Replica (The Blood Borne Series Book 2) (12 page)

“Of course. And I’ll grab your bag from my abandoned cab. Which is probably impounded.”

“Is that a problem?” Lea asked.

He grinned. “Not at all.”

I shot him a derisive look. “Remember, you need to book your own flight to London. With your alias. It’s United Flight 2980. Then onto Zimbabwe.”

He smirked. “Trying to ditch me?”

I shot him a sneer.

Lea sighed, clearly exasperated with our bickering. “Ivan, book your ticket. It’s better this way. Rachel, let’s go.”

We took the subway to Victor’s bunker. After acting as her benefactor for years, Victor had turned on her. It was hard to imagine Lea having a benefactor, but since killing vampires was her actual job, she had to be paid somehow.

Victor had been an interesting man. While his father had wanted to purge the world of vampires, Victor had wanted to become one—a gift Lea had repeatedly refused to give him. It had been his undoing in the end. After his death, Lea had taken over his secret bunker and all that was in it. Which included multiple specially-developed weapons to fight supernatural creatures.

“It’s a shame we can’t take these with us.”

I pulled my laptop out of my bag and booted it up. “I suppose we might have gotten away with hiding a few things in a checked bag, but our bags will go straight to Berlin…and we won’t. Too bad we can’t hire a private jet.”

Lea glanced up at me.

Did Victor have that much money lying around? “No, we need to stick to this plan. They know I’m going to do something to prove my story is true. If I just disappear without a trace, they’ll start actively looking for me in Iraq. We need to buy all the time we can get. But
you
could take a private jet.”

Some emotion flashed in her eyes. “No. We stick together.”

I nodded. I preferred it that way too. I wanted her in my sights as much as she wanted me in hers.

She grabbed a stack of cash from a safe and several passport books. “I have several nationalities to choose from when we fly into Turkey. My Spanish passport might serve us best.”

“Sounds good.” I bought the tickets separately, using Victor’s credit card. “I’ll purchase the tickets to Turkey on the train,” I said. “I don’t want them to be bought so closely together.”

“Good idea.”

We reached Penn Station with time to spare. Derrick’s bag was in a weekly rental locker. I grabbed his laptop and papers and stuffed them into my bag and slung it over my shoulder. “Let’s go.”

We purchased our train tickets separately too. Lea stood about twenty feet away while I took a seat in a plastic chair, my nerves a ball of unbridled energy. I’d never been good at sitting around, waiting for life to happen to me. And while I knew we were taking the offensive, I still had an uneasy feeling. The bearded stranger’s words hung in my head.

The train pulled in and the few passengers disembarked. I climbed aboard and took a seat by a window looking out on the platform. There was still no sign of Ivan, but Lea was standing in the same place. Though she was trying to look like she didn’t care, I could see worry in the slight curve of her shoulder. I watched her as she pretended to talk on her cell phone—or was it real? She hung up and waited another minute. When the overhead speaker announced the train was about to depart from the station, she climbed aboard the car behind mine without a sideways glance.

Had Ivan gotten held up somewhere or had he gotten what he wanted? Lea had to be disappointed, even if she would likely act otherwise, but I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t happy. After my encounter with the man on the train, I didn’t trust Ivan.

The doors closed and the train was about to pull out of the station when a man burst through the turnstiles, racing for the train at superhuman speed. He pushed the doors open and slipped through them just as the train began to pull away.

For better or worse, it was the three of us. Whether I liked it or not.

LEA

Ivan tumbled into the train, falling to his knees right at my feet. He lifted his head and his eyes met mine, but it was the gash down the side of his face and the smell of blood that captured my attention. I grabbed his arm and hauled him further into the train.

“What happened?”

“They were waiting for me at the cab.”

Which meant they knew we were working together. Fuck. I found a private car and shoved him in. “Sit. Stay.” I pointed for good measure.

Rachel was right behind me when I turned around. “How bad is it?”

“He’ll heal. We just need to make sure we aren’t noticed.”

“Then maybe you should get in there with him, Miss Leather and Hooded Cowl,” Rachel said with more than a touch of sarcasm. I grimaced.

“I have other clothes in the bag Ivan brought me. I’ll change.”

I ducked into the small space with Ivan. He was flat out on his back, or as flat out as he could be in the tiny bed space allotted to each stateroom. Thank God this wasn’t some subway train with standing room only.

His long legs hung off one end, his arms off the other. My leather bag was clutched in one hand.

“Where’s your bag?” I took my bag from him and opened it on the floor. A pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt with a hoodie attached would do the trick. I peeled off my leathers and bundled them up, quickly yanking on the more mundane clothes. Ivan’s gaze was heavy on my skin, but I refused to acknowledge it.

“Didn’t have time to get mine.”

“Well, you need one. No one will think you’re flying to London for fun if you don’t even have a carry-on.”

I stood and shoved my bag under the bench bed. “Who attacked you?”

Rachel opened the door and stepped in, a snarl on her lips. “You idiot, you were tailed.”

Ivan sat up with a grimace. “No, I wasn’t.”

“Then who the fuck is asking for us
by name
while they search the train?” she whispered. “They have pictures too. These aren’t tourists looking for an autograph.”

“Could they have traced your phone while you made the reservations?” I asked her.

“You’re going to side with
him
?”

I shook my head. “No. I’m not siding with him.”
Madre de Dios
, it was like dealing with two squabbling children, both wanting my approval. “If Ivan led them to us, that’s a problem. If the phone led them to us, that’s a bigger problem. We need to know which it is, so I’m going to find out.”

I pushed past her and out into hall. I pulled my hair into a twist and tucked it down the back of my shirt, hiding the length. My one nod to vanity, I didn’t have the heart to cut it off even after all these years.

My steps took me into the main car of the train. Two men dressed in jeans and polo shirts were walking in my direction, talking to the passengers. Government, or someone else? One had a light windbreaker on that rustled as he walked. Here and there, I could see the outline of a gun through the thin material.

I was betting
someone else
based on the shape of the gun alone. It was far from government issue.

I leaned against the back wall and listened to their spiel.

“Sorry to bother you, we’re looking for our two sisters. Our mother is dying and they left for a trip today. We just want to find them so they can say goodbye.”

I couldn’t help the arch of my eyebrow as it rose to my hairline. The passengers seemed largely sympathetic. Many just shook their heads, but a few whispered words that were far too kind.

Mr. Windbreaker reached me first. “Miss, can you take a look at this picture? It’s my sister Rachel.”

I had to fight a sharp intake of breath as I took the picture from him. It had been taken outside Victor’s safe house a few hours ago.

“You know, I think I did see her. She was sitting this way.” I didn’t make eye contact with him, only turned with the picture in my hand. Mr. Windbreaker let out an exaggerated sigh of relief. “Oh, that’s great. We’ve been looking for her everywhere.”

“I’ll bet,” I said softly, glancing back at him. His buddy followed along, and I inadvertently caught his eye. He glanced at the picture in his hand and then back at me as he moved through the passage between the cars.

“Fuck. It’s the vamp.”

I kicked backward, driving my foot into Mr. Windbreaker’s solar plexus, which sent him flying into his little friend. Hard enough to hurt, but not enough to kill. We needed answers and they were going to give them up.

As they tumbled to the floor in a heap, I headed back to the room where I’d left Rachel and Ivan. I opened the door and poked my head in. “Company. Be ready.”

Rachel nodded and Ivan sat up. I looked back the way I’d come and then ducked into the room just as the two men came into view. All they would see of me was a glimmer of movement disappearing through the doorway.

I stood behind the door, Rachel to my right, Ivan still on the bed. He touched my leg. “They’re at the door.”

Fuck, his hearing was even better than mine. I jerked the door open and the two men tumbled in. I grabbed Mr. Windbreaker and lifted him over my head by his throat, flashing my fangs for good measure. Rachel grabbed his buddy and yanked him around so his neck was in a perfect lock of her arms. In seconds, he was out cold from the chokehold and she dropped him to the floor.

Mr. Windbreaker whimpered, “Don’t kill me.”

I slowly lowered him to the floor, but didn’t let go. Neither had gone for their guns. They hadn’t even made an attempt.

“Who are you?”

“Evan Smith. That’s Marvin Eckles.”

Ivan laughed. “Awe-inspiring names if I ever heard them. And I have heard them before.”

Evan looked past me to Ivan and his face paled to a faint green. “Oh God. Please don’t let him near me.”

“Shut your mouth before I shut it for you, Evan.” Ivan’s voice had none of the humor I’d come to expect from him.

Rachel’s brow furrowed as she watched Ivan. I wanted to look back at him too, but we all had our secrets, and I didn’t have time to dig into Ivan’s.

“The wolf listens to me,” I said. “So you’d better start talking unless you want me to give him a new chew toy.”

Teeth chattering, Evan nodded. “The guns are empty. We...we aren’t here to try and hurt you.”

“Try is the word,” Rachel muttered. I had to agree.

“Then why are you following us?”

“We broke clean from the facility. They don’t know we’re still alive. We know what they’re planning, and we want to help you.”

A chill climbed my spine, like a tiny row of spiders skittering along my skin. “Talk.”

He quivered from head to toe. “You don’t have much time. They’re going to start testing on large numbers of people. Villages. Then cities. Turning innocent people into weapons.” His eyes flicked from me to Ivan, then to Rachel. “I don’t know if you three can stop them. But you should know they’re on to you. They know you’re coming.”

Rachel stepped closer to him, her blue eyes flashing. “How?”

He swallowed hard, his throat bobbing as if he couldn’t get enough saliva down. “One of you has a tracer on them. I don’t know which one, I only know it’s one of you three. If you don’t find it, you’re royally fucked.”