by Justin Sloan
She ran over to Captain Reems, chest pounding. “Where do you need me?”
“We don’t have a chance with that ship above us like that. Don’t suppose they have one of those comm devices or something?”
“You just brought me the one.” She looked up, noting the angle of the balloon and the trajectory of their ship. She sure hoped she wasn’t going to regret this. “Don’t worry, I have an idea.”
His eyes followed hers, then narrowed. “You can’t possibly be serious?”
“It’s our only chance, right?”
For a moment his lips twitched as if he wanted to argue, but finally he nodded. “Please don’t mess this up.”
“Believe me, I don’t want to be at the bottom of the ocean any more than you do.”
She got a running start, then leaped and grabbed one of the ropes that led to their quickly deflating balloon. She put all of her power into scampering up the side as fast as possible.
Gusts of wind blew and the ships shook, causing her to lose her footing more than once, but she held on tight with her right hand, refusing to give in. Whatever higher power was out there knew it wasn’t her time, whether that was the gods, Michael, or simply herself. She shouted and pulled against the wind, clenching the rope with her other hand and then her legs. Rain pelted her as the storm started to catch them again.
“Hurry!” a voice shouted, carrying distantly in the wind.
Lightning flashed in the nearby clouds, lighting the dark sky, and for a split-second her mind went back to nights training with the Duke. Stormy nights, just like this, where he would have his closest few, his chosen, climbing buildings, scampering across electrical wires that had long ago been removed from use, and crawling through mud. In part, it had been to test them and train them for what was to come, but Valerie had always known that the larger part of his purpose was reminding them of their places beneath him.
Now she was at the top, in a sense; the most powerful being she knew besides Michael and Akio. Yet there she was, climbing some damn rope in the middle of a lightning storm over the Atlantic. She had to shake her head at the thought, wondering what sort of idiot got herself into such a predicament.
She finally reached the rain-drenched balloon at the top of their airship. It was losing air fast, though still maintaining its bearing, to a degree.
If it had been fully inflated, she wasn’t sure this would have been possible. With all her power, she thrust herself up and out, losing connection completely, and in that moment she could imagine simply floating away, never to be seen again.
Then she connected, grabbing the balloon, nails digging into it. Her muscles bulged as she pulled herself up over the edge until she reached the point where she could run along the top. It caved in slightly with each bounding step, and each time she imagined the next one would simply pull her into its folds.
Not ten paces ahead she saw the other ship. She could even make out Cammie at its helm shouting orders, and then saw two sailors being lowered over the edge, preparing to cut her ship loose.
“HOLD!” Valerie shouted, her voice projecting over the storm. They looked up in shock, and one nearly had a heart attack. He slipped, the wind and rain doing their worst, and slid off toward the edge of the balloon.
Valerie threw herself forward, catching him with one hand as her free hand’s nails dug into the balloon to keep them both from sliding off.
With a heave, she had him back on his feet and they joined the other sailor.
“Not yet,” she told them when they were secure, then shinnied up one of the ropes they had left dangling over the side of their ship.
Cammie met her at the top, hand out to pull her up. Valerie took the hand, and was soon on the solid deck.
“What the hell do we do now?” Cammie demanded. “This is a complete shit-kerfuffle!”
“Shit storm,” Valerie corrected her.
“Too easy, so no. But what’s not easy is figuring out how to get us out of this mess.”
“I got this,” Valerie told her, darting toward the control room. “You just tell your men to cut us free on my mark.”
Cammie gave her a skeptical look.
“Have I ever messed up something like this?” Valerie asked.
“There’s always a first time.”
“Not for me.” Valerie reached the door and threw it open, then shouted back. “Get them ready!”
She waited to see that Cammie was conveying the order, then stepped in and closed the door behind her.
Judging by Captain William’s wide, confused eyes, she must’ve been quite a sight. Wind-swept, drenched hair going in all directions, she imagined. If she let her eyes glow red, she would probably have looked like some storm god.
Her ears adjusted to the relative silence, and she stepped forward. “Time for some quality bonding time. And by that I mean, do exactly what the hell I say. Copy that?”
“Of course.”
“Good.” She gestured to the wheel. “Hard left when you feel us lurch, then I’m going to need you to bring us around so that we’re nearly even with my ship.”
His eyes lit up. “You mean to mount me!”
She frowned. “It’s ‘board’ you. Yes, we mean to board you.”
“Yes, same thing.” He blushed, turning back to the wheel. She knew he’d just realized what he’d said, and had to chuckle despite the annoyance at how her clothes were clinging to her. A glance down, and she completely understood why his mind would have gone there.
Opening the door, she waved to Cammie. “NOW!” She nodded to William, and then it all happened in a blur. The ship jolted free, then practically nosedived, turning as she went. After a moment she leveled out.
Men and women shouted, then another jolt was felt as hooks met the side of the ship.
Valerie came back out on deck, watching as the ship, with her awesome carved skull and the new map she’d been working on in the captain’s quarters, began to drop away.
“QUICKLY!” Eyes scanning the ship, she watched her men and women work their way over the rails. There was River, working to ensure that Martha was on a rope, but it wasn’t looking good for him personally.
She turned, looking for a hook and rope. There wasn’t time to act rationally, so she did the next best thing—she acted like a maniac desperate to save someone. She snatched up the rope and ran, swinging the hook as she did so, and jumped.
As she fell, she threw the hook so that it caught on the side of the ship, then held on tight as she swung down. With one arm, she scooped up River as her ship lurched onto its side.
Had someone not been on a rope at that point, they would have certainly fallen to their death.
Valerie jolted as the rope came to the end of its swing, but she held on tightly to both rope and boy, and then, as they started to swing back, she hefted him up.
“Hold on,” she shouted, glad to see that he did. “Everyone up, before the next gust gets us!”
When they were all safely aboard she followed, falling to the deck after she topped the rail. She was keenly aware of the inch of water she was lying in, but she was already so soaked at that point that she didn’t care.
“Will someone tell the captain to get us the fuck out of this storm?” she said, not bothering to raise her voice now. She knew they would be on it.
How the hell everyone had survived that, she had no clue. For what seemed like an eternity she just laid there, watching the rain. When it finally started to let up and rays of sunlight hit the airship’s balloon, she sat up and scanned the deck.
The ship was damn full, half of them at work, half just trying to get out of the way.
They saw her sitting up, and started to cheer.
“Enough of that,” she shouted, leaping up and pulling at her clothes, as if she could brush the water away. “You all did it.”
“But we lost the ship,” Reems admitted morosely.
She looked back at the storm in the distance. With her vampire sight, she was just able
to see the shape of her ship where it had landed on the side of a hill, not far from the coastline.
For a long moment, nobody spoke. It was likely they were all waiting for someone, likely Valerie, to explode. This shouldn’t have happened. One little storm, and they lost their shit.
Truthfully she wanted to go off on her captains, to start kicking stuff and swearing. That ship had started to grow on her. Instead, she just continued staring for a long moment, letting them all consider what had happened and process it in their own way. Getting angry at someone and trying to point fingers wasn’t going to do any good now.
“Where is that, would you guess?” she asked, immediately followed by sighs or relief when the others realized she wasn’t going to kick their asses.
A man stepped forward, the boy Kristof next to him. They spoke in a foreign language for a moment, then the man said, “Not a clue, but the boy remembers seeing that land on his way over.”
Kristof nodded. “I distinctly remember that hill. I thought I’d never seen a hill so green in all my life.”
“Wait, you speak the same language?” Valerie asked excitedly. “You’re from the same area, then?”
The man nodded. “My family, it turns out, emigrated from near his town. Outcasts; left over from some dispute long ago. But I know his country, and spent some time there as a teen.”
“Well, sir,” she beamed at Captain William, “you might just be the hidden puzzle piece we’ve been looking for.”
“And the islands?”
“My best guess? Judging by the size of the island, or what we saw anyway, I’d have to say the Faroe Islands. Not that I’ve ever been, but I’ve seen a map or two in my time.”
“Remind me to go back and get my ship someday,” Valerie commented, though she knew that was unlikely to happen. She really did like the carving, though, and the map, and would hate for those to fall into someone else’s hands.
She turned back to the sailor and asked, “Do you think you could find this city, or at least the general vicinity?”
He nodded. “Not exactly, but the area? I can at least ask around, to get us there.”
With a laugh, she turned to the crew. “Does anyone else not realize we are headed to Norway? Now that you know, does anyone have anything they can offer?” The crew laughed, and she held her hands up. “That’s on me. It’s taught me an important lesson about making sure to share my plans with everyone involved.”
“We coulda told you that, boss,” Reems said. “Like, I would’ve loved to have known about the plan to send one of our ships down like that. I would’ve advised you to send this one instead.”
“Hardy-har-har.” Valerie looked at him. “Tell you what, we find another awesome ship, she’s yours.”
“Deal.”
Suddenly her eyes went wide and she ran to the rail, staring at her ship as if that alone would bring her back.
“What is it?” Cammie asked, stepping up next to her. “The comm device, it—”
“This one?” River asked, fishing it out of the pack at his side. “Why do you think I was late getting to the ropes?”
A smile spread across Valerie’s face. “You angel! I knew I saved you for a reason.”
He laughed. “You saved my life because you somehow knew I had this on me?”
“I’m an all-powerful, all-knowing vampire, don’t you see that yet?”
“Hmm, must be that my simple human eyes are incapable of seeing such B.S.”
Silence followed that remark, broken by Valerie’s laughter. “Boy, I’m liking you more every day.”
He smiled, then gave her the comm device and gestured to his wet clothes. “I’m going to check with William and see if there’re dry clothes for everyone on board.”
“Some of us’ll have to go without a spare,” one of the sailors interjected. “Tell him I said you can have mine.”
“If he doesn’t have the spares stowed away,” River replied, then walked off to the control room.
“We need to get all of you dry,” Valerie told Cammie, glancing around at the sailors. “I don’t want anyone getting sick on this trip and ruining all the fun sightseeing.”
“Sights?” Cammie laughed. “Ladies and gentlemen, on your left you have the lost airship of Valerie… Wait, how is it I don’t know your last name?”
“Vampires kinda get rid of the whole last name thing. Just something we do.”
“Huh.”
“I guess it has to do with separating ourselves from our pasts.” Valerie shrugged, turning to look toward their destination. “In a way, I get it. There’s so much I’d like to forget. The path lies ahead and all that.”
Cammie nodded, arms wrapped around herself for warmth. “Sure, that works. Makes sense, in a delusional sort of way.”
“Excuse me?”
“Not meaning offense, but everything we do, every choice, comes from who we are and what we’ve been through. Hell, some would even argue we aren’t really making the choice, that a combination of our past experiences triggers an automatic response.”
Valerie pursed her lips, then shook her head. “Something’s wrong with you.”
“Oh, something’s been wrong with me for a very long time.” She shrugged. “But I’ll take it, because it makes me who I am, and I happen to love that person.”
“You are kinda great,” Valerie replied with a wink.
“Hey, no winking at me anymore. Don’t think I haven’t heard about you and your carpet-munching ways.”
“What the fuck?”
“Sailors talk.” Cammie laughed. “Hey, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. You don’t think I’ve munched on a few carpets in my day? It was practically a carpet buffet back in the Golden City, though the buffet had much more to it than just that. That place was totally fucked up, honestly.”
“I’m not a... I’m not repeating it. But I won’t be reduced to some stupid label like that.”
Cammie eyed her a moment. “You exclusive now?”
“What?”
“Meaning, if you didn’t have the carpet, only...” She glanced around, her eyes stopping at one of the sailors standing watch, an arc rod hanging from his belt. “I’ll word it this way. Would you rather lie around on a carpet, or be out there wielding an arc rod?”
“That’s the weirdest metaphor I’ve ever heard.” She positioned her hand as if attacking with an arc rod, moving to hit her opponent, and then frowned. “You’ve had your mind in the gutter so long, it’s covered in shit.”
“Fuck you,” Cammie said with a laugh. “Just answer the question.”
“You want to know if I’m dedicated one way or the other now?” Valerie rolled her eyes, turning away from Cammie.
Her feelings for Robin hadn’t had time to subside yet, and it had never really been about the sexual side of their relationship. Sure she’d had those feelings, but that wasn’t the whole of it. Thinking back to Jackson, it was kind of the same way. He had swept her off her feet, made her feel something, and not just with his arc rod.
Finally she sighed and turned back to her friend. “I wouldn’t say I’ve made a choice, in that sense. It’s about who I have feelings for. Maybe in this world, we don’t have to make choices based on some physical aspect of the body?”
“Sure, sure… But which do you like more?”
“Oh, for the love of all that’s holy, can we change the subject?” Valerie scoffed. “I mean, really! This is pretty damn typical Cammie right here, and I thought you’d changed.”
“Me? Change?” Now it was Cammie’s turn to scoff. “No, no, no. And no. I’m still as charged-up as ever. Just, now my energy’s all flowing into one man.”
“More than I need to hear, I’m sure.”
Cammie frowned.
“But I’m happy for you,” Valerie added. “I mean, really. Cammie settling down? That’s something I never thought I’d live long enough to see, and since I’m some crazy powerful vampire now, that’s saying a lot.”
“Thanks,”
Cammie replied with a chuckle. “Surprised me as much as anyone, but at least I’m not about to have a baby anytime soon.”
Valerie scratched her chin, considering that.
“What?” Cammie asked.
“It’s just… Have you ever wondered if we’re able? I mean, you’re a Were, and we all know there are no problems there. But vampires?”
“Now we’re getting into uncomfortable discussion topics.” Cammie started to walk away. “Think I’ll check on Royland. See about some combat practice with an arc rod.”
“Wait, seriously?” Valerie blinked, trying to understand her friend. “You can talk all day about what’s going on downstairs, but the minute I bring up children you freak out.”
“Sorry, can’t hear you over the wind!” Cammie smiled, then vanished belowdecks.
Valerie stood there staring after her for a moment, then noticed a sailor walking past.
“She could totally hear you,” the man said.
“Thanks, I figured as much.”
Valerie shook her head, unable to comprehend Cammie sometimes. She found herself talking with the sailor, hearing his story, then starting to tell hers. When she got to the part about her brother leaving her for dead outside Old Paris, she noticed half the sailors on the ship around her now, leaning on the rails or sitting cross-legged, listening like a bunch of school children.
“This isn’t very exciting,” she said, looking around at them. “I feel like the old woman with her stories.”
“No, please tell us!” the sailor said, and the others nodded with wide eyes.
So she gave in, continuing to tell them about her journey west to Old Manhattan and how she had liberated it and stopped her brother from invading.
“It started as revenge, you know?” She looked around at them, quite sure not a one of them would be alive without having felt that at some point in their pirate communities. “I felt betrayed, alone…and, I’ll admit, afraid. But that didn’t last long, because I knew that the people of America needed me. They had a vampire army, led by the second most powerful vampire I knew at the time, heading their way to kill or enslave them. I had to get over there before him, to stop him and see justice done. Little did I know, justice would soon become my driving force in this life.”