by R. J. Blain
I didn’t notice the intersection until I stumbled across it, hidden behind empty cases. Doorways lined each hallway, and several had light streaming beneath the doors. Only one glow came from the left, while I counted at least six down the other hall.
My captain’s side interested me far more than Captain Maritza's, and one-to-one odds appealed to me far more than one-to-six. Then again, if I screwed up, everyone in the manor would know of my presence.
I could subdue the occupants of a single room fast enough to buy myself time until reinforcements arrived, and without any memories decorating the walls, the hallway would make an excellent place to lob teargas canisters and flash-bangs.
The door into the lit room startled me, barred from the outside to prevent those inside from escaping easily. I frowned, turning to examine the other doors. None of them had the mounts present. Why bar only one door?
With my luck, it’d probably been meant to be my room, the bar present to give Captain Maritza's crew a false sense of security.
The only way I’d find out would be by going inside. The wood, polished smooth and heavy as stone, ground against the blackened iron brackets. With a grunt, I set it down and leaned it against the wall, careful to make no noise.
I waited and listened for any changes in the sounds from the other parts of the manor. Satisfied no one had noticed me, I grabbed hold of the knob and twisted. It opened with a click, and the wood and hinges creaked. The sounds of cloth on cloth warned me someone was in the room, but they otherwise remained quiet.
I peeked inside, grip tight on the knob in case I needed to shut the door in a hurry. Movement came from a bed pressed against the wall, and a lump under a pale pile of blankets shifted around.
Why did everyone use the pretending to be asleep trick? Sometimes it worked, if I or my captain just wanted the crew to settle down and stop annoying us. When we were really annoyed, we knocked the men from their hammocks and gave them a stern reminder of why we had rules.
I stepped inside the room, closed the door behind me, and decided to see the trick through to the end. Blankets and sheets made a convenient tool for capturing the unwary. I set my ARWEN 37 on the room’s antique writing desk, counted to ten, and pounced.
Thumping onto the bed and my prey, I used my weight and the fabric to hamper my victim’s struggles. It didn’t take long for me to work my hand under the blankets and grab the back of a slender neck. It took a single warning squeeze to put an end to any resistance.
With my free hand, I peeled away the covers.
Abrahan. A laugh bubbled out of me, and loosening my grip, I gave the kid’s hair a ruffle. “Shh,” I warned.
He sucked in a breath. “Corona?”
“Aye, aye.”
“But they shot you. In the face. You fell.” Abrahan’s voice wavered.
“I told you I was tough to kill. That explains the barred door at least. I tied the sentry in the foyer up and gagged him, but someone’ll find him eventually. How many are in the house?”
“Twenty-three I’ve seen,” he answered, wiggling to sit up. He stared at me with wide eyes, and he paled at the sight of my cheek. I kept still, and he lifted his hand to touch me. “You have a hole in your face.”
“I may have smacked my face into a ship a few times. It’ll heal. You all right? Did they do anything to you?”
Abrahan nodded. “They caught me before I could get down the steps.”
“Know which one shot me? I have some words for that one.” By words I meant a beating and death, but I’d spare the kid from reality for a little while longer. He didn’t need to see me get a violent and messy revenge.
“He’s dead.”
I stared. “What?”
“They killed him for shooting you. Instant they learned your name, the woman in charge pulled her gun, but one of her fellows beat her to the chase, and he shot him. They stripped him and tossed his body off the cliff, and they made me watch while they did it. She… she said it was as much justice as I was going to get. The fellow who’d done the killing just grunted and didn’t seem all that impressed. Skeptical, really, like he figured you’d somehow get up to cause them problems. Not sure if he liked the idea or not.”
“The woman’s name happen to be Lucretta O’Malley?”
With wide eyes, he nodded. “That’s her. That guy who wanted me to take your stuff is here, too—that Benny guy. He brought an old man with him. Them two are madder ’n hell. They kept questioning me, and all I told them was that I was with you, and they could stuff it.”
“Crew,” I corrected. “You’re crew.”
“That. They asked that. I said yes. They asked what I did on the ship. I told ‘em I did whatever you told me and liked it. The woman thought that was funny. I told ‘em if I did well, you were gonna let me cook.”
The way Abrahan spoke in a rush of words made me think he was worried I’d be upset with him for saying anything at all. I nodded, gave his hair another ruffle, and pulled one of my knives from my boot, offering it to him. “Good job, kid. The first rule is to stay alive, and you did what you needed to do. I’m gonna take that kid on watch in the entrance as loot. You all right with that?”
“Can I boss him around?”
“Sure can. I’ll even let you make him walk the plank a few times if he gets rebellious, but no killing him. I’ll get a plank just for that purpose. For the moment, we’ll use him as leverage. If I keep him around, he’ll be the cabin boy, and you’ll be above him in the crew.”
Twenty-three—twenty-two after I took the watch—versus two were odds I didn’t like, and until I had Abrahan stashed somewhere safe, I couldn’t risk a more direct approach. They’d taken him from me once, and I wouldn’t allow it again. “Time to get out of here, make a plan, and come back later.”
Abrahan nodded, dove to the end of the bed, and reached for something on the floor. With a startled laugh, I recognized my captain’s hat, although some of the feathers had dark stains marring them. “Your hat, Captain.”
“They let you keep it?”
Flashing me a grin, he hopped to his feet, stood on his toes, and set it on top of my head. “They’re suckers. Sniffled a few times, and they stopped trying to take it. Wasn’t gonna let them dirty your hat. They took your gun, though.”
“We’ll get it back,” I swore. I would, too, and I’d be charging them all a lot of interest for it. For the moment, I had bigger fish to fry and more problems than I cared to think about.
What would I do about Benny and Bensen? Trashing O’Malley’s ship satisfied me, but I needed to figure out what to do about them and find out why they were so interested in the legacy the pirate queens had left behind.
We crept down the hall in silence and took the kid on watch with us when we left the manor.
Twenty-Six
Well, maybe if your friend hadn’t shot me in the face, parts of it wouldn’t be missing.
The fastest way to the Wanderer involved swimming, and if I wanted to get Abrahan and my hostage there alive, I needed to transform again. The thought of another stint as a shark was enough to exhaust me, but I accepted the inevitable.
I could whine later. In fact, I fully intended on indulging in at least an hour of complaining, forcing my audience of two to suffer until I was satisfied. I figured there had to be something cathartic about a good whine session, or my captain wouldn’t have subjected me to them. At the very least, I’d have a new experience.
“Are you going to…” Abrahan gestured to the surf, which beat the shore and inched its way closer to the cliffs as the tides shifted.
“I sure am.” With a smug smile, I yanked the duct tape off my hostage’s mouth. He yelped and struggled to free his wrists from the ropes binding them behind his back. “Here’s the way this is going to work, swabby. We’re going for a swim. If you scream, I might decide to change my mind about keeping you alive and eat you. Got it?”
Abrahan slapped his palm to his forehead. “You can’t eat him.”
“Why not?”
“It’s rude.”
“So is shooting me in the face. That’s really rude.”
My hostage whimpered. “Part of your face is missing.”
“Well, maybe if your friend hadn’t shot me in the face, parts of it wouldn’t be missing. I wasn’t pretty before, now look at me! I’m going to make infants cry.”
“Adults, too,” Abrahan muttered.
I planted my boot on his ass and shoved him into the water. “I’m getting a plank just so I can make you walk it, kid.”
My intimidation skills needed work; Abrahan laughed at me.
“How can you possibly be alive? You were killed, I saw it,” my hostage whispered.
“Get used to it, kid. I’m tough to kill. My name is Catalina de la Corona. You’re mine, now, so get used to the idea. If I like you, I’ll keep you on board, pay you a fair wage, and keep you fed and clothed. If I don’t, I’m going to dump you in the rattiest port I can find, and if I hear you’ve told a soul about me, I’ll hunt you down and eat your liver.”
Abrahan splashed his way out of the water and grabbed hold of my hostage’s hands. “How do we get him to the ship, captain?”
I glared at my hostage. “Can you swim?”
He nodded.
“Good. You’re going to go where I order, or you’re going to find out just how effective a peg leg at sea really is. Got it?”
He nodded again.
“Untie him, Abrahan. Let’s see if the kid has a single grain of common sense, or if I get lunch.”
Maybe Abrahan had the sense to call my bluff, grinning at me whenever our captive wasn’t looking, but the kid trembled, and I could smell his fear even with my human nose. “Into the water.” I pointed in the direction of my island. “We’re going that way.”
“We’re going to die, aren’t we?” my victim whispered, staring at Abrahan.
He laughed long and hard. “You might, but I won’t. She likes me. If you think this is bad, give it five minutes. It gets so much worse.”
I headed down the beach for a rock I could use to dive from so I could transform before entering the water. It wouldn’t do to damage my nice guns and the plunder I’d rightfully taken from the Serendipity.
I gave my hostage a love bite, and Abrahan balled his hand into a fist and clobbered me over the head in retaliation. My teeth didn’t scare him at all, and when I thrashed a bit to express my displeasure at his rebuke, he bonked me again.
I bit him, too, just hard enough to let him know I meant business.
Apparently, I’d done a little too well in teaching him his proper place, as Abrahan hit me like he meant business, too, giving me a headache I’d remember in the morning. I herded them both to the Wanderer and boosted them to the deck.
Abrahan leaned over the railing and lowered a rope for me. “I tied it off.”
Taking a long nap near the beach seemed like a much better time than breaching, smacking into the Wanderer, dropping into the water, and trying over and over to transform without getting drenched. The weight of the guns and equipment would drag me down to the bottom if I missed, and while I hadn’t been worried with the sandbar so close to the Serendipity, I’d end up a shark again if I screwed it up.
Snagging the rope in my teeth, I dragged it to the stern, tugging it into place over the engine mounts so I had extra handholds if I missed.
It took me five tries to throw off the curse’s influence, and I ended up drinking half the ocean before I snagged the rope and hauled myself up to the deck. I coughed and spit water, grimacing at the throb in my cheek, jaw, and the back of my head.
Flopping on the Wanderer’s deck, I considered the pros and cons of sleeping beneath the stars. Footsteps approached, and Abrahan nudged me with his bare toes. “You can’t sleep there.”
“Lies,” I croaked.
“I took that guy to the spare bunk and promised to feed him dinner if he didn’t cry or scream.”
“No screaming is a good start. My head hurts too much for screaming. He can cry all he wants, as long as he does so quietly.”
Abrahan crouched beside me and went to work unbuckling my holsters, setting my weapons aside. “Do I want to know where you got so many guns on such short notice?”
“Hoard. Hidden cache.”
Instead of the anger I expected for having kept secrets from him, he chuckled. “I should have guessed. I saw you had the first aid kit out. Got everything you needed? If not, they have one in that house. We can raid it and take it from them after you’ve gotten a chance to rest, right? They seemed pretty determined to keep me healthy.”
“If they’d hurt you, I would’ve done more than scrap their ship.”
“You scrapped their ship?”
“Ate the rudder. Tore the inside to shreds. Payback for what they did to my house. Ripped all her clothes to shreds, too.” A weak laugh escaped me. “They were going to shoot you. Couldn’t let them.”
Abrahan took off my hat, set it aside, and started examining my head, his fingers tangling in my hair as he tried to move the frizzy mess out of the way. “You have a bald spot, and your hair’s all tangled.”
Why was he so concerned over my hair? “Don’t worry about it. It’ll grow back.”
“Want anything? Coffee? Tea? Something to eat?”
Right. If I didn’t give the kid something to do, I’d be willing to wager the entire Wanderer he’d lose his mind within ten minutes. “Coffee, and if you’re up for it, dinner. I’ll crawl along in a few minutes.”
“I’ve done nothing ever since they dragged me into that house.” Abrahan bounced to his feet and ran across the deck, his bare feet slapping against the wood. Stifling a groan, I lurched upright and began the tedious process of gathering my weapons so I could lock them in the storage box out of our hostage’s reach.
By the time I made my way into the cabin, Abrahan was working over the stove, watching a bubbling pot while a large chunk of tuna thawed on the counter, already sprinkled with spices. “Want me to catch you a fresh one, kid?”
“No. I want you to sit down and drink your coffee.”
Someone had taught my kid some bad habits, and I was too tired to do anything about it, so I sat. Scowling made my entire face ache. “You’re sure they didn’t hurt you any? You said they had a first aid kit out.”
“Not their fault I fought back. I earned my lickin’.”
“Abrahan.”
“What?”
“How badly were you hurt?”
“Couple of scratches, a few bruises. Nothing serious.”
I got up, headed deeper into the cabin, and hunted down my hostage, who, true to Abrahan’s words, cowered on the spare bunk in the smallest nook in an out of the way corner. “Hey, you. Is it true my kid only got banged up a little?”
My hostage gulped and nodded, squirming in his effort to back away from me.
“Got a name?”
“Lester.”
“This is how this is going to work, Lester. Abrahan’s going to cook something. You’re going to go sit your ass down at the table, and we’re going to take a stab at this being civilized thing. I’m going to ask you questions. You’re going to answer them. If I think you’re giving me answers I want to hear rather than the truth, you’re not going to like what’ll happen, so let’s cut through the bullshit.” Talking hurt, and I clasped my hands behind my back so I wouldn’t poke at my cheek. Without waiting for an answer, I headed into the kitchen and sat.
Drinking coffee with a busted mouth proved an exercise in patience and pain, but I managed. Abrahan sighed, shook his head, and rummaged through the pantry, returning with jars of spices.
It took Lester almost ten minutes to work up the nerve to emerge from the safety of his bunk, and he picked the chair across from me, the farthest away he could get.
“No one is going to believe you if you tell them a woman missing half her face turned into a shark and kidnapped you, you know. It’d be wise if you just kept that to yoursel
f.” I fought another battle with my coffee and declared myself the winner; more ended up down my throat than on me.
Abrahan sighed, grabbed a dish cloth, and tossed it to me. “I’d give you a straw, but I don’t think it’d help. Maybe a funnel?”
“Don’t you get smart with me, boy.”
“She’s all talk, very little bite,” he informed our hostage. “Usually.”
While it never would have occurred to me to cook tuna from frozen, my cabin boy turned chef went to work to make it happen. Any other day, I would’ve watched with interest, but I forced my attention to Lester and kept it on him. “The Serendipity’s captain is Lucretta O’Malley, correct?”
Lester swallowed, his gaze sliding to the door behind me, and I was willing to bet my entire hoard he calculated his chances of making an escape. The moment his hope of dodging an interrogation faded, his expression dulled and turned lifeless. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Why did she come here?”
“It’s hers by right!”
Both of my eyebrows took a hike. “Excuse me?”
“It belongs to her. She is the direct descendant of the Black Scourge. It is hers by right!”
Deep in my bones, ice formed, spread, and chilled my entire body. Captain Maritza had had a child? A child with someone descended from Captain Grace O’Malley? Life had gone on after the sinking of the Calico, but it had never crossed my mind the Black Scourge would ever have a child of her own. I could’ve seen my captain having a child, had she lived long enough, but not the Black Scourge.
She had never had a use for men, and had, like my captain, preferred the attentions of other women. In that, we differed, and I suspected my unwillingness to pursue anyone other than Ricardo had factored in my downfall from my captain’s favor.
It explained so much. If Benny and Bensen consorted with Lucretta O’Malley, who could prove her lineage to the Black Scourge, their interest in my items made sense. To them, she would have been their rightful owner.