Midnight Lady

by Jamie K. Schmidt

  “He doesn’t like tits.”

  “You’re not trying hard enough.”

  “I don’t want to be a queen.”

  “You’re shit as a pirate. You’re worthless as an airman. What are you going to do with your life? Open a bar?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” Maggie had shouted back. It hadn’t even had been a thought in her head until her mother said it with such derision.

  “You’ll be on your back in a week trying to make rent. I didn’t raise you to be a common whore.”

  “Just a royal one,” Maggie had said.

  “You get your ass into that wedding dress, or you are no longer my daughter. You’ve already lost your father, girlie. Don’t lose me too.”

  Mothers always knew which buttons to press, because they installed them. But Belle’s words had the exact opposite response than she had expected.

  Pulling a pulse pistol on her mother, she said, “I hope you crash and burn.” And then she stunned Black Belle and ran away.

  The jungle was barren. Maggie looked desperately for The Belladonna, but she didn’t see it.

  “Take us down low for a better look, but watch out for the defenses,” Amos said.

  The jungle on Castle Crag had been alive. An innocent looking vine could shoot out and wrap around an airship propeller and bring it crashing down.

  “I don’t think we have to worry about that,” Nicholette said.

  Maggie wanted to smack the smug look off her face. She glared at her, taking her eyes off the controls.

  “Your father said be careful. Give me the helm if you can’t obey orders,” Nicholette said.

  “Eat shit.”

  “Ladies,” Amos barked. “Focus.”

  No vines were alive. On the ground were lumps of twisted wood, metal, and crystals.

  “Maybe it was a massive hurricane?” Maggie ventured, not really believing it. While she lived here there were weekly hurricanes. They were awe inspiring, but in the end an inconvenience, not something on this level.

  “Amos, it’s just like Oracle-7,” Nicholette said.

  “What’s Oracle-7?”

  “Ripped apart in pieces. Turned inside out.” Amos’ pallor looked a little green. “Pieces from the past rising up from their graves. Cursed.”

  Goosebumps trailed up and down her arms.

  “I don’t see any tribesmen either,” Maggie said, taking the ship off route and deliberately flying over their territory.

  There were three tribes that lived in the jungle, each more blood thirsty and warlike than the other. They left Black Belle and the castle alone because she bribed them well and was quick to smash anyone who thought about taking control of her castle.

  Except perhaps this time.

  Maggie had expected to be shot at or intercepted, but it was eerily quiet out there.

  “It looks like Cozumel after the tsunami ravaged the island,” Nicholette said.

  “We should send someone to look for survivors,” Maggie said.

  “Not my problem,” Amos said.

  “At one time, it was.”

  “Not anymore. Belle made it clear that Nicholette and I were to be killed on sight. No questions asked. And I’m not so sure she didn’t modify that to include you.”

  Neither was Maggie.

  “Take us to the Castle,” he said. “It’s still standing. We’ll get our answers there.”

  As she adjusted course, she said, “There’s no tsunamis in the jungle, so how can this be like Cozumel?”

  “Did your mother ever go diving?” Amos asked.

  Maggie snorted. “Like she’d ever tell me.”

  “There have been rumors...” Amos began.

  “And that’s all they are,” Nicholette interrupted. “Rumors.”

  “Of what?”

  “That the Cozumel tsunami unearthed more than just the Mayan temple complex,” Amos said. “That there are vengeful spirits guarding its secrets. Anyone that disturbs them will be cursed.”

  “Nonsense,” Nicholette barked into the eerie silence.

  Maggie was annoyed that she jumped in her seat.

  “The Federales circulated that crap to keep the treasure hunters out.”

  “Was there treasure?” Maggie asked. She knew archeologists kept petitioning to be let down there, but there had never been a whiff of treasure.

  “There were a few artifacts taken,” Amos said, reluctantly.

  “So, there were survivors?”

  He let out a sigh. “No survivors. Just death and destruction. Like this.”

  “The curse followed them back home?”

  “No one ever made it back home.”

  Until now.

  “Where are these artifacts now?”

  “Dumped back into the Caribbean Sea,” Nicholette said.

  “That we know of,” Amos said, his brooding tone sent another shiver up her spine. “Let’s get to the Castle.”

  “I’m not sure how close I can get without being fired upon,” Maggie said. But when they slid into dock alongside The Belladonna, without being challenged. Maggie started to sweat.

  “Honey, I’m home,” Amos said.

  Chapter Eight

  Quick followed The Nicholette into Castle Crag. He was cloaked, but there was no way they wouldn’t hear his engines once they were docked. Circling around the castle, he didn’t see any signs of activity. Based on the debris field they just flew through, there had been a heavy battle on Black Belle’s home world.

  “Are you in?” Big Sweet asked over their coded communication line.

  “Yeah, I’m recording. I’ve never seen anything like this. You guys can come on through using these coordinates. There isn’t anything to stop you.”

  “Black Belle wouldn’t make it this easy. Are you sure it’s not a trap?”

  “I’m not sure of anything,” Quick said. “Except I’m going to get her back.”

  “We’ll be right behind ya.”

  Shutting off communications, Quick looked for a place to dock where they couldn’t hear his engines. As he circled, he saw a walkway unfold from The Nicholette. Maggie walked out first, with Flannery behind him. Followed by two other people, a man and a woman he didn’t recognize. Squinting, he couldn’t see if Amos had a gun in Maggie’s back or not. Maggie punched in a few numbers on a keypad, and a door opened in the wall. They all disappeared inside the castle.

  “Fuck,” Quick snarled. “Kelly, keep her circling. I’m going in.

  “Alone, you daft bastard?” his second-in-command said.

  “Let me know when the boys get here. They can send an away team to come get my ass.”

  “You have your own away team.”

  “I’m going to lose her,” he said, and hurried to the side of the airship.

  Clipping himself to a tow line, he rappelled down the side of his own airship and then did a controlled fall to the walkway.

  He winced as his feet hit it hard. The walkway wobbled, but no one from The Nicholette seemed to notice.

  He untethered himself and sprinted to the door, but it had already closed.

  “Fuck,” he said again. “Kelly, replay the recording. See if you can zoom in and get me the code Maggie tapped in.”

  “Aye Aye, Capn,” she said.

  He rolled his eyes. Feeling a little exposed out here, he tapped his foot. “Today,” he encouraged.

  “Hold your ass. It looks like it’s 8-4-2-6.”

  Quick tapped it in and the door slid up. He stepped in and before the door slid shut, he could see that there was a long staircase leading down. Using the smooth wall for guidance, he crept down the stairs. He could hear voices coming from the end.

  There was a flash of light and he pressed against the wall. But it was just a door opening into a lit room. He saw a glimpse of Maggie and it was everything he could do not to call out to her.

  When the door closed, he was in darkness again. As fast as he dared, he approached the door. Groping along it, he f
ound the door handle and cracked it open. He was blinded at the light, but he let his eyes get used to it.

  It was a throne room. Amos was looking up. Maggie was talking with a handsome airman. The other woman sat down on the throne and crossed her legs.

  This was going to be fucking easy. He pulled out his pistols and set them on stun. Pushing open the door, he blasted Amos full on with a headshot that threw the older man flat on his back. The second shot took the woman on the throne between the tits. She screamed before pitching forward.

  “No,” Maggie said, stepping in front of the airman before he could level the pistols at him.

  “Let’s go,” Quick said.

  She gaped at him.

  He smiled at her. “I came to rescue you.”

  “Is that Quick Donner?” the man behind her asked.

  “You’re gods damned right it is,” he said.

  “That’s so romantic,” the man sighed.

  Which really should have been Maggie’s line, but she was staring at him like she didn’t know him. “Stop shooting people,” she said.

  And instead of running into his arms, she ran over to Flannery. “Did you kill him?” she said, an odd note in her voice.

  “No, the beam was on stun. But they’re not going to be out that long. We’ve got to hurry.”

  “I’m not letting you take Ephraim,” she said. And when she straightened up, she had Amos’ pulse pistol in her hand.

  “Who’s Ephraim?”

  “I am.” The man waved at him.

  “I’m not here for him,” Quick said.

  “Yeah,” Ephraim said. “Weren’t you listening? He’s here to rescue you.”

  “Rescue me from what?”

  Quick felt like he had just slammed two shots of tequila. “I saw the video of you being abducted. Niles told me you had been kidnapped.”

  “And you risked everything to come and get her?” Ephraim sighed. “He deserves a kiss.”

  Quick agreed. “He deserves not to be at the end of your weapon.”

  Maggie glared at him. “Put yours away first.”

  Shrugging, he holstered his pistols. “Doesn’t matter. There’s a reason they call me quick.”

  She put hers in the front of her pants. “I’m fully aware why they call you quick.”

  He winced. So, she was still pissed about him leaving abruptly. “I’m sensing I came at a bad time.” This wasn’t how the reunion had gone in his head. They were supposed to be back in his cabin right now, naked, while speeding back to Cozumel.

  Amos groaned as he started to come to.

  “Don’t,” Maggie warned when his fingers twitched for his pistols. “He’s unarmed.”

  “I’m going to kill that son of a bitch,” Amos said. “Where’s my pistol?”

  “I have it. Stay there. You were heavily stunned.”

  “Nicholette?” Amos asked groggily.

  “Oh shit,” Maggie said.

  “I’m on it.” Ephraim ran up and took Nicholette’s two pistols away.

  “Check her ankles too, and I think she’s got a bodice dagger.”

  “Anything else?” Ephraim said. “She’s starting to come around.”

  “Back away. I’m pretty sure her bite is venomous.”

  Ephraim scurried back to Maggie and strapped Nicholette’s weapons to her instead.

  “You want to watch your hands,” Quick said, when Ephraim slipped the dagger in Maggie’s bra.

  “Is he jealous?” Ephraim smiled. “Watch this.”

  “Don’t,” Maggie said, with a pained look.

  “Maggie and I were engaged to be married.”

  Quick clenched his teeth. “And why would I fucking care about the past? If she wanted you, you’d be with her.”

  Ephraim deflated. “I hate it when they’re reasonable. I was hoping he’d go all caveman on you.”

  “Can we get beyond this?” Maggie asked.

  Nicholette screamed and launched herself at Maggie.

  “Why me?” Maggie said, dodging. “He’s the one who shot you.”

  Quick shot her again.

  Nicholette slumped face down on the floor.

  This time he got the grin he’d been waiting for. When she flew into his arms, he held her tight. Relief surged through him, and he began to shake.

  “Quick,” she said breathlessly. “I can explain.”

  “In a minute.” He kissed her, taking her lips roughly. He had missed her taste, and the feel of her in his arms. He kissed her with all the desperation he had been feeling the last few days. She was stiff at first, but then he teased her mouth, using his tongue to cajole instead of plunder and when she melted against him, he allowed himself to relax.

  The door to the throne room kicked in and Mav, Sweet, Niles, and St. John strode in pistols drawn.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Sweet said.

  “I’m not going back.” Ephraim ran down a side hall.

  “Shit.” Maggie twisted out of Quick’s arms and took off after him.

  “What the fuck is going on?” Mav asked.

  Amos Flannery crawled to Nicholette and checked her pulse.

  “We want answers, old man,” Niles said, quivering with fury.

  “The answers you want just took off down the hallway,” Amos said, getting to his feet. He tested his balance, and then glared at Quick.

  Quick was caught between chasing after Maggie or staying here to get revenge on Amos. “Why did you kidnap her?”

  Amos shook his head. “You’ll have to ask her.”

  “I’m asking you.”

  Reaching down, Amos picked up Nicholette and cradled her in his arms. “I’ll be in touch about your intentions Donner.”

  “My intentions are to blow you out of the sky if you ever go near my woman again.”

  “Your woman?” Amos nodded. “If she’ll have you. And by the way she kissed you just now, it looks like she will. I want one hundred crates of your private reserve a year until you give me a grandchild.”

  “A hundred crates? Fuck you. Wait? A what?” Quick stuttered as Flannery calmly carried Nicholette towards the door Sweet and the boys had just barreled through.

  “She’s your problem now. I took her to Castle Crag as per our agreement.” Flannery stared down Mav and Sweet until they stepped aside. “I think we can call the damage to my ship and the damage to Black’s ship an inconvenient misunderstanding.”

  “Grandchild?” Quick said.

  “Maggie’s my daughter,” Flannery said over his shoulder.

  “Daughter.” Quick felt like the whole bottle of tequila had been cracked over his head.

  “Who’s her mother?” St. John asked.

  “Whose castle are we in?”

  Mav, the asshole, started laughing. Then Sweet joined in. St. John grinned, and Niles shook his head.

  “You poor bastard,” Niles said.

  Chapter Nine

  Maggie knew the layout of the castle better than Ephraim. He had only visited once. She caught up with him easily.

  “Quick won’t let them take you,” she said. “This way.” She led him to her old bedroom, not knowing what to expect. She wouldn’t put it past Black Belle to have converted it into a dungeon or something.

  But it had been left alone. It had even been dusted recently.

  “Where is everyone?” Maggie wondered aloud. If her mother’s flagship was in air dock, she had to be somewhere. Or maybe not, there was no way they should have been able to access the castle without her doing something. Anything.

  “We’re outnumbered,” Ephraim said. “You have to marry me. You can still keep the hot pirate on the side after we beget an heir.”

  “I’m not begetting anything with you. And you don’t want to marry me anymore than I want to marry you.”

  “Better you than the princess of Zuna. She’s so stupid, when I told her to squeal like a pig, she said moo.”

  Maggie blinked. “Why were you telling her to squeal like a pig? I thought you were g
ay.”

  “Is that what your sex life is like? Barnyard animal noises?”

  Maggie sighed.

  “It’s a joke, like your Mama’s so ugly her portraits hung themselves.”

  “I dare you to say that in front of my mother.”

  “You’re hopeless.”

  “I’m glad you’re feeling better,” she said. “Can’t you just close your eyes and think of Calgaria?”

  “With my luck, I’d have to do it more than once.”

  “There has to be a boy prince you can marry that can conceive an heir.”

  “Did you fail biology?”

  “I was home schooled.”

  “You’re still brighter than Princess Zuna.” Ephraim got down on his knee and grabbed her hand. “Will you, Margaret Flannery, be my queen?”

  “Am I interrupting something?” Quick said, from the door. His voice frigid and tight.

  “Don’t shoot him,” Maggie warned.

  “Get the fuck out,” Quick said, glaring at Ephraim.

  “You wanted the caveman,” Maggie said.

  Ephraim got up. “Are those pirates going to take me back home?”

  “Fella, I don’t know who the fuck you are.”

  “But that doesn’t mean that the other Captains don’t.” Maggie put her hand on Quick’s arm. “He and I need to stick together to find out where Black Belle is.”

  “She’s in Cozumel,” Quick said.

  “What?” Maggie snapped.

  “I said, your mother is in Cozumel.”

  The words hung in the air as they stared at each other. Quick’s gaze was hard and challenging. Maggie wondered how he found out.

  Ephraim broke the uncomfortable silence. “Fuck me. I worked like a dog for almost a month. I could’ve just vegged on your couch eating tacos until she showed up.” Ephraim threw his hands in the air, and sat on her bed.

  “She can’t be in Cozumel. Her ship is here.”

  “She was in your bedroom above The Midnight Lady a week ago.”

  Maggie sat down next to Ephraim before her legs gave out. “That doesn’t make sense. Her entire crew and castle staff is gone. Her flagship is here. Her home base is destroyed. She never contacted me.”

  “Eh, the way you left things, she wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire,” Ephraim said.

  Maggie had to agree with him.