Twenty minutes later Michael walked past the bridge and exited the protected area of the ship, continuing out to the open deck. The winds flowed around him from every direction.

  The energy was whispering to him here in the storm. It wanted to be held, to be caressed, to be used and abused in an orgy of destruction.

  Perhaps, Michael thought, he was applying his own feelings to the weather.

  He had wanted only to sleep, and these imbeciles had taken that from him.

  His coat whipped in the wind as he looked for the ship. A few seconds later he smiled, then took two steps and disappeared.

  Above him, Mark watched his mentor leave and smirked.

  Someone was going to get fucked up tonight.

  Michael left the ArchAngel and took off in the direction of the pirate ship. The vibrations up here in the sky were a bit overwhelming, and he was having difficulty focusing on the ship’s power source since he couldn’t see it.

  As he went one direction, he missed the two small power sources heading in from the other.

  The ship drew nearer and the lights, powered by their own energy, flared into the clouds as they roiled around in the wind.

  Michael solidified on the main deck and looked around. From time immemorial pirates had had a bad reputation, but many could and would be excellent at their jobs.

  Almost like their lives depended on it.

  Seeking out minds in the night, he found one man outside. He had hidden himself deep in the lee of the wind.

  Michael grinned and glanced at the location of the man trying to hide from the weather. At his one job, to alert the ship should someone unknown attack them, he had failed.

  His scream of death would tell those on this ship that something was not right.

  Mark noticed the two lights approaching in the dark on his umpteenth scan, and grinned. He vacillated over whether he should inform Jacqueline they had incoming or not. On the one hand, he would have the chance to learn just how well he could throw those coming to attack them over the edge by himself.

  Or, he could find out if Jacqueline would throw him off the ship in her annoyance at not being a part of the party.

  Prudence won.

  He double-checked the distance of the two attack ships and how carefully they were arriving, and decided going inside wasn’t going to cut it. He reached over and grabbed a small metal bar, then tapped out a predetermined message. Three taps, pause. Two taps, pause.

  One tap.

  Mark checked that his weapons were secure, his knives in place and his pistol locked in. He had a coat now too, not quite the length of Michael’s, but it helped hide most of his weaponry. He stood up and grabbed the ladder that allowed him to jump down to the deck of the ship, bracing himself as the wind whipped around him. With his hand on the rail he at least didn’t worry about being flung out into the night by an unexpected gust of wind.

  Then again, he wondered, what gusts were expected?

  His landing was lost in the wind, and when Jacqueline opened the door it was only noticeable because of the light it threw out into the night, not from the sound.

  Well, to a human.

  Mark raised an eyebrow at his friend as she laughed at him. “Are you shitting me?” she called out, looking around, “Someone is stupid enough to attack in this weather and Michael didn’t kill them?”

  Jacqueline scanned to starboard before she turned back to Mark and pointed a finger at him. “If you’re fucking with me, I’ll throw your skinny vampire ass off this ship! That would be no way to treat a lady.”

  Mark opened his mouth to reply but immediately had two feminine fingers pinching his lips closed. Jacqueline had moved next to him. “If you say one sentence that puts ‘lady’ and a disparaging remark together, these incoming pirates will have to take a back seat until after the ass-kicking I’ll give you!”

  Mark heard the wind shifting around new ships in the air before she did, so he looked to his left and raised his eyebrows. She never let go of his lips as she turned in the darkness. Seconds later, she caught the sound. Her fingers released his lips and she gave a tiny squee of delight in anticipation of fighting some pirates.

  Mark rolled his eyes.

  He reached inside his coat and verified again that all of the knives and the pistol were locked down. “I have the first to land. You take the second.”

  Jacqueline’s head snapped around. “Who died and made you the boss?”

  Mark smiled. “If you want to be included the next time bad guys come to play, you shouldn’t act like a spoiled princess making demands.”

  Jacqueline frowned. If there was one thing she had learned about Mark since their first fateful meeting with Michael, it was that he could be annoyingly stubborn.

  She had tried overwhelming him with nudity. That worked against her. Now, he probably could draw her naked from memory and she hadn’t even seen a nice moon.

  Fucking prudish vampires. The hot new body he had developed since getting Michael’s blood and energy was driving her nuts.

  So she tried to use her intelligence against him.

  Fucking computer-hacking prudish vampires. The bastard was quite literate. Seems his type didn’t go out much and he read all the time.

  Finally, she tried to dominate him like an Alpha.

  Fucking passive-aggressive computer-hacking prudish vampires. He wasn’t dominated, he was just biding his time to assert his “you’re not the boss of me” comments.

  Which, she had to admit, were damned hot.

  She needed to kill some pirates, then take a cold shower.

  “What the hell was that?” Billy asked, hearing a shriek that didn’t sound like it came from the wind buffeting the ship.

  “Billy,” Sally David called out, “I can’t raise Tim outside.”

  “Stupid fucker is probably sleeping,” Billy responded. “Why he wants nest duty in a storm is beyond me.” He thought about it for a moment. “Tell Amanda and Arnold to go see what’s up. Amanda ‘cause she’ll do it, and Arnold because she doesn’t weigh more than fifteen pounds.”

  There were snickers around the bridge.

  Michael switched back to Myst when he heard a door open. He had searched for an opening, but apparently these ships were more airtight than he would have given them credit for.

  Two people came out, a man and a woman. The man was large, the woman in comparison, was quite small. Michael paused, they had something he wasn’t expecting to find on a pirate ship.

  They cared for each other.

  In his Myst form, Michael pursed his lips, made a decision and stepped through the opening. He rematerialized and grabbed the door, yanking it from the man’s grip and slamming it shut. Locking the door from the inside, he turned around, ignoring the shouts of frustration from outside. He smiled at the first man to come around the corner, who was in shock that someone that he didn’t recognize was on the ship.

  A someone whose eyes were glowing red, and whose right hand was growing knives for nails.

  Michael, pushing fear out to affect those throughout the ship, started down the hall to the first man. The guy’s feet wouldn’t obey as his mind screamed at him to run.

  “You shall be my first tonight,” Michael, his voice emotionless, told the man. “Honor needs to be fulfilled, and the fire is burning bright.”

  Outside on the deck, Arnold stopped beating on the door, but he tried again to yank it open when the screaming started. He kept one hand on the handle as a lifeline as the other arm reached out to scoop Amanda into his embrace. He could feel her hot tears of anger, and now fear, soaking his chest.

  He might die tonight, but he would die trying to protect this fragile young woman.

  Antigrav Ship ArchAngel

  “Sir,” scope operator Timms called over his shoulder to Captain Miles O’Banion. “Pirate ship is losing distance and changing direction.”

  Miles nodded before calling back, “Understood, Timms.”

  He reclined in the captain’s chair and blew out a sigh. He now had to admit half of why he had been afraid of waking Michael himself.

  When he chose to wake him up, Captain Miles O’Banion became guilty of murder. He might not be the one killing all of the men and women on the pirate ship behind them, but he knew what the end result would be.

  “May God have mercy on their souls,” he whispered to himself as he made the sign of the cross.

  Near the Antigrav Ship ArchAngel

  “If you don’t like me suggesting sexual positions,” Combs retorted to his partner on the trip over to the target ship, “maybe you shouldn’t reply in kind!” He scowled as he piloted their two-person skiff towards their prize.

  “Maybe,” Juliana agreed from behind him, “but come on, there are sexual positions, then there are acrobatics, and then there’s whatever the fuck you’re actually suggesting. That shit isn’t even remotely possible for a woman and there is absolutely no chance there could be any pleasure for her at all.”

  Combs thought about his last suggestion as he concentrated on their approach. The banter was helping him focus on the task at hand and ignore the buffeting winds as he punched the trigger to land on the ship’s deck. A clang sounded as their metal skids connected and then locked tight with magnetics and gravity locks.

  “All ashore who’re going ashore,” he called back as he made sure his weapons were locked in. He could hear Juliana doing the same. “Feel free to kill most everyone so our friends can catch up. Remember what Billy and Cholly said, we’re scrapping this—”

  Combs’ get-ready speech was lost when someone knocked on the outside of the little craft. “What the fuck?” he shouted. He was wondering if he should hit the gravs and try to get back to the other ship when metal started squeaking, then squealing. Finally both he and Juliana froze, shocked as the brackets broke and the cockpit door was ripped off. A young man with blazing red eyes stood outlined against the darkness, the lights from their skiff illuminating him from the front, the lightning in the clouds silhouetting him from behind.

  “Oh,” he said to the two stricken pirates, “you will be going ashore.” Combs tried to pull his pistol, and the young man reached down and slapped Combs’ hand, breaking his wrist. He deftly unhooked the seat belts and grabbed Combs’ shirt and belt.

  Juliana, mouth open, heart beating wildly, watched as the vampire yanked Combs out of the chair. She heard his screams as he flew out and over the side of the ship.

  Then those two red eyes turned to her and she saw her death written plainly.

  She inhaled, trying to catch her breath. “But I’m a girl!”

  The vampire didn’t even smile; he merely unhooked her seatbelt and gripped her as he had Combs.

  Before she was pulled from the ship and thrown over the side, she heard him say, “So was my sister.”

  Juliana closed her eyes, not wishing to know when the end would be. Just before she slammed into the sea, she wondered what the vampire’s sister had done to him.

  Back on the ship, Mark turned to see the second skiff hit the deck and Jacqueline approach it. He started walking towards it as well.

  Chapter Four

  Near the Antigrav Ship ArchAngel

  The flash of the lightning was bright enough that it nearly blinded Terek as it vaporized Marc and Campbell’s attack ship. “Land this fucking thing already or I’m going to throw up all over you!” he yelled. His partner Leon whooped and shouted as they flew from the Folly over to the prize.

  “God damn, did you see the explosion? That could have been us!” Leon exclaimed.

  “That isn't helping, Leon,” Terek muttered as he refrained from slapping his pilot on the back of his head.

  The clang of their landing did little for Terek’s stomach. He patted himself down quickly, not caring too much about the loss of a couple items if he could just get the fuck out of this death trap.

  He’d kick the shit out of Leon later.

  The canopy on their little antigrav ship cracked, and he reached up to push. The damned thing absolutely couldn’t open fast enough for him.

  The sudden bang from inside the canopy startled the shit out of him, as did the female bellowing right next to them.

  “Motherfucker, that’s my most comfortable shirt you just shot a hole in!”

  Terek heard Leon scream as an arm reached into the cockpit and crushed his hand. His screams turned to gurgles when she hit him in the head three times, then chopped him in the neck once for each word she yelled.

  “That. Hurt. You. Bastard!”

  The fourth chop to Leon’s throat caused his demise.

  Terek was busy yanking out his pistol to shoot the woman. He looked up and saw her glowing yellow eyes, and knew immediately that he was fucked.

  He had no silver bullets in his pistol. There weren’t supposed to be any werewolves flying over the fucking sea, so who needed silver?

  Apparently he did.

  She had glanced over at him as she was beating the shit out of Leon, and didn’t seem too worried. Terek found out why when another arm reached over and grabbed his wrist, easily breaking it and leaving the pistol hanging limply from fingers he couldn’t control.

  The screaming was now coming from his own mouth.

  He grabbed his wrist and turned to look into the eyes of the male standing next to him. His spirit gave up. “Oh, fuck me!” Terek grunted when he saw the red glowing eyes.

  “Not my type,” the young vampire answered as he popped the seatbelt off, casually pulled him from the skiff, and tossed him, screaming, over the side of the ship.

  “He’s not?” Jacqueline asked as she unbuckled the first pirate and pulled him out of the little craft. She had to use both arms. “How the fuck did you make this seem so easy?” she grunted, then turned towards the edge of the deck and heaved the pirate’s body back over her head, sending it off the side of the ship.

  There was no yelling from that body.

  Mark smiled and answered, “Practice.”

  Captain O’Banion swallowed as he and the others on the bridge watched the casual way the two took out the four pirates. No one said a word, but they all could feel fear mixed with gratitude.

  Without them they might have had deaths on the ship, as they fought pirates they wouldn’t have known were sneaking aboard.

  Who tries to land those damned antigrav skiffs in a storm? There was no one stupid enough to try that.

  Well, except these pirates who had just met the welcoming party, and then been casually thrown off the ship to their deaths. Including the one that Jacqueline had beaten the shit out of for shooting her.

  “I think the young woman is going to need food,” Miles said into the quiet of the bridge. “Timms, take care of that. Someone also needs to make sure that Mark is okay. I didn’t see if he got hurt, but we need to make sure.” The Captain turned to Sasha, who had seemed interested in the vampire before. “Can you check on how Mark is doing?”

  This time, the infatuation Sasha usually displayed when talking about Mark was absent.

  It had been replaced with fear.

  The Pirate Ship Folly

  Michael had spent the better part of fifteen minutes locating the heartbeats, heavy breathing, and finally the people who were producing both.

  Twice he had heard gunshots that didn’t come near him. He later found two who had taken their own lives. He made the sign of the cross over their bodies.

  They had come to grips with their own sins and paid the final price.

  Now he had only the engine room to deal with. He walked down the hallway and started walking slowly down the ladder to the lower level.

  Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.

  Behind him, the ship was deathly quiet.

  Cholly Jake hadn’t been able to raise the bridge in over five minutes. That told him all he needed to know.

  The Antichrist had found them, just like his mother had predicted thirty years before on her deathbed.

  “You be careful you not be doing what you ain’t supposed to be!” she had said, “or the dark Christ will take you out one day!”

  He was busy wrapping the wire around his dead-man switch as his mind replayed that last conversation, the touch of his mother’s hand caressing his cheek as a tear tracked down the cheek of the younger version of him.

  He reached up and wiped a similar one off.

  “I might be joining you soon, Mom,” he whispered. “But I won’t go down without taking the devil with me.”

  He pulled hard, seating the wire, then turned around as the steps came closer to his engine room.

  It was a shame he wouldn’t be able to see the explosion from the outside. He had always wanted to know what happened when you fused all of the power in an antigrav core.

  Amanda shivered against Arnold and spoke into his chest. “The screaming has stopped.”

  When the sound died, so had the fear. Arnold felt like the danger was moving away from them now.

  Not that he could do one damned thing about it.

  He had been trying to figure out how they could get inside, and the only solution he could see was using some of the equipment to break the windows to get back into the ship. Well, Amanda could get back in.

  He was too big for that.

  Plus, he could probably hold her high enough over the sharp edges to protect her. He would get cut, but with some care, nothing too bad. Then she could let him inside.

  He was trying to figure out what might work when the ship dropped probably ten feet, causing them to slam down on the deck.

  “Oh, fuck,” Arnold whispered.

  There was no way he would be able to save her from a fall that high.

  “I know you’re here!” Cholly yelled, his eyes darting around the engine room. “I’m ready to answer for my sins. Are you?”

  The maddening voice came back calm, cool and unhurried. “If I could die, I would have a long time ago, Cholly Jake.”

  “How the hell do you know my name?” Cholly looked around to make sure the bastard hadn’t slipped behind him somehow. His left hand gripped the dead-man switch feverishly. “You know neither of us are getting out of this, right?”