I grin as our hurried feet beat against the carpeted ground. We’re going to have so much more than those twenty-eight minutes, and what fun it’ll be. “Let’s go, Thomas.”
Luckily, we don’t encounter any more shifters as we bolt toward the front of the train, my lovely Thomas collapsing against the door like he’s run a marathon.
“I…I’m not that athletic,” he admits, breathing hard.
I chuckle and reassure him with a stroke to the back of his sweaty neck. “Good thing I am, aren’t we perfect together.”
Yanking open the sliding door to the operator’s cabin, I feel Thomas’s eyeroll at my back.
Someone has opened the window. Most likely the train operator dressed in sooty dungarees who’s slumped against it, his limp arm hanging outside the half-window, half-door that opens to the outside.
Even with the closed burner, it’s cold in here as specks of rain prickle against my face, and the stink of burning coal is thick.
As is the scent of blood.
I push forward into the vibrating space, the chugging engine and the howling wheels shaking the walls, the operator jostling along with it, like some macabre dance. Through the windows, steam billows around us like we could be travelling through a storm cloud, and up ahead is a stone bridge held up by thick slabs of rock jutting high above an icy lake.
And at the far end of the bridge is nothing but rubble.
“We need to wake him up,” Thomas insists, moving forward.
“He’s dead, treasure.” I hook my arm around his middle to pull him back from seeing the blood I scented the moment we entered.
But it’s too late. Thomas startles at the sight of the dead driver with a hole punched through his chest, tacky dark-red blood pooling at his feet.
I expect him to freak out. But my Thomas is stronger than I’ve given him credit. He sucks in a surprised breath, squares his shoulders, then throws me a serious look. “Please tell me you know how to stop a train?”
“You’re making me so hard right now.”
Thomas looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. But love is a crazy thing.
Before I can answer, the air shifts.
I free Thomas, spinning on my heel to shove the door closed just as four stalking shifters in human form lunge for the cabin, their presence hidden beneath the screaming train and overpowering scents.
One of them shoots forward before the door can seal shut, yowling as the edge slams into his arm.
“Fuck!” Thomas yells, frantically searching the cramped space. “There has to be a manual somewhere!”
I fight to keep the rattling door closed, gritting my teeth as bodies slam against it. The nails on the trapped shifter’s hand elongate into deadly, hooked claws. I spit out a curse, unable to avoid them raking across my shoulder—splitting my coat and slicing into the meat of my forearm.
“You fucker,” I snarl.
But shifters aren’t the only things with fangs and claws.
My canines sharpen into points, and I bite out a chunk of disgusting shifter flesh. A pained scream erupts from the other side of the door as his arm jerks free, blood splattering across my face. I seize the moment to slam the door shut.
“Not to rush you, treasure.” The shifters continue to throw themselves against the door, the pounding against metal painful as it beats into me on each fresh blow. “But have you found anything yet?”
My soulmate is looking at me with huge eyes.
I remember my fangs are still out—that I just bit someone and his blood is dripping down my chin.
I must look like a monster.
“I can’t find anything,” Thomas announces as if nothing has changed. “But I’ve got a new plan.” Thomas pushes the driver off the chair, wincing when the body hits the ground and mumbling a sorry.
I fight back a bloody smile. Fate chose well for me, and once this is all over, I’ll prove to Thomas that Fate chose well for him, too.
