Real Vampires: Glory and the Pirates by Bartlett, Gerry (red white royal blue TXT) 📕

Valdez listened to Fergus, more impressed with his arguments than my impassioned pleas. He followed me up to the tower room.

“You will stay here or in your bedchamber. I will hold you to that promise.” Valdez looked out the arrow slit. “I will look for their ship on the sea first. If I don’t find it, I’ll fly along both coasts in case they are there in an inlet. If one or both of them are wounded, they might be waiting before they can shift again. You know they will have needed a fresh blood source to gain the strength to fly home.”

“Wounded?” Now I had a terrible picture in my mind. Jeremiah had been wounded before and almost died. Yes, he could heal, but it could take a while and he needed ancient blood to speed the process.

“Relax, Glory. Jeremiah is a fine leader of men. He may be doing what the captain did. He could be repairing his ship and tending to the wounded mortals on board.”

“Yes, yes he would do that.” I pushed Valdez toward the narrow arrow slit. “Go. The sooner you go, the sooner you return.” I watched him shift into a large black bird and take wing. He really made an impressive creature. He was soon out of sight in the night sky.

“I thought he’d never leave.” The voice behind me made me whirl around. It was a boy, no, a woman in boy’s clothing. Her left hand held a pistol pointed directly at me.

“How did you get in here?” I knew it had to be the pirate queen. Who else could it be? But I wouldn’t think of her as a queen. Not with her hair filthy and her britches ripped.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” She smiled and I suddenly saw a pretty woman who was probably used to beguiling those she ruled.

“Yes, I would. But it doesn’t really matter, does it? You’re here. Surely you know that if you fire that gun, you will have my guards running to surround you in moments.” I didn’t look forward to a wound, but I would survive it. She didn’t know that though.

“I don’t think so. But I want you to look at me. Look at how you ruined me.” She hit the right arm that hung uselessly by her side. She kept her distance as she walked around me until she shoved the gun barrel against my back. “Now you are going to pay for that. Move. You are coming with me.”

I pretended to cringe. “Don’t hurt me. I didn’t mean to do it. I was just shooting into the crowd. Hoping to make you go away.” I pretended to stumble then made a grab for her gun. She was fast and smarter than I had thought she’d be. She managed to avoid my hands and slammed the heavy gun against my head.

Gods but it hurt. My ears rang. I reached up to feel blood running from a gash above my ear. I cried out, shouting for help.

“No one is coming to your aid. My men are making noise and firing arrows at your gate. They are keeping your guards busy. All the guards still living, that is.” She pushed me forward with her gun barrel in my back again. “I said move.”

I started walking. Where was she taking me? Outside my door I gasped when I saw one of the men set to guard me lying dead in a pool of blood, his throat cut. Poor MacDougal. He was another man from Dollar and had been eager to follow Lord Campbell. He’d certainly paid for his loyalty.

“Did you have to kill him?” I turned to scream at the pirate. “He was young with his whole life ahead of him!”

“He was a Scot.” She spit on the body. “Good riddance to ya, I say. Now move. Straight ahead. I’ll tell you when to turn or go up.” She waved that gun. “I can wound you and no one will care. Hear that?”

I listened and there were gunshots below us in the courtyard. It seemed our guards and her pirates both had guns and were using them. My stomach dropped. Healing from them or not, wounds were painful and could slow me down in a fight.

I kept going, shoved by that painful gun barrel in my back when I slowed down. Her spies had been busy, for she took me on a meandering path of hallways then stairs up to another tower. This one faced the hill where we had come out of the secret passage. Had Jeremiah remembered to tell Fergus to post guards there?

We walked all the way up to the open battlements at the top of the tower. Looking out, I felt like I could see forever. I could certainly see that there were no guards on that hilltop below us. Perhaps they had run to the aid of those under attack at the drawbridge.

“You like the view up here, mistress? What do they call you? Gloriana?” She laughed. “My Gran told me they called your queen that once. Are you so lofty? I think not.” She pushed me with that hard gun barrel to the low wall until I was leaning over it and could see the long way down to the ground. Then she stepped back.

I stood and faced her, refusing to just lean over or beg for my life. I was sure that was what she expected. “I am no queen and neither are you. Just a good shot with a bow and arrow. You should be grateful I didn’t kill you.”

“Grateful? Grateful that I cannot lift my arm to hold my own bow? Grateful that my people now look at me with pity?” She stared at me with such hatred I thought she’d shoot me then. Instead, she shook with anger and a tear streaked down her face.

“Killing me will not bring back your arm’s usefulness.”

“It will