Vampirates 6: Immortal War (52 page)

“Give him to me, Holly.”

There were tears in her eyes, too. “I can’t, Johnny. You have to go.”

“Please don’t make me do something I might regret.”

“I’d give my life for these babies,” Holly said through her tears.

She just got out the words before Johnny’s silver dagger pierced her clean through the heart. As she slumped to the floor, Johnny retrieved baby Evil from her arms. “I’m sorry, sugar,” he said as Holly’s body writhed in rapid response to the toxic silver blade. “But you left me no choice. Now tell me where baby Hunter is.”

She shook her head, clearly in pain. “Never. I won’t…” Her head turned to one side and a glazed look came over her eyes. Then the silver began to work its way deeper into her system and her flesh began to burn.

“Come on, little Evil,” Johnny said, clutching the crying babe to him. “It’s okay, buddy. You’re coming with Uncle Johnny.” He shook his head. “If only you could talk, you could tell me where your brother is.”

“Are you looking for Hunter?”

Johnny hadn’t heard any footsteps, but now he found the threshold to the nursery was blocked by Olivier, who nonchalantly carried Lola and Sidorio’s other baby in his arms. Smiling at Johnny, Olivier glided into the room, carrying Hunter over toward the twin bassinets. Olivier was about to lower Hunter into his crib but seemed suddenly to think better of it.

Turning, Olivier wrinkled his nose. “I smell burning,” he said. Glancing down, he caught sight of Holly and shook his head at Johnny.

“Oh, dear, Cowboy. Was that really necessary? That bighearted girl was rather keen on you, you know.” He hugged Hunter more closely to him. “Now then, I think you had better tell me just exactly what’s going on.”

The Nocturne
had been infiltrated on port and starboard by members of the rebel Vampirate crews coming over from the sterns of
The Diablo
and
The Tiger
. Lorcan and his squad raced into position to defend the ship. Lorcan worried about what this meant. Had Sidorio and his comrades won out? Were the other two ships now overtaken by the Vampirates? As he watched more of the rebel crews leaping across, his blood ran cold. Had the unthinkable finally happened?

Suddenly, Lorcan felt a hand on his shoulder. Reflexively, he turned and saw Mimma standing, grinning, in front of him. The hand remained on his shoulder, but as he moved, it slid down his front and fell to the deck in front of him.

“Don’t you like my gift?” Mimma said. “It’s freshly severed. I had a little suck on the arteries on my way over.”

Lorcan glanced with revulsion from the severed hand to the equally repellent Mimma.

“Let’s play a little game, shall we?” Mimma said. “It’s called guess whose hand it is… or, rather, was!”

“No games,” Lorcan said, preparing to charge at her.

“Johnny told me you were a no-fun zone, and he was right,” Mimma said, leaping into action. “Well, if you won’t play, I may as well just tell you. It’s your mate, Cate’s. See what I did there, Furey?
Your mate, Cate
! I’m a poet!”

“That’s
not
Cate’s hand,” Lorcan said with a shudder.

Mimma shrugged. “Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t! And maybe I just dispatched her to a better place and maybe I sent off that Moonshine bloke along with her.”

“You’re full of talk,” Lorcan said. “Why don’t we see if you can walk the walk?”

Mimma winked at him. “You’re on! I’ve heard all about your fancy moves. Let’s see if you live up to all the hype!”

Not far away from where Lorcan fought, Grace opened her eyes and found herself inside her cabin, looking up into Oskar’s face.

“Thank goodness!” he cried. “Grace, I’ve been
so
worried about you.”

Grace seemed disconcerted. She raised herself up on her elbows and looked curiously about her surroundings. Below her, she saw the open book. As she lifted her hand, the writing swiftly dissolved.

Breathing rapidly, she looked up at Oskar once more. “Did I succeed?” she asked. “Have they arrived?”

Oskar shook his head slowly. “You’re not making sense,” he said. “You’ve been out cold for almost an hour.”

“No,” she said. “I’ve been on a journey—a mission to fetch reinforcements.”

Oskar shook his head. “You fell,” he said. “And I think you may have concussed yourself. Wait! Don’t get up too quickly. Let me check your head for wounds.”

“This is the last of them,” Captain Quivers told Captain Grammont as she shepherded the junior class through the wooden doors into the Rotunda. Lisabeth Quivers looked back across the lawns of Pirate Academy, out past the harbor arch, to the mass of ships locked in conflict. She realized that she could no longer tell which belonged to her comrades and which to the enemy armada.

“Quick now!” Captain Grammont addressed the students, leading them across the floor of the Rotunda. “Onto the platform! Okay, that’s enough for now.”

The impromptu elevator began its descent to the subterranean bunker. There were excited looks on the young kids’ faces; it seemed that even during times of stress, there were small pleasures to be derived. The rest of the
class lately ushered in by Lisabeth Quivers stood by, eagerly awaiting their own turn on the elevator.

As the platform returned to draw level with the mosaic floor, Captain Grammont beckoned over the next group of students. As he did so, there was a sudden clinking noise overhead. Looking up, Grammont saw that the cases of swords were vibrating. He couldn’t help but wonder what might prompt such unusual movement. Dark thoughts of incendiary devices on the roof crossed his mind but he gritted his teeth and maintained his sangfroid.

Captain Quivers’s eyes had also been drawn up to the glass cases. Their movement was becoming more and more agitated. Determined not to alarm her young charges, still she exchanged an anxious glance with Captain Grammont. They were all standing directly beneath the rattling cases. The cases had begun to strike one another now. Glass chimed on glass, sending out a discordant sequence of notes, which made an ugly music with the ever-present wail of the “under attack” sirens.

“Should we…” Captain Quivers began. Before she could complete the thought, the cases suddenly shattered and shards of glass rained down from above.

“Run, everyone!” Grammont cried. “This way!”

The kids screamed, racing for cover. The falling glass was the least of it. As the cases broke, the hundred or more swords contained within them began their own descent. Razor-sharp steel and silver began hurtling down toward the students.

Captain Quivers pulled two of the youngsters within her grasp out of the danger zone. She saw Grammont do the same from the other side.

But then, the strangest thing of all happened. Before the swords could reach any of the pirate apprentices, the weapons vaporized before their very eyes.

“What the…” began Grammont, from the sidelines.

“But how?” asked Captain Quivers, her arms tightly hugging the students she had rescued.

Mercifully, miraculously, they had escaped with only minor cuts and grazes. Now they all looked on in wonder.

“Where did the swords go, Headmaster?” asked one of the young students.

Captain Grammont was unable to answer. He just shook his head.

On the deck of
The Tiger
, Bo Yin and Jasmine were fighting side by side at the rear of the ship. As they each dispatched their latest victims, Jasmine turned to her young protégée. “You’re doing great!” she exclaimed.

“Thanks!” Bo flushed with pride. She was having fun, momentarily pushing aside all thoughts of the stakes of tonight’s battle and enjoying implementing all her expert training.

Bo Yin and Jasmine looked along the length of the deck. During the course of the fighting, it had thinned out
because of the casualties, but now it was suddenly full again.

“Do you see what I see?” Bo Yin asked.

Jasmine nodded. Her first response was alarm. Where had this new crew sprung from? She wasn’t aware of any new ship pulling up alongside.

“Jasmine!” Bo Yin said. “Look around the deck.” Her tone was full of wonder.

Jasmine soon understood why. The deck had suddenly been infiltrated by new combatants. But the new fighters had not arrived from any ships, conventional or otherwise. They were utterly familiar.

“There’s Osbert,” Jasmine said, “who died five months ago. And Bima. We lost her when we took back
The Diablo
, remember?”

Bo Yin nodded. “That’s right, but she’s back again—and she doesn’t seem to have lost any of her combat skills.”

Jasmine’s eyes were wide and her heart was racing. “I don’t know how this happened, Bo, but our dead have come back to join the fight.”

They watched as a Vampirate’s sword passed clean through one of the new arrivals. The dead pirate swiftly staked the Vampirate for his troubles. Jasmine turned to Bo Yin, awestruck.

“It’s as if the swords of our dead crew members are even more lethal than ours!”

“Yes,” Bo agreed, elated. “But it’s not
just
our ship’s dead, Jasmine. See that guy over there? He’s Chang Po. A
complete pirate legend. He once ran the Red Flag Fleet with Cheng I Sao. Look, she’s fighting alongside him! I read all about her in my dad’s history books—she has much in common with Captain Li.”

Jasmine gasped. “You read about them in history books? Can this really be happening? Have the dead come back to help us win this battle?”