Black Heart

by Justin Somper

  “Come on, Connor!” Cheng Li urged. “You know what you have to do.”

  Hearing her words, Connor ran down the aisle, taking the same path that the wedding party had traveled with such joy barely half an hour ago. He came to a stop just in front of the newlyweds. Here was the groom, Sidorio, looking more formal than on their last encounter. More formal and more docile, though his eyes stared at Connor with a combination of ire and wonder.

  Connor now turned his attention to Sidorio’s bride. It was his first glimpse of Lady Lola. Connor knew all about her dark deeds, but it was still disconcerting to see her like this, her eyes swollen, her lips engorged. He knew what he had to do. He was in position one.

  “Do it!” Cheng Li cried.

  He didn’t take his eyes off Lady Lockwood for a second as he reached for Master Yin’s specially crafted silver sword. He was about to deliver a most unusual and unwelcome wedding gift.

  47

  THE GIFT

  “Come on, Connor,” urged Cheng Li once more.

  Connor lifted the sword and aimed it at Lady Lockwood’s heart. Not the black heart on her face but her actual heart, which, from what he had heard, was a whole lot blacker. As he targeted the sword, he thought of Zak and Varsha and Commodore Kuo.

  Sidorio managed to frame his numb lips into the word no, but he was powerless to prevent Connor from plunging the sword through Lady Lola’s frozen body. It was a clean entry, piercing right through her. Lady Lola looked at him strangely, then her eyes shifted to her groom. The newlyweds’ eyes met one last time, and then the bride’s eyelids fell shut.

  Connor couldn’t meet Sidorio’s glare. He had come to do a job and his job was done. He reached for his sword, but strangely, as he tried to withdraw it from Lady Lockwood’s prone body, it resisted, as if lodged in stone.

  “What’s wrong?” Cheng Li asked, appearing at his side.

  “It’s the sword,” he said. “It seems to be stuck.”

  “Try it again,” Cheng Li said.

  Connor reached out and gripped the hilt of the sword, employing all his strength to draw it back. It was no use.

  “Let me try,” said Cheng Li, stepping forward. She gripped her hands around the sword and pulled, but there was no movement whatsoever.

  “Everyone,” Cate called from down the aisle, “time to pull out. Quick! The effect of the aconite is starting to wear off.”

  Connor looked around him. It was true.

  The congregation looked as if it was waking up after a communal coma. Heads were turning, limbs coming back into motion. The Vampirates still seemed stunned at what had happened to them, but it wouldn’t take long for their daze to turn to anger and their anger to transform into action.

  “Everybody out!” Cate called, already in the back of the ruined chapel.

  “Leave the sword,” Cheng Li cried, pushing Connor forward. “Let’s get out of here!”

  As they started running to catch up with Cate and the others, Cheng Li smiled at Connor. “Our mission succeeded, Connor. Great work!”

  “Wait!” a thunderous roar arose as Sidorio leaped up and, regaining the movement of his legs and arms, flew after the escaping pirates.

  “Run!” Cheng Li cried. Connor was at her side, at the cliff edge, waiting to run to their waiting ship. But as they glanced back over their shoulders they saw that Jacoby and Jasmine were still in the church. And Sidorio was blocking their exit.

  “We have to go back!” Connor told Cheng Li. She hesitated, weighing her options.

  “You’re right,” Cheng Li conceded, running alongside him. “Cate, Bart, cover us!”

  The pirate squad ran back into the melee, where, at the altar, Sidorio had Jasmine in his clutches.

  “Let her go!” Jacoby cried. “Take me instead!”

  While Sidorio considered the matter, Jasmine shook her head and cried out to the other pirates. “Run! Save yourselves!”

  “No way!” cried Jacoby, then turned back to Sidorio. “You heard me. Let her go!”

  “Who are you?” Sidorio asked.

  “Jacoby Blunt, deputy captain of the Tiger,” cried Jacoby.

  Sidorio’s eyes spat flame at Jacoby. “You shouldn’t even be here. You and your comrades weren’t on the guest list.”

  Jacoby shrugged. “I know. And I wish I could say I’m glad I crashed your wedding, but actually, it wasn’t all that.” He was playing for time, hoping that he or one of the others would work out how to extract Jasmine from Sidorio’s clutches, but time was running out fast.

  Behind him, Johnny and Stukeley were coming back to life. Cheng Li stalked over to confront them. “We have a problem here,” she hissed. “We had a deal, remember? We’ve done our part. We gave the bride her wedding gift. You promised me and my crew safe passage from here.”

  Had the Vampirates tricked her, after all? But no, to her surprise, Stukeley nodded. “I meant it.”

  “Well,” said Cheng Li, “then do something!”

  Her cry attracted attention from Marianne and Angelika, who were crouched over the slain body of their captain. They were both in tears, staring down at Lady Lola’s beautiful but lifeless face. Angelika still held the bridal bouquet. She looked sadly down at the golden hand.

  “I’ll be having that, thank you very much!” cried Moonshine Wrathe, reaching down and tearing it out of Angelika’s confused clutches. Moonshine had the advantage of surprise, but now Angelika leaped up to face him, her teeth bared. As Moonshine blanched, recognizing his assailant from her visit to the Typhon, Marianne reached out her hand and pulled Angelika back down. “Angelika!” she cried. “Look! Look at her eyelids!”

  Moonshine stood there, his mother’s golden hand now in his clutches. It was all he had sought from this mission, and he was victorious. His mother would be overjoyed, and his dad and uncle would never stop singing his praises. He couldn’t believe how easy it had been! He glanced around, checking that none of the other pirates had witnessed the encounter. Then he ran to safety, already rewriting his tussle with Angelika in far more epic and dangerous terms.

  Still locked in conversation with Cheng Li, Stukeley suddenly became aware that Marianne was staring at him. Instinctively, he brutally shoved Cheng Li aside. “Get out of here!” he cried, adding under his breath, “round up your squad. I’ll do the rest.”

  Cheng Li nodded, instantly calling back her crew, with the exception of Jasmine, who was still locked, cowering, in Sidorio’s arms.

  Cheng Li waited for Johnny and Stukeley to make their move, but before they could do so, Connor stepped forward. Cheng Li cursed Connor for his heroic tendencies. “I’m the one you want,” she heard him tell Sidorio. “I murdered your bride. If you have a score to settle, it’s with me, not her.” What was he thinking of? Why did he have to go and complicate everything?

  “You!” Sidorio bellowed, turning to Connor. There was a flicker of recognition in Sidorio’s eyes, and he released Jasmine and confronted Connor. “You killed her.” The anger in his voice was balanced with deep sorrow. This came as a surprise to Cheng Li. It was as if the Vampirate had genuine feelings.

  Cheng Li’s eyes darted nervously from Connor to Sidorio to Johnny to Stukeley. Something had to happen, and fast! But she couldn’t think of anything that would distract Sidorio now that he had Connor in his sights.

  “Captain!” Stukeley cried. “Captain!”

  His voice was loud, but Sidorio did not turn. He reached out for Connor.

  “Captain!” Stukeley repeated.

  “You!” Sidorio said, his hand grabbing Connor roughly by the shoulder.

  “Capitán!” Johnny raced to Sidorio’s side. “Capitán. Your wife, Lady Lockwood—I mean Lady Sidorio. She’s not destroyed! She’s waking up!”

  At first, Cheng Li thought it was a brilliant ruse. She would have clapped her hands if she hadn’t been so intent on grabbing Connor and Jasmine and moving them on while they had a brief advantage over Sidorio. But as she did so, she saw that Johnny’s words were
not a ruse. The murdered bride had indeed woken up.

  Both Sidorio’s lieutenants and the bride’s two ring bearers were positioned on their knees around Lady Lola. Her eyes were open, and even now she was pulling at the sword lodged in her chest.

  “You came back!” Sidorio cried, running over to his returning bride in ecstasy.

  “How can this be happening?” Cheng Li cried, turning to her crewmates for answers.

  “The stabbing wasn’t enough,” Jacoby said, his eyes wide with panic, “even with the combination of silver, hawthorn, and aconite. It’s like when we staked Vampirate Two—the one who reconstituted himself!”

  “I thought you’d learned from that mistake,” Cheng Li cried, shooting a sharp look at her deputy. “But it’s happened again, hasn’t it?”

  “We thought we had it covered with the combination of the three toxic substances,” Jacoby said, talking fast. “Look how effective the aconite was at stunning the crowd!”

  “We didn’t come here to stun the crowd,” snapped Cheng Li. “We came here to kill the bride!”

  “We need to stake her!” Jacoby shouted, thinking on his feet. “And we’ll cut her head off, too! That way, she can’t bring herself back to life again.”

  “Jacoby!” Cheng Li cried out in exasperation. “Why didn’t you work all this out before?”

  “Don’t worry, Captain,” Jacoby said, sounding calm. “Connor and I will take care of it!” He glanced toward Connor. “Right, buddy?”

  “Sure,” Connor nodded. “Just one problem: my only sword is the one she’s busy trying to extricate from her chest.”

  Jacoby turned to Jasmine. “Min, quick! Give Connor your sword!”

  Jasmine threw her sword over to Connor, who caught the hilt in his hand.

  “Head or heart?” cried Jacoby.

  “Your call!” Connor answered. He just wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. He thought he’d already completed his mission. Now he was having to kill, or rather destroy, his target a second time.

  “I’ll take the heart,” Jacoby cried. “You take the head.”

  It sounded simple enough, but it was only as Connor ran alongside his comrade toward Lady Lockwood that he faced up to the barbaric act he was about to commit. Slicing someone’s head off! No, he told himself, not someone. Something. She might look human, but she wasn’t. She was a monster. They all were. She had killed two innocent friends of his. She had killed Commodore Kuo. All in cold blood. And she wouldn’t hesitate for even a fraction of a second before killing him.

  Sidorio was bent over his bride, reaching out his arms to her, thrilled that she had miraculously revived.

  “Captain!” Johnny and Stukeley cried simultaneously.

  Sidorio turned toward them. As he did so, Jacoby and Connor took their chance. Jacoby lunged at Lady Lockwood and plunged his sword into her heart. She let out a deep sigh and closed her eyes once more.

  “Connor,” Jacoby cried. “You’re up!”

  Connor’s sword was extended. He knew what he had to do, but he was riddled with doubt.

  “Connor!” Jacoby cried once more. “Now!”

  Gritting his teeth, Connor leaped forward and sliced Lady Lockwood’s head clean from her neck. The head rolled to one side. Jacoby grabbed it and started to run, as if in the middle of a particularly brutal rugby match. “It needs to be out of reach,” he cried. “So she can’t put herself back together.”

  Sidorio turned from his lieutenants, and seeing what had happened, bellowed, “No!”

  As he did so, Jacoby released Lady Lockwood’s head onto the grass, which sloped down to the edge of the cliff. The head began to roll, gaining momentum as it went.

  Sidorio watched, torn between the chance to rescue his wife’s head and avenge the pirates’ actions. It was no contest.

  “And now,” cried Cheng Li, “we get out of here!”

  They ran back toward the cliff edge where their colleagues were already escaping down the side. “Faster!” Cheng Li cried, watching Sidorio race after Lady Lola’s head.

  It was only Cheng Li and Connor left now, waiting for their lines to be free. They both watched as Sidorio flew to the cliff, arriving just a nanosecond too late, as Lady Lockwood’s beautiful head—veil, crown, and all—slipped from the edge of the cliff and hurtled down toward the ocean below. Crying out, Sidorio propelled himself over the cliff edge and dived after his wife’s head.

  “Come on,” Cheng Li said to Connor. They grabbed their lines and began running down the cliff face as fast as they could. When they reached the beach below, they raced toward the launch, where the others were waiting to return to the Tiger and make their escape.

  Jacoby and Jasmine waved frantically at them from the launch.

  Cheng Li waved back and gave them the thumbs-up signal.

  “Behind you!” cried Jacoby.

  Connor glanced over his shoulder. Sidorio had retrieved Lady Lola’s head and, cradling it in his arms, was striding across the sand toward them.

  “Quick!” Cheng Li cried, but Sidorio was already blocking their escape. Setting Lady Lola’s head tenderly down on the sand, he turned to Connor, his eyes blazing fire. “You killed my wife,” he cried. “Twice! And now I’m going to take my revenge. I’m going to kill you.”

  He reached out his hands and drew Connor toward him, his gold incisors extending from his mouth like daggers. Connor’s strength, prodigious as it was, was no match for Sidorio’s. The vampire tore at Connor’s shirt, instantly exposing his thorax.

  “Wait!” Cheng Li cried.

  Connor looked at her helplessly. Sidorio’s grasp was paralyzing. “Go!” he told her. “Save yourself and the rest of the crew!”

  Cheng Li shook her head and shrieked into Sidorio’s ear. “I said WAIT!”

  “I heard you,” Sidorio snarled, twisting his head toward her. “I was just ignoring you. Now, leave me to my kill.”

  Cheng Li stood still, her arms folded defiantly. “I don’t think so,” she said. “I don’t think you want to do that. You’re a little short on family right now. So you may not want to kill your own son.”

  Connor heard the words. He even comprehended them. But they made no sense to him. Then, he realized what she was doing. Cheng Li had employed some wild stratagems in her time, but this was really grasping at straws. Sidorio’s son? As if. Even Grace at her most nutty hadn’t suggested this as a possibility.

  But as these thoughts rushed through his head, he felt Sidorio’s grip on him release. He couldn’t believe it, but Sidorio was actually letting him go. The vampire had turned to face Cheng Li. Now Connor’s heart was racing so fast it threatened to force its way out of his chest.

  “That’s better,” Cheng Li addressed Sidorio. “You see. Even you are capable of being moderately civilized when the moment demands it.” She reached out her arm and beckoned Connor toward her. Dazed, he nevertheless stumbled across to her, as if he were a fish hooked on a line.

  “Look!” Cheng Li addressed Sidorio. “Take a good look. This is your son. His name’s Connor. His mother was Sally, your donor. Remember her? Of course you do. You loved her too once, didn’t you? But you didn’t know how to tell her, and while you were figuring it out, she fell in love with someone else. A mortal. A lighthouse keeper by the name of Dexter Tempest. She was planning to leave the ship and start a new life with him, a real life away from you.”

  Sidorio was transfixed by Cheng Li’s words. They had a grim fascination for Connor, too. “So you found a way to ensure that Sally would never be free of you. You put a spell on her, which resulted in her becoming pregnant. Sound familiar?”

  Sidorio nodded slowly, as if dark shards of memory were slowly rising from the depths of his mind. He waited for Cheng Li to continue.

  “And she went to Sanctuary to have the baby, didn’t she? And when you got there, they told you that the baby had died, and you were heartbroken. But later you found out that they had been lying to you, playing a trick on you. And you t
ook your brutal and final revenge on poor Sally.”

  “How do you know all this?” Sidorio asked.

  A good and pertinent question, thought Connor. But his head was pounding with other questions and it looked like Sidorio’s was, too. Can this really be true? Am I the spawn of this monster? What does that make me? Where do I go from here? Thought after unthinkable thought tore through his head like bullets.

  “That hardly matters now,” Cheng Li said. “What’s important is that you know that your son is alive and well.” She pulled Connor toward her before continuing. “And that he’s coming with me.”

  Sidorio shook his head, looking intently at Connor. “He’s my son.” It was almost as if he had realized it for the first time. “He stays with me,” he said defiantly.

  Things had come full circle. Once more, Sidorio’s arms reached out for Connor, this time not to smother him but to embrace him.

  “No!” Cheng Li said very calmly. “I told you before, Connor comes with me.”

  Sidorio shook his head. “You don’t get to decide this, pirate,” he said.

  “Oh, but I do,” said Cheng Li. “Have you forgotten, Vampirate, the other lie they told you? That there was only one baby, when in fact there were two? Twins. A boy and a girl.”

  “Twins,” Sidorio said. It was almost a question. “A girl.” His eyes fixed on Connor’s face, and he suddenly had a brief vision of a girl on a mountainside—a girl who looked very much like this boy standing in front of him. “A girl.” He felt a searing pain in his head, as though long-forgotten memories were forcing themselves to the surface, back at last into his consciousness. He remembered it all.

  “Yes,” Cheng Li continued. “A girl. And I’m sure you’d like to be reunited with her, too, wouldn’t you? Yes, of course you would.” She paused briefly to draw breath. “So this is how it’s going to work. Connor is coming back with me now. We’re going to find his sister. And when the time is right, we’ll arrange for you to see them both.” She smiled at him. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” she asked. “A chance to meet both your children properly?”