Vampirates 6: Immortal War (4 page)

With that, she turned away, lifted her sword, and skewered Captain Fallico.

As he fell meatily to the deck, Holly swiftly plugged in her draining apparatus and began bottling his blood. It was the last of a good haul. From the edges of the deck, others of Lola’s crew now came forward, stepping over their victims. Each carried the standard-issue black case, which now held half a dozen bottles of recently harvested pirate.

“Good work, ladies!” Lola said, standing proudly before her crew as Holly snapped shut her case and strode into position beside her. “Holly, Camille… next job for you. You know that quaint tradition the pirates have of putting a Nocturnal on each of their ships?”

The girls nodded.

“Doubtless, he or she will be hiding belowdecks,” Lola said. “Find them and bring them up to me.”

“Dead or undead?” Camille inquired.

Lola laughed lightly. “Undead, if you please. We’re going to play a little game with the opposition.” Her eyes searched the crowd. “Jessamy, Nathalie—fetch the package from
The Vagabond
, if you please. The rest of you can start clearing up the deck.”

At her words her crew sprang into action. Jack Fallico’s husk of a body was the first to hit the water.

“What’s going on?” Sidorio asked.

“I’ll explain later,” Lola said, hurling a set of keys toward him. As he caught them in his thick palm, she continued. “A gift to you, husband. Another ship for your burgeoning collection. Number one hundred and one, if I’m not mistaken? It was supposed to be a surprise but you’ve rather blown that.”

“Thank you,” Sidorio said, cradling the keys in his hand. He stepped forward to kiss his wife, but, at the last moment, Lola twisted her face and Sidorio found his lips thudding against her taut cheek, smooth and cold as marble.

Stukeley, Mimma, and Johnny averted their eyes. Even so, Sidorio flushed with embarrassment.

“Are you angry with me, wife?” he inquired, a dangerous edge to his voice.

Lola sighed, her breath sending a sharp spiral of smoke
through the black air. “I’m
furious
with you,” she said. “I’m having a baby, Sid, not a lobotomy. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of business both before and after the birth.”

“
Births
,” Sidorio corrected her. “You’re having two babies, Lola. Our twins. The heirs to our immortal empire.”

“Yes, yes,” Lola said briskly. “Please be assured I know there are two budding Sidorios in my belly. I’m the one who gets kicked and nipped at all hours of the day and night. It seems big feet and sharp teeth run in the family.”

Sidorio smiled and extended his hand to his wife’s neck. It was as elegant as a swan’s, deceptively fragile-looking. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I acted rashly. I know I’m overprotective sometimes, but I just care about you so much.” His voice became husky. “I almost lost you once before. I can’t imagine how I’d go on if something happened to you.”

Lola’s dark eyes met her husband’s. “If something happened to
me
—or to your precious twins?”

The brutal barb did not throw Sidorio off track. “You know how much these children mean to me,” he said. “But you’ll never know how much
you
mean to me, because my love for you is a thing which defies all measure.”

At these words, Lola at last softened. “That’s very sweet,” she said, running a fingertip along the flat of Captain Fallico’s sword and bringing the bloodstained tip to
her mouth. She tasted it, then nodded approvingly. The blood was surprisingly complex. She’d enjoy a glass of that later. Full of health-giving nutrients for the twins.

“Are you truly sorry, Sid?” Lola asked. “Do you promise to mend your ways?”

Sidorio nodded. “I only wish there was some way I could prove it to you.”

“Actions speak louder than words,” Lola announced decisively. She reached out and took back the ring of keys. They glimmered in the moonlight as she extended them toward the girl by her side. “Mimma, you’ve shown excellent leadership qualities of late. I think it’s high time you commanded a ship of your own.”

“Wow!” Mimma said, clearly taken by surprise. She gripped the keys tightly.

Stukeley swept her up in his arms and kissed her. “Congratulations, Captain!”

“Gee, thanks,” Mimma said, beaming broadly. “Look, here come the others!”

The captains and their deputies turned. The rank-and-file members of Lola’s crew were busy tossing dead pirates into the ocean and swabbing the deck. Through the melee strode Holly and Camille, strong-arming a terrified-looking Nocturnal. Further in the distance, Jessamy and Nathalie were also making their approach, carrying over their shoulders what looked very much like a body bag.

Holly and Camille came to a standstill, presenting the
ashen-faced Nocturnal to their leader. Lola stepped forward to make a cursory examination of the man.

“You’re a poor excuse for a Vampirate,” she declared.

“I’m not a Vampirate,” he rasped. “I’m a Nocturnal. I serve Obsidian Darke and the—”

“Enough!” Lola raised a gloved hand and slapped him viciously. “You are a traitor to your kind!”

“Shall we finish him off?” Holly inquired hopefully.

Lola paused as Nathalie and Jessamy deposited the hefty package they had been carrying onto the deck.

“No,” Lola said. “No, we’ll take the little traitor with us. I’m sure we can think of some ways to bring him back to the right, true path. Take him away to
The Vagabond
!”

Holly and Camille dragged the helpless Nocturnal away.

Now Lola turned her attention to the body bag lying before her. It was black, with a long gold zipper glinting in the moonlight.

“Open it!” she commanded.

Jessamy crouched down and released the zipper. The others all leaned forward to see who—or what—was inside. As the mutilated body was revealed, there were gasps.

“Who
was
that?” Johnny inquired.

Lola smiled. “Don’t count him out just yet, Cowboy. He’s in a bad way, but I’m sure the Nocturnals can patch him up with their healing magic.”

“What’s all this about?” Stukeley asked.

Ignoring him, Lola addressed Nathalie and Jessamy once more. “Throw this one over the side to join the others.”

The two Vampirates swiftly embarked on the task.

“Jacqui!” Lola called across the deck. “Do you have the flares?”

“Yes, Captain!” Jacqueline raced forward, flares and matches in hand.

“The girl who played with fire!” Lola giggled as Jacqueline lit the flares. There was a whooshing noise, then a pop, and suddenly the whole deck was suffused with red light.

“Time to make ourselves scarce,” Lola said, taking her husband’s arm. “You may take me home now. I think I shall have a little nap. And perhaps a foot rub wouldn’t be so bad.”

Sidorio drew his disarmingly beautiful, unboundingly vicious wife close in to his side and escorted her swiftly across the deck. It was almost deserted now as the others, having executed their business, had returned to
The Vagabond
.

Holly came marching across the deck to rejoin Mimma and Sidorio’s two deputies. She and Mimma exchanged a high five, as Stukeley inquired, “Do either of you know exactly what Captain Lockwood is up to this time?”

He was met by two shaking heads.

“But I got myself a ship,” Mimma said, smiling and twirling the keys around her finger.

Johnny brought his own arm around Holly’s waist. “I reckon this calls for a drink.”

Holly glanced at her antique fob watch. “It’s still happy hour at the Blood Tavern.”

“Sugar,” said Johnny, grinning and rolling his eyes, “since they franchised that joint,
every
hour is happy hour!”

“Well, either way, we’d better make ourselves scarce,” Stukeley said. “Here comes one of those Alliance ambulance vessels.”

“They must have seen the flares,” Johnny said, his eyes sparkling. “This is all kinda crazy… but fun!”

Mimma turned to Stukeley. “Can you give me a quick lesson in how to steer this behemoth?” she asked.

Stukeley nodded, stretching out his hand. Giggling, the four young Vampirates raced hand in hand toward the steering column, their feet slip-sliding on the newly swabbed deck.

Connor felt a knot in his chest as he saw the iconic stone arch that marked the entry point to the Pirate Academy harbor. His mind had been so busy since the will reading, he’d failed to perform the one task he needed to complete. Soon they would be heading into a Council of War with the pirate captains and there would no longer be an opportunity.

Cate was on his side of the boat, expertly steering the vessel toward the center of the arch. On either side, flaming torches hungrily licked the ancient stones and illuminated the engraved words of the school’s famous maxim:

PLENTY AND SATIETY
,

PLEASURE AND EASE
,

LIBERTY AND POWER
.

“Cate!” Connor said, immediately aware that the tone of his voice was all wrong. Too loud. Too urgent. He’d rehearsed this scene so many times in his head but now he knew he was going to mess it up.

Her face met his instantly, unnerved by his expression and sudden awkwardness. “What’s up, Connor?”

“There’s something I need to tell you.” He frowned. “Before we arrive at the jetty.”

Cate smiled at that. “You’d better be quick about it, then. We’ve got about five minutes’ sailing time, max.”

Five minutes!
He should have stepped up to the plate when he’d had the chance. He’d let Cate down—and not just Cate. He reached his hand into his pocket, his fingers searching for the tiny but potent object inside.

“Connor!” He could hear the impatience now in her voice.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s about Bart.”

“What about Bart?” Cate asked, her tone of voice at once profoundly different.

This was too big, too important a conversation to cram into a few minutes, but now that he had started, Connor had no option but to forge ahead. “When he came to find me on
The Blood Captain
he told me something. Something important…” Here, at last, were the right words. Suddenly he found himself distracted by the sight of figures clustering on the jetty and the trail of torches lighting the path up the hill.

“Connor, what exactly are you trying to tell me?” Cate’s
voice drew him back to her eyes. In them, he saw a depth of emotion he had never seen before. Not even when she had heard the news of Bart’s death—the confirmation of her worst fear.

Connor looked straight into Cate’s eyes. “Bart was going to ask you to marry him,” he said. “When he came back. He was going to give you this.” Connor drew his fingers from his pocket but kept his eyes fixed on Cate. “It was his grandmother’s ring.”

He lifted out the tiny circle of metal and passed it to Cate. Instinctively, she reached out her finger. Connor had been expecting to place the ring in her palm and, taken by surprise, he let the metal band fall to the deck boards below. He dropped down onto the floor, searching in the darkness for the tiny band. This was going from bad to worse. If he had lost the ring, he’d never forgive himself.

Above him, Cate stood stock-still. “He was going to ask me to marry him,” she rasped. “After all this time.”

“He always loved you,” Connor said, still desperately trying to recover the ring. “He wanted to spend the rest of his life with you.” There it was! He reached out with relief and grabbed the tiny ring between his thumb and forefinger. Rising to his feet, he saw that they were now only meters from their mooring. Grace was standing on the jetty. She smiled to see him and raised her hand.

He lifted his own hand and nodded, then swiftly turned and placed the ring carefully in the center of Cate’s palm.
Her fingers closed tightly around it. Besides that small movement, she remained as still as a statue, her shock of red hair buffeted in the harbor breeze.

“I’m
really
sorry not to have told you before,” Connor said. “I know how important this is to you. And it was to Bart, too. I’ve been trying to work out the right moment to tell you but I’ve completely messed this up. I’m so—”