Chapter Ten #2
We reach the door and make it through. As we cross the vestibule, the train bends on a curve, throwing me toward the metal wall.
Before I can smack into it, Luke fists my jacket, sending me careening against his chest. He holds me there for a moment, just long enough to feel his breath fan against the back of my neck, before releasing me.
I find my balance and force my feet forward with my fingertips pressed to either side of me until I’m through the next door.
“How do we get the upper hand?” I ask as another jerk of the train sends me flying into the nearest seat. The cushion absorbs my fall this time. Gasping for breath, I stare up at Luke, who hasn’t so much as staggered despite the twists and turns of the track.
His mouth curves in what might be the beginnings of a victorious grin. “We get an empty car.”
He helps me to my feet with a strong tug. Unlike the car we came from, this one is bare, just rows and rows of seats. When I face Luke again, my eyes catch on the hulking figures of the men quickly crossing the vestibule. “They’re coming! Empty car, check. What’s next?”
“You have the dagger I gave you?”
“Yep.” I pull it from the thigh sheath just as the door slides open and the men emerge.
“Good. Use it if you have to.”
The men stalk toward us with dangerous grins twisting their already questionable features.
It’s not just their heads sporting thick hair.
It covers their faces in bushy beards and explodes from their shirt collars.
The backs of their hands have tufts, and I wouldn’t be shocked if it covered every inch of them under their clothes.
Paired with their ears, broad upper bodies, and bullish features, it gives them a beast-like quality that’s truly monstrous, though not entirely unattractive.
“Gentlemen,” Luke greets them. “I don’t suppose you’d take a bit of advice and fuck off?”
The swear is so casual from Luke’s lips, it knocks me off guard and an unwanted heat unfurls inside me. Bad time for that.
“Advice from you?” The one on the right guffaws.
He wears utility pants and a red-and-black-plaid flannel shirt.
His voice is scratchy, as if dragged from the depths of his soul.
Then again, maybe he doesn’t have one. “Why would we do that when we can feast on your flesh and pick the fat and muscle clean from your bones?”
My stomach rolls at the visual. Luke holds firm, a wall between me and the men. “I can’t promise we’ll taste good. Might have a kick.”
“All mortals taste good.” The man on the left eyes me hungrily, wearing a denim jacket darker than mine and ten times filthier. “We rarely have the opportunity to enjoy such a delicacy.”
“So flattering,” I say, trying to mimic Luke’s tight grip on his dagger. His shoulders tense, as if he’s annoyed I spoke. But now that their attention is on me, it’s no use hiding behind him. “I should warn you. If you bite me, I can’t promise I won’t bite back.”
That has them both hollering, but doesn’t stop their advance. I move backward, and Luke moves with me. Soon, we’ll run out of aisle.
“Funny,” Flannel says. “Shame good humor is wasted on a mortal with such a tiny lifespan.”
“About to be made all the shorter, I presume?”
“Brie,” Luke hisses out in warning.
“I’m a nervous chatter,” I whisper back. “What’s the plan?”
“This is the plan.”
“This plan sucks.”
“You presume correctly,” Denim goads. “I don’t know why you’re here, but your mistake is our prize. When we bring you back to our boss, we’ll reap the rewards.”
“Boss?” I ask. “You can’t escape corporate hierarchy even down here?”
They share a look with each other as if to say what is this dumb bitch going on about?
It’s exactly the slipup Luke needs to strike.
He lunges forward, dragging the dagger in an arc through the air.
Flannel parries, blocking with something that takes me a moment to piece together.
Instead of his own blade, the nails on his fingers are inches long, nearly the length of the dagger and just as thick.
They curve at the tips, destroying any hope of texting, though something tells me that’s the least of his concerns.
My point drives home when Luke twists to avoid a vicious swipe and Denim’s nails slice through the sacrificial seat cushion like it’s tissue paper.
The unfortunate truth is that while Luke has one blade, between the two of them and their razor-sharp claws, they have twenty.
But Luke doesn’t have one blade. He’s hiding a weapon stash. And he has me.
Until he shoves me behind him, so I have no choice but to back up past the last row.
“Go to the next car!” he orders, dodging another attack.
Luckily, the aisle is working in our favor, not allowing enough room for both Denim and Flannel to attack at once without nearly swiping each other.
But it also doesn’t leave much space for maneuvering, and Luke can’t evade them forever.
The door at my back is locked with a heavy lever that reads DO NOT OPEN in bright red.
It’s not a door to the vestibule and another car. It’s a door to the outside.
“Bad news!” I yell, retreating. My back bumps into Luke after only a step. They’ve trapped us. “We’re in the caboose!”
“Open the door,” Luke orders, swiping wide with his attack. From the howl that emits from Denim’s mouth, I don’t need to look to know Luke got him. But, apparently, here a scratch isn’t enough. Denim nurses his wound but lunges forward with eyes fury bright. “Now!”
Against my better judgment, I throw my weight onto the lever, cranking it open. The door swings outward, its rusted hinges shrieking. I careen with it, slamming against the back of the train.
“Brie!” Luke yells after me, still fighting them inside.
“I’m okay!” I exclaim, my voice immediately swallowed by the whipping wind. There’s a ledge beneath my feet, but I can’t ignore how nauseous the blurred tracks make me. We are going fatally fast.
“Stay there,” Luke commands. My hands wrap around the rusty iron railing.
Fear seizes my chest as Luke outmaneuvers Flannel, grabbing him by the back of his collar. In the same breath, he fists Denim, turning toward me.
“Now get out of the way.”
He throws them through the threshold and I barely have enough time to press myself to the back side of the train to avoid their flailing limbs. They ram into the railing, and it breaks with their weight. Denim tumbles right over the edge.
A gasp erupts from me as he skids across the tracks, the velocity of the train as deadly as I thought. A spray of black blooms in the air, but we’re zooming away before it can splatter me. It’s like spilled ink against the lightening sky.
Flannel narrowly avoids Denim’s fate and screeches expletives while trying to steady himself. Before he finds his footing, Luke tugs me back into the car.
“Run back to our seats, get your bag, and meet me at the front of the train.”
“Meet you?” I ask incredulously. “I’m not splitting up—”
“You will lock this door behind me and leave, do you understand? I will meet you. I promise.”
“How? You won’t be able to get back into the cars!”
His gaze burns with determination. I look down at where his fist is wrapped around my arm, tight enough to make sure I won’t fall off the caboose but not harsh enough to bruise. “I’ll find a way. Now go. We won’t make it far with him still after us.”
To emphasize Luke’s point, Flannel lunges at him, ten claws out. Luke releases me and spins, slamming his shoulder into Flannel’s stomach so they both push back onto the ledge. “Do it, Brie!”
I swing the door closed, latching it just as a body gets thrown against it, though I have no idea whether it’s Luke or Flannel. One slip of a foot and Luke will be just like Denim, and I’ll probably be trapped in the underworld for all eternity, full of regrets.
But I’m used to living with regrets, so I leave him behind.