“There,” Johnny said softly as their boat drifted away in the shadows of the vessels above. “We’re going on a little journey, see?” He smiled down at the wriggling, giggling baby. “Well it’s a little journey for me, but quite a major one for you. Uncle Johnny has a big ol’ surprise for you. Yes, he does!”
At the rear of The Tiger, Connor saw Cheng Li racing toward Sidorio, who had taken up position near the ship’s mast.
“No!” Connor wanted to cry. If anyone was going to take out Sidorio, it had to be him, not Cheng Li. But his own way was blocked by several of Sidorio’s crew. He’d have to unleash a spree of violence such as he never had before in order to make it.
As he weighed both his odds and his strategy, he was dismayed to see that Cheng Li was not alone in closing in on Sidorio. It appeared that both Obsidian and Jacoby were closing in on the Vampirate leader, too.
Connor’s decision had been made for him. A killing spree it was!
Lorcan was still sparring with Mimma when he saw Grace and Oskar running toward them.
“Stay back!” he cried out to his comrades. Mimma misunderstood.
“I can’t kill you from a distance!” she cried, preparing to lunge.
Lorcan was wrong-footed, his attention distracted by Grace’s sudden appearance, but as Mimma hurtled toward him, he saw that her threat had been neutralized. A sword had been plunged into her back and she was tumbling, arms scrabbling, stricken with panic, toward the deck. Her head came crashing down against the deck boards.
Grace stepped forward to retrieve her sword.
“You?” Mimma said, staring up at Grace in shock. “How could you, Gracie? I’m your friend, remember?”
“The name’s Grace,” she said, withdrawing Grace O’Malley’s sword from Mimma’s flesh. “And don’t be overdramatic. I haven’t dealt you a fatal blow—yet. Look, see how your wound is already beginning to heal.”
Mimma glanced down and saw that Grace was right. She looked up again to find Grace still standing threateningly over her. “If you ever attack my boyfriend again, the outcome will be much worse for you, understand?”
Mimma nodded slowly.
“It’s time for you to leave this ship now,” Grace continued, glancing up at the sky. “Dawn is on its way.”
Mimma saw the truth of Grace’s words. Other members of her crew had already reached The Calabria and had steered the ship around. Now she leaped from The Nocturne, across to safety.
After she and her cronies had departed, Lorcan turned to Grace. “Thank you!” he said. “Not just for saving my life but for all these fresh allies.” He gestured across the deck, where the dead pirates were catching their breath, having turned the tide of the battle. “I take it that it was you who brought them back?”
Grace smiled, nodding. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, I did.” Her eyes were bright. “I went to Jack Tar’s Cavern and asked for their help. Oh, Lorcan. We’re going to win this war, aren’t we? It’s going to end here, tonight. And neither Connor nor I need to die because I’ve already been to the realm of the dead and made it back! The prophecy has been fulfilled and we’re both safe.”
Lorcan had never experienced greater relief.
Oskar grinned at him. “Quite a catch, your girlfriend, by all accounts.”
All Lorcan could do was nod.
Sidorio smiled as he faced his three adversaries—Cheng Li, Jacoby, and Obsidian.
“Who wants to die first?” He grinned. “I know, let’s take it in order of seniority.” He waved his sword at Jacoby. “You, blondie—you’re not even a captain, are you?”
Jacoby was unabashed. “It’s a mistake to be so hung up on status,” he said, making a charge at Sidorio. He landed a clean strike on Sidorio’s arm. A deep gash opened up in the Vampirate’s flesh.
Sidorio was surprised but not perturbed. Already, he could feel the fibers of his arm knitting themselves back together. As he stared back at Jacoby, he saw the kid was grinning at him. And he saw that the kid had fangs.
“You’ve got promise, Vampirate,” Sidorio told him. “But you’re on the wrong team.”
“No, I’m not,” Jacoby retorted. “Your group tried to recruit me once but I declined. I’m a Nocturnal, not a Vampirate.”
His arm now fully restored, Sidorio shook his head. “There’s no such thing as Nocturnals. There are just pirates and Vampirates. Anything else is just deluded.”
“There’s no one more deluded than you.” It was Obsidian Darke who spoke now. “You always thought you were better than the rest of us. You even thought you were better than Julius Caesar, though he was the first one to kill you.”
“The first?” Sidorio asked, his eyes once more taking in the hateful sight of Obsidian Darke.
“That’s right!” Cheng Li said, stepping closer. “Caesar was the first, but now you’re going to be dispatched by one of us to a second, more lasting, kind of death.”
Sidorio laughed. “It’s three of you versus me, but the odds are still in my favor.”
As he spoke, he lost sight of Obsidian. He had to assume that the bloodless Vampirate had sneaked around him. Time to take care of one of the flunkies, then he’d dispatch Obsidian Darke to his ultimate torment.
With fire in his eyes, Sidorio lunged at Cheng Li. But, at the last second—having successfully wrong-footed his opponents—he turned and directed his sword toward Jacoby. “Die, Nocturnal!” he cried, burying his sword deep in the young man’s chest.
It was only as the body fell to the deck that Sidorio realized his mistake. Jacoby had jumped clear of the attack, but a fourth adversary had come into play.
Sidorio looked down in horror as he saw Connor, his own son, impaled on his sword. Connor’s blood was pooling on the deck, his eyes already distant.
“You’ve killed Connor!” Cheng Li yelled at him, shocked and outraged.
“No!” Sidorio cried, feeling his own heart cracking into a million shards, his head splintering with never-before-known pain. Not Connor! But his eyes told him the unthinkable was true. He, Sidorio, had killed his own dear son.
44
GOOD-BYES AT DAWN
Sidorio was frozen to the spot above Connor’s fallen body. From three sides, swords now pressed against his neck—from Jacoby, from Cheng Li, and from Obsidian. Sidorio was trapped but still he managed to cry out to his son.
“Open your eyes, Connor!”
Meanwhile, Jasmine called to her comrades. “Come… Captain Tempest. He is wounded! He needs urgent medical assistance.”
Connor’s eyes opened but her relief was short-lived. His eyes seemed different to her somehow—focused somewhere far off.
Jasmine fell to her knees at his side. “Connor!” she cried. “Connor! Stay with me!” Seeing the pool of blood fanning out from underneath him, she glanced up at Cheng Li. “There’s so much blood… I’m not sure how much longer he can last.”
Jasmine’s hands moved across Connor’s chest, then she steadied herself and drew Sidorio’s sword out from Connor’s chest. As she cleared the entry wound, Connor’s blood spattered up onto her face. Instinctively, she closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she saw that Connor’s eyes were now closing. “No,” she cried. “Don’t go, Connor. Don’t go!”
Her words seemed to take effect. His eyelids fluttered and briefly opened. She leaned over him, placing her hand against his cheek. But then his eyes began to close once more, and, somehow, she knew that they were never going to open again. She gazed up at Cheng Li, feeling utterly bereft.
“I’m so sorry, Jasmine,” Cheng Li said, her own voice deep with emotion. “But there’s nothing more we can do for him.”
Rising to her feet, Jasmine spat at Sidorio. “You monster!” She had never felt more pain, nor felt more intensely the desire to inflict it. Seeing the tips of her three comrades’ swords pressing into Sidorio’s thick neck, she cried out, “What are you waiting for? Send him to oblivion!”
As she finished speaking, the air was suddenly ri
ven with the sound of screams. They filled the sky. It was disconcerting at first, but then the pirates understood. The screams were sirens, coming from the Vampirate ships.
One of Sidorio’s last remaining crew members called out to him from the edge of the deck. “Sire, we must retreat! Dawn is coming!”
“Save yourself!” Sidorio responded. “I can take care of myself!”
With a worried expression, the Vampirate nodded and jumped ship.
“Dawn?” Jasmine confronted Jacoby. “You have to get inside. Now! I’ll take your place.” She extended her own sword to Sidorio’s neck as Jacoby, with obvious reluctance, stood down.
“That’s it! Run away, little Nocturnal,” Sidorio sneered. “Run to safety!”
Irritated in the extreme, Jasmine pushed her sword deeper into Sidorio’s flesh. He flashed her a murderous look but was powerless, for now, to do anything more.
“That odious sound is the Vampirates’ call to retreat,” Lorcan told Grace, on board The Nocturne. “You were right, my love. The war is won!”
Grace punched the air with delight. “I knew it!” she said. “I can’t wait to see Connor again and tell him we’re going to be okay.”
Lorcan hugged her. “I need to clear the deck of our own crew before it gets any lighter,” he said. “I’ll come and find you inside.”
She nodded, flushed with relief and exhilaration as she saw the enemy ships filling up in preparation for their urgent retreat. She leaned against the deck rail, thinking of everything she and her comrades had accomplished. This victory had been hard-won.
“Grace!” said an urgent voice, close behind her. It was immediately familiar but it wasn’t Lorcan, nor Oskar. Turning, she found Johnny at her side. In his arms was a bundle, which, on closer inspection, looked very much like a baby.
“Johnny!” Grace exclaimed. “What are you doing here? It’s almost dawn. You should be safe inside.”
“I know,” he said. “We don’t have much time, but I needed to see you.”
Grace nodded, leaning closer toward him. “Is that one of Lola’s twins?” she asked.
“His name is Evil,” Johnny said. “Would you like to hold him?” He didn’t give Grace a chance to decline before thrusting baby Evil into her arms.
“Poor baby!” Grace said as the infant made himself comfortable. “As if the odds weren’t already stacked against him! What kind of a name is Evil?”
“You can change it if you like,” Johnny said.
Grace glanced up at him. “What do you mean?” She gazed at him intently. “Why did you bring him to me?”
“I stole him,” Johnny said. “Stukeley wanted me to kill him.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t do that, Grace. But I had to get him away from Lola and Sidorio. He’ll have a better chance at life with you.” His dark eyes met hers. “With you and Lorcan, I mean.”
Grace’s eyes narrowed. “You want me and Lorcan to bring up Lola’s baby?”
Johnny nodded. “I would have brought them both to you if I had the chance, but Hunter… well, I couldn’t get Hunter away. But you can save this little guy. You’ll do it, won’t you, Grace? You understand why he needs to be kept away from them?”
She nodded with grim conviction. “Everyone is better off away from those two. But Johnny, you should stay, too. Leave that world behind. Come with this baby to The Nocturne and make a fresh start. Obsidian and the others will welcome you, I know they will.”
Johnny considered her proposition for a moment. Then he shook his head. “The die is cast for me,” he said. “I have to get back before the light scalds me. But I’ll sleep a little more easy knowing I did something good at last.”
He stepped closer in order to directly address baby Evil. “Be a good boy for your new folks,” he said. “Or you’ll have Uncle Johnny to answer to!” Grinning, he turned back to Grace. “I’d best get going now.”
Grace looked into his eyes imploringly. “Please stay,” she said.
He shook his head again. “I appreciate the offer, truly I do. It just wouldn’t work out, Grace, not for any of us.”
A tear escaped from Grace’s eye. “I really wish I could help you,” she said. “Ever since I met you, I’ve wished I could find a way to help you change. There’s so much goodness inside you, but you just can’t seem to see it.”
Johnny was genuinely moved. “You’d best stop right there,” he said, “or I’m going to start blubbering myself.” Letting out a sigh, he resumed in a more pragmatic tone, “There is something I need from you before I head back. Do you happen to have in your possession a book? Some kind of magic book about being a dhampir?”
Grace frowned. “No,” she lied. “I don’t.”
“I really need that book,” Johnny said, a note of pleading in his voice.
“I did have it, but I gave it to someone else,” Grace said. “Someone who needs it more than me.” Before Johnny could make a further appeal, Grace nodded toward the sky. “If you’re going, you need to go right now,” she said.
Johnny saw that she was right. “I hope to see you again sometime, once all this dust has settled.” He leaned over and kissed her tenderly on the cheek. “Remember, Grace, the ride is far from over.”
Then he stole away into the night, leaving Lola and Sidorio’s baby already sleeping peacefully in her arms.
“Where is he?” Lola cried, running along the corridor of The Vagabond, Nathalie at her side. “Where is he?” Each cry more desperate than the one before. “Can you see him?”
“There he is, Captain!” Nathalie cried, pointing out through the porthole toward the deck of The Tiger.
As Lola came to a stop beside her, Nathalie opened up the porthole so that their view was no longer impeded by its smeared surface. Now Lola stepped forward and saw the terrible truth—Sidorio, her dear husband and father of her twins, commander in chief of the empire of night, was trapped on the deck of the enemy ship.
“Come away from the window!” Nathalie urged her. “The light!”
A single tear fell across the black-heart tattoo around Lola’s eye. “How can you tell me to step away from the light when you see the predicament Sidorio is in?” She remained at the window, watching with horror as the light grew more golden. Dawn was imminent now. She saw the light stalk hungrily across the decks of the pirate ships, swiftly overpowering their sails and rigging.
Her eyes returned to the deck of The Tiger, watching in mounting horror as the light began to steal its way from the prow to the center of the deck, where Sidorio was effectively pinioned by his three captors.
“Let’s destroy him!” Jasmine repeated.
“No,” Cheng Li said. “We’ll simply allow the light to do its work.” She glanced across at Obsidian Darke, seeking his agreement. He nodded.
They stood there, their three swords pressed into Sidorio’s neck, as the light crept across the deck toward them. Suddenly it was upon them, bathing Jasmine and Cheng Li’s face with welcome warmth. Obsidian Darke kept his head bowed. He might be able to endure the light, but still it was not something he welcomed. He kept his face fixed on Sidorio’s.
As light fell on Sidorio’s forehead, the Vampirate grinned and lifted his face, as best he could, to meet the sun’s rays. He laughed, his eyes turning from Cheng Li to Obsidian. “You see. I’m just as powerful as you now. The light can do me no harm.”
Jasmine was the first to notice that the tip of her sword, still plunged into Sidorio’s flesh, had begun to glow red. It was as if the sword was being heated from within Sidorio. She turned to Cheng Li, wondering if she had noticed, too. Cheng Li nodded discreetly, then turned her eyes back to their captive.
Sidorio’s expression had faltered. He appeared far less cocky now. In fact, he looked as if he was in considerable pain. There was fire coming from within him. The skin on his face and the exposed parts of his body rapidly darkened, cut through with traces of fire, like embers. Already, his face had started to disintegrate—no more than ash floating away on the oce
an breeze. There was a sudden splintering as his shoulder detached from his body and fell to the deck, breaking into a thousand tiny pieces.
“No!” Lola cried out, still watching the nightmarish scene unfolding on the opposite deck. She lifted her crossbow and swiftly loaded it with a single silver arrow. “I’m going to make Obsidian Darke pay for this. Pathetic excuse for a Vampirate that he is!”
Lola aimed the crossbow sight through the open porthole at her unsuspecting target. With a guttural cry, she sent the silver arrow flying through the air and onto the deck of The Tiger.
Perhaps it was the infinitesimal movement of The Vagabond; perhaps a sudden gust of ocean breeze; or perhaps simply the maelstrom of Lola’s own emotions. Whichever, her aim was a little off, and the arrow sailed clear past Obsidian and deep into the heart of Cheng Li.
“No!” Cheng Li cried, falling toward the deck. “Not yet! There’s so much more to do!”
Her fall was broken by a pair of strong arms, which reached out from behind her. They broke her fall and lowered her gently down onto the deck boards, but still the hands kept hold of Cheng Li.
“Don’t worry, daughter,” whispered a voice in her ear. “You’re safe now.”
On the deck of The Typhon, Barbarro shook his head with relief and delight. “We did it!” he said. “Together, we won this.”
“Yes,” Molucco said, squeezing his brother’s shoulder. “Another victory for the Brothers Wrathe!” He turned to Porfirio. “We should be getting back, don’t you think?”
Porfirio nodded. “I think so.”
“Wait!” Barbarro said, reaching out to Molucco. “Moonshine is on The Diablo, brother. Let me call him over so he can thank you in person for giving him the chance to be captain. It’s been the making of the lad.”
Molucco smiled. “I knew he’d pull through,” he said. “There’s a lot of me in that kid, I always thought.”
Immortal War Page 34
