Barb Hendee - Hunting Memories

"Close your eyes and go back. Start wherever you want."

He turned his hand over and gripped down hard on her fingers. It hurt a little, but not much.

"Just think back," she whispered.

As Philip bolted across the empty car after the strange vampire, Wade was once again hit by a sudden telepathic shout. Stay with Rose!

Philip's voice inside his head felt sharper than Eleisha's, but he was standing in the doorway, so he didn't buckle or stumble.

"Don't kill him!" Rose called after Philip. She looked outside as the train picked up more speed. "Those cars behind us are filled with people," she said more quietly.

Wade stood frozen, trying to take everything in. Philip's brilliant plan to jump off the train-which Wade had never been too sure about in the first place-was rapidly becoming impossible, and just like Philip, he was frightened at the thought of Eleisha getting between Robert and Julian.

Now Philip had gone running off after a vampire in a trench coat, and he was left here with no idea what to do. "Maybe we should go back to our cabin. At least we'll be hidden there."

Rose looked around the empty car with the short stairwell and the door leading outside. Her voice was calm. "No, Philip will come back here no matter what happens. You open the outer door, and we'll wait."

"You're not still planning on jumping?" he asked incredulously. "I think that ship has sailed, Rose. We're going too fast."

"Not quite yet."

For somebody pathologically afraid of sitting in an airplane with a hundred people around, she showed no fear of hitting the ground at forty miles an hour. But her words about Philip coming back to this car made sense. Just what did he plan to do anyway? Pull a machete and take that vampire's head off right in front of the passengers? Why did Philip always have to act first and think later?

"He had to go," Rose said, as if reading his mind-but he didn't feel her. Maybe she was reading his face. "He'd never jump with that vampire right behind us, so he had to least at chase him off. I'm just afraid Philip will catch him… and I hope he tries talking first."

"Talking?" Wade asked. "That thing tried to cut your head off, and now he's hunting us on a train!"

"We don't know what he's after."

Wade sighed and looked around. Pulling his gun, he motioned to the back of the empty car. "Okay, I'll get the door open, and you wait over there. But if Philip's not back in the next thirty seconds, we're going to need a new plan."

Although he didn't want to shatter Rose's hopes, he somehow doubted Philip would try talking first-and for once, he completely agreed with Philip.

But whatever Philip was going to do… he'd better do it fast.

Nothing that had occurred in the last few moments changed the fact that Robert and Eleisha were still alone with Julian coming after them.

Jasper jogged as quickly as he could down the aisles without breaking into a full run, just trying to look like a guy in a hurry. There were too many passengers sitting around.

But he was scared.

It never occurred to him that he might just walk into his targets like that-and now Philip was coming after him. He tried to remember everything Julian had told him about Philip.

Savage but not intelligent. He may have developed telepathy by now, but even so, I don't think he'd know how to sense for another of our kind in that way.

Could that be true? Jasper hoped so. Glancing back, he saw Philip closing on him, and he broke into a run without caring what the passengers thought.

Where was Mary? Couldn't she try to blink in and scare Philip for a moment? Just to clear a few seconds of time?

Jasper remembered he'd passed the dining car on the way in, and he ran toward it, passing though doorways and trying to get out of Philip's sight line for just an instant. He could run pretty fast as a mortal, and now his speed made the aisle seats blur past.

As he neared the kitchens, he dashed into a large storage area, hoping Philip hadn't seen him, and ran for an industrial walk-in refrigerator. Once inside, he pulled the door closed and then crouched, using the newfound strength in his legs to jump to the highest shelf, where he crawled behind several large boxes of unsalted butter.

He waited, forcing his mind to be still, not allowing any of his gift to seep out, just playing dead behind the butter.

Nothing happened for a few moments, and he started to think maybe Philip had kept running all the way to the dining car-bypassing the storage room.

Then he heard the sound of the fridge door being jerked open, and he lay completely still. Hidden like this, he couldn't see anything, but Philip wouldn't see him either.

He heard footsteps and a crashing sound as something was knocked over.

"Where are you?" a low voice with a French accent called out.

Jasper fought down the panic, and he lay completely still.

The footsteps echoed away from the fridge and back into the storage room, moving farther away. He only waited a little while and then jumped down quietly, seeing the fridge door open. Philip was gone, and Jasper slipped over the door, peering out.

He could see Philip down the hall, heading toward the back of the train, into the dining car.

And then Jasper realized he'd done exactly what he was supposed to. Philip was off in one direction, and Wade-a mortal-and Rose-who seemed incapable of defending herself-were alone in a car with a doorway to the outside of the train.

Well… awesome.

If he could take out at least two of them, he'd have a success here, and he saw all the things awaiting him: cars, clothes, hotel suites, feeding on girls who'd never have looked twice at him before.

He wasn't going to fail Julian again, and he headed back toward Rose and Wade.

Wade got the outer door open, and he stood on the steel steps, watching the world blur past for a few moments.

"This isn't going to work, Rose," he said. "Even if I could survive the jump, we're too far from Eugene, and all I can see is a line of trees. I don't think Philip's going to find a car out here. We'll have to wait for the next stop and see where we are."

"Do you know the next stop?" she asked.

"No, I'm not even sure where this train is headed now. I think Eleisha said it would turn east."

Rose was standing near the back of the car, and he was just starting to climb up the metal stairs when her expression shifted to fear as she looked to the right, toward the door Philip had run through. Wade couldn't see it from his position, but he raised the gun.

"Wade!" she called out.

He heard the upper door being opened, and he tried to jump up the last three steps, holding out his Beretta. Something arced down out of the air, and the tip of a blade sliced the back of his hand. He cried out and dropped the gun.

The trench-coated vampire kicked it away, and Wade dodged to one side as the sword came back, crashing into the stairwell's corner.

"Stop it," Rose called out. Her voice was smooth and clear. "That will not serve you, and you can come with us. You'll have a home with us."

Even Wade saw the wisdom of what she suggested. To stop fighting. To go home.

The vampire held his sword in midair. He looked younger than Wade first realized. His blade was slender, more a saber than a sword-but the edge was sharp.

"It's all right," Rose said, taking a step toward him. "Put down the sword and come with us."

The vampire's face wavered, and then somehow he seemed to throw off Rose's aura of wisdom, and in one split second, he snarled, pulling his blade back, about to rush her.

The air shimmered, and Seamus appeared directly in front of Rose. He swung with his fist as if aiming a hard blow.