Immortal War

concerto of cries and footsteps above, came up to join the fray. The pirate vanguard was now locked in a confined area with no way to open up more space than through slaughter. This phase of Operation Scrimshaw had been predicted by Cate, and she had identified her strongest swordsmen and -women accordingly.

Connor knew that the pirates’ key advantage—surprise—was now lost to them. The sense of jeopardy had roused the Vampirates like a hefty dose of caffeine, and the blood from the wounds inflicted on their pirate attackers had awakened their hunger, too. Connor could see the fires of hunger stoked in his enemies’ eyes. Thankfully, he himself was still sated from the blood he’d scored the night before—otherwise, this would have been an unwelcome distraction.

He could see the change in his own adversary. With every clash of their swords, the Vampirate seemed to grow stronger. For the first time in the attack, Connor felt he was engaged in an equal fight. He found himself lifting his own sword skills. The duel was a close-fought one, but at last he outmaneuvered the Vampirate and claimed victory.

To his side, one of his comrades had not proved so lucky. Goran fell to the floor with a crash, a dead weight. Goran had been a popular member of the crew, and Connor saw momentary hesitation in his ranks.

“Come on!” he urged the others. “He played his part. Fight on! Clear this corridor!”

At his words, the pirates took to their mission with fresh vigor. But they no longer had the advantage of numbers. Vampirates from belowdecks were surging toward them, pushing them back along the corridor.

Cheng Li enjoyed the pleasing sound of her katanas slicing through Johnny’s blackout blinds and watched as the morning light burst into the cabin.

“No!” Johnny cried once more.

As Cheng Li turned around to witness his imminent destruction, she saw with horror that both her escorts lay on the floor, motionless, blood pooling around them. How on earth had he done that? Evidently, he had a rare gift for killing. But these would be his last kills. He was already trembling as he faced the light, as if he were experiencing a terrible chill—when in fact the complete reverse was true.

“No,” he cried once more, his voice obviously weaker now.

The light seemed to have rooted him to the spot. His eyes were closed, but his face nonetheless expressed the terrible pain he was experiencing. Cheng Li could smell burning. It was not an unfamiliar smell to her these days, but she would never become used to it. Stepping closer, she watched with horrid fascination as the skin on Johnny’s handsome face began to char and blister. She reached out, tentatively, to his bare shoulder and found that his flesh crumbled to ash in her fingertips.

This, she thought, was all part of the mystery—how creatures so strong in darkness could crumble to nothingness when faced with the light. She almost felt sorry for him. Then she reminded herself that he had been instrumental in murdering Molucco and was one of Sidorio and Lola’s most trusted operatives. The blood of countless pirates lay on Johnny’s hands. Cheng Li’s eyes fell to her own two fallen comrades. The Cowboy had certainly wasted no pity on them. Turning her gaze back to the desiccating Vampirate, she pushed aside any instinct of pity. She slipped her katanas back into their sheaths. Folding her arms, she watched Johnny cry out with pain as the light burned deeper into his core.

As the Vampirates claimed another of the pirates and paused to feast on her blood, Connor saw a flash of fear in Moonshine’s eyes.

“Fight on!” Connor cried. “This is your ship we’re fighting for!”

The words were enough to jolt Moonshine back into action. Just then, a greater jolt sent the ship rolling in the ocean. The battle zone was thrown into immediate confusion as the floor rose up by sixty degrees on the starboard side. The confusion intensified as pirates and Vampirates were thrown across the narrow corridor. As they landed and came to their senses, the floor shifted again, but in the other direction. At last, the ship slumped back to where it had started, but the various combatants were now scattered and squaring up to different adversaries. Nevertheless, the Vampirates resumed the fight.

Connor and the pirates knew that the jolt signaled good news. It meant that The Tiger had drawn up alongside them and it wouldn’t be long before reinforcements arrived.

The force of The Tiger ramming into The Diablo threw Cheng Li and Johnny across the cabin and—slam—into each other. Face-to-face, they were both momentarily disoriented. Johnny’s scorched hands locked around Cheng Li’s narrow waist.

She tried to push him away, feeling suffocated by the toxic smell of burning. “Let me go!”

Johnny smiled grimly at her. “If I’m going down in flames, sugar, you’re surely coming with me!”

Although pieces of his charred skin were now floating around the cabin like ticker tape, still his inner strength remained. Cheng Li was unable to break free of his grip. Now, he reached behind her and extricated the katanas from her back. “You won’t be needing these where you’re heading!” he declared as Cheng Li’s trusted weaponry clattered onto the cabin floor.

Cheng Li felt naked and vulnerable without her katanas, but there was nothing she could do. It was as if, close to the edge of destruction, Johnny was possessed with a final surge of strength. She found herself being pushed toward the glass of the vast porthole that, until recently, had been covered with blackout blinds. “No!” she cried out, drawing on all her own strength to defy Johnny. But his strength was far superior despite his injuries, and he succeeded in propelling them both with such force into the cabin window that the glass shattered around them and they fell through the broken porthole. Locked in a deadly embrace, Johnny and Cheng Li tumbled through the morning air and down into the water. He was burning and she was bleeding, and yet the ice-cold water offered neither of them any kind of release.

Connor’s momentary relief at the arrival of The Tiger was short-lived. His vision was blurred. He was seeing double. His first thought was that he must have taken a blow when the two ships had braced against each other. But, as he experienced the most violent headache ever, he realized that he was seeing two places at once, like two pictures overlapping each other—the first this crowded corridor, the second a large cabin on the corridor below.

“Which one?” asked a voice. It took him by surprise as he realized that the voice was his own.

Now, he saw Vampirates on the attack in both rooms.

“Choose, quickly!” the voice said again. His own voice.

“Down,” he answered numbly and, as he said the word, he found that he was already in the downstairs cabin, fending off an attack from two Vampirates. His headache had gone and his zanshin seemed stronger than ever, as he sent the first adversary flying and thrust his sword into the second. The Vampirate crumbled to dust before his eyes.

“Result!” said his own voice. Suddenly, he was back upstairs, in the thick of the corridor battle, dispatching another Vampirate adversary.

Just as suddenly, he was back downstairs, taking on a fresh opponent and calling for reinforcements. As he did so, he was up above, hearing his own voice. How on earth was this happening? He was in two places at once, fighting two battles simultaneously. It was disorienting at first. Both Connors felt queasy. Even to think of himself as “both” made him yet more nauseous. But from somewhere came an iron resolve. Each Connor focused on the battle at hand, and somehow the queasiness gave way to pure adrenaline.

In the upper corridor, Connor was thrilled to see Cate and Jasmine entering the fray, leading the rest of The Tiger’s attack squad. For a time, the battle intensified, but with their new numbers and greater fighting prowess, the pirates once more gained the advantage and claimed the second corridor for their