Vampirates 3: Blood Captain Read Online Free PDF

it.”
    Lorcan sighed. “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” he muttered. Through the darkness, Grace reached out her hand and squeezed his.
    “Well, it’s true!” Shanti continued, undeterred. “We’d be much better off waiting for daylight.”
    “You’re forgetting,” said Lorcan. “I cannot walk in the light. The captain is the only one of us — the only Vampirate — who can do that.”
    Shanti didn’t miss a beat. “If you’re already blind,” she said, “what more harm can the light do to you?”
    This was a vicious barb, even by Shanti’s standards. Lorcan had no answer for it.
    “Let’s talk no more about this,” the captain said. “We’re wasting time.” With that, he strode off along the path, his cape sparking against the trees on either side.
    Shanti looked to the others for support. “This is madness,” she said. “Don’t you see? We’ll never make it.”
    “You might well be right,” Lorcan agreed despondently. It was as if Shanti’s sharp words had stripped him of any remaining shred of confidence.
    “We have to try,” Grace said, with grim determination. “We can’t give up before we even begin. I don’t think the captain would have embarked on this journey if he didn’t think it was possible.”
    “What do you know?” Shanti said. “What do you know about anything ?”
    Shanti was so bitter, so angry with Grace. Grace knew that she blamed her for Lorcan’s blindness and for the fact that he had stopped taking Shanti’s blood. And though it made Grace uncomfortable to admit it, it was true that Lorcan had been blinded trying to protect her. So she did feel responsible for what had happened. But there was nothing to be gained by standing around blaming one another or apologizing again. The captain had said that Lorcan’s best chance of a cure lay at the top of this mountain. That was the one truth they all had to cling to.
    “I’m going to follow the captain,” she announced. “Before we lose sight of him.” She turned to Lorcan. “Are you coming?”
    He nodded.
    Grace paused for a moment. It was an awkward question but she needed to ask it. “Do you need a hand?”
    Before he could answer, Shanti looped her arm through Lorcan’s. “If anyone is to help him, it will be me,” she said.
    But Lorcan shook his head and removed Shanti’s hand. “I can walk by myself,” he said, stepping forward. In spite of the bandages around his eyes, his steps were firm. “Grace, you lead and we shall follow.”
    Shanti’s face flushed scarlet and Grace could see she was thinking of some fresh complaint.
    “Come on then,” Grace said. “I can still see the flicker of the captain’s cape along the path, but we’ll lose him if we wait another moment.”
    It was strange, thought Grace, how quickly you adapted to the darkness. The shimmer of light in the veins of the captain’s cape was not as bright as normal — just enough to tell her where he was, but insufficient to illuminate the way. And so she simply walked in his wake. Occasionally, a stray branch brushed her face or the top of her head, but already her other senses were making up for the lack of vision. She noticed how her hearing had grown more acute, as if the volume had been turned up on her footsteps on the path. It was strange how easy it was to distinguish her own steps from Lorcan’s heavy but firm tread and Shanti’s brisker pace. Try as she might, however, she couldn’t hear the captain’s footsteps ahead of her. She knew he was there from the constant flicker of light, but how come she couldn’t hear his footsteps?
    She could smell the musty coat Lorcan was wearing and, behind him, the trace of Shanti’s perfume — quite incongruous against the mountain air. Grace walked on, her feet marching out a steady rhythm, her mind in a meditative state. Suddenly she heard a cry from behind her.
    “What was that?” Shanti’s shrill voice pierced the air.
    “What was what ?” Lorcan