by Casey Lane
"This shit was much easier when I was 16."
With a grunt, Lyra hoisted herself onto the top of the train, ignoring the gasps from the passengers on board and the rumbling and screeching of the train heading towards its next destination. As she tested her balance on the top of the L, she trained her eyes forward.
Her blood boiled as she watched the vampire she'd just locked up sprinting toward the lizard two cars ahead of her. Snapped handcuffs dangled from each of his wrists.
"Damn it! Those were supposed to be reinforced for supernatural creatures." She channeled her anger into a controlled, balanced run from one car to the next.
While most of her attention was on keeping her feet firmly planted upon the moving train, she couldn't help but stare as the vampire engaged the lizard on the front-most car. Even in the strangest of conditions, the handsome vampire moved as fluid as if he were on solid ground. Every punch and kick was graceful and incredibly fast. She almost envied the green scaly creature, as she hadn't had a worthy sparring partner in years. Though the vampire's abilities seemed almost unmatchable, the lizard evaded blow after blow. When the train hit a bump, sending the vampire down to one knee, Spencer took full advantage. Lyra cringed as she watched two blows to the groin and several kidney punches in rapid succession. As the vampire attempted to block the next dirty blow, the lizard revealed a tail that tore through his khakis and whipped the vampire off the moving train. There wasn't enough time for her heart to sink as Lyra leapt from the second car to the lead.
Spencer’s tail undulated back and forth. "A prince and a hunter in one day. It's days like this that really make a guy feel important."
Lyra didn't understand right away, but in the moments before their fight began, she put it all together. The vampire she'd handcuffed and that the lizard had knocked off the train was no mere bloodsucker. He was a member of one of the royal families. In her experience, it was rare to meet one of these vampiric nobles who wasn't a killing machine.
She spared the vampire prince a single glance, before squaring up with the lizard. "Get ready to feel a whole lot less special."
The creature smiled and whipped his tail around.
Lyra easily ducked the clumsy tail and wrenched her arm around it. With a yank that nearly tore the appendage off, the lizard fell face-first onto the bumpy lead car. Before he could recover, Lyra leapt onto his back and slammed her forearms into the squishy rear of his neck. She heard the satisfying thump of Spencer’s head against the ridged metal. She took several more shots at him, before slipping her hands under his arms and tightening her grip on his head.
She tensed her muscles. "How do you know who I am? What were you doing stealing all of those spare parts?"
The lizard's laugh was barely audible over the sound of the train. "You're asking the wrong questions, Hunter. You care about the past, when you should concentrate on the fut–"
Lyra wrenched the lizard's neck, and he squealed in pain.
"If you’re interested in still having a head in the future, then I would answer whatever damn questions I have to ask."
"I'm happy to answer whatever questions you have. But the first question should probably be, if I've killed this train's driver, how on earth is it going to stop in time?"
Lyra's blood pressure spiked. She released one of the lizard's arms and used her anger and strength to break the other one.
The creature screamed and strained beneath her, cradling his broken appendage as she stood. "I don't want you to move. I'm happy to break the other arm if you don't listen to me."
She knew her request wouldn't do much good as she lowered herself over the side of the train and dangled her legs in through the front car’s window. If the smell of blood wasn't enough to clue her in to the lizard's veracity, the sight of the impaled conductor slumped on top of the controls certainly clued her in. Without time for propriety, she ripped the man's dead body off of the panel and threw him to the side. Blood soaked the sparking control panel.
Lyra chewed at her cheek. "I always wanted to figure out a way to stop a speeding train when I've had absolutely no training to drive it."
Her eyes zeroed in on the word “emergency” painted in red, and she pressed the button with all her might. The train continued to rumble forward, even seeming to increase in speed as it went.
Lyra felt her pulse quicken when she looked up to see a stopped train pick up passengers at her train's next destination.
She knew she had to do something, or the train would surely kill dozens...if not hundreds.
Chapter Five
Lyra couldn't believe that her train wreck of a life had an actual train wreck in its future.
She slammed on the emergency brake button a few more times. "You could've just ignored the crazy lizard man. You could've just stayed in the apartment and made fun of Carl. But no, you had to try to be Superwoman about the whole thing. A lot of good that's gotten you today, Lyra."
After one more sigh, Lyra shimmied out of the open front-car window, and willed herself onto the front face of the speeding train. Wind pressed by her cheeks as she slid down until she was only a few inches from the track.
She could barely hear herself think over the screeching and rumbling of the far-too-fast vehicle. "This is probably a terrible idea."
Lyra dropped down to the tracks and braced herself for the force of a speeding elevated train. The moment her boots came into contact with the metal below, sparks began to fly up in all directions, and her muscles strained almost to the point of breaking as the train continued to push forward. The heat of the flying flares and the friction-torn rubber of her soles was much less painful than the speeding train itself, which felt like it was tearing her apart. But as she let out a guttural cry, she could see the train begin to slow from her efforts. It just wasn't happening quickly enough.
As the pain within her body grew, her eyes watering in response, she barely registered the vampire in the brown trench coat joining her on the tracks. He wrapped his arm around her back and added his weight and strength to the effort before them. Double the number of sparks flew around her as she felt the vampire's strong grip on her body. His grunts matched her own as they continued to push their combined strength into the seemingly unstoppable train. When Lyra dug in her heels, she could feel the elevated train slowing and slowing and slowing. She barely felt it as their backs slammed into a wooden gate that had come down for safety precautions. Lyra screamed loudly and squeezed her eyes shut.
The screeching noise was almost unbearable as the train finally came to a complete stop just inches short of the now-packed car in front of them. Lyra released her grip on the front of the train, marveling at the deeply imprinted handhold she'd left behind. Every muscle in her body screamed out in pain and exhaustion. But she wasn't about to let the vampire take all of the credit.
His arm rubbed her back. "Are you okay? Do you want me to help you onto the platform?"
She rolled her shoulder back to shake off his muscular limb, and she leapt off the tracks and onto the platform, where she was greeted with a round of uproarious applause. Passengers from the now-stopped train, as well as those from the unintended potential target before them, came out in droves, surrounding the officer in blue. Lyra shook hands with several train goers as she looked up to the top of the front car. Unsurprisingly, the lizard had not listened to her command. He was nowhere to be seen.
I need more handcuffs, and they better be strong enough to hold these goddamned lizards and vampires.
As the hubbub began to die down and Chicago Transit Authority crew members sought to figure out a solution to the morning travel ahead, the vampire tapped Lyra on the shoulder.
She turned and folded her arms. "If you are about to tell me that ‘I told you, you needed help,’ I’m not going to have any of that crap."
He lifted his arms into the air. "I wouldn't dream of it. By the way, I have a gift for you."
"I'm too tired for any weird flirting right now."
&nb
sp; He gestured her toward the rear of the train. "No, seriously. Come this way."
She tentatively walked along the edge of the platform toward the last compartment. Her legs reminded her of the consequences of heroism with every step.
When the doors opened, it took a few seconds for Lyra to understand this "gift" inside the final car. But as soon as she looked up to the ceiling, she understood.
For the first time that day, she grinned. "You got this for me?"
"I figured it was the least I could do."
Lyra looked up at Matthew Spencer the lizard man, wrapped completely from head to toe in the metal bars passengers used in standing room situations. The lizard lay unconscious as his tail dangled from the ceiling.
Something gnawed at the back of Lyra's mind. "The least you could do. What did you mean, the least you could do?"
The vampire sighed. "I meant, the least I could do since I'm stealing this investigation from you." The vampire pulled a badge from his pants pocket. "I don't think I've had a chance to introduce myself. Mace Carter, FBI."
Chapter Six
Lyra cradled her hands around the warm cup of bad coffee as she watched the vampire FBI agent chat on the other side of the precinct with her superior officer. Even though the warm, brown liquid was some of the worst she had ever had, the beverage trickling down her throat did a little something to remedy her wounds, both physical and emotional.
She saw Mace’s confident smile as he bantered with Lyra’s boss. She was mad that she’d run halfway across the city and put herself and hundreds of civilians in grave danger, only to have the investigation stolen out from under her. She was even more pissed off that she still found the vampire prince as sexy as she did. In the few hours since their heroics on the train tracks had spread through social media like wildfire, the vampire’s five o’clock shadow continued to catch her eye. As soon as Mace caught her staring, she looked back into the bottom of her brown, sludgy mug.
"You know, I hear they’re going to give you an award."
Lyra glanced to her right and saw her partner nursing a cup of his own joe.
She shrugged her shoulders. "I guess they don’t mind much if you cause the damage you save people from."
Carl smiled. "Social media is funny that way." He pulled a silver flask from his back pocket. "Want to spice that coffee up a little bit? You look like you need it."
Lyra sighed and offered up her cup. The first sip of her new spiked drink did seem to help. Maybe her partner wasn’t such an ape after all. Besides, she had been working with Carl for four years and hadn’t maimed him yet. She supposed that had to mean something.
As she and Carl sipped from their mugs, Lyra checked out the vampire prince from top to bottom. He was perfectly proportionate, a principle many vamps she’d known seemed to embody. His clothes hugged his body like a second skin. But as chiseled his features and alarmingly enticing his eyes were, the biggest question mark about him revolved around which royal family he came from.
Lyra thought back to the first day vampires revealed themselves to the world. A popular congressman with a chance at the presidency withdrew his campaign one Sunday morning and explained that he could never be the leader of the free world without revealing the truth. The revelation sent shockwaves through the world, but particularly within the supernatural community. Unhumans that had laid in hiding for centuries began to share their existence with their friends, their coworkers, and their local registration offices. What started as a trend, ended up becoming a law. Vampires and other unhumans who were willing to share their identities with the government were granted a certain degree of protection.
Before the law, Lyra continued her double life of high school and hunting. Just because one vampire was a few months of campaigning away from the presidency, didn’t mean there weren’t bloodsuckers going around killing people. But the day the law went through changed everything. Within 24 hours, her handler, Piers, had completely vanished. Her frantic efforts over the following weeks to contact her mentor and supposed friend were unsuccessful. When Lyra graduated high school, she moved away, changed her identity, and tried to find a new way of living.
Lyra sipped the last of her whiskey-enhanced beverage and watched Mace give her one final glance before he disappeared into the interrogation room. She took a deep breath and buried her feelings in her work. She could barely believe a lizard creature who’d nearly derailed an L train had the innocuous name of Matthew Spencer. The scaly suspect had been spotted in the vicinity of four different robberies. There was an auto shop, a scientific equipment lab, and a couple of random machine supply companies. They seemed unrelated to the naked eye, but when you put all of those parts together, all they would need is a little bit of explosive firepower to create a pretty nasty bomb.
Lyra leaned back in her chair, placing her sore arms behind her head. "A new age. A new age? Why would one bomb lead to a new age?"
Lyra racked her brain for any kind of mystical or unhuman events that were coming up. Most students in high school only had a few hundred years of history to memorize. Lyra’s brain, on the other hand, had been stuffed to the brim with tens of thousands of years’ worth of facts. Even with all that info to draw from, she couldn’t find a way to connect Spencer to any upcoming supernatural events.
Deep in her thoughts, she nearly missed her captain’s voice bellowing at her from his office. She popped two pieces of gum to cover up the smell of her afternoon treat, and she stepped into his office.
"You wanted to see me, Cap?"
Her balding captain rubbed at his gray temples. "You’re having quite a day, Thorne. First, you do something halfway miraculous, like saving an L full of people. Now, a suspect who might have a bomb big enough to blow half a city block refuses to talk to anybody but you."
Lyra’s brow furrowed. "He’s not interested in talking with Agent Handsome?"
"Your words, not mine. He says he’ll only do it without cameras and if you’re in there alone."
Lyra pursed her lips. "You want me to use our standard No Camera Protocol?"
A sly smile spread across the captain’s chapped lips. "I wouldn’t have it any other way."
Chapter Seven
Lyra caught more than a few stares as she took the hallway to the interrogation room. Mace was one of four agents who’d swiped the case from the CPD. A quick glance told her that the vampire prince was the only unhuman among them. That didn’t mean they were happy to see her as she passed them by. They protested Spencer’s demands, but without much time to spare, they were willing to turn off the cameras and make sure the area beyond the two-way glass was completely empty. Lyra’s stomach tightened as she realized that now it was her responsibility, and her responsibility alone, to figure out just what the hell this creature was up to.
This day is getting more and more interesting.
As she walked the last few feet, Mace stood beside the door with his arms crossed. "I don’t think this is a good idea."
Lyra smirked. "I don’t think it’s a good idea to avoid telling a police officer that you’re an FBI agent when she could easily have shot you for resisting arrest."
The vampire nodded. "I realize I could have shared more."
"Share more? You didn’t share anything. And since when did the agency start giving out guns that look like they came from Men in Black or something?"
Mace looked down. This gave Lyra a few seconds to stare once more at his strong features. She wondered if she looked hard enough, she’d burn a hole right through his annoyingly perfect face.
He met her eyes again. "I’m sorry. Just be careful in there. We don’t really know what this guy is capable of."
She patted him on the shoulder, trying to ignore how incredibly solid he was. "Of course, your Royal Highness."
His practiced and professional demeanor slipped for a second. She could see that while he was publicly out as a vampire, the pedigree of his birth remained a secret.
Not so different now, are we?
She smiled to herself as she passed the dumbfounded prince and stepped into the interrogation room. She closed the door behind her before he could say another word.
Spencer was sitting calmly behind a long metal table. One arm was cuffed to the top, and his legs were shackled beneath his chair. The lizard’s other arm hung limp at his side. Lyra just then remembered that she had rendered the appendage useless on the top of the train. She took slow steps across the room and sat down in front of him. For a man who was incarcerated, Spencer certainly seemed happy that he’d gotten exactly what he wanted.
She peered into his eyes in an effort to get a look at the man beneath the scales. "If you’re trying to score a date, there’s got to be an easier way."
The lizard grinned. "I’m sure you know how hard it is to be single in the city. Especially when most women want tall, dark, and handsome. Not green."
Lyra took in a breath. "Earlier you said that I was asking the wrong questions." She leaned forward. "What are the right questions, Spencer?"
The lizard straightened his back as best he could with the injury and the handcuffs. "Hunter, do you ever wish things were as they used to be? With humans on one side, and unhumans on the other or in the grave?"
The lizard let the words sink deep into the silence. Lyra didn’t much like when people knew her past. Especially when those people were creepy lizards who build bombs.
Lyra shrugged. "Do you want me to be honest? I like change about as much as the next person." She rubbed at her forearm. "You know as well as I do that I was born for a certain purpose. Nobody likes when outside forces control what you’re meant to do."
The lizard nodded. "I appreciate your honesty. I have good news for you, Lyra."