A devious grin tugged at the corner of my mouth. “Find me if you dare, you German bastard,” I said.
I stole a moment to check the sword secured at my waist, ensuring it was concealed beneath the folds of my coat and smoothing out the fabric as I strolled away from the main entrance. Fellow travelers passed me by without taking a second glance; I was the shadow slipping in their midst and this was exactly how I preferred it. When I reached one of the secondary entrances, I touched the metal bar stretching the length of the door. With a hearty tug, it swung open and two paces in, it swung shut behind me. My eyes traced across the interior, chest rising one last time before the air rushed from my lungs in a slow exhale.
With that, the game was afoot.
***
Operating on a form of blind faith which surprised me at how readily I believed it possible, I threw my mind open wide and transmitted an opening move to the opposing player. ‘Oh, Mr. Cat, ’ I said, envisioning the master seer and thinking as loudly as one could project a thought, ‘You might not be away, but this mouse would still like to play. ’
Shrugging the black bag’s strap further up my shoulder, I slipped my hands into my coat pockets and strode forward with tempered steps. The area where I stood lay just north of the main thoroughfare, separated by a long wall which ran the length of the train station. The interior an old friend, I knew the smooth, stone floor by heart and could have recreated the marble-colored walls and Art Deco homages in my sleep. Light bounced from each polished surface in a manner which offended even my protected eyes, forcing me to take an additional moment to adjust.
A gap in the wall which opened up into a corridor furnished me with a place to pause. The benches littering the heart of the station came into view, and with them a series of events played out in mental images I kept soundly protected behind a psychic barrier. My eyes flicked quickly to the door where I had entered before returning to the wide hallway and its string of possibilities.
I huddled closer to the wall. Attempting not to look two conspicuous in the process, I advanced closer to where the room opened up and the majority of the travelers were gathered. My watcher stood across the wide expanse, lingering several yards away from the ticket counter in a crowd of people waiting for one of the trains to board. The sight of her inspired a small grin before my focus returned to the task at hand.
My gaze stole westward and admired the path toward a ramp on the other side of the building. A few humans loitered near the statues and engravings decorating that area, but the largest collective of them stood somewhere adjacent to the large ticker in the middle of the room. I crossed the expanse from one wall to the next and leaned against it as though simply bored and waiting for someone to announce a boarding call. At the risk of subjecting my sensitive sight to the rape of fluorescent, I kept my periphery pointed in the direction I had just come.
Move two commenced.
‘Of all the mortals they could have sent, ’ I projected, ‘I wonder why it was that they conjured the most loathsome, narrow-minded being fashioned by The Fates. By the way, dear Julian, you need to work on your aim. I could have plunged a dagger into you from much farther away. ’
Abruptly, I felt a tug on the proverbial line. ‘The little vampire has come for a challenge, ’ Julian said, his thoughts entering mine in a manner which felt more intrusive than I had suspected. My only consolation was that I had been inflicting the same insult against him. He paused before continuing. ‘You are a clever demon. How did you know I would be here? ’
My eyes darted around, searching for anything standing out in the midst of the crowd. A mother struggled to keep her children close and a businessman nearly collided with her youngest son. The two engaged in a brief exchange of words before the man turned and strolled away in a huff, bringing a cup of coffee to his lips while brushing at a few drops which had spilled on the front of his coat. Teenagers laughed and some of the seedier lot huddled in their coats, avoiding direct contact with anyone who passed. The panorama of humanity opened up before me, but not a blessed soul resembled the master seer with whom I was entangled.
I sighed. My hand touched the sword poised by my side as I continued scanning the crowd. The bantering would have to continue until he exposed himself. ‘We have not had the chance to become properly acquainted, ’ I thought, ‘With you shooting bolts at me and what not. ’
‘I know all I need to know about you. The Council has told me in detail what you’re capable of doing. ’
‘Then you only know half the tale. Rest assured, murdering me would be a grave mistake. ’
Julian scoffed, just as I knew he would. And they called vampires predictable. ‘The mistake would be trusting you. Now, tell me where you are, little vampire, so we can play. ’
‘And give you the advantage over me? What kind of fool do you take me for? ’ Still, the mention of location only commenced to tie a knot inside my stomach. The more time which passed without me spotting so much as a glimpse of his hair, the more vulnerable I made myself. Furthermore, the notion nagged at me that while I knew this area better, he could have been waiting for hours, which would have given him ample time to find an ideal hiding place. I needed something better than a mental taunting match.
Indulging in a deep breath, I shut my eyes and felt for whatever parlor trick might be of some benefit to me. “An instruction manual would have been useful for this, witch,” I said, whispering harshly as my imagination struggled to conjure any experiment worth attempting. Try as I might, though, I could only think of one in particular to build upon from my shallow bag of tricks. It was the very first thing taught to me by my watcher.
Opening the connection between me and Julian, I let my mind find his and surged past his mental blocks into what his eyes beheld. To my horror, I discovered two things to be true, one right after the other. First, the scene he gazed upon happened to be none other than the place where Monica and I had entered the train station. He stood nearly by the same column, his attention set on the very same door I used to step inside the imposing monolith. I jumped away from the mental connection, but not before realizing I had forced him from my mind in the process. My eyes were open where they had been shut and I was peering right at the hall which led to the first path my footsteps trod.
That was when I figured out the second truth. In entering Julian’s thoughts, I had allowed him right into mine, which meant he knew exactly where I stood as well.
“Fuck.” I remained pointed toward the adjoining corridor while pacing backward. Whether or not it was my nerves imagining it, I swore I heard the door slam open and a pair of feet charge into the 30th Street Station. Pivoting enough to see what lay behind me, I motioned more swiftly to put distance between me and the place where I had been standing. No sooner did I enter the main thoroughfare than I finally spotted him, rounding a corner and stopping dead in his tracks when he saw me straight ahead.
‘Catch me if you can. ’ I punctuated the taunt with a wink before twisting around fully. Foreign words I recognized as profanity echoed behind me, my pursuer giving chase the second I entered into a sprint for the ramp on the other side of the room. The density of the mob before us prevented me from accelerating to the full measure of my vampire speed. It was just as well, though. Fate smiled in my direction after we dashed past the frazzled mother, and a young couple who spun to watch when I almost ran them over.
The businessman from earlier stepped into my path and I indulged a smug grin as I sidestepped and clasped his arm with my hand. Without stopping, I turned him to face the opposite direction and shoved him down, sending coffee splashing which fell in time with his unceremonious descent onto the hard, tiled floor. A girl shrieked in horror – victim to the coffee tsunami – and I risked losing precious moments to glance across my shoulder when the sound of another human colliding with the mess added to the cacophony. Julian slipped on a puddle of liquid in the effort to avoid the fallen man and landed right beside him.
‘Playing dirty, lit
tle vampire? ’
‘I shall take any boon I can get. ’
Without sparing another look, I set my sights on the ramp before me and rounded the corner in one, fluid movement. The wall which ran along the upward slope was deceiving, at best. Julian had already clamored to his feet and would soon be hot on my heels. And I knew following the length of the ramp would only bring me into another crowd of humans closer to the local transit trains.
As I sprinted up the ramp, a set of stairs leading back toward the east emerged, and I felt just enough in the mood to improvise not to question the split second decision. Clutching onto the railing, I sprung off the ground and vaulted the short flight of stairs down to the lower level of the station again. It was the other end of the hallway I had first trod upon and would lead me around in a circle if I chose to continue. Signs for the restrooms came into view, however, and my instincts honed in on the sight, making one last improvisational decision. I ducked into the men’s room, pausing once inside to take a steadying breath and survey my surroundings.
Tiled floor beneath my feet, the area resembled a standard public restroom, replete with stalls, mirrors, sinks, and urinals, all arranged as though the travelers who entered gave a damn about the ambiance. A few marks of disrepair denoted the age of the room enough to at least tell me how easily a catastrophe could be made out of the place. “My apologies to the City of Philadelphia,” I murmured as I parted the folds of my coat and pulled my katana from its sheath.
Now, all I needed was a place to hide.
For the lack of any place better, I kicked open a stall and shut it behind me. Jumping onto the toilet seat, I crouched low enough to keep the crown of my head from view. The silence which settled around me proved to be more unnerving than I appreciated, another marked difference from my tasks as an assassin. I was almost grateful when Julian’s voice floated into my head again. ‘You and your kind are all alike. Run away and hide rather than facing the inevitable. ’
‘I simply like a bit of foreplay with my sex, Julian. ’
‘You are vile. ’
‘No more vile than the hypocrites who would claim to protect humanity and yet murder an innocent girl. ’ My breaths were stilled; my ears attuned toward any sound which entered the immediate vicinity. ‘Ironic that I am the one drawing your attention so that you do not harm a mortal, is it not? ’
‘One you’ve seduced into your ways, speaking of foreplay. ’
I fought the urge to growl. ‘And you call me the perverse one. The girl is my watcher, nothing more. Speaking of which, where is yours? Has she since become bored of your rhetoric and hung herself rather than endure any more of it? ’
‘I don’t need one. I am a master seer. ’
‘Ah, not only is he more righteous, he is also more skilled. Dear Julian, can I be like you when I grow up? ’
‘I will relish when your dust is on my shoes. ’ Footfalls closed in on the bathroom, a noise I knew could be deceptive given the amount of traffic the train station boasted. Still, their cadence was uncertain, hesitating once or twice before resuming a swifter pace and growing louder. If the steps belonged to him, he had at least seen the path where I veered. ‘Where are you hiding? ’
I grinned. ‘Better for you to find out on your own. Peered around any corners lately? ’
The footfalls ceased. My grin blossomed into a full-blown smirk in all its smug glory. His shoes scuffed against floor and my skin prickled as I felt the presence of a human draw closer, his pulse betraying the cool of his words with an anxious cadence. As he entered the bathroom, I heard the same reserved caution punctuate his movements as had his path down the hallway. He knew it the same as I did. A thin line separated us from our battle.
I listened to something click and visualized my opponent’s moves as he orchestrated them. Julian freed his crossbow from the sling which held it close to his side, his actions methodical albeit comical if he thought it made them hard to hear. Cocking the weapon, he slid a bolt into place and snapped it secure before taking his first few tentative steps deeper into the bathroom. As he headed in my direction, I detected the chill he felt crawling up his spine. This time, I was the evil lurking in the shadows.
Still, he must not have gotten a clear enough picture of where I hid. The sudden charge he made was not for my stall, but the one beside me. He kicked the door open and paused when greeted with nothing. I savored the schadenfreude for just a moment; the way he glanced around read of a man confused when his instincts had failed him. As he retreated, he stopped and then, I knew he had finally seen me through the spaces between stalls. I threw the door to my hiding place open and tossed the bag slung across my shoulder in near-synchronized movements.
The actions had the intended effect. The black duffel bag sailed toward Julian just as he reared back to fire, causing the bolt to fly wildly for the other side of the room. It ricocheted off the wall, landing somewhere out of sight at precisely the same moment Julian threw the bag angrily to the floor and swung his crossbow at me. I bent enough to dodge the attack and used my momentum as I sprung back to drive a knee into his stomach.
Julian stumbled backward. I smiled wide, unabashed about the way my fangs crept downward. “You requested a demon?” I asked. A laugh bubbled past my lips as Julian scowled and I tightened the grip one hand maintained on the hilt of my sword while swinging the other fist for his jaw. The blow impacted without anything to cushion it and sent Julian sprawling onto the hard tiles beneath us.
I had no time to relish the conquest, though. The master seer flicked his wrist and an invisible force impacted with my legs much more violently than my fist had met his face. I felt them buckle and tumbled to the floor while Julian vaulted to his feet. He drew a sword from its sheath and as I looked upward, I had enough thought to raise my katana to block his first untempered swing.
I clamored to a stand. Julian clutched his sword and stepped back enough to give us a chance to weigh each other. My eyes flicked toward his weapon, noting the European styling of his blade as a start contrast against my Japanese-crafted steel. East meets west; we were much the same and yet, irrevocably at odds.
My adversary seemed not to appreciate it as much as I did. “I see you now wear Satan’s colors,” he said as he reared back and swung at me. I stepped out of the way, avoiding the blow by a hair’s breadth and giving myself only precious seconds to flip the sharpened edge of my sword around, facing it toward Julian. He smirked. “Only fitting for a demon.”
We both swung for each other at the same time, creating a loud crash of metal which echoed as it reverberated around the room. “Do you like it?” I asked as I thrust my blade forward, only to have it blocked by Julian. “A peculiar choice for a seer, I am certain, but I fancy it regardless.”
“You’re deceiving yourself if you think you’re anything but evil.” Julian gritted his teeth, parrying my next blow and responding with another swing. I moved to the side, dodging the assault. “You aren’t a seer.”
“I never thought myself a saint, but I am a seer whether you like it or not. And I have a mission to complete.”
“I’ll be damned before I let you leave this room.”
“Then let us both be accursed and vow to meet each other in hell.”
Our blades crossed once again, but my patience had begun wearing thin. As I stepped back, I prepared to attempt a more aggressive assault. Teeth gritted, I swung for his arm in a violent arc, leaving myself exposed and at the mercy of a much more gifted swordsman than I was used to facing. Julian thrust his blade toward my chest. It forced me to lean back abruptly, throwing my center of balance off. I slipped and spilled out onto the floor, finding myself looking up at my attacker without realizing what had happened at first. I regained my bearings quick enough to exploit a moment of weakness, however. Rolling onto my elbow, I kicked for Julian’s wrist and knocked his sword onto the floor beside me.
Put at a disadvantage, he did not stop me from coming to a stand again. Both hands wrapped tight
around the hilt of my katana and a menacing growl rumbled from my throat, escaping past the points of my fangs as my lips parted again. “I extend this mercy to you only once. Flee from here and tell your employers we are long gone from this city. If they even attempt to follow us, my wrath shall be swift and furious.”
Julian scoffed and surprised me by launching a boot-clad foot upward, compensating for what he lacked in finesse with brute force. My katana flew to the side, landing on the tiled floor with a clang and clattering into one of the stalls. “Just bloody splendid,” I murmured as I suddenly realized we had been reduced to hand-to-hand combat. No sooner did I say that, however, than my adversary took advantage of the moment to throw a punch at me.
I twisted out of the way, but could only raise a hand to block the next swing he attempted. He absorbed a blow to the stomach, and hollered at a well-placed kick to the knee, but finally landed one blow when he aimed for my blind side and connected with my chin. The force knocked my head to the side, but failed to hurt as much as I am certain Julian hoped it would. Instead, it only served to piss me off.
He threw another fist in a spirited arc, but I caught his hand in the palm of mine and applied a crippling amount of force to the bone and skin within my grip. Gritting my teeth, I did not bother even attempting to mask the sinister grin which crept its way onto my face, meeting the corners of my eyes to form a grotesque and wicked expression. Julian cried out in pain and fought a pair of shaky legs about to collapse under the weight of his agony. “I take it none of your other fights have come to blows, Julian,” I said, my tone condescending.
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