The Lycan Collapse (The Flux Age Book 2) Read online

  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.

  Tomas inclined his head slightly and the succubus disappeared.

  As the lunch bell chimed, Jack thought it was time to check on the women. He knocked on the door softly, and, hearing nothing, opened it. Mischa was fast asleep in her bunk and Yasmin was sitting in a dark corner staring aimlessly into space. Her skin was grey and she looked a little feverish.

  “Daylight doesn’t become you,” Jack said lightly, trying to hide his shock.

  “The more powerful I feel at night, the harder I fall during the day,” Yasmin said tiredly. “Not the best of perks.”

  “I think Shasta is on the train,” Jack said as he squeezed himself next to Yasmin and put an arm around her. “Don’t ask me why, it’s just a feeling.”

  “I agree,” Yasmin said. “If we can hold her off until night fall, we’ll be much safer.”

  Jack looked at his watch. “I don’t think she’ll wait till then.”

  There was a sharp rapping at the door.

  “Train security!” came a thickly accented voice. “Open up please!”

  Jack looked at Yasmin, stood and opened the door just a slit. An earnest guard stood in the corridor. Beyond him stood Shasta with her arms folded.

  “Fuck!” Jack exclaimed, closing the door immediately. He jammed the only chair in the room under the door handle.

  “She’s trying to get us outside,” he said to Yasmin. “Probably spun some story to the guard.”

  There was a hissing sound from the corridor and a heavy thump.

  “Whatever happens, we can’t let her in,” Yasmin said, rousing herself into action. Jack felt himself germing and let it happen. It was time for battle whether they liked it or not. His body still convulsing, he threw himself against the door to strengthen it against Shasta’s inevitable attacks.

  “Jack, no!” Yasmin cried, pushing Jack away from the door with surprising strength. A split second later a silver sword tore through the wood, probing for a target. Jack would’ve been skewered if it wasn’t for Yasmin.

  “Stop saving my life,” he growled as he settled into werewolf form.

  Yasmin smiled. “You love it,” she purred.

  The silver sword was retracted and silence descended.

  “She must have taken care of Tomas,” Yasmin observed.

  “He may only be petrified,” Jack pointed out.

  “Well thank goodness for that,” Yasmin said sarcastically. “What do we do now?”

  “We go up,” Jack suggested. “We still have the succubi on the roof.”

  “They’re in daylight,” Yasmin reminded him. “They’re probably as useless as I am right now.”

  Jack pursed his lips. “So the medusa is smart,” he mused. “Fine. Just come up with me anyway. We have no choice.”

  As if to underline the point, the door was almost broken off its hinges. Another knock like that and the medusa would be in the small cabin. Resistance would be just about impossible once that happened.

  “Come on, let’s go,” Jack urged.

  Yasmin roused Mischa and briefly explained the situation. To her credit the young woman was ready to act without question. Yasmin helped the girl through the window where she was able to grasp the edge of the train carriage. She hauled herself up with admirable agility. Yasmin was next, moving sluggishly. Jack was grateful for the cloud that had passed across the sun in the previous two hours. It would be dusk in another hour, but that wouldn’t help Yasmin against Shasta. The medusa had chosen her moment well, waiting until the vampires and succubi were at their weakest.

  Jack scrambled to the roof of the carriage with ease. The women were kneeling against the strong wind screaming through a steep-sided valley. The mighty Alps rose to either side.

  “I need you both to walk slowly and carefully to the other end of the train,” Jack said. “Whatever you do, do not look back.”

  “What about you?” Yasmin asked worriedly.

  “Me?” Jack retorted with false bravado. “I’ll handle snakehead, no problem.”

  Yasmin threw one last glance at Jack as she lead Mischa down the roof of the carriage. There was such love and concern in that look that Jack felt like he had ten men at his back. He followed the women at a distance, his senses on high alert.

  He could see the succubi wheeling about high above him, but their presence was faint, inconsequential. Their contribution to the battle was going to be limited.

  Jack found himself wishing he had Tomas by his side. The crazy scientist had proven himself a worthy warrior. Jack was actually planning on asking him for one of his silver swords. Such material would be kryptonite in his hands but he needed a bladed weapon against the medusa. He had
n’t had an opportunity to study medusas in detail since his capture but decapitation was kinda lethal to most Flux species and seemed a safe bet.

  The women had reached the fourth carriage when there was a thud from somewhere behind Jack. He was certain Shasta had reached the roof of the rearmost carriage and was now slithering toward him.

  Jack quickened his pace and leaped down to the entrance to the next carriage. Nothing down here he could use. He climbed back up and continued down the carriage roof. A hiss of exertion suggested that Shasta had bridged the first gap and was hastening after him.

  Jack felt the hairs on his neck tingle as he anticipated the sharp sting of a snake bite at any second. He reached the end of the second carriage without incident and jumped down to the causeway. Again, there was nothing he could use against the beast stalking him. By this time the carriages were filled with stunned onlookers. Several were in tears and being comforted by loved ones. Jack suspected Shasta had germed in the restaurant car and petrified all the diners.

  With a frustrated shake of his head Jack climbed the third carriage and made his way along the roof. He heard a screech as one of Yasmin’s succubi swooped the medusa behind him. The battle cry was cut short abruptly. What followed sounded like a stone block being blasted apart. Whatever Shasta had done, Jack doubted the succubus had survived. The remaining two succubi howled in grief and judging from the sound, then attacked the medusa at the same time. Both their cries were brutally severed. Jack waited for several tense moments before two explosions of stone made him wince. Yasmin’s protectors were being slaughtered and there was nothing he could do about it. They had paid the ultimate price for their bold attack. Jack couldn’t quite believe the level of bravery they had shown.

  A little panicked now, Jack kept prowling the carriage roof, leaping over the fourth causeway and continuing on. Yasmin and Mischa had almost reached the foremost carriage and were diligently looking forward.

  Jack strode down the fifth carriage, sweat dripping from his brow despite the alpine surroundings. He gasped as a hiss was ejected just over his shoulder and a sharp pain lanced the middle of his back. Every fiber of his being screamed at him to turn and face the danger but he remained steadfast. A second snake lashed him, then a third. The damn medusa was barely a yard from him. His skin crawled at the thought.

  Without hesitation Jack let himself fall into the next gap and spotted something in the next carriage interior. A fire extinguisher alongside an axe! Jack opened the door and lunged inside just as the medusa crashed to the causeway. Passengers left and right were petrified as Jack rushed to the axe and pulled it free. He continued to the end of the carriage, dodging petrified bodies with sublime agility. The medusa had less success negotiating all the stationary bodies and was forced to begin blasting them into little pieces. Jack wasn’t sure how it did that but he wasn’t about to risk finding out. At the end of the carriage Jack thrust a paw through a glass window and picked up a suitably large fallen shard. Shoving the axe haft into his mouth, Jack clambered up to the roof of the next carriage and continued his trek towards the engine. He could see that Yasmin and Mischa were standing at the edge of the foremost carriage. Their vulnerability filled him with fury. He would destroy the beast that had placed them in such extreme danger.

  Jack marched across the carriage and knew the medusa would come on. He feigned panic, quickening his pace just before the next causeway. He expected the inevitable snakebite as Shasta lunged at him.

  His body was now flooded with enough poison to kill a human many times over. His movements had slowed as his heart was hammering in his ears. After the next snakebite he dropped to his knees, pretending to be overcome by the poison. He could almost feel Shasta’s foul breath on his neck. That was when he held the glass shard aloft and saw the medusa through the reflection.

  His plan was not to strike Shasta where she was, but where he knew she would go. For a terrifying instant his eyes met hers through the reflection. Shasta’s orbs were cold, dead and glistening with malice.

  Unused to the attention, the medusa ducked in behind Jack’s bulk but was met on the other side by an axe head to the side of the face. Jack grunted as he felt the steel blade sink into surprisingly soft skin.

  A fountain of liquid splattered Jack’s furry back as he retracted the axe for one last wild swing. He jammed his eyes shut, took a step forward and swung with all all his strength. The axe lopped off the medusa’s head with a crisp pop. Instinct forced Jack’s eyes open and he saw Shasta’s headless grey form collapse to the roof. The head was already gone, probably tumbling down some pine-covered hillside. Jack would worry about that later.

  Breathing hard, his first thought was for Yasmin. He saw her running toward him and swept her in his arms. He savored the smell of her skin, her hair. He wouldn’t let go ever again.

  Mount Brasev, Romania

  Yasmin alluded to her rather unusual home many times on the relatively peaceful journey through to Romania, but nothing could’ve prepared Jack for the forbidding place that greeted him on the peak of Mount Brasev. It was imposing, forbidding and altogether repellent. A belfry that looked like a blunt club. A cold, empty hall that made him want to run a mile in the opposite direction.

  “I’m still working out the details,” Yasmin said to fill his shocked silence when he first stepped beyond the threshold.

  Jack had no answer for her. She was a vampire queen and this place simply confirmed that fact.

  The trek from Piatra Neamt had been uneventful but somewhat solemn. Yasmin and Tomas were in mourning over the loss of their faithful succubi. Tomas, in particular, seemed morose and silent. Even Mischa seemed occupied by her own thoughts.

  Tomas and the other petrified passengers on the Orient Express had recovered their senses hours after the medusa had been killed. Rather than thank Jack for his bravery, Tomas seemed embarrassed that he hadn’t been around to help. He seemed to take it personally that Jack had taken it upon himself to kill the beast. He apologised to Yasmin so profusely that she had to send him away for a while. Jack suggested that she banish the strange man altogether but Yasmin would have none of it.

  And now, with the party safely behind the jet-black stone of the remote, crumbling ruin, Tomas disappeared into a room at the base of the belfry where he lost himself in all manner of texts.

  Yasmin was especially relieved to cross the threshold of the castle, telling Jack that a vampire queen was nigh invincible within the walls of her domain. Or so the theory went. Jack had trouble grasping the finer points of vampire lore. It all seemed so foreign, so fantastical to him. Like a particularly morbid dream.

  The following week passed slowly, like a spinning finally coming to a stop. Jack made himself useful around the castle, securing food, helping the Maramurians and generally looking to be a positive influence on Yasmin.

  He often heard the primal howl of a pack of wolves out in the boreal forest and took every opportunity to go ranging out there. The silent, snow-filled forest was wild but beautiful, and he quickly grew to love its cold embrace. Still, the castle exerted some some kind of dark tension over the mountain valleys here and he couldn’t quite let himself relax completely.

  Yasmin and Tomas regularly commented on the emptiness of the castle without the roaming succubi. Jack didn’t know what to do to relieve their anguish. He felt like a man on the outside, a stranger in a strange land. Yasmin was as affectionate as ever. If anything, he felt her love deepening, strengthening. For his part, he was quite certain that he could never love anyone else. And he fully respected her need to build a sanctuary from which she could hide from the world. A place where she was safe. Whether he could live in her special place was another matter entirely.

  His cell phone was useless out here in the Romanian wilderness but he thought of contacting Florence to see if she was still alive. He considered the possibility that he was the very last lycan on the planet but his trusted instincts told him there was still a beating lycan heart out there some
where. He grew to trust in the fact that Florence was alive. He told Yasmin the news and she was overjoyed. As Yasmin’s first official lycan mentor, the vampire had a lot of time for the tawny werewolf. And yet underneath that there was unspoken trepidation. It was as if Yasmin knew that the day would come when Jack had to leave her again. He kept telling himself that it wouldn’t happen, that he was content helping Yasmin build a new life here in Romania and come to terms with her identity.

  But the truth was that he could hear his destiny on the howling wind. Florence was keeping the spark of lycan power alive somewhere and she needed him by her side.

  Jack tried to explain this to Yasmin and she understood with a maturity beyond her years. And yet the sadness in her eyes melted his resolve. How could he possibly leave the love he had always been searching for? Especially now that the Flux Age had begun in earnest?

  In the end he didn’t need to decide. In her true, selfless style, Yasmin did it for him.

  Jack woke one morning to the sound of a chopper low over the castle. He rushed out to find a blue Huey landing on the ridge to the east of the castle.

  Yasmin stood alone on the rocky bluff that overlooked the valley.

  “Come back to me, Jack,” was all she said. “If you’re away too long I’ll suffocate.”

  Jack held the slight figure in his arms. In human form she seemed so small, so fragile.

  “We’re gonna fix things together,” he whispered in her ear. “You and me. Vampire and lycan. I belong to you.”