Vampirates 4: Black Heart (29 page)

"Dad!" she exclaimed. At the word, Lorcan drew her into his arms more closely. Grace twisted her head. "That's my dad," she said.

Lorcan nodded. "Perhaps his soul has come to help your mother to pass on."

Grace smiled, though her face was damp with tears. Now she need not worry that her mother would be alone on her journey.

At the graveside, Sally was back on her feet. Dexter had drawn her into an embrace and was kissing her forehead. Sally held the bouquet up to him, and he took it in his hands and brought it to his nose for a moment, smiling and nodding. Then he whispered something into Sally's ear. She smiled once more and took his free hand. They began walking away.

"Where are they going?" Grace asked. But her question was left unanswered. The night was darkening, and it soon swallowed up the two figures walking arm in arm through the churchyard, souls at long last reunited.

After they had gone, Grace stood there, surrounded by the others, saying nothing. It was as if they were all still waiting, watching. But for what?

Suddenly, she saw a shaft of light extending out over the beach. The light had a different quality to it than the soft light of the moon. She glanced up to the deserted lighthouse, her former home. It had been dark before, but now the lamp had been lit once more.

Up in the lamp room, she saw two figures. She could clearly make them out as Sally and Dexter. They came and stood at the window, looking down over the bay. Dexter seemed to be pointing things out to Sally. Once more, Grace felt comforted at the thought that her mother and father were together again. Now they would never be separated.

At last they turned, and she knew they were looking directly out at her. She watched her father draw her mother more tightly into his arms. Then both her parents raised their hands and began to wave at her.

At first she thought they were asking her to join them, but then she realized they were waving good-bye. She lifted her own hand, though it suddenly felt as heavy as lead, and waved back.

As she did so, inside her head Grace heard her mother's voice once more. "Remember what I told you, my darling girl."

She nodded. Then she heard her father's voice, clear as day. "I'm so proud of you, Gracie. Look after your brother. And trust the tide!"

She nodded once more. She would honor both of these promises.

She was still nodding as the lamp began to turn. Its beam spun out across the beach, then continued its arc around the bay. After a time, the light reached the churchyard itself. The beam was so strong that Grace not only had to close her eyes but also to raise her hands to cover them. She waited for a moment, giving the light time to move on, then uncovered her eyes. Looking back up at the lamp room, she saw that it was dark again. The room was empty, the lighthouse once more deserted. Her parents had moved on.

Trembling, Grace broke free from Lorcan's hold and began running back toward her father's grave.

"Wait!" Lorcan called after her, but she was fast. The grave was drawing her like a magnet, glowing pink in the moonlight. Standing before it, she could not believe her eyes. There was a fresh inscription beneath her father's dates. It hadn't been there before; of this she was quite certain. But now, unmistakably, were the words "and Sally, beloved mother and partner. Home at last."

Grace's heart was beating fast, so fast she wasn't sure if she could contain it. She felt giddy and hot and nauseous and thought she would have to sit down. The pink gravestone was a blur in front of her eyes. Her body felt as formless as jelly. She reached out to steady herself, but it was no good. She slumped to the cool earth in front of the grave. The last thing she was conscious of was the grass racing toward her, then everything went pitch-black.

It did not take the others long to reach her. Mosh Zu was the first to speak. "So it ends," he said. "So it begins." He turned to Lorcan. "We must take her back to the ship now."

"I'll carry her," said Lorcan, bending down to lift Grace into his arms.

"Do you need help?" Mosh Zu asked.

Lorcan shook his head. "No," he said, cradling Grace's limp body. "No, she is light as a feather." He smiled at Mosh Zu. "Almost as light as the first time I carried her." Then he turned his eyes back to Grace, gazing down at her, thinking how peaceful she looked. This was a good sign, he thought, a good omen as she embarked on the next stage of her journey.

29HOW TO KILL A VAMPIRE

Cheng Li had given each of her three young crew members a different research task to be completed within five days. At the close of the fifth day, Captain Li made her way back to the secret cache to quiz them on what they had learned. As she made her descent on the mosaic platform, she wondered how they had fared. Her expectations were of a thorough and well-thought-through analysis from Jasmine and a wild but potentially brilliant range of ideas from Jacoby.

The unknown quantity was Connor. The fact that his sister had such strong ties to the Vampirates was still a concern to Cheng Li. She had to consider the possibility that, at some stage, his loyalties would be torn. He had assured her that he had no love for the Vampirates, in spite of Grace's relationship with them. But he knew something of them and their world and he saw them as distinct individuals. This was bound to challenge him as the mission continued. In battle, you needed to know as much about your enemies as possible, but then you had to stop viewing them as anything but barriers to your goals, barriers to be eradicated. Did Connor have it in him to do this?

Jasmine, Jacoby, and Connor were waiting for her inside room 8. With a minimum of preamble, Cheng Li took her seat behind the battered desk in the corner of the archives. "So, who's going to begin?" she inquired.

"Ladies first," said Jacoby with a grin.

"Sure," said Jasmine, standing up and lifting a pile of bound papers. "I've made a full copy of my report for each of you," she said, distributing it to her comrades.

Cheng Li smiled. When you gave Jasmine Peacock a project, she always delivered, efficiently, thoroughly, and on time. It had been the case throughout her career at Pirate Academy, and Cheng Li was delighted to see that nothing had changed now that Jasmine was a full-fledged pirate.

"Very impressive," she said, smiling at Jasmine. She set the report down on her desk for in-depth reading later. "I asked you to read through the numerous reports of sightings of the Vampirate ship here in the archive. Tell me, Jasmine, what are your top findings?"

"The fact is," said Jasmine, "I have very serious doubts about the value of much of what I've read here." Intrigued, Cheng Li raised an eyebrow. Jasmine continued with calm and confidence. "Many of these reports are -- well, it would be generous to call them unscientific. A large number of them are more akin to rumor, verging on ghost stories." She sighed. "I've included some of the more colorful accounts in the report for your passing interest, but I think you'll agree that they should be taken with a heavy dose of salt." She paused. "However, there's a core of more consistent sightings, which talk of a traditional galleon, but with several distinguishing marks. In particular, sails made of an unknown material. Few got near enough to definitively identify the material, but several witnesses talk of the sails having a leathery texture, intermittently sparking with light, and having a winglike motion."

As Jasmine spoke, Connor thought of his own encounters with the Nocturne. So far, nothing Jasmine had said outstripped his own knowledge of the ship. After all, he had actually been on board it twice. He knew that, and Cheng Li knew that, but he had no intention of undermining Jasmine's research.

"Another distinguishing feature of the Vampirate ship," Jasmine continued, "is a female figurehead who evidently comes to life after dark. There have been a few sightings of her diving into the ocean after the sun sets and then climbing back up onto the deck."

While Jasmine spoke, Cheng Li glanced over at Connor. It was enough to remind him that she knew he had seen this firsthand. He thought of Darcy Flotsam, the pretty but nonethess supernatural figurehead who had become firm friends with his sister. He frowned, thinking of his strange visitation from Grace several nights earlier. Not for the first time, this mission was feeling rather too close to home. Cheng Li had assured him that there was time to get Grace to safety, that it wasn't her ship of Vampirates that would soon be under attack. Yet he couldn't help feeling that once the conflict got under way, things would move fast and in a fashion that would be hard to control.

"This ship has proved hard to track in any consistent way," Jasmine continued. "Pretty much all of the saner accounts talk of it arriving in a thick veil of sea mist and departing in a similar fog. We're not able, therefore, to gain a working knowledge of how fast it can travel. It seems very possible that it moves at a different rate of knots, and in a fundamentally different way, from that of a conventional vessel." She tapped the map behind her. "It could quite literally disappear into the mist at point A, here" -- she moved her hand far across the map -- "and reappear soon afterward at point B, here."

Cheng Li cut in with a question. "You seem to be talking about just one ship of Vampirates, Jasmine. Is that right?"

Jasmine nodded. "Based on what I've read, it certainly seems like, historically, we are talking about one solo ship of Vampirates. I think Connor can tell you more about how that situation may have changed recently. But certainly, in terms of the accounts I've read, the sightings, though sketchy, do have a common thread. Which leads me to think either it is one ship we are dealing with, with its winglike sails and figurehead who comes to life, or, as an outside possibility, a fleet of ships that look exactly the same and operate in the same way."

"A fleet?" Cheng Li said, intrigued at the thought. "Do you have anything to back up that line of thinking?"

Jasmine shook her head. "Not yet, no. It was my own thinking that led me there, based on several accounts of sightings in multiple locations in quick succession. No regular vessel could cover the oceans in this way." She shrugged. "But I guess that's the point, isn't it? We're not dealing with a conventional vessel."

"No, indeed," Cheng Li said. She nodded. "Thank you, Jasmine. I shall look forward to reading your full report later."

Jasmine nodded, smiled modestly at the captain, and sat down again.

"Shall I go next?" Jacoby seemed hardly able to contain himself.

Cheng Li smiled. "Jacoby, you have been researching the experiments to date into how to wound and, ultimately, kill a Vampirate."

"Yes, I have," Jacoby said, taking the floor. He had no neatly bound reports to offer the group, but he had assembled a variety of props on the opposite desk.

"Well," he said, his eyes bright with excitement, "the cupboard of death was just packed with fun stuff." He began reaching for a few of the items at his side. "So, you've got your crucifixes, ranging from the plain to the ornate. This one's a particularly nice bit of silver, don't you think? Speaking of which, check out these silver bullets! Kapow! Good for werewolves and possibly Vampirates, too." He dropped the bullets onto the desk and reached for the neighboring objects. "Then you've got your sacred objects, like the rosary or this bottle of holy water. And then there's our old friend garlic." Suddenly, he reached behind the desk and produced a roughly tied bouquet of flowers. "Min, these are for you!"

He threw them to Jasmine, who caught them and smiled, inhaling their scent. "Wild roses," she said. "My favorite!"

"Not if you're a vampire," chuckled Jacoby. "According to one legend I came across, you can chain a vamp to its grave with wild roses. But none of the items I've shown you so far are likely to actually kill a vamp. They fall into the category of apotropaics." He spoke the word slowly; then, like a young and somewhat mad professor, wrote it down and underlined it several times on the nearby flip chart. "The aim of goodies like these is to protect you against Vampirates, but according to everything I've been reading you need to get a little creative when it comes to an all-out attack."

Cheng Li glanced at Connor. His face was hard to read. Was he thinking about the Vampirates he had met firsthand? Or had he somehow managed to create a mental distance from them? She resolved to keep a close eye on him as she addressed her deputy captain once more. "Good work, Jacoby," she said. "But now let's focus on how to kill a Vampirate."

"Absolutely," Jacoby said, "but remember, Captain, our aim actually isn't to kill a Vampirate."

"It isn't?" Once more Cheng Li raised an eyebrow.

Jacoby shook his head. "Vampirates are, de facto, already dead, or undead if you prefer. Our aim is not to kill them but to destroy them."

"A fair distinction," Cheng Li admitted with a nod. "All right, tell us how to destroy them."