Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 106107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
“You passed the test,” Ramsay yells at us with a big grin, the kind you want to punch right off his face. “Come aboard, mateys. Welcome to the Brethren of the Blood.”
I give Abe a tired look, spitting out water as we start to climb the rope. “And you thought joining a band of pirates was a good idea.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
PRIEST
“When was the last time you ate?” Ramsay asks us. It’s been a couple of days since our trial by shark, and frankly, I’m still a little discombobulated by the turn of events. I have a hard time remembering the last time we fed. I have a hard time trying to remember what life was like before we boarded the Nightwind. It’s as if everything that came before was just some hazy dream.
Or, in my case, a nightmare.
Though I still have Larimar at the forefront of my thoughts.
Her face is all I see when I close my eyes.
I try not to close my eyes.
“Five days ago,” Abe fills in as we follow Ramsay and his brother, a grumpy-looking fellow named Thane, down the length of the ship. We just spent the day swabbing the decks and straightening the lines, same as the day before. Apparently, tomorrow will be more of the same. There’s not a lot of variety on this ship, at least not for newcomers. I suppose I should be grateful we’re not on latrine duty.
“Five days? Then you must be starving,” Ramsay says. “You’ve both been working hard enough, I reckon. Best you sample some of our goods.”
Thane grumbles something under his breath.
“What was that, brother?” Ramsay asks, motioning with his hand behind his ear. “You have something you wish to share with your captain and new crewmates?”
Thane manages to glare at all three of us with one, swooping glance. “We should have picked up more bloodletters in Valparaiso,” he says gruffly as we head down the stairs to the deck below. “We took on two more Vampyres; we should have picked up two more victims to make things even. Now, they’re going to be feeding from our resources, and you, apparently, have no plans to make any stops going through the strait.”
Ramsay gives his brother a tired look. “First of all, you know I don’t like that term, Vampyre. We didn’t give that to ourselves—the humans did. We’re the Brethren of the Blood, and that is that, not some name handed out by the hand-wringing Christians in Eastern Europe. No offense, Father Aragon.”
I raise my palm. “No offense taken. It’s just Aragon now, not father.”
I have told Ramsay this quite a few times since, but he either forgets or he likes to choose your name for you. I’m not sure what it is, but I know I have to pick my battles on this ship, or they will be picked for me.
“Of course,” Ramsay says as we go down another set of stairs, past the deck where Abe and I have been sharing a small cabin with bunk beds. “But back to you, Thane, and your grumbles. We couldn’t risk getting any more bloodletters while picking up these two. It would have been too dangerous, would have drawn attention to ourselves. We were lucky enough that our ship traveled past unscathed.”
“Because you weren’t flying your Jolly Roger,” Abe says. “That’s the problem with you pirates: you always have to be telling the world exactly what you are.”
Ramsay grins. “Don’t you think that’s the plan? Tell the world what it wants to see—pirates. Vicious marauders of the deep. Criminals of the high seas. Hide the truth—we’re the monsters in every fairy tale.”
“Poetic,” Thane mutters. “Still doesn’t make up for the fact that we have two extra mouths to feed.”
“I could throw you overboard if that would help even the score,” I say to Thane earnestly.
Ramsay bursts out laughing, and that gets me another dirty look from Thane.
“I would take you up on your offer, Aragon, but Thane is the best quartermaster we have.”
“The only one you have,” Thane points out.
“And he’s needed to keep me in line,” Ramsay goes on. Then, his expression darkens slightly. “Though lately, it seems we’ve switched roles.”
Thane’s golden eyes flash with something—regret or sorrow. More than that, I can feel the weight of history in them. I have no doubt this crew has seen and gone through their share of tragedy. None of us are immune.
I exchange a knowing glance with Abe, and we continue down the stairs until we’re at the very bottom of the ship. Here, she creaks and groans with the sloshing sound of the waves beating the wooden sides. We’ve been lucky that the weather has been agreeable so far. We’re offshore enough from Chile that we can’t see the land, the ship itself having found an easier and faster course as we barrel toward the bottom of the world.