The Lycan Collapse (The Flux Age Book 2) (18 page)

“They’ll rush us again” Jack warned. “Only this time we’re more depleted.”

“Common ghoul strategy,” Tomas snorted. “We don’t have time for this.”

And with that, Tomas lifted one of the lanterns that had been sitting at the mausoleum entrance and hurled it at the nearest succubus. The ethereal figure engulfed in flames that wouldn’t burn out. The beautiful brunette shrieked and moved faster through the air.

“Tomas!” Yasmin exclaimed in shock. “What are you doing?”

The doktor didn’t answer, instead watching the ailing succubus with a gleeful smile. He lifted a second lantern and tossed it into the path of a blond succubus. Two of the creatures were now wreathed in flame and going crazy. The third succubus crashed into one of her sisters, the flame spreading to her also. She ricocheted into the ghoul pack, where she smashed into several of the hideous creatures. The flames ate at the sickly ghoul skin like it would dry paper. A mind-splitting cry rose as half the ghouls went down in flames. The other succubus cottoned on and nose-dived the remaining enemy, setting them alight on contact. Before long the stony ground was covered in green-black ash and the air smelt of charred meat. The succubi rolled in the ash to put themselves out. Still alive and with no visible signs of damage, the creatures hissed at Tomas before climbing to a safer altitude.

“How did you know how to do that?” Yasmin asked.

“I didn’t,” Tomas said. “I was testing a theory.”

Yasmin gaped at her off-sider. “Fine,” she eventually said. “But you owe them an apology.”

Tomas shrugged. Jack glowered at him, unhappy that the doktor had claimed most of the glory.

“We gotta get back to those kids,” he reminded Yasmin.

“Let’s go,” she said without hesitation. They made their way back through the mausoleum and down into the tunnels. She was glad they didn’t decide to fight the ghouls down here. It might’ve have been a very close thing.

Mischa and Boris were still in his room. The dampener was cowering in the box that contained his abilities. The young pair were more than happy to follow Yasmin, Tomas and Jack. It was either that or continue to work for the hated Herr X.

Yasmin felt herself shift back into human form along with Tomas and Jack. Boris’s dampening effect was swift.

Yasmin cleared her throat. Jack looked at her inquisitively. She gestured at his… dangly bits. Ever since he’d germed into a werewolf he’d been stark naked.

“Here,” Boris said, tossing Jack a pair of jeans. They were ridiculously small on him but they would do for now.

Yasmin looked him up and down and pursed her lips. He was positively bulging from those jeans. Tomas looked like he wanted to laugh.

“Where’s your family?” Yasmin asked Boris.

“Two levels below us,” the young man said worriedly.

“I’ll get them,” Tomas said, and before Yasmin could stop him, he was gone.

“We’ll rejoin them up top,” Jack said as they headed back up to the mausoleum.

“Where would Herr X have gone?” Jack asked Mischa, referring to the hatch the old German had used to escape.

“The Prague underground is a network of tunnels,” came the reply. “The Berlin Club controls most of them.”

“Do you think he has more ghouls in reserve?” Yasmin asked.

Mischa winced. “I was forced to divine hundreds and hundreds,” she said, clearly reliving a painful memory.

The party reached the mausoleum without incident. They waited outside, listening carefully for the telltale sound of ghouls. After a tense minute Tomas appeared with Boris’s family in tow. The young man rushed to embrace them.

“I’m touched,” Jack said with a scowl. “But we gotta move.”

Yasmin could only agree. She felt completely naked without her vampiric abilities. They’d all reached the open cemetery when Yasmin threw one last look over her shoulder. She couldn’t hear any ghouls and thought they must be in the clear. How wrong she was.

A figure had emerged from the stone stairwell at the back of the mausoleum. It slithered to a stop and didn’t pursue, perhaps because of Boris’s dampening ability. Yasmin squinted so she could focus on the creature’s head … and was tackled to the ground roughly.

“What the fuck, Jack?” she said angrily as she picked herself up.

“Shasta,” the lycan said urgently. “She’s a medusa. Trust me, I learned the hard way.”

Yasmin threw a glance at Tomas, who looked incredibly interested in the new development.

“I think she’ll follow us,” the scientist said. “We need to try and lose her.”

Everyone hurried down a tree-lined avenue through the center of the cemetery. It was now around two in the morning and the moon had disappeared behind a bank of cloud. Yasmin hoped the pitch black conditions would conceal their escape.

At the cemetery gates Tomas led the way, opting for a southern route through the Seberov district.

At the first opportunity Boris and his family piled into a cab. His father wanted to retreat to extended family in the countryside.

Yasmin saw no problem with that, but was sorry to see a boy with such powerful abilities vanish under her nose.

“Call on me if you need anything,” she said quickly, handing the young man instructions on how to reach her. Rapid goodbyes were expressed and then the Radovich family had gone.

“Shame,” Tomas said.

Yasmin looked at Mischa. “Please tell me you’re coming with us, Mischa. I let you get away in Berlin. I don’t want to make the same mistake twice.”

Mischa looked at Yasmin, Tomas and Jack in turn. She seemed to be a little more functional than she was back in Berlin. Her eyes were clearer and she seemed a little happier, more focused.

“I have unfinished business with Herr X,” she said finally. “If you can eventually give me a chance to kill him, I would appreciate it.”

Yasmin nodded understandingly. Who knew what the despicable German had done to the poor girl. The full story would come out in due course. In the meantime, Yasmin would have access to a diviner. She hadn’t dared to think it could be possible. If they survived the trip back to Romania, an incredible array of options would be open to them.

The first thing was to survive. Yasmin looked at Jack and Tomas, her knights in shining armor.

“Any chance this Shasta character will find us?” she asked. “Now that Boris has gone she can germ.”

“From what I can tell, she’s very smart,” Jack said. “I’d say planes are a no-go. She could corner us in the cabin.”

“Then what?” Yasmin asked, wondering if she was going to be able to return to her castle any time soon.

“A train,” Tomas said. “The Orient Express runs through Prague quite regularly.”

“The Orient Express?” Jack retorted. “This isn’t 1929.”

“No,” Tomas said with barely concealed contempt. “But nevertheless it still runs. The original carriages offer better protection from the likes of Shasta. We’ll have more scope to erect barriers between us and the enemy.”

Yasmin considered Tomas’s proposal. It seemed crazy in theory, but it might actually provide them with a better chance of survival than a regular train. She shivered all of a sudden, cursing the fact that Herr X had a
medusa
in his service. The creatures were clearly the most dangerous they had come across. Look at Shasta and they were dead. Turn their backs and they would also be dead. There was no obvious way of taking down such a monster. She would need to consult with Tomas on the train.

“Let’s do it,” she said firmly. “Lead the way, Tomas. The sun will arrive soon.”

The four of them rode a cab to Prague Railway Station where they made their way to a platform allocated to the Orient Express.

The conductor informed them that the next Istanbul-bound train was due at dawn. The party made themselves as comfortable as possible and tried to snatch a little sleep. Mischa seemed calm enough. Yasmin was glad to see a certain quiet determination to her actions. Perhaps she really
did
want to kill Herr X by her own hand. If she got that chance, Yasmin wouldn’t stop her. But they would need to be incredibly patient before they risked such an attack.

The train duly arrived as the orange sun filtered through the eastern shutters near the roof of the old terminal. Despite her fatigue, Yasmin marveled at the original carriages and was glad to find they could book a cabin for themselves. They only held two people but Jack gallantly proposed that he and Tomas keep watch from the central corridor.

Yasmin and Mischa made the darkened cabin their own. Yasmin wasted no time in reclining on her bunk, too tired to even exchange pleasantries with Mischa.

For some time she listened to the various sounds of the train. The sounds of people loading luggage at the next stop, the old school whistles and hoots, the hissing rhythm of the coal-fed engine.

She let her mind drift, paying only scant attention as Mischa brushed her teeth in the little ensuite bathroom. She knew Tomas and Jack would be sitting somewhere in the restaurant car keeping a watchful eye on the comings and goings of passengers. Their cabin was the rearmost on the train, which meant any attacker would need to come through the men first.

She wondered if Jack was right to be jealous of Tomas. She had to admit she often favored the scientist with intimate conversation. She wanted to explain to the lycan that it was because Tomas was the only other vampire she knew. More importantly than that, it was Tomas who had lit the beacon and made the call of the vampyra. Their relationship would always be charged with
something
. And as Yasmin was slowly discovering, the vampire mind was essentially a sensual one. Tomas understood her on a hormonal level that Jack never could. And she knew that he would walk the ends of the earth for her.

But despite all that, she genuinely
loved
Jack Foley. It was love in its most human sense. It made her feel alive. Invigorated. Complete. It was the sort of feeling she never wanted to lose. She knew exactly who she wanted, and was resigned to having a constant tension in her life. Being vampire queen was not going to be easy. It was going to involve a mosaic of complications and tough decisions. All she knew was that she wanted to share that with Jack at her side. She hadn’t known him long but she knew that he was the one.

It was that comforting thought that sent her on her way into the hazy abyss of sleep. The clack of the tracks and the swaying motion of the carriage combined to work a slow spell. She smiled into the darkness.

12 - Jack

Orient Express

Jack stared across the table at the strange Ukrainian scientist. The doktor had insisted on being the one to face the corridor that led to the cabin in which Yasmin and Mischa were hopefully getting some sleep.

Jack hadn’t expected any conversation - in fact, he was actively trying to avoid it. But even he was surprised at the level of hostility directed toward him by Tomas. For a man who had just removed two bullets from his chest, there was a fair amount of hate in there.

Was it because Jack was a lycan? Perhaps. There seemed to be a natural resistance between lycans and vampires. But then that didn’t seem to stop Jack and Yasmin from being drawn to each other. No, the problem was probably an emotional one. Jack likened Tomas to some kind of guard dog. Animals could be incredibly territorial, and it stood to reason that animalistic behavior would rise to the surface during the Flux.

Whatever the case, Jack didn’t need to make any conversation at all. He
did
however enjoy the apparent degeneration of the doktor over the course of the day. At around nine in the morning, as the train climbed a scenic mountain range, Tomas was already beginning to sweat profusely. As the light in the carriage brightened and reached its peak at noon, the man was positively shaking. His skin was pallid and had an unhealthy sheen to it.

All in all, he was glad to be a lycan if this was what vampires had to put up with every day! He hoped Yasmin was faring a little better in the darkness of the cabin. He appreciated the fact that Tomas had gallantly allowed Mischa to recover from her ordeal as Herr X’s prisoner.

As far as potential threats went, the restaurant car was fairly quiet. An elderly couple were enjoying a morning coffee at the next table and other guests were drifting in for a light continental breakfast.

Jack believed it was entirely possible that Shasta had boarded the train and was waiting for the right moment to attack. Jack knew what her human form looked like, so it wasn’t as if she could infiltrate their defenses via stealth. The question was whether Herr X had allowed his prized recruit to board the train. It was a risk, but Jack thought he probably did. After all, he would need Mischa back if he wanted to expand his ghoul army. And from what he’d seen of Shasta, she was clearly
very
confident that she could kill them all to get to the diviner. Jack hoped she was wrong.

Tomas’s gaze flicked over to the window and Jack turned around. A succubus smiled beguilingly at him as it leaned down from the roof of the train. So
that’s
where the succubi had gone. He had to admit he found their presence out there reassuring. It meant the medusa had something to think about if she chose that route of attack.