Page 21 of Born Wicked

“A few years later,” Jon continues on. “My mother was pregnant again, with me, when they were attacked. The entire crew was taken to Jamaica and put on trial, every one of them sentenced to death. My mother pled for a delay, stating she was pregnant. So, they put her in prison until I could be born.”

“What about your father?” I ask, my brows furrowing. “He was a vampire.”

Jon nods. “They bound him and let him hang for days. It’s called gibbeting. There are no good records of where he was buried, so it’s my personal belief that he pretended to be dead and then escaped. And I think he took my mother with him, because there is no real record of her death either.”

“So, you were born, and they disappeared on you?” I ask. That doesn’t sit well. I might not have grown up with parents, but that was because my mother was killed and Jon couldn’t find me. But he still searched for me for twenty-nine years.

Jon’s eyes fix forward, concentrating on nothing in particular. He shrugs. There’s pain there, I see it. But he’s had centuries to process it. “It’s all just my speculation. Maybe they really did die. Maybe they just wanted to keep living life on the seas. But yes, I grew up without them.”

It makes me want to punch someone. Growing up without parents changes you, and generally, not for the better. Jon was abandoned. His mother would have died of old age at some point, but his father is an immortal vampire. The man could still be alive now.

“A few nuns took me to America when I was three,” Jon proceeds. “I lived in an orphanage until I was thirteen. By then, I’d had enough of that. I took off to the ports, and never looked back. It was easy to get hired to do runs back then. Guess the sea was just in my blood.”

“And were these runs legal?” I ask, drawing out my words slightly for implication.

Jon chuckles. “Those ones were. I worked on a merchant ship for four years before a man approached me and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

“And the plot thickens,” I tease.

Jon sits a little straighter in his seat, his chin lifting. He looks uncomfortable, which is amusing to me, considering it’s me, and all the less than black and white things I’ve done throughout my life. “It started out with a secret run from England to France. Some human royal had some ‘business’ to take care of there and didn’t want to draw attention. Next, it was illegal merchandise runs. I was good at this, and it gained me some attention.”

I thought I had stories from my teenage years. But they can’t hold a candle to Jon’s.

“Reputation can certainly get you farther in life,” Jon says, though his tone doesn’t indicate that he thinks this is a good thing. “I knew exactly who my parents were, the nuns wanted to make sure I knew they were bad people. I think they wanted to make sure I didn’t turn out like them.”

“Looks like it backfired,” I observe with a smirk.

Jon nods with a smile as well. “As my name became known to other sailors, my parents’ reputation gained me respect I hadn’t truly earned yet. But I was determined to prove myself.”

It’s like watching a movie or reading an old book. This is the modern world. There are no real pirates. There are no famous buccaneers anymore. But this is the reality my father grew up in.

“I was the first mate to Captain Daniel Farbank by the time I was twenty-three,” Jon continues. “We’d been in so many questionable situations. We’d both been shot at, stabbed, imprisoned, escaped, everything. But when we were raiding one of the King’s ships, one of their best soldiers got the best of Daniel. Ran him right through with a sword. I watched the whole thing happen.”

From his tone, it’s easy to tell. Captain Daniel Farbank meant a lot to Jon. Best friends.

Elena watched me bleed out once on a sidewalk, from a knife wound.

And then I watched her slip into a coma I’m not sure I can bring her back from.

“I’m sorry,” I offer with sympathy.

Jon nods. “Watching him die shifted something in me,” he admits. “Daniel was getting more and more reckless. Going after the King’s fleets and loot was a bad, stupid idea. The rest of our crew escaped with our lives, but not without injury. We got back toThe Atlantic Fortuneand high-tailed it out of there. As the new Captain, I had some decisions to make about the future of our crew.”

He takes a deep breath and looks over at me, his expression unsure and maybe a little embarrassed. “Look, Juliet, this is all a little… odd, admitting everything to my daughter, who I was supposed to raise the right way. I was a different person then. I’m not ashamed of who I was, but just… keep an open mind.”

I don’t even resist the eye roll. “Look, I’ve stolen food, I’ve cussed out teachers, gotten sent to detention, killed two people, and lied to just about everyone around me. If anyone is going to judge you for doing what you had to, it’s not going to be me.”

“Damn,” Jon lets the word slip out. And he laughs. With a huff, he slumps back into his seat. “Ingrid was adventurous, but she would be lecturing the shit out of the both of us right now to be better.”

I laugh, and it feels really good, because it’s so basic, so natural. It’s family laughter, something shared between father and daughter in the weirdest circumstances ever.

Jon lets out a sigh. “Okay, well, I kept us away from any government ships after I became Captain. Traders, merchants, wealthy dirtbags. They were fair game. We were like ghosts for the next three years.”

“What happened?” I ask, hanging onto his every word.

“We were in Scotland for an entire week,” Jon recounts. “We were being the twenty-something-year-old idiots we were. Gambling, women, food. We’d just made a lot of money on a raid. And we were being too flashy. I was just headed into a bar when the man came up from behind me. Didn’t ask for money. Just muttered something about his fiancée. And then I was bleeding all over and my face was searing agony.”

My eyes slide over to my father and the twin scars on his face. They go from the corners of his mouth and hook back and up toward his ears.

---