Vampirates 5: Empire of Night (16 page)

Sidorio slapped Obsidian Darke on the back. "My wife has a winery," he said.

"So I've heard," said Darke. He shook his head. "I don't drink."

Sidorio chuckled. "It's not a regular kind of winery, you fool! Someone fetch him a glass."

"Allow me," Lola said, stepping forward with the decanter and one of her prized antique glasses.

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"Really," Obsidian Darke said, with no apology. "I'm a man of simple needs."

"That's evident," Lola said, "but you're part of our crew now. And a guest on my ship on a night of rare celebration." She extended the glass. "It would be rude, sir, not to drink--if not out of need or desire, then out of fellowship."

Darke's expression was unchanged. He studied the glass in Lola's hand. Finally, he reached out. "You're right, Captain. I am your humble guest, and I thank you sincerely for your hospitality," he said, lifting the glass to his thin lips.

Lola addressed her crew. "Help me out, ladies." At her word, Mimma, Jacqueline, and Nathalie began circulating with silver trays, each bearing a decanter and glasses.

Grace watched the Vampirates around her taking their glasses of blood. It was easy to imagine it was something else, but she was under no illusions. It might come in a decanter and be served in the most exquisite glasses, but it was still blood, which had until recently flowed through someone's body.
Where had it come from?
she wondered. Who
had it come from?

Connor seemed oblivious to what was going on around them. He had piled his plate high with all manner of delicacies and was making short work of it. It was as if he hadn't eaten in a month. "What?" he asked, noticing her staring at him, as a prawn dangled from his lips.

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"You're certainly hungry tonight," Grace said.

Connor swallowed the prawn and reached for a lobster claw. "Are you kidding? This food is amazing! Cheng Li has us on a macrobiotic diet right now. I can't tell you what a relief it is to see real food again."

Grace smiled at him. So much had changed--both around them and within--but at moments like this he was the same brother he had always been, clearing his plate in a jiffy and then swiping food from hers. He was right, though. This food
was
delicious. Grace was relieved that she was hungry tonight. Her appetite had been so up and down recently and it would have been as discourteous as Obsidian Darke rejecting Lola's drink, for her not to have done justice to the feast Lola had laid on in their honor.

"Well," Lola said, stifling a yawn. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm about ready for a siesta."

Sidorio laughed. "The night is but young, my dear."

Lola shook her head and swiped his glass. "Time to drink up, everyone." She turned to the twins. "I'm sure you two are more than ready for a rest."

Grace nodded. Connor took a last mouthful of dessert, then glanced up. "I
could
do with a bit of shut-eye," he said. "That was the best meal I've had since... well, since forever!"

Lola laughed and clapped her hands with delight. "I'm so pleased," she said. "I'll be sure to pass on the compliment to Chef Escoffier." She turned. "Mimma, would you

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escort Grace back to her cabin? And Stukeley, why don't you help Connor find his way back?"

"It's all right," Connor said. "I'm sure I can..."

"I'm sure you can, too," Lola said. "But you are our guests, and we have certain ways of doing things aboard both
The Vagabond
and
The Nocturne
, don't we, my darling?" Lola turned to her husband, her eyes sparkling. Sidorio nodded obligingly.

Connor voiced no further protest. "Thanks for the excellent dinner," he said as Stukeley held open the door. "Good night, everyone!"

Mimma took Grace's arm and propelled her toward the golden doors, which Jacqueline and Nathalie held open. As she reached the threshold, Grace glanced back at Lola. "Thank you again," she said. "For everything."

"You are more than welcome," Lola said. "It's simply wonderful to have you with us. Rest up, my dear. We're going to keep you busy with all kinds of fun."

Then the four young people headed out into the corridor, and the gilded doors closed behind them.

Sidorio turned to face his wife. "You're not
really
tired, are you?"

Lola shook her head. "Of course not," she said. "I just thought we should send the twins to bed so we could get down to discussing strategy."

"Ah," Sidorio said. "I see."

Lola leaned close to Sidorio and whispered in his ear. "Perhaps you'd like to send Lieutenant Darke on his way?"

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The two captains looked deep into each other's eyes for a moment, and then Sidorio stepped aside and went over to talk to Obsidian.

Lola watched for a moment as her husband addressed his lieutenant. Then, satisfied that her will had been done, she turned and saw that Johnny, Nathalie, and Jacqueline were chatting animatedly at the side of the table. She strode over to join them.

"Well," she said. "I think we gave Grace and Connor a good welcome, don't you?"

"Yes," Jacqueline and Nathalie nodded.

"You certainly fed them well," Johnny added, with a grin.

Lola smiled to herself, then to the others. "They don't call me the perfect hostess for nothing. I wonder..." She was interrupted by the satisfying sound of Obsidian Darke making a discreet exit, then Sidorio coming to join her. She felt her husband's hands encircling her waist and smiled.

"You were about to say something, Captain," Jacqueline said. "Before Captain Sidorio joined us. What was it?"

Lola shrugged, her eyes ranging across the array of empty plates. "Oh, only that I wonder how Grace and Connor enjoyed their first taste of blood."

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18 BUSINESS OF THE NIGHT

Stukeley jumped back onto the deck of
The Vagabond
to find Mimma waiting for him. She was standing against the deck rail, her tousled hair and the soft material of her dress shifting in the ocean breeze. Hearing him, she slowly turned and smiled.

"All done with your babysitting duties?"

Stukeley nodded. "And you?"

Mimma smiled. "For now."

"Well, then," Stukeley said, holding out his arm to her. "As tempting as it is to linger here and count the stars with you, we have a meeting to get to, don't we?"

Mimma locked eyes with Stukeley. "You're a charming man," she said. "But you're right, of course. No rest for the wicked!" Looping her arm through his, she led him across the deck and down to the captain's cabin.

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"Now that we're all here, we shall begin," Lola said, addressing the key personnel of
The Blood Captain
and
The Vagabond
. "There is much to discuss." She turned to Sidorio, who was sitting beside her at the head of a long, highly polished wooden table.

Sidorio rose to his feet and cleared his throat. "When we returned from our honeymoon, my wife and I told you of our plans to expand and fortify our empire. We charged each of you with a key part of the jigsaw."

Now Sidorio nodded to his wife. Lola rose from her seat and walked a few paces across to an easel draped in black cloth. Lola removed the cloth and picked up what looked like a riding crop. She pointed at the distinctive red lettering on the board.

"In a nutshell," Sidorio continued. "We want... more ships..."

There was a thwack as Lola struck the board to emphasize his words.

". . . More leaders..."

Thwack.

". . . Faster recruitment..."

Thwack.

". . . And more blood."

Thwack.

"Thank you," Sidorio said, winking at his wife. Smiling,

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she set down the crop and returned to her seat. Sidorio's eyes sought out Stukeley, who was sitting beside Mimma at the other end of the table, a sheaf of papers spread out in front of him. "Stukeley, you were charged with the task of expanding our fleet."

Stukeley nodded sharply, as all eyes turned to him. "Yes, Captain. And, since we last met, I've been looking into commissioning a fleet of ships to be built for us."

"Progress?" Sidorio barked.

"Costly," Stukeley said, "but, more importantly, too time-consuming." He lifted a handful of papers. "I got quotes from three shipyards, but we're talking months before they can get the first ship ocean-worthy. Part of the problem is that the pirates are also commissioning more ships."

Sidorio was unimpressed. "You got
three
quotes? You offered
money
? What were you thinking? We're Vampirates! We don't buy--we take!"

There was a ripple of laughter around the table, just enough to acknowledge the captain's joke without seriously undermining Stukeley's authority.

Stukeley took it in good humor, quietly shuffling his papers. "As it happens, Captains, I've come up with a new plan, which I believe will achieve our goal of a rapidly expanded fleet with the minimum of time and expense."

Lola raised an eyebrow. "This sounds interesting. Tell us more."

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"We steal the ships from the pirates," Stukeley said. "And we kill two birds with one stone. We diminish the Federation fleets and gain access to a portfolio of the most state-of-the-art vessels on the oceans."

"I like it," Lola said, clenching her fist.

Sidorio grinned. "Good work, Stukeley."

Stukeley passed a piece of paper along the table to the captains. "I have a working knowledge of the Federation's fleets. I've drawn up a list of some initial targets."

Sidorio snatched the paper and glanced at the list of ship names on it. But Stukeley hadn't finished. "There's another aspect to this situation, for which I would now like to pass you over to my colleague, Mister Desperado."

Johnny grinned and stood up, as was his tendency at meetings. "As you all know, I head up the Inhuman Resources department on our ships." There were smiles around the table--Johnny's contributions were always laced with humor. "In other words, I'm in charge of recruitment. There are two recruitment streams into the Vampirate empire. First, your landlubber vampires. I've recently conducted meetings with several key leaders of vampire cells along the coast. They know darn well that the real power is on the ocean these days, and they are about ready to join up."

"Really?" Lola asked. "Just like that? We've had problems before with all their terms and conditions."

Johnny nodded. "Quite so, Captain. Quite so. And you're right, we're still in the middle of negotiations, but

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I've left them in no doubt as to how big we're getting... and how much bigger we're gonna get. I'm confident that I'll be bringing you confirmation of one very major acquisition deal real soon."

Lola scribbled a note on her pad.

"Of course," Johnny continued, "when we recruit vampires with no previous marine experience, there's a steep learning curve for them, which brings me to our second recruitment stream. In many ways, it works better for us to take pirates, who are familiar with the ways of the sea, and sire them. It's an adjustment for them in other ways, but at least they know how to sail." He grinned. "Here's where Stuke's ideas and mine overlap. As we acquire each pirate ship in turn, the crews will be given a very simple choice: join us or die." On that note, Johnny sat down again.

Sidorio clapped his hands. "Excellent work, as usual, Stetson." He turned to Lola. "Don't you think so, my dear?"

Lola nodded. "Very impressive, Johnny."

"Now, then," Sidorio said, glancing at the easel. "What's next? Ah... more blood. Over to you, my love."

"Thank you," Lola said. "Obviously, blood acquisition and storage are under the control of the Black Heart Winery team." She gestured to the five young women who sat beside her. "Jessamy, you have the latest blood yields, I believe."

Jessamy stood and went over to the easel. Removing

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the list of key objectives and setting it to one side, she revealed a graph. Lola passed her the riding crop so that she could explain the colored markings. "The blue line marks our current stock levels. As you can see, these are good, but, since we merged command of the two ships, we've been going through stocks at an accelerated rate." She glanced at Sidorio with a smile. "You, sir, have some thirsty crew members!"

Sidorio shrugged. Jessamy waited for the ripple of laughter to subside before continuing. "Look at the red line! This is our projected increase in production over the next six months. I'm sure you'll agree it's impressive."

"It certainly is," Sidorio said. "But is it viable?"

"Oh, yes," Jessamy said. "We've been developing some new tool kits, which will be supplied to all crew members involved in blood harvesting. At this point, I'd like to hand things over to Camille."

At once, Camille pushed back her chair and reached behind her. Standing up, she deposited onto the table what looked like a chunky briefcase. All eyes zeroed in on it as Camille slipped the catch and revealed its contents. "As you can see, this lightweight, durable case holds six standard bottles--which, as you know, is our typical yield per capita."

Lola raised her hand to speak. "This top-of-the-line portable unit will revolutionize our harvesting. We no longer need to harvest solely on
The Vagabond
, which was previously the case. We've tried portable kits before, but

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there's always been too much wastage in transit. Not anymore! Outstanding work, ladies."

Camille smiled and lifted up the very bottom of her shirt. "The rest of the harvesting equipment will be carried in these new tool belts we've been developing simultaneously. Again, each crew member of the hunting team will be equipped with one."

"Bravo!" Lola beamed and led a round of applause.

"This is all going swimmingly," Sidorio said. "We charged you all with identifying potential new leaders. As the Vampirate fleet expands, we need the right men and women in charge of the ships." His eyes ranged along the length of the table. "Thank you for all your input."