Vampirates 4: Black Heart (34 page)

Cheng Li raised an eyebrow.

"He appeared to be in the full throes of blood hunger," Jacoby continued. "When I looked into his eyes, it was as if I was staring into a deep well, with a fire burning at the very bottom of the pit. Then things got really nasty."

"Nasty? How?"

"Vampirate One attacked me," Jacoby said, frowning at the memory. "He easily overpowered me and tore my shirt."

"He was trying to expose Jacoby's thorax," said Jasmine. "This seems to be the vampire's preferred place for puncturing the skin to open up a blood channel."

Jacoby grimaced. "If it hadn't been for these two, Captain, I'd have been Vampirate brunch. Connor came into the cage and tried to pull Vampirate One off me, but the fiend proved too strong for him, too. He was scratching my chest as if he was deciding where to puncture it. I don't mind telling you, it was the single scariest moment of my life!"

Connor nodded. "The Vampirate was bearing down on Jacoby, his teeth extended. I made a fresh attempt to pull him off, but he threw me across the cage."

"So, how did you repel and subdue Vampirate One?" Cheng Li asked.

"Enter the Peacock," Jacoby said with a smile, turning to Jasmine, who took up the story.

"The night before, Jacoby had been telling me about the rumored powers of aconite," said Jasmine. "It's a flowering plant, also known as monkshood or wolfsbane, that has been used for centuries as arrow poison by hunters in Ladakh and Japan, and even in human wars in China." Cheng Li scribbled away furiously as Jasmine continued. "In humans and animals, the poison works quickly, causing numbness to the mouth and burning in the abdomen. This is generally followed by severe vomiting. Then the pulse and respiration steadily fail, leading to death by asphyxia. Aconite was listed as another apotropaic, and as I happened to be carrying a bag of petals I was taking to the lab, I decided to test it out right then and there."

"She was fearless!" Jacoby said, his eyes wide. "She ran into the cage and dropped the petals onto Vampirate One's head. The effect was instantaneous. He had me pinned to the floor, but as the aconite took hold, it was as if he was instantly paralyzed. His hold loosened and he cried out in pain."

"Which led me to conclude," said Jasmine, "that aconite is not simply an apotropaic, like roses or garlic. It didn't just hold Vampirate One at bay. It seemed to act more deeply and inflict actual harm." As she finished speaking, she placed an innocent-looking sprig of white flowers on Cheng Li's desk, beside the wooden stake.

Cheng Li glanced from the flowers to the stake. "So," she said, "the flower works but the stake doesn't? Is that what I'm hearing from you?"

Jacoby shook his head. "The stake works, all right," he said. "We just had to subdue the Vampirates before we brought it into play. We left them for another night and then exposed them to several bouts of light throughout the following day. This appeared, as before, to sedate them -- the more light we exposed them to, the more pronounced the effects of the sedation. Then we returned at sunset to test out the stake on Vampirate Two, the second male, but of a decidedly smaller build."

"Did he put up much of a fight?" Cheng Li inquired.

Jacoby shook his head. "I pretty much bowled straight into the cage and inserted the stake through his thorax. He opened his mouth but made no cry. It was kind of weird."

Jasmine nodded. "There was a high-pitched noise, but it didn't come from his mouth. It was as if it was on a different frequency -- rather like the sound glass makes when it shatters. And then he literally disintegrated before our eyes."

Cheng Li was rapt with attention.

"That's right," Jacoby nodded. "One moment he was there, the next he cracked like a mirror. His human form disappeared. There were shards all over the cage. And then the shards broke up further into this strange kind of metallic-looking dust." Jacoby glanced at his comrades. "That's when we made our first mistake," he said.

"Mistake? What mistake?" asked Cheng Li.

"Well, to be honest, Captain, I was kind of in shock at what I had done. We thought I'd been successful in destroying him --"

"You thought you had? It sounds pretty definitive."

Jacoby nodded. "That's what we all thought. So we decided to leave our experiments there for the night, and we went off to dinner."

"It was only later," said Jasmine, "that Kavan, the guard on duty in the crow's nest, told us what he'd seen."

"Which was?" pressed the captain.

"He said that it was like a dust storm on the deck," answered Jasmine.

"A dust storm?"

"That's what he thought it was at first. He could see the metallic dust moving within the cage. Then it swirled out of the cage, as if the wind had blown it. And it continued to move. Only now, it took shape -- the outline of a human form. Kavan said that as he looked down, the glittering dust became flesh again. Vampirate Two had reconstituted himself."

"Amazing," Cheng Li said. "But that was hardly your mistake. You couldn't have known."

"That wasn't the mistake, Captain," said Jacoby. "The mistake was what happened next. Like I say, we had all gone off to dinner. Kavan was up in the crow's nest. When he saw what was happening, he climbed down to try to catch Vampirate Two, but he wasn't fast enough. The captive escaped from the ship."

"Escaped?" Cheng Li exclaimed. "Where to?" Her features grew dark. "And why is this the first time I'm hearing about this?"

Jacoby was red-faced. "The others did try to persuade me to tell you before, but I felt that you'd delegated responsibility for this task to me. I didn't want to let you down, Captain. I was confident we could recapture him."

"Oh, Jacoby!" Cheng Li said, exasperated. "But you didn't, did you?"

Jacoby shook his head. "I'm really sorry, Captain."

Cheng Li nodded. "It's unfortunate, but understandable in the circumstances. So he got away. He's only one Vampirate. We still have the other two, right?"

Jacoby nodded, greatly relieved that the captain had taken this so well. Clearly, he should have listened to the others and told her sooner. It would have saved him a couple of long, sleepless nights.

Cheng Li was writing, but as she did so, she glanced up. "Although he escaped, you proved that the stake is a very powerful weapon, especially when used in conjunction with other techniques." She took the stake in her hand. "What wood is it made from?"

"Hawthorn," said Jasmine. "Our research suggests that hawthorn is especially toxic to Vampirates."

"Excellent work," said Cheng Li. "This is all starting to come together. So how did you proceed?"

"We decided to further investigate the powers of aconite," answered Jacoby. "As Min described before, this substance appears to be highly toxic to Vampirates. The petals alone have a numbing, paralyzing effect. They cause marked swelling around the eye and lip areas, and there seems to be an even deeper effect internally. So we prepared a reduction of aconite, and that night, we administered it in the form of a drink to Vampirate Three, the sole female of the trio."

Cheng Li glanced up, waiting for Jacoby to continue.

"We destroyed her," he confirmed.

"With this aconite reduction alone?" Cheng Li said.

Jacoby nodded. "We call it the aconite cap," he said with a smirk.

Cheng Li saw Connor wince at Jacoby's joke. She had noticed how silent and withdrawn Connor had become as this interview had gone on. She knew that he had assisted Jacoby and Jasmine with their experiments, but as she had predicted, he had clearly found it hard to achieve the same level of objectivity the other two had brought to the task. Well, this was not a complete surprise, but she needed to have another word with him later. For now, she was eager to hear the final part of their findings.

"At this point, we only had one remaining Vampirate," Jacoby said, "Vampirate One, the one who had attacked me. We covered his cage and managed to weaken him with more of the aconite petals, but we were unable to trick him into taking any of the poison orally." He paused. "So we had to resort to other means."

Again, Cheng Li raised an eyebrow.

"We staked him," Jacoby said. "Well, it would be more accurate to say that we stabbed him."

Cheng Li was surprised. "You dispatched Vampirate One with a regular pirate sword?"

Jacoby shook his head. "Not with a sword, no. With a candlestick. Hang on a moment." He rummaged in his pack and produced the candlestick, setting it on the table alongside the hawthorn stake and the sprig of aconite.

Cheng Li ran her finger over the candlestick, intrigued.

"He crumbled, much like Vampirate Two did," said Jacoby. "Only, this time we watched and waited, and he didn't reconstitute himself."

"You're absolutely sure about that?" said Cheng Li.

"Yes," said Jacoby, seeking the support of his two comrades. Both Jasmine and Connor nodded grimly.

"And what is this candlestick made of?" Cheng Li asked.

"Silver," said Jasmine. "We came across some accounts during our research of how silver has been utilized to destroy werewolves."

Jacoby nodded. "And we thought, what's bad for werewolves might just be equally bad for Vampirates."

Cheng Li made another note, then began flipping back through her pages. "So you've tried every substance on your list, from garlic to silver?"

"Yes," agreed Jasmine. "And we have identified three substances from our list that have tested positive as highly toxic to Vampirates."

"So what can we conclude?" asked Cheng Li. It was a rhetorical question. "We can conclude that though these substances wreak much damage in isolation, a combination of all three is likely to have the most destructive impact."

Cheng Li gestured toward the eclectic array of items set upon her desk. "Hawthorn, aconite, and silver." She smiled. "A dangerous trio. Rather like the three of you!"

Jacoby grinned. Jasmine looked serious. Connor grimaced and then glanced away.

"So," Cheng Li continued, "our weaponry should incorporate all three of these substances."

"If possible, Captain," said Jasmine.

"What are you thinking?" Jacoby asked.

"Give me some time," Cheng Li said, standing and looking out the window. "Thank you, all of you, for your very thorough work."

As day began to fade once more into evening, Connor was on the deck of the Tiger, practicing some sword moves in an isolated spot. He was so engrossed that he did not hear the captain's stealthlike approach. She was able to stand and watch him execute his moves for several moments before he stopped and turned, at last aware of her presence. Their eyes met.

"Your swordplay gets better and better," Cheng Li observed.

"Thank you." He was clearly awkward in her presence, and they both knew it.

"Put down your sword, Connor," Cheng Li said. "We need to have a little talk."

He slid the rapier back into its holster, set it on the floor, and walked over to the deck rail to join her.

"You didn't much enjoy the experiments we conducted on the Vampirates, did you?"

"You know the answer to that," he said. "It was hard. Really hard. Not so much for Jacoby and Jasmine, but for me ... yes. I don't know why."

Cheng Li smiled. "It's obvious," she said, "isn't it? It's because you have had direct, personal contact with some of the Vampirates. And you know how close your sister has grown to some of them."

"Yes," Connor said. "Yes, that's all true." He stared off into the horizon.

"I gave you an opportunity to remove yourself from this mission," Cheng Li said. "Remember? That first night in the secret cache."

Connor nodded, then turned back to face the captain. "I don't want to opt out of this mission," he said. "I want to be a valued member of this crew. More than anything, I want that." His eyes were wet with tears of frustration. "It's just hard for me to go down this route when Grace ..." He changed tack. "I did talk to her, as we agreed I would. I tried to persuade her to leave them."

"You talked to her?" Cheng Li was puzzled. "When? How?"

He was stonily silent.

"Connor, this is important. Talk to me."

He sighed. "Grace has the ability to astral travel. I know how far-fetched it sounds, but it's happened twice now. She comes to see me, and we talk to each other. She isn't a physical presence. If I try to reach out to her, my hand slides right through her, but it is really her. I'm not imagining it. You have to believe me."