[excerpt] (30 page)

Ridicule coated Duncan’s tongue. “What was that saying Lorelei used on you? When hell freezes over. I believe that was it.”

Duncan grabbed for André just as the train screeched and lurched forward and then jerked backwards. Everything in the car went airborne, people, boxes, baggage, the pigs, tiny vomit-covered trinkets, all spilling over and everyone landing into a big displaced pile.

Lucian blasted through the door, his grip tight on the handle so he didn’t end up in the mix. He reached out, grabbed Duncan’s arm and yanked him backwards.

Jonah tripped over the loose beads and went into a nose-dive. Lucian crouched and latched onto the back of his shirt and pulled him to his feet.

Phillip fell on André, who had Chyna flattened beneath him. An avalanche of suitcases dropped atop the three of them and broke open.

Endless squealing alerted everyone that the pigs weren’t thrilled with their topsy-turvy environment either.

“Phillip, make some bacon for yourself and put an end to their misery and ours,” Chyna screamed, her timbre no better than the swine. “And both of you get the hell off me.”

Lucian waved his hand at the hulky man and sent him sailing. Phillip somersaulted across the rubble and landed flat on his back. When his forward momentum came to an end, Phillip resembled a turtle stuck on his shell, arms and legs kicking in the air.

“Hello, Auntie. You’ve looked better. Time has taken its toll.” Lucian simpered, finding he had new hidden strengths he might just have to thank Jasper for.

“Lucian? Damn!” A faint voice came from under a pile of rubble. “Get off me, baby.” Chyna shoved at André. Impetuousness getting the better of her, she unleashed her powers and flipped André on Phillip’s head. “Can’t say it’s good to see you either, Lucian,” Chyna countered. “What exactly have you been up to, nephew?” She sat up and straightened the eye-sore of a cape. “Help me, Phillip. My God, man, show respect. Some day I’ll be Queen.”

“You, Queen? Have you lost what feeble mind you had? I don’t see a vampire ruling England anytime too soon.”

Chyna remarked, “Well then, that makes two of us, hey?”

Oh how he loathed the woman for stealing his brother, and ruining their childhood.

Outside the door, chaos claimed the isle of the train. People lay piled atop other passengers they’d never met. There wasn’t a child awake that wasn’t making full use of his or her vocal cords, crying. Lucian closed the door. “It sounds like Hell’s Bells out there, Auntie. They ring for you.”

“You’ve yet to experience the underbelly of the world, Lucian, but soon.”

“If creatures such as yourself crawl out from the bowels of such a place, I’ll pass.”

Chyna ignored Lucian. “I hear you had the pleasure of meeting an associate of mine these past weeks. How is old Jasper? Isn’t he just the stuff nightmares are made of? How you sleeping these nights, Luce? Got your own little black box tucked away ’round here somewhere, do you?” Chyna snickered, her arms crossed under what little there be of breasts.

“
You
are more the stuff nightmares are made of.” Lucian laughed at the very sight of her, thinking she looked like a child riddled with leprosy, digits missing, emaciated to the bone.

Serina, I know I told you to stay put, but now I’m rethinking we need you and Payton and André’s bag pronto.

We are on our way. It may take a few minutes. The train conductor’s thoroughly upset with whoever pulled the emergency stop cord. You wouldn’t have had a hand in that now would you?

Little one, no time to talk. Got a psychotic vamp, a hyperventilating werewolf, a Sumo wrestler and two other men who can’t seem to stop digging their hole deeper for themselves.

Are you the psychotic vamp?
Serina sent Lucian an image of himself looking quite disheveled running around chasing after her snapping his teeth.

She laughed hysterically until Payton jabbed her side. “Payton, I’m not crazy, I swear. I was just talking to Lucian and…”

“Serina, you’re not helping your cause. He’s not here and not too many people know you guys can communicate from a distance.” Payton gave her a shove toward the other end of the train. “Put one foot in front of the other, Doc.”

Lucian replied to Serina, laughing too.
Only
where you’re concerned. Could you please get down this train aisle as fast as you got down the aisle to marry me?

Did you say Sumo wrestler?

If you ever show up, I’ll give you a formal introduction.

“Auntie, so nice of you to be concerned over my welfare. I sleep just fine in a bed and today I went for a nice hike with family and friends. I’m not the rabid chiropteran you are. Yes, I did meet Jasper. Seems he flew off in a puff of smoke.”

“How is that, Lucian?” Chyna snapped. “I don’t believe you. Jasper would not lie. It would cost him dearly.”

The tremor in Chyna’s voice was music to Lucian’s ears. Her face however...He gawked, couldn’t tear his gaze away as she pulled an eyelid up with her fingers and pushed and shoved the loose skin harshly into the bony socket, like one does with the last pair of socks they can’t quite stuff into the drawer to get it shut. With her occupied, Lucian whispered to Duncan, “Get Jonah, I think you two might want to get out of here while the getting’s good. Serina and Payton are on their way.”

“I’m not leaving you, Luce. There’ll be no further mishaps or disappearances from any of us. All for one, and one for all and all that. Except him.” Duncan shot an angry glance towards Jonah. “He can rot here.”

“Oh, Duncan. Back up then.” Lucian sighed. Testing his new powers he waved his right hand at his aunt in a counterclockwise motion hoping to send her rolling over, but what he got was Phillip rolling over again.

André snapped his head at Lucian with a grin that stretched ear to ear, and quickly got to his feet.
Do that again, only with her
. André inclined his chin towards Chyna.

That’s who I was trying for. My aim is off.
Both men smirked.

“It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt, boys.” At the far end of the car, Chyna began to straighten out her hair, but a clump fell to the floor. She glanced down and dismissed the fallen locks just as quickly as it fell. All of the men in the car with the exception of Phillip turned their heads in repulsion.

Once again, Jonah vomited.

“Jonah? What’s going on with you? You’re not faring too well here tonight. Is your stomach usually this upset?” André asked. If Jonah continued to retch his insides out, André had an uneasy feeling it could start a chain reaction. His stomach wasn’t made of cast iron either.

His head between his legs, Jonah answered, “André, I’m a werewolf. I have eaten live animals in the past, without so much as batting an eye. This is new and most unappreciated. I’ve been poisoned.”

“So it’s not Chyna that’s bothering you? Oddly, that makes me feel better.”

“You two all right back there?” Focused on his aunt, Lucian heard mumbling and didn’t need the distraction.

“Jonah’s just baptizing everything within his proximity,” André answered.

Duncan added his two pence, “Good. Let the miserable turncoat rupture.”

Lucian turned and stared at Duncan with disbelief. Serina hadn’t exaggerated when she’d said Duncan didn’t like Jonah. Lucian moved Jonah and André behind him, and edged them slowly to the door.

From the corner of her eye Chyna glanced at the men and believing they posed no threat, she spun around to face the rear of the car. She weaved her hands at the back wall in a zigzag pattern and as she did flames burst out along the wall. A huge chunk of the wall simply fell away onto the tracks below. She spun back around to see the faces of her guests. Lucian and Duncan gaped at the hole. Jonah and André stood behind the two men peering out over their shoulders.

“Can you do that?” Duncan asked Lucian.

Brows pinched and pouty lips pursed, Lucian answered, “Of course—not!”

“That was nothing, boys. Watch this,” Chyna went to wink, but the skin she’d previously jammed into place stuck. Upset, she pointed to Duncan and Jonah, and levitated both men. With the roll of her finger, she flipped them upside down and careened them into the carpets. The men just missed the hole in the wall.

As Duncan sat up, his left arm crumbled beneath him. It took all of two seconds for shock to set in. He methodically poked at the protruding bones. A small steady giggle leaked from his lips as a warm fluid dripped down his arm and painted the floor red.

An ostrich-sized egg hatched from the front of Jonah’s skull. Concussion, Lucian thought. The vomiting would definitely continue.

Any chance you’ll be joining us tonight, Miss Serina? My dear Aunt just injured Duncan and Jonah. Duncan’s pretty bad. Jonah’s napping against his better judgment.

Lucian wasted no more time and moved forward to Duncan to stop the bleeding and wrap his arm, but Chyna was one-step ahead of him.

Lucian bounced off a solid invisible barrier. He pounded his fists in the air hitting something solid, but nothing happened. “This can’t possibly be good,” he exclaimed.

Serina, how would you get rid of an invisible barrier?

I’d simply picture a door dead center in it and walk through. Payton and I are going to be a bit. I’m sorry. The train conductor and his cronies confiscated our crossbow. We are in the process of negotiations for its swift return. Hold the fort, luv.
Serina showed Lucian what she meant about breaking the barrier, and then she was gone.

“I’m sorry, André, that you had to witness that. But your brother needs to learn a few things around here, like who’s actually in charge. And that would indeed be me, your princess, soon-to-be-Queen.” Chyna snorted and with a quick snap of each hand tossed her hair behind her back.

Half-paying attention to his aunt, Lucian silently concentrated on Serina’s suggestion. Briefly, he closed his eyes and envisioned a giant door to get through to Duncan and Jonah.

With a sharp inhalation, he focused and held his breath. Through pursed lips, Lucian blew hard and directed the force toward the invisible barrier. As the energy intensified a glossy bubble-like barricade burnt bright red as it mixed with oxygen. Lucian blazed a trail as if a charge of gunpowder had been lit, in the outline of a door. He stood there in awe of his work.
Jesus, Serina, this is amazing.

I knew you could do it. We are going to have some fun if we get out of here alive.

Serina. The true optimist—once more.

I mean when—when we get out of here.

Feeling the train start forward again, Chyna widened her stance for balance and glanced out at the tracks below. A gentle breeze made its way inside the cabin.

Lucian approached his imaginary door and walked through to Duncan.

Lucian, the train conductor gave us back our bow. I had to persuade him it was in his best interest. Don’t worry, I played fair. One car to go. See you in a minute.

You said that hours ago.

Payton reached for the door to the car, his palms a sweaty mess. His hand slipped off the handle at his first attempt to open the door. Serina quickly shackled his wrist holding him still.

“Payton, let me just get a feel for the room before we go blasting in there on basically a hope and prayer.”

Lucian, we are outside the door. What is happening in there and what do you need?

A miracle.

I’m more like a great magician, not God, luv.

Let him decide that. Come on in and join the party.

A party? I love parties, Lucian. I’m not dressed for such an occasion.

M’lady, unless you’re wearing the suit God gave you, you’re not dressed correctly period.

Lucian gave Serina a mental picture of what lay on the opposite side of the door to prepare her for what they were walking into.

“Tea party behind door number one, Payton. Get the crossbow out and point it at the first ugly thing you see. Shoot anything with skin hanging off, falling off, sloughing off, not attached, or really huge. You get the picture right?”

“I was just stalling to see how many different synonyms you’d come up with before you shut up.” Payton twisted the handle.

Lucian bent to Duncan and placed his fingers over the other man’s lips, mouthing the word, “Shush,” to him. Grabbing a piece of clothing from someone’s suitcase, he wrapped Duncan’s arm. Then he reached gently and tapped Jonah on the shoulder.

With a grimace, Jonah opened one eye and checked out at his surroundings, not certain he really wanted to know where he was. He caught sight of Duncan sitting next to him, propped up against the wall, panting like a dog, covered in blood, sweat and tears, his arm in a tourniquet saturated red.

The sight of the other man both frightened and excited him. The fresh scent of blood almost always awakened Jonah’s beast. That’s all he needed. Time to get the hell away from Duncan. Just as Jonah tried to crawl away, the cavalry arrived.

Chapter Nineteen

The squeak from the door’s hinge grabbed Chyna’s attention. The over-zealous vamp wrenched her head a full one hundred-eighty degrees around without so much as moving her feet an inch in any direction. Bones cracked and the unnatural sounds filled the car. Chyna stood there with her mouth hung open, her four carried fangs visible. “Lucian you were able to breach the confines I’d set. How?” she asked curious.

Too amazed at what she’d just done to her body, Lucian couldn’t answer her. That she turned her head behind her was an implausible anomaly. That she stood in her current constitution bewildered the dickens out of him.

Duncan managed to whispered, “What Lucian did is nothing compared to what you just did. Trust me.”

Lucian elbowed him.

“What? Luce, give it up. She one-upped you this time,” he spit out.

Chyna gave a small curtsy to Duncan and then sent her sights on Serina and Payton.

Chyna’s black eyes were a complete contrast to Payton’s new stark-white color when he realized he was the new object of her affections.

Chyna held her finger to the small, blond chef. “Hold that thought, boy. You and I shall sink our teeth into something juicy in just a bit...That would be me doing the sinking and you being the juice.” She turned and lunged at Lucian while ordering Phillip, “Get up off your corpulent back you oversized eunuch and help me.”

Phillip rolled his eyes, and made no move to jump up and kiss her royal tush.

Lucian sidestepped to Duncan’s left allowing Chyna the opportunity to slam head first into the same wall she had shown Duncan and Jonah.

“Turn around is fair play.” Lucian laughed until he saw the malice in her black eyes.

Chyna let loose an ungodly cry as she ordered her sentinel to his feet. With no tolerance left for her bodyguard, she held her arms in front of her, and jerked them into the air. Phillip was ripped from the floor much like a marionette being tugged upward and suspended.

“You malicious bitch,” Phillip swore, “I’ve given you my life and you treat me like a puppet.”

“Seems the toothless one has a bit of a bite after all
.” Lucian studied Chyna’s movements and what happened when she did. Like some old biddy with swollen ankles, he retained everything.

Just as Phillip’s feet hit the floor, the train jolted unexpectedly forward and Phillip took a hard dive, taking André down with him, again.

Crushed beneath four hundred pounds or better, André could barely breathe, certain he’d received a few broken ribs in the fall because pain radiated through his chest. Panic hastened his ability to breathe more so. André did the only thing he could think of at that point and that was scream for help. The lips moved but no sound came forth.

Ands, relax. Inhale slowly. You’re easier to read than Braille.
Lucian knew André inside out. He had always been just short of fanatical when it came to his cleanliness. Despite everything going wrong, Lucian smiled. It really sunk in that he had a brother and that he was going to watch over him and enjoy him for a long time to come, of course, that was after he kicked the living daylights out of him for touching his wife. First things first! Then he’d enjoy him.

Serina watched with admiration the way Lucian handled his situation. So much on his plate and yet he remained true to himself and a gentleman. She noticed him smiling at his brother and before she knew it...
I love your lips. You are so handsome
.
The thought came uncensored. No one needed distractions just yet, but maybe later.

I’m grateful you love my lips. Later, I plan to show you just how well they love you.

André rolled his eyes. Being able to read his brother’s thoughts placed him oddly in the middle of what should have been a private moment between husband and wife.

Would you two save it for later? Can you not see me down here dying?
André tried a smile but his chest really hurt.

Serina sent her powers to André and scanned his chest. Since she had no blood bond with André, she relayed her thoughts to Lucian.

Lucian, tell André, his ribs are cracked, but his lungs and heart are safe for now, as long as no further damage is done.

’Tis been nice knowing you, Ands. Serina asks if you have any last wishes?

“What?” Both André and Serina asked at the same time.

Lucian laughed. “You’ll live to see another day, as long as we get off this train.”

Serina turned her attentions to Phillip’s wide girth. She needed a way around it, him, to free André. She dug through the larger man’s mind in search of his fears. The strongest fear he held was Chyna touching him. Serina could fully sympathize. He loathed Chyna. He hated what she’d done to him, to his life, to his manhood, or lack thereof. He despised being tied to her for an eternal hell.

And who wouldn’t, she thought. His second fear was of drowning. The big man would sink, not swim. Again she could sympathize. She couldn’t swim either. He’d never been taught to swim, and he thought no one would willingly go in to the water and try to save him, knowing it’d be the last thing they ever did. Not much useful information thus far. Serina gave up because someone that big probably wasn’t scared of too much.

What would scare her into running for her life? Easy, bees, spiders or...snakes. With a subtle mind prod, Serina implanted the notion in Phillip’s head.

The yellow and black snake slinked across the floor, with red slanted eyes focused on one man. Its forked tongue stabbed into the air searching. The second Phillip realized he had unwanted company in his pants, he pushed off of André, and jumped up shaking his leg, groaning, “Ooh-ah—what in bleeding ’ell?” To no avail, he ran his hands up and down his leg searching for the serpent, desperate to have it gone.

Beads of sweat trailed across his forehead, matted down his thin grey hair, and soaked through his shirt as the cool scales of the reptile slithered towards his groin. “
No!
” he cried, “help me.” The pants dropped to the floor, and Phillip began to flog at what was left of his genitals. The knobby, scarred protrusion bled out and he wailed like an insane man.

Not a one of them lifted a finger.

Once free, André rolled to his side and sucked in his first real breath. It was then that Serina wished the snake gone. Only the after-effects lingered.

Chyna’s ireful eye tracked Serina. She snapped her bony fingers and pointed.

After being thrown up against the door, Serina now understood André’s take on breathing. She ducked and covered her head when Payton’s body headed straight for her.

Payton unraveled himself and then helped Serina up. He blurted out, “Should we take this as a sign and get the hell out of here?”

So intrigued by the events unfolding, she would not have left the car even if the Sorcerer’s Squad arrived with an embossed invitation just for her. She felt right at home.

It was then that an epiphany slammed her upside the head. Serina now knew without a doubt why God had bestowed her with the gifts she held, the powers to heal with her mind, not medicines, to see without sight, to hear through the silence, and to feel without her hands, but with her soul. He silently asked for her help.

Bigger question she’d work on later—did she really have to go through all this rigmarole to figure that out?

Watching her sentinel display inept puerility, Chyna cringed.
Giant ass, enough is enough! Why did I tie that wooly mammoth to me and for eternity no less?
A mistake she would have to live with for the rest of her nights. Chyna thrust her arms above her head and reached for the sky. She floated to the ceiling and lay across it, as if she were lying on the floor, but above everyone.

Payton’s eyes went wide. He reached for Serina. “Oh bloody ’ell, Doc! Would ya have a look-see at that?”

Chyna’s clothing hung as a curtain from her body, giving all on the floor an up close and personal view of what she wore under the dress.

Nothing. And there in lay the problem.

Every one of them looked. Every one of them blinked and rubbed their eyes trying to either focus or forget.

Lucian stared perversely. Taking in the dark secrets of what lay hidden under her filthy dress, revulsion quickly replaced guilt. The images his brain sent him made no sense. Women weren’t supposed to look like that. Serina sure as hell didn’t.

Lucian. Stop being a deviant.

“Serina, no! Look. She’s not normal. I mean really—not normal. It’s as if there are two people under that dress she wears. A man and woman. She’s got a bloody penis. Oh, thank God mine doesn’t look like that!”

Payton and André both said, “Amen to that,” at the same time.

Jonah’s curiosity got the best of him. He cranked his head upward and felt his jaw drop. This time Jonah didn’t vomit. He rolled over and laughed until he cried.

“How?” Lucian’s voice carried across the car to his wife.

“Hermaphrodite,” Serina answered matter-of-factly.

“A what?”

“She/he is a cross between a man and woman. Some people are born with both sex organs. Probably explains why she had no children.”

“Probably?” Lucian gasped.

“You simpletons forget I can hear you? I’m not dead yet.”

“I beg to differ,” Lucian added.

Chyna’s mouth twitched before she answered. “Your wife is correct. That is why I had only André. My poor husband got more than my dowry paid for,” Chyna explained. “Poor, poor Jonathan. I wished I’d had a photograph of his face the first and only time he saw me birthday suit.”

Her indifference astounded Lucian. It was as if she were detached from her body. Her ambiguousness was the work of a true charlatan, of that he had no doubt.

Serina stop talking to me out loud. No man in
his right mind would touch her yet she married my uncle.

And then your uncle died shortly after the marriage, didn’t he?

The marriage was prearranged. Jesus, Serina, maybe his death was too.

Would it surprise you after everything she’s done, killing her own husband?

No. Personally, I’d want to be dead too if I had to go home to that nightly.

No worries, luv. I’ve nothing hiding under my skirt like that. I’m going to cross to you and Duncan.

Her attention on Phillip, Serina slipped past Chyna undetected.

“Hello, lover.” Lucian grinned as she closed the distance. “The plan is, you fix Duncan, and I’ll fix the broken, battered fixture on the ceiling. Fair enough?”

“Fair enough.” Serina ran her fingers across Lucian’s jaw in passing. That little caress sent shivers down them both.

Payton remained close to the door. The phrase “scared stiff” painted a poignant picture. He gripped his silver knife as if it were gold, even while his knuckles burned white from tension. He knew he could not hold out much longer without releasing the knife but without it he might as well had been stripped naked, so the burning continued. And the monster cramp that accompanied it helped hold the knife securely in place. In Payton’s other hand he held the cross bow tilted toward the ceiling and the creature. This, he had no knowledge of or how to shoot it. If they got off the train alive
―
—

Serina read his mind and interrupted, “When we get off, Payton.”

“You’re not funny in the least, Doc.” Payton discreetly tipped the bow in her direction. “I’m taking lessons when we return.”

As he looked up to the woman he had once loved, once called his mother, André mourned her loss. She was no longer his mother, but a lying, conniving she-he vampire. He thought her dead for so many years and looking up at her now, he wished she truly were. Someone had to put her out of her misery.

André attempted to reach Payton, but the man was too busy trying to blend in with the wall. Groping blindly around the floor, he latched onto a shillelagh stick that poked out of the one of the boxes. André tapped the stick on Payton’s toes. No response. Those amber eyes were thoroughly transfixed on the vampire watching them. André tapped the shillelagh stick again, harder this time. Payton jumped.

The look André received for making Chyna aware Payton was still in the car and once more a viable target wasn’t the friendliest face he’d seen today, but then glancing between his aunt and her oaf, it wasn’t that bad. Payton tilted the bow to him, in a menacing manner.

“What?” Payton mouthed to the man wielding the little magical weapon.

“Crossbow.” André pointed. “Give me it, don’t shoot me. I’ve a perfect shot at her from this position.” André slowly reached out, and grabbed it from Payton.

Movement caught her eye, and Chyna spun around faster than a lightning bolt could ignite the sky. Mid spin another chunk of her scalp, flesh entwined with hairs, flew off her head and landed atop of Jonah’s face.

Very carefully, with two outstretched fingers, Jonah grabbed the toupee from hell and flung it back in her general vicinity. Chyna looked at the knotted strands and then back to Jonah, smiled at him as she picked it up and tacked the chunk under the prongs of her tiara. “Ta,” she said. The next blink of an eye she screamed, “Phillip, get Lucian. I want him gone from my life once and for all. Now!”