Barb Hendee - Hunting Memories

"Which train?"

They all looked the same, and the station reader board was confusing.

"When you go out of the men's room, just turn left. You'll step right on."

"I don't have a ticket."

"It's all right. You just have to hide someplace and avoid the ticket collectors."

The thought was kind of exciting. "Okay."

"I'm going to check in with Julian, and then I'll come find you again."

He nodded, slipped out of the men's room, turned left, and got on the train. Once again, he was starting to feel like someone right out of a movie. It was his first time on a train.

Pretty cool.

Eleisha fought the overwhelming fear, knowing she could resist it as she had once before.

She had to press her thoughts into his, get control of him, but the waves kept coming until she felt sick, and she couldn't focus.

Almost the instant Julian completed his first swing, he swung upward again and took off the porter's head. The sight of the body falling and blood spurting from the stump shocked her. Too many events were occurring at once. Robert was trying to crawl up and unzip his bag, but his shoulder was bleeding and his expression was locked in fear-and he'd never felt Julian's gift like this before.

Julian raised the sword and was about to rush toward Robert again, when Eleisha gathered any scraps of control she had and used her mind to push into his thoughts with a single word.

Stop!

He sidestepped in shock, and his dark eyes widened. Instead of swinging the sword, he kicked her, and she rolled. Dust flooded her mouth and she tried to push up to all fours. The pain in her side made her cry out at once.

Then Julian was gone, and Robert was on his feet with a long polished sword in his right hand.

He didn't even look back at Eleisha before he bolted forward. Was he trying to run down Julian?

"Robert!"

She struggled up to her feet and stumbled after him, but he didn't go far.

"Which way?" he shouted. "Which way did he run?"

She hadn't seen Julian vanish, and she reached out with her thoughts, trying to pick up anything. "I don't know!"

"Get over here! Stay away from the front of that train."

Confused for a second, she saw all the nooks and shadows around the front cars-with no overhead lighting.

She ran to him, half limping, worried Julian might have broken her ribs. Robert's head was moving back and forth. They were now closer to the passenger cars near the end of the Portland Express. He looked at one open door with a floodlight above. The train was about to pull out.

"There," he barked.

"What? No, the others are still on the first train! We can't just leave them."

"Eleisha, I can't sense him. I don't know where he is. We have to stay in the light!" He glanced back once more down into the shadows where Julian had been hiding. Then, without warning, he bent down rapidly, reached around the back of her thighs, picked her up, and ran for the open door of the Portland Express.

"No!"

She fought him but couldn't even make him slow down. In desperation, she reached out with her thoughts, trying to make a connection to Wade.

Stay where you are! Julian is outside! We're on the other train. Wade! There's nothing I can do. Stay out of the shadows. Find a way to meet us back at the church.

Robert jumped through the open door a half second before it slammed shut behind them, and the Portland Express began moving north.

Wade stepped outside for a better look to the left, up toward the front of the train, and thought he saw something… A glint reflected by an overhead light? Then he heard shouting, and his heart skipped a beat.

He pulled his gun immediately, but he wasn't sure whether to run toward the shouting or not.

Then his knees nearly buckled when a telepathic shout hit him, exploding in his mind.

Stay where you are! Julian is outside! We're on the other train. Wade! There's nothing I can do. Stay out of the shadows. Find a way to meet us back at the church.

"Eleisha!" he yelled, watching the Portland Express begin to move.

He tried for a mental connection, but he couldn't reach her.

Turning, he quickly climbed back aboard the train from San Francisco. He had to get to Philip and Rose, to tell them, to warn them.

Julian was outside.

He could say this to them without flinching… but how, how was he ever going to tell Philip that they had just lost Eleisha?

Eleisha heard the door whoosh shut.

Robert put his back to the wall inside the stairwell of the train and slowly let her slip down until her feet touched the floor, but he still kept his arm tightly around her. She could feel his body shaking. The reality of what had just happened was sinking in.

Julian hadn't stayed away. He had come from the darkness swinging a sword.

She'd been wrong all along.

And now her friends would suffer.

She choked at the thought of Wade and Rose being left behind, but one face surfaced in her mind, causing more pain than she could believe.

Philip would be blind with panic.

Robert's left shoulder was bleeding and so was her right hand, but she made a fist and pounded it against him several times.

He held onto her and let her hit him.

"Philip is so afraid of being alone!" She wanted to sob. "Do you know what this is going to do to him?"

"I did it for him!" he hissed in her ear. "How do you think he'd feel tomorrow if I let Julian take your head? How do you think he'd feel the night after? And the night after that? We have to survive by moving between one moment and the next. Do you understand?"

She stopped hitting him and just stood there, letting him grip her too hard.

"They're all alone now," she whispered. "They can't fight Julian. I don't think Wade would know what to do."

"He won't follow them. He'll come after me first."

He released his arm slightly, and she moved back to look up at him. He wouldn't look down at her, and his face was taut.

"You don't know that!" she hissed quietly. "If he thinks Rose or Philip have turned telepathic, he could just as easily go after them."

"It isn't just telepathy," he whispered back. "That's what Philip thinks because it's all Julian told him… all Angelo told him."

Eleisha tensed and let his words sink in. No, it wasn't just telepathy. She had seen that in Robert's memories. Julian feared a resurgence of the laws. He feared vampires making connections with each other again, teaching the laws, practicing telepathy, and learning to feed without killing.

He would come after Robert.

"Where do we go now?" she asked.

When he didn't answer, she fished their tickets from the pocket of her jeans, looking at the cabin numbers she had reserved.

"That porter was bribed to lie to us," she said. "I think if we go to these cabins, we'll find them empty."

He nodded once, but he still didn't look at her.

Julian pushed the Mustang's speed past eighty. Glancing at the wheel, he saw his left hand trembling and he fought to control it.

He had missed his swing.

The setup was flawless, Robert had walked right past him, and he'd missed.

In all his years hunting, he'd never missed his first swing, not once. What was wrong with him? What happened?

Was Eleisha able to sense him? Feel him as the others couldn't? No, if that was true, she could have zeroed in on him afterward.

But she'd been inside his head during the fight! Just for a split second before he kicked her. He could not risk that again, and he could not-would not-kill her yet.

What was he going to do?

Robert knew he was there, knew he was hunting again.

Julian forced himself to calm, thinking back over the few seconds just before chaos erupted in the train yard. He'd timed it perfectly, and the porter was bringing Robert directly past him. Robert was out in front of Eleisha… Julian had waited, as always, until the right second… and then Eleisha called a warning and pushed Robert.