Black Heart Read online

  “That’s so pretty!” Grace exclaimed. “Where did you get it?”

  “I’ll give you one guess!” said Sally.

  Laughing, both mother and daughter spoke as one. “Darcy!”

  “It’s so wonderful to be here with you,” Sally said as they crossed the courtyard, having taken in the view from the gates.

  “For me, too,” Grace said, feeling somehow at peace now, arm in arm with her mother. “But how are you feeling? Would you like to sit down for a bit?”

  Sally nodded.

  “I know the perfect place,” said Grace, leading her mother gently toward her beloved fountain and one of the benches positioned around it.

  “What a beautiful spot!” Sally declared.

  “I’m glad you like it,” Grace said. “This is my favorite place here at Sanctuary. It’s where I come to think. It’s very peaceful, isn’t it?”

  Sally nodded. “Yes, it is. And shady, too.” She sat down and stretched out her arms. Then she wrinkled her nose. “Is that lavender I can smell?”

  “Yes,” Grace nodded. “There’s an herb garden just over there, see? It’s where Mosh Zu grows many of the herbs he uses for healing.”

  “Oh, yes,” Sally said, wrinkling her nose. “I can smell lemongrass, and rosemary and cardamom and curry leaf. How delicious!”

  “Yes.” Grace nodded, beaming. She was glad to see the garden was working its restorative magic on Sally, too. She hoped the time was right to continue with her mother’s story.

  She turned to Sally. “Do you feel up to talking again, Mother? About your time on the Nocturne?”

  “Yes,” Sally said. “Yes, I think so. Now, where did I leave off?”

  Grace sighed. “You were telling me about being Sidorio’s donor. And how he didn’t live up to your expectations.”

  “Ah, yes,” Sally said. “That’s right.” She paused, reaching out and snapping off a stalk of lavender. She twisted it in her hands as she continued. “Well, I soon grew accustomed to Sidorio. I understood that all he wanted from me was a regular portion of blood, and after the initial period of disappointment I was happy enough to give that to him.” She shrugged. “In a way, his having no other interest in me gave me a certain freedom. It was only occasionally, very occasionally, in the darkness and the stillness after the sharing, when I felt just a little weak, that I’d have liked him to have been there. Those were the only times I felt low.”

  She turned her face to Grace. “Sidorio had very definite ideas and a fierce pride. Other Vampirates, Lorcan, for instance, saw their donors as equals. Sidorio didn’t. At least, that’s what I thought then.” She hesitated, looking off toward the fountain for a moment. A delicate white butterfly had caught her attention as it hovered above the water. When she resumed speaking, her tone of voice was different. “My life aboard the ship was just fine. I had made a deal, and what I got in return for my weekly donation of blood more than justified it. It really was a life of ease… and fun! We donors were always well looked after. And the food! After the rations I’d been on back home—well, I ate so much that I soon began to balloon in weight. I had to take myself in hand and start exercising.”

  “Exercising?” Grace asked. “Aboard the Nocturne?” The notion seemed strange, somehow.

  “Don’t sound so surprised!” said Sally. “I had made good friends with some of the other donors. Two of them especially. You saw one of them, Shanti, in your vision. Do you remember?”

  “Yes.” Grace nodded.

  “Such a beautiful girl. And she’s so much fun, isn’t she?”

  When Shanti’s name had come up previously, Grace had brushed over the truth, but now she could no longer lie to her mother. Sally could see the sadness in her daughter’s eyes. “What’s wrong?” she asked. “Grace, whatever is it? Tell me!”

  “I have some sad news,” Grace said, reaching for Sally’s hand and giving it a light squeeze. “I’m afraid Shanti died. I’m so sorry, Mother.”

  “Oh, no!” Sally brought her hand to her chest and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she saw the concern in Grace’s eyes. “It’s all right, Grace. Truly. Of course, I’m upset—Shanti was such a dear friend—but I don’t want you to hide the truth from me. Please tell me what happened to her.”

  Grace took a deep breath. “Shanti was killed. By her vampire partner.”

  “By Lorcan!” Sally exclaimed, incredulous.

  “No!” Grace shook her head. “No, of course not! Lorcan would never be so brutal.”

  “I don’t undboth mother and daughtererstand,” Sally said. “Lorcan was Shanti’s partner.”

  “Yes,” Grace said. “They were partners, until Lorcan went blind, and we had to bring him here to Sanctuary for healing. Shanti came along, too, but she hated it so much the captain finally agreed to take her back to the Nocturne and find another vampire to pair her with.”

  “Yes,” Grace said. “They were partners, until Lorcan went blind, and we had to bring him here to Sanctuary for healing. Shanti came along, too, but she hated it so much the captain finally agreed to take her back to the Nocturne and find another vampire to pair her with.”

  “It isn’t easy for a donor to switch from one vampire to another,” Sally said.

  Grace’s ears pricked up at these words. Was her mother trying to tell her something? Sally had started out on board the ship as Sidorio’s donor. But had she switched when another Vampirate had arrived on board? Was her mother telling her that she had been Dexter’s donor, after all? That he had been a Vampirate, too?

  The question was on her lips, but before she could ask it, her mother spoke again. “Looking back, it seems such an innocent time,” she said, “Shanti, Teresa, and I doing our daily round of exercises up on deck. We had such a ball. We really did! It was like being on a cruise ship. All day, every day, we’d be up on deck, without a care in the world. One of the other donors—Oskar, that was his name!—he was the most wonderful musician. He used to play his guitar up there. Such beautiful music! We’d sunbathe all afternoon.” Sally turned to Grace, her eyes bright. “Why, it was on just such an afternoon that I met Dexter.”

  Grace’s heart missed a beat at the mention of her father’s name. It was as if her mother had read her mind.

  “I’d love to hear about that,” Grace said.

  “Oh, Grace,” Sally said, “I’m afraid the exercise and fresh air has made me a little tired. I think I’m going to need to rest before I continue—and this is such a lovely spot for it.”

  Grace couldn’t conceal the look of disappointment in her eyes.

  Sally put her arm around Grace’s waist and reached for her hand. “Besides, why would you want to hear it from me,” Sally said, “when you can see it all for yourself?” With that, she clasped Grace’s hand and closed her eyes. As her mother fell asleep on her shoulder, Grace smiled. Suddenly, her head was filled with a vision of the deck of the Nocturne on a sunny afternoon.

  The deck was crowded. Grace was once again seeing things through Sally’s eyes. She was dressed in an old-fashioned swimsuit, sitting on a rug, rubbing sunscreen onto her arms. Opposite her, Shanti was doing exactly the same, chattering away. And there was a third girl close by—this must be Teresa. In the center of the rug was a plate piled high with fruit, glistening jewel-like in the afternoon sun: fresh figs, succulent white peaches, and icy slivers of watermelon. It all looked delicious.

  Grace could hear guitar music, just as Sally had mentioned before. She glanced beyond Shanti and saw a young man leaning against the mast, strumming away at a guitar. He caught her looking and smiled. Evidently, he knew her. What had Sally said his name was? Oskar, that was it!

  Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. At first, Grace thought she was being jolted out of the vision, but quite the reverse was true—it was sucking her in even deeper. Now, to all intents and purposes, she was Sally.

  She felt Shanti’s hand on her shoulder and heard her distinctive voice. “Do as I say, girls, and ma
ke a wish! But make sure you close your eyes first or it won’t work!”

  Within the vision, Grace closed her eyes for a moment. Everything went black. Then she felt Shanti’s hand on her shoulder once more and heard her excited cry. “Open your eyes, Sally! Open your eyes! I think your wish has already come true!”

  She opened her eyes and found herself being dragged by Shanti on one side and Teresa on the other over to the edge of the deck. “Look!” they both cried simultaneously. They were pointing out over the railing to the shore. There, sitting on a rock, a red-and-white-striped towel laid out beneath him, was Dexter Tempest.

  Grace felt her heart race. Her father looked so handsome. He had a picnic basket by his side, and he was eating something. A peach. No, an apple! His eyes met hers, and he stopped midbite and waved. Grace felt a shiver, but it was of delight, for this was the moment that her father had met her mother.

  As she reconnected with the vision, Grace found herself standing on the edge of the deck once more, the girls at her side.

  “Do it,” Shanti repeated. “Go on, Sal! I dare you!”

  Sally turned, her bare feet burning on the wooden rail. “But it’s against the rules!”

  “Do it!” Shanti repeated more forcefully.

  Suddenly, Sally was diving off the side of the ship into the wonderfully cool, clear ocean. As she surfaced, she smoothed back the strands of her hair and got her bearings. She saw the ship, and the girls high above giving her the thumbs-up and laughing to themselves. Then she turned in the water and looked over at the rock where Dexter had been sitting. There was his red-and-white-striped towel, but he was no longer on it. Sally frowned. Then she saw that Dexter was swimming toward her, a powerful freestyle stroke bringing him ever closer. Smiling, she decided to meet him halfway.

  They met in the middle of the ocean.

  “Hello,” he said with a smile. “I’m Dexter. Dexter Tempest.”

  “And I’m Sally,” she said.

  “Is that your ship?” he asked, nodding toward it.

  “I’m traveling on it,” she said, skirting around the full story for now.

  “How glamorous!” he said. “I’m traveling, too. All over the place. I’m the lighthouse keeper of a small town called Crescent Moon Bay, but lately I’ve had the traveling bug. I just knew I had to take off and see something of the world.”

  She smiled. “I know just what you mean. I had the exact same feeling.”

  Dexter smiled, his eyes boring deep into hers. “Maybe we were both given the same feeling so we’d come here to this place at this very moment. So that we’d find each other.”

  It was a bold thing to say. Sally’s first thought was to smile and dismiss it. But there was something about him—such an honesty and openness in his eyes—that she did not dismiss it. His words made complete sense to her. She smiled back at him and nodded.

  “Come on!” he said. “Come on, beautiful Sally! Swim back to my rock with me and share my lunch.”

  They swam back to the rock and dried off from their swim, then Dexter opened up various packages of food and offered them to her. Sally was too excited to eat much, and anxious, too. On the one hand, she felt a deep happiness. But mixed with it was a dark sense of foreboding.

  Dexter had a pair of binoculars with him, and he picked them up and looked back at the Nocturne. “That’s a very beautiful figurehead on the front of your ship,” he said, lowering the binoculars.

  Sally stopped eating midbite.

  “But she has the strangest expression,” he continued. “It’s as if she’s frowning at us! Aren’t most figureheads painted with smiles?”

  “Yes,” Sally nodded, her heart beginning to race. “But she’s no ordinary figurehead. And it’s no ordinary ship.” Suddenly, she stood up, flustered. “I shouldn’t have come. I have to get back.”

  “Wait!” he implored, but she had already dived back into the water and begun swimming toward the Nocturne.

  She heard a splash behind her and knew Dexter was following. There were tears in her eyes, and she shook her head. “Don’t follow me!” she warned. But he ignored her and soon caught up. She hoped he wouldn’t notice her tears.

  He swam with her to the ship. “I’m afraid you mustn’t come up,” she said, reaching for the ladder. “I wish you could but you can’t. I’d be in trouble. Big trouble.”

  “It’s all right,” he said. “I don’t want you to be in any kind of trouble.” He smiled. “But I must see you again, beautiful Sally.”

  Her hands and feet were on the ladder. She shook her head. “We mustn’t,” she said. “I told you before. This is no ordinary ship.”

  “No,” he agreed. “It’s an extraordinary ship. It brought me you.”

  Once more his words filled her with a bittersweet sense of joy and sadness. Shaking her head, Sally began climbing the ladder. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I can never see you again, Dexter Tempest. You have to forget about me.”

  “Forget about you? Impossible!” he cried. “I’ll follow the ship. I’ll do whatever I can. But I will see you again.”

  She continued to climb, but as she did so, her vision grew blurry. Suddenly, Grace found that her eyes were open and she was back, fully back, on the bench in the Sanctuary gardens, her heart pounding from what she had seen. What an extraordinary thrill to have experienced her parents’ first meeting!

  She turned to Sally, whose eyes were also open again. “Did you see it?” she asked Grace.

  Grace nodded. “Yes,” she said. “Right up to when you climbed back onto the ship. I can’t wait to see what happened next. How he found you again.”

  Sally smiled. “That’s a whole other story,” she said. “We’ll come to that.”

  “I wish Connor was here,” Grace said. “I wish he was able to hear or see this, too.”

  “It will be your job to tell him,” Sally said. “When he’s ready to listen.”

  13

  COMRADES

  “Hey, Connor!”

  “Jacoby,” Connor stretched out his hand. “Congratulations on being made deputy captain.”

  “Thanks, man.” Jacoby grinned at him. “I’m so stoked you’ve joined the crew. Best news we’ve had all week. Isn’t it, Min?”

  Jasmine Peacock stepped forward and nodded. “It’s going to be great working with you, Connor,” she said, giving him a little hug. As he held her in his arms for the briefest of moments and smelled her sublime coconut-scented hair, Connor felt that this was his instant reward for being magnanimous toward Jacoby.

  “Here you are, guys,” cried a familiar voice. “A round of dark and stormies!” Connor turned and saw Sugar Pie setting down the tray of drinks. Seeing him, she rushed over and gave him a hug. “Connor! You look great!”

  Grinning, he took her in his arms. He noticed to his intense satisfaction that Jacoby’s eyes were filled with jealousy.

  “Hello, Sugar Pie,” Connor said. “Meet my new comrades, Jacoby Blunt and Jasmine Peacock. It’s their very first time at Ma Kettle’s!”

  Sugar Pie beamed at them. “Any friends of Connor’s are friends of mine. Welcome to Ma’s. Anything you need, just holler for Sugar Pie!”

  “Could you define ‘anything’?” Jacoby couldn’t help but ask. Jasmine grinned and dug her elbow sharply into his ribs.

  “Nice work, girl!” Sugar Pie grinned, high-fiving Jasmine. “I think you’re gonna fit in very well around here.” She turned back to Connor, tucking her arm around his waist. “So it’s really true? You’ve finished with Captain Wrathe and his crew? You’ve signed up with Mistress Li?”

  Connor nodded. “It’s complicated,” he told her. “But I know it’s the right decision.”

  “Well, for goodness’ sake, stop looking so worried!” Sugar Pie smiled. “And remember what I told you the last time we met. You’ll always be welcome around here, whichever crew you’re on. You’re good people, Connor Tempest.” Her kind words touched him more than he could say. “Well, I’d better get going. It’s a
thirsty crowd tonight. And I just might be doing a new song-and-dance routine dressed as a mermaid later.” She winked at Jacoby.

  “Wait!” Connor said. “Before you go. If you see Bart and Cate—I mean, when you see them—will you tell them… tell them I said hi?”

  Sugar Pie grinned. “Tell them yourself,” she said, nodding toward one of the VIP booths. “Looks like the Diablo and the Typhon are in for the night.”

  Connor looked across the bar. He saw Ma Kettle leading Molucco Wrathe into his favorite booth. They were followed by Molucco’s brother Barbarro and his wife and deputy, Trofie, who was, as usual, dressed to kill. Connor looked over, his heart hammering, to see if Bart and Cate were with them. He really ought to go and say something, but he didn’t want to risk an encounter with Molucco. He couldn’t see Bart or Cate in the crowd, but just his luck, Molucco looked straight over at him. The captain held his gaze for a moment but didn’t smile or make any gesture of familiarity. Connor remembered what his former captain had told him when last they had met. “You’re nothing to me now.” The words sent a fresh chill down Connor’s spine as Molucco simply turned his head away. Evidently, those words held true.

  “Hey, Connor,” said Jasmine, appearing at his side with a drink. “Try one of these dark and stormies. They’re heaven in a glass!”

  Connor turned and saw that Jacoby and Cheng Li were also close at hand. Cheng Li winked at him and raised her glass. “To new comrades,” she said.

  The others echoed her toast and they all clinked glasses before sipping Ma’s delicious new concoction.

  Inside the VIP booth, Barbarro and Molucco Wrathe were deep in conversation. Trofie sat beside the two captains, deaf to their words, locked in her own dark thoughts. On the table in front of her, an untouched glass of oyster champagne bubbled away furiously, but Trofie felt as flat as stagnant swamp water. She knew that fundamentally nothing had changed in terms of her wealth, power, or legendary beauty. And her family, which she treasured above all else, was safe. Nevertheless, she felt deeply self-conscious about her missing hand and was wearing a stunning silver dress with exaggeratedly long sleeves so that both of her arms were completely covered. In spite of the superb cut and exceptional expense of the dress, she felt as dowdy as a nun. If only she could find some way to lift herself out of this grim mood.