Thanks for bringing us in on this mission, Cheng Li. I must say, I found the challenge of developing combat techniques against a new kind of adversary quite intriguing." Cate's eyes twinkled. "I'd certainly be open to taking that a stage further, if something could be worked out."

Cheng Li nodded. "I'm delighted to hear that." Her eyes darted across the tavern. "Look, there's Jasmine and Bo Yin, wanting to talk to you. Let's go over, if you can bear to leave your
boyfriend
for five minutes."

Cate and Bart exchanged a glance. He released her from his embrace.

Cheng Li looped her own arm through Cate's. "You're such an important role model to the next generation of young women pirates, you know. Well, I suppose we both are!"

Before Cheng Li and Cate could move, Jacoby and Connor appeared, their arms laden with foaming mugs. Distributing fresh drinks among the group, Jacoby turned to

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Cheng Li. "Hot diggity, Captain, what
is
this place? The Full Moon Saloon! Deeply ironic, given the lack of lighting in here. When you said you were taking us out to celebrate, I felt sure we'd be heading back to Ma Kettle's Tavern."

Cheng Li raised her eyes exasperatedly. "Why does everyone act like Ma Kettle's is the
only
tavern around? Can't we broaden our horizons and try somewhere different for a change?"

Jacoby was unconvinced. "But Captain, Ma Kettle's has such a rich piratical history!"

"
Precisely!
" Cheng Li said. "It's more like a museum than an inn these days. It's where the old fossils go. It's impossible to have a conversation there without turning around and finding one Wrathe brother or another sticking his beak into your business." She turned to Cate. "No offense."

"None taken," said Cate, stifling a laugh.

Cheng Li had one further pearl of wisdom for her deputy. "We're the new wave of pirates, Jacoby. We don't follow tradition. We make our own way!"

With that, she propelled Cate forward toward Jasmine and Bo Yin.

Once the women were out of earshot, Bart grinned at Jacoby. "Face it, buddy, the only reason you're angling for Ma's is because you're hoping for a sight of the delicious Sugar Pie."

Connor grinned at the mention of Ma Kettle's trusted second-in-command.

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Sugar Pie made pirates from all around go weak at the knees but, that aside, she had become a good friend and trusted confidante of Connor's.

Jacoby shook his head emphatically at Bart's accusation. "That is
so
unfounded. I only have eyes for Jasmine."

Connor listened to this exchange warily. Jacoby was still blissfully ignorant of his own fast-developing relationship with Jasmine. They had kissed. Twice. And it had changed everything. He knew it and Jasmine knew it. But, for now, Jacoby was still in the dark.

Bart grinned at Jacoby. "Jasmine's a wonderful young woman, no question, but few pirate lads have been able to resist the charms of Sugar Pie." He tapped his own chest. "I know whereof I speak." He shook his head and glanced fondly toward Cate. "Of course, that was in my younger and wilder days, when I was footloose and fancy free. That's all behind me now."

"Yeah, right," Connor interjected. "You're the grand old age of
twenty-three
now!"

"Exactly!" Bart said, taking a draft of beer before continuing. "Tempest, cast your mind back to the very first night we met. Remember what I told you then?"

Connor knew exactly what his mate was alluding to. "A pirate's life is a short but merry one."

Bart nodded, wiping the beer-foam mustache from above his lips. "Right on, mate! I've been luckier than most in avoiding the enemy cutlass all these years I've

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roamed the oceans. But who knows how much longer my luck will hold?" His expression became more somber. "After all, think of Jez."

"Who's Jez?" asked Jacoby, unaware what a loaded question this was.

Connor and Bart exchanged a glance, both waiting for the other to take the lead. After an awkward silence, Connor spoke. "Jez Stukeley was a good friend of ours, aboard
The Diablo
. He was the most talented fighter on the crew. He got killed in a duel on board
The Albatross
, the ship captained by Narcisos Drakoulis."

Jacoby was confused. "If Jez was such a great fighter, how come he lost the duel?"

"You should have seen the guy he was up against!" Bart said. "Drakoulis's prizefighter, Gidaki Sarakakino. He was like a gladiator--twice the size of
me
, if you can imagine, but incredibly agile."

Connor picked up the story, his expression dark. "We should never have been on that ship anyhow. It was a trick--an act of revenge against Molucco Wrathe. Jez died because of Molucco's shortcomings, not his own." Frowning, he took a deep swig from his tankard.

"Jez sounds like a great guy," Jacoby said. "I can tell how much you both miss him."

Bart's eyes suddenly brightened. "They had a nickname for us. The Three Buccaneers. Catie came up with it."

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"The Three Buccaneers," Jacoby repeated, nodding. "I like that." He raised his tankard. "A toast, my friends! To Jez and the Three Buccaneers!"

Without hesitation, Connor and Bart raised their glasses and slammed them against Jacoby's. "The Three Buccaneers!" they bellowed in unison.

"I haven't heard
that
expression in a while," Cheng Li said as she, Cate, Jasmine, and Bo Yin returned to join the lads.

"The boys were just telling me about Jez," Jacoby informed the newcomers.

"Poor guy!" said Jasmine.

Cate laid her hand on Bart's arm. "Did you see him at the wedding?"

Bart nodded glumly.

"I don't understand," said Jacoby. "How
could
you have seen him at a wedding, or anywhere else for that matter, if he's
dead
?"

"Think!" Cheng Li said. "Which wedding did we all recently attend together?"

Jacoby racked his brain for a moment. "Sidorio and Lady Lola's?"

Cheng Li nodded.

"I still don't understand," Jacoby said. "If Jez is dead, how could he be at a wedding?... Oh! Oh, I think I get it." He trembled as he spoke.

"He was killed," Bart confirmed. "We buried him at

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sea. But Sidorio found his corpse and sired him to be his lieutenant. He's known as Stukeley now, and he's Sidorio's joint deputy."

Every time Sidorio's name came up, Connor felt as though he was being stabbed in the heart. Did the others have any sense of his discomfort? Apparently not.

Bart's eyes were sad and empty, while Jacoby's were as wide as portholes as he questioned Bart further. "Your old friend Jez is working for Sidorio, King of the Vampirates?!"

Once more, Connor felt a stab in the heart.
Yes
, he thought.
King of the Vampirates and, by the way, my father
.

"Well," Jacoby breezed on. "Look on the bright side... at least he's not dead... only resting." His attempt at humor was lost on the others.

Bart shook his head. "There's no bright side, mate. Jez is worse than dead."

Connor turned to Bart, his heart racing. Before he knew it, he had opened his mouth and was asking Bart a question--a question he felt compelled to ask even though he was far from sure he was ready to hear the answer. "Do you really think that? That it's worse to be a vampire than to be dead?"

"You saw what he was like, Connor, when he came to us and asked for our help. He was tormented. Every day, every night of his
life
--for want of a better term--is torture now. If he was dead, he'd be at peace. He was a

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good and honorable man. He deserved the right, true end to a noble life. That...
monster
Sidorio denied him that."

Connor shivered at the word
monster
, for if it applied to Sidorio, then it certainly applied to Connor himself. Bart didn't yet know that Sidorio was Connor's true father. Nor did he know that Connor was a dhampir and therefore half-vampire. But Bart's impassioned words left Connor in no doubt. If he had known, he'd have turned those same heartbroken eyes on Connor and pitied him for a fate worse than death. Connor felt queasy at the thought, and queasier still at the fact that he was keeping such a big a secret from so close a friend.

Jacoby pressed on, oblivious to Connor's meltdown. "Suppose it had been you, Bart? You, instead of Jez, killed in that duel. Would you really prefer to be dead and buried than brought back from the edge--to walk and talk and sail the oceans again?"

"Absolutely!" Bart said, smashing his fist down into the palm of his other hand. "I told you before.
A short life but a merry one.
That's what I signed up for." His eyes blazed with fire as he gazed at his comrades. "When I die, bury me deep as hell where no vampire can dig me up and have me join his crew. Deal?"

No one answered.

Bart's eyes scanned the group. "I asked you all a question. Do we have a deal?"

"Yes," Connor said, his voice overlapping with those of

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his comrades. He felt really sick now, and intensely claustrophobic. He had to get out of the tavern, away from this conversation. He couldn't stand it a moment longer.

As Cate reached out a soothing hand to Bart, Connor was quick to seize his opportunity. "I'm not feeling so good," he mumbled to Bo Yin. "I need some air."

"I'll come with you, Connor Tempest," Bo Yin said, her face etched with concern. But Connor shook his head and held up a hand to deter her.

He strode away from the group and made his way toward the back of the saloon. The back door was ajar, and Connor slipped outside.

He found himself on a small beach, strewn with litter from the tavern. Waves lapped, like whispers, against the sand.

Connor breathed in the night air. He kicked off his shoes and socks and rolled up the bottom of his pants. Weaving his way through the debris, he walked out into the water. The first caress of the cool liquid around his ankles was instantly soothing. He closed his eyes and willed the toxic thoughts raging in his brain to drain out into the waves and be carried away on the tide.

When he opened his eyes again, he felt momentarily dizzy. The sea below and the stars above seemed to be sliding toward each other. He had lost his footing and prepared himself for an imminent dunk in the cold, oily water. But somehow he remained upright, suspended in midair. It took him a moment or two to come to his senses.

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Glancing down, he saw that a pair of pale hands had reached out to steady him.

"All right now?" asked a familiar voice, presumably belonging to the slowly retracting hands.

Connor nodded. "Yes," he said. "Yes, thank you." He twisted around to face his rescuer.

As he did so, his heart missed a beat and he felt dizzy again. Even though he had suspected it, the reality was nevertheless a body shock.

There, standing beside him in the ocean, was his old friend and former comrade Jez Stukeley.

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8 THE SHARING

Grace waited for a bowl of cherry pie to be cleared from her place. She had barely touched her food at tonight's Feast. It had looked and smelled as delicious as usual, but she had taken only a mouthful or two of first the scallops, then the lamb, and maybe half a spoonful of dessert. The rest of the food had ended up being pushed around her plate or lingering uneaten in the bowl, under her cutlery. None of this escaped eagle-eyed Oskar's notice.

"Still not hungry, I see," he said, a dark eyebrow raised interrogatively.

Grace shook her head. "Not for food, anyhow."

Oskar looked her directly in the eye and nodded, slowly, thoughtfully. He understood. Leaning closer, he spoke in confidential tones. "Remember what we talked about before? You should join us--Lorcan and me--

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tonight. I have more than enough blood for both of you." His brown-black eyes seared into Grace's. "Share me."

Since he had first made this proposition at the previous week's Feast, Grace had turned the idea over constantly in her head. It was unthinkable, wasn't it, to take blood? If she did, there would be no turning back. She was accepting that she was a dhampir--half-vampire, half-mortal--and that this was the way she lived now.

On many levels, she
did
accept it. What was the point in even trying to deny it? She was not, as she had thought for the first fourteen years of her life, the daughter of a lighthouse keeper from a dead-end coastal town. No, she was the daughter of a Vampirate, Sidorio--the result, like her brother, of a spell cast by Sidorio on their poor mother, Sally.

Grace looked down to find that the long banquet table had been cleared. The servers had disappeared back to the kitchens. She had been so lost in her own thoughts, she hadn't noticed any of this. At once, the musicians took up their instruments again, playing more and more loudly. Glancing along the table at the faces reflected in the warm glow of the candlelight, she saw that the men and women on both sides of the table were waiting silently. The Feast--at least this phase of the Feast--was over.

At the far end of the table, nearest to the door, Darcy and her donor, James, rose together from their seats and began walking away from the table, their footsteps beating time with the percussive music. Their neighbors