Mistwalker

by Fraser, Naomi

  “How do you know she’s on there?”

  “I’ve caught this train before. It sits a while. Decide now whether you’re coming or staying ‘cause there’s no turning back.”

  “I’m not leaving her.” He frowned and stared at her as though staying put never occurred to him. “They’ve got her. She will live. She has to live.” His voice broke.

  “Good.” Simone walked toward the train and entered the first open carriage door. “Great minds and all that.”

  Bored passengers glanced up with exhausted faces at their entry. The scent of sweet human blood swamped her, and the force rocked her back on her heels. She breathed in big gulps of air. Huge mistake. The barrier of human skin even with a thick layer of clothing offered no buffer to the temptation of fresh blood.

  It was as if paper-thin shells covered the most gorgeous scents in the world and lured her on more. Her fangs descended, and she pressed her tongue against the back of her teeth. Pain to fight pain.

  She closed her lips and clenched her fists. Music blared through ear plugs of iPods and whispered conversations between couples. It would be so easy to capture one of them. All she’d have to do was…

  She jerked at the touch on the middle of her back. Her heart thundered.

  “I should have brought some food with me,” Alec whispered into her ear, his breath cold. “I forgot. Do you feel all right?”

  She shot him a sharp look over her shoulder and frowned at his guilty expression. “Don’t worry about it, Alec. You didn’t have time to stop of at the shop for a hotdog.” Her gaze swerved to a man wearing a baseball cap, and the strong thickset line of his jaw. Veins popped out of his neck and huge arms in the black muscle t-shirt. Her hands wouldn’t have been able to wrap around his biceps. Damn. The sharpness of his pine cologne mingled with the deep pull of his blood, and a cloud of hunger overwhelmed her. She shivered, knowing she could make all these humans forget what they saw. Her canines pierced the tip of her tongue.

  The stranger met her gaze in a long slow look, and he smiled, white teeth flashing, blue eyes interested. Hunger and longing tingled at the back of her neck, and she fought down another shiver. There were twenty, thirty people in this carriage and in the next. The train took on the proportions of an epic torture chamber. She’d never make it.

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’ve taken the oath, Alec. Thinking’s free.”

  “I hear you there,” he said, sounding apologetic. “Except, sometimes our kind can hear that, too. You’re projecting your thoughts so much, you see. I can hear your pain, your hunger.”

  She hurried down the aisle into another carriage. “Do me a favour and forget what’s going on in there. This past week has been weird enough. We’re here to find Tammy.” The words also prodded Simone into remembering their task, and it wasn’t drinking blood from completely hot strangers.

  She reached for the handle to the next part of the train, but a rumble beneath her feet made her hesitate. Another train headed their way. At this time of night all the trains should be directed back to the main station.

  She ran for the platform door, and the other train streaked past. A flash of silver flew by, wild platinum blonde hair and pale skin pushed up against a window. She gasped, gripping Alec’s arm in a fierce hold.

  “That’s Tammy! Come on.”

  Simone twisted the handle to the door that led to the tracks. The doors didn’t shift. A light to the right of the doors started flashing. Mechanical locks must be stopping the doors from opening. She couldn’t fade them to mist inside the train, the cameras would catch them. She gritted her teeth, pushed, and the metal crumpled back. She grabbed her gun, pulled Alec with her, leaping from the speeding train into complete darkness above the tracks and faded them both mid-air.

  They whipped into form in front of Tammy, the .44 in Simone’s hands, and she pressed the trigger. The bullets expanded on exit from the two shocked male vampires holding her friend hostage. Blood and bone erupted, spraying the window. The skin around their skulls hissed and festered open, the flesh of their necks putrefied across the steel rails.

  Simone reached across, stake in hand, and then she plunged the wood through their hearts. Dark blood and then vampire dust coated her hands.

  Tammy slumped forward between two piles of ash, her dank hair falling all over her face. Bits of sizzling gore splattered her cheeks, and Simone flicked them off. “They better not have hurt her.”

  Alec gaped and stepped over a dust heap on the floor, lifting Tammy into his arms with ease. “What the hell is in that gun? I’ve never seen bullets leave such a mess. Normally, they go right through. It doesn’t even slow some of us down.”

  Simone sheathed the stake and withdrew the .44 . “Exploding rounds. Thinking is free and mandatory around here. Haven’t you noticed?” She tilted her head to sound of another oncoming vampire. Her chin jerked to the side.

  He flew down the aisle with bared teeth. She took aim and fired. His brains exploded and scattered the seats.

  She grimaced. Hunger cured.

  Alec’s coat pocket rang, and he fished out his cell. “Juliun, we’re stuck on the train. Uh-huh. No, no, she’s okay. She’s fighting them…well, killing, actually. The last station we passed was…” He consulted a rail map on the carriage wall.

  She raised the gun, knowing the kidnappers had commandeered the train by mind control. That meant there might be others on board. The sooner she faded the three of them to mist, the better. She focused on the image of her apartment.

  “It can’t be,” Alec gasped in disbelief. “No, not Kristoff.”

  “Who?” Simone frowned in the middle of her vision and turned back to Alec.

  Sudden shouting echoed from the earpiece of Alec’s cell, but he closed the device and stepped back, protecting Tammy with his body. In fact, he slowly backed up toward the end of the carriage. His brows lowered, and he glared with incredible menace.

  A dark figure stood at the open doors. His black, simmering gaze rested on Simone, then slid down to Alec and Tammy’s limp body. His attention swung back to Simone. “So it is you. I should have known.” His hands were behind his back. “A vampire with the mist would have been stronger. Though you fell into the trap soon enough.”

  She stared at his mocking face down the barrel of her .44.

  *Put down the gun. You will come with me.*

  Her stomach caved in, and an instant migraine crashed over her mind. Her spine felt like it had been shattered. She wanted to vomit with the strength of her nausea, but she grinned and flicked her tongue over her canines. “No deal, Vlad.”

  His eyes rounded, and he grabbed the metal pole beside him, ripping the length from the bottom of the train with ease and swinging the pole wide. *Do as I say. Put down the gun.*

  The train rocked on the rails as it swerved around a bend. The noise of the tracks echoed up around them, and she laughed with real delight. The burn fired up in her system. “Alec, watch Tammy.” She fixed her gaze on Kristoff.

  His fingertips disappeared first, and then his arms turned into blackness. “No.” He tried to run forward, but his legs turned to mist. His mouth formed a soundless ‘o’, then he vanished.

  She reappeared in a cell in the dungeon that Juliun showed her with his tour of Ravenkeep. The reinforced bars hemmed her for a split second before she turned to mist and left Kristoff inside the cell.

  She materialised beside Alec, triumphant, and then looked around him for Tammy. “Alec?”

  He stared into nothing, as frozen as a marble statue, his arms by his side. Tammy was nowhere in sight.

  “Alec!” She shook him, but he didn’t break from the compulsion. The train screeched to a halt, and she spun around. A dark figure fled over the platform. A blonde lock fell over his shoulder.

  Tammy.

  Simone collapsed into mist, then reappeared, catching a glimpse of shoes racing up a flight of stairs and into the night. The traffic swallowed everything in sight. Finally, she saw
a silhouette ducking in and around the cars while drivers swerved and leaned on their horns in protest. She appeared on a moving car. The vampire raced between the vehicles, dodging out the way before he was struck. He didn’t have Tammy, but he was the one, Simone was sure of it.

  She faded again and again, reappearing one step behind him. The fade combined with her unnatural speed had her plucking him up by the collar within seconds.

  A knife slashed for her throat, but she faded behind him. Hands clasped over his wrist, she twisted the bones until they snapped. The knife clattered to the asphalt. His head jerked back, and she yanked his arm behind him so hard, his shoulder dislodged from the joint.

  “Where is she?” Simone growled.

  “I’ll never tell you.” He groaned, trying to grab her with his left hand.

  A horn blasted repeatedly, and bright headlights closed in on her. She appeared on top of the car with the vampire still clutched in her grip.

  *Simone.*

  She looked around for the source of that call, but there was only one vampire with that dark, seductive voice which swept through her mind like a voice-thought. Juliun Cel Batrin stood a few feet away near an abandoned storefront.

  *So, you answered your phone. I’m taking him to the dungeon.* She didn’t know if Juliun had dropped into read her thoughts again, but he’d promised he wouldn’t. Maybe he used the telepathic link he once said they’d share. She felt no compulsion to obey him like the last time she felt him in her mind. The car swerved and screeched to a stop at an intersection.

  *Bring him here first, love.*

  The driver climbed out of the car, but she was already gone. She dug her fingers into the vampire’s greasy hair and anchored him to the pavement. He struggled against her hold, blood seeping from his shirt, and her belly convulsed with a twisting hunger. Ugh. Would there ever be a night when she wouldn’t want to drink?

  She moaned, feeling a slave to the urge. *I’m thirsty again.*

  Juliun’s hand shot out around the vampire’s throat, and he lifted him from the sidewalk with ease. Simone had no choice but to release her grip. The moonlight glinted off Juliun’s white fangs. “You thought to attack her?”

  The vampire choked for an answer in the iron grip, struggling to shake his head, his good hand scrabbling to peel away Juliun’s fingers. His lips swelled blue, and he gasped, flailing like a cockroach at the end of a pin.

  “They’ve taken Tammy,” Simone said, feeling sick from the crushing defeat inside her chest. “I can’t believe it. They’ve got her. He must have put her into one of the cars.”

  Their captive laughed. “She’s dead,” he grated out between his swollen lips. “Dee…ad.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Carlo swerved the BMW into the flow of traffic amid loud horns and screeching tyres. Robard sprinted in the opposite direction. The vampire leaped and dodged cars until he disappeared into the night.

  The BMW ate up the miles.

  Kristoff took four skilled vampires to kidnap the female with the mist. Two of whom had also been chosen as Drachyn assassins. None of them showed up for the rendezvous point outside the train station—which only meant one thing.

  The radio murmured a soothing tune, but the music failed to dispel Carlo’s worry. Robard had thrown the female inside the car and slammed the door shut. His shout of, “Go, go, go. They’re coming!” echoed in Carlo’s mind.

  The streetlights flashed a yellow glow over the sleeping female on the passenger seat, revealing blonde hair and pale skin. He had no real concern for her, only her blood. He would bite her now; however he had seen too many victims of Master’s psychic hunger—the cells were full of empty and broken shells that had once been living, feeling beings. If he lost himself to Master, then he would lose all his memories of Lorena.

  The exit sign loomed to the left, and he steered the car along the shortcut to reach the small landing strip.

  Any deviation in the first plan meant using the plane instead of travelling by car. Master wouldn’t like the turn of events, but Carlo had never expected an easy kidnap with the prince and the king involved.

  But the woman…he turned again to the sleeping female. The package had been delivered. She had the mist. The idea was incredulous, unbelievable. He held the prize within his grasp. He clenched the steering wheel, the lit cigarette sticking out from between his fingers. He took a quick drag and breathed out a cloud of smoke. The radio played one of his favourite rock songs.

  Memories of Lorena slipped into his thoughts, and pain spread through him thickly once again, feeling as though she talked into his mind. His eyes stung in a watery burn. He shook his head. And that damn pain in his stomach…it hadn’t stopped.

  He sped up at a set of lights to make it through before the signal turned red. A flash of white caught his eye, and then a truck barrelled toward him on his right. Carlo shouted, beeped his horn. But the driver was slumped over the wheel.

  Carlo swore and clenched the wheel with his right hand and threw his other arm in front of the woman. He had to protect her at all costs. He thought he imagined her soft groan and the fluttering of her eyelashes in the slow motion before impact. The slam of metal against metal hurled him against his seatbelt, his head slammed into the airbag, teeth jammed together, but the car spun, tipped and rolled.

  Movement stopped, and he released a breath.

  Everything hurt. His head, legs, arms, fingertips. Hell. His right arm had twisted up behind the steering wheel, wrist bent at a peculiar angle. He checked the female again, but she didn’t open her eyes. Maybe her awakening had been in his imagination? The scent of petroleum filled the air. He unbuckled his seatbelt with his left hand.

  Where the hell was his lit cigarette?

  He shifted his arm out from the wheel, and amazingly, his wrist didn’t hurt. Shock, he guessed. How long would they have until the car caught on fire? Seconds?

  He clenched a fistful of her hospital gown with his left hand and dragged her across the seat toward the driver’s door. Her pale face shone in the hazy streetlight, her features far too pale and delicate to be healthy. He leaned in closer, staring at the green hospital gown. The fabric rose and fell ever so slightly over her chest. He touched the pulse point on her wrists, and the faint throb confirmed his worst fears. The skin on her forehead felt clammy as though she’d recently experienced a fever. That would explain her smell—a weird mixture of vampire, earth and death.

  Once outside the car, he propped her up against the open door. He crawled further out to find an escape route, and the asphalt dug into his good palm and knees. Too many people had stopped. Headlights lit the street everywhere, and the distant scream of an ambulance filled the air. They could not be found.

  “Help them!” one onlooker cried. “She’s dead.”

  “Dial emergency,” another called loudly. “Call an ambulance.”

  Humans climbed out of their cars and hurried over to stare. Metal and glass debris scattered the road. They certainly don’t build cars like they used to, Carlo thought wryly. The nearest escape was…. His gaze swerved. Manhole.

  He grabbed a piece of metal from the destroyed car and crawled to the cover on the road. It was flattened and compacted, but he wedged the metal under the lip. The cover popped open, and he dug his fingers beneath the edge and pushed it aside.

  He went back for the woman and dragged her across the asphalt with his left arm, shuffling down the hole feet first before the humans could see him. A blast exploded in the air, and a wave of heat scorched his skin. Flames leapt around the car and skimmed the surface of the road. The sudden heat forced his eyes closed. He stepped down onto a firm foot hold, knowing step-irons led down into the drain. With her bulk in his left arm, he couldn’t hold onto the ladder, so he shifted her slight weight over his shoulder.

  The heavy scent of dirty water hit him. He pulled the cover back across the manhole. The absence of light gave his eyes their full opportunity to adjust.

  A gush of wate
r flowed almost three metres beneath him and smelled of wet basement. He descended, his left hand sliding down the edge of the ladder. Close enough to the bottom, he jumped, and water splashed into his tennis shoes and jeans. At the edge of the channel, he sat her on the ground and pulled out his cell phone from his back pocket. Luckily, the device hadn’t been crushed.

  Master picked up after the second ring. “Yes?”

  “We’ve had a car accident. She isn’t hurt as far as I can see. But she’s sick. Real sick. Smells funny. I made it down the drains. We’ve got no transport. I look too messed up to catch a taxi. I need Kristoff here to wipe the humans’ memories above ground and take care of the car.”

  Master growled. “Kristoff isn’t with you?”

  Carlo frowned. “No. Robard threw her in the car and made a false trail.”

  “Travel to the main intersection of the tunnels, the marketplace, and keep her hidden. I’m sending in a team.”

  “Are you sure that’s the best idea—”

  Carlo talked to thin air. He sighed and tucked the phone into his back pocket and then lifted the female over his shoulder. He stepped into the rushing water, thankful it wasn’t sewer.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  At the blast of a car horn, Simone jumped and turned to the streaming cars and interested cyclists on the street. Bystanders gawked. Any minute now someone would call the police.

  “Juliun, we could look at the other cars…” But she realised he wasn’t listening.

  His fingers sunk into the vampire’s throat, crushing his windpipe. Juliun muttered some words, and although she didn’t understand the dialect, his tone sent chills down her spine.

  The vampire’s eyes rolled to white, and his body sagged.

  She gasped. “Juliun, stop. He might have information on Tammy. We need him to be able to talk.”