Replica(14)

Seeming to sense my concern, Lea grabbed my wrist and rushed toward the train, pulling me so quickly my feet barely touched the tile floor. We squeaked past the closing doors just before they sealed.

I grabbed a pole, hanging over while I tried to catch my breath. It was only as the train pulled away from the platform that I realized Ivan was still on the other side of the door. And the men in suits were only feet behind him.

Oh, shit.





CHAPTER 7





LEA



“Damn, I thought he’d be faster than that,” Rachel said.

I watched through the window as the men in suits reached for Ivan, only to find him already gone, climbing over the people on the platform to evade capture.

“He has a thing about opening doors for women,” I muttered as I turned.

Rachel was already doing a sweep of the car, moving quickly. Checking the far end to see if any suits had made it onto the adjoining car.

Without any training on my part, she was already a better partner than Calvin. He’d been such a mess at first, focused only on revenge.

“You’re hunting the monsters who did this?” He pointed at the two bodies on the floor of his apartment. Wife and child, throats savaged, very little blood to be found. I nodded and kept my mouth shut. The last thing he needed to know was that he’d be working with a monster to catch the monsters.

He ran a hand over his dirty blond hair, making it stick up in every direction. His blue eyes hardened as he nodded. “I’m in.”

“I’m the boss. You will do what I say. When I say it.” I spoke evenly, putting only the slightest bit of pressure behind my words.

“Fine. But we’ll get to kill them?”

“Yes.”

He held out his hand to me. “I’d sell my soul to the devil to find the monster who did this. To make him pay.”

I gripped his hand. “Well, Calvin, you may have done just that.”

I blinked, looking for Rachel. “Ivan will catch up—”

Over Rachel’s right shoulder at the far end of the subway car stood an impossible sight. Tall, dirty blond hair, blue eyes, one eyebrow raised as he shook his head. It was as if he’d stepped out of my memory. “Calvin?”

Rachel spun around, but I was already moving. I pushed past her and bolted to the end of the car. People, there were too many damn people, no matter how hard I shoved them. Less than ten seconds passed and I was standing where I’d seen him. The space was empty. I rubbed a hand over my face. Was I seeing things?

“What the hell? Did you say Calvin?” Rachel caught up to me.

I nodded. “Maybe. Fucked if I know.”

“There isn’t a person over fifty on this car, Lea,” Rachel pointed out, her hands on her hips.

I drew in a breath, scenting the air on the back of my tongue. There was nothing that smelled like Calvin. Just a subway car full of poorly washed bodies. “No, he looked like he did...when he was younger.”

“Not possible.”

I let out a breath. “I know we left him behind, Rachel. Yes, he was dead. Yes, the facility blew up. But—”

“Lea. Even you know it isn’t possible. Not this time.” Her voice softened enough that I knew she understood. I wanted Calvin not to be dead. I wanted to know my old friend was still alive and out there somewhere.

The subway car slowed to a stop and the light over the door blinked. I didn’t look where we were getting off, just stepped onto the platform and started out of the tunnel. Rachel jogged to catch up. “Hey. It’s normal to see people you care about after they’re dead. I went through it with my buddies in Iraq. Three of them, actually.”

I said nothing simply because I wasn’t sure how I felt. The only way Calvin could be alive was as a vampire. That was the only answer.

And I didn’t want that for him. I’d stake him myself before I let this world make him the thing he hated most.

Without having to say anything, we both knew the suits would come for us at one of the subway line’s drop-off points. It would be nice for things to work out like they did in the movies, but we weren’t stupid. This wouldn’t be a clean getaway.

We moved with serious speed. At the top of the stairs, I tugged my cowl tighter around my face, more out of habit than anything else, since the street was swathed with shadows from the nearly set sun, and did a visual sweep of the area. So far, so good. The apartment building across the street caught my eye. “We need to get to higher ground so we can see them coming.”

“Agreed.” Rachel pointed. “That apartment building work?”

Again, she showed just how much she trumped Calvin as a helper. I tapped her on the arm. “Keep close,” and we were off, sliding through the grid of cars that might as well have been a parking lot rather than a street. As I scanned the area, a feeling I hadn’t experienced in a long time pressed in around me.