by Carly Hansen
“This is how I want to travel from now on,” Java said, taking a seat in the middle of the car. He rocked back in the chair and put his feet up on the table.
“Hey,” Fenix called out.
Java laughed and put down his feet. “I just want to enjoy this as much as possible while I can. Tomorrow, it’s back to the old Beetle.”
Twain settled down opposite him. “You know, this isn’t so bad after all. I didn’t want to say anything back there in the storage room, but I was near freaking out at being on the bullet train.”
“Why?” Fenix asked.
“They told me at the orphanage that I was found on the bullet train tracks. That’s how I lost my legs.”
Fenix widened her eyes.
Java whistled. “That’s brutal, man.”
Twain shrugged. “I was too young to remember it. For a moment, back there, I wasn’t sure how I’d handle being on this thing. But this—” Twain waved his hands and looked around at the lavish dining room with the sky view. “This is just fine.”
Twain and Java fell into a conversation about modes of transport, and Fenix strayed to the front of the dining hall. The view ahead was best here, and she wanted to be alone with her thoughts.
She relaxed into a seat and leaned her head back. Immediately, her body felt leaden, and she couldn’t move. It was as if she’d suddenly been strapped into the chair.
Micha’s image flashed before her eyes.
Ripples moved across his face, as if his flesh was being blasted in waves.
And it was.
He was facing a rushing wind. It lifted his hair and plastered his white suit against him.
He stood high up—somewhere dangerous.
His face was a mask of intense focus. It took great strength, enormous strength, to remain planted against that headwind.
The light of an oncoming bullet train on the adjacent track shone straight into her eyes.
She shook her head and jumped out of the seat.
Horns blared, and the train going the opposite direction zoomed past in a blur.
It must have taken less than thirty seconds for the two trains to pass each other by.
Chapter 12
The girl with the pink hair turned around sharply as she walked up the steps that led to the exit of the Tresmort transit station.
Her eyes scanned the scene. Although it was the early hours of the morning, the place was fairly busy. Several young people moved about, briskly rolling suitcases behind them or carrying huge knapsacks on their back. Two women herded nine sleepy children between them. Four young men in suits stood pointing at the low ceiling and chatting. A security guard leaned against a wall, yawning.
Everything looked normal. So why did a chill run down her spine?
She turned back to face the exit and quickened her pace. Biting her lower lip, she shook her shoulders to throw off the uncomfortable feeling of being followed.
That is irrational, she thought.
Why would anyone pay any attention to her? She was nobody. All she possessed in the world were the clothes she wore and those she’d stuffed into the book bag she now carried on her back.
But more to the point, she was free, finally free, and no one could tell her what she could and couldn’t do anymore.
The thought brought a brief smile to her lips. She’d just turned eighteen a few days before. It was a milestone which she’d been desperate to reach for what had felt like an eternity. Now, she was considered an adult and she could make her own choices and do whatever she wanted.
She’d never traveled by herself before. She didn’t know anyone in Tresmort, and the city was completely new to her. That was all there was to it. She was simply being jumpy and nervous because this was all strange to her.
She looked around again. There was nothing and no one that seemed out of place. She straightened her back and decided not to pay attention to her over-active imagination again.
Following the signs with arrows that said “Exit,” she came to a large, grimy glass door. She pushed it and crossed the threshold, finding herself at the start of a long, empty corridor with graffiti scrawled on the walls. The lightbulbs overhead flickered. A section further down, about midway, was in darkness.
The door banged shut behind her, and the girl jumped. As the sound echoed through the long passageway, she clutched her heart and caught her breath.
She was being silly, she told herself.
Turning to look at the door, she saw figures approaching. She recognized the four young businessmen in suits from earlier. One looked dead ahead, his eyes piercing the darkness as the others kept up their conversation.
Good, she thought. She wouldn’t have to go down this long, dark corridor by herself.
The relief that thought brought lasted a mere second.
The eyes of the man who’d been looking in her direction met hers. Instantly, the girl knew she was in grave danger.
Her heart pounded against her chest. Her knees felt weak and her entire body trembled.
As she turned to flee, her foot got caught in a crack and she tumbled to the ground. The bag with her half-finished sandwich went flying. She didn’t even stop to think about it.
Breathing heavily, she scrambled to her feet and took off down the dimly lit hall.
A chill ran down her spine as she heard the door creak open and several pairs of footsteps thundering after her.
Chapter 13
Footsteps and voices came from below.
“They must be in the dining car, sir.”
It sounded like the man with the black beret who had ordered them around.
Sure enough, Mr. Congeniality’s head came bobbing up the stairwell. He looked stonily at Fenix, Twain, and Java, then disappeared back down the stairs.
“All three are accounted for, sir.”
“Thank you, Captain.”
It was Micha’s voice.
Fenix’s heart began beating furiously. Her cheeks tingled. A stupid smile forced itself on her lips, no matter how hard she fought it. She got up and started pacing as she wrung her hands.
Get a hold of yourself, she thought. This guy could be dangerous. Very dangerous. Just hand over the evidence he’s after and go back to your normal—okay, not-so-normal—life with Alda and the gang.
Micha’s gorgeous hair, all windswept and shiny, appeared as he made his way up the stairs.
The smell of sandalwood and musk from his shampoo or aftershave wafted to her nose. The air seemed charged with electricity.
Dang, that stupid smile on her face widened. The only way she could control it was to fold her arms and scowl.
Micha emerged smiling, his perfect white teeth gleaming. Then his eyes met hers.
He frowned, seeming puzzled. “What? Are the accommodations not to your liking?”
Fenix had to think quickly to fend off the urge to gush. “Your men could use some lessons in civility,” she said. “The customer service around here is terrible.”
Micha dipped his chin and ran his fingers through his hair, sending a tingle up Fenix’s spine. When he looked at her again, the smile had returned.
“The captain told me about the encounter,” he said. “Accept my apologies. But they’re not my men.”
“No?”
“They’re from a private security firm. Alda said she didn’t know where on the train you would land, so I hired them to get on board at the previous station. Their job was to look for you and escort you here. I didn’t want to risk you being found by the transit cops and treated like stowaways.”
“We had no problem where we were until those goons showed up. For your information, we can take pretty good care of ourselves.”
“As four of the men discovered. They’re being treated for cuts and bruises. I think there’re some broken ribs, too.”
“Will they be all right?”
“They’ll be fine. This is the executive car, but Angelo Labs also reserves a second car for staff. I have people there who c
an take care of them.”
Micha’s eyes roved all over Fenix’s frame. She bristled, but couldn’t help but feel excited too.
“What about you?” he said.
“What do you mean, what about me?”
“Looks like you’ve taken your fair share of hits tonight. I can take you down so my staff can tend to you.”
“Thanks, but you needn’t trouble your people.”
“It’ll be no trouble.”
“I’m good, thanks. I have my own arrangements. I work for the best magical healer in the business, remember?”
Micha nodded. “As you wish.”
He looked beyond Fenix’s shoulder, then curled his hand in a beckoning motion.
“Hey, nice digs, man,” Twain said as he approached.
“It serves my needs,” Micha said. “So, mission accomplished?”
“Not my kind of thing, but yeah,” Twain said, handing over the bracelet and the vial. “Mission accomplished.”
Fenix and Java also gave Micha their bracelets and vials.
“Good job,” Micha said. “But I’m guessing you guys must be a little bit hungry after your assignment. Care for a light dinner or a snack?”
Twain rubbed his palms together. “I never say no to food.”
“Me neither,” Java said.
Micha looked at Fenix.
“I’ll pass,” she said.
“You sure? The chef can whip up almost anything you like. Unless it requires moose cheese. We tend to be a bit short on that around here.”
Fenix didn’t want to feel any kind of indebtedness to Micha Angelo, who was potentially her deadliest enemy. Besides, she’d seen and understood more about the terrible crimes that had been committed that night than Twain and Java did, and, unlike them, she had no appetite at the moment.
“I’m sure,” she said.
Micha shrugged.
Fenix was surprised to find herself cringing inside at his disappointment.
“I’ll take the evidence down to the staff and send the chef up,” Micha said. “Make yourselves at home.”
Twain and Java returned to their table, and Fenix plopped down in the nearest window seat.
What in the world was wrong with her? In the few hours since this stranger had pulled up outside Alda’s place, she had run through a tumult of emotions she’d never experienced before. And this unsteadiness of resolve just threw her off-kilter.
He was her enemy, for crying out loud. It made no sense to allow giddy feelings of happiness to bubble up inside every time he came within three feet.
She rested her head against the window and felt her eyelids growing heavy.
She hadn’t realized how draining the past few hours had been. But so much had happened in one night to sap her energies: being hit by Carpetha’s demon; unexplained powers flowing from her to heal Ivan; being tossed about in Alda’s bended space; falling into a trance as she touched the blood samples; and fighting off the security men Micha had hired. It was all so wearying, she thought as she stretched out and yawned.
Chapter 14
“Hamburgers and fries,” a voice said.
Fenix shook her head and suddenly realized that she’d fallen to sleep.
Micha took up the seat opposite her.
“Excuse me?”
“Hamburgers and fries,” he repeated. “Your companions asked the chef for hamburgers and fries.”
“Well, it makes them happy.”
“But they could’ve had almost anything. All they had to do was ask.”
“Perhaps you’d never be able to relate, but when you’ve lived on the streets, steak and potatoes doesn’t quite cut it as comfort food.”
“Did you live on the streets? I’ve heard that’s where Alda recruits her helpers.”
Did he think he was going to get her to spill the beans as to who she was and where she’d come from? That was so not going to happen, even if that giddy happiness was welling up inside in Fenix just from looking at him.
“Alda takes her assistants from wherever she can find them,” she said as casually as she could manage. “My guess is that you would have never been a candidate.”
Micha’s lips parted slightly, and he had a faraway look in his eyes. “No, I never lived on the streets. But my life hasn’t always been one of plenty. Did Alda tell you what I am?”
“Sorry?” The directness of his question threw her off.
“I’m assuming when she left me and joined you in your quarters that she told you a bit of my background.”
“She might have mentioned something about your history.”
Supernaturals tended to be secretive about their true nature, even with other supernaturals, but especially with humans. Even though she was one of Alda’s helpers and had regular dealings with beings from the supernatural world, Fenix was surprised that a vampire would so casually talk about himself with her, a human.
“Alda and I go way back, you know,” he said. “Way, way back.”
“You almost make it sound as if you two are friends.”
“We aren’t today. And we never quite were. But I was very close with her fiancé.”
Fenix almost fell out of her seat at his words. Alda once had a fiancé? Fenix only knew Alda as a crotchety old witch. It was hard to picture Alda bubbling up with expectation at being someone’s bride.
“What happened to the fiancé?”
“He died while helping me destroy someone who was very evil. Alda has never forgiven me for that.”
“You mean Eurus Angelo?”
“So Alda has told you a great deal about me,” Mica said with a wry smile. “Yes, Alda’s fiancé, Destran, was killed by Eurus. But in the battle, Destran had wounded Eurus and weakened him enough that I was able to finish him off.”
“So, you killed the vampire who converted you?”
“Had to. He had gone mad. He ruined my life, and the lives of many others.”
“And I suppose it had nothing to do with inheriting all that he possessed?”
Micha gave Fenix what looked to her like a pained expression. She half regretted her question.
“It’s true that Eurus’ estates in the Umbra Region belongs to me, and I’m still head of what remains of the clan over there. But I came over here to the Eastern Region and started afresh. Baldwin and I built this incarnation of Angelo Labs from the ground up.”
Micha stared ahead. “The fact is, if I’d never had the misfortune to have encountered Eurus Angelo, I would have done with my life exactly what I am doing today. Well, almost exactly.”
Fenix arched her eyebrows for an explanation.
“I was a medical student. Granted, I was poor. But I had a life I loved, filled with people I loved and who loved me.” Micha had a faraway stare as he uttered those words. He sighed, as if the loss was fresh and still weighed on him. He shook his head. “Anyway, I always wanted to do research to help save lives.”
“And you do that today?”
“Angelo Labs has been very successful at developing drugs to help humans over the last few decades. And it has allowed me to fund a secret division dedicated to controlling, and possibly reversing, vampirism.” Micha smiled. “As you can imagine, the last bit was not part of my original life plans.”
“I bet.”
“With the help of Baldwin, who’s my second in command, I searched far and wide for many years to pull together the crack team that’s working on the serum at Angelo Labs.”
“You sound very proud of them.”
“Founding the lab gave me a reason to wake up.” Micha leaned forward. “Luckily for you, you’ll never understand this, but I hated what Eurus had made me. I detested no longer being a normal human being. I abhorred having to feed.
“Sometime after destroying Eurus, I asked a great mage to put me into a deep sleep. It lasted centuries. Truthfully, I didn’t want to wake up, ever. But in my sleep, the idea for the serum somehow came to me. When the dormancy spell wore off, Baldwin and I immediately set ab
out the work of establishing the lab.”
“This serum is also supposed to reverse vampirism?”
Micha nodded.
“But wouldn’t that mean losing your—”
Micha smiled wryly. “Immortality? Believe me, that is highly overrated.”
Fenix felt she probably shouldn’t have been probing, but curiosity got the better of her. “How close are you to your ultimate goal?”
“We’ve been testing the serum for about a decade now. I was the first to take it. It’s nowhere near the stage of completely ridding the body of the poison that converted me. But it does act as a substitute for human blood. It takes away the craving to feed, at least.”
“Does it affect the speed or strength you got through your conversion?”
Fenix tried to sound casual, but this was crucial intelligence on what could possibly turn out to be her mortal enemy.
Micha shook his head. “Actually, it removes certain weaknesses. Like sensitivity to sunlight and garlic. If anything, the superior abilities one gained as a vampire are augmented.”
“Like the ability to stand against a raging headwind atop a bullet train?”
Micha threw his head back and laughed. “You couldn’t possibly have seen me. The train would have gone by too fast.”
Fenix shrugged. “It was just a lucky guess.”
“I wear a suit these days, and I no longer feed, so I need to find creative ways to get an adrenaline rush.”
“Tell me something,” Fenix said, sitting up. “Do you ever sit over there?” She nudged her chin in the direction of the seat she had sat in earlier.
“Yes. That’s actually my usual spot when I’m on here. It’s got the best view.” Micha looked at Fenix with curiosity. “Why do you ask?”
“Just wondering.”
No, she wasn’t just wondering. She needed to confirm a pattern she’d begun to see.
When she sat in a place that was deeply connected to him, she could see him, but not with her eyes. When she touched the blood samples of those girls, she had a distinct vision of what had happened to them.
